New-York tribune., 1918-10-04
Damascus and After
By Frank II. Simonds

Copyright, 1913, Ne1o Yorh Tribune Inc
THE struggle for Northern France
and Belgium and the astounding
change in the Balkan situation
have served to distract attention from
the very great events in Asia Minor and
in Syria; yet it is hardly too much to say
that the consequences of Allenby's vic
tory in Palestine may include the great
est revolution in five centuries in West
ern Asia.
On the military side it is clear that the
British victory north of Jerusalem, fol-
lowed by vigorous exploitation of that
victory, has resulted in the clearing of
large section of Syria and the compile
ton of the conquest of Palestine. Da-
mascus has fallen. Beirut is certain to
be in Allied hands within a few days,
and the British are sweeping north along
the Aleppo-Damascus railway. All or
ganized Turkish military force in Syria
has disappeared, and the problems of the
British commander are those of trans
port rather than Of strategy.
AS it stands, Allenby at Damascus is
about two hundred miles south of Aleppo.
with a clear road before him. Already
the situation of the Turkish forces in
Mesopotamia has become dangerous, and
it is matter of life and death for them
to retire over the Bagdad railway from
Mosul to Aleppo before Allenby gets to
the latter city and thus cuts their only
line of communications by rail or by
decent road with Anatoia and Con-
stantinople.
In the next few weeks, therefore, we
are to see rapid change in the East.
The British army which captured Bag
dad will push north and west along the
railway and the Tigris and Euphrates
valleys to a junction with Alenby about
Aleppo. The Turkish army will have to
retire to and beyond Aleppo, and can
hardly hopes to stand until it reaches the
country north of the Gulf of Alexan-
lretta, where Alexander the Great won
) famous victory of Issus.
This means that Palestine, Syria, Mes
opotamia and the Arabian littoral are
lost to the Turk. 1t means more: at last
the Turkish domination of the Arabian
world has come to an end, and with the
political goes the religious authority
The Osmanli have now lost all the holy
cities of the Mahometan world. Mecca
and Medina are in the hands of an Arab
sovereign, recognized by the Allies under
the title of the King of the Hedjaz
When the war is over Syria, Mesopo-
tamia, Palestine and the remainder of the
Arab provinces of the Turk will be de-
tinitively separated from the Turkish
Empire. But there remains the problem
of Armenia, and when the British armies
have reached Mosul they will be able to
send troops north to Diarbekr, Kharput
and even to Erzerum. Thus, in a very
real sense Allenby's victory has already
insured the liberation of both the Ara
bian and Armenian peoples. At no dis
tant date we may hope to see the Turk
thrown back into his own proper lands,
those of Anatolia, peopled mainly by
Osmanli
And the changes taking place in West
CHI fho1a are ilkely 10 enuufe. Inc llQul-
dation of the Turkish estate in Europe
has been a long, difficult, dangerous
process. But the liquidation of the Tur-
kish estate in Asia promises to be far
simpler task, accomplished, as so often in
history, as the result of single tremen~
dous military success.
But we are all of US more interested
in the German than in the Turkish as
pect. The Germans planned to dominate
Turkey, to control the Mahometan world
through their control of Turkey and to
exploit the religious fanaticism of 3OO,-
100000 Mahometans to their own profit.
The Bagdad railway was to give the
German-controlled Turkish Empire DO
litical and economic unity and to enable
the Germans to carry Turkish armies,
commanded by Prussian officers, to the
frontiers of Egypt and of India Ger
man dreamers saw in the plan thus out