PASSING FOR TURKEY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 179, 2 June 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

PASSING FOR TURKEY.

nX'SSIA'B GIIEAT SWHEPING MOVEMENT. - By COLONEL A. M. MURRAY, C.I (Colonel Murray, who is a wellknown writer on military subjects, believes the military power of Turkey is on the point of collapse.)

When Mr. Asquith charged the Turks wit'.t committing political suicide by throwing in their lot with the Central Powers he spoke with correct appreciation of the futuie confronting Tur-

Led by i'alse guides, who h;;\e sold thei countrymen for German gold, the Turks are now inarching to their doom, and nothing short of a revolution —even this may be too late to savo the situ-ation--Avill avert the ruin which they have brought on themselves. If Turkey had remained faithful Iher old allies and best friends, Great Britain and France, we were prepared to leave her Government in undisturbed possession of Constantinople, and allow her rulers under rcrtain conditions—the removal of all forts and the internationalisation of the sea-ways into the Black Sea being -mong those specified—to keep the key of the gateway into the Dardanelles, "'he Turks Happened had we given Sir lan Hamil. the consequences. Their ivign in Europe is over. TURKEYS EVIL GENIUS. I'hivcr Pasha, and his confederate Taia. ■■ Bey, are the men to blame. Seven '/nail's ago, at the time of the Turkish Revolution, 1 met Enver Pasha at Salonika, and saw much »f him.

A bjin conspirator, suspicions by untuie, morbid-minded, absolutely unscrupulous, ambitious not for Ins country but for himself, a fanatical Moslem, I loft liim, after an acquaintance which ripened into a kind of mutually distrust!ul intiniacy, with an indescribable feeling of dread and disgust. There was a diabolical fascination about this handsome but unanny young Turkish Mcphistophelos which it was in.possible to resist while in his ompany; but all the time I fe't that only evil «<uld result from bis labour*.

He is tho evil genius of Turkey, and until he i-i thrown out of office the Turks will go from bad to wors \ Chiefly through our ~vn mistakes diplomatic and military, Constantinople is not in immediate danger. What might hare chose otherwise, and they must accept ton the 100,000 rifles which he asked for to enable him to win through to tho Dardanelles, it is needless now to inquire. That is of the past. But Ministers must bo resolute as well as generals.

It is inconceivable that the Allied Governments will consent union longer to lock up the large forces at their disposal in Egypt and at Salonika, and who are at present in a condition of demobilised inactivity. Negative strategy won't help us to win through. We must strike at the Turks, and through I hem at Germany. BAGDAD DOOMED TO FALL. Thanks to the dogged cnrigo of our Army now fighting in Mesopotamia, and to the equally bravo efforts of the Russian Army in Persia, Bagdad, the second city in"* the Turkish Kn pire, is now threat ned by two •onverging movements, that of General Baratoff operating from Kermanshah, and that oi General Lake, who is moving up the Tigris.

The Turks are between the ),orn« of a dilemma. If they leave tho Russian armies unopposed they will he taken in the rear, while if they deta* h troops 110111 the Kssin position this will weaken their resistance to General 1/ike.

Whatever they do, Bagdad is doomed ,- lo fall, It depends on Tie Turks whether our Allies or ourselves will reach tiie goal lust.

To its way of Bagdad is as important !. strategical point as Constantinople, for the city lies at the parting of the ways to India and Peria. Tl o-e who minimise its importance do ro under a misconception of its value. If the Germans establish themselves at Bagdad they will be able to threaten our position in the Persian Gulf. Wl en the trunk line to the head of the gulf is completed it will be the short cut to hi dm.

Owing to Turkish tnisgovcrnment Bagdad has lost much of :ts former prosperity, but this will return to it when Sir William Willcock's schemes for linking up the city by direct railway communication with Syria a:-u for the irrigation of Mesopotamia are completed.' Whatever the future has in store, let us keep our oy.s fixed on Bagdad. Whether we or* the Russians get there first matters no;. What does matter is that Bagdad should lio kept out of German hands. Its ultimate disposal i« another question.