The success of the Montreux Conference transcends the immediate issue of the changed conditions which moved Turkey to propose refortify= ing the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora and the Bosporus—important though that proposal is. Tt comes to remind the world that the process of tearing up treaties is not necessarily the only means whereby states manship can adjust itself to the moods of the moment. This is said in no disparagement of the motives which have led certain governments to despair of proceeding by set rule. It merely is taken to suggest the possibility that patience and the right spirit of compromise may achieve more than circumstances have hitherto permitted. It cannot be said that controversial difficulties were absent from the discussions at Montreux; indeed the cables have shown that the delegates were at one time apparently confronted by a deadlock. All nations concerned—including Japan and the absent Italy—have displayed the requisite degree of commonsense and desire for agreement. This, too, has to be suid for the Turkish Government: it could at anytime since 1923 when the Treaty of Lausanne left the Straits nominally open to shipping, lased up quickly by the joint opera tion of artillery ashore, minelayers
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.