--Yours
truly,
NEB.
The Turco-Russian war is partly a conflict of religions and partly one
of politics. The Turks came into Europe as the religious emissaries
of the Mohammedan religion. In all the provinces of Turkey in Europe
which they conquered, the Christians of the Greek, Armenian and
Catholic churches were the victims of a bitter persecution. The Czar
of Russia is the head of the Greek church. He has made repeated wars
in defense of the children of his faith. There have been many wars and
long sieges which, like the present, were said to be only in defense
of the faith of the Greek church--a crusade and a holy war,
But if "Neb" will only look at the map of Russia, he will see, if he
will study climate a little, that the vast empire of Russia has one
thing lacking. It has no good outlet to the Atlantic Ocean, no power
upon the seas. The Baltic Sea is closed half the year by ice. The
great wheat trade of Russia concentrates at Odessa, on the Black Sea,
and to get her grain to market she must pass through the Turkish lanes
of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
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