TURKEY. 325 



characteristic of the Far Eastern and Near Eastern 

 questions respectively, is, of course, a general one. 

 Commerce plays an important part in the Near East, 

 and the Far East has its strategic aspect for us as well 

 as its commercial side, more especially since we became 

 the allies of Japan, Hongkong and Wei-hai-Wei are 

 strategic bases, and the long access into the interior 

 afforded by the Yangtse-Kiang is a valuable asset in 

 the strategic capital of the Power which has command 

 of the sea. But, broadly speaking, it may be said 

 that the question of the Far East is, in the first in- 

 stance, a commercial one, while the question of the 

 Near East is a strateofic one first and a commercial one 

 afterwards ; and when a writer in ' The Spectator ' of 

 May 9, 1903, gave expression to his opinion that "a 

 great war to guard our petty trade in the Persian Gulf 

 would be a financial folly," he merely showed that he 

 had entirely failed to grasp the real issues involved. 



Bearing in mind these brief generalisations, it re- 

 mains for me to say a few words as to the situation in 

 the different countries individually with which Great 

 Britain is at the present time closely concerned. 



Turkey. 



Beginning on the extreme west, we have the Turkish 

 Empire, forming — thanks to its geographical position — 

 the starting-point of that belt of territory of unsettled 

 political status which stretches across Asia from west 

 to east, and which merits the description of Captain 

 Mahan of " the debatable and debated ground." From 

 the days when the germ of the Russian Empire first 

 fell upon Russian soil up to the present time an unin- 

 terrupted antagonism has existed between the two 

 countries. The peoples have changed but the antag- 



