TURKISH GUNS IN THE BLACK

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 106, 31 October 1914, Page 6

TURKISH GUNS IN THE BLACK

After months of incitement at the hands of Germany, Turkey has precipitated war in the Black Sea, Tt cannot, be said 'that this incendiary action of the Young Turk regime was unexpected, but even now it would probably not have been taken but for the presence of the German cruisers Goeben aud Breslau (fugitive from the Mediterranean), German engineers and gunners and seamen, and a German garrison at the passage of the Dardanelles. In essence, therefore, the act of the Young Turks is the act of Germany, but it eeoras highly likely to involve Turkey in a war with the Triple Entente and in the far-reaching consequences .thereof. This unprovoked bombardment of Russian ports in the Black Sea will arouse echoes throughout the whole of Turkey's Asiatic Empire and possibly throughout the Mohammedan world. In its latter bearing it represents Germany's supreme effort to raise the Mohammedan peoples under the Entente rule, and particularly those under Britain and Prance in India, North Africa, and the Sudan. In India and Egypt, so far as the cablegrams have informed us, the situation is tranquil and the people are loyal, and there is reason to hope that, in these great and strategic territories, the plot made in Germany and carried out by Turkish tools will quite miscarry. But as a blow at Southern Russia, and as a diversion of some of fche Tsar's many soldiers from their great work on their western frontier, the German-Turkish coup must be ueriously considered. Also, Britain must regard with concern the

prospect of an attack upon the Suez Canal (the gate between East and West) and upon Egypt by the Turkish army lately reported to be in- Southern Palestine.- Complications on the Turco-Per-6ian frontier, and in the oil district acquired by the British Admiralty in Southern Persia, are more remote bul are quite possible ; and the same remark applies to the Turco-German effort to disaffect the Ameer of Afghanistan. Probably the Ameer will be too wily to expose himself to a future crushing between the Russian hammer and the Anglo-Indian anvil. But, without compromising himself, he may be able to let loose the hill-tribes. In Europe the position caused by the actions of Turkey and Greece, is most complicated. In the Balkans situation that existed before the war these two States were the principal antagonists. Servia was with Greece; Bulgaria was suspected of being secretly with Turkey ; and Rumania still held the Balkan balance. Much now depends on Rumania and Bulgaria. If Rumania, yielding to German inducements, joined Turkey, it would be highly^embaiTassing for Russia. On the other hand, a pro-Russian or a. neutral Rumania would paralyse Turkish military action against Russia- in Europe. It must for the present be regarded as highly unlikely that Rumania will play into the hands of either the Turks or the German-Austrian league. Carol, the German Prince who ruled the Rumanians, ,is dead, and Bucharest diplomacy is not likely to commit itself to an aggressive combination whose chance of attaining success is as slight as its moral claims thereto. Greece's reported action in invading the adjoining State of Albania (declared independent after the Balkan wars) and in occupying Santa Quaranti, commanding 4he passage between the mainland and the Greek Island of Corfu, awaits explanation. Especially the relations between the Entente and Greece, and, between Greece and Italy, require more light. Italian designs upon Valona, an Albanian port, which is north of Santa Quaranti, and which commands the strait entrance to the Adriatic Sea, are well known ,- possibly both Italy and Greece are acting to forestall the Young Turks, who have endeavoured to attract Albania back to Turkish rule. If Italy were to enter the fray she could dominate the Balkan situation, and could easily give the Turks sufficient occupation to neutralise their incendiary efforts in other directions. As a country with comparatively few subject peoples in her empire, Germany naturally uses every means to disaffect the millions of aliens under the rule of her enemies. The Young Turks, and Boers of the Beyers and De Wet type, are pawns in her game, and her efforts to raise a general conflagration will be clever and persistent. But they will not, in the long run alter the fact that the real decision must be fought out on the land and in the waters of Europe. The further eastward Germany carries the torch, of rebellion, the more her work will come within tho sphere of tho armies of Australasia and of Japan.