Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-24
b, SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
Special Cable to the New York Times.
Copyright 1915 by the New York Times ION
pauy.
LONDON. October 2S-The Duke Of
Wellington, in one of those acute
philosophic asides which cropped ul
occasionally in his businesslike CORE
spondence, remarked that deep weir
of madness ran through the Brltlst
character. The noun is perhaps rather
harsh, but our best friends have fouhe
marked eccentricity in our mental
processes. One of the most curious
manifestations is a--tead encv to exces-
sive and ill-times self depreciation, NO,
universal. for we have our optimists
and even our braggarts, but SO clamor-
Gus at times as to engage the atten'
ton of the whole world and completely
deceive them as to our real situation
and character.
The historian will find the phenom-
enon al all ages of cur chronicle. and
expect that the original blue-skfnned
savage, as he poled his corracle alons
our creeks, was already lamenting the
degeneration of his stock. 1t has, how
ever, grown upon US with the years
and surely the most absurd sight of all
the ages is that of Great Britain during
our generation moaning and sobbfHs
over her own inefficiency, while~rap1dly
gathering up as much of the, earth
surface and of the worlds wealth as
she could possibly lay her. hands upon.
Illustrated by Contrast.
No better Illustration of this national
tendency could be found than a con-
trast between the German and British
press during the last few months. II
one were to take them at their face
value, one would imagine, to read these
articles. that Germany was not only
confident of the future, but had in the
past reason to congratulate herself
upon the results of her efforts against
Great Britain. while, on the British
side, one would gather that there was
We had no reason to be satisfied with
anything which we had done in the
war.
Yet in our heart of hearts we are as
certain of victory as that tomorrow
sun will come, and dispassionate sur
vey will satisfy any student of his
tory that no great war in which our
country has ever been engaged has been
marked in. the same space Of time by
such triumphant successes as those Of
the last fourteen months. Our troubles
have been those of our allies: our vic
tories have largely been our own. Ger
many can make a good showing up to
date against the coalition. Against
Great Britain she has been beaten at
every turn.
What Britain Has Done.
Consider what we have done in this
short space of time and compare it
with the opening of any of our greater
wars. In our war against the French
republic it was nearly two years after
its inception that Howe's victory gave
us a CLEAN of success. In the great
war against Napoleon it was again two
years before Trafalgar ended the fear
OF imminent invasion and twelve years
of very varying fortunes before we
won through.
Now, look at the work of fourteen
months. We have annexed the whole
great German colonial empire, with the
exception of East Africa and district
IN kameruns. we have swept the Ger
man flag, both imperial ana mercan-
tile. off the face of the ocean; we have
completely steriiized her feet: we have
repealed her serious submarine attack /:
played our game SO skfllfully that the
hux of time shows us stronger not
weaker, in comparison: we have con-
quered Mesopotamia from the Turks
We have completely repealed their at
tempted invasion of Egypt; we have
helped to save Paris; we have, with
French and Belgian assistance, but
mainly by our own exertions, stopped
the advance upon Calais, inficting a
loss of several hundreds of thousands
upon the Germans; we have, by our
Intervention at Antwerp, helped to ex-
tricate the Belgian army; finally. and
greatest of all, we have raised an
enormous voluntary army, which Is
large enough to turn the scale between
verified ourselves, with wonderful adap-
liability, into the great factory and mu-
milton store of the allies.
That is our story, and il any man
cannot see that it is wonderful one
he is not merely a pessimist, but blind.
What have we to put on the other side
of the account? I am dealing for the
moment with large results. and not with
details. Where have we failed?
The Dardanelles.
In the whole world our most severe
critic could only point to one place. tho
Dardanelles. But have We failed in the
Dardanelles2
/ believe that II we should never force
the straits the enterprise has none the
less been worth the undertaking. We
have lost 100000. How many have the
Turks lost? Certainly not less. We have
held up a great body Of their best troops,
who would otherwise have been operat-
ing against US on the Egyptian and
Mesopotamian fronts or in the Caucasus
against the Russians. Gen. Ian Hamilton
has taken the pressure off Gen. Maxwell
on the one side and Gen. Nixon on the
other
But the greatest of all the results
from the Dardanelles expedition Is that
IL has united US with Russia as nothing
say, as she might have said, that va
thought only of our own empire We
have spent our blood and our ships in try
ing to force the gates which close her
in. When the episode remains a his
torical Renaissance. like the passage Of
Admiral Duckworth in 1907. this great
result Will still remain.
Again. ono sequel which may provo to
be Of vital importance may spring from
th0 DArdanslles- It 10 our operation
there and the consequent danger to their