to hold their country to an uneasy neutrality. Whether their efforts
were sincere or designed to prevent an open rupture until the
psychological moment had arrived it is impossible to say. Sir Louis
Mallet, in his private dispatches to his Government, expresses his firm
conviction that the sultan, the heir apparent, the grand vizier, Prince
Said Halim, Djavid Bey, the Minister of Finance and a clear majority of
the cabinet were determined not to allow Turkey to be drawn into the
war. Up to the very last minute the British Ambassador did not despair
of the success of this peace party. Events were too strong for these
advocates of neutrality--events and the control of the all-important
army and navy by Enver and his associates. By the sword the Ottoman
Empire was reared and by the sword it has been ruled ever since.

During the months of September, 1914, and October, 1914, there were many
plain signs that Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey were heading straight for a
break. On September 9, 1914, the Porte gave notice of the proposed
abolition of the capitulations by which the various powers enjoyed
extraterritorial rights. At the same time what amounted to a final
demand was made upon the British Government to return the two Turkish
battleships seized at the outbreak of the war.

Extraordinary efforts were made by all the Entente Powers to keep Turkey
neutral. They proposed to agree to the abolition of the capitulations as
soon as a modern judicial system could be set up in Turkey; they agreed
to guarantee the independence and integrity of the country for a limited
but extended term of years; they declared that Turkey would not suffer
by any changes of national frontiers growing out of the war; and England
even promised to return the two superdreadnoughts upon the conclusion of
the war, claiming that their retention meanwhile was absolutely
necessary for her protection.

The main stipulations made by the Entente Powers in return for these
concessions were that the German crews of the _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_
be sent out of Turkey and that General Liman von Sanders and the other
members of the German military mission be dismissed. With these demands
Turkey refused to comply, after hesitating over the first. Indeed, the
strength of the German stiffening in Turkey was constantly becoming
greater: by the middle of September there were no less than 4,000 German
officers and noncommissioned officers in Constantinople alone and eve