Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, MARCH 3. 1917 TURKEY MUST GO.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14237, 3 March 1917, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, MARCH 3. 1917 TURKEY MUST GO.

The Allies made it dear m thteir "reply to the German peace proposals tHBt Turkey must be driven from Europe, and Turkey, by way of reply, has enter.! Ed into "a life and death" treaty to stand m with tho Central Powers. So we had it by cable news a few days ago; and Turkey's decision will cause neither surprise nor^dismay. The announcement of the decision of the Allies to "boot" Turkey from Europe and to give Constantinople to Russia may have had the unfortunate effect of drawing the dis- . cordant Tu__tish elements • together-' into* a united resistance, but if so it caiinojfc be helped. It was better that the Allies •.hbuid plainly state, their intentions^ better perhaps, for the' Turks to knbWi fey many of: them already are war- weary and disheartened and when they see- the , firmness with which the -Allies propose to , c|eal with 'them they may be inc-lifted to. turn on the taskmasters whb^liSVe drawn them into the terrible impasse. T^ere is .ggpd reason why the Turks must go. 'Tor over six hundred year's, ever since ths first Turkish invasion the ** Near East ha s been the breeding" ground y f<u* European wars. With two exceptions it: has been the cause of all AEuropean . jv^rs since the time of Napoleon.; X-Tt had a.J.arge jilaoe iii the Napoleonic wars, ajn"d much to do with briijigihg on the present war. France has long beeii a. friend of Turkey and has .fege i^i-tej-este. there, but France is ready to sacrifice these if necessary iy get rid of the_ war'-bre'edihg spot and to. secure the chance of peaceful developments amongst Entopyuci x-ou'n'tries. .The removal of • X i^.^y is essential for real peace, c. [ie-ially, sirice the Kaiser has set his Bj art upon Eastern expansion. A Gemn any extendin*g -from Hahibui'g to Bagp (dfwould.be more powerful and ; dangerqi [a than ever The domination of TurL Kiy by Germany would iheafi the even- * tual peril to .^lJ British, French s and Italian colonies inhabited by Mohlanmedans w*ich the possesion of the nj|diinery of Gb-^an^would cAlistitute.^.A^fc^ j^xp. strongest' reason; is 'thatlby their .terrible crimes against civilisation, the heartless massacres of the Chritiah populations of Armenia and Syria, the Turks have - made, themselves, unfit to be associated. 5 with 'the tfesgectabl-"- nations of* : Europei • Condign punishment ' must follow such . barbaric crime's," and the punishment » tt>at will* perhaps hurt them most is'**_b expel them from the city of minarets ■ otf thb Rbsphorus and tb 'acrid them r outcast -Jito; thfe; deserts of AsC /It is a' just ' -punisiiment ' i or thfe' they havo 'caused, for the murders and ■ rapine, carried out so -systematically and sb heartlessly. Tlie Turk is unclean and unfit to be counted as a European. Asia even .is top good for him. Thi-pugh a considerable part of the nineteenth century, it was the ai-oi.of British^statesnjen, to keep Russia, awayiirom.'.Cpnstantmqple. For this end they prpppejd up tl>e effete, laciyious , 'Turkish , Sultanalie and condoned its crimes. The idea was based,' says the Uaily Chronicle, on 'a thoroughly false belief m. soine^mevit- ' Wv ant *K**. n i s^ between 'Russian aii^ Op.*eat Brita_h-^-an antagonism. *w_i_ch, m . fjict, resulted almost entirely frditti this very misdirection of otii.- own policy. The . fij.st Britfeh statesman i 6 ake througfr t^e mistaj__3 was Mr .Gladstone, wh<>'i_^ this was 3Q years (m advance of ,the>massS v of ..Britisih .opinicm.randv the ; British Foreign Office. Etc saw V^ a t wevOUghfi ajl to see 'now, th^''the 'future 'peace and vJEre-jflbm of 'the worid depended, largely oh -'tjie future friendship of Russia atjd Great Britain; and that I*o achiea/e^ this » it iyas necessary as a first coh'diVibn {or Riiasia tb ba 'allowed tp complete her' destiny at the. Strait***. *«••_. h firitish good vrill'in place 'of British obstk-uction. We' kpow the Russian people better since the jra-r, obniraenced aa a loveablei loyal, and ■stur.dy j; people,. .indomitable .m spirit and unconquerable. They havo fought in^, c]jose co-pperation with us, and their, desire aiid ours is that after the war there should .be a closer ' Anglo-Russian ' association for the development of/civitiaation and the mainteriaiice'o^peabe'lii* tjie world. We can give 'more thaii A a grudging assent to the rehibval of ah a^e-long barrier to the developpient and c|vilisAtiQU of the Russian ra^e. !At pr-jsen*^ thp; "vftpj. /ancl. rapidly developing Russian Empire,, cpmpijising an immense fraction both of the world's and of its 'white population, -lias Ho ipe-f re'e port whatever," if we except the new" port of Kola,',' which is within the Ardtic Circle. Even at midsummer it is , impossible, to ship §uppjies t» her except vi^'the .oea:.pr the Yellow and^a considerable part pf her A,meriqan iip porta^haye t9",tj^^l, &rbss thg I*>j*:io,c tb Vladivo-v---tbkrSi.a theijjjQ .^ross the _^ipife-Siberi t an railway^ before* they 'can --each' Mos-cPw or Kieff Or Petrograd. - r This is TiSr.becauge -nature has denied hW a southern sea outlet — she has an excellent outlet at the vej'y south and centre; pf>hTer empire on the.|!hpi*es (>f |l)e Bla^^ea; but bec^u^that outjpt ; is cprnpipteiy* closed to her by the. hostile Aoccupfttipn of' the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. Where the outlet of so vast an empire passes through so narrow a neck, there is a' good deal more than any ordinary plea of "strategic necessity" m . the argument that ih& empire should control the' neck. It is Russia's plain and historic destiny to secure this control to enable her to achieve this destiny, to put her I m a position with her vast granaries to supply a large section of the world's

i population with food, to enable her to niinlster with her extensive oilfields to the world's increasing problems bi trac- • tion, and to make hei* contented and happy we would see fully opened the doorway to the vast and rich regions of the Central Eta-ope and Asiatic Continent. To achieve this object Turkey must be deposed from her commanding position on ' the Bosphorus. With Russia m control at Constantinople tliere will be some guarantee for the future peace of tho 'Balkans and a very strong aiijd effectual bloclc'tb the Germanic proposal for the ■ establishment of a Mittel Europe ex- , tending wel^ into Asia and menacing our . Indian Empire."^ rx" .*•-••''