The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-21
Sea Power

| IVA wv
| Writing in the Christian Science Monitor,
Carlyle Morgan explains how land victories
contribute to the winning Of sea power, say
| ing:
THE First Lord Of the Admiralty in Gilbert
| and Sullivans "Pinafore" sings song to
show that one can do very well in naval
affairs without ever going to sea- A more
serious application Of the theory may be OBJ
served in Russian victories against the Nazis
in the Balkans and in Lativa. In those regions,
Russians who have never and will never 90 to
sea are winning postwar domination Of two
| important waterways, the Dardanelles and the
Baltic Sea, for Russia.
THE Dardanelles which lead from the Black
| Sea to the Mediterranean, are now controlled
| by Turkey. It may have been to the future
of Turkish control that Prime Minister Church
| ill alluded when he warned that Turkeys posi-
ton in the peace conferences after this war
would be better if the Turks joined in the fight
against the Nazi Reich. Turkey had already
declared herself satisfied nation with no ter
rtorial ambitions, but Turkey will always re-
quire the support Of some Great Power or
Powers to maintain her control Of the OAR
danelles.
"She may expect this support, however, less
as reward for good behavior than as result
of rivalry among the Great Powers them
selves for the famous Straits. In the hands
OF weak Power. and administered in accord
with international agreements, the Dardanelles
have served as public thoroughfare and Gre
ated a minimum of jealousy.
1.-Two Powers besides Turkey are vitality
interested in this thoroughfare. They are Rus
STA and Britain. Russia wants egress to the
Mediterranean Sea, and a guarantee that no
fleet Of foreign warships superior to her own
Black Sea fleet shall enter the Black Sea.
will not provide gateway for an attack on
the British Empires life line which runs
through the Mediterranean.
Nevertheless, British papers nowadays air
Russian complaints against Turkish admins
tration of the Straits. These complaints say
the mines planted by Turkey against warships
are now interfering unduly with merchant ship
ping. Is this a hint to the Turks that Britain
intends to CO operate with Russia at this
important crossroads in the future, and that
Turkey position may be uncomfortable unless
the Turks can justify or repair their attitude
in this war? 1t will doubtless be recalled in An
| ka-a that among the secret treaties of World
War One was an agreement by which Czarist
| Russia was to obtain control of the Dardanelles
as reward for aid aginst the Central Powers
Evidently the possibility of Russian mastery
OF the Straits is not new thought in London,
nor too frightening one
but, alarming or not, it is a possibility
already on the road to fulfillment as Russian
troops fan out in the Balkans. Whatever in.
ternatlonal conventions may be entered into,
and though Turkey may retain nominal con-
troll, the Dardanelles will be dominated by
Russia it her influence in the Balkans re.
mains strong, as it seems destined to, in the
postwar years.
I'm the Baltic region likewise, Russian sol.
olers are winning supremacy for Russia on
the water. Estonia and Latvia, already incor.
porated into the Soviet Union, and now being
cleared of Nazi forces by the Russian armies,
Will provide Russia with what students of Bal
tic history call the key to control of the Baltic
Sea- No longer will the Russian Baltic fleet
be ice bound in Krondstadt for large part
OF each year. Several points farther south will
provide Russia with all weather ports More
over, the removal Of German sea power from
the scene will leave Russia master on the
white waters, and exercising increased influ.
ence on all nationalities bordering them, in
GLIDING the uncomfortable Scandnavians and
the Finns
Thus we see the great land mass, Russia
reaching toward the seas. In both instances,
her reach is exercised not directly against
her allies. the Atlantic and Pacific Powers
but against another land power Germany
To become 4 seagoing threat to the oceanic
way and Sweden, and launch a navy in the
Pacific. BY the time she got around to such
adventures, the reason for them would In al
likelihood be obsolete. The oceans Of the future
are not blocked of by land masses or connect
ed by narrow straits. They are overhead. AL
ready the value Of the Dardanelles has beer
modified by air transport and air power.