on the frontiers
of Russia and France. Of course the effort was not entirely without
its compensations; no expedition is, which holds any part of the
enemy's troops in place in front of your own. The pressure was
withdrawn from the Russians in the Caucasus and also further
adventures from the outskirts of Asia Minor toward India in stirring
up the Mohammedan population were for the time abated.

The attempt to reach the heart of Turkish power, the sultan's
capital itself, by opening these famous straits and sending British
ships to lay Constantinople under their guns, was a splendid
conception worthy the military imagination of the daring ages when
the British Empire was built and the days of the Spanish Main, but
the only criterion in the ghastly business of war remains success.

Yet the spring of 1915 opened with no rebellion in India except
sporadic outbreaks of the frontier tribes which are always
recurring, while Egypt itself remained peaceful. The Germans
inaugurated their second year's campaign by closing the Belgo-Dutch
frontier and by the administrative use of every possible means for
safeguarding their movements on the western front, which would
indicate that they were to undertake another effort for the Channel
ports. This was an obvious feint to conceal an effort elsewhere.
Instead of using troops to make it, they tried out for the first
time a form of warfare which was not new in the consideration of any
army, though it had not been used because it was considered inhuman.

With the wind blowing in the right direction, the Germans released
an immense cloud of chlorine gas. Its gravity held it close to the
ground as it swept down upon the British and French in the famous
Ypres salient. The effort was successful beyond their expectation,
more successful than they realized and had they had sufficient
reserves to press on, they might have broken the allied line at this
point.

The effect of the gas was that of a horrible form of asphyxiation;
the soldiers who did not succumb retreated in face of a weapon which
could not be countered by any in their possession. The casualties
were heavy, the sufferings of the wounded indescribable in their
torment. From the military point of view, which holds that war is
killing and that any method whatsoever is warrantable, the attack
was a success as it gained ground, and for the time being confused
the enemy. But it was a form of attack which could succeed only
once. Af