Evening star., 1924-10-05

the rising Hood OF Greek PATRIOTISM,
but awakened apprehensions in Brit
ain. where Italy's new aspirations in
the Mediterranean were noted.
On the morrow of the World War
the situation in the Mediterranean
was profoundly modified. Austria had
disappeared as a nation and her fleet
had been destroyed or divided. Before
the promise Of Italian supremacy
in the Adriatic and the Near. East,
the British and French backed the
Jugoslavs in their claims for Fiume
and in reality opposed an Italian poll
Icy which II it had been realized
effective outlet on the Adriatic.
while in the Aegean the British
pushed the Greeks into Smyrna to
forestall Italian occupation and thus
Italian mastery Of the eastern shore
Of the Aegean. Italy. thus opposed,
presently withdrew from the Ana
tolian mainland altogether and con-
tented herself by watching the col
lapse of Greek hopes and British pol
icy in the disasters of 1922.
Meantime, despite British opposi-
ton, which led to very serious frlc-
tion during the Paris peace confer
tnce and was the first material diff
ference between the recent allies,
France established herself in Syria,
thus obtaining an important base on
the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
while the British took Palestine and
Mesopotamia beyond. The defeat of
the Greeks gravely compromised
British prestige all through the Near
East. and the later retirement from
Egypt-that is, the remuneration of the
protectorate proclaimed during the
World War. was a further conse-
quence.
British Position Weakened.
p The British situation in the Mediter-
ranean was thus gravely weakened
as result of the World War and
the events which followed it and
were a logical consequence of it.
Not only was the British title to
Egypt abolished. but Egyptian hos
tility at one time challenged British
control Of the Suez Canal. the vital
link in imperial connections. and
raised the issue of possession of the
Anglo Egyptian Sudan
At the same time British appre-
tensions were aroused by the un- I
mistakable drift OF Italian policy. OF
the allies OF the World War, Italy had !
Jared worst SO far as profits were |
concerned. She had. to be sure, ac-
quired Trieste and the Trentino. thus !
establishing her own security and [,
gaining the greatest port of the !
Adriatic. as she finally acquired /
F'iume. also. But in place of the !
crumbling Hapsburg monarchy she .
was now faced across the Adriatic .
by d virile Slav state. which chal- ,
lenged all her holdings from ithe +
mouth Of the Isonzo southwark. |
Moreover, not only did her effort to !
establish a protectorate in Albania |
fail. but British support OF Greece |
promised to bar her expansion in the |
Aegean. as American backing of the |
Serbs had thwarted her larger hopes .
in the Adriatic. I
In addition, while France had ac- |
quired Syria, large areas in the Kongo |
and CAMERON regions and most OF
Togoland. thus rounding out her
enormous African empire and giving |
her solid base in the Near East |
Italy had gained nothing and had to |
be contented with later concessions |
rather grudgingly made by the French |
in the Sahara Desert. straightening'i
the western and southern frontier !
lines of Tripoli. and by the British !
in East Africa in the area of Juba-
land Moreover, the Italians were |
furthered angered by the attempt on !
the part of the British to make even !
these concessions contingent upon !
withdrawal from the DodecanesuS and |
Rhodes and by the prompt British |
veto to Italian occupation of Corfu, |
following the incident Of last Sum-
mer-that is, of 1923.
Sought Uaisn With Greece.
BY contrast, as / have said, the |
British viewed with alarm increas-
ingly bitter Italian agitation for the |
recovery" of Malta and for the pos
session of the Bay of Solum on the |
frontier between Tripoli and Egypt !
which might be developed into a !
very strong naval base facing British !
lines Of communication. Opposition |
to Italian possession Of Rhodes and |
the Didecanesus. mcasurably balanc- |
ing Cyprus, was also apparent while |
the British situation in Cyprus itself |
was complicated by the demand of the |
Inhabitants, wholly Greek by race.
for union with the Greek state, itself |
AS Anglo French relations grew |
less and less friendly, moreover. the |
British were brought to contemplate |
the situation now occupied by the re- |
cent ally. The French navy, so far |
as hattleships were concerned, had |
ceased to be a factor, since the ext |
eencies of the war bad prevented |
French building and the poverty of |
France at the eEd OF the struggle |
forbade any later expansion of the !
lar situation and at the Washington
conference, Britain successfully car
ried her proposal which was that she |
should be allowed a number of bat
tleships and a permanent ratio which
would make her fleet superior to the
combined Franco-Italian fleets and
thus give her the assured supremacy
Of the Mediterranean. so far as bat
tleships were concerned. !
Pm
marine and the airplane had materi- |
ally modified the situation. while the
failure to place any limit upon
cruisers also represented British
loss. For France. possessing nearly a
Thousand miles of North African
shore, directly facing the British
route from Gibraltar to Malta, pos
sessing the fortified harbors of Gran.
Algiers, Philippeville and Bona and
the great naval base Of Bizerta.
would be able fatally to cripple IL
not actually to interrupt British com
munication through the great inland
seas.
French Expansion In Africa.
Recent years, too, had seen an enorm-
Gus expansion Of French development
in all three of the old'Barbary states,
Tunis, Algiers and finally Morocco.
More than million Europeans have
been established in these laEds, ex-
elusive of the armies of occupation,
more than two-thirds of whom are
French citizens. 5000 miles Of rail-
way connect Casablanca. the great
harbor on the Atlantic with Tunis.
Moreover in the World War. Algeria
Morocco and Tunis sent several huE-
dred thousand shock troops to the
front in France and the extension OF
conscription to the native populations
has insured France sure source of
-opv hupdpadS of NJ