Ismet and the Open Door

A bombshell was exploded under the placid forms of Sir Horace Rumbold and General Pelle, British and French representatives at Lausanne, when Ismet Pasha announced that concessions prior to 1914, which he had consented to confirm in the Concessions Protocol, invaded the Chester concessions, and that his agreement must be reconsidered.

He has been clever enough to enroll on his side tthe able American observer, Mr. Joseph Grew, in the name of the sacred principle of the " open door." To gain previous points from the Allies he had confirmed the monopolistic concessions granted before 1914 to the Vickers-Armstrong Syndicate for dock construction, to the French Compagnie Generale des Chemins de Fer for the railroad from Sivas to Samsun, and to the Turkish Petroleum Company, a British oil concession in the Mosul region based on a letter from a Grand Visier to a British Ambassador. Mr. Grew objected to the feature of these concessions which gave these Companies the preference in certain regions, provided their bids were as high as competing bids. " Very true," said Ismet to Mr. Grew. " Very sorry! " said Mr. Ismet to the Allies.

Ismet's diplomacy was utterly successful. The warm and nervous delegates reached an agreement on concessions and the naval problem in a manner satisfactory to the Turks. The Turkish Petroleum Company's claims were dropped from the Protocol, and preferential rights cancelled for the Vickers-Armstrong and French Railway companies. Until ratification of the straight convention, Britain, France and Italy may each keep a cruiser and two destroyers on the Bosphorus; in any event this privilege must end next December.