sian dream of Constantinople refused to accept the Young Turks'
invitation to guarantee the integrity of the Turkish Empire for a
limited period in return for commercial and political concessions. On
the other hand, Emperor William reaffirmed to the new sultan his
guardianship of Islam and his interest in the welfare of the Mohammedans
wherever found.

But perhaps the deciding factor in the inclination of the Turks toward
Germany and her ally was to be found in the situation of the Mohammedan
world. Turkey had never reconciled herself to the English control of
Egypt and India and saw in the present war a possibility such as had
never occurred before and possibly would never occur again of wresting
from the British the far-flung lands peopled by the followers of
Mohammed. With powerful allies, and on more even terms than they had
ever dreamed of, they could now do battle with the enemy that held their
race in subjugation and with Russia, whose avowed object through
generations had been the capture of Constantinople, the possession and
perhaps desecration of the holy places of their religion and the
dismembering of the last self-governing state of Mohammedanism.

These, then, were the major considerations that weighed with the Turkish
people, no less than with the Turkish Government, in coming to a
decision. So tremendous were the stakes at issue, so widespread, almost
world-wide, were the interests involved, that Turkey, situated as it was
guarding practically the sole gateway leading from Europe to Russia,
could not hope to remain neutral. For better or for worse a decision
between the two warring factions must be made.

England, France, and Russia protested vigorously against the action of
the Turkish Government in taking over the _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_.
Turkey replied by drawing attention to an incident that had seriously
inflamed public opinion in the Ottoman Empire. When the war started two
first-class battleships, the _Sultan Osman_ and the _Reshadie_, were
nearing completion for Turkey in English yards. Without any diplomatic
preliminaries the British admiralty confiscated the two ships on the
grounds of naval necessity. Whatever may have been the English motive,
the Turkish people regarded this as an attempt on the part of England to
weaken the Ottoman Empire and to make it impossible for it to safeguard
its national interests in the troublesome days that were surely to come
to neutrals as well as to bellig