The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-11-24

'aNAtAN NNOb "
ciety, Washington, d. c.
Three towns Of Asia Minor. seldom
heard Of in ordinary times, have stood
out in the world news Of recent weeks
0Chanak, Mudanla and Ismid. Mere
villages normally, each has had sud
denly poured into it soldiers or celebri-
ties, and has taken on, briefly at least,
importance greater than that Of many
Il metropolis.
Chanak, the strategic point on the
Asiatic side Of the D~ardanelleS. which
figured for weeks as a sort Of threat
ened British Th%ermopylae, illustrates
how translation may spoil romance.
The name means "pots"-scullery
ware. But though it has a hum-drum
name, Chanak-or Tehanak-Kalessi-
and its nelghborhood have more than
once been the stage for acts which
have radically modelled the worlds his
tory and even the worlds literature.
Barely twenty miles to the south rose
Troy, to furnish inspiration alike to
Homer and his myriad of readers.
Within a stones throw Of Chanak,
XerXes In 4S0 B. c. led his thousands
Of Persians across the Dardanelles on
q bridge Of boats in the first formidable
expedition Of Asiatics into Europe
which history records. AT the same
spot a century and a half later Alex
ander led his smaller but more highly
trained army into Asia on his trium-
phal conquest Of the world.
1t was from Chanak in 1853 that the
Turks crossed to their first foOthOld in
Europe-a crossing that gave Europe
q problem that has bred wars and
massacres and broken treaties for
more than five hundred years.
The Sea Of Marmora into which the
Dardanelles and the Bosporous widen
forms q barrier between Asia and Eu-
rope. The roads between the two con-
tinents lie across the two straits at
It's ends. Constantinople at the mar
rowest point Of the Bosporous, is the
front door Chanak, where the Darda-
nellcs Is most CONSTRUCTED, is the back
door. 1t is natural enough, perhaps,
that almost all Of the historic inva-
slons of Europe from the East should
have been by the back way, and that
there again today Great Britain should
have made an important stand.
Castle after castle, each fortified,
comes into view on both the Asiatic
and the European sides of the Darda-
nelles as one steams from the
Aegean toward Constantinople. But
the narrOws opposite Chanak are re-
served for the castles Of castles; the
castle Of Asia on the right, the castle
Of Europe on the left. The Chanak
Notifications were first constructed In
147O. not long after Constantinople fell
to the Turks. Ever since Chanak has
been a place Of Importance. In recent
decades it has been the point Of admin
istration for all the Dardanelles de-
fenses-the solar pleXus Of the outer
straits. German artillery experts re-
sided there during the World war and
m%odernized the Notifications.
Mudania Something Of a Seaport.
While Chanak is a channel port,
Mudania, scene of the Near East mil
itary parley, is a full-1edged seaport
on paper at least. 1t is, however, on
what is now the quiet little Sea of
Marmora, though it was once the CEN
trail body of water Of the civilized
world. Inconspicuous as it is, Mu-
DANA, scene Of the Near East peace
barley, was far from being unfreQuent-
ed before the World war began. In
those days its visitors went through
Mudania on the boat-and-rail trip from
Constantinople to Brusa. The Turks
probably chose Brusa's port for their
conference with allied representatives
because Mudania Is the nearest town.
In the neutral zone Of the Straits ter
ritory. to this their chief Asia Minor
city. which lies just across the line
where the Turk rule is absolute.
When the Marmora was yet an in
land Turkish sen the boat from Con-
stantinople to Mudania was apt to be
late and crowded, and many travellers
complained Of petty eXactions from
norters and customs officials. Petty
a%nnoyances, though, cannot wholly
mar q trip across the Marmora, and
the western traveller who views the
Asiatlc coast line of this placid lake
for the first time has a sight Of rare
beauty and probably a surprise. Capes
and islands, bays and fOrested shores,
make the approach to almost any point
between Chanak and Ismid a scene OF
beauty. And the mid-city Of the South
Marmora shore, Mudania, Is no ex-
leption.