EURASIAN WATERWAYS IN TURKEY 63 



nitude could not be tolerated by the other large nations in view of the 

 menace constituted thereby to unimpeded transit of men and mer- 

 chandise. 



Expression of the tense political situation resulting from the im- 

 portance of the site is given in the number of treaties forbidding the 

 transit of armed vessels through the straits. Conventions signed by 

 Turkey and European powers prior to the nineteenth century had closed 

 the straits of the Dardanelles as well as the Bosporus to men-of-war. 

 In the middle of the nineteenth century these agreements acquired 

 validity as declarations of a principle deserving permanent application. 

 An international conference, held in London, ratified on July 13, 1841, 

 all previous agreements by the signing of a convention in which the 

 Sultan bound himself to forbid access of the Dardanelles or Bosporus 

 to foreign war vessels. The European signatory powers to this agree- 

 ment were Great Britain, Bussia, France, Austria and Prussia. 5 Since 

 then the value of mastery of this watery stretch of an intercontinental 

 route has acquired such proportion that the presence of storm-tossed 

 war-vessels seeking refuge from the fury of the elements sufficed to 

 raise vehement protests against their presence in the forbidden waters. 6 



To our own generation at a time when the economic importance of 

 a region is the prime consideration affecting its world relation the 

 gauging of the value of the Eurasian waterways must be determined by 

 their central location with reference to the continents of Europe, Asia 

 and Africa. Between Paris and Bagdad or Aden the overland route 

 is continuous save for a short mile of water at the Bosporus. Here a 

 bridge will undoubtedly connect the two continents in a day which can 

 not be delayed much further. Man's achievement will thus have 

 crowned nature's work once again. A minimum width of channel 

 breaking the continuity of land along the northwest-southeast inter- 

 continental road provided by nature is a requirement of modern condi- 

 tions no less than it was in former centuries. Present exigencies differ, 

 however, from the necessities of early days. Security had formerly 

 been sought in the well-nigh unbroken stretch of land affording access 

 from Europe to Asia, and vice versa. Eapidity of communication has 

 now become the desideratum of greatest import. 



Thus the advantages inherent in the site of the Dardanelles to Bos- 

 porus Strait determined its relation to humanity settled far from its 

 limited area. A road is to a large degree the joint property of its users. 

 The political status of the Eurasian waterways hence affects the inter- 



s P. Maeey, "Statut International des Detroits, " Lechevalier, Paris, 1912. 



6 In October, 1849, a British fleet under the command of Admiral Parker 

 while at anchor in Besika Bay was driven by a violent storm to seek shelter at 

 Hauslar Bay in the Dardanelles. The incident elicited a protest from the 

 Eussian ambassador in Constantinople, notwithstanding the retirement of the 

 English men-of-war to Besika Bay after the storm had subsided. 



