Mosul

Elegantly clad British diplomats have lived uncomfortable lives for some months at Angora, that insupportably nouveau capital which the young Turks are erecting on a site now chiefly mud. Their efforts have been directed toward negotiating a treaty whereby British-mandated Irak would be confirmed in the possession of that major portion of Mosul granted to her by a ruling of the League Council (TIME, Dec. 28, LEAGUE). The Turks have consistently refused to accept the Council's adjudication.

One of the most markedly successful applications of the British diplomatic steamroller to an Oriental people was accordingly signalized last week when representatives of Turkey, Irak and Great Britain signed at Angora a ten-year pact of security and nonaggression, apportioning the Vilayet and Village of Mosul to Irak--the Turko-Irak frontier to be delimited by a Swiss chairmaned commission within six months, approximately as adjudicated by the League. Further treaty provisions: 1) Turkey to be granted 10% of the revenue of the Mosul oil fields for 25 years. 2) Turkey to be empowered to sell these revenue interests. 3) Mutual security among the contracting parties to be fostered by mutual suppression of marauding bands and the maintenance of a demilitarized zone 75 kilometers wide on each side of the Turko-Irak frontier. 4) Amnesty for all inhabitants of Mosul--including 350,000 Nestorians, Chaldeans, Melchites.

General surprise was expressed that Turkey accepted so small an oil sop. In British-mandated Irak, the exploitation of oil is expected to gladden British babbitts, while British churchmen tenderly foster the local Christians--numbering 79,000 odd, engulfed by 87,000 Jews and 2,500,000 Moslems.