or the interests of France, who
has nearly 30,000,000 Moslem subjects of her own, to have an independent
head of Islam at Constantinople, where he would be to a certain extent
under French influence, than to have a British-controlled one at Mecca.
The truth of the matter is that France is desperately anxious to protect
her financial interests in Turkey, which are already enormous, and she
knows perfectly well that her commercial and financial ascendency on
the Bosphorus will suddenly wane if the Empire should be dismembered.
That is the real reason why she is cuddling up to the Sick Man. Being
perfectly aware that neither England nor Italy would consent to her
becoming the mandatary for Constantinople, she proposes to do the next
best thing and rule Turkey in the future, as in the past, through the
medium of her financial interests. Sophisticated men who have read the
remarkable tributes to Turkey which have been appearing in the French
press, and its palliation of her long list of crimes, have been aware
that something was afoot, but only those who have been on the inside of
recent events realize how enormous are the stakes, and how shrewd and
subtle a game France is playing.

Strictly speaking, Italy is not one of the claimants to Constantinople.
Not that she does not want it, mind you, but because she knows that
there is about as much chance of her being awarded such a mandate as
there is of her obtaining French Savoy, which she likewise covets. Under
no conceivable conditions would France consent to the Bosphorus passing
under Italian control; according to French views, indeed, Italy is
already far too powerful in the Balkans. Recognizing the hopelessness of
attempting to overcome French opposition, Italy has confined her claims
to the great rich region of Cilicia, which roughly corresponds to the
Turkish vilayet of Adana, a rich and fertile region in southern Asia
Minor, with a coast line stretching from Adana to Alexandretta. Cilicia,
I might mention parenthetically, is usually included in the proposed
Armenian state, and Armenians have anticipated that Alexandretta would
be their port on the Mediterranean, but, while the peacemakers at Paris
have been discussing the question, Italy has been pouring her troops
into this region, having already occupied the hinterland as far back as
Konia. Italy's sole claim to this region is that she wants it and that
she is going to take it while the taking is good. There are, it i