New-York tribune., 1920-05-09
Adriatic Unsettled

But the Adriatic question, in
which Albania is circumstance
awaits settlement. The San Reno
conference was no more fortunate
than that of Paris and, as conse.
quence, the debate was adjourned
1t was only on the Asiatic side that
decisions were taken, not without
some hesitation, not without some
recognition that they could hardly
be regarded as final, yet taken fo1
all that and set forth in document
to be served upon the Sultan.
Now, in the decisions taken a Ger.
tain policy is disclosed. To occupy
all Of the Turkish Empire was a
thing beyond the capacity Of any
one of the three great powers rep
resented at San Reno, nor was any
one OF these nations ready to con.
sent that the whole burden and the
full reward should be bestowed upon
any nation. AS usual in the Near
East, the whole debate was compli-
Gated by the conflicting aspirations
of the European powers.
There were. in sense, four great
claimants, that nation having the
best claim in right, Greece, being
the smallest of the powers con-
cerned. There were, in addition, at
least two races, in fact three, al
though there was little real consid-
Grafton for the Turk himself. These
were the Arabian, the Armenian
and the Osmanli Turk. Aisle from
the fragments Of many other races,
these, with the Greeks, constituted
the most considerable ethnic groups
dwelling in Asiatic Turkey.
The Arabian Fraction
AS to the Arabian fraction, geo.
graphically it inhabits all the region
south of line drawn east and west
from the Persian frontier to the
Gulf of Alexandretta, which is lust
where the southern line of the great
peninsula Of Asia Minor joins the
north and south stretch of the Syr-
ian coast. The Arabs constituted
a majority of the population in the
valleys of the Tigris and the Eu-
pirates, in Syria, in Palestine, in all
the vague desert regions which ex-
tend southwark in the great Arabian
peninsula.
Here might have been the basis
for the creation Of a national state,
an Arab state. And there was; too. a
nationalistic movement represented
by Emir Feisal, son Of the Shereef
of Mecca, who had led his followers
against the Turk in all the cam
paigns of the latter phases of the
war in this region. Moreover, for
this nationalistic movement there
was profound sympathy, both in
Great Britain and in the United
States.
But, unhappily, there has been an
agreement between France and Brit
ain, and subsequently with Italy, as
to the ALLEGATION of the territories
which had been Turkish. If the
mass of the population in the Ara
bian districts was Arab, there was
a respectable minority of Christians
on the Syrian coast, and France had
preserved an influence and exer-
clsed a protectorate over the popu-
latlons since the very days Of the
Crusades. To France, then, was as,
signed the Syrian region, which was
expanded to include Mosul on the
Tigris and Diabekr in the Armenian
foothills. This assignment was in
cluded in the famous, or notorious,
Sykes-Picot Treaty.
Victory for French View
In this arrangement Britain was
to have Mesopotamia, to exercise a
protectorate over all the Arabian
lands to the south Of the French
area, and to become the chief guar
antor of the state of Palestine, to be
created by the Allies in complete
accord. But in Paris the British
and the French openly quarreled.
The British advocated the "scrap-
ping" of the Sykey -Picot Treaty
and the erection of a really inde-
pendent Arab state. The French,
seeing in such a state an inevitable
expansion Of British influence to
cover the whole Arabian world, in
sisted upon their treaty rights
The Arabs demanded liberty. The
question filled Paris with bitterness.
In the end the French plainly
have prevailed, in so far as their
Syrian hopes are concerned. al.
though there have been reductions of
their sphere, and there is at least q
polite fiction that behind the coast.
where the French are solidly estab-