TURKEY AND CRETE.
[To ThU EDITOR Or Till " SrllertrOn."] SIR,—The following opinion of a German naval commander, Captain Rudolf von Labres (author of "Politik und Seekrieg"), may not be without interest to English readers on the eve of the recrudescence of the Cretan question:— " From the military aspect the loss of Crete could only be regarded as strengthening Turkey's power, since the retention of this unruly island necessitates the stationing there of a strong garrison of troops, the want of which would be acutely felt in a time of war. Turkey can, in fact, only gain both from the political and the military point of view by drawing her frontiers closer together, and thus giving up all pretension to distant possessions. The actual loss of Egypt and the anticipated loss of Tripoli may be moral losses' to the Ottoman Empire. The State . as an organism, nevertheless, can only gain in solidarity by such deprivations."
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