New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-07-23

far from the Syrian littoral, the latter
of which is on the Bagdad railway, at
the junction between that great trunk
line and the Syrian railways, which now
extend south to Palestine, where they
connect with the railway the British
have constructed from Egypt Aleppo is,
then, the great railway center of East
ern Asia, the point where the lines
from Bagdad and Cairo meet.
French in Strategic Positions
Holding Aleppo, Damascus and the
seaports of Tripoli and Beirut, the
French will thus control the natural
outlet Of the Bagdad railway upon the
Mediterranean. Even if the British, with
the Greeks, succeed in dominating Ana
tolia and retain control of Mesopotamia
and of Palestine, the French thus inter-
pose wedge of their own territory be-
tween the two halves and control very
long stretch of the connecting Bagdad
railway, as well as an even longer
stretch of the railway binding Con-
stantinople to Cairo and constituting
not merely the railway link between
Europe and Africa, but the essential
link in what will undoubtedly one day
be the Cape Town Calais line.
1t is, then, to say the least, annoying
to the British to see the French in
trenched in such strategic position, and
the British Foreign Office has fought
cirNo tho ictt IN gholr ~,
claims in this region. Paris was a bat
tie ground throughout the conference
and the French were compelled to sur
render Mosul and much of the Syrian
hinterland. But they held fast in
Syria and made good their claims. Re-
Gently they have been involved in fight
ing with the Turks north of Aleppo at
Aintab, a detail in a general Allied
policy of oartitioning Turkey. But, dis
satisfied with British influence, they
have withdrawn from this operation,
agreed to an arrnistice with the Turk
and turned their eyes toward Syria,
leaving the British, with the Greeks, to
dispose of the Turk and not Disgusting
their sympathy with the old enemy.
The arab Var
British and French policy have, then,
in fact, broken over Turkey. A similar
break has taken place between Italy
and Britain, emphasized by the fact
that the Italians, occupying Adm,
south of Smyrna, have actually well
coined Turkish troops retreating be-
fore Greek columns and fired upon
the Greeks, who sought to pursue
them in the Meander Valley. A very
bloody and distressing ARRAY resulted
and the situation remains acute.
Meantime the British are having
trouble with their Arab kingdom in
their own sphere in Mesopotamia. I'm
questionably. the French operations
will stir ths Arabs to new unrest and
activity in the British as we'll as the
French areas, and may have a roper
cussion in Egypt as we'll as along the
Red Sea coast Of Asia. AS for Arab
resistance to the French, it can hard
ly be serious, save as it develops into
guerrilla warfare, for the French will
follow the railways and are, of course,
provided with tanks, aeroplanes and
all the engines of contemporary war
fare.
But, big or little, and the conse-
quences may be very big, the world
has new war on its hands-an Arab
war-at the precise moment when it
has just been forced to recognize that
the Greek operations in Anatolia,
backed by the British Feet along the