umania in the Second Balkan War, was
openly conducting friendly negotiations with Turkey for the
acquisition of valuable territory--a compact that could mean only one
thing. Greece, frightened by the menace of the German power, had
resisted up to the moment all the blandishments of the Entente Powers,
who urged her to active participation in the struggle. Rumania,
largely isolated from the Entente Powers, menaced on the north by
Austro-German forces, on the south by a revengeful Bulgaria, borrowed
heavily from Britain, the universal money bag, but straddled the
fence.

Thus Turkey, which in different circumstances might have been in a
precarious military situation, felt reasonably secure, despite her
isolation. In the early part of the war, however, events moved rapidly
and not exactly to her liking. For they threatened to sweep the whole
Balkans into the whirl of war, and no man could tell exactly how the
various petty states, under the stress of sympathy, military and naval
considerations and dynastic control, would align themselves. With
these events came, too, the first participation of France in the war
against Turkey in the campaign in the Dardanelles, now to be
described.

CHAPTER V

THE DARDANELLES--STRATEGY OF THE CAMPAIGN

The beginning of the bombardments in the Dardanelles opens a
remarkable chapter in military and naval warfare. The desperate
campaign to batter down the fortifications which lead to
Constantinople and the disastrous attempt to conquer the most strongly
barricaded city in the world, probably excited more world-wide
interest or put to the test more theories of warfare than did the
Dardanelles campaign undertaken by Great Britain with the assistance
of France. It was fiercely attacked by military critics almost from
the start. It was, however, a boldly conceived operation, calculated
to have a most important effect upon the war as a whole--certainly
upon the war in the southeast corner of Europe.

The Dardanelles campaign was largely conceived and controlled by the
Rt. Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill, the remarkable and able British
Secretary of the Admiralty. He has been widely condemned for his share
of the operation, but revelations that have been made would appear to
clear him of a great measure of the blame.

What were the considerations that weighed with the British admiralty
in deciding to undertake one of the most difficult operations in the
whole world? Primarily it see