Allies Demand Most Of Turkey.

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 24, 1912:
Terms Presented to Peace Conference Would Leave Sultan Only a Fragment in Europe.
TO RETAIN THE DARDANELLES
Except for Shore Strip and Constantinople and Tchatalja Districts, All Would Be Taken.
TURKS' DELEGATES UNMOVED
Unofficially They Style the Conditions Impossible — Demand for Food for Adrianople Modified.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Dec. 23.— The peace conference at to-day's sitting reached serious business, the allies opening the formal negotiations by reading the first article of the conditions on which they were willing to conclude peace with Turkey. This article relates to territorial demands. Although these are not officially disclosed it is well known that the territory which Turkey is asked to surrender covers all the Ottoman possessions in Europe to the west and north of a line drawn from near the Gulf of Saros to near Midia, on the Black Sea.
    The territory which the Sultan would give up under this arrangement includes Albania, on which the powers have decided to confer autonomy under Ottoman suzerainty; Macedonia, and the greater part of Thrace. Adrianople and Kirk-Kilisseh are within the limits of the area which the Balkan States demand. The allies also insist on the cession of the Turkish islands in the Aegean Sea and the abandonment by Turkey of all rights in Crete, which would become a Greek possession.
    To the Sultan would be left the vilayets of Constantinople and Tchatalja, with a strip along the shore of the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles, giving him control of those waterways.
    Probably because they had already been unofficially acquainted with the allies' demands, the Turkish delegates showed not the slightest emotion as they listened to the reading.
    Previous to the presentation of the terms which the allies proposed, Rechad Pasha, head of the Turkish delegation, stated that he had received authorization from Constantinople to negotíate with the Greek delegates without any conditions or reserve, and was, therefore, ready to enter immediately into the formal negotiations for peace.
    This, however, did not mean that the Turks waived their plea for the revictualing of Adrianople, but this matter will be argued outside of the conference by the Turkish and Bulgarian authorities.

Crucial Point Is Reached.
    LONDON, Dec. 23.— After several days of skirmishing, in accordance with the traditions of Oriental diplomacy, the Turkish delegates to-day faced the real attack of the allies at the fifth meeting of the peace conference, which has as an object the settlement of the Eastern war.
    The victorious allies laid their most important cards on the table, in the form of territorial conditions which they had agreed to impose on the Ottoman Empire. These demands were:
    First— The cession by Turkey of all the territory west of a line starting from a point east of Rodosto, on the Sea of Marmora, to a point in the Bay of Malatra on the Black Sea, and excluding the Peninsula of Gallipoli, Albania's status to be decided by the powers.
    Second— Cession of the Augean Islands, occupied by the Greek forces in the present war and by the Italians in the recent war.
    Third— Cession to Greece of all Turkish rights in Crete.
    The allies did not reveal the financial proposals which they will make to Turkey, but reserved them for a future meeting.
    The formal conference lasted only a quarter of an hour. The Turks listened to the proclamation of the fate of their European empire without formal comment, and asked for an adjournment until Saturday to consider the allies' demands. In the informal conversation with the delegates, which consumed an hour, they asserted that it would be impossible for them to accept such terms, but that statement is inevitable in meetings of this character and was expected to-day.
    The allies will recognize the autonomy of Albania under the suzerainty of the Porte, but not its sovereignty. Albania will become what Crete was and what Egypt is in its relation to Turkey. The Sultan will be the nomina! ruler, but without political, administrative, or military power. He will have the right to raise his flag in Albania and appoint a Resident Governor, but only to ratify the decisions of the local Government.
    All the delegations attended to-day's session in full force, with their military and legal advisers and secretaries. Every one appreciated the fact that the meeting was to mark the passage of deliberations from the preliminary stage to that of real negotiations.

Turkey Modifies Adrianople Demand
    The atmosphere of the council chamber was charged with intense feeling throughout the proceedings. M. Novakovitch, head of the Servian delegation, took the chair. On his right was M. Nikolitch, Speaker of the Servian Parliament, and on his left M. Vesnitch, Servian Minister to France. Immediately after Gen. Cruics had read the minutes of the last meeting and they were approved, the President of the conference, in a sonorous voice, asked Rechad Pasha, head of the Turkish delegation, to tell the conference what instructions he had received from Constantinople.
    Rechad Pasha rose, and in dignified terms said the Imperial Ottoman Government wished to give one more proof of its sincere desire to hasten the discussion, and to do the utmost possible to reach a satisfactory and honorable settlement for all parties concerned. Therefore, it had instructed him to treat with all the allies, Greece included, and without any conditions.
    Dealing with the question of revictualing the besieged fortresses, Rechad Pasha said Turkey was even ready to lay aside the cases of Scutari and Janina. In Adrianople, which he referred to as "the cradle of Turkish power in Europe," he said it was known the hospitals were overcrowded and their patients lacked the primary necessities, while the women, children, and aged were suffering or starving. He must insist, he said, on provisioning Adrianople to an extent which would meet the demands of humanity, but which would be insufficient to place the belligerents in a better position than they held when the armistice was signed.
    Rechad said he was animated by a desire to avoid procrastination, and that the question might be dealt with directly between the Turks and the Bulgarians, thus making it possible for the conference to continue.
    The heads of the allied delegations expressed satisfaction with Rechad's statement.
    Then M. Novakovitch, tall and erect, rose, holding in his hand a large sheet of paper. It was the crucial moment of the conference, and all eyes were turned upon him. The Balkan delegates showed emotion and anxiety. The Turks appeared as impressive as statues.

Ottoman Delegates Listen Unmoved.
    "All the secondary questions having been settled, the moment has come to explain the conditions under which the allies are ready to conclude peace," M. Novakovitch said. Then he proceeded to read the demands of the Balkan States. When he had finished, all eyes turned to the representatives of the Sultan. They, however, gave no display of their feelings.
    Rechad Pasha rose again, stroking his beard, and in his habitual slow manner asked for a written copy of the proposals. M. Novakovitch ordered the Secretary to make the copy, and the delegates left their seats and joined in an animated and cordial conversation.
    During the long wait for the copy of the demands, and while disclaiming any desire to enter into a discussion of their merits the Turks said that, speaking unofficially, they thought the allies' terms to have been designed for the purpose of breaking off the conference.
    When the delegates had signed the document, Rechad asked for an adjournment until Saturday to consider the proposals, and his request was granted.
    Among diplomats here the opinion prevails that notwithstanding what the Turks consider the unacceptable conditions presented by the allies and what the allies declare are terms which cannot be reduced, peace will ultimately be concluded.
    The comment is made that the allies and the Turks, when the armistice was concluded, were in exactly the same position as the Russians and the Japanese when the United States induced them to agree to the Portsmouth conference.
    Both the Turks and the Bulgarians were at Tchatalja in practically a state of exhaustion. Now both have strengthened themselves, but neither is certain what would happen were the conflict resumed. The Turks fear further reverses and irreparable losses, and the allies who have already obtained successes which in their rosiest dreams they never expected, fear to endanger the positions they have gained.

Mediation Talk Revived.
    Owing to this reciprocal apprehension an understanding may be reached. The critical point is Adrianople, on which an agreement between the delegates perhaps would be difficult if its solution were attempted directly by them; but it may come through the mediation of one power or several powers, or now that the differences between Austria and Servia have been settled, by the whole of Europe, whose intervention would save the face of both Turkey and Bulgaria because of the concessions they would be obliged to make.
    If European mediation is impossible or unsuccessful others may be appealed to, first of all the United States. It is even rumored that there is a possibility of asking mediation by the Pope. It. is recalled that Pope Leo XIII. was intrusted by Bismarck with the settling of the dispute between Germany and Spain over the Caroline Islands. In case His Holiness were the mediator in the present controversy his action would be independent, as none of the belligerents is a Catholic power.
    A further relaxation of international tension was brought about to-day when Austria-Hungary informed the other European powers that she felt that the Balkan difficulties are approaching a satisfactory solution. This, she says, is the result of Servia's action in apologizing to Austria-Hungary for the incident connected with the treatment of the Austro-Hungarian Consul at Prisrend, and also her acceptance of the proposed arrangement to give her port facilities on the Adriatic Sea without territorial possession. Besides these assurances from Vienna another helpful factor in the situation was the audience given by the Emperor Francis Joseph to the new Servian Minister M. Jovanovitch to-day, when both cordially expressed the hope for a speedy re-establishment of complete friendship between Vienna and Belgrade.

    The area of Turkey in Europe is 65,350 square miles. Were the demands of the Balkan allies, as presented at the conference in London yesterday, finally acceded to, the Sultan's territorial possessions in Europe would amount to only about 2,500 square miles.
    Stated in familiar terms of comparison, Turkey as a European power would be reduced from approximately the size of Missouri to a district a little larger than the State of Delaware.
    At the height of its power in the middle of the sixteenth century under Solyman I., Turkey was dominant over approximately 300,000 square miles of European territory, including, besides the present area, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, Rumania, Bosnia and Herzogovina, Croatia and Slavonia, most of Dalmatia, a large part of Hungary, and even much of the northern shore line of the Black Sea.