_Russian Official Report on the Capture of Erzerum._
_William_: "_No one is great save Allah and I am his Prophet._"
About the time Turkey became involved in the war a telegram was published as having been sent from Kaiser Wilhelm to the Crown Prince announcing with evident satisfaction that the supreme Moslem authorities at Constantinople had given their sanction to the declaration of a Holy War against Russia, England, and France "as oppressors of the Moslems." At one time it looked as though the aspirations implied by this message might be carried out. There was a mutiny at Singapore in which Moslem troops were implicated; there were outbreaks in the Italian Tripolitana and among the Senoussi tribesmen on the western border of Egypt; there was at least a threat against the Suez Canal, from the direction of Beersheba, and there was, or seemed to be, the possibility of a pro-German uprising in Persia. The advance of the Russians from the Caspian has dissipated this last possibility; the Suez Canal is no longer even threatened; the Senoussi have given their submission. Finally, from India, from Sultan Mohammed Aga Khan, who is the spiritual head of the many million Moslems in India, comes a declaration which shows that the hopes of a holy war, as it seems to have been expected in Germany, were never anything more than a myth.
_The Kaiser_: "_Your ruthlessness has failed, Tirpitz; I must pin my faith to Count Zeppelin._"
The ruthless submarine policy introduced by von Tirpitz earlier in the war and which was guaranteed to "bring proud Albion to her knees" had completely failed in its object by Spring, 1916. After a bitter fight between von Tirpitz and his opponents of whom the chief was the Chancellor himself, the Admiral on March 16, 1916, resigned his office of Secretary of State for the Imperial Navy.
_"Father says I must do the same with France"_
We have seen that corps were specially called back to the interior of Germany for reposing, training and even feeding calculated towards the end in view. Light railways were built upon every side. Heavy artillery was concentrated to the number of over one thousand pieces--all that could be spared--and slowly massed in the woods by Spincourt, and an immense head of shell accumulated during the four winter months. The unfit were thoroughly combed out and every possible man taken to swell the German effectives. Class 1916 after some four months' training was sent forward to the local depots behind the front with the object of throwing it into the fighting the moment the losses should become serious. Class 1917 began to be called out (in the month of December). On the 19th of February, 1916, the first shots of the intensive bombardment against the Verdun sector were fired, and on Monday the 21st of February the great German offensive was launched.