Perhaps the most difficult part of the new ambassador's duties
will be to satisfy what we had almost termed the demands of the Foreign Office for successful political prophecy. In circumstances such as those which now prevail in Constantinople the Department will, under the alias of being " kept specifically informed as to all new developments," really be asking their ambassador to predict what is going to happen. But how is it possible that any human being will be able to do that in the case of such a troubled and tormented political ocean as that now raging round the walls of Stamboul ? To vary our metaphor, the new ambassador will be expected to spot the winner among Old Turk and Young Turk, Arab and Ottoman, Syrian and Mesopotamian, German and Greek, French and Italian, Austrian and Russian. It will be an exciting as well as a difficult task, but we may feel sure that Sir Louis will not fail in the matter of insight or of intellectual power.
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