ountainous road over the Amanus
from Baghche to Radju, or risk great losses by the coast route between
Payaz and Alexandretta. The Turks took this chance, and were
successful, for there was no allied warship in the Gulf of
Alexandretta to oppose their progress. On December 17, 1914, H.M.S.
_Doris_, a protected cruiser, appeared off Alexandretta and destroyed
four bridges on the road and railway between that town and Payaz. The
captain of the _Doris_ sent an ultimatum to the Turkish commandant of
Alexandretta demanding the surrender of the town, failing which he
threatened bombardment of the place. To this the Turks paid no
attention. A second ultimatum brought forth a telegraphic message from
Djemal Pasha at Damascus, threatening to execute allied subjects
interned in that city if any Ottoman noncombatants were killed at
Alexandretta by the British guns. The captain of the _Doris_ promptly
replied that Djemal Pasha would be held responsible for the execution
of allied subjects, if he dared to carry out what he proposed. Thanks
to the influence brought to bear on the Porte by the American Embassy
at Constantinople, the Ottoman military authorities in Syria became
more reasonable, and finally agreed to blow up the two railway engines
at Alexandretta themselves, much of the war material having been
removed from the town while negotiations were pending.

During the first three months of 1915 there was only one fight of any
importance on the coast of the Gulf of Alexandretta. On February 6 a
landing party from H.M.S. _Philomel_ was subjected to heavy fire from
a concealed trench where eighty Turks were located. Six of the British
and New Zealanders who formed the crew of the _Philomel_ were wounded,
three mortally. The cruiser promptly avenged their death by steaming
in and opening a point-blank fire on the trenches with her 4.7-inch
guns. More than fifty of the Turks were killed or badly wounded, the
high-explosive shells shattering some to pieces. After this salutary
lesson the Turks at Alexandretta did not seek any further encounters
with the sailors of allied war vessels.

The British cruisers were late in arriving in the Gulf of
Alexandretta, and had lost some opportunities to injure the enemy by
their delay, but now they did valiant duty in preventing the Turks
from sending any number of men or stores to Aleppo for the Caucasus,
Mesopotamia, or the Egyptian border by the coast route, which would
greatly have facilita