The extension of Bulgaria to the shores of the Aegean seemed at that time a mighty triumph for Russian influence; but it was the last item, vaguely foreshadowing the extension of Russian influence to the Dardanelles, that most aroused the alarm of the British Cabinet.  Russian control of those straits would certainly have endangered Britain’s connections with India by way of the Suez Canal, seeing that we then had no foothold in Egypt.  Accordingly, on January 28, the Ministry proposed to Parliament the voting of an additional sum of L6,000,000 towards increasing the armaments of the country.  At once there arose strong protests against this proposal, especially from the districts then suffering from the prolonged depression of trade.  The outcry was very natural; but none the less it can scarcely be justified in view of the magnitude of the British interests then at stake.  Granted that the views of the Czar were pacific, those of his generals at the seat of war were very much open to question[159].  The long coveted prize of Constantinople, or the Dardanelles, was likely to tempt them to disregard official orders from St. Petersburg, unless they knew that any imprudent step would bring on a European war.  In any case, the vote of L6,000,000 was a precautionary measure; and it probably had the effect of giving pause to the enthusiasts at the Russian headquarters.

[Footnote 159:  See the compromising revelations made by an anonymous Russian writer in the Revue de Paris for July 15, 1897.  The authoress, “O.K.,” in her book, The Friends and Foes of Russia (pp. 240-241), states that only the autocracy could have stayed the Russian advance on Constantinople.  General U.S.  Grant told her that if he had had such an order, he would have put it in his pocket and produced it again when in Constantinople.]

The preliminary bases of peace between Russia and Turkey were signed at Adrianople (Jan. 31) on the terms summarised above, except that the Czar’s Ministers now withdrew the obnoxious clause about the Straits.  A line of demarcation was also agreed on between the hostile forces; it passed from Derkos, a lake near the Black Sea, to the north of Constantinople, in a southerly direction by the banks of the Karasou stream as far as the Sea of Marmora.  This gave to the Russians the lines of Tchekmedje, the chief natural defence of Constantinople, and they occupied this position on February 6.  This fact was reported by Mr. Layard, Sir Henry Elliot’s successor at Constantinople, in alarmist terms, and it had the effect of stilling the opposition at Westminster to the vote of credit.  Though official assurances of a reassuring kind came from Prince Gortchakoff at St. Petersburg, the British Ministry on February 7 ordered a part of the Mediterranean fleet to enter the Sea of Marmora for the defence of British interests and the protection of British subjects at Constantinople.  The Czar’s Government thereupon declared that if the British fleet steamed up the Bosporus, Russian troops would enter Constantinople for the protection of the Christian population.