ntury she had
been on the best of terms with France and Great Britain. On the other
hand Russia had been her hereditary enemy. She was still suffering from
her defeat by the Balkan powers, and her statesmen saw in this war great
possibilities. She desired to recover her lost provinces in Europe, and
saw at once that she could hope for little from the Allies in this
direction.

[Illustration: Map: Black Sea to the North, Caspian Sea to the East,
Persian Gulf to South, Crete to the West.]
SKETCH OF TERRITORY CONTROLLED BY TURKEY IN 1914

For some years, too, German intrigues, and, according to report, German
money, had enabled the German Government to control the leading Turkish
statesmen. German generals, under General Liman von Sanders, were
practically in control of the Turkish army. The commander-in-chief was
Enver Bey, who had been educated in Germany and was more German than the
Germans. A new system of organization for the Turkish army had been
established by the Germans, which had substituted the mechanical German
system for the rough and inefficient Turkish methods. Universal
conscription provided men, and the Turkish soldier has always been known
as a good soldier. Yet as it turned out the German training did little
for him. Under his own officers he could fight well, but under German
officers, fighting for a cause which he neither liked nor understood, he
was bound to fail.

At first the Turkish mobilization was conducted in such a way as to be
ready to act in common with Bulgaria in an attack against Greek and
Serbian Macedonia, as soon as the Austrians had obtained a decisive
victory over the Serbians. The entry of Great Britain into the war
interfered with this scheme. Meantime, though not at war, the Turks were
suffering almost as much as if war had been declared. Greedy speculators
took advantage of the situation, and the government itself requisitioned
everything it could lay its hands on.

A Constantinople correspondent, writing on the 6th of August, says as
follows;

"Policemen and sheriffs followed by military officers are taking by
force everything in the way of foodstuffs, entering the bakeries and
other shops selling victuals, boarding ships with cargoes of flour,
potatoes, wheat and rice, and taking over virtually everything, giving
in lieu of payment a receipt which is not worth even the paper on which
it is written. In this way many shops are forced to close, bread has
entirely disap