The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1915-05-15

tAS "AAcAO pio6ICSS VI TIE 0TedI
War no month saw such q sudden and
dramatic change as March. Week af-
ter week of weary winter campaign
Ing had held the gaze of the world
fixed upon the plains Of Flanders and
Champagne, upon the marshes of
East Prussia, where battles without
more than local importance gave tenn
porary advantage first to the allies
and then to the Germans. In the mo-
notonous similitude of the official bull
letins even a world war lost appeal
and challenge to an audience become
surfeited with the reports Of indecis-
i've ENGAGEMENTS.
But with the opening of March a
new horizon was suddenly lifted. From
the Straits of Dover and the banks of
the Vistula the center of battle shift
ed to the seagate Of ConstantiOple. At
the D~ardanelles the guns Of the
greatest armada in the history OF the
world awakened the echoes of the
hills behind the Troad and the Anglo
French fleet was followed by the
transports, come to land troops on thu
Gallipoli peninsula where in 1856 the
Osmanli Turks under Suleiman had
entered Europe on the triumphal
march that was to lead to the walls of
Vienna over the ruins Of the Empire
Of the East and the nascent Slav
States of the Balkans.
In October the 42-centimeter guns
OF Germany had leveled the walls OF
Antwerp, crushed the gallant bat i'm
potent Belgian State, and carried the
legend OF Teutonic might TO the shores
OF the North Sea, TO the very gates OF
Calais and B%oulogne. Now 1t was the
15-inch guns Of the Queen Elizabeth
which took up the response along the
shores which had seen the hosts and
fleets Of Xerxes pass forward on their
great adventure, which had witnessed
the crossing of Alexander the Great
49, oo>h NiAO ItS
message Of the West, had set forth
on his tremendous expedition. In a
single day. too. the world turned from
the contemplation of campaigns Of the
Twentieth Century to one more COM
bat In the lands and waters forever
memorable In Homer's song.
Nor was the new phase less appeal
ing in immediate political significance
than i'm historical challenge. Russia,
heavily beaten about the Masurian
Lakes, thrown back upon the detcn-
sive from the Baltic to the Ruman-
ian frontier. vas proclaimed by Ger.
man reports to be OF the point Of CIV
ing up the conflict. She had so far
borne the burden Of the world con-
fiict in a measure beyond the expec,a-
tions of the civilized world. At Tan
nenberg, at Lodz. at the Masurirn
Lakes. she had sacrificed her nun
dreds of thousands, while French and
British troops remained idly in their
trenches or failed In their local often
sive.
But ever as the German forecast
was proclaimed. the guns of Admiral
Gardens fleet at the Dardanelles
sounded the coming of a new day for
Russian hope. The dream of Peter
the Great, the enduring purpose OF
the Romanoffs. the deep and potent
emotion Of every Orthodox Greek
Catholic, all these were reused to
new life. not merely by a fresh attack
upon STEAMBOAT. but by the exchange
OF between Russia and
Britain across the intervening dis
lance OF n continent at war. In Pet
rograd Sergius Sazonoff announced
the approach Of the day when Rus
sia would realize her great ambiti IN
of an avenue to the open sea. From
London Sir Edward Grey responded
with the solemn assurance that Eng
land and Russia were at one on the
f"V''ioh VI IL warm water gate lot the
Slav.
Thus, in n single hour the Eastern
question changed it's whole appear
ance. Thus England at last and UNI
mistakably, however guarded the
diplomatic phrase. renowned the pol
icy of B~eaconslield. the policy which
-
had provoked the Crimcan War. and
sent the British aeet to the Sea OF
Marm"ra To destroy the Treaty of
detection Germany had sought to
draw the great Slav state away from
her allies and those allies, AlrOugh
England, had answered with the