CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 45, 28 January 1916, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

| From Sofia to Constantinople on the Germany-Balkan express is an exper ience that the correspondent of the Daily Mail has been fortunate to have had, and that he will make the most of it in his messages, his paper's reputation for sensation mongering will be sufficient to prove. Apart from the newspaper part of the visit to Constantinople the correspondent lias some very interesting remarks r.o Imake. He shows that Germany is doing her best to impress the Balkan people even by the equipment of the train,' the carriages of which are em* jblazoned with the name in letters .three feet in length. The position in Constantinople showed an alarming [dearth of necessities, and prices were [exorbitant. "Gallipoli Day" was a ibig event in the city, no doubt, but the correspondent affirms that the victory was dearly bought, the crowds of 'wounded striking him at every turn. .The social life of Constantinople was extinct practically, the . places of amusement and cafes being closed, while it was necessary to carry small electric torches with which to find 'one's way after darkness had fallen.

| But the most important side of the I visit was the expressions of opinion by leading Turks on the position of Germany to theriiselves and the ultimate designs of both on the British Empire. It is stated that not fifty thousand troops are stationed in Constantinople, but only ten thousand, and it is added significantly that they are all of the first-rate sort. It is amusing to read of the simple faith of these Turkish leaders in the belief of the omnipotence of Germany and the marvellous effect her patronage is going to have upon Turkey in the future. The reference to Roumania in this connection slioavs that Germany has not yet given up hope of pulling her into the Balkan net, but Britain got in early on the latest harvest supplies, and the indications of Roumania's subsequent intervention are brighter than ever notwithstanding the enemy statements.

Enver Bey appears in a new light in the international highway: he is a "dandy," according to the Daily Mail man, and he talks in very flash style, too! The idea that England proposed a separate peace is too funny for words, but the reason of the refusal to agree to same is funnier still. Their dignity was hurt at learning thatTt'ic Entente designed to give Constantinople to Russia and so they turned it down! Then some advice is vouchsafed to the English in the management of the Dardn.Tie.lW campaign; and it is interesting to learn(fcow very near victory w P were at one time. We ,had only to rush in more ships aiirl Constantinople wa 8 oors! What I would have happened after is also given in the "dandy's" own words. But we also learn that the vulnerability of the British Empire is the Suez JCanal and the intention is to destroy it from end .to end and fill it up with sand! That's a big job in itself. The admission that Paris is beyond their goal is belated, and must be very galling, while the attempt to enthuse over it by stating that the Entente armies were walled in and the Germans could operate freely in the East is too apparently assumed to be taken any more seriously than any other of ,the hundred and one statements issuing from the mouths of these Ananiases with the only object of deceiving , the neutrals.