Valdez daily prospector., 1915-03-17
WEDNESDAY, MARCH IF, 1915.
WILL TURKEY PAY THE PRICE?

The Allied sweep against Constan. tinople is assuming dimensions which may soon dwarf the importance of land operations in Flanders or the east. The most powerful fleet of warships that modern warfare has seen is certain to be reinforced with out loss of time by large bodies of Allied troops. The seriousness of the situation is recognized at Constanti- nople, where preparations are under way for the removal of the govern ment to Asia Minor. That the Allied objective will be attained is highly probable; and it is also probable that the Allies are prepared to pay the necessary price The move against Constantinople is dictated by consid- erations strategic and political; and the strategic purposes involved are both immediate and far-reaching. It is elementary strategy to strike at the enemy's weakest point, and Turkey is decidedly the weak brother in the Teutonic alliance. In Flanders there is unyielding deadlock. In the east there are violent fluctuations, like wise resulting in deadlock. But Fur key is giving way everywhere. Her armies are definitely yielding before the Russians in the Caucasus, and have been driven off from the Suez Canal She is more closely beset than any other combatant-in the Cauca- sus, in the Persian Gulf region, on the side of Egypt She must now face deadly thrust at the very heart of her empire.
 Yet it is plain that the occupation of Constantinople by the Allies would not serve to break the military dead lock in the areas of war where the < conflict must be fought out if the wal k is ever to be brought to a decisive , conclusion. The actual help rendered S the kaiser by Turkey is comparative @ ly small The Ottoman forces have A kept two or three Russian corps en l. gagged in the Caucasus, and sieablez g English army in Egypt. Naturally, ir M a war calling for every ounce of pres K sure, the Turkish diversion has count H ed to some extent. If the Russian: M in the Caucasus and the British in K Egypt shall be released for service E elsewhere, it will be an advantage { But, after all Germany has shown gsuch resourcefulness in matching hel Fenemy's endorsements that the addi Rtion of two hundred thousand men Sto the Allied battle-line would have Emo decisive results. With Turkey out Sof it, the situation in Flanders ant Poland would be very much what il lis today What the Allies are really striving for is the political and mora fruits of a complete victory over the Porte If the falling of Constant hople and the imminent reconstruc tion of the Near East should set Ru mania, Greece, and Italy into motion ,ne of the aims of the Allied higher trategy would have been attained.
 But even beyond the political aims
 the Dardanelles campaign there i:
 purpose which goes to the very
 cart of the present struggle; tht pad to peace may lie through Con tantinople. The problem may be pu
 this way: Assuming that the wa, rags on for months in a deadlock
 ssuming that all the nations grow
 cary of the prolonged slaughter; as
 inning that on both sides there will } willingness to recognize that thi'
 ar is perhaps not an Armageddor
 ter all, that Germany need not b. duced to impotence, that the Brit
 empire need not totter and fall
 at peace may come in the form O
 compromise-what shall be thu .. ms of this compromise? In Ger my that is plainly the situation con
 pplated. we have Belgium ant
 1t of northern France, we have par
 Poland, and soon we shall have |rsaw; then we can discuss peace.
 5 kaiser might not insist on keep
 Belgium and would most probab
 live up his holdings in France ahS
 hnd. But what of Belgium's sui
 hgs which Great Britain is pledg
 to avenge? What about Alsace < Faine, to the recovery of whict
 hce has dedicated herself? And
 than that, what about the state
 he public mind within the com
 mt countries, if war should be end
 " crying quits after such extra