The difficulty of putting pressure on Turkey by means of
naval force is to be found in the fact that there is so little navigation under the Turkish flag. Blockading Turkish ports, or interfering with the trade routes to them, therefore only means inflicting loss and inconvenience on Powers with which Italy is friendly and desires to remain friendly. Blows aimed at the Turks fall upon the English, the Germans, the Austrians, the French, or the Russians. The latter, of course, will specially suffer from the closing of the Dardanelles. This leads us to the consideration that whatever the Italians do must be rapid. They cannot close the Dardanelles and in effect say to the Turks: " We will keep this door shut till you give way." It is conceivable, of course, that the bombardment of the Dardanelles forts may be only a blind, and that what the Italians are really going to do is to mop up the Turkish islands. That seems to us a wiser plan, though no doubt it will involve Italy in a good deal of expense and will scatter her force. It is no use to take islands unless they are held, and to hold scattered islands means a great call upon both soldiers and ships. Still, if Italy is. willing to make this sacrifice she has here undoubtedly a powerful lever. The Turks will at first take the line that they do not care how many islands Italy occupies temporarily, for they will get them back in the end. But though there is an element of truth in such talk, there is also a strong element of bluff.
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