New-York tribune., 1920-05-17

| Two circumstances stand cut in the
terms Of the Turkish treaty which
have Just been made public. There
has been something approximating a
liquidation Of tho Turkish Empire in
Europe. BY contrast. Allied states
manship has once more fallen back
upon the old policy Of compromise and
procrastination, so far as the Osmanli
estate in Asia is concerned.
The fact that the Sultan To- permitted
to remain In Constantinople under
certain restraints and conditions really
has little significance. What is left
Of Turkey in Europe is the peninsula
on which Constantinople rises. Tur-
key has shrunk to exactly those limits
which existed at the moment when,
following the openilS xictories Of the
First Balkan War, just eight years ago,
the victorious Bulear armies came
laundering down to the Chatalja lines.
What was the firing line in 1912 has
now become the frontier in 1920.
! Within those frontiers the Turk Is
in reality a prisoner. Every foot Of
the European territory left him is
within range Of the fleets of the Allies,
| both from the Black Sea and the Sea Of
Marmora, In point of fact. it is the
Sultan, as the inheritor Of the religious,
not the political, prerogatives of his
predecessors, who Is now to be main
tanned. His position, too, must sug-
gest very strikingly that of the Pope
after the ] st of the wars which
brought Italian unity. Byzantium be-
comes. after n fashion, magnified
Vatican, inhabited by great religious
potentate whose temporal power has
been forcibly taken away.
Thus, after seven centuries, the Turk
| goes out of Europe, leaving behind him,
| in an odd fashion, the races which he
| submerged when he broke like an en-
quilting wave into the European world
The Serb, the Bulgar, the Magyar, the
| Rumanian, all his victims in the re-
moter past, are free again; free, un-
happily, to resume their old quarrels,
which contributed 80 much to Turkish
success in the beginning, while the
Greek regains what had been his, in
the moro prosperous days Of the
byzantine Empire, Adrianople, Salon
ies' the coasts St and islands of the
Egean.
Yet the very recent history Of
AdrIanople is grim reminder of how
transltory are contemporary frontiers
in the Balkans. In 1912 it was Turk
ish, as it had been for more than six
centuries. But the next year saw it
fall to the Bulgarians, actually taken
through the aid of the Serbs; and then,
the Serbs and the Bulgarians quarrel
ing, pass again into Turkish hands.
1t is only seven years ago that the
world was eagerly discussing the Enos-
Midia line, which was to extend from
the Egean to the Black Sea and
separate Turkey from the new Bull
garia. In that time the Conference of
London solemnly assigned Kawala. as
we'll as Adrianople, to the Bulgarians.
and Serb and Greek consented. But
Ferdinand of Bulgaria could neither
resign the temptation to enter Con-
stantinople as conqueror nor accept
the Greek occupation of Salonics. as
permanent.
The result has been fatal to Bull
garia, which of all the Balkan states
had the best chance and the most ex
ternal support. Before the Congress of
Berlin the Treaty Of San Stefano as
signed to Bulgaria two-thirds of the
Balkan Peninsula. Britain blocked this
at Berlin, but time seemed still to fight
for the Bulgar. In 1912 everything was
within his hands; all that was REQUIRED
was a little moderation-one man of real
craftsmanship capacity, who, like Veni
zelos, could surrender something doubt
ful to be assured of something certain.
To-day Bulgaria is where she stood a
generation ago. She has lost all. Ru