e Sixth, and four cavalry brigades. In Thrace, watching the
uncertain Bulgars and Greeks, were the Second and most of the Sixth
Corps with cavalry regiments and frontier guards. In Palestine, menacing
the Suez Canal, were the 40,000 troops of the Eighth Corps, besides
unnumbered irregular Arab forces, who could not, however, be depended
upon. In the Caucasus the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Corps and three
brigades of cavalry were facing the Russian forces across the winding
frontier. At Bagdad the Thirteenth Corps, and at Mosul the Twelfth,
stood guard over Mesopotamia.

For centuries England had had a very genuine and active interest in the
Persian Gulf, recognizing its strategic and potential commercial
importance with that foresight which has distinguished her statesmen and
traders for generations. Russia had been regarded as the most likely
nation to contest England's predominance in that quarter of the world,
and her every move was watched and checkmated in Downing Street.

At the outbreak of the war, however, and for a decade before, Germany
had given many signs that she had to be reckoned with in any
arrangements in the waters washing the shores of Mesopotamia. And it
soon became apparent that the domination of that part of Turkey was to
be one of the chief spoils of victory. Much has been written about
Germany's territorial ambitions. Much of it is based upon pure
speculation, but publicists in Germany make no disguise of the
Fatherland's desire to win and make a political and economic unit of the
countries now embraced in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Servia, perhaps
Rumania, Bulgaria, and Turkey in Europe and Asia. One has but to take up
the map and outline this aggregation of states and turn to a table of
statistics to realize the enormous advantages and powers of such a unit.
Politically and economically, it would dominate Europe as has no other
power for many generations. Economically and financially, it would be
absolutely independent of the rest of the world, but even if it were
not, no nation or combination of nations could afford to attempt to
isolate it.

CHAPTER LXXXIV

BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA

It was some such considerations as these working in the minds of the
members of the British Government that impelled them to undertake an
offensive in Mesopotamia almost immediately after the break of relations
with Turkey. But in addition there were two other reasons. Russia feared
a Turkish a