Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 44, Number 203, 7 June 1919 — Page 7

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1919.

( QUESTION OF CONSTANTINOPLE PUZZLES PEACE CONFERENCE

PAGE NINE

By FRANK H. SIMONDS (Copyright, 1919. by Tha McClure Newspaper Syndicate) A week ago I discussed in detail me problems presented by the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, problems which are before the Paris tonference and in so far as they affect German Austria, will be solved by the treaty of St. Germain. It rebains now to discuss the problems presented by the Turkish Empire. Which has also collapsed and must be lealt with in Paris. Turkey presents two distinct questions: The question of Turkey in Eu- , rope, which is minor so far as territory Is concerned, but of supreme importnce on the strategic side, because it jcludes Constantinople and northern ores of the Straits, and the problem Turkey in Asia, which is, or was, 1 empire, greater than Germany or JStria in area, with a population approximately that of Spain. i f The ultimate disposition of Turkey In Europe depends entirely upon the decision of the Paris conference. As lo the future of Constantinople, if this city and the surrounding territories are to go to the natural heir to the country most largely represented by the races Inhabiting the region, then there is no question as to Greek rights. From the beginning of history, Constantinople has been Greek. It wan the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Jfcbich was Greek. It only fell to the Turks in the fifteenth century, and to the present day the Greeks have regained one of the largest elements in the city population. The shores of the Straits and of the Sea of Marmora I ire Hellenic in history and in popuation. ' Greece Unprepared. But there are a dozen reasons wh It would be an unwise thing to beBtow upon so small a country as Greece so staggering a responsibility as the guardianship of the entrance to the Black Sea. To bestow ihem Would be to deprive Bulgaria of any outlet on the Aegean. It would place Greece in the future across the pathway of a new Russia, for there will ' be a new Russia. It would impose burdens and responsibilities for which at least at present. Greece is not nre-

union with Turkish Armenia of Russian Armenia, districts which are in far better condition both as to population and economic circumstances. Great Task in Armenia. But it must be recognized that if

old eastern problem, which is and remains beyond European possibilities, but we should And ourselves handicapped in such a solution by the fact that the essential parts of the territory affected have already been ascigned to Italy and Greece, including the natural borders, Armenia would be a much less ambitious task, but one the difficulties of which could not b exaggerated. It would certainly take thousands of American soldiers and consume years. I have said,- and I repeat, no finer work of national unselfishness is conceivable, and if any mandatory is to be taken by the

United States none is more worthy of

there is great opportunity in Armenia,

there is a stupendous task, increased our acceptance, since none would proby the rivalries of the surrounding ! vide greater opportunities for service race.s. If Russia ever regains her full ! and fewer for profit. But it would strength, as is likely, she is bound be a task beside which the Philippines not alone to demand the retrocession was child's play, and Cuba a mere

or ner own Armenian districts, but i pastime.

also of those other Armenian districts,

and for that matter of Constantinople, promised her in her 1915 agreement with France and Great Britain. French Interests in Syria, British concerns on the Euphrates, will equally affected by the erection of a relatively strong Armenian state in what both will regard as the hinterland of her Syrian and Mesapotamlan countries, while the Russ may be expected to nourish the hope of reclaiming his Armenian provinces. Nor will the task be lighter in view of the age-long feud between the Mohamedan Kurds,' actually a majority now in Armenia. If the United States should take Armenia alone, it will have to build many railroads over a difficult country, and many highways. It will also have to create harbors; it will have to maintain an army over an extended period of time in a country where disorder has been the common circumstances lor a thousand years, where racial feuds have led to massacre time and again. It will take at least half a century to put Armenia on its feet, but on the other hand there is no mandatory within, the gift of the League of Nations which would offer a greater chance for unselfish human service. The Armenians themselves are industrious, their country has great mineral resources, great possibilities of ultimate prosperity. If an American mandatory is to be

stretched to cover Constantinople, Anatolia and Armenia, the task will ; be far more gigantic and far more dif-; ficult. Constantinople has been the i cause of more wars than almost any , other city in the world. It is hard to i believe that in the future It will be ! less coveted. Greek and Bulgarian ambitions will continue. The day is I

Arabia Is Problem It remains now to deal with the Arabian portion of the old .- Turkish empire, lying south of the latitude of the Gulf of Alexandretta. Here, now, this problem presents itself. Under Eritish auspices, there has arisen a pan-Arabic movement and a new Arab kingdom. With British authority, the King of the Hedjaz has accepted nominal control over all the old Arab regions from the Red Sea to the Cilician Gates, including Syria, Messapotamis, Palestine and Arabia proper. Thousands of Arab troops fought with Allenby, and their aid contributed much to the defeat of the Turk. But if the British encouraged the king of the Hedjaz to conquer, with their aid, these old Arab regions, they also signed a treaty with the French assigning Syria to France, and recognized a special French claim in these districts, which goes back to the time of the Crusades. Thus the British find themselves in the presence of two pledges, totally opposed, one made to the King of the Hedjaz, and the other to the French, and out of this conflict has come one of the most acute questions of the Paris conference. Today a solution seems in sight. France is to have a restricted Syria, which will include the territories be

tween the tipper Euphrates and the Mediterranean, south of the latitude of Alexandretta, extending to Palestine, and the great desert. Beyrouth, Aleppo, Damascus, are to fall within the French sphere. France is to rule here under a mandatory of the League of Nations, but with special recognition of certain of the claims of the King of the Hedjaz. In the same way, Great Britain is to have Meesopotamia as far north as Diarbeklr and Mosul, and Palestine that Isto say, the territories which have peculiar importance for India and for Egypt. Liquidation Difficult. But it will be seen by this brief review how incomplete and fragmentary, after all, are the settlements or expedients which are being adopted so far as Turkey is concerned. After all, it is as difficult to liquidate the Turkish empire as the Austro-Hungarian. There is the same welter of races within, there is the same rivalry of claimants from without. In placing Italians on the south shores of Asia Minor, where they have no rights based on the will of the population, in creating divisions in the Arab population between the French and the British, the way has been opened for an Indefinite period of unrest. Certainly the Turk has shown himself incapable of self government. By contrast, -dividing the territory which is economically a unit in Asia Minor, as in the old Austria-Hungary, opens the way to vast difficulties in the future, and in these difficulties we shall be involved if we accept any mandatory in this region. I do not think there is any question that the Armenian population would welcome an American mandatory. I do not think there is any doubt that because of our lack of self interest in that region, we should be the best mandatory. On the other hand, to take Constantinople, Anatolia and Armenia would be to take a country certainly as great in area as France and Italy, populated by people of many races, holding several faiths, who racially and religiously have been fighting for a thousand years. To take Armenia would mean a

l ared. The second solution, much dis- almost certain to come when Russia

cussed in I arts, would be to make Constantinople and the 6hores of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora a mandatory under the League of Nations. Not a few people regret that Constantinople was not selected as the capital of the League of Nations, the seat of its conferences, and the territory in which the League of Nations would exercise something like temporal power, once held by the popes in Rome. This possibility having been eliminated, there was a long discussion of the possibility of consigning Constantinople to the United States as mandatory, separating it from Turkish territory in Asia and bestowing upon it most of the remaining territory of Turkey in Europe. This would have meant to eliminate the Sultan. It would have meant putting the sick man out of Europe at last, after five hundred years of incompetence and worse. But the Sultan of Turkey is not merely head of the Turkish Empire, but the recognized spiritual head of the larger part of Islam, and very promptly there came from British India and from Dther parts of the Mohammedan world emphatic protests. These protests would have had little weight had there been any clear-cut policy as to Constantinople, but there was not. The European nations were willing that the United States should undertake the task of repeating in Constantinople what was achieved in Havana, but all Europe has agreed against the transfer of this city to any single European power, while there is not much enthusiasm at the moment on the part of the United States representatives. . It was then proposed, and Is now under discussion, that Constantinople. Anatolia, which is the larger part of Asia Minor, and Armenia, should be constituted mandatories under the League of Nations, Armenia certainly to be assigned to the United States, Anatolia either to the United States

or France, and Constantinoplo with ! Anatolia to the United State, if ourj country agrees to take Anatolia. ! Over Anatolia and Constantinople,! the Sultan would have shadow author-f ity, such as is maintained by the' Khedive in Egypt, or the Bey in Tunis. : Complicated by Claims. : This solution of the problem of Asia Minor was, however, conplicated , by innumerable claims and by not a , secret treaties. By the treaties in which Great Britain and France : agreed to support Italian claims to Trieste and Dalmatia, they recognized Italian claims to Dodacenese and the Island of the Eastern Aegean taken in war, and to practically all the southern coast of Asia Minor, including

tne great gulf of Adalia. Some encouragement was also given to the Italian claims upon Smyrna. But the Allies have already assigned Smyrna to Greece and have united in asking Italy to abandon her claims to Dodacanese in view of the fact that tha population is wholly Greek. It results, therefore, that Italy has demanded and will doubtless receive further concessions in the hinterland behind the Gulf of Adalia. Thus the whole of the western coast of Asia Minor, with the great port of Smyrna and all the south coast, and Adalia, are separated from Anatolia. If one were also to create a separate state out of Constantinople and the

snores or tne btraits, Anatolia would be deprived of all its outlets to the 6ea and some seven or eight million Turks would be penned up in Asia Minor. As to Anatolia, previous agreements have made this question difficult also. Under one Franco-British arrangement the French were to have the Gulf of Alexandretta, the Armenian territory between the Taurus mountains and about Adana. This would deprive the Armenians of an outlet on the Mediterannean and under American impulsion France has been persuaded to abandon this part of her claims. True, Armenia, a solid block of hinterland about the headwaters of the Euphrates and between Anatolia

and the old Russian frontier, has all

long been indicated as the site of the

rmenian state, but In a very large

massacres, Armenians are in a minority. On the other hand, the collapse of Russia has made possible a

wu lonce more wards Anatolia.

look southward toWe shall find our- i

stives faced with seven million Turks

who will hardly welcome our rule, and we shall find ourselves confronted with the task of defending them' against Greeks and Italians. The ; mandatory for Constantinople, Ana-' tolia and Armenia would mean the employment of an army of a quarter , of a million Americans for an extend- j ed period of time. It would mean an ! enormous task of organization, indus-' trially as well as politically, and it would mean inevitable participation in al Idisputes of the future in the near east. It would mean, in reality, that Europe had transferred to the United States the gigantic task of solving the ,

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email task, but one not the less complicated. Even if the faithful discharge of this task did not involve us in war with any great power, it would in the nature of things lead to endless disputes with Russians, British, the French and Italians, to say nothing of Greeks, Armenians, Turks and Arabs. But if .we do not take a mandatory in the disappearing Turkish empire, then nothing is more certain than that this old battle ground will become once more the scene of conflict, alike between the ambitions of European nations tind the eternal animosities of the races of western Asia, rerta.niv

the American presence offers the Ar

menian people almost its only hope, while American occupation of Armenia would create a buffer state, separating the spheres of several of the rival European nations. In sum, then, the Turkish problem differs from that of Austria-Hungary only as the races of the territory affected are incapable, at least in any present time, of independence. They cannot govern themselves, they cannot be elected into a semblance of independent countries, they must in any event be charges of the western powers, and only if the western powers were prepared to lay aside commercial and political aspirations would the presence of thes nations hold out

any real hope of regeneration of the near east. In these regions, our missionaries and our colleges have contributed enormously to education and liberation of the peoples from their own darkness. America is a very real iorce, and a very real basis for hope.

It may be, so many in Paris believe, that we have an obligation to undertake th task of rebuilding. If the task is to be undertaken, no American should blind the fact that it will be a long, difficult' and dangerous task. -

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Generator Repairing, General Overhauling, all kinds of Mechanical Work. Overland and Willys-Knight Cars DAVIS-OVERLAND SALES CO. 1209 Main Street Phone 2411

T 418-420 Main Street Goodyear Tires Prest-O-Lite Batteries Accessories Mobileoil and Auto Repairing

HUDSON ESSEXNASH STUDEBAKER FEDERAL and NASH Trucks If you want an Automobile See Us

413-415 Main St.

The McConaha Company

Phone 1079

PIEHL AUTO-ELECTRIC CO. Storage Batteries and Ignition Parts

Storage Batteries Auto Electric Supplies Armatures and Coils Rewound

Phones 1891-1893. W. C. Piehl, Mgr. 1024 Main Street Richmond, Indiana

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AUTOS WANTED For their parts. We tear 'em up and sell the parts. We have parts of all kinds such as Gears, Axels. Magnetos, Carburetors, Lamps, Windshields, Glass, used Tires and Tubes. Etc. RICHMOND AUTO WRECKING CO. Phone 2165 Second and Main

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Cor. N. 12th and E Sts.

THE VVELDEX MFG. CO.

Phone 1494

A DEPENDABLE REPAIR STATION Drive your car here if you want first class repair service or accessories. Fair price, prompt sen-ice.

MILLER BROS. GARAGE Phone 1278

35-37 South Sixth Street

FORD DISTRIBUTORS Ford Automobiles, Ford Trucks, Accessories, Tires, Oils, Gas and Service Webb-Coleman Company Authorized Ford Sales and Service 19-21 South 7th Street Phone 1616

Richmond Battery & Radiator Co. . Distributors of U. S. L. Storage Batteries All makes of batteries recharged, repaired and rebuilt. Service free. 12th and Main St Phone 1365

Rp,iKlrV INTERNAL GEAR DRIVE TlUCl Will solve your haulage problems. Truck repairing a sneclaltv

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Phone 1069-2459

BUICK AGENCY For used cars, see us. We have the best In the county and the prices are reasonable. CHENOWETH AUTO CO. 1134 Main Street Phone 1925

Harry H. Tubeslng Harry E. Rhinehart

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STAFFORD MOTOR COMPANY Phone 1053

1026 Main Street