Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-12-05
Straits of Dardanelles and
Austrian GaliciaD Described
Keen Political Interest Has Centered Around the DardaneNes
Ever Since Old Grecian Days; Galcian Poles Have Been
Left to Themselves. IS %
Left to Themselves.

Left to Themselves.
Washington. Dec. 4.-The Nationa
Geographic Society. of this city, to
day gave out the following descrip
lions of the Dardanelles and Austrian
Galicia, which are figuring prominent
ly in the war in Europe:
Keen political interest has center
ed around the Dardanelles since the
time when Persian strength was test
ed upon the soldiers of free Greece
Xerxes came this way. with his vas
army for the invasion of Europe, AM
crossed the Dardanelles, then known
as the Hellespont, owe a pontoor
bridge, constructed near Abydos, OF
the Asiatic side, and touching Gre
clan shores near Sestos, where the
waterway is about $500 feet wide
1t was on this occasion that the capri
cious currents of the strait calico
forth the most historic spanking ever
given. They carried away the pom
toons, w%hereupon, XerXes ordered the
H%ellespont to be soundly flogged.
When the eastern invasion haC
spent itself after Marathon and Sala
mis-, the Dardanelles became a point
of d parture for the hardy conquered
who turned the tables. Alexander in
334 B. c., JAG years after Xerxes
crossed in the path of the Persian
and began his successful subjugation
of the outworn East. The tide shifted
once more: and throughout the long
struggle of Byzantium against the
East, the Dardanelles e again
frontier waters. At last. in 1855 the
Turks forced themselves over the
much-contested boundary, spread over
its European banks, and settled down
to stay. ~.
NO longer a frontier Of Eastern
Western struggle, the Dardanel!es,
nevertheless, preserved their political
an importance derived,
first, from Turkish control of Medi.
terranean-Black Sea commerce, and,
later, from the complex diplomatic
game il. which the Great Powers OF
Europe sought to balance themselves
one against the other, and each to
make that balance contribute to its
own advantage. Mighty Russia's onls
ports upon warm water were in her
Black Sea territory. Convention of
the Powers. however, have held her
shut up fast within the inland sea.
For a century these conventions have
stood between Russia and her ambi-
tons TO have an outlet on the .Medi-
terranean. e,
Strait is Closed.
By a Five Power treaty in 1S4l, it
arranged that no ship OF war of
any nation other than the Ottoman
should pass the Dardanelles without
express permission Of the Porte. The
OF the strait was reaffirmed at
London in 1871 and at Berlin in 1873.
Even merchant vessels must have
passes, which they are required to
show to the authoriti: S at the mar.
rows. Boats may pass through only
the daytime, yet they are re-
quired to pay a small lighthouse fee.
The strait is a narrow, irregular
channel, connecting the Aegean Sea
with the Sea Of MarmOra. 1t cuts
Europe from Asia on a course from
to northeast. It is only
about forty-five miles long, while it
varies in width from one to five miles.
Its average depth is 1870 feet. Upon
the European side the shores are
steep and barren, and their inhospit-
able line of battery-crowned rocks
makes the Dardanelles a place for un-
strong defenses. The shores
on the Asiatic side are longsloped and
very fertile; for the most part being
clothed with beautiful forests. :, ~
The Dardanelles guard the ap-
proach to Constantinople from the
Mediterranean, as the Bosphorus
the approach from the Black
Sea. They were first fortified by two
castles, one on either shore, in the
path of Xerxes and Alexander, built
by Mohammad II in 1852. These have
been often remodeled. During the
last century, with Turkish power OH
the wane, and the Turk himself, ap-
parently ~acquiescent, the remodeling
and extending of the old Notifications
was brought about by French, English
and German prodding, as temporary
interests. pointed, toward the Golden
Horn. :&s
Austrian ;GaIicia.
Most of old Poland which survives,
race and in political conspiN Sesk,
in typical culture and in fQlfd4AE-
er, survives. in the. AusttiaBV cfdNns
land of Galicia. Under the more
repressive rule of Russian and
German overlordship, the Poles in
Russia and Germany have been driv-
I'll little by little from their strong
hold of national telling. The are be-
half-hearted Russians and
Germans, for Russia and Germany
have done all in their power to ASST
mulate the well nigh unassimulable
Pole. In Galicia, however, with a con-
stitution of their own, under a per-
and lenient central govern
ment, a consciousness Of old Po1and
remains, and has grown in intensity.
IN recent times.
Hemmed in by Russia on the north
and east by the the suspicious border
naturally cut off from Hungary
on the south and southwest by the
Carpathians, barely touching its SOW
Austria, on the west, the Cali
clan Pole has been left to himself,
TO The single-handed solution of hts
1wn difficulties, political, economic
and administrative. With little. to-
prod him into violent Industrial exer-
ton, he has continued the past into
present, with its quaint customs,
its devotion to agriculture, and it's
poverty-stricken idealism.
Galicia slopes away from the Car
pathians to meet the boundless Rus
sian plain on the north. Its southern
lplandS are devoted largely to graz