Kamdl Atatiirk Kicks

Kamal Atatuerk Kicks

In the ancient Syrian city of Antioch last week a batch of League of Nations observers huddled on their hotel balcony while the street directly before them echoed with pistol shots, wild Turkish and Syrian yells, the thud of brickbats, groans. When police finally cleared the cobbled street, one slippered rioter was dead, eight others gravely injured.

All this was because the Turkish Dictator, hard-drinking but soberly-masterful Mustafa Kamal Atatuerk ("Father of the Turks"), is now kicking strenuously against the announced intention of France to grant a form of independence to Syria which is a French mandate. Turkey was furious after the World War when the Turkish city of Antioch and its sanjak

(district) of Alexandretta were mandated by the League to France as part of Syria.

Dictator Kamal Atatuerk last week rushed with Turkish troops to the Syrian frontier and presumably his bravoes staged the riot in Antioch. Immediately afterward the tense atmosphere suddenly, mysteriously cleared. The Dictator returned to Istanbul and his Foreign Office announced that it was dickering amicably with French Premier Leon Blum.

Turkey asks that, when so-called independence is given to Syria (which will actually remain under French influence) separate so-called independence be also given to Alexandretta. With this status "independent Alexandretta" would actually be under Dictator Kamal Atatuerk's thumb, and he wants a leased right-of-way for Turkish produce to the city of Alexandretta. vital Syrian port.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.