OCR Text |
Show Germany Relying on the Black Sea Fleet ' To HoM Turks in Line WASHINGTON. Oct. 16 With the Berlin -Constantinople railroad cut by the allied occupation of NIsh, Germany is relying upon its Black sea fleet to hold Turkey in line. Information has been received at the state department that the Turkish government has been told by Berlin that the fleet will open fire on the Ottoman capital at the first sign of defection. This German fleet consists largely of warships captured from the Rus-sians, Rus-sians, but is believed here to be strong enough to control, for the present at least, the Turkish government. It was pointed out today that with the British forces rapidly clearing Pales-tin Pales-tin and Mesopotamia of Turkish control. con-trol. Turkey must hold to Constantinople Constanti-nople as Its only hope of maintaining any power as a government. News from Copenhagen that Izet i Pasha has been appointed premier and minister of war in the nev cabinet was interpreted as meaning that Berlin : still is not without a friend at court. : Because of his long service as chief I of the Turkish army staff and his association as-sociation with German officers, Izet ; is looked upon as friendly to Germany. The accuracy of reports that the Union and Progress club, the most powerful organization in Turkey, had been closed at the demand of the Turkish Tur-kish army staff, was doubted by officials of-ficials here, who said such action would be tantamount to a military-revolution. military-revolution. If the report is true they declared, anything might happen In Constantinople. |