the relations between the Western Powers and Russia were
decidedly cool during the years 1909-10, especially in and after
November 1910, when the Tsar met Kaiser William at Potsdam, and framed
an agreement, both as to their general relations and the railways then
under construction towards Persia. On the other hand, the rapid advance
of Germany and Austria alarmed Italy, who, in order to safeguard her
interests in the Balkans (especially Albania), came to an understanding
with Russia for the support of their claims. The details are not known,
neither are the agreements of Austria with Bulgaria and Roumania,
though it seems probable that they were framed with the two kings rather
than with the Governments of Sofia and Bukharest. Those sovereigns were
German princes, and the events of 1908-9 naturally attracted them
towards the Central Powers.

[Footnote 527: Annoyance had been caused by the Kaiser's letter of Feb.
18, 1908, to Lord Tweedmouth, First Lord of the Admiralty, advising
(though in friendly terms) the cessation of suspicion towards Germany's
naval construction. It was held to be an attempt to put us off
our guard.]

In 1909-10 France and England also lost ground in Turkey. There the
Young Turks, who seized power in July 1908, were overthrown in April
1909, when Abdul Hamid II. was deposed. He was succeeded by his weakly
complaisant brother, Mohammed V. This change, however, did not promote
the cause of reform. The Turkish Parliament became a bear-garden, and
the reformers the tools of reaction. In the four years 1908-12 there
were seven Ministries and countless ministerial crises, and the Young
Turks, copying the forms and killing the spirit of English Liberalism,
soon became the most intolerant oppressors of their non-Moslem subjects.
In administrative matters they acted on the old Turkish proverb--"The
Sultan's treasure is a sea, and he who does not draw from it is a pig."
Germany found means to satisfy these dominating and acquisitive
instincts, and thus regained power at the Sublime Porte. The Ottoman
Empire therefore remained the despair of patriotic reformers, a
hunting-ground for Teutonic _concessionnaires_, a Hell for its Christian
subjects, and the chief storm-centre of Europe[528].

[Footnote 528: Lack of space precludes an account of the Cretan
Question, also of the Agram and Friedjung trials which threw lurid light
on Austria's treatment of her South-Slav subjects, for which see
Seton-Watson, _C