Delegates to the Near East Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, voted to accept a Turkish proposal to "exchange" the Greek and Turkish populations of the two countries.
This would result in the expulsion of 600,000 Greeks from Anatolia, where they had been since ancient times, and in which the Turks were originally an invader, for 450,000 Turks in Greece. An exception was made for 200,000 Greeks in Constantinople, a city identified with the Greeks since ancient times, and 300,000 in Western Thrace.
Irrespective of the inequities, and even barbarism, of the Greek advances in Anatolia following World War One, the result was inhumane and effectively completed a process that the Ottoman invasion had started centuries ago. Greek overreaching following World War One was responsible for a lot of what occurred, but it's a tragedy by any measure.
Only about 2,500 Greeks remain in Turkey today.
The French staged near Essen in preparation for intervening in the Ruhr.
Participants in the revolt.
Lithuanians rebelled in the Klaipėda Revolt in Memelland. Lithuanian troops intervened in support of the insurrection. The goal of the revolt was to join Memelland to Lithuania, and it met with little resistance from German troops, stationed on what had been German territory, and French occupation forces.
Both the French and the Germans had other things to worry about on this day other than Memelland.
The population of the region was about 45% German. The remaining population was Memellandish and Lithuanian. Having said this, the ethnic composition of Memelland was complex in every fashion, with Memmelandish being a dialect of German, and the Lithuanian population of the region being predominantly Lutheran, whereas in Lithuania the vast majority of the population was Roman Catholic, a trait they shared with the Poles. It was a mixed border region, in other words, but the border had been stable since 1441.
President Harding ordered U.S. troops withdrawn from Germany.
From Reddit's 100 Years Ago Today.
This was, of course, because it appeared that France was about to enter the Ruhr, which in fact it was.
From Reddit's 100 Years Ago Today.
Sultan Said bin Taimur of Oman was compelled to sign an agreement with the United Kingdom to provide for pre-approval by the British High Commissioner in India of any contracts between oil exploration companies and Oman.
The Sultan Said was born in 1910 and had attended Mayo College at Ajmer in Rajputana, India. Following that it was suggested that his education be furthered in Beirut, but it was not as his father feared he'd be influenced by Christianity. He remained in power until 1970, when he was deposed by his son.
His technical rule of the country, arranged by the British, did not happen until 1932. He died in the United Kingdom in 1972 at the age of 62.
