Evening star., 1925-12-26
Reputation Hurts Turks
Side in MOsul Oil Fioht

| American discussion indicates that
! if it were not for the reputation OF
the Turk. he might have had better
support in his desire to claim the
| Mosul area. The decision of the coun,
Gil of the League of Nations that
! Mosul. with its oil, should be included
! in the Irak ma ndate under Great Brit
| ain has been the subject of wide
spread comment. in which sympa n y
for Turkey has not been prominent
! however much American editors ma Y
differ on the subject OF ma ndates.
Emnity toward the League OF Ma.
tivns is believed by the Chicago Daily
News to be responsible for statements
that Great Britain gets the Mosul oil
fields because OF diplomatic under.
! standings with other nations repre-
scented on the league council. The
Daily News brands such assertions as
unworthy OF attention. 1t maintains
that Great Britain, as manda tory.
is bound to refrain from selfish eX-
ploitation of Mosul or its OIL" Fur
thermore, according TO the Brook ~ n
Daily Eagle. the task Great Britain
assumes in agreeing 10 stay in lrak
for % years is neither easy nor pleas
ant, and the Eagle continues: The
councils comma nd that she grant the
Turke a favorable commercial treaty
for all of Irak will give her an oppor-
tunity to make concessions to Angora,
which should take some OF the sting
out OF Geneva's decision"
Remarking that Turkey II hardly
in a position to uuibble over the pow.
ers of the arbitral body it helped TO
select, the st. Joseph News-Press says
NO doubt the councils finding repre-
sents as close an approximation 10
practical Justice as Turkey could hope
to get from any other available arbi-
tration agency. But MOsul means Oil
which in the Ottoman view may out
weigh mere Justice" The Albany
Evening News also declares that
while the leagues decision giving
Mosul to Britain under the Irak ma n
date may be questioned. the league
could hardly do otherwise, and prob
ably ii was the wise course. Britain 8
CONTROL" continues the News, will do
much for Irak and MosuI, and Tur-
KEYS would not" World approval of
the leagues action is assured in the
opinion Of the Wheeling Intelligencer,
which expresses the further jlIdgme mt
that lit Is only unfortunate that the
unspeakable Turk was not banished
from Europe altogether at the Yer
sailles peace conference"
Prior to the World War;" the In
dianapolis News recalls, when what
Is now Irak was part Ut the Turkish
empire, text books Of the time in.
cluded Mosul as II part Of Mesope.
tamia. That conception appears to
have been general among all suthori.
ties. Certainly it was held by Turkey
then. The weight OF evidence thus
supports the decision that has been
arrived at"
X -
The incident and the further settle.
ment Of the dispute between Greece
and Bulgaria are declared by the Buf.
falo News to have greatly enhanced
the prestige OF the League of Nations.
and that paper continues: They
prove its great potentiality for peace
II 1t had not been for the good offices
Of the league, Breat Britain and Tur-
key would long since have been at
war, as would also Greece and Bull
saria.'
In further justifica tion Of the action
OF the league, the Knoxville Sentinel
finds In the reported ma ssa cres a rea-
son why it would be impossible to
make any other decision. Possibly
the Turk is robbed Of his former hold.
inss. as he claims" the Sentinel re
marks. but his massacre Of the Chris.
tian populations places him without
the pale of the law, and demands their
protection In the name Of humanity.