The Dominion. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1917. THE GERMAN SCORPION IN THE EAST

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3118, 23 June 1917, Page 8

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1917. THE GERMAN SCORPION IN THE EAST

Mr. John Buchan, in his novol Grcenmantle, which Sir. William Robertson Nicoll lias described as the "most glorious war yarn" of today, introduces us to Blenkiron, a Yankee, who is engaged as a war spy by Britain, and who carries oul; his mission with dash, daring, and unique cleverness. Blenkiron is ono of the strongest characters in tho book, and his presenco there is a proof of tho creative power of Mr. Buchan , as. a novelist. Blenkiron's doings thrill and excite the reader, a,nd his sayings also arrest attention. In one place ho gives tho following quaint and arresting statement on Germany's lust for power and empire extension in tho East, a- statement which -is worthy of very careful consideration:

I've found out ono thing, and that is that the last dream Germany will part with is the control, of the Near Hast. That is what your statesmen don't figure enough on. She will give up Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine and Polaad, but, by God! she'll never give up the road to Mesopotamia, till yon have her by the throat and make her drop it. If the worst happens, the Kaiser will fling overboard a lot of ballast in Europe, and it will look like a.- big victory for the Allies, but he won't bo beaten if he has the road to the East open. Germany is like a. scorpion; her sting is in her (ail, and tbflt tail stretches away down into Asia.

It is quite possible that Mr. Buchan expresses his own opinions in the words he has put into the mouth of Blenkiron. In his History of the War ho is careful not to dogmatise with regard to the future, and we. do not find that ho commits himself to the view that a knock-out blow by the Entente on the Western front alone would bring Germany to her knees. The truth about the matter very likely is that unless Germany becomes bankrupt in food and in money it will need the knock-out in the East as well as in the West to 'bring Germany to her knees. Blenkiron is probably right in his judgment that as long as the road to the East is open to Germany she will not be beaten. The Kaiser finds to-day food for his Pan-German madness in the facts that the war has made a wide gate for him in the Balkans and a high road for him in Turkey. The Kaiser is obsessed and cheered by his Drany nach osten dream. Apart from this open road to the East tb'ero is no ray of hope on Germany's horizon. Germany's failures in every other region have been monumental and colossal. For thirty years the Kaiser has schemed and worked In give Germany a "place in tho sun" by possessing oversea colonies. Ho succeeded, and by the expenditure of blood and £1G0,000,000 of treasure bo, acquired territory so extonsivo that inside of it might bo put, to quote the Cnnt.cmpnraru Review for April, tho "whole of Germany, France, Great Britain, Sweden, and Spain, , Belgium and Bulgaria, Austria and Hungary, Serbia and Greece." Within thirty months all this oversea Germany has been conquorcd by tho Allies. Tho Kaiser boasted that the- future of Germany was "on the watnr," and ho built up a groat fleet of ships for war and commerce. His commercial licet, worth many millions, is lost to him, and his warships skulk in harbours or in mined waters. Tho Kaiskr boasted of a swift and crushing victory for his armies on the Western front, and his armies to-day are powerless to attack and stand on the defensive and suffer destruction. Tho Kaiseh's policy of fright-fulness, as seen in the miirdci , of civilians by airships and submarines, has made Germany the horror of the civilised world, and has mado nearly the whole civilised world resort to arms to crush

his cruel and insane despotism. The Kaiser schemed, as Bonaparte did moro than a, hundred years ago, to smite Britain in Egypt and leave India suspended in the air. He schemed in vain. Turkey tried to play the assassin's part a.nd stab Britain in Egypt, but she failed. The treacherous Abbas 11, who tried to play Uie German gajiie in Egypt, had to leave the country, and the beneficent British protectorate in Egypt is stronger than ever. The Kaiser must -know that he is to-day the Ishmncl of the civilised world. The situation almost everywhere disclosed to his eyes is fitted to fill him with blank despair; but the road to the East is open still, and on tbo ground of this hope ho sends to Constantine of Greece a boastful messago that ho will by the- force of his Army right the wrongs of Greece and restore him to his throne.

Blkxkieon makes vivid an uncomfortable fact when he says "Your statesmen don't figure enough" in tho Near East; and it must also be 'admitted that they have "figured" badly. Dr. Djllon and others have said that tho war began in tbo East and it will end in tho East. The Second Balkan War ended with Germany's door to tho East closed by the rise of the enlarged Sla.v Power of Serbia. Germany at once began to scheme fort a war that would destroy Serbia and burst open tho closed door. She has succeeded beyond her expectations. Bulgaria is her ally, Rumania is crumpled up, Russia rent with faction is for tho timo being a. broken reed to the Allies, and she has her grip still on Turkey. . Tho road to tho East was never "so open to Germany, and we can measure her exhaustion by her inability to tak'e advantage of the opportunity. Tho Kaiser's professed sympathy with Greece and with Constantine is simply a piece of hypocrisy. For years he has been a determined foe of Greece in her attempts to get under her own flag her land and her people that were under the heel of Turkey. Mr. G. F. Abbott, the well-known authority on tho Near East question, in his recent book, Turkey, Greece, and the tircat Powers, notes , that tho Kaiser went straight from his sister's marriage (to Constantine, in 1889) to Constantinople to make a special friend of the Sultan, the enemy of Greece. Ho also notes his efforts to get the Great Powers to fall upon Greece and smite her in 1897, when she was trying to extend her borders. To the Kaiser, private ties count for nothing alongside of his ambitions, and ho would have_ freely, sacrificed his sister's kingdom in '97 to preserve Turkey. Tho fall of Bagdad means a stab in the tail of _ the _ German scorpion, but its sting is not extracted. Much more must be done by tho Allies in the East before tho Kaiser will admit that the game, is up. The closing of this door to the East will likely mean the collapse of Germany and the beginning of tho day of lasting peace.