ote: Fairy-tales of Turkish conquest.]

At the time Britain and Russia came to an agreement regarding Persia
they were not on so good a footing with each other as they are to-day.
In order that neither should get an advantage over the other, it was
decided that the Persian gendarmes--about 6,000 in number--should be
officered by neutrals, and, unfortunately as it turned out for the
Allies, they mutually chose Swedes. On the outbreak of war neither
Britain nor Russia desired that Persia should be brought into it. The
German ambassador in Persia, however, had other views, and suborned
Swedish officers in command of the Persian gendarmes. Partly by this
means, and partly by Turkish agents, a rebellion was brought about
within the Russian sphere. Religion had nothing to do with the trouble
in Persia. Turkish forces entered Persian Kurdistan and announced that
they were on their way to conquer India and the Russian East, while
their compatriots would overrun Egypt. These were the fairy-tales with
which the Germans had originally enticed the Turks into the war. The
Turks were willing to believe them, and apparently did believe them. The
responsible Germans had no such illusions, but hoped to attain their
ends by causing internal disturbances within India and Egypt. These
German canards, put about in war time, have been adopted by some
writers in this country as the foundation from which to write
contemporary history. It may interest them to know that India possesses
the strongest natural frontiers in the world.

[Sidenote: Strategy depends on geography.]

Strategy nowadays is very largely a matter of geography. Modern armies
are circumscribed in their movements by the available means of
transportation, whether these be by railroad, river, or roadway, and
this means geography applied in giving direction to troop movements.

[Sidenote: Geographies of the war area.]

Before entering into a review of the combined Anglo-Russian campaign a
preliminary survey of the strategical geography of the war area will
make the position more clear.

[Sidenote: Constantinople once the world clearing-house.]

[Sidenote: Still the easiest route.]

In ancient times the only practical way by road and ferry from Europe
to Asia or Africa was by way of the Balkan valleys and across the
Bosphorus or Dardanelles. Hence arose the importance of the
ferryhouse--Constantinople. That city in those days was the center of
the known world and the clear