Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-24
AMONG THE POWERS
The True Status of the Darda-
nelIes Affair.
RUSSIA EDGING TO HER GOAL.
If Her Ships Go One Way British Ships will
Go Another.
Vigorous Action of England in Regard to
the Riots in China-The Heather to
be Taught Severe Lesson.
Cable Notes.
Tho DarGaneiles Affair.
Special to the Gazette /

Tho DarGaneiles Affair.
Special to the Gazette.
LONDON. Sept. 19.-Thc many misleading
| reports published regarding the Dardan-
elleS affair, together with the reported SeiZ-
ure of Sigri by England, make it important
that trustworthy information concerning
the matter should be ob1an ed from some
authoritative English source, Great Britain
being regarded as the power most inter-
ested in the DardanelleS question. An at
tache of the British foreign Office. whose
| name for obvious reaeons is withheld, said
in an interview to-day: The waters have
been ruffied 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 1t IS not without Importance If only rs
link in the chain, a further step in
steady process of encroachment. The YES
sci in question was the Moscow of the Rus
sian volunteer fleet, and it was stopped be-
cause though it had no troops on board no
previous notice of its desire to pass had
been received.
The Russian answer was that customary
notice was not i'll that particular case
thought necessary, as the only troops on
Doard1 We're time-expired men. The Rus
sian ambassador even went SO far rs TO de-
mand Indemnity for detention of the vessel.
The porte forwarded an abject apology to
the ambassador, undertook 10 pay the in
d unity at once and promised that the in
cident should not recur. The Constant
nople correspondent of the London Stand
ard remarked that Russian diplomacy has
therefore achieved complete victory on
this question. and henceforth the straits
will be open to her vessels while closed to
those of other nations. a foolish boast,
which has been treated by some German
and American newspapers with a serious
ness altogether diSproportionate with its
Importance. The matter is one that has
little new or of Importance in itself, but
only from the place it holds as the culmina
tion Of Il long series. The time when the
Standard should have made this fuss was
in April last when a convention was drawn
up, to which the passage of the Moscow
was OF 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 reckless
| step in advance for Russia. In the treaty
| of Paris, confirmed by the treaty of Berlin
in 1878, and therefore still the law of Eu-
rope, the sultan declared his firm resolu-
ton to maintain for the future the princi-
pie 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 to enter the straits of
Dardanelles and of the Bosphorus. On their
part all the powers, including Russia, en-
gagged to respect this determination of the
sultan. and to conform themselves to the
principles above declared. Under the ex-
preston. ''shipS of war;" military trans
ports are admittedly included, and the pas
sage of Russian vessels of that kind has of
late years been repeatedly complained of by
the porte. Quite recently, however, the
porte, who has fallen almost exclusively I'M
der influence of Russia, succeeded in giving
= certain appearance of order and regularity
to the long standing encroachment. OF
course that convention has never been
recognized by the other powers.
1.-The rule that no foreign ships Of war
shall pass the straits received the adhe-
sion of all the powers in 1891. Russia has
never torn up that convention as she has
torn up the treaty of Paris in 1870 or
rather that part of it which prohibited the
formation of a Russian fleet in the Black
sea. But of course feet was no sooner
formed than veto upon its exit into the
Mediterranean was found extremely gall
ing and much Russian activity has of late
years been developed in undermining and
destroying this prohibition. The policy
was not to defy it openly but to encroach
step by step till some day Europe should
find itself confronted with an accom-
plishd fact. One of these steps was to
send transports through the straits, and
when objection was raised to protest that
a transport was not ship of war and
that therefore the treaties had not been
broken. Another was to make play with
the ships of the Russian volunteer fleet
These it is alleged are no more ships of
war than are the Cunarders, on which the
British admiralty has claim in case of an
outbreak of hostilities, and which will then
be used as cruisers. The Moscow
is one of these nondeScripts and
can be described as war ship
or merchantmen according to your point of
view. The restriction of Russia's war
ships to the one sea in which they can do
little or nothing to affect events, could not
but be calling to her. and any other power
similarly placed would have worked and
intrigued against the prohibition much as
she has done. At the same time Russia
cannot eat her cake and have it too If
she is bent before all things on bringing
out her ships into the Mediterranean, she
will probably in the long run have her way,
only If Russian ships are to have free exit
TO the Mediterranean sea. English ships.
and for that matter ships of all the powers,
must have free entrance into the Black
Sea. That will not suit Russia. What she
wants is to have the Black Sea recognized
as closed domestic sea where other war
ships have no right to show themselves.
She can come out OF it as much as she
pleases, but they must not come in. To that
Europe, and in particular England,
will never agree. If Turkey is foolish
enough to open the straits to the one
power it behooves her to keep out of them,
she must understand that she ipso facto
opens them to all the world.
"Other powers are no longer bound by the
gromise to respect the sultan's resolution.
when that resolution was that the straits
should be impartially shut against all alike.
Nor can Turkey keep ships of other powers
out by force. An English feet could force
the passage of the Dardanelles and Bos-
phorus at any moment, and if Russian war
ships enter the Mediterranean, British war
ships will only enter the Black sea.''