St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-20
RUSSIAN AGGRESSION.
Persistent EncrOachment in Pur
suit Of an Object.

Persistent EncrOachment in Pur-
suit of an Object.
LONDON, Sept. 19.-The many mis-
leading reports published regarding the
Dardanelles affair. together with the re-
ported seizure of Sigri by England,
makes it important that trustworthy in
formation concerning the matter should
be obtained from some authoritative
English source, Great Britain being re-
garded as the power most interested in
the DardanelleS question. An attache
OF the British foreign Office, whose
name for obvious reasons is withheld,
said in an interview to-day:
THE waters have been ruff1ed by the
recent passage of the Dardanelles, and
more has been made of the incident
than would have been made of it at an
earlier and buster period of the year.
Still, it is not without Importance, il
only as link in a chain-a further
step in a steady process of encroach-
ment. The vessel i'll question was the
Moscow, Of the Russian volunteer fleet,
and it was stopped because, though it
had troops on board, no previous notice
OF It's desire to pass had been received.
The Russian answer was that the Gus
tomary notice was not in that particular
case thought necessary, as the only
troops on board were time-eXpired men.
The Russian ambassador even went so
far as to demand indemnity for the
retention Of the vessel. The Porte for
Warded an abiect apology to the ambas-
sadOr, undertook TO pay the indemnity
al once, and promised that the incident
shall not recur.
The COns.a t;nOple CORE spondent of
the London Standard remarked that
Russian diplomacy had therefore
achieved a complete victory on this
question, and hencefOrth the straits
viii be open to her vessels, while closed
10 those of other nations-a foolish gloss,
which has been treated by some Ger
man and Austrian newspapers with a
seriousness altogether diSproportionate
10 lis Importance. The matter is one
that has little novelty or importance in
Itself, but only from the place 1t holds
al the elimination of a long series. The
time when the Standard should have
made this fuss was in April last, when
the convention was drawn up Of which
the passage Of the Moscow was minor
consequence. Turkey then agreed that
Russian ships with troops on board
might pass the straits, on condition of
preliminary notice being given. That
was a real step in advance for Russia.
AIN an annex to the treaty of Paris,
confirmed by the treaty of Berlin III
1918, and therefore still the law of Eu-
rope, the sultan declared his firm reSo-
lntion to maintain for the future the
principle invariably established as the
ancient rule of the empire, and in
virtue of which it has at all times been
prohibited for ships of foreign powers
10 enter the straits of the Dardanelles
and Of the BOsphOruS. On their part,
y
gagged to respect this determination of
the sultan, and to conform themselves
10 the principles above declared.
Under the expression ''Ships Of war;"
military transports are admittedly in
Guided, and the passage of Russian YES
sells Of the kind has OF late years been
repeatedly complained of by the porte.
quite recently, however, the Porte
has fallen almost exclusively under the
influence OF Russia, and by the April
convention Russia succeeded in giving
q certain appearance of order and regu-
larity TO lOng-standing encroachment.
OF course, that convention has never
been recognized by the other powers.
The rule that no foreign ships of war
shall pass the straits received the adj
heSion of all the powers in 1911. Russia
has never torn up that convention as
she tore up the treaty of Paris in 1870,
or rather that paruof it which prohibited
the formation of a Russian fleet in the
Black sea. But. of course, the feet was
no sooner formed than the veto upon its
exit into the Mediterranean was found
extremely calling. and mnch Russian
activity has of late years been devoted
To undermining and destroying this pro-
hbition. The policy was not to defy it
openly, bat to encrUach step by step.
till some day Europe should find itself
confronted with an accomplished fact.
"One OF those steps was to send
transports through the straits, and
when objection was raised to protest