r was come. She did not interfere: she only
helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. With her usual foresight she
perceived that the Izji, for instance, was a thing to encourage, for
the boys who were being trained now would in a few years be precisely
the young men of whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy
scout movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously and
methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely reliable source of
information, we find that the whole boy scout movement, with its
innumerable branches, was under the control of a German officer, Colonel
von Hoff. In its classes (derneks) boys are trained in military
practices, in 'a recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively
enjoy (a Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use
to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn
skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements of their
companies, they are shown neat ways of judging distances. They are
divided into two classes, the junior class ranging from the ages of
twelve to seventeen, the senior class consisting of boys over seventeen,
but not yet of military age. But since Colonel von Hoff organised this,
the military age has been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to
serve their country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore,
saw that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class has
become the senior class, and a new junior class has been set on foot
which begins its recreational exercises in the service of William II.,
Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It is all great fun, but those
pigeon-livered little boys who are not diverted by it have to go on with
their fun all the same, for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on
all boys. Of course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is
of a 'semi-military' character.

The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from the early age
of eight, was the first object of Germany's peaceful and benign
penetration. As from the Pisgah height of the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw
the promised land, but she had no idea of seeing it only, like Moses,
and expiring without entering it, and her faith that she would enter it
and possess it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has
not only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like Aleppo
were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie there were separate
wood