New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-07-20
The Dardanelles.

~ by official permission, that the question
of the Dardaneles has been arranged and
that, granted the Allies win, France and
Britain will not oppose Russian possession
of both sides of the Straits-that is, of the
city of Constantinople, the Scutari PENN
sula, the Gallipol Peninsula and the Tro-
ian shore-will excite little surprise.
In point of fact, Sir Edward Grey
long ago declared that Britain was at
one with her Russian ally as to an exit TO
warm water. The basis of a settlement
of the Eastern Question, so far as France,
Russia and Britain are concerned, has long
been foreshadowed.
Thus, by proclaiming protectorate OF
Egypt, Britain was the first to harvest
profit. France has seized a small island
off the Syrian coast, and it is generally
understood that all Syria from Palestine
TO the Gulf of Alexandretta will fall to
France if Turkey is defeated.
Russia will get the Straits; she will also
get Armenia. There will be no question
of returning the surviving Armenians to
the Turkish butchers. Much Of Armenia
is already in Russian hands, and the bal
ance may be occupied before many weeks.
Just where the French and Russian from
tiers will Join and what portion Of Mesopo-
taynia will fall to Britain remain obscure.
But certainly the lower end toward the
Persian Gulf, containing the great oil
fields. will stay in British hands.
In the same fashion it is certain that
Italv will keep Rhodes, and probably the
Dodecanesus, occupied in the Tripolitan
War and held against Turkish evacuation
of Tripoli Now that a new war has su-
pervened there will be no question of re-
turn of these islands. Greece, not Turkey,
will be the real loser, for the population
is wholly Greek. Italy also lays claim to
the Anatolian shore west of Alexandretta.
Whether her claims are embodied in the
Allied agreement is not yet known, al
though it is believed they are. Smyrna
is the real prize toward which Italian eyes
are fixed.
This in the rough is the Allied plan
for the partition of Turkey. But it leaves
the main mass of Asia Minor unaccount-
ed for. and here is the real question. Act
ually is it not inevitable that Russia, If
she occupies Constantinople and Armenia,
will in the end become the possessor of the
Anatolian Empire that lies between?
Years ago Hanotaux, former French
Foreign Minister, suggested that in dig
cling the Suez Canal De Lesseps really
solved the Anglo-Russian tangle in the
Near East. Possession in Egypt and the
Sinai Peninsula gives Britain her road to
the East. Russian possession of CONSTANT
nople no longer threatens Britain, and the
old policy of Disraeli passes to the dis
card-had passed actually before the pres
ent war.
Even if Britain, having agreed to the
occupation of Constantinople by Russia,
should some day oppose the absorption
of Anatolia, she could accomplish little.
Possessing Armenia, dominating the Black
Sea, holding Constantinople, Russia would
be beyond the reach Of sea power, and no
land power cOuIu intervene.
Given Russian victory, the plain truth
is that all of Turkey north Of the Taurus
will pass into the actual if not the nomi-
nal control of Russia. 1t will become one
more empire absorbed by the Slav, and
he will be able in his own time to digest
it. The nation which has ruled in By
zantium has generally ruled In Asia
Minor. 1t is inconceivable that Russia
will not follow the historical pathway.
But Russian power will not stop at the
Straits. If the Slav comes to Byzantium
Bulgaria will become once more Rus
sian ward-inclosed between restored
and enlarged Serbia and Russian armies
camped at Gallipoli and Constantinople.
Actually the frontier between Austria and
Russia will be extended, and Serbia will
be 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 between Hapsburg
and Romanoff in the Balkans and for
the Osmanli estate has been going on
century and a half. France under both
Napoleons, under the kings before, was
the champion of the Moslem before Brit
ain adopted the "Sick Man Of the East"
Always, however, the main obstacle to
Russian advance, the steady obstacle, has
been in Vienna. Paris and London have
interviewed only occasionally. Napoleon
HIS intervention in the Crimea cost
France Russian support in 1870. Bis
marck's support of Austria in the Con-
gress Of Berlin laid the foundation for
the Franco-Russian alliance and the re-
grouping of the Great Powers.
There can be no settlement of the East
ern Question as long as Austria and Rus
STA are rivals in this region. Russian in
trigue procured the first Balkan war and
the crushingf Turkey. Austrian intrigue