New-York tribune., 1915-03-06
GalIipoli-1 355-19l5.

ONSiiOOhCO III ltlS press VI NiiS WI w. III
the place selected for the landing Of the
allied troops who are to open the road TO
Constantinople. BY the Gallipoli shore,
along which General d'Amade, conqueror
of the Shawia Province in Morocco, is
leading his polyglot army, the Osmanli
entered Europe in 1855.
A century before Constantinople
finally yielded to Mohammed ii and the
Crescent replaced the Cross on st. Sophia,
the advance guard of the Ottoman Turks
passed the Dardanelles at almost the pre-
else point where allied artillery is to-day
at work, and took the road which was
TO lead to the Danube and the Bug, TO
the walls of Vienna by conquered Bel
grade and Budapest. and for more than
three centuries to feel the tread Of VIC
torious Islamic hordes.
1t is an inevitable consequence Of the
greatness and the varied character Of
the present conflict that the dramatic
details should be overlooked. Yet the
passing of an empire, the closing days
of a state which for nearly six centuries
has played its part on European soil,
must have an appeal for historians which
it lacks for the reader of the daily press.
Save for Poland, no European people
has disappeared from political exist
ence since the Treaty of Westphalia in
164S laid down on the map the beginnings
Of modern Europe.
In 164S Turkey bulked large on the
face of Europe, and by 1899 Hungary,
Rumania. the Russian shore of the Black
Sea, Bulgaria, Servia and Montenegro,
save for a few mountain SUBMITS in
the last named kingdom. had been con-
ouered; Albania, Scanderbeg long dead,
had passed into a subjection unknown
since Roman times
For Europe the coming Of the Turk by
the Gailipoli Peninsula was an almost un-
noticed fact. Not even the gallant and
gloriously unsuccessful defence Of Ser
via at Kossovo reused the West to the
new peril. But a century later, when
the last Constantine, noblest of the
Palaologi, perished sword in hand in
the breach Turkish cannon had opened
in the landward walls Of Byzantium, the
success Of the Ottomans stirred Europe
still incapable Of united action against
a common foe.
After Constantinople fell two centuries
and a half of Turkish prosperity, con-
quest, advance, temporary repulse but
ultimate success bridged the gap between
h 1853 and the eighteenth century. With
N this century there began the long period
y of decline which gave Europe the East
ern Question, a dozen wars, long years
of unstable peace, leading to the final
catastrophe Of 1915.
After the Congress of Vienna Turkey
retired behind the Danube, the Carpa-
thians and the Pruth. A century ago
the whole world read the story of the
new Greece, read it in the poetry of
Byron, and felt in the Hellenic renais-
sance an appeal which has endured in
some fashion over the century which
saw Rumania, Servia, Montenegro and
Bulgaria follow their destinies, become
conscious of racial and national unities.
A world which followed the progress
of the Germans and the Italians from
chaos and weakness to unity and strength
has been less clearly aware of, but
not wholly blind to, the struggles Of the
little peoples, weighed down not by their
own weakness but by the jealousies Of
the greater nations, by the ambition of
Russia to possess Constantinople, of Aus
tria to reach the Egean and crush the
Pan-Slav yearnings on either side of the
Danube, of Italy longing to revive on
the Adriatic shore and in the Egean the
glories of Venice and of Genoa. For its
selfshness Europe is now paying in
Champagne, in Flanders, in East Prus-
sia. the price it exacteG of the unhappy
races south of the Danube.
After six centuries there is now small
reason to question that the Turk is going
back TO Asia. His lease on Stamboul is
terminable at the will of the first hos
tile feet that passes the crumbling forts
of the Dardanelles. Save for the little
corner Of Thrace about Adrianople, lost
and regained two years ago, all the lands
in Europe where once his people en-
camped' are lost to the Christian. Two
years ago, in the first Balkan war,
thousands on thousands of Ottoman
Turks in Macedonia and Thrace loaded
their few possessions on wagons and be-
gan the long trek to the old home. To-
day the migration of the people is COM
ing TO an end; little remains save the
army and the threatened forts, and these
have German commanders.
In Asia Minor the Turk has still a
land as big as Spain, population Of
some 100000 industrious, honest, hard
working folk. At home the Turk is as
peaceful as he has been warlike abroad
Fvervwhere he is the gentleman of the