Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-06-13
THE CAMPAIGN IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
While Campaign In West Is to Be Decisive One. British Victor
les In Palestine and Mesopotamia Have Changed the Map
and Barred the Way to the German In the East-The Com
ing Meeting at AIeppo.

about Adana and beyond is the solid
mass of Anatolian Turks.
III was the purpose of The German to
use this Turkish population as the
oasis upon which to build Il erandioSe
empire. reaching from Constantinople
TO Bagdad and thense to BaSra and
even to India. Another German dream
forecast the march of German armies,
mainly filled with Turkish troops. TO
Egypt by Sucz and thence southwark
throughout all the African continent
until it reached the Hoer territories in
Cape Colony and the Transvaal. Africa
was TO be Il German c%olonyJ like India.
lnd the cornerstone of this imperial
arch was To be Asiatic Turkey.
Now Great Britain and not Germany
is remakins this corner of the near
east. The result is that the whole
picture is just reversed. and Indian and
EGYPTIAN troops. under British com
mand, are rapidly pushing north to
gain control of all of Syria. all of Mes
opotamia. and prevent the arrival of
Turkish armies in Persia. AS an in
lcldent in this dSign revolutions in Nee
ca and Medina have been encouraged.
and an Arab army is moving north
along the Hedjaz railroad and has al
ready reached the shores of the Dead
Sea n joined hands with the British
about les Salt. Turkey has thus lost
her Arabian provinces. South of Pal
tStiIIe SIe MS lOSJ most OF laleStllle
and the greater part of Mesopotamia.
t'agdad. Jerusalem. Mecca and Medina
no longer recognize the rule of Con-
stantlnople, and Damascus. Aleppo and
Mosul are already plain objectives of
the next campaign in the near east if
the British keep the offensive, as seems
likely.
What this all means is simple
enough if one looks backward a few
years. No single dream of the Ger
mans was more talked of i'm the Years
preceding the outbreak of the war than
that which was constructed about the
Bagdad railway. German capital and
German policy alike conferred upon the
ines which slowly but surely crept
south from the southern shores of the
Bosporus TO and beyond the Cilician
gates. BY this railroad the Turkish
empire was to be made II German
colony. BY his line and it's southern
extensions. through Syria TO SueZ and
through Mesopotamia to Bagdad and
i'aSr:t, Germany was to approach Brit
ANS Two great colonies. Egypt and
India.
The German dream included an APP
peal to the Mahometan populations OF
Egypt and of India. which were to rise
against British rule when the kaiser
should give the sultan the signal to
proclaim the ".Iehad." the holy war.
against the infidel.. And the odd fact
is that although it was impossible to
disguise the extent of German ambi-
lions, a British secretary of state for
foreign affairs. Sir Edward Grey. was
still signing away British rights and
British bulwarks against the German
when the present war broke out.
After the war broke out the German
moved With great prompti,ude. In the
first winter there were attacks at
Suez; a Turkish army was gathered in
Palestine. and iaiding parties contain
ing German Officers and detachmentS
crossed the desert to aSsail British
troops stationed behind the canal. II
was the boast of Berlin hat "a Turk
ish army would presently arrive at
Cairo and a German arrow reach what
the Germans called the British heel
of Achilles namely. the Suez canal.
Huns Hit at Suez First.
But the arrow missed its mark. the
dash for Suez failed. and Russian sue
cesses in Armenia and the British cam
paign in Mesopotamia drew Turkish
attention elsewhere. Iienceforth the
Egyptian situation remained without
peril for the British: the only question
was whether there should be Il defense
of Egypt at Suez. that is a passive de-
Tense. OF whether the British should
fellow the old precedents and invade
Palestine and conquer Syria. thus
building up Il real barrier against in
vaSion.
The disaster which overlook Town
Shend at kut-el-Amara in 1916 neceS-
STATED new British efforts in the val
legs of the E%uphrates and the 'rigris.
In a reckless effort to win Il success
which should in part retrieve the pres
tige lost at Gallipoli q British and In
dian army was pushed rapidly north
without proper preparation or support
and was compelled. after a brilliant ac-
tion at Ctesiphon, near Bagdad, to re
treat to kut-el-Amara and then to sur
render. after a ALTAR but hopeless
resistance.
Thereafter the problem was plain. II
was necessary to begin again and. fol-
lowing the old iktchner moder. get
Bagdad. as 'k. of Is" had taken khar-
tuln. All of this took time. and il WAS
not until the spring of 1917 that Bag
dad at last fell and General Maude was
able to regain what prestige his pre-
decessor hod lost. Once in Bagdad. as
l have said. the British found them
selves deserted by the Russians and
compelled to prepare for new perils
instead of immediately pushing for
ward to complete the campaign as
planned while Russian detection was
not vet dreamed of.
Last autumn there began to he rn-
lports of new activities on the EgNp-
tian front. a British railway was
pushed east from the SueZ canal along
the desert shore of the Mediterranean
and Il new army, comma nded by Cen
eral Allenby. who has gained western
%laurels at Arras. replaced a general
and a smaller force which had suffered
a severe check OF the frontier between
Palestine and Egypt. Thenceforward
we had the reports of slow but sure
progress until December saw Allenby
in Jerusalem and the whole Christian
world hailing the deliverance of its
holy places from the Mohammedan
yoke.