CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 January 1917, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

WHY RUSSIA WANTS CONSAXTIxopIe! Three reasons are given by thp Russian writer in answer to the question, "Why do the Russians want Constantinople?" Not tor, trading purposes, not for territorial expansion, not to command the road from the West to the Hast, hut principally to realise n national ambition that is centuries old. The first reason is that it is tin; key of the Black Sea. The danger of an invasion through the Black Sea has always been present to the l-lussian mind. "We have constantly to keep a strong defensive arm in these provinces, but if we get Constantinople all this waste of money and men will be stopped. \A e shall be safe as long, as Constantinople remains in 0111* hands. Secondly, we want Constantinople as a compensation for our territorial losess. liven in ease

of victory Russia, will be materially a loser. She has already ,to give over to Poland ten of her richest manufacturing provinces. Of her conquests, A any, Russia will have to hand over to Romnania the province of Bukovina. She has the hope of retaining only a part of flalicia inhabited by Russians for herself, i£ she gets it, the other part going afoo to (Poland. The conquest evctf of the whole of poor mountainous Armenia with her two millions of inhabitants can never cover this loss. The third, and the last and the ihief, reason why wc want Constantinople is that Constantinople is the cradle of our religion. We got our Faith from Constantinople,' when she was still Byzantium. A thousand years ago we called Constantinople 'Czargrad,' the Czar, th" Kins, the Cord among towns, and all the "Slavs and all the. Russians know it under this name. For centuries we have fought with the Turks. The liberation of Constantinople will crown the secular efforts of Russia, of the Russian people, and it will bring them to the cradle of their Faith."