and British endurance. And who shall estimate the
loss of vital prestige, the waste of fine efforts at a time when it
was so much needed elsewhere? Some future historian, with all the
facts in his possession, with the saving perspective that only time
can give, will have a fascinating subject for discussion in this
Dardanelles campaign, destined to go down into history as one of the
most spectacular and daring in the annals of warfare.

It was not until some weeks later that the outside world began to hear
rumors of the dire predicament of the Armenians under Turkish rule. In
their case, as in that of the French and British who were to be sent
to the Dardanelles, Mr. Morgenthau finally intervened with effect.

It had always been recognized that the elements of serious trouble
existed in the districts of Asiatic Turkey populated by the Armenians.
In the days of Sultan Abdul Hamid there had been frequent massacres by
the Turks, following outbreaks of racial and religious strife. The
Armenians had not been easy people to govern, and a constant and deep
hatred existed between them and their rulers.

With the coming of the Young Turks the lot of the unhappy Armenians
had apparently bettered. Indeed, at the time of the outbreak of war,
one of two special European inspectors, specially appointed to watch
over the administration of the six provinces of Asiatic Turkey in
which the Armenians lived, was actually on his way to his post.

Of course the war changed the entire situation and made the position
of the Armenian population a precarious one. All hope of reform for
the moment was banished and the old hatred, of which it was hoped the
world had heard the last, was revived and intensified by the passions
aroused by the entrance of Turkey into the struggle.

Nor were the Armenians content to await their fate. In several
important instances they took matters into their own hands. It was,
perhaps quite natural that many of them, especially those who lived
near the Russian frontier, should sympathize with Russia.

Early in April of 1915, a considerable force of Armenians in the city
of Van collected and resisted the attempts of Turkish gendarmes to
apply the terms of an order banishing certain of their number
suspected of Russian or anti-Turk sympathies. In such force were they
that they actually, with the help of Russian troops, captured the
city.

With the Van revolt Talaat Bey, the powerful Turkish Minister of the
Inter