the questions.

With the mud of prosaic Whitehall drying upon my boots these remarks of
K.'s sounded to me odd. But, knowing Constantinople, and--what was more
to the point at the moment--knowing K.'s hatred of hesitation, I managed
to pull myself together so far as to suggest that if the city was weakly
held and if, as he had said, (I forgot to enter that) the bulk of the
Thracian troops were dispersed throughout the Provinces, or else moving
to re-occupy Adrianople, why then, possibly, by a _coup de main_, we
might pounce upon the Chatalja Lines from the South before the Turks
could climb back into them from the North. Lord K. made a grimace; he
thought this too chancy. The best would be if we did not land a man
until the Turks had come to terms. Once the Fleet got through the
Dardanelles, Constantinople could not hold out. Modern Constantinople
could not last a week if blockaded by sea and land. That was a sure
thing; a thing whereon he could speak with full confidence. The Fleet
could lie off out of sight and range of the Turks and with their guns
would dominate the railways and, if necessary, burn the place to ashes.
The bulk of the people were not Osmanli or even Mahomedan and there
would be a revolution at the mere sight of the smoke from the funnels of
our warships. But if, for some cause at present non-apparent, we were
forced to put troops ashore against organized Turkish opposition, then
he advocated a landing on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus to hold out
a hand to the Russians, who would simultaneously land there from the
Black Sea. He only made the suggestion, for the man on the spot must be
the best judge. Several of the audience left us here, at Lord K.'s
suggestion, to get on with their work. K. went on:--

The moment the holding of Constantinople comes along the French and the
Russians will be very jealous and prickly. Luckily we British have an
easy part to play as the more we efface ourselves at that stage, the
better he, K., will be pleased. The Army in France have means of making
their views work in high places and pressure is sure to be put on by
them and by their friends for the return of the 29th and Naval Divisions
the moment we bring Turkey to book. Therefore, it will be best in any
case to "let the French and Russians garrison Constantinople and sing
their hymns in S. Sophia," whilst my own troops hold the railway line
and perhaps Adrianople. Thus they will be at a loose end and we shall