Accord

The second half of the Lausanne Conference, begun on April 23, was brought materially closer to its end last week.

The Allies and the Turks reached an understanding on all outstanding problems, chief among which were: dispute over the Ottoman debt, complicated problem of concessions in Anatolia, the question of the evacuation of Constantinople.

The Ottoman debt question is to be removed from the proposed Treaty, This is a great victory for Turkey, but she is restricted in making a separate settlement with the bondholders, to paying interest in sterling (against her wishes) and to making no modification in the debt contracts without mutual agreement between herself and her creditors.

The protocol concerning concessions was modified to meet the views of the U. S. A. Details were not given and the U. S. opinion of these modifications was not published.

Regarding evacuation an agreement was reached whereby all foreign troops will be withdrawn from Constantinople within six weeks after the ratification of the treaty by the Grand National Assembly at Angora, capital of Turkey.

Warships, arms and ammunitions, property of the Turkish Government, will be returned by the Allies under the same conditions as withdrawal of troops.

The Greeks and the Turks also came to an agreement, which is to be submitted to the Secretariat of the Conference. Nothing of great importance now hinders the signing of the treaty.