f Turks, have been
chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of Anatolia, who,
when not summoned to their country's colours, or ordered to maltreat and
massacre, are quiet, rather indolent folk, content to plough their lands
and reap an exiguous but sufficient harvest. And for their lords and
governors, who, until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies,
there will no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as
in the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the necessity
for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit lands which it
governed. But now, instead of having alien and defenceless tribes within
their borders, tribes forbidden to bear arms and chafing at the Turkish
yoke, they will see free peoples under the protectorates of Powers that
are capable of self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment.
Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be established
in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and the New Turkey will be
as powerless for aggression as she will be for defence, should she
provoke attack. But within their borders there may the Osmanlis dwell
secure and undisturbed, so long as they conform to the habits of
civilised people with regard to their neighbours, and it is a question
whether, now that the military despotism which has always misguided the
fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, and no
need of securing security, the nation will not settle down into the
quiet existence of small neutral countries. Perhaps the last chapter of
its savage and blood-stained history is already almost finished, and in
years to come some little light of progress and of civilisation may be
kindled in the abode where the household gods for centuries have been
cruelty and hate.

_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII_

THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS

It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' aims as
regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the subject peoples
dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself has to be delivered from
a domination not less barbaric than her own, which, if allowed to
continue, would soon again be a menace to the peace of the world. We
have seen in a previous chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's
nippers, how closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have
to consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, and
what will be the condition o