beginning to write at all on this
subject. But since such usefulness as this book may possibly have is
involved with the necessity of its appearance before the end of the war,
I set a term to the gathering of material, and, with the exception of
two or three notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917.
But up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys and
arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on my part.

E.F. BENSON

_Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents_

CHAPTER I

THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS

CHAPTER II

THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS

CHAPTER III

THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION

CHAPTER IV

THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE

CHAPTER V

DEUTSCHLAND UeBER ALLAH

CHAPTER VI

'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED'

CHAPTER VII

THE GRIP OF THE OCTOPUS

_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I_

THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS

The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his phrase is
applicable for the moment and for the situation in view of which he
coined it, but his coin has only a temporary validity: it is good for a
month or for a year, or for whatever period during which the crisis
lasts, and after that it lapses again into a mere token, a thing without
value and without meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a
monetary coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over
the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on being
passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription defaced by wear,
long after it has ceased to represent anything. In itself it is
obsolete, but people still trade with it, and think it represents what
it represented when it came hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it
sometimes happens that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery
(which it may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives
those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded possession.

Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined by Lord
Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a sick man,' he
said, and added something which gave great offence then about the
advisability of putting Turkey out of his misery. I do not pretend to
quote correctly, but that was the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the
truth of Lord Aberdeen's phrase at the period when he made it. It
possibly contained a temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if
it had been acted