but enormously strengthens, the case for its restoration.  But to offer Constantinople to Bulgaria would be a fatal gift.  She has absolutely no historic claim to the great city of the Caesars (Tsarigrad, as it is rightly known to every Slav); nor is there even any considerable Bulgarian population which could rally round the new government.  The administrative task is obviously far beyond the powers of a small peasant state, most of whose present leaders were born under a foreign yoke.  Nor is Greece a serious candidate for the vacant post.  The Greeks, of course, unlike the Bulgarians, have a definite claim, based on the traditions of the Byzantine Empire, and there is a large Greek population in the city—­at present close upon 350,000, though their numbers are likely to be materially reduced before this war is over.  But in their case also Constantinople would be a fatal gift.  The resources even of the enlarged Hellenic kingdom would inevitably prove unequal to the task.  Moreover, it must not be forgotten that a Greek occupation would be opposed on many grounds by the entire commercial community of every other nation in Europe.

In some ways the ideal arrangement would be that Roumania should assume the administration of the city, as trustee for a reconstituted Balkan League, with proper guarantees for the commercial rights of all the Powers.  But it is to be feared that such a solution would please nobody, perhaps not even Roumania herself.  A league of the five Balkan kings, with Roumania as primus inter pares, is the dream of a remote future, and until it can be realised, Constantinople cannot assume its natural position as capital of the Balkan peninsula.

Sec.14. Russia and Constantinople.—­In short, as matters stand to-day, there is only one power which can replace the Turks as master of Constantinople, and that power is Russia.  The Russians could not of course incorporate the city in their empire for reasons of geography; and this fundamental fact destroys at a blow the numerous objections which might have told against the occupation, if Constantinople had been contiguous to the Russian dominions.  It would obviously be necessary to establish a special autonomous administration under a Russian governor.  It is by no means impossible that Russia would be satisfied with the expulsion of the Turks and the internationalisation of Constantinople as a free port under a Christian prince or a commission of the Powers.  But, though admirable in theory, such a solution would give rise to endless complications and disputes.  Unless the Western Powers can trust Russia sufficiently to leave her in full possession, they must make up their minds to bolstering up the impossible Turk for a further period of years.  Such a surrender to the unreasoning and ignorant prejudices of a previous generation would be a sure prelude to the collapse of our alliance with Russia, which it is the vital interest of all British patriots to uphold at all costs.