ntaining with determination her neutrality.

[Sidenote: Closing of the Black Sea by Turkey.]

[Sidenote: Enormous value of oil supplies in the Black Sea District.]

The most important thing the Turk has done for Germany has been the
closing of the Black Sea. The sowing of a few mines in the Straits
promptly put an end to Russian trade from the Black Sea and dealt
southern Russia a great blow commercially. Germany thus struck at
England, because a large part of the English food supply has normally
come from the Black Sea district, and the desire to protect the grain
ships through the Mediterranean has been one of England's chief reasons
for maintaining control of that sea. So large were these supplies
normally that England has had considerable difficulty in replacing them
and is destined soon to experience greater difficulty in furnishing a
supply equivalent in volume and accessibility. The Black Sea district
also has large oil supplies which would be of enormous value to England
and France, now that the extensive use of the automobile in warfare has
made gasolene a supply second in importance only to powder and food. If
the Turkish navy, augmented by the German cruisers, can dispose of the
Russian ships in the Black Sea, and this seems not improbable, the Turk
might annex for Germany this supply of oil. That would be a stroke of
the utmost consequence.

[Sidenote: Isolation of Russia.]

[Sidenote: Importance of Turkey to Germany.]

Closing the Black Sea by the Turk, plus the closing of the Baltic by the
German fleet in the North Sea, would also accomplish another extremely
important result, the absolute and complete isolation of Russia from
contact with all parts of the world except Germany, Austria, and Turkey.
The question has often arisen as to the ability of Germany to prolong
the war in the face of her inability to export goods to her usual
customers. The complete cessation of manufacture in Germany would sooner
or later bankrupt the country and bring her to her knees. The Germans
point out that the isolation of Russia will have precisely the same
effect on that country unless Russia can find some place where her raw
products can be exchanged for the manufactured goods which are much more
necessary in warfare than the crude products which she always has to
sell. The experience of the past has proved again and again that
belligerent countries persistently trade with one another when it is
profitable. The Germa