Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1915-09-30
TURKS BELIEVE MOST
ANY KIND OF STORY
constantinople Hotbed of Ru-
mors, Some so Extravagant
to Be Ridiculous.

Constantinople, (by mail.)-As in
stances Of some of the remarkable war
rumors afloat in the Turkish capital.
found that the following had circula-
ton and credence among a large num-
Der of Greeks and Armenians. and ven
some uniformed Turks:
Ihat American engineers Were en-
gagged IN digging a canal across tile
narrow. part OF the Gallipoli peninsula;
that the Anglo-French allies had built
and put into operation a railroad 25
kilometers long, and thu the allies
towns along the Dardanelles and the
Aegean sea, which were destroyed dur
ing the various commandments. Last
ly, that the French and English would
be masters of the Dardanelles, sea of
Marmora and the Bosphorus within IA
days.
There are, of course, no American
canal builders anywhere near the Dar-
danelles; there is no such railroad as
the allies are said to have built; the
Greek towns are in ruin as before; and
the l4-day period allowed for the pen
etration of the straits is recurrently
prolonged.
The rumors mentioned are not the
most e-xtravagant that one hears in
Constantinople, they are merely those
heard most often n seemingly be-
lieved by a large number of the Greeks
and Armenians.
Seeking enlightment as to the reason
Tor such an odd rumor as the presence
of American canal diggers, the cor
respondent learned from a Greek resi-
dent that the allies had engaged Ameri-
can engineers to dig the supposed canal
because they had such success in canal
building at Panama, n that the OBJ
iect of the cana through the Gallipoli
peninsula vas to afford a channel for
the allied fleet to reach Constantinople
without having to pass the Dardanelles'
forts. whose strength, no one here, even
Greeks and Armenians, longer doubt.
The suggestion that such a canal
would be the task of several years was
altogether lost on the man who be-
lieved the inc
The report that the allies have built
, military railroad from Sid-el-Bahr
to a point % kilometers north is even
more widely believed. The truth Is
that the allies would have to run the
railroad in circles in order to make it
25 kilometers in length unless it pene-
trated the Turkish lines.
An attache of the American embassy
in Constantinople had been SO i'm
pressed with these reports Of the rail-
roa building, in fact, that even he
besieged the Associated Press CORE
spondent for the truth.
The activity Of persons who circulate
such rumors as are calculated to false
ly impress the populace with the sue
cess Of the allies gives the military u
thorities considerable trouble. The pen
atty for such an offense may be as
much as six years imprisonment and
a fine hat may mean the confiscation
of all the property the offender has.
But ever this drastic measure does not
make the rumor mongers more careful.
Almost daily a dozen of such cases are
disposed of with varying results. A
few nights ago a meteor fell near Con-
stantinople. the career of the celestial
wanderer coming to an end with a vivid
flash of light and a sharp explosion.
The next day it was asserted by rumor
that a British aeroplane had thrown
bombs upon the buildings of the Sub
lime Porte.
The disposition Of the C~onstantinople
newspapers, however, to publish all the
facts thai they can obtain was recently
shown in the reproduction by most of
the newspapers here of some of the
dispatches which had been forwarded
to America by the Associated Press
correspondent. They were published
merely as showing what a neutral cor
respondent had found on the peninsula.