It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish ideal to her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of Germany’s methods, the best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal is to be found in a publication of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was written as German propaganda and by Germany disseminated broadcast over the Turkish Empire.  An account of this movement has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the Turkish side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish Phoenix.  The Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of Love, in whose name the Armenians were tortured and massacred, were the two wings on which it was to soar.  Auxiliary soaring societies were organised, among them a Turkish Ojagha with similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of it were founded throughout the Empire.  There were also a Turkish Guiji or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts’ club.  A union of merchants worked for the same object in districts where hitherto trade had been in the hands of Greeks and Armenians, and signs appeared on their shops that only Turkish labour was employed.  Religious funds also were used for similar economic restoration.

Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and took out her long spoon, for her hour was come.  She did not interfere:  she only helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal.  With her usual foresight she perceived that the Izji, for instance, was a thing to encourage, for the boys who were being trained now would in a few years be precisely the young men of whom she could not have too many.  By all means the boy scout movement was to be encouraged.  She encouraged it so generously and methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely reliable source of information, we find that the whole boy scout movement, with its innumerable branches, was under the control of a German officer, Colonel von Hoff.  In its classes (derneks) boys are trained in military practices, in ‘a recreational manner,’ so that they enjoy—­positively enjoy (a Prussian touch)—­the exercises that will fit them to be of use to the Sultan William II.  They learn trigger-drill, they learn skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements of their companies, they are shown neat ways of judging distances.  They are divided into two classes, the junior class ranging from the ages of twelve to seventeen, the senior class consisting of boys over seventeen, but not yet of military age.  But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, the military age has been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to serve their country on German fronts.  Prussian thoroughness, therefore, saw that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class has become the senior class, and a new junior class has been set on foot which begins its recreational exercises in the service of William II., Got and Allah, at the age of eight.  It is all great fun, but those pigeon-livered little boys who are not diverted by it have to go on with their fun all the same, for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on all boys.  Of course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is of a ‘semi-military’ character.