Photo by H. G. Dwight 

 TURKISH GljNTLEMEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL: CONSTANTINOPLE 



right to pass the straits. Otherwise the 

 Turks have allowed no foreign man-of- 

 war to enter the Marmora unless under 

 rare and special circumstances ; and not 

 only do they exercise surveillance over 

 the traffic in the straits, but twice during 

 the last four years they have closed the 

 Dardanelles to navigation of any kind. 



At the moment at which I write the 

 fleets of France and England are ham- 

 mering at that historic gateway. Thus 

 the question of the Black Sea, which is 

 the ancient question of the straits, is 

 posed anew, more dramatically than ever 

 before. Is it for a final solution? No 

 solution can be final, however, which will 

 give any one nation an absolute right of 

 control over the Bosphorus and the Dar- 

 danelles. 



The Russians believe that they have 

 every right to insist that they be not 



throttled at the gate of their own house. 

 The rapidly increasing development of 

 their railways, their industries, their agri- 

 cultural and mineral resources, both in 

 Europe and beyond the Caspian, make it 

 imperative, they contend, for them to 

 have the freedom of their own front 

 door. 



But while the Black Sea becomes every 

 year a more important highway, and 

 while the Russians are the preponderant 

 power in the Black Sea, they are not the 

 only power. They have a neighbor to 

 whom it seems even more vital that the 

 straits be open. 



For Rumania' has no back door upon 

 another sea. And if Rumania happens to 

 be small, that is no reason why Rumania 

 should be throttled. Bulgaria is also in- 

 terested in the matter, though less so 

 since she gained an outlet into the .Effean : 



458 



