MIA > Archive > Arthur Rosenberg
From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 3 No. 34 [16], 26 April 1923, pp. 288–289.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2021). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
The dead return. The Lausanne peace conference, blown to pieces by Lord Curzon’s departure on the 4th of February, is to be resurrected on April 15th. A unique occurrence in the history of diplomacy. On the 5. February scarcely any student of political questions could have held such a solution as possible. What was the meaning of Lord Curzon’s departure from this little Swiss town, where he had allowed himself to be held fast for months, in his capacity of leader of British world politics, without being able to dispose of his fertile opponent? With Lord Curzon’s departure English imperialism expressed its intention of closing the period of negotiations with young Turkey, and of forcing Kemal Pasha’s government by means of dictatorial threats to surrender. Lord Curzon went home, and it was intended that the armoured ships of England’s Mediterranean fleet should continue the negotiations in their own manner in the Dardanelles.
But English cannon have not spoken in the meanwhile, and yet the English diplomatists have to return to Lausanne. Lord Curzon himself shrinks from the disagreeable task of re-appearing on the scene of his diplomatic bankruptcy. He will be represented by Sir Horace Rumbold, who has up to now been British commissar in Constantinople. The mere fact of the resumption of the Lausanne negotiations signifies a fresh defeat of British oriental politics, and a fresh success for nationalist Turkey.
The first Lausanne conference was occupied with a confused entanglement of questions: The territorial boundaries of Turkey in Europe, the distribution of the islands of the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles question and everything in connection with, the strife about Mosul with its petroleum, the question of the future economic relations between Turkey and the Entente powers, the settlement with the European creditors of Turkey, the limits of Turkish jurisdiction over foreigners, and many other questions. The first Lausanne conference settled the European territorial question to a certain extent. The Turks accepted a provisional regulation of the Dardanelles question favoring England’s interests. The de-fortification of the Dardanelles means for the English bourgeoisie the possibility of attacking Soviet Russia through the Black Sea, when favorable occasion permits. But the conference evaded the Mossul question, and was powerless in economic problems. Kemal Pasha’s government was prepared to make concessions in the territorial and boundary questions; but it was not prepared to abandon its country to the greed and robbery of the creditors of the old Ottoman debt, to the speculators and concession hunters who. had settled in Turkey, or who wanted to settle there in the future. It is a remarkable fact that in the economic question the French and English delegates were fully in agreement in Lausanne. For France’s money interests in Turkey are perhaps even greater than England’s. The old Turkish national debt was mainly composed of French loans.
During the last few weeks of the original Lausanne conference the attitude of the French delegation was naturally influenced by the Ruhr enterprise. The French gave Lord Curzon exactly as much trouble as they encountered difficulties in the Rhine country (on account of objections raised by the English authorities to their use of the railroads). However, the benevolent neutrality evinced by Bonar Law in the Ruhr question was rewarded oy a certain degree of obliging behavior on the part of the French in Lausanne. But despite this, the English government was not in a position to draw the logical conclusions from its energetic step of February 4. For Poincaré was not quite so sure as to how the British would continue to act in the Ruhr question, that he cared to give the English a free hand in the Orient. France could venture upon the Ruhr occupation because Cuno’s Germany is practically without arms, but Kemal Pasha’s Turks have the habit of shooting back when greeted with bullets. An English advance in Asia Minor would surely have meant a real and bloody war of uncertain issue; quite apart from the fact that Soviet Russia would not have permitted the subjugation of Turkey by British imperialism. Such an adventure as this – with the added difficulty of a reserved or even hostile France – could not be risked by Bonar Law, the man of “peace, tranquility, and economy”. Lord Curzon wanted to bluff Turkey into submission. But as the Turks were not taken in by bluff, Lord Curzon was obliged to choose the better part of valor.
Meanwhile, further negotiations have been held in London on the Eastern question. The experts of the Entente have been summoned; despite the rupture of Lausanne, notes have been exchanged with the Turkish government, and a fresh basis for negotiations has been discovered at last. The Entente has declared to Turkey that it considers the territorial question as settled, and that there is no need of discussing Mosul or the Straits any more. But there is no objection to a renewed discussion, in Lausanne, on economic and legal questions. The Turkish minister for foreign affairs, Ismet Pasha, expressed his agreement to this, in which he was approved by his government and the National Assembly. The Turks are rightly of the opinion that nobody will be able to prevent their saying what they please at Lausanne. After the experiences of the past, England’s mailed fist does not particularly impress. Whether the Turkish delegation at the second Lausanne conference will again bring up the Mosul and Dardanelles questions does not depend on any provisos which may be made by the English government, it depends solely on the totality of world politics, and this is again an exceedingly complicated matter. The second Lausanne conference takes place at a time when the impending understanding between German and French capitalism in the Ruhr question has approached tangibly near, and this is a business transaction in which England is anxious to be a profiting third party. The renewed attempt to establish close co-operation between British and French capital, already so clearly expressed by Loucheur’s journey to London, will be extended to the Orient. Every vacillation of international capitalism in the Ruhr question will be automatically remitted to Lausanne, and vice versa.
But behind English and French capital there is another capital, stronger than either of them, while the English and French have been quarreling among themselves, exchanging notes and bluffs, American capital has been acting. The American concession known as the “Chester”, provided for the laying of no less than 4,318 km of railway by the Americans in Asia Minor within a short time; this is approximately as great a mileage as that possessed by all the railway lines now existing in Turkey. Another American project provides for the re-building of the whole capital city of Angora, in the course of three years, in a style of the utmost modem luxury. To this must be added the American petroleum concessions and many similar enterprises. American capital will supervise the new Lausanne conference with great exactitude, and it will contrive to maintain the position of privileged power which it has already obtained in Turkey. At the present time Turkey is of much more importance to America than is Germany. Any American intervention in the Ruhr area will be directed against the party throwing obstacles in the way of American capital in Turkey. French and English capital alike are fully aware of the weight to be accorded to this circumstance.
Soviet Russia will not be invited to the second Lausanne conference, because at the first the Russian delegation was only permitted to be present at the debate on the Dardanelles question. But Soviet Russia is so powerful today that no diplomatic dodge can simply ignore her. Russia will recognize no oriental treaty which ignores her interests. Soviet Russia will continue to defend the interests of the oppressed peoples of the East against international capital. It is not quite clear what Kemal Pasha is aiming at by the sudden dissolution of the Turkish National Assembly and the calling of a new election. If the object of the new election is to remove those groups from parliament which resist too intimate relations with foreign capital, then Kemal’s government takes a step on the downward path. And should events develop in such a manner that in Lausanne a peace treaty is arranged by which foreign capital again obtains ascendancy in Turkey, then the masses of the Turkish people, who won the victories on the fields of battle, will not agree to this bargain. The struggle for emancipation will continue in the Orient, whether any treaty be signed at Lausanne or not, and whatever it contains. And the international proletariat is fully aware that the struggle carried on by the exploited oriental is the common struggle of the whole proletariat of the world.
Last updated on 15 October 2021