Then Smith-Dorrien and
Plumer." In the same way Joffre and Foch were known to be the great
commanders of the French. Again in the same way (that is, by the
foreknowledge of the real experts) Lord Jellicoe, though a junior
rear-admiral at the time, was pointed out at the Quebec Tercentenary
(1908) as the man who would command the Grand Fleet; while Sir David
Beatty and Sir Charles Madden were also known as "rising stars."
The following years were fuller than ever of the coming war. In 1910
the Kaiser went to Vienna and let the world know that he was ready to
stand by Austria in "shining armour." Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, and
Greece were all to be used for the grand German railway from Berlin to
Bagdad that was to cut Russia off from the rest of Europe, get all the
trade of the Near East into German hands, and, by pushing down to the
Persian Gulf, threaten the British oversea line between England and
Asia.
During the next three years the Italian conquest of Tripoli (next door
to Egypt) and the two wars in the Balkans hurt Germany's friends, the
Turks and Bulgarians, a great deal, and thus threatened the German
Berlin-to-Bagdad "line of penetration" through the Near East and into
the Asiatic sea flank of the hated British.
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