THE LAND OF THE STALKING DEATH 



397 



Photograph by Melville Chater 



GOEOVINSKY PROSPEKT, TlFEIS, SHOWING THE GARRISON CATHEDRAL 



This famous street is the Fifth Avenue of the Georgian capital. The building on the 

 right is the First High School, and beyond the Cathedral, with its massive dome, is the building 

 which was formerly the palace of the Viceroy of the Caucasus. After the revolution this 

 building became the capitol of the Transcaucasian Republic. 



traveling on the anniversary of the Rus- 

 sian revolution, and hence of Georgia's 

 second birthday as a republic. 



"everybody's peaying doees'-house" 



As to what had been happening of late 

 in the Transcaucasus, we were both quite 

 ignorant until a friendly British boarding 

 officer dropped in for the distance of a 

 few stations and chatted with us over 

 bully beef and tea. 



"Everybody's playing dolls'-house in 

 the Transcaucasus," he said. "There are 

 five post-revolutionary republics up to 

 the present, the three main ones being 

 Georgia to the west, Erivan of the Arme- 

 nians, which is centrally situated, and 

 Azerbaijan, the Tatar State, on the east. 

 This arrangement gives Georgia the 

 Black Sea littoral, Azerbaijan the Cas- 

 pian littoral, and the Armenians no sea- 

 coast at all. 



"The republic-forming business was 

 made possible, of course, bv Russia's 

 smash-up. Though the three States have 



formed what they call the Transcaucasian 

 Commission, it hasn't been very success- 

 ful on account of jealousies, boundary 

 disputes, and that sort of thing. The 

 Georgians backed the wrong horse ; that 

 is to say, they expressed their willingness 

 to continue statehood under German pro- 

 tection, when the Boche troops entered 

 at Batum. The Tatars, being Moslem, 

 not only welcomed Turkey's 40,000 sol- 

 diers when they inarched up from Asia 

 Minor into Azerbaijan, but actually sup- 

 plied troops to their army. 



"At the Bolshevist revolution the Rus- 

 sian army of the Transcaucasus had flung 

 down its arms and gone home, so there 

 wasn't any one left to stop the Boche and 

 Turk from having their way. 



"The Erivan Republic — the Armenians, 

 you know — refused to join hands with 

 the Central Powers and held out pluckily 

 with a small force until the Turks had 

 driven them to within six miles of their 

 capital. Just about that time Bulgaria 

 sued for peace, and within the next few 



