Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-20
The True Status of the Darda.
nelles Affair.
RUSSIA EDGING TO HER GOAL.
If Her Ships Go One Way British Ships nil
Go Another.
Vigorous Action of England in Regard &c
the Riots in China-The Heather To
BIO Taught a Severe Lesson.
Cable Notes
The Dardanelles Anrir.

! reports published regarding the Dardau-
/ elleS affair. together with the reported Seiz-
/ ure of Sigri by England, make it important
| that trustworthy information concerning
! the matter should be obtained from some
! authoritative English source. Great Britain
being regarded Us the power most inter-
/ eSted in the Dardaneiles question. An at
| tache Of he British foreign Office. whose
name for obvious reaeonS is withheld. sad
| III an interview to-day: The waters have
| been RULED by the recent passage OF tho
| DarianelleS and more has been made of the
Incident than would have been made of I IL
an earlier and buster period of the year.
Still II - not without Importance il only as
Il Ink i'll the chain, u further step in "a
steady process Of encroachmcnt. The YES
sci in question was the Moscow of the Rus
sian volunteer fleet, aud il was stopped be-
cause though il had no troops on board no
| previous notice of its desire 10 pass had
been received.
The Russian answer was that customary
notice was not in that particular caso
thought necessary, rs the only troops on
board were time-cNuired me-. The Rus
sian ambassador even went SO far as TO de-
mand indemnity for detention Of the vessel.
The porte forwarded an abiect apology 10
the ambassador. undertook 10 pay the i'll
dHmnlty Al once and promised that the III
Cident should not nc, ar. The COnStant t.
noplc correspondent of the London Stand
ard remarked that Russian diplomacy has
therefore achieved 4 complete victory on
this question, Aud hcnceforth the straits
viii be open To her vessels while closed 10
those OF other nations. \ foolish boast.
which has been treated by some German
and American newspapers with Il serious
ness altogether dISprOportiOnatc with us
Importance. The matter i one that has
little new or of Importance in itself, but
only from the place II holds as the culmna-
tiOn of Il long series. The time wien the
Standard should have made this fuss was
III April last when 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 lc1s, and therefore still the law of f,u-
rope, the sultan declared his firm reSOlu-
tiOn 10 maintain for the future the priuci-
pie invariably established as the ancient
rule Of the empire, and i'll virtue of which
it has n al times been prohibited for ships
of foreign powers TO enter the straits Of
DardanclleS and Of the BOSphurUs. 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, ana the pas
sage of Russian vessels of that kind mas 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 III giving
,.certain appearance of order and regularity
to the 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 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 il which prohibited the
formation of Russian feet in the Black
sea. But of course fleet was no sOouer
formed than veto upon its exit into the
Mediterranean was found extremely gall
ing and much Russian activity has of late
years been developed i'll undermining and
destroying this prohibition. The policy
was not to defy ii 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 %
send transports through the straits, and
when objection was raised to protest that
transport was not a ship of wan and
that therefore the treaties had not been
broken. Another was 10 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 iii case OF in
outbreak of h0stilities, and which will then
be used as cruisers. The Moscow
is one OF these nOndescripjs and
can be described as war ship
or merchantmen according to your point of
view. The restriction of Russias war
ships to the one sea in which they Gan do
little or nothing 10 affect events. could not
but he CALLING 10 her and any other power
similarly placed WOuli have worked and