e English from Egypt. The
victorious Turkish army is then in a position to advance along the
Persian Gulf road upon India, and would assail India at her weakest
point, outflanking the great defenses at Quetta which have been
developed primarily against Russia.

[Sidenote: Possibilities of Pan-Islam.]

We must not forget to enumerate, among the possibilities, Pan-Islam.
Success by the Turks in Egypt or Persia would undoubtedly give an
impulse to Pan-Islam which might put all the fanatical enthusiasm of the
Mohammedans into a vast uprising which might sweep the French and
English out of northern Africa and India. The Sultan of Turkey is the
official head of the Mohammedan religion. His orders Moslems are all
bound to obey. At present the Mohammedans in the English and French
possessions, who are, of course, under English and French influence, are
claiming that the acts of the Sultan are not really his, but those of
German officers; and the reports at the time of writing indicate that at
the present moment the order from Constantinople for a holy war will
probably not be regarded or obeyed. But a victory by Turkish arms would
probably instantly change the situation and might loose the pent-up
fanaticism of the most intensely emotional of the Oriental races. Here
is another weapon in the German arsenal whose use will depend upon the
cooperation of the Turk.

[Sidenote: Key of situation is Constantinople.]

It should now be evident that there is much to be said for the view that
the key to the present situation is Constantinople. We are dealing with
world politics, with a world war which is being fought on the
battlefields of Europe; but we are dealing with a world war whose
results are not expected to develop in Europe proper. The key to this
situation lies in Constantinople, and the Turk holds it.

* * * * *

The outbreak of the Great War found the British navy in a high state of
preparedness, and so preponderant in number of vessels and in weight of
guns that the German Grand Fleet as a whole was content to remain behind
the walls of Helgoland. Squadrons were sent out, however, to attack
isolated British ships, and on August 28 the first naval battle of the
war occurred in the Bight of Helgoland. Here British and German cruisers
engaged in a struggle in which the honors were for a time even. The
arrival of British dreadnoughts quickly turned the scale, and the German
ships fled to the