In spite of the excitations of Tehitcherin Ismet Pasha has
continued to discuss the problem of the Straits at Lausanne temperately. On Friday, December 8th, he gave his opinion of the Allied proposals. He pointed out that Turkey ought to have proper guarantees for -the safety of Constantinople. No other Power at the Con- ference, he said, was deprived of the right of defending its capital. He -entirely agreed, however, with the Allied proposal about freedom of passage for merchant vessels in peace and war. He then made various suggestions, for example that the Straits and the Sea of Marmora should be "safe against any surprise by land or sea," and that there ought to be a limitation of naval forces allowed to enter the Black Sea. For the rest, he thought that the neutral zones were too wide and -he argued that of the four islands outside the entrance to the Dardanelles Sarnothrace, Tenedos, and Imbros should be under Turkish sovereignty and Lemnos should be autonomous.
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