New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-08-06

are to be completely evacuated by the
Greeks and restored to Turkey.
Constantinople is to be given over
entirely to Turkey, and the Allied gar
rison now stationed there should be
evacuated Immediately upon the ratif-
cation of the new treaty of peace. In
order that the Turks may have sufi-
cient forces to police and garrison the
capital and the various parts of the
country the provisions of tho Treaty
of Sevres which permitted the Turks
to retain an army of only $4,000 are
changed, giving the Turks the right to
keep $4,000 men under arms. Of these
torces 10000 may be regular troops
and $4,000 may be members of the
gendarmerie. The Allies undertake 10
supply the Turks with military in,
structors to organize these forces.
Protection Is Suggested
For National Minorities
1t is also suggested that provision
be made in the Greco-Turkish treaty
tor the protection of national minori.
ties, with the protection of the Ar
menians ntrusted to the League of
Nations. Special provisions should be
made for the safeguarding of the
Greek population in the City of
Smyrna, which constitutes the major
ity Of the total population, and for the
protection of the Turks in the City of
Adrianople, where they are similarly
in the majority.
Having drawn up this memorandum
and dispatched copies of it to the
Greeks and the Turks, the Allied min
listers Of foreign affairs returned to
their other problems. Then came
Genoa; then The Hague. The Near
Eastern question again receded into
the background.
The Turks are In no hurry to reply to
the Allied proposals. Anyway, thew
consider the revision provided by the
memorandum as insufficient. Thew
want the restoration of the whole of
Ihrace, particularly of the important
City of Adrianople. Here, at any rate.
so far as they are concerned, is fertile
ground for that sort of haggling which
has been so Characteristic of their
diplomacy in the past, when they
achieved notable successes by the mere
process of procrastination, always
banking, on division and dissension
among their enemies.
But for Greece the question of G
speedy settlement is a matter of life
and death. Even were she to agree
to the terms of the March memo
randum, which would be equivalent to
giving up the most important gains
she had obtained in the World War,
she would still have to have a settle
ment and an adjustment as soon as
possible. She cannot wait for the
Turks to exhaust all their tricks of
Oriental diplomacy. Since a military
decision in Anatolia seems out of the
question, the only way open for her to
force decision from Turkey seems to
be by way of Thrace-to strike at the
Ottoman Empire through Constan-
tinople.
1t is desperate game, a game of
last resort. But at least it is bound
to bring the Allied powers into the
situation much more actively than
heretofore
As for the other step, the organiza-
ton of an autonomous state of Ionia
in the district of Symrna is the clear
est answer that Greece could give con-
corning her attitude toward the Paris
mem orandum. The Allied Ministers of
Foreign Affairs suggested that in
order to preserve peace in the Near
East Greece should give up the dis
trict of Smyrna, which was assigned
to her by the Treaty of Sevres. In
answer to this suggestion, Greece has
now proceeded to follow out the pro-
visions of the Treaty of Sevres, 10
set up in Smyrna an autonomous gov
eminent.
The inherent justice of the question
involved in the disposition of Smyrna
depends entirely upon the approach to
such problems generally. Ethnograph-
lcally the district, and particularly the
city itself, are overwhelmingly Greek
But economically the city is an inte-
grail part of Turkey; il is Anatolia's
outlet to the sea and the commerce of
Che world. AS commercial port it
is dominated by its Turkish hinterland,
and in turn dominates that hinterland.
Ethnographically Smyrna is Greek;
economically it is Turkish; and on top
of that the possession of it has now
become point of national honor with
both Greece and Turkey.
Which way the question will Ia
eventually settled remains to be seen.
Greece may or may not suffer 81
the long run because of the new ir-
ternational shuttle, of which she bids
fair to become the center. Future
events will show whether she will lose
more by defying the Allies than she
would have lost by acquiescing to their
proposals. But in any event, the ia
banqae policy upon which she has now
embarked has brought the Near East
again into the limelight of world in
4 hereaf and N, hriv, Al