They have scrapped sentiment, together with humanity. What is _gun-fodder_ to the Scourge of God? These unfortunates, when alive, were driven ruthlessly to inevitable slaughter. They are sent as ruthlessly to the blast furnaces. One million dead men are resolved into six million pounds of glycerine. Thus the Happy Fatherland is served. One wonders whether the statisticians of the Central Powers have yet computed what a million of dead Huns represents in cash. A soldier capable of serving his country in the field must be worth at least fifty pounds sterling per annum to that country. Let us say that each dead man represents a capitalisation of one thousand pounds. We have then, roughly, a loss of one thousand million pounds, leaving out the totally and partially disabled. What a handicap when they begin, after the war, the economic struggle for supremacy! Time was when the enemy losses sent a shiver down our spinal columns. That time--thanks to Hun methods--has passed. HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL [Illustration: TO THE CREMATORIUM GERMAN LETTER: “We send them in bundles of four.”] The Order of Merit Turkey had no illusions from the beginning on the subject of the war. If the choice had been left to the nation she would not have become Germany’s catspaw. Unfortunately for Turkey, she has had no choice. For years upon years the Sultan Abdul Hamid was Turkey. Opposition to his will meant death for his opponent. Thus Turkey became inarticulate. Her voice was struck dumb. The revolution was looked upon hopefully as the dawn of a new era. Abdul Hamid was dethroned; his brother, a puppet, was exalted, anointed, and enthroned. Power passed from the Crown, not, as expected, to the people and its representatives, but into the hands of a youthful adventurer, in German pay, who has led his country from one folly to another. Turkey did not want to fight, but she had no choice, and so she was dragged in by the heels. She has lost much beside her independence. The crafty German has drained her of supplies while giving naught in return. The German’s policy is to strive throughout for a weak Turkey. The weaker Turkey can be made, the better will it be for Germany, which hopes still, no matter what may happen elsewhere, so to manipulate things as to dominate the Ottoman Empire after the war. Turkey is still a rich country, in spite of her enormous sacrifices in the past decade. She has been exploited from end to end by the German adventurer, who will continue the process of bleeding so long as there is safety in the method; but Turkey is beginning to ask herself, as does the figure of the fat Pasha in the cartoon: “And is this all the compensation I get?” An Iron Cross does not pay for the loss of half a million good soldiers. Yet that is the exact measure of Turkey’s reward. RALPH D. BLUMENFELD [Illustration: THE ORDER OF MERIT