THE EMPIRE OF THE WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 71, 23 March 1918, Page 13

THE EMPIRE OF THE WORLD.

| "Nor are we fighting ... . to deprive I Turkey of its capital," said the Prime • Minister in a recent speech in Xiondon. .So the gate of destiny through which, i prophecy has it, the Turk is one day to ■ retreat' for ever from Constantinople, •need.not yet. be-opened, remarks, the. j "Daily Chronicle." .It would have been impossible to speak thus definitely had Czardom survived And remained.in the war, for Russia did mean this time to. have Constantinople. It was promised !to her. But so it was, privily and conditionally, more than a century ago by Napoleon, when the treaty of Tilsit was in the making. The projected gift did not appear In the published version of the Treaty, but it did appear in private conversation between the two Emperors. After one such conversation, in which the bargain* must already have been struck, Napoleon remained alone, poring over, a map. . His secretary., finally heard him exclaim, "Constantinople! . Never! It' is the empire of the world!"-He would not give that ' awayi though immediately afterwards he'declared himself ready to recognise the King of Spain as Emperor of the entire American continent! The Czar went away sad and vengeful.