THE DARDANELLES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 33, 7 August 1914, Page 7

THE DARDANELLES

CLOSED BY TURKEY. ; CONSTANTINOPLE, sth August, j Turkey has closed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to preserve her neutrality. [The Dardanelles is the narrow strait which leads out of the Mediterranean into tho Sea of Marmora, and the path to the Black Sea thus leads through it to the Bosphorus. At its narrowest point, where the shores are but a mile apart, is the city of Dandanelles, where there are fortifications of considerable strength, ranforcedby torpedo defences. The status of the Black Sea and the Dardanelles is determined by the Treaty of London of 1871. It granted Russia the right to maintain a fleet in the Black Sea, out 'rigidly tied it to that sea, refusing to permit ships to pass in or out, either m war or in peace. England, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Austria, and Italy all signed the treaty, and guaranteed to maintain it. The treaty allows the_ Btraits to be opened by Turkey in times of peace to the friendly and allied Powers, which were Englnad, France, and Italy. Russia vioJated the treaty in 1904, by passing merchant cruioers through the Dardanelles, and then relied on a treaty be"■tween itself and Turkey in 1901 giving volunteer cruisers tho right of passage. But that tl'eatv had no standing among the Powers, who were not uotiuwl of it ,and did not consent/to it.] '