GALLIPOLI

Taranaki Daily News, 25 February 1919, Page 5

GALLIPOLI

LAST ACTS OF THE DRAMA. WABSHIPS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. THE LANDING® UNOPPOSED. At 3.15 this afternoon (wrote Mr G. Ward Price on 'loth November) the first British warship to pass through the Dardanelles and come up to Constantinople arrived in the Golden Horn. It is well that the tale of ceaseless effort and sacrifice that have been devoted to open this way to the heart of the Turkish Empire is ended, and the British flag flies onee more at the j miction of Europe and Asia. The memorable privilege of carrying the White Ensign back over these historic waters fell to one of the youngest vessels in the Royal Navy. The destroyer which brought the mission Staff officers which I accompanied was launched hut four months ago. A French destroyer followed ua up. For a first arrival in a conquered capital at dawn this morning it was not exciting, but it was a journey of intens« interest. As we came over from Imbros towards the entrance to the Dardanelles the sullen black clouds that overhung the Straits were suddenly pierced by a halo of golden sun that flooded the water with a pale mystic light and transfigured the vessels gathered there till they looked like the dream craft of a Turner picture Bare and deserted lay Cape Helles. A few black dug-outs, like empty eye-sockets, were all that remained ashore to recall the great hive of activity that was spread out there throe years ago. ■ But some solemn monuments still endure. There is the River Clyde, the ship of Troy from which our first landing was made, still standing on an even keel, and looking as if she might have been beached but yesterday. Close alongside are the grey hulk of an old French warship which was sunk to make a breakwater, and the sloping half of a 'British tramp steamer that was turned to the same purpose. And beyond and above alts that wicked old height of Aclii Baba. An uglv height, to conquer which many thousands of British lives were spent in vain. The squat central lump and flic two long black arms that reach out, one to each side of the peninsula, give him the look of a great octopus, with tentacles outspread to gather in his prey. PERILS OK THU NARROWS. The entrance to tlie Straits is alive with what looks like peaceful, but Is really warlike, activity. A score of little craft trawlers, yachts, and monitors, are there, steaming actively about sweeping up the mines. Another destroyer comes up ahead of us to show the way' through t.he fields yet uncleared, and, zigzagging curiously, we reach Chanak- It was upon those same waters which we were crossing that I saw the Allied fleet three and a half years ago make its' first attempt to force the Straits. Steaming up them in all tranquility now one realises how close to the impossible was the task they attempted. There is nothing in those greyish cliffs that line the Straits to reveal the emplacement of the forts and batteries that were concentrating their fire upon them while the swift current was all the time sweeping towards them unseen destruction by means of floating mine.?. The fact, indeed, that it Ims taken twice as long as was expected to make the passages of the Dardanelles safe for the Allied fleet even now. when we can work at it undisturbed, gives the measure of the impregnability that Nature had bestowed upon the Dardanelles. At Chanak .lay a grey transport steamer with British troops on board. She had arrived a little before us, and the khaki figures that lined her rail, staring curiously at the low-lying little town, with its old stone castle and its throng of equally interested inhabitants, were on their way to garrison the forts of the Narrows farther up. With a Turkish pilot on board to guide us through the rest of the minefields, the destroyer made her way on into the Sea of Marmora, and increased her speed to thirty knots. So that at three o'clock this afternoon, under a cloudy sky, but one filled with diffused lights of the East, we rounded the point of the old Seraglio, and entered the Golden Horn. TOO MANY GERMANS. There was no demonstration of any kind. It seemed as if no one had even noticed the arrival of this herald of the British Fleet. But as we drew near to the quay one saw that the houses and windows were thronged with people. The crowd had an unusual tone of red about it, derived from all the crimson fezzes bobbing to and fro as their wearers strained for a glimpse. And a few waved handkerchiefs. A German officer stood on {uay close to where the destroyer gradually came alongside. He was more interested than anyone, but affected indifference, and yawned with care from time to time. A little group of German soldiers and sailors gradually formed behind him as if for mutual moral support. For years they had been the self-ordained military gods of this place, but now their altars were overthrown, and they see Turkish naval officers of high rank hurrying past them to pay respects to the representative of a nation they once thought they could despise. We arc, indeed, much surrounded by an unwelcome neighborhood of Germans. Germans look down on us from their office windows opposite the quay. Hero in my bedroom at Pera Palace Hotel there are Germans talking in the rooms on either side of me as I write. 1 gather from fragments overheard that they arc packing up. One 39 pleased to think that their compatriots throughout Turkey are doing the same. As we drove up from the quay, too, there seemed a considerable number of Germans, and also Austrians, in the streets The Austrians saluted the party of British oflieers. The Germans swaggered by with a stare, the non-commissioned officers and men smoking cigars, which givo them to English eyes a peculiar appearance of pretentiousness.