Turkish opposition in Asia Minor was swiftly broken down, and steps were taken by the Russians to relieve the British force which had been beleagured by the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopatamia, 150 miles from Erzerum.

" BRITISH SURRENDER AT KUT-EL AMARA.

After holding out against the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopotamia, for 143 days, General Townshend, the British commander, was compelled, through exhaustion of his supplies, to surrender his force of 9,000 officers and men, on April 28.

Victorious advances were made in Mesopotamia during the month of January by the British forces, who were determined to wipe out the reverse sustained in the surrender at Kut-el-Amara in 1916.

On January 21 it was announced that the Turks had been driven out of positions on the right bank of the Tigris, near Kut, the British occupying their trenches on a wide front.

After a series of persistent attacks Kut-el-Amara fell before the British advance on February 26, opening the road to Bagdad.

"No doubt ye think the owners of this gold won't have a word to say when they find the Kut Sang overdue.

"Then the Kut Sang didn't go down at all," said Thirkle's voice.

" "Ye say the Kut Sang went down clean?" asked Buckrow.

No doubt ye'll land in Manila with a boat-load of gold and say yer out of the Kut Sang, and she went down, and all were lost but you two and the cargo of gold.

"Ye think, because it was secret cargo, the owners of the gold won't kick up a row when the Kut Sang is a minute overdue?

Ye think they'll take yer yarns when they find ye went in the Kut Sang, as the whole Sailors' Home knows?

" "My dear Mr. Trenholm, I'm sorry you didn't go down in the Kut Sang.

I tried to warn you, but you couldn't expect me to tell you my plans regarding the Kut Sang.

There was a time when I thought your connection with the affair ended when you brought the orders from Saigon, but your persistence in pretending to buy a ticket in the Kut Sang rather puzzled me for a time, and then I was afraid that you suspected me, and that I had gone too far in trying to keep you out of the vessel.

" "But what surprised me most," he resumed, disregarding my remark, "was that I purchased a ticket in the Kut Sang at all.

I was introduced to him in a most casual way in the bank, and was surprised to find him a passenger in the Kut Sang" "He never told you about his cane?

You know too much now, and it would be premature to tell the story of the Kut Sang for several years.

I watched him closely, for a hope had sprung up in my withered hearta hope which I hardly dared tell myself might possibly be true, after the train of disasters which had overtaken me since I went aboard the Kut Sang.

Once in the channel we filled away to the south, scooting past the black upper-works of the Kut Sang, as we caught a stiff breeze from the north.

"Four men out of the Kut Sang, ashore on a reef," said Captain Riggs, as we went over her side.

December, 1915 Kut and Ctesiphon, Ctesiphon and Kut.

December, 1915 Kut and Ctesiphon, Ctesiphon and Kut.

General Townshend, rebus angustis animosus"in a tight place but full of beans"is besieged in Kut, and the relieving forces have not been able to dislodge the Turks.

General Maude, who never failed to inspire the men under his command on the Western front with a fine offensive spirit, has already justified his appointment by capturing Kut, and starting on a great drive towards Baghdad.