The Washington herald., 1922-10-05
British Face Lone Battle
In Near East, Says Simonds
Desertion of French on Rhine and italy on
Adriatic Loses Support of Both
These Nations.

the Adrlatic. both countries were
being towed after Britain In ,he
Near East and were, in fact, fur
nishing ships and men to- back UP
a policy which was obviously de-
signed to establish British domina-
tion In the Straits.
French Policy Shifts.
AT this moment. moreover. the
death of the young King Alexander,
the fall OF venizclos and the return
OF Constantine gave both France
and Italy a semolance of a basis in
right for changing their policy.
Constantine was not only the ally
of the Kaiser during the war. and
as such had attempted to bring
Greece in on the German side, but
he was also directly responsible for
the murder of more than 100 French
sailors in the public garden behind
Inc royal palace in Athens. France.
therefore, declined to support
Greece under Constantine and
French policy began to shift, while
Italian policy followed suit
or course at bottom the French
and the Italians were only meas
urably Influenced by the Constan-
tine detail. the Italians actually
hardly at all. What actually influ-
enced the French was the percep-
tion that Britain was successfully
making use of the Greeks to estab-
lish control of the Straits and thus
OF the eastern end of the Mediter-
ranean and the whole Black Sea.
What moved the Italians was the
realization that Greece, expanded as
the treaty of Sevres provided. would
become a considerable state and a
dangerous commercial and political
rival in the Near East.
Accordingly the French moved TO
make peace with the Turks. And
In making peace they approached
not the Sultan-who was a virtual
prisoner in Constantinople under
allied lock and key-but Kemal,
who had gone to Angora, raised an
army, rejected the treaty of Sevres
and was preparing to fight the
Greeks. BY a treaty made between
Kemal and Franklin Bouillon
France accepted a readjustment Of
her Syrian frontier, which consti-
tuted a surrender to the Turks Of
Cilicia and tacitly agreed to recos-
nize Turkish as contrasted- with
Greek claims in the Near East. IN
a word, France made a bargain
with the Turk by which she prom
ised to withdraw her support from
the Greek and incidentally to fur
nish the Turk with arms and muni-
tions. provided the Turk would rec
ognize French rule in Syria and lb-
stain from any attack. In addition
Franklin Bouillon, who Is a clever
managed to establish
French interests in many valuable
Italy Then Follows Suit.
Italy IN due course Of time fol-
lowed suit. her treaty being an
nouncsd as recently as the Genoa
conference of last spring. She with
drew her troops and claims to any
of the mainland OF Asia, but es-
tablished her rights to many val
liable concessions and acquired the
Turkish title to Rhodes and the Do
decanesus Island. which had been
promised the Greeks under the
treaty of Sevres. The italians, too.
promised to supply the Turks with
arms and ammunition and to re-
fran from giving the Greeks any
aid. moral or material.
Meantime the British on their
side continued to back the Greeks
They furnished Greece with money
and with material and they gave
their tacit consent, when, year
ago. the Greeks undertook a great
advance into Asia with the design
of reaching Angora, destroying
Kemars army and completing the
ruin of the Turks. THIS advance
was we'll conducted: after initial
il was marked by a num-
ber of victories and at last was
held up almost within sight OF An
CORA. not so much by reason of
Turkish resistance as because of
the problems OF transport
Just a year ago il began to be
plain that the Greek bid had passed
its maximum of strength and that
either the British would now have
openly to support the Greeks with
men as we'll as money and supplies
or peace would have to be made,
and no peace was conceivable which
did not involve the evacuation of
Asia Minor by the Greeks and of
Constant inople by the allies. In
Kemal Pasha demanded
Adrianople and European Thrace
right up to the Martha River,
which comes down from Bulgaria
and enters the Aegean just north
of the western end OF the GallIpoli
PEN nsula
Precisely these terms were pre-
sented to Britain, France and Italy
at a conference held in Paris last
spring. At that time there was
general agreement that the Greek
would have to retire from Asia, but
there was still support for his
claims to Adrianople and Eastern
Thrace. But the agreements made
at Paris had no real effect, for
Kemal rejected them. Meantime
Paris was advising London that
Greek disaster was only a question
of time and that peace in the Near
East was obtainable only by maxi
ing terms with Kemal. Britain
moreover. was rejecting the advice.
The Greek army, which had
fought so well last year. simply
men refused to fight.
abandoning their cannon and war
material. Kemal did not win Al
campaign: he led a procession. In
n few days the Greek dream of re-
viving the glories OF the Byzantine
Empire was at an end and the
Greek soldiers were escaping to
Europe, leaving behind them up
ward OF a million Greeks, inhabi-
tsnts of Smyrna and the other dis
tricts of the Aegean l:ttoral.
At this point British diplomacy
again intervened. The Greek ven
ture had turned out badly; once
more Britain had backed the
wrong horse" in the Near East, but
this time m. rIstaka hal r,,..-.,,