as future events
proved, the Ottoman Empire entered the war as an ally of Germany and
Austria.

Turkey's attitude in these early days of the crisis of August, 1914, was
conditioned by several major causes easily discernible. For almost a
generation, Germany has been sedulously cultivating Turkish friendship.
With that single-minded purposefulness so conspicuous in her diplomacy,
Germany found it easy, especially under the regime of the former Sultan
Abdul Hamid II to outmaneuver the easy-going diplomacy of France,
Russia, and England. Indeed, she found a real rival only in England,
who, starting with the initial advantage of long political friendship
with the Turkish people and the good will that grew out of the Crimean
War, successfully opposed many of the chess moves of her German rival.

However, with the coming to Constantinople as German Ambassador of the
late Marshal von Bieberstein, German prestige became supreme. Easily the
best German diplomatist of the present generation, Von Bieberstein
dominated the diplomatic corps at Constantinople and practically
dictated the foreign policy of Turkey. Through him, the Deutsche Bank
secured the great Bagdad railway concession and completed the commercial
subjugation of the country by Berlin.

These disquieting developments had been watched with anxiety in London.
But it was not until Von Bieberstein sprang the Bagdad railway surprise
that England fully awoke to the situation. Then she stepped in and
prevented any extension of the line to the Persian Gulf, an area which
British political and commercial circles regarded as peculiarly their
own.

At the same time an effort was made to reclaim the position Great
Britain had lost in Turkey. With the fall of Abdul Hamid and the coming
of the Young Turks there seemed a chance to do this, especially as
Germany was looked upon by the members of the Committee of Union and
Progress as the chief support of the deposed sultan. Kaiser William,
however, played his cards with consummate skill. The German policy was
quickly adapted to the new situation. Von Bieberstein was eventually
shifted to London and the leaders of the Young Turks, such as the
youthful and popular Enver Bey, were invited to Berlin to come under
the influence of the German army chiefs. The British Government, then in
the midst of negotiations with Russia and unwilling or unable to enter
into any outside arrangement that seemed to oppose the satisfaction of
the Rus