San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-07


the future control of the Straits
of Gibraltar.)
BY PAUL SCOTT MONRER.
Special Correspondent Of The San Antonio
Light and the Chicago Daily News
Paris, France, July 17.-Of the
seven great powers upon whose har-
monies or discords depends the i'm
mediate future of mankind, four
Italy, Russia, Great Britain and
France-are, or desire to become,
, Mediterranean powers and have a
vital interest in the naval strategy
of that great landlocked sea. To
Italy it is everything; to Russia it
lis the guarded vestibifle Of the only
ice-free waters available to Russian
trade and shipping; to France, it is
the link between the west-north coast
of the homeland and the southern
coast, as well as the link between
the homeland and the rich African
colonies; to Great Britain it is the
principal naval and commercial artery
of the empire.
But ii Italian French British
and perhaps Russian interests nat
urally predominant, they are by no
means exclusive. All seafaring ,peo-
pies use the Mediterranean, which is
not only the historic brood spring of
western civilization, but busy sea-
way leading to some of the worlds
richest markets and greatest seaports
barcelona, .Algiers, Marseilles,
Genoa. Constantinople. Odessa. The
attempt to subject it permanently to
some kind of naval control, whether
by the Mediterranean powers com
Eined or by any one of them, can
therefore no more be viewed with
indifference by the United States
than by Germany or japan.
Britain Controls the GatewayS.
The chief characteristic of the
Mediterranean. strategically, is that.
except for the three narrow gate
ways of Gibraltar. SueZ and the OAR
danelles, it is completely surrounded
by. land. OF these three gateways,
one, the Dardanelles, leads merely
to an issueless body of water the
Black sea. so that, so far as through
communications are concerned. there
are really only two gateways-the
straits of Gibraltar and the Suez
canal. Who holds these two is mas
ter of the Mediterranean. for none may
60 or come save as he permits.
Britain captured the rock of
Gibraltar in the war of the Spanish
succession. in 1904. and since the
destruction of the French and Span
ish fleets by Nelson. off Cape Ira
falgar. has commanded. unchallenged
at the western gate. BY the treaty
of 1914, Britain obtained the island
of Malta and so established itself in
the middle Mediterranean. In the
latter years of the nineteenth CEN
Atury, after being on the verge of
Hear with France, Britain gained eff
fective control of Suez and this
control was practically. consecrated
luridically by the Versailles treaty,
in 1919.
Finally, during the recent Greco.
Turkish war, Britain occupied and
is terrifying, Gallipoli, on the OAR
danelles. thus effecting control of the
third Mediterranean gateway. 1t is
true that Britain promises the eva
cuation of Galipoli in the event of
final peace with the Turks. but only
under such guarantees that reoc-
cupation in time of crisis would be
relatively easy.
New Rival For the British.
During the greater part Of the last
owing to Russia's constant desire to
force its way to the Dardanelles. and
10 Franco-British colonial rivalfies.
was the Mediterranean, and the Brit
1sh great fleet, in consequence. was
based on Malta. The rapid rise of
German sea power, however, led in
the early years of the present CEN
fury, to the Franco-British entente.
at.1 he. 49, ~.
to the North sea, leaving the French
fleet concentrated in the Mediter-
ranean, to watch. in the common
Franco-British interest, Austria
Hungary, and IL need be, Italy.
At the end of the great war, the
German fleet was destroyed, but a
new rival for Britain had sprung up
in the United States. The strategic
problems devolving from this new
rivalry were happily solved, so far
as Britain and the United States
were concerned, at the Washington
conference. but at the same time the
growing GOODNESS between Britain
and France was aggravated, and in
consequence, the center of naval
rivalry has once more shifted to the
5editerranean.
Russia, outcast and temporarily
impetent, especially on the water,
will one day again play a role. doubt
less, in Mediterranean politics, but
that day is not yet. Italy, having
won its way sturdily to rank as |
great power, is already considerable
factor, but whatever its ambitions
may be the time to realize them has
not vet come, for its growing strength |
is still immature, and its mind is still |
undecided. Balanced between Britain |
and France, its weight will be felt |
principally as it sides ultimately With |
one or the other.
France and Britain Concerned.
As for these last two powers. it |
is in them, for the present, that the |
new naval rivalry centers. Both are |
stimulated by triumphant history. |
both are strong, both are determined, |
and as neither seems willing to give |
In to the other, there has perhaps |
now begun a struggle for control of |
the Mediterranean which will not |
soon be ended.
At first thought, the French chal
1enge to Britain's century-old domi-
nance of the Mediterranean may
seem like temerity, but it is per
haps less so than it specifically ap |
pears. The French position in the
western and central Mediterranean is
strong. Part of the European coast
and most of the African coast in this
region are French. Britain has
bases at Gibraltar and Malta, but
France has bases at Toulon and
Bizeerte. The British bases are