CONSTANTINOPLE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 209, 14 May 1915, Page 3

CONSTANTINOPLE.

RUSSIA’S AMBITION. WHY NOT A FREE CITY! (BY "SERGIUS.” 'At the present time, when the fleets of the Allies are making a strenuous effort to open the Dardanelles and approach the capital of the Turkish Empire, the people often ask why Russia wants Constantinople, and how she can help to take it. The attempts of Russia to obtain Constantinople date almost as far back as Russian history itself. The firstknown raid on the then capital of Greece was made by two Russian Dukes of Kieff, Askold and Deer, in 866. This raid was unsuccessful, but later on Oleg the Wise, according to the legend, was successful in raiding Constantinople, and nailed his shield to the wall in token of victory. (Another Russian Duke, Igar, made made two attempts to conquer the capital in 941. and 944, the second attempt only meeting with success. A CITY OF WORSHIP. The first attempts were dictated merely by economic considerations and the desire to have such conditions of trading with Greeks as we in our time call the "rights of the most favoured nation.” Later on, with the baptism of Russians under St. Vladimir, Constantinople became a place of worship, and the centre of a civilisation which began to spread over Russia. Thus the city is worshipped by Russians, and even has a Russian name, "Czargrad, ” which means "Czar’s Town,” and is looked upon by them as the cradle of their civilisation.

As time went on, however, and the capital became Turkish, the Russian pilgrimages to it gradualy ceased, though even to this day a large number of Russians, even of the educated classes, look upon the Turkish capital with samewhat the same affection as the students of a university bear to their alma mater.”

The cathedral of St. Sofia, which the Turks call Aya-Sofia, stands in the same relation to the average Russian as does St. Peter’s at Rome to the Roman Catholic world. The fact that above this old Greek cathedral is erected the crescent (the token of Mohammedanism) inspires the Russian peasant to fight against the Turks in the same way that the necessity of freeing the Holy Tomb inspired the sim-ple-minded followers of Peter the Hermit in the time of the Crusades. And here we have the first reason for Russia’s desire to possess Constantinople: a spiritual one. This feeling, perhaps, goes deeper than it might with some other nations, becaaise the majority of the Russian people ire deeply religious, or perhaps one might put it better, devoted to the Church. This is why every war wjth Turkey has always been popular in Russia. She bases her claim to Constantinople on the sacrifices she made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when she was at war with Turkey for the purpose of freeing its capital .from Turkish domination.

Last, but not least, a free outlet from

the Black Sea for her trade is Russia's crying need. Even this reason, though very powerful, is, after all, not the primary one. The peasant from Central Russia knows full well that he personally ‘ will scarcely benefit by the possession of the Turkish capital, but he is always ready to risk his life in a war against the Turks, and will no doubt keep as a national holiday the day when Constantinople falls into the hands of the Russians. THE ALLIES ATTACKS. Acording to official information Russia will shortly have in the Black Sea a powerful fleet, including several Dreadnoughts, as well as numerous armoured cruisers and protected cruisers, not to mention a great number of destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines. It is no empty boast to say that a fleet of this size may achieve much. I may remind the English reader that the Baltic Fleet, under Admiral Essen, although much inferior to the German Fleet, succeeded in keeping it at bay for six months, and frustrated the scheme of the German General Staff for landing forces in Finland in order to march on Petrograd. fThe garrisons of Kieff and Odessa, even on a peace footing, are of considerable strength, and it would not be a difficult matter to use the large transport ships of the "Volunteer Fleet" and the Russian Navigation and Trade Company for the purpose of moving these garrisons. Each of them is capable of transporting about two thousand men, fully equipped. If once the Bosphorus were forced by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a body of about 100,000 men could be landed within a few days. The result of the combined operations of the Russian Fleet on the shores of the Bosphorus and of the Allied Fleet in the Dardanelles will soon ■without doubt be crowned with success. "Never prophesy unless you kn >w, ’ ’ has been very wisely said. All prognostications are risky, and most risky of all when applied to military ope-ra-tions. But did not the Russians, under General Suraroff, wrest Ismail from the Turks, which had up to the time of its fall been considered as unassailable as the Straits of the Dardanelles? Did they not take Kars in 1878, an apparently impregnable fortress situated in the Caucasus and built on cliffs which rose sheer out of the sea for some three thousand feet? Did they not in the same year take Plevna? And in the present war, although concentrating their chief energv on the Austro-German front, did they not inflict a cruhing blow on the Turks near Sarakamish?

The fate of Constantinople was scaled when the Allied Fleet began the bombardment of the Straits.

THE COMMAND OF THE STRAITS

The crux of the whole matter now'is: Are the Allies going to lot Constantinople become Russian? I think they cannot possibly refuse this, subject to certain conditions which Russia will be bound to accept, one of which must be the neutralisation of the Dardanelles.

There is small probability that this would have the effect on the trade of Asia Minor which has been suggested by those who/knowing Russia to be a Protectionist country, think she will

y \ ?. V V-d > « ' introduce almost prohibitive duties upon goods going to Asia through Constantinople. > • (There is the less fear of this in that Constantinople seems unlikely to become really a part of Russia. It is more likely that Constantinople will be made a "free" city, ns suggested to the presen writer a few days since by a Russian diplomat, it would then be the centre of a new Balkan Federation, of which Russia would be the head.