Kaiser: There is nothing overlooked? (Rings, and Bethman-Hollweg appears.)
H.: Nothing. With our shore batteries we could outrange any gun ashore or afloat, and as a submarine base it would be excellent. Ammunition and food would last that time.
Kaiser (dreamily): Three years. It would astonish posterity.
Beth.-Hollweg: Magnificent, my Emperor, but more than necessary.
Kaiser: You mean England would be sickened out long before then?
B.-H.: If the rest of the war-map could remain as it is, it wouldn't be worth her while to insist on unconditional terms. But gallery play in Stamboul is useless once our line gives in the West.
Kaiser (to Hindenburg): If we sacrifice the Roumanian line and hold one across Austria instead, make a stand in Constantinople, and concentrate all our forces on the Western Front, how long can we go on for?
H.: To the autumn of 1918, when it will all collapse like a house of cards.
Kaiser (to B.-H.): The siege of Constantinople then would not be mere gallery play, Herr Chancellor?
