Foreign News: Lausanne Treaty

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In separate conventions the Allied demands were whittled down. These included: settlement of the Ottoman debt by apportionment among ex-Ottoman territories; regulation of concessions; settlement of the Mosul (Oil) Question; conclusion of separate judicial treaties granting right of complaint to foreign legal advisers in place of capitulations. The U. S. and Turkey signed a parallel, but separate, treaty of amity and commerce.

In effect, the Lausanne Settlement turned Europe bag and baggage out of Turkey instead of turning Turkey bag and baggage out of Europe. It signified the complete shipwreck of Lloyd George's five years' nursing of Greek ambitions. Flouting the conservative policy of seven decades, it exposed Turkey to intrigue and direct military pressure from Britain's perennial foe, Russia. It excluded France, Italy and Great Britain from exploitation of the spoils of war. It practically abandoned all pretence on the part of the Great Powers to protect the Christians in Turkey, cardinal point of Gladstone's eastern policy. The terms of the Straits Convention reduced British opportunities to checkmate Russia or bring naval pressure to bear on Turkish ambitions, cardinal point of British naval-political strategy.