Evening star., 1919-08-31
by FRANK H. SIMONDS.


from Paris in recent days in
dicate that our representatives
there are pursuing policy
that can hardly have any other pur-
pose than to prepare the way for the
occupation of Constantinople by the
United States as a mandatory for the
league of nations, and not impoSsibly
similar occupation of Armenia and
the larger fraction of the Turkish en-
pire in Asia Minor
The arrival OF America at the Col
den Horn would represent one of the
most amazing transformations of the
greatest European problems which il
1 is possible to imagine. The mere pros
poets of American fleets guarding
and American armies garriSoning the
waters and the hills for which Europe
in ancient times and the various
great powers of Europe in modern
times have contended. should make
the statesmen and diplomatists who
wrote the treaty of Berlin turn in
their graves.
1t is clear, and has been clear ever
since the world war ended, that there
are three possible solutions for the
problem which is itself the heart of
the eastern question-that of the
straits themselves. 1t is possible to
assign Constantinople, the shores. the
Dardanelles. the Bosporus and the
Sea OF Marmora to great power as a
mandatory of the league OF nations. 1t
is possible to create some kind of an
international state in this area, and
nnally 1T is possible to restore the ter
iI.ory 1he Greek world and by add
ing Ihrace. Constantinople and the
western provinces of Asiatic Turkey
whfch have Greek populations. to the
Kingdom OF Greece, thus to fashion a
new state which, on the map. will
strikingiy recall that Byzantine en-
pr |nIcn TOT a thousand years con-
tlnued to hold most of the territory
! winch would not be included in the
new Greece -" ''e
70 create Constantinople a separate
entity under the league of nations
10 assign 1T to a single nation as q
nnanoatory. would be possible only II
| the state thus selected were suffi.
ciently removed from European com. :.
phcations and ambitions. For ex-
ample. 1t is inconceivable that fhe
British would consent to French
occupation of ConstantinopIe. or the
rrench to a British. The French and
m ;e,,. nrltlsh would, together, emphat-
lcally oppose italian possession of
Constantinople. British policy for hall
century was occupied in prevent
! ing Russia from laying hands unon
Constantinople. The Pacific penetra
| ton OF Turkey by Germany and the
aniance OF Turkey with Germany
hn
the very great alarm of Britain
whose protectorate of Egypt and the
empire or India were thus Threatened
by an enemy who possessed a route
on which to move armies from En-
| rope TO Asia beyond the reach OF
The nation which holds CONSTANT
! nopie will control the seaward gate
! OF the larger part of the Russian EN-.
pre-, OF. II the Ukrainian state estab b.
| fishes its independence. will control
the exit to the open sea of this new
mania and such new nations as rise
along the Black sea. In the same
/ fashion it will hold the vital gateway
! by which European armies might an.
proach Brftain's Asiatic and African
| colonies. might strike Suez, which
the Achilles" heel of the whole Brit
ish empire. French. British, italian
and in all probability eventual Rus.
sian ambitions conflict or will con.
hfct in the old Ottoman empire, nor
is it at all unlikely that when Ger
| many has at last recovered from the
present war Teutonic eyes win turn
again to the great region of Asia
Minor. in which German capital and
German engineers constructed the
Ragdad railroad. and in which the
! kaiser and his associates dreamed to
construct for their country a place
in the sun. Manifestly for the French
! the Russians and Italians, British
possession of Constantinople on the
north. together with certain British
possession of Mesopotamia and Pal
estine on the south. would mean al
| most inevitably the ultimate reunion
of the whole Turkish empire under
British protection. But French or
Italian posse ssion would threaten
! British interests. while no Russian
could patiently submit to seeing the
single outlet, on warm water of this
vast country in the hands of any rival
European power.
q. S. May Get Constantinople.
1t is perfectly fair to assume, then