Evening star., 1922-12-10
NEAR EAST CRISIS
VIEWED AS GRAVE
Lecturers Conference Speak
ers See Opportunity for
Lasting Good.
FiRST-HAND DATA GIVEN
Experts From Scene of Turmoil
Blame European Politics
and Diplomacy.

The near east crisis-its causes and
ossibilitieS-occupied the center OF
the stage at the closing sessions OF
the national conference on public
opinion and world peace in Memorial
Continental Hall yesterday afternoon
and last night.
Three men who have studied the
near east from both its racial and
political aspects blamed European
politics ad diplomacy for conditions,
and solenp~ly warned that the manner
In which the situation is solved holds
more possibilities for lasting good or
evil to the whole world than any in
. ternational crisis since the world
war.
Brushing aside diplomatic reStric-
ton. Karel Pergler. former czecho-
slOvakian minister to Japan. declared
that the great powers of Europe are
responsible fta tie new menace in the
Balkans becaLse they never have had
the courage to settle the Turk aues-
tion once and for all.
ut may sound undiplomatic for me
said. "The Balkans are being rent
by the nations which We're defeated i'll
the war. Turkef was an overload.
and the treaties ehat closed the war
simply made her An equal among
equals. Now Turkey has rebelled.
When Europe places Turkey in its
proper sphere there will be peace"
War Correspondent Speaks
Herbert Adams Gibbons. noted war
correspondent and wr.ter. declared
the coming year bids t.lir To prove
the most critical of orr generation.
richer in its possibilities for perma-
nent good or irreparabl. diSa Ster than
any year of the war. In 1923. he de-
clared. the probls", arising from that
struggle will demand ma! solution.
We can no longer postpone the true
peace settlement. as We have been
postponing il ever since the Germans
laid down their arms. Russia is once
more a factor in the international af-
fairs. Italy has at last found the
government that is ready to insist
upon her rights to equal profit -Shar-
ing with Great Britain and France.
Greater Poland ard greater Greece
have proved failures. and greater Ser
bia and greater Rumania are still un-
certain of success
What will happen to these nations
are questions that cannot be answer
ed unless we have clear idea of
conference. The situation at Lausanne
affects International relations every
where in Europe and the colonial en-
pires of Great Britain and France.
Civilization Threatened.
The study of the near eastern
crisis imposes itself upon us because
il is the gravest we have yet eX-
perienced; because the factors that
provoked it threaten to destroy our
oxtc yro oiH ial dor
and because until this crisis is dis
sipated there will be no real peace
for the world.
THE entente powers will have to
recognize that their failure to agree
upon a common policy in the near
the advantages of their victory in
the world war. For the scrapping
of the treaty of Sevres means scrap
ping the other treaties, and Russia
and Germany will have to be heard
in any new arrangement of spheres
of influence in the extra-European
world
For our own salvation. as we'll as
to help the rest of the world. the
United States must lend a hand.
Several years ago there was talk Of
our moral leadership of the world.
Now has come the time to assert it.
But If We presume to rely upon our
strength to gain advantage for our
nationals at the expense of those 9TH
er countries we are very soon going
to realize that Asia and Africa are
continents where the grapes of
wrath are stored"
Optimistic for Greece.
Adamantics T. Polyzoides editor Of
the Atlantis. a Creek publication in
New York, was optimistic of Greece's
future; the Hellenic peoples. he said.
have ever stood as the bulwark be-
tween Asiastic fatalism and European
Christianity. Their latest crushing
disappointment is only history being
repeated. the speaker asserted.
'"The glory that was Greece went
down with Pericles." he continued.
Great. 1t was crushed by the Roman
legions and reasserted itself in the
Byzantine empire: it was annihilated
by the Turks when Constantinople
fell and four hundred years later
came back to life as the kingdom of
Greece. A hundred years ago Greece
was dying in Missolonghi: but a few
knocking at the gates Of Angora.
which she would have opened had
not Christian Europe preferred the
resurrection of Turkey to that of the
Hellenic empire"
Another distinguished speaker at
yesterdays session was Sadao Saburi,
charge d'anaires of the japanese en-
bassy. Mr.. Sadai reiterated state
ments of previous diplomats that the
States and Japan had undergone a
complete change in the last three
years A competitive idea has been
changed to a cooperative IDEAL he
said. "3nd suspicion has given place