The Daily News. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2, 1918. TURKEY'S SURRENDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 November 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2, 1918. TURKEY'S SURRENDER.

The surrender of Turkey, news of ■winch was received with such intense satisfaction yesterday, brings the end of the war appreciably nearer. Ever since the smashing defeat inilicted by General .Allenby, and the capitulation of Bulgaria. Turkey was doomed, it being only a matter of weeks when she had to sue for peace. The capture of Aleppo and the adjoining railway junction cut Avhat remained of her forces in Mesopotamia right off, while from the Balkans Constantinople was menaced by the advancing AngloGreeks'. Only the intrigue of the Germans, and the Gorman-officer-, ed warships, stayed Turkey from suing for peace two or three weeks ago. She was jockeyed into the war in the first place by the Germans, whoso two warships, the *eben and the Breslau, were lucky enough to evade the British and gain harborage in the Bosphorus. But for that one stroke of what appeared at the time to the Tureo-Germans to be good fortune, the whole course of the war might have been altered. The Gallipoli enterprise would not have been necessary; the whole forces therein employed, together with the big armies in Palestine and Mesopotamia, could have been utilised ou the western front or in the Balkans, or both. Bulgaria then would not have eared to join the Teutons; Servia would have been saved; and assistance could have been given the Roumanians. Again, help could have been accorded Russia, who, doubtless, would never have collapsed, for munitions and war machinery could have been poured through the Dardanelles, while the grain and foodstuffs from the Black Sea steppes could have been secured for the Allies by the same means. Probably never in history did so much depend upon the escape of two warships. No doubt this was a cunning plan laid by the Germans, for they knew that amongst the Old Turks, at least, there was a friendly feeling for the FrancoBritish, who had come to the assistance of Turkey when she was in danger of being crushed and assimilated by the Russians, and, generally speaking, there was no keenness for a rupture with the nations that had befriended her in the past.' That was why the Germans forced the pace and started firing on the Russian Black Sea ports, thus committing au act of war. For years the Germans had been exploiting Turkey, keeping her in economic and financial subjection that they might better pursue their nefarious designs. Unfortunately both the French and the British, whose interests in the Turkish domains were always greater than those of the Germans, in order to keep the peace with Germany, facilitated their plans rather than retarded them; hence the construction of the railway through to Aleppo, thence to Palestine and Bagdad. The Germans' scheme, after war commenced, was *as plain as a pikestaff. It was to menace the British main artery of empire—Suez Canal—to threaten the British hold on India, and to bottle up Russia. It was a great conception, from the standpoint of an unscrupulous and predatory power; and for a time it had all the elements of success. However, the Germans overreached themselves here as elsewhere, and we can now see that, great as has been the loss of life and waste of substance in fighting Turkey, a very considerable benefit has, after all, been conferred on the world by German action in forcing Turkey in. Now it is possible to eliminate Turkey from the nations, to free from- the Turks' blighting influence the peoples forming her empire, to recover some oi the most fertile lands in the world for the growing of foodstuffs, and removing the most prolific cause of trouble and war in the world, for surely there can be no handing any of their lands back. Surely Constantinople will be taken from the Turks, who have so grossly maladministered and abused the power on such large and fertile areas as its position gives. So, after all, we should be thankful that Turkey made war ou us. The war must end soon. Austria is on her last legs, and suing for peace, but, as in the case of Bulgaria [and Turkey, it must be a case of unconditional surrender. Then will quickly follow Germany, who ds already apprehensive of the ■fate in store for her. Again, we cannot offer her terms, for she '-does not deserve the slightest con.sideration. With her it must be a case of command and obey, and the more humiliating the terms the-better for the future peaso <.f •the world she has so wantonly outraged and devastated.