Evening star., 1926-03-04
BY JOHN l.. BALDERSTON.
Special Correspondent of The Star and North
American Newspaper Alliance.
30 NO. III.


NO. III.
BEIRUT, Syria, February THAT
peace in the Near East hangs largely
on the prevention of war between
Britain and Turkey is the conclusion
have reached after a careful study
of the situation in Egypt, Palestine
and Syria.
The power of France and England
out here rests on prestige, not on
bayonets. And prestige will auitice
to keep the peace. unless turkey
overturns the apple cart
Blood -curdling whispers are cur
rent here in the bazaars of Damascus
and in the Arab cafes of Cairo about
an imminent rising of all the Arap
neonleS of the East against their
Christian masters, the English and
the French. 1t is natural that these
tales should receive more credence III
SYRIA. than IN Egypt. Not quartef
IF SYRIA is in enective occupation py
the French troops, and many re-
snonsible Syrians who are neitner
rebels nor fanatics attach importance
to such documents as are clrculateo
by the Central Committee for the
Iiberation of North Africa and the
Committee for the Liberation OF
SYRIA" These organizations have
their head centers in CAIRO ana
branches throughout the Moham-
nedan world.
7 have said that British and French
nower out here rests primarily not
ilpon bayonets but upon prestlge.
There are not onetenth, enough troops
10 cone with the many petty chiefs
who talk revolt, were they all to act
at the same time. And so. although
there is less than no connection be-
tween French and Spanish aHalfs
IN Morocco. British policies in
Ntesopotamia or the poiitco religious
souabbles of the French and Druses
Ssre. the moment guns so off in an
obscure town across the Jordan the
results of that fighting are felt as
we'll hv the Spaniards on the Atlantic
as hv the British on the Euphrates.
In this sense the East is one, though
when the parlor revolutionists in CAIRO
try to link up the anti-foreign actlvi-
ties of the Indians or the Chinese
with what happens in this part of the
world they are talking nonsense.
And yet not quite nonsense. The
real danger to European rule on this
side of the Mediterranean lies not in
petty conflicts in Morocco or Syria
nor demonstrations in Cairo, but in
the black cloud that hangs over the
mountains north of Mosul. Let
Turkey defy the League of Nations
and send those four divisions now
on the frontier of Mesopotamia to
take Mosul in the Spring, and the
fat will he in the fire indeed. The
British keep almost no white troops
In Mesopota as the French keep
almost no white troops in Syria. and
for the same reason. Public opinion
at home will not stand either the eX
pense involved or the thought that
the lives of boys whom the Great War
spared are endangered.
Blow Would Rock Prestige.
Should the Turks try to do to the
British at Mosul what they did three
years ago to the Greeks at Smyrna.
should the British plan to defend the
mountains by airplanes fail then such
resounding blow 10 British prestige
on the Eupharates must be felt in
India. and the shock would cross the
plains of Asia to the shores of the
Pacific.
The peace of Asia and North afri
On hangs. l believe on the prevention
Of war between Britain and Turkey.