New-York tribune., 1918-01-27
WILSON'S PEACE TERMS -MITTEL EUROP
Buffer States of Near
East Can Hardly
Exist Without
Protection
Copyright l91s-The Tribune Association

~-o~~-N~>S
be still another wall thrust between the
Austro-German mass and the Turkish
lands in which Germany hoped and hopes
to find her colonial place in the sun. It
would restore and reinforce that wall to
break which Austria risked and precipi-
tated the world catastrophe
In addition, the President demands for
the various subject peoples of Turkey
some form of autonomous existence. He
would leave that portion of the Turkish
Empire in Asia inhabited by the Osmanli
to its present inhabitants; but this is cnly
Anatolia. Of more than 100000 square
miles now under Turkish rule in Asia.
slightly less than 100000 an area about
equal to that OF Spain, are actually Turkish
by right of race. For the rest, Armenia.
with its shamefully ravaged fields and
cruelty decimated populations, demands
unlflcation with the Armenian districts of
Russia and complete freedom. This Ar
menan state would extend from the Black
Sea at Trebizond to the Gulf OF Alexan
dretta, on the Mediterranean. facing
Cyprus. 1t would contain upward of a.
100000 people and have an area about
equal to that of Great Britain
Buffer States
Mesopotamia and Syria. with Palestine.
belong to the Arab world although IN
Palestine many races are represented For
many centuries French influence has been
predominant about Beyrout, and there has
been general belief that France would
become the protecting state for Syria
when the war was over if the Turks were
called upon to lose their Asiatic fringes.
Syria itself has an area Of $4,000 square
miles, about the same as that of italy. and
close to 5000, 900 people, For Americans
the work of our missionaries, particularly
at Beyrout, lends peculiar interest to the
Syrian question, but whether under French
protectorate or an autonomous portion
OF the Turkish Empire. Syria would have
to he guarded against its old masters hv
European troops.
In the same way Palestine could exist
only as an independent state, and / am
sure that it will be erected into some
klnd of free state if its safety is guar
anteed by the greater nations Britain
mas every reason for desiring to see Pales-
tine independent, because it would serve
as buffer state against invasion from the
north and, even if Syria remained Turk
:sh. push the Osmanli far back from Suez
and the frontiers of Egypt. There is be-
sides the question of Zionism, of world in
terest, but not bearing on the present
discussion.
AS Tor Mesopotamia it cannot stand on
its own feet Its people are Arab, not Turk
sh, but unless under British protectoratc
CT garrsoned and guarded by internation-
al forces it would fall into anarchy and
perhaps revert to the Turk. 1t is we'll to
face realities in this Eastern field How
ever fine in theory it might be to create
new Armenia and another Arab kingdom,
however alluringare the phrases about free
dom and autonomy, the plain truth is that
cnly under actual protection of European
nations, whatever the disguise, can these
states be created or maintained, and, so
lar as history goes, joint protectorates
have proved impossible in practice.
The Need of Protectorates
That Syria under a French protectorate
might develop into state capable of a
measure of independence and self-dcfence
seems probable. Palestine is small enough
to exist as an internationally guaranteed
community, and there are obvious reasons
why the customary jealousies might be
ald aside in this instance, but how SYRIA.
Armenia or Mesopotamia could stand
alone IN the Immediate future is hard to
see. And with Russia refusing to protect
all Armcnans, their outlook is again dark.
Personally, feel sure that British evacua-
ton of Mesopotamia will prove impossible,
if it is not forced by military events be-
fore peace is made, and am inclined to
believe that Syria will end as French
protectorate. French experience in Al
gera and Tunis, where France has not
cnly brought material prosperity but also
earned native confidence, has fitted the
French for the task as no other people are
fitted.
In this review | have omitted all refer
ence to Alsace-Lorraine and the Italian
lrredenta; they raise other questions. Mr..
Wilson has spoken of both problems, and /
believe his words mean that he stands for
the liberation of the "lost provinces" of
France and their restoration to our allv:
and no one can mistake his equally clear
lnsistence that Italy shall have what is
her just due on her eastern frontiers.
where some hundreds of thousands of Ital-
ians suffer under brutal Austrian tyrannv.
shall hope to deal with these two pron.
lens in another article. But at the mo-
ment 1t is the destruction of Mitteleurona
that seems most important and most In
teresting Mitteleuropa is an American