It is again announced that the Allies and the Turks
at Lausanne have come to a final agreeMent on the Peace Treaty. In view of many past experiences of Turkish diplomacy, it would seem unwise to regard the matter as having been settled on Tuesday morning, but the correspondents at Lausanne profess unusual optimism. Agreement was, as usual, reached by the withdrawal on the part of the Allies of nearly all their remaining demands. They merely insisted on the right to send warships through the Straits and to keep- a- cruiser and two destroyers apiece in the Straits until the Treaty and the Straits Convention come into force, or—an ominous proviso—until the end of this year. The question whether the Treaty, on which the delegates have spent 165 days at Lausanne, and which is to be signed next Tuesday, will be observed hereafter by the Turks of course remains open. History would answer it with a resolute negative. But the impoverished remnant of the once great Ottoman Empire will have to seek foreign aid to restore its commerce. And if the Turks come to the West, instead of going to Moscow, for loans, they will have to fulfil their Treaty obligations or do without the money.
