BRITAIN’S OUTPOST IN THE NEAR EAST.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12062, 25 January 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

BRITAIN’S OUTPOST IN THE NEAR EAST.

The other day, amongst much re newed attention on the part of tht Russian Press to nearer Eastern affairs, one of the leading St. Petersburg journals felt constrained to address an appeal to its countrymen against two premature an entanglement of national resources in China and tho Far East. For, it contended, Russia should never forget that after all her most vital interest are centred in the Near East and indissolubly associated with her “ movement of invasion to the south.” From time to time similar frank notes of warning have been sounded. And those who like the writer have during some years’ residence in the Levant studied the inwardness of Levantine politics, can appreciate llm Inna lioaninn 4 AT QllAn roforflUUO

tne True ueanug ut aucu reiereuco upon the gradual development of antagonisms in that interesting part of the world, which, obscured at present by noisier issues, is nevertheless destined to play a decisive part in the drama of human destiny. The most striking result of Lord Salisbury's Anglo-German policy has been the sudden appearance of Germany in Asia Minor. Here she has given outward and visible sign of her ambition in the great line of railwad projected and already partly laid from Constantinople to Bagdad any thence to the Persian Gulf, which flings a barrier across the path of that southward advance of the great Northern Power upon the land of Palestine. And four this “ southward invasion” all those familiar with the latter country are well aware

*• itutsia has been making secret and | unceasing preparations. In effect, * therefore,the southward impulsion of the Muscovite has been confronted . with a fresh and formidable obstacle ; in the Eastern trend of Germany, t The German people, blinded as ■ they have hitherto by their jeali ousy of a great commercial rival, 1 have as yet been quite unable to appreciate the stern necessity, which the extensive ambition of their Kaiser imposed upon him, of a close and ; friendly understanding with Great Britain; while the wily statesmanship of Russia has been in no hurry to discard the advantage derivable as long as need be, from Germany’, national hostility to Great Britain and the readiness of the German Government to placate its mighty rival at the expense of so complacent a nation as the British. Thus, although the Kaiser, by his Chinese policy, which was largely designed to place him in a more advantageous position on the eastern flank of Russia, has once more flung down the glove to the plans of Muscovite absorption, no premature attempt will be made to accentuate Slav and Teutonic rivalry, which could only eventuate in a most undesirable rapprochement between the British and

German peoples. It is Russia’s aim to deal separately with them if possible. And there are questions, such as that one hanging upon the uncertain life of the Afghan ruler, to which it would be advisable to accord priority over any other likely to jeopardise the chauce of settling with Great Britain in her isolation. Accordingly matters affecting wbat is called the Nearer Eastern Question and the ultimate possession of Palestine are permitted to rest under the care of an ever vigilant diplomacy like that which wrung from the Sultan the Convention of April, 1900, amounting to little short of an annexation of the northern provinces of Asia Minor. By the same delay Great Britain’s policy in this quarter has gained valuable breathing time before the day

arrives which Lord Beaconsfleld so clearly foresaw when the hegemony of the world shall be decided on the mountains and plains of Syria. It is a highly interesting but little known story of how that prescient statesman provided England against that day ot final arbitrament. What I am sbout to tell, however, came from one who was himself a ch ; ef actor upon the occasion of Lord Beacousfield’s decision to acquire a point d'uppui in the Levant. He was a distinguished British General, who had been much employed in Eastern affairs, and had made a stuoy on the spot of the strategical features of Northern Palestine and Syria.

‘ Onheing ushered into the Cabinet Council to which I had been summoned,’ said the General, ‘ I found Mr Disraeli, as he then was, bending over a table upon which was spread a map of Palestine and Asia Minor. He explained that I had been asked to attend to give an opinion upon certain strategical aspects of the situation in the Levant. Mr Disraeli had his finger down on the range of the Lebanon, and asked whether in my opinion a sufficient force holding that range would be powerfully placed to resist an advance on Palestine from the North. I replied unquestionably so. He then put it to me that possibly the occupation of so commanding a position by a single Power would be likely to eventuate in a coalition against it. I told him that, in my opinion, such would undoubtedly bs the case, ‘Then,’said Disraeli, moving his tinier westward, ‘ if we can’t have a position on the land, we will have one in the sea. We will have Cyprus.’ This beautiful Eden in the Eastern Mediterranean, since its entry into the British Empire has been the most neglected of our oversea possessions.

UCijlVlAvU vt i/ui ut vioCa pi'oocooiuuo. Ignorant criticism has constantly described it as a white elephant, a death-trap, a desert without a tree, while the truth as to its meaning and purpose as a dependency of Britain , has, out of regard for the comity of , nations, been denied any explanation, i One great deficiency may at present be laid to its charge. The lack of a harbour has hitherto made it imposi tible as a naval station. But in this [ wonderful island not only do numbert less treasures of arclncologieal interest t lie hidden beneath her soil, but there even lies buried a harbour ready to c hand, which with proper manipulation } a might be able to accommodate the j hj Levant Squrdron. The Salt Lake of j |E Afcrnripi lips in the smith.west nt 1

AKrotin lies m tne souta-west or the island, which terminates in a range of high land and rugged cliffs plunging sheer into the blue-green surges of the Mediterranean. Between these uplands and the point at which, on the eastern side, the terrain begins to rise and swell into the lower slopes of the Trovdoa mountains the lake lies well below the level of the sea, the ancient entrance from the bay being easily traceable on the other side, where I found one or heroic figures half buried among the sand dunes. Slight deepening would be necessary, but this might go towards raising the embankment that would be required on the eastern side. Then when the sea had been allowed to pour in from the north and south bays Cyprus would possess its harbour, for the absence of which it has so long been reviled. The cost would not he insignificant, but it is very certain that unless Great Britain is

going to cast from her hand the weapon which Providence has provided, she must no longer set her face, as in the past, against 1 purely strategical expenditure.’ Cyprus awaits the day foreseen by the great Jewish Statesman, when she must one more regain the strategical importance she anciently enjoyed in the politics of the East. And meantime she stands a silent sentinel for Great Britain in the empty waters of } the Levant. T. H, M, H.