grasp of the most
efficient military power ever developed that was threatening. Against
this threat England had been doing her best. Here and there near the
Persian Gulf she had been extending her influence. Here and there, as
German Consuls obtained concessions, they would find them later
withdrawn, because England had stepped in. Yet just before the war
England, anxious for peace, had come to an agreement with Germany
practically admitting the German plans to be carried out as far as
Bagdad.

It looked as though it were only a question of time, but when the Balkan
wars established Serbia as the greatest of the Balkan powers, and gave
Russia a preponderating influence among the Balkan nations, and when it
began to look as if some great Balkan state might be established which
should be friendly to Russia and consequently a hindrance to the German
scheme, then it was that it was necessary that war should come. The
Germans had been wonderfully successful. For a time they controlled
Austria, Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkey, but with Bulgaria's fall the end
had come. They were compelled to awake from their Mittel-Europa dream.

[Illustration: Photograph]
Copyright Press Illustrating Service
BULGARIANS CELEBRATE PEACE
The first peace picture. The Bulgarian army is holding a solemn
thanksgiving mass on the battlefield just after the signing of the
armistice which ended their participation in the war.

[Illustration: Photograph]
Copyright Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.
French Official Photograph
AMERICAN COLORED SOLDIERS IN ALSACE
Inspection of arms before going into action. Colored troops were in
battles with the Germans many times and succeeded in beating the enemy
in every instance.

CHAPTER XLVII

THE CENTRAL EMPIRES WHINE FOR PEACE

The Allied victories in France during the months of August and September
of 1918, led to a new peace offensive among the Central Powers. It was
very plain to the German High Command, as well as to the Allied leaders,
that Germany's great ambitions had now been definitely thwarted. It
seems clear that, in spite of the hopeful and encouraging words which
they addressed to their own armies, the expert soldiers, who were
controlling the destinies of Germany, understood well the conditions
they were facing. Putting aside all sentiment, therefore, they
deliberately set out to obtain a peace which would leave them an
opportunity to gain by diplomacy what they were