The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1920. GALLIPOLI AVENGED.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 March 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1920. GALLIPOLI AVENGED.

The Dardanelles campaign, it will be remembered, was undertaken to win through a free passage for the ships of the Allies into the Sea of Marmora, to attack Constantinople, to win through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea, securing each step in the advance against reconquest by the Turks, so that ships might pass from the Aegean to the Russian ports in the Black Sea. The main problem was to force a passage through the Dardanelles, known anciently as the Hellespont, When Turkey entered the war she expected the Allies' fleets would attempt to force the channel of the Hellespont, which is recognised as the most important channel of Avater in the world. It is the one entrance and exit to the Black Sea, the mouths of the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper and Don, and the great ports of Constantinople, Odessa and Sebastopol. Whoever controls this channel controls those ports, with their wealth and their power to affect great conflicts, and it was to win the Dardanelles that the Gallipoli campaign was undertaken. The effort failed. Turkey, helped by German allies, prepared for the attack with skill, knowledge and determination. It was to be by other means that the end in view was to be attained, and in due time Turkey and her allies became helpless through defeat, and the way was open to avenge the Dardanelles campaign. To-day Gallipoli is sacred British soil, and five British warships are' keeping guard in the Bosphorus. Never again will Turkey or any hostile

Power be trusted with the keys of this important channel which will remain open evermore, unless the necessity arises for keeping out an enemy to the Allies. Assuming that the Turkish Government is to be allowed to remain at Constantinople, the Turks will be completely shorn of the power to commit mischief, and they will also be effectively prevented from co-operating with Germany in any hostile enterprise against the Allies, so that no harm is likely to result, though it would be far better to sweep them out of Europe. The 'peace terms with Turkey are not yet finally settled, "but the main lines on which they are . based leave no room for doubt that henceforth Britain, as the supreme naval power, acting with and for the Allies, will hold the keys which have been taken from Turkey. "What the domination of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea means is tersely described in a recent article in the Post, whieh states:

"An Allied naval domination not only of .the Mediterranean, but of the Black Sea, means that the ordinary roads to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India can be closed aga'inst Central Europe; moreover, by an occupation of the Caucasus and a domination of the Caspian Sea—which in the circumstances would be a much easier military undertaking than Gaiiipoli—all roads into Asia could be closed save the Siberian highways. So the opening of the Black Sea to the supreme Naval Power of the West cancels the Prussian plan of 1914; cancels the isolation of Russia, unless it be the policy of the supreme Naval Power to enforce isolation; uncovers the coasts of the four proprietors of the Black Sea littoral; commands an enormous and vital sea-borne trade in foodstuffs, oil, etc.; renders vulnerable most of the vital connections between Europe and As'ia; and provides, in combination with the industrialised Caucasus and the navigable Caspian, an advanced line of defence for India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt."

It was not without good reason that the Hellespont has been deemed the most important channel of water in the world. One other step, however, should be taken by the Allies in order to completely circumvent Germany, and that is to similarly open the Baltic—its Danish outlets and its eanal gates—thereby obtaining similar advantages in North Burope to those secured in the Near and Middle East by the control of the Black Sea. It is necessary to bear in mind the developments

that must inevitably take place in the future. It is only by looking ahead and making provision for possible eventualities that the Allies can feel reasonably secure, and can protect the new nationalities, as well as safeguarding themselves from intrigues hatched by Germany, or dangers arising .from a combination of nations. Russia, Roland, Rumania, and the Slavs ate all possible factors of trouble |iu the future, though much will depend on whether the League of Nations will become the real arbiter of international disputes for which it was designed. Apparently the Allies seem fully aware of the. need for taking definite steps to ensure as complete a security as human foresight can procure, and the basis of that security is to be found in the control of the Dardanelles and the Baltic. To eliminate the means whereby trouble can be caused is the safest way to prevent trouble arising.