Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/68

52 using the tottering dual monarchy as a "cat's paw" for her scheme, seems to bear out this supposition.

Germany's work in Asia Minor began some years ago. Following a well-organized plan, she began to seize the political control at Constantinople, at the same time forcing her economic ascendency in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. The building of the Bagdad railroad strengthened considerably her economic position there. But this action was interpreted by England as threatening the British supremacy on the Persian Gulf.

The English influence at Constantinople was rapidly being replaced by that of the Germans, until finally Turkey came to regard Germany as the only power in the world that could preserve her sovereignty. While it is true that the price of this "security" consisted in concessions and other economic advantages which the Germans were more and more insistent in demanding, the Turks of Abdul Hamid's reign, as well as under the Young Turks, considered the sacrifice worth the while. Little by little the influence at Constantinople drifted into the hands of the Germans, until finally Liman von Sanders became virtually the military governor of the Turkish capital.

Sixty years after the first gun boomed the opening of the Crimean War, an allied fleet, flying the flags of the Anglo-French coalition, dropped anchor before the forts of the Dardanelles. But it came to batter down the bulwarks of the German influence entrenched in the Turkish forts and to silence the great Krupp guns that have sent so many French and British warships to the bottom of the Straits.

The Western Allies came not merely because they were anxious to aid their Russian ally in its dire need. They are determined, at any cost, to save their colonies in North Africa from hostile incursions, which would have anything but a desirable effect upon the more or less restless native population.

But whatever be the motives that led to the Balkan campaign, Russia is vitally interested in its outcome. Her economic prosperity is inextricably bound up with the free use of this "latch-key to her house." The exportation of grain from Russia, which was forcibly interrupted by the closing of the Dardanelles at the beginning of the war, was one of the most profitable industries in Southern Russia. Its interruption has caused immense losses. The decrease, during the first six months, in the exports of the port of Marioupol alone, was about 280,000 tons of grain and 40,000 tons of coal. Moreover, the coal trade with Italy was entirely cut off.