ld have been busy
trying to supplant him. Few chapters in modern diplomatic history are
more surprising than the sudden downfall and restoration of Germany in
Turkish favor. With reason does the Kaiser give Ambassador von
Bieberstein, "the ablest diplomat in Europe," constant access to the
imperial ear, regardless of foreign-office red tape. During the heyday
of the Young Turk party's power, this astute old player of the game was
the dominant personality in Turkey.

The disgruntled and disappointed Britons have comforted themselves with
prophecy--how often have I heard them at it in the cosmopolitan cafes
of Constantinople!--the burden of their melancholy lay being that some
day Turkey would learn who is her real friend. That is the British way.
They believe in their divine right to the earth and the high places
thereof. They are annoyed and rather bewildered when they see Germany
cutting in ahead of them, especially in the commerce of the Orient; any
Englishman "east of Suez" can give a dozen good reasons why Germany is
an incompetent upstart; but however satisfactory and soothing to the
English soul this line of philosophy may be, it drives no German
merchantmen from the sea and no German drummers from the land. The
supineness of the British in the face of the German inroads into their
ancient preserves is amazing to an American, who, as one of their own
poets has said,

Turns a keen, untroubled face
Home to the instant need of things.

In this case, however, the proverbial luck of the British has been with
them. The steady decline of their historic prestige in the near East
was suddenly arrested by Italy's declaration of war. For more than a
generation Turkey has been the pampered _enfant terrible_ of
international politics, violating the conventions and proprieties with
impunity; feeling safe amid the jealousies of the players of "the great
game." Every important nation has a bill of grievances to settle with
Turkey; America's claim, for instance, includes the death of two
native-born American citizens, Rogers and Maurer, slain in the Adana
massacre, under the constitution. Nobody has been punished for this
crime, because, forsooth, it happened in Turkey. Italy made a pretext
of a cluster of these grievances, and startled the world by her claims
upon Tripoli, accompanied by an ultimatum. Turkey tried to temporize.
Pressed, she turned to Germany with a "Now earn your wages. Get me out
of this scrape, an