rightly
regarded the Caucasian front as of secondary importance--and like
Austria on her Italian frontier, determined to fight a defensive
campaign.

However that may be, conditions after the first few months of
campaigning settled down into a stalemate. Engagements on a relatively
small scale were reported from time to time, but the balance of
advantage remained fairly even. Both countries had fronts where
victories would bring larger returns and more immediate effect upon
the ultimate outcome of the war.

CHAPTER II

TURKISH ADVANCE AGAINST EGYPT

To the Turk no operation of the war appeared more important than did
the campaign against Egypt. That in the early days of the struggle in
1914 he contented himself with what amounted to little more than a
demonstration designed to hold as many British troops in Egypt as
possible was due primarily to considerations of larger strategy.
Undoubtedly, by his incursion into the Sinai Peninsula and his
half-hearted attempt with a hopelessly small force to cross the Suez
Canal, he learned many lessons invaluable in any future and more
ambitious campaign. Considered as a diversion the early advance upon
the Suez was a success: as a serious military operation, resting on
its own legs, it was a fiasco.

No operation the Turks might have conducted could have been so
unwelcome to the British as was that against Egypt. For weeks in
advance it was discussed by English writers and, while they all,
naturally, agreed that it was foredoomed to failure, there was an
undercurrent of apprehension in official circles. It was realized that
many untried problems and theories would be put to a severe test by
such a campaign, if undertaken in a serious way by a large and
well-equipped force. Of a purely Turkish force, commanded and
organized by Turkish officers, there was no fear, but such wonderful
organizers had the Germans proved themselves to be that the
combination of Teuton brains and Turkish fighting qualities and
endurance was regarded as formidable.

It was realized in England also that any measure of success that might
come to an invading force would have two very serious results. It
would not only threaten, and perhaps sever, the shortest route to the
east and so seriously embarrass the trade, military and naval
efficiency of the Allies, but it would have a grave and perhaps
decisive effect upon Mohammedan malcontents in Egypt and India.

The exact truth of the condition