2 JANUARY 1915, Page 24

THE 'MESSIIDIYEH.'

[To vas EDITOR or vas ..SPHOTAT01...]

SIR,—The Turkish Press at first assured us that the sinking of the ' lifessudiyeh ' was due to a leak. This explanation recalls Artemis Ward's story of the two " sheep dogs," which " killed twenty of his beat lambs in about four minutes and a half." The dogs, it may be remembered, "died rather suddenly " the same afternoon from a mysterious disease, which he diagnosed as "a violent opening of the throat

extending from ear to ear."—I am, Sir, Ac., H. C. L