Three Points in the War

Three Points in the War BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER The Drive to Constantinople The Germans have made two celebrated drives — the one to Paris, that was lost in the Battle of the Marne, the other on the eastern front, which drove the Russians out of Poland. Was the Russian drive a failure? In so far as it annexed territory, no; but in so far as it accomplished what the Germans had in mind, yes. They hoped to make their battles with the Russians decisive by the capture of the Russian army, if not the whole, in such a considerable part as to permanently weaken the forces of the Czar. Germany must get out of her present confines. That great military nation is somewhat like a caged lion. It has bent the bars and twisted them in a frightful manner, but will it escape? Its escape into France seemingly has been abandoned. The French army remains intact. Its attack on Russia is postponed, and it looks as if the postponement were indefinite. The third great drive is in the direction of Constantinople. If Germany can cross the Balkan mountains, move down over the plains of Macedonia into Constantinople, it has only to cross the Bosphorus to reach the terminal of its great Asiatic highway, the Bagdad railroad. Thence it can transport troops across Asia Minor down the rivers Tigris and Euphrates to the very gates of India. It can further turn off at Damascus and use the Mecca railroad to get its troops near Egypt. This move is distinctly one against England, and the English will now be put upon their met- tle. France has suffered a German drive; Russia has suffered a German drive. It is now England's turn. While it is distinctly a drive for the most part against Eng- land, it is also a menace to Italy, even though in a lesser degree. One can hardly doubt that, as this movement menaces Great Britain, the empire will resort to conscription. England will need at least an additional million troops. One wonders if the new drive will really wake up England. What is of more importance in this drive to Germany than its advantages of England, is the fact that it will open one of the richest colonial empires the world has ever known since the settle- ment of the early colonists in America. Asia Minor has in abund- ance all those natural resources of which Germany stands so

THREE POINTS IN THE WAR 69 greatly in need. For Asia Minor, the Germans could well afford to surrender every advantage that they have gained elsewhere, and once their armies are settled in that region, German protectorate over the country will be permanent, and its exploitation of Asia Minor will begin in full force. The Greek Attitude That the Greek people by a large majority favor the Allies in the present war, their vote at a recent election in that country conclusively proves. Venezuelos, so strongly in favor of the Allies, when compelled to resign by the attitude of King Con- stantine, was returned to power when he appealed to the country, by a very substantial majority, and people are now wondering why Greece stands aloof, — why Venezuelos has been compelled again to resign his position, and why his majority in the Greek parlia- ment is not so large as when he first returned to power. During the second Balkan war Greece entered into an alliance with Serbia, as against Bulgaria, and is under treaty obligations to join Serbia in case Bulgaria attacks that country. But a new condition has arisen. Bulgaria is a secondary consideration. Ger- many and Austria are the paramount interests involved. That change of phase, however, though used as an explanation by many Greeks, does not change the determination of the war party in that country to support Serbia if Bulgaria throws her armies in favor of the Germans. A few deputies may have left Venezuelos by that interpretation of their treaty. That, however, which has done most to weaken Venezuelos in the Greek parliament has been his advocacy to the king of certain concessions of territory in Macedonia to the Bulgars, and he is even willing to go so far as to surrender the ports of Kavala, on the Aegean sea to the Bul- gars. There is a radical element that heretofore has supported Venezuelos that has emphatically declared that it would not yield to the concession of a single foot of land to the Bulgarian gov- ernment. Such concessions, however, were not merely asked for by the Bulgars, but the entente powers have asked Greece to make them, and in return have promised, in case of their victory, to give Greece the southeastern part of Asia Minor, a strip of country containing about a million Greeks. (Statistics in the Turkish em- pire are made up of estimates called guesses.) The change in the Greek parliament in its attitude toward Venezuelos, by a long way the ablest man in Greece, does not mean that the Greeks them- selves are not still in favor of the Allies. The king is on the side of the Germans. He is influenced largely by one of the shrewdest women in Europe, Queen Sophia, the sister of Emperor William. The Greeks may take time for another election. If the situation becomes serious before there is time for another election, one of

70 IMPROVEMENT ERA two things will happen — the king will yield, or there will be a rev- olution. The Germans Far-Seeing When the governments of the Balkan countries were organ- ized, the Germans manifested an ardent desire, if not determina- tion, to put German princes on the thrones. The Balkan nations had formed in a large measure constitutional monarchies based upon the patterns of England and France. England, with its constitutional monarchy, really did not have much apprehension about the power of the king. England believed that the will of the people would prevail. Circumstances have demonstrated Eng- land's mistake. The people of Bulgaria today are at heart alto- gether in favor of Russia and England, and it is believed that they would bring a revolution before they would fight against their old- time friends. King Ferdinand himself a German, and the mili- tary leaders pro-German, notwithstanding the fact that they are in the minority, are, after all, guiding the affairs of state in Bul- garia. If they can carry on a war on the side of the Germans, without a revolution, there can be little doubt which way the Bul- gars will go. Will they risk a revolution? — that is the question. The king and the prime minister Radosslavoff are wealthy men. The king, it is said, is a millionaire, and has his wealth in- vested in Austria, chiefly. He has been threatened with confisca- tion of his wealth if he joins the Allies, or does anything un- friendly to the Germans. His prime minister is in a similar con- dition. German influence, in a lesser degree, in the royal family is now shown in Roumania, and in Greece. No doubt, after this, the allied powers when it becomes necessary to make kings, and to establish royal houses, will see to it that the Germans do not get a monopoly of royalty — they minimize efficiency in case of war. Much fruit went to waste in Utah and other states, this fall, be- cause the expense of marketing amounted to more than the fruit was worth. An exchange says that' a single pile of peaches grown in Guthrie, Oklahoma, contained four thousand bushels, and was left to rot. Oklahoma grew three thousand carloads of peaches this year. Millions of dollars' worth of fruit has perished on the farms of this country, and yet it is said that peaches in New York sold all sum- mer and fall for from two to five cents a piece. Even in Salt Lake, on Market Row, peaches sold from two to 'five cents a pound while hundreds of bushels were rotting in orchards only a few miles away. There is something radically wrong in the distribution of farm pro- ducts. Acres of fruit trees are being torn up in Utah owing to the dis- couragement of the farmers in finding markets for the fruit.