WEDNE&DA F, DECEMBER 22,1915. THE DARDANELLES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16573, 22 December 1915, Page 4

WEDNE&DA F, DECEMBER 22,1915. THE DARDANELLES.

The war news this morning that is most pregnant with interest to the peoples of the dominions is that which relates to the transference of troops from the Gallipoli Peninsula. Apparently the whole of the Australian and New Zealand forces—those who, together with an Indian contingent, held the strip of ground at Anzac—have been withdrawn, and, along with them, the British forces that landed at Suyla Bay, with a view to their being utilised "in some other sphere of operations. From this it is not to be inferred that the attack upon the Dardanelles is being abandoned. Upon this point we are re-assured in the announcement that the contraction of the Allies' front will admit of the operations on the other parts of the line being more effectively carried out. An entire abandonment, of the undertaking upon the Gallipoli Peninsula would be a step which would be fraught with such grave dangers that it can scarcely be doubted that it would be a mistake of the first magnitude. It would involve a loss of prestige which in present circumstances might be almost calamitous. Upon the minds of the native populations of the Oriental countries and upon the minds of neutral nations it would unquestionably have a distinctly serious effect. Politically, it seems inconceivable that the enterprise upon which the Allies deliberately entered in their attempt to open the Dardanelles should be abandoned. Prom the military point of view the operations have an unquestionable value in the fact that they pin a considerable portion of the Turkish army down on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The people of Australia and New Zealand, who have submitted to very heavy sacrifices in the fighting at the Dardanelles, would have viewed with deep concern any proposal by the military authorities of the Empire to abandon in toto the operations that have been conducted there. The severity of their sufferings represents the measure of their desire to see the attack on the peninsula carried to a successful termination. They would be reluctant to admit that the capture of the heights that dominate the' forts on the Dardanelles, or the capture of the forts themselves, is impracticable. They have been told, and they believe, that not once only, but twice, a great victory lay within the grasp of the Allies if there had not been at a critical moment a lack of sufficient support, and they are disposed to cling to the convictiou that success is ultimately attainable. It is likely enough, however, that the prospects of success are greater from the Cape Helles sector than from the positions which have now been evacuated —and evacuated for good—at Anzac and Suvla Bay. It may be recalled that Mr Ashmead Bartlett, lecturing at the Queen's Hall in London, expressed the view that if the colonial forces had been landed at the extreme point of the peninsula along with the British division, the French, and the Naval Brigade, the capture of Achi Baba might have been accomplished, and ground occupied that would have served as a favourable base from which to continue the operations against the Turks. The attack on the Dardanelles has been and remains a formidable task, from whatever /point it *'is directed. Indeed, it is now generally admitted that the Australian and New Zealand forces have participated in the most difficult undertaking which the Allied forces have faced in any part of the wide theatre of war. Moreover, they themselves, hanging on for months to a narrow strip of gallantJywon coast line, were subjected to conditions which were infinitely more unfavourable than any that have been experienced on the western front. There the British troops have been withdrawn at regular intervals from the front to enjoy periods of rest and recuperation; there they have had short leave enabling them to return to their homes; there the difficulties of victualling have never been w serous %s tfi prevent the men

from securing a variety of diet and, in particular, from securing fresh iood. At Anzac, however, the men had to subsist on rations which, though ample, were monotonously restricted to tinned beef and biscuits; fresh vegetables and fruit, eggs, milk, and butter were luxuries that were practically unheard of; even fresh water was obtainable only in homoeopathic quantities : truly effective sanitation was impossible; no rest was procurable until quite recently portions of the troops were temporarily transferred to the island of Lemnos; and, over and above all this, the colonial soldiers were never out of the range of shell fire, so that they were gripped by a continuous, unrelaxing tension. While the colonial troops are warmly praised in the Home papers for the conspicuous gallantry they displayed at the landing and in the field, it stands also to their credit that despite the great trials which were associated with their enforced mode of life, they maintained high spirits and cheerfully submitted to their privations as being all "part of the game." It would be a severe blow to the hopes of the people of the dominions if, after the grave sacrifices they have made and the discomforts their sons have endured, there were any abandonment of the whole undertaking— and this apart altogether from Ihe moral effect which, such an aband >11ment would have upon millions of ,impressionable people in Eastern countries. Tlfe soil of the Gallipoli Peninsula is sanctified in thousands of homes under the Soutnern Cross by the most precious memories, and it would cause a sharp pang of regret throughout the dominions if the footing on it which was gained and held at a vast expenditure of human life were now to be abandoned. It is, therefore, satisfactory to know that the attack on the Dardanelles is still to be prosecuted from Cape Helles. Whether the troops which were withdrawn from Anzac and'Suvla Bay—fortunately, through a surprising lack of vigilance on the part of the Turks, with trifling casualties—are to be utilised at ,Cape Helles, or, as is more probable, to be sent either to Egypt or to Salonika, is a point upon which we are, as yet, left, in the/dark. No doubt there are good and sufficient reasons why information as to this should at present be withheld.