CHANCED VIEWS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15193, 13 April 1917, Page 4

CHANCED VIEWS.

The war has materially altered the views of Allied' diplomats concerning many questions, and not the least significant change is that of Britain's attitude towards Russia and Russian aims. Not many years ago ..Britain raised strong objections to any change in bhe control of Constantinople and tiie Straits, but since the war it has been very generally regarded as extremely likely that the Allies would hand over Constantinople to Russia as soon as the Turks have been driven ont of "Europe. That conviction has not been weakened by the obvious fact t-hat Germany had fastened her gaze as intently as Russia upon the city on the Golden Horn. Napoleon, whose early project of training the Turks in the art of war and then using them to support his armies of conquest, has been imitated with singular exactitude by the Kaiser, describing Constantinople as "the key to the dominion of the world." Nowadays that grandiloquent phrase is a palpable over-state-ment. The growth of Europe has greatly reduced the strategical importance of Constantinople, yet the possession of the city, together with the control of Uie Bosphorus and the Dardanelles is an advantage that ha« been greatly desired <K>th by Germany and by Russia, and the statement concerning the renunciation of Russia's claims must- be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. To Germany, with her dream of extending her overlordship from Berlin to Bagdad, and of founding a new (Germanised State on Asiatic soil, Constantinople was the central link in her chain of prospective Imeprial possessions, which were to extend from the North Sea to the

Persian Gulf. Without Constantinople her ambitious programme—which has been outlined by some of her most distinguished publicists—collapses like a house of cards.

WHY RUSSIA WANTS CONSTANTINOPLE. For Russia, on the other hand, as emphasised by M. Miliukoff (one of the leaders of t<he Russian revolution and prominent member of the Democratic party), in an interview yesterday with a Scandinavian papor, the acquisition of Constantinople means release from her long imprisonment within ice-bound seas and free access at last to that outlet on the Mediterranean which is at once for her an economic necessity ahd a gateway toward new opportunities. Three reasons are given by a Russian writer in answer to the question "W&y do the Russians want Constantinople?" Not for trading purposes, not for territorial expansion, not to command the road from the West to the East, but principally to realise a national ambition that is centuries old. The first reason is that it is the key of the Black Sea. The danger of an invasion through t<he Black Sea has always been present to the Russian mind. "We have constantly to keep a strong defensive arm in these provinces, but if we get Constantinople all thia waste of money and men will be stopped. " We shall be safe as long as Constantinople remains in our hands. Secondly we want Canstantinople as a compensation for our territorial losses. Even in case of victory, Russia will be materially a loser. She has already to give over to Poland ten of her richest manufacturing provinces. Of her conquests, if any, Russia wil! have to hand over to Roumania the province of Bukowina. She has the hope of retaining only a part of Galicia inhabited by the Russians for herself if she •gets it, tiie other part going also to Poland. The conquest even of the whole of poor »mountainous Armenia with her two million of inhabitants can never caver this loss. The third, and the last and the chief, reason w»hy we want Constantinople is that Constantinople is the cradle of our religion. We got our Faitfe from Constantinople, when she was still Byzantium. A thousand years ago we called Constantinople 'Czargrad,' the Czar, the King, the Lord among towns, and all the Slavs and all the Russians know it under this name. For centuries we have fought with the Turks. The liberation of Constantinople will crown the secular efforts of Russia, of the Russian people, and it will bring them to the cradle of their Faith." In view of all that is involved in the possession of Constantinople, it is almost unbelievable that Russia renounce her claims to that gate of the East,