Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/307

 of having to choose between increasing German economic and political domination, on the one hand, and dismemberment by the Entente Allies, on the other.

The political and military situation of Turkey did not improve during the year 1915. By mid-January, the rigors of a Caucasian winter and the absence of adequate means of communication and supply brought to a standstill Enver Pasha's drive against the Russians. Early in February, Djemal Pasha's army, which had crossed the Sinai Peninsula in the face of seemingly insuperable obstacles, attacked the Suez Canal only to be decisively defeated by its British and French defenders. During March a secret agreement was reached between Great Britain, France, and Russia for the partition of the Ottoman Empire, including the assignment of Constantinople to the Tsar. On April 26, by the Treaty of London which brought Italy into the war, the Entente Powers bound themselves to "preserve the political balance in the Mediterranean" by recognizing the right of Italy "to receive on the division of Turkey an equal share with Great Britain, France and Russia in the basin of the Mediterranean, and more specifically in that part of it contiguous to the province of Adalia, where Italy already had obtained special rights and developed certain interests"; likewise the Allies agreed to protect the interests of Italy "in the event that the territorial inviolability of Asiatic Turkey should be sustained by the Powers" or that "only a redistribution of spheres of interest should take place."[14] To give greater effect to these secret imperialistic agreements British troops were landed at the Dardanelles on April 28. The bargains were sealed with the blood of those heroic Britons and immortal Anzacs who went through the tortures of hell—and worse—at Gallipoli![15]

In the meantime, British activities were resumed in