THE LIGHT ON THE DARDANELLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1917, Page 8

THE LIGHT ON THE DARDANELLES.

SENSATIONAL STORIES BY A GERMAN JOURNALIST. HOW VERY NEARLY WE DID IT. (By J. C. Segure, in the Daily Mail). The inner history of Turkey during the present war has been disclosed in a remarkable book just written by 'Herr H. Stuermer, a German journalist who acted as the special correspondent of the Kolnischo Zeitung in Constantinople during the years 1915 and WW, and the spring of the present year. Shamed and disgusted by the Turkish massacres of the Armenians as far back as the summer of last year, he tried for many aucj.. ceeding months—dowti, indeed, to the beginning of the present year—to shut his eyes to German responsibility for these crimes, but his efforts—the outcome of loyalty to the Fatherland—failed. German guilt, not only for these massacres, but, also for the. wholesale corruption of Turkey, could no longer be denied, and in April last, horrified by the numerous crimes which they had witnessed, Herr Stuermer and his wife fled from Contantino.ple into Switzerland. They now live in exile in Geneva, that eentre of the world's refugees, and his book, "Two Years of War in Constantinople," written in German, has just been published by a firm of Swiss publishers. His description of the struggle for the Dardanelles, based upon the observations of an eye-witness who was in the confidence of the German Ambassador and the German and Turkish commanders, snows how near success the great Gallipoli thrust reached. He say that the fate of Constantinople hung upon a hair, and proceeds: "The risking of several more warships on Marsh 18 would have settled the fate of Constantinople. The courageous fellows who were serving the coast forts were amazed when they saw that the attack had ceased. Dozens of German gunners who worked the Tchanokkoleh batteries on that memorable day told me later that they had reached the limit of endurance, and regarded the break-through as inevitable. In Constantinople itself people waited from hour to hour for the break-through, and, as 1 knew from the highest sources, the archives and the funds had already been removed to Konia.

CONSTANTINOPLE PUZZLED. 'lt is curious that on a later occasion also—the first days of September—the fate of Constantinople hung upon a hair. On this second occasion the English, after considerable reinforcements of troops had reached them, extended their' attack from Ariburnu northwards to." Anafarta, and after a most heroic'a'B-' sault the Anzacs had in fact occupied the summit of Kodjadjemen Dagh, which absolutely commanded the whole Gallipoli peninsula and the comparatively unprotected back Dardanelles forts. Even today in Constantinople people do not know why the British troops could not 'follow up this achievement to final sue-

cess. The fact is that on this occasion also archives and gold were speedily transported into Asia, and a German'officer in the capital assured me that he had hired a window for his family in the Grand Rue de Pcra in order that they might witness the entry of the .Allied troops. Whilst the Turks defended the city of -tj'.c Caliphs at the door of the Dardanelles, the remaining half of the capital, the cosmopolitan Galata-Pera. trembled at the weal and woe of the struggling Allies, and lived hours of tremendous anxiety right through till the final solution was reached. "The possible attitude of Bulgaria played a great part in these nerve-rack-ing calculations, not only on the Turkish [side, hut among the hundreds of thousands of disloyal Ottoman subjects who through the Turkish capital. The Turkish stand on Gallipoli. threatened to collapse through lack of ammunition, fears were entertained that Bulgaria would join the Entente Powers. At the time an interesting declaration from a high Sofia source Teached me regarding the German efforts to win over Bulgaria. Everyone wondered at the seemingly little skill the German Minister at Sofia, Dr. Michahelles, displayed. King Ferdinand certainly made great diflMilties, and,,at an advanced stage of the negotiations said to the Prime Minister, Kadoslavoff, referring to the Offered French loan: Leave me in pence with the German Jews, but you take the good Frencli money.' The German Minister was removed from Sofia to a northern post, and even . well-informed Bulgarians thought his removal signified a punishment for his lack of tact. "As a matter of fact, he had received secret instructions from Berlin to the effect that lie slioud not do his best to win the Bulgarians over. The Imperial German Chancellor, in fact, even then—during the great 1915 summer offensive against Russia—believed in the possibility of a separate peace with Russia, and he knew that Russia would refuge to lay down arms without punishing Bulgaria if that Power proved a traitor to the Slav cause by attacking Serbia. This consideration ceased to prevail later, and Bulgaria was induced to enter the war."

CORRUPTION AND CRUELTY. <Uho account of German method? of corruption at Constantinople which Herr Stuermer gives makes revolting reading. He say that huge chests filled with gold to be distributed for propaganda purposes are constantly arriving at Constantinople from Berlin. The German Embassy is a source of money to hundreds of spies, corrupters, adventurers, and emissaries of all kinds and nationalities. The News Bureau attached to the German Enfuassy, lie says, issues thousands of pamphlets weekly, which are circulated throughout the Turkish Empire, and leading articles, news items, and photographs are offered to Turkish newspapers, accompanied by substantial cheques. Germany, he declares, buys the services of bankrupts, extortioners, slave dealers, and even of men who organise the sale of young Armenian and Serbian girls in the market place. Through the agency of these creatures the gospel of ."'the Holy War" ia propagated. Herr Stuermer deals at length with the economic sufferings of the Turkish populace, but says clearly that hunger "will never compel Turkey to make a separate peace! " At times of acute bread scarcity, he says, dozens of people drop down dead in Constantinople from hunger, and he often witnessed food riots in which Turkish women took a. prominent, part. Food prices even last spring were so astonishingly high that'he often asked hiniSelr'what the poor could find to eat. The desire for peace among all classes when he left was pathetic in its intensity, and discontent at German rule steadily grows. His description of the Armenian massacres confirms all the details given in Lord Bryce's report on the subject. He admits that German ruvouibilitr for