Maria of Rumania and King Alexander of Yugo-Slavia. The Rumanians, while welcoming the event, attached little political importance to it. Another event of great sentimental but slight political significance was the coronation of the King and Queen, which had been postponed for a number of years. It took place at Alba Julia, a small town in Transylvania, celebrated in Rumanian history as the place where Michael the Brave, who for a short time united under his sceptre the whole Rumanian-speaking people, had been crowned centuries before. This town was chosen because it symbolised to Rumanians an idea which had now become fact.

In the course of the year M. Take Jonescu died, and his followers amalgamated with the Transylvanian deputies and formed with them the National Party.

KINGDOM OF THE SERBS, CROATS, AND SLOVENES.

The year 1922 was auspicious for the Triune Kingdom by reason of the marriage on June 8 of King Alexander I. to Princess Marie, second daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Rumania. The union was regarded with great favour both in political circles and among the masses in the two countries.

In the sphere of politics, the year 1922 ran an even course, although the Government was more than once on the verge of dissolution. The menace of Communism practically vanished, thanks to the firm attitude of the Government in the preceding year. The Serb-Croatian dispute also seems to be in a fair way of settlement during the coming year.

In February a protest was addressed to M. Pashitch, the Prime Minister, by MM. Raditch, Drinkovitch, and Koshutitch and sixty-three Croatian and other delegates who still held aloof from the Belgrade Parliament, denying the right of the Yugo-Slav Government to represent Croatia at the Genoa Conference, and demanding the appointment of separate Croatian delegates.

At the beginning of the year rumours were current in the foreign Press with regard to the activities of Wrangel and other Russian refugees in Serbia. Suspicions, however, were allayed by speeches in the Skupstina explaining Serbia's attitude to these people as one of pure hospitality and denying all allegations of plots for the invasion of Russia.

The Budget for 1921-22, which was brought forward and passed in March, balanced at 6,257,577,804 dinars, as against 3,494,356,543 dinars for the previous year. This amount included 1,499,356,657 for the Ministry of War and grants for the Ministry of Public Health and for Education and Communications, as well as a large vote for Social Policy. The dinar fell heavily after the Budget was drafted, and this automatically increased the estimates of the Ministry for War. In

August the Skupstina, after protracted debates, consented by a majority of 62 to the acceptance of a loan of 25,000,000l. from a group of American financiers. The proceeds will be used principally for road construction and railway communications and more particularly for the line from Belgrade to the Adriatic. The terms of this loan preclude the Serb Government from concluding any other loan for the next two years.

In June M. Marinkovitch, Minister of the Interior, resigned, owing to friction with the Democrats. In this month also the new Electoral Law, although democratic in character, was opposed, amid scenes of great disorder, by the Opposition and Extreme Left. At the same time, owing to disturbances in Zagreb, the Government closed down some of the Separatist Societies which had been largely instrumental in creating the ill-feeling between the Serbs and Croats.

Towards the end of July the appointment of M. Petchitch as Minister of the Interior was strongly opposed by the Radicals, and in consequence M. Pashitch sent in his resignation, which, however, the King refused to accept, and once again the Cabinet were obliged to patch up their differences, whilst the Ministry of the Interior remained without an occupant.

Towards the end of November the Croatian Deputy, Häusler, took his seat in the Skupstina, being the first member of the Raditch Party to do so. His action was generally approved, and the Zagreb Congress of Public Workers showed that among the Serbian Deputies themselves there existed a strong tendency in favour of conciliation. This step of M. Häusler led to a rapprochement between the Democrats and the Croats which undermined the Coalition. The Government was defeated on December 4, and the King this time accepted M. Pashitch's resignation, though he prevailed upon him to form another Government. Although the Democrats, led by M. Davidovitch, combined with the Croatian parties to bring about the fall of the Government, it is by no means certain that they will lend themselves to the Raditch programme, which seeks to secure either independence for Croatia or de-centralisation. The new Cabinet still has M. Pashitch as Premier and M. Nintchitch as Foreign Minister, and the two are supported by Ministers belonging to the Radical Party. The elections are awaited with much interest.

In foreign affairs the year was signalised by a number of events inaugurating better relations between Yugo-Slavia and her neighbours.

During the official celebrations of the royal betrothal held at Bukarest in February, the first step towards the formation of a Quadruple Entente between Yugo-Slavia, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Poland was taken by means of a conference of economic and financial experts held at Belgrade in March for the purpose of passing a common policy to be pursued at the Genoa Conference.

At the same time comprehensive agreements were reached on all questions outstanding between Rumania and Yugo-Slavia, notably the question of the boundary line in the Banat.

The question of Fiume is still in an unsatisfactory state. This unfortunate town was, earlier in the year, the scene of various unpleasant incidents between the contending parties; and the efforts of a Conference held at Santa Margherita to effect a settlement were unavailing, since certain clauses of the agreement drawn up by it were afterwards objected to by M. Pashitch.

During the year Yugo-Slavia recognised the de jure independence of Albania, and appointed a diplomatic representative to that country.

The quarrel of Prince George with his brother, King Alexander, which was the subject of much comment in the Press during the latter part of the year, was fortunately closed by Prince George writing a letter of apology and regret to the King, which was read in the Skupstina.

TURKEY.

The year 1922 witnessed the passing of what was once the Empire of the Sultan, the dethronement and exile of the reigning Sultan, and the growth of the Nationalist Party of Mustapha Kemal Pasha into what promises to be a factor of considerable importance in Near Eastern politics.

The Angora National Assembly showed its determination to tighten the already existing bonds between Nationalist Turkey and Soviet Russia by supplementing the previously signed pact of alliance and friendship between the two countries by a treaty on similar lines. This followed the treaty between Nationalist Turkey and the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, which was ratified on January 4. Other countries also sought to arrive at understandings with the Turkish Nationalist Government. Following the conclusion at Angora on October 20, 1922, of an agreement with France, the Italian Government sent a delegate, Signor Tuozzi, to the capital of Nationalist Turkey for the purpose of clearing up the general situation and outstanding differences between the two countries. The negotiations which lasted for over six weeks were followed by an understanding.

When the year opened, a state of war in Anatolia still continued, although active military operations against the Greeks had practically ceased since the autumn of the previous year. Several new efforts were made by the Entente Powers to resume negotiations and bring about a reconciliation between the two warring countries. Similar attempts were also made by the Turks, and on February 6, the Angora Government's Foreign Minister, Yussuf Kemal Pasha, left Anatolia for Paris, Rome, and London on a special mission, the object of which was to re-open negotiations with the Great Powers for an honourable

peace "within the limits of the Turkish National Pact" (of January 28, 1920). The Turkish "conditions" at that period, as defined by members of the mission themselves, can be summarised as follows: the evacuation of the Allied forces from Constantinople, the abolition of all privileges granted to non-Moslem minorities, recognition by the Entente of the Angora Government and of all treaties concluded by it, complete independence for Turkey in military, financial, and political domains, unconditional return to Turkey of Smyrna and all territories occupied by the Greeks, autonomy for Western Thrace, and the restoration of Eastern Thrace to Turkey, Turkey to possess an Army and Fleet adequate for protection against invasion, Turkey and Russia to regulate the future status of the Straits, and Greece to pay Turkey a war indemnity. Yussuf Pasha and his mission was followed to Europe by another Turkish mission, representing the Turkey of the Sultan and Constantinople, and headed by Marshal Izzet Pasha, Foreign Minister of the Constantinople Government. Both missions visited London practically simultaneously early in March, and after several fruitless attempts to open negotiations with the British Government returned to Paris.

Later in the same month a meeting of the British, French, and Italian Foreign Ministers was held in Paris with the view of once more attempting to bring the Turco-Greece conflict to an end. One of the first decisions taken at this conference was to propose an immediate Armistice to both Turkey and Greece (cf. under Greece, p. 210). The Angora Government, while accepting the proposal, put forward as a condition the immediate evacuation of Smyrna and its hinterland by the Greek forces. The Constantinople Government showed itself more moderate and ready to negotiate. But as by this time the Turkey of the Sultan and Constantinople had become a more or less negligible quantity in the Turkish problem the attitude adopted by the Sultan's Government was not destined to affect the matter one way or the other. On April 15, the Allies rejected the condition proposed by Angora, and the Near Eastern problem remained once more in suspense. On April 23 the Angora Government informed the Allies that it was prepared to agree to a preliminary discussion of peace terms, but still maintained that the evacuation of Anatolia by the Greeks should be simultaneous with the conclusion of the prepared Armistice.

The military situation in Anatolia which during the first seven months of 1922 had remained stationary began once more to develop signs of activity. Towards the end of July rumours were first circulated regarding a proposed Greek military coup aiming at the occupation of Constantinople by Greek forces under the leadership of King Constantine. Simultaneously the Allies once more made an attempt to call a conference in Venice in September for the settlement of the Near Eastern problem in connexion with which identical proposals (see under Greece)

were communicated to the Greeks and Turks. The renewal of military activities (on the night of August 18-19) on the Turko-Greek front in Asia Minor and the rout of the Greek armies which followed, together with the sudden sweeping march of internal affairs in Turkey and Greece, doomed this conference to the same fate as its predecessors. In less than a fortnight the complete defeat of the Greek Army was an accomplished fact, and Greece had to request the Great Powers to negotiate an Armistice. On September 9 Turkish forces occupied Smyrna, and the evacuation of Anatolia by the Greeks was practically completed.

Elated by the success of the Nationalist Turkish Army the Angora leaders from this moment began to display renewed truculence and arrogance towards the Allies, particularly towards Great Britain, which despatched a series of strongly worded notes to the Nationalist Government warning them against any attempt to violate the neutral zone, or to place the Allies before a fait accompli regarding the future status of the Straits or Turkey in Europe before the negotiation and conclusion of an Armistice. Nevertheless several attempts were made by the Nationalist forces to invade the neutral zone occupied by Allied troops in the vicinity of Chanak, on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles, but all incidents were satisfactorily liquidated by an agreement.

The victory of Mustapha Kemal's armies in Asia Minor had no small repercussion in Constantinople and those few districts of Turkey which still remained nominally under the rule of the Sultan. Dissatisfaction with the Sultan himself had for a long time been general among the great majority of his subjects, and the abdication of Mohamed VI., Sultan of Turkey, in favour of Prince Abdul Mejid Effendi, the Heir-Apparent, reported on September 28 (a rumour which did not materialise into actual fact for some time), did not come as a surprise.

Meanwhile, M. Franklin-Bouillon who had been so instrumental in concluding the Franco-Turkish agreement of October, 1920, and who after the Greek débacle had been despatched by the French Government to Angora to induce Mustapha Kemal Pasha and the National Assembly to accept the Allies' proposal for the holding of a conference between the Allies, Turkey, and Greece, succeeded in dispelling Turkish fears and suspicions and in obtaining Turkish consent for a conference to be held at Mudania, which was opened on October 3. The Turks from the very beginning adopted an extremely irreconcilable and uncompromising attitude, and it was only due to the commendable firmness coupled with the greatest tact displayed by the British delegate, General Sir Charles Harrington, that after several breakdowns the conference at Mudania finally resulted in the acceptance by Turkey of the Allied terms and the conclusion of an Armistice, signed on the night of October 11 (see under Greece). A second conference for the negotiation of the final