The Allied Ministers on Saturday received the Greek and Turkish
delegates and proposed far-reaching modifications of the Treaty of Sevres. Mr. Lloyd George, it was apparent, had yielded at last to the Turcophiles of Paris, Rome, and the India Office. The Allies declared that, if Turkey accepted the modified treaty, they would facilitate her admission to the League of Nations, would waive their right to expel the Turk from Constantinople, and would give Turkey the chairmanship, with two votes, of the all-important Straits Commission. They would allow the Turks to keep an army of 30,000 men, and 45,000 gendarmerie, and possibly to re-establish a navy. They would reduce the area of the neutral zone of the Straits, and might perhaps evacuate Constantinople and Ismid, keeping garrisons only at Gallipoli and Chanak. They would further restrict the powers of the Allied Financial Commission and would allow the Turk once more to grant concessions—for the benefit of the Jewish financiers who detested the idea of a Turkey under honest government.
Previous page
