Telegraph_--

"Most unwillingly do I give utterance to facts and
impressions calculated to introduce a jarring note into the
harmonious optimism of Western peoples, who confidently augur
great things of the young Ottoman nation, and discern no
difficulties likely to become formidable dangers to the
new-born State. But a knowledge of all the essential data is
indispensable to correct the diagnosis without which the
malady cannot be successfully treated. Emancipation, then,
has produced a beneficent enthusiasm for the political ideals
of Europe in minds hitherto impermeable to Western notions,
but has neither transformed the national character nor
supplied the revolutionary movement with the requisite
constructive forces. _Neither can it break the fateful
continuity of Turkish history nor avert the defects of the
destructive causes that have been operative here for
generations._"

The negative aspect of Turkey's belligerency proved to be quite as
irksome as the positive. For it involved the closing of the
Dardanelles to Russia's corn export and the disappearance of the
principal route for communications between the Tsardom and its Western
allies. Archangel is blocked in winter and inadequately connected by
rail with the two capitals in summer. This additional embarrassment
and its financial sequel compelled the attention of the Allies to the
need of some kind of co-operation--just to satisfy actual needs. For
neither then nor at any subsequent period was there any pretence of
laying open the whole ground and building a complete structure upon
that. A temporary expedient is all that was contemplated, and nothing
more lasting was evoked. None the less, the Conference of the three
Finance Ministers in Paris[77] marked a step in advance, and was
subsequently followed up by a closer and more continuous contact.

[77] February 6, 1915, and the following three days.

CHAPTER XIII

PROBLEMS OF FINANCE

Finances are the nerve of warfare, and in a contest which can be
decided only by the exhaustion of one of the belligerents they are, so
to say, the central nerve system. The Germans being astute financiers,
and aware that the war to which their policy was leading would soon
break out, had made due preparations, with a surprising grasp of
detail. Nothing was forgotten and nothing neglected. And success
rewarded their efforts. The result was that the