The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1915. THE DARDANELLES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 69, 22 March 1915, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1915. THE DARDANELLES.

■ ■ For the cause that lack* ateiatanoe. For the wtong tliat needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee con da.

There is nothing to 'he gained by shutting our eyes to fhe fact that the Allies have sustained substantial losses in their attempt to force the passage of the. Dardanelles. On the other hand, H may be well to remind our readers that, the enterprise. was. one of unexampled difficulty and danger, and that ,s u . c M ama g e ""OS to.be anticipated. Indeed, n-ot only had -the, Admiralty expected come such set-back, buf it had hlready dispatched two powerful cruisers from the Xorth Sea to replace any vessels that might be sunk or put out of action. Nor is there the slightest sign, of any slackening in the naval operations in these dangerous waters or of any intention to relax the efforts that the Allies are making to break through into the Black Sea by main force, and to strike at the heart of the Turkish Empire by attacking Constantinople. lt may -therefor, be fairly concluded that the sinking of these warships, though undoubtedly it stands for a heavy material Ic_b, is to have no decisive effect upon the prosecution of the war in any qmrtea". The British fleet in the Xorth Sea iis so strong that it can afford -bo detach many powerful fighting units for service elsewhere without in any way weakening its grip upon the O.rma-n fleet or toosening the rigorous blockade w<hich is slowly strangling our en-etui.-. We may frankly admit that the IrTOjistible, the Oocan, and the Bouvet were valuable fighting midlines, though all were relatively old, a_ age goes in the navy. And though we are a-turaUy <rwjbioed to learn that very few British _a_or_ went down -with their _hip_, it ia very unfortunate that the audden explosion on the Bouvet rendered it impossible to reecu. many of our brave allies, whose gallant conduct had already won the admtrsuHon of our own oomm&ndera and their men. The loss in ships and material ia a small matte, compared with the loss of trained sailors. But even a* matters are, the reverse is .not severe enough to make any substantial difference to our naval plans, or to affect appreciably the cou-_c of events j lin the Xe.Tr East.

We may naturally expect that news of tbe loss of these warships will bo received with enthusiasm not only in Constantinople but in Vienna and Berlin. Indeed, the only serious effect of ■this '"regrettable incident*' will be to encourage, our enemies and give them fre3h heart for the struggle. This is distinctly unfortunate; because anything that may serve to divert the attention of the Germans and the Anstrians from tho dangerous, not to say desperate, nature of their position will tend to prolong the war. But we do not suppose that the relief that our enemies may experience will be anything but temporary. There is no reason to doubt that the British and French fleets will clear 'the Dardanelles, even at a heavy cost; and the advance of the Russian Black Sea Fleet toward the Bosphorus, combined with the steady movement of the Russian armies westward through Asia Minor, is more than enough to account for the panic that now reigns in Constantinople, where the Turlo sees on every hand signs of his coming doom.