ef, Nazim Pasha, and
who therefore represents everything that is anathema to the Prussian
War Lord with his exaggerated ideas of military discipline and personal
loyalty!

[Footnote 1: Not to be confused for a moment with the very different form
of freemasonry which prevails in this country.]

The die has been cast, and even those who most regret Turkey's action
cannot shut their eyes to the fact that it inevitably raises the whole
question of Constantinople and the Dardanelles. If Germany should emerge
victorious, Turkey is likely to fall under a more or less veiled German
protectorate. In the event of the victory of the Allies, Turkey may
continue to exist as an Asiatic power, but there is little doubt that
she will be eliminated from Europe. The only real question is, Who is to
replace her? Bulgaria will, it is to be hoped, recover Adrianople and the
Enos-Midia line, of which she was so cruelly robbed last year. The fact
that the Turks on their re-entry systematically wiped out the entire
Bulgarian population of northern Thrace does not weaken, but enormously
strengthens, the case for its restoration. But to offer Constantinople to
Bulgaria would be a fatal gift. She has absolutely no historic claim to
the great city of the Caesars (Tsarigrad, as it is rightly known to every
Slav); nor is there even any considerable Bulgarian population which could
rally round the new government. The administrative task is obviously far
beyond the powers of a small peasant state, most of whose present leaders
were born under a foreign yoke. Nor is Greece a serious candidate for the
vacant post. The Greeks, of course, unlike the Bulgarians, have a definite
claim, based on the traditions of the Byzantine Empire, and there is a
large Greek population in the city--at present close upon 350,000, though
their numbers are likely to be materially reduced before this war is over.
But in their case also Constantinople would be a fatal gift. The resources
even of the enlarged Hellenic kingdom would inevitably prove unequal to the
task. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that a Greek occupation would be
opposed on many grounds by the entire commercial community of every other
nation in Europe.

In some ways the ideal arrangement would be that Roumania should assume the
administration of the city, as trustee for a reconstituted Balkan League,
with proper guarantees for the commercial rights of all the Powers. But it
is to be feared that such a