MYSTERIOUS GERMAN RAIDER

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 50, 4 February 1916, Page 5

MYSTERIOUS GERMAN RAIDER

NEWS FROM MESOPOTAMIA

Kut-el-Amara Garrison Aided by Floods

Beseiging Turkish Forces Retire

Details of Midland Air Raids

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The suicide of the heir-apparent to the Turkish throne appears to be a case of temporary insanity due to weakness resulting from his illness. It is not likely that any political significance is attached to it, although of such a country there is little chance at this distance of fathoming the inner workings.

A few particulars concerning the deceased and the customs relating to the succession are appended: The deceased was born in 1857. The present Sultan, Mahomed V. was born in • 1844, and was the third son of Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid. Ho was proclaimed Sultan on April 27, 19 f 19, in succession to his elder brother, Abd-ul-Hamid 11., who was deposed by the unanimous vote of the National Assembly. The succession to the throne, according to the Turkish custom, vests in the-senior male descendant of the House of Othman, sprung from the Imperial Harem. The Sultan does not marry, but from the inmates of the. Harem selects a certain number who are known as Ladies of the Palace, the others occupying positions subordinate to them. All children born in the Harem are held to be of legitimate and equal birth. The eldest son of the Sultan only succeeds when there are no uncles or cousins of greater age than himself. The Sultan's surviving brothers are the exSultan Abd-ul-Hamid; Suleiman Effendi, born in 1860, and Wahid-Lkldiif Effendi, born in 1861.

The latest from Mesopotamia is that General Townshend's force has made an advance and has occupied the Turkish trenches along the entire northwestern front. It is stated that this was enabled to be done owing to the effects of a flood on the Tigris driving the enemy out of their positions, but does it not seem logical to assume that if they were not tenable by the Turks neither would they be by our forces. Certainly, on the face of it,

the report will not hold water, although there appears to he plenty of it there in the trenches! It is, however, satisfactory to have this news, as it is some time since we heard from Gen. Townshend, notwithstanding that to-day's cables also informs us that he is in daily wireless communication with the relief forces, which, by the way, has not got so close as six miles to the beleaguered garrison. This report was due, it is now reported officially, to the misreading by the authorities of the position of General Aylmer's force.

It is a pity that there has been no information issued as to the number of men engaged in this expedition. Still, the names of four divisional commanders have been mentioned, and it seems likely that the whole expedition may number some 80,000 men, and that General Townshend's advance force may have originally consisted of one division or 20,000. The question has been asked, why, if this is the case, no more than one-quarter of the expeditionary force should have been sent forward towards Bagdad, while General Nixon (whom General Sir Percy Lake has just superseded) stayed behind at Basra, the expedition's main base. It was hoped, of course, that General Townshend might manage to enter Bagdad before the Turkish reinforcements arrived. He was not quite in time, and bad to fall back. It has been suggested that the reason so small a force was sent ahead was simply that the country • between Kut-el-Amara and the Gulf, between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and farther to the south-west, was still so unsettled that it was not safe to send the main body; its communications might have been cut. Of course, even if General Townshend had reached Bagdad before the Turkish reinforcements came up he would have been besieged there, just as he is now besieged at Kut-el-Amara.