NEW ALLIANCE SUGGESTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14819, 24 October 1911, Page 7

NEW ALLIANCE SUGGESTED.

.'. TURKEY'S QUEST. GERMANY OR BRITAIN ? BALANCE OF POWER. By Telegraph.—rrcss Association.—Copyright- : (Received October 23. 10.45 p.m.) London, October 23. Turkey's admission to one of the European alliances is the subject of much discussion in the European newspapers. The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, and Italy) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia) are mentioned in turns, but there, is not much basis for these speculations beyond the recent allusion of the Turkish Grand Vizier (Prime Minister), Kaimil Pasha, to Turkey's need of alliances. The'latest suggestion is an Angio-Russo-Turkish combination.

TURKISH FACTOR WEIGHED. Early in this year a French writer in the Quarterly Review wrote about the uprise of the new Turkish army from what he no doubt regarded as every practical point 01 view. He concluded that it would be a factor in strengthening the power of the Triple Alliance, and a corresponding menace to the Triple Entente.. Its possible effect on Russia in the Caucasus, Persia, and Egvpt: on England in the Persian Gulf, Persia, India, and Egypt; on France in Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and Central Africa, was considered, but that it might first of all be called upon to fight with Italy was a contingency that altogether escaped his range of imagination. But after all Tripoli is more a naval than a military problem. Turkey has only one army division in Tripoli, a force not nearly sufficient to repel the Italian army of invasion foreshadowed. She has no navy to make the problem of transport in the face of Italian equipment on the sea a soluble one. Italy has already blockaded Tripoli. To maintain the blockade she has, according to last year's Naval Annual, some 21 armoured ships and nearly as many cruisers. And for purposes of transport she has a considerable mercantile marine. On the same date Turkey had two armoured ships and seven cruisers. These numbers convey some idea of the disparity between the two navies, and it has to be "added that generally the Turkish ships are inferior to those of Italy. They are, however, manned by officers and men trained on British naval lines.

BRITAIN'S STRENGTH. THE MILITARY FACTOR. (Received October 23. 10 p.m.) London, October 23. Speaking at Chelmsford, Lord Haldane, Secretary for War, said that the country was unable to maintain an army on the scale in force on the •Continent, except by compulsory service. He could not see any possibility of either the Liberal or the Unionist party seriously proposing compulsion. There was no justification for pessimism with regard to the territorial force.