acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

20 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
although Greeks of these regions know well enough
that they would benefit by Russian dominion, yet
many have reservations prompted by dreams of a
Greek Empire, They remember that this coast was
part of the ancient Hellenic world, and that both coast
and interior belonged to the medieval Greek Empire
which fell to the Turk, and Russia therefore becomes
to them merely a second interloper succeeding to
the first.
It is curious how this strained anticipation of
political change displays itself even in times of peace.
Without a cloud being on the political horizon
rumours arise along the coast and go flying upon
all roads, multiplying and acquiring strange details
as they go. So it is that far inland one may hear
of the Russian fleet seen making for Trebizond ; of
crowded Russian transports discovered hovering at
night or in fog ofl" Samsun or Sinope ; of Russian
armies gathering in this place or that on the Caucasian
border. One may even hear, as I have heard twice,
that a Russian force has actually seized Samslin.
Nor do these stories seem so very far-fetched after
all, except as to their details, if you have spent any
time in Anatolia, and voyaged on the Black Sea and
considered w^hat that sea is to Russia. So doing the
conviction is forced on you that sooner or later Russia
will hold the Straits and the Coveted City, or be
kept out only by some Power altogether more mighty
in arms. German policy in the Near East w^ould
have created that compelling Power, but with the
failure of German ambitions Russia's road lies open
and inevitable. She will possess the Straits, and will
not, in the long-run, be satisfied with a detached
fragment of territory containing them. She will require
continuous territory, and because that corridor
cannot well be obtained in Europe she \vfll secure it
amply in Asia, and run her trains upoiyTier own soil
from the Caucasus to the Bosphorus.
After going some distance along t^rae level road at
the top of the pass, I was able to/look inland and