CRITICAL SITUATION.

From PERCEVAL LANDON. LAUSANNE, Friday.

A visitor would hardly think that Lausanne was a place in which a great issue was being watched by representatives of half the world. Perhaps the cessation of committee meetings has helped to take much from the actuality of the crisis; perhaps the cry of “Wolf!” has been raised too often for it to have much effect upon the less responsible members of the various delegations; perhaps, too, the long-continued and monotonous negotiations have in the very long run produced an exhaustion of vision which can no longer realise that diplomacy has its limits. But the root of the matter is the newly inborn conviction that for the moment the Conference must be content to sit aside and await the time when the issues with which it has to deal shall once more be entrusted to it. It is the day of Athens and Angora. There may be much debate to-morrow when the fateful question of Grecoturkish reparations cornea up again, and perhaps for the last time, for consideration, but we all know that it is not in Lausanne that the final decisions will be taken.

In the turmoil of a disaster it is easy to forget, and this message is written in the earnest hope that if a rupture is found to be inevitable one and by far the most important aspect of the Lausanne Conference will not then be overlooked. An immediate dissolution of this Conference would be nothing short of an international disaster. As soon as the great purpose of the Allies and those who are working with them is changed from the intention of making a just and final peace between all parties to the overwhelming need of localising and, so far as possible, of controlling a new state of war, the Lausanne Conference will offer the only. possible council chamber in which the will of the greater and the lesser Powers of the world can be ascertained and enforced. Only by a continuance of the councils which have from the beginning been conducted with entire and mutual loyalty can the Allies assert their authority with convenience and rapidity. Only by retaining by their side the representatives of the Balkan States can an effective limitation of the struggle be imposed. It may be added that only by the continuance of the sympathetic and wellinformed assistance of the representatives of the United States can the full weight of America be thrown into the scale for peace. It is of cardinal importance that, should the worst come to the worst, the departure from these discussions of Greece and Turkey should add to rather than detract from the importance of what will then become the only official and organised mouthpiece of the world’s determination to end this tradition of hostility and make a final settlement of the Near Eastern question.

In so many things we have reached agreement; the varied interests of the nations have been so frequently discussed, so fully understood, and so fairly satisfied by the accepted portions of the Treaty that it would be folly not to continue the existence of a council in which such notable agreement and co-operation have been secured. Should war break out – and the situation this evening is as serious as it well can be – it might be necessary to revert to we composition of the first conference, or, on occasions, even to that of the opening meeting here, when the Prime Ministers of France and Italy sat beside Lord Curzon and endorsed his words. There can be no work of more pressing importance than that which would await them here. It has seemed advisable to lay stress upon this matter because in many, perhaps in most, quarters a belief is expressed that the beginning of military operations by Greece would of itself disperse the conference. So far is this from being the case that should this unhappy business restart the war, the duties that have hitherto been entrusted to the delegates would merely be superseded by new responsibilities which they, and they only, could effectively undertake.