THE NEAR EAST

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1923, Page 2

THE NEAR EAST

LATEST CABLE NEWS

[“Tue Times” Service.]

SOVIET ATTITUDE,

LAUSANNE, July 20,

Soviet representatives announced that the Moscow Government was disposed to sign the Straits Convention within twentv-one days. At the same time they made it clear that they did not agree with certain clauses in the Convention.

THE TURKISH SETTLEMENT

FEARS FOR THE RESULT,

LONDON, July 20

Tiie “Times” special correspondent at I>ausanne says when the treaty Ls signed, the Turks will have the greatest cause for enthusiasm. All the evidence obtainable confirms that the new Turks are but the old, writ large. That the coming era of enlightenment and brotherly love in Turkey, which is the correct thing to officially hope for, will from the foreigners viewpoint be at best humiliating and af- the (worst, ft bloody chaos. From the moment that Turkey was admitted to negotiations on terms of equality with the European States, some such result has been inevitable. None will begrudge Ismet his complacent declaration that the conference was a splendid tribute to that admission of equality, but when one listens to the tales from Angora nud when one sees photographs of that verminous squalid town, the little hall of the Grand National Assembly with its wooden galleries and paraffin lamps all the world like a dilapidated village .schoolroom; when one realises that the manner of the men these aro who dictated terms to Europe, one stands astonished at the pass to which two happily extinct politicians of civilised races should have succeeded in bringing the prestige of the west. LONDON, July 20.

Those conversant with the situation in Turkov are apprehensive of tlio pcssibifitieK especially in Constantinople, after the withdrawal of the occupying troops in veiw of the anti-foreign feelincl among Turkish extremists, who regard the .settlement as a triumph over the foreigner. While the position of Western Europeans may bo difficult, the seriousness for Greeks and Christian Turks who have the slightest relations with the occupation forces is evidenced by the arrest fo Greeks and the report that the Turks have decided to expel hundreds of Russians who worked for the Allied forces and also many native Christians.