any as 40,000 over to the Dardanelles.
Bulgaria was in that state where a striking victory in the Turkish
peninsula would have swept her off her feet. Italy was at loggerheads
with Austria, her ally, and about to break.

Then from the English point of view there was the possible effect upon
the Mohammedan throughout the British Empire. Possibly not for many
years, if ever, will the world know the truth of the conditions in
India during the war. One thing is certain. In one way and another
there was much disaffection, much open rebellion and much fear of an
even wider spread of revolt. The need for the maintenance and even
strengthening of British prestige must have been constantly before the
British ruler and no other campaign could possibly serve this end so
efficaciously as a successful assault upon Constantinople and the
temporal power of the sultan. It would clinch probably for generations
to come Britain's claim to be the great Mohammedan power of the world
and would destroy the one condition that for years before and at that
time especially had contained the seeds of rebellion against the
British yoke.

In beginning the campaign which Great Britain and France carried on in
the Dardanelles there reappeared a very old problem of war--the
question of Warships versus Forts or land fortifications. It appears
to have been the consensus of opinion among all except the more
extreme exponents of battleships that land fortifications would
possess an undoubted advantage in a contest against purely naval
forces.

This it seems had been the opinion of the American naval authorities
in the Spanish-American War, when the American commander, Admiral
Sampson, was expressly warned not to risk his ships against the shore
defenses of Santiago Harbor. It also appears to have been the opinion
of many British admirals who have placed their views on record.
Indeed, there was in existence the views of several competent naval
authorities as to the possibilities of a purely naval attack upon this
very system of defenses.

It was not by any means the first time that an attempt had been made
to force the Dardanelles. Many such attempts had proved this narrow
neck of water running between high banks to be one of the great
natural defensive spots of the world. The realization of that obvious
and oft-proved fact had made Constantinople through the ages one of
the most fought for and schemed for cities of the whole world.

It is necessary