NEWS OF THE WEEK.
LONDON was startled on Monday by hearing that troops were at once to be sent to the Mediterranean. The report was true, for although constant orders and counter-orders show much vacillation, some 3,000 men of all arms have been despatched to Malta and Gibraltar, and many more have been instructed to hold themselves in readiness, including, we are told, the Army Service Corps, which only goes with an expedition. Lord Derby and Sir Stafford Northoote, when questioned on Monday night, gave identical replies,—that in the present disturbed state of "the Mediterranean region," the garrisons of Gibraltar and Malta ought to be brought up to their full complement. This, said the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, was "the sole reply" he could give. The statement is doubtless true, at present, but it is obvious that as Gibraltar can only be attacked by Spain and Malta by sea, the troops are sent there to be ready for service further east- ward, and the public persists in believing that they are going to Gallipoli. The little peninsula which commands the Dardanelles could be turned very easily into an entrenched camp, unassailable by land, and it is supposed that possession of such a position would enable us to dictate our own terms after the war. Certainly it would enable us to close the Dardanelles, if Europe would let us, but would Europe ? With Austria most anxious to get into the Black Sea, and Germany most anxious to conciliate Austria, and France looking out for a Russian alliance, it is quite conceivable that Europe would object. Are we then to fire into everybody ?
