Part 23

It is at once apparent how important the city of Aleppo is as the junction for the three main railways of Asiatic Turkey. Napoleon considered that it was the key to India, because it commanded the caravan routes. To-day it would be more correct to say that Aleppo is the key to the outer approaches to India and Egypt, the inner defenses of which are impregnable.

The British maintain a large army in Egypt not so much because it is required there as because it is a most convenient central camp within striking distance of all the battle-fronts in the East. This permits of throwing a large army secretly and unexpectedly where it can be most effective. Similar camps are available at Malta and Cyprus. Any attack on Egypt on a formidable scale would be a veritable trap for the invaders. It will be recalled that when Britain held up the Russian advance on Constantinople, in 1878, she entered into a treaty with Turkey guaranteeing the latter in the possession of Asia Minor (only) against all enemies. The consideration was the lease of the Island of Cyprus, which dominates the Taurus passage. In other words, Britain holds the cork with which she can close the Syrian tube and put the closure on any invasion of India or Egypt from this side. This treaty was abrogated some eighteen months ago, when Turkey declared war on the British Empire. Britain, in consequence, annexed Egypt and Cyprus.

At the outbreak of the war the Indian Government, apparently off their own bat, despatched a small force to the Persian oil fields to seize and hold the pipe-line, which had been tampered with and the supply cut off for a time.

It became necessary to hold in force three triangular points--Basra, Muhammereh, and Awaz. A strong Turkish force, with headquarters at Amara, was equidistant about 100 miles from both Basra and Awaz, and could elect to strike the divided British forces either by coming down the Tigris River to Basra, or by going overland to Awaz. Reinforcements were sent from India, and Amara occupied. The oil fields seemed secure. Then the unexpected happened. A Turkish army came down the Shat-el-Hai--an ancient canal or waterway connecting the Tigris River at Kut-el-Amara with the Euphrates at Nasiriyeh (or Nasdi)--about 100 miles to the west of Basra--and threatened the latter place. (Shat-el-Hai means the river which flows by the village of Hai. Kut-el-Amara means the fort of Amara and is not to be confused with the town of Amara lower down the Tigris River.) This led to the British driving the Turks out of Nasiriyeh and also advancing up the Tigris River from Amara to occupy Kut-el-Amara, where a battle was fought. The Turks were strongly entrenched and expected to hold up the Anglo-Indian troops here, but a turning movement made them retire on Bagdad--about 100 miles to the northwest. It was known that large Turkish reinforcements were on the way to Bagdad and an attempt was made to anticipate them.

General Townshend advanced on Bagdad with less than a division of mixed Anglo-Indian troops--some 16,000 to 20,000 strong. At Ctesiphon he found a Turkish army of four divisions, with two others in reserve, awaiting him. After a two days' indecisive battle, Townshend, recognizing he had insufficient forces, retired on his forward base at Kut-el-Amara. The Arabs in the neighborhood awaited the issue of the battle, ready to take sides, for the time being, with the winner.

It says much for the stamina of this composite division that, although opposed throughout by five or six times their number of Turks and Turkish irregulars, the latter were unable to overwhelm them. To the Western mind, unacquainted with the mentality and moral weakness of the Moslem under certain circumstances, this may appear a most foolhardy adventure. To the Anglo-Indian the most obvious thing to do when in a tight corner is to go for the enemy no matter what their numbers. All Europeans in India develop an extraordinary pride in race, and an inherent contempt for numbers. It is the secret of their success there. Most Moslems fight well when posted behind strong natural defenses. In open country, such as Mesopotamia, they do not show to so much advantage. Another trait is that when their line of retreat is threatened they are more timorous than European troops. This weakness will have important bearings on the future of the campaign on the Tigris Valley, because the communications of the Turks are threatened by the Russians far in their rear and in more than one place.

Townshend's camp at Kut-el-Amara is well supplied with stores and munitions, and will soon be relieved. When his retreat was cut off at the bend of the Tigris River he could still have retired safely by following the Shat-el-Hai to Nasiriyeh. There was no thought, however, of retreat, Kut-el-Amara is geographically of great strategical importance, and the British garrison there has served the useful purpose of detaining large forces of the enemy where it was desired they should remain while important Allied developments were taking place in their flank and rear. Most of these Turkish reinforcements were withdrawn from Armenia when the depth of winter appeared to make it impossible for the Russians to break through the lofty hills of Caucasia.

The rumor, so diligently put about, that the Grand Duke Nicholas had been retired in disgrace, after so ably extricating the Russian armies in Poland, and that he had been sent to Caucasia, served its purpose. The Turks were deceived by it, and sent part of their forces from Armenia to oppose the Anglo-Indian advance on Bagdad and arrived in time to turn the scale after the battle of Ctesiphon. When the Grand Duke fell on the unwary Turks their defeat was complete. Flying from Erzerum, one army made for Trebizond, another for the Lake Van district, and the rest went due west towards Sivas. The Grand Duke's right wing, center, and left are following in the same directions. He has two flying wings further south--one in the Lake Urumia district and the other advancing along the main caravan route from Kermanshah to Bagdad, while the British are furthest south at Kut-el-Amara. It will be observed that the whole of the Allied armies from the Black Sea to Kut-el-Amara are in perfect echelon formation, and it would be a strange coincidence if this just happened--say, by accident. Like the Syrian and Arabian littoral, Mesopotamia is another tube confined within the Syrian desert on the one side and the mountains of Armenia and Persia on the ether. All egress is stopped by the Allies' echelon formation, except by Aleppo.

Petrograd advices at the time of writing (March 9th) state that the Grand Duke's main army is making for the Gulf of Alexandretta with intent to cut the Turkish Empire in two. This is not only possible, but highly probable, and the echelon formation of the Allies, together with the configuration of the country, lends itself to such an operation. The British army in Egypt and the British fleet could in such an eventuality coöperate to advantage.

As a preliminary the Russians must clear their right wing by capturing Trebizond and utilizing it as a sea base. Asia Minor is a high tableland, in shape like the sole of a boot turned upside down, with the highlands of Armenia representing the heel. The Turks, having lost their only base and headquarters at Erzerum, have now to rush troops, guns, and stores from Constantinople to the railhead at Angora and endeavor to rally their defeated forces to the east of Sivas. In the meantime, the Russians will have overrun some 250 miles of Turkish territory before they are held up even temporarily. The Turkish army in Syria will be rushed to Diarbekr to rally their defeated right wing and endeavor to hold the Armenian Taurus Mountains against the Grand Duke's left wing. If the Russians break through here, then all is lost to the Turks in the south. They, however, have a most difficult task before them, because the hills here reach their highest. There is a road of sorts, because we know that Xenophon in ancient times traveled it with his 10,000 Greeks, and the Turks did the same recently, when they sent reinforcements to Bagdad. Both must have traveled light, and the Russians will have to do the same. This means that the Turks on the south will be better supplied with guns than their opponents, who will have to rely once more on their bayonets.

In the extreme south the British have ample force now to carry out their part of the contract. We know that some 80,000 veteran Indian troops have arrived from France, as well as other large reinforcements from India. It is unlikely that these will all proceed up the Tigris River, because sufficient troops are already there who are restricted to a narrow front, owing to the salt marshes between the bend of the river and the Persian mountains. Two other routes are available, the Shat-el-Hai from Nasiriyeh to relieve the garrison at Kut-el-Amara from the south, and the Euphrates River, to attack Bagdad from the southwest, while the Russian flying wing at Kermanshah threatens it from the northeast. The Turkish report of heavy fighting at Nasiriyeh would indicate that one or both of these routes were being taken. Athens reports that Bagdad is about to fall. As it falls, a British flotilla will ascend the Euphrates and make direct for Aleppo. The British army from Kut-el-Amara and the Russians from Kermanshah will, after the fall of Bagdad--which is a foregone conclusion--ascend the Tigris River to Mosul, where they may be expected to get in touch with the other Russian flying wing from the Lake Urumia district. The combined force will then be in a position to force a junction with the Grand Duke's left wing, and then continue their advance on Aleppo.

Should the main army of the Grand Duke, as reported, converge on the Gulf of Alexandretta with intent to destroy the Turkish southern army, then the latter would be in a very dangerous position, because their northern army being, as yet, without a base or organization, is not in a position to take the offensive to assist them. If, on the other hand, the Turkish army of the south declines battle at Aleppo and retires to defend the Taurus passage, after abandoning half their Empire to the Allies, the latter will, if they have not previously anticipated it, have a difficult problem to solve as to how they are going to get their large forces in the south over the Taurus range to assist the Grand Duke in the final struggle. The forcing of the Taurus passage will mean fighting on a narrow front and will take time.

So far this campaign had been conducted as one of India's little wars, which come as regularly as intermittent fever.

When Turkey entered the war she reckoned that Russia was so busy on the German and Austrian frontiers as to be unable to meet an attack in her rear. Turkey thereupon concentrated her main armies at Erzerum and invaded Caucasia. The Russians beat them back and entered Armenia, where the inhabitants assisted them. The same cause which led to the retirement from Poland--shortage of ammunition--compelled the Russians also to withdraw from Armenia.

Contemporary with these events, Britain met with a severe reverse on the Gallipoli peninsula, which likewise injured her prestige in the East.

It became a matter of first importance with both Britain and Russia that they should not only reinstate their prestige in the East in striking fashion, but that they should end once and for all time German intrigue and Turkish weakness in the East. These considerations were contributing factors in bringing about a joint war council and an Allied Grand Staff. The latter immediately took hold of the military situation in Asiatic Turkey, and the isolated operations of Britain and Russia in these parts now changed into a great Anglo-Russian campaign stretching from the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to the Black Sea.

The drama unfolding before us promises to be one of the most sensational in the great world war. The end of the Ottoman Empire appears in sight. Its heirs and successors may be the other great Moslem powers--Britain, Russia, France, and Italy. The last two have yet to be heard from on the western shores of Asia Minor.

The future may see the British in possession of Turkey's first capital, Mosul; the French in possession of their second capital, Konia; the Russians in possession of their third and last capital, Constantinople, and the Italians occupying Smyrna. Each of these powers is a Mohammedan empire in itself; and the greatest Moslem country in the world is the British Empire.

The Moslems in India not only approve of the idea of removing the Sheik-Ul-Islam, head of the Mohammedan creed, from Constantinople to Delhi or Cairo, under British protection, but the head of their church in India volunteered as a private soldier to fight in France, and is now with the Anglo-Indian army in Mesopotamia. It would seem as if Britain and Russia, at the end of this war, would find themselves stronger than ever in the East.

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Great Britain suffered one of her greatest losses during the war on June 7, 1916, when the cruiser Hampshire, on board of which was Earl Kitchener on his way to Russia, was sunk by a German mine or torpedo. Over 300 lives were lost in this disaster. Earl Kitchener had been throughout the war the chief force in raising and training the British army, and to his ability and zeal was due largely the great feats of landing large numbers of British troops in France within a time which in the period of peace would have been considered impossible.

KITCHENER

LADY ST. HELIER

Copyright, Harper's Magazine, October, 1916.

To the outside world Lord Kitchener was something of a mystery; they knew little of him personally, he shunned publicity, he was not a seeker after popularity. Though he had few personal friends, he was endeared to that chosen few in a way unique and rare. He was shy and reserved about the deep things of life, but a charming companion in ordinary ways--very amusing and agreeable. He had a great sense of humor, and his rapid intuition gave him a wonderful insight into character, and he soon arrived at a just estimate of people, and of the motives of those with whom he came into contact. He did not make many new friends, and the people who knew him well, and with whom his holidays or hours of relaxation were passed, were confined to those he had known for many years. He always impressed one with a deep sense of decency in conversation and conduct; one felt in talking to him how impossible it would be to drift into the easy-going discussion of questions and problems of our modern life, and it seemed impossible to imagine his taking a silent acquiescence in the jokes and insinuations which are not considered now extraordinary or unpleasant.

Lord Kitchener's strength lay in the fact that his views broadened as he went on in life. As long as he was confined to Egypt and had to carry out his task with the minimum of force and expenditure, he was careful even to penuriousness, and his subordinates groaned under his exacting economy; but he was justified in his care by the wonderful development of the country devolving from his unsparing activity. When he went to South Africa with a great staff and unlimited funds, he took a new departure. He worked himself unceasingly, and exacted the same from those around him, but he recognized inevitable limitations and was most considerate.

Ceaseless activity characterized his work in Egypt, when he went there after failing to be appointed Viceroy of India, which most of his friends anticipated, and which he would have accepted. Perhaps Egypt was a disappointment after the wider sphere India presented, but nothing ever prevented him from doing what came to him to do and giving his best to it. When he returned there, the question of infant mortality and the unhygienic condition of Egyptian women during child-bearing, from the neglect and ignorance of the most elementary measures, came under his observation, and he was deeply interested in devising means of providing medical treatment for them, and of training native women in midwifery and all that would conduce to improving the conditions under which they lived. He enlisted the sympathy and interest of the wives of officials, and of Englishwomen in Egypt, and carried out a scheme which in itself was a wonderful example of what his interest and driving power could accomplish. These women whose help he enlisted could tell endless stories of the task he set them to do and his tacit refusal to listen to any difficulties that arose in carrying it out. A number of trained English nurses were despatched to Egypt and sent to different localities, where they gave training to a large number of native women in midwifery and kindred subjects. The scheme was a great success, and the benefit it has been to thousands of native women is indescribable, as regards both their general treatment and the care of themselves and their children at birth. Little was known about the subject in England, and much less about all that was done to mitigate the evil; but it was a wonderful piece of administration, though perhaps not one that appealed specially to him; and when some one, knowing what had been achieved, congratulated him on his success and the boon it was to the women in Egypt, his characteristic reply was: "I am told I have saved the lives of ten thousand babies. I suppose that is something to have done." At that time, only a fortnight before the prospect of war seemed possible, he was talking with the keenest interest of his return to Egypt and of what he had still to do there.

There are incidents in life which leave lasting impressions, and one of a large dinner at Lord French's about the same time, at which Lord K., Lord Haldane, and others were present, comes to my mind; probably no one there but those three men had an idea of the threatening cloud which broke in so short a time over England, and the important part two of them would take in it. Lord K., as the world knows, was on the point of returning to Egypt; in fact, he had started when he was recalled, almost on board the steamer at Dover.