THE DARDANELLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16537, 10 November 1915, Page 5

THE DARDANELLES

SUVLA BAY LANDING.

SHOULD HAVE LED TO VICTORY.

(Times and Sydney Sun Services.)

LONDON, November 8.

The Times American correspondent says that Mr Granville Fortescue's book on the Dardanelles, published on Saturday, declares t/hat neutral officers with the Turkish army assured him that three divisions which disembarked on that fateful day after the nayal bombardment might have marched triumphantly from the heel to the neck of Gallipoli Peninsula. A German officer confirmed this statement, and argued l that the loss of this opportunity stamped those who planned the coup as men of mediocre military calibre. Mr Fortescue (representative of the As'sociated Press of America with tihe Turks) disposes of the tales that the Turks are on the eve of a revolution or are quarrelling with the Germans. Neither is there any real shortage of food in Constantinople. Stocks of coal are reserved' for Government use, but there is still a supply, a light railway having been constructed to the coalfield since our submarines blocked the sea route.

Mr Fortescue is emphatically of opinion that no real enmity exists between Briton and Turk. They respect ajid like one another. He characterises Germany's cleverness in making Turkey fight for her special benefit as diabolical.

AUSTRALIAN WAR CENSUS,

QUARTER OF A MILLION SHIRKERS

MELBOURNE, November 9.

The latest war census returns . show 317,869 fit unmarried men, of which number 226,448 are without dependents. The total number of fit men of military age is 775,419.

CONVALESCENT NEW ZEALANDER.S. SYDNEY, November 9,

Casualty list No. 106 includes Privates C. L. Mollard (ill, disembarked at Malta), H. W. Morris and G. Fraser (previously reported wounded, embarked for England), and C. Monk (convalescent).