TURKEY'S PLIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1916, Page 4

TURKEY'S PLIGHT.

A recent report from London mentioned that at a meeting of the "new Turkish Committee," the Grand Vizier upheld the contention that immediate, peace .should be concluded with the Entente, but that it was decided to await the result of the fighting on the French front before taking action. Who are the component parts of this new Committee can only be imagined, but the probability is they are the opponents of the Young Turk party of which Envoi* Pasha was the dominant spirit. It is not difficult to conjecture the reasons that induced this peace movement to be proclaimed. Turkey has been used as a pawn in Germany's game, and the Turks are now cognisant of the fact. It is true that they held up the forces of the British Empire at Gallipoli, but in so doing they only deferred, and did not prevent (he doom of the Ottoman Empire. It is patent to them that the promise of regaining Egypt is but as a shadow that has disappeared at the dawn of day. The fall of Erzcrum and the other successes of the Russians in that region have struck terror into their hearts, and their only hope is a favorable peace—a hope doomed to be crushed by the stern necessities of civilisation as exemplified in the need to stamp out such horm-s as the Armenian massacres. The decadent and iniquitous Ottoman Empire leant on a broken reed when it battened on to Germany in the hope of reviving its former glories, ana entering upon a period of aggrandisement. She can have no such illusions now, for Germany's failure means Turkey's downfall. Th« fall »f Trebi-

zond will, in all probability, convince the Turks that their doom is sealed, and that the Russians will, ere long, be *t the gates of Constantinople. Whether the report that the mines are being removed irom the Dardanelles is true or not remains to be seen, but it is absurd to credit the rumor that such removal is projected for the benefit of Austrian cruisers, which would not have the remotest chance of reaching the Dardanelles. It is far more likely that it is an astute move of the Turks to pave the way for more favorable terms of peace by allowing Russians vessels to use the passage way to the Baltic. On all sides Turkey is being surrounded by her foes, and her plight is one that no natioi". would envy. So far as the Allies are concerned they may rest secure in the knowledge, that they have nothing to fear either in Egypt or the Balkans from the unspeakable Turk.