War against Turkey

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 227, 4 March 1915, Page 5

War against Turkey

1 H.M.S. QUEEN ELIZABETH. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, March 2. The Times says that the cablegrams about the Dardanelles are the first public acknowledgement that the Queen Elizabeth is afloat, and in the Mediteranean. This fact indicates the overwhelming strength of the Navy in the North Sea. The day the Anglo-Jrcnch battleships appear before Constantinople will mark the doom of the bribed conspirators who have dragged Turkey into a foolish and suicidal war. ADVICE TO THE SULTAN. Paris, March 2. Prince Ralah-ed-Din. the Sultan's nephew, exhorted him to welcome the Fntwh and FrenHi n=< liberators and to conclude peace at the earliest moment, in order to save Turkey from a catastrophe. THE TASK vrprrn <- O x PEONTS THr vr FftT.

ti, p yarriri Pa--< ■•• ntio'icd in recent cnb'es. W at the fi.-'V- end .-f the Nnr- —*'" "---•<• r'—fn *-. thnt portion <!*■

• •-, »„-,i iv. ~„...., ]•; mSI.-s from i'ie Western "TMjMi r f tl'° strait wher" the cl.pnncl dcfWs f" tlie left or Euro-r'-in side, and i"~"i"5 to bnrelv two miles across. At Kili! Bahr. which comrv>nds the entrane- to the Narrows, there is a point, and here there is some In- nrwiml Mweon t'i.. water and the bill beMi'd. some battcrVs almost flush wit'' the water. On tl"> c - sro about fortv Knr.ii) tnm*. some of thc"i mounted "n earthworks, others op b"bctte. The latter could not be worked when a fleet aoproached in figlitin" its wav no the channel, es. the fire from the small arms and machine-!'U!is of the shin (states a writer) would sweei them. The <nms in th<- earthworks are better protected. though even these would probably be silenced by those of the fleet; * but above, on the ere=t of the hill, some hundreds of f-n* el» OV e t!.e water are some very WWics. These constitute th« fi— e'«st de-.ror t" en vlvancinc fle-f. «■* f-n m their elevation the r.roiectiles f-—n fi.„ s h : ns' funs would pnss e,- or them, while thev »-oii!d be able to pi-"- unon the enonv's d'"ks. the mos* " : 'i' ->irt in the modern hn**'e='i>n.

. Tmn'-fliuM'- he'"-.? this nn j nt , tnc shore falls ,iw- -Imoit ~(; nn „i„ Vand this ?r •*'<- : »»" W , *l,e rliffjenity of ?i ascending snuadron. for th" force of the stream runs across the channel end tends to take the bo\v= of vessels across towards Chanak. Tliis is tincourse that merchant steamers going m> the Dardanelles usually follow, though from the entrancp they have to pass along within fifty yards of the European shore, under the very muzzles of the guns of Kilid Bahr. Thence thev cross the stream in a direct line for Chanak, and then sweep ■"bruptly round again and make for the European shore' at a point called Dapriimen Barum, a mile and a half abov? Kilid Bahr. where there is another, but less formidable fort. A fleet following this line wouM be met as it advanced by the fire of Kilid Bahr and Chanak. It would, too, have to pass the Runs of the former within pistol-shot as :'t crossed Chanak, whilst it would he raked fore and aft by the guns of both forts, and would also receive the fire of Kilid Bahr on its broadsides. Chanak is not so strontr naturally as Kilid Bahr. but the fortifications are much stronger, the Krunp guns being for tlift most part in casemates.