Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-09-29

GEOKEaDnlC
ciety. Washington. D. C.)
An international commission Official
ly rules the destinies of "the Zone
of the Straits" Only since the World
war has it been a zone" For CEN
turies it was the heart of Turkey-the
Dardanelles, Marmora, the Bosphorus.
Over it sat not commission, but sui
tans and caliphs, Jealous Of the dem
Onstrated power of political Islam.
And ages earlier Byzantine Greeks,
and before them their Ionian and
Peloponnesian cousins ruled those
same straits. The new commission
does not find it's rule unquestioned.
Descendants of Turk and Greek
Turkish rebels, in open revolt against
the commission, and modern Greeks,
entirely willing to rule in its stead
over the important waterways of their
fathers-are fighting it out in the Near
East; and the Black sea and its gates
are again field Of world events, while
Russians, Roumanians and BulgarfanS,
and the great powers of the West look
on, all to be affected whatever the
outcome.
This is historic ground and water,
from the mouth of the Dardanelles at
the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, to
the point nearly 200 miles to the north
eastward where the narrower Bosphor-
US sucks a mighty stream of water
from the Black sea. Greek mythology
and legend first made them its theater.
The legiOnnaires Of the Trojan war,
Phryxus and Helle, and Jason and his
fellow goldseekers sailed over their
waters and around their headlands !;
and later Greeks, Romans and Genoese
built great cities on their shores and
established over their waters the
world-important trade routes of their
days.
Center Of the Old World.
1t is against the current that flows
from the north that civilization as we
have known it has worked it's way.
The first adventure was to enter the
Dardanelles or tie Hellespont, as the
Greeks called it. This is the longer
of the two great saltwater rivers that
separate Europe from Asia Minor. 1t
winds its way, with two sharp turns
and numerous gentler curves, for 40
of Marmora, the Grecian Propontis.
The strait varies in width from a lit
tie over three-fourths of mile to FIVE
miles. On the European side rises the
steep ridge of Gallipoli where the Ill
fated expedition Of Australians and
New ZeaIanders suffered so keenly in
the World war. On the Asiatic side
of the Dardanelles lies the plain of
old Troy and the foot hills Of Mount
Ida.
The Sea of Marmora from which the
Hellespont leads is about 140 miles
greatest width, and is thus somewhat
smaller than Lake Ontario, the small
est of our Great Lakes. But though
relatively small, it has in its time been
the center of the world. Probably
about no other lake or sea in the world
of such a size have so many important
cities stood. Of these, Constantinople
alone retains importance today; but
living and dead cities cover the shores
of practically every harbor and head
land of the little sea. The settlements
that still exist are not even the heirs
of the great cities of yesterday, but
rather ill-kempt interlopers-squatters
that under Turkish domain occupied
| their sites.
CoIonized by the Greeks.
Colonists from the Greek cities and
islands pushed up through the Helles-
pont and settled on the Propontine
shores at the dawn of European his
tory. Byzantium, on the site of pres
ent-day COnstantinople, was a member
of the Second Athenian league; and
the Dardanelles, already a Grecian
strait, was the scene of the battle
which closed the Peloponnesian wars.
The Marmora really came into it's
own in the period following the death
of Alexander when the kingdom of
Bithynia flourished on its shores, and
Pontus and Pergamos grew to pros
perity on either side. CyZicus on the
peninsula of that name on the south
ern shore Of Marmora was the chief
city. 1t was founded earlier than
Rome or Byzantium. It had a long
life, possessed at various times by
Athens, Sparta, Persia, Macedon, Per
gamOs and Rome. 1t was rated one
of the splendid ancient cities, and its
gold coins were the standard of their
day as FlOrence's forms became in
Renaissance times.
Bot when Byzantium, in its incom-
parable position by the Bosphorus,