The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-07-23
RUSSIA TO GET
DARDANELLES
if ALLIES WIN
Car Will Get the Straits as His
Share of the Spells, Say
London Reports.

announcement nun CLlV5l Az BA'
entity by official permission, that the
question Of the DardanelIes has been
arranged and that, granted the Allies
win, France and Britain will not OPP
pose Russian possession Of both sides
Of the straits that Is, OF the city Of
ConstantinOplc, the Scutari PENN
villa, the Gallipoli peninsula and the
Trojan shore will excite little sur
prise.
In point Of fact, Sir Edward Grey
long ago declared that Britain was as
one with its Russian ally as TO an exit
to warm water. The basis Of Il SET
Element OF the eastern question. so far
as France, Russia and Britain are
concerned, has long been foreshad-
owed.
Also Get Armenia.
Thus, by procaiming protectorate
of Egypt Britain was the first to har-
vest profit. France has seized
small island off the Syrian coast, and
it is generally understood that all
Syria from Palestine to the Gulf Of
AIexandretta Will fall TO France if
Turkey is defeated
Russia will get the straits; it will
also get Armenia. There will be no
question Of returning the surviving
Armenians to the Turkish butchers.
Much of Armenia is already in Rus
sian hands, and the balance may be
occupied before many weeks Just
where the French and Russian from
tiers will join and what portion OF
Mcsopotamla will fall 10 Britain re-
main obscure. But certainly the low
cr end toward the Persian Gulf con-
tanning the great oil fields, will stay
in British hands.
In the same fashion it is certain
that Italy will keep Rhodes, and prob
ably the Dodecanesus, occupied in the
Tripolitan war and held against
Turkish evacuation Of Tripoli Now
that new war has suporyened, there
will be no question Of a return OF
these Islands. Greece, not Turkey,
will be the real loser, for the popu-
lation is wholly Greek. Italy also
LAYS claim TO the Anatolian shore west
of Alcxandrctta, Whether its claims
are embodcr in the Allied agreement Is
not yet known, although it is believed
they are. Smyrna is the real prize to-
ward which Italian eyes are fixed
This in the rough is the Allied plan
for the partition of Turkey. But II
leaves the main mass OF Asia Minor
unaccountcd for and here is the real
question Actually is it not inevitable
that Russia. if il occupies Constan-
tnople and Armenia. will in the end
become the possessor Of the AnatoI-
ian empire that lies between?
Could Accomplish Little.
Years ago EIanotsuy, former
French foreign minister, suggested
that in digging the Suez canal De
Lcsscps really solved the Anglo-Rus-
sian tanglc in the Near East. Posses
sion in Egypt and the Sinai peninsula
gives Britain its road to the east.
Russian possession Of COnstantinople
no longer threatens Britain, and the
old policy of Disraeli passes 10 the
discard-had passed actually before
the present war
Even if Britain. having agreed to
the occupation of Constantinople by
Russia. should some day oppose the
absorption Of Anatolia, it could ac-
compIish little. Possessing Armenia,
dominating the Black Sea, holding
Constantinople, Russia would be be-
yond the reach of sea power, and no
land power could intervene.
Given Russian victory, the plain
truth is that all Of Turkey north OF
the Taurus will pass into the actual
if not the nominal control of Russia.
1t will become one more empire alb
sorbed by the Slav and he will be
able in his own time to digest it. The
nation which has ruled in By2antium
has generally ruled in Asia Minor. 1t
is inconceivablc that Russia will not
follow the historical pathway.
But Russian power will not stop at
the straits. If the Slav comes to By
zantium Bulgaria will become once
more a Russian ward-incloscd be-
tween restored and enlarged Serbia
and Russian armies camped at CALI
poli and Constantinoplc. Actually the
frontier between Austria and Russia
will be extended and Serbia will be a
Slav outpost on the Danube,
Back Of all else, in its origin this
war was a struggle between the Slav
and the Teuton The struggle be-
tween Hapsburg and Romanotf in the
Balkans and for the Osmanli estate
has been going on a century and a
half. France under both NapoeOns,
under the kings before, was the cham
pion OF the Moslem before Britain
adopted the sick Man Of the East
Torn by PartiSanS.
Always, however, the main obstacle
to Russian advance. the steady OBJ
staclc. has been in Vienna. Paris and
London have interviewed only occa-
sonally. Napoleon HIS intervention
in the Crimea cost France Russian
support in 1870. Bismarck's support
OF Austria in the Congress OF Berlin
laid the foundation for the Franco
Russian alliance and the regroupng
Of the great powers.
There can be no settlement of the
eastern question as long as Austria
and Russia are rivals in this region.
Russian intrigue procured the first
Balkan war and the crushing Of Tur-
key. Austrian intrigue broke up the
Balkan alliance and procured the sec
iday.