Treaty of Sèvres (1920); World War, 1914-1918 -- Territorial questions -- Turkey; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
“It has been said that it will be difficult for us to settle there.
As a matter of fact, the difficulties which are foreseen look
greater than they are really; and some of these difficulties may
have been put forward to dissuade us from going there.
“It remains that the 1916 agreements are signed; they are based on
our time-honoured rights, our efforts, our friendships, and the
summons of the peoples that hold out their arms to us. The question
is whether they shall be countersigned by facts.
“The name of the Emir Feisal has been put forward. It is in
our zone he has set up his dominion; why were we not among the
populations of that country at the time? If we had been there, the
Emir Feisal would have received his investiture from us by our
authority; instead of that, he was chosen by others. Who is to be
blamed for it?
“Britain knows the power of parliaments of free peoples; if our
Parliament makes it clear that it really wants written treaties to
be respected, they will be respected.”
Mr. Wilson had been asked by a note addressed to him on March 12,
1920, to state his opinion about the draft of the Turkish settlement
worked out in London, and at the same time to appoint a plenipotentiary
to play a part in the final settlement. His answer was handed to M.
Jusserand, French ambassador, on March 24; he came to the conclusion
finally that Turkey should come to an end as a European Power.
In this note President Wilson declared that though he fully valued the
arguments set forward for retaining the Turks in Constantinople, yet he
thought that the arguments against the Turks, based on unimpeachable
considerations, were far superior to the others. Moreover, he recalled
that the Allies had many a time declared that Turkish sovereignty in
Europe was an anomalous thing that should come to an end.
Concerning the southern frontiers to be assigned to Turkey, he
thought they should follow the ethnographic boundaries of the Arabian
populations, unless it were necessary to alter them slightly; in which
case the American Government would be pleased—though that did not
imply any criticism—to be told for what reasons new frontiers had been
proposed.
Mr. Wilson was pleased to see that Russia would one day be allowed
to be represented in the International Council that was going to be
instituted for the government of Constantinople and the Straits, as
he felt sure that any arrangement would be stillborn that did not
recognise what he thought was a vital interest to Russia. For the same
reason he was pleased that the condition of the Straits in wartime had
not yet been settled, and was still under discussion; he thought no
decision should be taken without Russia giving her consent.
Turning to the territorial question, he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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