The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-29
WAR ECHOES

i WaSn1nBton Post. Inc congress or rep
 resentatives of the nobility of Russia, the
 most influential element of the population
 has met in Petrograd and unanimously
 adopted the following resolution:
 "The vital interests of Russia require | full possession of Constantinople and botf shores of the Bosphorus and the Darda-
 nelles and the adjacent islands"
 But the trouble is that the vital inter- ests'' of Great Britain also require full
 possession of Constantinople and the Dar- danelles.
 l Can it be that the Russian people act | ually expect to see Constantinople and the Dardanelles handed over to them? Is | history no guide to them? Are they blind 1 to the self-interest of Great Britain? Are l they so foolish as to imagine that British | warships are riskng their existence for the sake of Russia?
 The resolution cited above would be in 1 telligible if it reflected the determination of Russia to have Constantinople and the | nardanelles at any cost, against England or any other obstacle. If the resolution 1 is a warning to England that Russia will 1 fight for the city by the Golden Horn | IL pTODCTlg TtltClS StHliiutIll III IsuSSlct 1 but if it is merely the expression of 8 | hope that England wll be generous enough to donate Constantinople to Russia, ii | will have no effect upon the British. Constantnople is prize too rich to be handed over as a reward for loyal CO., operation in war. Russia need not delude herself into thinking that Great Britain will ever relax her grip upon that strong strategic position, once it is fastened Overtures may be made in other direc- | tions, but Constantinople is to be part of the lions share of this war It is for this that Great Britain strikes hard al the forts. and risks her dreadnaughts, letaving Russia and France and Belgium to do the heavy worry in the field against Germany and Austria.
 London Chronicle: It is interesting that the Dacia should have been caught by a
 French and not a British cruiser, as ii follows that she will be tried in a French prize court. The French prize law is stricter on this question than the British for by practice which dates back to 169i 1t refuses to recognize any sale of a ship by enemies unless it has been made | by authentic acts previous to the declara- 1 tion of war or the commencement of hos. ! tilities. Consequently the Dacia's condem. | nation, now she has been taken to Brest seems a foregone conclusion. British prize law would probably have reached the l same result but by different reasoning It has not been our practice to ignore
 sales of ships by enemies during war, bu, to inquire in each case whether the trans fer is out-and-out and bona fide. In as- certaining this an important element to consider would be destination; and where the transferred ship is sailing to the enemy vendors country (as the Dacia originally was to sail to Bremen), that
 would be sufficient evidence of bad faith; for obviously nothing could prevent her being retransferred on her arrival there The case was not made materially differ ent when the Dacia changed her destina- tion to Rotterdam, since Dutch and Ger | man territorial waters are contiguous and Rotterdam is on the mouth of the l Rhine. Such questions we imagine, will not now arise; the French will presum- ably act on their established and l well-recognized principle; and if any dip 1 iomatc correspondence arises out of it, it will in the first instance be between Paris and Washington.