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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10881-0.txt b/10881-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb3489a --- /dev/null +++ b/10881-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4563 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10881 *** + +CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS + + +BY E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface_ + + +In compiling the following pages I have had access to certain sources of +official information, the nature of which I am not at liberty to specify +further. I have used these freely in such chapters of this book as deal +with recent and contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in +connection with Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland +über Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I have tried to be +discriminating in their use, and have not, as far as I am aware, stated +anything derived from them as a fact, for which I had not found +corroborative evidence. With regard to the Armenian massacres I have +drawn largely on the testimony collected by Lord Bryce, on that brought +forward by Mr. Arnold J. Toynbee in his pamphlet _The Murder of a +Nation_, and _The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks,_ and on the pamphlet +by Dr. Martin Niepage, called _The Horrors of Aleppo_. In the first +chapter I have based the short historical survey on the contribution of +Mr. D.G. Hogarth to _The Balkans_ (Clarendon Press, 1915). The chapter +called 'Thy Kingdom is Divided' is in no respect at all an official +utterance, and merely represents the individual opinions and surmises of +the author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies have +pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from Constantinople, +and to remove out of the power of the Turk the alien peoples who have +too long already been subject to his murderous rule. I have, in fact, +but attempted to conjecture in what kind of manner that promise will be +fulfilled. + +Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey are +continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one would have to +wait to the end of the war before beginning to write at all on this +subject. But since such usefulness as this book may possibly have is +involved with the necessity of its appearance before the end of the war, +I set a term to the gathering of material, and, with the exception of +two or three notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. +But up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys and +arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on my part. + +E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents_ + + +CHAPTER I + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +CHAPTER II + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +CHAPTER III + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +CHAPTER V + +DEUTSCHLAND ÃœBER ALLAH + +CHAPTER VI + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GRIP OF THE OCTOPUS + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his phrase is +applicable for the moment and for the situation in view of which he +coined it, but his coin has only a temporary validity: it is good for a +month or for a year, or for whatever period during which the crisis +lasts, and after that it lapses again into a mere token, a thing without +value and without meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a +monetary coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over +the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on being +passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription defaced by wear, +long after it has ceased to represent anything. In itself it is +obsolete, but people still trade with it, and think it represents what +it represented when it came hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it +sometimes happens that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery +(which it may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives +those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded possession. + +Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined by Lord +Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a sick man,' he +said, and added something which gave great offence then about the +advisability of putting Turkey out of his misery. I do not pretend to +quote correctly, but that was the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the +truth of Lord Aberdeen's phrase at the period when he made it. It +possibly contained a temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if +it had been acted on, might have saved a great deal of trouble +afterwards, but it missed then, and more than misses now, the essential +and salient truth about Turkey. The phrase, unfortunately, still +continued to obtain credit, and nowadays it is a forgery; it rings +false. + +For at whatever period we regard Turkey, and try to define that +monstrous phenomenon, we can make a far truer phrase than Lord +Aberdeen's. For Turkey is not a sick man: Turkey is a sickness. He is +not sick, nor ever has been, for he is the cancer itself, the devouring +tumour that for centuries has fed on living tissue, absorbing it and +killing it. It has never had life in itself, except in so far that the +power of preying on and destroying life constitutes life, and such a +power, after all, we are accustomed to call not life, but death. Turkey, +like death, continues to exist and to dominate, through its function of +killing. Life cannot kill, it is disease and death that kill, and from +the moment that Turkey passed from being a nomadic tribe moving +westwards from the confines of Persia, it has existed only and thrived +on a process of absorption and of murder. When first the Turks came out +of their Eastern fastnesses they absorbed; when they grew more or less +settled, and by degrees the power of mere absorption, as by some failure +of digestion, left them, they killed. They became a huge tumour, that +nourished itself by killing the living tissues that came in contact +with it. Now, by the amazing irony of fate, who weaves stranger dramas +than could ever be set on censored stages, for they both take hundreds +of years to unravel themselves, and are of the most unedifying +character, Turkey, the rodent cancer, has been infected by another with +greater organisation for devouring; the disease of Ottomanism is +threatened by a more deadly hungerer, and Prussianism has inserted its +crab-pincers into the cancer that came out of Asia. Those claws are +already deeply set, and the problem for civilised nations is first to +disentangle the nippers that are cancer in a cancer, and next to deprive +of all power over alien peoples the domination that has already been +allowed to exist too long. + +The object of this book is the statement of the case on which all +defenders of liberty base their prosecution against Turkey itself, and +against the Power that to-day has Turkey in its grip. + +Historical surveys are apt to be tedious, but in order to understand at +all adequately the case against Turkey as a ruler and controller of +subject peoples, it is necessary to go, though briefly, into her +blood-stained genealogy. There is no need to enter into ethnological +discussions as to earlier history, or define the difference between the +Osmanli Turks and those who were spread over Asia Minor before the +advent of the Osmanlis from the East. But it was the Osmanlis who were +the cancerous and devouring nation, and it is they who to-day rule over +a vast territory (subject to Germany) of peoples alien to them by +religion and blood and all the instincts common to civilised folk. Until +Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' suddenly hoisted her colours as a +champion of murder and rapine and barbarism, she the mother of art and +literature and science, there was nothing in Europe that could compare +with the anachronism of Turkey being there at all. Then, in August 1914, +there was hoisted the German flag, superimposed with skulls and +cross-bones, and all the insignia of piracy and highway robbery on land +and on sea, and Germany showed herself an anachronism worthy to impale +her arms on the shield of the most execrable domination that has ever +oppressed the world since the time when the Huns under Attila raged like +a forest fire across the cultivated fields of European civilisation. +To-day, in the name of Kultur, a similar invasion has broken on shores +that seemed secure, and it is no wonder that it has found its most +valuable victim and ally in the Power that adopted the same methods of +absorption and extermination centuries before the Hohenzollerns ever +started on their career of highway robbery. But like seeks like, and +perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our astonishing diplomacy in +Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like some desirable maiden, cast in +her lot with the Power that by instinct and tradition most resembled +her. Spiritual blood, no less than physical blood, is thicker than +water, and Gott and Allah, hand-in-hand, pledged each other in the cups +they had filled with the blood that poured from the wine-presses of +Belgium and of Armenia. + +For centuries before the Osmanli Turks made their appearance in Asia +Minor, there had come from out of the misty East numerous bodies of +Turks, pushing westwards, and spreading over the Euphrates valley and +over Persia, in nomadic or military colonisations, and it is not until +the thirteenth century that we find the Osmanli Turks, who give their +name to that congregation of races known as the Ottoman Empire, +established in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Like all previous +Turkish immigrations, they came not in any overwhelming horde, with +sword in one hand and Koran in the other, but as a small compact body +with a genius for military organisation, and the gift, which they retain +to this day, of stalwart fighting. The policy to which they owed their +growth was absorption, and the people whom they first began to absorb +were Greeks and other Christians, and it was to a Christian girl, +Nilufer, that Osman married his son Orkhan. They took Christian youths +from the families of Greek dwellers, forced them to apostatise, gave +them military training, and married them to Turkish girls. It was out of +this blend of Greek and Turkish blood, as Mr. D.G. Hogarth points out, +that they derived their national being and their national strength. This +system of recruiting they steadily pursued not only among the Christian +peoples with whom they came in contact, but among the settlements of +Turks who had preceded them in this process of pushing westwards, and +formed out of them the professional soldiery known as Janissaries. They +did not fight for themselves alone, but as mercenaries lent their arms +to other peoples, Moslem and Christian alike, who would hire their +services. This was a policy that paid well, for, after having delivered +some settlement from the depredations of an inconvenient neighbour, and +with their pay in their pocket, they sometimes turned on those who had +hired their arms, took their toll of youths, and finally incorporated +them in their growing empire. Like an insatiable sponge, they mopped up +the sprinklings of disconnected peoples over the fruitful floor of Asia +Minor, and swelled and prospered. But as yet the extermination of these +was not part of their programme: they absorbed the strength and manhood +of their annexations into their own soldiery, and came back for more. +They did not levy those taxes paid in the persons of soldiers for their +armies from their co-religionists, since Islam may not fight against +Islam, but by means of peaceful penetration (a policy long since +abandoned) they united scattered settlements of Turks to themselves by +marriages and the bond of a common tongue and religion. + +Their expansion into Europe began in the middle of the fourteenth +century, when, as mercenaries, they fought against the Serbs, and fifty +years later they had a firm hold over Bulgaria as well. Greece was their +next prey; they penetrated Bosnia and Macedonia, and in 1453 attacked +and took Constantinople under Mohammed the Conqueror. Still true to the +policy of incorporation they continued to mop up the remainder of the +Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time consolidated themselves further +in Asia Minor. By the beginning of the seventeenth century their +expansion reached its utmost geographical limits, but already the Empire +held within it the seeds of its own decay, and by a curious irony the +force that should still keep it together was derived not from its own +strength, but from the jealousies of the European Powers among +themselves, who would willingly have dismembered it, but feared the +quarrels that would surely result from the apportionment of its +territories. The Ottoman Empire from then onwards has owed its existence +to its enemies. + +Its weakness lay in itself, for it was very loosely knit together, and +no bond, whether of blood or religion or tongue, bound to it the +assembly of Christian and Jewish and non-Moslem races of which it was so +largely composed. The Empire never grew (as, for instance, the British +Empire grew) by the emigration and settlement of the Osmanli stock in +the territories it absorbed: it never gave, it only took. From the +beginning right up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it has +been a military despotism, imposing itself on unwilling and alien tribes +whom it drained of their blood, and then left in neglect until some +further levy was needed. None of its conquered peoples was ever given a +share in the government; they were left unorganised and, so to speak, +undigested elements under the Power which had forced them into +subjection, and one by one the whole of the European peoples included in +that uncemented tyranny have passed from under Turkish control. Turkey +in Europe has dwindled to a strip along the Bosporus to the Sea of +Marmora and the Dardanelles, Egypt has been lost, Tripoli also, and the +only force that, for the last hundred years has kept alive in Europe the +existence of that monstrous anachronism has been the strange political +phenomenon, now happily extinct, called the Balance of Power. No one of +the Great Powers, from fear of the complications that would ensue, could +risk the expulsion of the Turkish Government from Constantinople, and +there all through the nineteenth century it has been maintained lest the +Key of the Black Sea, which unlocked the bolts that barred Russia's +development into the Mediterranean, should lead to such a war as we are +now passing through. That policy, for the present, has utterly defeated +its own ends, for the key is in the pockets of Prussia. But all through +that century, though the Powers maintained Turkey there, they helped to +liberate, or saw liberate themselves, the various Christian kingdoms in +Europe over which at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey +exercised a military despotism. They weakened her in so far as they +could, but they one and all refused to let her die, and above all +refused to give her that stab in the heart which would have been implied +in her expulsion from Constantinople. + +For centuries from the first appearance of the Osmanlis in north-west +Asia Minor down to the reign of Abdul Hamid, the Empire maintained +itself, with alternate bouts of vigour and relapses, on the general +principle of drawing its strength from its subject peoples. Internally, +from whatever standpoint we view it, whether educational, economic, or +industrial, it has had the worst record of any domination known to +history. Rich in mineral wealth, possessed of lands that were once the +granary of the world, watered by amazing rivers, and with its strategic +position on the Mediterranean that holds the master-key of the Black Sea +in its hands, it has remained the most barbaric and least progressive of +all states. Its roads and means of communication remained up till the +last quarter of the nineteenth century much as they had been in the days +of Osman; except along an insignificant strip of sea-coast railways were +non-existent; it was bankrupt in finance and in morals, and did not +contain a single seed that might ripen into progress or civilisation. +Mesopotamia was once the most fertile of all lands, capable of +supporting not itself alone, but half the civilised world: nowadays, +under the stewardship of the Turk, it has been suffered to become a +desert for the greater part of the year and an impracticable swamp for +the remainder. Where great cities flourished, where once was reared the +pride of Babylon and of Nineveh, there huddle the squalid huts of +fever-stricken peasants, scarce able to gain their half-starved living +from the soil that once supported in luxury and pomp the grandeur of +metropolitan cities. The ancient barrages, the canals, the systems of +irrigation were all allowed to silt up and become useless; and at the +end of the nineteenth century you would not find in all Mesopotamia an +agricultural implement that was in any way superior to the ploughs and +the flails of more than two thousand years ago. But so long as there was +a palace-guard about the gates to secure the safety of the Sultan and +his corrupt military oligarchy, so long as there were houris to divert +their leisure, tribute of youths to swell their armies, and taxes wrung +from starving subjects to maintain their pomp, there was not one of +those who held the reins of government who cared the flick of an eyelash +for the needs of the nations on whom the Empire rested, for the +cultivation of its soil that would yield a hundredfold to the skilled +husbandman, or for the exploitation and development of its internal +wealth. While there was left in the emaciated carcase of the Turkish +Empire enough live tissue for the cancerous Government to grow fat on, +it gave not one thought to the welfare of all those races on whom it had +fastened itself. Province after province of its European dominions +might be lost to it, but the Balance of Power still kept the Sultan on +his throne, and left the peoples of Asia Minor and Syria at his mercy. +They were largely of alien religion and of alien tongue, and their +individual weakness was his strength. Neglect, and the decay consequent +on neglect, was the lot of all who languished under that abominable +despotism. + +With the accession in 1876 of Abdul Hamid, of cursed memory, there +dawned on the doomed subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire a day of +bloodier import than any yet. The year before and during that year had +occurred the Bulgarian atrocities and massacres, and the word 'massacre' +lingered and made music in Abdul Hamid's brain. He said it over to +himself and dwelt upon it, and meditated on the nature and possibilities +of massacre. The troubles which massacre had calmed had arisen before +his accession out of the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which +corresponded to the Greek Patriarchate, and was given power over +districts and peoples whom the Greeks justly considered to belong to +them by blood and religion. Greek armed bands came into collision with +Bulgarian bands, and in order to calm these disturbances by thoroughly +effectual means, irregular Turkish troops were sent into Bulgaria, +charged with the command to 'stop the row,' but with no other +instructions. Indiscriminate killing, with all the passions and horrors +that bloodshed evokes in the half-civilised, followed, and there was no +more trouble just then in the disturbed districts, for there was none to +make trouble. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was deposed by a group of king-makers +under Midhat Pasha, Murad V. reigned shadow-like for three months, and +during the same year Abdul Hamid was finally selected to fill the +throne, and stand forth as the Shadow of God. It was a disturbed and +tottering inheritance to which he succeeded, riddled with the dry-rot of +corruption, but the inheritor proved himself equal to the occasion. + +For a little while he was all abroad, and at the bidding of Midhat, who +had placed him on the throne, he summoned a kind of representative +Turkish Parliament, by way of imbuing the Great Powers with the idea +that he was an enlightened Shadow of God bent on reform. This parody of +a Parliament lasted but a short time: it was no more than a faint, +dissolving magic-lantern picture. In the spring of 1877 Rumania, under +Russian encouragement, broke away from Turkish rule. Turkey declared war +on Russia, and in 1878 found herself utterly defeated. At Adrianople was +drawn up the Treaty of San Stefano, creating an independent Bulgarian +state, and, in the opinion of Great Britain and Germany, giving Russia +far greater influence in the Balkan Peninsula than was agreeable to that +disastrous supporter of Turkey, the Balance of Power. In consequence the +Treaty of San Stefano was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin. + +In those arrangements Abdul Hamid had no voice, but he was well content +to sit quiet, think about what was to be done with what was left him, +and thank his waning crescent that once again the Balance of Power had +secured Constantinople for him, leaving him free to deal with his +Asiatic dominions, and such part of Europe as was left him, as he +thought fit. He could safely trust that he would never be ejected from +his throne by a foreign Power, and all he need do was to make himself +safe against internal disturbances and revolutions which might upset +him. And it was then that he begot in the womb of his cold and cunning +brain a policy that was all his own, except in so far as the Bulgarian +atrocities, consequent on feuds between Bulgars and Greeks, may be +considered the father of that hideous birth. But it was he who suckled +and nourished it, it was from his brain that it emerged, full-grown and +in panoply of armour, as from the brain of Olympian Zeus came Pallas +Athene. This new policy was in flat contradiction of all the previous +policy, as he had received it from his predecessors, of strengthening +Turkey by tributes of man-power from his subject tribes, but it would, +he thought, have the same result of keeping the Turk supreme among the +alien elements of the Empire. Times had changed; it behoved him to +change the methods which hitherto had held together his hapless +inheritance. + +Now Abdul Hamid was not in any sense a wise man, and the ability which +has been attributed to him, in view of the manner in which he +successfully defied the civilisations of Europe, is based on premisses +altogether false. He never really defied Europe at all; he always +yielded, secure in his belief that Europe in the shape of the Balance of +Power, was unanimous in keeping him where he was. He never even risked +being turned out of Constantinople, for he knew--none better--that all +Europe insisted on retaining him there. As regards wisdom, there was +never a greater fool, but as regards cunning there was never a greater +fox. He had a brain that was absolutely impervious to large ideas: the +notion of consolidating and strengthening his Empire by ameliorating its +internal conditions, by bringing it within speaking distance of the +influence of civilisation and progress, by taking advantage of and +developing its immense natural resources, by employing the brains and +the industry of his subject races, seems never to have entered his head. +He could easily have done all this: there was not a Power in Europe that +would not have lent him a helping hand in development and reform, in the +establishment of a solvent state, in aiding the condition of the peoples +over whom he ruled. In whatever he did, provided that it furthered the +welfare of his subjects, whether Turk, Armenian, or Arab, the whole +Concert of Europe would have provided him with cash, with missionaries, +with engineers, and all the resources of the arts and sciences of peace +and of progress. But being a felon, with crime and cunning to take the +place of wisdom, he preferred to develop his Empire on his own original +lines. In Europe he was but suffered to exist. There remained Asia. + +The policy of previous Osmanli rulers has already been roughly defined. +They strengthened themselves and the military Turkish despotism round +them by absorbing the manhood of the tribes over which they had obtained +dominion. Abdul Hamid reversed that policy; he strengthened the Turkish +supremacy, not by drawing into it the manhood of his subject peoples, +but by destroying that manhood. In proportion, so his foxlike brain +reasoned, as his alien subjects were weak, so were the Turks strong. A +consistent weakening of alien nations would strengthen the hold of those +who governed the Ottoman Empire. It was as if a man suffered from gout +in his foot: he could get rid of the gout by wholesome living, the +result of which would be that his foot ceased to trouble him. But the +plan which he adopted was to cause his foot to mortify by process of +inhuman savagery. When it was dead it would trouble him no longer. + +He was well aware that the Turkish people only comprised some forty per +cent, of the population of the Turkish Empire: numerically they were +weaker than the alien peoples who composed the rest of it. Something had +to be done to bring the governing Power up to such a proportionate +strength as should secure its supremacy, and the most convenient plan +was to weaken the alien elements. The scheme, though yet inchoate, had +been tried with success in the case of the Bulgarians and Greeks, and to +test it further he stirred up Albanians against the inhabitants of Old +Servia with gratifying results. They weakened each other, and he further +weakened them both by the employment of Turkish troops in Macedonia to +quell the disturbances which he had himself fomented. There were +massacres and atrocities, and no more trouble just then from Macedonia. +Having thus tested his plan and found no flaw in it, he settled to adopt +it. But European combinations did not really much interest him, for he +was aware that the Great Powers, to whose sacred Balance he owed the +permanence of his throne, would not tolerate interference with European +peoples, and he turned his attention to Asia Minor. There were +excrescences there which he could not absorb, but which might be +destroyed. He could use the knife on living tissues which the impaired +digestion of the Ottoman Empire could not assimilate. So he hit on this +fresh scheme, which his hellish cunning devised with a matchless sense +of the adaptation of the means to the end, and he created (though he did +not live to perfect) a new policy that reversed the traditions of five +hundred years. That is no light task to undertake, and when we consider +that since his deposition, now nine years ago, that policy has reaped +results undreamed of perhaps by him, we can see how far-sighted his +cunning was. To-day it is being followed out by the very combination +that deposed him; his aims have been fully justified, and for that +precise reason we are right to classify him among the abhorred of +mankind. He had an opportunity such as is given to the few, and he made +the utmost of it, even as his greater successor on the throne of Turkey +for the present, namely Wilhelm II. of Prussia, has done, in the service +of the devil. 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' must surely +have been his well-deserved welcome, when he left the hell he had made +on earth for another. + +Of all his subjects the Armenians were the most progressive, the most +industrious, the most capable. They therefore contributed, according to +that perverted foxlike mind, one of the greatest menaces to the +stability of his throne, which henceforth should owe its strength to the +weakness of those it governed. They, as all the world knows, are a +peaceful Christian people, and it was against them that Abdul Hamid +directed the policy which he had tested in Europe. The instruments he +employed to put it in force were the Kurds, a turbulent shepherd race +marching with and mixed up among the Armenians. By this means he had the +excuse ready that these massacres were local disturbances among remote +and insubordinate tribes, one of whom, however, the Kurds, he armed with +modern rifles and caused to be instructed in some elementary military +training. Their task was to murder Armenians, their pay was the +privilege to rape their girls and their women, and to rob the houses of +the men they had killed. The Armenians resisted with at first some small +success, upon which Abdul Hamid reinforced the Kurds with regular +troops, and caused it to be proclaimed that this was a war of Moslems +against the infidel, a Holy War. Moslem fanaticism, ever smouldering +and ready to burst into flames, blazed high, and a fury of massacres +broke forth against all Armenians, east and west, north and south. The +streets of Constantinople ran with their blood, and before Abdul Hamid +was obliged by foreign civilised Powers to stop those holocausts, he had +so decimated the race that not for at least a generation would they +conceivably be a menace again even to that zealous guardian of the +supremacy in its own dominions of the Ottoman power. Very unwillingly, +when obliged to do so, he whistled off his bands of Kurds, and dismissed +them: unwillingly, too, he gave orders that the Armenian hunts which had +so pleasantly diverted the sportsmen of Constantinople, must be +abandoned: then was decreed a 'close time' for Armenians, the shooting +season was over. There is no exaggeration in this: eye-witnesses have +recorded how at the close of the business day in Constantinople, +shooting parties used literally to go out, and beat the coverts of +tenement houses for Armenians, of whom there were at that time in +Constantinople some 150,000. But when Abdul Hamid had finished his +sport, I do not think more than 80,000 at the most survived. These were +saved by the protests of Europe, and perhaps by the knowledge that if +all the Armenians were killed, there could never be any more shooting. +The Kurds also had lost a considerable number of men, and that was far +from displeasing to the yellow-faced butcher of Yildiz. A little +blood-letting among those turbulent Kurds was not at all a bad thing. + +Here, then, we see defined and at work the new Ottoman policy with +regard to its peoples. Hitherto, it had been sufficient to take from +them its fill of man-power, and leave the tribe in question to its own +devices. There was no objection whatever to its developing the resources +of its territory, to its increasing in prosperity and in population. +Indeed the central Power was quite pleased that it should do so, for +when next the gathering of taxes and youths came round the collectors +would find a creditable harvest awaiting them. Such a tribe received no +encouragement or help from the Government; that would have been too +much to expect, but as long as it kept quiet and obedient it might, +without interference, prosper as well as it could. But now, in the last +quarter of the nineteenth century, all that was changed; instead of a +policy of neglect there was substituted a policy of murder. The state no +longer considered itself secure when in various parts of its dominions +its subjects showed themselves progressive and industrious. They had to +be kept down, and clearly the most efficient way of keeping people down +was killing them. Let it not be supposed for a moment that either the +first massacre, or any that followed, was the result of local +disturbances and fanaticism. It was nothing of the sort: each was +arranged and planned at Constantinople, as the official means, invented +by the arch-butcher, Abdul Hamid, of maintaining in power the most +devilish despotism that has ever disgraced the world. Something had to +be done to prevent the alien tribes in Asia slipping out of the noose of +Ottoman strangulation, even as the European tribes had done, and +forming themselves into separate and independent states. A ruler with +progressive ideas, one who had any perception of the internal prosperity +which alone can render an empire stable, would have made the attempt to +weld his loose and wavering domination together by encouraging and +working for the prosperity of its component peoples, so that he might, +though late in the day, give birth to a Turkey that was strong, because +its citizens were prosperous and content. Not so did Abdul Hamid; the +Turkey that he sought to establish was merely to be strong because he +had battered into a blood-stained pulp the most progressive and the most +industrious of the alien peoples over whom he ruled. + +It is significant that, while yet the blood of the murdered Christians +was scarcely washed from the streets of Constantinople, the Emperor +Wilhelm II. visited his brother-sovereign at Yildiz, after making his +tour throughout the Holy Land. The two can hardly, in their intimate +conversations, have completely avoided the subject of the massacres; but +after all, that was not such an unmanageably awkward topic, for Wilhelm +II. could tactfully have reminded Abdul Hamid that his own throne also +was based on the murderous progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there +was the war between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss, +and there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of +Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. Altogether, in +spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit the Holy Places in +Palestine, it was an odd moment for a Christian monarch to visit the +butcher of Constantinople. But the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very +strong reason for going to see his brother, for the fruit of German +policy in Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the +minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while still his +hands were red with blood was more than compensated for by the +advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him on other subjects. +Germany had already begun her peaceful penetration, and the real motive +of the Emperor's visit was, after swords and orders had been exchanged, +to make the definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be +allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and a hint no +doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room for them now that +there were so many Armenian farms unfortunately without a master. But, +like Uriah Heep, the Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it +was ripe, or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to +reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense advantages +which would result to Turkey by the establishment of those Gott-like +German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his colossal egalo-megalomania, of +which we know more now, he thought that any request which the +All-Highest should deign to make must instantly be granted. But he met +with a perfectly flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left +Constantinople in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the +good that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of Jerusalem +had done him. It is pleasant to think of the Pan-Islamic merriment with +which Abdul Hamid must have viewed the indignant exit of his Christian +brother, who had come such a long way to see him, and was so tactful +about the Armenian atrocities. He might perhaps--for those Christians +were very odd pigs--have expressed horror or remonstrance. Not at all: +he was much too anxious to get his request granted, to make himself +disagreeable. But did his Christian brother really think that all those +massacres over which Abdul Hamid had spent so much time and money, had +been arranged in order to settle those nasty progressive Germans in the +lands that had been so carefully depopulated? Why, the whole point of +them had been that the Armenians were too progressive and prosperous, +thus constituting a menace to the central Government, and certainly +Abdul Hamid was not meaning to put in their place settlers even more +progressive and with a stronger backing behind them. So off went the +All-Highest back home again, very much vexed with Abdul Hamid, and +possibly (if that was not sacrilegious) with himself for having been in +too great a hurry. There was more spade-work to be done yet before +Turkey was ripe for open and avowed colonisation by the Fatherland. + +The episode, strictly historical, is of a certain importance, for it +shows the date at which Wilhelm II. thought that the time had come for +Germans to colonise Turkey. The peaceful penetration (which now amounts +to perforation) was even then pretty far advanced. But Abdul Hamid seems +to have seen the significance of the request, and for some little while +after that German influence had a certain set-back in Turkey. The date +of this marks an era, and Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' set to work +again, in no way discouraged, to set her cancer-nippers in the cancer +that already had begun to eat the live tissues round it. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter II_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +In the year 1908 a military group in Constantinople, styling itself the +'Young Turk' party, seized and deposed Abdul Hamid, and shut him up at +Salonika, there to spend the remainder of his infamous days. They put +forth a Liberal programme of reformation, one that earned them at the +moment the sympathy of civilised Europe (including Germany), and the +Balance of Power very mistakenly and prematurely heaved a sigh of +relief. For upwards of a century it had maintained in Constantinople the +corrupt and bloody autocracy of the Sultans, fearing the European +quarrels that would attend the dismemberment of that charnel-house of +decay known as the Ottoman Empire, and now (just for the moment) it +seemed as if a sudden rally had come to the Sick Man, and he showed +signs of returning animation and wholesome vitality. The policy of the +Powers, after a century of failure, looked as if it was justifying +itself, and they were full of congratulations towards Turkey and each +other. But never, in the whole century of their pusillanimous cacklings, +had they made a greater mistake. + +Whether the Young Turks ever meant well or not, whether there was or was +not a grain of sincerity in this profession of their policy, is a +disputed question. There are those who say that originally they were +prompted by patriotic and high-minded aims, when they proclaimed their +object of 'Organisation,' and of reform. But all are agreed that it +matters very little what their original aims were, so speedily did their +Liberal intentions narrow down to an Ottomanisation such as Adbul Hamid +had aimed at, but had been unable to accomplish before his evil sceptre +ceased to sway the destinies of his kingdom. In any case this programme +earned its authors the sympathy of Europe, and probably this, and no +more than this, prompted it. They wished to establish themselves, +unquestioned and undisturbed, and did so; and I do not think we shall +be far wrong if we take the original Young Turk programme about as +seriously as we took the parody of a Parliament with which Abdul Hamid +opened (as with a blessing) his atrocious reign. The very next year +(1909) they permitted (if they did not arrange) the Armenian massacres +at Adana, and the Balance of Power began faintly to wonder whether the +Young Turks in their deposition of Abdul Hamid had not slain an asp and +hatched a cockatrice. Given that their aims originally were sincere, we +can but marvel at the swiftness of the corruption which in little more +than a year had begun to lead them not into paths of reform and Liberal +policy, but along the road towards which the butcher they had deposed +had pointed the way. It must have made Abdul Hamid gnaw his nails and +shake impotent hands to see those who had torn him from his throne so +soon pursuing the very policy which he invented, and to which he +nominally owed his dethronement. Strange, too, was it that his overthrow +should come from the very quarter to which he looked for security, for +it was on the army that each Sultan in turn had most relied for the +stability of his throne. But Abdul Hamid, in order, perhaps, to deal +more effectually with the subject races he wished to exterminate, had +introduced a system of foreign training for the officers of his army, a +course of Potsdam efficiency, and it was just they, on whom Sultans from +time immemorial had relied, who knocked the prop of the army away from +him. Though publicly, for the edification of Europe his deposers +professed a Liberal policy, it was not on account of Armenian massacres +that they turned him off his throne, but because of the muddle and +corruption and debility of his rule. Herein we may easily trace the hand +of Germany, no longer publicly beckoning as when Wilhelm II., just after +the first Armenian massacres, made his request of the Sultan for the +establishment in Turkey of German colonists, but working underground, +sapping and mining like a mole. For Germany, her mind already fixed on +securing Turkey as an instrument of her Eastern policy, wanted a strong +Turkey, and without doubt desired to bring an end to the disorganisation +and decay of the Empire, and create and at the same time interpenetrate +an efficient state that should be useful to her. We may take it for +granted that she, like the rest of Europe, welcomed any sign of +regeneration in the Ottoman Empire, but there was an ulterior purpose +behind that. Turkey, already grasped by the Prussian hand, must be in +that hand a weapon fit for use, a blade on which she could rely. She +strengthened the Turkish army by the introduction of Prussian +discipline, and worked on good material. Already she has realised her +ambition in this respect, and now controls the material which she then +worked on. + +The troubled years of the Balkan wars which followed this false dawn, +coupled with the loss of all the territory which remained to the Ottoman +Empire in Europe, with the exception of Thrace, caused an immediate +reaction from the open-minded policy of the Young Turks, if we decide to +credit them at the outset with a sincere purpose. Organisation by a +slightly different spelling became Ottomanisation, and the aims of the +Young Turks were identified with those of the Nationalist party which +followed out and developed into a finished and super-fiendish policy the +dreams of Abdul Hamid. He, as we have seen, had invented the idea of +securing Ottoman supremacy in the Empire, not as before by absorption of +the strength of its subject peoples, but by their extermination, and +this formed part of the new programme which was to be more efficiently +administered. Already, in 1909, the experimental massacre at Adana took +place, and the Young Turk party, with its possibly Liberal aims, had +become a party that had as its main object a system of tyranny and +murder such as the world had never seen. Simultaneously Turkey itself, +Nationalist party and all, became enslaved to German influence. Link by +link the chains were forged and the manacles welded on, and before the +European War broke out in 1914, the incarceration of Turkey in Germany +was complete, and Wilhelm II. had a fine revenge for the snub inflicted +on him by Abdul Hamid when he proposed the scheme of German +colonisation in the lands depopulated by the Armenian massacres of 1895. + +From the first the aim of the Nationalists, who thus formed so deadly a +blend with the Young Turk party, was Ottomanisation, or the +establishment within the Empire of an Ottoman domination which should be +pure and undefiled, and in which none of the subject peoples, be they +Armenians or Kurds, Arabs or Greeks or Jews, Christian or Moslem, should +have any part. The inception of the scheme was no doubt inspired by the +example given by Prussia's treatment of the Poles, and Hungary's of +Roumans and Slovaks. But in thoroughness of method Prussia's pupil was +to prove Prussia's master, for it aimed not merely at expropriation, but +extermination, and sought to become strong, not merely by weakening +alien elements, but by abolishing them. It did not set this out quite +explicitly in its manifestoes and the resolutions of its congresses, but +two extracts, the first from the proceedings of the 'Committee of Union +and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a sinister +suggestiveness about them for which the acts and measures of the +Committee had already supplied the comment. + +'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the country must be +suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal ideas prevented. Turkey +must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem influence must be +preponderant. Every other religious propaganda must be suppressed.... +Sooner or later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must +be effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained by +persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other +nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for +decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish Empire.' + +Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul Hamid, than +this formal resolution, passed within three years of the time when the +Young Turks deposed him? The conviction begins to dawn on one--as it +began to dawn on the Balancers of Power--that he owed his downfall not +to his illiberal and butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough +enough. + +The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may be added, +which defines the policy, not with regard to the Christian or Jewish +subjects of the Turks, but with regard to the Arabs, Moslem by creed, +and the guardians of the Holy Cities. + +'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for us to +Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of nationality is +awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, and already threatens us +with a great catastrophe. Against this we must be fore-armed.' + +The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical form. +Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of patriotism, and any +means which secured it, massacres such as, in 1909, had taken place at +Adana, or the treatment accorded to the Greeks and Bulgarians who +remained in Thrace after the Balkan wars, were in accordance with the +new 'Liberal' gospel. Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in +Europe, and as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it +could not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under +the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed to put the +entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and lay hands on their +property. In fact this was the first of the 'deportation' schemes which, +in 1915, proved so successful with the Armenians, and the effect of it +was that neither Greeks nor Bulgarians were left in Thrace. Then +followed the expulsion of Greeks from the Mediterranean sea-board, but +this was never completely carried out because the European war +intervened, and the attention of the Nationalists was claimed by their +over-lord. Later, as we shall see, a further deportation of Greeks was +begun, but again that was stopped, for Germany saw that it would never +do to have her Turkish allies murdering settlers of the same blood as +those she hoped would become her allies. Of course, when it was only a +question of Armenians she did not interfere. + +The design, then, of the new 'Liberal' regime, of which those three +measures, the massacres at Adana, the expulsion of Greeks and Bulgarians +from Thrace, and of Greeks from the sea-board of the Mediterranean, were +early instances, was to restore the absolute supremacy of the Turks in +the Ottoman Empire. It was obvious that the problem was one of +considerable difficulty, since the Turks at the time composed only some +forty per cent, of the whole population. They numbered about 8,000,000, +while in the Empire were included about 7,000,000 Arabs, 2,000,000 +Greeks, 2,000,000 Armenians, and 3,000,000 more of smaller +nationalities, such as Kurds, Druses, and Jews. But the Turks were +backed by Germany, and nowadays, since the abolition of the +Capitulations, which leaves all alien races unprotected by foreign +Powers, such as survive, after the extermination of the Armenians, are +completely at the mercy of the Government in Constantinople. All these +peoples speak a different language from the Turks, and have a different +religion, for the Nationalist party, with a view to the Ottomanisation +of the Arabs, have definitely stated that Arab Moslems are not of the +true faith, and that their own Allah (in whose name they subsequently +exterminated the Armenians) is the God of Love--German equivalent +Got--whereas the Arab Allah is the God of vengeance. The sinister motive +in this discovery needs no comment, for it is obvious that it releases +the Ottoman Government from the prohibition in the Koran, whereby Moslem +may not fight against Moslem. Therefore the Arabs were declared not to +be true Moslems. Later on, that motive was translated into practical +measures. + +Among the first tasks with regard to the Arabs that faced the +Nationalist party from what we may call the pacific side of their +mission was to substitute the Turkish language for Arabic. Kemal Bey, a +Nationalist of Salonika, with the help of Ziya Bey, collected round him +a group of young writers, and these proceeded to translate the Koran out +of Arabic into Turkish, and to publish the prayers for the Caliphate in +their own language, and orders went out that these revised versions +should be used in all mosques. Turkish was to be the official language +for use in all public proclamations, and, with Prussian thoroughness, it +was even substituted on such railway tickets as had hitherto been +printed in Arabic. The new Turkish tongue (Yeni Lisan) had also to be +purged of all foreign words, but here some difficulty was experienced, +for Persian and Arabic formed an enormous percentage in the language as +hitherto employed, and the promoters of this Ottoman purity of tongue +found themselves left with a very jejune instrument for the rhapsodies +of their patriotic aims. Poets in especial (for the Nationalists, like +all well-equipped founders of romantic movements, had their bards) found +themselves in sore straits owing to the limited vocabulary; and we read +of one, Mehmed Emin Bey, who was forced to publish his odes in small +provincial papers, since no well-established journal would admit so +scrannel an expression of views however exalted.[1] But the translation +of the Koran was the greatest linguistic feat, and Tekin Alp, the most +prominent exponent of Nationalism, refers to it as one of the noblest +tasks undertaken by the new movement. It mattered not at all that by +religious ordinance the translation of the Koran into any other tongue +was a sin. 'The Nationalists,' he tells us, 'have cut themselves off +from the superstitious prejudice.' A further attempt was made to +substitute Turkish letters for Arabic letters in the alphabet, but this +seems to have presented insuperable difficulties, and I gather that it +has been abandoned. + +[Footnote 1: This thwarted poet retired from the Committee of Union and +Progress not long after, and his place was taken by Enver.] + +The Ottomanisation of religion and language, then, was among the pacific +methods of spreading Pan-Turkism through the Empire. A monstrous idol +was set up, a Hindenburg idol, in front of which all peoples and +languages, not Christians alone, but Moslems, were bound to prostrate +themselves. Indeed it was against Arabs mainly that these provisions +were directed, for the Arabs constituted the most menacing obstacle to +the spread of Ottomanisation, since they numbered in the Empire only a +million less than the Turks themselves. It was ordained by statute that +no Arab could have a seat on the Committee of Union and Progress, and +the Cabinet similarly was purged of any Greek or Armenian element. Never +any more must there be new parties in the Chamber, never any more must +Liberal ideas (to champion which the New Turk party had come into being) +be allowed to prick up their pernicious heads. For the Nationalist +party, with whom the New Turks were now identical, had taken as their +creed all that the deposed Abdul Hamid stood for, and only differed from +him in that as their schemes developed they looked forward to logical +conclusions far beyond what he had ever dreamed of. But Abdul Hamid may, +I think, be taken to be the true founder of the new Nationalism: at any +rate it was he who had first seen the possibilities of massacre as a +means of maintaining Ottoman supremacy. In the hands of Nationalists +that was to prove a more effective weapon than the printing of railway +tickets in Turkish. But already before the European War the Nationalists +had vastly extended his ideas, and had seen the danger of allowing even +Arabs to have a standing of any kind in the new state. Henceforth all +subject people were to be _rayas_, cattle, as in the old days of the +Sultans who absorbed the strength of the aliens, but did not exterminate +them. But now the cattle were not only to be used for milk, but were to +be slaughtered when advisable. Till then they must be dumb, or speak the +language of their masters only, for this alone can save them from the +shambles. Ahmed Sherif Bey, a prominent Nationalist, lays this down. 'It +is the business of the Porte to make the Arabs forget their own +language, and to impose upon them instead that of the nation that rules +them. If the Porte loses sight of this duty, it will be digging its +grave with its own hands, for if the Arabs do not forget their language, +their history, and their customs, they will seek to restore their +ancient empire on the ruins of Ottomanism and of Turkish rule in Asia.' + +Here, then, is the definite statement of the Nationalists' hostility to +all things Arab, and we shall see how they translated it into practice. +Even Moslems were but cattle for them, as also were Armenians and Greeks +and Kurds. Armenians were doomed to be the first complete sacrifice on +the bloody altar of the Nationalists, and, as a Turkish gendarme engaged +in that sacrifice said to a Danish Red Cross nurse, 'First we kill the +Armenians, then the Greeks, and then the Kurds.' And if he had been a +Progressive Minister he would certainly have added, 'And then the +Arabs.' + +It was not only within the present limits of the Ottoman Empire that the +Committee of Union and Progress proposed to accomplish their unitive +purpose, for after having seen a glorious and exclusive Turkey arise +over the depopulated territories of their alien peoples, a vaster +vision, for an account of which we are indebted to Tekin Alp, opened +before their prophetic eyes. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of Persia +they claim that one-third are of true Turkish blood, and in the new +Turkey which, so they almost pathetically hope, will be established at +the conclusion of the European War by the help of Wilhelm II., those +Persian Turks must be incorporated into the true fold of Allah, God of +Love. The province of Adarbaijan, for instance, the richest and most +enlightened district of Persia, they claim, is entirely Turkish, and +here the needful rectification will be made in the new atlases that bear +the imprimatur of Potsdam. Similarly, all the country south of the +Caucasus must rank as Turkish territory, since the Turks form from fifty +to eighty per cent, of the population; all Kazan, for the same reason, +is truly Turkish, with the alluvial plains of the Volga, while the +Crimea, so Tekin Alp discovers, is also a lost sheep longing for the +Turkish fold. All this is Turkey (or Turania) Irredenta, and, may we not +add:-- + +'Jerusalem and Madagascar +And North and South Amerikee.' + +And then what a glorious future awaits the Power that Europe once +thought of as a sick man. 'With the crushing of Russian despotism,' +exclaims Tekin Alp, 'by the brave German, Austrian, and Turkish armies, +thirty to forty million Turks will receive their independence. With the +ten million Ottoman Turks this will form a nation of fifty millions, +advancing towards a great civilisation which may perhaps be compared to +that of Germany, in that it will have the strength and energy to rise +even higher. In some ways it will be even superior to the degenerate +French and English civilisations.' + +The arithmetic and the enthusiasm of the foregoing paragraph are, of +course, those of Tekin Alp, from whose book, _The Turkish and +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, the quotation is made. The work was published in +1915, and, appearing as it did after the beginning of the European War, +it is but natural to find in it an expression not only of the +Nationalist aims for Turkey, but of the Prussian aims for Turkey, or, to +speak more correctly, of the dream which Prussia has induced in a +hypnotised Turkey. It sets forth in fact the bait which Prussia has +dangled in front of Turkey, the hunger for which has inspired the +projected future which is here sketched out; and significantly enough +this book has been spread broadcast over Turkey by the agency of German +propagandists. The Ottomanisation of the Empire, the vision of its +further extension, free from all consideration of subject peoples, was +exactly the lure which was most likely to keep the Turks staunch to +their Prussian masters. It will be noticed that there is no suggestion +of the Turks recovering their lost provinces and kingdoms in Europe, +Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia, and the rest, for it would never do +to let Fox Ferdinand awake from _his_ hypnotic sleep of a sort of +Czardom over the Balkans, or cease to dangle dreams, that included even +Constantinople before the shifty eye of King Constantine So, before +Turkey was spread the prospect of appropriating Russian and Persian +spoils: Prussia had already given the lost Turkish kingdoms in Europe +elsewhere, but would there not be a dismembered Russian Empire to +dispose of? The Crimea, the province of Kazan, the province of +Trans-Caucasia: all these might be held before Turkey's nose, as a dog +has a piece of meat held up before it to make it beg. Then there was the +province of Adarbaijan: certainly Turkey might be permitted to promise +herself that, without incurring the jealousy of Austria or Bulgaria. +Greedily Turkey took the bait. She gulped it down whole, and never +considered that there was a string attached to it, or that, should ever +the time come when Germany, the conqueror of the world, would be in a +position to reward her Allies with the realisation of the dreams she had +induced, the string would be pulled, and up, with retchings and +vomitings, would come these succulent morsels of Russia and Persia. +Indeed these bright pictures flashed on to the sheet as the visions of +Nationalists are but the slides in a German magic-lantern, designed to +keep Turkey amused, and it was with the same object that Ernst Marré, in +his _Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was bidden to make other +pictures ready in case Turkey grew fractious or sleepy. 'From the ruins +of antiquity,' he says, when speaking of the Ottoman Empire, 'new life +will spring, if we can manage to raise the treasures which time and sand +have covered.' Then he remembers that he must be less Pan-Germanic for +the moment, and dangles the bait again. 'In doing this,' he adds, 'we +are benefiting Turkey. The Turkish state is no united whole, and it has +always been very difficult to govern. Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, +Kurds, cannot be welded together. This is a war of liberation for +Turkey.... Only by energetic interference, and by "expelling" the +obstinate Armenian element could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian +domination.... The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' + +There is no need for further quotations, which might be multiplied +indefinitely. The Prussian programme is for the moment identical with +the Turkish Nationalist programme: Turkey, in order to be kept 'in with' +Germany, must be encouraged to dream of depopulated Armenia (that dream +has come tragically true) and of annexations in Russia and Persia. All +this fitted in with the Turkish programme: Germany had scarcely to +inspire, only to encourage. That encouragement she gave, for, +simultaneously she was penetrating Turkey as water penetrates a sponge, +and reducing it to the position of a vassal state. To keep Turkey happy +she allowed the Armenian massacres to run their deadly course, and only +interfered with other massacres when they did not suit her purpose. But +supposing (to suppose the impossible) that a peace to the European War +was dictated by Germany, how much of the future Pan-Turkish programme +would be realised? Would there be a Turkey at all? I think not: there +would be a Germany in Europe, and a Germany in Asia, where Turkey once +was. Indeed, in all but name, they are in existence now; so complete, as +we shall see, has been Germany's penetration of the Ottoman Empire. Just +for the present she calls herself Turkey in those regions; that is her +incognito. But Turkey as an independent Power has already ceased to +exist, and Tekin Alp and the Nationalists still dream on with rainbow +visions of Ottomanisation, the vistas of which stretch far into Persia +and the plains of the Volga. And all the while she has been put out like +a candle, and all that is left of her is the smouldering wick ready to +be pinched between the horny fingers of her stepmother. There she +stands, her stepmother, with her grinning teeth already disclosing the +Wolf.... + +Whatever the end of the European War may be, in no circumstances can the +dreams of the Nationalists be realised. Even if Germany and her arms +were so victorious that Russia lay at her feet a mere inert carcase +ready for the chopper, she would no more dream of giving Russian +provinces to an independent Turkey than she would hand over to her +Berlin itself. And if, as we know, Germany can never be victorious, will +the Allies once more strive to keep the Sick Man alive, or leave in his +ruthless power the peoples whom he is longing to exterminate? Even Tekin +Alp can hardly expect that. + +Here then, in brief, is the policy of New Turkey. Its subject +peoples--Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews--are to be totally +unrepresented in its councils, though together they number sixty per +cent, of the population of the Empire. But they are not only to be +unrepresented in Government--they are, if the programme is to be carried +conclusively out, to have no existence. In accordance with the plans of +the murderous ruffians who to-day administer the Nationalist policy, +those of the Armenians who have not fled beyond the frontiers have +already been exterminated, and the same fate threatens Arabs, Greeks, +and Jews. Hence, when the Allied Governments wrote their joint note to +President Wilson, they stated that among their aims in the war was 'the +liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' From that avowed determination they will never recede. + + * * * * * + +NOTE.--It is to be hoped that Tekin Alp's pamphlet, _Turks and the +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, may soon be accessible to English readers. The +author is a Macedonian Jew who writes under the pseudonym of Tekin Alp, +and his mind is such that he appears to find romance in the idea of a +united Turkey purged by indiscriminate massacre from all alien elements. +But he sets forth with admirable lucidity the aims of the Nationalist +party and the steps already achieved by them in their progress towards +their ideal. Already the sequestered ladies of the harem have come out +of their retirement and join in the crusade, and not only do men give +lectures to women, but 'women mount the platform and address the men.' +There are corporations to advance economic organisations, boy-scout +centres all over the Empire, and 'intellectual parties' among the guilds +of merchants--England and Russia appear as the most virulent foes of +Pan-Turkism, 'the colossus of darkest barbarism joined with the colossus +of a degenerate civilisation.' + +In the second part of his pamphlet Tekin Alp passes on with an +enthusiasm which is as sincere as it is pathetic to the vision of a +tremendous Turkey, extending from Thrace on the west to the Desert of +Gobi on the east. It embraces, as his map shows, Egypt as far south as +Victoria Nyanza, Arabia, Persia, the greater part of India, the littoral +of the Black Sea, the plains of the Volga, the circuit of the Caspian +Sea and the Aral Sea, and in the north-east nearly touches Tomsk. All +this naturally is dependent on complete German victory in the war, and, +pathetically enough, Tekin Alp appears to think that his ideal Turkey +will meet with the approval of Germany. Indeed it is no wonder that his +pamphlet is circulated broadcast by German propagandists, for it is +precisely what Germany wants Turkey to believe. + +The romance of the movement appeals also very strongly to Ziya Gök Alp, +the official bard of the butchers of Constantinople. He has written a +sort of Ode to Attila, quoted by Tekin Alp, which is a fine frenzy in +favour of barbarism. This preposterous poem begins: + +'I do not read the famous deeds of my ancestors in the dead, faded, +dusty leaves of the history books, but in my own veins, in my own heart. +My Attila, my Huns, those heroic figures which stand for the proud fame +of my race, appear in those dry pages to our malicious and slanderous +age as covered with shame and disgrace, while in reality they are no +less than Alexander and Caesar,' etc. etc. + +I have been at present unable to ascertain whether it is true that the +German Emperor has set it to music, under the impression that it refers +to him and the German armies. It is very popular in Prussia, which need +arouse no surprise. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter III_ + + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +We have traced in brief the backward progress of Ottoman domination, and +have seen how, from the rough and ready methods of a military barbarism, +the Turks evolved a more emphatic and a more highly organised negation +of all those principles which we may sum up under the general term of +civilisation. The comparatively humane neglect of the unfortunate alien +peoples herded within the frontiers of earlier Sultans was improved upon +by Abdul Hamid, who struck out the swifter and superior methods of +maintaining the dominating strength of the Turkish element in the +kingdom not by the absorption of subject peoples, but by their +extermination. This in turn, this new and effective idea, served as a +first sketch of an artist with regard to his finished picture, and +starting with that the Nationalist party enlarged and elaborated it +into that masterpiece of massacre which they exhibited to the world in +the years 1915 and 1916 of the Christian Era, when from end to end of +the Empire there flashed the signal for the extermination of the +Armenian race. Abdul Hamid was but tentative and experimental as +compared to their systematised thoroughness, but then the Nationalist +party had learned thoroughness under the tutelage of its Prussian +masters. And in addition to instruction they had had the advantage of +seeing how Prussian firmness, with the soothing balm of Kultur to +follow, had dealt with the now-subject remnant of Belgians. That was the +way to treat subject people: 'the first care of a state is to protect +itself,' as Enver and Talaat could read in the text-books now translated +into Turkish, in copies, maybe, presented to them by their Master in +Berlin, and Turkey could best show the proof of her enlightenment and +regeneration, by following in the footsteps of Prussian Kultur. Perhaps +a few thousand innocent men might suffer the inconvenience of having +their nails torn out, of being bastinadoed to death, of being shot, +burned or hanged, perhaps a few thousand girls and women might die by +the wayside in being deported to 'agricultural colonies,' might fall +victims to the lusts of Turkish soldiers, or have babes torn from their +wombs, but these paltry individual pains signified nothing compared to +the national duty of 'suffering the state to run no risks.' As one of +this party of Union and Progress said, 'The innocent of to-day may be +the guilty of to-morrow,' and it was therefore wise to provide that for +innocent and guilty alike there should be no to-morrow at all. Years +before the statesmanship of Abdul Hamid had prophetically foreseen the +dawning of this day, when he remarked 'The way to get rid of the +Armenian question is to get rid of the Armenians,' and temporarily for +twenty years he did get rid of the Armenian question. But when, in 1915, +Talaat Bey completed his arrangements for a further contribution to the +solution of the same problem, he said, 'After this, there will be no +Armenian question for fifty years.' As far as we can judge, he rather +under-estimated the thoroughness of his arrangements.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lately (September 1917), when the massacres were all over, +Talaat, speaking at a Congress of the Committee of Union and Progress, +upheld as right and proper the treatment of the Armenian race.] + +The race thus marked out for extermination was one of the oldest +settlements in Asiatic Turkey. Originally it was confined to Armenia +proper, a highland district comprising part of what is now the Russian +province of Trans-Caucasia, part of Persia, notably the province of +Adarbaijan, and, within the Turkish frontier, the province of Armenia, +itself. According to legend, which may well be correct, the Armenians +were the oldest national Christian Church in the world, with a liturgy +that dates from the first century of the Christian Era, while their +translation of the Bible dates from the early years of the fifth century +A.D. Here in these uplands they formed a compact and homogeneous +population, spread over towns and country alike, and were occupied in +the main with agrarian and pastoral pursuits. But they had in addition +much of the versatility and business capacity of the Jews, as well as a +strong liberal-mindedness towards progress and education, and thus, +while they still continued up to the present day their pastoral life in +the countryside, others gravitated towards towns, and by degrees they +spread over a large part of the Turkish Empire, until most of the towns +in Turkey had a progressive and peaceful quota of Armenian citizens, +tolerated by their Moslem neighbours, and, though possessed of no great +share of political influence, powerful, in that the trade and commerce +of inland Turkey was largely in their hands. Wherever they went they +established their schools; many were lawyers, doctors, and professors of +education. Certain repressive measures were brought to bear on them; +they were not, for instance, allowed to carry arms, except when, in +accordance with Turkish conscriptive laws, they served in the Ottoman +army. But many of them, by paying their exemption money, got off +military service, and they confined themselves to the arts of peace, +whether pastorally in their native highlands, or in the shops and +offices of the towns to which they migrated. They were not, till the +time of Abdul Hamid, held to be in any sense a national danger, for, +except in Armenia proper, they were too scattered and too peace-loving +an element of the population to be capable of united action, and never +do they seem to have provoked any outburst of Moslem fanaticism. They +had local quarrels and fights with the more warlike Kurds who encroached +on Armenia, and in the towns where they settled they often incurred the +vague jealousy and dislike which are the penalties of a race superior +morally and intellectually to those among whom they live. But that +superiority constituted in course of time the 'Armenian question,' to +which Abdul Hamid alluded. In all, some sixty years ago their entire +race numbered about 4,000,000 persons, of whom about 1,250,000 inhabited +Russian Trans-Caucasia, about 150,000 were in the province of +Adarbaijan, and there were smaller bodies of them in Austria and India. +The remainder, some 2,500,000, were spread over Armenia, over the +villages and towns of Turkey, notably the eastern edge of the Cilician +uplands, while in Constantinople itself there were certainly not less +than 150,000, and probably as many as 200,000. To-day, the male portion +of the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire has practically ceased to +exist: a quarter of a million men and women escaped over the Russian +frontier, five thousand escaped to Egypt, and there are a few thousand +women and girls (it is impossible to ascertain the exact number) in +Turkish harems. Turkism, as administered by Abdul Hamid first, then, far +more efficiently, by Enver Pasha, and Talaat Bey, has solved the +Armenian question. + +The history of its solution falls under two heads, of which the first +concerns the manner in which it was solved in Armenia itself, where the +population was almost exclusively Armenian, both in towns and in the +country. Here the eastern and north-eastern frontiers of Turkey, across +which lie the province of Russian Trans-Caucasia and Persia, pass +through the middle of districts peopled by men of Armenian blood, and +when, in the autumn of 1914, the Turks made their entry into the +European War, their eastern armies, operating against Russia, found +themselves confronted by troops among whom were many Armenians, while in +their advance into the Persian province of Adarbaijan, there were in the +ranks of their opponents, Armenians and Syriac Christians. They advanced +in fact, in the first weeks of the war, into a country largely peopled +with men of the same blood as those on their own side of the frontier. +Though the edict had not yet come from Constantinople for the massacre +of the Armenians (Talaat Bey did not complete his arrangements till the +following April), the slaughter of them began then, first in the advance +of the Turkish armies, and following on that movement, which lasted but +a few weeks, in their subsequent retreat before the Russians. All +villages through which the Turkish armies passed were plundered and +burned, all the inhabitants on whom the Turks could lay their hands were +killed. Sometimes women and children were given to the Kurds, who formed +bands of irregular troops in conjunction with the Turkish army, and +these were outraged before they were slaughtered. A price was put on +every Christian head, and in the Turkish retreat the corpses were thrust +into the wells in order to pollute them. The excuse for this, as given +by German apologists (not apologists, perhaps, so much as supporters and +adherents of the policy), was that since behind the Turkish lines the +country was populated by a race of the same blood as that through which +they advanced, and then retreated, extermination was necessary in order +to prevent or to punish treachery and collusion. But I have been nowhere +able to find that there were instances of such, nor that the Turks put +forward that excuse themselves. Indeed it would have been an unnecessary +explanation, for but a few months after the opening of the war, Talaat +Bey's plans were complete, and the extermination of Armenians hundreds +of miles from any sphere of military operations rendered it needless to +say anything about it, or to invent instances of treachery if there were +actually none to hand. + +Simultaneously the massacre of Armenians behind the Turkish lines +began. The whole male population of the district round Bitlis was +murdered, so too were all males in Bitlis itself. Then all women and +children were driven in, as a herdsman might drive sheep, from the +reeking villages round, and, for purposes of convenience, concentrated +in Bitlis. When they were all collected, they were driven in a flock to +the edge of the Tigris, shot, and the corpses were thrown into the +river. That was the solution of the Armenian question in Bitlis. + +North-west of Bitlis, and some sixty miles distant, lies the town of +Mush. It used to contain about 25,000 Armenian inhabitants, and in the +district round there were some three hundred villages chiefly consisting +of Armenians. Arrangements were on foot for a general massacre there +when the arrival of Russian troops at Liz, some fifteen hours' march +away, caused the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till +July a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a +warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in the face +of superior forces, had to retire again, and the massacres were put on a +systematic footing. The account which follows is based on four +independent authorities: (1) The statement of a German eye-witness in +Mush in charge of an Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman +deported from a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3) +information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the journal +_Horizon_ of Tiflis. These supplement each other, often verify each +other, and in no instance are contradictory. + +Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end of 1914, at +a time when the massacres across the frontier had begun. The Mutessarif +of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver Pasha, had openly declared that 'at +an opportune moment' the slaughter of the whole Armenian race was +contemplated, and later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of +the American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been the +chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia itself, while +Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in towns throughout the +rest of Turkey. During the whole of that winter, a very severe one, +signs of the approaching extermination multiplied. In the villages round +fresh taxes were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they +were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in question +was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable delay caused by the +proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, and the massacre began in +earnest. + +Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from Constantinople, and an +order was given that all Armenians must leave the town within three +days, after 'registering themselves' at the Government office. The women +and children were to remain, but their money and their property would be +confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to fresh +orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the crowds in the +streets flocking to the registry offices, and after that systematic +house-to-house murder began. Prominent Armenians were tortured to +death, houses containing women and children were set on fire, a body of +men collected together was thrown into the river, girls were outraged +and slaughtered. For two days the massacre continued, and by the end of +the second day the Armenian question was solved as regards Mush. + +In the surrounding villages the same Prussian thoroughness was observed, +and out of all the inhabitants of the plain 5000 only seemed to have +survived, who fled to Sasun (there to be subsequently massacred in +1916), while a few from outlying villages escaped to the Russian troops. +In certain villages the girls and young women were given to the Kurd +soldiery, who raped them publicly in the presence of their families, not +sparing girls of eight and ten years of age, who then, bleeding and +violated, were shot in company with the old women, for whom the Kurds +(inspired by Allah, the God of Love) had no use. Elsewhere, as the story +of a deported woman from Kheiban tells us, the women guarded by Kurdish +troops were driven out of their villages, leaving behind the corpses of +the men and of old women who could not walk, and for days were marched +along the roads, nearly naked, under the fierce heat of the July sun. +Once every other day they were given bread, but all did not get it, and +many fell exhausted by the wayside, and were either whipped to their +feet again or allowed to lie down and die. As they passed through +villages Kurds would come out and rape a girl or two, and when they +halted at night their guards would come among them.... Some few escaped; +the rest, in dwindling company, went on through days of blinding sun and +nights of shame till at last there were only a few remaining. It was not +worth while going farther, for the work of Enver Pasha was nearly done, +and the rest were pushed into the river. One alone survived, who could +swim, and she, with her two-year-old baby on her back, got across the +stream and made her way to a village where were a party of Armenians who +had escaped massacre. She arrived there at midnight, and at first they +thought she was a ghost. To them she told her story of the outraged and +ever-dwindling caravan of helpless women and girls driven onwards all +day beneath the smiting arrows of the sun, and encamped by the wayside, +where they halted with their barbarous guards and their lusts for a +terror by night. Of them none but this one was left, who had carried her +baby with her every step of that infernal pilgrimage. Two days +afterwards he died from want of nourishment, and before the week was out +the mother fell into the hands of a body of patrolling Kurds, and was +killed. + +So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if in the +history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with wanton cruelty +and made God to hide His face, there is any so atrocious a tale, I do +not know it. But if among the annals of heroism and of mother-love we +want to find a nobler record than that of this woman of Kheiban, equally +am I at a loss as to where we should look for it. Among the true and +golden legends of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a +memorial of her. + +Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of Erzerum, with the +town of the same name, that contained in the autumn of 1914 some 20,000 +Armenians. Here the first hint of coming trouble was the order that all +Armenian soldiers serving in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was +followed in June by another order that all the inhabitants of the +hundred villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours' +notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of these a few +took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the remainder a few only lived +to reach Erzinjan, where they were again deported, and the rest were +murdered as they marched. In Erzerum itself orders were received by +Tahsin Bey, the Vali of the town, that all Armenians were to be killed +without distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out, +but his unwillingness was overruled.[1] Simultaneously, the German +Consul telegraphed protests to his Ambassador at Constantinople, and +was told that Germany could not interfere in the internal affairs of +Turkey. + +[Footnote 1: At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the Governor +resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing happened at Konia and at +Kutaia.] + +Here the method employed was deportation: the victims were murdered, not +in the town itself, but were given orders to leave their homes, and +under guard march (for no conveyances were given them) to other +districts. The first company was to go to Diarbekr. All these, with the +exception of one man and forty women, were murdered on the first day's +march. The remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or +collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells us what +fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked out, their +breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their torturers hew off their +feet, or else hammer nails into them as they do in shoeing horses. This +is all done at night-time, in order that people may not hear their +screams and know of their agony. Soldiers are stationed round the +prisons, beating drums and blowing whistles. It is needless to relate +that many died of these tortures. When they die, the soldiers cry, "Now +let your Christ help you."' A second caravan of five hundred families +left Erzerum: at Baiburt they were joined by another contingent deported +from that town, and the account that follows is based on the information +supplied by the Rev. Robert Stapleton, an American minister at Erzerum, +and by an Armenian woman who was among the deported, and whose life was +spared on her embracing Islamism. + +The convoy numbered, when it left Baiburt, some 15,000 persons, and it +reached Erzinjan in safety. There the massacres had already taken place, +and the women and children had been deported, for they found no +Armenians there. But the convoy had not yet arrived at its goal, and it +started out again moving south by east till it came to Kamakh. There +bands of Kurds descended on them, and in the space of seven days every +male above fifteen years of age, including an aged priest of ninety, was +killed. Thereafter a pilgrimage of women, as from Kheiban, moved +southwards across plain and mountain, and every day its numbers were +diminished, for the youthful and the good-looking were carried off by +brigands. At night they were halted outside villages, and the gendarmes +and villagers took what they chose. Many died from hunger and +heat-stroke: others were left by the wayside. When they came to the +banks of the river Kara-Su there was a debauch of horror. Women and +girls and little children were raped and mutilated, and the children who +still survived were thrown into the river. Those who could swim were +shot. Thereafter the movements of this caravan are hard to trace. +Probably there was then but little left of it. But others followed on +the same route 'through fields and hillsides dotted with swollen and +blackened corpses that filled and fouled the air with their stench.' +Some of them reached Mosul, some reached Aleppo, another collecting +station, where, by the mouth of other witnesses, we shall hear of them +again. + +Corroborative and additional evidence is given by the Danish Red Cross +nurses who, with a noble disregard of their own safety, accompanied one +of these caravans from Erzerum to Erzinjan. They speak of the massacres +at Kamakh, of the killing by the river, and of a _battue_ through the +cornfields, where the wheat was high, into which some Armenians had +escaped. At one time these Danish Sisters were in the charge of a +gendarme who had superintended a massacre of 3000 women and children +driven from their homes into the country, rounded up and killed. He told +the Sisters that this was the best method of getting rid of them, for +they should be made to suffer first, and besides it would be +inconvenient for Moslems to live in a village with so many corpses +about. At another place they came to a shambles, where Armenian +soldiers, deprived of their arms, and sent to make roads, had been +slaughtered: at another there were three gangs of labourers, one Moslem, +one Greek, and one Armenian. These latter were guarded. Presently, as +they proceeded along their road, they looked round and saw that the +Armenian gang was being formed up by itself, a little off the +highroad.... + +And so the ghastly record went on all over Armenia. At one place only, +the town of Van, was any resistance organised. There, after the massacre +had begun, some 1500 Armenians got hold of arms (probably many of these +men were soldiers who had not yet had their arms taken from them), and +for the space of twenty-seven days defended themselves against five +thousand Turkish troops, till the Russian advance relieved them. During +that advance Armenian refugees, into whose districts the massacres had +not yet penetrated, fled for refuge to the invading army, and in all +some 250,000 Armenians under its protection crossed in safety the +Russian frontier into Trans-Caucasia. How many died on the way from +hunger and exhaustion is not known. Cholera, dysentery, and spotted +fever broke out among them, and the path of their passage was lined with +dead and dying. Companies of Kurds made descents upon them, taking toll +of their maidenhood, but, with the Russian line to protect them at their +rear, they struggled on out of the cemetery and brothel of their native +country, and out of the accursed confines of that hell on earth, the +Ottoman Empire, leaving behind them the murdered myriads of their +husbands and their sons, their violated wives and daughters. Through +incredible hardships they passed, but, unlike the other pilgrimages we +have briefly traced, they moved not towards death, but towards safety +and life, and their dark steps were lightened with Hope. + +Before the last of those who survived the hunger and the pestilence of +that pilgrimage had reached Russian soil, it is probable that in all +Armenia there was not a man of their race left alive, nor a woman either +unless she had accepted Islamism and the life of the harem. A peaceful +and progressive nation had been wiped out with every accompaniment of +horror and cruelty and bestial lust, and in Armenia itself there would +never more be an Armenian question. Abdul Hamid had hinted at the +solution of it, and had made, as we have seen, experiments in that +direction; but it was reserved for Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, +enlightened men of the Young Turk party, with the advantages of a +Prussian example, to complete the work. Already Enver had said that he +would never rest until the last Armenian in the Ottoman Empire had been +killed, and before the end of 1915, as far as Armenia itself went, he +was able to see a reasonable prospect of repose before him. But there +was much work still left to do in other provinces. + +We have seen that for the extirpation of Armenians in Armenia proper, +the excuse put forward, if not by the Turks themselves, by their German +apologists, was the necessity of guarding against treachery in the +vicinity of the Turkish army, and against spying and collusion between +the Armenians behind the Russian lines and those behind Turkish lines. +The same pretext was put forward for the massacres and deportations from +Thrace, from Constantinople, and from the shores of the Sea of Marmora. +Here, if anywhere, there may be thought to be some justification for +measures which might have been undertaken for the sake of public safety. +At any rate, there were definite charges brought against Armenians in +these districts, and the Armenian boatmen of Silivri, for instance, were +imprisoned, but not, as far as I know, massacred, on the charge of +revictualling English submarines, which at that time, as the reader will +remember, had penetrated into the Sea of Marmora, and indeed had reached +Constantinople itself. It is not, of course, consonant with Turkish or +Prussian justice to substantiate charges before inflicting penalties, it +is sufficient in the new World-justice to accuse. But here round +Constantinople, there was some pretence at procedure before resorting to +murder and deportation. A register was drawn up of all Armenians +resident in the capital, dividing into separate classes those who were +born in Constantinople, and those who were immigrants from Armenia, with +a view to deporting those who were not native to the city. Here, I +think, we may see traces of the Prussian instinct for tabulation, for +classification, for category-mongering. Enver and his colleagues lost +patience with these dilatory tactics. The Armenians of the province of +Brussa were deported wholesale, and long before the registration lists +of Constantinople were finished, all Armenians were moved out of the +town. Ten thousand males were massacred in the mountains of Ismid, and +the Armenian women and children taken into collecting stations for +deportation to 'agricultural colonies' (so the phrase ran in the +Pecksniff language of Prussia) situated in the Anatolian desert, in the +desert of Arabia, and in malarious marshes on the Euphrates. With this +clearing out of Armenians from Thrace, from Constantinople, and from +Armenia itself, we have finished with our first class of the Armenian +atrocities. For it reasons were at least invented by German apologists. +Military necessities, which here, as in Belgium, knew no law, dictated +it; the frightfulness involved was incidental to War. But such +considerations were not even alleged for the second class of the +murder-scheme. Before passing on, it will be well to review, quite +shortly, the reasons which dictated it, and penetrate into the infernal +councils of Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey. + +The text of the scheme is to be found in the defined policy of the +Young Turk party as set forth in their Congress of 1911. 'Turkey must +become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem ideas and Moslem +influence must be preponderant.... Sooner or later the complete +Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must be effected: it is clear, +however, that this can never be attained by persuasion, but that we must +resort to armed force.' + +There is the text that was expanded into the discourse of murder; it is +the definition of a policy. Within a few years there followed the +European War, and that probably was the immediate cause of its being put +into effect. No more admirable opportunity for Ottomanisation could +present itself, for the entry of Turkey into the war was most unpopular +with the bulk of the Turkish population, and it was advisable to bribe +them into acceptance of it. The bribe was the houses, the property, the +money and the trade that throughout the length and breadth of Turkey was +in Armenian hands. For the Armenians were by far the wealthiest of the +alien populations, and some 90 per cent. of Turkish trade passed through +their shops and offices. Here, then, was the psychological moment: +Turkey for the Turk was the aim of the Committee of Union and Progress, +and with a discontented population, unwilling to fight, the moment had +come for restoring to the Turk this mass of property which at present +belonged to an alien race. War might have its drawbacks and its clouds, +but war would be seen to have its advantages and its silver linings, if +out of it there came this legacy of Armenian wealth. And by the same +stroke Turkey could get rid of those thousands of meddlesome +missionaries, American and French, who spread religion and learning and +other undesirable things among the cursed race. Once remove the cursed +race, and there would be an end of their instructors also, for there +would be none to instruct. 'Thanks to their schools,' so we read in the +_Hilal_, an organ of the Young Turks, 'foreigners were able to exercise +great moral influence over the young men of the country.... By closing +them (i.e. by exterminating their pupils) the Government has put an end +to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous.' + +Such, then, was the spirit that animated Enver and Talaat, and during +the winter of 1914-15 they perfected their plans. The Armenian race was +to cease, and the Valis and other officials were, each in his district, +to see to the thoroughness of its cessation. Sometimes, as happened at +Erzerum, the Vali in question, not having the broad out-look of Enver, +or quaintly and curiously having a womanish objection to the national +duty of flogging men to death and giving over young girls to a barbarous +soldiery, remonstrated with the authorities, or even refused to obey +orders. Such a one was instantly removed from his office, and a +stauncher patriot substituted. All was put on an orderly footing: here +Kurds were to be employed on the old Abdul Hamid formula, who by way of +wage would enjoy the privilege of raping as many women and girls out of +their hapless convoy as seemed desirable, while in agricultural +districts they were allowed also to take over the sheep and cattle of +their murdered victims. Here, in towns where there was more chance of +resistance than in scattered homesteads, it would be wise to employ +regular troops, backed, if necessary, by artillery, to whom would be +entrusted the murder of the whole male population, after suitable +tortures, supposing the executioners had a taste for the sport, and to +them was given the right of general plunder. Then, as soon as the number +and capacity of the vacant houses were telegraphed to Constantinople, +occupiers from the discontented townsfolk and natives of Thrace were +assigned to them. Sometimes there would be a big school building to give +away as well, but that was not always so, for it might be more +convenient to assemble Armenians there for purposes of registration or +so forth, and then, if it happened to catch fire, why Enver would +understand that such accidents would occur. Among other careful and +well-thought-out instructions came the order that, when possible, the +murders should not take place in the town, but outside it, for clean +Allah-fearing Moslems would not like to live in habitations defiled by +Christian corpses. But, above all, there must be thoroughness; not a man +must be left alive, not a girl nor a woman who must not drag her +outraged body, so long as breath and the heart-beat remained in it, to, +or rather towards those 'agricultural colonies,' as Talaat Bey, in a +flash of whimsical Prussian humour, called them. One was advantageously +situated in the middle of the Anatolian desert at the village of +Sultanieh. There, for miles round, stretched the rocks and sands of a +waterless wilderness, but no doubt the women and children of this very +industrious race would manage to make it wave with cornfields. Another +agricultural colony, by way of contrast, should be established a couple +of days' journey south of Aleppo, where the river loses itself in +pestilential and malarious swamps. Arabs could not live there, but who +knew whether those hardy Armenians (the women and children, of them at +least who had proved themselves robust enough to reach the place) would +not flourish there out of harm's way? After the swamps one came to the +Arabian desert, and there, a hundred miles south-east, was a place +called Deir-el-Zor; wandering Arab tribes sometimes passed through it, +but, arrived there, the Armenians should wander no more. In those arid +sands and waterless furnaces of barren rock there was room for all and +to spare. Sultanieh, the swamps, and Deir-el-Zor: these were the chief +of Talaat Bey's agricultural colonies. + +There must be collecting stations for these tragic colonists, centres to +which they must be herded in from surrounding districts: one at +Osmanieh, let us say, one at Aleppo, one at Ras-el-Ain, one at Damascus. +And since it would be a pity to let so many flowers of girlhood waste +their sweetness on the desert air of Deir-el-Zor, slave markets must be +established at these collecting stations. There would be plenty of +girls, and prices would be low, but the reverend ministers of Allah the +God of Love, the Ulemas, the Padis and the Muftis, should be accorded a +preferential tariff. Indeed they should pay nothing at all; they should +just choose a girl and take her away, and, with the help of Allah the +God of Love, convert her to the blessed creed. No one was too young for +these lessons.... A little abstemiousness would not hurt these pampered +Christians, so when they set out on their marches they need not be +provided with rations or water. Perhaps some might die, but Talaat had +no use for weaklings at his agricultural colonies. Nor must there be any +poking and prying on the part of those interfering American +missionaries; and so Talaat Bey put all the agricultural colonies out of +bounds for foreigners.... + +There was no hurry over these deportations, for the plea of military +exigencies, which had caused the deportations in Armenia itself to be +terminated by massacre with a rapidity almost inartistic, did not apply +to Armenians so far from the seat of war. Their picnics could be +conducted quietly and pleasantly in the leisurely Oriental manner. Even +the men need not be murdered absolutely out of hand. Strong young +fellows might be stripped and tied down and then beaten to death by +bastinadoing the feet till they burst, or by five hundred blows on the +chest and stomach. Their cries would mingle with the screams of their +sisters in the embrace of Turkish soldiers. And, talking of embraces, if +a woman was desirable, she need not walk all the way to Deir-el-Zor, but +by embracing Islamism be transferred to a harem. But these were details +that might be left to individual taste: there were no precise +instructions save that no Armenian men must be discoverable in the +Ottoman Empire at all, and no women save those who had become Turkish +women, or who were at work on the waterless and the malarial +agricultural colonies. + +Talaat Bey reviewed his finished scheme. He thought it would do, and +Enver Pasha agreed with him, and Jemal Bey (who soon after styled +himself Jemal the Great), the Military Governor of Syria, and so +responsible for the last stages of their pilgrimage, thought it would do +very well indeed. And instructions were sent out to every town in the +Empire where there were Armenians, in accordance with the programme of +Talaat Bey. + +How Enver carried out his part of the programme in Armenia itself we +have seen, and by the end of the year (1915) his work was done, and +Armenia was Armenia no longer. But operations, as I have said, were +conducted in a more leisurely manner elsewhere, and the agony of that +butchery protracted. But Jemal got to work at once in the thickly +populated district round Zeitun. He had had no success in the campaign +of the winter in the direction of the Suez Canal, and his troops were +hungry for some sort of victory. The Zeitunlis were hardy independent +mountaineers, who were possessed of arms, and Jemal thought it more +prudent not to dally with deportations, but conduct a regular campaign +against them. For two or three months they resisted, entrenching +themselves in the hills, but they could not hold out against artillery +and the modern apparatus of war, and the whole tribe was wiped out. That +done, Jemal became Jemal the Great by reason of his national services, +and paid a visit to Germany. On his return we shall hear of him again. + +Meanwhile, from all the reports that have arrived from missionaries and +others, we may take one or two, almost at random. At certain places, as +in the governments of Ismid, Angora and Diarbekr, the Armenian +population was completely wiped out. Sometimes tortures were added, as +at a certain Anatolian town where there was a big Armenian school, in +which a number of professors and instructors, some of whom had studied +in America, in Scotland, and in Germany, had for years been working. + +What happened to them was this:-- + +(1) Professor A served the College thirty-five years, and taught +Turkish and history. He was arrested without charge, the hair of his +head and beard were pulled out in order to secure damaging confessions. +He was starved and hung up by the arms for a day and a night and +repeatedly beaten. He was then murdered. + +(2) Professor B, who had served the College thirty-three years, and +taught mathematics, suffered the same fate. + +(3) Professor C, head of the preparatory department, had served the +College for twenty years. He was made to witness the spectacle of a man +being beaten almost to death, and became mentally deranged. He was +murdered with his family. + +(4) Professor D, who taught mental and moral sciences, was treated in +the same way as Professor A. He also had three finger nails pulled out +by the roots, and was subsequently murdered. + +Similarly, at Diarbekr, the Armenians were collected in batches of 600, +taken out of the town, and killed to the last man. Among them was the +Armenian Archbishop; his eyes and nails were dragged out before he was +butchered. + +Or let us take a look at some of the collecting camps. At one, described +by an eye-witness, we find that the convoy had arrived after several +months of travel. More than half were already dead, they had been +pillaged by bandits and Kurds seven times. They were forbidden to drink +water when they passed by a stream, three-quarters of the young women +and girls had been kidnapped, the rest were compelled to sleep with the +gendarmes who conducted them. At Osmanieh it was decided to deport the +women and children by train. They lay about the station starving and +fever-stricken. When the train arrived many were jostled on to the line, +and the driver yelled with joy, crying out, 'Did you see how I smashed +them up?' + +At another camp typhus broke out; those who died of it were left +unburied, as vouched for by a Turkish officer, in order to increase the +infection.... + +Urfa was another collecting camp for the Armenians in that district, and +the following account is based on the information of an eye-witness. +Here, before the concentration began, the Armenians living in the town +offered resistance to the Turks, and held out until Fahri Bey, second in +command to Jemal the Great, arrived with artillery, bombarded the town, +and massacred every Armenian there. Quiet being thus restored, the bands +of deported began to arrive. They came by rail or on foot, and, with +the Prussian love of tabulation, were divided into three groups. + +The first group consisted of old men, old women, and young children. +They, guarded by gendarmes, were sent marching through the desert to +Deir-el-Zor. Few, if any, ever arrived there, all dying by the way. + +The second group, consisting of able-bodied men, was led off in batches +and slaughtered. Among them were Zohrab and Vartkes, Armenian deputies +who had been brought there from Constantinople. + +The third group consisted of young marriageable girls. Some, perhaps, +found their way into harems. + +From Aleppo (one of the final concentration camps before such as were +left of the convoys set forth for their goal, the swamps or the desert +round Deir-el-Zor) we have the detailed evidence of Dr. Martin Niepage, +High Grade teacher in the German Technical School. This gentleman, with +a courage and a humanity to which the highest tribute must be paid, +addressed a report of protest to the German Ambassador at +Constantinople, and wrote an open letter to the Reichstag on the subject +of what he had seen with his own eyes in that town. In his preliminary +matter he speaks as follows:-- + +'In dilapidated caravanserais I found quantities of dead, many corpses +being half-decomposed, and others still living among them who were soon +to breathe their last. In other yards I found quantities of sick and +dying people, whom nobody was looking after.... We teachers and our +pupils had to pass them every day. Every time we went out we saw through +the open windows their pitiful forms, emaciated and wrapped in rags. In +the morning our school children, on their way through the narrow +streets, had to push past the two-wheeled ox-carts on which every day, +from eight to ten rigid corpses without coffin or shroud, were carried +away, their arms and legs trailing out of the vehicle.' + +From the report itself:-- + +'Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the Armenian +plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, women, and children, +only two or three hundred survivors arrived here in the south. The men +were slaughtered on the way, the women and girls, with the exception of +the old, the ugly and those who are still children, have been abused by +Turkish soldiers and officers.... Even when they are fording rivers they +do not allow those dying of thirst to drink. All the nourishment they +receive is a daily ration of a little meal sprinkled on their hands.... +Opposite the German Technical School at Aleppo, a mass of about four +hundred emaciated forms, the remnant of such convoys, is lying in one of +the caravanserais. There are about a hundred children (boys and girls) +among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them are suffering +from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the yard, one has the +impression of entering a madhouse. If one brings food, one notices that +they have forgotten how to eat.... If one gives them bread, they put it +aside indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for death.' + +Dr. Niepage wrote this report in the hope of saving such as then (1915) +survived. No notice whatever was taken of it, and his postscript, +written in May 1916, records the fact that 'the exiles encamped at +Ras-el-Ain on the Bagdad Railway, estimated at 20,000 men, women and +children, were slaughtered to the last one.'[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is right to add that at Aleppo an officer called Bekir +Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected from neighbouring +districts, who were threatened with massacre, and I find that a German +missionary states that there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This +forms confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is nothing to +show that they were not subsequently deported to Deir-el-Zor. In this +case it is highly improbable that any survive.] + +In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the Germans are +directly responsible for the continuance of the massacres. Such, too, is +the opinion, he tells us, of the educated Moslems, and his courage in +stating this has lost him his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely +hoped that he has escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for +drawing attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian +massacres, has been arrested for high treason. + +Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had refused to +interfere in the massacres, and both in the official press and through +official utterances had expressed their support of this Ottomanisation +of the Empire, began to think that you might have too much of a good +thing, and that the massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason +was clear and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour +in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for which they +had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. There had been some +talk, they said, of saving 500,000 Armenians out of the race, but, in +the way things were going on, it seemed that the remnant would not +nearly approach that figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper +their patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he wanted +to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh from his visit +to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of Talaat's opposition, +made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, in which, beyond doubt, we +can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' in the following manner. + +There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in Constantinople +which was to be led out for murder and deportation, and Jemal gave +orders that it should be spared and sent back to its highland home. He +gave orders also that the entire convoy should be informed who was their +saviour, and should be led in procession past his house and show their +gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, half-starved +crowd streamed by the house of Jemal the Great, with murmurs of +thanksgiving and uplifted hands, and all manner of obeisances, while +Jemal the Great stood in his porch with stern, impassive face, and hand +on his sword-hilt in the best Potsdam manner, and acknowledged these +thanksgivings....[1] + +[Footnote 1: In support of Jemal's claim to clemency it must be added +that, according to a report coming from Alexandria, he hanged twelve of +the worst assassins sent to Syria as ringleaders of the massacres. I +cannot find corroboration of this.] + +Here, then, is the absurd, the Williamesque side of this ludicrous +popinjay, Jemal the Great, and it contains not only the obvious seeds of +laughter, but the more helpful seeds of hope. He has a strong hand on +the very efficient army of Syria, and his visits to Berlin seem perhaps +to have turned his head not quite in the direction that the +Master-egalo-megalomaniac of Berlin intended. I gather that Jemal the +Great was not so much impressed by the magnificence of William II. as to +fall dazzled and prone at the Imperial feet, and lick with enraptured +tongue the imperial boot polish, but rather to be inspired to do the +same himself, to become the God-anointed of the newly acquired German +province, which is Turkey, and make a Potsdam of his own. This is only a +guess, but the conduct of Jemal the Great in the matter of these +Armenian refugees, and in other affairs, has been distinctly imperial. +In June of this year, for instance, he telegraphed to H.E. the Vali of +Syria, and an extract from his text is truly Potsdamish. 'One and a half +million of sandbags,' he wrote, 'are required for the fortress of +Gaza.... The bags should be made, if necessary, of all the silk-hangings +in houses of Syria and Palestine.' With his army behind him, he has +twice already defied the orders of Talaat, and I am inclined to think +that he is the coming Strong Man of the effete Empire with whom it would +be well worth while to make friends, even at a highish price. The Allied +Powers should keep an undazzled eye on him, for it is quite possible +that, having defied Talaat successfully, he may go on to defy the real +rulers of Turkey, who live in Berlin. His Syrian army, from such sources +as are available, appears to be more efficient than any other body of +troops the Turks can put into the field, and he has them in control. +Probably in the winter of 1917-1918 our troops will come into collision +with them. But in the interval, also quite probably, Jemal the Great may +resent German superintendence.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See note at end of this chapter.] + +But in addition to his ludicrous side, there is in him a refined +hypocrisy and a subtle cruelty worthy of Abdul Hamid. One instance will +suffice. + +There had been some talk that at certain of these concentration camps +there was no water supply, and he gave orders, did Jemal the Great and +the Merciful, that water should be sent. A train consisting of trucks +of water accordingly was despatched to one of those camps, situated in +the desert, with no supply nearer than six miles, and an eye-witness +describes its arrival. The mob of Armenians, mad with thirst, surrounded +it, and, since everything must be done in an orderly and seemly manner, +were beaten back by the Turkish guards, and made to stand at a due +distance for the distribution. And when those ranks, with their parched +throats and sun-cracked lips, were all ready, the Turkish guards opened +the taps of the reservoirs, and allowed the whole of their contents to +run away into the sand. Whether Jemal the Great planned that, or whether +it was but a humorous freak on the part of the officials, I cannot say. +But as a refinement of cruelty I have, outside the page of Poe's tales, +only once come across anything to equal it, and that in a letter from +the _Times'_ correspondent at Berne on April 11, 1917. He describes the +treatment of English prisoners in Germany: 'An equally common +entertainment with those women (German Red Cross nurses) was to offer a +wounded man a glass, perhaps, of water, then, standing just outside his +reach, to pour it slowly on the ground.' Could those sisters of mercy +have read the account of Jemal's clemency, or is it merely an instance +of the parallelism of similar minds? + +So the empty train returned, and Jemal the Great caused it to be known +in Berlin that he was active in securing a proper water supply for the +famous agricultural settlements in the desert, and loud were the +encomiums in the press of the Central Powers over the colonisation of +Syria by the Armenians, the progress and enlightenment of the Turks, and +the skilful and humane organisation of Jemal the Great. + +There is no difficulty in estimating to-day the number of Armenian men +who survive in the Turkish Empire. All appeals to the Prussian +overlords, such as were made by Dr. Niepage, and the belated +remonstrance of the Prussians themselves when they foresaw a dearth of +labour for the husbandry of beet and cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I +cannot see any reason for supposing that Armenian men exist any more in +the Empire. It is more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who, +by accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. Certainly +in some districts there were considerable 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage +rates them as many thousands. But the willingness to accept those +conditions was not always a guarantee for their being granted, and I +have read reports where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was +a more serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they +were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can scarcely +consider these women as constituting an Armenian element any more in the +country. The work of butchery, the torture, the long-drawn agonies of +those inhuman pilgrimages have come to an end because there are no more +Armenian victims available. Apart from those who escaped over the +Russian frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race +exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest deed that +ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It is not in revenge +on the murderers, but in order to rescue the other subject peoples, +Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still enclosed within the frontiers of the +Empire, that the Allied Governments, in their answer to President +Wilson, stated that among their aims as belligerents, was the +'liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again, +after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the destinies +of races not his own. Too long already--and to their disgrace be it +spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations of Europe tolerated at +their very doors a tyranny that has steadily grown more murderous and +more monstrous, because they feared the upset of the Balance of Power. +Now at least such Powers as value national honour, and regard a national +promise as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, have +resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk over his alien +subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the least they can do (and +unhappily the most) to redeem the century-long neglect of their duty. +Even now, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril +threatens those other peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule, +and we can but pray that the end of the war will come before Arabs or +Greeks or Jews suffer the same fate as has exterminated the Armenians. +Too often have we been too late; we must only hope that another item +will not have to be added to that miserable list, and that, when the day +of reckoning comes, no half-hearted and pusillanimous policy will stay +our hands from the complete execution of that to which we stand pledged. +The Balance of Power has gone the way of other rickety makeshifts, but +there must be no makeshift in our dealings with the Turk, no compromise +and no delay. What shall be done with those who planned and executed the +greatest massacres known to history matters little; let them be hanged +as high as Haman, and have done with them. But what does matter is that +at no future time must it be in the power of a Government that has never +been other than barbaric and butcherous, to do again as it has done +before. + +NOTE ON JEMAL THE GREAT + +Jemal the Great has very obligingly done what I suggested we might +expect him to do, and has kicked against the German control of the +Syrian army. General von Falkenhayn was sent to take supreme command, +and on June 28th of this year Jemal the Great refused to receive orders +from him. In consequence General von Falkenhayn refused responsibility +for any offensive movement there if Jemal remained in command. + +This promised well for trouble between Turks and Germans, but we must +not, I am afraid, build very high hopes on it, for Germany has dealt +with the situation in a masterly manner. Jemal was already Minister of +Marine as well as commander of the Syrian army, so the Emperor asked him +to pay another visit to Berlin, and he has been visiting Krupp's works +and German naval yards, and we shall find probably that in the future +his activities will be marine rather than military, and that von +Falkenhayn will have a free hand in Syria. + +But this will prove rather disappointing for Jemal, since it seems +beyond mere coincidence that towards the end of August Herr von +Kuhlmann, the new German Foreign Minister, induced the Turkish +Government (while Jemal was at Berlin) to put their navy and their +merchant fleet under the orders of the German Admiralty, and already +many Turkish naval officers have been replaced by Germans. Thus Jemal +will find himself deprived of his military command, because the navy so +urgently needed his guiding hand, while his guiding hand over the navy +will be itself guided by the German Admiralty.... In fact, it looks +rather like checkmate for Jemal the Great, and an end to the trouble he +might have given the German control. + +On the eve of his leaving Germany, as yet unconscious probably of the +subordination of the entire Turkish fleet to the German Admiralty, he +gave an interview to a representative of the _Cologne Gazette_, which +deserves more than that ephemeral appearance. It shows Jemal the Great +in a sort of hypnotic trance induced at Potsdam. 'The German fleet,' he +says, 'is simply spotless in its power, and a model for all states which +need a modern navy--a model which cannot be surpassed.' ... He went for +a cruise in a submarine which proceeded 'so smoothly, elegantly, calmly +and securely that I had the impression of cruising in a great +steamship.' ... He was taken to Belgium, and describes the 'idyllic life +there': in the towns 'the people go for walks all day long,' and in the +country the peasants blithely gather in the harvest with the help of +happy prisoners.' (He does not tell us where the harvest goes to, any +more than the Germans tell us where the Turkish harvests go to.) He was +taken to General Headquarters, which he describes as 'majestic.' Finally +he was taken into the presence of the All-Highest, and seems to have +emerged in the condition in which Moses came down from Sinai.... But one +must not altogether despair of Jemal the Great. It is still possible +that, on his return to Constantinople, when he found that his position, +as Minister of Marine was but a clerkship in the German Admiralty, the +hypnotic trance began to pass off, and his ambitions to re-assert +themselves. He may yet give trouble to the Germans if properly handled. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter IV_ + + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +It is impossible to leave this heart-rending tale of the sufferings of +the Armenian people under the Turks without some account of that devoted +band of American missionaries who, with a heroism unsurpassed, and +perhaps unequalled, so eagerly sacrificed themselves to the ravages of +pestilence and starvation in order to alleviate the horrors that +descended on the people to whom they had been sent. Often they were +forcibly driven from the care of their flocks, often in the +extermination of their flocks there was none left whom they could +shepherd, but wherever a remnant still lingered there remained these +dauntless and self-sacrificing men and women, regardless of everything +except the cause to which they had devoted themselves. They recked +nothing of the dangers to which they exposed themselves so long as +there was a child or a woman or a man whom they could feed or nurse. +Terrible as were the sufferings through which the Armenians passed, they +must have been infinitely more unbearable had it not been for these +American missionaries; small as was the remnant that escaped into the +safety of Persia or Russian Trans-Caucasia, their numbers must have been +halved had it not been for the heroism of these men and women. While the +German Consuls contented themselves with a few faint protests to their +Ambassador at Constantinople, followed by an acquiescence of silence, +the missionaries constituted themselves into a Red Cross Society of +intrepid workers, and, as one well-qualified authority tells us, +'suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical exhaustion as any +proportionate body of workers on the European battlefields.' Fully +indeed did they live up to the mandate of the American board that sent +them out: 'Your great business is with the fundamental doctrines and +duties of the Gospel.' + +At the opening of the European War the American Missions had been at +work for nearly a hundred years, and were disseminated over Anatolia and +Armenia. They had opened 163 Protestant churches and 450 schools, they +established hospitals, and in every possible way spread civilisation in +a country where the spirit of the governing class was barbarism. It was +not their object to proselytise. 'Let the Armenian remain an Armenian if +he will,' so ran the instructions from which I have already quoted, 'the +Greek a Greek, the Nestorian a Nestorian, the Oriental an Oriental,' and +in the same wise and open-minded spirit they encouraged native +Protestant Churches which were independent of them and largely +self-supporting. Naturally in a country governed by monsters like Abdul +Hamid and Enver Pasha in later days, they earned the enmity which is the +tribute of barbarians to those who stand for civilisation, and when, +owing to the extermination or flight of their Armenian flocks, they were +left without a charge, and their schools were closed, we find a paean of +self-congratulation going up from the Turkish press inspired by the +butchers of Armenia. But till the massacres and the flight were +complete, they gave themselves to the 'duties of the Gospel,' and their +deeds shine like a star into the blackness of that night of murder. + +I will take as an example of the superb heroism of those men and women +the diary of an American lady attached to the mission at Urmia, a +document that, anonymously, is one of the noblest, least self-conscious +records I have ever read. The period of it extends over five months. + +Early in January 1915 the Russian troops were withdrawn from Urmia, +which lies on the frontier between Turkey and Persia, and simultaneously +the Moslem population began to plunder the Christian villages, the +inhabitants of which fled for refuge to the missions in the city. +Talaat's official murder-scheme was not completed yet, but the Kurds, +together with the Turks, had planned a local massacre at Geogtapa, which +was stopped by the American doctor of this mission, Dr. Packard, who, at +great personal risk, obtained an interview with the Kurdish chief, and +succeeded in inducing him to spare the lives of the Christians, if they +gave up arms and ammunition and property. The American flag was hoisted +over the Mission buildings, and before a week was out there were over +ten thousand refugees housed in the yards and rooms, where they remained +for five months, the places of the dead being taken by fresh influxes. +The dining-room, the sitting-room, the church, the school, were all +given over to these destitute people, and from the beginning fear of +massacre, as well as prevalence of disease, haunted the camp. It was +impossible to move dead bodies outside; they had to be buried in the +thronged yards, and every day children were born. But here is the spirit +that animated their protectors. 'We have just had a Praise meeting,' +records the diarist at the close of the first fortnight, 'with fifty or +sixty we could gather from the halls and rooms near, and we feel more +cheerful. We thought if Paul and Silas, with their stripes, could sing +praises in prison, so could we.' + +The weeks, of which each day was a procession of hours too full of work +to leave time for anxiety, began to enrol themselves into months, and +the hope of rescue by a Russian advance made their hearts sick, so long +was it deferred. Refugees from neighbouring villages kept arriving, and +there was the constant problem before these devoted friends of their +flock, as to how to feed them. All such were welcome, and eager was the +welcome they received, though every foot of space in the buildings and +in the yards was occupied. But somehow they managed to make room for all +who came, and for those villagers who, under threat of torture and +massacre, had apostatised, there was but yearning and sorrow, but never +a word of blame or bitterness. Sometimes there was a visit of Turkish +troops to search for concealed Russians, and, as our diarist remarks, +'We can't complain of the monotony of life, for we never know what is +going to happen next. On Tuesday morning we had a wedding in my room +here. The boy and girl were simple villagers.... The wedding was fixed +for the Syrian New Year, but the Kurds came and carried off wedding +clothes and everything else in the house. They all fled here, and were +married in the old dirty garments they were wearing when they ran for +their lives.... Their only present was a little tea and sugar that I +tied up in a handkerchief and gave to the bride.' + +The eternal feminine and the eternal human speak there; and there, for +this gallantest of women, were two keys that locked up the endless +troubles and anxieties that ceased not day or night. But sometimes the +flesh was weak, and in the privacy of her diary she says, 'How long, O +Lord?' But for that there was the master-key that unlocks all wards, and +a little further on we read, 'One of the verses that helps to keep my +faith steady is, "He that spared not His own Son." For weeks we have had +no word from the outside world, but we "rest in Jehovah and wait +patiently for Him."' + +The conditions inside the crowded yards grew steadily worse. Dysentery +was rife, and the deaths from it in that narrow space averaged thirty a +day. The state of the sufferers grew so terrible that it was difficult +to get any one to look after them at all, and many were lying in the +open yards, and the weather, which hitherto had been warm, got cold, and +snow fell. It was with the greatest difficulty that food could be +obtained for those in health, and that of a kind utterly unsuitable to +the sick, while in the minds of their nurses was the bitter knowledge +that with proper diet hundreds of lives could have been saved, and +hundreds of cases of illness avoided. + +For the dead there was but a small percentage of coffins available, and +'the great mass are just dropped into the great trench of rotting +humanity (in the yard). As I stand at my window I see one after another +of the little bodies carried by ... and the condition of the living is +more pitiful than that of the dead--hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, +wet, swarming with vermin. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of +Europe would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the suffering +and misery of this one little corner of the world alone. A helpless +unarmed Christian community turned over to the sword and the passion of +Islam!' + +On the top of this came an epidemic of typhoid, twenty-seven cases on +the first day. Outside in the town the Turkish Consul began hanging +Christians, and the missioners were allowed to take the bodies and bury +them. There were threats that the mission would be entered, and all +young men (possible combatants) killed, but this fear was not realised. +The typhoid increased, and the doctor of the mission and others of the +staff fell ill with it; but the patience and service of the remainder +never faltered, while the same spirit of uncomplaining suffering +animated the refugees. 'Mr. McDowell,' so the diarist relates, 'saw a +tired and weary woman with a baby in her arms, sitting in one of the +seats, and said to her, "Where do you stay?" She said "Just here." "How +long have you been here?" "Since the beginning." (two months) she +replied. "How do you sleep at night?" "I lay the baby on the desk in +front of me, and I have this post at the back to lean against. This is a +very good place. Thank you very much."' + +In April there comes a break in the diary after the day on which the +following entry is made:-- + +'I felt on Sunday as if I ought to get my own burial clothes ready, so +as to make as little trouble as possible when my time comes, for in +these days we all go about our work knowing that any one of us may be +the next to go down. And yet I think our friends would be surprised to +see how cheerful we have kept, and how many occasions we find for +laughing: for ludicrous things do happen. Then, too, after dwelling so +intimately with Death for three months, he doesn't seem to have so +unfriendly an aspect, and the "Other Side" seems near, and our Pilot +close beside us.... I find the Rock on which I can anchor in peace are +the words of Christ Himself: "Where I am, there ye may be also." ... +That is enough, to be where He is....' + +Then comes a break of two months, during which the writer was down with +typhoid. She resumes again in June, finding that death has made many +changes, and gets back to work again at once. By that time the Russians +had entered Urmia, a thanksgiving service was held, the refugees +dispersed, and the American Mission went quietly on with its normal +work. + +Now I have taken this one instance of the work of Americans at Urmia to +show in some detail the character of the work that they were doing, and +the Christian and humanising influence of it. But all over Armenia and +Anatolia were similar settlements, and, as already mentioned, at the +time of the massacres there were established there over a hundred of +their churches and over four hundred schools, and from these extracts +which concern only one not very large centre, it may be gathered what +leaven of civilising influence the sum of their energies must have +implied. That lamp shone steady and clear, a 'kindly light' in the +darkness of Turkish misrule, and in the havoc of the massacres a beacon +of hope, not always reached by those hapless refugees. Indeed it seems +to have been only on the frontier that the missions were able to save +those foredoomed hordes of fleeing Christians; in Armenia and in +Anatolia generally the massacres and 'deportations' were complete, and +by the end of 1915 all American missions were closed, for there were +none to tend and care for. Even if the massacres had not occurred, the +entry of America into the war would have resulted in a similar cessation +of their work, and most probably in a massacre of the American +missioners themselves. Their withdrawal, of course, was hailed with a +peacock scream of pride by that enlightened body under Talaat and Enver, +called the New Turkish party of Progress, for their presence was a bar +to the Turkish notions of civilisation, in that their influence made for +humanity, and health and education. Now 'the humiliating and dangerous +situation' (to quote from the columns of _Hilal_) was put an end to, and +Turkish progress could make headway again. + +Similarly in Syria the outbreak of war put an end to 'the humiliating +and dangerous situation' of the presence of French schools and missions. +There, for many years, French missioners had done the same work as +Americans in Armenia, work in every sense liberal and civilising, but +undenominational in religious matters and unproselytising. That came to +an end earlier than the organisations in Armenia, and in Syria now, as +over the rest of the Turkish people, Arabs and Jews and Greeks have +nothing except German influence and Kultur to stand between them and the +spirit of Turkish progress of which the Armenian massacres were the +latest epiphany. Germany, as we have seen, stood by and let the Armenian +massacres go on, professing herself unable to interfere in the internal +affairs of Turkey, though at the time there was not a single branch of +Turkish industries, railways, telegraphs, armies, navies over which she +had not complete control, exercising it precisely as she thought fit. + +It is useless, then, to base any confidence in the safety of Jews, +Greeks, and Arabs from suffering the same fate as the Armenians, on a +veto from Germany. If it suits Germany to let those unfortunate peoples +be murdered or deported to agricultural colonies, Germany will assuredly +not stir a finger on their behalf nor prevent a repetition of the +horrors I have dealt with in the previous chapter. Sooner than risk her +hold over Turkey by enforcing unacceptable demands, she will, unless +other considerations of self-interest determine her, let further +massacres occur, if Talaat Bey insists on them. That spokesman of her +policy, Ernst Marré, makes this perfectly explicit in his book, _Die +Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, upholding from the German standpoint +the right of Turkey and the wisdom of Turkey in dealing with her subject +peoples as she had dealt with the Armenians. 'The Turkish State,' he +tells us, 'is no united whole: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, +cannot be welded together.' (This, by a somewhat grim and ominous +coincidence, is in exact accordance with a remark made to a Danish Red +Cross Sister by a Turkish gendarme then engaged in massacring Armenians: +'First we get rid of the Armenians,' he said, 'then the Greeks, then the +Kurds.') Or again, in defence of the Armenian massacres, 'Only by +energetic interference and by expelling of the obstinate Armenian +element, could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian dominion.' Or +again, 'The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' Here, then, is the German point of view: the Ottoman +Government will be right to 'dispose of' its subject peoples as it +thinks fit. So far from interfering, Germany endorses, and German +influence to-day is all that stands between 'the murderous tyranny' and +its subject peoples. French, English, and finally American pressure can +no longer, since the entry of these nations into the war, be exercised +within the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, and the only protection of +defenceless aliens is the German Government. It did not stir a finger to +save the Armenians, until it saw that depopulation threatened the +prosperity of its industries, and it is idle to expect that it will do +more if the consolidation of Turkish supremacy demands a further +campaign of murder. Greeks, Arabs, and Jews are all completely at the +mercy of Talaat's murder-schedules. The only chance that can save them +is that further extermination may not suit Germany's political aims, +and that she may find it worth her while to be peremptory, and forbid +instead of endorsing. + +There are unhappily many signs that the butchers of Constantinople are +planning further massacres. In February of this year preliminary +measures were begun against the Greeks settled in Anatolia. Many were +forcibly proselytised, their property was confiscated, and they were +forbidden to carry on their businesses. Deportations also occurred, and +all Greeks were removed from many villages in Anatolia, into the +interior, presumably to 'agricultural colonies' such as those provided +for Armenians. They suffered terribly from hunger and exposure, and it +is estimated that ten per cent. of them died on their marches. Since +then, however, there has been no more heard of any extension of those +measures, and there seems to have been as yet no massacre of Greeks. It +is reasonable to infer that Germany has in this case intervened. She +still hoped to win Greece over to the Central European Powers, and +clearly any massacre of Greeks by her own Allies was not desirable. +King Constantine, among his endless vacillations and pusillanimous +treacheries, probably made a firm protest on the subject. But in the +kaleidoscope of war, should Greece come to the side of the Allies, it +seems most probable that there will occur a wholesale massacre of +Greeks. From what we know of the principles on which German Kultur is +based, the most optimistic can scarcely hope that the very faintest +remonstrance will emanate from Berlin. + +The case of the Arabs in Syria is even more precarious. From the moment +that the policy of the Young Turks was evolved, namely, to consolidate +Osmanli supremacy by the weakening of its subject peoples, the Ottoman +Government has been waiting for its opportunity to get rid of the 'Arab +menace.' As we have seen, they began by substituting Turkish for Arabic +as a written language in all official usages from the printing of the +Koran and the prayers for the Sultan down to the legends on railway +tickets. The Arab spirit, according to one of the spokesmen of the New +Turk party, had to be suppressed, the Arab lands had to become Turkish +colonies. 'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence,' we +read in Jelal Noury Bey's propaganda, 'to Turkise the Arab lands, for +the particularistic idea of nationality is awaking among the younger +generations of Arabs, and already threatens us with a great +catastrophe.' Against the Arabs the Young Turks formed and fostered a +special animosity; they were powerful and warlike, and Enver, Talaat, +and others saw that the idea of an Osmanli supremacy could never be +realised unless very drastic measures were taken against them. The +tenets of Islamism, it is true, forbade Moslems to fight Moslems, but +Islamism, as a binding force, was already obsolete in the counsels of +the new regime, having given place to Kultur. Of all their subject +peoples, the Young Turks hated the Arabs the most, and, had not the +European War intervened, there is no doubt that the Armenian massacres, +already being planned, would have been followed by Arab massacres. But +the armed and warlike Arabian tribes were not so easy to deal with as +the defenceless Armenians, and Turkish troops could not be spared in +sufficient numbers to render an Arab massacre the safe, pleasant, and +lucrative pursuit that massacres should be. But Jemal the Great, black +with his triumph over the Armenians at Zeitun, was Military Governor of +Syria, and, the Armenian question being solved, he began to get to work +on the Arab question. Owing to the expulsion of the French Missions from +Syria in 1914, we have no such full or detailed information as we have +from Americans in Armenia, and the following account is mainly derived +from the Arabic journal _Mokattam,_ published in Cairo, the information +in which is based on the account given by a Syrian refugee. It agrees +with pieces of evidence that have come to hand from other sources. + +Ever since the beginning of the war Syria has been an area of direst +poverty, starvation, and sickness, which have been the natural +co-operators in Jemal's policy there. All supplies have been +commandeered for the troops (including by special clause from Potsdam, +the German troops); even fish caught by the fishermen of Lebanon have +to be handed over to the military authorities, and the shortage of +supplies in Smyrna, for instance, is such that at the end of 1916 there +were two hundred deaths daily from sheer starvation, while Germany was +importing from Turkey hundreds of tons of corn and of meat. Thus this +was no natural shortage, for though supplies were low all over the +Turkish Empire, there was not dearth of that kind. It was an artificial +shortage made possible by German demands, and made intentional by +Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better case than Smyrna; Lebanon +perhaps was in sorer straits than either. Money was equally scarce, and +it fitted Jemal's policy that this should be so, for when Americans in +Beirut had raised funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the +Turkish Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were +dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent decrees +of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets of towns the poor +have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane and orange peel; in the +country, to quote from _Molcattam_, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans +start to grow than the fields are filled with women and children who +pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes (including +the victualling of German troops) transportation has ceased to exist, +and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal the Great. + +On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came typhus. In +the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, over 8000 persons had +died of it. Doctors and medicines were unobtainable, for all were +requisitioned for the needs of the army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in +Hama and Homs, the epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent +from Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the charitable +from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the Arabs were working for +the policy of Jemal the Great. There were no troops to spare who should +hasten on the work, but the work was progressing by swift and 'natural' +means. Hunger and pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of +Love! How superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the +Arabs. 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news +of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was +established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, and if +any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations which passed, +the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. Too much news about +Armenian massacres filtered through; there should not now be such +leakage. And when starvation and pestilence had firmly established +themselves, Jemal the Great went down to see what his personal exertions +could effect. All was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer +classes of Arabs were dying like flies, but mortality was not so +successful among the wealthier, who could, to some extent, purchase +food. So Jemal the Great set to work among them. He began by hanging the +heads of Syrian-Arabs in Damascus, Beirut, and other cities. No +semblance of trial, no prosecution or arraignment, were necessary: he +established courts-martial under military control, made lists of the +accused, and ordered the courts-martial to condemn them to death. +Sometimes he made mistakes, appointing as the members of his +court-martial men who were not such sturdy patriots as he, and refused +to sentence for no crime the accused whom he nominated. He remedied such +mistakes by appointing new boards of more seasoned stuff. Moslem and +Christian alike were brought before them, and a general accusation of +pro-French tendencies seems to have been sufficient to secure a sentence +of death or lifelong imprisonment. He aimed not at the poor and the +obscure, for whom hunger and pestilence were providing, but at the rich +and the influential. The higher clergy in Christian circles, Bishops and +Monsignors, were a favourite target, and among Moslems influential +Sheikhs. Sometimes there was a parody of a trial; sometimes the parody +was dispensed with, and when the black curtain was last raised over +Syria, Jemal the Great had disposed of over eight hundred of the heads +of the most influential of Syrian Arabs. He had got rid, in fact, of +the whole House of Lords, and something more. Those who are acquainted +with 'feudal values' among the Arabs will understand what that means. He +decapitated, not individuals only, but groups. For devilish ingenuity in +this combination of starvation and pestilence for the poor, and death or +lifelong imprisonment for the chiefs, Jemal the Great must take rank +with Abdul Hamid and the contrivers of the Armenian massacres. He +cannot, it is true, owing to lack of troops, obtain the swift results of +Enver in Armenia, but between typhus, starvation, and courts-martial, +his solution of the Arab question in Syria is making steady progress. +And those measures, hideously efficient in themselves, are, beyond any +doubt whatever, only the precursors of more sweeping exterminations of +the Arab race, which will be effected after the war, if the Allied +Powers do not step in to save it. The Faithful of the Holy City, Mecca, +have revolted and thrown off the Turkish yoke, and while the war lasts, +and Turkish troops are otherwise occupied under Teutonic supervision, +they will be able to maintain their independence, for there is no +considerable body of Turks which can seriously threaten them. But the +Syrian Arabs, so long as the war lasts, are being, and will be, the +victims of a quiet scheme of extermination, which, if long continued, +will be as complete as that devised and carried out by the butchers of +Constantinople for the peoples of Armenia. It is not in the interest of +the Germans to save them, and no check is being put on Jemal the Great +to hinder him from assisting starvation and typhus to ravage the +country, and supplementing their deadly work by court-martial without +trial. + +Equally significant of the rage for the destruction of Arabs was the +treatment of the Bagdad Arab army corps. In spite of the need for troops +one half of it was sent from Bagdad to Erzerum in the depth of winter, +without any provision of warm clothing. There, in those cold uplands, +the men died at the rate of fifty to sixty a day. Their commanding +officer was a Turk, and a creature of Enver's, called Abdul Kader. +Though these troops had fought admirably, he openly called them Arab +traitors, and his orders seem to have been merely to get rid of them. +There were no courts-martial; they were just taken into a climate which +killed them. + +While for the last thirty years the Armenians and Syrians have emigrated +in large numbers from the Ottoman Empire, there has been a large +immigration of Jews into it. This movement was originally due to the +persecution they suffered in Russia. Germany and Austria were closed to +them, and, flying from the hideous pogroms that threatened them with +extermination, they begun to settle in Palestine. Wealthy compatriots +such as Baron Edmond de Rothschild assisted them, and, with the amazing +versatility of their race, they, trades-people and town-folk, adapted +themselves to new conditions, turned their wits towards husbandry and +agriculture, and during the last thirty years have flourished and +multiplied in a manner quite unrealised by the western world. In 1881 +there were not more than 25,000 of them in the home of their race, but +by the beginning of the European War, when their immigration ceased for +the present, they numbered 120,000 souls. Till then the Ottoman +Government adopted the ancient Turkish policy of neglect towards them, +for they were not powerful enough numerically to earn the honour of a +massacre, and, in addition, they were useful settlers. Backed by +powerful Western influence, French, English, and German alike, they +improved out of knowledge the values of the lands where they established +themselves, and by intelligent management, by conserving and increasing +the water supply with irrigation and well-digging, they have brought +many thousand acres into cultivation. Originally refugees, fleeing from +outrageous persecutions, their immigration by degrees took on a +different spirit. Not only were they coming out of captivity, but they +were entering into the ancient Land of Promise again. Zionism, the +spirit of the returning exiles, animated them, and, according to their +prophets, they realised that 'The Lord shall comfort Zion, He shall +comfort all her waste places.' They had sowed in tears; now, on their +return, they were reaping in joy, and, though their land was still +under the infidel yoke, they were allowed to dwell in peace, busy, +industrious, with the halo of home-coming in their hearts. They paid, of +course, their Turkish taxes, but these were not levied in any oppressive +manner, and their colonies were thrifty, self-governing, and prosperous. +Already before the war, one-tenth of the cultivated land in Palestine +was in their hands, they had their own schools, their own methods of +organisation, and, more significant than all, Hebrew became a living +language again. Germany, intent on her penetration of Turkey, made an +attempt to Germanise them also (for Germany, as we shall see, has a very +special interest in these Jewish colonies), shook her head over Zionism, +for which she tried to substitute Prussianism, and wanted to make the +German language compulsory in Jewish schools at Haifa and Jaffa, but her +effort completely failed. Nothing could show the inherent vitality of +this Jewish colonisation more strikingly. + +These Jewish settlers then were left in peace; from minuteness they +escaped the notice of the Young Turk party in its schemes for the +complete Ottomanisation of the Empire, and, until the present year 1917, +no mention of 'the Jewish question' was propounded. But it will he +remembered that in 1915, certain Jewish refugees, taking warning from +the Armenian massacres, fled to Egypt, and there founded a Zionist +mule-corps, which served under the English in the Gallipoli campaign. It +seems very probable that it was this that directed the attention of +Jemal the Great to the Jewish colonies in Palestine: possibly it was +merely that he was a more thorough Ottomaniser than his colleagues in +Constantinople. In any case he ordered the 'deportation' of all Jews +from Jaffa, Gaza, and other agricultural districts. All Jews were +commanded to leave Jaffa within forty-eight hours, no means of transport +was given them, and they were forbidden to take with them either +provisions or any of their belongings. Eight thousand Jews were evicted +from Jaffa alone, and their houses were pillaged, and they robbed, +maltreated, and many were murdered. Thus, and in no other way had the +massacres of the Armenians begun, and, that there should be no mistake +about it, Jemal threatened them explicitly with the fate of the +Armenians. Next day Ludd was evacuated also; the evacuation of Haifa and +Jerusalem was threatened, and artillery was sent to Jerusalem. There can +be no doubt in fact that Jemal planned and began to carry out a massacre +of all Jews. + +At that point the Germans intervened, and for the present (but only for +the present, for so long in fact as Germany has complete control over +all Turkish internal affairs, in which she protested she could not +meddle) the Jewish colonies in Palestine seem to be safe.[1] The German +chief of the General Staff telegraphed to Berlin that the 'military +considerations' on which Jemal based his deportations did not exist, and +Herr Cohn in the Reichstag drew the Imperial Chancellor's attention to +this. How seriously the menace was regarded in Germany, and how far the +deportations had gone may be gathered from his words, 'Is the Imperial +Chancellor prepared to influence the Turkish Government in such a manner +as to prevent with certainty--so far as this is still possible--a +repetition in Palestine of the Armenian atrocities?' This was +sufficient: Germany, who could not dream of interfering in Turkish +internal affairs when only the massacre of hundreds of thousands of +Armenians was concerned, sent her order, and, for the present, Jemal the +Great has been unable to proceed with the solution of the Jewish +question in Turkey, which he had just discovered. We need not yet in +fact give Jemal his Jew. But some sort of explanation to soothe the +exasperation of the Turks in not being allowed to murder when and how +and where they pleased, was thought advisable, and the explanation (an +extraordinarily significant one) was given in an inspired paragraph of +the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ not long after. 'The valuable structure of +Zionist cultural work, in which the German Empire must have well founded +interest in view of future and very promising trade relations, will, it +is very much to be hoped, be preserved from destruction so far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary. Pan-Turkish ideals have +no sort of meaning in Palestine where practically no Turks dwell.' + +[Footnote 1: This view seems to be borne out by subsequent events, for +the Jews evacuated from Jaffa have been permitted to return owing to the +intervention of the Spanish Government. It is not hard to guess who +prompted that.] + +We may take it, then, that with regard to the projected Jewish +massacres, quite clearly foreshadowed by the schemes of deportation from +Jaffa and Gaza, Germany has made strong representations to the Ottoman +Government. She did not do so (indeed she officially refused to do so) +when the Armenian massacres began, for she could not interfere in +Turkey's internal affairs. But now she has discovered that Pan-Turkish +ideals have no sort of meaning in Palestine, and thus, with amazing +astuteness, has provided herself with a reason for interfering, while +still not giving up the policy of non-interference in Turkish affairs, +for Turkey, she has discovered, _has_ no affairs in Palestine. At the +same time she guards herself from diplomatic defeat by the hope that +Zionist cultural work will be saved from destruction so _far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary_. In other words, +supposing Jemal the Great got completely out of hand, and proceeded to +indiscriminate massacre of the Jews, Germany would doubtless accept his +plea that military requirements had made it necessary.... And we were +once so ignorant as to assure ourselves that Germany had no notions of +diplomacy! + +The full significance of her intervention on behalf of the Jews, when +neither the extermination of the Armenians, the persecution of the +Arabs, nor the deportation of the Greeks moved Germany to any decided +action or energetic protest, must be left, in so far as it concerns the +future, to another chapter. But as regards the present and the past it +will be useful to consider here what has prompted her to make a protest +(which we may regard, so long as her foot is on the neck of the Turks, +as having been successful) against these projected massacres. Certainly +it was not humanity; it was not the faintest desire to save innocent +people in general from being murdered wholesale, for in the similar +case of the Armenians, her bowels of compassion were not moved. Or, +possibly, if we incline to lenience, we may say that she was sorry for +the Armenians, but could not then risk a disagreement with their +murderers who were her allies, whereas now, feeling herself more +completely dominant over the Turks than she then did, she could risk +being peremptory, especially since there was that saving clause about +military requirements. For during the Armenian massacres, the +Dardanelles expedition was still on the shores of Gallipoli, and the +menace to Constantinople acute. It was possible that if she opposed a +firm front to the Armenian massacres, the Turks, already on the verge of +despair with regard to saving the capital from capture, might have made +terms with the Allies. But now no such imminence of danger threatened +them, and, with Germany's domination over them vastly more secure than +it had been in 1915, she could afford to treat them less as allies and +more as a conquered people. This alone might have accounted for her +unprecedented impulse of humanity in the minds of those who still +attribute such instincts to her, but she had far stronger reasons than +that for wanting to save the Jews of Palestine. + +Her policy with regard to them is set forth in a pamphlet by Dr. Davis +Treitsch, called _Die Jüden der Türkei_, published in 1915, which is a +most illuminating little document. These Jewish colonies, as we have +seen, came from Russia, and as Germany realised, long before the war, +they might easily form a German nucleus in the Near East, for they +largely consisted of German-speaking Jews, akin in language and blood to +a most important element in her own population. 'In a certain sense,' +says Dr. Treitsch, 'the Jews are a Near Eastern element in Germany and a +German element in Turkey.' He goes on with unerring acumen to lament the +exodus of German-speaking Jews to the United States and to England. +'Annually some 100,000 of these are lost to Germany, the empire of the +English language and the economic system that goes with it is being +enlarged, while a German asset is being proportionately depreciated.... +It will no longer do simply to close the German frontiers to them, and +in view of the difficulties which would result from a wholesale +migration of Jews into Germany itself, Germans will only be too glad to +find a way out in the emigration of those Jews to Turkey--a solution +extraordinarily favourable to the interests of all three parties +concerned.' + +Here, then, is the matter in a nutshell: Germany, wide-awake as ever, +saw long ago the advantage to her of a growing Jewish population from +the Pale in Turkey. She was perhaps a little overloaded with them +herself, but in this immigration from Russia to Palestine she saw the +formation of a colony that was well worth German protection, and the +result of the war, provided the Palestinian immigrants were left in +peace, would be to augment very largely the number of those settling +there. 'Galicia,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'and the western provinces of +Russia, which between them contain more than half the Jews in the world, +have suffered more from the war than any other region. Jewish homes +have been broken up by hundreds of thousands, and there is no doubt +whatever that, as a result of the war, there will be an emigration of +East European Jews on an unprecedented scale.' This emigration, then, to +Palestine was, in Germany's view, a counter-weight to the 100,000 +annually lost to her through emigration to America and England. With her +foot on Turkey's neck she had control over these German-speaking Jews, +and saw in them the elements of a German colony. Her calculations, it is +true, were somewhat upset by the development of the Zionist movement, by +which those settlers declared themselves to have a nationality of their +own, and a language of their own, and Dr. Treitsch concedes that. 'But,' +he adds, 'in addition to Hebrew, to which they are more and more +inclined, the Jews must have a world-language, and this can only be +German.' + +This, then, in brief, and only up to the present, is the story of how +the Jewish massacres were stayed. The Jews were potential Germans, and +Germany, who sat by with folded hands when Arabs and Armenians were led +to torture and death, put up a warning finger, and, for the present, +saved them. In her whole conduct of the war, nothing has been more +characteristic than her 'verboten' to one projected massacre and her +acquiescence in others. But, as for her having saved the Jews out of +motives of humanity, 'Credant Judaei!' + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter V_ + + +DEUTSCHLAND ÃœBER ALLAH + +It was commonly said at the beginning of this war that, whatever +Germany's military resources might be, she was hopelessly and childishly +lacking in diplomatic ability and in knowledge of psychology, from which +all success in diplomacy is distilled. As instances of this grave +defect, people adduced the fact that, apparently, she had not +anticipated the entry of Great Britain into the war at all, while her +treatment of Belgium immediately afterwards was universally pronounced +to be not a crime merely, but a blunder of the stupidest sort. It is +perfectly true that Germany did not understand, and, as seems likely in +the light of innumerable other atrocities, never will understand, the +psychology of civilised peoples; she has never shown any signs up till +now, at any rate, of 'having got the hang of it' at all. But critics of +her diplomacy failed to see the root-fact that she did not understand it +merely because it did not interest her. It was not worth her while to +master the psychology of other civilised nations, since she was out not +to understand them, but to conquer them. She had all the information she +wanted about their armies and navies and guns and ammunition neatly and +correctly tabulated. Why, then, since this was all that concerned her, +should she cram her head with irrelevant information about what they +might feel on the subject of gas-attacks or the torpedoing of neutral +ships without warning? As long as her fumes were deadly and her +submarines subtle, nothing further concerned her. + +But Europe generally made a great mistake in supposing that Germany +could not learn psychology, and the process of its distillation into +diplomacy when it interested her. The psychology of the French and +English was a useless study, for she was merely going to fight them, but +for years she had been studying with an industry and a patience that +put our diplomacy to shame (as was most swiftly and ignominiously proven +when it came into conflict with hers) the psychology of the Turks. For +years she had watched the dealings of the Great Powers with Turkey, but +she had never really associated herself with that policy. She sat +quietly by and saw how it worked. Briefly it was this. For a hundred +years Turkey had been kept alive in Europe by the sedulous attentions of +the Physician Powers, who dared not let him die for fear of the +stupendous quarrels which would instantly arise over his corpse. So +there they all sat round his bed, and kept him alive with injections of +strychnine and oxygen, and, no less, by a policy of rousing and +irritating the patient. All through the reign of Abdul Hamid they +persevered: Great Britain plucked his pillow from him, so to speak, by +her protectorate of Egypt; Russia tweaked Eastern Rumelia from him; +France deprived him of his hot-water bottle when she snatched at the +Constantinople quays, and they all shook and slapped him when he went to +war with Greece in 1896, and instantly deprived him of the territory he +had won in Thessaly. That was the principle of European diplomacy +towards Turkey, and from it Germany always held aloof. + +But from about the beginning of the reign of the present German Emperor, +German or rather Prussian diplomacy had been going quietly about its +work. It was worth while to study the psychology of the Turks, because +dimly then, but with ever-increasing distinctness, Germany foresaw that +Turkey might be a counter of immense importance in the great conflict +which was assuredly drawing nearer, though as yet its existence was but +foreshadowed by the most distant reflections of summer lightning on a +serene horizon. But if Turkey was to be of any profit to her, she wanted +a strong Turkey who could fight with her (or rather for her), and she +had no use for the Sick Man whom the other Powers were bent on keeping +alive, but no more. Her own eventual domination of Turkey was always the +end in view, but she wanted to dominate not a weak but a strong servant. +And her diplomacy was not less than brilliant simply from the fact that +on the one hand it soothed Turkey instead of irritating, and, on the +other, that it went absolutely unnoticed for a long time. Nobody knew +that it was going on. She sent officers to train the Turkish army, well +knowing what magnificent material Anatolia afforded, and she had +thoroughly grasped the salient fact that to make any way with Oriental +peoples your purse must be open and your backshish unlimited. 'There is +no God but backshish, and the Deutsche Bank is his prophet.' + +For years this went on very quietly, and all over the great field of the +Ottoman Empire the first tiny blades of the crop that Germany was sowing +began to appear. To-day that crop waves high, and covers the whole field +with its ripe and fruitful ears. For to-day Turkey is neither more nor +less than a German colony, and more than makes up to her for the +colonies she has lost and hopes to regain. She knows that perfectly +well, and so do any who have at all studied the history and the results +of her diplomacy there. Even Turkey itself must, as in an uneasy dream, +be faintly conscious of it. For who to-day is the Sultan of Turkey? No +other than William II. of Germany. It is in Berlin that his Cabinet +meets, and sometimes he asks Talaat Bey to attend in a strictly honorary +capacity. And Talaat Bey goes back to Constantinople with a strictly +honorary sword of honour. Or else he gives one to William II. from his +_soi-disant_ master, the Sultan, or takes one back to his _soi-disant_ +master from his real master. For no one knows better than William II. +the use that swords of honour play in deeds of dishonour. + +The object of this chapter is to trace and mount the hewn and solid +staircase of steps by which Germany's present supremacy over Turkey was +achieved. + +Apart from the quiet spade-work that had been going on for some years, +Germany made no important move till the moment when, in 1909, the Young +Turk party, after the forced abdication of Abdul Hamid, proclaimed the +aims and ideals of the new regime. At once Germany saw her opportunity, +for here, with her help, might arise the strong Turkey which she +desired to see, instead of the weak Turkey which all the other European +Powers had been keeping on a lowering diet for so long (desirous only +that it should not quite expire), and from that moment she began to +lend, or rather let, to Turkey in ever-increasing quantities, the +resources of her scientific and her military knowledge. It was in her +interests, if Turkey was to be of use to her, that she should educate, +and irrigate, and develop the unexploited treasures of human material, +of fertility and mineral wealth; and Germany's gold, her schools, her +laboratories were at Turkey's disposal. But in every case she, as in +duty bound to her people, saw that she got very good value for her +outlay. + +Here, then, was the great psychological moment when Germany instantly +moved. The Young Turks proclaimed that they were going to weld the +Ottoman Empire into one homogeneous and harmonious whole, and by a piece +of brilliant paradoxical reasoning Germany determined that it was she +who was going to do it for them. In flat contradiction of the spirit of +their manifestoes, which proclaimed the Pan-Turkish ideal, she conceived +and began to carry out under their very noses the great new chapter of +the Pan-Germanic ideal. And the Young Turks did not know the difference! +They mistook that lusty Teutonic changeling for their own new-born +Turkish babe, and they nursed and nourished it. Amazingly it throve, and +soon it cut its teeth, and one day, when they thought it was asleep, it +arose from its cradle a baby no more, but a great Prussian guardsman who +shouted, 'Deutschland über Allah!' + +Only once was there a check in the growth of the Prussian infant, and +that was no more than a childish ailment. For when the Balkan wars broke +out the Turkish army was in the transitional stage. Its German tutors +had not yet had time to inspire the army with German discipline and +tradition; they had only weeded out, so to speak, the old Turkish +spirit, the blind obedience to the Ministers of the Shadow of God. The +Shadow of God, in fact, in the person of the Sultan, had been dragged +out into the light, and his Shadow had grown appreciably less. In +consequence there was not at this juncture any cohesion in the army, and +it suffered reverse after reverse. But a strong though a curtailed +Turkey was more in accordance with Prussian ideas than a weak and +sprawling one, and Germany bore the Turkish defeats very valiantly. And +that was the only set-back that this Pan-Prussian youngster experienced, +and it was no more than an attack of German measles which he very +quickly got over. For two or three years German influence wavered, then +recovered, 'with blessings on the falling out, that all the more +endears.' + +It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish ideal to +her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of Germany's methods, the +best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal is to be found in a publication +of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was written as German propaganda and by +Germany disseminated broadcast over the Turkish Empire. An account of +this movement has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the +Turkish side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the +German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish Phoenix. The +Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of Love, in whose name the +Armenians were tortured and massacred, were the two wings on which it +was to soar. Auxiliary soaring societies were organised, among them a +Turkish Ojagha with similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of +it were founded throughout the Empire. There were also a Turkish Guiji +or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts' club. A union of merchants +worked for the same object in districts where hitherto trade had been in +the hands of Greeks and Armenians, and signs appeared on their shops +that only Turkish labour was employed. Religious funds also were used +for similar economic restoration. + +Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and took out her +long spoon, for her hour was come. She did not interfere: she only +helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. With her usual foresight she +perceived that the Izji, for instance, was a thing to encourage, for +the boys who were being trained now would in a few years be precisely +the young men of whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy +scout movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously and +methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely reliable source of +information, we find that the whole boy scout movement, with its +innumerable branches, was under the control of a German officer, Colonel +von Hoff. In its classes (derneks) boys are trained in military +practices, in 'a recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively +enjoy (a Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use +to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn +skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements of their +companies, they are shown neat ways of judging distances. They are +divided into two classes, the junior class ranging from the ages of +twelve to seventeen, the senior class consisting of boys over seventeen, +but not yet of military age. But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, +the military age has been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to +serve their country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore, +saw that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class has +become the senior class, and a new junior class has been set on foot +which begins its recreational exercises in the service of William II., +Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It is all great fun, but those +pigeon-livered little boys who are not diverted by it have to go on with +their fun all the same, for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on +all boys. Of course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is +of a 'semi-military' character. + +The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from the early age +of eight, was the first object of Germany's peaceful and benign +penetration. As from the Pisgah height of the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw +the promised land, but she had no idea of seeing it only, like Moses, +and expiring without entering it, and her faith that she would enter it +and possess it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has +not only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like Aleppo +were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie there were separate +wooden barracks for the exclusive use of German troops. There is a +military mission at Mamoura, where all the buildings are permanent +erections solidly built of stone, for no merely temporary occupation is +intended, and thousands of freight-cars with Belgian marks upon them +throng the railways, and on some is the significant German title of +'Military Headquarters of the Imperial Staff.' There are troops in the +Turkish army, to which is given the title of 'Pasha formation,' in +compliment to Turkey, but the Pasha formations are under command of +Baron Kress von Kressenstein, and are salted with German officers, +N.C.O.'s, and privates, who, although in the Turkish army, retain their +German uniforms. + +This German leaven forms an instructional class for the remainder of the +troops in these formations, who are Turkish. The Germans are urged to +respect Moslem customs and to show particular consideration for their +religious observances. Every German contingent arriving at +Constantinople to join the Pasha formations finds quarters prepared on a +ship, and when the troops leave for their 'destination' they take +supplies from depots at the railway station which will last them two or +three months. They are enjoined to write war diaries, and are provided +with handbooks on the military and geographical conditions in +Mesopotamia, with maps, and with notes on the training and management of +camels. This looks as if they were intended for use against the English +troops in Mesopotamia, but I cannot find that they have been identified +there. The greatest secrecy is observed with regard to those Pasha +formations, and their constitution and movements are kept extremely well +veiled. + +Wireless stations have been set up in Asia Minor and Palestine, and +these are under the command of Major Schlee. A Turkish air-service was +instituted, at the head of which was Major Serno, a Prussian officer, +and Turkish aviators are now in training at Ostend, where they will very +usefully defend their native country. At Constantinople there is a +naval school for Turkish engineers and mechanics in the arsenal, to help +on the Pan-Turkish ideal, and with a view to that all the instructors +are German: a floating dock is in construction at Ismid, and the order +has been placed with German firms. It will be capable of accommodating +ships of Dreadnought build, which is a new departure for the strictly +Pan-Turkish ideal. The cost is £740,000, to be repaid three years after +the end of the war. Similarly, by the spring of this year, Germany had +arranged to start submarine training in Constantinople for the Turks, +and a submarine school was open and at work in March. A few months later +it was established at the island of Prinkipo, where it is now hard at +work under German instructors. Other naval cadets were sent to Germany +for their training, and Turkish officers were present at the battle of +Jutland in June 1916, and of course were decorated by the Emperor in +person for their coolness and courage.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In October 1917 a bill was passed for the entire +remodelling of the Turkish fleet after the war, on the lines of the +German fleet, 'which proved its perfect training in the battle of Skager +Rak.'] + +A complete revision of the Turkish system of exemptions from military +service was necessary as soon as Germany began to want men badly. The +age for military service was first raised, and we find a Turkish order +of October 1916, calling on all men of forty-three, forty-four, and +forty-five years of age to pay their exemption tax if they did not wish +to be called to the colours. That secured their money, and, with truly +Prussian irony, hardly had this been done when a fresh army order was +issued calling out all men, whether they had paid their exemption tax or +not. Germany thus secured both their money and their lives. + +Still more men were needed, and in November a fresh levy of boys was +raised regardless of whether they had reached the military age or not. +This absorbed the senior class of the boy scouts, who hitherto had +learned their drill in a 'recreationary manner.' Neither Jews nor +Christians are exempt from service, and frequent press gangs go round +Constantinople rounding up those who are in hiding. + +Again the Prussian Moloch was hungry for more, and in December 1916 the +Turkish _Gazette_ announced that all males in Asia Minor between the +ages of fourteen and sixty-five were to be enrolled for military +service, and in January of this year, 1917, fresh recruiting was +foreshadowed by the order that men of forty-six to fifty-two, who had +paid their exemption money, should be medically examined to see if they +were fit for active service. This fresh recruiting was also put in force +in the case of boys, and during the summer of 1917 all boys above the +age of twelve, provided they were sound and well-built, were taken for +the army. Wider and wider the net was spread, and in the same month a +fresh Turco-German convention was signed, whereby was enforced a +reciprocal surrender in both countries of persons liable to military +service, and of deserters, and simultaneously all Turks living in +Switzerland, and who had paid exemption money, were recalled to their +Germanised fatherland. By now the first crops of the year were ripening +in Smyrna, and in default of civilian labour (for every one was now a +soldier) they were reaped by Turkish soldiers and the produce sent +direct to Germany. + +Already in August 1916, certificates of Ottoman nationality had been +granted to Serbians resident in the Empire who were willing to become +Ottoman subjects, and their 'willingness' was intensified by hints that +incidents akin to the Armenian massacres might possibly occur among +other alien peoples. They had to sign a declaration that they would not +revert to their former nationality, and thus, no doubt, many Serbs +passed into the Turkish army. Further enrolments were desirable, and, in +March 1917, all Greeks living in Anatolia were forcibly proselytised, +their property was confiscated, and they were made liable to military +service. Unfortunately all were not available, for of those who were +removed from the villages where they lived to military centres, ten per +cent. died on the forced marches from hunger and exposure. That was +annoying for the German recruiting agents, but it suited well enough the +Pan-Turkish ideal of exterminating foreign nationalities. When trouble +or discontent occurred among the troops, it was firmly dealt with, as, +for instance, when, in November 1916, there were considerable desertions +from the 49th Division. On that occasion the order was given to fire on +them, and many were killed and wounded. The officer who gave the order +was commended by the Prussian authorities for his firmness. Should such +an incident occur again, it will no doubt be dealt with no less +firmness, for, in April 1917, Mackensen was put in supreme command of +all troops in Asia Minor. But in spite of this desertions have largely +increased lately, and during the summer deserters out of all the Turkish +armies were believed to number about 200,000. Many of those have formed +themselves into brigand bands, who make the roads dangerous for +travellers. The exchange of honours goes on, for not long ago, in +Berlin, Prince Zia-ed-Din, the Turkish Sultan's heir, presented a sword +of honour to the Sultan William II. Probably he gave him good news of +the progress of the German harbour works begun in the winter at +Stamboul, and himself learned that the railway bridge which the Turks +proposed to build over the Bosporus was not to be proceeded with, for +the German high command had superseded that scheme by their own idea of +making a tunnel under the Bosporus instead, which would be safer from +aircraft. + +Such up-to-date, though in brief outline, is the history of the +establishment of the Prussian octopus grip on military and naval matters +in Turkey. We have largely ourselves to blame for it. Upon that pathetic +and lamb-like record of our diplomacy during the months between the +outbreak of the European War, and the entry of Turkey into it in October +1914, it would be morbid to dwell at any length, though a short summary +is necessary. As we all know now, Turkey had concluded a treaty with +Germany early in August, and when our Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir +Louis Malet, who was on leave in England at that date, returned to his +post on August 16th, all that Turkey wanted was to gain time in which to +effect her mobilisation. This she did, with complete success, and our +Ambassador telegraphed to England stating his perfect confidence in the +sincerity with which the Grand Vizier professed his friendship for +England. All through those weeks of August and September this confidence +appeared to continue unabated. The Moderate party in Turkey--that is to +say, the hoodwinking party--were reported to be daily gaining strength, +and it was most important that the Allies should give them every +assistance, and above all not precipitate matters. All was going well: +all we had to do was to wait. So we waited, still blindly confident in +the sincerity of Turkey's friendship for England, while the mobilisation +of the Turkish forces proceeded merrily. By the end of September this +was nearly complete, and quite suddenly the Ambassador informed the +Foreign Office that Turkey appeared to be temporising. That was +perfectly true, but the period of temporisation was nearly over, and by +mid-October Turkey had something like 800,000 men under arms, and for +nine weeks Enver Pasha had had his signed treaty with Germany in his +pocket. Possibly this diplomatic procrastination was useful to us, for +it enabled us to bring troops from India in security, and send others to +Egypt. But without doubt it was useful to the Turks, for it enabled them +to mobilise their armies, and to strengthen enormously the defences of +the Dardanelles. Then came the day when Germany and Turkey were ready, +the attack was made on Odessa, and out of Constantinople we went. We +climbed into the railway carriages that took the last rays of English +influence out of the Ottoman Empire, and steep were the stairs in the +house of a stranger! Turks are not much given to laughter, but Enver +Pasha must at least have smiled on that day. + +Already, of course, German influence was strong in the army, which now +was thoroughly trained in German methods, but that army might still be +called a Turkish army. Nowadays, by no stretch of language can it be +called Turkish except in so far that all Turkish efficient manhood is +helplessly enlisted in it, for there is no branch or department of it +over which the Prussian octopus has not thrown its paralysing tentacles +and affixed its immovable suckers. Army and navy alike, the wireless +stations, the submarines, the aircraft, are all directly controlled from +Berlin, and, as we have seen, the generalissimo of the forces is +Mackensen, who is absolutely the Hindenburg of the East. But thorough as +is the control of Berlin over Constantinople in military and naval +matters, it is not one whit more thorough than her control in all other +matters of national life. Never before has Germany been very successful +in her colonisation; but if complete domination--the sucking of a +country till it is a mere rind of itself, and yet at the same time full +to bursting of Prussian ichor--may be taken as Germany's equivalent of +colonisation, then indeed we must be forced to recognise her success. +And it was all done in the name and for the sake of the Pan-Turkish +ideal. Even now Prussian Pecksniffs like Herr Ernst Marré, whose +pamphlet, _Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was published in 1916, +continue to insist that Germany is nobly devoting herself to the +well-being of Turkey. 'In doing this,' he exclaims in that illuminating +document, 'we are benefiting Turkey.... This is a war of liberation for +Turkey,' though omitting to say from whom Turkey is being liberated. +Perhaps the Armenians. Occasionally, it is true, he forgets that, and +naively remarks, 'Turkey is a very difficult country to govern. But +after the war Turkey will be very important as a transit country.' But +then he remembers again and says, 'We wish to give besides taking, and +we should often like to give more than we can hope to give.' Let us look +into this, and see the manner in which Germany expresses her yearning to +impoverish herself for the sake of Turkey. + +All this reorganisation of the Turkish army was of course a very +expensive affair, and required skilful financing, and it was necessary +to get the whole of Turkey's exchequer arrangements into German hands. A +series of financial regulations was promulgated. The Finance Minister, +during 1916, was still Turkish, but the official immediately under him +was a German. He was authorised to deposit with the Controllers of the +Ottoman National Debt German Imperial Bills of £T30,000,000, and to +issue German paper money to the like amount. This arrangement insures +the circulation of the German notes, which are redeemable by Turkey in +_gold_ two years after the declaration of peace. Gold is declared to be +the standard currency, and no creditor is obliged to accept in payment +of a debt more than 300 piastres in silver or fifty in nickel. And since +there is no gold in currency (for it has been all called in, and +penalties of death have been authorised for hoarders) it follows that +this and other issues of German paper will filter right through the +Empire. At the same time a German expert, Dr. Kautz, was appointed to +start banks throughout Turkey in order to free the peasants from the +Turkish village usurer, and in consequence enslave them to the German +banks. Similarly a German was put at the head of the Ottoman +Agricultural Bank. These new branches worked very well, but it is +pleasant to think that one such was started by the Deutsche Bank at +Bagdad in October 1916, which now has its shutters up. Before this, as +we learn from the _Oesterreichischer Volkswirt_ (June 1916), Germany had +issued other gold notes, in payment for gold from Turkey, which is +retainable in Berlin till six months after the end of the war. (It is +reasonable to wonder whether it will not be retained rather longer than +that.) These gold notes were accepted willingly at first by the public, +but the increase in their number (by the second issue) has caused them +to be viewed with justifiable suspicion, and the depreciation in them +continues. But the Turkish public has no redress except by hoarding +gold, which is a penal offence. That these arrangements have not +particularly helped Turkish credit may be gathered from the fact that +the Turkish gold £1, nominally 100 piastres, was very soon worth 280 +piastres in the German paper standard, and it now fetches a great deal +more. + +Again, the Deutsche Orientbank has made many extensions, and is already +financing cotton and wool trade for after the war. The establishment of +this provoked much applause in German financial circles, who find it to +be an instance of the 'far-reaching and powerful Germano-Austrian unity, +which replaces the disunion of Turkish finance.' This is profoundly +true, especially if we omit the word 'Austrian' inserted for diplomatic +reasons. Again we find Germany advancing £3,000,000 of German paper to +the Turkish Government in January 1917, for the payment of supplies they +have received from Krupp's works and (vaguely) for interest to the +German Financial Minister. This, too, we may conjecture, is to be +redeemed after the war in gold. + +In March of this year we find in the report of the Ottoman Bank a German +loan of £1,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural implements by +Turkey, and this is guaranteed by house-taxes. In all up to that month, +as was announced in the Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople, Germany +had advanced to Turkey the sum of £142,000,000, entirely, it would seem, +in German paper, to be repaid at various dates in gold. The grip, in +fact, is a strangle-hold, all for Turkey's good, as no doubt will prove +the 'New Conventions' announced by Zimmermann in May 1917, to take the +place of the abolished Capitulations, 'which left Turkey at the mercy of +predatory Powers who looked for the disruption of the Ottoman Empire.' +Herr Zimmermann does not look for that: he looks for its absorption. And +sees it. + +The industrial development of Turkey by this benevolent and +disinterested Power has been equally thorough and far-reaching, though +Germany here has had a certain amount of competition by Hungary to +contend against, for Hungary considered that Germany was trespassing on +her sphere of interest. But she has been able to make no appreciable +headway against her more acute partner, and her application for a +monopoly of sugar-production was not favourably received, for Germany +already had taken the beet industry well in hand. In Asia Minor the +acreage of cultivation early in 1917 had fallen more than 50 per cent. +from that under crops before the war, but owing to the importation of +machinery from the Central Powers, backed up by a compulsory +Agricultural Service Law, which has just been passed, it is hoped that +the acreage will be increased this year by something like 30 per cent. +The yield per acre also will be greatly increased this year, for Germany +has, though needing artificial manures badly herself, sent large +quantities into Turkey, where they will be more profitably employed. She +has no fear about securing the produce. This augmented yield will, it is +true, not be adequate to supply the needs of Turkey, who for the last +two years has suffered from very acute food shortage, which in certain +districts has amounted to famine and wholesale starvation of the poorer +classes. But it is unlikely that their needs will be considered at all, +for Germany's needs (she, the fairy godmother of the Pan-Turk ideal) +must obviously have the first call on such provisions as are obtainable. +Thus, in the new preserved meat factory at Aidin, the whole of the +produce is sent to Germany. Thus, too, though in February 1917 there was +a daily shortage in Smyrna of 700 sacks of flour, and the Arab and +Greek population was starving, no flour at all was allowed to be +imported into Smyrna. But simultaneously Germany was making huge +purchases of fish, meat, and flour in Constantinople (paid for in German +paper), including 100,000 sheep. Yet such was the villainous selfishness +of the famine-stricken folk at Adrianople that, when the trains +containing these supplies were passing through, a mob held them up and +sold the contents to the inhabitants. That, however, was an isolated +instance, and in any case a law was passed in October 1916, appointing a +military commission to control all supplies. It enacts that troops shall +be supplied first, and specially ordains that the requirements of German +troops come under this head. (Private firms have been expressly +prohibited from purchasing these augmented wheat supplies, but special +permission was given in 1915 to German and Austro-Hungarian societies to +buy.) A few months later we find that there are a hundred deaths daily +in Constantinople from starvation, and two hundred in Smyrna, where +there is a complete shortage of oil. But oil is still being sent to +Germany, and during 1916 five hundred reservoirs of oil were sent there, +each containing up to 15,000 kilogrammes. Similarly during this summer +the price of fruit has gone up in Smyrna, for the Germans have reopened +certain factories for preserving it and turning it into jam, which is +being sent to Germany. The sugar is supplied from the new beet-fields of +Konia. But Kultur must be supplied first, else Kultur would grow lean, +and the Turkish God of Love will look after the Smyrniotes. It is no +wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the desired result +a little quicker, for food is already pouring in from Turkey, and when +the artificial manures have produced their early harvest the stream will +become a torrent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant.] + +But during all these busy and tremendous months of war Germany has not +only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, for the sake of the +Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic spirit she has been vastly +increasing the productiveness of her new and most important colony. The +great irrigation works at Konia, begun several years ago, are in +operation, and the revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled. +In fact, as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province +has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At Adana are +similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche Bank. Ernst Marré +gives us a most hopeful survey of them, for Adana was already linked up +with the Bagdad Railway in October 1916, which was to be the great +artery connecting Germany with the East. There is some considerable +shortage of labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to +which we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are in +excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in German hands, +and have been paid for by German paper; and to get the reservoirs, etc., +back into her own control, it has been agreed that Turkey, already +completely bankrupt, will have to pay not only what has been spent, but +a handsome sum in compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour, +prisoners have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This +irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by four times +the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab magazine, _El Alem el +Ismali_, which tells us also of the electric-power stations erected +there. + +The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian merchants that +transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of engines and trucks from +Germany, while _Die Zeit_ (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future +for this Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely +imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German capital on +terms above stated--will, in the process of internal development so +unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow cotton for herself, and be +kind enough to give a preferential tariff to Germany. + +A similarly bright future may be predicted for the sugar-beet industry +at Konia, where are the irrigation works already referred to. Artesian +wells have been sunk, and there is the suggestion to introduce +Bulgarian labour in default of Turkish. As we have seen, Hungary +attempted to obtain a monopoly with regard to sugar, but Germany has +been victorious on this point (as on every other where she competes with +Hungary), and has obtained the concession for a period of thirty years. +She reaped the first-fruits this last spring (1917), when, on a single +occasion, 350 trucks laden with sugar were despatched to Berlin. A +similar irrigation scheme is bringing into cultivation the Makischelin +Valley, near Aleppo, and Herr Wied has been appointed as expert for +irrigation plant in Syria. There has been considerable shortage of coal, +but now more is arriving from the Black Sea, and the new coal-fields at +Rodosto will soon be giving an output. + +Indeed, it would be easier to enumerate the industries and economical +developments of Turkey over which Germany has not at the present moment +got the control than those over which she has. In particular she has +shown a parental interest in Turkish educational questions. She +established last year, under German management, a school for the study +of German in Constantinople; she has put under the protection of the +German Government the Jewish institution at Haifa for technical +education in Palestine; from Sivas a mission of schoolmasters has been +sent to Germany for the study of German methods. Ernst Marré surmises +that German will doubtless become compulsory even in the Turkish +intermediate (secondary) schools. In April 1917, the first stone of the +'House of Friendship' was laid at Constantinople, the object of which +institution is to create among Turkish students an interest in +everything German, while earlier in the year arrangements were made for +10,000 Turkish youths to go to Germany to be taught trades. These I +imagine were unfit for military service. With regard to such a scheme +Halil Haled Bey praises the arrangement for the education of Turks in +Germany. When they used to go to France, he tells us, 'they lost their +religion' (certainly Prussian Got is nearer akin to Turkish Allah) 'and +returned home unpatriotic and useless. In Germany they will have access +to suitable religious literature' (Gott!) 'and must adopt all they see +good in German methods without losing their original characteristics.' +Comment on this script is needless. The hand is the hand of Halil Haled +Bey, but the voice is the voice of Potsdam. Occasionally, but rarely, +Austrian competition is seen. Professor Schmoller, in an Austrian +quarterly review, shows jealousy of German influence, and we find, in +October 1916, an Ottoman-Austrian college started at Vienna for 250 +pupils of the Ottoman Empire. But Germany has 10,000 in Berlin. At Adana +(where are the German irrigation works) the German-Turkish Society has +opened a German school of 300, while, reciprocally, courses in Turkish +have been organised at Berlin for the sake of future German colonists. +In Constantinople the _Tanin_ announces a course of lectures to be held +by the Turco-German Friendship Society. Professor von Marx discoursed +last April on foreign influence and the development of nations, with +special reference to Turkey and the parallel case of Germany. A few +months later we find Hilmet Nazim Bey, official head of the Turkish +press, proceeding to Berlin to learn German press methods. A number of +editors of Turkish papers will follow him, and soon, no doubt, the +Turkish press will rival Cologne and Frankfort. + +So much for German education, but her penetrative power extends into +every branch of industry and economics. In November 1916, a Munich +expert was put in charge of the College of Forestry, and an economic +society was started in Constantinople on German lines with German +instructors. Inoculation against small-pox, typhoid, and cholera was +made compulsory; and we find that the Turkish Ministers of Posts, of +Justice, and of Commerce, figureheads all of them, have Germans as their +acting Ministers. In the same year a German was appointed as expert for +silkworm breeding and for the cultivation of beet. Practically all the +railways in Asia Minor are pure German concerns by right of purchase. +Germany owns the Anatolian railway concession (originally British), +with right to build to Angora and Konia; the Bagdad railway concession, +with preferential rights over minerals; they have bought the +Mersina-Adana Railway, with right of linking up to the Bagdad Railway; +they have bought the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, built with French capital. +They have secured also the Haidar Pasha Harbour concession, thereby +controlling and handling all merchandise arriving at railhead from the +interior of Asia Minor.[1] Already on the Bagdad Railway the big tunnels +of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge petrol-driven +motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be complete. Meanwhile +railway construction is pushed on in all directions under German +control, and the Turkish Minister of Finance (August 1916) allocated a +large sum of German paper money for the construction of ordinary roads, +military roads, local government roads, all of which are new to Turkey, +but which will be useful for the complete German occupation which is +being swiftly consolidated. To stop the mouths of the people, all +political clubs have been suppressed by the Minister of the Interior, +for Prussia does not care for criticism. To supply German ammunition +needs, lead and zinc have been taken from the roofs of mosques and +door-handles from mosque-gates, and the iron railings along the Champs +de Mars at Pera have been carted away for the manufacture of bombs. Not +long after eight truck-loads of copper were sent to Germany: these, I +imagine, represent the first produce of copper roofs and utensils. A +Turco-German convention signed in Berlin in January of this year, +permits subjects of one country to settle in the other while retaining +their nationality and enjoying trading and other privileges. In Lebanon +Dr. König has opened an agricultural school for Syrians of all +religions. In the Homs district the threatening plague of locusts in +February 1917 was combatted by Germans; and a German expert, Dr. Bucher, +had been already sent to superintend the whole question. For this +concerns supplies to Germany, as does also the ordinance passed in the +same month that two-thirds of all fish caught in the Lebanon district +should be given to the military authorities (these are German), and that +every fish weighing over six ounces in the Beirut district should be +Korban also. The copper mines at Arghana Maden, near Diarbekr, are busy +exporting their produce into Germany; the coal-mines at Rodosto will +very soon be making a large output.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The balance-sheets for 1916 of certain of those railways in +which the Deutsche Bank has an interest have come to hand. They show a +very disagreeable degree of prosperity. The Anatolia Railway Company has +large profits with a gross revenue of 25,737,995 marks. The profit on +the Haidar-Pasha-Angora Line has risen from 42,566 francs per kilometre +to 45,552. The Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway has paid 6 per cent. on its +preference shares, and 3 per cent. on its ordinary shares. The Haidar +Pasha Harbour Company has paid 8 per cent.] + +[Footnote 2: Later in this year we find three trains daily leaving +Constantinople for Germany, laden with coal and military supplies.] + +There is no end to this penetration: German water-seekers, with divining +and boring apparatus, accompanied the Turkish expedition into Sinai; +Russian prisoners were sent by Germany for agricultural work in Asia +Minor, to take the place of slaughtered Armenians; a German-Turkish +treaty, signed January 11, 1917, gives the whole reorganisations of the +economic system to a special German mission. A Stuttgart journal chants +a characteristic _Lobgesang_ over this feat. 'That is how,' it proudly +exclaims, 'we work for the liberation of peoples and nationalities.' + +In the same noble spirit, we must suppose, German legal reforms were +introduced in December 1916, to replace the Turkish Shuriat, and in the +same month all the Turks in telegraph offices in Constantinople were +replaced by Germans. Ernst Marré gives valuable advice to young Germans +settling in Turkey. He particularly recommends them, knowing how +religion is one of the strongest bonds in this murderous race, to 'trade +in articles of devotion, in rosaries, in bags to hold the Koran,' and +points out what good business might be built up in gramophones. Earlier +in this year we find a 'German Oriental Trading Company' founded for the +import of fibrous materials for needs of military authorities, and a +great carpet business established at Urfa with German machinery that +will supplant the looms of Smyrna. A saltpetre factory is established +at Konia by Herr Toepfer, whose enterprise is rewarded with an Iron +Cross and a Turkish decoration. The afforestation near Constantinople, +ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture, is put into German hands, and in +the vilayet of Aidin (April 1916) ninety concessions were granted to +German capitalists to undertake the exploitation of metallic ores. +Occasionally the German octopus finds it has gone too far for the +moment, and releases some struggling limb of its victim, as, for +instance, when we see that, in September 1916, the German Director's +stamp for the 'Imperial German Great Radio Station' at Damascus has been +discarded temporarily, as that station 'should be treated for the +present as a Turkish concern.' + +A 'Trading and Weaving Company' was established at Angora in 1916, an +'Import and Export Company' at Smyrna, a 'Trading and Industrial +Society' at Beirut, a 'Tobacco Trading Company' at Latakieh, an +'Agricultural Company' at Tripoli, a 'Corn Exporting Company' in +Lebanon, a 'Rebuilding Commission' (perhaps for sacked Armenian houses) +at Konia. More curious yet will be a Tourist's Guide Book--a Baedeker, +in fact--for travellers in Anatolia, and the erection of a monument in +honour of Turkish _women_ who have replaced men called up for military +duty. Truly these last two items--a guide-book for Anatolia, and a +monument to women--are strange enterprises for Turks. A new Prussian day +is dawning, it seems, for Turkish women as well, for the _Tanin_ (April +1917) tells us that diplomas are to be conferred on ladies who have +completed their studies in the Technical School at Constantinople. + +It is needless to multiply instances of German penetration: I have but +given the skeleton of this German monster that has fastened itself with +tentacles and suckers on every branch of Turkish industry. There is none +round which it has not cast its feelers--no Semitic moneylender ever +obtained a surer hold on his victim. In matters naval, military, +educational, legal, industrial, financial, Germany has a strangle-hold. +Turkey's life is already crushed out of her, and, as we have seen, it +has been crushed out of her by the benevolent Kultur-mongers, who, among +all the Great Powers of Europe, invested their time and their money in +the achievement of the Pan-Turkish ideal. Silently and skilfully they +worked, bamboozling their chief tool, Enver Pasha, even as Enver Pasha +bamboozled us. As long as he was of service to them they retained him; +for his peace of mind at one time they stopped up all letter-boxes in +Constantinople because so many threatening letters were sent him. But +now Enver Pasha seems to have had his day; he became a little +autocratic, and thought that he was the head of the Pan-Turkish ideal. +So he was, but the Pan-Turkish ideal had become Pan-Prussian, and he had +not noticed the transformation. Talaat Bey has taken his place; it was +he who, in May 1917, was received by the Emperor William, by King +Ludwig, and by the Austrian Emperor, and he who was the mouthpiece of +the German efforts to make a separate peace with Russia. Under Czardom, +he proclaimed, the existence of Turkey was threatened, but now the +revolution has made friendship possible, for Russia no longer desires +territorial annexation. And, oh, how Turkey would like to be Russia's +friend! Enver Pasha has of late been somewhat out of favour in Berlin, +and I cannot but think it curious that when, on April 2, 1917, he +visited the submarine base at Wilhelmshaven, he was very nearly killed +in a motor accident. But it may have been an accident. Since then I +cannot find that he has taken any more active part in Pan-Turkish ideals +than to open a soup-kitchen in some provincial town, and lecture the +Central Committee of the Young Turks on the subject of internal affairs +in Great Britain. I do not like lectures, but I should have liked to +hear that one. + + +I have left to the end of this chapter the question of Germany's +knowledge of, and complicity in the Armenian massacres. From the tribune +of the Reichstag, on January 15, 1916, there was made a definite denial +of the existence of such massacres at all; on another subsequent +occasion it was stated that Germany could not interfere in Turkish +internal affairs. + +In view of the fact that there is no internal affair appertaining to +Turkey in which Germany has not interfered, the second of these +statements may be called insincere. But the denial of the massacres is a +deliberate lie. Germany--official Germany--knew all about them, and she +permitted them to go on. A few proofs of this are here shortly stated. + +(1) In September 1915, four months before the denial of the massacres +was made in the Reichstag, Dr. Martin Niepage, higher grade teacher in +the German Technical School at Aleppo, prepared and sent, as we have +seen, in his name, and that of several of his colleagues, a report of +the massacres to the German Embassy at Constantinople. In that report he +gives a terrible account of what he has seen with his own eyes, and also +states that the country Turks' explanation with regard to the origin of +these measures is that it was 'the teaching of the Germans.' The German +Embassy at Constantinople therefore knew of the massacres, and knew +also that the Turks attributed them to orders from Germany. Dr. Niepage +also consulted, before sending his report, with the German Consul at +Aleppo, Herr Hoffman, who told him that the German Embassy had been +already advised in detail about the massacres from the consulates at +Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Mosul, but that he welcomed a further protest +on the subject. + +(2) These reports, or others like them, had not gone astray, for in +August 1915, the German Ambassador in Constantinople, Baron Wangenheim, +made a formal protest to the Turkish Government about the massacres. + +There is, then, no doubt that the German Government, when it officially +denied the massacres, was perfectly cognisant of them. It was also +perfectly capable of stopping them, for they were not local violences, +but wholesale murders organised at Constantinople. In support of this +view I find an independent witness stating that 'there is no Turk of +standing who will not readily declare that it would have been perfectly +possible for Germany to have vetoed the massacres had she chosen.' +Germany had indeed already given assurances that such massacres should +not occur. She had assured the Armenian Katholikos at Adana that so long +as Germany has any influence in Turkey he need not fear a repetition of +the horrors that had taken place under Abdul Hamid. Had she, then, no +influence in Constantinople, or how was it that she had obtained +complete control over all Turkish branches of government? The same +assurance was given by the German Ambassador in April 1915, to the +Armenian Patriarch and the President of the Armenian National Council. + +So, in support of the Pan-Turkish ideal, and in the name of the Turkish +Allah, the God of Love, Germany stood by and let the infamous tale of +lust and rapine and murder be told to its end. The Turks had planned to +exterminate the whole Armenian race except some half-million, who would +be deported penniless to work on agricultural developments under German +rule, but this quality of Turkish mercy was too strained for Major +Pohl, who proclaimed that it was a mistake to spare so many. But he was +a soldier, and did not duly weigh the claims of agriculture. + +The choice was open to Germany; Germany chose, and let the Armenian +massacres go on. But she was in a difficulty. What if the Turkish +Government retorted (perhaps it did so retort), 'You are not consistent. +Why do you mind about the slaughter of a few Armenians? What about +Belgium and your atrocities there?' + +And all the ingenuity of the Wilhelmstrasse would not be able to find an +answer to that. + +I do not say that Germany wanted the massacres, for she did not. She +wanted more agricultural labour, and I think that, if only for that +reason, she deprecated them. But she allowed them to go on when it was +in her power to stop them, and all the perfumes of Arabia will not wash +clean her hand from that stinking horror. + +Here, then, are some of the problems which those who, at the end of the +war, will have to deal with the problem of Turkey must tackle. It is +just as well to recognise that at the present moment Turkey is virtually +and actually a German colony, and the most valuable colony that Germany +has ever had. It will not be enough to limit, or rather abolish, the +supremacy of Turkey over aliens and martyrised peoples; it will be +necessary first to abolish the supremacy of Germany over Turkey. To do +this the victory of our Allied Nations must be complete, and Germany's +octopus envelopment of Turkish industries severed. Otherwise we shall +immediately be confronted with a Germany that already reaches as far as +Mesopotamia. That is done now; and that, before there can come any +permanent peace for Europe, must be undone. Nothing less than the +complete release of that sucker and tentacle embrace will suffice. + + +NOTE + +As throwing a sidelight on the German complicity in the Armenian +massacres, the following is of interest. It is known that when +Metternich succeeded Wangenheim as German Ambassador in Constantinople, +he brought with him a speech, written in Berlin, which, by the Kaiser's +orders, he was to read when presenting his credentials to the Sultan. +This contained a sentence which implied that Germany had been unable to +stop the Armenian massacres. Talaat refused to allow the speech to be +read, obviously because it threw the responsibility of the massacres on +to the Turks, whereas the accepted opinion in Turkey was that they took +place with the connivance and even at the instigation of the Germans. +Eventually a compromise was arrived at, and the speech _in toto_ was +read privately, the part referring to the Armenian massacre not being +published.... It is a pity that Germany is always found out.... + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VI_ + + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +Let us commit the crime of _lèse-majesté_, and assume (though the +Emperor Wilhelm II. has repeatedly announced the contrary) that Germany +is not at the conclusion of the European War to find herself in +possession of the world. She has prepared her plans in anticipation of +the auspicious event; in fact she has had a most interesting map of +Europe produced which, except by its general shape, is scarcely +recognisable. The printing of it, it is true, was a little premature, +for it shows what Europe was to have been like in 1916, and the +apportionments are not borne out by facts. But assuming that there is +some radical error about it all from her point of view, and assuming +that there will not be either a conclusive peace favourable to Prussian +interests, or even an inconclusive peace, but one in which the Allies +will be able to dictate and enforce their own terms, the magnitude of +the problems that will await their decision may well appal the most +ingenious of their statesmen. And of all those problems none, it is safe +to prophesy, will be found more difficult of solution than that which +will deal with the future of the corrupt and barbarous Government which +has for centuries made hell of the Ottoman Empire. We know more or less +what will happen to Alsace and Lorraine, to Belgium, to the Trentino, +because in those cases the claims of one or other of our Allies to +demand a particular settlement are quite certain to be agreed to by +those not so immediately and vitally concerned. But in the Balkans these +problems will be more complicated because of conflicting interests, and +most complicated of all will they be in Turkey. One thing, however, is +certain, that there can be no going back to the conditions that existed +there before the war. + +Ever since the Osmanlis came out of remoter Asia into the Nearer East +and into Europe, the government of their Empire has gone from bad to +worse. In the early days, as we have seen, their policy was to absorb +the strength of their subject peoples by incorporating the youth of them +into the Turkish army, by giving them Turkish wives, and by converting +them to Mohammedanism. Such was the foundation of the Empire and such +its growth. But having absorbed their strength, the Sultan's Government +neglected them until they milked them again. They were allowed to +prosper if they could: all that was demanded of them was a toll of their +strength. They were cattle, and for the right to graze on Turkish lands +they paid back a pail of their milk of manhood. But an empire founded on +such principles contains within it active and prolific seeds of decay, +and, as we have seen, more stringent measures had to be resorted to in +order to preserve the supremacy of the ruling people. Instead of +absorbing their strength, Abdul Hamid hit upon the new method of killing +them, so that the Turks should still maintain their domination. And the +policy set on foot by him was developed but a few years ago into a +scheme of slaughter, which in atrocity has far surpassed the killings of +Attila, of whom the Nationalist poet sings, or even the designs of the +deposed Sultan. The Armenian nation, with the exception of such part of +it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been exterminated, and +similar measures have been planned and indeed begun, against the Greeks, +the Arabs, and the Jews. + +In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European War, the +policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has been at length +abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared in their joint note to +President Wilson their aims in the war, and for those they have pledged +themselves to fight until final and complete victory wreathes their +arms. Among these aims are:-- + +(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous +tyranny of the Turks. + +(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which has proved +itself so radically alien to Western civilisation. + +For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called the Concert +of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the Balance of Power, kept +Turkey together, and in particular has maintained the centre of its +government at Constantinople simply because the Balance of Power would +be upset if anybody else held the key of the straits that separate +Russia from the Mediterranean. England, above all others, was +instrumental in preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must +confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a century. It +is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse of that which for so +many decades has been the keystone of our ruling with regard to our +Eastern Empire, but the arch has collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone +out, and all our efforts to exclude Russia from free access to the +Mediterranean have only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds +Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The situation, as +it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse than it could have been +for a century back, if at any moment during those hundred years we had +done what we always ought to have done, and declared that the +anachronism of Turkey being in Europe was more intolerable than anything +that could happen in consequence of her expulsion. But we have +acknowledged that now. We have also acknowledged the even greater +anachronism of Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any +of those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman Empire, for +the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that the remedy of these +two monstrous abuses forms an essential part of their aim in the war, +which in costliness of life and of treasure has already far exceeded any +cataclysm that could have come to Europe through its doing its clear and +Christian duty with regard to Turkey during the preceding hundred years. +And among the benefits which eventually mankind will reap in the fields +that have been sown by the blood of the slain will be the fact that the +Confusion of Europe will have accomplished a task which the Concert of +Europe was too craven of consequences to undertake; and Constantinople +and the subject peoples of the Turks will have passed from the yoke of +that murderous tyranny for ever. + +We will take these two avowed aims of the Allies in order, and first try +to draw (though with diffident pencil) some sketch of what will be the +confines of the Ottoman Empire, when we pluck the fruits of the great +crusade against the barbarism of Turkey and of Germany. It is quite +useless to attempt to keep the map as it was, and peg out claims within +the Empire where we shall proclaim that Arabs and Greeks and Armenians +shall live in peace, for it is exactly that plan which has formed a +century's failure. At the International Congress of Berlin, for +instance, a solemn pact was entered into by Turkey for the reform of the +Armenian vilayets. She carried out her promise by slaughtering every +Armenian male, and outraging every Armenian woman who inhabited them. +The _soi-disant_ protectorate of Crete was not a whit more successful in +securing for the Cretans a tolerable existence, and the Allies had to +bring it to an end twenty years ago, and free them from the execrable +yoke; while finally the repudiation by Turkey of the Capitulations, +which provided some sort of guarantee for the safety of foreign peoples +in Turkey, has shown us, if further proof was needed, the value of +covenants with the Osmanli. It must be rendered impossible for Turkey to +repeat such outrages: the soil where her alien peoples dwell must be +hers no more, and any Turkish aggression on that soil must be, _ipso +facto_, an act of war against the European Power under the protection of +whom such a province is placed. + +The difficulty of this part of the problem is not so great as might at +first appear. We do not, when we come to look at it in detail, find such +a conflict of interests as would seem to face us on a general view. Even +the precarious Balance of Power was not upset by a quantity of similar +adjustments made by the Concert of Europe during the last hundred years. +The Powers freed Serbia, giving Turkey first a suzerainty over her, and +finally abolishing that: they freed Bulgaria, they freed Greece, Eastern +Rumelia, Macedonia, Albania. But, as by some strange lapse of humanity, +they always regarded the subject peoples of Turkey in Asia as more +peculiarly Turkish, as if at the Bosporus a new moral geography began, +and massacre in Asia was comparatively venial as compared with massacre +in Europe. But now the Allies have said that there must be no more +massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, it will +be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the alien peoples +dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the protectorate of one or +other of the allied nations. In most cases we shall find that there is a +protecting Power more or less clearly indicated, whose sphere of +interest is obviously concerned with one or other of these new and +independent provinces. + +The alien race which for the last thirty years has suffered the most +atrociously from Turkish inhumanity is that of the Armenians, and it is +fitting to begin our belated campaign of liberation with it. If the +reader will turn to the map at the end of this book, he will see that +the district marked Armenia lies at the north-west corner of the old +Ottoman Empire, and extends across its frontiers into Russian +Trans-Caucasia. That indicates the district which once was peopled by +Armenians. To-day, owing to the various Armenian massacres, the latest +of which, described in another chapter, was by far the most appalling, +such part of Armenia as lies in the Ottoman Empire is practically, and +probably absolutely, depopulated of its Armenian inhabitants. Such as +survive, apart from the women whose lives were spared on their +professing Islamism and entering Turkish harems, have escaped beyond the +Russian frontier, and are believed to number about a quarter of a +million. In the meantime their homes have partly been destroyed and +partly occupied by mouhadjirs from Thrace, and by the Kurds who were +largely instrumental in butchering them. Their lands have been +appropriated haphazardly, by, any who laid hands on them. + +Here the problem is of no great difficulty. The robber-tenants must be +evicted, and the remnant of the Armenians repatriated. Without +exception they escaped into Trans-Caucasia from villages and districts +near the frontier, else they could never have escaped from the pursuing +Turks and Kurds. Naturally, this remnant of a people will not nearly +suffice to fill their entire province, but in order to satisfy the +claims of justice at all adequately, the whole district of Armenia, as +Armenia was known before its people were exterminated, must be amputated +by a clean cut out of the Ottoman Empire and placed, in an autonomous +condition in a new protected province, which will include all the +vilayets of Armenia. + +There is no doubt about a prosperous future for Armenia if this is done, +and to do less than this would be to fail signally as regards the solemn +promise made by the Allies when they stated to President Wilson their +aims in the war. The Armenians have ever been a thrifty and industrious +people, possessed of an inherent vitality which has withstood centuries +of fiendish oppression. With facilities given them for their +re-settlement, and with foreign protection to establish them, they will, +beyond question, more than hold their own against the Kurds. As a +nation they are, as we have seen, partly agricultural in their pursuits; +but a considerable proportion of them (and these the more intelligent) +are men of business, merchants, doctors, educationalists, and gravitate +to towns. Constantinople, as we shall see, will be open to them again, +where lately they numbered nearly as many as the entire remnant of their +nation numbers now; so, too, will be the cities of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia in the New Turkey which we are attempting to sketch. +They will probably not care to settle in the towns and districts that +will remain in the hands of their late oppressors and murderers. + +In the work of their repatriation none will be more eager to help than +the American missionaries, who, at the time of the last massacre, as so +often before, showed themselves so nobly disregardant of all personal +danger and risk in doing their utmost for their murdered flock, and who +have explicitly declared their intention of resuming their work. With +regard to the eviction of Kurds that will be necessary, it must be +remembered that the Kurd is a trespasser on the plains and towns of +Armenia, and properly belongs to the mountains from which he was +encouraged to descend by the Turks for purposes of massacre. Out of +those towns and plains he must go, either into the mountains of Armenia +from whence he came, or over the frontier of Armenia into the New Turkey +presently to be defined. He must, in fact, be deported, though not in +the manner of the deportations at which he himself so often assisted. + +The Armenians who will thus be reinstated within the boundaries of their +own territory, will be practically penniless and without any of the +means or paraphernalia of life, and the necessary outlay on supplies for +them, and the cost of their rehabilitation would naturally fall on the +protecting Power. They will, however, be free from the taxes they have +hitherto paid to the Turks, and it should not be difficult for them by +means of taxes far less oppressive, to pay an adequate interest on the +moneys expended on them. These would thus take the form of a very small +loan, the whole of which could easily be repaid by the Armenians in the +course of a generation or so. Once back on their own soil, and free from +Turkish tyranny and the possibility of it, they are bound to prosper, +even as they have prospered hitherto in spite of oppressions and +massacres up till the year 1915, when, as we have seen, the liberal and +progressive Nationalists organised and executed the extermination from +which so few escaped. + +It is hardly necessary to point out who the protecting Power would be in +the case of the repatriated Armenians, for none but Russia is either +desirable or possible. With one side along the Russian frontier of +Trans-Caucasia, the New Armenia necessarily falls into the sphere of +Russian influence. + +It has been suggested that not only Armenia proper, but part of Cilicia +should also become a district of the repatriated Armenians, with an +outlet to the sea. But while it is true that complete compensation would +demand this, since Zeitun and other districts in Cilicia were almost +pure Armenian settlements, I cannot think that such a restoration is +desirable. For, in the first place, the extermination of the Zeitunlis +(as carried out by Jemal the Great) was practically complete. All the +men were slaughtered, and it does not seem likely that any of the women +and girls who were deported reached the 'agricultural colony' of +Deir-el-Zor in the Arabian desert. It is therefore difficult to see of +whom the repatriation would consist. In the second place, the New +Armenia will be for several generations to come of an area more than +ample for all the Armenians who have survived the flight into Russia, +and it obviously will give them the best chance of corporate prosperity, +if the whole of them are repatriated in a compact body rather than that +a portion of them should be formed into a mere patch severed from their +countrymen by so large a distance. Another sphere of influence also will +be operating near the borders of Cilicia, and to place the Armenians +under two protecting Powers would have serious disadvantages. In +addition they never were a sea-going people, and I cannot see what +object would be served by giving them a coast-board. In any case, if a +coast-board was found necessary, the most convenient would be the +coast-board of the Black Sea, lying adjacent to their main territory. + +If it seems clear that for New Armenia the proper protecting Power is +Russia, it is no less clear that for the freed inhabitants of New Syria, +Arabs and Greeks alike, the proper protecting Power is France. +Historically France's connection with Syria dates from the time of the +Crusades in 1099; it has never been severed, and of late years the ties +between the two countries have been both strengthened and multiplied. +The Treaties of Paris, of London, of San Stefano, and of Berlin have all +recognised the affiliation; so, too, from an ecclesiastical standpoint, +have the encyclicals of Leo XIII. in 1888 and 1898. Similarly, it was +France who intervened in the Syrian massacres of 1845, who landed troops +for the protection of the Maronites in 1860, and established a +protectorate of the Lebanon there a few years later, which lasted up +till the outbreak of the European War. France was the largest holder, as +she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the harbour of +Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most flourishing ports +of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a French enterprise. And perhaps +more important than all these, as a link between Syria and France, has +been the educational penetration which France has effected there. What +the American missionaries did for Armenia, France has done for Syria, +and according to a recent estimate, of the 65,000 children who attended +European schools throughout Syria, not less than 40,000 attended French +schools. When we consider that that proportion has been maintained for +many years in Syria, it can be estimated how strong the intellectual +bond between the Syrian and the French now is. The French language, +similarly, is talked everywhere: it is as current as is modern Greek in +ports of the Levant. + +In virtue of such claims few, if any, would dispute the title of France +to be the protecting Power in the case of Syria. Here there will not +be, as was the case with the Armenians, any work of repatriation to be +done. Such devastation and depopulation as has been wrought by Jemal the +Great, with hunger and disease to help him, was wrought on the spot, +and, though it will take many years to heal the wounds inflicted by that +barbaric plagiarist of Potsdam, it is exactly the deft and practical +sympathy of the French with the race they have so long tended, which +will most speedily bring back health to the Syrians. + +It will be with regard to the geographical limits of a French +protectorate that most difficulty is likely to be experienced; there +will also be points claiming careful solution, as will be seen later, +with regard to railway control. Northwards and eastwards the natural +delimitations seem clear enough: northwards French Syria would terminate +with, and include, the province of Aleppo, eastwards the Syrian desert +marks its practical limits, the technical limit being supplied by the +course of the Euphrates. But southwards there is no such natural line of +demarcation; the Arab occupation stretches right down till it reaches +the Hedjaz, which already has thrown off the Turkish yoke and, under the +Shereef of Mecca, declared its independence. Inset into this long strip +of territory lies Palestine. + +Now to make one single French protectorate over this very considerable +territory seems at first sight a large order, but the objections to any +other course are many and insuperable. Should the line of French +influence be drawn farther north than the Hedjaz, under what protection +is the intervening territory to be left? At present it is Turkish, but +inhabited by Arabs, and, unless the Allies revoke the fulness of their +declaration not to leave alien peoples under the 'murderous tyranny' of +the Turks, Turkish it cannot remain. But both by geographical situation +and by racial interest, it belongs to French-protected Syria, and there +seems no answer to the question as to what sphere of influence it comes +under if not under the French. Just as properly, if we take this view of +the question, the Sinaitic Peninsula, largely desert, would fall to +Egypt, the French protectorate being defined westwards at Akabah. That +the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez should not be under the same +control as the Western has always been an anomaly, admitted even by the +sternest opponents of the status of Egypt; and in the absence of any +canal corresponding to that of Suez, and debouching into the Red Sea +_via_ the Gulf of Akabah, the most advanced champion of French influence +in the Near East would see no objection to this rectified frontier. +There is no question of competition involved. The proposed change is but +a rational rectification of the present status. + +This scheme of delimitation leaves Palestine inset into the French +protectorate of Syria, and it is difficult to see to whom the +protectorate of Palestine should be properly assigned except to France. +Italy has no expansive ambitions in that sector of the Mediterranean; +England's national sphere of influence in this partition of the +districts now occupied by alien peoples in the Ottoman Empire lies +obviously elsewhere; and since the Jews, who settled in ever-increasing +numbers in Palestine before the war, and will assuredly continue to +settle there again, come and will come as refugees from the Russian +Pale, it would be clearly inadvisable to assign to Russia the +protectorate of her own refugees. The only other alternative would be to +create an independent Palestine for the Jews, and the reasons against +that are overwhelming. It would be merely playing into the hands of +Germany to make such an arrangement. For the last thirty years Germany +has watched with personal and special interest this immigration of Jews +into Palestine, seeing in it not so much a Jewish but a German +expansion. Indeed, when, in the spring of this year, as we have noticed, +a massacre and deportation of Jews was planned and begun by Jemal, +Germany so far reversed her usual attitude towards massacres in general, +and her expressed determination never to interfere in Turkey's internal +affairs, as to lodge a peremptory protest, and of course got the +persecution instantly stopped. Her reason was that Pan-Turkish 'ideals' +(the equivalent for the massacre of alien people) had no sort of +meaning in Palestine. But the Pan-Germanic ideals had a great deal of +meaning in Palestine, as Dr. Davis Treitsch _(Die Jüden der Türkei)_ +very clearly states. For 'as a result of the war,' he tells us, 'there +will be an emigration of East-European Jews on an unprecedented scale + ... the disposal of the East European Jews will be a problem for Germany +(and) Germans will be only too glad to find a way out in the emigration +of those Jews to Turkey, a solution extraordinarily favourable to the +interests of all _three [sic]_ parties concerned. There are grounds for +talking of a German protectorate over the whole of Jewry.' + +Now this is explicit enough; Germany clearly contemplated a protectorate +over Palestine, and if the Jews who are German-speaking Jews are left +independent, there is nothing more certain than that, after the war, her +penetration of Palestine will instantly begin. These colonists are, and +will be, in want of funds for the development and increase of their +cultivated territories, and when we consider the names of the prominent +financiers in the Central Empires, Mendelssohn, Hirsch, Goldsmid, +Bleichroeder, Speyer, to name only a few, we cannot be in much doubt as +to the quarter from which that financial assistance will be forthcoming, +on extremely favourable terms. It is safe to prophesy that, if Palestine +is given independence without protectorate, in three years from the end +of the war it will be under not only a protectorate, but a despotism as +complete as ever ruled either Turkey or Prussia. True it is that the +Zionist movement will offer, even as it has offered in the past, a +strenuous opposition to Germanisation, but it would be crediting it with +an inconceivable vitality to imagine that it will be able to resist the +blandishments that Germany is certainly prepared to shower on it. For +great as is the progress the Jewish settlers made in Palestine during +the twenty or twenty-five years before the war, and strong as is the +spirit of Zionism, the emigrants do not as yet number more than about +120,000, nor have they under crops more than ten per cent. of the +cultivated land of Palestine. They are as yet but settlers, and their +work is before them. If left without a protectorate they will not be +without a protectorate long, but not such an one as the Allies desire. A +protectorate there must be, and no reason is really of weight against +that protectorate being French. Let that, then, extend from the +Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from Alexandretta to where the +Hedjaz already prospers in its self-proclaimed independence. It will be +completely severed from Turkey by tracts under protection of one or +other of the Allied Powers, any expedition through which would be an act +of war. + +The Euphrates, then, will form the eastern boundary of the French +protectorate: it will also, it is hoped, form the western boundary of +the English protectorate, which we know as Mesopotamia. Just as no other +Power has any real claim to Armenia, except Russia, just as Syria can +fall to no other than France, it seems equally clear that the proper +sphere of English influence is in this plain that stretches southwards +from the semicircle of hills where the two great rivers approach each +other near Diarbekr to the head of the Persian Gulf. As Germany very +well knows, it is intimately concerned with our safe tenure of India, +and the hold the Germans hoped to gain over it, and have for ever lost, +by their possession of the Bagdad Railway was vital to their dreams of +world-conquest. Equally vital to England was it that Germany should +never get it. But its importance to us as a land-route to India is by no +means the only reason why an English sphere of influence is indicated +here: it is the possibilities it harbours, which, as far as can be seen, +England is the only Power capable of developing, that cause us to put in +a claim for its protectorate which none of our Allies will dispute. + +To restore Mesopotamia to the rank it has held, and to the rank it still +might hold among the productive districts of the East, there is needed a +huge capital for outlay, and a huge population of workers. Even Germany, +in her nightmare of world-dominion, from which she shall be soon dragged +screaming-awake, never formulated a scheme for the restoration of +Southern Mesopotamia to its productive pre-eminence, and never so much +as contemplated it, except as an object that would be possible of +realisation after the Empire of India had fallen over-ripe into her +pelican mouth. Therein she was perfectly right--she usually is right in +these dreams of empire in so far as they are empirical--for she seems +dimly to have conjectured in these methodical visions, that India was +the key to unlock Southern Mesopotamia. But nowhere can I find that she +guessed it: I only guess that she guessed it. + +This problem of capital outlay and of the necessary man-power for work +and restoration applies exclusively to Southern Mesopotamia, which we +may roughly define as the district stretching from Samara on the Tigris +and Hit on the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Northern Mesopotamia, as +Dr. Rohrbach points out in his _Bagdadbahn_, needs only the guarantee of +security of life and property to induce the Kurds to descend from the +hills and the Bedouin Arabs to settle down there; and by degrees, under +a protectorate that insures them against massacre and confiscation of +property, there seems no doubt that the area of cultivation will spread +and something of the ancient prosperity return. The land is immensely +fertile: it is only Ottoman misrule, which here, as everywhere else, has +left desolation in the place of prosperity and death in place of life. +The rainfall is adequate, the climate suitable to those who will +naturally spread there: it needs only freedom from the murderous tyranny +that has bled it for centuries past, to guarantee its future prosperity. + +But Southern Mesopotamia is a totally different proposition. The land +lies low between the rivers, and, though of unparalleled fertility, +yields under present conditions but a precarious livelihood to its +sparse population. For nine months of the year it is a desert, for three +months when its rivers are in flood, a swamp. Once, as we all know, it +was the very heart of civilisation, and from its arteries flowed out the +life-blood of the world. Rainfall was scarcely existent, any more than +it is existent in Southern or Upper Egypt; but in the days of Babylon +the Great there were true rulers and men of wisdom over these +desiccated regions, who saw that every drop of water in the river, that +now pours senselessly through swamp and desert into the sea, was a grain +of corn or a stalk of cotton. They dug canals, they made reservoirs, and +harnessed like some noble horse of the gods the torrents that now gallop +unbridled through dreary deserts. The black land, the Sawad, was then +the green land of waving corn, where three crops were annually harvested +and the average yield was two hundredfold of the seed sown. The wheat +and barley, so Herodotus tells us, were a palm-breadth long in the +blade, and millet and sesame grew like trees. And in these details the +revered Father of Lies seems to have spoken less than the truth, for the +statistics we get elsewhere more than bear out his accounts of its +amazing fertility. From its wealth before his day had arisen the might +of Babylon, and for centuries later, while the canals still regulated +the water supply, it remained the granary of the world. More than a +thousand years after Herodotus there were over 12,500,000 acres in +cultivation, and the husbandmen thereof with the dwellers in its cities +numbered 5,000,000 men. Then came the Arab invasion, which was bad +enough, but colossally worse was the invasion of the Osmanli. Truly 'a +fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell +therein.' + +But the potentiality for production of that great alluvial plain is not +diminished; the Turks could not dispose of that by massacre, as a means +of weakening the strength of their subject peoples. It is still there, +ready to respond to the spell of the waters of Tigris and Euphrates, +which once, when handled and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of +the Lord. + +Not long before the present European War Sir William Willcocks, under +whose guidance the great modern irrigation works at Assouan were +constructed, was appointed adviser to the Ottoman Ministry of Public +Works, and his report on the Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in +1911. He tells us that the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable +of easy levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic +scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the +refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we need not +go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly conservative basis, +give the following results. He proposes to restore, of course with +modern technical improvements, the old system of canals, and, allowing +for interest on loans, estimates the total expense at £26,000,000 (or +the cost of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of +the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no enlargement in +detail and no comment. + +But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the irrigation works +is easy, the profits are safe so long as the Tigris and 'the ancient +river,' the river Euphrates, run their course. But all the irrigation +works in the world will not raise a penny for the investor or a grain +for the miller unless there are men to sow and gather the crops. A +million are necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is +'Egypt and India.' + +This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and its future +must be in English hands, why no other country can undertake it with +hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. Rohrbach, whose _Bagdadbahn_ I +have quoted before, is forced to acknowledge that there is no solution +to the man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans from +other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak prevail.' It is +true that he starts upon the assumption that Mesopotamia will remain +Turkish (under a German protectorate, as we read between his lines), +with which we must be permitted to disagree, but his conclusion is quite +correct. Even under German protection he realises that citizens of +well-governed states will not flock by the million to put themselves +under Turkish control, and he dismisses as inadequate the numbers of +Syrians, Arabs, Armenians and Jews who can be transported to Mesopotamia +from inside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Their numbers are even +more inadequate since the Armenian massacres permitted by Dr. Rohrbach's +Fatherland, and even he cannot picture a million of his own countrymen +forsaking the beer-gardens for summers in the Sawad. He does not +positively state our answer, that it is from India and Egypt that the +man-power will be supplied, but, as mentioned before, I think he guesses +it. His prophetic gifts are not convincing enough to himself to let him +state the glorious future, when India and Egypt shall become German, but +that, I feel sure, is his vision: 'he sees it, but not now; he beholds +it, but not nigh.' + +But we can give the answer which he does not quite like to state, since +for the English it is clearly more easily realisable. The native labour +we can supply from Egypt and India, especially India, will furnish a +million labourers, and, if we wished, two millions without difficulty. +But no Power except England can furnish it. And that, I submit, is the +solution of the problem of Mesopotamia; a solution well within the power +of English enterprise to attain in the hands of such men as have already +bridled the Nile, the water-horsemen of the world. And I cannot do +better, in trying to convey the spirit in which this work of +reclamation should be undertaken, than by quoting some very noble words +from Sir William Willcocks's report, in which he speaks of the +desolation that has come to this garden of fruitfulness through wicked +stewardship. + +'The last voyage I made before coming to this country was up the Nile +from Khartoum to the Equatorial lakes. In this most desperate and +forbidding region I was filled with pride to think I belonged to a race +whose sons, even in this inhospitable waste of waters, were struggling +in the face of a thousand discouragements to introduce new forest trees +and new agricultural products and ameliorate in some degree the +conditions of life of the naked and miserable inhabitants. How should I +have felt, if in traversing the deserts and swamps which to-day +represent what was the richest and most famous tract in the world, I had +thought that I was the scion of a race in whose hands God has placed, +for hundreds of years, the destinies of this great country, and that my +countrymen could give no better account of their stewardship than the +exhibition of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste +themselves in the sea for nine months of the year, and desolating +everything in their way for the remaining three? No effort that Turkey +can make can be too great to roll away the reproach of those parched and +weary lands, whose cry ascends to heaven.' + +But the harvests of Mesopotamia, when gathered in, must needs be +transported, and for that railways are necessary. Water transport would, +of course, carry them easily down to the Persian Gulf, but the supply +will be mainly, if not wholly, wanted westwards, and it must be conveyed +to the shores of the Mediterranean. Already, in preparation for +world-conquest, Germany has proceeded far with her construction of the +Bagdad Railway, which was intended, after her absorption of Turkey, to +link up Berlin with her next Oriental objective, namely, India; the +Taurus has been tunnelled, the Euphrates bridged, and but for a hiatus +of a few miles the line is practically complete from Constantinople into +Northern Mesopotamia. But its route was chosen for German strategic +reasons, for the linking up of Berlin with Constantinople and Bagdad. +This, it may be permitted to say, does not form part of the schemes of +the Allies: it is to snap rather than weld such links that they have +taken the field. What we want in the matter of railway transport for the +harvests of Mesopotamia, and generally for our Eastern communications, +is not a line that passes through Turkish and German soil, and +terminates at Berlin, but one which, after the directest possible +land-route, reaches the Mediterranean and terminates in suitable ports. + +The reader therefore is requested to _unthink_ the present Bagdad +Railway altogether, to 'scrap' it in his mind, as it will be probably +scrapped on the map, since it is utterly useless for our purposes. For +taking Aleppo as (roughly) the half-way house in the existent line, we +find that the western half of it lies in Asia Minor, in territory which, +as we shall see, will remain Turkish, while the eastern half of it makes +a long detour instead of striking directly for Bagdad. After our +experience with Turkey there is nothing less conceivable than that we +should allow a single mile of our new Mesopotamia Railway to run +through the territory of the Turks, for who knows that she might not +(say when harvests are ripe and ready for delivery), on any arbitrary +pretext, close or destroy the line, even as before now she has closed +the Dardanelles? Besides, for our purposes, a line that goes to +Constantinople (in whosoever hands Constantinople may be after the war) +is out of the way and altogether unsuitable. Eastwards, again, from +Aleppo the present Bagdad line is circuitous and indirect, admirably +adapted to the German purposes for which it was constructed, but utterly +unadapted to ours. + +Let us then 'scrap' the existent Bagdad route altogether, and consider +not what the Germans want, but what we want, which, as has been already +stated, is a direct land communication with suitable Mediterranean +ports. Of those there are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and +Beirut, of which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and +potentiality of increased importance. Two possible routes therefore +would seem to suggest themselves, one running from Alexandretta to +Aleppo, and thence following pretty closely the course of the Euphrates +till it reaches Hit, and from there striking directly to Bagdad. Aleppo +is already connected with Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of +Tripoli), and also with Beirut by branch lines making a junction at +Homs, and thus all those ports will be brought together on one system. +But if the reader will glance at the map, he will see that by far the +most direct communication with Bagdad would be to run the railway direct +from there to Homs, thus making Homs rather than Aleppo the central +junction of the system. From Homs lines would run northward to Aleppo, +due west to Tripoli, and south-west to Beirut. Either of those routes, +in any case, would be infinitely preferable to the long loop which the +present Bagdad Railway traverses, as planned on German lines and for +German requirements. The new railway will thus lie exclusively in +territory under French and English protectorate, and will probably be +their joint enterprise and property. + +Prospectively then, as regards the fulfilment of the solemn pledge of +the Allies to liberate subject peoples from the murderous tyranny of the +Turks, we have discussed the future of Armenia, of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia. All those are well defined districts, and the +demarcation of their respective protectorates should not present great +difficulties. But there remains, before we pass on to the problem of +Constantinople, a further district less easily defined, largely +inhabited by European peoples whose liberty in the future we are pledged +to secure. This is the Mediterranean coastline to the south and west of +Asia Minor, the towns of which have been so extensively peopled and made +prosperous by Greeks and Italians. Similarly among those of our European +Allies who are desirous and capable of Eastern expansion, there remains +one, Italy, whose rights to partake in this Turkish partition we have +not yet considered. In the shifting kaleidoscope of national +war-politics, it seems at the moment of writing by no means impossible +that Greece, having at length got rid of a treacherous and unstable +Reuben of a monarch, may redeem her pledge to Serbia, in which case, no +doubt, she too would state the terms of her desired and legitimate +expansion. But these would more reasonably be concerned with the +redistribution of the Balkan Peninsula, which does not come within the +scope of this book, and we may prophesy without fear of invoking the +Nemesis that so closely dogs the heels of seers, that Italy will +legitimately claim (or perhaps has already claimed) the protectorate of +this valuable littoral. Certain it is that, when peace returns, the +large population of Greeks and Italians once resident (and soon again to +be) on these coasts, must be given the liberty and security which they +will never enjoy so long as they remain in Turkish hands, and the hands +that have earned the right to be protecting Power are assuredly Italian. +Along the south coast a line including the Taurus range would seem to +suggest a natural frontier inland from Adana on the east to the +south-west corner of Asia Minor, and from there a similar strip would +pass up the coast as far as, and inclusive of, Smyrna. That at least +Italy has every right to expect, and there seems no great fear that +among the International Councils there will arise a dissentient voice. +The inland boundary on the west coast is the difficult section of this +delimitation, and into the details of that it would be both rash and +inexpedient to enter. + + +II + +We pass, then, to the second avowed object of the Allies, namely, the +expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman rule, which has proved itself so +radically alien to Western civilisation. This must be taken to include +not only the expulsion of the Turkish control from Thrace and +Constantinople, but from the eastern side as well of the Bosporus, the +Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. At no future time must Turkey be in +a position to command even partially a single yard of that momentous +channel through which alone our Allies, Russia and Rumania, have access +to the Mediterranean. Though this was not formally stated in the Allies' +reply to President Wilson, it is clearly part and parcel of the object +in view, for while the Ottoman Empire retains the smallest control on +either side of either of the Straits, she is so far able to interfere in +European concerns, in which she must never more have a hand. The east +shore, then, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora, as well as the west, +must be under the control of a Power, or a group of Powers, not alien to +Western civilisation. Germany and her allies therefore, no less than +Turkey, must be excluded from the guardianship of the Straits. + +As we have had previous occasion to note, this ejection of the Turkish +power from Constantinople is the absolute reversal of European and, in +especial, of English policy for the last hundred years. No crime that +the Ottoman Government could commit, no act of barbarism, would ever +persuade us to do away with the anachronism of Turkey's existence in +Europe; but at last the seismic convulsion of the war has knocked this +policy into a heap of disjected ruins, and it can never be rebuilt again +on the old lines. For among our other avowed objects in prosecuting the +war to its victorious end, we have pledged ourselves to uphold the +right which all peoples, whether small or great, have to the enjoyment +of full security and free economic development. But while Turkey can +close the Straits at her own arbitrary will, or at the bidding of a +superior and malevolent Power, and block the passage of ships from +Russian and Rumanian ports into the Mediterranean, the economic +development of both these countries is seriously menaced. Three times +within the last six years has she exercised that right, and while she +holds the shores of the Straits she can at any moment blockade all +southern Russian ports. That such power should be in the hands of any +nation is highly undesirable; that it should be in the hands of a +corrupt despotism like Turkey, especially now that Germany, as things +stand, can dictate to Turkey when and what she pleases, is a thing +unthinkable by the most improvident of statesmen. Already we have paid +dearly enough for the pusillanimity of a hundred years: it is impossible +that we should ever allow a similar bill to be again presented. +Whatever be the guardianship of the Straits, whoever the holder of +Constantinople, it will not be Turkey. + +At the beginning of the war, and indeed till after the revolution in +Russia, it was announced and stated as an axiom that on the conclusion +of peace, Russia should be the door-keeper of what after all is her own +lodge-gate. Subsequently, in the unhappy splits and disintegration of +her Government, it was announced that she favoured peace without +annexation--in other words, that she neither claimed nor desired the +guardianship of Constantinople. But I think we should be utterly wrong +if we regarded that as an expression of the will of the Russian people: +it is far more probable that it was the expression of the will of +Germany, directly inspired by German influence with a view to concluding +a separate peace with Russia. As we have seen, it had its due effect in +Turkey, and Talaat Bey gave vent to pious ejaculations of thanksgiving, +that now all cause of quarrel with Russia was removed, and Turkey and +she could be friends. It is possible that when out of the confused +cries there again rises from Russia the clear call of the people's +voice, we shall find her wishing to set in order her own house before +she projects herself on new missions, but, as far as the manifesto of +'peace without territorial annexation' goes, we shall be wise to regard +it for the present with the profoundest suspicion. It sounds far more +like the tones of the Central European wolf than those of Little Red +Riding Hood's proper grandmother. + +But be Russia's decision what it may, the Turk will hold sway no longer +in Thrace or Constantinople, or on the shores of the Straits of the Sea +of Marmora. There is, of course, no question of deporting the whole of +the Turkish population that lives in those regions, nor would it be +desirable, even if it were possible, to realise Gladstone's robust +vision of seeing every Turk, 'bag and baggage,' clear out from the +provinces they have desolated and profaned. But if not under Russia, +then under the joint control of certain of the Allied Powers there will +be a complete reconstruction of the administration of those districts. +The headquarters of the protectorate will doubtless be at +Constantinople, which will be reorganised somewhat on the lines of the +Treaty Port of Shanghai, and will be open to the ships of all nations. +The security of the town must be assured by a military garrison either +of mixed troops of the controlling nations, or possibly by a rotation of +troops drawn from the armies of each in turn. More important even than +this will be the adequate control of the Straits by sea. A naval base +must be formed, which by the gospel of the freedom of the seas (but not +according to St. Goeben and the submarine disciples) will constitute a +patrolling police force of the waters. Whether the system of +fortifications and defences that lately rendered the Dardanelles +impregnable shall be retained or not is a question demanding the most +careful consideration. Some will hold that they should be maintained in +order to insure that none but the guarantors of the freedom of the +Straits shall ever take possession of them: others that they shall be +utterly dismantled and destroyed, so that the closing of the Straits +shall be an impossibility. The matter really turns on the question as to +the extent to which the Allies will have the prudence to cut Germany's +claws when the war is over. It is eminently to be hoped that they will +be cut so short that never again will they be able to show those +chiselled talons beyond her velvet--that sense, in fact, will allow +sentiment no word to say. Unfortunately, there are a great many people +the basis of whose character consists of a washy confidence in the good +intentions of everybody. Most mistakenly they call it Christianity. + +Here, then, has been outlined the effect of the Allies' declared aims. +Such territories as Turkey holds in Europe, such control as she +possesses over the free passage of the Straits must pass from her, and +the alien peoples, who for centuries have fainted and bled underneath +her infamous yoke, must be led out of the land of bondage. As we have +seen throughout preceding chapters, it was the fixed policy of the +Ottoman Government to rid itself of their presence, and already it has +gone far in its murderous mission. Indeed the avowed aims of the +Allies, when accomplished, will do that work for her, for the Allies are +determined to remove those peoples from Turkey. The difference of +execution, however, consists in this, that they will not remove Arabs +and Greeks and Italians and Jews, as Turkey has already done with the +Armenians by the simple process of massacres, but by a process no less +simple, namely, of taking out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire +the districts where such peoples dwell. The Allies will accomplish, in +fact, for the Turks that policy of Ottomanisation which was the aim of +Abdul Hamid, and has been the aim of his more murderous successors. +Turkey shall henceforth be for the Turks: she shall no more be in +'danger' from the defenceless nations, who at present exist within her +borders. The Sultan of Turkey, in some year of grace now not far +distant, will find that his Ottomanisation has been done for him, and, +though his realm is curtailed, he will have his rest broken no more by +the thought of Arab risings, nor will he have to devise measures that +will solve the Arab question. Except for a strip along the west and +south coast, all Asia Minor and Anatolia will be his from the Black Sea +to the Mediterranean, but Syria, Armenia, the coast of Asia Minor, +Palestine, and Mesopotamia shall have passed from him. It is no +dismemberment of an Empire that the Allies contemplate, for they cannot +dismember limbs that never belonged to the real trunk. It was a despotic +military control that the Osmanlis had established, they always regarded +their subject peoples as aliens, whom they did not scruple to destroy if +they exhibited symptoms of progress and civilisation. Henceforth the +Turkish Government shall govern Turks, and Turks alone. That for many +years has been its aim, and, by the disastrous dispensation of fate, it +has been largely able to realise its purpose. Now, though by different +methods, the Allies will see thorough accomplishment of it. There will +be no question, of course, of turning out or of deporting Turks who live +in Syria, in Armenia, in Constantinople, for the ways of the Allies are +not those of Talaat and Enver and Jemal the Great. Where to-day Turks +dwell, there shall they continue to dwell, but they must dwell there in +peace in equal liberties and rights with the once-subject peoples whom +the Allies shall have delivered. If they do not like that they can +migrate, not by forced marches and under the guardianship of murderous +Kurds, but in protection and security, to the lands where they can still +enjoy the beneficent sway of their own governors, and be Ottomanised to +the top of their bent. But Syrians and Armenians and Greeks and Jews +will be Ottomanised no longer. + +The Turk was always a fighter, disciplined and courageous, and he has +never lost that virtue of valour. But he has been a fighter because he +has always lived under a military despotism which demanded his services, +and it is much to be doubted whether his qualities in this regard will +for the future be exercised as they have been in the past. For the +Turkish armies, in so far as they have consisted of Turks, have been +chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of Anatolia, who, +when not summoned to their country's colours, or ordered to maltreat and +massacre, are quiet, rather indolent folk, content to plough their lands +and reap an exiguous but sufficient harvest. And for their lords and +governors, who, until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies, +there will no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as +in the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the necessity +for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit lands which it +governed. But now, instead of having alien and defenceless tribes within +their borders, tribes forbidden to bear arms and chafing at the Turkish +yoke, they will see free peoples under the protectorates of Powers that +are capable of self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment. +Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be established +in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and the New Turkey will be +as powerless for aggression as she will be for defence, should she +provoke attack. But within their borders there may the Osmanlis dwell +secure and undisturbed, so long as they conform to the habits of +civilised people with regard to their neighbours, and it is a question +whether, now that the military despotism which has always misguided the +fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, and no +need of securing security, the nation will not settle down into the +quiet existence of small neutral countries. Perhaps the last chapter of +its savage and blood-stained history is already almost finished, and in +years to come some little light of progress and of civilisation may be +kindled in the abode where the household gods for centuries have been +cruelty and hate. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII_ + + +THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS + +It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' aims as +regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the subject peoples +dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself has to be delivered from +a domination not less barbaric than her own, which, if allowed to +continue, would soon again be a menace to the peace of the world. We +have seen in a previous chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's +nippers, how closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have +to consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, and +what will be the condition of the victim, already bled white, when that +has been done. In the beginning, as we have seen, Germany obtained her +hold by professing a touchingly beautiful and philanthropic desire to +help Turkey to realise her national ideals, and her Pecksniffs, Tekin +Alp and Herr Ernst Marré, were bidden to write parallel histories, the +one describing the aims of the Nationalist party, the other the +benevolent interest which Germany took in them. Occasionally Herr Ernst +Marré could not but remember that he was a German, and permitted us to +see the claws of the cat, without quite letting it out of the bag, but +then he pulled the strings tight again, and only loud comfortable +purrings could be heard, the Prussian musings over the 'liberation' of +Turkey which she was helping to accomplish. But nowadays, so it seems to +me, the strings have been loosened, and the claws and teeth are clearly +visible. It is not so long since Dr. Schnee, Governor of German East +Africa, sent a very illuminating document to Berlin from which I extract +the following:-- + +'Do you consider it possible to make a regulation prohibiting Islam +altogether? The encouragement of pig-breeding among natives is +recommended by experts as an effective means of stopping the spread of +Islam....' + +That seems clear enough, and I can imagine Talaat Bey, with his sword +of honour in his hand, exclaiming with the Oysters in _Alice in +Wonderland_:-- + +'After such kindness that would be + A dismal thing to do.' + +But I am afraid that Germany is contemplating (as indeed she has always +done) a quantity of dismal things to do, and is now, like the Walrus and +the Carpenter, beginning to let them appear. She has taken the Turkish +oysters out for a nice long walk, and when the war is over she proposes +to sit down and eat them. And did she not also interfere in the affair +of Jewish massacres and declare that 'Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of +meaning in Palestine'? That must have been almost an unfriendly act from +Turkey's point of view, for it cannot be stated too clearly that part of +the price which Germany paid for Turkey's entry on her side into the +war, was the liberty, as far as Germany was concerned, of managing her +internal affairs, massacres and the rest, as best suited the damnable +doctrines of Ottomanisation. The other Powers could not interfere, for +they failed to force the Dardanelles, and Germany promised not to. That +promise, of course, was binding on Germany for just so long as it suited +her to keep it, and it suited her to keep it, on the whole, during the +Armenian massacres. And in that matter her refusal to interfere is, +among all her crimes, the very flower and felicity of her vileness. + +Signs are not wanting that Turkey is beginning to realise the position +in which she has placed herself, namely, that of a bankrupt dependant at +the mercy of a nation to whom that quality is a mere derision. Lately a +quantity of small incidents have occurred, such as disputes over the +ownership of properties financed by Germany and the really melodramatic +depreciation in the German coinage, which unmistakably show the swift +ebb of Turkey's misplaced confidence. More significant perhaps than any +is a transaction that took place in May 1917, when Talaat Bey and Enver +Pasha took the whole of their private fortunes out of the Deutsche Bank +in Constantinople, and invested them in two Swiss banks, namely, the +Banque Nationale de Suisse, and the Banque Fédérale: they drew out also +the whole funds of the Committee of Union and Progress, and similarly +transferred them. This operation was not effected without loss, for in +return for the Turkish £1 they received only thirteen francs. But it is +significant that they preferred to lose over fifty per cent. of their +capital, and have the moiety secure in Switzerland to leaving it in +Constantinople.[1] It is certain therefore that at both ends of the +scale a distrust of German management has begun. A starving population +has wrecked trains loaded with food-stuffs going to Germany, and at the +other end the men with the swords of honour and dishonour deem it wise +to put their money out of reach of the great Prussian cat. That the +Germans themselves are not quite at their ease concerning the security +of their hold may also be conjectured, for they are, as far as possible, +removing Turkish troops from Constantinople, and replacing them with +their own regiments. An instance of this occurred in June 1917, when, +owing to the discontent in the capital, it was found necessary to guard +bridges, residences of Ministers, and Government offices. But instead of +recalling Turkish troops from Galicia to do this, they kept them there +in the manner of hostages, mixed up in German regiments, and sent picked +bodies of German troops to Constantinople. Fresh corps of secret police +have also been formed to suppress popular manifestations. They are +allowed to 'remove' suspects by any means they choose, quite in the old +style of bag and Bosporus, but the organisation of them is German. And +well may the German Government distrust those signs of popular +discontent in a starving population: already the people have awoke to +the fact that the German paper money does not represent its face-value, +and, despite assurances to the contrary, it is at a discount scarcely +credible. Three German £1 notes are held even in Constantinople to be +the equivalent of a gold £1, while in the provinces upwards of five are +asked for, and given, in exchange for one gold pound. It is in vain that +German manifestoes are put forth declaring that all Government offices +will take the notes as an equivalent for gold, for what the people want +is not a traffic with Government offices, but the cash to buy food. Even +more serious is the fact that Austrian and Hungarian directors of banks +will no longer accept these scraps of paper. In vain, too, is it that +the hungry folk see the walls of the 'House of Friendship' rise higher +and higher in Constantinople, for every day they see with starving eyes +the trains loaded with sugar from Konia, and the harvests raised in +Anatolia with German artificial manures guarded by German troops and +rolling westwards to Berlin. According to present estimates the harvest +this year is so vastly more abundant than that of previous years, that +no comparison, as the Minister of Agriculture tells his gratified +Government, is possible. But the poorer classes get no more than the +leavings of it when the armies, which include the German army, have had +their wants supplied. The governing classes, whom it is necessary to +feed, are not yet suffering, for the Germans grant them enough, issuing +rations to such families as are proved adherents of the German-Turkish +combination, and until the pinch of want attacks them we should be +foolishly optimistic if we thought that a starving peasantry would cause +the collapse or the defection of Germany's newest and most valuable +colony. There is enough discontent to make Germany uneasy, but that is +all.[2] Long ago she proved the efficiency of her control, and the +successful pulling of her puppet-strings, and no instance of that is +more complete than the brief story of Yakub Jemil and the extinction of +him and his party, which, though it happened a full year ago, has only +lately been completely transmitted. Yakub Jemil was an influential +commander of a frontier guard near the Black Sea coast. In July 1916 he +went to Constantinople, accompanied by his staff (which included the +informant from whom this account is derived), and, being cordially +received by Enver and Talaat, discussed the situation with them. He +pointed out the demoralising effect of the Armenian massacres, and the +danger of Jemal the Great's attitude towards the Arabs in Syria, +realising, and seeking to make them realise, the stupendous folly of +making enemies of the subject peoples, and urging the re-establishment +of cordial relations between the Turks and them. That, considering that +Enver and Talaat were responsible (under the Germans) for the Armenian +massacres, was a brave outspeaking. He went on to say that Turkey was at +war not on behalf of herself, but on behalf of Germany, and that it +would be wise of the Government to consider the possibility of a +separate peace with the Powers of the Entente. He was heard with +interest, and took his leave. He remained in Constantinople, and his +views obtained him many adherents, not only among Turkish officers whose +sympathies were already alienated from Germany, but among members of the +Committee of Union and Progress. But before long his adherents began to +disappear, and he asked for another interview with Talaat. He was +received, as the informant states, 'with open arms,' for Talaat seized +and held him, called for the guard, and he was searched, and on him were +found certain documents which proved him to hold the views he had +already expressed. That now, was enough. He was 'interrogated' for two +days (interrogation is otherwise called torture), and was then hanged. +Subsequently 111 officers and men in the army also disappeared. Some +were marched into the Khiat Khana Valley, opposite Pera, and were +stabbed: others were sent under escort to the provinces and murdered. No +courts-martial of any kind were held. + +[Footnote 1: Similarly, in October of this year, a new Turkish law was +passed, prohibiting the acquisition of Turkish land by foreign settlers. +This is aimed point-blank at Germany, and has naturally annoyed Berlin +very much.] + +[Footnote 2: The army rations have lately been reduced, each Turkish +soldier receiving daily an oke of bread and a dried mackerel.] + +And should anybody doubt the efficiency of German control in Turkey, and +be disposed to be optimistic about the imminence of Turkey's detachment, +he might do well to ponder that story. + +Meantime the efficacy of our naval blockade is largely discounted by +Germany's new source of supply. Possibly in the ensuing winter of +1917-18 conditions may get unbearable, but if the Turkish Government +only two years ago massacred more than a million of its subjects, it +would be absurd to expect that the starving of a million more would +produce much effect on the Ministers of the Turkish God of Love.[1] The +people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how famine is +decimating England and France, and how the total starvation of those +unfortunate countries is imminent. Indeed, of all the signs of want of +confidence in their German overlords, by far the most promising are the +facts that Talaat and Enver have sent their money out of the country, +and that Jemal the Great has a swelled head. On these facts there is a +certain justifiable optimism to be based. It will do no good to consider +them academically in London; but are there not practical channels to +reach the instincts of the Turkish triumvirate that might be navigated? + +[Footnote 1: The following list of prices in Constantinople is of +interest:-- + + July 1914. July 1917. +Rice, per lb. 2-1/4 d. 3s. 4d. +Milk, per quart 5d. 2s. +Flour, per lb. 3d. 2s. 6d. +Petroleum, per lb. 1d. 4s. 6d. +Pair of boots £1 £8. ] + +We need not trouble ourselves with considering what the Allies will +have to do with the Turkish army when once the end of the war comes, for +the collapse of the military party in Turkey, which owes its whole +vitality to Germany, will be perfect and complete. But the economical +future of Turkey is not so plain: at the present moment its bankruptcy +is total. Early in the war Germany drained it of such bullion as it had, +and has since then advanced it about £150,000,000, which, as far as I +can trace, is entirely in German paper, and must be redeemed in gold at +some period (chiefly two years) after the end of the war. That is +wonderful finance, and one marvels that Turkey could have been so far +blinded as to accept it. But I expect that the swallowing of the first +loan was sweetened by a spoonful of jam of this kind. Germany pointed +out that, though England was quite certainly going to lose the war, she +had issued an immense paper coinage which had all the purchasing power +of gold. Germany, on the other hand, with her dear Ally to help her, was +just as certainly going to win the war. How, then, could there be the +slightest risk of the German paper money depreciating a single piastre +in value? That sounded very good sense to Turkey, who was equally +convinced that she would be on the victorious side (else she would not +have joined it), and down went the loan with a pleasant sensation of +sweetness. A second loan was easily induced by the failure of the +Dardanelles expedition, and about then the 'ignorant' Turkish peasant +began to wonder whether the paper was quite as valuable as gold, and to +prefer gold or even the ordinary silver piastre to its German +equivalent. To counteract that, as we have seen, a law was passed making +it criminal to hoard gold, and, to complete the ruin, the silver piastre +was called in, and a nickel token was substituted.... We can but bow our +heads in reverence of the thoroughness of German swindling. + +Now Turkey is completely bankrupt, and we must ask ourselves why Germany +ever bargained for the repayment in gold, after the war, of the millions +she had lent the Turks in paper, if she knew that Turkey could never +repay her. True, the loans had only cost her the paper the notes were +printed on, so that in no case could she prove a loser, but how could +she be a gainer? The answer to that question shouts at us from every +acre of Turkish soil. The immense undeveloped riches of Turkey supply +the answer. Some indeed are already being developed, and the labour and +most of the materials have been paid for by the German paper notes. +There are the irrigation works at Adana, there is the beet-sugar +industry at Konia, the irrigation works in the Makischelin Valley, the +mineral concessions of the Bagdad Railway, the Haidar Pasha Harbour +concessions, the afforestation scheme near Constantinople, the cotton +industry in Anatolia--there is no end to them. Turkey may not be able to +pay in cash, but over all these concessions already working, and over a +hundred more, of which the concessions have been granted, Germany has a +complete hold, and her victim will pay in minerals and cotton and sugar +and corn. She will pay over and over and over again, as none who have +the smallest knowledge of Kultur-finance can possibly doubt. She is +bled white already, and for the rest of time bloodless and white will +she remain. Only one event can possibly avert her fate, and that is the +victory of the Allies. + +We have been so bold as to assume that this is not an impossible +contingency, and on that assumption there is a brighter future for +Turkey than the Prussian domination could ever bring her. Bankrupt she +is, but, as Germany saw, she is rich in possibilities even with regard +to the restricted territory to which she will surely find herself +limited, and it is a pleasant chance for her that Germany has already +been so busy in developing the resources of Anatolia. For Germany may +safely bet her last piece of paper money that she will not lay a finger +on them. + +The Turkey of the future is to be for the Turks; not for the persecuted +Armenians, nor for the Arabs, nor for the Greeks, and assuredly it is +not to be for the Prussians. While the war lasts, Germany may draw +supplies from the fields her artificial manures have enriched, and from +the acres that her paper money has planted, but after that no more. Her +Ottomanising work will be over. Such development (and it is far from +negligible) as she has done in Syria will be continued under French +protection for the Arabs, such as she has done in Mesopotamia under +English protection, and such as she has done in Anatolia will be +continued by the Turks to drag them out of the utter insolvency that she +has brought them to. Never before has a country so justly and so richly +deserved the repudiation of a debt incurred by the confidence trick. Not +a civilised Government in the world would dream of enforcing payment, +any more than a magistrate would enforce a payment to some +thimble-rigger returning from a race-meeting. + + +The roar of battle still renders inaudible all voices save its own, but +already the dusk begins to gather over the halls where sit the War-lord +and those who, for the realisation of their monstrous dreams, loosed +hell upon the world, and in the growing dusk there begin to steal upon +the wall the letters of pale flame that to them portend the doom, and to +us give promise of dawn. Faintly they can see the legend _Mene, Mene, +Tekel, Upharsin...._ + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. Benson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10881 *** diff --git a/10881-8.txt b/10881-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3a1843 --- /dev/null +++ b/10881-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4981 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crescent and Iron Cross + +Author: E. F. Benson + +Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, L Barber and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS + + +BY E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface_ + + +In compiling the following pages I have had access to certain sources of +official information, the nature of which I am not at liberty to specify +further. I have used these freely in such chapters of this book as deal +with recent and contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in +connection with Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland +über Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I have tried to be +discriminating in their use, and have not, as far as I am aware, stated +anything derived from them as a fact, for which I had not found +corroborative evidence. With regard to the Armenian massacres I have +drawn largely on the testimony collected by Lord Bryce, on that brought +forward by Mr. Arnold J. Toynbee in his pamphlet _The Murder of a +Nation_, and _The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks,_ and on the pamphlet +by Dr. Martin Niepage, called _The Horrors of Aleppo_. In the first +chapter I have based the short historical survey on the contribution of +Mr. D.G. Hogarth to _The Balkans_ (Clarendon Press, 1915). The chapter +called 'Thy Kingdom is Divided' is in no respect at all an official +utterance, and merely represents the individual opinions and surmises of +the author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies have +pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from Constantinople, +and to remove out of the power of the Turk the alien peoples who have +too long already been subject to his murderous rule. I have, in fact, +but attempted to conjecture in what kind of manner that promise will be +fulfilled. + +Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey are +continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one would have to +wait to the end of the war before beginning to write at all on this +subject. But since such usefulness as this book may possibly have is +involved with the necessity of its appearance before the end of the war, +I set a term to the gathering of material, and, with the exception of +two or three notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. +But up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys and +arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on my part. + +E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents_ + + +CHAPTER I + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +CHAPTER II + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +CHAPTER III + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +CHAPTER V + +DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLAH + +CHAPTER VI + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GRIP OF THE OCTOPUS + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his phrase is +applicable for the moment and for the situation in view of which he +coined it, but his coin has only a temporary validity: it is good for a +month or for a year, or for whatever period during which the crisis +lasts, and after that it lapses again into a mere token, a thing without +value and without meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a +monetary coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over +the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on being +passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription defaced by wear, +long after it has ceased to represent anything. In itself it is +obsolete, but people still trade with it, and think it represents what +it represented when it came hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it +sometimes happens that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery +(which it may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives +those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded possession. + +Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined by Lord +Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a sick man,' he +said, and added something which gave great offence then about the +advisability of putting Turkey out of his misery. I do not pretend to +quote correctly, but that was the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the +truth of Lord Aberdeen's phrase at the period when he made it. It +possibly contained a temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if +it had been acted on, might have saved a great deal of trouble +afterwards, but it missed then, and more than misses now, the essential +and salient truth about Turkey. The phrase, unfortunately, still +continued to obtain credit, and nowadays it is a forgery; it rings +false. + +For at whatever period we regard Turkey, and try to define that +monstrous phenomenon, we can make a far truer phrase than Lord +Aberdeen's. For Turkey is not a sick man: Turkey is a sickness. He is +not sick, nor ever has been, for he is the cancer itself, the devouring +tumour that for centuries has fed on living tissue, absorbing it and +killing it. It has never had life in itself, except in so far that the +power of preying on and destroying life constitutes life, and such a +power, after all, we are accustomed to call not life, but death. Turkey, +like death, continues to exist and to dominate, through its function of +killing. Life cannot kill, it is disease and death that kill, and from +the moment that Turkey passed from being a nomadic tribe moving +westwards from the confines of Persia, it has existed only and thrived +on a process of absorption and of murder. When first the Turks came out +of their Eastern fastnesses they absorbed; when they grew more or less +settled, and by degrees the power of mere absorption, as by some failure +of digestion, left them, they killed. They became a huge tumour, that +nourished itself by killing the living tissues that came in contact +with it. Now, by the amazing irony of fate, who weaves stranger dramas +than could ever be set on censored stages, for they both take hundreds +of years to unravel themselves, and are of the most unedifying +character, Turkey, the rodent cancer, has been infected by another with +greater organisation for devouring; the disease of Ottomanism is +threatened by a more deadly hungerer, and Prussianism has inserted its +crab-pincers into the cancer that came out of Asia. Those claws are +already deeply set, and the problem for civilised nations is first to +disentangle the nippers that are cancer in a cancer, and next to deprive +of all power over alien peoples the domination that has already been +allowed to exist too long. + +The object of this book is the statement of the case on which all +defenders of liberty base their prosecution against Turkey itself, and +against the Power that to-day has Turkey in its grip. + +Historical surveys are apt to be tedious, but in order to understand at +all adequately the case against Turkey as a ruler and controller of +subject peoples, it is necessary to go, though briefly, into her +blood-stained genealogy. There is no need to enter into ethnological +discussions as to earlier history, or define the difference between the +Osmanli Turks and those who were spread over Asia Minor before the +advent of the Osmanlis from the East. But it was the Osmanlis who were +the cancerous and devouring nation, and it is they who to-day rule over +a vast territory (subject to Germany) of peoples alien to them by +religion and blood and all the instincts common to civilised folk. Until +Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' suddenly hoisted her colours as a +champion of murder and rapine and barbarism, she the mother of art and +literature and science, there was nothing in Europe that could compare +with the anachronism of Turkey being there at all. Then, in August 1914, +there was hoisted the German flag, superimposed with skulls and +cross-bones, and all the insignia of piracy and highway robbery on land +and on sea, and Germany showed herself an anachronism worthy to impale +her arms on the shield of the most execrable domination that has ever +oppressed the world since the time when the Huns under Attila raged like +a forest fire across the cultivated fields of European civilisation. +To-day, in the name of Kultur, a similar invasion has broken on shores +that seemed secure, and it is no wonder that it has found its most +valuable victim and ally in the Power that adopted the same methods of +absorption and extermination centuries before the Hohenzollerns ever +started on their career of highway robbery. But like seeks like, and +perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our astonishing diplomacy in +Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like some desirable maiden, cast in +her lot with the Power that by instinct and tradition most resembled +her. Spiritual blood, no less than physical blood, is thicker than +water, and Gott and Allah, hand-in-hand, pledged each other in the cups +they had filled with the blood that poured from the wine-presses of +Belgium and of Armenia. + +For centuries before the Osmanli Turks made their appearance in Asia +Minor, there had come from out of the misty East numerous bodies of +Turks, pushing westwards, and spreading over the Euphrates valley and +over Persia, in nomadic or military colonisations, and it is not until +the thirteenth century that we find the Osmanli Turks, who give their +name to that congregation of races known as the Ottoman Empire, +established in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Like all previous +Turkish immigrations, they came not in any overwhelming horde, with +sword in one hand and Koran in the other, but as a small compact body +with a genius for military organisation, and the gift, which they retain +to this day, of stalwart fighting. The policy to which they owed their +growth was absorption, and the people whom they first began to absorb +were Greeks and other Christians, and it was to a Christian girl, +Nilufer, that Osman married his son Orkhan. They took Christian youths +from the families of Greek dwellers, forced them to apostatise, gave +them military training, and married them to Turkish girls. It was out of +this blend of Greek and Turkish blood, as Mr. D.G. Hogarth points out, +that they derived their national being and their national strength. This +system of recruiting they steadily pursued not only among the Christian +peoples with whom they came in contact, but among the settlements of +Turks who had preceded them in this process of pushing westwards, and +formed out of them the professional soldiery known as Janissaries. They +did not fight for themselves alone, but as mercenaries lent their arms +to other peoples, Moslem and Christian alike, who would hire their +services. This was a policy that paid well, for, after having delivered +some settlement from the depredations of an inconvenient neighbour, and +with their pay in their pocket, they sometimes turned on those who had +hired their arms, took their toll of youths, and finally incorporated +them in their growing empire. Like an insatiable sponge, they mopped up +the sprinklings of disconnected peoples over the fruitful floor of Asia +Minor, and swelled and prospered. But as yet the extermination of these +was not part of their programme: they absorbed the strength and manhood +of their annexations into their own soldiery, and came back for more. +They did not levy those taxes paid in the persons of soldiers for their +armies from their co-religionists, since Islam may not fight against +Islam, but by means of peaceful penetration (a policy long since +abandoned) they united scattered settlements of Turks to themselves by +marriages and the bond of a common tongue and religion. + +Their expansion into Europe began in the middle of the fourteenth +century, when, as mercenaries, they fought against the Serbs, and fifty +years later they had a firm hold over Bulgaria as well. Greece was their +next prey; they penetrated Bosnia and Macedonia, and in 1453 attacked +and took Constantinople under Mohammed the Conqueror. Still true to the +policy of incorporation they continued to mop up the remainder of the +Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time consolidated themselves further +in Asia Minor. By the beginning of the seventeenth century their +expansion reached its utmost geographical limits, but already the Empire +held within it the seeds of its own decay, and by a curious irony the +force that should still keep it together was derived not from its own +strength, but from the jealousies of the European Powers among +themselves, who would willingly have dismembered it, but feared the +quarrels that would surely result from the apportionment of its +territories. The Ottoman Empire from then onwards has owed its existence +to its enemies. + +Its weakness lay in itself, for it was very loosely knit together, and +no bond, whether of blood or religion or tongue, bound to it the +assembly of Christian and Jewish and non-Moslem races of which it was so +largely composed. The Empire never grew (as, for instance, the British +Empire grew) by the emigration and settlement of the Osmanli stock in +the territories it absorbed: it never gave, it only took. From the +beginning right up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it has +been a military despotism, imposing itself on unwilling and alien tribes +whom it drained of their blood, and then left in neglect until some +further levy was needed. None of its conquered peoples was ever given a +share in the government; they were left unorganised and, so to speak, +undigested elements under the Power which had forced them into +subjection, and one by one the whole of the European peoples included in +that uncemented tyranny have passed from under Turkish control. Turkey +in Europe has dwindled to a strip along the Bosporus to the Sea of +Marmora and the Dardanelles, Egypt has been lost, Tripoli also, and the +only force that, for the last hundred years has kept alive in Europe the +existence of that monstrous anachronism has been the strange political +phenomenon, now happily extinct, called the Balance of Power. No one of +the Great Powers, from fear of the complications that would ensue, could +risk the expulsion of the Turkish Government from Constantinople, and +there all through the nineteenth century it has been maintained lest the +Key of the Black Sea, which unlocked the bolts that barred Russia's +development into the Mediterranean, should lead to such a war as we are +now passing through. That policy, for the present, has utterly defeated +its own ends, for the key is in the pockets of Prussia. But all through +that century, though the Powers maintained Turkey there, they helped to +liberate, or saw liberate themselves, the various Christian kingdoms in +Europe over which at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey +exercised a military despotism. They weakened her in so far as they +could, but they one and all refused to let her die, and above all +refused to give her that stab in the heart which would have been implied +in her expulsion from Constantinople. + +For centuries from the first appearance of the Osmanlis in north-west +Asia Minor down to the reign of Abdul Hamid, the Empire maintained +itself, with alternate bouts of vigour and relapses, on the general +principle of drawing its strength from its subject peoples. Internally, +from whatever standpoint we view it, whether educational, economic, or +industrial, it has had the worst record of any domination known to +history. Rich in mineral wealth, possessed of lands that were once the +granary of the world, watered by amazing rivers, and with its strategic +position on the Mediterranean that holds the master-key of the Black Sea +in its hands, it has remained the most barbaric and least progressive of +all states. Its roads and means of communication remained up till the +last quarter of the nineteenth century much as they had been in the days +of Osman; except along an insignificant strip of sea-coast railways were +non-existent; it was bankrupt in finance and in morals, and did not +contain a single seed that might ripen into progress or civilisation. +Mesopotamia was once the most fertile of all lands, capable of +supporting not itself alone, but half the civilised world: nowadays, +under the stewardship of the Turk, it has been suffered to become a +desert for the greater part of the year and an impracticable swamp for +the remainder. Where great cities flourished, where once was reared the +pride of Babylon and of Nineveh, there huddle the squalid huts of +fever-stricken peasants, scarce able to gain their half-starved living +from the soil that once supported in luxury and pomp the grandeur of +metropolitan cities. The ancient barrages, the canals, the systems of +irrigation were all allowed to silt up and become useless; and at the +end of the nineteenth century you would not find in all Mesopotamia an +agricultural implement that was in any way superior to the ploughs and +the flails of more than two thousand years ago. But so long as there was +a palace-guard about the gates to secure the safety of the Sultan and +his corrupt military oligarchy, so long as there were houris to divert +their leisure, tribute of youths to swell their armies, and taxes wrung +from starving subjects to maintain their pomp, there was not one of +those who held the reins of government who cared the flick of an eyelash +for the needs of the nations on whom the Empire rested, for the +cultivation of its soil that would yield a hundredfold to the skilled +husbandman, or for the exploitation and development of its internal +wealth. While there was left in the emaciated carcase of the Turkish +Empire enough live tissue for the cancerous Government to grow fat on, +it gave not one thought to the welfare of all those races on whom it had +fastened itself. Province after province of its European dominions +might be lost to it, but the Balance of Power still kept the Sultan on +his throne, and left the peoples of Asia Minor and Syria at his mercy. +They were largely of alien religion and of alien tongue, and their +individual weakness was his strength. Neglect, and the decay consequent +on neglect, was the lot of all who languished under that abominable +despotism. + +With the accession in 1876 of Abdul Hamid, of cursed memory, there +dawned on the doomed subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire a day of +bloodier import than any yet. The year before and during that year had +occurred the Bulgarian atrocities and massacres, and the word 'massacre' +lingered and made music in Abdul Hamid's brain. He said it over to +himself and dwelt upon it, and meditated on the nature and possibilities +of massacre. The troubles which massacre had calmed had arisen before +his accession out of the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which +corresponded to the Greek Patriarchate, and was given power over +districts and peoples whom the Greeks justly considered to belong to +them by blood and religion. Greek armed bands came into collision with +Bulgarian bands, and in order to calm these disturbances by thoroughly +effectual means, irregular Turkish troops were sent into Bulgaria, +charged with the command to 'stop the row,' but with no other +instructions. Indiscriminate killing, with all the passions and horrors +that bloodshed evokes in the half-civilised, followed, and there was no +more trouble just then in the disturbed districts, for there was none to +make trouble. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was deposed by a group of king-makers +under Midhat Pasha, Murad V. reigned shadow-like for three months, and +during the same year Abdul Hamid was finally selected to fill the +throne, and stand forth as the Shadow of God. It was a disturbed and +tottering inheritance to which he succeeded, riddled with the dry-rot of +corruption, but the inheritor proved himself equal to the occasion. + +For a little while he was all abroad, and at the bidding of Midhat, who +had placed him on the throne, he summoned a kind of representative +Turkish Parliament, by way of imbuing the Great Powers with the idea +that he was an enlightened Shadow of God bent on reform. This parody of +a Parliament lasted but a short time: it was no more than a faint, +dissolving magic-lantern picture. In the spring of 1877 Rumania, under +Russian encouragement, broke away from Turkish rule. Turkey declared war +on Russia, and in 1878 found herself utterly defeated. At Adrianople was +drawn up the Treaty of San Stefano, creating an independent Bulgarian +state, and, in the opinion of Great Britain and Germany, giving Russia +far greater influence in the Balkan Peninsula than was agreeable to that +disastrous supporter of Turkey, the Balance of Power. In consequence the +Treaty of San Stefano was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin. + +In those arrangements Abdul Hamid had no voice, but he was well content +to sit quiet, think about what was to be done with what was left him, +and thank his waning crescent that once again the Balance of Power had +secured Constantinople for him, leaving him free to deal with his +Asiatic dominions, and such part of Europe as was left him, as he +thought fit. He could safely trust that he would never be ejected from +his throne by a foreign Power, and all he need do was to make himself +safe against internal disturbances and revolutions which might upset +him. And it was then that he begot in the womb of his cold and cunning +brain a policy that was all his own, except in so far as the Bulgarian +atrocities, consequent on feuds between Bulgars and Greeks, may be +considered the father of that hideous birth. But it was he who suckled +and nourished it, it was from his brain that it emerged, full-grown and +in panoply of armour, as from the brain of Olympian Zeus came Pallas +Athene. This new policy was in flat contradiction of all the previous +policy, as he had received it from his predecessors, of strengthening +Turkey by tributes of man-power from his subject tribes, but it would, +he thought, have the same result of keeping the Turk supreme among the +alien elements of the Empire. Times had changed; it behoved him to +change the methods which hitherto had held together his hapless +inheritance. + +Now Abdul Hamid was not in any sense a wise man, and the ability which +has been attributed to him, in view of the manner in which he +successfully defied the civilisations of Europe, is based on premisses +altogether false. He never really defied Europe at all; he always +yielded, secure in his belief that Europe in the shape of the Balance of +Power, was unanimous in keeping him where he was. He never even risked +being turned out of Constantinople, for he knew--none better--that all +Europe insisted on retaining him there. As regards wisdom, there was +never a greater fool, but as regards cunning there was never a greater +fox. He had a brain that was absolutely impervious to large ideas: the +notion of consolidating and strengthening his Empire by ameliorating its +internal conditions, by bringing it within speaking distance of the +influence of civilisation and progress, by taking advantage of and +developing its immense natural resources, by employing the brains and +the industry of his subject races, seems never to have entered his head. +He could easily have done all this: there was not a Power in Europe that +would not have lent him a helping hand in development and reform, in the +establishment of a solvent state, in aiding the condition of the peoples +over whom he ruled. In whatever he did, provided that it furthered the +welfare of his subjects, whether Turk, Armenian, or Arab, the whole +Concert of Europe would have provided him with cash, with missionaries, +with engineers, and all the resources of the arts and sciences of peace +and of progress. But being a felon, with crime and cunning to take the +place of wisdom, he preferred to develop his Empire on his own original +lines. In Europe he was but suffered to exist. There remained Asia. + +The policy of previous Osmanli rulers has already been roughly defined. +They strengthened themselves and the military Turkish despotism round +them by absorbing the manhood of the tribes over which they had obtained +dominion. Abdul Hamid reversed that policy; he strengthened the Turkish +supremacy, not by drawing into it the manhood of his subject peoples, +but by destroying that manhood. In proportion, so his foxlike brain +reasoned, as his alien subjects were weak, so were the Turks strong. A +consistent weakening of alien nations would strengthen the hold of those +who governed the Ottoman Empire. It was as if a man suffered from gout +in his foot: he could get rid of the gout by wholesome living, the +result of which would be that his foot ceased to trouble him. But the +plan which he adopted was to cause his foot to mortify by process of +inhuman savagery. When it was dead it would trouble him no longer. + +He was well aware that the Turkish people only comprised some forty per +cent, of the population of the Turkish Empire: numerically they were +weaker than the alien peoples who composed the rest of it. Something had +to be done to bring the governing Power up to such a proportionate +strength as should secure its supremacy, and the most convenient plan +was to weaken the alien elements. The scheme, though yet inchoate, had +been tried with success in the case of the Bulgarians and Greeks, and to +test it further he stirred up Albanians against the inhabitants of Old +Servia with gratifying results. They weakened each other, and he further +weakened them both by the employment of Turkish troops in Macedonia to +quell the disturbances which he had himself fomented. There were +massacres and atrocities, and no more trouble just then from Macedonia. +Having thus tested his plan and found no flaw in it, he settled to adopt +it. But European combinations did not really much interest him, for he +was aware that the Great Powers, to whose sacred Balance he owed the +permanence of his throne, would not tolerate interference with European +peoples, and he turned his attention to Asia Minor. There were +excrescences there which he could not absorb, but which might be +destroyed. He could use the knife on living tissues which the impaired +digestion of the Ottoman Empire could not assimilate. So he hit on this +fresh scheme, which his hellish cunning devised with a matchless sense +of the adaptation of the means to the end, and he created (though he did +not live to perfect) a new policy that reversed the traditions of five +hundred years. That is no light task to undertake, and when we consider +that since his deposition, now nine years ago, that policy has reaped +results undreamed of perhaps by him, we can see how far-sighted his +cunning was. To-day it is being followed out by the very combination +that deposed him; his aims have been fully justified, and for that +precise reason we are right to classify him among the abhorred of +mankind. He had an opportunity such as is given to the few, and he made +the utmost of it, even as his greater successor on the throne of Turkey +for the present, namely Wilhelm II. of Prussia, has done, in the service +of the devil. 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' must surely +have been his well-deserved welcome, when he left the hell he had made +on earth for another. + +Of all his subjects the Armenians were the most progressive, the most +industrious, the most capable. They therefore contributed, according to +that perverted foxlike mind, one of the greatest menaces to the +stability of his throne, which henceforth should owe its strength to the +weakness of those it governed. They, as all the world knows, are a +peaceful Christian people, and it was against them that Abdul Hamid +directed the policy which he had tested in Europe. The instruments he +employed to put it in force were the Kurds, a turbulent shepherd race +marching with and mixed up among the Armenians. By this means he had the +excuse ready that these massacres were local disturbances among remote +and insubordinate tribes, one of whom, however, the Kurds, he armed with +modern rifles and caused to be instructed in some elementary military +training. Their task was to murder Armenians, their pay was the +privilege to rape their girls and their women, and to rob the houses of +the men they had killed. The Armenians resisted with at first some small +success, upon which Abdul Hamid reinforced the Kurds with regular +troops, and caused it to be proclaimed that this was a war of Moslems +against the infidel, a Holy War. Moslem fanaticism, ever smouldering +and ready to burst into flames, blazed high, and a fury of massacres +broke forth against all Armenians, east and west, north and south. The +streets of Constantinople ran with their blood, and before Abdul Hamid +was obliged by foreign civilised Powers to stop those holocausts, he had +so decimated the race that not for at least a generation would they +conceivably be a menace again even to that zealous guardian of the +supremacy in its own dominions of the Ottoman power. Very unwillingly, +when obliged to do so, he whistled off his bands of Kurds, and dismissed +them: unwillingly, too, he gave orders that the Armenian hunts which had +so pleasantly diverted the sportsmen of Constantinople, must be +abandoned: then was decreed a 'close time' for Armenians, the shooting +season was over. There is no exaggeration in this: eye-witnesses have +recorded how at the close of the business day in Constantinople, +shooting parties used literally to go out, and beat the coverts of +tenement houses for Armenians, of whom there were at that time in +Constantinople some 150,000. But when Abdul Hamid had finished his +sport, I do not think more than 80,000 at the most survived. These were +saved by the protests of Europe, and perhaps by the knowledge that if +all the Armenians were killed, there could never be any more shooting. +The Kurds also had lost a considerable number of men, and that was far +from displeasing to the yellow-faced butcher of Yildiz. A little +blood-letting among those turbulent Kurds was not at all a bad thing. + +Here, then, we see defined and at work the new Ottoman policy with +regard to its peoples. Hitherto, it had been sufficient to take from +them its fill of man-power, and leave the tribe in question to its own +devices. There was no objection whatever to its developing the resources +of its territory, to its increasing in prosperity and in population. +Indeed the central Power was quite pleased that it should do so, for +when next the gathering of taxes and youths came round the collectors +would find a creditable harvest awaiting them. Such a tribe received no +encouragement or help from the Government; that would have been too +much to expect, but as long as it kept quiet and obedient it might, +without interference, prosper as well as it could. But now, in the last +quarter of the nineteenth century, all that was changed; instead of a +policy of neglect there was substituted a policy of murder. The state no +longer considered itself secure when in various parts of its dominions +its subjects showed themselves progressive and industrious. They had to +be kept down, and clearly the most efficient way of keeping people down +was killing them. Let it not be supposed for a moment that either the +first massacre, or any that followed, was the result of local +disturbances and fanaticism. It was nothing of the sort: each was +arranged and planned at Constantinople, as the official means, invented +by the arch-butcher, Abdul Hamid, of maintaining in power the most +devilish despotism that has ever disgraced the world. Something had to +be done to prevent the alien tribes in Asia slipping out of the noose of +Ottoman strangulation, even as the European tribes had done, and +forming themselves into separate and independent states. A ruler with +progressive ideas, one who had any perception of the internal prosperity +which alone can render an empire stable, would have made the attempt to +weld his loose and wavering domination together by encouraging and +working for the prosperity of its component peoples, so that he might, +though late in the day, give birth to a Turkey that was strong, because +its citizens were prosperous and content. Not so did Abdul Hamid; the +Turkey that he sought to establish was merely to be strong because he +had battered into a blood-stained pulp the most progressive and the most +industrious of the alien peoples over whom he ruled. + +It is significant that, while yet the blood of the murdered Christians +was scarcely washed from the streets of Constantinople, the Emperor +Wilhelm II. visited his brother-sovereign at Yildiz, after making his +tour throughout the Holy Land. The two can hardly, in their intimate +conversations, have completely avoided the subject of the massacres; but +after all, that was not such an unmanageably awkward topic, for Wilhelm +II. could tactfully have reminded Abdul Hamid that his own throne also +was based on the murderous progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there +was the war between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss, +and there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of +Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. Altogether, in +spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit the Holy Places in +Palestine, it was an odd moment for a Christian monarch to visit the +butcher of Constantinople. But the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very +strong reason for going to see his brother, for the fruit of German +policy in Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the +minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while still his +hands were red with blood was more than compensated for by the +advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him on other subjects. +Germany had already begun her peaceful penetration, and the real motive +of the Emperor's visit was, after swords and orders had been exchanged, +to make the definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be +allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and a hint no +doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room for them now that +there were so many Armenian farms unfortunately without a master. But, +like Uriah Heep, the Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it +was ripe, or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to +reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense advantages +which would result to Turkey by the establishment of those Gott-like +German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his colossal egalo-megalomania, of +which we know more now, he thought that any request which the +All-Highest should deign to make must instantly be granted. But he met +with a perfectly flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left +Constantinople in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the +good that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of Jerusalem +had done him. It is pleasant to think of the Pan-Islamic merriment with +which Abdul Hamid must have viewed the indignant exit of his Christian +brother, who had come such a long way to see him, and was so tactful +about the Armenian atrocities. He might perhaps--for those Christians +were very odd pigs--have expressed horror or remonstrance. Not at all: +he was much too anxious to get his request granted, to make himself +disagreeable. But did his Christian brother really think that all those +massacres over which Abdul Hamid had spent so much time and money, had +been arranged in order to settle those nasty progressive Germans in the +lands that had been so carefully depopulated? Why, the whole point of +them had been that the Armenians were too progressive and prosperous, +thus constituting a menace to the central Government, and certainly +Abdul Hamid was not meaning to put in their place settlers even more +progressive and with a stronger backing behind them. So off went the +All-Highest back home again, very much vexed with Abdul Hamid, and +possibly (if that was not sacrilegious) with himself for having been in +too great a hurry. There was more spade-work to be done yet before +Turkey was ripe for open and avowed colonisation by the Fatherland. + +The episode, strictly historical, is of a certain importance, for it +shows the date at which Wilhelm II. thought that the time had come for +Germans to colonise Turkey. The peaceful penetration (which now amounts +to perforation) was even then pretty far advanced. But Abdul Hamid seems +to have seen the significance of the request, and for some little while +after that German influence had a certain set-back in Turkey. The date +of this marks an era, and Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' set to work +again, in no way discouraged, to set her cancer-nippers in the cancer +that already had begun to eat the live tissues round it. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter II_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +In the year 1908 a military group in Constantinople, styling itself the +'Young Turk' party, seized and deposed Abdul Hamid, and shut him up at +Salonika, there to spend the remainder of his infamous days. They put +forth a Liberal programme of reformation, one that earned them at the +moment the sympathy of civilised Europe (including Germany), and the +Balance of Power very mistakenly and prematurely heaved a sigh of +relief. For upwards of a century it had maintained in Constantinople the +corrupt and bloody autocracy of the Sultans, fearing the European +quarrels that would attend the dismemberment of that charnel-house of +decay known as the Ottoman Empire, and now (just for the moment) it +seemed as if a sudden rally had come to the Sick Man, and he showed +signs of returning animation and wholesome vitality. The policy of the +Powers, after a century of failure, looked as if it was justifying +itself, and they were full of congratulations towards Turkey and each +other. But never, in the whole century of their pusillanimous cacklings, +had they made a greater mistake. + +Whether the Young Turks ever meant well or not, whether there was or was +not a grain of sincerity in this profession of their policy, is a +disputed question. There are those who say that originally they were +prompted by patriotic and high-minded aims, when they proclaimed their +object of 'Organisation,' and of reform. But all are agreed that it +matters very little what their original aims were, so speedily did their +Liberal intentions narrow down to an Ottomanisation such as Adbul Hamid +had aimed at, but had been unable to accomplish before his evil sceptre +ceased to sway the destinies of his kingdom. In any case this programme +earned its authors the sympathy of Europe, and probably this, and no +more than this, prompted it. They wished to establish themselves, +unquestioned and undisturbed, and did so; and I do not think we shall +be far wrong if we take the original Young Turk programme about as +seriously as we took the parody of a Parliament with which Abdul Hamid +opened (as with a blessing) his atrocious reign. The very next year +(1909) they permitted (if they did not arrange) the Armenian massacres +at Adana, and the Balance of Power began faintly to wonder whether the +Young Turks in their deposition of Abdul Hamid had not slain an asp and +hatched a cockatrice. Given that their aims originally were sincere, we +can but marvel at the swiftness of the corruption which in little more +than a year had begun to lead them not into paths of reform and Liberal +policy, but along the road towards which the butcher they had deposed +had pointed the way. It must have made Abdul Hamid gnaw his nails and +shake impotent hands to see those who had torn him from his throne so +soon pursuing the very policy which he invented, and to which he +nominally owed his dethronement. Strange, too, was it that his overthrow +should come from the very quarter to which he looked for security, for +it was on the army that each Sultan in turn had most relied for the +stability of his throne. But Abdul Hamid, in order, perhaps, to deal +more effectually with the subject races he wished to exterminate, had +introduced a system of foreign training for the officers of his army, a +course of Potsdam efficiency, and it was just they, on whom Sultans from +time immemorial had relied, who knocked the prop of the army away from +him. Though publicly, for the edification of Europe his deposers +professed a Liberal policy, it was not on account of Armenian massacres +that they turned him off his throne, but because of the muddle and +corruption and debility of his rule. Herein we may easily trace the hand +of Germany, no longer publicly beckoning as when Wilhelm II., just after +the first Armenian massacres, made his request of the Sultan for the +establishment in Turkey of German colonists, but working underground, +sapping and mining like a mole. For Germany, her mind already fixed on +securing Turkey as an instrument of her Eastern policy, wanted a strong +Turkey, and without doubt desired to bring an end to the disorganisation +and decay of the Empire, and create and at the same time interpenetrate +an efficient state that should be useful to her. We may take it for +granted that she, like the rest of Europe, welcomed any sign of +regeneration in the Ottoman Empire, but there was an ulterior purpose +behind that. Turkey, already grasped by the Prussian hand, must be in +that hand a weapon fit for use, a blade on which she could rely. She +strengthened the Turkish army by the introduction of Prussian +discipline, and worked on good material. Already she has realised her +ambition in this respect, and now controls the material which she then +worked on. + +The troubled years of the Balkan wars which followed this false dawn, +coupled with the loss of all the territory which remained to the Ottoman +Empire in Europe, with the exception of Thrace, caused an immediate +reaction from the open-minded policy of the Young Turks, if we decide to +credit them at the outset with a sincere purpose. Organisation by a +slightly different spelling became Ottomanisation, and the aims of the +Young Turks were identified with those of the Nationalist party which +followed out and developed into a finished and super-fiendish policy the +dreams of Abdul Hamid. He, as we have seen, had invented the idea of +securing Ottoman supremacy in the Empire, not as before by absorption of +the strength of its subject peoples, but by their extermination, and +this formed part of the new programme which was to be more efficiently +administered. Already, in 1909, the experimental massacre at Adana took +place, and the Young Turk party, with its possibly Liberal aims, had +become a party that had as its main object a system of tyranny and +murder such as the world had never seen. Simultaneously Turkey itself, +Nationalist party and all, became enslaved to German influence. Link by +link the chains were forged and the manacles welded on, and before the +European War broke out in 1914, the incarceration of Turkey in Germany +was complete, and Wilhelm II. had a fine revenge for the snub inflicted +on him by Abdul Hamid when he proposed the scheme of German +colonisation in the lands depopulated by the Armenian massacres of 1895. + +From the first the aim of the Nationalists, who thus formed so deadly a +blend with the Young Turk party, was Ottomanisation, or the +establishment within the Empire of an Ottoman domination which should be +pure and undefiled, and in which none of the subject peoples, be they +Armenians or Kurds, Arabs or Greeks or Jews, Christian or Moslem, should +have any part. The inception of the scheme was no doubt inspired by the +example given by Prussia's treatment of the Poles, and Hungary's of +Roumans and Slovaks. But in thoroughness of method Prussia's pupil was +to prove Prussia's master, for it aimed not merely at expropriation, but +extermination, and sought to become strong, not merely by weakening +alien elements, but by abolishing them. It did not set this out quite +explicitly in its manifestoes and the resolutions of its congresses, but +two extracts, the first from the proceedings of the 'Committee of Union +and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a sinister +suggestiveness about them for which the acts and measures of the +Committee had already supplied the comment. + +'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the country must be +suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal ideas prevented. Turkey +must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem influence must be +preponderant. Every other religious propaganda must be suppressed.... +Sooner or later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must +be effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained by +persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other +nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for +decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish Empire.' + +Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul Hamid, than +this formal resolution, passed within three years of the time when the +Young Turks deposed him? The conviction begins to dawn on one--as it +began to dawn on the Balancers of Power--that he owed his downfall not +to his illiberal and butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough +enough. + +The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may be added, +which defines the policy, not with regard to the Christian or Jewish +subjects of the Turks, but with regard to the Arabs, Moslem by creed, +and the guardians of the Holy Cities. + +'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for us to +Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of nationality is +awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, and already threatens us +with a great catastrophe. Against this we must be fore-armed.' + +The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical form. +Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of patriotism, and any +means which secured it, massacres such as, in 1909, had taken place at +Adana, or the treatment accorded to the Greeks and Bulgarians who +remained in Thrace after the Balkan wars, were in accordance with the +new 'Liberal' gospel. Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in +Europe, and as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it +could not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under +the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed to put the +entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and lay hands on their +property. In fact this was the first of the 'deportation' schemes which, +in 1915, proved so successful with the Armenians, and the effect of it +was that neither Greeks nor Bulgarians were left in Thrace. Then +followed the expulsion of Greeks from the Mediterranean sea-board, but +this was never completely carried out because the European war +intervened, and the attention of the Nationalists was claimed by their +over-lord. Later, as we shall see, a further deportation of Greeks was +begun, but again that was stopped, for Germany saw that it would never +do to have her Turkish allies murdering settlers of the same blood as +those she hoped would become her allies. Of course, when it was only a +question of Armenians she did not interfere. + +The design, then, of the new 'Liberal' regime, of which those three +measures, the massacres at Adana, the expulsion of Greeks and Bulgarians +from Thrace, and of Greeks from the sea-board of the Mediterranean, were +early instances, was to restore the absolute supremacy of the Turks in +the Ottoman Empire. It was obvious that the problem was one of +considerable difficulty, since the Turks at the time composed only some +forty per cent, of the whole population. They numbered about 8,000,000, +while in the Empire were included about 7,000,000 Arabs, 2,000,000 +Greeks, 2,000,000 Armenians, and 3,000,000 more of smaller +nationalities, such as Kurds, Druses, and Jews. But the Turks were +backed by Germany, and nowadays, since the abolition of the +Capitulations, which leaves all alien races unprotected by foreign +Powers, such as survive, after the extermination of the Armenians, are +completely at the mercy of the Government in Constantinople. All these +peoples speak a different language from the Turks, and have a different +religion, for the Nationalist party, with a view to the Ottomanisation +of the Arabs, have definitely stated that Arab Moslems are not of the +true faith, and that their own Allah (in whose name they subsequently +exterminated the Armenians) is the God of Love--German equivalent +Got--whereas the Arab Allah is the God of vengeance. The sinister motive +in this discovery needs no comment, for it is obvious that it releases +the Ottoman Government from the prohibition in the Koran, whereby Moslem +may not fight against Moslem. Therefore the Arabs were declared not to +be true Moslems. Later on, that motive was translated into practical +measures. + +Among the first tasks with regard to the Arabs that faced the +Nationalist party from what we may call the pacific side of their +mission was to substitute the Turkish language for Arabic. Kemal Bey, a +Nationalist of Salonika, with the help of Ziya Bey, collected round him +a group of young writers, and these proceeded to translate the Koran out +of Arabic into Turkish, and to publish the prayers for the Caliphate in +their own language, and orders went out that these revised versions +should be used in all mosques. Turkish was to be the official language +for use in all public proclamations, and, with Prussian thoroughness, it +was even substituted on such railway tickets as had hitherto been +printed in Arabic. The new Turkish tongue (Yeni Lisan) had also to be +purged of all foreign words, but here some difficulty was experienced, +for Persian and Arabic formed an enormous percentage in the language as +hitherto employed, and the promoters of this Ottoman purity of tongue +found themselves left with a very jejune instrument for the rhapsodies +of their patriotic aims. Poets in especial (for the Nationalists, like +all well-equipped founders of romantic movements, had their bards) found +themselves in sore straits owing to the limited vocabulary; and we read +of one, Mehmed Emin Bey, who was forced to publish his odes in small +provincial papers, since no well-established journal would admit so +scrannel an expression of views however exalted.[1] But the translation +of the Koran was the greatest linguistic feat, and Tekin Alp, the most +prominent exponent of Nationalism, refers to it as one of the noblest +tasks undertaken by the new movement. It mattered not at all that by +religious ordinance the translation of the Koran into any other tongue +was a sin. 'The Nationalists,' he tells us, 'have cut themselves off +from the superstitious prejudice.' A further attempt was made to +substitute Turkish letters for Arabic letters in the alphabet, but this +seems to have presented insuperable difficulties, and I gather that it +has been abandoned. + +[Footnote 1: This thwarted poet retired from the Committee of Union and +Progress not long after, and his place was taken by Enver.] + +The Ottomanisation of religion and language, then, was among the pacific +methods of spreading Pan-Turkism through the Empire. A monstrous idol +was set up, a Hindenburg idol, in front of which all peoples and +languages, not Christians alone, but Moslems, were bound to prostrate +themselves. Indeed it was against Arabs mainly that these provisions +were directed, for the Arabs constituted the most menacing obstacle to +the spread of Ottomanisation, since they numbered in the Empire only a +million less than the Turks themselves. It was ordained by statute that +no Arab could have a seat on the Committee of Union and Progress, and +the Cabinet similarly was purged of any Greek or Armenian element. Never +any more must there be new parties in the Chamber, never any more must +Liberal ideas (to champion which the New Turk party had come into being) +be allowed to prick up their pernicious heads. For the Nationalist +party, with whom the New Turks were now identical, had taken as their +creed all that the deposed Abdul Hamid stood for, and only differed from +him in that as their schemes developed they looked forward to logical +conclusions far beyond what he had ever dreamed of. But Abdul Hamid may, +I think, be taken to be the true founder of the new Nationalism: at any +rate it was he who had first seen the possibilities of massacre as a +means of maintaining Ottoman supremacy. In the hands of Nationalists +that was to prove a more effective weapon than the printing of railway +tickets in Turkish. But already before the European War the Nationalists +had vastly extended his ideas, and had seen the danger of allowing even +Arabs to have a standing of any kind in the new state. Henceforth all +subject people were to be _rayas_, cattle, as in the old days of the +Sultans who absorbed the strength of the aliens, but did not exterminate +them. But now the cattle were not only to be used for milk, but were to +be slaughtered when advisable. Till then they must be dumb, or speak the +language of their masters only, for this alone can save them from the +shambles. Ahmed Sherif Bey, a prominent Nationalist, lays this down. 'It +is the business of the Porte to make the Arabs forget their own +language, and to impose upon them instead that of the nation that rules +them. If the Porte loses sight of this duty, it will be digging its +grave with its own hands, for if the Arabs do not forget their language, +their history, and their customs, they will seek to restore their +ancient empire on the ruins of Ottomanism and of Turkish rule in Asia.' + +Here, then, is the definite statement of the Nationalists' hostility to +all things Arab, and we shall see how they translated it into practice. +Even Moslems were but cattle for them, as also were Armenians and Greeks +and Kurds. Armenians were doomed to be the first complete sacrifice on +the bloody altar of the Nationalists, and, as a Turkish gendarme engaged +in that sacrifice said to a Danish Red Cross nurse, 'First we kill the +Armenians, then the Greeks, and then the Kurds.' And if he had been a +Progressive Minister he would certainly have added, 'And then the +Arabs.' + +It was not only within the present limits of the Ottoman Empire that the +Committee of Union and Progress proposed to accomplish their unitive +purpose, for after having seen a glorious and exclusive Turkey arise +over the depopulated territories of their alien peoples, a vaster +vision, for an account of which we are indebted to Tekin Alp, opened +before their prophetic eyes. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of Persia +they claim that one-third are of true Turkish blood, and in the new +Turkey which, so they almost pathetically hope, will be established at +the conclusion of the European War by the help of Wilhelm II., those +Persian Turks must be incorporated into the true fold of Allah, God of +Love. The province of Adarbaijan, for instance, the richest and most +enlightened district of Persia, they claim, is entirely Turkish, and +here the needful rectification will be made in the new atlases that bear +the imprimatur of Potsdam. Similarly, all the country south of the +Caucasus must rank as Turkish territory, since the Turks form from fifty +to eighty per cent, of the population; all Kazan, for the same reason, +is truly Turkish, with the alluvial plains of the Volga, while the +Crimea, so Tekin Alp discovers, is also a lost sheep longing for the +Turkish fold. All this is Turkey (or Turania) Irredenta, and, may we not +add:-- + +'Jerusalem and Madagascar +And North and South Amerikee.' + +And then what a glorious future awaits the Power that Europe once +thought of as a sick man. 'With the crushing of Russian despotism,' +exclaims Tekin Alp, 'by the brave German, Austrian, and Turkish armies, +thirty to forty million Turks will receive their independence. With the +ten million Ottoman Turks this will form a nation of fifty millions, +advancing towards a great civilisation which may perhaps be compared to +that of Germany, in that it will have the strength and energy to rise +even higher. In some ways it will be even superior to the degenerate +French and English civilisations.' + +The arithmetic and the enthusiasm of the foregoing paragraph are, of +course, those of Tekin Alp, from whose book, _The Turkish and +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, the quotation is made. The work was published in +1915, and, appearing as it did after the beginning of the European War, +it is but natural to find in it an expression not only of the +Nationalist aims for Turkey, but of the Prussian aims for Turkey, or, to +speak more correctly, of the dream which Prussia has induced in a +hypnotised Turkey. It sets forth in fact the bait which Prussia has +dangled in front of Turkey, the hunger for which has inspired the +projected future which is here sketched out; and significantly enough +this book has been spread broadcast over Turkey by the agency of German +propagandists. The Ottomanisation of the Empire, the vision of its +further extension, free from all consideration of subject peoples, was +exactly the lure which was most likely to keep the Turks staunch to +their Prussian masters. It will be noticed that there is no suggestion +of the Turks recovering their lost provinces and kingdoms in Europe, +Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia, and the rest, for it would never do +to let Fox Ferdinand awake from _his_ hypnotic sleep of a sort of +Czardom over the Balkans, or cease to dangle dreams, that included even +Constantinople before the shifty eye of King Constantine So, before +Turkey was spread the prospect of appropriating Russian and Persian +spoils: Prussia had already given the lost Turkish kingdoms in Europe +elsewhere, but would there not be a dismembered Russian Empire to +dispose of? The Crimea, the province of Kazan, the province of +Trans-Caucasia: all these might be held before Turkey's nose, as a dog +has a piece of meat held up before it to make it beg. Then there was the +province of Adarbaijan: certainly Turkey might be permitted to promise +herself that, without incurring the jealousy of Austria or Bulgaria. +Greedily Turkey took the bait. She gulped it down whole, and never +considered that there was a string attached to it, or that, should ever +the time come when Germany, the conqueror of the world, would be in a +position to reward her Allies with the realisation of the dreams she had +induced, the string would be pulled, and up, with retchings and +vomitings, would come these succulent morsels of Russia and Persia. +Indeed these bright pictures flashed on to the sheet as the visions of +Nationalists are but the slides in a German magic-lantern, designed to +keep Turkey amused, and it was with the same object that Ernst Marré, in +his _Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was bidden to make other +pictures ready in case Turkey grew fractious or sleepy. 'From the ruins +of antiquity,' he says, when speaking of the Ottoman Empire, 'new life +will spring, if we can manage to raise the treasures which time and sand +have covered.' Then he remembers that he must be less Pan-Germanic for +the moment, and dangles the bait again. 'In doing this,' he adds, 'we +are benefiting Turkey. The Turkish state is no united whole, and it has +always been very difficult to govern. Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, +Kurds, cannot be welded together. This is a war of liberation for +Turkey.... Only by energetic interference, and by "expelling" the +obstinate Armenian element could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian +domination.... The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' + +There is no need for further quotations, which might be multiplied +indefinitely. The Prussian programme is for the moment identical with +the Turkish Nationalist programme: Turkey, in order to be kept 'in with' +Germany, must be encouraged to dream of depopulated Armenia (that dream +has come tragically true) and of annexations in Russia and Persia. All +this fitted in with the Turkish programme: Germany had scarcely to +inspire, only to encourage. That encouragement she gave, for, +simultaneously she was penetrating Turkey as water penetrates a sponge, +and reducing it to the position of a vassal state. To keep Turkey happy +she allowed the Armenian massacres to run their deadly course, and only +interfered with other massacres when they did not suit her purpose. But +supposing (to suppose the impossible) that a peace to the European War +was dictated by Germany, how much of the future Pan-Turkish programme +would be realised? Would there be a Turkey at all? I think not: there +would be a Germany in Europe, and a Germany in Asia, where Turkey once +was. Indeed, in all but name, they are in existence now; so complete, as +we shall see, has been Germany's penetration of the Ottoman Empire. Just +for the present she calls herself Turkey in those regions; that is her +incognito. But Turkey as an independent Power has already ceased to +exist, and Tekin Alp and the Nationalists still dream on with rainbow +visions of Ottomanisation, the vistas of which stretch far into Persia +and the plains of the Volga. And all the while she has been put out like +a candle, and all that is left of her is the smouldering wick ready to +be pinched between the horny fingers of her stepmother. There she +stands, her stepmother, with her grinning teeth already disclosing the +Wolf.... + +Whatever the end of the European War may be, in no circumstances can the +dreams of the Nationalists be realised. Even if Germany and her arms +were so victorious that Russia lay at her feet a mere inert carcase +ready for the chopper, she would no more dream of giving Russian +provinces to an independent Turkey than she would hand over to her +Berlin itself. And if, as we know, Germany can never be victorious, will +the Allies once more strive to keep the Sick Man alive, or leave in his +ruthless power the peoples whom he is longing to exterminate? Even Tekin +Alp can hardly expect that. + +Here then, in brief, is the policy of New Turkey. Its subject +peoples--Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews--are to be totally +unrepresented in its councils, though together they number sixty per +cent, of the population of the Empire. But they are not only to be +unrepresented in Government--they are, if the programme is to be carried +conclusively out, to have no existence. In accordance with the plans of +the murderous ruffians who to-day administer the Nationalist policy, +those of the Armenians who have not fled beyond the frontiers have +already been exterminated, and the same fate threatens Arabs, Greeks, +and Jews. Hence, when the Allied Governments wrote their joint note to +President Wilson, they stated that among their aims in the war was 'the +liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' From that avowed determination they will never recede. + + * * * * * + +NOTE.--It is to be hoped that Tekin Alp's pamphlet, _Turks and the +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, may soon be accessible to English readers. The +author is a Macedonian Jew who writes under the pseudonym of Tekin Alp, +and his mind is such that he appears to find romance in the idea of a +united Turkey purged by indiscriminate massacre from all alien elements. +But he sets forth with admirable lucidity the aims of the Nationalist +party and the steps already achieved by them in their progress towards +their ideal. Already the sequestered ladies of the harem have come out +of their retirement and join in the crusade, and not only do men give +lectures to women, but 'women mount the platform and address the men.' +There are corporations to advance economic organisations, boy-scout +centres all over the Empire, and 'intellectual parties' among the guilds +of merchants--England and Russia appear as the most virulent foes of +Pan-Turkism, 'the colossus of darkest barbarism joined with the colossus +of a degenerate civilisation.' + +In the second part of his pamphlet Tekin Alp passes on with an +enthusiasm which is as sincere as it is pathetic to the vision of a +tremendous Turkey, extending from Thrace on the west to the Desert of +Gobi on the east. It embraces, as his map shows, Egypt as far south as +Victoria Nyanza, Arabia, Persia, the greater part of India, the littoral +of the Black Sea, the plains of the Volga, the circuit of the Caspian +Sea and the Aral Sea, and in the north-east nearly touches Tomsk. All +this naturally is dependent on complete German victory in the war, and, +pathetically enough, Tekin Alp appears to think that his ideal Turkey +will meet with the approval of Germany. Indeed it is no wonder that his +pamphlet is circulated broadcast by German propagandists, for it is +precisely what Germany wants Turkey to believe. + +The romance of the movement appeals also very strongly to Ziya Gök Alp, +the official bard of the butchers of Constantinople. He has written a +sort of Ode to Attila, quoted by Tekin Alp, which is a fine frenzy in +favour of barbarism. This preposterous poem begins: + +'I do not read the famous deeds of my ancestors in the dead, faded, +dusty leaves of the history books, but in my own veins, in my own heart. +My Attila, my Huns, those heroic figures which stand for the proud fame +of my race, appear in those dry pages to our malicious and slanderous +age as covered with shame and disgrace, while in reality they are no +less than Alexander and Caesar,' etc. etc. + +I have been at present unable to ascertain whether it is true that the +German Emperor has set it to music, under the impression that it refers +to him and the German armies. It is very popular in Prussia, which need +arouse no surprise. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter III_ + + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +We have traced in brief the backward progress of Ottoman domination, and +have seen how, from the rough and ready methods of a military barbarism, +the Turks evolved a more emphatic and a more highly organised negation +of all those principles which we may sum up under the general term of +civilisation. The comparatively humane neglect of the unfortunate alien +peoples herded within the frontiers of earlier Sultans was improved upon +by Abdul Hamid, who struck out the swifter and superior methods of +maintaining the dominating strength of the Turkish element in the +kingdom not by the absorption of subject peoples, but by their +extermination. This in turn, this new and effective idea, served as a +first sketch of an artist with regard to his finished picture, and +starting with that the Nationalist party enlarged and elaborated it +into that masterpiece of massacre which they exhibited to the world in +the years 1915 and 1916 of the Christian Era, when from end to end of +the Empire there flashed the signal for the extermination of the +Armenian race. Abdul Hamid was but tentative and experimental as +compared to their systematised thoroughness, but then the Nationalist +party had learned thoroughness under the tutelage of its Prussian +masters. And in addition to instruction they had had the advantage of +seeing how Prussian firmness, with the soothing balm of Kultur to +follow, had dealt with the now-subject remnant of Belgians. That was the +way to treat subject people: 'the first care of a state is to protect +itself,' as Enver and Talaat could read in the text-books now translated +into Turkish, in copies, maybe, presented to them by their Master in +Berlin, and Turkey could best show the proof of her enlightenment and +regeneration, by following in the footsteps of Prussian Kultur. Perhaps +a few thousand innocent men might suffer the inconvenience of having +their nails torn out, of being bastinadoed to death, of being shot, +burned or hanged, perhaps a few thousand girls and women might die by +the wayside in being deported to 'agricultural colonies,' might fall +victims to the lusts of Turkish soldiers, or have babes torn from their +wombs, but these paltry individual pains signified nothing compared to +the national duty of 'suffering the state to run no risks.' As one of +this party of Union and Progress said, 'The innocent of to-day may be +the guilty of to-morrow,' and it was therefore wise to provide that for +innocent and guilty alike there should be no to-morrow at all. Years +before the statesmanship of Abdul Hamid had prophetically foreseen the +dawning of this day, when he remarked 'The way to get rid of the +Armenian question is to get rid of the Armenians,' and temporarily for +twenty years he did get rid of the Armenian question. But when, in 1915, +Talaat Bey completed his arrangements for a further contribution to the +solution of the same problem, he said, 'After this, there will be no +Armenian question for fifty years.' As far as we can judge, he rather +under-estimated the thoroughness of his arrangements.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lately (September 1917), when the massacres were all over, +Talaat, speaking at a Congress of the Committee of Union and Progress, +upheld as right and proper the treatment of the Armenian race.] + +The race thus marked out for extermination was one of the oldest +settlements in Asiatic Turkey. Originally it was confined to Armenia +proper, a highland district comprising part of what is now the Russian +province of Trans-Caucasia, part of Persia, notably the province of +Adarbaijan, and, within the Turkish frontier, the province of Armenia, +itself. According to legend, which may well be correct, the Armenians +were the oldest national Christian Church in the world, with a liturgy +that dates from the first century of the Christian Era, while their +translation of the Bible dates from the early years of the fifth century +A.D. Here in these uplands they formed a compact and homogeneous +population, spread over towns and country alike, and were occupied in +the main with agrarian and pastoral pursuits. But they had in addition +much of the versatility and business capacity of the Jews, as well as a +strong liberal-mindedness towards progress and education, and thus, +while they still continued up to the present day their pastoral life in +the countryside, others gravitated towards towns, and by degrees they +spread over a large part of the Turkish Empire, until most of the towns +in Turkey had a progressive and peaceful quota of Armenian citizens, +tolerated by their Moslem neighbours, and, though possessed of no great +share of political influence, powerful, in that the trade and commerce +of inland Turkey was largely in their hands. Wherever they went they +established their schools; many were lawyers, doctors, and professors of +education. Certain repressive measures were brought to bear on them; +they were not, for instance, allowed to carry arms, except when, in +accordance with Turkish conscriptive laws, they served in the Ottoman +army. But many of them, by paying their exemption money, got off +military service, and they confined themselves to the arts of peace, +whether pastorally in their native highlands, or in the shops and +offices of the towns to which they migrated. They were not, till the +time of Abdul Hamid, held to be in any sense a national danger, for, +except in Armenia proper, they were too scattered and too peace-loving +an element of the population to be capable of united action, and never +do they seem to have provoked any outburst of Moslem fanaticism. They +had local quarrels and fights with the more warlike Kurds who encroached +on Armenia, and in the towns where they settled they often incurred the +vague jealousy and dislike which are the penalties of a race superior +morally and intellectually to those among whom they live. But that +superiority constituted in course of time the 'Armenian question,' to +which Abdul Hamid alluded. In all, some sixty years ago their entire +race numbered about 4,000,000 persons, of whom about 1,250,000 inhabited +Russian Trans-Caucasia, about 150,000 were in the province of +Adarbaijan, and there were smaller bodies of them in Austria and India. +The remainder, some 2,500,000, were spread over Armenia, over the +villages and towns of Turkey, notably the eastern edge of the Cilician +uplands, while in Constantinople itself there were certainly not less +than 150,000, and probably as many as 200,000. To-day, the male portion +of the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire has practically ceased to +exist: a quarter of a million men and women escaped over the Russian +frontier, five thousand escaped to Egypt, and there are a few thousand +women and girls (it is impossible to ascertain the exact number) in +Turkish harems. Turkism, as administered by Abdul Hamid first, then, far +more efficiently, by Enver Pasha, and Talaat Bey, has solved the +Armenian question. + +The history of its solution falls under two heads, of which the first +concerns the manner in which it was solved in Armenia itself, where the +population was almost exclusively Armenian, both in towns and in the +country. Here the eastern and north-eastern frontiers of Turkey, across +which lie the province of Russian Trans-Caucasia and Persia, pass +through the middle of districts peopled by men of Armenian blood, and +when, in the autumn of 1914, the Turks made their entry into the +European War, their eastern armies, operating against Russia, found +themselves confronted by troops among whom were many Armenians, while in +their advance into the Persian province of Adarbaijan, there were in the +ranks of their opponents, Armenians and Syriac Christians. They advanced +in fact, in the first weeks of the war, into a country largely peopled +with men of the same blood as those on their own side of the frontier. +Though the edict had not yet come from Constantinople for the massacre +of the Armenians (Talaat Bey did not complete his arrangements till the +following April), the slaughter of them began then, first in the advance +of the Turkish armies, and following on that movement, which lasted but +a few weeks, in their subsequent retreat before the Russians. All +villages through which the Turkish armies passed were plundered and +burned, all the inhabitants on whom the Turks could lay their hands were +killed. Sometimes women and children were given to the Kurds, who formed +bands of irregular troops in conjunction with the Turkish army, and +these were outraged before they were slaughtered. A price was put on +every Christian head, and in the Turkish retreat the corpses were thrust +into the wells in order to pollute them. The excuse for this, as given +by German apologists (not apologists, perhaps, so much as supporters and +adherents of the policy), was that since behind the Turkish lines the +country was populated by a race of the same blood as that through which +they advanced, and then retreated, extermination was necessary in order +to prevent or to punish treachery and collusion. But I have been nowhere +able to find that there were instances of such, nor that the Turks put +forward that excuse themselves. Indeed it would have been an unnecessary +explanation, for but a few months after the opening of the war, Talaat +Bey's plans were complete, and the extermination of Armenians hundreds +of miles from any sphere of military operations rendered it needless to +say anything about it, or to invent instances of treachery if there were +actually none to hand. + +Simultaneously the massacre of Armenians behind the Turkish lines +began. The whole male population of the district round Bitlis was +murdered, so too were all males in Bitlis itself. Then all women and +children were driven in, as a herdsman might drive sheep, from the +reeking villages round, and, for purposes of convenience, concentrated +in Bitlis. When they were all collected, they were driven in a flock to +the edge of the Tigris, shot, and the corpses were thrown into the +river. That was the solution of the Armenian question in Bitlis. + +North-west of Bitlis, and some sixty miles distant, lies the town of +Mush. It used to contain about 25,000 Armenian inhabitants, and in the +district round there were some three hundred villages chiefly consisting +of Armenians. Arrangements were on foot for a general massacre there +when the arrival of Russian troops at Liz, some fifteen hours' march +away, caused the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till +July a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a +warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in the face +of superior forces, had to retire again, and the massacres were put on a +systematic footing. The account which follows is based on four +independent authorities: (1) The statement of a German eye-witness in +Mush in charge of an Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman +deported from a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3) +information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the journal +_Horizon_ of Tiflis. These supplement each other, often verify each +other, and in no instance are contradictory. + +Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end of 1914, at +a time when the massacres across the frontier had begun. The Mutessarif +of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver Pasha, had openly declared that 'at +an opportune moment' the slaughter of the whole Armenian race was +contemplated, and later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of +the American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been the +chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia itself, while +Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in towns throughout the +rest of Turkey. During the whole of that winter, a very severe one, +signs of the approaching extermination multiplied. In the villages round +fresh taxes were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they +were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in question +was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable delay caused by the +proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, and the massacre began in +earnest. + +Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from Constantinople, and an +order was given that all Armenians must leave the town within three +days, after 'registering themselves' at the Government office. The women +and children were to remain, but their money and their property would be +confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to fresh +orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the crowds in the +streets flocking to the registry offices, and after that systematic +house-to-house murder began. Prominent Armenians were tortured to +death, houses containing women and children were set on fire, a body of +men collected together was thrown into the river, girls were outraged +and slaughtered. For two days the massacre continued, and by the end of +the second day the Armenian question was solved as regards Mush. + +In the surrounding villages the same Prussian thoroughness was observed, +and out of all the inhabitants of the plain 5000 only seemed to have +survived, who fled to Sasun (there to be subsequently massacred in +1916), while a few from outlying villages escaped to the Russian troops. +In certain villages the girls and young women were given to the Kurd +soldiery, who raped them publicly in the presence of their families, not +sparing girls of eight and ten years of age, who then, bleeding and +violated, were shot in company with the old women, for whom the Kurds +(inspired by Allah, the God of Love) had no use. Elsewhere, as the story +of a deported woman from Kheiban tells us, the women guarded by Kurdish +troops were driven out of their villages, leaving behind the corpses of +the men and of old women who could not walk, and for days were marched +along the roads, nearly naked, under the fierce heat of the July sun. +Once every other day they were given bread, but all did not get it, and +many fell exhausted by the wayside, and were either whipped to their +feet again or allowed to lie down and die. As they passed through +villages Kurds would come out and rape a girl or two, and when they +halted at night their guards would come among them.... Some few escaped; +the rest, in dwindling company, went on through days of blinding sun and +nights of shame till at last there were only a few remaining. It was not +worth while going farther, for the work of Enver Pasha was nearly done, +and the rest were pushed into the river. One alone survived, who could +swim, and she, with her two-year-old baby on her back, got across the +stream and made her way to a village where were a party of Armenians who +had escaped massacre. She arrived there at midnight, and at first they +thought she was a ghost. To them she told her story of the outraged and +ever-dwindling caravan of helpless women and girls driven onwards all +day beneath the smiting arrows of the sun, and encamped by the wayside, +where they halted with their barbarous guards and their lusts for a +terror by night. Of them none but this one was left, who had carried her +baby with her every step of that infernal pilgrimage. Two days +afterwards he died from want of nourishment, and before the week was out +the mother fell into the hands of a body of patrolling Kurds, and was +killed. + +So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if in the +history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with wanton cruelty +and made God to hide His face, there is any so atrocious a tale, I do +not know it. But if among the annals of heroism and of mother-love we +want to find a nobler record than that of this woman of Kheiban, equally +am I at a loss as to where we should look for it. Among the true and +golden legends of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a +memorial of her. + +Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of Erzerum, with the +town of the same name, that contained in the autumn of 1914 some 20,000 +Armenians. Here the first hint of coming trouble was the order that all +Armenian soldiers serving in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was +followed in June by another order that all the inhabitants of the +hundred villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours' +notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of these a few +took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the remainder a few only lived +to reach Erzinjan, where they were again deported, and the rest were +murdered as they marched. In Erzerum itself orders were received by +Tahsin Bey, the Vali of the town, that all Armenians were to be killed +without distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out, +but his unwillingness was overruled.[1] Simultaneously, the German +Consul telegraphed protests to his Ambassador at Constantinople, and +was told that Germany could not interfere in the internal affairs of +Turkey. + +[Footnote 1: At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the Governor +resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing happened at Konia and at +Kutaia.] + +Here the method employed was deportation: the victims were murdered, not +in the town itself, but were given orders to leave their homes, and +under guard march (for no conveyances were given them) to other +districts. The first company was to go to Diarbekr. All these, with the +exception of one man and forty women, were murdered on the first day's +march. The remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or +collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells us what +fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked out, their +breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their torturers hew off their +feet, or else hammer nails into them as they do in shoeing horses. This +is all done at night-time, in order that people may not hear their +screams and know of their agony. Soldiers are stationed round the +prisons, beating drums and blowing whistles. It is needless to relate +that many died of these tortures. When they die, the soldiers cry, "Now +let your Christ help you."' A second caravan of five hundred families +left Erzerum: at Baiburt they were joined by another contingent deported +from that town, and the account that follows is based on the information +supplied by the Rev. Robert Stapleton, an American minister at Erzerum, +and by an Armenian woman who was among the deported, and whose life was +spared on her embracing Islamism. + +The convoy numbered, when it left Baiburt, some 15,000 persons, and it +reached Erzinjan in safety. There the massacres had already taken place, +and the women and children had been deported, for they found no +Armenians there. But the convoy had not yet arrived at its goal, and it +started out again moving south by east till it came to Kamakh. There +bands of Kurds descended on them, and in the space of seven days every +male above fifteen years of age, including an aged priest of ninety, was +killed. Thereafter a pilgrimage of women, as from Kheiban, moved +southwards across plain and mountain, and every day its numbers were +diminished, for the youthful and the good-looking were carried off by +brigands. At night they were halted outside villages, and the gendarmes +and villagers took what they chose. Many died from hunger and +heat-stroke: others were left by the wayside. When they came to the +banks of the river Kara-Su there was a debauch of horror. Women and +girls and little children were raped and mutilated, and the children who +still survived were thrown into the river. Those who could swim were +shot. Thereafter the movements of this caravan are hard to trace. +Probably there was then but little left of it. But others followed on +the same route 'through fields and hillsides dotted with swollen and +blackened corpses that filled and fouled the air with their stench.' +Some of them reached Mosul, some reached Aleppo, another collecting +station, where, by the mouth of other witnesses, we shall hear of them +again. + +Corroborative and additional evidence is given by the Danish Red Cross +nurses who, with a noble disregard of their own safety, accompanied one +of these caravans from Erzerum to Erzinjan. They speak of the massacres +at Kamakh, of the killing by the river, and of a _battue_ through the +cornfields, where the wheat was high, into which some Armenians had +escaped. At one time these Danish Sisters were in the charge of a +gendarme who had superintended a massacre of 3000 women and children +driven from their homes into the country, rounded up and killed. He told +the Sisters that this was the best method of getting rid of them, for +they should be made to suffer first, and besides it would be +inconvenient for Moslems to live in a village with so many corpses +about. At another place they came to a shambles, where Armenian +soldiers, deprived of their arms, and sent to make roads, had been +slaughtered: at another there were three gangs of labourers, one Moslem, +one Greek, and one Armenian. These latter were guarded. Presently, as +they proceeded along their road, they looked round and saw that the +Armenian gang was being formed up by itself, a little off the +highroad.... + +And so the ghastly record went on all over Armenia. At one place only, +the town of Van, was any resistance organised. There, after the massacre +had begun, some 1500 Armenians got hold of arms (probably many of these +men were soldiers who had not yet had their arms taken from them), and +for the space of twenty-seven days defended themselves against five +thousand Turkish troops, till the Russian advance relieved them. During +that advance Armenian refugees, into whose districts the massacres had +not yet penetrated, fled for refuge to the invading army, and in all +some 250,000 Armenians under its protection crossed in safety the +Russian frontier into Trans-Caucasia. How many died on the way from +hunger and exhaustion is not known. Cholera, dysentery, and spotted +fever broke out among them, and the path of their passage was lined with +dead and dying. Companies of Kurds made descents upon them, taking toll +of their maidenhood, but, with the Russian line to protect them at their +rear, they struggled on out of the cemetery and brothel of their native +country, and out of the accursed confines of that hell on earth, the +Ottoman Empire, leaving behind them the murdered myriads of their +husbands and their sons, their violated wives and daughters. Through +incredible hardships they passed, but, unlike the other pilgrimages we +have briefly traced, they moved not towards death, but towards safety +and life, and their dark steps were lightened with Hope. + +Before the last of those who survived the hunger and the pestilence of +that pilgrimage had reached Russian soil, it is probable that in all +Armenia there was not a man of their race left alive, nor a woman either +unless she had accepted Islamism and the life of the harem. A peaceful +and progressive nation had been wiped out with every accompaniment of +horror and cruelty and bestial lust, and in Armenia itself there would +never more be an Armenian question. Abdul Hamid had hinted at the +solution of it, and had made, as we have seen, experiments in that +direction; but it was reserved for Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, +enlightened men of the Young Turk party, with the advantages of a +Prussian example, to complete the work. Already Enver had said that he +would never rest until the last Armenian in the Ottoman Empire had been +killed, and before the end of 1915, as far as Armenia itself went, he +was able to see a reasonable prospect of repose before him. But there +was much work still left to do in other provinces. + +We have seen that for the extirpation of Armenians in Armenia proper, +the excuse put forward, if not by the Turks themselves, by their German +apologists, was the necessity of guarding against treachery in the +vicinity of the Turkish army, and against spying and collusion between +the Armenians behind the Russian lines and those behind Turkish lines. +The same pretext was put forward for the massacres and deportations from +Thrace, from Constantinople, and from the shores of the Sea of Marmora. +Here, if anywhere, there may be thought to be some justification for +measures which might have been undertaken for the sake of public safety. +At any rate, there were definite charges brought against Armenians in +these districts, and the Armenian boatmen of Silivri, for instance, were +imprisoned, but not, as far as I know, massacred, on the charge of +revictualling English submarines, which at that time, as the reader will +remember, had penetrated into the Sea of Marmora, and indeed had reached +Constantinople itself. It is not, of course, consonant with Turkish or +Prussian justice to substantiate charges before inflicting penalties, it +is sufficient in the new World-justice to accuse. But here round +Constantinople, there was some pretence at procedure before resorting to +murder and deportation. A register was drawn up of all Armenians +resident in the capital, dividing into separate classes those who were +born in Constantinople, and those who were immigrants from Armenia, with +a view to deporting those who were not native to the city. Here, I +think, we may see traces of the Prussian instinct for tabulation, for +classification, for category-mongering. Enver and his colleagues lost +patience with these dilatory tactics. The Armenians of the province of +Brussa were deported wholesale, and long before the registration lists +of Constantinople were finished, all Armenians were moved out of the +town. Ten thousand males were massacred in the mountains of Ismid, and +the Armenian women and children taken into collecting stations for +deportation to 'agricultural colonies' (so the phrase ran in the +Pecksniff language of Prussia) situated in the Anatolian desert, in the +desert of Arabia, and in malarious marshes on the Euphrates. With this +clearing out of Armenians from Thrace, from Constantinople, and from +Armenia itself, we have finished with our first class of the Armenian +atrocities. For it reasons were at least invented by German apologists. +Military necessities, which here, as in Belgium, knew no law, dictated +it; the frightfulness involved was incidental to War. But such +considerations were not even alleged for the second class of the +murder-scheme. Before passing on, it will be well to review, quite +shortly, the reasons which dictated it, and penetrate into the infernal +councils of Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey. + +The text of the scheme is to be found in the defined policy of the +Young Turk party as set forth in their Congress of 1911. 'Turkey must +become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem ideas and Moslem +influence must be preponderant.... Sooner or later the complete +Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must be effected: it is clear, +however, that this can never be attained by persuasion, but that we must +resort to armed force.' + +There is the text that was expanded into the discourse of murder; it is +the definition of a policy. Within a few years there followed the +European War, and that probably was the immediate cause of its being put +into effect. No more admirable opportunity for Ottomanisation could +present itself, for the entry of Turkey into the war was most unpopular +with the bulk of the Turkish population, and it was advisable to bribe +them into acceptance of it. The bribe was the houses, the property, the +money and the trade that throughout the length and breadth of Turkey was +in Armenian hands. For the Armenians were by far the wealthiest of the +alien populations, and some 90 per cent. of Turkish trade passed through +their shops and offices. Here, then, was the psychological moment: +Turkey for the Turk was the aim of the Committee of Union and Progress, +and with a discontented population, unwilling to fight, the moment had +come for restoring to the Turk this mass of property which at present +belonged to an alien race. War might have its drawbacks and its clouds, +but war would be seen to have its advantages and its silver linings, if +out of it there came this legacy of Armenian wealth. And by the same +stroke Turkey could get rid of those thousands of meddlesome +missionaries, American and French, who spread religion and learning and +other undesirable things among the cursed race. Once remove the cursed +race, and there would be an end of their instructors also, for there +would be none to instruct. 'Thanks to their schools,' so we read in the +_Hilal_, an organ of the Young Turks, 'foreigners were able to exercise +great moral influence over the young men of the country.... By closing +them (i.e. by exterminating their pupils) the Government has put an end +to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous.' + +Such, then, was the spirit that animated Enver and Talaat, and during +the winter of 1914-15 they perfected their plans. The Armenian race was +to cease, and the Valis and other officials were, each in his district, +to see to the thoroughness of its cessation. Sometimes, as happened at +Erzerum, the Vali in question, not having the broad out-look of Enver, +or quaintly and curiously having a womanish objection to the national +duty of flogging men to death and giving over young girls to a barbarous +soldiery, remonstrated with the authorities, or even refused to obey +orders. Such a one was instantly removed from his office, and a +stauncher patriot substituted. All was put on an orderly footing: here +Kurds were to be employed on the old Abdul Hamid formula, who by way of +wage would enjoy the privilege of raping as many women and girls out of +their hapless convoy as seemed desirable, while in agricultural +districts they were allowed also to take over the sheep and cattle of +their murdered victims. Here, in towns where there was more chance of +resistance than in scattered homesteads, it would be wise to employ +regular troops, backed, if necessary, by artillery, to whom would be +entrusted the murder of the whole male population, after suitable +tortures, supposing the executioners had a taste for the sport, and to +them was given the right of general plunder. Then, as soon as the number +and capacity of the vacant houses were telegraphed to Constantinople, +occupiers from the discontented townsfolk and natives of Thrace were +assigned to them. Sometimes there would be a big school building to give +away as well, but that was not always so, for it might be more +convenient to assemble Armenians there for purposes of registration or +so forth, and then, if it happened to catch fire, why Enver would +understand that such accidents would occur. Among other careful and +well-thought-out instructions came the order that, when possible, the +murders should not take place in the town, but outside it, for clean +Allah-fearing Moslems would not like to live in habitations defiled by +Christian corpses. But, above all, there must be thoroughness; not a man +must be left alive, not a girl nor a woman who must not drag her +outraged body, so long as breath and the heart-beat remained in it, to, +or rather towards those 'agricultural colonies,' as Talaat Bey, in a +flash of whimsical Prussian humour, called them. One was advantageously +situated in the middle of the Anatolian desert at the village of +Sultanieh. There, for miles round, stretched the rocks and sands of a +waterless wilderness, but no doubt the women and children of this very +industrious race would manage to make it wave with cornfields. Another +agricultural colony, by way of contrast, should be established a couple +of days' journey south of Aleppo, where the river loses itself in +pestilential and malarious swamps. Arabs could not live there, but who +knew whether those hardy Armenians (the women and children, of them at +least who had proved themselves robust enough to reach the place) would +not flourish there out of harm's way? After the swamps one came to the +Arabian desert, and there, a hundred miles south-east, was a place +called Deir-el-Zor; wandering Arab tribes sometimes passed through it, +but, arrived there, the Armenians should wander no more. In those arid +sands and waterless furnaces of barren rock there was room for all and +to spare. Sultanieh, the swamps, and Deir-el-Zor: these were the chief +of Talaat Bey's agricultural colonies. + +There must be collecting stations for these tragic colonists, centres to +which they must be herded in from surrounding districts: one at +Osmanieh, let us say, one at Aleppo, one at Ras-el-Ain, one at Damascus. +And since it would be a pity to let so many flowers of girlhood waste +their sweetness on the desert air of Deir-el-Zor, slave markets must be +established at these collecting stations. There would be plenty of +girls, and prices would be low, but the reverend ministers of Allah the +God of Love, the Ulemas, the Padis and the Muftis, should be accorded a +preferential tariff. Indeed they should pay nothing at all; they should +just choose a girl and take her away, and, with the help of Allah the +God of Love, convert her to the blessed creed. No one was too young for +these lessons.... A little abstemiousness would not hurt these pampered +Christians, so when they set out on their marches they need not be +provided with rations or water. Perhaps some might die, but Talaat had +no use for weaklings at his agricultural colonies. Nor must there be any +poking and prying on the part of those interfering American +missionaries; and so Talaat Bey put all the agricultural colonies out of +bounds for foreigners.... + +There was no hurry over these deportations, for the plea of military +exigencies, which had caused the deportations in Armenia itself to be +terminated by massacre with a rapidity almost inartistic, did not apply +to Armenians so far from the seat of war. Their picnics could be +conducted quietly and pleasantly in the leisurely Oriental manner. Even +the men need not be murdered absolutely out of hand. Strong young +fellows might be stripped and tied down and then beaten to death by +bastinadoing the feet till they burst, or by five hundred blows on the +chest and stomach. Their cries would mingle with the screams of their +sisters in the embrace of Turkish soldiers. And, talking of embraces, if +a woman was desirable, she need not walk all the way to Deir-el-Zor, but +by embracing Islamism be transferred to a harem. But these were details +that might be left to individual taste: there were no precise +instructions save that no Armenian men must be discoverable in the +Ottoman Empire at all, and no women save those who had become Turkish +women, or who were at work on the waterless and the malarial +agricultural colonies. + +Talaat Bey reviewed his finished scheme. He thought it would do, and +Enver Pasha agreed with him, and Jemal Bey (who soon after styled +himself Jemal the Great), the Military Governor of Syria, and so +responsible for the last stages of their pilgrimage, thought it would do +very well indeed. And instructions were sent out to every town in the +Empire where there were Armenians, in accordance with the programme of +Talaat Bey. + +How Enver carried out his part of the programme in Armenia itself we +have seen, and by the end of the year (1915) his work was done, and +Armenia was Armenia no longer. But operations, as I have said, were +conducted in a more leisurely manner elsewhere, and the agony of that +butchery protracted. But Jemal got to work at once in the thickly +populated district round Zeitun. He had had no success in the campaign +of the winter in the direction of the Suez Canal, and his troops were +hungry for some sort of victory. The Zeitunlis were hardy independent +mountaineers, who were possessed of arms, and Jemal thought it more +prudent not to dally with deportations, but conduct a regular campaign +against them. For two or three months they resisted, entrenching +themselves in the hills, but they could not hold out against artillery +and the modern apparatus of war, and the whole tribe was wiped out. That +done, Jemal became Jemal the Great by reason of his national services, +and paid a visit to Germany. On his return we shall hear of him again. + +Meanwhile, from all the reports that have arrived from missionaries and +others, we may take one or two, almost at random. At certain places, as +in the governments of Ismid, Angora and Diarbekr, the Armenian +population was completely wiped out. Sometimes tortures were added, as +at a certain Anatolian town where there was a big Armenian school, in +which a number of professors and instructors, some of whom had studied +in America, in Scotland, and in Germany, had for years been working. + +What happened to them was this:-- + +(1) Professor A served the College thirty-five years, and taught +Turkish and history. He was arrested without charge, the hair of his +head and beard were pulled out in order to secure damaging confessions. +He was starved and hung up by the arms for a day and a night and +repeatedly beaten. He was then murdered. + +(2) Professor B, who had served the College thirty-three years, and +taught mathematics, suffered the same fate. + +(3) Professor C, head of the preparatory department, had served the +College for twenty years. He was made to witness the spectacle of a man +being beaten almost to death, and became mentally deranged. He was +murdered with his family. + +(4) Professor D, who taught mental and moral sciences, was treated in +the same way as Professor A. He also had three finger nails pulled out +by the roots, and was subsequently murdered. + +Similarly, at Diarbekr, the Armenians were collected in batches of 600, +taken out of the town, and killed to the last man. Among them was the +Armenian Archbishop; his eyes and nails were dragged out before he was +butchered. + +Or let us take a look at some of the collecting camps. At one, described +by an eye-witness, we find that the convoy had arrived after several +months of travel. More than half were already dead, they had been +pillaged by bandits and Kurds seven times. They were forbidden to drink +water when they passed by a stream, three-quarters of the young women +and girls had been kidnapped, the rest were compelled to sleep with the +gendarmes who conducted them. At Osmanieh it was decided to deport the +women and children by train. They lay about the station starving and +fever-stricken. When the train arrived many were jostled on to the line, +and the driver yelled with joy, crying out, 'Did you see how I smashed +them up?' + +At another camp typhus broke out; those who died of it were left +unburied, as vouched for by a Turkish officer, in order to increase the +infection.... + +Urfa was another collecting camp for the Armenians in that district, and +the following account is based on the information of an eye-witness. +Here, before the concentration began, the Armenians living in the town +offered resistance to the Turks, and held out until Fahri Bey, second in +command to Jemal the Great, arrived with artillery, bombarded the town, +and massacred every Armenian there. Quiet being thus restored, the bands +of deported began to arrive. They came by rail or on foot, and, with +the Prussian love of tabulation, were divided into three groups. + +The first group consisted of old men, old women, and young children. +They, guarded by gendarmes, were sent marching through the desert to +Deir-el-Zor. Few, if any, ever arrived there, all dying by the way. + +The second group, consisting of able-bodied men, was led off in batches +and slaughtered. Among them were Zohrab and Vartkes, Armenian deputies +who had been brought there from Constantinople. + +The third group consisted of young marriageable girls. Some, perhaps, +found their way into harems. + +From Aleppo (one of the final concentration camps before such as were +left of the convoys set forth for their goal, the swamps or the desert +round Deir-el-Zor) we have the detailed evidence of Dr. Martin Niepage, +High Grade teacher in the German Technical School. This gentleman, with +a courage and a humanity to which the highest tribute must be paid, +addressed a report of protest to the German Ambassador at +Constantinople, and wrote an open letter to the Reichstag on the subject +of what he had seen with his own eyes in that town. In his preliminary +matter he speaks as follows:-- + +'In dilapidated caravanserais I found quantities of dead, many corpses +being half-decomposed, and others still living among them who were soon +to breathe their last. In other yards I found quantities of sick and +dying people, whom nobody was looking after.... We teachers and our +pupils had to pass them every day. Every time we went out we saw through +the open windows their pitiful forms, emaciated and wrapped in rags. In +the morning our school children, on their way through the narrow +streets, had to push past the two-wheeled ox-carts on which every day, +from eight to ten rigid corpses without coffin or shroud, were carried +away, their arms and legs trailing out of the vehicle.' + +From the report itself:-- + +'Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the Armenian +plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, women, and children, +only two or three hundred survivors arrived here in the south. The men +were slaughtered on the way, the women and girls, with the exception of +the old, the ugly and those who are still children, have been abused by +Turkish soldiers and officers.... Even when they are fording rivers they +do not allow those dying of thirst to drink. All the nourishment they +receive is a daily ration of a little meal sprinkled on their hands.... +Opposite the German Technical School at Aleppo, a mass of about four +hundred emaciated forms, the remnant of such convoys, is lying in one of +the caravanserais. There are about a hundred children (boys and girls) +among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them are suffering +from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the yard, one has the +impression of entering a madhouse. If one brings food, one notices that +they have forgotten how to eat.... If one gives them bread, they put it +aside indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for death.' + +Dr. Niepage wrote this report in the hope of saving such as then (1915) +survived. No notice whatever was taken of it, and his postscript, +written in May 1916, records the fact that 'the exiles encamped at +Ras-el-Ain on the Bagdad Railway, estimated at 20,000 men, women and +children, were slaughtered to the last one.'[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is right to add that at Aleppo an officer called Bekir +Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected from neighbouring +districts, who were threatened with massacre, and I find that a German +missionary states that there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This +forms confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is nothing to +show that they were not subsequently deported to Deir-el-Zor. In this +case it is highly improbable that any survive.] + +In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the Germans are +directly responsible for the continuance of the massacres. Such, too, is +the opinion, he tells us, of the educated Moslems, and his courage in +stating this has lost him his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely +hoped that he has escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for +drawing attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian +massacres, has been arrested for high treason. + +Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had refused to +interfere in the massacres, and both in the official press and through +official utterances had expressed their support of this Ottomanisation +of the Empire, began to think that you might have too much of a good +thing, and that the massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason +was clear and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour +in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for which they +had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. There had been some +talk, they said, of saving 500,000 Armenians out of the race, but, in +the way things were going on, it seemed that the remnant would not +nearly approach that figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper +their patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he wanted +to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh from his visit +to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of Talaat's opposition, +made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, in which, beyond doubt, we +can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' in the following manner. + +There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in Constantinople +which was to be led out for murder and deportation, and Jemal gave +orders that it should be spared and sent back to its highland home. He +gave orders also that the entire convoy should be informed who was their +saviour, and should be led in procession past his house and show their +gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, half-starved +crowd streamed by the house of Jemal the Great, with murmurs of +thanksgiving and uplifted hands, and all manner of obeisances, while +Jemal the Great stood in his porch with stern, impassive face, and hand +on his sword-hilt in the best Potsdam manner, and acknowledged these +thanksgivings....[1] + +[Footnote 1: In support of Jemal's claim to clemency it must be added +that, according to a report coming from Alexandria, he hanged twelve of +the worst assassins sent to Syria as ringleaders of the massacres. I +cannot find corroboration of this.] + +Here, then, is the absurd, the Williamesque side of this ludicrous +popinjay, Jemal the Great, and it contains not only the obvious seeds of +laughter, but the more helpful seeds of hope. He has a strong hand on +the very efficient army of Syria, and his visits to Berlin seem perhaps +to have turned his head not quite in the direction that the +Master-egalo-megalomaniac of Berlin intended. I gather that Jemal the +Great was not so much impressed by the magnificence of William II. as to +fall dazzled and prone at the Imperial feet, and lick with enraptured +tongue the imperial boot polish, but rather to be inspired to do the +same himself, to become the God-anointed of the newly acquired German +province, which is Turkey, and make a Potsdam of his own. This is only a +guess, but the conduct of Jemal the Great in the matter of these +Armenian refugees, and in other affairs, has been distinctly imperial. +In June of this year, for instance, he telegraphed to H.E. the Vali of +Syria, and an extract from his text is truly Potsdamish. 'One and a half +million of sandbags,' he wrote, 'are required for the fortress of +Gaza.... The bags should be made, if necessary, of all the silk-hangings +in houses of Syria and Palestine.' With his army behind him, he has +twice already defied the orders of Talaat, and I am inclined to think +that he is the coming Strong Man of the effete Empire with whom it would +be well worth while to make friends, even at a highish price. The Allied +Powers should keep an undazzled eye on him, for it is quite possible +that, having defied Talaat successfully, he may go on to defy the real +rulers of Turkey, who live in Berlin. His Syrian army, from such sources +as are available, appears to be more efficient than any other body of +troops the Turks can put into the field, and he has them in control. +Probably in the winter of 1917-1918 our troops will come into collision +with them. But in the interval, also quite probably, Jemal the Great may +resent German superintendence.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See note at end of this chapter.] + +But in addition to his ludicrous side, there is in him a refined +hypocrisy and a subtle cruelty worthy of Abdul Hamid. One instance will +suffice. + +There had been some talk that at certain of these concentration camps +there was no water supply, and he gave orders, did Jemal the Great and +the Merciful, that water should be sent. A train consisting of trucks +of water accordingly was despatched to one of those camps, situated in +the desert, with no supply nearer than six miles, and an eye-witness +describes its arrival. The mob of Armenians, mad with thirst, surrounded +it, and, since everything must be done in an orderly and seemly manner, +were beaten back by the Turkish guards, and made to stand at a due +distance for the distribution. And when those ranks, with their parched +throats and sun-cracked lips, were all ready, the Turkish guards opened +the taps of the reservoirs, and allowed the whole of their contents to +run away into the sand. Whether Jemal the Great planned that, or whether +it was but a humorous freak on the part of the officials, I cannot say. +But as a refinement of cruelty I have, outside the page of Poe's tales, +only once come across anything to equal it, and that in a letter from +the _Times'_ correspondent at Berne on April 11, 1917. He describes the +treatment of English prisoners in Germany: 'An equally common +entertainment with those women (German Red Cross nurses) was to offer a +wounded man a glass, perhaps, of water, then, standing just outside his +reach, to pour it slowly on the ground.' Could those sisters of mercy +have read the account of Jemal's clemency, or is it merely an instance +of the parallelism of similar minds? + +So the empty train returned, and Jemal the Great caused it to be known +in Berlin that he was active in securing a proper water supply for the +famous agricultural settlements in the desert, and loud were the +encomiums in the press of the Central Powers over the colonisation of +Syria by the Armenians, the progress and enlightenment of the Turks, and +the skilful and humane organisation of Jemal the Great. + +There is no difficulty in estimating to-day the number of Armenian men +who survive in the Turkish Empire. All appeals to the Prussian +overlords, such as were made by Dr. Niepage, and the belated +remonstrance of the Prussians themselves when they foresaw a dearth of +labour for the husbandry of beet and cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I +cannot see any reason for supposing that Armenian men exist any more in +the Empire. It is more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who, +by accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. Certainly +in some districts there were considerable 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage +rates them as many thousands. But the willingness to accept those +conditions was not always a guarantee for their being granted, and I +have read reports where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was +a more serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they +were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can scarcely +consider these women as constituting an Armenian element any more in the +country. The work of butchery, the torture, the long-drawn agonies of +those inhuman pilgrimages have come to an end because there are no more +Armenian victims available. Apart from those who escaped over the +Russian frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race +exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest deed that +ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It is not in revenge +on the murderers, but in order to rescue the other subject peoples, +Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still enclosed within the frontiers of the +Empire, that the Allied Governments, in their answer to President +Wilson, stated that among their aims as belligerents, was the +'liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again, +after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the destinies +of races not his own. Too long already--and to their disgrace be it +spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations of Europe tolerated at +their very doors a tyranny that has steadily grown more murderous and +more monstrous, because they feared the upset of the Balance of Power. +Now at least such Powers as value national honour, and regard a national +promise as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, have +resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk over his alien +subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the least they can do (and +unhappily the most) to redeem the century-long neglect of their duty. +Even now, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril +threatens those other peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule, +and we can but pray that the end of the war will come before Arabs or +Greeks or Jews suffer the same fate as has exterminated the Armenians. +Too often have we been too late; we must only hope that another item +will not have to be added to that miserable list, and that, when the day +of reckoning comes, no half-hearted and pusillanimous policy will stay +our hands from the complete execution of that to which we stand pledged. +The Balance of Power has gone the way of other rickety makeshifts, but +there must be no makeshift in our dealings with the Turk, no compromise +and no delay. What shall be done with those who planned and executed the +greatest massacres known to history matters little; let them be hanged +as high as Haman, and have done with them. But what does matter is that +at no future time must it be in the power of a Government that has never +been other than barbaric and butcherous, to do again as it has done +before. + +NOTE ON JEMAL THE GREAT + +Jemal the Great has very obligingly done what I suggested we might +expect him to do, and has kicked against the German control of the +Syrian army. General von Falkenhayn was sent to take supreme command, +and on June 28th of this year Jemal the Great refused to receive orders +from him. In consequence General von Falkenhayn refused responsibility +for any offensive movement there if Jemal remained in command. + +This promised well for trouble between Turks and Germans, but we must +not, I am afraid, build very high hopes on it, for Germany has dealt +with the situation in a masterly manner. Jemal was already Minister of +Marine as well as commander of the Syrian army, so the Emperor asked him +to pay another visit to Berlin, and he has been visiting Krupp's works +and German naval yards, and we shall find probably that in the future +his activities will be marine rather than military, and that von +Falkenhayn will have a free hand in Syria. + +But this will prove rather disappointing for Jemal, since it seems +beyond mere coincidence that towards the end of August Herr von +Kuhlmann, the new German Foreign Minister, induced the Turkish +Government (while Jemal was at Berlin) to put their navy and their +merchant fleet under the orders of the German Admiralty, and already +many Turkish naval officers have been replaced by Germans. Thus Jemal +will find himself deprived of his military command, because the navy so +urgently needed his guiding hand, while his guiding hand over the navy +will be itself guided by the German Admiralty.... In fact, it looks +rather like checkmate for Jemal the Great, and an end to the trouble he +might have given the German control. + +On the eve of his leaving Germany, as yet unconscious probably of the +subordination of the entire Turkish fleet to the German Admiralty, he +gave an interview to a representative of the _Cologne Gazette_, which +deserves more than that ephemeral appearance. It shows Jemal the Great +in a sort of hypnotic trance induced at Potsdam. 'The German fleet,' he +says, 'is simply spotless in its power, and a model for all states which +need a modern navy--a model which cannot be surpassed.' ... He went for +a cruise in a submarine which proceeded 'so smoothly, elegantly, calmly +and securely that I had the impression of cruising in a great +steamship.' ... He was taken to Belgium, and describes the 'idyllic life +there': in the towns 'the people go for walks all day long,' and in the +country the peasants blithely gather in the harvest with the help of +happy prisoners.' (He does not tell us where the harvest goes to, any +more than the Germans tell us where the Turkish harvests go to.) He was +taken to General Headquarters, which he describes as 'majestic.' Finally +he was taken into the presence of the All-Highest, and seems to have +emerged in the condition in which Moses came down from Sinai.... But one +must not altogether despair of Jemal the Great. It is still possible +that, on his return to Constantinople, when he found that his position, +as Minister of Marine was but a clerkship in the German Admiralty, the +hypnotic trance began to pass off, and his ambitions to re-assert +themselves. He may yet give trouble to the Germans if properly handled. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter IV_ + + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +It is impossible to leave this heart-rending tale of the sufferings of +the Armenian people under the Turks without some account of that devoted +band of American missionaries who, with a heroism unsurpassed, and +perhaps unequalled, so eagerly sacrificed themselves to the ravages of +pestilence and starvation in order to alleviate the horrors that +descended on the people to whom they had been sent. Often they were +forcibly driven from the care of their flocks, often in the +extermination of their flocks there was none left whom they could +shepherd, but wherever a remnant still lingered there remained these +dauntless and self-sacrificing men and women, regardless of everything +except the cause to which they had devoted themselves. They recked +nothing of the dangers to which they exposed themselves so long as +there was a child or a woman or a man whom they could feed or nurse. +Terrible as were the sufferings through which the Armenians passed, they +must have been infinitely more unbearable had it not been for these +American missionaries; small as was the remnant that escaped into the +safety of Persia or Russian Trans-Caucasia, their numbers must have been +halved had it not been for the heroism of these men and women. While the +German Consuls contented themselves with a few faint protests to their +Ambassador at Constantinople, followed by an acquiescence of silence, +the missionaries constituted themselves into a Red Cross Society of +intrepid workers, and, as one well-qualified authority tells us, +'suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical exhaustion as any +proportionate body of workers on the European battlefields.' Fully +indeed did they live up to the mandate of the American board that sent +them out: 'Your great business is with the fundamental doctrines and +duties of the Gospel.' + +At the opening of the European War the American Missions had been at +work for nearly a hundred years, and were disseminated over Anatolia and +Armenia. They had opened 163 Protestant churches and 450 schools, they +established hospitals, and in every possible way spread civilisation in +a country where the spirit of the governing class was barbarism. It was +not their object to proselytise. 'Let the Armenian remain an Armenian if +he will,' so ran the instructions from which I have already quoted, 'the +Greek a Greek, the Nestorian a Nestorian, the Oriental an Oriental,' and +in the same wise and open-minded spirit they encouraged native +Protestant Churches which were independent of them and largely +self-supporting. Naturally in a country governed by monsters like Abdul +Hamid and Enver Pasha in later days, they earned the enmity which is the +tribute of barbarians to those who stand for civilisation, and when, +owing to the extermination or flight of their Armenian flocks, they were +left without a charge, and their schools were closed, we find a paean of +self-congratulation going up from the Turkish press inspired by the +butchers of Armenia. But till the massacres and the flight were +complete, they gave themselves to the 'duties of the Gospel,' and their +deeds shine like a star into the blackness of that night of murder. + +I will take as an example of the superb heroism of those men and women +the diary of an American lady attached to the mission at Urmia, a +document that, anonymously, is one of the noblest, least self-conscious +records I have ever read. The period of it extends over five months. + +Early in January 1915 the Russian troops were withdrawn from Urmia, +which lies on the frontier between Turkey and Persia, and simultaneously +the Moslem population began to plunder the Christian villages, the +inhabitants of which fled for refuge to the missions in the city. +Talaat's official murder-scheme was not completed yet, but the Kurds, +together with the Turks, had planned a local massacre at Geogtapa, which +was stopped by the American doctor of this mission, Dr. Packard, who, at +great personal risk, obtained an interview with the Kurdish chief, and +succeeded in inducing him to spare the lives of the Christians, if they +gave up arms and ammunition and property. The American flag was hoisted +over the Mission buildings, and before a week was out there were over +ten thousand refugees housed in the yards and rooms, where they remained +for five months, the places of the dead being taken by fresh influxes. +The dining-room, the sitting-room, the church, the school, were all +given over to these destitute people, and from the beginning fear of +massacre, as well as prevalence of disease, haunted the camp. It was +impossible to move dead bodies outside; they had to be buried in the +thronged yards, and every day children were born. But here is the spirit +that animated their protectors. 'We have just had a Praise meeting,' +records the diarist at the close of the first fortnight, 'with fifty or +sixty we could gather from the halls and rooms near, and we feel more +cheerful. We thought if Paul and Silas, with their stripes, could sing +praises in prison, so could we.' + +The weeks, of which each day was a procession of hours too full of work +to leave time for anxiety, began to enrol themselves into months, and +the hope of rescue by a Russian advance made their hearts sick, so long +was it deferred. Refugees from neighbouring villages kept arriving, and +there was the constant problem before these devoted friends of their +flock, as to how to feed them. All such were welcome, and eager was the +welcome they received, though every foot of space in the buildings and +in the yards was occupied. But somehow they managed to make room for all +who came, and for those villagers who, under threat of torture and +massacre, had apostatised, there was but yearning and sorrow, but never +a word of blame or bitterness. Sometimes there was a visit of Turkish +troops to search for concealed Russians, and, as our diarist remarks, +'We can't complain of the monotony of life, for we never know what is +going to happen next. On Tuesday morning we had a wedding in my room +here. The boy and girl were simple villagers.... The wedding was fixed +for the Syrian New Year, but the Kurds came and carried off wedding +clothes and everything else in the house. They all fled here, and were +married in the old dirty garments they were wearing when they ran for +their lives.... Their only present was a little tea and sugar that I +tied up in a handkerchief and gave to the bride.' + +The eternal feminine and the eternal human speak there; and there, for +this gallantest of women, were two keys that locked up the endless +troubles and anxieties that ceased not day or night. But sometimes the +flesh was weak, and in the privacy of her diary she says, 'How long, O +Lord?' But for that there was the master-key that unlocks all wards, and +a little further on we read, 'One of the verses that helps to keep my +faith steady is, "He that spared not His own Son." For weeks we have had +no word from the outside world, but we "rest in Jehovah and wait +patiently for Him."' + +The conditions inside the crowded yards grew steadily worse. Dysentery +was rife, and the deaths from it in that narrow space averaged thirty a +day. The state of the sufferers grew so terrible that it was difficult +to get any one to look after them at all, and many were lying in the +open yards, and the weather, which hitherto had been warm, got cold, and +snow fell. It was with the greatest difficulty that food could be +obtained for those in health, and that of a kind utterly unsuitable to +the sick, while in the minds of their nurses was the bitter knowledge +that with proper diet hundreds of lives could have been saved, and +hundreds of cases of illness avoided. + +For the dead there was but a small percentage of coffins available, and +'the great mass are just dropped into the great trench of rotting +humanity (in the yard). As I stand at my window I see one after another +of the little bodies carried by ... and the condition of the living is +more pitiful than that of the dead--hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, +wet, swarming with vermin. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of +Europe would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the suffering +and misery of this one little corner of the world alone. A helpless +unarmed Christian community turned over to the sword and the passion of +Islam!' + +On the top of this came an epidemic of typhoid, twenty-seven cases on +the first day. Outside in the town the Turkish Consul began hanging +Christians, and the missioners were allowed to take the bodies and bury +them. There were threats that the mission would be entered, and all +young men (possible combatants) killed, but this fear was not realised. +The typhoid increased, and the doctor of the mission and others of the +staff fell ill with it; but the patience and service of the remainder +never faltered, while the same spirit of uncomplaining suffering +animated the refugees. 'Mr. McDowell,' so the diarist relates, 'saw a +tired and weary woman with a baby in her arms, sitting in one of the +seats, and said to her, "Where do you stay?" She said "Just here." "How +long have you been here?" "Since the beginning." (two months) she +replied. "How do you sleep at night?" "I lay the baby on the desk in +front of me, and I have this post at the back to lean against. This is a +very good place. Thank you very much."' + +In April there comes a break in the diary after the day on which the +following entry is made:-- + +'I felt on Sunday as if I ought to get my own burial clothes ready, so +as to make as little trouble as possible when my time comes, for in +these days we all go about our work knowing that any one of us may be +the next to go down. And yet I think our friends would be surprised to +see how cheerful we have kept, and how many occasions we find for +laughing: for ludicrous things do happen. Then, too, after dwelling so +intimately with Death for three months, he doesn't seem to have so +unfriendly an aspect, and the "Other Side" seems near, and our Pilot +close beside us.... I find the Rock on which I can anchor in peace are +the words of Christ Himself: "Where I am, there ye may be also." ... +That is enough, to be where He is....' + +Then comes a break of two months, during which the writer was down with +typhoid. She resumes again in June, finding that death has made many +changes, and gets back to work again at once. By that time the Russians +had entered Urmia, a thanksgiving service was held, the refugees +dispersed, and the American Mission went quietly on with its normal +work. + +Now I have taken this one instance of the work of Americans at Urmia to +show in some detail the character of the work that they were doing, and +the Christian and humanising influence of it. But all over Armenia and +Anatolia were similar settlements, and, as already mentioned, at the +time of the massacres there were established there over a hundred of +their churches and over four hundred schools, and from these extracts +which concern only one not very large centre, it may be gathered what +leaven of civilising influence the sum of their energies must have +implied. That lamp shone steady and clear, a 'kindly light' in the +darkness of Turkish misrule, and in the havoc of the massacres a beacon +of hope, not always reached by those hapless refugees. Indeed it seems +to have been only on the frontier that the missions were able to save +those foredoomed hordes of fleeing Christians; in Armenia and in +Anatolia generally the massacres and 'deportations' were complete, and +by the end of 1915 all American missions were closed, for there were +none to tend and care for. Even if the massacres had not occurred, the +entry of America into the war would have resulted in a similar cessation +of their work, and most probably in a massacre of the American +missioners themselves. Their withdrawal, of course, was hailed with a +peacock scream of pride by that enlightened body under Talaat and Enver, +called the New Turkish party of Progress, for their presence was a bar +to the Turkish notions of civilisation, in that their influence made for +humanity, and health and education. Now 'the humiliating and dangerous +situation' (to quote from the columns of _Hilal_) was put an end to, and +Turkish progress could make headway again. + +Similarly in Syria the outbreak of war put an end to 'the humiliating +and dangerous situation' of the presence of French schools and missions. +There, for many years, French missioners had done the same work as +Americans in Armenia, work in every sense liberal and civilising, but +undenominational in religious matters and unproselytising. That came to +an end earlier than the organisations in Armenia, and in Syria now, as +over the rest of the Turkish people, Arabs and Jews and Greeks have +nothing except German influence and Kultur to stand between them and the +spirit of Turkish progress of which the Armenian massacres were the +latest epiphany. Germany, as we have seen, stood by and let the Armenian +massacres go on, professing herself unable to interfere in the internal +affairs of Turkey, though at the time there was not a single branch of +Turkish industries, railways, telegraphs, armies, navies over which she +had not complete control, exercising it precisely as she thought fit. + +It is useless, then, to base any confidence in the safety of Jews, +Greeks, and Arabs from suffering the same fate as the Armenians, on a +veto from Germany. If it suits Germany to let those unfortunate peoples +be murdered or deported to agricultural colonies, Germany will assuredly +not stir a finger on their behalf nor prevent a repetition of the +horrors I have dealt with in the previous chapter. Sooner than risk her +hold over Turkey by enforcing unacceptable demands, she will, unless +other considerations of self-interest determine her, let further +massacres occur, if Talaat Bey insists on them. That spokesman of her +policy, Ernst Marré, makes this perfectly explicit in his book, _Die +Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, upholding from the German standpoint +the right of Turkey and the wisdom of Turkey in dealing with her subject +peoples as she had dealt with the Armenians. 'The Turkish State,' he +tells us, 'is no united whole: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, +cannot be welded together.' (This, by a somewhat grim and ominous +coincidence, is in exact accordance with a remark made to a Danish Red +Cross Sister by a Turkish gendarme then engaged in massacring Armenians: +'First we get rid of the Armenians,' he said, 'then the Greeks, then the +Kurds.') Or again, in defence of the Armenian massacres, 'Only by +energetic interference and by expelling of the obstinate Armenian +element, could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian dominion.' Or +again, 'The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' Here, then, is the German point of view: the Ottoman +Government will be right to 'dispose of' its subject peoples as it +thinks fit. So far from interfering, Germany endorses, and German +influence to-day is all that stands between 'the murderous tyranny' and +its subject peoples. French, English, and finally American pressure can +no longer, since the entry of these nations into the war, be exercised +within the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, and the only protection of +defenceless aliens is the German Government. It did not stir a finger to +save the Armenians, until it saw that depopulation threatened the +prosperity of its industries, and it is idle to expect that it will do +more if the consolidation of Turkish supremacy demands a further +campaign of murder. Greeks, Arabs, and Jews are all completely at the +mercy of Talaat's murder-schedules. The only chance that can save them +is that further extermination may not suit Germany's political aims, +and that she may find it worth her while to be peremptory, and forbid +instead of endorsing. + +There are unhappily many signs that the butchers of Constantinople are +planning further massacres. In February of this year preliminary +measures were begun against the Greeks settled in Anatolia. Many were +forcibly proselytised, their property was confiscated, and they were +forbidden to carry on their businesses. Deportations also occurred, and +all Greeks were removed from many villages in Anatolia, into the +interior, presumably to 'agricultural colonies' such as those provided +for Armenians. They suffered terribly from hunger and exposure, and it +is estimated that ten per cent. of them died on their marches. Since +then, however, there has been no more heard of any extension of those +measures, and there seems to have been as yet no massacre of Greeks. It +is reasonable to infer that Germany has in this case intervened. She +still hoped to win Greece over to the Central European Powers, and +clearly any massacre of Greeks by her own Allies was not desirable. +King Constantine, among his endless vacillations and pusillanimous +treacheries, probably made a firm protest on the subject. But in the +kaleidoscope of war, should Greece come to the side of the Allies, it +seems most probable that there will occur a wholesale massacre of +Greeks. From what we know of the principles on which German Kultur is +based, the most optimistic can scarcely hope that the very faintest +remonstrance will emanate from Berlin. + +The case of the Arabs in Syria is even more precarious. From the moment +that the policy of the Young Turks was evolved, namely, to consolidate +Osmanli supremacy by the weakening of its subject peoples, the Ottoman +Government has been waiting for its opportunity to get rid of the 'Arab +menace.' As we have seen, they began by substituting Turkish for Arabic +as a written language in all official usages from the printing of the +Koran and the prayers for the Sultan down to the legends on railway +tickets. The Arab spirit, according to one of the spokesmen of the New +Turk party, had to be suppressed, the Arab lands had to become Turkish +colonies. 'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence,' we +read in Jelal Noury Bey's propaganda, 'to Turkise the Arab lands, for +the particularistic idea of nationality is awaking among the younger +generations of Arabs, and already threatens us with a great +catastrophe.' Against the Arabs the Young Turks formed and fostered a +special animosity; they were powerful and warlike, and Enver, Talaat, +and others saw that the idea of an Osmanli supremacy could never be +realised unless very drastic measures were taken against them. The +tenets of Islamism, it is true, forbade Moslems to fight Moslems, but +Islamism, as a binding force, was already obsolete in the counsels of +the new regime, having given place to Kultur. Of all their subject +peoples, the Young Turks hated the Arabs the most, and, had not the +European War intervened, there is no doubt that the Armenian massacres, +already being planned, would have been followed by Arab massacres. But +the armed and warlike Arabian tribes were not so easy to deal with as +the defenceless Armenians, and Turkish troops could not be spared in +sufficient numbers to render an Arab massacre the safe, pleasant, and +lucrative pursuit that massacres should be. But Jemal the Great, black +with his triumph over the Armenians at Zeitun, was Military Governor of +Syria, and, the Armenian question being solved, he began to get to work +on the Arab question. Owing to the expulsion of the French Missions from +Syria in 1914, we have no such full or detailed information as we have +from Americans in Armenia, and the following account is mainly derived +from the Arabic journal _Mokattam,_ published in Cairo, the information +in which is based on the account given by a Syrian refugee. It agrees +with pieces of evidence that have come to hand from other sources. + +Ever since the beginning of the war Syria has been an area of direst +poverty, starvation, and sickness, which have been the natural +co-operators in Jemal's policy there. All supplies have been +commandeered for the troops (including by special clause from Potsdam, +the German troops); even fish caught by the fishermen of Lebanon have +to be handed over to the military authorities, and the shortage of +supplies in Smyrna, for instance, is such that at the end of 1916 there +were two hundred deaths daily from sheer starvation, while Germany was +importing from Turkey hundreds of tons of corn and of meat. Thus this +was no natural shortage, for though supplies were low all over the +Turkish Empire, there was not dearth of that kind. It was an artificial +shortage made possible by German demands, and made intentional by +Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better case than Smyrna; Lebanon +perhaps was in sorer straits than either. Money was equally scarce, and +it fitted Jemal's policy that this should be so, for when Americans in +Beirut had raised funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the +Turkish Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were +dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent decrees +of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets of towns the poor +have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane and orange peel; in the +country, to quote from _Molcattam_, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans +start to grow than the fields are filled with women and children who +pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes (including +the victualling of German troops) transportation has ceased to exist, +and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal the Great. + +On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came typhus. In +the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, over 8000 persons had +died of it. Doctors and medicines were unobtainable, for all were +requisitioned for the needs of the army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in +Hama and Homs, the epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent +from Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the charitable +from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the Arabs were working for +the policy of Jemal the Great. There were no troops to spare who should +hasten on the work, but the work was progressing by swift and 'natural' +means. Hunger and pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of +Love! How superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the +Arabs. 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news +of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was +established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, and if +any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations which passed, +the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. Too much news about +Armenian massacres filtered through; there should not now be such +leakage. And when starvation and pestilence had firmly established +themselves, Jemal the Great went down to see what his personal exertions +could effect. All was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer +classes of Arabs were dying like flies, but mortality was not so +successful among the wealthier, who could, to some extent, purchase +food. So Jemal the Great set to work among them. He began by hanging the +heads of Syrian-Arabs in Damascus, Beirut, and other cities. No +semblance of trial, no prosecution or arraignment, were necessary: he +established courts-martial under military control, made lists of the +accused, and ordered the courts-martial to condemn them to death. +Sometimes he made mistakes, appointing as the members of his +court-martial men who were not such sturdy patriots as he, and refused +to sentence for no crime the accused whom he nominated. He remedied such +mistakes by appointing new boards of more seasoned stuff. Moslem and +Christian alike were brought before them, and a general accusation of +pro-French tendencies seems to have been sufficient to secure a sentence +of death or lifelong imprisonment. He aimed not at the poor and the +obscure, for whom hunger and pestilence were providing, but at the rich +and the influential. The higher clergy in Christian circles, Bishops and +Monsignors, were a favourite target, and among Moslems influential +Sheikhs. Sometimes there was a parody of a trial; sometimes the parody +was dispensed with, and when the black curtain was last raised over +Syria, Jemal the Great had disposed of over eight hundred of the heads +of the most influential of Syrian Arabs. He had got rid, in fact, of +the whole House of Lords, and something more. Those who are acquainted +with 'feudal values' among the Arabs will understand what that means. He +decapitated, not individuals only, but groups. For devilish ingenuity in +this combination of starvation and pestilence for the poor, and death or +lifelong imprisonment for the chiefs, Jemal the Great must take rank +with Abdul Hamid and the contrivers of the Armenian massacres. He +cannot, it is true, owing to lack of troops, obtain the swift results of +Enver in Armenia, but between typhus, starvation, and courts-martial, +his solution of the Arab question in Syria is making steady progress. +And those measures, hideously efficient in themselves, are, beyond any +doubt whatever, only the precursors of more sweeping exterminations of +the Arab race, which will be effected after the war, if the Allied +Powers do not step in to save it. The Faithful of the Holy City, Mecca, +have revolted and thrown off the Turkish yoke, and while the war lasts, +and Turkish troops are otherwise occupied under Teutonic supervision, +they will be able to maintain their independence, for there is no +considerable body of Turks which can seriously threaten them. But the +Syrian Arabs, so long as the war lasts, are being, and will be, the +victims of a quiet scheme of extermination, which, if long continued, +will be as complete as that devised and carried out by the butchers of +Constantinople for the peoples of Armenia. It is not in the interest of +the Germans to save them, and no check is being put on Jemal the Great +to hinder him from assisting starvation and typhus to ravage the +country, and supplementing their deadly work by court-martial without +trial. + +Equally significant of the rage for the destruction of Arabs was the +treatment of the Bagdad Arab army corps. In spite of the need for troops +one half of it was sent from Bagdad to Erzerum in the depth of winter, +without any provision of warm clothing. There, in those cold uplands, +the men died at the rate of fifty to sixty a day. Their commanding +officer was a Turk, and a creature of Enver's, called Abdul Kader. +Though these troops had fought admirably, he openly called them Arab +traitors, and his orders seem to have been merely to get rid of them. +There were no courts-martial; they were just taken into a climate which +killed them. + +While for the last thirty years the Armenians and Syrians have emigrated +in large numbers from the Ottoman Empire, there has been a large +immigration of Jews into it. This movement was originally due to the +persecution they suffered in Russia. Germany and Austria were closed to +them, and, flying from the hideous pogroms that threatened them with +extermination, they begun to settle in Palestine. Wealthy compatriots +such as Baron Edmond de Rothschild assisted them, and, with the amazing +versatility of their race, they, trades-people and town-folk, adapted +themselves to new conditions, turned their wits towards husbandry and +agriculture, and during the last thirty years have flourished and +multiplied in a manner quite unrealised by the western world. In 1881 +there were not more than 25,000 of them in the home of their race, but +by the beginning of the European War, when their immigration ceased for +the present, they numbered 120,000 souls. Till then the Ottoman +Government adopted the ancient Turkish policy of neglect towards them, +for they were not powerful enough numerically to earn the honour of a +massacre, and, in addition, they were useful settlers. Backed by +powerful Western influence, French, English, and German alike, they +improved out of knowledge the values of the lands where they established +themselves, and by intelligent management, by conserving and increasing +the water supply with irrigation and well-digging, they have brought +many thousand acres into cultivation. Originally refugees, fleeing from +outrageous persecutions, their immigration by degrees took on a +different spirit. Not only were they coming out of captivity, but they +were entering into the ancient Land of Promise again. Zionism, the +spirit of the returning exiles, animated them, and, according to their +prophets, they realised that 'The Lord shall comfort Zion, He shall +comfort all her waste places.' They had sowed in tears; now, on their +return, they were reaping in joy, and, though their land was still +under the infidel yoke, they were allowed to dwell in peace, busy, +industrious, with the halo of home-coming in their hearts. They paid, of +course, their Turkish taxes, but these were not levied in any oppressive +manner, and their colonies were thrifty, self-governing, and prosperous. +Already before the war, one-tenth of the cultivated land in Palestine +was in their hands, they had their own schools, their own methods of +organisation, and, more significant than all, Hebrew became a living +language again. Germany, intent on her penetration of Turkey, made an +attempt to Germanise them also (for Germany, as we shall see, has a very +special interest in these Jewish colonies), shook her head over Zionism, +for which she tried to substitute Prussianism, and wanted to make the +German language compulsory in Jewish schools at Haifa and Jaffa, but her +effort completely failed. Nothing could show the inherent vitality of +this Jewish colonisation more strikingly. + +These Jewish settlers then were left in peace; from minuteness they +escaped the notice of the Young Turk party in its schemes for the +complete Ottomanisation of the Empire, and, until the present year 1917, +no mention of 'the Jewish question' was propounded. But it will he +remembered that in 1915, certain Jewish refugees, taking warning from +the Armenian massacres, fled to Egypt, and there founded a Zionist +mule-corps, which served under the English in the Gallipoli campaign. It +seems very probable that it was this that directed the attention of +Jemal the Great to the Jewish colonies in Palestine: possibly it was +merely that he was a more thorough Ottomaniser than his colleagues in +Constantinople. In any case he ordered the 'deportation' of all Jews +from Jaffa, Gaza, and other agricultural districts. All Jews were +commanded to leave Jaffa within forty-eight hours, no means of transport +was given them, and they were forbidden to take with them either +provisions or any of their belongings. Eight thousand Jews were evicted +from Jaffa alone, and their houses were pillaged, and they robbed, +maltreated, and many were murdered. Thus, and in no other way had the +massacres of the Armenians begun, and, that there should be no mistake +about it, Jemal threatened them explicitly with the fate of the +Armenians. Next day Ludd was evacuated also; the evacuation of Haifa and +Jerusalem was threatened, and artillery was sent to Jerusalem. There can +be no doubt in fact that Jemal planned and began to carry out a massacre +of all Jews. + +At that point the Germans intervened, and for the present (but only for +the present, for so long in fact as Germany has complete control over +all Turkish internal affairs, in which she protested she could not +meddle) the Jewish colonies in Palestine seem to be safe.[1] The German +chief of the General Staff telegraphed to Berlin that the 'military +considerations' on which Jemal based his deportations did not exist, and +Herr Cohn in the Reichstag drew the Imperial Chancellor's attention to +this. How seriously the menace was regarded in Germany, and how far the +deportations had gone may be gathered from his words, 'Is the Imperial +Chancellor prepared to influence the Turkish Government in such a manner +as to prevent with certainty--so far as this is still possible--a +repetition in Palestine of the Armenian atrocities?' This was +sufficient: Germany, who could not dream of interfering in Turkish +internal affairs when only the massacre of hundreds of thousands of +Armenians was concerned, sent her order, and, for the present, Jemal the +Great has been unable to proceed with the solution of the Jewish +question in Turkey, which he had just discovered. We need not yet in +fact give Jemal his Jew. But some sort of explanation to soothe the +exasperation of the Turks in not being allowed to murder when and how +and where they pleased, was thought advisable, and the explanation (an +extraordinarily significant one) was given in an inspired paragraph of +the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ not long after. 'The valuable structure of +Zionist cultural work, in which the German Empire must have well founded +interest in view of future and very promising trade relations, will, it +is very much to be hoped, be preserved from destruction so far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary. Pan-Turkish ideals have +no sort of meaning in Palestine where practically no Turks dwell.' + +[Footnote 1: This view seems to be borne out by subsequent events, for +the Jews evacuated from Jaffa have been permitted to return owing to the +intervention of the Spanish Government. It is not hard to guess who +prompted that.] + +We may take it, then, that with regard to the projected Jewish +massacres, quite clearly foreshadowed by the schemes of deportation from +Jaffa and Gaza, Germany has made strong representations to the Ottoman +Government. She did not do so (indeed she officially refused to do so) +when the Armenian massacres began, for she could not interfere in +Turkey's internal affairs. But now she has discovered that Pan-Turkish +ideals have no sort of meaning in Palestine, and thus, with amazing +astuteness, has provided herself with a reason for interfering, while +still not giving up the policy of non-interference in Turkish affairs, +for Turkey, she has discovered, _has_ no affairs in Palestine. At the +same time she guards herself from diplomatic defeat by the hope that +Zionist cultural work will be saved from destruction so _far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary_. In other words, +supposing Jemal the Great got completely out of hand, and proceeded to +indiscriminate massacre of the Jews, Germany would doubtless accept his +plea that military requirements had made it necessary.... And we were +once so ignorant as to assure ourselves that Germany had no notions of +diplomacy! + +The full significance of her intervention on behalf of the Jews, when +neither the extermination of the Armenians, the persecution of the +Arabs, nor the deportation of the Greeks moved Germany to any decided +action or energetic protest, must be left, in so far as it concerns the +future, to another chapter. But as regards the present and the past it +will be useful to consider here what has prompted her to make a protest +(which we may regard, so long as her foot is on the neck of the Turks, +as having been successful) against these projected massacres. Certainly +it was not humanity; it was not the faintest desire to save innocent +people in general from being murdered wholesale, for in the similar +case of the Armenians, her bowels of compassion were not moved. Or, +possibly, if we incline to lenience, we may say that she was sorry for +the Armenians, but could not then risk a disagreement with their +murderers who were her allies, whereas now, feeling herself more +completely dominant over the Turks than she then did, she could risk +being peremptory, especially since there was that saving clause about +military requirements. For during the Armenian massacres, the +Dardanelles expedition was still on the shores of Gallipoli, and the +menace to Constantinople acute. It was possible that if she opposed a +firm front to the Armenian massacres, the Turks, already on the verge of +despair with regard to saving the capital from capture, might have made +terms with the Allies. But now no such imminence of danger threatened +them, and, with Germany's domination over them vastly more secure than +it had been in 1915, she could afford to treat them less as allies and +more as a conquered people. This alone might have accounted for her +unprecedented impulse of humanity in the minds of those who still +attribute such instincts to her, but she had far stronger reasons than +that for wanting to save the Jews of Palestine. + +Her policy with regard to them is set forth in a pamphlet by Dr. Davis +Treitsch, called _Die Jüden der Türkei_, published in 1915, which is a +most illuminating little document. These Jewish colonies, as we have +seen, came from Russia, and as Germany realised, long before the war, +they might easily form a German nucleus in the Near East, for they +largely consisted of German-speaking Jews, akin in language and blood to +a most important element in her own population. 'In a certain sense,' +says Dr. Treitsch, 'the Jews are a Near Eastern element in Germany and a +German element in Turkey.' He goes on with unerring acumen to lament the +exodus of German-speaking Jews to the United States and to England. +'Annually some 100,000 of these are lost to Germany, the empire of the +English language and the economic system that goes with it is being +enlarged, while a German asset is being proportionately depreciated.... +It will no longer do simply to close the German frontiers to them, and +in view of the difficulties which would result from a wholesale +migration of Jews into Germany itself, Germans will only be too glad to +find a way out in the emigration of those Jews to Turkey--a solution +extraordinarily favourable to the interests of all three parties +concerned.' + +Here, then, is the matter in a nutshell: Germany, wide-awake as ever, +saw long ago the advantage to her of a growing Jewish population from +the Pale in Turkey. She was perhaps a little overloaded with them +herself, but in this immigration from Russia to Palestine she saw the +formation of a colony that was well worth German protection, and the +result of the war, provided the Palestinian immigrants were left in +peace, would be to augment very largely the number of those settling +there. 'Galicia,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'and the western provinces of +Russia, which between them contain more than half the Jews in the world, +have suffered more from the war than any other region. Jewish homes +have been broken up by hundreds of thousands, and there is no doubt +whatever that, as a result of the war, there will be an emigration of +East European Jews on an unprecedented scale.' This emigration, then, to +Palestine was, in Germany's view, a counter-weight to the 100,000 +annually lost to her through emigration to America and England. With her +foot on Turkey's neck she had control over these German-speaking Jews, +and saw in them the elements of a German colony. Her calculations, it is +true, were somewhat upset by the development of the Zionist movement, by +which those settlers declared themselves to have a nationality of their +own, and a language of their own, and Dr. Treitsch concedes that. 'But,' +he adds, 'in addition to Hebrew, to which they are more and more +inclined, the Jews must have a world-language, and this can only be +German.' + +This, then, in brief, and only up to the present, is the story of how +the Jewish massacres were stayed. The Jews were potential Germans, and +Germany, who sat by with folded hands when Arabs and Armenians were led +to torture and death, put up a warning finger, and, for the present, +saved them. In her whole conduct of the war, nothing has been more +characteristic than her 'verboten' to one projected massacre and her +acquiescence in others. But, as for her having saved the Jews out of +motives of humanity, 'Credant Judaei!' + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter V_ + + +DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLAH + +It was commonly said at the beginning of this war that, whatever +Germany's military resources might be, she was hopelessly and childishly +lacking in diplomatic ability and in knowledge of psychology, from which +all success in diplomacy is distilled. As instances of this grave +defect, people adduced the fact that, apparently, she had not +anticipated the entry of Great Britain into the war at all, while her +treatment of Belgium immediately afterwards was universally pronounced +to be not a crime merely, but a blunder of the stupidest sort. It is +perfectly true that Germany did not understand, and, as seems likely in +the light of innumerable other atrocities, never will understand, the +psychology of civilised peoples; she has never shown any signs up till +now, at any rate, of 'having got the hang of it' at all. But critics of +her diplomacy failed to see the root-fact that she did not understand it +merely because it did not interest her. It was not worth her while to +master the psychology of other civilised nations, since she was out not +to understand them, but to conquer them. She had all the information she +wanted about their armies and navies and guns and ammunition neatly and +correctly tabulated. Why, then, since this was all that concerned her, +should she cram her head with irrelevant information about what they +might feel on the subject of gas-attacks or the torpedoing of neutral +ships without warning? As long as her fumes were deadly and her +submarines subtle, nothing further concerned her. + +But Europe generally made a great mistake in supposing that Germany +could not learn psychology, and the process of its distillation into +diplomacy when it interested her. The psychology of the French and +English was a useless study, for she was merely going to fight them, but +for years she had been studying with an industry and a patience that +put our diplomacy to shame (as was most swiftly and ignominiously proven +when it came into conflict with hers) the psychology of the Turks. For +years she had watched the dealings of the Great Powers with Turkey, but +she had never really associated herself with that policy. She sat +quietly by and saw how it worked. Briefly it was this. For a hundred +years Turkey had been kept alive in Europe by the sedulous attentions of +the Physician Powers, who dared not let him die for fear of the +stupendous quarrels which would instantly arise over his corpse. So +there they all sat round his bed, and kept him alive with injections of +strychnine and oxygen, and, no less, by a policy of rousing and +irritating the patient. All through the reign of Abdul Hamid they +persevered: Great Britain plucked his pillow from him, so to speak, by +her protectorate of Egypt; Russia tweaked Eastern Rumelia from him; +France deprived him of his hot-water bottle when she snatched at the +Constantinople quays, and they all shook and slapped him when he went to +war with Greece in 1896, and instantly deprived him of the territory he +had won in Thessaly. That was the principle of European diplomacy +towards Turkey, and from it Germany always held aloof. + +But from about the beginning of the reign of the present German Emperor, +German or rather Prussian diplomacy had been going quietly about its +work. It was worth while to study the psychology of the Turks, because +dimly then, but with ever-increasing distinctness, Germany foresaw that +Turkey might be a counter of immense importance in the great conflict +which was assuredly drawing nearer, though as yet its existence was but +foreshadowed by the most distant reflections of summer lightning on a +serene horizon. But if Turkey was to be of any profit to her, she wanted +a strong Turkey who could fight with her (or rather for her), and she +had no use for the Sick Man whom the other Powers were bent on keeping +alive, but no more. Her own eventual domination of Turkey was always the +end in view, but she wanted to dominate not a weak but a strong servant. +And her diplomacy was not less than brilliant simply from the fact that +on the one hand it soothed Turkey instead of irritating, and, on the +other, that it went absolutely unnoticed for a long time. Nobody knew +that it was going on. She sent officers to train the Turkish army, well +knowing what magnificent material Anatolia afforded, and she had +thoroughly grasped the salient fact that to make any way with Oriental +peoples your purse must be open and your backshish unlimited. 'There is +no God but backshish, and the Deutsche Bank is his prophet.' + +For years this went on very quietly, and all over the great field of the +Ottoman Empire the first tiny blades of the crop that Germany was sowing +began to appear. To-day that crop waves high, and covers the whole field +with its ripe and fruitful ears. For to-day Turkey is neither more nor +less than a German colony, and more than makes up to her for the +colonies she has lost and hopes to regain. She knows that perfectly +well, and so do any who have at all studied the history and the results +of her diplomacy there. Even Turkey itself must, as in an uneasy dream, +be faintly conscious of it. For who to-day is the Sultan of Turkey? No +other than William II. of Germany. It is in Berlin that his Cabinet +meets, and sometimes he asks Talaat Bey to attend in a strictly honorary +capacity. And Talaat Bey goes back to Constantinople with a strictly +honorary sword of honour. Or else he gives one to William II. from his +_soi-disant_ master, the Sultan, or takes one back to his _soi-disant_ +master from his real master. For no one knows better than William II. +the use that swords of honour play in deeds of dishonour. + +The object of this chapter is to trace and mount the hewn and solid +staircase of steps by which Germany's present supremacy over Turkey was +achieved. + +Apart from the quiet spade-work that had been going on for some years, +Germany made no important move till the moment when, in 1909, the Young +Turk party, after the forced abdication of Abdul Hamid, proclaimed the +aims and ideals of the new regime. At once Germany saw her opportunity, +for here, with her help, might arise the strong Turkey which she +desired to see, instead of the weak Turkey which all the other European +Powers had been keeping on a lowering diet for so long (desirous only +that it should not quite expire), and from that moment she began to +lend, or rather let, to Turkey in ever-increasing quantities, the +resources of her scientific and her military knowledge. It was in her +interests, if Turkey was to be of use to her, that she should educate, +and irrigate, and develop the unexploited treasures of human material, +of fertility and mineral wealth; and Germany's gold, her schools, her +laboratories were at Turkey's disposal. But in every case she, as in +duty bound to her people, saw that she got very good value for her +outlay. + +Here, then, was the great psychological moment when Germany instantly +moved. The Young Turks proclaimed that they were going to weld the +Ottoman Empire into one homogeneous and harmonious whole, and by a piece +of brilliant paradoxical reasoning Germany determined that it was she +who was going to do it for them. In flat contradiction of the spirit of +their manifestoes, which proclaimed the Pan-Turkish ideal, she conceived +and began to carry out under their very noses the great new chapter of +the Pan-Germanic ideal. And the Young Turks did not know the difference! +They mistook that lusty Teutonic changeling for their own new-born +Turkish babe, and they nursed and nourished it. Amazingly it throve, and +soon it cut its teeth, and one day, when they thought it was asleep, it +arose from its cradle a baby no more, but a great Prussian guardsman who +shouted, 'Deutschland über Allah!' + +Only once was there a check in the growth of the Prussian infant, and +that was no more than a childish ailment. For when the Balkan wars broke +out the Turkish army was in the transitional stage. Its German tutors +had not yet had time to inspire the army with German discipline and +tradition; they had only weeded out, so to speak, the old Turkish +spirit, the blind obedience to the Ministers of the Shadow of God. The +Shadow of God, in fact, in the person of the Sultan, had been dragged +out into the light, and his Shadow had grown appreciably less. In +consequence there was not at this juncture any cohesion in the army, and +it suffered reverse after reverse. But a strong though a curtailed +Turkey was more in accordance with Prussian ideas than a weak and +sprawling one, and Germany bore the Turkish defeats very valiantly. And +that was the only set-back that this Pan-Prussian youngster experienced, +and it was no more than an attack of German measles which he very +quickly got over. For two or three years German influence wavered, then +recovered, 'with blessings on the falling out, that all the more +endears.' + +It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish ideal to +her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of Germany's methods, the +best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal is to be found in a publication +of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was written as German propaganda and by +Germany disseminated broadcast over the Turkish Empire. An account of +this movement has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the +Turkish side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the +German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish Phoenix. The +Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of Love, in whose name the +Armenians were tortured and massacred, were the two wings on which it +was to soar. Auxiliary soaring societies were organised, among them a +Turkish Ojagha with similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of +it were founded throughout the Empire. There were also a Turkish Guiji +or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts' club. A union of merchants +worked for the same object in districts where hitherto trade had been in +the hands of Greeks and Armenians, and signs appeared on their shops +that only Turkish labour was employed. Religious funds also were used +for similar economic restoration. + +Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and took out her +long spoon, for her hour was come. She did not interfere: she only +helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. With her usual foresight she +perceived that the Izji, for instance, was a thing to encourage, for +the boys who were being trained now would in a few years be precisely +the young men of whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy +scout movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously and +methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely reliable source of +information, we find that the whole boy scout movement, with its +innumerable branches, was under the control of a German officer, Colonel +von Hoff. In its classes (derneks) boys are trained in military +practices, in 'a recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively +enjoy (a Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use +to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn +skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements of their +companies, they are shown neat ways of judging distances. They are +divided into two classes, the junior class ranging from the ages of +twelve to seventeen, the senior class consisting of boys over seventeen, +but not yet of military age. But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, +the military age has been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to +serve their country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore, +saw that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class has +become the senior class, and a new junior class has been set on foot +which begins its recreational exercises in the service of William II., +Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It is all great fun, but those +pigeon-livered little boys who are not diverted by it have to go on with +their fun all the same, for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on +all boys. Of course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is +of a 'semi-military' character. + +The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from the early age +of eight, was the first object of Germany's peaceful and benign +penetration. As from the Pisgah height of the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw +the promised land, but she had no idea of seeing it only, like Moses, +and expiring without entering it, and her faith that she would enter it +and possess it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has +not only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like Aleppo +were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie there were separate +wooden barracks for the exclusive use of German troops. There is a +military mission at Mamoura, where all the buildings are permanent +erections solidly built of stone, for no merely temporary occupation is +intended, and thousands of freight-cars with Belgian marks upon them +throng the railways, and on some is the significant German title of +'Military Headquarters of the Imperial Staff.' There are troops in the +Turkish army, to which is given the title of 'Pasha formation,' in +compliment to Turkey, but the Pasha formations are under command of +Baron Kress von Kressenstein, and are salted with German officers, +N.C.O.'s, and privates, who, although in the Turkish army, retain their +German uniforms. + +This German leaven forms an instructional class for the remainder of the +troops in these formations, who are Turkish. The Germans are urged to +respect Moslem customs and to show particular consideration for their +religious observances. Every German contingent arriving at +Constantinople to join the Pasha formations finds quarters prepared on a +ship, and when the troops leave for their 'destination' they take +supplies from depots at the railway station which will last them two or +three months. They are enjoined to write war diaries, and are provided +with handbooks on the military and geographical conditions in +Mesopotamia, with maps, and with notes on the training and management of +camels. This looks as if they were intended for use against the English +troops in Mesopotamia, but I cannot find that they have been identified +there. The greatest secrecy is observed with regard to those Pasha +formations, and their constitution and movements are kept extremely well +veiled. + +Wireless stations have been set up in Asia Minor and Palestine, and +these are under the command of Major Schlee. A Turkish air-service was +instituted, at the head of which was Major Serno, a Prussian officer, +and Turkish aviators are now in training at Ostend, where they will very +usefully defend their native country. At Constantinople there is a +naval school for Turkish engineers and mechanics in the arsenal, to help +on the Pan-Turkish ideal, and with a view to that all the instructors +are German: a floating dock is in construction at Ismid, and the order +has been placed with German firms. It will be capable of accommodating +ships of Dreadnought build, which is a new departure for the strictly +Pan-Turkish ideal. The cost is £740,000, to be repaid three years after +the end of the war. Similarly, by the spring of this year, Germany had +arranged to start submarine training in Constantinople for the Turks, +and a submarine school was open and at work in March. A few months later +it was established at the island of Prinkipo, where it is now hard at +work under German instructors. Other naval cadets were sent to Germany +for their training, and Turkish officers were present at the battle of +Jutland in June 1916, and of course were decorated by the Emperor in +person for their coolness and courage.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In October 1917 a bill was passed for the entire +remodelling of the Turkish fleet after the war, on the lines of the +German fleet, 'which proved its perfect training in the battle of Skager +Rak.'] + +A complete revision of the Turkish system of exemptions from military +service was necessary as soon as Germany began to want men badly. The +age for military service was first raised, and we find a Turkish order +of October 1916, calling on all men of forty-three, forty-four, and +forty-five years of age to pay their exemption tax if they did not wish +to be called to the colours. That secured their money, and, with truly +Prussian irony, hardly had this been done when a fresh army order was +issued calling out all men, whether they had paid their exemption tax or +not. Germany thus secured both their money and their lives. + +Still more men were needed, and in November a fresh levy of boys was +raised regardless of whether they had reached the military age or not. +This absorbed the senior class of the boy scouts, who hitherto had +learned their drill in a 'recreationary manner.' Neither Jews nor +Christians are exempt from service, and frequent press gangs go round +Constantinople rounding up those who are in hiding. + +Again the Prussian Moloch was hungry for more, and in December 1916 the +Turkish _Gazette_ announced that all males in Asia Minor between the +ages of fourteen and sixty-five were to be enrolled for military +service, and in January of this year, 1917, fresh recruiting was +foreshadowed by the order that men of forty-six to fifty-two, who had +paid their exemption money, should be medically examined to see if they +were fit for active service. This fresh recruiting was also put in force +in the case of boys, and during the summer of 1917 all boys above the +age of twelve, provided they were sound and well-built, were taken for +the army. Wider and wider the net was spread, and in the same month a +fresh Turco-German convention was signed, whereby was enforced a +reciprocal surrender in both countries of persons liable to military +service, and of deserters, and simultaneously all Turks living in +Switzerland, and who had paid exemption money, were recalled to their +Germanised fatherland. By now the first crops of the year were ripening +in Smyrna, and in default of civilian labour (for every one was now a +soldier) they were reaped by Turkish soldiers and the produce sent +direct to Germany. + +Already in August 1916, certificates of Ottoman nationality had been +granted to Serbians resident in the Empire who were willing to become +Ottoman subjects, and their 'willingness' was intensified by hints that +incidents akin to the Armenian massacres might possibly occur among +other alien peoples. They had to sign a declaration that they would not +revert to their former nationality, and thus, no doubt, many Serbs +passed into the Turkish army. Further enrolments were desirable, and, in +March 1917, all Greeks living in Anatolia were forcibly proselytised, +their property was confiscated, and they were made liable to military +service. Unfortunately all were not available, for of those who were +removed from the villages where they lived to military centres, ten per +cent. died on the forced marches from hunger and exposure. That was +annoying for the German recruiting agents, but it suited well enough the +Pan-Turkish ideal of exterminating foreign nationalities. When trouble +or discontent occurred among the troops, it was firmly dealt with, as, +for instance, when, in November 1916, there were considerable desertions +from the 49th Division. On that occasion the order was given to fire on +them, and many were killed and wounded. The officer who gave the order +was commended by the Prussian authorities for his firmness. Should such +an incident occur again, it will no doubt be dealt with no less +firmness, for, in April 1917, Mackensen was put in supreme command of +all troops in Asia Minor. But in spite of this desertions have largely +increased lately, and during the summer deserters out of all the Turkish +armies were believed to number about 200,000. Many of those have formed +themselves into brigand bands, who make the roads dangerous for +travellers. The exchange of honours goes on, for not long ago, in +Berlin, Prince Zia-ed-Din, the Turkish Sultan's heir, presented a sword +of honour to the Sultan William II. Probably he gave him good news of +the progress of the German harbour works begun in the winter at +Stamboul, and himself learned that the railway bridge which the Turks +proposed to build over the Bosporus was not to be proceeded with, for +the German high command had superseded that scheme by their own idea of +making a tunnel under the Bosporus instead, which would be safer from +aircraft. + +Such up-to-date, though in brief outline, is the history of the +establishment of the Prussian octopus grip on military and naval matters +in Turkey. We have largely ourselves to blame for it. Upon that pathetic +and lamb-like record of our diplomacy during the months between the +outbreak of the European War, and the entry of Turkey into it in October +1914, it would be morbid to dwell at any length, though a short summary +is necessary. As we all know now, Turkey had concluded a treaty with +Germany early in August, and when our Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir +Louis Malet, who was on leave in England at that date, returned to his +post on August 16th, all that Turkey wanted was to gain time in which to +effect her mobilisation. This she did, with complete success, and our +Ambassador telegraphed to England stating his perfect confidence in the +sincerity with which the Grand Vizier professed his friendship for +England. All through those weeks of August and September this confidence +appeared to continue unabated. The Moderate party in Turkey--that is to +say, the hoodwinking party--were reported to be daily gaining strength, +and it was most important that the Allies should give them every +assistance, and above all not precipitate matters. All was going well: +all we had to do was to wait. So we waited, still blindly confident in +the sincerity of Turkey's friendship for England, while the mobilisation +of the Turkish forces proceeded merrily. By the end of September this +was nearly complete, and quite suddenly the Ambassador informed the +Foreign Office that Turkey appeared to be temporising. That was +perfectly true, but the period of temporisation was nearly over, and by +mid-October Turkey had something like 800,000 men under arms, and for +nine weeks Enver Pasha had had his signed treaty with Germany in his +pocket. Possibly this diplomatic procrastination was useful to us, for +it enabled us to bring troops from India in security, and send others to +Egypt. But without doubt it was useful to the Turks, for it enabled them +to mobilise their armies, and to strengthen enormously the defences of +the Dardanelles. Then came the day when Germany and Turkey were ready, +the attack was made on Odessa, and out of Constantinople we went. We +climbed into the railway carriages that took the last rays of English +influence out of the Ottoman Empire, and steep were the stairs in the +house of a stranger! Turks are not much given to laughter, but Enver +Pasha must at least have smiled on that day. + +Already, of course, German influence was strong in the army, which now +was thoroughly trained in German methods, but that army might still be +called a Turkish army. Nowadays, by no stretch of language can it be +called Turkish except in so far that all Turkish efficient manhood is +helplessly enlisted in it, for there is no branch or department of it +over which the Prussian octopus has not thrown its paralysing tentacles +and affixed its immovable suckers. Army and navy alike, the wireless +stations, the submarines, the aircraft, are all directly controlled from +Berlin, and, as we have seen, the generalissimo of the forces is +Mackensen, who is absolutely the Hindenburg of the East. But thorough as +is the control of Berlin over Constantinople in military and naval +matters, it is not one whit more thorough than her control in all other +matters of national life. Never before has Germany been very successful +in her colonisation; but if complete domination--the sucking of a +country till it is a mere rind of itself, and yet at the same time full +to bursting of Prussian ichor--may be taken as Germany's equivalent of +colonisation, then indeed we must be forced to recognise her success. +And it was all done in the name and for the sake of the Pan-Turkish +ideal. Even now Prussian Pecksniffs like Herr Ernst Marré, whose +pamphlet, _Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was published in 1916, +continue to insist that Germany is nobly devoting herself to the +well-being of Turkey. 'In doing this,' he exclaims in that illuminating +document, 'we are benefiting Turkey.... This is a war of liberation for +Turkey,' though omitting to say from whom Turkey is being liberated. +Perhaps the Armenians. Occasionally, it is true, he forgets that, and +naively remarks, 'Turkey is a very difficult country to govern. But +after the war Turkey will be very important as a transit country.' But +then he remembers again and says, 'We wish to give besides taking, and +we should often like to give more than we can hope to give.' Let us look +into this, and see the manner in which Germany expresses her yearning to +impoverish herself for the sake of Turkey. + +All this reorganisation of the Turkish army was of course a very +expensive affair, and required skilful financing, and it was necessary +to get the whole of Turkey's exchequer arrangements into German hands. A +series of financial regulations was promulgated. The Finance Minister, +during 1916, was still Turkish, but the official immediately under him +was a German. He was authorised to deposit with the Controllers of the +Ottoman National Debt German Imperial Bills of £T30,000,000, and to +issue German paper money to the like amount. This arrangement insures +the circulation of the German notes, which are redeemable by Turkey in +_gold_ two years after the declaration of peace. Gold is declared to be +the standard currency, and no creditor is obliged to accept in payment +of a debt more than 300 piastres in silver or fifty in nickel. And since +there is no gold in currency (for it has been all called in, and +penalties of death have been authorised for hoarders) it follows that +this and other issues of German paper will filter right through the +Empire. At the same time a German expert, Dr. Kautz, was appointed to +start banks throughout Turkey in order to free the peasants from the +Turkish village usurer, and in consequence enslave them to the German +banks. Similarly a German was put at the head of the Ottoman +Agricultural Bank. These new branches worked very well, but it is +pleasant to think that one such was started by the Deutsche Bank at +Bagdad in October 1916, which now has its shutters up. Before this, as +we learn from the _Oesterreichischer Volkswirt_ (June 1916), Germany had +issued other gold notes, in payment for gold from Turkey, which is +retainable in Berlin till six months after the end of the war. (It is +reasonable to wonder whether it will not be retained rather longer than +that.) These gold notes were accepted willingly at first by the public, +but the increase in their number (by the second issue) has caused them +to be viewed with justifiable suspicion, and the depreciation in them +continues. But the Turkish public has no redress except by hoarding +gold, which is a penal offence. That these arrangements have not +particularly helped Turkish credit may be gathered from the fact that +the Turkish gold £1, nominally 100 piastres, was very soon worth 280 +piastres in the German paper standard, and it now fetches a great deal +more. + +Again, the Deutsche Orientbank has made many extensions, and is already +financing cotton and wool trade for after the war. The establishment of +this provoked much applause in German financial circles, who find it to +be an instance of the 'far-reaching and powerful Germano-Austrian unity, +which replaces the disunion of Turkish finance.' This is profoundly +true, especially if we omit the word 'Austrian' inserted for diplomatic +reasons. Again we find Germany advancing £3,000,000 of German paper to +the Turkish Government in January 1917, for the payment of supplies they +have received from Krupp's works and (vaguely) for interest to the +German Financial Minister. This, too, we may conjecture, is to be +redeemed after the war in gold. + +In March of this year we find in the report of the Ottoman Bank a German +loan of £1,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural implements by +Turkey, and this is guaranteed by house-taxes. In all up to that month, +as was announced in the Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople, Germany +had advanced to Turkey the sum of £142,000,000, entirely, it would seem, +in German paper, to be repaid at various dates in gold. The grip, in +fact, is a strangle-hold, all for Turkey's good, as no doubt will prove +the 'New Conventions' announced by Zimmermann in May 1917, to take the +place of the abolished Capitulations, 'which left Turkey at the mercy of +predatory Powers who looked for the disruption of the Ottoman Empire.' +Herr Zimmermann does not look for that: he looks for its absorption. And +sees it. + +The industrial development of Turkey by this benevolent and +disinterested Power has been equally thorough and far-reaching, though +Germany here has had a certain amount of competition by Hungary to +contend against, for Hungary considered that Germany was trespassing on +her sphere of interest. But she has been able to make no appreciable +headway against her more acute partner, and her application for a +monopoly of sugar-production was not favourably received, for Germany +already had taken the beet industry well in hand. In Asia Minor the +acreage of cultivation early in 1917 had fallen more than 50 per cent. +from that under crops before the war, but owing to the importation of +machinery from the Central Powers, backed up by a compulsory +Agricultural Service Law, which has just been passed, it is hoped that +the acreage will be increased this year by something like 30 per cent. +The yield per acre also will be greatly increased this year, for Germany +has, though needing artificial manures badly herself, sent large +quantities into Turkey, where they will be more profitably employed. She +has no fear about securing the produce. This augmented yield will, it is +true, not be adequate to supply the needs of Turkey, who for the last +two years has suffered from very acute food shortage, which in certain +districts has amounted to famine and wholesale starvation of the poorer +classes. But it is unlikely that their needs will be considered at all, +for Germany's needs (she, the fairy godmother of the Pan-Turk ideal) +must obviously have the first call on such provisions as are obtainable. +Thus, in the new preserved meat factory at Aidin, the whole of the +produce is sent to Germany. Thus, too, though in February 1917 there was +a daily shortage in Smyrna of 700 sacks of flour, and the Arab and +Greek population was starving, no flour at all was allowed to be +imported into Smyrna. But simultaneously Germany was making huge +purchases of fish, meat, and flour in Constantinople (paid for in German +paper), including 100,000 sheep. Yet such was the villainous selfishness +of the famine-stricken folk at Adrianople that, when the trains +containing these supplies were passing through, a mob held them up and +sold the contents to the inhabitants. That, however, was an isolated +instance, and in any case a law was passed in October 1916, appointing a +military commission to control all supplies. It enacts that troops shall +be supplied first, and specially ordains that the requirements of German +troops come under this head. (Private firms have been expressly +prohibited from purchasing these augmented wheat supplies, but special +permission was given in 1915 to German and Austro-Hungarian societies to +buy.) A few months later we find that there are a hundred deaths daily +in Constantinople from starvation, and two hundred in Smyrna, where +there is a complete shortage of oil. But oil is still being sent to +Germany, and during 1916 five hundred reservoirs of oil were sent there, +each containing up to 15,000 kilogrammes. Similarly during this summer +the price of fruit has gone up in Smyrna, for the Germans have reopened +certain factories for preserving it and turning it into jam, which is +being sent to Germany. The sugar is supplied from the new beet-fields of +Konia. But Kultur must be supplied first, else Kultur would grow lean, +and the Turkish God of Love will look after the Smyrniotes. It is no +wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the desired result +a little quicker, for food is already pouring in from Turkey, and when +the artificial manures have produced their early harvest the stream will +become a torrent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant.] + +But during all these busy and tremendous months of war Germany has not +only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, for the sake of the +Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic spirit she has been vastly +increasing the productiveness of her new and most important colony. The +great irrigation works at Konia, begun several years ago, are in +operation, and the revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled. +In fact, as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province +has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At Adana are +similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche Bank. Ernst Marré +gives us a most hopeful survey of them, for Adana was already linked up +with the Bagdad Railway in October 1916, which was to be the great +artery connecting Germany with the East. There is some considerable +shortage of labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to +which we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are in +excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in German hands, +and have been paid for by German paper; and to get the reservoirs, etc., +back into her own control, it has been agreed that Turkey, already +completely bankrupt, will have to pay not only what has been spent, but +a handsome sum in compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour, +prisoners have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This +irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by four times +the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab magazine, _El Alem el +Ismali_, which tells us also of the electric-power stations erected +there. + +The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian merchants that +transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of engines and trucks from +Germany, while _Die Zeit_ (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future +for this Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely +imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German capital on +terms above stated--will, in the process of internal development so +unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow cotton for herself, and be +kind enough to give a preferential tariff to Germany. + +A similarly bright future may be predicted for the sugar-beet industry +at Konia, where are the irrigation works already referred to. Artesian +wells have been sunk, and there is the suggestion to introduce +Bulgarian labour in default of Turkish. As we have seen, Hungary +attempted to obtain a monopoly with regard to sugar, but Germany has +been victorious on this point (as on every other where she competes with +Hungary), and has obtained the concession for a period of thirty years. +She reaped the first-fruits this last spring (1917), when, on a single +occasion, 350 trucks laden with sugar were despatched to Berlin. A +similar irrigation scheme is bringing into cultivation the Makischelin +Valley, near Aleppo, and Herr Wied has been appointed as expert for +irrigation plant in Syria. There has been considerable shortage of coal, +but now more is arriving from the Black Sea, and the new coal-fields at +Rodosto will soon be giving an output. + +Indeed, it would be easier to enumerate the industries and economical +developments of Turkey over which Germany has not at the present moment +got the control than those over which she has. In particular she has +shown a parental interest in Turkish educational questions. She +established last year, under German management, a school for the study +of German in Constantinople; she has put under the protection of the +German Government the Jewish institution at Haifa for technical +education in Palestine; from Sivas a mission of schoolmasters has been +sent to Germany for the study of German methods. Ernst Marré surmises +that German will doubtless become compulsory even in the Turkish +intermediate (secondary) schools. In April 1917, the first stone of the +'House of Friendship' was laid at Constantinople, the object of which +institution is to create among Turkish students an interest in +everything German, while earlier in the year arrangements were made for +10,000 Turkish youths to go to Germany to be taught trades. These I +imagine were unfit for military service. With regard to such a scheme +Halil Haled Bey praises the arrangement for the education of Turks in +Germany. When they used to go to France, he tells us, 'they lost their +religion' (certainly Prussian Got is nearer akin to Turkish Allah) 'and +returned home unpatriotic and useless. In Germany they will have access +to suitable religious literature' (Gott!) 'and must adopt all they see +good in German methods without losing their original characteristics.' +Comment on this script is needless. The hand is the hand of Halil Haled +Bey, but the voice is the voice of Potsdam. Occasionally, but rarely, +Austrian competition is seen. Professor Schmoller, in an Austrian +quarterly review, shows jealousy of German influence, and we find, in +October 1916, an Ottoman-Austrian college started at Vienna for 250 +pupils of the Ottoman Empire. But Germany has 10,000 in Berlin. At Adana +(where are the German irrigation works) the German-Turkish Society has +opened a German school of 300, while, reciprocally, courses in Turkish +have been organised at Berlin for the sake of future German colonists. +In Constantinople the _Tanin_ announces a course of lectures to be held +by the Turco-German Friendship Society. Professor von Marx discoursed +last April on foreign influence and the development of nations, with +special reference to Turkey and the parallel case of Germany. A few +months later we find Hilmet Nazim Bey, official head of the Turkish +press, proceeding to Berlin to learn German press methods. A number of +editors of Turkish papers will follow him, and soon, no doubt, the +Turkish press will rival Cologne and Frankfort. + +So much for German education, but her penetrative power extends into +every branch of industry and economics. In November 1916, a Munich +expert was put in charge of the College of Forestry, and an economic +society was started in Constantinople on German lines with German +instructors. Inoculation against small-pox, typhoid, and cholera was +made compulsory; and we find that the Turkish Ministers of Posts, of +Justice, and of Commerce, figureheads all of them, have Germans as their +acting Ministers. In the same year a German was appointed as expert for +silkworm breeding and for the cultivation of beet. Practically all the +railways in Asia Minor are pure German concerns by right of purchase. +Germany owns the Anatolian railway concession (originally British), +with right to build to Angora and Konia; the Bagdad railway concession, +with preferential rights over minerals; they have bought the +Mersina-Adana Railway, with right of linking up to the Bagdad Railway; +they have bought the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, built with French capital. +They have secured also the Haidar Pasha Harbour concession, thereby +controlling and handling all merchandise arriving at railhead from the +interior of Asia Minor.[1] Already on the Bagdad Railway the big tunnels +of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge petrol-driven +motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be complete. Meanwhile +railway construction is pushed on in all directions under German +control, and the Turkish Minister of Finance (August 1916) allocated a +large sum of German paper money for the construction of ordinary roads, +military roads, local government roads, all of which are new to Turkey, +but which will be useful for the complete German occupation which is +being swiftly consolidated. To stop the mouths of the people, all +political clubs have been suppressed by the Minister of the Interior, +for Prussia does not care for criticism. To supply German ammunition +needs, lead and zinc have been taken from the roofs of mosques and +door-handles from mosque-gates, and the iron railings along the Champs +de Mars at Pera have been carted away for the manufacture of bombs. Not +long after eight truck-loads of copper were sent to Germany: these, I +imagine, represent the first produce of copper roofs and utensils. A +Turco-German convention signed in Berlin in January of this year, +permits subjects of one country to settle in the other while retaining +their nationality and enjoying trading and other privileges. In Lebanon +Dr. König has opened an agricultural school for Syrians of all +religions. In the Homs district the threatening plague of locusts in +February 1917 was combatted by Germans; and a German expert, Dr. Bucher, +had been already sent to superintend the whole question. For this +concerns supplies to Germany, as does also the ordinance passed in the +same month that two-thirds of all fish caught in the Lebanon district +should be given to the military authorities (these are German), and that +every fish weighing over six ounces in the Beirut district should be +Korban also. The copper mines at Arghana Maden, near Diarbekr, are busy +exporting their produce into Germany; the coal-mines at Rodosto will +very soon be making a large output.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The balance-sheets for 1916 of certain of those railways in +which the Deutsche Bank has an interest have come to hand. They show a +very disagreeable degree of prosperity. The Anatolia Railway Company has +large profits with a gross revenue of 25,737,995 marks. The profit on +the Haidar-Pasha-Angora Line has risen from 42,566 francs per kilometre +to 45,552. The Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway has paid 6 per cent. on its +preference shares, and 3 per cent. on its ordinary shares. The Haidar +Pasha Harbour Company has paid 8 per cent.] + +[Footnote 2: Later in this year we find three trains daily leaving +Constantinople for Germany, laden with coal and military supplies.] + +There is no end to this penetration: German water-seekers, with divining +and boring apparatus, accompanied the Turkish expedition into Sinai; +Russian prisoners were sent by Germany for agricultural work in Asia +Minor, to take the place of slaughtered Armenians; a German-Turkish +treaty, signed January 11, 1917, gives the whole reorganisations of the +economic system to a special German mission. A Stuttgart journal chants +a characteristic _Lobgesang_ over this feat. 'That is how,' it proudly +exclaims, 'we work for the liberation of peoples and nationalities.' + +In the same noble spirit, we must suppose, German legal reforms were +introduced in December 1916, to replace the Turkish Shuriat, and in the +same month all the Turks in telegraph offices in Constantinople were +replaced by Germans. Ernst Marré gives valuable advice to young Germans +settling in Turkey. He particularly recommends them, knowing how +religion is one of the strongest bonds in this murderous race, to 'trade +in articles of devotion, in rosaries, in bags to hold the Koran,' and +points out what good business might be built up in gramophones. Earlier +in this year we find a 'German Oriental Trading Company' founded for the +import of fibrous materials for needs of military authorities, and a +great carpet business established at Urfa with German machinery that +will supplant the looms of Smyrna. A saltpetre factory is established +at Konia by Herr Toepfer, whose enterprise is rewarded with an Iron +Cross and a Turkish decoration. The afforestation near Constantinople, +ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture, is put into German hands, and in +the vilayet of Aidin (April 1916) ninety concessions were granted to +German capitalists to undertake the exploitation of metallic ores. +Occasionally the German octopus finds it has gone too far for the +moment, and releases some struggling limb of its victim, as, for +instance, when we see that, in September 1916, the German Director's +stamp for the 'Imperial German Great Radio Station' at Damascus has been +discarded temporarily, as that station 'should be treated for the +present as a Turkish concern.' + +A 'Trading and Weaving Company' was established at Angora in 1916, an +'Import and Export Company' at Smyrna, a 'Trading and Industrial +Society' at Beirut, a 'Tobacco Trading Company' at Latakieh, an +'Agricultural Company' at Tripoli, a 'Corn Exporting Company' in +Lebanon, a 'Rebuilding Commission' (perhaps for sacked Armenian houses) +at Konia. More curious yet will be a Tourist's Guide Book--a Baedeker, +in fact--for travellers in Anatolia, and the erection of a monument in +honour of Turkish _women_ who have replaced men called up for military +duty. Truly these last two items--a guide-book for Anatolia, and a +monument to women--are strange enterprises for Turks. A new Prussian day +is dawning, it seems, for Turkish women as well, for the _Tanin_ (April +1917) tells us that diplomas are to be conferred on ladies who have +completed their studies in the Technical School at Constantinople. + +It is needless to multiply instances of German penetration: I have but +given the skeleton of this German monster that has fastened itself with +tentacles and suckers on every branch of Turkish industry. There is none +round which it has not cast its feelers--no Semitic moneylender ever +obtained a surer hold on his victim. In matters naval, military, +educational, legal, industrial, financial, Germany has a strangle-hold. +Turkey's life is already crushed out of her, and, as we have seen, it +has been crushed out of her by the benevolent Kultur-mongers, who, among +all the Great Powers of Europe, invested their time and their money in +the achievement of the Pan-Turkish ideal. Silently and skilfully they +worked, bamboozling their chief tool, Enver Pasha, even as Enver Pasha +bamboozled us. As long as he was of service to them they retained him; +for his peace of mind at one time they stopped up all letter-boxes in +Constantinople because so many threatening letters were sent him. But +now Enver Pasha seems to have had his day; he became a little +autocratic, and thought that he was the head of the Pan-Turkish ideal. +So he was, but the Pan-Turkish ideal had become Pan-Prussian, and he had +not noticed the transformation. Talaat Bey has taken his place; it was +he who, in May 1917, was received by the Emperor William, by King +Ludwig, and by the Austrian Emperor, and he who was the mouthpiece of +the German efforts to make a separate peace with Russia. Under Czardom, +he proclaimed, the existence of Turkey was threatened, but now the +revolution has made friendship possible, for Russia no longer desires +territorial annexation. And, oh, how Turkey would like to be Russia's +friend! Enver Pasha has of late been somewhat out of favour in Berlin, +and I cannot but think it curious that when, on April 2, 1917, he +visited the submarine base at Wilhelmshaven, he was very nearly killed +in a motor accident. But it may have been an accident. Since then I +cannot find that he has taken any more active part in Pan-Turkish ideals +than to open a soup-kitchen in some provincial town, and lecture the +Central Committee of the Young Turks on the subject of internal affairs +in Great Britain. I do not like lectures, but I should have liked to +hear that one. + + +I have left to the end of this chapter the question of Germany's +knowledge of, and complicity in the Armenian massacres. From the tribune +of the Reichstag, on January 15, 1916, there was made a definite denial +of the existence of such massacres at all; on another subsequent +occasion it was stated that Germany could not interfere in Turkish +internal affairs. + +In view of the fact that there is no internal affair appertaining to +Turkey in which Germany has not interfered, the second of these +statements may be called insincere. But the denial of the massacres is a +deliberate lie. Germany--official Germany--knew all about them, and she +permitted them to go on. A few proofs of this are here shortly stated. + +(1) In September 1915, four months before the denial of the massacres +was made in the Reichstag, Dr. Martin Niepage, higher grade teacher in +the German Technical School at Aleppo, prepared and sent, as we have +seen, in his name, and that of several of his colleagues, a report of +the massacres to the German Embassy at Constantinople. In that report he +gives a terrible account of what he has seen with his own eyes, and also +states that the country Turks' explanation with regard to the origin of +these measures is that it was 'the teaching of the Germans.' The German +Embassy at Constantinople therefore knew of the massacres, and knew +also that the Turks attributed them to orders from Germany. Dr. Niepage +also consulted, before sending his report, with the German Consul at +Aleppo, Herr Hoffman, who told him that the German Embassy had been +already advised in detail about the massacres from the consulates at +Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Mosul, but that he welcomed a further protest +on the subject. + +(2) These reports, or others like them, had not gone astray, for in +August 1915, the German Ambassador in Constantinople, Baron Wangenheim, +made a formal protest to the Turkish Government about the massacres. + +There is, then, no doubt that the German Government, when it officially +denied the massacres, was perfectly cognisant of them. It was also +perfectly capable of stopping them, for they were not local violences, +but wholesale murders organised at Constantinople. In support of this +view I find an independent witness stating that 'there is no Turk of +standing who will not readily declare that it would have been perfectly +possible for Germany to have vetoed the massacres had she chosen.' +Germany had indeed already given assurances that such massacres should +not occur. She had assured the Armenian Katholikos at Adana that so long +as Germany has any influence in Turkey he need not fear a repetition of +the horrors that had taken place under Abdul Hamid. Had she, then, no +influence in Constantinople, or how was it that she had obtained +complete control over all Turkish branches of government? The same +assurance was given by the German Ambassador in April 1915, to the +Armenian Patriarch and the President of the Armenian National Council. + +So, in support of the Pan-Turkish ideal, and in the name of the Turkish +Allah, the God of Love, Germany stood by and let the infamous tale of +lust and rapine and murder be told to its end. The Turks had planned to +exterminate the whole Armenian race except some half-million, who would +be deported penniless to work on agricultural developments under German +rule, but this quality of Turkish mercy was too strained for Major +Pohl, who proclaimed that it was a mistake to spare so many. But he was +a soldier, and did not duly weigh the claims of agriculture. + +The choice was open to Germany; Germany chose, and let the Armenian +massacres go on. But she was in a difficulty. What if the Turkish +Government retorted (perhaps it did so retort), 'You are not consistent. +Why do you mind about the slaughter of a few Armenians? What about +Belgium and your atrocities there?' + +And all the ingenuity of the Wilhelmstrasse would not be able to find an +answer to that. + +I do not say that Germany wanted the massacres, for she did not. She +wanted more agricultural labour, and I think that, if only for that +reason, she deprecated them. But she allowed them to go on when it was +in her power to stop them, and all the perfumes of Arabia will not wash +clean her hand from that stinking horror. + +Here, then, are some of the problems which those who, at the end of the +war, will have to deal with the problem of Turkey must tackle. It is +just as well to recognise that at the present moment Turkey is virtually +and actually a German colony, and the most valuable colony that Germany +has ever had. It will not be enough to limit, or rather abolish, the +supremacy of Turkey over aliens and martyrised peoples; it will be +necessary first to abolish the supremacy of Germany over Turkey. To do +this the victory of our Allied Nations must be complete, and Germany's +octopus envelopment of Turkish industries severed. Otherwise we shall +immediately be confronted with a Germany that already reaches as far as +Mesopotamia. That is done now; and that, before there can come any +permanent peace for Europe, must be undone. Nothing less than the +complete release of that sucker and tentacle embrace will suffice. + + +NOTE + +As throwing a sidelight on the German complicity in the Armenian +massacres, the following is of interest. It is known that when +Metternich succeeded Wangenheim as German Ambassador in Constantinople, +he brought with him a speech, written in Berlin, which, by the Kaiser's +orders, he was to read when presenting his credentials to the Sultan. +This contained a sentence which implied that Germany had been unable to +stop the Armenian massacres. Talaat refused to allow the speech to be +read, obviously because it threw the responsibility of the massacres on +to the Turks, whereas the accepted opinion in Turkey was that they took +place with the connivance and even at the instigation of the Germans. +Eventually a compromise was arrived at, and the speech _in toto_ was +read privately, the part referring to the Armenian massacre not being +published.... It is a pity that Germany is always found out.... + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VI_ + + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +Let us commit the crime of _lèse-majesté_, and assume (though the +Emperor Wilhelm II. has repeatedly announced the contrary) that Germany +is not at the conclusion of the European War to find herself in +possession of the world. She has prepared her plans in anticipation of +the auspicious event; in fact she has had a most interesting map of +Europe produced which, except by its general shape, is scarcely +recognisable. The printing of it, it is true, was a little premature, +for it shows what Europe was to have been like in 1916, and the +apportionments are not borne out by facts. But assuming that there is +some radical error about it all from her point of view, and assuming +that there will not be either a conclusive peace favourable to Prussian +interests, or even an inconclusive peace, but one in which the Allies +will be able to dictate and enforce their own terms, the magnitude of +the problems that will await their decision may well appal the most +ingenious of their statesmen. And of all those problems none, it is safe +to prophesy, will be found more difficult of solution than that which +will deal with the future of the corrupt and barbarous Government which +has for centuries made hell of the Ottoman Empire. We know more or less +what will happen to Alsace and Lorraine, to Belgium, to the Trentino, +because in those cases the claims of one or other of our Allies to +demand a particular settlement are quite certain to be agreed to by +those not so immediately and vitally concerned. But in the Balkans these +problems will be more complicated because of conflicting interests, and +most complicated of all will they be in Turkey. One thing, however, is +certain, that there can be no going back to the conditions that existed +there before the war. + +Ever since the Osmanlis came out of remoter Asia into the Nearer East +and into Europe, the government of their Empire has gone from bad to +worse. In the early days, as we have seen, their policy was to absorb +the strength of their subject peoples by incorporating the youth of them +into the Turkish army, by giving them Turkish wives, and by converting +them to Mohammedanism. Such was the foundation of the Empire and such +its growth. But having absorbed their strength, the Sultan's Government +neglected them until they milked them again. They were allowed to +prosper if they could: all that was demanded of them was a toll of their +strength. They were cattle, and for the right to graze on Turkish lands +they paid back a pail of their milk of manhood. But an empire founded on +such principles contains within it active and prolific seeds of decay, +and, as we have seen, more stringent measures had to be resorted to in +order to preserve the supremacy of the ruling people. Instead of +absorbing their strength, Abdul Hamid hit upon the new method of killing +them, so that the Turks should still maintain their domination. And the +policy set on foot by him was developed but a few years ago into a +scheme of slaughter, which in atrocity has far surpassed the killings of +Attila, of whom the Nationalist poet sings, or even the designs of the +deposed Sultan. The Armenian nation, with the exception of such part of +it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been exterminated, and +similar measures have been planned and indeed begun, against the Greeks, +the Arabs, and the Jews. + +In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European War, the +policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has been at length +abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared in their joint note to +President Wilson their aims in the war, and for those they have pledged +themselves to fight until final and complete victory wreathes their +arms. Among these aims are:-- + +(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous +tyranny of the Turks. + +(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which has proved +itself so radically alien to Western civilisation. + +For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called the Concert +of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the Balance of Power, kept +Turkey together, and in particular has maintained the centre of its +government at Constantinople simply because the Balance of Power would +be upset if anybody else held the key of the straits that separate +Russia from the Mediterranean. England, above all others, was +instrumental in preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must +confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a century. It +is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse of that which for so +many decades has been the keystone of our ruling with regard to our +Eastern Empire, but the arch has collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone +out, and all our efforts to exclude Russia from free access to the +Mediterranean have only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds +Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The situation, as +it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse than it could have been +for a century back, if at any moment during those hundred years we had +done what we always ought to have done, and declared that the +anachronism of Turkey being in Europe was more intolerable than anything +that could happen in consequence of her expulsion. But we have +acknowledged that now. We have also acknowledged the even greater +anachronism of Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any +of those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman Empire, for +the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that the remedy of these +two monstrous abuses forms an essential part of their aim in the war, +which in costliness of life and of treasure has already far exceeded any +cataclysm that could have come to Europe through its doing its clear and +Christian duty with regard to Turkey during the preceding hundred years. +And among the benefits which eventually mankind will reap in the fields +that have been sown by the blood of the slain will be the fact that the +Confusion of Europe will have accomplished a task which the Concert of +Europe was too craven of consequences to undertake; and Constantinople +and the subject peoples of the Turks will have passed from the yoke of +that murderous tyranny for ever. + +We will take these two avowed aims of the Allies in order, and first try +to draw (though with diffident pencil) some sketch of what will be the +confines of the Ottoman Empire, when we pluck the fruits of the great +crusade against the barbarism of Turkey and of Germany. It is quite +useless to attempt to keep the map as it was, and peg out claims within +the Empire where we shall proclaim that Arabs and Greeks and Armenians +shall live in peace, for it is exactly that plan which has formed a +century's failure. At the International Congress of Berlin, for +instance, a solemn pact was entered into by Turkey for the reform of the +Armenian vilayets. She carried out her promise by slaughtering every +Armenian male, and outraging every Armenian woman who inhabited them. +The _soi-disant_ protectorate of Crete was not a whit more successful in +securing for the Cretans a tolerable existence, and the Allies had to +bring it to an end twenty years ago, and free them from the execrable +yoke; while finally the repudiation by Turkey of the Capitulations, +which provided some sort of guarantee for the safety of foreign peoples +in Turkey, has shown us, if further proof was needed, the value of +covenants with the Osmanli. It must be rendered impossible for Turkey to +repeat such outrages: the soil where her alien peoples dwell must be +hers no more, and any Turkish aggression on that soil must be, _ipso +facto_, an act of war against the European Power under the protection of +whom such a province is placed. + +The difficulty of this part of the problem is not so great as might at +first appear. We do not, when we come to look at it in detail, find such +a conflict of interests as would seem to face us on a general view. Even +the precarious Balance of Power was not upset by a quantity of similar +adjustments made by the Concert of Europe during the last hundred years. +The Powers freed Serbia, giving Turkey first a suzerainty over her, and +finally abolishing that: they freed Bulgaria, they freed Greece, Eastern +Rumelia, Macedonia, Albania. But, as by some strange lapse of humanity, +they always regarded the subject peoples of Turkey in Asia as more +peculiarly Turkish, as if at the Bosporus a new moral geography began, +and massacre in Asia was comparatively venial as compared with massacre +in Europe. But now the Allies have said that there must be no more +massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, it will +be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the alien peoples +dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the protectorate of one or +other of the allied nations. In most cases we shall find that there is a +protecting Power more or less clearly indicated, whose sphere of +interest is obviously concerned with one or other of these new and +independent provinces. + +The alien race which for the last thirty years has suffered the most +atrociously from Turkish inhumanity is that of the Armenians, and it is +fitting to begin our belated campaign of liberation with it. If the +reader will turn to the map at the end of this book, he will see that +the district marked Armenia lies at the north-west corner of the old +Ottoman Empire, and extends across its frontiers into Russian +Trans-Caucasia. That indicates the district which once was peopled by +Armenians. To-day, owing to the various Armenian massacres, the latest +of which, described in another chapter, was by far the most appalling, +such part of Armenia as lies in the Ottoman Empire is practically, and +probably absolutely, depopulated of its Armenian inhabitants. Such as +survive, apart from the women whose lives were spared on their +professing Islamism and entering Turkish harems, have escaped beyond the +Russian frontier, and are believed to number about a quarter of a +million. In the meantime their homes have partly been destroyed and +partly occupied by mouhadjirs from Thrace, and by the Kurds who were +largely instrumental in butchering them. Their lands have been +appropriated haphazardly, by, any who laid hands on them. + +Here the problem is of no great difficulty. The robber-tenants must be +evicted, and the remnant of the Armenians repatriated. Without +exception they escaped into Trans-Caucasia from villages and districts +near the frontier, else they could never have escaped from the pursuing +Turks and Kurds. Naturally, this remnant of a people will not nearly +suffice to fill their entire province, but in order to satisfy the +claims of justice at all adequately, the whole district of Armenia, as +Armenia was known before its people were exterminated, must be amputated +by a clean cut out of the Ottoman Empire and placed, in an autonomous +condition in a new protected province, which will include all the +vilayets of Armenia. + +There is no doubt about a prosperous future for Armenia if this is done, +and to do less than this would be to fail signally as regards the solemn +promise made by the Allies when they stated to President Wilson their +aims in the war. The Armenians have ever been a thrifty and industrious +people, possessed of an inherent vitality which has withstood centuries +of fiendish oppression. With facilities given them for their +re-settlement, and with foreign protection to establish them, they will, +beyond question, more than hold their own against the Kurds. As a +nation they are, as we have seen, partly agricultural in their pursuits; +but a considerable proportion of them (and these the more intelligent) +are men of business, merchants, doctors, educationalists, and gravitate +to towns. Constantinople, as we shall see, will be open to them again, +where lately they numbered nearly as many as the entire remnant of their +nation numbers now; so, too, will be the cities of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia in the New Turkey which we are attempting to sketch. +They will probably not care to settle in the towns and districts that +will remain in the hands of their late oppressors and murderers. + +In the work of their repatriation none will be more eager to help than +the American missionaries, who, at the time of the last massacre, as so +often before, showed themselves so nobly disregardant of all personal +danger and risk in doing their utmost for their murdered flock, and who +have explicitly declared their intention of resuming their work. With +regard to the eviction of Kurds that will be necessary, it must be +remembered that the Kurd is a trespasser on the plains and towns of +Armenia, and properly belongs to the mountains from which he was +encouraged to descend by the Turks for purposes of massacre. Out of +those towns and plains he must go, either into the mountains of Armenia +from whence he came, or over the frontier of Armenia into the New Turkey +presently to be defined. He must, in fact, be deported, though not in +the manner of the deportations at which he himself so often assisted. + +The Armenians who will thus be reinstated within the boundaries of their +own territory, will be practically penniless and without any of the +means or paraphernalia of life, and the necessary outlay on supplies for +them, and the cost of their rehabilitation would naturally fall on the +protecting Power. They will, however, be free from the taxes they have +hitherto paid to the Turks, and it should not be difficult for them by +means of taxes far less oppressive, to pay an adequate interest on the +moneys expended on them. These would thus take the form of a very small +loan, the whole of which could easily be repaid by the Armenians in the +course of a generation or so. Once back on their own soil, and free from +Turkish tyranny and the possibility of it, they are bound to prosper, +even as they have prospered hitherto in spite of oppressions and +massacres up till the year 1915, when, as we have seen, the liberal and +progressive Nationalists organised and executed the extermination from +which so few escaped. + +It is hardly necessary to point out who the protecting Power would be in +the case of the repatriated Armenians, for none but Russia is either +desirable or possible. With one side along the Russian frontier of +Trans-Caucasia, the New Armenia necessarily falls into the sphere of +Russian influence. + +It has been suggested that not only Armenia proper, but part of Cilicia +should also become a district of the repatriated Armenians, with an +outlet to the sea. But while it is true that complete compensation would +demand this, since Zeitun and other districts in Cilicia were almost +pure Armenian settlements, I cannot think that such a restoration is +desirable. For, in the first place, the extermination of the Zeitunlis +(as carried out by Jemal the Great) was practically complete. All the +men were slaughtered, and it does not seem likely that any of the women +and girls who were deported reached the 'agricultural colony' of +Deir-el-Zor in the Arabian desert. It is therefore difficult to see of +whom the repatriation would consist. In the second place, the New +Armenia will be for several generations to come of an area more than +ample for all the Armenians who have survived the flight into Russia, +and it obviously will give them the best chance of corporate prosperity, +if the whole of them are repatriated in a compact body rather than that +a portion of them should be formed into a mere patch severed from their +countrymen by so large a distance. Another sphere of influence also will +be operating near the borders of Cilicia, and to place the Armenians +under two protecting Powers would have serious disadvantages. In +addition they never were a sea-going people, and I cannot see what +object would be served by giving them a coast-board. In any case, if a +coast-board was found necessary, the most convenient would be the +coast-board of the Black Sea, lying adjacent to their main territory. + +If it seems clear that for New Armenia the proper protecting Power is +Russia, it is no less clear that for the freed inhabitants of New Syria, +Arabs and Greeks alike, the proper protecting Power is France. +Historically France's connection with Syria dates from the time of the +Crusades in 1099; it has never been severed, and of late years the ties +between the two countries have been both strengthened and multiplied. +The Treaties of Paris, of London, of San Stefano, and of Berlin have all +recognised the affiliation; so, too, from an ecclesiastical standpoint, +have the encyclicals of Leo XIII. in 1888 and 1898. Similarly, it was +France who intervened in the Syrian massacres of 1845, who landed troops +for the protection of the Maronites in 1860, and established a +protectorate of the Lebanon there a few years later, which lasted up +till the outbreak of the European War. France was the largest holder, as +she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the harbour of +Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most flourishing ports +of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a French enterprise. And perhaps +more important than all these, as a link between Syria and France, has +been the educational penetration which France has effected there. What +the American missionaries did for Armenia, France has done for Syria, +and according to a recent estimate, of the 65,000 children who attended +European schools throughout Syria, not less than 40,000 attended French +schools. When we consider that that proportion has been maintained for +many years in Syria, it can be estimated how strong the intellectual +bond between the Syrian and the French now is. The French language, +similarly, is talked everywhere: it is as current as is modern Greek in +ports of the Levant. + +In virtue of such claims few, if any, would dispute the title of France +to be the protecting Power in the case of Syria. Here there will not +be, as was the case with the Armenians, any work of repatriation to be +done. Such devastation and depopulation as has been wrought by Jemal the +Great, with hunger and disease to help him, was wrought on the spot, +and, though it will take many years to heal the wounds inflicted by that +barbaric plagiarist of Potsdam, it is exactly the deft and practical +sympathy of the French with the race they have so long tended, which +will most speedily bring back health to the Syrians. + +It will be with regard to the geographical limits of a French +protectorate that most difficulty is likely to be experienced; there +will also be points claiming careful solution, as will be seen later, +with regard to railway control. Northwards and eastwards the natural +delimitations seem clear enough: northwards French Syria would terminate +with, and include, the province of Aleppo, eastwards the Syrian desert +marks its practical limits, the technical limit being supplied by the +course of the Euphrates. But southwards there is no such natural line of +demarcation; the Arab occupation stretches right down till it reaches +the Hedjaz, which already has thrown off the Turkish yoke and, under the +Shereef of Mecca, declared its independence. Inset into this long strip +of territory lies Palestine. + +Now to make one single French protectorate over this very considerable +territory seems at first sight a large order, but the objections to any +other course are many and insuperable. Should the line of French +influence be drawn farther north than the Hedjaz, under what protection +is the intervening territory to be left? At present it is Turkish, but +inhabited by Arabs, and, unless the Allies revoke the fulness of their +declaration not to leave alien peoples under the 'murderous tyranny' of +the Turks, Turkish it cannot remain. But both by geographical situation +and by racial interest, it belongs to French-protected Syria, and there +seems no answer to the question as to what sphere of influence it comes +under if not under the French. Just as properly, if we take this view of +the question, the Sinaitic Peninsula, largely desert, would fall to +Egypt, the French protectorate being defined westwards at Akabah. That +the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez should not be under the same +control as the Western has always been an anomaly, admitted even by the +sternest opponents of the status of Egypt; and in the absence of any +canal corresponding to that of Suez, and debouching into the Red Sea +_via_ the Gulf of Akabah, the most advanced champion of French influence +in the Near East would see no objection to this rectified frontier. +There is no question of competition involved. The proposed change is but +a rational rectification of the present status. + +This scheme of delimitation leaves Palestine inset into the French +protectorate of Syria, and it is difficult to see to whom the +protectorate of Palestine should be properly assigned except to France. +Italy has no expansive ambitions in that sector of the Mediterranean; +England's national sphere of influence in this partition of the +districts now occupied by alien peoples in the Ottoman Empire lies +obviously elsewhere; and since the Jews, who settled in ever-increasing +numbers in Palestine before the war, and will assuredly continue to +settle there again, come and will come as refugees from the Russian +Pale, it would be clearly inadvisable to assign to Russia the +protectorate of her own refugees. The only other alternative would be to +create an independent Palestine for the Jews, and the reasons against +that are overwhelming. It would be merely playing into the hands of +Germany to make such an arrangement. For the last thirty years Germany +has watched with personal and special interest this immigration of Jews +into Palestine, seeing in it not so much a Jewish but a German +expansion. Indeed, when, in the spring of this year, as we have noticed, +a massacre and deportation of Jews was planned and begun by Jemal, +Germany so far reversed her usual attitude towards massacres in general, +and her expressed determination never to interfere in Turkey's internal +affairs, as to lodge a peremptory protest, and of course got the +persecution instantly stopped. Her reason was that Pan-Turkish 'ideals' +(the equivalent for the massacre of alien people) had no sort of +meaning in Palestine. But the Pan-Germanic ideals had a great deal of +meaning in Palestine, as Dr. Davis Treitsch _(Die Jüden der Türkei)_ +very clearly states. For 'as a result of the war,' he tells us, 'there +will be an emigration of East-European Jews on an unprecedented scale + ... the disposal of the East European Jews will be a problem for Germany +(and) Germans will be only too glad to find a way out in the emigration +of those Jews to Turkey, a solution extraordinarily favourable to the +interests of all _three [sic]_ parties concerned. There are grounds for +talking of a German protectorate over the whole of Jewry.' + +Now this is explicit enough; Germany clearly contemplated a protectorate +over Palestine, and if the Jews who are German-speaking Jews are left +independent, there is nothing more certain than that, after the war, her +penetration of Palestine will instantly begin. These colonists are, and +will be, in want of funds for the development and increase of their +cultivated territories, and when we consider the names of the prominent +financiers in the Central Empires, Mendelssohn, Hirsch, Goldsmid, +Bleichroeder, Speyer, to name only a few, we cannot be in much doubt as +to the quarter from which that financial assistance will be forthcoming, +on extremely favourable terms. It is safe to prophesy that, if Palestine +is given independence without protectorate, in three years from the end +of the war it will be under not only a protectorate, but a despotism as +complete as ever ruled either Turkey or Prussia. True it is that the +Zionist movement will offer, even as it has offered in the past, a +strenuous opposition to Germanisation, but it would be crediting it with +an inconceivable vitality to imagine that it will be able to resist the +blandishments that Germany is certainly prepared to shower on it. For +great as is the progress the Jewish settlers made in Palestine during +the twenty or twenty-five years before the war, and strong as is the +spirit of Zionism, the emigrants do not as yet number more than about +120,000, nor have they under crops more than ten per cent. of the +cultivated land of Palestine. They are as yet but settlers, and their +work is before them. If left without a protectorate they will not be +without a protectorate long, but not such an one as the Allies desire. A +protectorate there must be, and no reason is really of weight against +that protectorate being French. Let that, then, extend from the +Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from Alexandretta to where the +Hedjaz already prospers in its self-proclaimed independence. It will be +completely severed from Turkey by tracts under protection of one or +other of the Allied Powers, any expedition through which would be an act +of war. + +The Euphrates, then, will form the eastern boundary of the French +protectorate: it will also, it is hoped, form the western boundary of +the English protectorate, which we know as Mesopotamia. Just as no other +Power has any real claim to Armenia, except Russia, just as Syria can +fall to no other than France, it seems equally clear that the proper +sphere of English influence is in this plain that stretches southwards +from the semicircle of hills where the two great rivers approach each +other near Diarbekr to the head of the Persian Gulf. As Germany very +well knows, it is intimately concerned with our safe tenure of India, +and the hold the Germans hoped to gain over it, and have for ever lost, +by their possession of the Bagdad Railway was vital to their dreams of +world-conquest. Equally vital to England was it that Germany should +never get it. But its importance to us as a land-route to India is by no +means the only reason why an English sphere of influence is indicated +here: it is the possibilities it harbours, which, as far as can be seen, +England is the only Power capable of developing, that cause us to put in +a claim for its protectorate which none of our Allies will dispute. + +To restore Mesopotamia to the rank it has held, and to the rank it still +might hold among the productive districts of the East, there is needed a +huge capital for outlay, and a huge population of workers. Even Germany, +in her nightmare of world-dominion, from which she shall be soon dragged +screaming-awake, never formulated a scheme for the restoration of +Southern Mesopotamia to its productive pre-eminence, and never so much +as contemplated it, except as an object that would be possible of +realisation after the Empire of India had fallen over-ripe into her +pelican mouth. Therein she was perfectly right--she usually is right in +these dreams of empire in so far as they are empirical--for she seems +dimly to have conjectured in these methodical visions, that India was +the key to unlock Southern Mesopotamia. But nowhere can I find that she +guessed it: I only guess that she guessed it. + +This problem of capital outlay and of the necessary man-power for work +and restoration applies exclusively to Southern Mesopotamia, which we +may roughly define as the district stretching from Samara on the Tigris +and Hit on the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Northern Mesopotamia, as +Dr. Rohrbach points out in his _Bagdadbahn_, needs only the guarantee of +security of life and property to induce the Kurds to descend from the +hills and the Bedouin Arabs to settle down there; and by degrees, under +a protectorate that insures them against massacre and confiscation of +property, there seems no doubt that the area of cultivation will spread +and something of the ancient prosperity return. The land is immensely +fertile: it is only Ottoman misrule, which here, as everywhere else, has +left desolation in the place of prosperity and death in place of life. +The rainfall is adequate, the climate suitable to those who will +naturally spread there: it needs only freedom from the murderous tyranny +that has bled it for centuries past, to guarantee its future prosperity. + +But Southern Mesopotamia is a totally different proposition. The land +lies low between the rivers, and, though of unparalleled fertility, +yields under present conditions but a precarious livelihood to its +sparse population. For nine months of the year it is a desert, for three +months when its rivers are in flood, a swamp. Once, as we all know, it +was the very heart of civilisation, and from its arteries flowed out the +life-blood of the world. Rainfall was scarcely existent, any more than +it is existent in Southern or Upper Egypt; but in the days of Babylon +the Great there were true rulers and men of wisdom over these +desiccated regions, who saw that every drop of water in the river, that +now pours senselessly through swamp and desert into the sea, was a grain +of corn or a stalk of cotton. They dug canals, they made reservoirs, and +harnessed like some noble horse of the gods the torrents that now gallop +unbridled through dreary deserts. The black land, the Sawad, was then +the green land of waving corn, where three crops were annually harvested +and the average yield was two hundredfold of the seed sown. The wheat +and barley, so Herodotus tells us, were a palm-breadth long in the +blade, and millet and sesame grew like trees. And in these details the +revered Father of Lies seems to have spoken less than the truth, for the +statistics we get elsewhere more than bear out his accounts of its +amazing fertility. From its wealth before his day had arisen the might +of Babylon, and for centuries later, while the canals still regulated +the water supply, it remained the granary of the world. More than a +thousand years after Herodotus there were over 12,500,000 acres in +cultivation, and the husbandmen thereof with the dwellers in its cities +numbered 5,000,000 men. Then came the Arab invasion, which was bad +enough, but colossally worse was the invasion of the Osmanli. Truly 'a +fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell +therein.' + +But the potentiality for production of that great alluvial plain is not +diminished; the Turks could not dispose of that by massacre, as a means +of weakening the strength of their subject peoples. It is still there, +ready to respond to the spell of the waters of Tigris and Euphrates, +which once, when handled and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of +the Lord. + +Not long before the present European War Sir William Willcocks, under +whose guidance the great modern irrigation works at Assouan were +constructed, was appointed adviser to the Ottoman Ministry of Public +Works, and his report on the Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in +1911. He tells us that the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable +of easy levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic +scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the +refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we need not +go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly conservative basis, +give the following results. He proposes to restore, of course with +modern technical improvements, the old system of canals, and, allowing +for interest on loans, estimates the total expense at £26,000,000 (or +the cost of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of +the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no enlargement in +detail and no comment. + +But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the irrigation works +is easy, the profits are safe so long as the Tigris and 'the ancient +river,' the river Euphrates, run their course. But all the irrigation +works in the world will not raise a penny for the investor or a grain +for the miller unless there are men to sow and gather the crops. A +million are necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is +'Egypt and India.' + +This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and its future +must be in English hands, why no other country can undertake it with +hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. Rohrbach, whose _Bagdadbahn_ I +have quoted before, is forced to acknowledge that there is no solution +to the man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans from +other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak prevail.' It is +true that he starts upon the assumption that Mesopotamia will remain +Turkish (under a German protectorate, as we read between his lines), +with which we must be permitted to disagree, but his conclusion is quite +correct. Even under German protection he realises that citizens of +well-governed states will not flock by the million to put themselves +under Turkish control, and he dismisses as inadequate the numbers of +Syrians, Arabs, Armenians and Jews who can be transported to Mesopotamia +from inside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Their numbers are even +more inadequate since the Armenian massacres permitted by Dr. Rohrbach's +Fatherland, and even he cannot picture a million of his own countrymen +forsaking the beer-gardens for summers in the Sawad. He does not +positively state our answer, that it is from India and Egypt that the +man-power will be supplied, but, as mentioned before, I think he guesses +it. His prophetic gifts are not convincing enough to himself to let him +state the glorious future, when India and Egypt shall become German, but +that, I feel sure, is his vision: 'he sees it, but not now; he beholds +it, but not nigh.' + +But we can give the answer which he does not quite like to state, since +for the English it is clearly more easily realisable. The native labour +we can supply from Egypt and India, especially India, will furnish a +million labourers, and, if we wished, two millions without difficulty. +But no Power except England can furnish it. And that, I submit, is the +solution of the problem of Mesopotamia; a solution well within the power +of English enterprise to attain in the hands of such men as have already +bridled the Nile, the water-horsemen of the world. And I cannot do +better, in trying to convey the spirit in which this work of +reclamation should be undertaken, than by quoting some very noble words +from Sir William Willcocks's report, in which he speaks of the +desolation that has come to this garden of fruitfulness through wicked +stewardship. + +'The last voyage I made before coming to this country was up the Nile +from Khartoum to the Equatorial lakes. In this most desperate and +forbidding region I was filled with pride to think I belonged to a race +whose sons, even in this inhospitable waste of waters, were struggling +in the face of a thousand discouragements to introduce new forest trees +and new agricultural products and ameliorate in some degree the +conditions of life of the naked and miserable inhabitants. How should I +have felt, if in traversing the deserts and swamps which to-day +represent what was the richest and most famous tract in the world, I had +thought that I was the scion of a race in whose hands God has placed, +for hundreds of years, the destinies of this great country, and that my +countrymen could give no better account of their stewardship than the +exhibition of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste +themselves in the sea for nine months of the year, and desolating +everything in their way for the remaining three? No effort that Turkey +can make can be too great to roll away the reproach of those parched and +weary lands, whose cry ascends to heaven.' + +But the harvests of Mesopotamia, when gathered in, must needs be +transported, and for that railways are necessary. Water transport would, +of course, carry them easily down to the Persian Gulf, but the supply +will be mainly, if not wholly, wanted westwards, and it must be conveyed +to the shores of the Mediterranean. Already, in preparation for +world-conquest, Germany has proceeded far with her construction of the +Bagdad Railway, which was intended, after her absorption of Turkey, to +link up Berlin with her next Oriental objective, namely, India; the +Taurus has been tunnelled, the Euphrates bridged, and but for a hiatus +of a few miles the line is practically complete from Constantinople into +Northern Mesopotamia. But its route was chosen for German strategic +reasons, for the linking up of Berlin with Constantinople and Bagdad. +This, it may be permitted to say, does not form part of the schemes of +the Allies: it is to snap rather than weld such links that they have +taken the field. What we want in the matter of railway transport for the +harvests of Mesopotamia, and generally for our Eastern communications, +is not a line that passes through Turkish and German soil, and +terminates at Berlin, but one which, after the directest possible +land-route, reaches the Mediterranean and terminates in suitable ports. + +The reader therefore is requested to _unthink_ the present Bagdad +Railway altogether, to 'scrap' it in his mind, as it will be probably +scrapped on the map, since it is utterly useless for our purposes. For +taking Aleppo as (roughly) the half-way house in the existent line, we +find that the western half of it lies in Asia Minor, in territory which, +as we shall see, will remain Turkish, while the eastern half of it makes +a long detour instead of striking directly for Bagdad. After our +experience with Turkey there is nothing less conceivable than that we +should allow a single mile of our new Mesopotamia Railway to run +through the territory of the Turks, for who knows that she might not +(say when harvests are ripe and ready for delivery), on any arbitrary +pretext, close or destroy the line, even as before now she has closed +the Dardanelles? Besides, for our purposes, a line that goes to +Constantinople (in whosoever hands Constantinople may be after the war) +is out of the way and altogether unsuitable. Eastwards, again, from +Aleppo the present Bagdad line is circuitous and indirect, admirably +adapted to the German purposes for which it was constructed, but utterly +unadapted to ours. + +Let us then 'scrap' the existent Bagdad route altogether, and consider +not what the Germans want, but what we want, which, as has been already +stated, is a direct land communication with suitable Mediterranean +ports. Of those there are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and +Beirut, of which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and +potentiality of increased importance. Two possible routes therefore +would seem to suggest themselves, one running from Alexandretta to +Aleppo, and thence following pretty closely the course of the Euphrates +till it reaches Hit, and from there striking directly to Bagdad. Aleppo +is already connected with Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of +Tripoli), and also with Beirut by branch lines making a junction at +Homs, and thus all those ports will be brought together on one system. +But if the reader will glance at the map, he will see that by far the +most direct communication with Bagdad would be to run the railway direct +from there to Homs, thus making Homs rather than Aleppo the central +junction of the system. From Homs lines would run northward to Aleppo, +due west to Tripoli, and south-west to Beirut. Either of those routes, +in any case, would be infinitely preferable to the long loop which the +present Bagdad Railway traverses, as planned on German lines and for +German requirements. The new railway will thus lie exclusively in +territory under French and English protectorate, and will probably be +their joint enterprise and property. + +Prospectively then, as regards the fulfilment of the solemn pledge of +the Allies to liberate subject peoples from the murderous tyranny of the +Turks, we have discussed the future of Armenia, of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia. All those are well defined districts, and the +demarcation of their respective protectorates should not present great +difficulties. But there remains, before we pass on to the problem of +Constantinople, a further district less easily defined, largely +inhabited by European peoples whose liberty in the future we are pledged +to secure. This is the Mediterranean coastline to the south and west of +Asia Minor, the towns of which have been so extensively peopled and made +prosperous by Greeks and Italians. Similarly among those of our European +Allies who are desirous and capable of Eastern expansion, there remains +one, Italy, whose rights to partake in this Turkish partition we have +not yet considered. In the shifting kaleidoscope of national +war-politics, it seems at the moment of writing by no means impossible +that Greece, having at length got rid of a treacherous and unstable +Reuben of a monarch, may redeem her pledge to Serbia, in which case, no +doubt, she too would state the terms of her desired and legitimate +expansion. But these would more reasonably be concerned with the +redistribution of the Balkan Peninsula, which does not come within the +scope of this book, and we may prophesy without fear of invoking the +Nemesis that so closely dogs the heels of seers, that Italy will +legitimately claim (or perhaps has already claimed) the protectorate of +this valuable littoral. Certain it is that, when peace returns, the +large population of Greeks and Italians once resident (and soon again to +be) on these coasts, must be given the liberty and security which they +will never enjoy so long as they remain in Turkish hands, and the hands +that have earned the right to be protecting Power are assuredly Italian. +Along the south coast a line including the Taurus range would seem to +suggest a natural frontier inland from Adana on the east to the +south-west corner of Asia Minor, and from there a similar strip would +pass up the coast as far as, and inclusive of, Smyrna. That at least +Italy has every right to expect, and there seems no great fear that +among the International Councils there will arise a dissentient voice. +The inland boundary on the west coast is the difficult section of this +delimitation, and into the details of that it would be both rash and +inexpedient to enter. + + +II + +We pass, then, to the second avowed object of the Allies, namely, the +expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman rule, which has proved itself so +radically alien to Western civilisation. This must be taken to include +not only the expulsion of the Turkish control from Thrace and +Constantinople, but from the eastern side as well of the Bosporus, the +Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. At no future time must Turkey be in +a position to command even partially a single yard of that momentous +channel through which alone our Allies, Russia and Rumania, have access +to the Mediterranean. Though this was not formally stated in the Allies' +reply to President Wilson, it is clearly part and parcel of the object +in view, for while the Ottoman Empire retains the smallest control on +either side of either of the Straits, she is so far able to interfere in +European concerns, in which she must never more have a hand. The east +shore, then, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora, as well as the west, +must be under the control of a Power, or a group of Powers, not alien to +Western civilisation. Germany and her allies therefore, no less than +Turkey, must be excluded from the guardianship of the Straits. + +As we have had previous occasion to note, this ejection of the Turkish +power from Constantinople is the absolute reversal of European and, in +especial, of English policy for the last hundred years. No crime that +the Ottoman Government could commit, no act of barbarism, would ever +persuade us to do away with the anachronism of Turkey's existence in +Europe; but at last the seismic convulsion of the war has knocked this +policy into a heap of disjected ruins, and it can never be rebuilt again +on the old lines. For among our other avowed objects in prosecuting the +war to its victorious end, we have pledged ourselves to uphold the +right which all peoples, whether small or great, have to the enjoyment +of full security and free economic development. But while Turkey can +close the Straits at her own arbitrary will, or at the bidding of a +superior and malevolent Power, and block the passage of ships from +Russian and Rumanian ports into the Mediterranean, the economic +development of both these countries is seriously menaced. Three times +within the last six years has she exercised that right, and while she +holds the shores of the Straits she can at any moment blockade all +southern Russian ports. That such power should be in the hands of any +nation is highly undesirable; that it should be in the hands of a +corrupt despotism like Turkey, especially now that Germany, as things +stand, can dictate to Turkey when and what she pleases, is a thing +unthinkable by the most improvident of statesmen. Already we have paid +dearly enough for the pusillanimity of a hundred years: it is impossible +that we should ever allow a similar bill to be again presented. +Whatever be the guardianship of the Straits, whoever the holder of +Constantinople, it will not be Turkey. + +At the beginning of the war, and indeed till after the revolution in +Russia, it was announced and stated as an axiom that on the conclusion +of peace, Russia should be the door-keeper of what after all is her own +lodge-gate. Subsequently, in the unhappy splits and disintegration of +her Government, it was announced that she favoured peace without +annexation--in other words, that she neither claimed nor desired the +guardianship of Constantinople. But I think we should be utterly wrong +if we regarded that as an expression of the will of the Russian people: +it is far more probable that it was the expression of the will of +Germany, directly inspired by German influence with a view to concluding +a separate peace with Russia. As we have seen, it had its due effect in +Turkey, and Talaat Bey gave vent to pious ejaculations of thanksgiving, +that now all cause of quarrel with Russia was removed, and Turkey and +she could be friends. It is possible that when out of the confused +cries there again rises from Russia the clear call of the people's +voice, we shall find her wishing to set in order her own house before +she projects herself on new missions, but, as far as the manifesto of +'peace without territorial annexation' goes, we shall be wise to regard +it for the present with the profoundest suspicion. It sounds far more +like the tones of the Central European wolf than those of Little Red +Riding Hood's proper grandmother. + +But be Russia's decision what it may, the Turk will hold sway no longer +in Thrace or Constantinople, or on the shores of the Straits of the Sea +of Marmora. There is, of course, no question of deporting the whole of +the Turkish population that lives in those regions, nor would it be +desirable, even if it were possible, to realise Gladstone's robust +vision of seeing every Turk, 'bag and baggage,' clear out from the +provinces they have desolated and profaned. But if not under Russia, +then under the joint control of certain of the Allied Powers there will +be a complete reconstruction of the administration of those districts. +The headquarters of the protectorate will doubtless be at +Constantinople, which will be reorganised somewhat on the lines of the +Treaty Port of Shanghai, and will be open to the ships of all nations. +The security of the town must be assured by a military garrison either +of mixed troops of the controlling nations, or possibly by a rotation of +troops drawn from the armies of each in turn. More important even than +this will be the adequate control of the Straits by sea. A naval base +must be formed, which by the gospel of the freedom of the seas (but not +according to St. Goeben and the submarine disciples) will constitute a +patrolling police force of the waters. Whether the system of +fortifications and defences that lately rendered the Dardanelles +impregnable shall be retained or not is a question demanding the most +careful consideration. Some will hold that they should be maintained in +order to insure that none but the guarantors of the freedom of the +Straits shall ever take possession of them: others that they shall be +utterly dismantled and destroyed, so that the closing of the Straits +shall be an impossibility. The matter really turns on the question as to +the extent to which the Allies will have the prudence to cut Germany's +claws when the war is over. It is eminently to be hoped that they will +be cut so short that never again will they be able to show those +chiselled talons beyond her velvet--that sense, in fact, will allow +sentiment no word to say. Unfortunately, there are a great many people +the basis of whose character consists of a washy confidence in the good +intentions of everybody. Most mistakenly they call it Christianity. + +Here, then, has been outlined the effect of the Allies' declared aims. +Such territories as Turkey holds in Europe, such control as she +possesses over the free passage of the Straits must pass from her, and +the alien peoples, who for centuries have fainted and bled underneath +her infamous yoke, must be led out of the land of bondage. As we have +seen throughout preceding chapters, it was the fixed policy of the +Ottoman Government to rid itself of their presence, and already it has +gone far in its murderous mission. Indeed the avowed aims of the +Allies, when accomplished, will do that work for her, for the Allies are +determined to remove those peoples from Turkey. The difference of +execution, however, consists in this, that they will not remove Arabs +and Greeks and Italians and Jews, as Turkey has already done with the +Armenians by the simple process of massacres, but by a process no less +simple, namely, of taking out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire +the districts where such peoples dwell. The Allies will accomplish, in +fact, for the Turks that policy of Ottomanisation which was the aim of +Abdul Hamid, and has been the aim of his more murderous successors. +Turkey shall henceforth be for the Turks: she shall no more be in +'danger' from the defenceless nations, who at present exist within her +borders. The Sultan of Turkey, in some year of grace now not far +distant, will find that his Ottomanisation has been done for him, and, +though his realm is curtailed, he will have his rest broken no more by +the thought of Arab risings, nor will he have to devise measures that +will solve the Arab question. Except for a strip along the west and +south coast, all Asia Minor and Anatolia will be his from the Black Sea +to the Mediterranean, but Syria, Armenia, the coast of Asia Minor, +Palestine, and Mesopotamia shall have passed from him. It is no +dismemberment of an Empire that the Allies contemplate, for they cannot +dismember limbs that never belonged to the real trunk. It was a despotic +military control that the Osmanlis had established, they always regarded +their subject peoples as aliens, whom they did not scruple to destroy if +they exhibited symptoms of progress and civilisation. Henceforth the +Turkish Government shall govern Turks, and Turks alone. That for many +years has been its aim, and, by the disastrous dispensation of fate, it +has been largely able to realise its purpose. Now, though by different +methods, the Allies will see thorough accomplishment of it. There will +be no question, of course, of turning out or of deporting Turks who live +in Syria, in Armenia, in Constantinople, for the ways of the Allies are +not those of Talaat and Enver and Jemal the Great. Where to-day Turks +dwell, there shall they continue to dwell, but they must dwell there in +peace in equal liberties and rights with the once-subject peoples whom +the Allies shall have delivered. If they do not like that they can +migrate, not by forced marches and under the guardianship of murderous +Kurds, but in protection and security, to the lands where they can still +enjoy the beneficent sway of their own governors, and be Ottomanised to +the top of their bent. But Syrians and Armenians and Greeks and Jews +will be Ottomanised no longer. + +The Turk was always a fighter, disciplined and courageous, and he has +never lost that virtue of valour. But he has been a fighter because he +has always lived under a military despotism which demanded his services, +and it is much to be doubted whether his qualities in this regard will +for the future be exercised as they have been in the past. For the +Turkish armies, in so far as they have consisted of Turks, have been +chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of Anatolia, who, +when not summoned to their country's colours, or ordered to maltreat and +massacre, are quiet, rather indolent folk, content to plough their lands +and reap an exiguous but sufficient harvest. And for their lords and +governors, who, until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies, +there will no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as +in the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the necessity +for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit lands which it +governed. But now, instead of having alien and defenceless tribes within +their borders, tribes forbidden to bear arms and chafing at the Turkish +yoke, they will see free peoples under the protectorates of Powers that +are capable of self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment. +Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be established +in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and the New Turkey will be +as powerless for aggression as she will be for defence, should she +provoke attack. But within their borders there may the Osmanlis dwell +secure and undisturbed, so long as they conform to the habits of +civilised people with regard to their neighbours, and it is a question +whether, now that the military despotism which has always misguided the +fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, and no +need of securing security, the nation will not settle down into the +quiet existence of small neutral countries. Perhaps the last chapter of +its savage and blood-stained history is already almost finished, and in +years to come some little light of progress and of civilisation may be +kindled in the abode where the household gods for centuries have been +cruelty and hate. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII_ + + +THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS + +It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' aims as +regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the subject peoples +dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself has to be delivered from +a domination not less barbaric than her own, which, if allowed to +continue, would soon again be a menace to the peace of the world. We +have seen in a previous chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's +nippers, how closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have +to consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, and +what will be the condition of the victim, already bled white, when that +has been done. In the beginning, as we have seen, Germany obtained her +hold by professing a touchingly beautiful and philanthropic desire to +help Turkey to realise her national ideals, and her Pecksniffs, Tekin +Alp and Herr Ernst Marré, were bidden to write parallel histories, the +one describing the aims of the Nationalist party, the other the +benevolent interest which Germany took in them. Occasionally Herr Ernst +Marré could not but remember that he was a German, and permitted us to +see the claws of the cat, without quite letting it out of the bag, but +then he pulled the strings tight again, and only loud comfortable +purrings could be heard, the Prussian musings over the 'liberation' of +Turkey which she was helping to accomplish. But nowadays, so it seems to +me, the strings have been loosened, and the claws and teeth are clearly +visible. It is not so long since Dr. Schnee, Governor of German East +Africa, sent a very illuminating document to Berlin from which I extract +the following:-- + +'Do you consider it possible to make a regulation prohibiting Islam +altogether? The encouragement of pig-breeding among natives is +recommended by experts as an effective means of stopping the spread of +Islam....' + +That seems clear enough, and I can imagine Talaat Bey, with his sword +of honour in his hand, exclaiming with the Oysters in _Alice in +Wonderland_:-- + +'After such kindness that would be + A dismal thing to do.' + +But I am afraid that Germany is contemplating (as indeed she has always +done) a quantity of dismal things to do, and is now, like the Walrus and +the Carpenter, beginning to let them appear. She has taken the Turkish +oysters out for a nice long walk, and when the war is over she proposes +to sit down and eat them. And did she not also interfere in the affair +of Jewish massacres and declare that 'Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of +meaning in Palestine'? That must have been almost an unfriendly act from +Turkey's point of view, for it cannot be stated too clearly that part of +the price which Germany paid for Turkey's entry on her side into the +war, was the liberty, as far as Germany was concerned, of managing her +internal affairs, massacres and the rest, as best suited the damnable +doctrines of Ottomanisation. The other Powers could not interfere, for +they failed to force the Dardanelles, and Germany promised not to. That +promise, of course, was binding on Germany for just so long as it suited +her to keep it, and it suited her to keep it, on the whole, during the +Armenian massacres. And in that matter her refusal to interfere is, +among all her crimes, the very flower and felicity of her vileness. + +Signs are not wanting that Turkey is beginning to realise the position +in which she has placed herself, namely, that of a bankrupt dependant at +the mercy of a nation to whom that quality is a mere derision. Lately a +quantity of small incidents have occurred, such as disputes over the +ownership of properties financed by Germany and the really melodramatic +depreciation in the German coinage, which unmistakably show the swift +ebb of Turkey's misplaced confidence. More significant perhaps than any +is a transaction that took place in May 1917, when Talaat Bey and Enver +Pasha took the whole of their private fortunes out of the Deutsche Bank +in Constantinople, and invested them in two Swiss banks, namely, the +Banque Nationale de Suisse, and the Banque Fédérale: they drew out also +the whole funds of the Committee of Union and Progress, and similarly +transferred them. This operation was not effected without loss, for in +return for the Turkish £1 they received only thirteen francs. But it is +significant that they preferred to lose over fifty per cent. of their +capital, and have the moiety secure in Switzerland to leaving it in +Constantinople.[1] It is certain therefore that at both ends of the +scale a distrust of German management has begun. A starving population +has wrecked trains loaded with food-stuffs going to Germany, and at the +other end the men with the swords of honour and dishonour deem it wise +to put their money out of reach of the great Prussian cat. That the +Germans themselves are not quite at their ease concerning the security +of their hold may also be conjectured, for they are, as far as possible, +removing Turkish troops from Constantinople, and replacing them with +their own regiments. An instance of this occurred in June 1917, when, +owing to the discontent in the capital, it was found necessary to guard +bridges, residences of Ministers, and Government offices. But instead of +recalling Turkish troops from Galicia to do this, they kept them there +in the manner of hostages, mixed up in German regiments, and sent picked +bodies of German troops to Constantinople. Fresh corps of secret police +have also been formed to suppress popular manifestations. They are +allowed to 'remove' suspects by any means they choose, quite in the old +style of bag and Bosporus, but the organisation of them is German. And +well may the German Government distrust those signs of popular +discontent in a starving population: already the people have awoke to +the fact that the German paper money does not represent its face-value, +and, despite assurances to the contrary, it is at a discount scarcely +credible. Three German £1 notes are held even in Constantinople to be +the equivalent of a gold £1, while in the provinces upwards of five are +asked for, and given, in exchange for one gold pound. It is in vain that +German manifestoes are put forth declaring that all Government offices +will take the notes as an equivalent for gold, for what the people want +is not a traffic with Government offices, but the cash to buy food. Even +more serious is the fact that Austrian and Hungarian directors of banks +will no longer accept these scraps of paper. In vain, too, is it that +the hungry folk see the walls of the 'House of Friendship' rise higher +and higher in Constantinople, for every day they see with starving eyes +the trains loaded with sugar from Konia, and the harvests raised in +Anatolia with German artificial manures guarded by German troops and +rolling westwards to Berlin. According to present estimates the harvest +this year is so vastly more abundant than that of previous years, that +no comparison, as the Minister of Agriculture tells his gratified +Government, is possible. But the poorer classes get no more than the +leavings of it when the armies, which include the German army, have had +their wants supplied. The governing classes, whom it is necessary to +feed, are not yet suffering, for the Germans grant them enough, issuing +rations to such families as are proved adherents of the German-Turkish +combination, and until the pinch of want attacks them we should be +foolishly optimistic if we thought that a starving peasantry would cause +the collapse or the defection of Germany's newest and most valuable +colony. There is enough discontent to make Germany uneasy, but that is +all.[2] Long ago she proved the efficiency of her control, and the +successful pulling of her puppet-strings, and no instance of that is +more complete than the brief story of Yakub Jemil and the extinction of +him and his party, which, though it happened a full year ago, has only +lately been completely transmitted. Yakub Jemil was an influential +commander of a frontier guard near the Black Sea coast. In July 1916 he +went to Constantinople, accompanied by his staff (which included the +informant from whom this account is derived), and, being cordially +received by Enver and Talaat, discussed the situation with them. He +pointed out the demoralising effect of the Armenian massacres, and the +danger of Jemal the Great's attitude towards the Arabs in Syria, +realising, and seeking to make them realise, the stupendous folly of +making enemies of the subject peoples, and urging the re-establishment +of cordial relations between the Turks and them. That, considering that +Enver and Talaat were responsible (under the Germans) for the Armenian +massacres, was a brave outspeaking. He went on to say that Turkey was at +war not on behalf of herself, but on behalf of Germany, and that it +would be wise of the Government to consider the possibility of a +separate peace with the Powers of the Entente. He was heard with +interest, and took his leave. He remained in Constantinople, and his +views obtained him many adherents, not only among Turkish officers whose +sympathies were already alienated from Germany, but among members of the +Committee of Union and Progress. But before long his adherents began to +disappear, and he asked for another interview with Talaat. He was +received, as the informant states, 'with open arms,' for Talaat seized +and held him, called for the guard, and he was searched, and on him were +found certain documents which proved him to hold the views he had +already expressed. That now, was enough. He was 'interrogated' for two +days (interrogation is otherwise called torture), and was then hanged. +Subsequently 111 officers and men in the army also disappeared. Some +were marched into the Khiat Khana Valley, opposite Pera, and were +stabbed: others were sent under escort to the provinces and murdered. No +courts-martial of any kind were held. + +[Footnote 1: Similarly, in October of this year, a new Turkish law was +passed, prohibiting the acquisition of Turkish land by foreign settlers. +This is aimed point-blank at Germany, and has naturally annoyed Berlin +very much.] + +[Footnote 2: The army rations have lately been reduced, each Turkish +soldier receiving daily an oke of bread and a dried mackerel.] + +And should anybody doubt the efficiency of German control in Turkey, and +be disposed to be optimistic about the imminence of Turkey's detachment, +he might do well to ponder that story. + +Meantime the efficacy of our naval blockade is largely discounted by +Germany's new source of supply. Possibly in the ensuing winter of +1917-18 conditions may get unbearable, but if the Turkish Government +only two years ago massacred more than a million of its subjects, it +would be absurd to expect that the starving of a million more would +produce much effect on the Ministers of the Turkish God of Love.[1] The +people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how famine is +decimating England and France, and how the total starvation of those +unfortunate countries is imminent. Indeed, of all the signs of want of +confidence in their German overlords, by far the most promising are the +facts that Talaat and Enver have sent their money out of the country, +and that Jemal the Great has a swelled head. On these facts there is a +certain justifiable optimism to be based. It will do no good to consider +them academically in London; but are there not practical channels to +reach the instincts of the Turkish triumvirate that might be navigated? + +[Footnote 1: The following list of prices in Constantinople is of +interest:-- + + July 1914. July 1917. +Rice, per lb. 2-1/4 d. 3s. 4d. +Milk, per quart 5d. 2s. +Flour, per lb. 3d. 2s. 6d. +Petroleum, per lb. 1d. 4s. 6d. +Pair of boots £1 £8. ] + +We need not trouble ourselves with considering what the Allies will +have to do with the Turkish army when once the end of the war comes, for +the collapse of the military party in Turkey, which owes its whole +vitality to Germany, will be perfect and complete. But the economical +future of Turkey is not so plain: at the present moment its bankruptcy +is total. Early in the war Germany drained it of such bullion as it had, +and has since then advanced it about £150,000,000, which, as far as I +can trace, is entirely in German paper, and must be redeemed in gold at +some period (chiefly two years) after the end of the war. That is +wonderful finance, and one marvels that Turkey could have been so far +blinded as to accept it. But I expect that the swallowing of the first +loan was sweetened by a spoonful of jam of this kind. Germany pointed +out that, though England was quite certainly going to lose the war, she +had issued an immense paper coinage which had all the purchasing power +of gold. Germany, on the other hand, with her dear Ally to help her, was +just as certainly going to win the war. How, then, could there be the +slightest risk of the German paper money depreciating a single piastre +in value? That sounded very good sense to Turkey, who was equally +convinced that she would be on the victorious side (else she would not +have joined it), and down went the loan with a pleasant sensation of +sweetness. A second loan was easily induced by the failure of the +Dardanelles expedition, and about then the 'ignorant' Turkish peasant +began to wonder whether the paper was quite as valuable as gold, and to +prefer gold or even the ordinary silver piastre to its German +equivalent. To counteract that, as we have seen, a law was passed making +it criminal to hoard gold, and, to complete the ruin, the silver piastre +was called in, and a nickel token was substituted.... We can but bow our +heads in reverence of the thoroughness of German swindling. + +Now Turkey is completely bankrupt, and we must ask ourselves why Germany +ever bargained for the repayment in gold, after the war, of the millions +she had lent the Turks in paper, if she knew that Turkey could never +repay her. True, the loans had only cost her the paper the notes were +printed on, so that in no case could she prove a loser, but how could +she be a gainer? The answer to that question shouts at us from every +acre of Turkish soil. The immense undeveloped riches of Turkey supply +the answer. Some indeed are already being developed, and the labour and +most of the materials have been paid for by the German paper notes. +There are the irrigation works at Adana, there is the beet-sugar +industry at Konia, the irrigation works in the Makischelin Valley, the +mineral concessions of the Bagdad Railway, the Haidar Pasha Harbour +concessions, the afforestation scheme near Constantinople, the cotton +industry in Anatolia--there is no end to them. Turkey may not be able to +pay in cash, but over all these concessions already working, and over a +hundred more, of which the concessions have been granted, Germany has a +complete hold, and her victim will pay in minerals and cotton and sugar +and corn. She will pay over and over and over again, as none who have +the smallest knowledge of Kultur-finance can possibly doubt. She is +bled white already, and for the rest of time bloodless and white will +she remain. Only one event can possibly avert her fate, and that is the +victory of the Allies. + +We have been so bold as to assume that this is not an impossible +contingency, and on that assumption there is a brighter future for +Turkey than the Prussian domination could ever bring her. Bankrupt she +is, but, as Germany saw, she is rich in possibilities even with regard +to the restricted territory to which she will surely find herself +limited, and it is a pleasant chance for her that Germany has already +been so busy in developing the resources of Anatolia. For Germany may +safely bet her last piece of paper money that she will not lay a finger +on them. + +The Turkey of the future is to be for the Turks; not for the persecuted +Armenians, nor for the Arabs, nor for the Greeks, and assuredly it is +not to be for the Prussians. While the war lasts, Germany may draw +supplies from the fields her artificial manures have enriched, and from +the acres that her paper money has planted, but after that no more. Her +Ottomanising work will be over. Such development (and it is far from +negligible) as she has done in Syria will be continued under French +protection for the Arabs, such as she has done in Mesopotamia under +English protection, and such as she has done in Anatolia will be +continued by the Turks to drag them out of the utter insolvency that she +has brought them to. Never before has a country so justly and so richly +deserved the repudiation of a debt incurred by the confidence trick. Not +a civilised Government in the world would dream of enforcing payment, +any more than a magistrate would enforce a payment to some +thimble-rigger returning from a race-meeting. + + +The roar of battle still renders inaudible all voices save its own, but +already the dusk begins to gather over the halls where sit the War-lord +and those who, for the realisation of their monstrous dreams, loosed +hell upon the world, and in the growing dusk there begin to steal upon +the wall the letters of pale flame that to them portend the doom, and to +us give promise of dawn. Faintly they can see the legend _Mene, Mene, +Tekel, Upharsin...._ + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. 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In The First.</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + * { font-family: Times;} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; right: 100%; font-size: 8pt; justify: right;} /* page numbers */ + // --> + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crescent and Iron Cross + +Author: E. F. Benson + +Release Date: February 17, 2004 [EBook #10881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, L Barber and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + <center> + <h1><b>CRESCENT AND</b></h1> + </center> + + <center> + <h1><b>IRON CROSS BY</b></h1> + </center> + + <center> + + </center> + + <center> + <h2><b>E.F. BENSON</b></h2> + </center> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Preface"></a> + + <center> + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface</i></h2> + </center>In compiling the following pages I have had access to + certain sources of official information, the nature of which I + am not at liberty to specify further. I have used these freely + in such chapters of this book as deal with recent and + contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in connection with + Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland + über Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I + have tried to be discriminating in their use, and have not, as + far as I am aware, stated anything derived from them as a fact, + for which I had not found corroborative evidence. With regard + to the Armenian massacres I have drawn largely on the testimony + collected by Lord Bryce, on that brought forward by Mr. Arnold + J. Toynbee in his pamphlet <i>The Murder of a Nation</i>, and + <i>The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks,</i> and on the pamphlet + by Dr. Martin Niepage, called <i>The Horrors of Aleppo</i>. In + the first chapter I have based the short historical survey on + the contribution of Mr. D.G. Hogarth to <i>The Balkans</i> + (Clarendon Press, 1915). The chapter called 'Thy Kingdom is + Divided' is in no respect at all an official utterance, and + merely represents the individual opinions and surmises of the + author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies + have pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from + Constantinople, and to remove out of the power of the Turk the + alien peoples who have too long already been subject to his + murderous rule. I have, in fact, but attempted to conjecture in + what kind of manner that promise will be fulfilled. + + <p>Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey + are continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one + would have to wait to the end of the war before beginning to + write at all on this subject. But since such usefulness as this + book may possibly have is involved with the necessity of its + appearance before the end of the war, I set a term to the + gathering of material, and, with the exception of two or three + notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. But + up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys + and arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on + my part.</p> + + <p>E.F. BENSON</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Contents"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents</i></h2> + <!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --><b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Preface"> + Preface</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_I">Chapter I - + The Theory of the Old Turks</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_II">Chapter II + - The Theory of the New Turks</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_III">Chapter + III - The End of the Armenian Question</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_IV">Chapter IV- + The Question of Syria and Palestine</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_V">Chapter V - + Deutschland Uber Allah</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VI">Chapter VI + - 'Thy Kingdom is Divided'</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VII">Chapter + VII - The Grip of the Octopus</a></i></b> + + <p><b><i>Images:</i></b><br> + <br> + <a href="Map1.JPG">Map 1 - The Turkish Empire (Top)</a><br> + <a href="Map2.JPG">Map 2 - The Turkish Empire (Bottom)</a><br> + <a href="Map3.JPG">Map 3 - The Balkan States 1878 & + 1914</a> <!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + <br> + </p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_I"></a> + + <center> + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I</i></h2> + </center> + + <center> + THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + </center> + + <p>The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his + phrase is applicable for the moment and for the situation in + view of which he coined it, but his coin has only a temporary + validity: it is good for a month or for a year, or for whatever + period during which the crisis lasts, and after that it lapses + again into a mere token, a thing without value and without + meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a monetary + coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over + the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on + being passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription + defaced by wear, long after it has ceased to represent + anything. In itself it is obsolete, but people still trade with + it, and think it represents what it represented when it came + hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it sometimes happens + that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery (which it + may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives + those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded + possession.</p> + + <p>Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined + by Lord Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a + sick man,' he said, and added something which gave great + offence then about the advisability of putting Turkey out of + his misery. I do not pretend to quote correctly, but that was + the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the truth of Lord Aberdeen's + phrase at the period when he made it. It possibly contained a + temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if it had been + acted on, might have saved a great deal of trouble afterwards, + but it missed then, and more than misses now, the essential and + salient truth about Turkey. The phrase, unfortunately, still + continued to obtain credit, and nowadays it is a forgery; it + rings false.</p> + + <p>For at whatever period we regard Turkey, and try to define + that monstrous phenomenon, we can make a far truer phrase than + Lord Aberdeen's. For Turkey is not a sick man: Turkey is a + sickness. He is not sick, nor ever has been, for he is the + cancer itself, the devouring tumour that for centuries has fed + on living tissue, absorbing it and killing it. It has never had + life in itself, except in so far that the power of preying on + and destroying life constitutes life, and such a power, after + all, we are accustomed to call not life, but death. Turkey, + like death, continues to exist and to dominate, through its + function of killing. Life cannot kill, it is disease and death + that kill, and from the moment that Turkey passed from being a + nomadic tribe moving westwards from the confines of Persia, it + has existed only and thrived on a process of absorption and of + murder. When first the Turks came out of their Eastern + fastnesses they absorbed; when they grew more or less settled, + and by degrees the power of mere absorption, as by some failure + of digestion, left them, they killed. They became a huge + tumour, that nourished itself by killing the living tissues + that came in contact with it. Now, by the amazing irony of + fate, who weaves stranger dramas than could ever be set on + censored stages, for they both take hundreds of years to + unravel themselves, and are of the most unedifying character, + Turkey, the rodent cancer, has been infected by another with + greater organisation for devouring; the disease of Ottomanism + is threatened by a more deadly hungerer, and Prussianism has + inserted its crab-pincers into the cancer that came out of + Asia. Those claws are already deeply set, and the problem for + civilised nations is first to disentangle the nippers that are + cancer in a cancer, and next to deprive of all power over alien + peoples the domination that has already been allowed to exist + too long.</p> + + <p>The object of this book is the statement of the case on + which all defenders of liberty base their prosecution against + Turkey itself, and against the Power that to-day has Turkey in + its grip.</p> + + <p>Historical surveys are apt to be tedious, but in order to + understand at all adequately the case against Turkey as a ruler + and controller of subject peoples, it is necessary to go, + though briefly, into her blood-stained genealogy. There is no + need to enter into ethnological discussions as to earlier + history, or define the difference between the Osmanli Turks and + those who were spread over Asia Minor before the advent of the + Osmanlis from the East. But it was the Osmanlis who were the + cancerous and devouring nation, and it is they who to-day rule + over a vast territory (subject to Germany) of peoples alien to + them by religion and blood and all the instincts common to + civilised folk. Until Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' suddenly + hoisted her colours as a champion of murder and rapine and + barbarism, she the mother of art and literature and science, + there was nothing in Europe that could compare with the + anachronism of Turkey being there at all. Then, in August 1914, + there was hoisted the German flag, superimposed with skulls and + cross-bones, and all the insignia of piracy and highway robbery + on land and on sea, and Germany showed herself an anachronism + worthy to impale her arms on the shield of the most execrable + domination that has ever oppressed the world since the time + when the Huns under Attila raged like a forest fire across the + cultivated fields of European civilisation. To-day, in the name + of Kultur, a similar invasion has broken on shores that seemed + secure, and it is no wonder that it has found its most valuable + victim and ally in the Power that adopted the same methods of + absorption and extermination centuries before the Hohenzollerns + ever started on their career of highway robbery. But like seeks + like, and perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our + astonishing diplomacy in Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like + some desirable maiden, cast in her lot with the Power that by + instinct and tradition most resembled her. Spiritual blood, no + less than physical blood, is thicker than water, and Gott and + Allah, hand-in-hand, pledged each other in the cups they had + filled with the blood that poured from the wine-presses of + Belgium and of Armenia.</p> + + <p>For centuries before the Osmanli Turks made their appearance + in Asia Minor, there had come from out of the misty East + numerous bodies of Turks, pushing westwards, and spreading over + the Euphrates valley and over Persia, in nomadic or military + colonisations, and it is not until the thirteenth century that + we find the Osmanli Turks, who give their name to that + congregation of races known as the Ottoman Empire, established + in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Like all previous + Turkish immigrations, they came not in any overwhelming horde, + with sword in one hand and Koran in the other, but as a small + compact body with a genius for military organisation, and the + gift, which they retain to this day, of stalwart fighting. The + policy to which they owed their growth was absorption, and the + people whom they first began to absorb were Greeks and other + Christians, and it was to a Christian girl, Nilufer, that Osman + married his son Orkhan. They took Christian youths from the + families of Greek dwellers, forced them to apostatise, gave + them military training, and married them to Turkish girls. It + was out of this blend of Greek and Turkish blood, as Mr. D.G. + Hogarth points out, that they derived their national being and + their national strength. This system of recruiting they + steadily pursued not only among the Christian peoples with whom + they came in contact, but among the settlements of Turks who + had preceded them in this process of pushing westwards, and + formed out of them the professional soldiery known as + Janissaries. They did not fight for themselves alone, but as + mercenaries lent their arms to other peoples, Moslem and + Christian alike, who would hire their services. This was a + policy that paid well, for, after having delivered some + settlement from the depredations of an inconvenient neighbour, + and with their pay in their pocket, they sometimes turned on + those who had hired their arms, took their toll of youths, and + finally incorporated them in their growing empire. Like an + insatiable sponge, they mopped up the sprinklings of + disconnected peoples over the fruitful floor of Asia Minor, and + swelled and prospered. But as yet the extermination of these + was not part of their programme: they absorbed the strength and + manhood of their annexations into their own soldiery, and came + back for more. They did not levy those taxes paid in the + persons of soldiers for their armies from their + co-religionists, since Islam may not fight against Islam, but + by means of peaceful penetration (a policy long since + abandoned) they united scattered settlements of Turks to + themselves by marriages and the bond of a common tongue and + religion.</p> + + <p>Their expansion into Europe began in the middle of the + fourteenth century, when, as mercenaries, they fought against + the Serbs, and fifty years later they had a firm hold over + Bulgaria as well. Greece was their next prey; they penetrated + Bosnia and Macedonia, and in 1453 attacked and took + Constantinople under Mohammed the Conqueror. Still true to the + policy of incorporation they continued to mop up the remainder + of the Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time consolidated + themselves further in Asia Minor. By the beginning of the + seventeenth century their expansion reached its utmost + geographical limits, but already the Empire held within it the + seeds of its own decay, and by a curious irony the force that + should still keep it together was derived not from its own + strength, but from the jealousies of the European Powers among + themselves, who would willingly have dismembered it, but feared + the quarrels that would surely result from the apportionment of + its territories. The Ottoman Empire from then onwards has owed + its existence to its enemies.</p> + + <p>Its weakness lay in itself, for it was very loosely knit + together, and no bond, whether of blood or religion or tongue, + bound to it the assembly of Christian and Jewish and non-Moslem + races of which it was so largely composed. The Empire never + grew (as, for instance, the British Empire grew) by the + emigration and settlement of the Osmanli stock in the + territories it absorbed: it never gave, it only took. From the + beginning right up to the last quarter of the nineteenth + century, it has been a military despotism, imposing itself on + unwilling and alien tribes whom it drained of their blood, and + then left in neglect until some further levy was needed. None + of its conquered peoples was ever given a share in the + government; they were left unorganised and, so to speak, + undigested elements under the Power which had forced them into + subjection, and one by one the whole of the European peoples + included in that uncemented tyranny have passed from under + Turkish control. Turkey in Europe has dwindled to a strip along + the Bosporus to the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles, Egypt + has been lost, Tripoli also, and the only force that, for the + last hundred years has kept alive in Europe the existence of + that monstrous anachronism has been the strange political + phenomenon, now happily extinct, called the Balance of Power. + No one of the Great Powers, from fear of the complications that + would ensue, could risk the expulsion of the Turkish Government + from Constantinople, and there all through the nineteenth + century it has been maintained lest the Key of the Black Sea, + which unlocked the bolts that barred Russia's development into + the Mediterranean, should lead to such a war as we are now + passing through. That policy, for the present, has utterly + defeated its own ends, for the key is in the pockets of + Prussia. But all through that century, though the Powers + maintained Turkey there, they helped to liberate, or saw + liberate themselves, the various Christian kingdoms in Europe + over which at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey + exercised a military despotism. They weakened her in so far as + they could, but they one and all refused to let her die, and + above all refused to give her that stab in the heart which + would have been implied in her expulsion from + Constantinople.</p> + + <p>For centuries from the first appearance of the Osmanlis in + north-west Asia Minor down to the reign of Abdul Hamid, the + Empire maintained itself, with alternate bouts of vigour and + relapses, on the general principle of drawing its strength from + its subject peoples. Internally, from whatever standpoint we + view it, whether educational, economic, or industrial, it has + had the worst record of any domination known to history. Rich + in mineral wealth, possessed of lands that were once the + granary of the world, watered by amazing rivers, and with its + strategic position on the Mediterranean that holds the + master-key of the Black Sea in its hands, it has remained the + most barbaric and least progressive of all states. Its roads + and means of communication remained up till the last quarter of + the nineteenth century much as they had been in the days of + Osman; except along an insignificant strip of sea-coast + railways were non-existent; it was bankrupt in finance and in + morals, and did not contain a single seed that might ripen into + progress or civilisation. Mesopotamia was once the most fertile + of all lands, capable of supporting not itself alone, but half + the civilised world: nowadays, under the stewardship of the + Turk, it has been suffered to become a desert for the greater + part of the year and an impracticable swamp for the remainder. + Where great cities flourished, where once was reared the pride + of Babylon and of Nineveh, there huddle the squalid huts of + fever-stricken peasants, scarce able to gain their half-starved + living from the soil that once supported in luxury and pomp the + grandeur of metropolitan cities. The ancient barrages, the + canals, the systems of irrigation were all allowed to silt up + and become useless; and at the end of the nineteenth century + you would not find in all Mesopotamia an agricultural implement + that was in any way superior to the ploughs and the flails of + more than two thousand years ago. But so long as there was a + palace-guard about the gates to secure the safety of the Sultan + and his corrupt military oligarchy, so long as there were + houris to divert their leisure, tribute of youths to swell + their armies, and taxes wrung from starving subjects to + maintain their pomp, there was not one of those who held the + reins of government who cared the flick of an eyelash for the + needs of the nations on whom the Empire rested, for the + cultivation of its soil that would yield a hundredfold to the + skilled husbandman, or for the exploitation and development of + its internal wealth. While there was left in the emaciated + carcase of the Turkish Empire enough live tissue for the + cancerous Government to grow fat on, it gave not one thought to + the welfare of all those races on whom it had fastened itself. + Province after province of its European dominions might be lost + to it, but the Balance of Power still kept the Sultan on his + throne, and left the peoples of Asia Minor and Syria at his + mercy. They were largely of alien religion and of alien tongue, + and their individual weakness was his strength. Neglect, and + the decay consequent on neglect, was the lot of all who + languished under that abominable despotism.</p> + + <p>With the accession in 1876 of Abdul Hamid, of cursed memory, + there dawned on the doomed subject peoples of the Ottoman + Empire a day of bloodier import than any yet. The year before + and during that year had occurred the Bulgarian atrocities and + massacres, and the word 'massacre' lingered and made music in + Abdul Hamid's brain. He said it over to himself and dwelt upon + it, and meditated on the nature and possibilities of massacre. + The troubles which massacre had calmed had arisen before his + accession out of the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, + which corresponded to the Greek Patriarchate, and was given + power over districts and peoples whom the Greeks justly + considered to belong to them by blood and religion. Greek armed + bands came into collision with Bulgarian bands, and in order to + calm these disturbances by thoroughly effectual means, + irregular Turkish troops were sent into Bulgaria, charged with + the command to 'stop the row,' but with no other instructions. + Indiscriminate killing, with all the passions and horrors that + bloodshed evokes in the half-civilised, followed, and there was + no more trouble just then in the disturbed districts, for there + was none to make trouble. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was deposed by a + group of king-makers under Midhat Pasha, Murad V. reigned + shadow-like for three months, and during the same year Abdul + Hamid was finally selected to fill the throne, and stand forth + as the Shadow of God. It was a disturbed and tottering + inheritance to which he succeeded, riddled with the dry-rot of + corruption, but the inheritor proved himself equal to the + occasion.</p> + + <p>For a little while he was all abroad, and at the bidding of + Midhat, who had placed him on the throne, he summoned a kind of + representative Turkish Parliament, by way of imbuing the Great + Powers with the idea that he was an enlightened Shadow of God + bent on reform. This parody of a Parliament lasted but a short + time: it was no more than a faint, dissolving magic-lantern + picture. In the spring of 1877 Rumania, under Russian + encouragement, broke away from Turkish rule. Turkey declared + war on Russia, and in 1878 found herself utterly defeated. At + Adrianople was drawn up the Treaty of San Stefano, creating an + independent Bulgarian state, and, in the opinion of Great + Britain and Germany, giving Russia far greater influence in the + Balkan Peninsula than was agreeable to that disastrous + supporter of Turkey, the Balance of Power. In consequence the + Treaty of San Stefano was superseded by the Treaty of + Berlin.</p> + + <p>In those arrangements Abdul Hamid had no voice, but he was + well content to sit quiet, think about what was to be done with + what was left him, and thank his waning crescent that once + again the Balance of Power had secured Constantinople for him, + leaving him free to deal with his Asiatic dominions, and such + part of Europe as was left him, as he thought fit. He could + safely trust that he would never be ejected from his throne by + a foreign Power, and all he need do was to make himself safe + against internal disturbances and revolutions which might upset + him. And it was then that he begot in the womb of his cold and + cunning brain a policy that was all his own, except in so far + as the Bulgarian atrocities, consequent on feuds between + Bulgars and Greeks, may be considered the father of that + hideous birth. But it was he who suckled and nourished it, it + was from his brain that it emerged, full-grown and in panoply + of armour, as from the brain of Olympian Zeus came Pallas + Athene. This new policy was in flat contradiction of all the + previous policy, as he had received it from his predecessors, + of strengthening Turkey by tributes of man-power from his + subject tribes, but it would, he thought, have the same result + of keeping the Turk supreme among the alien elements of the + Empire. Times had changed; it behoved him to change the methods + which hitherto had held together his hapless inheritance.</p> + + <p>Now Abdul Hamid was not in any sense a wise man, and the + ability which has been attributed to him, in view of the manner + in which he successfully defied the civilisations of Europe, is + based on premisses altogether false. He never really defied + Europe at all; he always yielded, secure in his belief that + Europe in the shape of the Balance of Power, was unanimous in + keeping him where he was. He never even risked being turned out + of Constantinople, for he knew--none better--that all Europe + insisted on retaining him there. As regards wisdom, there was + never a greater fool, but as regards cunning there was never a + greater fox. He had a brain that was absolutely impervious to + large ideas: the notion of consolidating and strengthening his + Empire by ameliorating its internal conditions, by bringing it + within speaking distance of the influence of civilisation and + progress, by taking advantage of and developing its immense + natural resources, by employing the brains and the industry of + his subject races, seems never to have entered his head. He + could easily have done all this: there was not a Power in + Europe that would not have lent him a helping hand in + development and reform, in the establishment of a solvent + state, in aiding the condition of the peoples over whom he + ruled. In whatever he did, provided that it furthered the + welfare of his subjects, whether Turk, Armenian, or Arab, the + whole Concert of Europe would have provided him with cash, with + missionaries, with engineers, and all the resources of the arts + and sciences of peace and of progress. But being a felon, with + crime and cunning to take the place of wisdom, he preferred to + develop his Empire on his own original lines. In Europe he was + but suffered to exist. There remained Asia.</p> + + <p>The policy of previous Osmanli rulers has already been + roughly defined. They strengthened themselves and the military + Turkish despotism round them by absorbing the manhood of the + tribes over which they had obtained dominion. Abdul Hamid + reversed that policy; he strengthened the Turkish supremacy, + not by drawing into it the manhood of his subject peoples, but + by destroying that manhood. In proportion, so his foxlike brain + reasoned, as his alien subjects were weak, so were the Turks + strong. A consistent weakening of alien nations would + strengthen the hold of those who governed the Ottoman Empire. + It was as if a man suffered from gout in his foot: he could get + rid of the gout by wholesome living, the result of which would + be that his foot ceased to trouble him. But the plan which he + adopted was to cause his foot to mortify by process of inhuman + savagery. When it was dead it would trouble him no longer.</p> + + <p>He was well aware that the Turkish people only comprised + some forty per cent, of the population of the Turkish Empire: + numerically they were weaker than the alien peoples who + composed the rest of it. Something had to be done to bring the + governing Power up to such a proportionate strength as should + secure its supremacy, and the most convenient plan was to + weaken the alien elements. The scheme, though yet inchoate, had + been tried with success in the case of the Bulgarians and + Greeks, and to test it further he stirred up Albanians against + the inhabitants of Old Servia with gratifying results. They + weakened each other, and he further weakened them both by the + employment of Turkish troops in Macedonia to quell the + disturbances which he had himself fomented. There were + massacres and atrocities, and no more trouble just then from + Macedonia. Having thus tested his plan and found no flaw in it, + he settled to adopt it. But European combinations did not + really much interest him, for he was aware that the Great + Powers, to whose sacred Balance he owed the permanence of his + throne, would not tolerate interference with European peoples, + and he turned his attention to Asia Minor. There were + excrescences there which he could not absorb, but which might + be destroyed. He could use the knife on living tissues which + the impaired digestion of the Ottoman Empire could not + assimilate. So he hit on this fresh scheme, which his hellish + cunning devised with a matchless sense of the adaptation of the + means to the end, and he created (though he did not live to + perfect) a new policy that reversed the traditions of five + hundred years. That is no light task to undertake, and when we + consider that since his deposition, now nine years ago, that + policy has reaped results undreamed of perhaps by him, we can + see how far-sighted his cunning was. To-day it is being + followed out by the very combination that deposed him; his aims + have been fully justified, and for that precise reason we are + right to classify him among the abhorred of mankind. He had an + opportunity such as is given to the few, and he made the utmost + of it, even as his greater successor on the throne of Turkey + for the present, namely Wilhelm II. of Prussia, has done, in + the service of the devil. 'Well done, thou good and faithful + servant,' must surely have been his well-deserved welcome, when + he left the hell he had made on earth for another.</p> + + <p>Of all his subjects the Armenians were the most progressive, + the most industrious, the most capable. They therefore + contributed, according to that perverted foxlike mind, one of + the greatest menaces to the stability of his throne, which + henceforth should owe its strength to the weakness of those it + governed. They, as all the world knows, are a peaceful + Christian people, and it was against them that Abdul Hamid + directed the policy which he had tested in Europe. The + instruments he employed to put it in force were the Kurds, a + turbulent shepherd race marching with and mixed up among the + Armenians. By this means he had the excuse ready that these + massacres were local disturbances among remote and + insubordinate tribes, one of whom, however, the Kurds, he armed + with modern rifles and caused to be instructed in some + elementary military training. Their task was to murder + Armenians, their pay was the privilege to rape their girls and + their women, and to rob the houses of the men they had killed. + The Armenians resisted with at first some small success, upon + which Abdul Hamid reinforced the Kurds with regular troops, and + caused it to be proclaimed that this was a war of Moslems + against the infidel, a Holy War. Moslem fanaticism, ever + smouldering and ready to burst into flames, blazed high, and a + fury of massacres broke forth against all Armenians, east and + west, north and south. The streets of Constantinople ran with + their blood, and before Abdul Hamid was obliged by foreign + civilised Powers to stop those holocausts, he had so decimated + the race that not for at least a generation would they + conceivably be a menace again even to that zealous guardian of + the supremacy in its own dominions of the Ottoman power. Very + unwillingly, when obliged to do so, he whistled off his bands + of Kurds, and dismissed them: unwillingly, too, he gave orders + that the Armenian hunts which had so pleasantly diverted the + sportsmen of Constantinople, must be abandoned: then was + decreed a 'close time' for Armenians, the shooting season was + over. There is no exaggeration in this: eye-witnesses have + recorded how at the close of the business day in + Constantinople, shooting parties used literally to go out, and + beat the coverts of tenement houses for Armenians, of whom + there were at that time in Constantinople some 150,000. But + when Abdul Hamid had finished his sport, I do not think more + than 80,000 at the most survived. These were saved by the + protests of Europe, and perhaps by the knowledge that if all + the Armenians were killed, there could never be any more + shooting. The Kurds also had lost a considerable number of men, + and that was far from displeasing to the yellow-faced butcher + of Yildiz. A little blood-letting among those turbulent Kurds + was not at all a bad thing.</p> + + <p>Here, then, we see defined and at work the new Ottoman + policy with regard to its peoples. Hitherto, it had been + sufficient to take from them its fill of man-power, and leave + the tribe in question to its own devices. There was no + objection whatever to its developing the resources of its + territory, to its increasing in prosperity and in population. + Indeed the central Power was quite pleased that it should do + so, for when next the gathering of taxes and youths came round + the collectors would find a creditable harvest awaiting them. + Such a tribe received no encouragement or help from the + Government; that would have been too much to expect, but as + long as it kept quiet and obedient it might, without + interference, prosper as well as it could. But now, in the last + quarter of the nineteenth century, all that was changed; + instead of a policy of neglect there was substituted a policy + of murder. The state no longer considered itself secure when in + various parts of its dominions its subjects showed themselves + progressive and industrious. They had to be kept down, and + clearly the most efficient way of keeping people down was + killing them. Let it not be supposed for a moment that either + the first massacre, or any that followed, was the result of + local disturbances and fanaticism. It was nothing of the sort: + each was arranged and planned at Constantinople, as the + official means, invented by the arch-butcher, Abdul Hamid, of + maintaining in power the most devilish despotism that has ever + disgraced the world. Something had to be done to prevent the + alien tribes in Asia slipping out of the noose of Ottoman + strangulation, even as the European tribes had done, and + forming themselves into separate and independent states. A + ruler with progressive ideas, one who had any perception of the + internal prosperity which alone can render an empire stable, + would have made the attempt to weld his loose and wavering + domination together by encouraging and working for the + prosperity of its component peoples, so that he might, though + late in the day, give birth to a Turkey that was strong, + because its citizens were prosperous and content. Not so did + Abdul Hamid; the Turkey that he sought to establish was merely + to be strong because he had battered into a blood-stained pulp + the most progressive and the most industrious of the alien + peoples over whom he ruled.</p> + + <p>It is significant that, while yet the blood of the murdered + Christians was scarcely washed from the streets of + Constantinople, the Emperor Wilhelm II. visited his + brother-sovereign at Yildiz, after making his tour throughout + the Holy Land. The two can hardly, in their intimate + conversations, have completely avoided the subject of the + massacres; but after all, that was not such an unmanageably + awkward topic, for Wilhelm II. could tactfully have reminded + Abdul Hamid that his own throne also was based on the murderous + progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there was the war + between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss, and + there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of + Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. + Altogether, in spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit + the Holy Places in Palestine, it was an odd moment for a + Christian monarch to visit the butcher of Constantinople. But + the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very strong reason for + going to see his brother, for the fruit of German policy in + Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the + minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while + still his hands were red with blood was more than compensated + for by the advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him + on other subjects. Germany had already begun her peaceful + penetration, and the real motive of the Emperor's visit was, + after swords and orders had been exchanged, to make the + definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be + allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and + a hint no doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room + for them now that there were so many Armenian farms + unfortunately without a master. But, like Uriah Heep, the + Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it was ripe, + or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to + reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense + advantages which would result to Turkey by the establishment of + those Gott-like German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his + colossal egalo-megalomania, of which we know more now, he + thought that any request which the All-Highest should deign to + make must instantly be granted. But he met with a perfectly + flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left Constantinople + in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the good + that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of + Jerusalem had done him. It is pleasant to think of the + Pan-Islamic merriment with which Abdul Hamid must have viewed + the indignant exit of his Christian brother, who had come such + a long way to see him, and was so tactful about the Armenian + atrocities. He might perhaps--for those Christians were very + odd pigs--have expressed horror or remonstrance. Not at all: he + was much too anxious to get his request granted, to make + himself disagreeable. But did his Christian brother really + think that all those massacres over which Abdul Hamid had spent + so much time and money, had been arranged in order to settle + those nasty progressive Germans in the lands that had been so + carefully depopulated? Why, the whole point of them had been + that the Armenians were too progressive and prosperous, thus + constituting a menace to the central Government, and certainly + Abdul Hamid was not meaning to put in their place settlers even + more progressive and with a stronger backing behind them. So + off went the All-Highest back home again, very much vexed with + Abdul Hamid, and possibly (if that was not sacrilegious) with + himself for having been in too great a hurry. There was more + spade-work to be done yet before Turkey was ripe for open and + avowed colonisation by the Fatherland.</p> + + <p>The episode, strictly historical, is of a certain + importance, for it shows the date at which Wilhelm II. thought + that the time had come for Germans to colonise Turkey. The + peaceful penetration (which now amounts to perforation) was + even then pretty far advanced. But Abdul Hamid seems to have + seen the significance of the request, and for some little while + after that German influence had a certain set-back in Turkey. + The date of this marks an era, and Germany, 'deep patient + Germany,' set to work again, in no way discouraged, to set her + cancer-nippers in the cancer that already had begun to eat the + live tissues round it.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_II"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter II</i></h2> + + <center> + THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + </center> + + <p>In the year 1908 a military group in Constantinople, styling + itself the 'Young Turk' party, seized and deposed Abdul Hamid, + and shut him up at Salonika, there to spend the remainder of + his infamous days. They put forth a Liberal programme of + reformation, one that earned them at the moment the sympathy of + civilised Europe (including Germany), and the Balance of Power + very mistakenly and prematurely heaved a sigh of relief. For + upwards of a century it had maintained in Constantinople the + corrupt and bloody autocracy of the Sultans, fearing the + European quarrels that would attend the dismemberment of that + charnel-house of decay known as the Ottoman Empire, and now + (just for the moment) it seemed as if a sudden rally had come + to the Sick Man, and he showed signs of returning animation and + wholesome vitality. The policy of the Powers, after a century + of failure, looked as if it was justifying itself, and they + were full of congratulations towards Turkey and each other. But + never, in the whole century of their pusillanimous cacklings, + had they made a greater mistake.</p> + + <p>Whether the Young Turks ever meant well or not, whether + there was or was not a grain of sincerity in this profession of + their policy, is a disputed question. There are those who say + that originally they were prompted by patriotic and high-minded + aims, when they proclaimed their object of 'Organisation,' and + of reform. But all are agreed that it matters very little what + their original aims were, so speedily did their Liberal + intentions narrow down to an Ottomanisation such as Adbul Hamid + had aimed at, but had been unable to accomplish before his evil + sceptre ceased to sway the destinies of his kingdom. In any + case this programme earned its authors the sympathy of Europe, + and probably this, and no more than this, prompted it. They + wished to establish themselves, unquestioned and undisturbed, + and did so; and I do not think we shall be far wrong if we take + the original Young Turk programme about as seriously as we took + the parody of a Parliament with which Abdul Hamid opened (as + with a blessing) his atrocious reign. The very next year (1909) + they permitted (if they did not arrange) the Armenian massacres + at Adana, and the Balance of Power began faintly to wonder + whether the Young Turks in their deposition of Abdul Hamid had + not slain an asp and hatched a cockatrice. Given that their + aims originally were sincere, we can but marvel at the + swiftness of the corruption which in little more than a year + had begun to lead them not into paths of reform and Liberal + policy, but along the road towards which the butcher they had + deposed had pointed the way. It must have made Abdul Hamid gnaw + his nails and shake impotent hands to see those who had torn + him from his throne so soon pursuing the very policy which he + invented, and to which he nominally owed his dethronement. + Strange, too, was it that his overthrow should come from the + very quarter to which he looked for security, for it was on the + army that each Sultan in turn had most relied for the stability + of his throne. But Abdul Hamid, in order, perhaps, to deal more + effectually with the subject races he wished to exterminate, + had introduced a system of foreign training for the officers of + his army, a course of Potsdam efficiency, and it was just they, + on whom Sultans from time immemorial had relied, who knocked + the prop of the army away from him. Though publicly, for the + edification of Europe his deposers professed a Liberal policy, + it was not on account of Armenian massacres that they turned + him off his throne, but because of the muddle and corruption + and debility of his rule. Herein we may easily trace the hand + of Germany, no longer publicly beckoning as when Wilhelm II., + just after the first Armenian massacres, made his request of + the Sultan for the establishment in Turkey of German colonists, + but working underground, sapping and mining like a mole. For + Germany, her mind already fixed on securing Turkey as an + instrument of her Eastern policy, wanted a strong Turkey, and + without doubt desired to bring an end to the disorganisation + and decay of the Empire, and create and at the same time + interpenetrate an efficient state that should be useful to her. + We may take it for granted that she, like the rest of Europe, + welcomed any sign of regeneration in the Ottoman Empire, but + there was an ulterior purpose behind that. Turkey, already + grasped by the Prussian hand, must be in that hand a weapon fit + for use, a blade on which she could rely. She strengthened the + Turkish army by the introduction of Prussian discipline, and + worked on good material. Already she has realised her ambition + in this respect, and now controls the material which she then + worked on.</p> + + <p>The troubled years of the Balkan wars which followed this + false dawn, coupled with the loss of all the territory which + remained to the Ottoman Empire in Europe, with the exception of + Thrace, caused an immediate reaction from the open-minded + policy of the Young Turks, if we decide to credit them at the + outset with a sincere purpose. Organisation by a slightly + different spelling became Ottomanisation, and the aims of the + Young Turks were identified with those of the Nationalist party + which followed out and developed into a finished and + super-fiendish policy the dreams of Abdul Hamid. He, as we have + seen, had invented the idea of securing Ottoman supremacy in + the Empire, not as before by absorption of the strength of its + subject peoples, but by their extermination, and this formed + part of the new programme which was to be more efficiently + administered. Already, in 1909, the experimental massacre at + Adana took place, and the Young Turk party, with its possibly + Liberal aims, had become a party that had as its main object a + system of tyranny and murder such as the world had never seen. + Simultaneously Turkey itself, Nationalist party and all, became + enslaved to German influence. Link by link the chains were + forged and the manacles welded on, and before the European War + broke out in 1914, the incarceration of Turkey in Germany was + complete, and Wilhelm II. had a fine revenge for the snub + inflicted on him by Abdul Hamid when he proposed the scheme of + German colonisation in the lands depopulated by the Armenian + massacres of 1895.</p> + + <p>From the first the aim of the Nationalists, who thus formed + so deadly a blend with the Young Turk party, was + Ottomanisation, or the establishment within the Empire of an + Ottoman domination which should be pure and undefiled, and in + which none of the subject peoples, be they Armenians or Kurds, + Arabs or Greeks or Jews, Christian or Moslem, should have any + part. The inception of the scheme was no doubt inspired by the + example given by Prussia's treatment of the Poles, and + Hungary's of Roumans and Slovaks. But in thoroughness of method + Prussia's pupil was to prove Prussia's master, for it aimed not + merely at expropriation, but extermination, and sought to + become strong, not merely by weakening alien elements, but by + abolishing them. It did not set this out quite explicitly in + its manifestoes and the resolutions of its congresses, but two + extracts, the first from the proceedings of the 'Committee of + Union and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a + sinister suggestiveness about them for which the acts and + measures of the Committee had already supplied the comment.</p> + + <p>'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the + country must be suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal + ideas prevented. Turkey must become a really Mohammedan + country, and Moslem influence must be preponderant. Every other + religious propaganda must be suppressed.... Sooner or later the + complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must be + effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained + by persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other + nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for + decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish + Empire.'</p> + + <p>Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul + Hamid, than this formal resolution, passed within three years + of the time when the Young Turks deposed him? The conviction + begins to dawn on one--as it began to dawn on the Balancers of + Power--that he owed his downfall not to his illiberal and + butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough enough.</p> + + <p>The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may + be added, which defines the policy, not with regard to the + Christian or Jewish subjects of the Turks, but with regard to + the Arabs, Moslem by creed, and the guardians of the Holy + Cities.</p> + + <p>'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for + us to Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of + nationality is awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, + and already threatens us with a great catastrophe. Against this + we must be fore-armed.'</p> + + <p>The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical + form. Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of + patriotism, and any means which secured it, massacres such as, + in 1909, had taken place at Adana, or the treatment accorded to + the Greeks and Bulgarians who remained in Thrace after the + Balkan wars, were in accordance with the new 'Liberal' gospel. + Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in Europe, and + as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it could + not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under + the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed + to put the entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and + lay hands on their property. In fact this was the first of the + 'deportation' schemes which, in 1915, proved so successful with + the Armenians, and the effect of it was that neither Greeks nor + Bulgarians were left in Thrace. Then followed the expulsion of + Greeks from the Mediterranean sea-board, but this was never + completely carried out because the European war intervened, and + the attention of the Nationalists was claimed by their + over-lord. Later, as we shall see, a further deportation of + Greeks was begun, but again that was stopped, for Germany saw + that it would never do to have her Turkish allies murdering + settlers of the same blood as those she hoped would become her + allies. Of course, when it was only a question of Armenians she + did not interfere.</p> + + <p>The design, then, of the new 'Liberal' regime, of which + those three measures, the massacres at Adana, the expulsion of + Greeks and Bulgarians from Thrace, and of Greeks from the + sea-board of the Mediterranean, were early instances, was to + restore the absolute supremacy of the Turks in the Ottoman + Empire. It was obvious that the problem was one of considerable + difficulty, since the Turks at the time composed only some + forty per cent, of the whole population. They numbered about + 8,000,000, while in the Empire were included about 7,000,000 + Arabs, 2,000,000 Greeks, 2,000,000 Armenians, and 3,000,000 + more of smaller nationalities, such as Kurds, Druses, and Jews. + But the Turks were backed by Germany, and nowadays, since the + abolition of the Capitulations, which leaves all alien races + unprotected by foreign Powers, such as survive, after the + extermination of the Armenians, are completely at the mercy of + the Government in Constantinople. All these peoples speak a + different language from the Turks, and have a different + religion, for the Nationalist party, with a view to the + Ottomanisation of the Arabs, have definitely stated that Arab + Moslems are not of the true faith, and that their own Allah (in + whose name they subsequently exterminated the Armenians) is the + God of Love--German equivalent Got--whereas the Arab Allah is + the God of vengeance. The sinister motive in this discovery + needs no comment, for it is obvious that it releases the + Ottoman Government from the prohibition in the Koran, whereby + Moslem may not fight against Moslem. Therefore the Arabs were + declared not to be true Moslems. Later on, that motive was + translated into practical measures.</p> + + <p>Among the first tasks with regard to the Arabs that faced + the Nationalist party from what we may call the pacific side of + their mission was to substitute the Turkish language for + Arabic. Kemal Bey, a Nationalist of Salonika, with the help of + Ziya Bey, collected round him a group of young writers, and + these proceeded to translate the Koran out of Arabic into + Turkish, and to publish the prayers for the Caliphate in their + own language, and orders went out that these revised versions + should be used in all mosques. Turkish was to be the official + language for use in all public proclamations, and, with + Prussian thoroughness, it was even substituted on such railway + tickets as had hitherto been printed in Arabic. The new Turkish + tongue (Yeni Lisan) had also to be purged of all foreign words, + but here some difficulty was experienced, for Persian and + Arabic formed an enormous percentage in the language as + hitherto employed, and the promoters of this Ottoman purity of + tongue found themselves left with a very jejune instrument for + the rhapsodies of their patriotic aims. Poets in especial (for + the Nationalists, like all well-equipped founders of romantic + movements, had their bards) found themselves in sore straits + owing to the limited vocabulary; and we read of one, Mehmed + Emin Bey, who was forced to publish his odes in small + provincial papers, since no well-established journal would + admit so scrannel an expression of views however + exalted.<a name="FNanchor1"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_1">[1]</a></sup> But the translation of the Koran + was the greatest linguistic feat, and Tekin Alp, the most + prominent exponent of Nationalism, refers to it as one of the + noblest tasks undertaken by the new movement. It mattered not + at all that by religious ordinance the translation of the Koran + into any other tongue was a sin. 'The Nationalists,' he tells + us, 'have cut themselves off from the superstitious prejudice.' + A further attempt was made to substitute Turkish letters for + Arabic letters in the alphabet, but this seems to have + presented insuperable difficulties, and I gather that it has + been abandoned.</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + This thwarted poet retired from the Committee of + Union and Progress not long after, and his place was taken + by Enver. + </div>The Ottomanisation of religion and language, then, was + among the pacific methods of spreading Pan-Turkism through the + Empire. A monstrous idol was set up, a Hindenburg idol, in + front of which all peoples and languages, not Christians alone, + but Moslems, were bound to prostrate themselves. Indeed it was + against Arabs mainly that these provisions were directed, for + the Arabs constituted the most menacing obstacle to the spread + of Ottomanisation, since they numbered in the Empire only a + million less than the Turks themselves. It was ordained by + statute that no Arab could have a seat on the Committee of + Union and Progress, and the Cabinet similarly was purged of any + Greek or Armenian element. Never any more must there be new + parties in the Chamber, never any more must Liberal ideas (to + champion which the New Turk party had come into being) be + allowed to prick up their pernicious heads. For the Nationalist + party, with whom the New Turks were now identical, had taken as + their creed all that the deposed Abdul Hamid stood for, and + only differed from him in that as their schemes developed they + looked forward to logical conclusions far beyond what he had + ever dreamed of. But Abdul Hamid may, I think, be taken to be + the true founder of the new Nationalism: at any rate it was he + who had first seen the possibilities of massacre as a means of + maintaining Ottoman supremacy. In the hands of Nationalists + that was to prove a more effective weapon than the printing of + railway tickets in Turkish. But already before the European War + the Nationalists had vastly extended his ideas, and had seen + the danger of allowing even Arabs to have a standing of any + kind in the new state. Henceforth all subject people were to be + <i>rayas</i>, cattle, as in the old days of the Sultans who + absorbed the strength of the aliens, but did not exterminate + them. But now the cattle were not only to be used for milk, but + were to be slaughtered when advisable. Till then they must be + dumb, or speak the language of their masters only, for this + alone can save them from the shambles. Ahmed Sherif Bey, a + prominent Nationalist, lays this down. 'It is the business of + the Porte to make the Arabs forget their own language, and to + impose upon them instead that of the nation that rules them. If + the Porte loses sight of this duty, it will be digging its + grave with its own hands, for if the Arabs do not forget their + language, their history, and their customs, they will seek to + restore their ancient empire on the ruins of Ottomanism and of + Turkish rule in Asia.' + + <p>Here, then, is the definite statement of the Nationalists' + hostility to all things Arab, and we shall see how they + translated it into practice. Even Moslems were but cattle for + them, as also were Armenians and Greeks and Kurds. Armenians + were doomed to be the first complete sacrifice on the bloody + altar of the Nationalists, and, as a Turkish gendarme engaged + in that sacrifice said to a Danish Red Cross nurse, 'First we + kill the Armenians, then the Greeks, and then the Kurds.' And + if he had been a Progressive Minister he would certainly have + added, 'And then the Arabs.'</p> + + <p>It was not only within the present limits of the Ottoman + Empire that the Committee of Union and Progress proposed to + accomplish their unitive purpose, for after having seen a + glorious and exclusive Turkey arise over the depopulated + territories of their alien peoples, a vaster vision, for an + account of which we are indebted to Tekin Alp, opened before + their prophetic eyes. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of + Persia they claim that one-third are of true Turkish blood, and + in the new Turkey which, so they almost pathetically hope, will + be established at the conclusion of the European War by the + help of Wilhelm II., those Persian Turks must be incorporated + into the true fold of Allah, God of Love. The province of + Adarbaijan, for instance, the richest and most enlightened + district of Persia, they claim, is entirely Turkish, and here + the needful rectification will be made in the new atlases that + bear the imprimatur of Potsdam. Similarly, all the country + south of the Caucasus must rank as Turkish territory, since the + Turks form from fifty to eighty per cent, of the population; + all Kazan, for the same reason, is truly Turkish, with the + alluvial plains of the Volga, while the Crimea, so Tekin Alp + discovers, is also a lost sheep longing for the Turkish fold. + All this is Turkey (or Turania) Irredenta, and, may we not + add:--</p> + + <p>'Jerusalem and Madagascar And North and South Amerikee.'</p> + + <p>And then what a glorious future awaits the Power that Europe + once thought of as a sick man. 'With the crushing of Russian + despotism,' exclaims Tekin Alp, 'by the brave German, Austrian, + and Turkish armies, thirty to forty million Turks will receive + their independence. With the ten million Ottoman Turks this + will form a nation of fifty millions, advancing towards a great + civilisation which may perhaps be compared to that of Germany, + in that it will have the strength and energy to rise even + higher. In some ways it will be even superior to the degenerate + French and English civilisations.'</p> + + <p>The arithmetic and the enthusiasm of the foregoing paragraph + are, of course, those of Tekin Alp, from whose book, <i>The + Turkish and Pan-Turkish Ideal</i>, the quotation is made. The + work was published in 1915, and, appearing as it did after the + beginning of the European War, it is but natural to find in it + an expression not only of the Nationalist aims for Turkey, but + of the Prussian aims for Turkey, or, to speak more correctly, + of the dream which Prussia has induced in a hypnotised Turkey. + It sets forth in fact the bait which Prussia has dangled in + front of Turkey, the hunger for which has inspired the + projected future which is here sketched out; and significantly + enough this book has been spread broadcast over Turkey by the + agency of German propagandists. The Ottomanisation of the + Empire, the vision of its further extension, free from all + consideration of subject peoples, was exactly the lure which + was most likely to keep the Turks staunch to their Prussian + masters. It will be noticed that there is no suggestion of the + Turks recovering their lost provinces and kingdoms in Europe, + Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia, and the rest, for it would + never do to let Fox Ferdinand awake from <i>his</i> hypnotic + sleep of a sort of Czardom over the Balkans, or cease to dangle + dreams, that included even Constantinople before the shifty eye + of King Constantine So, before Turkey was spread the prospect + of appropriating Russian and Persian spoils: Prussia had + already given the lost Turkish kingdoms in Europe elsewhere, + but would there not be a dismembered Russian Empire to dispose + of? The Crimea, the province of Kazan, the province of + Trans-Caucasia: all these might be held before Turkey's nose, + as a dog has a piece of meat held up before it to make it beg. + Then there was the province of Adarbaijan: certainly Turkey + might be permitted to promise herself that, without incurring + the jealousy of Austria or Bulgaria. Greedily Turkey took the + bait. She gulped it down whole, and never considered that there + was a string attached to it, or that, should ever the time come + when Germany, the conqueror of the world, would be in a + position to reward her Allies with the realisation of the + dreams she had induced, the string would be pulled, and up, + with retchings and vomitings, would come these succulent + morsels of Russia and Persia. Indeed these bright pictures + flashed on to the sheet as the visions of Nationalists are but + the slides in a German magic-lantern, designed to keep Turkey + amused, and it was with the same object that Ernst + Marré, in his <i>Die Türken und Wir nach dem + Kriege</i>, was bidden to make other pictures ready in case + Turkey grew fractious or sleepy. 'From the ruins of antiquity,' + he says, when speaking of the Ottoman Empire, 'new life will + spring, if we can manage to raise the treasures which time and + sand have covered.' Then he remembers that he must be less + Pan-Germanic for the moment, and dangles the bait again. 'In + doing this,' he adds, 'we are benefiting Turkey. The Turkish + state is no united whole, and it has always been very difficult + to govern. Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, cannot be + welded together. This is a war of liberation for Turkey.... + Only by energetic interference, and by "expelling" the + obstinate Armenian element could the Ottoman Empire get rid of + a Russian domination.... The non-Turkish population of the + Ottoman Empire must be Ottomanised.'</p> + + <p>There is no need for further quotations, which might be + multiplied indefinitely. The Prussian programme is for the + moment identical with the Turkish Nationalist programme: + Turkey, in order to be kept 'in with' Germany, must be + encouraged to dream of depopulated Armenia (that dream has come + tragically true) and of annexations in Russia and Persia. All + this fitted in with the Turkish programme: Germany had scarcely + to inspire, only to encourage. That encouragement she gave, + for, simultaneously she was penetrating Turkey as water + penetrates a sponge, and reducing it to the position of a + vassal state. To keep Turkey happy she allowed the Armenian + massacres to run their deadly course, and only interfered with + other massacres when they did not suit her purpose. But + supposing (to suppose the impossible) that a peace to the + European War was dictated by Germany, how much of the future + Pan-Turkish programme would be realised? Would there be a + Turkey at all? I think not: there would be a Germany in Europe, + and a Germany in Asia, where Turkey once was. Indeed, in all + but name, they are in existence now; so complete, as we shall + see, has been Germany's penetration of the Ottoman Empire. Just + for the present she calls herself Turkey in those regions; that + is her incognito. But Turkey as an independent Power has + already ceased to exist, and Tekin Alp and the Nationalists + still dream on with rainbow visions of Ottomanisation, the + vistas of which stretch far into Persia and the plains of the + Volga. And all the while she has been put out like a candle, + and all that is left of her is the smouldering wick ready to be + pinched between the horny fingers of her stepmother. There she + stands, her stepmother, with her grinning teeth already + disclosing the Wolf....</p> + + <p>Whatever the end of the European War may be, in no + circumstances can the dreams of the Nationalists be realised. + Even if Germany and her arms were so victorious that Russia lay + at her feet a mere inert carcase ready for the chopper, she + would no more dream of giving Russian provinces to an + independent Turkey than she would hand over to her Berlin + itself. And if, as we know, Germany can never be victorious, + will the Allies once more strive to keep the Sick Man alive, or + leave in his ruthless power the peoples whom he is longing to + exterminate? Even Tekin Alp can hardly expect that.</p> + + <p>Here then, in brief, is the policy of New Turkey. Its + subject peoples--Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews--are + to be totally unrepresented in its councils, though together + they number sixty per cent, of the population of the Empire. + But they are not only to be unrepresented in Government--they + are, if the programme is to be carried conclusively out, to + have no existence. In accordance with the plans of the + murderous ruffians who to-day administer the Nationalist + policy, those of the Armenians who have not fled beyond the + frontiers have already been exterminated, and the same fate + threatens Arabs, Greeks, and Jews. Hence, when the Allied + Governments wrote their joint note to President Wilson, they + stated that among their aims in the war was 'the liberation of + the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of the + Turks.' From that avowed determination they will never + recede.</p> + <hr style="width: 45%;"> + + <p>NOTE.--It is to be hoped that Tekin Alp's pamphlet, <i>Turks + and the Pan-Turkish Ideal</i>, may soon be accessible to + English readers. The author is a Macedonian Jew who writes + under the pseudonym of Tekin Alp, and his mind is such that he + appears to find romance in the idea of a united Turkey purged + by indiscriminate massacre from all alien elements. But he sets + forth with admirable lucidity the aims of the Nationalist party + and the steps already achieved by them in their progress + towards their ideal. Already the sequestered ladies of the + harem have come out of their retirement and join in the + crusade, and not only do men give lectures to women, but 'women + mount the platform and address the men.' There are corporations + to advance economic organisations, boy-scout centres all over + the Empire, and 'intellectual parties' among the guilds of + merchants--England and Russia appear as the most virulent foes + of Pan-Turkism, 'the colossus of darkest barbarism joined with + the colossus of a degenerate civilisation.'</p> + + <p>In the second part of his pamphlet Tekin Alp passes on with + an enthusiasm which is as sincere as it is pathetic to the + vision of a tremendous Turkey, extending from Thrace on the + west to the Desert of Gobi on the east. It embraces, as his map + shows, Egypt as far south as Victoria Nyanza, Arabia, Persia, + the greater part of India, the littoral of the Black Sea, the + plains of the Volga, the circuit of the Caspian Sea and the + Aral Sea, and in the north-east nearly touches Tomsk. All this + naturally is dependent on complete German victory in the war, + and, pathetically enough, Tekin Alp appears to think that his + ideal Turkey will meet with the approval of Germany. Indeed it + is no wonder that his pamphlet is circulated broadcast by + German propagandists, for it is precisely what Germany wants + Turkey to believe.</p> + + <p>The romance of the movement appeals also very strongly to + Ziya Gök Alp, the official bard of the butchers of + Constantinople. He has written a sort of Ode to Attila, quoted + by Tekin Alp, which is a fine frenzy in favour of barbarism. + This preposterous poem begins:</p> + + <p>'I do not read the famous deeds of my ancestors in the dead, + faded, dusty leaves of the history books, but in my own veins, + in my own heart. My Attila, my Huns, those heroic figures which + stand for the proud fame of my race, appear in those dry pages + to our malicious and slanderous age as covered with shame and + disgrace, while in reality they are no less than Alexander and + Caesar,' etc. etc.</p> + + <p>I have been at present unable to ascertain whether it is + true that the German Emperor has set it to music, under the + impression that it refers to him and the German armies. It is + very popular in Prussia, which need arouse no surprise.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_III"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter III</i></h2> + + <center> + THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + </center> + + <p>We have traced in brief the backward progress of Ottoman + domination, and have seen how, from the rough and ready methods + of a military barbarism, the Turks evolved a more emphatic and + a more highly organised negation of all those principles which + we may sum up under the general term of civilisation. The + comparatively humane neglect of the unfortunate alien peoples + herded within the frontiers of earlier Sultans was improved + upon by Abdul Hamid, who struck out the swifter and superior + methods of maintaining the dominating strength of the Turkish + element in the kingdom not by the absorption of subject + peoples, but by their extermination. This in turn, this new and + effective idea, served as a first sketch of an artist with + regard to his finished picture, and starting with that the + Nationalist party enlarged and elaborated it into that + masterpiece of massacre which they exhibited to the world in + the years 1915 and 1916 of the Christian Era, when from end to + end of the Empire there flashed the signal for the + extermination of the Armenian race. Abdul Hamid was but + tentative and experimental as compared to their systematised + thoroughness, but then the Nationalist party had learned + thoroughness under the tutelage of its Prussian masters. And in + addition to instruction they had had the advantage of seeing + how Prussian firmness, with the soothing balm of Kultur to + follow, had dealt with the now-subject remnant of Belgians. + That was the way to treat subject people: 'the first care of a + state is to protect itself,' as Enver and Talaat could read in + the text-books now translated into Turkish, in copies, maybe, + presented to them by their Master in Berlin, and Turkey could + best show the proof of her enlightenment and regeneration, by + following in the footsteps of Prussian Kultur. Perhaps a few + thousand innocent men might suffer the inconvenience of having + their nails torn out, of being bastinadoed to death, of being + shot, burned or hanged, perhaps a few thousand girls and women + might die by the wayside in being deported to 'agricultural + colonies,' might fall victims to the lusts of Turkish soldiers, + or have babes torn from their wombs, but these paltry + individual pains signified nothing compared to the national + duty of 'suffering the state to run no risks.' As one of this + party of Union and Progress said, 'The innocent of to-day may + be the guilty of to-morrow,' and it was therefore wise to + provide that for innocent and guilty alike there should be no + to-morrow at all. Years before the statesmanship of Abdul Hamid + had prophetically foreseen the dawning of this day, when he + remarked 'The way to get rid of the Armenian question is to get + rid of the Armenians,' and temporarily for twenty years he did + get rid of the Armenian question. But when, in 1915, Talaat Bey + completed his arrangements for a further contribution to the + solution of the same problem, he said, 'After this, there will + be no Armenian question for fifty years.' As far as we can + judge, he rather under-estimated the thoroughness of his + arrangements.<a name="FNanchor2"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_2">[2]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + Lately (September 1917), when the massacres were all + over, Talaat, speaking at a Congress of the Committee of + Union and Progress, upheld as right and proper the + treatment of the Armenian race. + </div>The race thus marked out for extermination was one of the + oldest settlements in Asiatic Turkey. Originally it was + confined to Armenia proper, a highland district comprising part + of what is now the Russian province of Trans-Caucasia, part of + Persia, notably the province of Adarbaijan, and, within the + Turkish frontier, the province of Armenia, itself. According to + legend, which may well be correct, the Armenians were the + oldest national Christian Church in the world, with a liturgy + that dates from the first century of the Christian Era, while + their translation of the Bible dates from the early years of + the fifth century A.D. Here in these uplands they formed a + compact and homogeneous population, spread over towns and + country alike, and were occupied in the main with agrarian and + pastoral pursuits. But they had in addition much of the + versatility and business capacity of the Jews, as well as a + strong liberal-mindedness towards progress and education, and + thus, while they still continued up to the present day their + pastoral life in the countryside, others gravitated towards + towns, and by degrees they spread over a large part of the + Turkish Empire, until most of the towns in Turkey had a + progressive and peaceful quota of Armenian citizens, tolerated + by their Moslem neighbours, and, though possessed of no great + share of political influence, powerful, in that the trade and + commerce of inland Turkey was largely in their hands. Wherever + they went they established their schools; many were lawyers, + doctors, and professors of education. Certain repressive + measures were brought to bear on them; they were not, for + instance, allowed to carry arms, except when, in accordance + with Turkish conscriptive laws, they served in the Ottoman + army. But many of them, by paying their exemption money, got + off military service, and they confined themselves to the arts + of peace, whether pastorally in their native highlands, or in + the shops and offices of the towns to which they migrated. They + were not, till the time of Abdul Hamid, held to be in any sense + a national danger, for, except in Armenia proper, they were too + scattered and too peace-loving an element of the population to + be capable of united action, and never do they seem to have + provoked any outburst of Moslem fanaticism. They had local + quarrels and fights with the more warlike Kurds who encroached + on Armenia, and in the towns where they settled they often + incurred the vague jealousy and dislike which are the penalties + of a race superior morally and intellectually to those among + whom they live. But that superiority constituted in course of + time the 'Armenian question,' to which Abdul Hamid alluded. In + all, some sixty years ago their entire race numbered about + 4,000,000 persons, of whom about 1,250,000 inhabited Russian + Trans-Caucasia, about 150,000 were in the province of + Adarbaijan, and there were smaller bodies of them in Austria + and India. The remainder, some 2,500,000, were spread over + Armenia, over the villages and towns of Turkey, notably the + eastern edge of the Cilician uplands, while in Constantinople + itself there were certainly not less than 150,000, and probably + as many as 200,000. To-day, the male portion of the Armenian + race in the Ottoman Empire has practically ceased to exist: a + quarter of a million men and women escaped over the Russian + frontier, five thousand escaped to Egypt, and there are a few + thousand women and girls (it is impossible to ascertain the + exact number) in Turkish harems. Turkism, as administered by + Abdul Hamid first, then, far more efficiently, by Enver Pasha, + and Talaat Bey, has solved the Armenian question. + + <p>The history of its solution falls under two heads, of which + the first concerns the manner in which it was solved in Armenia + itself, where the population was almost exclusively Armenian, + both in towns and in the country. Here the eastern and + north-eastern frontiers of Turkey, across which lie the + province of Russian Trans-Caucasia and Persia, pass through the + middle of districts peopled by men of Armenian blood, and when, + in the autumn of 1914, the Turks made their entry into the + European War, their eastern armies, operating against Russia, + found themselves confronted by troops among whom were many + Armenians, while in their advance into the Persian province of + Adarbaijan, there were in the ranks of their opponents, + Armenians and Syriac Christians. They advanced in fact, in the + first weeks of the war, into a country largely peopled with men + of the same blood as those on their own side of the frontier. + Though the edict had not yet come from Constantinople for the + massacre of the Armenians (Talaat Bey did not complete his + arrangements till the following April), the slaughter of them + began then, first in the advance of the Turkish armies, and + following on that movement, which lasted but a few weeks, in + their subsequent retreat before the Russians. All villages + through which the Turkish armies passed were plundered and + burned, all the inhabitants on whom the Turks could lay their + hands were killed. Sometimes women and children were given to + the Kurds, who formed bands of irregular troops in conjunction + with the Turkish army, and these were outraged before they were + slaughtered. A price was put on every Christian head, and in + the Turkish retreat the corpses were thrust into the wells in + order to pollute them. The excuse for this, as given by German + apologists (not apologists, perhaps, so much as supporters and + adherents of the policy), was that since behind the Turkish + lines the country was populated by a race of the same blood as + that through which they advanced, and then retreated, + extermination was necessary in order to prevent or to punish + treachery and collusion. But I have been nowhere able to find + that there were instances of such, nor that the Turks put + forward that excuse themselves. Indeed it would have been an + unnecessary explanation, for but a few months after the opening + of the war, Talaat Bey's plans were complete, and the + extermination of Armenians hundreds of miles from any sphere of + military operations rendered it needless to say anything about + it, or to invent instances of treachery if there were actually + none to hand.</p> + + <p>Simultaneously the massacre of Armenians behind the Turkish + lines began. The whole male population of the district round + Bitlis was murdered, so too were all males in Bitlis itself. + Then all women and children were driven in, as a herdsman might + drive sheep, from the reeking villages round, and, for purposes + of convenience, concentrated in Bitlis. When they were all + collected, they were driven in a flock to the edge of the + Tigris, shot, and the corpses were thrown into the river. That + was the solution of the Armenian question in Bitlis.</p> + + <p>North-west of Bitlis, and some sixty miles distant, lies the + town of Mush. It used to contain about 25,000 Armenian + inhabitants, and in the district round there were some three + hundred villages chiefly consisting of Armenians. Arrangements + were on foot for a general massacre there when the arrival of + Russian troops at Liz, some fifteen hours' march away, caused + the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till July + a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a + warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in + the face of superior forces, had to retire again, and the + massacres were put on a systematic footing. The account which + follows is based on four independent authorities: (1) The + statement of a German eye-witness in Mush in charge of an + Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman deported from + a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3) + information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the + journal <i>Horizon</i> of Tiflis. These supplement each other, + often verify each other, and in no instance are + contradictory.</p> + + <p>Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end + of 1914, at a time when the massacres across the frontier had + begun. The Mutessarif of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver + Pasha, had openly declared that 'at an opportune moment' the + slaughter of the whole Armenian race was contemplated, and + later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of the + American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been + the chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia + itself, while Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in + towns throughout the rest of Turkey. During the whole of that + winter, a very severe one, signs of the approaching + extermination multiplied. In the villages round fresh taxes + were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they + were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in + question was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable + delay caused by the proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, + and the massacre began in earnest.</p> + + <p>Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from + Constantinople, and an order was given that all Armenians must + leave the town within three days, after 'registering + themselves' at the Government office. The women and children + were to remain, but their money and their property would be + confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to + fresh orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the + crowds in the streets flocking to the registry offices, and + after that systematic house-to-house murder began. Prominent + Armenians were tortured to death, houses containing women and + children were set on fire, a body of men collected together was + thrown into the river, girls were outraged and slaughtered. For + two days the massacre continued, and by the end of the second + day the Armenian question was solved as regards Mush.</p> + + <p>In the surrounding villages the same Prussian thoroughness + was observed, and out of all the inhabitants of the plain 5000 + only seemed to have survived, who fled to Sasun (there to be + subsequently massacred in 1916), while a few from outlying + villages escaped to the Russian troops. In certain villages the + girls and young women were given to the Kurd soldiery, who + raped them publicly in the presence of their families, not + sparing girls of eight and ten years of age, who then, bleeding + and violated, were shot in company with the old women, for whom + the Kurds (inspired by Allah, the God of Love) had no use. + Elsewhere, as the story of a deported woman from Kheiban tells + us, the women guarded by Kurdish troops were driven out of + their villages, leaving behind the corpses of the men and of + old women who could not walk, and for days were marched along + the roads, nearly naked, under the fierce heat of the July sun. + Once every other day they were given bread, but all did not get + it, and many fell exhausted by the wayside, and were either + whipped to their feet again or allowed to lie down and die. As + they passed through villages Kurds would come out and rape a + girl or two, and when they halted at night their guards would + come among them.... Some few escaped; the rest, in dwindling + company, went on through days of blinding sun and nights of + shame till at last there were only a few remaining. It was not + worth while going farther, for the work of Enver Pasha was + nearly done, and the rest were pushed into the river. One alone + survived, who could swim, and she, with her two-year-old baby + on her back, got across the stream and made her way to a + village where were a party of Armenians who had escaped + massacre. She arrived there at midnight, and at first they + thought she was a ghost. To them she told her story of the + outraged and ever-dwindling caravan of helpless women and girls + driven onwards all day beneath the smiting arrows of the sun, + and encamped by the wayside, where they halted with their + barbarous guards and their lusts for a terror by night. Of them + none but this one was left, who had carried her baby with her + every step of that infernal pilgrimage. Two days afterwards he + died from want of nourishment, and before the week was out the + mother fell into the hands of a body of patrolling Kurds, and + was killed.</p> + + <p>So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if + in the history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with + wanton cruelty and made God to hide His face, there is any so + atrocious a tale, I do not know it. But if among the annals of + heroism and of mother-love we want to find a nobler record than + that of this woman of Kheiban, equally am I at a loss as to + where we should look for it. Among the true and golden legends + of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a + memorial of her.</p> + + <p>Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of + Erzerum, with the town of the same name, that contained in the + autumn of 1914 some 20,000 Armenians. Here the first hint of + coming trouble was the order that all Armenian soldiers serving + in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was followed in June + by another order that all the inhabitants of the hundred + villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours' + notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of + these a few took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the + remainder a few only lived to reach Erzinjan, where they were + again deported, and the rest were murdered as they marched. In + Erzerum itself orders were received by Tahsin Bey, the Vali of + the town, that all Armenians were to be killed without + distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out, + but his unwillingness was overruled.<a name= + "FNanchor3"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_3">[3]</a></sup> + Simultaneously, the German Consul telegraphed protests to his + Ambassador at Constantinople, and was told that Germany could + not interfere in the internal affairs of Turkey.</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the + Governor resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing + happened at Konia and at Kutaia. + </div>Here the method employed was deportation: the victims + were murdered, not in the town itself, but were given orders to + leave their homes, and under guard march (for no conveyances + were given them) to other districts. The first company was to + go to Diarbekr. All these, with the exception of one man and + forty women, were murdered on the first day's march. The + remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or + collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells + us what fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked + out, their breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their + torturers hew off their feet, or else hammer nails into them as + they do in shoeing horses. This is all done at night-time, in + order that people may not hear their screams and know of their + agony. Soldiers are stationed round the prisons, beating drums + and blowing whistles. It is needless to relate that many died + of these tortures. When they die, the soldiers cry, "Now let + your Christ help you."' A second caravan of five hundred + families left Erzerum: at Baiburt they were joined by another + contingent deported from that town, and the account that + follows is based on the information supplied by the Rev. Robert + Stapleton, an American minister at Erzerum, and by an Armenian + woman who was among the deported, and whose life was spared on + her embracing Islamism. + + <p>The convoy numbered, when it left Baiburt, some 15,000 + persons, and it reached Erzinjan in safety. There the massacres + had already taken place, and the women and children had been + deported, for they found no Armenians there. But the convoy had + not yet arrived at its goal, and it started out again moving + south by east till it came to Kamakh. There bands of Kurds + descended on them, and in the space of seven days every male + above fifteen years of age, including an aged priest of ninety, + was killed. Thereafter a pilgrimage of women, as from Kheiban, + moved southwards across plain and mountain, and every day its + numbers were diminished, for the youthful and the good-looking + were carried off by brigands. At night they were halted outside + villages, and the gendarmes and villagers took what they chose. + Many died from hunger and heat-stroke: others were left by the + wayside. When they came to the banks of the river Kara-Su there + was a debauch of horror. Women and girls and little children + were raped and mutilated, and the children who still survived + were thrown into the river. Those who could swim were shot. + Thereafter the movements of this caravan are hard to trace. + Probably there was then but little left of it. But others + followed on the same route 'through fields and hillsides dotted + with swollen and blackened corpses that filled and fouled the + air with their stench.' Some of them reached Mosul, some + reached Aleppo, another collecting station, where, by the mouth + of other witnesses, we shall hear of them again.</p> + + <p>Corroborative and additional evidence is given by the Danish + Red Cross nurses who, with a noble disregard of their own + safety, accompanied one of these caravans from Erzerum to + Erzinjan. They speak of the massacres at Kamakh, of the killing + by the river, and of a <i>battue</i> through the cornfields, + where the wheat was high, into which some Armenians had + escaped. At one time these Danish Sisters were in the charge of + a gendarme who had superintended a massacre of 3000 women and + children driven from their homes into the country, rounded up + and killed. He told the Sisters that this was the best method + of getting rid of them, for they should be made to suffer + first, and besides it would be inconvenient for Moslems to live + in a village with so many corpses about. At another place they + came to a shambles, where Armenian soldiers, deprived of their + arms, and sent to make roads, had been slaughtered: at another + there were three gangs of labourers, one Moslem, one Greek, and + one Armenian. These latter were guarded. Presently, as they + proceeded along their road, they looked round and saw that the + Armenian gang was being formed up by itself, a little off the + highroad....</p> + + <p>And so the ghastly record went on all over Armenia. At one + place only, the town of Van, was any resistance organised. + There, after the massacre had begun, some 1500 Armenians got + hold of arms (probably many of these men were soldiers who had + not yet had their arms taken from them), and for the space of + twenty-seven days defended themselves against five thousand + Turkish troops, till the Russian advance relieved them. During + that advance Armenian refugees, into whose districts the + massacres had not yet penetrated, fled for refuge to the + invading army, and in all some 250,000 Armenians under its + protection crossed in safety the Russian frontier into + Trans-Caucasia. How many died on the way from hunger and + exhaustion is not known. Cholera, dysentery, and spotted fever + broke out among them, and the path of their passage was lined + with dead and dying. Companies of Kurds made descents upon + them, taking toll of their maidenhood, but, with the Russian + line to protect them at their rear, they struggled on out of + the cemetery and brothel of their native country, and out of + the accursed confines of that hell on earth, the Ottoman + Empire, leaving behind them the murdered myriads of their + husbands and their sons, their violated wives and daughters. + Through incredible hardships they passed, but, unlike the other + pilgrimages we have briefly traced, they moved not towards + death, but towards safety and life, and their dark steps were + lightened with Hope.</p> + + <p>Before the last of those who survived the hunger and the + pestilence of that pilgrimage had reached Russian soil, it is + probable that in all Armenia there was not a man of their race + left alive, nor a woman either unless she had accepted Islamism + and the life of the harem. A peaceful and progressive nation + had been wiped out with every accompaniment of horror and + cruelty and bestial lust, and in Armenia itself there would + never more be an Armenian question. Abdul Hamid had hinted at + the solution of it, and had made, as we have seen, experiments + in that direction; but it was reserved for Enver Pasha and + Talaat Bey, enlightened men of the Young Turk party, with the + advantages of a Prussian example, to complete the work. Already + Enver had said that he would never rest until the last Armenian + in the Ottoman Empire had been killed, and before the end of + 1915, as far as Armenia itself went, he was able to see a + reasonable prospect of repose before him. But there was much + work still left to do in other provinces.</p> + + <p>We have seen that for the extirpation of Armenians in + Armenia proper, the excuse put forward, if not by the Turks + themselves, by their German apologists, was the necessity of + guarding against treachery in the vicinity of the Turkish army, + and against spying and collusion between the Armenians behind + the Russian lines and those behind Turkish lines. The same + pretext was put forward for the massacres and deportations from + Thrace, from Constantinople, and from the shores of the Sea of + Marmora. Here, if anywhere, there may be thought to be some + justification for measures which might have been undertaken for + the sake of public safety. At any rate, there were definite + charges brought against Armenians in these districts, and the + Armenian boatmen of Silivri, for instance, were imprisoned, but + not, as far as I know, massacred, on the charge of + revictualling English submarines, which at that time, as the + reader will remember, had penetrated into the Sea of Marmora, + and indeed had reached Constantinople itself. It is not, of + course, consonant with Turkish or Prussian justice to + substantiate charges before inflicting penalties, it is + sufficient in the new World-justice to accuse. But here round + Constantinople, there was some pretence at procedure before + resorting to murder and deportation. A register was drawn up of + all Armenians resident in the capital, dividing into separate + classes those who were born in Constantinople, and those who + were immigrants from Armenia, with a view to deporting those + who were not native to the city. Here, I think, we may see + traces of the Prussian instinct for tabulation, for + classification, for category-mongering. Enver and his + colleagues lost patience with these dilatory tactics. The + Armenians of the province of Brussa were deported wholesale, + and long before the registration lists of Constantinople were + finished, all Armenians were moved out of the town. Ten + thousand males were massacred in the mountains of Ismid, and + the Armenian women and children taken into collecting stations + for deportation to 'agricultural colonies' (so the phrase ran + in the Pecksniff language of Prussia) situated in the Anatolian + desert, in the desert of Arabia, and in malarious marshes on + the Euphrates. With this clearing out of Armenians from Thrace, + from Constantinople, and from Armenia itself, we have finished + with our first class of the Armenian atrocities. For it reasons + were at least invented by German apologists. Military + necessities, which here, as in Belgium, knew no law, dictated + it; the frightfulness involved was incidental to War. But such + considerations were not even alleged for the second class of + the murder-scheme. Before passing on, it will be well to + review, quite shortly, the reasons which dictated it, and + penetrate into the infernal councils of Enver Pasha and Talaat + Bey.</p> + + <p>The text of the scheme is to be found in the defined policy + of the Young Turk party as set forth in their Congress of 1911. + 'Turkey must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem + ideas and Moslem influence must be preponderant.... Sooner or + later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must + be effected: it is clear, however, that this can never be + attained by persuasion, but that we must resort to armed + force.'</p> + + <p>There is the text that was expanded into the discourse of + murder; it is the definition of a policy. Within a few years + there followed the European War, and that probably was the + immediate cause of its being put into effect. No more admirable + opportunity for Ottomanisation could present itself, for the + entry of Turkey into the war was most unpopular with the bulk + of the Turkish population, and it was advisable to bribe them + into acceptance of it. The bribe was the houses, the property, + the money and the trade that throughout the length and breadth + of Turkey was in Armenian hands. For the Armenians were by far + the wealthiest of the alien populations, and some 90 per cent. + of Turkish trade passed through their shops and offices. Here, + then, was the psychological moment: Turkey for the Turk was the + aim of the Committee of Union and Progress, and with a + discontented population, unwilling to fight, the moment had + come for restoring to the Turk this mass of property which at + present belonged to an alien race. War might have its drawbacks + and its clouds, but war would be seen to have its advantages + and its silver linings, if out of it there came this legacy of + Armenian wealth. And by the same stroke Turkey could get rid of + those thousands of meddlesome missionaries, American and + French, who spread religion and learning and other undesirable + things among the cursed race. Once remove the cursed race, and + there would be an end of their instructors also, for there + would be none to instruct. 'Thanks to their schools,' so we + read in the <i>Hilal</i>, an organ of the Young Turks, + 'foreigners were able to exercise great moral influence over + the young men of the country.... By closing them (i.e. by + exterminating their pupils) the Government has put an end to a + situation as humiliating as it was dangerous.'</p> + + <p>Such, then, was the spirit that animated Enver and Talaat, + and during the winter of 1914-15 they perfected their plans. + The Armenian race was to cease, and the Valis and other + officials were, each in his district, to see to the + thoroughness of its cessation. Sometimes, as happened at + Erzerum, the Vali in question, not having the broad out-look of + Enver, or quaintly and curiously having a womanish objection to + the national duty of flogging men to death and giving over + young girls to a barbarous soldiery, remonstrated with the + authorities, or even refused to obey orders. Such a one was + instantly removed from his office, and a stauncher patriot + substituted. All was put on an orderly footing: here Kurds were + to be employed on the old Abdul Hamid formula, who by way of + wage would enjoy the privilege of raping as many women and + girls out of their hapless convoy as seemed desirable, while in + agricultural districts they were allowed also to take over the + sheep and cattle of their murdered victims. Here, in towns + where there was more chance of resistance than in scattered + homesteads, it would be wise to employ regular troops, backed, + if necessary, by artillery, to whom would be entrusted the + murder of the whole male population, after suitable tortures, + supposing the executioners had a taste for the sport, and to + them was given the right of general plunder. Then, as soon as + the number and capacity of the vacant houses were telegraphed + to Constantinople, occupiers from the discontented townsfolk + and natives of Thrace were assigned to them. Sometimes there + would be a big school building to give away as well, but that + was not always so, for it might be more convenient to assemble + Armenians there for purposes of registration or so forth, and + then, if it happened to catch fire, why Enver would understand + that such accidents would occur. Among other careful and + well-thought-out instructions came the order that, when + possible, the murders should not take place in the town, but + outside it, for clean Allah-fearing Moslems would not like to + live in habitations defiled by Christian corpses. But, above + all, there must be thoroughness; not a man must be left alive, + not a girl nor a woman who must not drag her outraged body, so + long as breath and the heart-beat remained in it, to, or rather + towards those 'agricultural colonies,' as Talaat Bey, in a + flash of whimsical Prussian humour, called them. One was + advantageously situated in the middle of the Anatolian desert + at the village of Sultanieh. There, for miles round, stretched + the rocks and sands of a waterless wilderness, but no doubt the + women and children of this very industrious race would manage + to make it wave with cornfields. Another agricultural colony, + by way of contrast, should be established a couple of days' + journey south of Aleppo, where the river loses itself in + pestilential and malarious swamps. Arabs could not live there, + but who knew whether those hardy Armenians (the women and + children, of them at least who had proved themselves robust + enough to reach the place) would not flourish there out of + harm's way? After the swamps one came to the Arabian desert, + and there, a hundred miles south-east, was a place called + Deir-el-Zor; wandering Arab tribes sometimes passed through it, + but, arrived there, the Armenians should wander no more. In + those arid sands and waterless furnaces of barren rock there + was room for all and to spare. Sultanieh, the swamps, and + Deir-el-Zor: these were the chief of Talaat Bey's agricultural + colonies.</p> + + <p>There must be collecting stations for these tragic + colonists, centres to which they must be herded in from + surrounding districts: one at Osmanieh, let us say, one at + Aleppo, one at Ras-el-Ain, one at Damascus. And since it would + be a pity to let so many flowers of girlhood waste their + sweetness on the desert air of Deir-el-Zor, slave markets must + be established at these collecting stations. There would be + plenty of girls, and prices would be low, but the reverend + ministers of Allah the God of Love, the Ulemas, the Padis and + the Muftis, should be accorded a preferential tariff. Indeed + they should pay nothing at all; they should just choose a girl + and take her away, and, with the help of Allah the God of Love, + convert her to the blessed creed. No one was too young for + these lessons.... A little abstemiousness would not hurt these + pampered Christians, so when they set out on their marches they + need not be provided with rations or water. Perhaps some might + die, but Talaat had no use for weaklings at his agricultural + colonies. Nor must there be any poking and prying on the part + of those interfering American missionaries; and so Talaat Bey + put all the agricultural colonies out of bounds for + foreigners....</p> + + <p>There was no hurry over these deportations, for the plea of + military exigencies, which had caused the deportations in + Armenia itself to be terminated by massacre with a rapidity + almost inartistic, did not apply to Armenians so far from the + seat of war. Their picnics could be conducted quietly and + pleasantly in the leisurely Oriental manner. Even the men need + not be murdered absolutely out of hand. Strong young fellows + might be stripped and tied down and then beaten to death by + bastinadoing the feet till they burst, or by five hundred blows + on the chest and stomach. Their cries would mingle with the + screams of their sisters in the embrace of Turkish soldiers. + And, talking of embraces, if a woman was desirable, she need + not walk all the way to Deir-el-Zor, but by embracing Islamism + be transferred to a harem. But these were details that might be + left to individual taste: there were no precise instructions + save that no Armenian men must be discoverable in the Ottoman + Empire at all, and no women save those who had become Turkish + women, or who were at work on the waterless and the malarial + agricultural colonies.</p> + + <p>Talaat Bey reviewed his finished scheme. He thought it would + do, and Enver Pasha agreed with him, and Jemal Bey (who soon + after styled himself Jemal the Great), the Military Governor of + Syria, and so responsible for the last stages of their + pilgrimage, thought it would do very well indeed. And + instructions were sent out to every town in the Empire where + there were Armenians, in accordance with the programme of + Talaat Bey.</p> + + <p>How Enver carried out his part of the programme in Armenia + itself we have seen, and by the end of the year (1915) his work + was done, and Armenia was Armenia no longer. But operations, as + I have said, were conducted in a more leisurely manner + elsewhere, and the agony of that butchery protracted. But Jemal + got to work at once in the thickly populated district round + Zeitun. He had had no success in the campaign of the winter in + the direction of the Suez Canal, and his troops were hungry for + some sort of victory. The Zeitunlis were hardy independent + mountaineers, who were possessed of arms, and Jemal thought it + more prudent not to dally with deportations, but conduct a + regular campaign against them. For two or three months they + resisted, entrenching themselves in the hills, but they could + not hold out against artillery and the modern apparatus of war, + and the whole tribe was wiped out. That done, Jemal became + Jemal the Great by reason of his national services, and paid a + visit to Germany. On his return we shall hear of him again.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile, from all the reports that have arrived from + missionaries and others, we may take one or two, almost at + random. At certain places, as in the governments of Ismid, + Angora and Diarbekr, the Armenian population was completely + wiped out. Sometimes tortures were added, as at a certain + Anatolian town where there was a big Armenian school, in which + a number of professors and instructors, some of whom had + studied in America, in Scotland, and in Germany, had for years + been working.</p> + + <p>What happened to them was this:--</p> + + <p>(1) Professor A served the College thirty-five years, and + taught Turkish and history. He was arrested without charge, the + hair of his head and beard were pulled out in order to secure + damaging confessions. He was starved and hung up by the arms + for a day and a night and repeatedly beaten. He was then + murdered.</p> + + <p>(2) Professor B, who had served the College thirty-three + years, and taught mathematics, suffered the same fate.</p> + + <p>(3) Professor C, head of the preparatory department, had + served the College for twenty years. He was made to witness the + spectacle of a man being beaten almost to death, and became + mentally deranged. He was murdered with his family.</p> + + <p>(4) Professor D, who taught mental and moral sciences, was + treated in the same way as Professor A. He also had three + finger nails pulled out by the roots, and was subsequently + murdered.</p> + + <p>Similarly, at Diarbekr, the Armenians were collected in + batches of 600, taken out of the town, and killed to the last + man. Among them was the Armenian Archbishop; his eyes and nails + were dragged out before he was butchered.</p> + + <p>Or let us take a look at some of the collecting camps. At + one, described by an eye-witness, we find that the convoy had + arrived after several months of travel. More than half were + already dead, they had been pillaged by bandits and Kurds seven + times. They were forbidden to drink water when they passed by a + stream, three-quarters of the young women and girls had been + kidnapped, the rest were compelled to sleep with the gendarmes + who conducted them. At Osmanieh it was decided to deport the + women and children by train. They lay about the station + starving and fever-stricken. When the train arrived many were + jostled on to the line, and the driver yelled with joy, crying + out, 'Did you see how I smashed them up?'</p> + + <p>At another camp typhus broke out; those who died of it were + left unburied, as vouched for by a Turkish officer, in order to + increase the infection....</p> + + <p>Urfa was another collecting camp for the Armenians in that + district, and the following account is based on the information + of an eye-witness. Here, before the concentration began, the + Armenians living in the town offered resistance to the Turks, + and held out until Fahri Bey, second in command to Jemal the + Great, arrived with artillery, bombarded the town, and + massacred every Armenian there. Quiet being thus restored, the + bands of deported began to arrive. They came by rail or on + foot, and, with the Prussian love of tabulation, were divided + into three groups.</p> + + <p>The first group consisted of old men, old women, and young + children. They, guarded by gendarmes, were sent marching + through the desert to Deir-el-Zor. Few, if any, ever arrived + there, all dying by the way.</p> + + <p>The second group, consisting of able-bodied men, was led off + in batches and slaughtered. Among them were Zohrab and Vartkes, + Armenian deputies who had been brought there from + Constantinople.</p> + + <p>The third group consisted of young marriageable girls. Some, + perhaps, found their way into harems.</p> + + <p>From Aleppo (one of the final concentration camps before + such as were left of the convoys set forth for their goal, the + swamps or the desert round Deir-el-Zor) we have the detailed + evidence of Dr. Martin Niepage, High Grade teacher in the + German Technical School. This gentleman, with a courage and a + humanity to which the highest tribute must be paid, addressed a + report of protest to the German Ambassador at Constantinople, + and wrote an open letter to the Reichstag on the subject of + what he had seen with his own eyes in that town. In his + preliminary matter he speaks as follows:--</p> + + <p>'In dilapidated caravanserais I found quantities of dead, + many corpses being half-decomposed, and others still living + among them who were soon to breathe their last. In other yards + I found quantities of sick and dying people, whom nobody was + looking after.... We teachers and our pupils had to pass them + every day. Every time we went out we saw through the open + windows their pitiful forms, emaciated and wrapped in rags. In + the morning our school children, on their way through the + narrow streets, had to push past the two-wheeled ox-carts on + which every day, from eight to ten rigid corpses without coffin + or shroud, were carried away, their arms and legs trailing out + of the vehicle.'</p> + + <p>From the report itself:--</p> + + <p>'Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the + Armenian plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, + women, and children, only two or three hundred survivors + arrived here in the south. The men were slaughtered on the way, + the women and girls, with the exception of the old, the ugly + and those who are still children, have been abused by Turkish + soldiers and officers.... Even when they are fording rivers + they do not allow those dying of thirst to drink. All the + nourishment they receive is a daily ration of a little meal + sprinkled on their hands.... Opposite the German Technical + School at Aleppo, a mass of about four hundred emaciated forms, + the remnant of such convoys, is lying in one of the + caravanserais. There are about a hundred children (boys and + girls) among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them + are suffering from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the + yard, one has the impression of entering a madhouse. If one + brings food, one notices that they have forgotten how to + eat.... If one gives them bread, they put it aside + indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for + death.'</p> + + <p>Dr. Niepage wrote this report in the hope of saving such as + then (1915) survived. No notice whatever was taken of it, and + his postscript, written in May 1916, records the fact that 'the + exiles encamped at Ras-el-Ain on the Bagdad Railway, estimated + at 20,000 men, women and children, were slaughtered to the last + one.'<a name="FNanchor4"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_4">[4]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + It is right to add that at Aleppo an officer called + Bekir Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected + from neighbouring districts, who were threatened with + massacre, and I find that a German missionary states that + there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This forms + confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is + nothing to show that they were not subsequently deported to + Deir-el-Zor. In this case it is highly improbable that any + survive. + </div>In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the + Germans are directly responsible for the continuance of the + massacres. Such, too, is the opinion, he tells us, of the + educated Moslems, and his courage in stating this has lost him + his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely hoped that he has + escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for drawing + attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian + massacres, has been arrested for high treason. + + <p>Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had + refused to interfere in the massacres, and both in the official + press and through official utterances had expressed their + support of this Ottomanisation of the Empire, began to think + that you might have too much of a good thing, and that the + massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason was clear + and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour + in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for + which they had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. + There had been some talk, they said, of saving 500,000 + Armenians out of the race, but, in the way things were going + on, it seemed that the remnant would not nearly approach that + figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper their + patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he + wanted to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh + from his visit to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of + Talaat's opposition, made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, + in which, beyond doubt, we can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' + in the following manner.</p> + + <p>There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in + Constantinople which was to be led out for murder and + deportation, and Jemal gave orders that it should be spared and + sent back to its highland home. He gave orders also that the + entire convoy should be informed who was their saviour, and + should be led in procession past his house and show their + gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, + half-starved crowd streamed by the house of Jemal the Great, + with murmurs of thanksgiving and uplifted hands, and all manner + of obeisances, while Jemal the Great stood in his porch with + stern, impassive face, and hand on his sword-hilt in the best + Potsdam manner, and acknowledged these + thanksgivings....<a name="FNanchor5"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_5">[5]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + In support of Jemal's claim to clemency it must be + added that, according to a report coming from Alexandria, + he hanged twelve of the worst assassins sent to Syria as + ringleaders of the massacres. I cannot find corroboration + of this. + </div>Here, then, is the absurd, the Williamesque side of this + ludicrous popinjay, Jemal the Great, and it contains not only + the obvious seeds of laughter, but the more helpful seeds of + hope. He has a strong hand on the very efficient army of Syria, + and his visits to Berlin seem perhaps to have turned his head + not quite in the direction that the Master-egalo-megalomaniac + of Berlin intended. I gather that Jemal the Great was not so + much impressed by the magnificence of William II. as to fall + dazzled and prone at the Imperial feet, and lick with + enraptured tongue the imperial boot polish, but rather to be + inspired to do the same himself, to become the God-anointed of + the newly acquired German province, which is Turkey, and make a + Potsdam of his own. This is only a guess, but the conduct of + Jemal the Great in the matter of these Armenian refugees, and + in other affairs, has been distinctly imperial. In June of this + year, for instance, he telegraphed to H.E. the Vali of Syria, + and an extract from his text is truly Potsdamish. 'One and a + half million of sandbags,' he wrote, 'are required for the + fortress of Gaza.... The bags should be made, if necessary, of + all the silk-hangings in houses of Syria and Palestine.' With + his army behind him, he has twice already defied the orders of + Talaat, and I am inclined to think that he is the coming Strong + Man of the effete Empire with whom it would be well worth while + to make friends, even at a highish price. The Allied Powers + should keep an undazzled eye on him, for it is quite possible + that, having defied Talaat successfully, he may go on to defy + the real rulers of Turkey, who live in Berlin. His Syrian army, + from such sources as are available, appears to be more + efficient than any other body of troops the Turks can put into + the field, and he has them in control. Probably in the winter + of 1917-1918 our troops will come into collision with them. But + in the interval, also quite probably, Jemal the Great may + resent German superintendence.<a name= + "FNanchor6"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_6">[6]</a></sup> + + <p><a name="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + See note at end of this chapter. + </div>But in addition to his ludicrous side, there is in him a + refined hypocrisy and a subtle cruelty worthy of Abdul Hamid. + One instance will suffice. + + <p>There had been some talk that at certain of these + concentration camps there was no water supply, and he gave + orders, did Jemal the Great and the Merciful, that water should + be sent. A train consisting of trucks of water accordingly was + despatched to one of those camps, situated in the desert, with + no supply nearer than six miles, and an eye-witness describes + its arrival. The mob of Armenians, mad with thirst, surrounded + it, and, since everything must be done in an orderly and seemly + manner, were beaten back by the Turkish guards, and made to + stand at a due distance for the distribution. And when those + ranks, with their parched throats and sun-cracked lips, were + all ready, the Turkish guards opened the taps of the + reservoirs, and allowed the whole of their contents to run away + into the sand. Whether Jemal the Great planned that, or whether + it was but a humorous freak on the part of the officials, I + cannot say. But as a refinement of cruelty I have, outside the + page of Poe's tales, only once come across anything to equal + it, and that in a letter from the <i>Times'</i> correspondent + at Berne on April 11, 1917. He describes the treatment of + English prisoners in Germany: 'An equally common entertainment + with those women (German Red Cross nurses) was to offer a + wounded man a glass, perhaps, of water, then, standing just + outside his reach, to pour it slowly on the ground.' Could + those sisters of mercy have read the account of Jemal's + clemency, or is it merely an instance of the parallelism of + similar minds?</p> + + <p>So the empty train returned, and Jemal the Great caused it + to be known in Berlin that he was active in securing a proper + water supply for the famous agricultural settlements in the + desert, and loud were the encomiums in the press of the Central + Powers over the colonisation of Syria by the Armenians, the + progress and enlightenment of the Turks, and the skilful and + humane organisation of Jemal the Great.</p> + + <p>There is no difficulty in estimating to-day the number of + Armenian men who survive in the Turkish Empire. All appeals to + the Prussian overlords, such as were made by Dr. Niepage, and + the belated remonstrance of the Prussians themselves when they + foresaw a dearth of labour for the husbandry of beet and + cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I cannot see any reason for + supposing that Armenian men exist any more in the Empire. It is + more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who, by + accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. + Certainly in some districts there were considerable + 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage rates them as many thousands. + But the willingness to accept those conditions was not always a + guarantee for their being granted, and I have read reports + where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was a more + serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they + were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can + scarcely consider these women as constituting an Armenian + element any more in the country. The work of butchery, the + torture, the long-drawn agonies of those inhuman pilgrimages + have come to an end because there are no more Armenian victims + available. Apart from those who escaped over the Russian + frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race + exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest + deed that ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It + is not in revenge on the murderers, but in order to rescue the + other subject peoples, Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still + enclosed within the frontiers of the Empire, that the Allied + Governments, in their answer to President Wilson, stated that + among their aims as belligerents, was the 'liberation of the + peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of the + Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again, + after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the + destinies of races not his own. Too long already--and to their + disgrace be it spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations + of Europe tolerated at their very doors a tyranny that has + steadily grown more murderous and more monstrous, because they + feared the upset of the Balance of Power. Now at least such + Powers as value national honour, and regard a national promise + as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, + have resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk + over his alien subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the + least they can do (and unhappily the most) to redeem the + century-long neglect of their duty. Even now, as we shall see + in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril threatens those other + peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule, and we can but + pray that the end of the war will come before Arabs or Greeks + or Jews suffer the same fate as has exterminated the Armenians. + Too often have we been too late; we must only hope that another + item will not have to be added to that miserable list, and + that, when the day of reckoning comes, no half-hearted and + pusillanimous policy will stay our hands from the complete + execution of that to which we stand pledged. The Balance of + Power has gone the way of other rickety makeshifts, but there + must be no makeshift in our dealings with the Turk, no + compromise and no delay. What shall be done with those who + planned and executed the greatest massacres known to history + matters little; let them be hanged as high as Haman, and have + done with them. But what does matter is that at no future time + must it be in the power of a Government that has never been + other than barbaric and butcherous, to do again as it has done + before.</p> + + <p>NOTE ON JEMAL THE GREAT</p> + + <p>Jemal the Great has very obligingly done what I suggested we + might expect him to do, and has kicked against the German + control of the Syrian army. General von Falkenhayn was sent to + take supreme command, and on June 28th of this year Jemal the + Great refused to receive orders from him. In consequence + General von Falkenhayn refused responsibility for any offensive + movement there if Jemal remained in command.</p> + + <p>This promised well for trouble between Turks and Germans, + but we must not, I am afraid, build very high hopes on it, for + Germany has dealt with the situation in a masterly manner. + Jemal was already Minister of Marine as well as commander of + the Syrian army, so the Emperor asked him to pay another visit + to Berlin, and he has been visiting Krupp's works and German + naval yards, and we shall find probably that in the future his + activities will be marine rather than military, and that von + Falkenhayn will have a free hand in Syria.</p> + + <p>But this will prove rather disappointing for Jemal, since it + seems beyond mere coincidence that towards the end of August + Herr von Kuhlmann, the new German Foreign Minister, induced the + Turkish Government (while Jemal was at Berlin) to put their + navy and their merchant fleet under the orders of the German + Admiralty, and already many Turkish naval officers have been + replaced by Germans. Thus Jemal will find himself deprived of + his military command, because the navy so urgently needed his + guiding hand, while his guiding hand over the navy will be + itself guided by the German Admiralty.... In fact, it looks + rather like checkmate for Jemal the Great, and an end to the + trouble he might have given the German control.</p> + + <p>On the eve of his leaving Germany, as yet unconscious + probably of the subordination of the entire Turkish fleet to + the German Admiralty, he gave an interview to a representative + of the <i>Cologne Gazette</i>, which deserves more than that + ephemeral appearance. It shows Jemal the Great in a sort of + hypnotic trance induced at Potsdam. 'The German fleet,' he + says, 'is simply spotless in its power, and a model for all + states which need a modern navy--a model which cannot be + surpassed.' ... He went for a cruise in a submarine which + proceeded 'so smoothly, elegantly, calmly and securely that I + had the impression of cruising in a great steamship.' ... He + was taken to Belgium, and describes the 'idyllic life there': + in the towns 'the people go for walks all day long,' and in the + country the peasants blithely gather in the harvest with the + help of happy prisoners.' (He does not tell us where the + harvest goes to, any more than the Germans tell us where the + Turkish harvests go to.) He was taken to General Headquarters, + which he describes as 'majestic.' Finally he was taken into the + presence of the All-Highest, and seems to have emerged in the + condition in which Moses came down from Sinai.... But one must + not altogether despair of Jemal the Great. It is still possible + that, on his return to Constantinople, when he found that his + position, as Minister of Marine was but a clerkship in the + German Admiralty, the hypnotic trance began to pass off, and + his ambitions to re-assert themselves. He may yet give trouble + to the Germans if properly handled.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_IV"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter IV</i></h2> + + <center> + THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + </center> + + <p>It is impossible to leave this heart-rending tale of the + sufferings of the Armenian people under the Turks without some + account of that devoted band of American missionaries who, with + a heroism unsurpassed, and perhaps unequalled, so eagerly + sacrificed themselves to the ravages of pestilence and + starvation in order to alleviate the horrors that descended on + the people to whom they had been sent. Often they were forcibly + driven from the care of their flocks, often in the + extermination of their flocks there was none left whom they + could shepherd, but wherever a remnant still lingered there + remained these dauntless and self-sacrificing men and women, + regardless of everything except the cause to which they had + devoted themselves. They recked nothing of the dangers to which + they exposed themselves so long as there was a child or a woman + or a man whom they could feed or nurse. Terrible as were the + sufferings through which the Armenians passed, they must have + been infinitely more unbearable had it not been for these + American missionaries; small as was the remnant that escaped + into the safety of Persia or Russian Trans-Caucasia, their + numbers must have been halved had it not been for the heroism + of these men and women. While the German Consuls contented + themselves with a few faint protests to their Ambassador at + Constantinople, followed by an acquiescence of silence, the + missionaries constituted themselves into a Red Cross Society of + intrepid workers, and, as one well-qualified authority tells + us, 'suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical + exhaustion as any proportionate body of workers on the European + battlefields.' Fully indeed did they live up to the mandate of + the American board that sent them out: 'Your great business is + with the fundamental doctrines and duties of the Gospel.'</p> + + <p>At the opening of the European War the American Missions had + been at work for nearly a hundred years, and were disseminated + over Anatolia and Armenia. They had opened 163 Protestant + churches and 450 schools, they established hospitals, and in + every possible way spread civilisation in a country where the + spirit of the governing class was barbarism. It was not their + object to proselytise. 'Let the Armenian remain an Armenian if + he will,' so ran the instructions from which I have already + quoted, 'the Greek a Greek, the Nestorian a Nestorian, the + Oriental an Oriental,' and in the same wise and open-minded + spirit they encouraged native Protestant Churches which were + independent of them and largely self-supporting. Naturally in a + country governed by monsters like Abdul Hamid and Enver Pasha + in later days, they earned the enmity which is the tribute of + barbarians to those who stand for civilisation, and when, owing + to the extermination or flight of their Armenian flocks, they + were left without a charge, and their schools were closed, we + find a paean of self-congratulation going up from the Turkish + press inspired by the butchers of Armenia. But till the + massacres and the flight were complete, they gave themselves to + the 'duties of the Gospel,' and their deeds shine like a star + into the blackness of that night of murder.</p> + + <p>I will take as an example of the superb heroism of those men + and women the diary of an American lady attached to the mission + at Urmia, a document that, anonymously, is one of the noblest, + least self-conscious records I have ever read. The period of it + extends over five months.</p> + + <p>Early in January 1915 the Russian troops were withdrawn from + Urmia, which lies on the frontier between Turkey and Persia, + and simultaneously the Moslem population began to plunder the + Christian villages, the inhabitants of which fled for refuge to + the missions in the city. Talaat's official murder-scheme was + not completed yet, but the Kurds, together with the Turks, had + planned a local massacre at Geogtapa, which was stopped by the + American doctor of this mission, Dr. Packard, who, at great + personal risk, obtained an interview with the Kurdish chief, + and succeeded in inducing him to spare the lives of the + Christians, if they gave up arms and ammunition and property. + The American flag was hoisted over the Mission buildings, and + before a week was out there were over ten thousand refugees + housed in the yards and rooms, where they remained for five + months, the places of the dead being taken by fresh influxes. + The dining-room, the sitting-room, the church, the school, were + all given over to these destitute people, and from the + beginning fear of massacre, as well as prevalence of disease, + haunted the camp. It was impossible to move dead bodies + outside; they had to be buried in the thronged yards, and every + day children were born. But here is the spirit that animated + their protectors. 'We have just had a Praise meeting,' records + the diarist at the close of the first fortnight, 'with fifty or + sixty we could gather from the halls and rooms near, and we + feel more cheerful. We thought if Paul and Silas, with their + stripes, could sing praises in prison, so could we.'</p> + + <p>The weeks, of which each day was a procession of hours too + full of work to leave time for anxiety, began to enrol + themselves into months, and the hope of rescue by a Russian + advance made their hearts sick, so long was it deferred. + Refugees from neighbouring villages kept arriving, and there + was the constant problem before these devoted friends of their + flock, as to how to feed them. All such were welcome, and eager + was the welcome they received, though every foot of space in + the buildings and in the yards was occupied. But somehow they + managed to make room for all who came, and for those villagers + who, under threat of torture and massacre, had apostatised, + there was but yearning and sorrow, but never a word of blame or + bitterness. Sometimes there was a visit of Turkish troops to + search for concealed Russians, and, as our diarist remarks, 'We + can't complain of the monotony of life, for we never know what + is going to happen next. On Tuesday morning we had a wedding in + my room here. The boy and girl were simple villagers.... The + wedding was fixed for the Syrian New Year, but the Kurds came + and carried off wedding clothes and everything else in the + house. They all fled here, and were married in the old dirty + garments they were wearing when they ran for their lives.... + Their only present was a little tea and sugar that I tied up in + a handkerchief and gave to the bride.'</p> + + <p>The eternal feminine and the eternal human speak there; and + there, for this gallantest of women, were two keys that locked + up the endless troubles and anxieties that ceased not day or + night. But sometimes the flesh was weak, and in the privacy of + her diary she says, 'How long, O Lord?' But for that there was + the master-key that unlocks all wards, and a little further on + we read, 'One of the verses that helps to keep my faith steady + is, "He that spared not His own Son." For weeks we have had no + word from the outside world, but we "rest in Jehovah and wait + patiently for Him."'</p> + + <p>The conditions inside the crowded yards grew steadily worse. + Dysentery was rife, and the deaths from it in that narrow space + averaged thirty a day. The state of the sufferers grew so + terrible that it was difficult to get any one to look after + them at all, and many were lying in the open yards, and the + weather, which hitherto had been warm, got cold, and snow fell. + It was with the greatest difficulty that food could be obtained + for those in health, and that of a kind utterly unsuitable to + the sick, while in the minds of their nurses was the bitter + knowledge that with proper diet hundreds of lives could have + been saved, and hundreds of cases of illness avoided.</p> + + <p>For the dead there was but a small percentage of coffins + available, and 'the great mass are just dropped into the great + trench of rotting humanity (in the yard). As I stand at my + window I see one after another of the little bodies carried by + ... and the condition of the living is more pitiful than that + of the dead--hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, wet, swarming + with vermin. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of Europe + would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the + suffering and misery of this one little corner of the world + alone. A helpless unarmed Christian community turned over to + the sword and the passion of Islam!'</p> + + <p>On the top of this came an epidemic of typhoid, twenty-seven + cases on the first day. Outside in the town the Turkish Consul + began hanging Christians, and the missioners were allowed to + take the bodies and bury them. There were threats that the + mission would be entered, and all young men (possible + combatants) killed, but this fear was not realised. The typhoid + increased, and the doctor of the mission and others of the + staff fell ill with it; but the patience and service of the + remainder never faltered, while the same spirit of + uncomplaining suffering animated the refugees. 'Mr. McDowell,' + so the diarist relates, 'saw a tired and weary woman with a + baby in her arms, sitting in one of the seats, and said to her, + "Where do you stay?" She said "Just here." "How long have you + been here?" "Since the beginning." (two months) she replied. + "How do you sleep at night?" "I lay the baby on the desk in + front of me, and I have this post at the back to lean against. + This is a very good place. Thank you very much."'</p> + + <p>In April there comes a break in the diary after the day on + which the following entry is made:--</p> + + <p>'I felt on Sunday as if I ought to get my own burial clothes + ready, so as to make as little trouble as possible when my time + comes, for in these days we all go about our work knowing that + any one of us may be the next to go down. And yet I think our + friends would be surprised to see how cheerful we have kept, + and how many occasions we find for laughing: for ludicrous + things do happen. Then, too, after dwelling so intimately with + Death for three months, he doesn't seem to have so unfriendly + an aspect, and the "Other Side" seems near, and our Pilot close + beside us.... I find the Rock on which I can anchor in peace + are the words of Christ Himself: "Where I am, there ye may be + also." ... That is enough, to be where He is....'</p> + + <p>Then comes a break of two months, during which the writer + was down with typhoid. She resumes again in June, finding that + death has made many changes, and gets back to work again at + once. By that time the Russians had entered Urmia, a + thanksgiving service was held, the refugees dispersed, and the + American Mission went quietly on with its normal work.</p> + + <p>Now I have taken this one instance of the work of Americans + at Urmia to show in some detail the character of the work that + they were doing, and the Christian and humanising influence of + it. But all over Armenia and Anatolia were similar settlements, + and, as already mentioned, at the time of the massacres there + were established there over a hundred of their churches and + over four hundred schools, and from these extracts which + concern only one not very large centre, it may be gathered what + leaven of civilising influence the sum of their energies must + have implied. That lamp shone steady and clear, a 'kindly + light' in the darkness of Turkish misrule, and in the havoc of + the massacres a beacon of hope, not always reached by those + hapless refugees. Indeed it seems to have been only on the + frontier that the missions were able to save those foredoomed + hordes of fleeing Christians; in Armenia and in Anatolia + generally the massacres and 'deportations' were complete, and + by the end of 1915 all American missions were closed, for there + were none to tend and care for. Even if the massacres had not + occurred, the entry of America into the war would have resulted + in a similar cessation of their work, and most probably in a + massacre of the American missioners themselves. Their + withdrawal, of course, was hailed with a peacock scream of + pride by that enlightened body under Talaat and Enver, called + the New Turkish party of Progress, for their presence was a bar + to the Turkish notions of civilisation, in that their influence + made for humanity, and health and education. Now 'the + humiliating and dangerous situation' (to quote from the columns + of <i>Hilal</i>) was put an end to, and Turkish progress could + make headway again.</p> + + <p>Similarly in Syria the outbreak of war put an end to 'the + humiliating and dangerous situation' of the presence of French + schools and missions. There, for many years, French missioners + had done the same work as Americans in Armenia, work in every + sense liberal and civilising, but undenominational in religious + matters and unproselytising. That came to an end earlier than + the organisations in Armenia, and in Syria now, as over the + rest of the Turkish people, Arabs and Jews and Greeks have + nothing except German influence and Kultur to stand between + them and the spirit of Turkish progress of which the Armenian + massacres were the latest epiphany. Germany, as we have seen, + stood by and let the Armenian massacres go on, professing + herself unable to interfere in the internal affairs of Turkey, + though at the time there was not a single branch of Turkish + industries, railways, telegraphs, armies, navies over which she + had not complete control, exercising it precisely as she + thought fit.</p> + + <p>It is useless, then, to base any confidence in the safety of + Jews, Greeks, and Arabs from suffering the same fate as the + Armenians, on a veto from Germany. If it suits Germany to let + those unfortunate peoples be murdered or deported to + agricultural colonies, Germany will assuredly not stir a finger + on their behalf nor prevent a repetition of the horrors I have + dealt with in the previous chapter. Sooner than risk her hold + over Turkey by enforcing unacceptable demands, she will, unless + other considerations of self-interest determine her, let + further massacres occur, if Talaat Bey insists on them. That + spokesman of her policy, Ernst Marré, makes this + perfectly explicit in his book, <i>Die Türken und Wir nach + dem Kriege</i>, upholding from the German standpoint the right + of Turkey and the wisdom of Turkey in dealing with her subject + peoples as she had dealt with the Armenians. 'The Turkish + State,' he tells us, 'is no united whole: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, + Armenians, Kurds, cannot be welded together.' (This, by a + somewhat grim and ominous coincidence, is in exact accordance + with a remark made to a Danish Red Cross Sister by a Turkish + gendarme then engaged in massacring Armenians: 'First we get + rid of the Armenians,' he said, 'then the Greeks, then the + Kurds.') Or again, in defence of the Armenian massacres, 'Only + by energetic interference and by expelling of the obstinate + Armenian element, could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian + dominion.' Or again, 'The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman + Empire must be Ottomanised.' Here, then, is the German point of + view: the Ottoman Government will be right to 'dispose of' its + subject peoples as it thinks fit. So far from interfering, + Germany endorses, and German influence to-day is all that + stands between 'the murderous tyranny' and its subject peoples. + French, English, and finally American pressure can no longer, + since the entry of these nations into the war, be exercised + within the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, and the only + protection of defenceless aliens is the German Government. It + did not stir a finger to save the Armenians, until it saw that + depopulation threatened the prosperity of its industries, and + it is idle to expect that it will do more if the consolidation + of Turkish supremacy demands a further campaign of murder. + Greeks, Arabs, and Jews are all completely at the mercy of + Talaat's murder-schedules. The only chance that can save them + is that further extermination may not suit Germany's political + aims, and that she may find it worth her while to be + peremptory, and forbid instead of endorsing.</p> + + <p>There are unhappily many signs that the butchers of + Constantinople are planning further massacres. In February of + this year preliminary measures were begun against the Greeks + settled in Anatolia. Many were forcibly proselytised, their + property was confiscated, and they were forbidden to carry on + their businesses. Deportations also occurred, and all Greeks + were removed from many villages in Anatolia, into the interior, + presumably to 'agricultural colonies' such as those provided + for Armenians. They suffered terribly from hunger and exposure, + and it is estimated that ten per cent. of them died on their + marches. Since then, however, there has been no more heard of + any extension of those measures, and there seems to have been + as yet no massacre of Greeks. It is reasonable to infer that + Germany has in this case intervened. She still hoped to win + Greece over to the Central European Powers, and clearly any + massacre of Greeks by her own Allies was not desirable. King + Constantine, among his endless vacillations and pusillanimous + treacheries, probably made a firm protest on the subject. But + in the kaleidoscope of war, should Greece come to the side of + the Allies, it seems most probable that there will occur a + wholesale massacre of Greeks. From what we know of the + principles on which German Kultur is based, the most optimistic + can scarcely hope that the very faintest remonstrance will + emanate from Berlin.</p> + + <p>The case of the Arabs in Syria is even more precarious. From + the moment that the policy of the Young Turks was evolved, + namely, to consolidate Osmanli supremacy by the weakening of + its subject peoples, the Ottoman Government has been waiting + for its opportunity to get rid of the 'Arab menace.' As we have + seen, they began by substituting Turkish for Arabic as a + written language in all official usages from the printing of + the Koran and the prayers for the Sultan down to the legends on + railway tickets. The Arab spirit, according to one of the + spokesmen of the New Turk party, had to be suppressed, the Arab + lands had to become Turkish colonies. 'It is a peculiarly + imperious necessity of our existence,' we read in Jelal Noury + Bey's propaganda, 'to Turkise the Arab lands, for the + particularistic idea of nationality is awaking among the + younger generations of Arabs, and already threatens us with a + great catastrophe.' Against the Arabs the Young Turks formed + and fostered a special animosity; they were powerful and + warlike, and Enver, Talaat, and others saw that the idea of an + Osmanli supremacy could never be realised unless very drastic + measures were taken against them. The tenets of Islamism, it is + true, forbade Moslems to fight Moslems, but Islamism, as a + binding force, was already obsolete in the counsels of the new + regime, having given place to Kultur. Of all their subject + peoples, the Young Turks hated the Arabs the most, and, had not + the European War intervened, there is no doubt that the + Armenian massacres, already being planned, would have been + followed by Arab massacres. But the armed and warlike Arabian + tribes were not so easy to deal with as the defenceless + Armenians, and Turkish troops could not be spared in sufficient + numbers to render an Arab massacre the safe, pleasant, and + lucrative pursuit that massacres should be. But Jemal the + Great, black with his triumph over the Armenians at Zeitun, was + Military Governor of Syria, and, the Armenian question being + solved, he began to get to work on the Arab question. Owing to + the expulsion of the French Missions from Syria in 1914, we + have no such full or detailed information as we have from + Americans in Armenia, and the following account is mainly + derived from the Arabic journal <i>Mokattam,</i> published in + Cairo, the information in which is based on the account given + by a Syrian refugee. It agrees with pieces of evidence that + have come to hand from other sources.</p> + + <p>Ever since the beginning of the war Syria has been an area + of direst poverty, starvation, and sickness, which have been + the natural co-operators in Jemal's policy there. All supplies + have been commandeered for the troops (including by special + clause from Potsdam, the German troops); even fish caught by + the fishermen of Lebanon have to be handed over to the military + authorities, and the shortage of supplies in Smyrna, for + instance, is such that at the end of 1916 there were two + hundred deaths daily from sheer starvation, while Germany was + importing from Turkey hundreds of tons of corn and of meat. + Thus this was no natural shortage, for though supplies were low + all over the Turkish Empire, there was not dearth of that kind. + It was an artificial shortage made possible by German demands, + and made intentional by Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better + case than Smyrna; Lebanon perhaps was in sorer straits than + either. Money was equally scarce, and it fitted Jemal's policy + that this should be so, for when Americans in Beirut had raised + funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the Turkish + Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were + dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent + decrees of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets + of towns the poor have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane + and orange peel; in the country, to quote from + <i>Molcattam</i>, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans start to + grow than the fields are filled with women and children who + pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes + (including the victualling of German troops) transportation has + ceased to exist, and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal + the Great.</p> + + <p>On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came + typhus. In the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, + over 8000 persons had died of it. Doctors and medicines were + unobtainable, for all were requisitioned for the needs of the + army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in Hama and Homs, the + epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent from + Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the + charitable from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the + Arabs were working for the policy of Jemal the Great. There + were no troops to spare who should hasten on the work, but the + work was progressing by swift and 'natural' means. Hunger and + pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of Love! How + superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the Arabs. + 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news + of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was + established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, + and if any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations + which passed, the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. + Too much news about Armenian massacres filtered through; there + should not now be such leakage. And when starvation and + pestilence had firmly established themselves, Jemal the Great + went down to see what his personal exertions could effect. All + was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer classes of + Arabs were dying like flies, but mortality was not so + successful among the wealthier, who could, to some extent, + purchase food. So Jemal the Great set to work among them. He + began by hanging the heads of Syrian-Arabs in Damascus, Beirut, + and other cities. No semblance of trial, no prosecution or + arraignment, were necessary: he established courts-martial + under military control, made lists of the accused, and ordered + the courts-martial to condemn them to death. Sometimes he made + mistakes, appointing as the members of his court-martial men + who were not such sturdy patriots as he, and refused to + sentence for no crime the accused whom he nominated. He + remedied such mistakes by appointing new boards of more + seasoned stuff. Moslem and Christian alike were brought before + them, and a general accusation of pro-French tendencies seems + to have been sufficient to secure a sentence of death or + lifelong imprisonment. He aimed not at the poor and the + obscure, for whom hunger and pestilence were providing, but at + the rich and the influential. The higher clergy in Christian + circles, Bishops and Monsignors, were a favourite target, and + among Moslems influential Sheikhs. Sometimes there was a parody + of a trial; sometimes the parody was dispensed with, and when + the black curtain was last raised over Syria, Jemal the Great + had disposed of over eight hundred of the heads of the most + influential of Syrian Arabs. He had got rid, in fact, of the + whole House of Lords, and something more. Those who are + acquainted with 'feudal values' among the Arabs will understand + what that means. He decapitated, not individuals only, but + groups. For devilish ingenuity in this combination of + starvation and pestilence for the poor, and death or lifelong + imprisonment for the chiefs, Jemal the Great must take rank + with Abdul Hamid and the contrivers of the Armenian massacres. + He cannot, it is true, owing to lack of troops, obtain the + swift results of Enver in Armenia, but between typhus, + starvation, and courts-martial, his solution of the Arab + question in Syria is making steady progress. And those + measures, hideously efficient in themselves, are, beyond any + doubt whatever, only the precursors of more sweeping + exterminations of the Arab race, which will be effected after + the war, if the Allied Powers do not step in to save it. The + Faithful of the Holy City, Mecca, have revolted and thrown off + the Turkish yoke, and while the war lasts, and Turkish troops + are otherwise occupied under Teutonic supervision, they will be + able to maintain their independence, for there is no + considerable body of Turks which can seriously threaten them. + But the Syrian Arabs, so long as the war lasts, are being, and + will be, the victims of a quiet scheme of extermination, which, + if long continued, will be as complete as that devised and + carried out by the butchers of Constantinople for the peoples + of Armenia. It is not in the interest of the Germans to save + them, and no check is being put on Jemal the Great to hinder + him from assisting starvation and typhus to ravage the country, + and supplementing their deadly work by court-martial without + trial.</p> + + <p>Equally significant of the rage for the destruction of Arabs + was the treatment of the Bagdad Arab army corps. In spite of + the need for troops one half of it was sent from Bagdad to + Erzerum in the depth of winter, without any provision of warm + clothing. There, in those cold uplands, the men died at the + rate of fifty to sixty a day. Their commanding officer was a + Turk, and a creature of Enver's, called Abdul Kader. Though + these troops had fought admirably, he openly called them Arab + traitors, and his orders seem to have been merely to get rid of + them. There were no courts-martial; they were just taken into a + climate which killed them.</p> + + <p>While for the last thirty years the Armenians and Syrians + have emigrated in large numbers from the Ottoman Empire, there + has been a large immigration of Jews into it. This movement was + originally due to the persecution they suffered in Russia. + Germany and Austria were closed to them, and, flying from the + hideous pogroms that threatened them with extermination, they + begun to settle in Palestine. Wealthy compatriots such as Baron + Edmond de Rothschild assisted them, and, with the amazing + versatility of their race, they, trades-people and town-folk, + adapted themselves to new conditions, turned their wits towards + husbandry and agriculture, and during the last thirty years + have flourished and multiplied in a manner quite unrealised by + the western world. In 1881 there were not more than 25,000 of + them in the home of their race, but by the beginning of the + European War, when their immigration ceased for the present, + they numbered 120,000 souls. Till then the Ottoman Government + adopted the ancient Turkish policy of neglect towards them, for + they were not powerful enough numerically to earn the honour of + a massacre, and, in addition, they were useful settlers. Backed + by powerful Western influence, French, English, and German + alike, they improved out of knowledge the values of the lands + where they established themselves, and by intelligent + management, by conserving and increasing the water supply with + irrigation and well-digging, they have brought many thousand + acres into cultivation. Originally refugees, fleeing from + outrageous persecutions, their immigration by degrees took on a + different spirit. Not only were they coming out of captivity, + but they were entering into the ancient Land of Promise again. + Zionism, the spirit of the returning exiles, animated them, + and, according to their prophets, they realised that 'The Lord + shall comfort Zion, He shall comfort all her waste places.' + They had sowed in tears; now, on their return, they were + reaping in joy, and, though their land was still under the + infidel yoke, they were allowed to dwell in peace, busy, + industrious, with the halo of home-coming in their hearts. They + paid, of course, their Turkish taxes, but these were not levied + in any oppressive manner, and their colonies were thrifty, + self-governing, and prosperous. Already before the war, + one-tenth of the cultivated land in Palestine was in their + hands, they had their own schools, their own methods of + organisation, and, more significant than all, Hebrew became a + living language again. Germany, intent on her penetration of + Turkey, made an attempt to Germanise them also (for Germany, as + we shall see, has a very special interest in these Jewish + colonies), shook her head over Zionism, for which she tried to + substitute Prussianism, and wanted to make the German language + compulsory in Jewish schools at Haifa and Jaffa, but her effort + completely failed. Nothing could show the inherent vitality of + this Jewish colonisation more strikingly.</p> + + <p>These Jewish settlers then were left in peace; from + minuteness they escaped the notice of the Young Turk party in + its schemes for the complete Ottomanisation of the Empire, and, + until the present year 1917, no mention of 'the Jewish + question' was propounded. But it will he remembered that in + 1915, certain Jewish refugees, taking warning from the Armenian + massacres, fled to Egypt, and there founded a Zionist + mule-corps, which served under the English in the Gallipoli + campaign. It seems very probable that it was this that directed + the attention of Jemal the Great to the Jewish colonies in + Palestine: possibly it was merely that he was a more thorough + Ottomaniser than his colleagues in Constantinople. In any case + he ordered the 'deportation' of all Jews from Jaffa, Gaza, and + other agricultural districts. All Jews were commanded to leave + Jaffa within forty-eight hours, no means of transport was given + them, and they were forbidden to take with them either + provisions or any of their belongings. Eight thousand Jews were + evicted from Jaffa alone, and their houses were pillaged, and + they robbed, maltreated, and many were murdered. Thus, and in + no other way had the massacres of the Armenians begun, and, + that there should be no mistake about it, Jemal threatened them + explicitly with the fate of the Armenians. Next day Ludd was + evacuated also; the evacuation of Haifa and Jerusalem was + threatened, and artillery was sent to Jerusalem. There can be + no doubt in fact that Jemal planned and began to carry out a + massacre of all Jews.</p> + + <p>At that point the Germans intervened, and for the present + (but only for the present, for so long in fact as Germany has + complete control over all Turkish internal affairs, in which + she protested she could not meddle) the Jewish colonies in + Palestine seem to be safe.<a name= + "FNanchor7"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_7">[7]</a></sup> The + German chief of the General Staff telegraphed to Berlin that + the 'military considerations' on which Jemal based his + deportations did not exist, and Herr Cohn in the Reichstag + drew the Imperial Chancellor's attention to this. How + seriously the menace was regarded in Germany, and how far + the deportations had gone may be gathered from his words, + 'Is the Imperial Chancellor prepared to influence the + Turkish Government in such a manner as to prevent with + certainty--so far as this is still possible--a repetition in + Palestine of the Armenian atrocities?' This was sufficient: + Germany, who could not dream of interfering in Turkish + internal affairs when only the massacre of hundreds of + thousands of Armenians was concerned, sent her order, and, + for the present, Jemal the Great has been unable to proceed + with the solution of the Jewish question in Turkey, which he + had just discovered. We need not yet in fact give Jemal his + Jew. But some sort of explanation to soothe the exasperation + of the Turks in not being allowed to murder when and how and + where they pleased, was thought advisable, and the + explanation (an extraordinarily significant one) was given + in an inspired paragraph of the <i>Frankfurter Zeitung</i> + not long after. 'The valuable structure of Zionist cultural + work, in which the German Empire must have well founded + interest in view of future and very promising trade + relations, will, it is very much to be hoped, be preserved + from destruction so far as purely military requirements do + not make it necessary. Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of + meaning in Palestine where practically no Turks dwell.'</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + This view seems to be borne out by subsequent events, + for the Jews evacuated from Jaffa have been permitted to + return owing to the intervention of the Spanish Government. + It is not hard to guess who prompted that. + </div>We may take it, then, that with regard to the projected + Jewish massacres, quite clearly foreshadowed by the schemes of + deportation from Jaffa and Gaza, Germany has made strong + representations to the Ottoman Government. She did not do so + (indeed she officially refused to do so) when the Armenian + massacres began, for she could not interfere in Turkey's + internal affairs. But now she has discovered that Pan-Turkish + ideals have no sort of meaning in Palestine, and thus, with + amazing astuteness, has provided herself with a reason for + interfering, while still not giving up the policy of + non-interference in Turkish affairs, for Turkey, she has + discovered, <i>has</i> no affairs in Palestine. At the same + time she guards herself from diplomatic defeat by the hope that + Zionist cultural work will be saved from destruction so <i>far + as purely military requirements do not make it necessary</i>. + In other words, supposing Jemal the Great got completely out of + hand, and proceeded to indiscriminate massacre of the Jews, + Germany would doubtless accept his plea that military + requirements had made it necessary.... And we were once so + ignorant as to assure ourselves that Germany had no notions of + diplomacy! + + <p>The full significance of her intervention on behalf of the + Jews, when neither the extermination of the Armenians, the + persecution of the Arabs, nor the deportation of the Greeks + moved Germany to any decided action or energetic protest, must + be left, in so far as it concerns the future, to another + chapter. But as regards the present and the past it will be + useful to consider here what has prompted her to make a protest + (which we may regard, so long as her foot is on the neck of the + Turks, as having been successful) against these projected + massacres. Certainly it was not humanity; it was not the + faintest desire to save innocent people in general from being + murdered wholesale, for in the similar case of the Armenians, + her bowels of compassion were not moved. Or, possibly, if we + incline to lenience, we may say that she was sorry for the + Armenians, but could not then risk a disagreement with their + murderers who were her allies, whereas now, feeling herself + more completely dominant over the Turks than she then did, she + could risk being peremptory, especially since there was that + saving clause about military requirements. For during the + Armenian massacres, the Dardanelles expedition was still on the + shores of Gallipoli, and the menace to Constantinople acute. It + was possible that if she opposed a firm front to the Armenian + massacres, the Turks, already on the verge of despair with + regard to saving the capital from capture, might have made + terms with the Allies. But now no such imminence of danger + threatened them, and, with Germany's domination over them + vastly more secure than it had been in 1915, she could afford + to treat them less as allies and more as a conquered people. + This alone might have accounted for her unprecedented impulse + of humanity in the minds of those who still attribute such + instincts to her, but she had far stronger reasons than that + for wanting to save the Jews of Palestine.</p> + + <p>Her policy with regard to them is set forth in a pamphlet by + Dr. Davis Treitsch, called <i>Die Jüden der + Türkei</i>, published in 1915, which is a most + illuminating little document. These Jewish colonies, as we have + seen, came from Russia, and as Germany realised, long before + the war, they might easily form a German nucleus in the Near + East, for they largely consisted of German-speaking Jews, akin + in language and blood to a most important element in her own + population. 'In a certain sense,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'the Jews + are a Near Eastern element in Germany and a German element in + Turkey.' He goes on with unerring acumen to lament the exodus + of German-speaking Jews to the United States and to England. + 'Annually some 100,000 of these are lost to Germany, the empire + of the English language and the economic system that goes with + it is being enlarged, while a German asset is being + proportionately depreciated.... It will no longer do simply to + close the German frontiers to them, and in view of the + difficulties which would result from a wholesale migration of + Jews into Germany itself, Germans will only be too glad to find + a way out in the emigration of those Jews to Turkey--a solution + extraordinarily favourable to the interests of all three + parties concerned.'</p> + + <p>Here, then, is the matter in a nutshell: Germany, wide-awake + as ever, saw long ago the advantage to her of a growing Jewish + population from the Pale in Turkey. She was perhaps a little + overloaded with them herself, but in this immigration from + Russia to Palestine she saw the formation of a colony that was + well worth German protection, and the result of the war, + provided the Palestinian immigrants were left in peace, would + be to augment very largely the number of those settling there. + 'Galicia,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'and the western provinces of + Russia, which between them contain more than half the Jews in + the world, have suffered more from the war than any other + region. Jewish homes have been broken up by hundreds of + thousands, and there is no doubt whatever that, as a result of + the war, there will be an emigration of East European Jews on + an unprecedented scale.' This emigration, then, to Palestine + was, in Germany's view, a counter-weight to the 100,000 + annually lost to her through emigration to America and England. + With her foot on Turkey's neck she had control over these + German-speaking Jews, and saw in them the elements of a German + colony. Her calculations, it is true, were somewhat upset by + the development of the Zionist movement, by which those + settlers declared themselves to have a nationality of their + own, and a language of their own, and Dr. Treitsch concedes + that. 'But,' he adds, 'in addition to Hebrew, to which they are + more and more inclined, the Jews must have a world-language, + and this can only be German.'</p> + + <p>This, then, in brief, and only up to the present, is the + story of how the Jewish massacres were stayed. The Jews were + potential Germans, and Germany, who sat by with folded hands + when Arabs and Armenians were led to torture and death, put up + a warning finger, and, for the present, saved them. In her + whole conduct of the war, nothing has been more characteristic + than her 'verboten' to one projected massacre and her + acquiescence in others. But, as for her having saved the Jews + out of motives of humanity, 'Credant Judaei!'</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_V"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter V</i></h2> + + <center> + DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLAH + </center> + + <p>It was commonly said at the beginning of this war that, + whatever Germany's military resources might be, she was + hopelessly and childishly lacking in diplomatic ability and in + knowledge of psychology, from which all success in diplomacy is + distilled. As instances of this grave defect, people adduced + the fact that, apparently, she had not anticipated the entry of + Great Britain into the war at all, while her treatment of + Belgium immediately afterwards was universally pronounced to be + not a crime merely, but a blunder of the stupidest sort. It is + perfectly true that Germany did not understand, and, as seems + likely in the light of innumerable other atrocities, never will + understand, the psychology of civilised peoples; she has never + shown any signs up till now, at any rate, of 'having got the + hang of it' at all. But critics of her diplomacy failed to see + the root-fact that she did not understand it merely because it + did not interest her. It was not worth her while to master the + psychology of other civilised nations, since she was out not to + understand them, but to conquer them. She had all the + information she wanted about their armies and navies and guns + and ammunition neatly and correctly tabulated. Why, then, since + this was all that concerned her, should she cram her head with + irrelevant information about what they might feel on the + subject of gas-attacks or the torpedoing of neutral ships + without warning? As long as her fumes were deadly and her + submarines subtle, nothing further concerned her.</p> + + <p>But Europe generally made a great mistake in supposing that + Germany could not learn psychology, and the process of its + distillation into diplomacy when it interested her. The + psychology of the French and English was a useless study, for + she was merely going to fight them, but for years she had been + studying with an industry and a patience that put our diplomacy + to shame (as was most swiftly and ignominiously proven when it + came into conflict with hers) the psychology of the Turks. For + years she had watched the dealings of the Great Powers with + Turkey, but she had never really associated herself with that + policy. She sat quietly by and saw how it worked. Briefly it + was this. For a hundred years Turkey had been kept alive in + Europe by the sedulous attentions of the Physician Powers, who + dared not let him die for fear of the stupendous quarrels which + would instantly arise over his corpse. So there they all sat + round his bed, and kept him alive with injections of strychnine + and oxygen, and, no less, by a policy of rousing and irritating + the patient. All through the reign of Abdul Hamid they + persevered: Great Britain plucked his pillow from him, so to + speak, by her protectorate of Egypt; Russia tweaked Eastern + Rumelia from him; France deprived him of his hot-water bottle + when she snatched at the Constantinople quays, and they all + shook and slapped him when he went to war with Greece in 1896, + and instantly deprived him of the territory he had won in + Thessaly. That was the principle of European diplomacy towards + Turkey, and from it Germany always held aloof.</p> + + <p>But from about the beginning of the reign of the present + German Emperor, German or rather Prussian diplomacy had been + going quietly about its work. It was worth while to study the + psychology of the Turks, because dimly then, but with + ever-increasing distinctness, Germany foresaw that Turkey might + be a counter of immense importance in the great conflict which + was assuredly drawing nearer, though as yet its existence was + but foreshadowed by the most distant reflections of summer + lightning on a serene horizon. But if Turkey was to be of any + profit to her, she wanted a strong Turkey who could fight with + her (or rather for her), and she had no use for the Sick Man + whom the other Powers were bent on keeping alive, but no more. + Her own eventual domination of Turkey was always the end in + view, but she wanted to dominate not a weak but a strong + servant. And her diplomacy was not less than brilliant simply + from the fact that on the one hand it soothed Turkey instead of + irritating, and, on the other, that it went absolutely + unnoticed for a long time. Nobody knew that it was going on. + She sent officers to train the Turkish army, well knowing what + magnificent material Anatolia afforded, and she had thoroughly + grasped the salient fact that to make any way with Oriental + peoples your purse must be open and your backshish unlimited. + 'There is no God but backshish, and the Deutsche Bank is his + prophet.'</p> + + <p>For years this went on very quietly, and all over the great + field of the Ottoman Empire the first tiny blades of the crop + that Germany was sowing began to appear. To-day that crop waves + high, and covers the whole field with its ripe and fruitful + ears. For to-day Turkey is neither more nor less than a German + colony, and more than makes up to her for the colonies she has + lost and hopes to regain. She knows that perfectly well, and so + do any who have at all studied the history and the results of + her diplomacy there. Even Turkey itself must, as in an uneasy + dream, be faintly conscious of it. For who to-day is the Sultan + of Turkey? No other than William II. of Germany. It is in + Berlin that his Cabinet meets, and sometimes he asks Talaat Bey + to attend in a strictly honorary capacity. And Talaat Bey goes + back to Constantinople with a strictly honorary sword of + honour. Or else he gives one to William II. from his + <i>soi-disant</i> master, the Sultan, or takes one back to his + <i>soi-disant</i> master from his real master. For no one knows + better than William II. the use that swords of honour play in + deeds of dishonour.</p> + + <p>The object of this chapter is to trace and mount the hewn + and solid staircase of steps by which Germany's present + supremacy over Turkey was achieved.</p> + + <p>Apart from the quiet spade-work that had been going on for + some years, Germany made no important move till the moment + when, in 1909, the Young Turk party, after the forced + abdication of Abdul Hamid, proclaimed the aims and ideals of + the new regime. At once Germany saw her opportunity, for here, + with her help, might arise the strong Turkey which she desired + to see, instead of the weak Turkey which all the other European + Powers had been keeping on a lowering diet for so long + (desirous only that it should not quite expire), and from that + moment she began to lend, or rather let, to Turkey in + ever-increasing quantities, the resources of her scientific and + her military knowledge. It was in her interests, if Turkey was + to be of use to her, that she should educate, and irrigate, and + develop the unexploited treasures of human material, of + fertility and mineral wealth; and Germany's gold, her schools, + her laboratories were at Turkey's disposal. But in every case + she, as in duty bound to her people, saw that she got very good + value for her outlay.</p> + + <p>Here, then, was the great psychological moment when Germany + instantly moved. The Young Turks proclaimed that they were + going to weld the Ottoman Empire into one homogeneous and + harmonious whole, and by a piece of brilliant paradoxical + reasoning Germany determined that it was she who was going to + do it for them. In flat contradiction of the spirit of their + manifestoes, which proclaimed the Pan-Turkish ideal, she + conceived and began to carry out under their very noses the + great new chapter of the Pan-Germanic ideal. And the Young + Turks did not know the difference! They mistook that lusty + Teutonic changeling for their own new-born Turkish babe, and + they nursed and nourished it. Amazingly it throve, and soon it + cut its teeth, and one day, when they thought it was asleep, it + arose from its cradle a baby no more, but a great Prussian + guardsman who shouted, 'Deutschland über Allah!'</p> + + <p>Only once was there a check in the growth of the Prussian + infant, and that was no more than a childish ailment. For when + the Balkan wars broke out the Turkish army was in the + transitional stage. Its German tutors had not yet had time to + inspire the army with German discipline and tradition; they had + only weeded out, so to speak, the old Turkish spirit, the blind + obedience to the Ministers of the Shadow of God. The Shadow of + God, in fact, in the person of the Sultan, had been dragged out + into the light, and his Shadow had grown appreciably less. In + consequence there was not at this juncture any cohesion in the + army, and it suffered reverse after reverse. But a strong + though a curtailed Turkey was more in accordance with Prussian + ideas than a weak and sprawling one, and Germany bore the + Turkish defeats very valiantly. And that was the only set-back + that this Pan-Prussian youngster experienced, and it was no + more than an attack of German measles which he very quickly got + over. For two or three years German influence wavered, then + recovered, 'with blessings on the falling out, that all the + more endears.'</p> + + <p>It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish + ideal to her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of + Germany's methods, the best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal + is to be found in a publication of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was + written as German propaganda and by Germany disseminated + broadcast over the Turkish Empire. An account of this movement + has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the Turkish + side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the + German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish + Phoenix. The Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of + Love, in whose name the Armenians were tortured and massacred, + were the two wings on which it was to soar. Auxiliary soaring + societies were organised, among them a Turkish Ojagha with + similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of it were + founded throughout the Empire. There were also a Turkish Guiji + or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts' club. A union of + merchants worked for the same object in districts where + hitherto trade had been in the hands of Greeks and Armenians, + and signs appeared on their shops that only Turkish labour was + employed. Religious funds also were used for similar economic + restoration.</p> + + <p>Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and + took out her long spoon, for her hour was come. She did not + interfere: she only helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. + With her usual foresight she perceived that the Izji, for + instance, was a thing to encourage, for the boys who were being + trained now would in a few years be precisely the young men of + whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy scout + movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously + and methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely + reliable source of information, we find that the whole boy + scout movement, with its innumerable branches, was under the + control of a German officer, Colonel von Hoff. In its classes + (derneks) boys are trained in military practices, in 'a + recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively enjoy (a + Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use + to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn + skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements + of their companies, they are shown neat ways of judging + distances. They are divided into two classes, the junior class + ranging from the ages of twelve to seventeen, the senior class + consisting of boys over seventeen, but not yet of military age. + But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, the military age has + been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to serve their + country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore, saw + that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class + has become the senior class, and a new junior class has been + set on foot which begins its recreational exercises in the + service of William II., Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It + is all great fun, but those pigeon-livered little boys who are + not diverted by it have to go on with their fun all the same, + for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on all boys. Of + course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is of a + 'semi-military' character.</p> + + <p>The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from + the early age of eight, was the first object of Germany's + peaceful and benign penetration. As from the Pisgah height of + the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw the promised land, but she had no + idea of seeing it only, like Moses, and expiring without + entering it, and her faith that she would enter it and possess + it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has not + only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like + Aleppo were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie + there were separate wooden barracks for the exclusive use of + German troops. There is a military mission at Mamoura, where + all the buildings are permanent erections solidly built of + stone, for no merely temporary occupation is intended, and + thousands of freight-cars with Belgian marks upon them throng + the railways, and on some is the significant German title of + 'Military Headquarters of the Imperial Staff.' There are troops + in the Turkish army, to which is given the title of 'Pasha + formation,' in compliment to Turkey, but the Pasha formations + are under command of Baron Kress von Kressenstein, and are + salted with German officers, N.C.O.'s, and privates, who, + although in the Turkish army, retain their German uniforms.</p> + + <p>This German leaven forms an instructional class for the + remainder of the troops in these formations, who are Turkish. + The Germans are urged to respect Moslem customs and to show + particular consideration for their religious observances. Every + German contingent arriving at Constantinople to join the Pasha + formations finds quarters prepared on a ship, and when the + troops leave for their 'destination' they take supplies from + depots at the railway station which will last them two or three + months. They are enjoined to write war diaries, and are + provided with handbooks on the military and geographical + conditions in Mesopotamia, with maps, and with notes on the + training and management of camels. This looks as if they were + intended for use against the English troops in Mesopotamia, but + I cannot find that they have been identified there. The + greatest secrecy is observed with regard to those Pasha + formations, and their constitution and movements are kept + extremely well veiled.</p> + + <p>Wireless stations have been set up in Asia Minor and + Palestine, and these are under the command of Major Schlee. A + Turkish air-service was instituted, at the head of which was + Major Serno, a Prussian officer, and Turkish aviators are now + in training at Ostend, where they will very usefully defend + their native country. At Constantinople there is a naval school + for Turkish engineers and mechanics in the arsenal, to help on + the Pan-Turkish ideal, and with a view to that all the + instructors are German: a floating dock is in construction at + Ismid, and the order has been placed with German firms. It will + be capable of accommodating ships of Dreadnought build, which + is a new departure for the strictly Pan-Turkish ideal. The cost + is £740,000, to be repaid three years after the end of + the war. Similarly, by the spring of this year, Germany had + arranged to start submarine training in Constantinople for the + Turks, and a submarine school was open and at work in March. A + few months later it was established at the island of Prinkipo, + where it is now hard at work under German instructors. Other + naval cadets were sent to Germany for their training, and + Turkish officers were present at the battle of Jutland in June + 1916, and of course were decorated by the Emperor in person for + their coolness and courage.<a name= + "FNanchor8"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_8">[8]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8">[8]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + In October 1917 a bill was passed for the entire + remodelling of the Turkish fleet after the war, on the + lines of the German fleet, 'which proved its perfect + training in the battle of Skager Rak.' + </div>A complete revision of the Turkish system of exemptions + from military service was necessary as soon as Germany began to + want men badly. The age for military service was first raised, + and we find a Turkish order of October 1916, calling on all men + of forty-three, forty-four, and forty-five years of age to pay + their exemption tax if they did not wish to be called to the + colours. That secured their money, and, with truly Prussian + irony, hardly had this been done when a fresh army order was + issued calling out all men, whether they had paid their + exemption tax or not. Germany thus secured both their money and + their lives. + + <p>Still more men were needed, and in November a fresh levy of + boys was raised regardless of whether they had reached the + military age or not. This absorbed the senior class of the boy + scouts, who hitherto had learned their drill in a + 'recreationary manner.' Neither Jews nor Christians are exempt + from service, and frequent press gangs go round Constantinople + rounding up those who are in hiding.</p> + + <p>Again the Prussian Moloch was hungry for more, and in + December 1916 the Turkish <i>Gazette</i> announced that all + males in Asia Minor between the ages of fourteen and sixty-five + were to be enrolled for military service, and in January of + this year, 1917, fresh recruiting was foreshadowed by the order + that men of forty-six to fifty-two, who had paid their + exemption money, should be medically examined to see if they + were fit for active service. This fresh recruiting was also put + in force in the case of boys, and during the summer of 1917 all + boys above the age of twelve, provided they were sound and + well-built, were taken for the army. Wider and wider the net + was spread, and in the same month a fresh Turco-German + convention was signed, whereby was enforced a reciprocal + surrender in both countries of persons liable to military + service, and of deserters, and simultaneously all Turks living + in Switzerland, and who had paid exemption money, were recalled + to their Germanised fatherland. By now the first crops of the + year were ripening in Smyrna, and in default of civilian labour + (for every one was now a soldier) they were reaped by Turkish + soldiers and the produce sent direct to Germany.</p> + + <p>Already in August 1916, certificates of Ottoman nationality + had been granted to Serbians resident in the Empire who were + willing to become Ottoman subjects, and their 'willingness' was + intensified by hints that incidents akin to the Armenian + massacres might possibly occur among other alien peoples. They + had to sign a declaration that they would not revert to their + former nationality, and thus, no doubt, many Serbs passed into + the Turkish army. Further enrolments were desirable, and, in + March 1917, all Greeks living in Anatolia were forcibly + proselytised, their property was confiscated, and they were + made liable to military service. Unfortunately all were not + available, for of those who were removed from the villages + where they lived to military centres, ten per cent. died on the + forced marches from hunger and exposure. That was annoying for + the German recruiting agents, but it suited well enough the + Pan-Turkish ideal of exterminating foreign nationalities. When + trouble or discontent occurred among the troops, it was firmly + dealt with, as, for instance, when, in November 1916, there + were considerable desertions from the 49th Division. On that + occasion the order was given to fire on them, and many were + killed and wounded. The officer who gave the order was + commended by the Prussian authorities for his firmness. Should + such an incident occur again, it will no doubt be dealt with no + less firmness, for, in April 1917, Mackensen was put in supreme + command of all troops in Asia Minor. But in spite of this + desertions have largely increased lately, and during the summer + deserters out of all the Turkish armies were believed to number + about 200,000. Many of those have formed themselves into + brigand bands, who make the roads dangerous for travellers. The + exchange of honours goes on, for not long ago, in Berlin, + Prince Zia-ed-Din, the Turkish Sultan's heir, presented a sword + of honour to the Sultan William II. Probably he gave him good + news of the progress of the German harbour works begun in the + winter at Stamboul, and himself learned that the railway bridge + which the Turks proposed to build over the Bosporus was not to + be proceeded with, for the German high command had superseded + that scheme by their own idea of making a tunnel under the + Bosporus instead, which would be safer from aircraft.</p> + + <p>Such up-to-date, though in brief outline, is the history of + the establishment of the Prussian octopus grip on military and + naval matters in Turkey. We have largely ourselves to blame for + it. Upon that pathetic and lamb-like record of our diplomacy + during the months between the outbreak of the European War, and + the entry of Turkey into it in October 1914, it would be morbid + to dwell at any length, though a short summary is necessary. As + we all know now, Turkey had concluded a treaty with Germany + early in August, and when our Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir + Louis Malet, who was on leave in England at that date, returned + to his post on August 16th, all that Turkey wanted was to gain + time in which to effect her mobilisation. This she did, with + complete success, and our Ambassador telegraphed to England + stating his perfect confidence in the sincerity with which the + Grand Vizier professed his friendship for England. All through + those weeks of August and September this confidence appeared to + continue unabated. The Moderate party in Turkey--that is to + say, the hoodwinking party--were reported to be daily gaining + strength, and it was most important that the Allies should give + them every assistance, and above all not precipitate matters. + All was going well: all we had to do was to wait. So we waited, + still blindly confident in the sincerity of Turkey's friendship + for England, while the mobilisation of the Turkish forces + proceeded merrily. By the end of September this was nearly + complete, and quite suddenly the Ambassador informed the + Foreign Office that Turkey appeared to be temporising. That was + perfectly true, but the period of temporisation was nearly + over, and by mid-October Turkey had something like 800,000 men + under arms, and for nine weeks Enver Pasha had had his signed + treaty with Germany in his pocket. Possibly this diplomatic + procrastination was useful to us, for it enabled us to bring + troops from India in security, and send others to Egypt. But + without doubt it was useful to the Turks, for it enabled them + to mobilise their armies, and to strengthen enormously the + defences of the Dardanelles. Then came the day when Germany and + Turkey were ready, the attack was made on Odessa, and out of + Constantinople we went. We climbed into the railway carriages + that took the last rays of English influence out of the Ottoman + Empire, and steep were the stairs in the house of a stranger! + Turks are not much given to laughter, but Enver Pasha must at + least have smiled on that day.</p> + + <p>Already, of course, German influence was strong in the army, + which now was thoroughly trained in German methods, but that + army might still be called a Turkish army. Nowadays, by no + stretch of language can it be called Turkish except in so far + that all Turkish efficient manhood is helplessly enlisted in + it, for there is no branch or department of it over which the + Prussian octopus has not thrown its paralysing tentacles and + affixed its immovable suckers. Army and navy alike, the + wireless stations, the submarines, the aircraft, are all + directly controlled from Berlin, and, as we have seen, the + generalissimo of the forces is Mackensen, who is absolutely the + Hindenburg of the East. But thorough as is the control of + Berlin over Constantinople in military and naval matters, it is + not one whit more thorough than her control in all other + matters of national life. Never before has Germany been very + successful in her colonisation; but if complete domination--the + sucking of a country till it is a mere rind of itself, and yet + at the same time full to bursting of Prussian ichor--may be + taken as Germany's equivalent of colonisation, then indeed we + must be forced to recognise her success. And it was all done in + the name and for the sake of the Pan-Turkish ideal. Even now + Prussian Pecksniffs like Herr Ernst Marré, whose + pamphlet, <i>Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege</i>, was + published in 1916, continue to insist that Germany is nobly + devoting herself to the well-being of Turkey. 'In doing this,' + he exclaims in that illuminating document, 'we are benefiting + Turkey.... This is a war of liberation for Turkey,' though + omitting to say from whom Turkey is being liberated. Perhaps + the Armenians. Occasionally, it is true, he forgets that, and + naively remarks, 'Turkey is a very difficult country to govern. + But after the war Turkey will be very important as a transit + country.' But then he remembers again and says, 'We wish to + give besides taking, and we should often like to give more than + we can hope to give.' Let us look into this, and see the manner + in which Germany expresses her yearning to impoverish herself + for the sake of Turkey.</p> + + <p>All this reorganisation of the Turkish army was of course a + very expensive affair, and required skilful financing, and it + was necessary to get the whole of Turkey's exchequer + arrangements into German hands. A series of financial + regulations was promulgated. The Finance Minister, during 1916, + was still Turkish, but the official immediately under him was a + German. He was authorised to deposit with the Controllers of + the Ottoman National Debt German Imperial Bills of + £T30,000,000, and to issue German paper money to the like + amount. This arrangement insures the circulation of the German + notes, which are redeemable by Turkey in <i>gold</i> two years + after the declaration of peace. Gold is declared to be the + standard currency, and no creditor is obliged to accept in + payment of a debt more than 300 piastres in silver or fifty in + nickel. And since there is no gold in currency (for it has been + all called in, and penalties of death have been authorised for + hoarders) it follows that this and other issues of German paper + will filter right through the Empire. At the same time a German + expert, Dr. Kautz, was appointed to start banks throughout + Turkey in order to free the peasants from the Turkish village + usurer, and in consequence enslave them to the German banks. + Similarly a German was put at the head of the Ottoman + Agricultural Bank. These new branches worked very well, but it + is pleasant to think that one such was started by the Deutsche + Bank at Bagdad in October 1916, which now has its shutters up. + Before this, as we learn from the <i>Oesterreichischer + Volkswirt</i> (June 1916), Germany had issued other gold notes, + in payment for gold from Turkey, which is retainable in Berlin + till six months after the end of the war. (It is reasonable to + wonder whether it will not be retained rather longer than + that.) These gold notes were accepted willingly at first by the + public, but the increase in their number (by the second issue) + has caused them to be viewed with justifiable suspicion, and + the depreciation in them continues. But the Turkish public has + no redress except by hoarding gold, which is a penal offence. + That these arrangements have not particularly helped Turkish + credit may be gathered from the fact that the Turkish gold + £1, nominally 100 piastres, was very soon worth 280 + piastres in the German paper standard, and it now fetches a + great deal more.</p> + + <p>Again, the Deutsche Orientbank has made many extensions, and + is already financing cotton and wool trade for after the war. + The establishment of this provoked much applause in German + financial circles, who find it to be an instance of the + 'far-reaching and powerful Germano-Austrian unity, which + replaces the disunion of Turkish finance.' This is profoundly + true, especially if we omit the word 'Austrian' inserted for + diplomatic reasons. Again we find Germany advancing + £3,000,000 of German paper to the Turkish Government in + January 1917, for the payment of supplies they have received + from Krupp's works and (vaguely) for interest to the German + Financial Minister. This, too, we may conjecture, is to be + redeemed after the war in gold.</p> + + <p>In March of this year we find in the report of the Ottoman + Bank a German loan of £1,000,000 for the purchase of + agricultural implements by Turkey, and this is guaranteed by + house-taxes. In all up to that month, as was announced in the + Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople, Germany had advanced to + Turkey the sum of £142,000,000, entirely, it would seem, + in German paper, to be repaid at various dates in gold. The + grip, in fact, is a strangle-hold, all for Turkey's good, as no + doubt will prove the 'New Conventions' announced by Zimmermann + in May 1917, to take the place of the abolished Capitulations, + 'which left Turkey at the mercy of predatory Powers who looked + for the disruption of the Ottoman Empire.' Herr Zimmermann does + not look for that: he looks for its absorption. And sees + it.</p> + + <p>The industrial development of Turkey by this benevolent and + disinterested Power has been equally thorough and far-reaching, + though Germany here has had a certain amount of competition by + Hungary to contend against, for Hungary considered that Germany + was trespassing on her sphere of interest. But she has been + able to make no appreciable headway against her more acute + partner, and her application for a monopoly of sugar-production + was not favourably received, for Germany already had taken the + beet industry well in hand. In Asia Minor the acreage of + cultivation early in 1917 had fallen more than 50 per cent. + from that under crops before the war, but owing to the + importation of machinery from the Central Powers, backed up by + a compulsory Agricultural Service Law, which has just been + passed, it is hoped that the acreage will be increased this + year by something like 30 per cent. The yield per acre also + will be greatly increased this year, for Germany has, though + needing artificial manures badly herself, sent large quantities + into Turkey, where they will be more profitably employed. She + has no fear about securing the produce. This augmented yield + will, it is true, not be adequate to supply the needs of + Turkey, who for the last two years has suffered from very acute + food shortage, which in certain districts has amounted to + famine and wholesale starvation of the poorer classes. But it + is unlikely that their needs will be considered at all, for + Germany's needs (she, the fairy godmother of the Pan-Turk + ideal) must obviously have the first call on such provisions as + are obtainable. Thus, in the new preserved meat factory at + Aidin, the whole of the produce is sent to Germany. Thus, too, + though in February 1917 there was a daily shortage in Smyrna of + 700 sacks of flour, and the Arab and Greek population was + starving, no flour at all was allowed to be imported into + Smyrna. But simultaneously Germany was making huge purchases of + fish, meat, and flour in Constantinople (paid for in German + paper), including 100,000 sheep. Yet such was the villainous + selfishness of the famine-stricken folk at Adrianople that, + when the trains containing these supplies were passing through, + a mob held them up and sold the contents to the inhabitants. + That, however, was an isolated instance, and in any case a law + was passed in October 1916, appointing a military commission to + control all supplies. It enacts that troops shall be supplied + first, and specially ordains that the requirements of German + troops come under this head. (Private firms have been expressly + prohibited from purchasing these augmented wheat supplies, but + special permission was given in 1915 to German and + Austro-Hungarian societies to buy.) A few months later we find + that there are a hundred deaths daily in Constantinople from + starvation, and two hundred in Smyrna, where there is a + complete shortage of oil. But oil is still being sent to + Germany, and during 1916 five hundred reservoirs of oil were + sent there, each containing up to 15,000 kilogrammes. Similarly + during this summer the price of fruit has gone up in Smyrna, + for the Germans have reopened certain factories for preserving + it and turning it into jam, which is being sent to Germany. The + sugar is supplied from the new beet-fields of Konia. But Kultur + must be supplied first, else Kultur would grow lean, and the + Turkish God of Love will look after the Smyrniotes. It is no + wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the + desired result a little quicker, for food is already pouring in + from Turkey, and when the artificial manures have produced + their early harvest the stream will become a + torrent.<a name="FNanchor9"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_9">[9]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9">[9]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant. + </div>But during all these busy and tremendous months of war + Germany has not only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, + for the sake of the Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic + spirit she has been vastly increasing the productiveness of her + new and most important colony. The great irrigation works at + Konia, begun several years ago, are in operation, and the + revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled. In fact, + as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province + has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At + Adana are similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche + Bank. Ernst Marré gives us a most hopeful survey of + them, for Adana was already linked up with the Bagdad Railway + in October 1916, which was to be the great artery connecting + Germany with the East. There is some considerable shortage of + labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to which + we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are + in excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in + German hands, and have been paid for by German paper; and to + get the reservoirs, etc., back into her own control, it has + been agreed that Turkey, already completely bankrupt, will have + to pay not only what has been spent, but a handsome sum in + compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour, prisoners + have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This + irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by + four times the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab + magazine, <i>El Alem el Ismali</i>, which tells us also of the + electric-power stations erected there. + + <p>The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian + merchants that transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of + engines and trucks from Germany, while <i>Die Zeit</i> + (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future for this + Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely + imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German + capital on terms above stated--will, in the process of internal + development so unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow + cotton for herself, and be kind enough to give a preferential + tariff to Germany.</p> + + <p>A similarly bright future may be predicted for the + sugar-beet industry at Konia, where are the irrigation works + already referred to. Artesian wells have been sunk, and there + is the suggestion to introduce Bulgarian labour in default of + Turkish. As we have seen, Hungary attempted to obtain a + monopoly with regard to sugar, but Germany has been victorious + on this point (as on every other where she competes with + Hungary), and has obtained the concession for a period of + thirty years. She reaped the first-fruits this last spring + (1917), when, on a single occasion, 350 trucks laden with sugar + were despatched to Berlin. A similar irrigation scheme is + bringing into cultivation the Makischelin Valley, near Aleppo, + and Herr Wied has been appointed as expert for irrigation plant + in Syria. There has been considerable shortage of coal, but now + more is arriving from the Black Sea, and the new coal-fields at + Rodosto will soon be giving an output.</p> + + <p>Indeed, it would be easier to enumerate the industries and + economical developments of Turkey over which Germany has not at + the present moment got the control than those over which she + has. In particular she has shown a parental interest in Turkish + educational questions. She established last year, under German + management, a school for the study of German in Constantinople; + she has put under the protection of the German Government the + Jewish institution at Haifa for technical education in + Palestine; from Sivas a mission of schoolmasters has been sent + to Germany for the study of German methods. Ernst Marré + surmises that German will doubtless become compulsory even in + the Turkish intermediate (secondary) schools. In April 1917, + the first stone of the 'House of Friendship' was laid at + Constantinople, the object of which institution is to create + among Turkish students an interest in everything German, while + earlier in the year arrangements were made for 10,000 Turkish + youths to go to Germany to be taught trades. These I imagine + were unfit for military service. With regard to such a scheme + Halil Haled Bey praises the arrangement for the education of + Turks in Germany. When they used to go to France, he tells us, + 'they lost their religion' (certainly Prussian Got is nearer + akin to Turkish Allah) 'and returned home unpatriotic and + useless. In Germany they will have access to suitable religious + literature' (Gott!) 'and must adopt all they see good in German + methods without losing their original characteristics.' Comment + on this script is needless. The hand is the hand of Halil Haled + Bey, but the voice is the voice of Potsdam. Occasionally, but + rarely, Austrian competition is seen. Professor Schmoller, in + an Austrian quarterly review, shows jealousy of German + influence, and we find, in October 1916, an Ottoman-Austrian + college started at Vienna for 250 pupils of the Ottoman Empire. + But Germany has 10,000 in Berlin. At Adana (where are the + German irrigation works) the German-Turkish Society has opened + a German school of 300, while, reciprocally, courses in Turkish + have been organised at Berlin for the sake of future German + colonists. In Constantinople the <i>Tanin</i> announces a + course of lectures to be held by the Turco-German Friendship + Society. Professor von Marx discoursed last April on foreign + influence and the development of nations, with special + reference to Turkey and the parallel case of Germany. A few + months later we find Hilmet Nazim Bey, official head of the + Turkish press, proceeding to Berlin to learn German press + methods. A number of editors of Turkish papers will follow him, + and soon, no doubt, the Turkish press will rival Cologne and + Frankfort.</p> + + <p>So much for German education, but her penetrative power + extends into every branch of industry and economics. In + November 1916, a Munich expert was put in charge of the College + of Forestry, and an economic society was started in + Constantinople on German lines with German instructors. + Inoculation against small-pox, typhoid, and cholera was made + compulsory; and we find that the Turkish Ministers of Posts, of + Justice, and of Commerce, figureheads all of them, have Germans + as their acting Ministers. In the same year a German was + appointed as expert for silkworm breeding and for the + cultivation of beet. Practically all the railways in Asia Minor + are pure German concerns by right of purchase. Germany owns the + Anatolian railway concession (originally British), with right + to build to Angora and Konia; the Bagdad railway concession, + with preferential rights over minerals; they have bought the + Mersina-Adana Railway, with right of linking up to the Bagdad + Railway; they have bought the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, built + with French capital. They have secured also the Haidar Pasha + Harbour concession, thereby controlling and handling all + merchandise arriving at railhead from the interior of Asia + Minor.<a name="FNanchor10"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_10">[10]</a></sup> Already on the Bagdad Railway the + big tunnels of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge + petrol-driven motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be + complete. Meanwhile railway construction is pushed on in all + directions under German control, and the Turkish Minister of + Finance (August 1916) allocated a large sum of German paper + money for the construction of ordinary roads, military roads, + local government roads, all of which are new to Turkey, but + which will be useful for the complete German occupation which + is being swiftly consolidated. To stop the mouths of the + people, all political clubs have been suppressed by the + Minister of the Interior, for Prussia does not care for + criticism. To supply German ammunition needs, lead and zinc + have been taken from the roofs of mosques and door-handles from + mosque-gates, and the iron railings along the Champs de Mars at + Pera have been carted away for the manufacture of bombs. Not + long after eight truck-loads of copper were sent to Germany: + these, I imagine, represent the first produce of copper roofs + and utensils. A Turco-German convention signed in Berlin in + January of this year, permits subjects of one country to settle + in the other while retaining their nationality and enjoying + trading and other privileges. In Lebanon Dr. König has + opened an agricultural school for Syrians of all religions. In + the Homs district the threatening plague of locusts in February + 1917 was combatted by Germans; and a German expert, Dr. Bucher, + had been already sent to superintend the whole question. For + this concerns supplies to Germany, as does also the ordinance + passed in the same month that two-thirds of all fish caught in + the Lebanon district should be given to the military + authorities (these are German), and that every fish weighing + over six ounces in the Beirut district should be Korban also. + The copper mines at Arghana Maden, near Diarbekr, are busy + exporting their produce into Germany; the coal-mines at Rodosto + will very soon be making a large output.<a name= + "FNanchor11"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_11">[11]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10">[10]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + The balance-sheets for 1916 of certain of those + railways in which the Deutsche Bank has an interest have + come to hand. They show a very disagreeable degree of + prosperity. The Anatolia Railway Company has large profits + with a gross revenue of 25,737,995 marks. The profit on the + Haidar-Pasha-Angora Line has risen from 42,566 francs per + kilometre to 45,552. The Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway has + paid 6 per cent. on its preference shares, and 3 per cent. + on its ordinary shares. The Haidar Pasha Harbour Company + has paid 8 per cent. + </div><a name="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor11">[11]</a> + + <div class="note"> + Later in this year we find three trains daily leaving + Constantinople for Germany, laden with coal and military + supplies. + </div>There is no end to this penetration: German + water-seekers, with divining and boring apparatus, accompanied + the Turkish expedition into Sinai; Russian prisoners were sent + by Germany for agricultural work in Asia Minor, to take the + place of slaughtered Armenians; a German-Turkish treaty, signed + January 11, 1917, gives the whole reorganisations of the + economic system to a special German mission. A Stuttgart + journal chants a characteristic <i>Lobgesang</i> over this + feat. 'That is how,' it proudly exclaims, 'we work for the + liberation of peoples and nationalities.' + + <p>In the same noble spirit, we must suppose, German legal + reforms were introduced in December 1916, to replace the + Turkish Shuriat, and in the same month all the Turks in + telegraph offices in Constantinople were replaced by Germans. + Ernst Marré gives valuable advice to young Germans + settling in Turkey. He particularly recommends them, knowing + how religion is one of the strongest bonds in this murderous + race, to 'trade in articles of devotion, in rosaries, in bags + to hold the Koran,' and points out what good business might be + built up in gramophones. Earlier in this year we find a 'German + Oriental Trading Company' founded for the import of fibrous + materials for needs of military authorities, and a great carpet + business established at Urfa with German machinery that will + supplant the looms of Smyrna. A saltpetre factory is + established at Konia by Herr Toepfer, whose enterprise is + rewarded with an Iron Cross and a Turkish decoration. The + afforestation near Constantinople, ordered by the Ministry of + Agriculture, is put into German hands, and in the vilayet of + Aidin (April 1916) ninety concessions were granted to German + capitalists to undertake the exploitation of metallic ores. + Occasionally the German octopus finds it has gone too far for + the moment, and releases some struggling limb of its victim, + as, for instance, when we see that, in September 1916, the + German Director's stamp for the 'Imperial German Great Radio + Station' at Damascus has been discarded temporarily, as that + station 'should be treated for the present as a Turkish + concern.'</p> + + <p>A 'Trading and Weaving Company' was established at Angora in + 1916, an 'Import and Export Company' at Smyrna, a 'Trading and + Industrial Society' at Beirut, a 'Tobacco Trading Company' at + Latakieh, an 'Agricultural Company' at Tripoli, a 'Corn + Exporting Company' in Lebanon, a 'Rebuilding Commission' + (perhaps for sacked Armenian houses) at Konia. More curious yet + will be a Tourist's Guide Book--a Baedeker, in fact--for + travellers in Anatolia, and the erection of a monument in + honour of Turkish <i>women</i> who have replaced men called up + for military duty. Truly these last two items--a guide-book for + Anatolia, and a monument to women--are strange enterprises for + Turks. A new Prussian day is dawning, it seems, for Turkish + women as well, for the <i>Tanin</i> (April 1917) tells us that + diplomas are to be conferred on ladies who have completed their + studies in the Technical School at Constantinople.</p> + + <p>It is needless to multiply instances of German penetration: + I have but given the skeleton of this German monster that has + fastened itself with tentacles and suckers on every branch of + Turkish industry. There is none round which it has not cast its + feelers--no Semitic moneylender ever obtained a surer hold on + his victim. In matters naval, military, educational, legal, + industrial, financial, Germany has a strangle-hold. Turkey's + life is already crushed out of her, and, as we have seen, it + has been crushed out of her by the benevolent Kultur-mongers, + who, among all the Great Powers of Europe, invested their time + and their money in the achievement of the Pan-Turkish ideal. + Silently and skilfully they worked, bamboozling their chief + tool, Enver Pasha, even as Enver Pasha bamboozled us. As long + as he was of service to them they retained him; for his peace + of mind at one time they stopped up all letter-boxes in + Constantinople because so many threatening letters were sent + him. But now Enver Pasha seems to have had his day; he became a + little autocratic, and thought that he was the head of the + Pan-Turkish ideal. So he was, but the Pan-Turkish ideal had + become Pan-Prussian, and he had not noticed the transformation. + Talaat Bey has taken his place; it was he who, in May 1917, was + received by the Emperor William, by King Ludwig, and by the + Austrian Emperor, and he who was the mouthpiece of the German + efforts to make a separate peace with Russia. Under Czardom, he + proclaimed, the existence of Turkey was threatened, but now the + revolution has made friendship possible, for Russia no longer + desires territorial annexation. And, oh, how Turkey would like + to be Russia's friend! Enver Pasha has of late been somewhat + out of favour in Berlin, and I cannot but think it curious that + when, on April 2, 1917, he visited the submarine base at + Wilhelmshaven, he was very nearly killed in a motor accident. + But it may have been an accident. Since then I cannot find that + he has taken any more active part in Pan-Turkish ideals than to + open a soup-kitchen in some provincial town, and lecture the + Central Committee of the Young Turks on the subject of internal + affairs in Great Britain. I do not like lectures, but I should + have liked to hear that one.</p> + + <p>I have left to the end of this chapter the question of + Germany's knowledge of, and complicity in the Armenian + massacres. From the tribune of the Reichstag, on January 15, + 1916, there was made a definite denial of the existence of such + massacres at all; on another subsequent occasion it was stated + that Germany could not interfere in Turkish internal + affairs.</p> + + <p>In view of the fact that there is no internal affair + appertaining to Turkey in which Germany has not interfered, the + second of these statements may be called insincere. But the + denial of the massacres is a deliberate lie. Germany--official + Germany--knew all about them, and she permitted them to go on. + A few proofs of this are here shortly stated.</p> + + <p>(1) In September 1915, four months before the denial of the + massacres was made in the Reichstag, Dr. Martin Niepage, higher + grade teacher in the German Technical School at Aleppo, + prepared and sent, as we have seen, in his name, and that of + several of his colleagues, a report of the massacres to the + German Embassy at Constantinople. In that report he gives a + terrible account of what he has seen with his own eyes, and + also states that the country Turks' explanation with regard to + the origin of these measures is that it was 'the teaching of + the Germans.' The German Embassy at Constantinople therefore + knew of the massacres, and knew also that the Turks attributed + them to orders from Germany. Dr. Niepage also consulted, before + sending his report, with the German Consul at Aleppo, Herr + Hoffman, who told him that the German Embassy had been already + advised in detail about the massacres from the consulates at + Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Mosul, but that he welcomed a further + protest on the subject.</p> + + <p>(2) These reports, or others like them, had not gone astray, + for in August 1915, the German Ambassador in Constantinople, + Baron Wangenheim, made a formal protest to the Turkish + Government about the massacres.</p> + + <p>There is, then, no doubt that the German Government, when it + officially denied the massacres, was perfectly cognisant of + them. It was also perfectly capable of stopping them, for they + were not local violences, but wholesale murders organised at + Constantinople. In support of this view I find an independent + witness stating that 'there is no Turk of standing who will not + readily declare that it would have been perfectly possible for + Germany to have vetoed the massacres had she chosen.' Germany + had indeed already given assurances that such massacres should + not occur. She had assured the Armenian Katholikos at Adana + that so long as Germany has any influence in Turkey he need not + fear a repetition of the horrors that had taken place under + Abdul Hamid. Had she, then, no influence in Constantinople, or + how was it that she had obtained complete control over all + Turkish branches of government? The same assurance was given by + the German Ambassador in April 1915, to the Armenian Patriarch + and the President of the Armenian National Council.</p> + + <p>So, in support of the Pan-Turkish ideal, and in the name of + the Turkish Allah, the God of Love, Germany stood by and let + the infamous tale of lust and rapine and murder be told to its + end. The Turks had planned to exterminate the whole Armenian + race except some half-million, who would be deported penniless + to work on agricultural developments under German rule, but + this quality of Turkish mercy was too strained for Major Pohl, + who proclaimed that it was a mistake to spare so many. But he + was a soldier, and did not duly weigh the claims of + agriculture.</p> + + <p>The choice was open to Germany; Germany chose, and let the + Armenian massacres go on. But she was in a difficulty. What if + the Turkish Government retorted (perhaps it did so retort), + 'You are not consistent. Why do you mind about the slaughter of + a few Armenians? What about Belgium and your atrocities + there?'</p> + + <p>And all the ingenuity of the Wilhelmstrasse would not be + able to find an answer to that.</p> + + <p>I do not say that Germany wanted the massacres, for she did + not. She wanted more agricultural labour, and I think that, if + only for that reason, she deprecated them. But she allowed them + to go on when it was in her power to stop them, and all the + perfumes of Arabia will not wash clean her hand from that + stinking horror.</p> + + <p>Here, then, are some of the problems which those who, at the + end of the war, will have to deal with the problem of Turkey + must tackle. It is just as well to recognise that at the + present moment Turkey is virtually and actually a German + colony, and the most valuable colony that Germany has ever had. + It will not be enough to limit, or rather abolish, the + supremacy of Turkey over aliens and martyrised peoples; it will + be necessary first to abolish the supremacy of Germany over + Turkey. To do this the victory of our Allied Nations must be + complete, and Germany's octopus envelopment of Turkish + industries severed. Otherwise we shall immediately be + confronted with a Germany that already reaches as far as + Mesopotamia. That is done now; and that, before there can come + any permanent peace for Europe, must be undone. Nothing less + than the complete release of that sucker and tentacle embrace + will suffice.</p> + + <p>NOTE</p> + + <p>As throwing a sidelight on the German complicity in the + Armenian massacres, the following is of interest. It is known + that when Metternich succeeded Wangenheim as German Ambassador + in Constantinople, he brought with him a speech, written in + Berlin, which, by the Kaiser's orders, he was to read when + presenting his credentials to the Sultan. This contained a + sentence which implied that Germany had been unable to stop the + Armenian massacres. Talaat refused to allow the speech to be + read, obviously because it threw the responsibility of the + massacres on to the Turks, whereas the accepted opinion in + Turkey was that they took place with the connivance and even at + the instigation of the Germans. Eventually a compromise was + arrived at, and the speech <i>in toto</i> was read privately, + the part referring to the Armenian massacre not being + published.... It is a pity that Germany is always found + out....</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VI"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VI</i></h2> + + <center> + 'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + </center> + + <p>Let us commit the crime of + <i>lèse-majesté</i>, and assume (though the + Emperor Wilhelm II. has repeatedly announced the contrary) that + Germany is not at the conclusion of the European War to find + herself in possession of the world. She has prepared her plans + in anticipation of the auspicious event; in fact she has had a + most interesting map of Europe produced which, except by its + general shape, is scarcely recognisable. The printing of it, it + is true, was a little premature, for it shows what Europe was + to have been like in 1916, and the apportionments are not borne + out by facts. But assuming that there is some radical error + about it all from her point of view, and assuming that there + will not be either a conclusive peace favourable to Prussian + interests, or even an inconclusive peace, but one in which the + Allies will be able to dictate and enforce their own terms, the + magnitude of the problems that will await their decision may + well appal the most ingenious of their statesmen. And of all + those problems none, it is safe to prophesy, will be found more + difficult of solution than that which will deal with the future + of the corrupt and barbarous Government which has for centuries + made hell of the Ottoman Empire. We know more or less what will + happen to Alsace and Lorraine, to Belgium, to the Trentino, + because in those cases the claims of one or other of our Allies + to demand a particular settlement are quite certain to be + agreed to by those not so immediately and vitally concerned. + But in the Balkans these problems will be more complicated + because of conflicting interests, and most complicated of all + will they be in Turkey. One thing, however, is certain, that + there can be no going back to the conditions that existed there + before the war.</p> + + <p>Ever since the Osmanlis came out of remoter Asia into the + Nearer East and into Europe, the government of their Empire has + gone from bad to worse. In the early days, as we have seen, + their policy was to absorb the strength of their subject + peoples by incorporating the youth of them into the Turkish + army, by giving them Turkish wives, and by converting them to + Mohammedanism. Such was the foundation of the Empire and such + its growth. But having absorbed their strength, the Sultan's + Government neglected them until they milked them again. They + were allowed to prosper if they could: all that was demanded of + them was a toll of their strength. They were cattle, and for + the right to graze on Turkish lands they paid back a pail of + their milk of manhood. But an empire founded on such principles + contains within it active and prolific seeds of decay, and, as + we have seen, more stringent measures had to be resorted to in + order to preserve the supremacy of the ruling people. Instead + of absorbing their strength, Abdul Hamid hit upon the new + method of killing them, so that the Turks should still maintain + their domination. And the policy set on foot by him was + developed but a few years ago into a scheme of slaughter, which + in atrocity has far surpassed the killings of Attila, of whom + the Nationalist poet sings, or even the designs of the deposed + Sultan. The Armenian nation, with the exception of such part of + it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been + exterminated, and similar measures have been planned and indeed + begun, against the Greeks, the Arabs, and the Jews.</p> + + <p>In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European + War, the policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has + been at length abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared + in their joint note to President Wilson their aims in the war, + and for those they have pledged themselves to fight until final + and complete victory wreathes their arms. Among these aims + are:--</p> + + <p>(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the + murderous tyranny of the Turks.</p> + + <p>(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which + has proved itself so radically alien to Western + civilisation.</p> + + <p>For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called + the Concert of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the + Balance of Power, kept Turkey together, and in particular has + maintained the centre of its government at Constantinople + simply because the Balance of Power would be upset if anybody + else held the key of the straits that separate Russia from the + Mediterranean. England, above all others, was instrumental in + preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must + confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a + century. It is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse + of that which for so many decades has been the keystone of our + ruling with regard to our Eastern Empire, but the arch has + collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone out, and all our efforts + to exclude Russia from free access to the Mediterranean have + only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds + Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The + situation, as it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse + than it could have been for a century back, if at any moment + during those hundred years we had done what we always ought to + have done, and declared that the anachronism of Turkey being in + Europe was more intolerable than anything that could happen in + consequence of her expulsion. But we have acknowledged that + now. We have also acknowledged the even greater anachronism of + Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any of + those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman + Empire, for the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that + the remedy of these two monstrous abuses forms an essential + part of their aim in the war, which in costliness of life and + of treasure has already far exceeded any cataclysm that could + have come to Europe through its doing its clear and Christian + duty with regard to Turkey during the preceding hundred years. + And among the benefits which eventually mankind will reap in + the fields that have been sown by the blood of the slain will + be the fact that the Confusion of Europe will have accomplished + a task which the Concert of Europe was too craven of + consequences to undertake; and Constantinople and the subject + peoples of the Turks will have passed from the yoke of that + murderous tyranny for ever.</p> + + <p>We will take these two avowed aims of the Allies in order, + and first try to draw (though with diffident pencil) some + sketch of what will be the confines of the Ottoman Empire, when + we pluck the fruits of the great crusade against the barbarism + of Turkey and of Germany. It is quite useless to attempt to + keep the map as it was, and peg out claims within the Empire + where we shall proclaim that Arabs and Greeks and Armenians + shall live in peace, for it is exactly that plan which has + formed a century's failure. At the International Congress of + Berlin, for instance, a solemn pact was entered into by Turkey + for the reform of the Armenian vilayets. She carried out her + promise by slaughtering every Armenian male, and outraging + every Armenian woman who inhabited them. The <i>soi-disant</i> + protectorate of Crete was not a whit more successful in + securing for the Cretans a tolerable existence, and the Allies + had to bring it to an end twenty years ago, and free them from + the execrable yoke; while finally the repudiation by Turkey of + the Capitulations, which provided some sort of guarantee for + the safety of foreign peoples in Turkey, has shown us, if + further proof was needed, the value of covenants with the + Osmanli. It must be rendered impossible for Turkey to repeat + such outrages: the soil where her alien peoples dwell must be + hers no more, and any Turkish aggression on that soil must be, + <i>ipso facto</i>, an act of war against the European Power + under the protection of whom such a province is placed.</p> + + <p>The difficulty of this part of the problem is not so great + as might at first appear. We do not, when we come to look at it + in detail, find such a conflict of interests as would seem to + face us on a general view. Even the precarious Balance of Power + was not upset by a quantity of similar adjustments made by the + Concert of Europe during the last hundred years. The Powers + freed Serbia, giving Turkey first a suzerainty over her, and + finally abolishing that: they freed Bulgaria, they freed + Greece, Eastern Rumelia, Macedonia, Albania. But, as by some + strange lapse of humanity, they always regarded the subject + peoples of Turkey in Asia as more peculiarly Turkish, as if at + the Bosporus a new moral geography began, and massacre in Asia + was comparatively venial as compared with massacre in Europe. + But now the Allies have said that there must be no more + massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, + it will be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the + alien peoples dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the + protectorate of one or other of the allied nations. In most + cases we shall find that there is a protecting Power more or + less clearly indicated, whose sphere of interest is obviously + concerned with one or other of these new and independent + provinces.</p> + + <p>The alien race which for the last thirty years has suffered + the most atrociously from Turkish inhumanity is that of the + Armenians, and it is fitting to begin our belated campaign of + liberation with it. If the reader will turn to the map at the + end of this book, he will see that the district marked Armenia + lies at the north-west corner of the old Ottoman Empire, and + extends across its frontiers into Russian Trans-Caucasia. That + indicates the district which once was peopled by Armenians. + To-day, owing to the various Armenian massacres, the latest of + which, described in another chapter, was by far the most + appalling, such part of Armenia as lies in the Ottoman Empire + is practically, and probably absolutely, depopulated of its + Armenian inhabitants. Such as survive, apart from the women + whose lives were spared on their professing Islamism and + entering Turkish harems, have escaped beyond the Russian + frontier, and are believed to number about a quarter of a + million. In the meantime their homes have partly been destroyed + and partly occupied by mouhadjirs from Thrace, and by the Kurds + who were largely instrumental in butchering them. Their lands + have been appropriated haphazardly, by, any who laid hands on + them.</p> + + <p>Here the problem is of no great difficulty. The + robber-tenants must be evicted, and the remnant of the + Armenians repatriated. Without exception they escaped into + Trans-Caucasia from villages and districts near the frontier, + else they could never have escaped from the pursuing Turks and + Kurds. Naturally, this remnant of a people will not nearly + suffice to fill their entire province, but in order to satisfy + the claims of justice at all adequately, the whole district of + Armenia, as Armenia was known before its people were + exterminated, must be amputated by a clean cut out of the + Ottoman Empire and placed, in an autonomous condition in a new + protected province, which will include all the vilayets of + Armenia.</p> + + <p>There is no doubt about a prosperous future for Armenia if + this is done, and to do less than this would be to fail + signally as regards the solemn promise made by the Allies when + they stated to President Wilson their aims in the war. The + Armenians have ever been a thrifty and industrious people, + possessed of an inherent vitality which has withstood centuries + of fiendish oppression. With facilities given them for their + re-settlement, and with foreign protection to establish them, + they will, beyond question, more than hold their own against + the Kurds. As a nation they are, as we have seen, partly + agricultural in their pursuits; but a considerable proportion + of them (and these the more intelligent) are men of business, + merchants, doctors, educationalists, and gravitate to towns. + Constantinople, as we shall see, will be open to them again, + where lately they numbered nearly as many as the entire remnant + of their nation numbers now; so, too, will be the cities of + Syria, of Palestine, and of Mesopotamia in the New Turkey which + we are attempting to sketch. They will probably not care to + settle in the towns and districts that will remain in the hands + of their late oppressors and murderers.</p> + + <p>In the work of their repatriation none will be more eager to + help than the American missionaries, who, at the time of the + last massacre, as so often before, showed themselves so nobly + disregardant of all personal danger and risk in doing their + utmost for their murdered flock, and who have explicitly + declared their intention of resuming their work. With regard to + the eviction of Kurds that will be necessary, it must be + remembered that the Kurd is a trespasser on the plains and + towns of Armenia, and properly belongs to the mountains from + which he was encouraged to descend by the Turks for purposes of + massacre. Out of those towns and plains he must go, either into + the mountains of Armenia from whence he came, or over the + frontier of Armenia into the New Turkey presently to be + defined. He must, in fact, be deported, though not in the + manner of the deportations at which he himself so often + assisted.</p> + + <p>The Armenians who will thus be reinstated within the + boundaries of their own territory, will be practically + penniless and without any of the means or paraphernalia of + life, and the necessary outlay on supplies for them, and the + cost of their rehabilitation would naturally fall on the + protecting Power. They will, however, be free from the taxes + they have hitherto paid to the Turks, and it should not be + difficult for them by means of taxes far less oppressive, to + pay an adequate interest on the moneys expended on them. These + would thus take the form of a very small loan, the whole of + which could easily be repaid by the Armenians in the course of + a generation or so. Once back on their own soil, and free from + Turkish tyranny and the possibility of it, they are bound to + prosper, even as they have prospered hitherto in spite of + oppressions and massacres up till the year 1915, when, as we + have seen, the liberal and progressive Nationalists organised + and executed the extermination from which so few escaped.</p> + + <p>It is hardly necessary to point out who the protecting Power + would be in the case of the repatriated Armenians, for none but + Russia is either desirable or possible. With one side along the + Russian frontier of Trans-Caucasia, the New Armenia necessarily + falls into the sphere of Russian influence.</p> + + <p>It has been suggested that not only Armenia proper, but part + of Cilicia should also become a district of the repatriated + Armenians, with an outlet to the sea. But while it is true that + complete compensation would demand this, since Zeitun and other + districts in Cilicia were almost pure Armenian settlements, I + cannot think that such a restoration is desirable. For, in the + first place, the extermination of the Zeitunlis (as carried out + by Jemal the Great) was practically complete. All the men were + slaughtered, and it does not seem likely that any of the women + and girls who were deported reached the 'agricultural colony' + of Deir-el-Zor in the Arabian desert. It is therefore difficult + to see of whom the repatriation would consist. In the second + place, the New Armenia will be for several generations to come + of an area more than ample for all the Armenians who have + survived the flight into Russia, and it obviously will give + them the best chance of corporate prosperity, if the whole of + them are repatriated in a compact body rather than that a + portion of them should be formed into a mere patch severed from + their countrymen by so large a distance. Another sphere of + influence also will be operating near the borders of Cilicia, + and to place the Armenians under two protecting Powers would + have serious disadvantages. In addition they never were a + sea-going people, and I cannot see what object would be served + by giving them a coast-board. In any case, if a coast-board was + found necessary, the most convenient would be the coast-board + of the Black Sea, lying adjacent to their main territory.</p> + + <p>If it seems clear that for New Armenia the proper protecting + Power is Russia, it is no less clear that for the freed + inhabitants of New Syria, Arabs and Greeks alike, the proper + protecting Power is France. Historically France's connection + with Syria dates from the time of the Crusades in 1099; it has + never been severed, and of late years the ties between the two + countries have been both strengthened and multiplied. The + Treaties of Paris, of London, of San Stefano, and of Berlin + have all recognised the affiliation; so, too, from an + ecclesiastical standpoint, have the encyclicals of Leo XIII. in + 1888 and 1898. Similarly, it was France who intervened in the + Syrian massacres of 1845, who landed troops for the protection + of the Maronites in 1860, and established a protectorate of the + Lebanon there a few years later, which lasted up till the + outbreak of the European War. France was the largest holder, as + she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the + harbour of Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most + flourishing ports of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a + French enterprise. And perhaps more important than all these, + as a link between Syria and France, has been the educational + penetration which France has effected there. What the American + missionaries did for Armenia, France has done for Syria, and + according to a recent estimate, of the 65,000 children who + attended European schools throughout Syria, not less than + 40,000 attended French schools. When we consider that that + proportion has been maintained for many years in Syria, it can + be estimated how strong the intellectual bond between the + Syrian and the French now is. The French language, similarly, + is talked everywhere: it is as current as is modern Greek in + ports of the Levant.</p> + + <p>In virtue of such claims few, if any, would dispute the + title of France to be the protecting Power in the case of + Syria. Here there will not be, as was the case with the + Armenians, any work of repatriation to be done. Such + devastation and depopulation as has been wrought by Jemal the + Great, with hunger and disease to help him, was wrought on the + spot, and, though it will take many years to heal the wounds + inflicted by that barbaric plagiarist of Potsdam, it is exactly + the deft and practical sympathy of the French with the race + they have so long tended, which will most speedily bring back + health to the Syrians.</p> + + <p>It will be with regard to the geographical limits of a + French protectorate that most difficulty is likely to be + experienced; there will also be points claiming careful + solution, as will be seen later, with regard to railway + control. Northwards and eastwards the natural delimitations + seem clear enough: northwards French Syria would terminate + with, and include, the province of Aleppo, eastwards the Syrian + desert marks its practical limits, the technical limit being + supplied by the course of the Euphrates. But southwards there + is no such natural line of demarcation; the Arab occupation + stretches right down till it reaches the Hedjaz, which already + has thrown off the Turkish yoke and, under the Shereef of + Mecca, declared its independence. Inset into this long strip of + territory lies Palestine.</p> + + <p>Now to make one single French protectorate over this very + considerable territory seems at first sight a large order, but + the objections to any other course are many and insuperable. + Should the line of French influence be drawn farther north than + the Hedjaz, under what protection is the intervening territory + to be left? At present it is Turkish, but inhabited by Arabs, + and, unless the Allies revoke the fulness of their declaration + not to leave alien peoples under the 'murderous tyranny' of the + Turks, Turkish it cannot remain. But both by geographical + situation and by racial interest, it belongs to + French-protected Syria, and there seems no answer to the + question as to what sphere of influence it comes under if not + under the French. Just as properly, if we take this view of the + question, the Sinaitic Peninsula, largely desert, would fall to + Egypt, the French protectorate being defined westwards at + Akabah. That the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez should not be + under the same control as the Western has always been an + anomaly, admitted even by the sternest opponents of the status + of Egypt; and in the absence of any canal corresponding to that + of Suez, and debouching into the Red Sea <i>via</i> the Gulf of + Akabah, the most advanced champion of French influence in the + Near East would see no objection to this rectified frontier. + There is no question of competition involved. The proposed + change is but a rational rectification of the present + status.</p> + + <p>This scheme of delimitation leaves Palestine inset into the + French protectorate of Syria, and it is difficult to see to + whom the protectorate of Palestine should be properly assigned + except to France. Italy has no expansive ambitions in that + sector of the Mediterranean; England's national sphere of + influence in this partition of the districts now occupied by + alien peoples in the Ottoman Empire lies obviously elsewhere; + and since the Jews, who settled in ever-increasing numbers in + Palestine before the war, and will assuredly continue to settle + there again, come and will come as refugees from the Russian + Pale, it would be clearly inadvisable to assign to Russia the + protectorate of her own refugees. The only other alternative + would be to create an independent Palestine for the Jews, and + the reasons against that are overwhelming. It would be merely + playing into the hands of Germany to make such an arrangement. + For the last thirty years Germany has watched with personal and + special interest this immigration of Jews into Palestine, + seeing in it not so much a Jewish but a German expansion. + Indeed, when, in the spring of this year, as we have noticed, a + massacre and deportation of Jews was planned and begun by + Jemal, Germany so far reversed her usual attitude towards + massacres in general, and her expressed determination never to + interfere in Turkey's internal affairs, as to lodge a + peremptory protest, and of course got the persecution instantly + stopped. Her reason was that Pan-Turkish 'ideals' (the + equivalent for the massacre of alien people) had no sort of + meaning in Palestine. But the Pan-Germanic ideals had a great + deal of meaning in Palestine, as Dr. Davis Treitsch <i>(Die + Jüden der Türkei)</i> very clearly states. For 'as a + result of the war,' he tells us, 'there will be an emigration + of East-European Jews on an unprecedented scale<br> + <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">... the disposal of the East + European Jews will be a problem for Germany</span><br> + (and) Germans will be only too glad to find a way out in the + emigration of those Jews to Turkey, a solution extraordinarily + favourable to the interests of all <i>three [sic]</i> parties + concerned. There are grounds for talking of a German + protectorate over the whole of Jewry.'</p> + + <p>Now this is explicit enough; Germany clearly contemplated a + protectorate over Palestine, and if the Jews who are + German-speaking Jews are left independent, there is nothing + more certain than that, after the war, her penetration of + Palestine will instantly begin. These colonists are, and will + be, in want of funds for the development and increase of their + cultivated territories, and when we consider the names of the + prominent financiers in the Central Empires, Mendelssohn, + Hirsch, Goldsmid, Bleichroeder, Speyer, to name only a few, we + cannot be in much doubt as to the quarter from which that + financial assistance will be forthcoming, on extremely + favourable terms. It is safe to prophesy that, if Palestine is + given independence without protectorate, in three years from + the end of the war it will be under not only a protectorate, + but a despotism as complete as ever ruled either Turkey or + Prussia. True it is that the Zionist movement will offer, even + as it has offered in the past, a strenuous opposition to + Germanisation, but it would be crediting it with an + inconceivable vitality to imagine that it will be able to + resist the blandishments that Germany is certainly prepared to + shower on it. For great as is the progress the Jewish settlers + made in Palestine during the twenty or twenty-five years before + the war, and strong as is the spirit of Zionism, the emigrants + do not as yet number more than about 120,000, nor have they + under crops more than ten per cent. of the cultivated land of + Palestine. They are as yet but settlers, and their work is + before them. If left without a protectorate they will not be + without a protectorate long, but not such an one as the Allies + desire. A protectorate there must be, and no reason is really + of weight against that protectorate being French. Let that, + then, extend from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from + Alexandretta to where the Hedjaz already prospers in its + self-proclaimed independence. It will be completely severed + from Turkey by tracts under protection of one or other of the + Allied Powers, any expedition through which would be an act of + war.</p> + + <p>The Euphrates, then, will form the eastern boundary of the + French protectorate: it will also, it is hoped, form the + western boundary of the English protectorate, which we know as + Mesopotamia. Just as no other Power has any real claim to + Armenia, except Russia, just as Syria can fall to no other than + France, it seems equally clear that the proper sphere of + English influence is in this plain that stretches southwards + from the semicircle of hills where the two great rivers + approach each other near Diarbekr to the head of the Persian + Gulf. As Germany very well knows, it is intimately concerned + with our safe tenure of India, and the hold the Germans hoped + to gain over it, and have for ever lost, by their possession of + the Bagdad Railway was vital to their dreams of world-conquest. + Equally vital to England was it that Germany should never get + it. But its importance to us as a land-route to India is by no + means the only reason why an English sphere of influence is + indicated here: it is the possibilities it harbours, which, as + far as can be seen, England is the only Power capable of + developing, that cause us to put in a claim for its + protectorate which none of our Allies will dispute.</p> + + <p>To restore Mesopotamia to the rank it has held, and to the + rank it still might hold among the productive districts of the + East, there is needed a huge capital for outlay, and a huge + population of workers. Even Germany, in her nightmare of + world-dominion, from which she shall be soon dragged + screaming-awake, never formulated a scheme for the restoration + of Southern Mesopotamia to its productive pre-eminence, and + never so much as contemplated it, except as an object that + would be possible of realisation after the Empire of India had + fallen over-ripe into her pelican mouth. Therein she was + perfectly right--she usually is right in these dreams of empire + in so far as they are empirical--for she seems dimly to have + conjectured in these methodical visions, that India was the key + to unlock Southern Mesopotamia. But nowhere can I find that she + guessed it: I only guess that she guessed it.</p> + + <p>This problem of capital outlay and of the necessary + man-power for work and restoration applies exclusively to + Southern Mesopotamia, which we may roughly define as the + district stretching from Samara on the Tigris and Hit on the + Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Northern Mesopotamia, as Dr. + Rohrbach points out in his <i>Bagdadbahn</i>, needs only the + guarantee of security of life and property to induce the Kurds + to descend from the hills and the Bedouin Arabs to settle down + there; and by degrees, under a protectorate that insures them + against massacre and confiscation of property, there seems no + doubt that the area of cultivation will spread and something of + the ancient prosperity return. The land is immensely fertile: + it is only Ottoman misrule, which here, as everywhere else, has + left desolation in the place of prosperity and death in place + of life. The rainfall is adequate, the climate suitable to + those who will naturally spread there: it needs only freedom + from the murderous tyranny that has bled it for centuries past, + to guarantee its future prosperity.</p> + + <p>But Southern Mesopotamia is a totally different proposition. + The land lies low between the rivers, and, though of + unparalleled fertility, yields under present conditions but a + precarious livelihood to its sparse population. For nine months + of the year it is a desert, for three months when its rivers + are in flood, a swamp. Once, as we all know, it was the very + heart of civilisation, and from its arteries flowed out the + life-blood of the world. Rainfall was scarcely existent, any + more than it is existent in Southern or Upper Egypt; but in the + days of Babylon the Great there were true rulers and men of + wisdom over these desiccated regions, who saw that every drop + of water in the river, that now pours senselessly through swamp + and desert into the sea, was a grain of corn or a stalk of + cotton. They dug canals, they made reservoirs, and harnessed + like some noble horse of the gods the torrents that now gallop + unbridled through dreary deserts. The black land, the Sawad, + was then the green land of waving corn, where three crops were + annually harvested and the average yield was two hundredfold of + the seed sown. The wheat and barley, so Herodotus tells us, + were a palm-breadth long in the blade, and millet and sesame + grew like trees. And in these details the revered Father of + Lies seems to have spoken less than the truth, for the + statistics we get elsewhere more than bear out his accounts of + its amazing fertility. From its wealth before his day had + arisen the might of Babylon, and for centuries later, while the + canals still regulated the water supply, it remained the + granary of the world. More than a thousand years after + Herodotus there were over 12,500,000 acres in cultivation, and + the husbandmen thereof with the dwellers in its cities numbered + 5,000,000 men. Then came the Arab invasion, which was bad + enough, but colossally worse was the invasion of the Osmanli. + Truly 'a fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of + them that dwell therein.'</p> + + <p>But the potentiality for production of that great alluvial + plain is not diminished; the Turks could not dispose of that by + massacre, as a means of weakening the strength of their subject + peoples. It is still there, ready to respond to the spell of + the waters of Tigris and Euphrates, which once, when handled + and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of the Lord.</p> + + <p>Not long before the present European War Sir William + Willcocks, under whose guidance the great modern irrigation + works at Assouan were constructed, was appointed adviser to the + Ottoman Ministry of Public Works, and his report on the + Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in 1911. He tells us that + the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable of easy + levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic + scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the + refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we + need not go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly + conservative basis, give the following results. He proposes to + restore, of course with modern technical improvements, the old + system of canals, and, allowing for interest on loans, + estimates the total expense at £26,000,000 (or the cost + of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of + the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no + enlargement in detail and no comment.</p> + + <p>But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the + irrigation works is easy, the profits are safe so long as the + Tigris and 'the ancient river,' the river Euphrates, run their + course. But all the irrigation works in the world will not + raise a penny for the investor or a grain for the miller unless + there are men to sow and gather the crops. A million are + necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is + 'Egypt and India.'</p> + + <p>This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and + its future must be in English hands, why no other country can + undertake it with hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. + Rohrbach, whose <i>Bagdadbahn</i> I have quoted before, is + forced to acknowledge that there is no solution to the + man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans + from other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak + prevail.' It is true that he starts upon the assumption that + Mesopotamia will remain Turkish (under a German protectorate, + as we read between his lines), with which we must be permitted + to disagree, but his conclusion is quite correct. Even under + German protection he realises that citizens of well-governed + states will not flock by the million to put themselves under + Turkish control, and he dismisses as inadequate the numbers of + Syrians, Arabs, Armenians and Jews who can be transported to + Mesopotamia from inside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. + Their numbers are even more inadequate since the Armenian + massacres permitted by Dr. Rohrbach's Fatherland, and even he + cannot picture a million of his own countrymen forsaking the + beer-gardens for summers in the Sawad. He does not positively + state our answer, that it is from India and Egypt that the + man-power will be supplied, but, as mentioned before, I think + he guesses it. His prophetic gifts are not convincing enough to + himself to let him state the glorious future, when India and + Egypt shall become German, but that, I feel sure, is his + vision: 'he sees it, but not now; he beholds it, but not + nigh.'</p> + + <p>But we can give the answer which he does not quite like to + state, since for the English it is clearly more easily + realisable. The native labour we can supply from Egypt and + India, especially India, will furnish a million labourers, and, + if we wished, two millions without difficulty. But no Power + except England can furnish it. And that, I submit, is the + solution of the problem of Mesopotamia; a solution well within + the power of English enterprise to attain in the hands of such + men as have already bridled the Nile, the water-horsemen of the + world. And I cannot do better, in trying to convey the spirit + in which this work of reclamation should be undertaken, than by + quoting some very noble words from Sir William Willcocks's + report, in which he speaks of the desolation that has come to + this garden of fruitfulness through wicked stewardship.</p> + + <p>'The last voyage I made before coming to this country was up + the Nile from Khartoum to the Equatorial lakes. In this most + desperate and forbidding region I was filled with pride to + think I belonged to a race whose sons, even in this + inhospitable waste of waters, were struggling in the face of a + thousand discouragements to introduce new forest trees and new + agricultural products and ameliorate in some degree the + conditions of life of the naked and miserable inhabitants. How + should I have felt, if in traversing the deserts and swamps + which to-day represent what was the richest and most famous + tract in the world, I had thought that I was the scion of a + race in whose hands God has placed, for hundreds of years, the + destinies of this great country, and that my countrymen could + give no better account of their stewardship than the exhibition + of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste + themselves in the sea for nine months of the year, and + desolating everything in their way for the remaining three? No + effort that Turkey can make can be too great to roll away the + reproach of those parched and weary lands, whose cry ascends to + heaven.'</p> + + <p>But the harvests of Mesopotamia, when gathered in, must + needs be transported, and for that railways are necessary. + Water transport would, of course, carry them easily down to the + Persian Gulf, but the supply will be mainly, if not wholly, + wanted westwards, and it must be conveyed to the shores of the + Mediterranean. Already, in preparation for world-conquest, + Germany has proceeded far with her construction of the Bagdad + Railway, which was intended, after her absorption of Turkey, to + link up Berlin with her next Oriental objective, namely, India; + the Taurus has been tunnelled, the Euphrates bridged, and but + for a hiatus of a few miles the line is practically complete + from Constantinople into Northern Mesopotamia. But its route + was chosen for German strategic reasons, for the linking up of + Berlin with Constantinople and Bagdad. This, it may be + permitted to say, does not form part of the schemes of the + Allies: it is to snap rather than weld such links that they + have taken the field. What we want in the matter of railway + transport for the harvests of Mesopotamia, and generally for + our Eastern communications, is not a line that passes through + Turkish and German soil, and terminates at Berlin, but one + which, after the directest possible land-route, reaches the + Mediterranean and terminates in suitable ports.</p> + + <p>The reader therefore is requested to <i>unthink</i> the + present Bagdad Railway altogether, to 'scrap' it in his mind, + as it will be probably scrapped on the map, since it is utterly + useless for our purposes. For taking Aleppo as (roughly) the + half-way house in the existent line, we find that the western + half of it lies in Asia Minor, in territory which, as we shall + see, will remain Turkish, while the eastern half of it makes a + long detour instead of striking directly for Bagdad. After our + experience with Turkey there is nothing less conceivable than + that we should allow a single mile of our new Mesopotamia + Railway to run through the territory of the Turks, for who + knows that she might not (say when harvests are ripe and ready + for delivery), on any arbitrary pretext, close or destroy the + line, even as before now she has closed the Dardanelles? + Besides, for our purposes, a line that goes to Constantinople + (in whosoever hands Constantinople may be after the war) is out + of the way and altogether unsuitable. Eastwards, again, from + Aleppo the present Bagdad line is circuitous and indirect, + admirably adapted to the German purposes for which it was + constructed, but utterly unadapted to ours.</p> + + <p>Let us then 'scrap' the existent Bagdad route altogether, + and consider not what the Germans want, but what we want, + which, as has been already stated, is a direct land + communication with suitable Mediterranean ports. Of those there + are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and Beirut, of + which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and + potentiality of increased importance. Two possible routes + therefore would seem to suggest themselves, one running from + Alexandretta to Aleppo, and thence following pretty closely the + course of the Euphrates till it reaches Hit, and from there + striking directly to Bagdad. Aleppo is already connected with + Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of Tripoli), and also with + Beirut by branch lines making a junction at Homs, and thus all + those ports will be brought together on one system. But if the + reader will glance at the map, he will see that by far the most + direct communication with Bagdad would be to run the railway + direct from there to Homs, thus making Homs rather than Aleppo + the central junction of the system. From Homs lines would run + northward to Aleppo, due west to Tripoli, and south-west to + Beirut. Either of those routes, in any case, would be + infinitely preferable to the long loop which the present Bagdad + Railway traverses, as planned on German lines and for German + requirements. The new railway will thus lie exclusively in + territory under French and English protectorate, and will + probably be their joint enterprise and property.</p> + + <p>Prospectively then, as regards the fulfilment of the solemn + pledge of the Allies to liberate subject peoples from the + murderous tyranny of the Turks, we have discussed the future of + Armenia, of Syria, of Palestine, and of Mesopotamia. All those + are well defined districts, and the demarcation of their + respective protectorates should not present great difficulties. + But there remains, before we pass on to the problem of + Constantinople, a further district less easily defined, largely + inhabited by European peoples whose liberty in the future we + are pledged to secure. This is the Mediterranean coastline to + the south and west of Asia Minor, the towns of which have been + so extensively peopled and made prosperous by Greeks and + Italians. Similarly among those of our European Allies who are + desirous and capable of Eastern expansion, there remains one, + Italy, whose rights to partake in this Turkish partition we + have not yet considered. In the shifting kaleidoscope of + national war-politics, it seems at the moment of writing by no + means impossible that Greece, having at length got rid of a + treacherous and unstable Reuben of a monarch, may redeem her + pledge to Serbia, in which case, no doubt, she too would state + the terms of her desired and legitimate expansion. But these + would more reasonably be concerned with the redistribution of + the Balkan Peninsula, which does not come within the scope of + this book, and we may prophesy without fear of invoking the + Nemesis that so closely dogs the heels of seers, that Italy + will legitimately claim (or perhaps has already claimed) the + protectorate of this valuable littoral. Certain it is that, + when peace returns, the large population of Greeks and Italians + once resident (and soon again to be) on these coasts, must be + given the liberty and security which they will never enjoy so + long as they remain in Turkish hands, and the hands that have + earned the right to be protecting Power are assuredly Italian. + Along the south coast a line including the Taurus range would + seem to suggest a natural frontier inland from Adana on the + east to the south-west corner of Asia Minor, and from there a + similar strip would pass up the coast as far as, and inclusive + of, Smyrna. That at least Italy has every right to expect, and + there seems no great fear that among the International Councils + there will arise a dissentient voice. The inland boundary on + the west coast is the difficult section of this delimitation, + and into the details of that it would be both rash and + inexpedient to enter.</p> + + <center> + II + </center> + + <p>We pass, then, to the second avowed object of the Allies, + namely, the expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman rule, which + has proved itself so radically alien to Western civilisation. + This must be taken to include not only the expulsion of the + Turkish control from Thrace and Constantinople, but from the + eastern side as well of the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and + the Dardanelles. At no future time must Turkey be in a position + to command even partially a single yard of that momentous + channel through which alone our Allies, Russia and Rumania, + have access to the Mediterranean. Though this was not formally + stated in the Allies' reply to President Wilson, it is clearly + part and parcel of the object in view, for while the Ottoman + Empire retains the smallest control on either side of either of + the Straits, she is so far able to interfere in European + concerns, in which she must never more have a hand. The east + shore, then, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora, as well as + the west, must be under the control of a Power, or a group of + Powers, not alien to Western civilisation. Germany and her + allies therefore, no less than Turkey, must be excluded from + the guardianship of the Straits.</p> + + <p>As we have had previous occasion to note, this ejection of + the Turkish power from Constantinople is the absolute reversal + of European and, in especial, of English policy for the last + hundred years. No crime that the Ottoman Government could + commit, no act of barbarism, would ever persuade us to do away + with the anachronism of Turkey's existence in Europe; but at + last the seismic convulsion of the war has knocked this policy + into a heap of disjected ruins, and it can never be rebuilt + again on the old lines. For among our other avowed objects in + prosecuting the war to its victorious end, we have pledged + ourselves to uphold the right which all peoples, whether small + or great, have to the enjoyment of full security and free + economic development. But while Turkey can close the Straits at + her own arbitrary will, or at the bidding of a superior and + malevolent Power, and block the passage of ships from Russian + and Rumanian ports into the Mediterranean, the economic + development of both these countries is seriously menaced. Three + times within the last six years has she exercised that right, + and while she holds the shores of the Straits she can at any + moment blockade all southern Russian ports. That such power + should be in the hands of any nation is highly undesirable; + that it should be in the hands of a corrupt despotism like + Turkey, especially now that Germany, as things stand, can + dictate to Turkey when and what she pleases, is a thing + unthinkable by the most improvident of statesmen. Already we + have paid dearly enough for the pusillanimity of a hundred + years: it is impossible that we should ever allow a similar + bill to be again presented. Whatever be the guardianship of the + Straits, whoever the holder of Constantinople, it will not be + Turkey.</p> + + <p>At the beginning of the war, and indeed till after the + revolution in Russia, it was announced and stated as an axiom + that on the conclusion of peace, Russia should be the + door-keeper of what after all is her own lodge-gate. + Subsequently, in the unhappy splits and disintegration of her + Government, it was announced that she favoured peace without + annexation--in other words, that she neither claimed nor + desired the guardianship of Constantinople. But I think we + should be utterly wrong if we regarded that as an expression of + the will of the Russian people: it is far more probable that it + was the expression of the will of Germany, directly inspired by + German influence with a view to concluding a separate peace + with Russia. As we have seen, it had its due effect in Turkey, + and Talaat Bey gave vent to pious ejaculations of thanksgiving, + that now all cause of quarrel with Russia was removed, and + Turkey and she could be friends. It is possible that when out + of the confused cries there again rises from Russia the clear + call of the people's voice, we shall find her wishing to set in + order her own house before she projects herself on new + missions, but, as far as the manifesto of 'peace without + territorial annexation' goes, we shall be wise to regard it for + the present with the profoundest suspicion. It sounds far more + like the tones of the Central European wolf than those of + Little Red Riding Hood's proper grandmother.</p> + + <p>But be Russia's decision what it may, the Turk will hold + sway no longer in Thrace or Constantinople, or on the shores of + the Straits of the Sea of Marmora. There is, of course, no + question of deporting the whole of the Turkish population that + lives in those regions, nor would it be desirable, even if it + were possible, to realise Gladstone's robust vision of seeing + every Turk, 'bag and baggage,' clear out from the provinces + they have desolated and profaned. But if not under Russia, then + under the joint control of certain of the Allied Powers there + will be a complete reconstruction of the administration of + those districts. The headquarters of the protectorate will + doubtless be at Constantinople, which will be reorganised + somewhat on the lines of the Treaty Port of Shanghai, and will + be open to the ships of all nations. The security of the town + must be assured by a military garrison either of mixed troops + of the controlling nations, or possibly by a rotation of troops + drawn from the armies of each in turn. More important even than + this will be the adequate control of the Straits by sea. A + naval base must be formed, which by the gospel of the freedom + of the seas (but not according to St. Goeben and the submarine + disciples) will constitute a patrolling police force of the + waters. Whether the system of fortifications and defences that + lately rendered the Dardanelles impregnable shall be retained + or not is a question demanding the most careful consideration. + Some will hold that they should be maintained in order to + insure that none but the guarantors of the freedom of the + Straits shall ever take possession of them: others that they + shall be utterly dismantled and destroyed, so that the closing + of the Straits shall be an impossibility. The matter really + turns on the question as to the extent to which the Allies will + have the prudence to cut Germany's claws when the war is over. + It is eminently to be hoped that they will be cut so short that + never again will they be able to show those chiselled talons + beyond her velvet--that sense, in fact, will allow sentiment no + word to say. Unfortunately, there are a great many people the + basis of whose character consists of a washy confidence in the + good intentions of everybody. Most mistakenly they call it + Christianity.</p> + + <p>Here, then, has been outlined the effect of the Allies' + declared aims. Such territories as Turkey holds in Europe, such + control as she possesses over the free passage of the Straits + must pass from her, and the alien peoples, who for centuries + have fainted and bled underneath her infamous yoke, must be led + out of the land of bondage. As we have seen throughout + preceding chapters, it was the fixed policy of the Ottoman + Government to rid itself of their presence, and already it has + gone far in its murderous mission. Indeed the avowed aims of + the Allies, when accomplished, will do that work for her, for + the Allies are determined to remove those peoples from Turkey. + The difference of execution, however, consists in this, that + they will not remove Arabs and Greeks and Italians and Jews, as + Turkey has already done with the Armenians by the simple + process of massacres, but by a process no less simple, namely, + of taking out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire the + districts where such peoples dwell. The Allies will accomplish, + in fact, for the Turks that policy of Ottomanisation which was + the aim of Abdul Hamid, and has been the aim of his more + murderous successors. Turkey shall henceforth be for the Turks: + she shall no more be in 'danger' from the defenceless nations, + who at present exist within her borders. The Sultan of Turkey, + in some year of grace now not far distant, will find that his + Ottomanisation has been done for him, and, though his realm is + curtailed, he will have his rest broken no more by the thought + of Arab risings, nor will he have to devise measures that will + solve the Arab question. Except for a strip along the west and + south coast, all Asia Minor and Anatolia will be his from the + Black Sea to the Mediterranean, but Syria, Armenia, the coast + of Asia Minor, Palestine, and Mesopotamia shall have passed + from him. It is no dismemberment of an Empire that the Allies + contemplate, for they cannot dismember limbs that never + belonged to the real trunk. It was a despotic military control + that the Osmanlis had established, they always regarded their + subject peoples as aliens, whom they did not scruple to destroy + if they exhibited symptoms of progress and civilisation. + Henceforth the Turkish Government shall govern Turks, and Turks + alone. That for many years has been its aim, and, by the + disastrous dispensation of fate, it has been largely able to + realise its purpose. Now, though by different methods, the + Allies will see thorough accomplishment of it. There will be no + question, of course, of turning out or of deporting Turks who + live in Syria, in Armenia, in Constantinople, for the ways of + the Allies are not those of Talaat and Enver and Jemal the + Great. Where to-day Turks dwell, there shall they continue to + dwell, but they must dwell there in peace in equal liberties + and rights with the once-subject peoples whom the Allies shall + have delivered. If they do not like that they can migrate, not + by forced marches and under the guardianship of murderous + Kurds, but in protection and security, to the lands where they + can still enjoy the beneficent sway of their own governors, and + be Ottomanised to the top of their bent. But Syrians and + Armenians and Greeks and Jews will be Ottomanised no + longer.</p> + + <p>The Turk was always a fighter, disciplined and courageous, + and he has never lost that virtue of valour. But he has been a + fighter because he has always lived under a military despotism + which demanded his services, and it is much to be doubted + whether his qualities in this regard will for the future be + exercised as they have been in the past. For the Turkish + armies, in so far as they have consisted of Turks, have been + chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of + Anatolia, who, when not summoned to their country's colours, or + ordered to maltreat and massacre, are quiet, rather indolent + folk, content to plough their lands and reap an exiguous but + sufficient harvest. And for their lords and governors, who, + until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies, there will + no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as in + the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the + necessity for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit + lands which it governed. But now, instead of having alien and + defenceless tribes within their borders, tribes forbidden to + bear arms and chafing at the Turkish yoke, they will see free + peoples under the protectorates of Powers that are capable of + self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment. + Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be + established in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and + the New Turkey will be as powerless for aggression as she will + be for defence, should she provoke attack. But within their + borders there may the Osmanlis dwell secure and undisturbed, so + long as they conform to the habits of civilised people with + regard to their neighbours, and it is a question whether, now + that the military despotism which has always misguided the + fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, + and no need of securing security, the nation will not settle + down into the quiet existence of small neutral countries. + Perhaps the last chapter of its savage and blood-stained + history is already almost finished, and in years to come some + little light of progress and of civilisation may be kindled in + the abode where the household gods for centuries have been + cruelty and hate.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VII"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII</i></h2> + + <center> + THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS + </center> + + <p>It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' + aims as regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the + subject peoples dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself + has to be delivered from a domination not less barbaric than + her own, which, if allowed to continue, would soon again be a + menace to the peace of the world. We have seen in a previous + chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's nippers, how + closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have to + consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, + and what will be the condition of the victim, already bled + white, when that has been done. In the beginning, as we have + seen, Germany obtained her hold by professing a touchingly + beautiful and philanthropic desire to help Turkey to realise + her national ideals, and her Pecksniffs, Tekin Alp and Herr + Ernst Marré, were bidden to write parallel histories, + the one describing the aims of the Nationalist party, the other + the benevolent interest which Germany took in them. + Occasionally Herr Ernst Marré could not but remember + that he was a German, and permitted us to see the claws of the + cat, without quite letting it out of the bag, but then he + pulled the strings tight again, and only loud comfortable + purrings could be heard, the Prussian musings over the + 'liberation' of Turkey which she was helping to accomplish. But + nowadays, so it seems to me, the strings have been loosened, + and the claws and teeth are clearly visible. It is not so long + since Dr. Schnee, Governor of German East Africa, sent a very + illuminating document to Berlin from which I extract the + following:--</p> + + <p>'Do you consider it possible to make a regulation + prohibiting Islam altogether? The encouragement of pig-breeding + among natives is recommended by experts as an effective means + of stopping the spread of Islam....'</p> + + <p>That seems clear enough, and I can imagine Talaat Bey, with + his sword of honour in his hand, exclaiming with the Oysters in + <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>:--<br> + 'After such kindness that would be<br> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">A dismal thing to + do.'</span></p> + + <p>But I am afraid that Germany is contemplating (as indeed she + has always done) a quantity of dismal things to do, and is now, + like the Walrus and the Carpenter, beginning to let them + appear. She has taken the Turkish oysters out for a nice long + walk, and when the war is over she proposes to sit down and eat + them. And did she not also interfere in the affair of Jewish + massacres and declare that 'Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of + meaning in Palestine'? That must have been almost an unfriendly + act from Turkey's point of view, for it cannot be stated too + clearly that part of the price which Germany paid for Turkey's + entry on her side into the war, was the liberty, as far as + Germany was concerned, of managing her internal affairs, + massacres and the rest, as best suited the damnable doctrines + of Ottomanisation. The other Powers could not interfere, for + they failed to force the Dardanelles, and Germany promised not + to. That promise, of course, was binding on Germany for just so + long as it suited her to keep it, and it suited her to keep it, + on the whole, during the Armenian massacres. And in that matter + her refusal to interfere is, among all her crimes, the very + flower and felicity of her vileness.</p> + + <p>Signs are not wanting that Turkey is beginning to realise + the position in which she has placed herself, namely, that of a + bankrupt dependant at the mercy of a nation to whom that + quality is a mere derision. Lately a quantity of small + incidents have occurred, such as disputes over the ownership of + properties financed by Germany and the really melodramatic + depreciation in the German coinage, which unmistakably show the + swift ebb of Turkey's misplaced confidence. More significant + perhaps than any is a transaction that took place in May 1917, + when Talaat Bey and Enver Pasha took the whole of their private + fortunes out of the Deutsche Bank in Constantinople, and + invested them in two Swiss banks, namely, the Banque Nationale + de Suisse, and the Banque Fédérale: they drew out + also the whole funds of the Committee of Union and Progress, + and similarly transferred them. This operation was not effected + without loss, for in return for the Turkish £1 they + received only thirteen francs. But it is significant that they + preferred to lose over fifty per cent. of their capital, and + have the moiety secure in Switzerland to leaving it in + Constantinople.<a name="FNanchor12"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_12">[12]</a></sup> It is certain therefore that at + both ends of the scale a distrust of German management has + begun. A starving population has wrecked trains loaded with + food-stuffs going to Germany, and at the other end the men with + the swords of honour and dishonour deem it wise to put their + money out of reach of the great Prussian cat. That the Germans + themselves are not quite at their ease concerning the security + of their hold may also be conjectured, for they are, as far as + possible, removing Turkish troops from Constantinople, and + replacing them with their own regiments. An instance of this + occurred in June 1917, when, owing to the discontent in the + capital, it was found necessary to guard bridges, residences of + Ministers, and Government offices. But instead of recalling + Turkish troops from Galicia to do this, they kept them there in + the manner of hostages, mixed up in German regiments, and sent + picked bodies of German troops to Constantinople. Fresh corps + of secret police have also been formed to suppress popular + manifestations. They are allowed to 'remove' suspects by any + means they choose, quite in the old style of bag and Bosporus, + but the organisation of them is German. And well may the German + Government distrust those signs of popular discontent in a + starving population: already the people have awoke to the fact + that the German paper money does not represent its face-value, + and, despite assurances to the contrary, it is at a discount + scarcely credible. Three German £1 notes are held even in + Constantinople to be the equivalent of a gold £1, while + in the provinces upwards of five are asked for, and given, in + exchange for one gold pound. It is in vain that German + manifestoes are put forth declaring that all Government offices + will take the notes as an equivalent for gold, for what the + people want is not a traffic with Government offices, but the + cash to buy food. Even more serious is the fact that Austrian + and Hungarian directors of banks will no longer accept these + scraps of paper. In vain, too, is it that the hungry folk see + the walls of the 'House of Friendship' rise higher and higher + in Constantinople, for every day they see with starving eyes + the trains loaded with sugar from Konia, and the harvests + raised in Anatolia with German artificial manures guarded by + German troops and rolling westwards to Berlin. According to + present estimates the harvest this year is so vastly more + abundant than that of previous years, that no comparison, as + the Minister of Agriculture tells his gratified Government, is + possible. But the poorer classes get no more than the leavings + of it when the armies, which include the German army, have had + their wants supplied. The governing classes, whom it is + necessary to feed, are not yet suffering, for the Germans grant + them enough, issuing rations to such families as are proved + adherents of the German-Turkish combination, and until the + pinch of want attacks them we should be foolishly optimistic if + we thought that a starving peasantry would cause the collapse + or the defection of Germany's newest and most valuable colony. + There is enough discontent to make Germany uneasy, but that is + all.<a name="FNanchor13"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_13">[13]</a></sup> Long ago she proved the + efficiency of her control, and the successful pulling of her + puppet-strings, and no instance of that is more complete than + the brief story of Yakub Jemil and the extinction of him and + his party, which, though it happened a full year ago, has only + lately been completely transmitted. Yakub Jemil was an + influential commander of a frontier guard near the Black Sea + coast. In July 1916 he went to Constantinople, accompanied by + his staff (which included the informant from whom this account + is derived), and, being cordially received by Enver and Talaat, + discussed the situation with them. He pointed out the + demoralising effect of the Armenian massacres, and the danger + of Jemal the Great's attitude towards the Arabs in Syria, + realising, and seeking to make them realise, the stupendous + folly of making enemies of the subject peoples, and urging the + re-establishment of cordial relations between the Turks and + them. That, considering that Enver and Talaat were responsible + (under the Germans) for the Armenian massacres, was a brave + outspeaking. He went on to say that Turkey was at war not on + behalf of herself, but on behalf of Germany, and that it would + be wise of the Government to consider the possibility of a + separate peace with the Powers of the Entente. He was heard + with interest, and took his leave. He remained in + Constantinople, and his views obtained him many adherents, not + only among Turkish officers whose sympathies were already + alienated from Germany, but among members of the Committee of + Union and Progress. But before long his adherents began to + disappear, and he asked for another interview with Talaat. He + was received, as the informant states, 'with open arms,' for + Talaat seized and held him, called for the guard, and he was + searched, and on him were found certain documents which proved + him to hold the views he had already expressed. That now, was + enough. He was 'interrogated' for two days (interrogation is + otherwise called torture), and was then hanged. Subsequently + 111 officers and men in the army also disappeared. Some were + marched into the Khiat Khana Valley, opposite Pera, and were + stabbed: others were sent under escort to the provinces and + murdered. No courts-martial of any kind were held.</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor12">[12]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + Similarly, in October of this year, a new Turkish law + was passed, prohibiting the acquisition of Turkish land by + foreign settlers. This is aimed point-blank at Germany, and + has naturally annoyed Berlin very much. + </div><a name="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor13">[13]</a> + + <div class="note"> + The army rations have lately been reduced, each + Turkish soldier receiving daily an oke of bread and a dried + mackerel. + </div>And should anybody doubt the efficiency of German control + in Turkey, and be disposed to be optimistic about the imminence + of Turkey's detachment, he might do well to ponder that story. + + <p>Meantime the efficacy of our naval blockade is largely + discounted by Germany's new source of supply. Possibly in the + ensuing winter of 1917-18 conditions may get unbearable, but if + the Turkish Government only two years ago massacred more than a + million of its subjects, it would be absurd to expect that the + starving of a million more would produce much effect on the + Ministers of the Turkish God of Love.<a name= + "FNanchor14"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_14">[14]</a></sup> The + people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how + famine is decimating England and France, and how the total + starvation of those unfortunate countries is imminent. Indeed, + of all the signs of want of confidence in their German + overlords, by far the most promising are the facts that Talaat + and Enver have sent their money out of the country, and that + Jemal the Great has a swelled head. On these facts there is a + certain justifiable optimism to be based. It will do no good to + consider them academically in London; but are there not + practical channels to reach the instincts of the Turkish + triumvirate that might be navigated?</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor14">[14]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + The following list of prices in Constantinople is of + interest:-;<br> + + + July 1914. July 1917.<br> + Rice, per + lb. + 2-1/4 d. + 3s. 4d.<br> + Milk, per + quart + 5d. + 2s.<br> + Flour, per + lb. + 3d. 2s. + 6d.<br> + Petroleum, per + lb. + 1d. + 4s.6d.<br> + Pair of + boots + £1 + £8. + </div>We need not trouble ourselves with considering what the + Allies will have to do with the Turkish army when once the end + of the war comes, for the collapse of the military party in + Turkey, which owes its whole vitality to Germany, will be + perfect and complete. But the economical future of Turkey is + not so plain: at the present moment its bankruptcy is total. + Early in the war Germany drained it of such bullion as it had, + and has since then advanced it about £150,000,000, which, + as far as I can trace, is entirely in German paper, and must be + redeemed in gold at some period (chiefly two years) after the + end of the war. That is wonderful finance, and one marvels that + Turkey could have been so far blinded as to accept it. But I + expect that the swallowing of the first loan was sweetened by a + spoonful of jam of this kind. Germany pointed out that, though + England was quite certainly going to lose the war, she had + issued an immense paper coinage which had all the purchasing + power of gold. Germany, on the other hand, with her dear Ally + to help her, was just as certainly going to win the war. How, + then, could there be the slightest risk of the German paper + money depreciating a single piastre in value? That sounded very + good sense to Turkey, who was equally convinced that she would + be on the victorious side (else she would not have joined it), + and down went the loan with a pleasant sensation of sweetness. + A second loan was easily induced by the failure of the + Dardanelles expedition, and about then the 'ignorant' Turkish + peasant began to wonder whether the paper was quite as valuable + as gold, and to prefer gold or even the ordinary silver piastre + to its German equivalent. To counteract that, as we have seen, + a law was passed making it criminal to hoard gold, and, to + complete the ruin, the silver piastre was called in, and a + nickel token was substituted.... We can but bow our heads in + reverence of the thoroughness of German swindling. + + <p>Now Turkey is completely bankrupt, and we must ask ourselves + why Germany ever bargained for the repayment in gold, after the + war, of the millions she had lent the Turks in paper, if she + knew that Turkey could never repay her. True, the loans had + only cost her the paper the notes were printed on, so that in + no case could she prove a loser, but how could she be a gainer? + The answer to that question shouts at us from every acre of + Turkish soil. The immense undeveloped riches of Turkey supply + the answer. Some indeed are already being developed, and the + labour and most of the materials have been paid for by the + German paper notes. There are the irrigation works at Adana, + there is the beet-sugar industry at Konia, the irrigation works + in the Makischelin Valley, the mineral concessions of the + Bagdad Railway, the Haidar Pasha Harbour concessions, the + afforestation scheme near Constantinople, the cotton industry + in Anatolia--there is no end to them. Turkey may not be able to + pay in cash, but over all these concessions already working, + and over a hundred more, of which the concessions have been + granted, Germany has a complete hold, and her victim will pay + in minerals and cotton and sugar and corn. She will pay over + and over and over again, as none who have the smallest + knowledge of Kultur-finance can possibly doubt. She is bled + white already, and for the rest of time bloodless and white + will she remain. Only one event can possibly avert her fate, + and that is the victory of the Allies.</p> + + <p>We have been so bold as to assume that this is not an + impossible contingency, and on that assumption there is a + brighter future for Turkey than the Prussian domination could + ever bring her. Bankrupt she is, but, as Germany saw, she is + rich in possibilities even with regard to the restricted + territory to which she will surely find herself limited, and it + is a pleasant chance for her that Germany has already been so + busy in developing the resources of Anatolia. For Germany may + safely bet her last piece of paper money that she will not lay + a finger on them.</p> + + <p>The Turkey of the future is to be for the Turks; not for the + persecuted Armenians, nor for the Arabs, nor for the Greeks, + and assuredly it is not to be for the Prussians. While the war + lasts, Germany may draw supplies from the fields her artificial + manures have enriched, and from the acres that her paper money + has planted, but after that no more. Her Ottomanising work will + be over. Such development (and it is far from negligible) as + she has done in Syria will be continued under French protection + for the Arabs, such as she has done in Mesopotamia under + English protection, and such as she has done in Anatolia will + be continued by the Turks to drag them out of the utter + insolvency that she has brought them to. Never before has a + country so justly and so richly deserved the repudiation of a + debt incurred by the confidence trick. Not a civilised + Government in the world would dream of enforcing payment, any + more than a magistrate would enforce a payment to some + thimble-rigger returning from a race-meeting.</p> + + <p>The roar of battle still renders inaudible all voices save + its own, but already the dusk begins to gather over the halls + where sit the War-lord and those who, for the realisation of + their monstrous dreams, loosed hell upon the world, and in the + growing dusk there begin to steal upon the wall the letters of + pale flame that to them portend the doom, and to us give + promise of dawn. Faintly they can see the legend <i>Mene, Mene, + Tekel, Upharsin....</i></p> + + <p>THE END</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. 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Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crescent and Iron Cross + +Author: E. F. Benson + +Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, L Barber and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS + + +BY E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface_ + + +In compiling the following pages I have had access to certain sources of +official information, the nature of which I am not at liberty to specify +further. I have used these freely in such chapters of this book as deal +with recent and contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in +connection with Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland +ueber Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I have tried to be +discriminating in their use, and have not, as far as I am aware, stated +anything derived from them as a fact, for which I had not found +corroborative evidence. With regard to the Armenian massacres I have +drawn largely on the testimony collected by Lord Bryce, on that brought +forward by Mr. Arnold J. Toynbee in his pamphlet _The Murder of a +Nation_, and _The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks,_ and on the pamphlet +by Dr. Martin Niepage, called _The Horrors of Aleppo_. In the first +chapter I have based the short historical survey on the contribution of +Mr. D.G. Hogarth to _The Balkans_ (Clarendon Press, 1915). The chapter +called 'Thy Kingdom is Divided' is in no respect at all an official +utterance, and merely represents the individual opinions and surmises of +the author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies have +pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from Constantinople, +and to remove out of the power of the Turk the alien peoples who have +too long already been subject to his murderous rule. I have, in fact, +but attempted to conjecture in what kind of manner that promise will be +fulfilled. + +Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey are +continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one would have to +wait to the end of the war before beginning to write at all on this +subject. But since such usefulness as this book may possibly have is +involved with the necessity of its appearance before the end of the war, +I set a term to the gathering of material, and, with the exception of +two or three notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. +But up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys and +arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on my part. + +E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents_ + + +CHAPTER I + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +CHAPTER II + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +CHAPTER III + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +CHAPTER V + +DEUTSCHLAND UeBER ALLAH + +CHAPTER VI + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GRIP OF THE OCTOPUS + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his phrase is +applicable for the moment and for the situation in view of which he +coined it, but his coin has only a temporary validity: it is good for a +month or for a year, or for whatever period during which the crisis +lasts, and after that it lapses again into a mere token, a thing without +value and without meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a +monetary coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over +the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on being +passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription defaced by wear, +long after it has ceased to represent anything. In itself it is +obsolete, but people still trade with it, and think it represents what +it represented when it came hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it +sometimes happens that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery +(which it may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives +those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded possession. + +Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined by Lord +Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a sick man,' he +said, and added something which gave great offence then about the +advisability of putting Turkey out of his misery. I do not pretend to +quote correctly, but that was the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the +truth of Lord Aberdeen's phrase at the period when he made it. It +possibly contained a temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if +it had been acted on, might have saved a great deal of trouble +afterwards, but it missed then, and more than misses now, the essential +and salient truth about Turkey. The phrase, unfortunately, still +continued to obtain credit, and nowadays it is a forgery; it rings +false. + +For at whatever period we regard Turkey, and try to define that +monstrous phenomenon, we can make a far truer phrase than Lord +Aberdeen's. For Turkey is not a sick man: Turkey is a sickness. He is +not sick, nor ever has been, for he is the cancer itself, the devouring +tumour that for centuries has fed on living tissue, absorbing it and +killing it. It has never had life in itself, except in so far that the +power of preying on and destroying life constitutes life, and such a +power, after all, we are accustomed to call not life, but death. Turkey, +like death, continues to exist and to dominate, through its function of +killing. Life cannot kill, it is disease and death that kill, and from +the moment that Turkey passed from being a nomadic tribe moving +westwards from the confines of Persia, it has existed only and thrived +on a process of absorption and of murder. When first the Turks came out +of their Eastern fastnesses they absorbed; when they grew more or less +settled, and by degrees the power of mere absorption, as by some failure +of digestion, left them, they killed. They became a huge tumour, that +nourished itself by killing the living tissues that came in contact +with it. Now, by the amazing irony of fate, who weaves stranger dramas +than could ever be set on censored stages, for they both take hundreds +of years to unravel themselves, and are of the most unedifying +character, Turkey, the rodent cancer, has been infected by another with +greater organisation for devouring; the disease of Ottomanism is +threatened by a more deadly hungerer, and Prussianism has inserted its +crab-pincers into the cancer that came out of Asia. Those claws are +already deeply set, and the problem for civilised nations is first to +disentangle the nippers that are cancer in a cancer, and next to deprive +of all power over alien peoples the domination that has already been +allowed to exist too long. + +The object of this book is the statement of the case on which all +defenders of liberty base their prosecution against Turkey itself, and +against the Power that to-day has Turkey in its grip. + +Historical surveys are apt to be tedious, but in order to understand at +all adequately the case against Turkey as a ruler and controller of +subject peoples, it is necessary to go, though briefly, into her +blood-stained genealogy. There is no need to enter into ethnological +discussions as to earlier history, or define the difference between the +Osmanli Turks and those who were spread over Asia Minor before the +advent of the Osmanlis from the East. But it was the Osmanlis who were +the cancerous and devouring nation, and it is they who to-day rule over +a vast territory (subject to Germany) of peoples alien to them by +religion and blood and all the instincts common to civilised folk. Until +Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' suddenly hoisted her colours as a +champion of murder and rapine and barbarism, she the mother of art and +literature and science, there was nothing in Europe that could compare +with the anachronism of Turkey being there at all. Then, in August 1914, +there was hoisted the German flag, superimposed with skulls and +cross-bones, and all the insignia of piracy and highway robbery on land +and on sea, and Germany showed herself an anachronism worthy to impale +her arms on the shield of the most execrable domination that has ever +oppressed the world since the time when the Huns under Attila raged like +a forest fire across the cultivated fields of European civilisation. +To-day, in the name of Kultur, a similar invasion has broken on shores +that seemed secure, and it is no wonder that it has found its most +valuable victim and ally in the Power that adopted the same methods of +absorption and extermination centuries before the Hohenzollerns ever +started on their career of highway robbery. But like seeks like, and +perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our astonishing diplomacy in +Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like some desirable maiden, cast in +her lot with the Power that by instinct and tradition most resembled +her. Spiritual blood, no less than physical blood, is thicker than +water, and Gott and Allah, hand-in-hand, pledged each other in the cups +they had filled with the blood that poured from the wine-presses of +Belgium and of Armenia. + +For centuries before the Osmanli Turks made their appearance in Asia +Minor, there had come from out of the misty East numerous bodies of +Turks, pushing westwards, and spreading over the Euphrates valley and +over Persia, in nomadic or military colonisations, and it is not until +the thirteenth century that we find the Osmanli Turks, who give their +name to that congregation of races known as the Ottoman Empire, +established in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Like all previous +Turkish immigrations, they came not in any overwhelming horde, with +sword in one hand and Koran in the other, but as a small compact body +with a genius for military organisation, and the gift, which they retain +to this day, of stalwart fighting. The policy to which they owed their +growth was absorption, and the people whom they first began to absorb +were Greeks and other Christians, and it was to a Christian girl, +Nilufer, that Osman married his son Orkhan. They took Christian youths +from the families of Greek dwellers, forced them to apostatise, gave +them military training, and married them to Turkish girls. It was out of +this blend of Greek and Turkish blood, as Mr. D.G. Hogarth points out, +that they derived their national being and their national strength. This +system of recruiting they steadily pursued not only among the Christian +peoples with whom they came in contact, but among the settlements of +Turks who had preceded them in this process of pushing westwards, and +formed out of them the professional soldiery known as Janissaries. They +did not fight for themselves alone, but as mercenaries lent their arms +to other peoples, Moslem and Christian alike, who would hire their +services. This was a policy that paid well, for, after having delivered +some settlement from the depredations of an inconvenient neighbour, and +with their pay in their pocket, they sometimes turned on those who had +hired their arms, took their toll of youths, and finally incorporated +them in their growing empire. Like an insatiable sponge, they mopped up +the sprinklings of disconnected peoples over the fruitful floor of Asia +Minor, and swelled and prospered. But as yet the extermination of these +was not part of their programme: they absorbed the strength and manhood +of their annexations into their own soldiery, and came back for more. +They did not levy those taxes paid in the persons of soldiers for their +armies from their co-religionists, since Islam may not fight against +Islam, but by means of peaceful penetration (a policy long since +abandoned) they united scattered settlements of Turks to themselves by +marriages and the bond of a common tongue and religion. + +Their expansion into Europe began in the middle of the fourteenth +century, when, as mercenaries, they fought against the Serbs, and fifty +years later they had a firm hold over Bulgaria as well. Greece was their +next prey; they penetrated Bosnia and Macedonia, and in 1453 attacked +and took Constantinople under Mohammed the Conqueror. Still true to the +policy of incorporation they continued to mop up the remainder of the +Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time consolidated themselves further +in Asia Minor. By the beginning of the seventeenth century their +expansion reached its utmost geographical limits, but already the Empire +held within it the seeds of its own decay, and by a curious irony the +force that should still keep it together was derived not from its own +strength, but from the jealousies of the European Powers among +themselves, who would willingly have dismembered it, but feared the +quarrels that would surely result from the apportionment of its +territories. The Ottoman Empire from then onwards has owed its existence +to its enemies. + +Its weakness lay in itself, for it was very loosely knit together, and +no bond, whether of blood or religion or tongue, bound to it the +assembly of Christian and Jewish and non-Moslem races of which it was so +largely composed. The Empire never grew (as, for instance, the British +Empire grew) by the emigration and settlement of the Osmanli stock in +the territories it absorbed: it never gave, it only took. From the +beginning right up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it has +been a military despotism, imposing itself on unwilling and alien tribes +whom it drained of their blood, and then left in neglect until some +further levy was needed. None of its conquered peoples was ever given a +share in the government; they were left unorganised and, so to speak, +undigested elements under the Power which had forced them into +subjection, and one by one the whole of the European peoples included in +that uncemented tyranny have passed from under Turkish control. Turkey +in Europe has dwindled to a strip along the Bosporus to the Sea of +Marmora and the Dardanelles, Egypt has been lost, Tripoli also, and the +only force that, for the last hundred years has kept alive in Europe the +existence of that monstrous anachronism has been the strange political +phenomenon, now happily extinct, called the Balance of Power. No one of +the Great Powers, from fear of the complications that would ensue, could +risk the expulsion of the Turkish Government from Constantinople, and +there all through the nineteenth century it has been maintained lest the +Key of the Black Sea, which unlocked the bolts that barred Russia's +development into the Mediterranean, should lead to such a war as we are +now passing through. That policy, for the present, has utterly defeated +its own ends, for the key is in the pockets of Prussia. But all through +that century, though the Powers maintained Turkey there, they helped to +liberate, or saw liberate themselves, the various Christian kingdoms in +Europe over which at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey +exercised a military despotism. They weakened her in so far as they +could, but they one and all refused to let her die, and above all +refused to give her that stab in the heart which would have been implied +in her expulsion from Constantinople. + +For centuries from the first appearance of the Osmanlis in north-west +Asia Minor down to the reign of Abdul Hamid, the Empire maintained +itself, with alternate bouts of vigour and relapses, on the general +principle of drawing its strength from its subject peoples. Internally, +from whatever standpoint we view it, whether educational, economic, or +industrial, it has had the worst record of any domination known to +history. Rich in mineral wealth, possessed of lands that were once the +granary of the world, watered by amazing rivers, and with its strategic +position on the Mediterranean that holds the master-key of the Black Sea +in its hands, it has remained the most barbaric and least progressive of +all states. Its roads and means of communication remained up till the +last quarter of the nineteenth century much as they had been in the days +of Osman; except along an insignificant strip of sea-coast railways were +non-existent; it was bankrupt in finance and in morals, and did not +contain a single seed that might ripen into progress or civilisation. +Mesopotamia was once the most fertile of all lands, capable of +supporting not itself alone, but half the civilised world: nowadays, +under the stewardship of the Turk, it has been suffered to become a +desert for the greater part of the year and an impracticable swamp for +the remainder. Where great cities flourished, where once was reared the +pride of Babylon and of Nineveh, there huddle the squalid huts of +fever-stricken peasants, scarce able to gain their half-starved living +from the soil that once supported in luxury and pomp the grandeur of +metropolitan cities. The ancient barrages, the canals, the systems of +irrigation were all allowed to silt up and become useless; and at the +end of the nineteenth century you would not find in all Mesopotamia an +agricultural implement that was in any way superior to the ploughs and +the flails of more than two thousand years ago. But so long as there was +a palace-guard about the gates to secure the safety of the Sultan and +his corrupt military oligarchy, so long as there were houris to divert +their leisure, tribute of youths to swell their armies, and taxes wrung +from starving subjects to maintain their pomp, there was not one of +those who held the reins of government who cared the flick of an eyelash +for the needs of the nations on whom the Empire rested, for the +cultivation of its soil that would yield a hundredfold to the skilled +husbandman, or for the exploitation and development of its internal +wealth. While there was left in the emaciated carcase of the Turkish +Empire enough live tissue for the cancerous Government to grow fat on, +it gave not one thought to the welfare of all those races on whom it had +fastened itself. Province after province of its European dominions +might be lost to it, but the Balance of Power still kept the Sultan on +his throne, and left the peoples of Asia Minor and Syria at his mercy. +They were largely of alien religion and of alien tongue, and their +individual weakness was his strength. Neglect, and the decay consequent +on neglect, was the lot of all who languished under that abominable +despotism. + +With the accession in 1876 of Abdul Hamid, of cursed memory, there +dawned on the doomed subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire a day of +bloodier import than any yet. The year before and during that year had +occurred the Bulgarian atrocities and massacres, and the word 'massacre' +lingered and made music in Abdul Hamid's brain. He said it over to +himself and dwelt upon it, and meditated on the nature and possibilities +of massacre. The troubles which massacre had calmed had arisen before +his accession out of the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which +corresponded to the Greek Patriarchate, and was given power over +districts and peoples whom the Greeks justly considered to belong to +them by blood and religion. Greek armed bands came into collision with +Bulgarian bands, and in order to calm these disturbances by thoroughly +effectual means, irregular Turkish troops were sent into Bulgaria, +charged with the command to 'stop the row,' but with no other +instructions. Indiscriminate killing, with all the passions and horrors +that bloodshed evokes in the half-civilised, followed, and there was no +more trouble just then in the disturbed districts, for there was none to +make trouble. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was deposed by a group of king-makers +under Midhat Pasha, Murad V. reigned shadow-like for three months, and +during the same year Abdul Hamid was finally selected to fill the +throne, and stand forth as the Shadow of God. It was a disturbed and +tottering inheritance to which he succeeded, riddled with the dry-rot of +corruption, but the inheritor proved himself equal to the occasion. + +For a little while he was all abroad, and at the bidding of Midhat, who +had placed him on the throne, he summoned a kind of representative +Turkish Parliament, by way of imbuing the Great Powers with the idea +that he was an enlightened Shadow of God bent on reform. This parody of +a Parliament lasted but a short time: it was no more than a faint, +dissolving magic-lantern picture. In the spring of 1877 Rumania, under +Russian encouragement, broke away from Turkish rule. Turkey declared war +on Russia, and in 1878 found herself utterly defeated. At Adrianople was +drawn up the Treaty of San Stefano, creating an independent Bulgarian +state, and, in the opinion of Great Britain and Germany, giving Russia +far greater influence in the Balkan Peninsula than was agreeable to that +disastrous supporter of Turkey, the Balance of Power. In consequence the +Treaty of San Stefano was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin. + +In those arrangements Abdul Hamid had no voice, but he was well content +to sit quiet, think about what was to be done with what was left him, +and thank his waning crescent that once again the Balance of Power had +secured Constantinople for him, leaving him free to deal with his +Asiatic dominions, and such part of Europe as was left him, as he +thought fit. He could safely trust that he would never be ejected from +his throne by a foreign Power, and all he need do was to make himself +safe against internal disturbances and revolutions which might upset +him. And it was then that he begot in the womb of his cold and cunning +brain a policy that was all his own, except in so far as the Bulgarian +atrocities, consequent on feuds between Bulgars and Greeks, may be +considered the father of that hideous birth. But it was he who suckled +and nourished it, it was from his brain that it emerged, full-grown and +in panoply of armour, as from the brain of Olympian Zeus came Pallas +Athene. This new policy was in flat contradiction of all the previous +policy, as he had received it from his predecessors, of strengthening +Turkey by tributes of man-power from his subject tribes, but it would, +he thought, have the same result of keeping the Turk supreme among the +alien elements of the Empire. Times had changed; it behoved him to +change the methods which hitherto had held together his hapless +inheritance. + +Now Abdul Hamid was not in any sense a wise man, and the ability which +has been attributed to him, in view of the manner in which he +successfully defied the civilisations of Europe, is based on premisses +altogether false. He never really defied Europe at all; he always +yielded, secure in his belief that Europe in the shape of the Balance of +Power, was unanimous in keeping him where he was. He never even risked +being turned out of Constantinople, for he knew--none better--that all +Europe insisted on retaining him there. As regards wisdom, there was +never a greater fool, but as regards cunning there was never a greater +fox. He had a brain that was absolutely impervious to large ideas: the +notion of consolidating and strengthening his Empire by ameliorating its +internal conditions, by bringing it within speaking distance of the +influence of civilisation and progress, by taking advantage of and +developing its immense natural resources, by employing the brains and +the industry of his subject races, seems never to have entered his head. +He could easily have done all this: there was not a Power in Europe that +would not have lent him a helping hand in development and reform, in the +establishment of a solvent state, in aiding the condition of the peoples +over whom he ruled. In whatever he did, provided that it furthered the +welfare of his subjects, whether Turk, Armenian, or Arab, the whole +Concert of Europe would have provided him with cash, with missionaries, +with engineers, and all the resources of the arts and sciences of peace +and of progress. But being a felon, with crime and cunning to take the +place of wisdom, he preferred to develop his Empire on his own original +lines. In Europe he was but suffered to exist. There remained Asia. + +The policy of previous Osmanli rulers has already been roughly defined. +They strengthened themselves and the military Turkish despotism round +them by absorbing the manhood of the tribes over which they had obtained +dominion. Abdul Hamid reversed that policy; he strengthened the Turkish +supremacy, not by drawing into it the manhood of his subject peoples, +but by destroying that manhood. In proportion, so his foxlike brain +reasoned, as his alien subjects were weak, so were the Turks strong. A +consistent weakening of alien nations would strengthen the hold of those +who governed the Ottoman Empire. It was as if a man suffered from gout +in his foot: he could get rid of the gout by wholesome living, the +result of which would be that his foot ceased to trouble him. But the +plan which he adopted was to cause his foot to mortify by process of +inhuman savagery. When it was dead it would trouble him no longer. + +He was well aware that the Turkish people only comprised some forty per +cent, of the population of the Turkish Empire: numerically they were +weaker than the alien peoples who composed the rest of it. Something had +to be done to bring the governing Power up to such a proportionate +strength as should secure its supremacy, and the most convenient plan +was to weaken the alien elements. The scheme, though yet inchoate, had +been tried with success in the case of the Bulgarians and Greeks, and to +test it further he stirred up Albanians against the inhabitants of Old +Servia with gratifying results. They weakened each other, and he further +weakened them both by the employment of Turkish troops in Macedonia to +quell the disturbances which he had himself fomented. There were +massacres and atrocities, and no more trouble just then from Macedonia. +Having thus tested his plan and found no flaw in it, he settled to adopt +it. But European combinations did not really much interest him, for he +was aware that the Great Powers, to whose sacred Balance he owed the +permanence of his throne, would not tolerate interference with European +peoples, and he turned his attention to Asia Minor. There were +excrescences there which he could not absorb, but which might be +destroyed. He could use the knife on living tissues which the impaired +digestion of the Ottoman Empire could not assimilate. So he hit on this +fresh scheme, which his hellish cunning devised with a matchless sense +of the adaptation of the means to the end, and he created (though he did +not live to perfect) a new policy that reversed the traditions of five +hundred years. That is no light task to undertake, and when we consider +that since his deposition, now nine years ago, that policy has reaped +results undreamed of perhaps by him, we can see how far-sighted his +cunning was. To-day it is being followed out by the very combination +that deposed him; his aims have been fully justified, and for that +precise reason we are right to classify him among the abhorred of +mankind. He had an opportunity such as is given to the few, and he made +the utmost of it, even as his greater successor on the throne of Turkey +for the present, namely Wilhelm II. of Prussia, has done, in the service +of the devil. 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' must surely +have been his well-deserved welcome, when he left the hell he had made +on earth for another. + +Of all his subjects the Armenians were the most progressive, the most +industrious, the most capable. They therefore contributed, according to +that perverted foxlike mind, one of the greatest menaces to the +stability of his throne, which henceforth should owe its strength to the +weakness of those it governed. They, as all the world knows, are a +peaceful Christian people, and it was against them that Abdul Hamid +directed the policy which he had tested in Europe. The instruments he +employed to put it in force were the Kurds, a turbulent shepherd race +marching with and mixed up among the Armenians. By this means he had the +excuse ready that these massacres were local disturbances among remote +and insubordinate tribes, one of whom, however, the Kurds, he armed with +modern rifles and caused to be instructed in some elementary military +training. Their task was to murder Armenians, their pay was the +privilege to rape their girls and their women, and to rob the houses of +the men they had killed. The Armenians resisted with at first some small +success, upon which Abdul Hamid reinforced the Kurds with regular +troops, and caused it to be proclaimed that this was a war of Moslems +against the infidel, a Holy War. Moslem fanaticism, ever smouldering +and ready to burst into flames, blazed high, and a fury of massacres +broke forth against all Armenians, east and west, north and south. The +streets of Constantinople ran with their blood, and before Abdul Hamid +was obliged by foreign civilised Powers to stop those holocausts, he had +so decimated the race that not for at least a generation would they +conceivably be a menace again even to that zealous guardian of the +supremacy in its own dominions of the Ottoman power. Very unwillingly, +when obliged to do so, he whistled off his bands of Kurds, and dismissed +them: unwillingly, too, he gave orders that the Armenian hunts which had +so pleasantly diverted the sportsmen of Constantinople, must be +abandoned: then was decreed a 'close time' for Armenians, the shooting +season was over. There is no exaggeration in this: eye-witnesses have +recorded how at the close of the business day in Constantinople, +shooting parties used literally to go out, and beat the coverts of +tenement houses for Armenians, of whom there were at that time in +Constantinople some 150,000. But when Abdul Hamid had finished his +sport, I do not think more than 80,000 at the most survived. These were +saved by the protests of Europe, and perhaps by the knowledge that if +all the Armenians were killed, there could never be any more shooting. +The Kurds also had lost a considerable number of men, and that was far +from displeasing to the yellow-faced butcher of Yildiz. A little +blood-letting among those turbulent Kurds was not at all a bad thing. + +Here, then, we see defined and at work the new Ottoman policy with +regard to its peoples. Hitherto, it had been sufficient to take from +them its fill of man-power, and leave the tribe in question to its own +devices. There was no objection whatever to its developing the resources +of its territory, to its increasing in prosperity and in population. +Indeed the central Power was quite pleased that it should do so, for +when next the gathering of taxes and youths came round the collectors +would find a creditable harvest awaiting them. Such a tribe received no +encouragement or help from the Government; that would have been too +much to expect, but as long as it kept quiet and obedient it might, +without interference, prosper as well as it could. But now, in the last +quarter of the nineteenth century, all that was changed; instead of a +policy of neglect there was substituted a policy of murder. The state no +longer considered itself secure when in various parts of its dominions +its subjects showed themselves progressive and industrious. They had to +be kept down, and clearly the most efficient way of keeping people down +was killing them. Let it not be supposed for a moment that either the +first massacre, or any that followed, was the result of local +disturbances and fanaticism. It was nothing of the sort: each was +arranged and planned at Constantinople, as the official means, invented +by the arch-butcher, Abdul Hamid, of maintaining in power the most +devilish despotism that has ever disgraced the world. Something had to +be done to prevent the alien tribes in Asia slipping out of the noose of +Ottoman strangulation, even as the European tribes had done, and +forming themselves into separate and independent states. A ruler with +progressive ideas, one who had any perception of the internal prosperity +which alone can render an empire stable, would have made the attempt to +weld his loose and wavering domination together by encouraging and +working for the prosperity of its component peoples, so that he might, +though late in the day, give birth to a Turkey that was strong, because +its citizens were prosperous and content. Not so did Abdul Hamid; the +Turkey that he sought to establish was merely to be strong because he +had battered into a blood-stained pulp the most progressive and the most +industrious of the alien peoples over whom he ruled. + +It is significant that, while yet the blood of the murdered Christians +was scarcely washed from the streets of Constantinople, the Emperor +Wilhelm II. visited his brother-sovereign at Yildiz, after making his +tour throughout the Holy Land. The two can hardly, in their intimate +conversations, have completely avoided the subject of the massacres; but +after all, that was not such an unmanageably awkward topic, for Wilhelm +II. could tactfully have reminded Abdul Hamid that his own throne also +was based on the murderous progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there +was the war between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss, +and there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of +Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. Altogether, in +spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit the Holy Places in +Palestine, it was an odd moment for a Christian monarch to visit the +butcher of Constantinople. But the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very +strong reason for going to see his brother, for the fruit of German +policy in Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the +minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while still his +hands were red with blood was more than compensated for by the +advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him on other subjects. +Germany had already begun her peaceful penetration, and the real motive +of the Emperor's visit was, after swords and orders had been exchanged, +to make the definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be +allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and a hint no +doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room for them now that +there were so many Armenian farms unfortunately without a master. But, +like Uriah Heep, the Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it +was ripe, or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to +reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense advantages +which would result to Turkey by the establishment of those Gott-like +German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his colossal egalo-megalomania, of +which we know more now, he thought that any request which the +All-Highest should deign to make must instantly be granted. But he met +with a perfectly flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left +Constantinople in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the +good that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of Jerusalem +had done him. It is pleasant to think of the Pan-Islamic merriment with +which Abdul Hamid must have viewed the indignant exit of his Christian +brother, who had come such a long way to see him, and was so tactful +about the Armenian atrocities. He might perhaps--for those Christians +were very odd pigs--have expressed horror or remonstrance. Not at all: +he was much too anxious to get his request granted, to make himself +disagreeable. But did his Christian brother really think that all those +massacres over which Abdul Hamid had spent so much time and money, had +been arranged in order to settle those nasty progressive Germans in the +lands that had been so carefully depopulated? Why, the whole point of +them had been that the Armenians were too progressive and prosperous, +thus constituting a menace to the central Government, and certainly +Abdul Hamid was not meaning to put in their place settlers even more +progressive and with a stronger backing behind them. So off went the +All-Highest back home again, very much vexed with Abdul Hamid, and +possibly (if that was not sacrilegious) with himself for having been in +too great a hurry. There was more spade-work to be done yet before +Turkey was ripe for open and avowed colonisation by the Fatherland. + +The episode, strictly historical, is of a certain importance, for it +shows the date at which Wilhelm II. thought that the time had come for +Germans to colonise Turkey. The peaceful penetration (which now amounts +to perforation) was even then pretty far advanced. But Abdul Hamid seems +to have seen the significance of the request, and for some little while +after that German influence had a certain set-back in Turkey. The date +of this marks an era, and Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' set to work +again, in no way discouraged, to set her cancer-nippers in the cancer +that already had begun to eat the live tissues round it. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter II_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +In the year 1908 a military group in Constantinople, styling itself the +'Young Turk' party, seized and deposed Abdul Hamid, and shut him up at +Salonika, there to spend the remainder of his infamous days. They put +forth a Liberal programme of reformation, one that earned them at the +moment the sympathy of civilised Europe (including Germany), and the +Balance of Power very mistakenly and prematurely heaved a sigh of +relief. For upwards of a century it had maintained in Constantinople the +corrupt and bloody autocracy of the Sultans, fearing the European +quarrels that would attend the dismemberment of that charnel-house of +decay known as the Ottoman Empire, and now (just for the moment) it +seemed as if a sudden rally had come to the Sick Man, and he showed +signs of returning animation and wholesome vitality. The policy of the +Powers, after a century of failure, looked as if it was justifying +itself, and they were full of congratulations towards Turkey and each +other. But never, in the whole century of their pusillanimous cacklings, +had they made a greater mistake. + +Whether the Young Turks ever meant well or not, whether there was or was +not a grain of sincerity in this profession of their policy, is a +disputed question. There are those who say that originally they were +prompted by patriotic and high-minded aims, when they proclaimed their +object of 'Organisation,' and of reform. But all are agreed that it +matters very little what their original aims were, so speedily did their +Liberal intentions narrow down to an Ottomanisation such as Adbul Hamid +had aimed at, but had been unable to accomplish before his evil sceptre +ceased to sway the destinies of his kingdom. In any case this programme +earned its authors the sympathy of Europe, and probably this, and no +more than this, prompted it. They wished to establish themselves, +unquestioned and undisturbed, and did so; and I do not think we shall +be far wrong if we take the original Young Turk programme about as +seriously as we took the parody of a Parliament with which Abdul Hamid +opened (as with a blessing) his atrocious reign. The very next year +(1909) they permitted (if they did not arrange) the Armenian massacres +at Adana, and the Balance of Power began faintly to wonder whether the +Young Turks in their deposition of Abdul Hamid had not slain an asp and +hatched a cockatrice. Given that their aims originally were sincere, we +can but marvel at the swiftness of the corruption which in little more +than a year had begun to lead them not into paths of reform and Liberal +policy, but along the road towards which the butcher they had deposed +had pointed the way. It must have made Abdul Hamid gnaw his nails and +shake impotent hands to see those who had torn him from his throne so +soon pursuing the very policy which he invented, and to which he +nominally owed his dethronement. Strange, too, was it that his overthrow +should come from the very quarter to which he looked for security, for +it was on the army that each Sultan in turn had most relied for the +stability of his throne. But Abdul Hamid, in order, perhaps, to deal +more effectually with the subject races he wished to exterminate, had +introduced a system of foreign training for the officers of his army, a +course of Potsdam efficiency, and it was just they, on whom Sultans from +time immemorial had relied, who knocked the prop of the army away from +him. Though publicly, for the edification of Europe his deposers +professed a Liberal policy, it was not on account of Armenian massacres +that they turned him off his throne, but because of the muddle and +corruption and debility of his rule. Herein we may easily trace the hand +of Germany, no longer publicly beckoning as when Wilhelm II., just after +the first Armenian massacres, made his request of the Sultan for the +establishment in Turkey of German colonists, but working underground, +sapping and mining like a mole. For Germany, her mind already fixed on +securing Turkey as an instrument of her Eastern policy, wanted a strong +Turkey, and without doubt desired to bring an end to the disorganisation +and decay of the Empire, and create and at the same time interpenetrate +an efficient state that should be useful to her. We may take it for +granted that she, like the rest of Europe, welcomed any sign of +regeneration in the Ottoman Empire, but there was an ulterior purpose +behind that. Turkey, already grasped by the Prussian hand, must be in +that hand a weapon fit for use, a blade on which she could rely. She +strengthened the Turkish army by the introduction of Prussian +discipline, and worked on good material. Already she has realised her +ambition in this respect, and now controls the material which she then +worked on. + +The troubled years of the Balkan wars which followed this false dawn, +coupled with the loss of all the territory which remained to the Ottoman +Empire in Europe, with the exception of Thrace, caused an immediate +reaction from the open-minded policy of the Young Turks, if we decide to +credit them at the outset with a sincere purpose. Organisation by a +slightly different spelling became Ottomanisation, and the aims of the +Young Turks were identified with those of the Nationalist party which +followed out and developed into a finished and super-fiendish policy the +dreams of Abdul Hamid. He, as we have seen, had invented the idea of +securing Ottoman supremacy in the Empire, not as before by absorption of +the strength of its subject peoples, but by their extermination, and +this formed part of the new programme which was to be more efficiently +administered. Already, in 1909, the experimental massacre at Adana took +place, and the Young Turk party, with its possibly Liberal aims, had +become a party that had as its main object a system of tyranny and +murder such as the world had never seen. Simultaneously Turkey itself, +Nationalist party and all, became enslaved to German influence. Link by +link the chains were forged and the manacles welded on, and before the +European War broke out in 1914, the incarceration of Turkey in Germany +was complete, and Wilhelm II. had a fine revenge for the snub inflicted +on him by Abdul Hamid when he proposed the scheme of German +colonisation in the lands depopulated by the Armenian massacres of 1895. + +From the first the aim of the Nationalists, who thus formed so deadly a +blend with the Young Turk party, was Ottomanisation, or the +establishment within the Empire of an Ottoman domination which should be +pure and undefiled, and in which none of the subject peoples, be they +Armenians or Kurds, Arabs or Greeks or Jews, Christian or Moslem, should +have any part. The inception of the scheme was no doubt inspired by the +example given by Prussia's treatment of the Poles, and Hungary's of +Roumans and Slovaks. But in thoroughness of method Prussia's pupil was +to prove Prussia's master, for it aimed not merely at expropriation, but +extermination, and sought to become strong, not merely by weakening +alien elements, but by abolishing them. It did not set this out quite +explicitly in its manifestoes and the resolutions of its congresses, but +two extracts, the first from the proceedings of the 'Committee of Union +and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a sinister +suggestiveness about them for which the acts and measures of the +Committee had already supplied the comment. + +'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the country must be +suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal ideas prevented. Turkey +must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem influence must be +preponderant. Every other religious propaganda must be suppressed.... +Sooner or later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must +be effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained by +persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other +nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for +decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish Empire.' + +Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul Hamid, than +this formal resolution, passed within three years of the time when the +Young Turks deposed him? The conviction begins to dawn on one--as it +began to dawn on the Balancers of Power--that he owed his downfall not +to his illiberal and butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough +enough. + +The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may be added, +which defines the policy, not with regard to the Christian or Jewish +subjects of the Turks, but with regard to the Arabs, Moslem by creed, +and the guardians of the Holy Cities. + +'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for us to +Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of nationality is +awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, and already threatens us +with a great catastrophe. Against this we must be fore-armed.' + +The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical form. +Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of patriotism, and any +means which secured it, massacres such as, in 1909, had taken place at +Adana, or the treatment accorded to the Greeks and Bulgarians who +remained in Thrace after the Balkan wars, were in accordance with the +new 'Liberal' gospel. Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in +Europe, and as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it +could not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under +the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed to put the +entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and lay hands on their +property. In fact this was the first of the 'deportation' schemes which, +in 1915, proved so successful with the Armenians, and the effect of it +was that neither Greeks nor Bulgarians were left in Thrace. Then +followed the expulsion of Greeks from the Mediterranean sea-board, but +this was never completely carried out because the European war +intervened, and the attention of the Nationalists was claimed by their +over-lord. Later, as we shall see, a further deportation of Greeks was +begun, but again that was stopped, for Germany saw that it would never +do to have her Turkish allies murdering settlers of the same blood as +those she hoped would become her allies. Of course, when it was only a +question of Armenians she did not interfere. + +The design, then, of the new 'Liberal' regime, of which those three +measures, the massacres at Adana, the expulsion of Greeks and Bulgarians +from Thrace, and of Greeks from the sea-board of the Mediterranean, were +early instances, was to restore the absolute supremacy of the Turks in +the Ottoman Empire. It was obvious that the problem was one of +considerable difficulty, since the Turks at the time composed only some +forty per cent, of the whole population. They numbered about 8,000,000, +while in the Empire were included about 7,000,000 Arabs, 2,000,000 +Greeks, 2,000,000 Armenians, and 3,000,000 more of smaller +nationalities, such as Kurds, Druses, and Jews. But the Turks were +backed by Germany, and nowadays, since the abolition of the +Capitulations, which leaves all alien races unprotected by foreign +Powers, such as survive, after the extermination of the Armenians, are +completely at the mercy of the Government in Constantinople. All these +peoples speak a different language from the Turks, and have a different +religion, for the Nationalist party, with a view to the Ottomanisation +of the Arabs, have definitely stated that Arab Moslems are not of the +true faith, and that their own Allah (in whose name they subsequently +exterminated the Armenians) is the God of Love--German equivalent +Got--whereas the Arab Allah is the God of vengeance. The sinister motive +in this discovery needs no comment, for it is obvious that it releases +the Ottoman Government from the prohibition in the Koran, whereby Moslem +may not fight against Moslem. Therefore the Arabs were declared not to +be true Moslems. Later on, that motive was translated into practical +measures. + +Among the first tasks with regard to the Arabs that faced the +Nationalist party from what we may call the pacific side of their +mission was to substitute the Turkish language for Arabic. Kemal Bey, a +Nationalist of Salonika, with the help of Ziya Bey, collected round him +a group of young writers, and these proceeded to translate the Koran out +of Arabic into Turkish, and to publish the prayers for the Caliphate in +their own language, and orders went out that these revised versions +should be used in all mosques. Turkish was to be the official language +for use in all public proclamations, and, with Prussian thoroughness, it +was even substituted on such railway tickets as had hitherto been +printed in Arabic. The new Turkish tongue (Yeni Lisan) had also to be +purged of all foreign words, but here some difficulty was experienced, +for Persian and Arabic formed an enormous percentage in the language as +hitherto employed, and the promoters of this Ottoman purity of tongue +found themselves left with a very jejune instrument for the rhapsodies +of their patriotic aims. Poets in especial (for the Nationalists, like +all well-equipped founders of romantic movements, had their bards) found +themselves in sore straits owing to the limited vocabulary; and we read +of one, Mehmed Emin Bey, who was forced to publish his odes in small +provincial papers, since no well-established journal would admit so +scrannel an expression of views however exalted.[1] But the translation +of the Koran was the greatest linguistic feat, and Tekin Alp, the most +prominent exponent of Nationalism, refers to it as one of the noblest +tasks undertaken by the new movement. It mattered not at all that by +religious ordinance the translation of the Koran into any other tongue +was a sin. 'The Nationalists,' he tells us, 'have cut themselves off +from the superstitious prejudice.' A further attempt was made to +substitute Turkish letters for Arabic letters in the alphabet, but this +seems to have presented insuperable difficulties, and I gather that it +has been abandoned. + +[Footnote 1: This thwarted poet retired from the Committee of Union and +Progress not long after, and his place was taken by Enver.] + +The Ottomanisation of religion and language, then, was among the pacific +methods of spreading Pan-Turkism through the Empire. A monstrous idol +was set up, a Hindenburg idol, in front of which all peoples and +languages, not Christians alone, but Moslems, were bound to prostrate +themselves. Indeed it was against Arabs mainly that these provisions +were directed, for the Arabs constituted the most menacing obstacle to +the spread of Ottomanisation, since they numbered in the Empire only a +million less than the Turks themselves. It was ordained by statute that +no Arab could have a seat on the Committee of Union and Progress, and +the Cabinet similarly was purged of any Greek or Armenian element. Never +any more must there be new parties in the Chamber, never any more must +Liberal ideas (to champion which the New Turk party had come into being) +be allowed to prick up their pernicious heads. For the Nationalist +party, with whom the New Turks were now identical, had taken as their +creed all that the deposed Abdul Hamid stood for, and only differed from +him in that as their schemes developed they looked forward to logical +conclusions far beyond what he had ever dreamed of. But Abdul Hamid may, +I think, be taken to be the true founder of the new Nationalism: at any +rate it was he who had first seen the possibilities of massacre as a +means of maintaining Ottoman supremacy. In the hands of Nationalists +that was to prove a more effective weapon than the printing of railway +tickets in Turkish. But already before the European War the Nationalists +had vastly extended his ideas, and had seen the danger of allowing even +Arabs to have a standing of any kind in the new state. Henceforth all +subject people were to be _rayas_, cattle, as in the old days of the +Sultans who absorbed the strength of the aliens, but did not exterminate +them. But now the cattle were not only to be used for milk, but were to +be slaughtered when advisable. Till then they must be dumb, or speak the +language of their masters only, for this alone can save them from the +shambles. Ahmed Sherif Bey, a prominent Nationalist, lays this down. 'It +is the business of the Porte to make the Arabs forget their own +language, and to impose upon them instead that of the nation that rules +them. If the Porte loses sight of this duty, it will be digging its +grave with its own hands, for if the Arabs do not forget their language, +their history, and their customs, they will seek to restore their +ancient empire on the ruins of Ottomanism and of Turkish rule in Asia.' + +Here, then, is the definite statement of the Nationalists' hostility to +all things Arab, and we shall see how they translated it into practice. +Even Moslems were but cattle for them, as also were Armenians and Greeks +and Kurds. Armenians were doomed to be the first complete sacrifice on +the bloody altar of the Nationalists, and, as a Turkish gendarme engaged +in that sacrifice said to a Danish Red Cross nurse, 'First we kill the +Armenians, then the Greeks, and then the Kurds.' And if he had been a +Progressive Minister he would certainly have added, 'And then the +Arabs.' + +It was not only within the present limits of the Ottoman Empire that the +Committee of Union and Progress proposed to accomplish their unitive +purpose, for after having seen a glorious and exclusive Turkey arise +over the depopulated territories of their alien peoples, a vaster +vision, for an account of which we are indebted to Tekin Alp, opened +before their prophetic eyes. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of Persia +they claim that one-third are of true Turkish blood, and in the new +Turkey which, so they almost pathetically hope, will be established at +the conclusion of the European War by the help of Wilhelm II., those +Persian Turks must be incorporated into the true fold of Allah, God of +Love. The province of Adarbaijan, for instance, the richest and most +enlightened district of Persia, they claim, is entirely Turkish, and +here the needful rectification will be made in the new atlases that bear +the imprimatur of Potsdam. Similarly, all the country south of the +Caucasus must rank as Turkish territory, since the Turks form from fifty +to eighty per cent, of the population; all Kazan, for the same reason, +is truly Turkish, with the alluvial plains of the Volga, while the +Crimea, so Tekin Alp discovers, is also a lost sheep longing for the +Turkish fold. All this is Turkey (or Turania) Irredenta, and, may we not +add:-- + +'Jerusalem and Madagascar +And North and South Amerikee.' + +And then what a glorious future awaits the Power that Europe once +thought of as a sick man. 'With the crushing of Russian despotism,' +exclaims Tekin Alp, 'by the brave German, Austrian, and Turkish armies, +thirty to forty million Turks will receive their independence. With the +ten million Ottoman Turks this will form a nation of fifty millions, +advancing towards a great civilisation which may perhaps be compared to +that of Germany, in that it will have the strength and energy to rise +even higher. In some ways it will be even superior to the degenerate +French and English civilisations.' + +The arithmetic and the enthusiasm of the foregoing paragraph are, of +course, those of Tekin Alp, from whose book, _The Turkish and +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, the quotation is made. The work was published in +1915, and, appearing as it did after the beginning of the European War, +it is but natural to find in it an expression not only of the +Nationalist aims for Turkey, but of the Prussian aims for Turkey, or, to +speak more correctly, of the dream which Prussia has induced in a +hypnotised Turkey. It sets forth in fact the bait which Prussia has +dangled in front of Turkey, the hunger for which has inspired the +projected future which is here sketched out; and significantly enough +this book has been spread broadcast over Turkey by the agency of German +propagandists. The Ottomanisation of the Empire, the vision of its +further extension, free from all consideration of subject peoples, was +exactly the lure which was most likely to keep the Turks staunch to +their Prussian masters. It will be noticed that there is no suggestion +of the Turks recovering their lost provinces and kingdoms in Europe, +Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia, and the rest, for it would never do +to let Fox Ferdinand awake from _his_ hypnotic sleep of a sort of +Czardom over the Balkans, or cease to dangle dreams, that included even +Constantinople before the shifty eye of King Constantine So, before +Turkey was spread the prospect of appropriating Russian and Persian +spoils: Prussia had already given the lost Turkish kingdoms in Europe +elsewhere, but would there not be a dismembered Russian Empire to +dispose of? The Crimea, the province of Kazan, the province of +Trans-Caucasia: all these might be held before Turkey's nose, as a dog +has a piece of meat held up before it to make it beg. Then there was the +province of Adarbaijan: certainly Turkey might be permitted to promise +herself that, without incurring the jealousy of Austria or Bulgaria. +Greedily Turkey took the bait. She gulped it down whole, and never +considered that there was a string attached to it, or that, should ever +the time come when Germany, the conqueror of the world, would be in a +position to reward her Allies with the realisation of the dreams she had +induced, the string would be pulled, and up, with retchings and +vomitings, would come these succulent morsels of Russia and Persia. +Indeed these bright pictures flashed on to the sheet as the visions of +Nationalists are but the slides in a German magic-lantern, designed to +keep Turkey amused, and it was with the same object that Ernst Marre, in +his _Die Tuerken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was bidden to make other +pictures ready in case Turkey grew fractious or sleepy. 'From the ruins +of antiquity,' he says, when speaking of the Ottoman Empire, 'new life +will spring, if we can manage to raise the treasures which time and sand +have covered.' Then he remembers that he must be less Pan-Germanic for +the moment, and dangles the bait again. 'In doing this,' he adds, 'we +are benefiting Turkey. The Turkish state is no united whole, and it has +always been very difficult to govern. Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, +Kurds, cannot be welded together. This is a war of liberation for +Turkey.... Only by energetic interference, and by "expelling" the +obstinate Armenian element could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian +domination.... The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' + +There is no need for further quotations, which might be multiplied +indefinitely. The Prussian programme is for the moment identical with +the Turkish Nationalist programme: Turkey, in order to be kept 'in with' +Germany, must be encouraged to dream of depopulated Armenia (that dream +has come tragically true) and of annexations in Russia and Persia. All +this fitted in with the Turkish programme: Germany had scarcely to +inspire, only to encourage. That encouragement she gave, for, +simultaneously she was penetrating Turkey as water penetrates a sponge, +and reducing it to the position of a vassal state. To keep Turkey happy +she allowed the Armenian massacres to run their deadly course, and only +interfered with other massacres when they did not suit her purpose. But +supposing (to suppose the impossible) that a peace to the European War +was dictated by Germany, how much of the future Pan-Turkish programme +would be realised? Would there be a Turkey at all? I think not: there +would be a Germany in Europe, and a Germany in Asia, where Turkey once +was. Indeed, in all but name, they are in existence now; so complete, as +we shall see, has been Germany's penetration of the Ottoman Empire. Just +for the present she calls herself Turkey in those regions; that is her +incognito. But Turkey as an independent Power has already ceased to +exist, and Tekin Alp and the Nationalists still dream on with rainbow +visions of Ottomanisation, the vistas of which stretch far into Persia +and the plains of the Volga. And all the while she has been put out like +a candle, and all that is left of her is the smouldering wick ready to +be pinched between the horny fingers of her stepmother. There she +stands, her stepmother, with her grinning teeth already disclosing the +Wolf.... + +Whatever the end of the European War may be, in no circumstances can the +dreams of the Nationalists be realised. Even if Germany and her arms +were so victorious that Russia lay at her feet a mere inert carcase +ready for the chopper, she would no more dream of giving Russian +provinces to an independent Turkey than she would hand over to her +Berlin itself. And if, as we know, Germany can never be victorious, will +the Allies once more strive to keep the Sick Man alive, or leave in his +ruthless power the peoples whom he is longing to exterminate? Even Tekin +Alp can hardly expect that. + +Here then, in brief, is the policy of New Turkey. Its subject +peoples--Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews--are to be totally +unrepresented in its councils, though together they number sixty per +cent, of the population of the Empire. But they are not only to be +unrepresented in Government--they are, if the programme is to be carried +conclusively out, to have no existence. In accordance with the plans of +the murderous ruffians who to-day administer the Nationalist policy, +those of the Armenians who have not fled beyond the frontiers have +already been exterminated, and the same fate threatens Arabs, Greeks, +and Jews. Hence, when the Allied Governments wrote their joint note to +President Wilson, they stated that among their aims in the war was 'the +liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' From that avowed determination they will never recede. + + * * * * * + +NOTE.--It is to be hoped that Tekin Alp's pamphlet, _Turks and the +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, may soon be accessible to English readers. The +author is a Macedonian Jew who writes under the pseudonym of Tekin Alp, +and his mind is such that he appears to find romance in the idea of a +united Turkey purged by indiscriminate massacre from all alien elements. +But he sets forth with admirable lucidity the aims of the Nationalist +party and the steps already achieved by them in their progress towards +their ideal. Already the sequestered ladies of the harem have come out +of their retirement and join in the crusade, and not only do men give +lectures to women, but 'women mount the platform and address the men.' +There are corporations to advance economic organisations, boy-scout +centres all over the Empire, and 'intellectual parties' among the guilds +of merchants--England and Russia appear as the most virulent foes of +Pan-Turkism, 'the colossus of darkest barbarism joined with the colossus +of a degenerate civilisation.' + +In the second part of his pamphlet Tekin Alp passes on with an +enthusiasm which is as sincere as it is pathetic to the vision of a +tremendous Turkey, extending from Thrace on the west to the Desert of +Gobi on the east. It embraces, as his map shows, Egypt as far south as +Victoria Nyanza, Arabia, Persia, the greater part of India, the littoral +of the Black Sea, the plains of the Volga, the circuit of the Caspian +Sea and the Aral Sea, and in the north-east nearly touches Tomsk. All +this naturally is dependent on complete German victory in the war, and, +pathetically enough, Tekin Alp appears to think that his ideal Turkey +will meet with the approval of Germany. Indeed it is no wonder that his +pamphlet is circulated broadcast by German propagandists, for it is +precisely what Germany wants Turkey to believe. + +The romance of the movement appeals also very strongly to Ziya Goek Alp, +the official bard of the butchers of Constantinople. He has written a +sort of Ode to Attila, quoted by Tekin Alp, which is a fine frenzy in +favour of barbarism. This preposterous poem begins: + +'I do not read the famous deeds of my ancestors in the dead, faded, +dusty leaves of the history books, but in my own veins, in my own heart. +My Attila, my Huns, those heroic figures which stand for the proud fame +of my race, appear in those dry pages to our malicious and slanderous +age as covered with shame and disgrace, while in reality they are no +less than Alexander and Caesar,' etc. etc. + +I have been at present unable to ascertain whether it is true that the +German Emperor has set it to music, under the impression that it refers +to him and the German armies. It is very popular in Prussia, which need +arouse no surprise. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter III_ + + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +We have traced in brief the backward progress of Ottoman domination, and +have seen how, from the rough and ready methods of a military barbarism, +the Turks evolved a more emphatic and a more highly organised negation +of all those principles which we may sum up under the general term of +civilisation. The comparatively humane neglect of the unfortunate alien +peoples herded within the frontiers of earlier Sultans was improved upon +by Abdul Hamid, who struck out the swifter and superior methods of +maintaining the dominating strength of the Turkish element in the +kingdom not by the absorption of subject peoples, but by their +extermination. This in turn, this new and effective idea, served as a +first sketch of an artist with regard to his finished picture, and +starting with that the Nationalist party enlarged and elaborated it +into that masterpiece of massacre which they exhibited to the world in +the years 1915 and 1916 of the Christian Era, when from end to end of +the Empire there flashed the signal for the extermination of the +Armenian race. Abdul Hamid was but tentative and experimental as +compared to their systematised thoroughness, but then the Nationalist +party had learned thoroughness under the tutelage of its Prussian +masters. And in addition to instruction they had had the advantage of +seeing how Prussian firmness, with the soothing balm of Kultur to +follow, had dealt with the now-subject remnant of Belgians. That was the +way to treat subject people: 'the first care of a state is to protect +itself,' as Enver and Talaat could read in the text-books now translated +into Turkish, in copies, maybe, presented to them by their Master in +Berlin, and Turkey could best show the proof of her enlightenment and +regeneration, by following in the footsteps of Prussian Kultur. Perhaps +a few thousand innocent men might suffer the inconvenience of having +their nails torn out, of being bastinadoed to death, of being shot, +burned or hanged, perhaps a few thousand girls and women might die by +the wayside in being deported to 'agricultural colonies,' might fall +victims to the lusts of Turkish soldiers, or have babes torn from their +wombs, but these paltry individual pains signified nothing compared to +the national duty of 'suffering the state to run no risks.' As one of +this party of Union and Progress said, 'The innocent of to-day may be +the guilty of to-morrow,' and it was therefore wise to provide that for +innocent and guilty alike there should be no to-morrow at all. Years +before the statesmanship of Abdul Hamid had prophetically foreseen the +dawning of this day, when he remarked 'The way to get rid of the +Armenian question is to get rid of the Armenians,' and temporarily for +twenty years he did get rid of the Armenian question. But when, in 1915, +Talaat Bey completed his arrangements for a further contribution to the +solution of the same problem, he said, 'After this, there will be no +Armenian question for fifty years.' As far as we can judge, he rather +under-estimated the thoroughness of his arrangements.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lately (September 1917), when the massacres were all over, +Talaat, speaking at a Congress of the Committee of Union and Progress, +upheld as right and proper the treatment of the Armenian race.] + +The race thus marked out for extermination was one of the oldest +settlements in Asiatic Turkey. Originally it was confined to Armenia +proper, a highland district comprising part of what is now the Russian +province of Trans-Caucasia, part of Persia, notably the province of +Adarbaijan, and, within the Turkish frontier, the province of Armenia, +itself. According to legend, which may well be correct, the Armenians +were the oldest national Christian Church in the world, with a liturgy +that dates from the first century of the Christian Era, while their +translation of the Bible dates from the early years of the fifth century +A.D. Here in these uplands they formed a compact and homogeneous +population, spread over towns and country alike, and were occupied in +the main with agrarian and pastoral pursuits. But they had in addition +much of the versatility and business capacity of the Jews, as well as a +strong liberal-mindedness towards progress and education, and thus, +while they still continued up to the present day their pastoral life in +the countryside, others gravitated towards towns, and by degrees they +spread over a large part of the Turkish Empire, until most of the towns +in Turkey had a progressive and peaceful quota of Armenian citizens, +tolerated by their Moslem neighbours, and, though possessed of no great +share of political influence, powerful, in that the trade and commerce +of inland Turkey was largely in their hands. Wherever they went they +established their schools; many were lawyers, doctors, and professors of +education. Certain repressive measures were brought to bear on them; +they were not, for instance, allowed to carry arms, except when, in +accordance with Turkish conscriptive laws, they served in the Ottoman +army. But many of them, by paying their exemption money, got off +military service, and they confined themselves to the arts of peace, +whether pastorally in their native highlands, or in the shops and +offices of the towns to which they migrated. They were not, till the +time of Abdul Hamid, held to be in any sense a national danger, for, +except in Armenia proper, they were too scattered and too peace-loving +an element of the population to be capable of united action, and never +do they seem to have provoked any outburst of Moslem fanaticism. They +had local quarrels and fights with the more warlike Kurds who encroached +on Armenia, and in the towns where they settled they often incurred the +vague jealousy and dislike which are the penalties of a race superior +morally and intellectually to those among whom they live. But that +superiority constituted in course of time the 'Armenian question,' to +which Abdul Hamid alluded. In all, some sixty years ago their entire +race numbered about 4,000,000 persons, of whom about 1,250,000 inhabited +Russian Trans-Caucasia, about 150,000 were in the province of +Adarbaijan, and there were smaller bodies of them in Austria and India. +The remainder, some 2,500,000, were spread over Armenia, over the +villages and towns of Turkey, notably the eastern edge of the Cilician +uplands, while in Constantinople itself there were certainly not less +than 150,000, and probably as many as 200,000. To-day, the male portion +of the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire has practically ceased to +exist: a quarter of a million men and women escaped over the Russian +frontier, five thousand escaped to Egypt, and there are a few thousand +women and girls (it is impossible to ascertain the exact number) in +Turkish harems. Turkism, as administered by Abdul Hamid first, then, far +more efficiently, by Enver Pasha, and Talaat Bey, has solved the +Armenian question. + +The history of its solution falls under two heads, of which the first +concerns the manner in which it was solved in Armenia itself, where the +population was almost exclusively Armenian, both in towns and in the +country. Here the eastern and north-eastern frontiers of Turkey, across +which lie the province of Russian Trans-Caucasia and Persia, pass +through the middle of districts peopled by men of Armenian blood, and +when, in the autumn of 1914, the Turks made their entry into the +European War, their eastern armies, operating against Russia, found +themselves confronted by troops among whom were many Armenians, while in +their advance into the Persian province of Adarbaijan, there were in the +ranks of their opponents, Armenians and Syriac Christians. They advanced +in fact, in the first weeks of the war, into a country largely peopled +with men of the same blood as those on their own side of the frontier. +Though the edict had not yet come from Constantinople for the massacre +of the Armenians (Talaat Bey did not complete his arrangements till the +following April), the slaughter of them began then, first in the advance +of the Turkish armies, and following on that movement, which lasted but +a few weeks, in their subsequent retreat before the Russians. All +villages through which the Turkish armies passed were plundered and +burned, all the inhabitants on whom the Turks could lay their hands were +killed. Sometimes women and children were given to the Kurds, who formed +bands of irregular troops in conjunction with the Turkish army, and +these were outraged before they were slaughtered. A price was put on +every Christian head, and in the Turkish retreat the corpses were thrust +into the wells in order to pollute them. The excuse for this, as given +by German apologists (not apologists, perhaps, so much as supporters and +adherents of the policy), was that since behind the Turkish lines the +country was populated by a race of the same blood as that through which +they advanced, and then retreated, extermination was necessary in order +to prevent or to punish treachery and collusion. But I have been nowhere +able to find that there were instances of such, nor that the Turks put +forward that excuse themselves. Indeed it would have been an unnecessary +explanation, for but a few months after the opening of the war, Talaat +Bey's plans were complete, and the extermination of Armenians hundreds +of miles from any sphere of military operations rendered it needless to +say anything about it, or to invent instances of treachery if there were +actually none to hand. + +Simultaneously the massacre of Armenians behind the Turkish lines +began. The whole male population of the district round Bitlis was +murdered, so too were all males in Bitlis itself. Then all women and +children were driven in, as a herdsman might drive sheep, from the +reeking villages round, and, for purposes of convenience, concentrated +in Bitlis. When they were all collected, they were driven in a flock to +the edge of the Tigris, shot, and the corpses were thrown into the +river. That was the solution of the Armenian question in Bitlis. + +North-west of Bitlis, and some sixty miles distant, lies the town of +Mush. It used to contain about 25,000 Armenian inhabitants, and in the +district round there were some three hundred villages chiefly consisting +of Armenians. Arrangements were on foot for a general massacre there +when the arrival of Russian troops at Liz, some fifteen hours' march +away, caused the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till +July a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a +warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in the face +of superior forces, had to retire again, and the massacres were put on a +systematic footing. The account which follows is based on four +independent authorities: (1) The statement of a German eye-witness in +Mush in charge of an Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman +deported from a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3) +information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the journal +_Horizon_ of Tiflis. These supplement each other, often verify each +other, and in no instance are contradictory. + +Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end of 1914, at +a time when the massacres across the frontier had begun. The Mutessarif +of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver Pasha, had openly declared that 'at +an opportune moment' the slaughter of the whole Armenian race was +contemplated, and later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of +the American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been the +chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia itself, while +Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in towns throughout the +rest of Turkey. During the whole of that winter, a very severe one, +signs of the approaching extermination multiplied. In the villages round +fresh taxes were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they +were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in question +was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable delay caused by the +proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, and the massacre began in +earnest. + +Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from Constantinople, and an +order was given that all Armenians must leave the town within three +days, after 'registering themselves' at the Government office. The women +and children were to remain, but their money and their property would be +confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to fresh +orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the crowds in the +streets flocking to the registry offices, and after that systematic +house-to-house murder began. Prominent Armenians were tortured to +death, houses containing women and children were set on fire, a body of +men collected together was thrown into the river, girls were outraged +and slaughtered. For two days the massacre continued, and by the end of +the second day the Armenian question was solved as regards Mush. + +In the surrounding villages the same Prussian thoroughness was observed, +and out of all the inhabitants of the plain 5000 only seemed to have +survived, who fled to Sasun (there to be subsequently massacred in +1916), while a few from outlying villages escaped to the Russian troops. +In certain villages the girls and young women were given to the Kurd +soldiery, who raped them publicly in the presence of their families, not +sparing girls of eight and ten years of age, who then, bleeding and +violated, were shot in company with the old women, for whom the Kurds +(inspired by Allah, the God of Love) had no use. Elsewhere, as the story +of a deported woman from Kheiban tells us, the women guarded by Kurdish +troops were driven out of their villages, leaving behind the corpses of +the men and of old women who could not walk, and for days were marched +along the roads, nearly naked, under the fierce heat of the July sun. +Once every other day they were given bread, but all did not get it, and +many fell exhausted by the wayside, and were either whipped to their +feet again or allowed to lie down and die. As they passed through +villages Kurds would come out and rape a girl or two, and when they +halted at night their guards would come among them.... Some few escaped; +the rest, in dwindling company, went on through days of blinding sun and +nights of shame till at last there were only a few remaining. It was not +worth while going farther, for the work of Enver Pasha was nearly done, +and the rest were pushed into the river. One alone survived, who could +swim, and she, with her two-year-old baby on her back, got across the +stream and made her way to a village where were a party of Armenians who +had escaped massacre. She arrived there at midnight, and at first they +thought she was a ghost. To them she told her story of the outraged and +ever-dwindling caravan of helpless women and girls driven onwards all +day beneath the smiting arrows of the sun, and encamped by the wayside, +where they halted with their barbarous guards and their lusts for a +terror by night. Of them none but this one was left, who had carried her +baby with her every step of that infernal pilgrimage. Two days +afterwards he died from want of nourishment, and before the week was out +the mother fell into the hands of a body of patrolling Kurds, and was +killed. + +So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if in the +history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with wanton cruelty +and made God to hide His face, there is any so atrocious a tale, I do +not know it. But if among the annals of heroism and of mother-love we +want to find a nobler record than that of this woman of Kheiban, equally +am I at a loss as to where we should look for it. Among the true and +golden legends of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a +memorial of her. + +Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of Erzerum, with the +town of the same name, that contained in the autumn of 1914 some 20,000 +Armenians. Here the first hint of coming trouble was the order that all +Armenian soldiers serving in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was +followed in June by another order that all the inhabitants of the +hundred villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours' +notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of these a few +took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the remainder a few only lived +to reach Erzinjan, where they were again deported, and the rest were +murdered as they marched. In Erzerum itself orders were received by +Tahsin Bey, the Vali of the town, that all Armenians were to be killed +without distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out, +but his unwillingness was overruled.[1] Simultaneously, the German +Consul telegraphed protests to his Ambassador at Constantinople, and +was told that Germany could not interfere in the internal affairs of +Turkey. + +[Footnote 1: At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the Governor +resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing happened at Konia and at +Kutaia.] + +Here the method employed was deportation: the victims were murdered, not +in the town itself, but were given orders to leave their homes, and +under guard march (for no conveyances were given them) to other +districts. The first company was to go to Diarbekr. All these, with the +exception of one man and forty women, were murdered on the first day's +march. The remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or +collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells us what +fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked out, their +breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their torturers hew off their +feet, or else hammer nails into them as they do in shoeing horses. This +is all done at night-time, in order that people may not hear their +screams and know of their agony. Soldiers are stationed round the +prisons, beating drums and blowing whistles. It is needless to relate +that many died of these tortures. When they die, the soldiers cry, "Now +let your Christ help you."' A second caravan of five hundred families +left Erzerum: at Baiburt they were joined by another contingent deported +from that town, and the account that follows is based on the information +supplied by the Rev. Robert Stapleton, an American minister at Erzerum, +and by an Armenian woman who was among the deported, and whose life was +spared on her embracing Islamism. + +The convoy numbered, when it left Baiburt, some 15,000 persons, and it +reached Erzinjan in safety. There the massacres had already taken place, +and the women and children had been deported, for they found no +Armenians there. But the convoy had not yet arrived at its goal, and it +started out again moving south by east till it came to Kamakh. There +bands of Kurds descended on them, and in the space of seven days every +male above fifteen years of age, including an aged priest of ninety, was +killed. Thereafter a pilgrimage of women, as from Kheiban, moved +southwards across plain and mountain, and every day its numbers were +diminished, for the youthful and the good-looking were carried off by +brigands. At night they were halted outside villages, and the gendarmes +and villagers took what they chose. Many died from hunger and +heat-stroke: others were left by the wayside. When they came to the +banks of the river Kara-Su there was a debauch of horror. Women and +girls and little children were raped and mutilated, and the children who +still survived were thrown into the river. Those who could swim were +shot. Thereafter the movements of this caravan are hard to trace. +Probably there was then but little left of it. But others followed on +the same route 'through fields and hillsides dotted with swollen and +blackened corpses that filled and fouled the air with their stench.' +Some of them reached Mosul, some reached Aleppo, another collecting +station, where, by the mouth of other witnesses, we shall hear of them +again. + +Corroborative and additional evidence is given by the Danish Red Cross +nurses who, with a noble disregard of their own safety, accompanied one +of these caravans from Erzerum to Erzinjan. They speak of the massacres +at Kamakh, of the killing by the river, and of a _battue_ through the +cornfields, where the wheat was high, into which some Armenians had +escaped. At one time these Danish Sisters were in the charge of a +gendarme who had superintended a massacre of 3000 women and children +driven from their homes into the country, rounded up and killed. He told +the Sisters that this was the best method of getting rid of them, for +they should be made to suffer first, and besides it would be +inconvenient for Moslems to live in a village with so many corpses +about. At another place they came to a shambles, where Armenian +soldiers, deprived of their arms, and sent to make roads, had been +slaughtered: at another there were three gangs of labourers, one Moslem, +one Greek, and one Armenian. These latter were guarded. Presently, as +they proceeded along their road, they looked round and saw that the +Armenian gang was being formed up by itself, a little off the +highroad.... + +And so the ghastly record went on all over Armenia. At one place only, +the town of Van, was any resistance organised. There, after the massacre +had begun, some 1500 Armenians got hold of arms (probably many of these +men were soldiers who had not yet had their arms taken from them), and +for the space of twenty-seven days defended themselves against five +thousand Turkish troops, till the Russian advance relieved them. During +that advance Armenian refugees, into whose districts the massacres had +not yet penetrated, fled for refuge to the invading army, and in all +some 250,000 Armenians under its protection crossed in safety the +Russian frontier into Trans-Caucasia. How many died on the way from +hunger and exhaustion is not known. Cholera, dysentery, and spotted +fever broke out among them, and the path of their passage was lined with +dead and dying. Companies of Kurds made descents upon them, taking toll +of their maidenhood, but, with the Russian line to protect them at their +rear, they struggled on out of the cemetery and brothel of their native +country, and out of the accursed confines of that hell on earth, the +Ottoman Empire, leaving behind them the murdered myriads of their +husbands and their sons, their violated wives and daughters. Through +incredible hardships they passed, but, unlike the other pilgrimages we +have briefly traced, they moved not towards death, but towards safety +and life, and their dark steps were lightened with Hope. + +Before the last of those who survived the hunger and the pestilence of +that pilgrimage had reached Russian soil, it is probable that in all +Armenia there was not a man of their race left alive, nor a woman either +unless she had accepted Islamism and the life of the harem. A peaceful +and progressive nation had been wiped out with every accompaniment of +horror and cruelty and bestial lust, and in Armenia itself there would +never more be an Armenian question. Abdul Hamid had hinted at the +solution of it, and had made, as we have seen, experiments in that +direction; but it was reserved for Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, +enlightened men of the Young Turk party, with the advantages of a +Prussian example, to complete the work. Already Enver had said that he +would never rest until the last Armenian in the Ottoman Empire had been +killed, and before the end of 1915, as far as Armenia itself went, he +was able to see a reasonable prospect of repose before him. But there +was much work still left to do in other provinces. + +We have seen that for the extirpation of Armenians in Armenia proper, +the excuse put forward, if not by the Turks themselves, by their German +apologists, was the necessity of guarding against treachery in the +vicinity of the Turkish army, and against spying and collusion between +the Armenians behind the Russian lines and those behind Turkish lines. +The same pretext was put forward for the massacres and deportations from +Thrace, from Constantinople, and from the shores of the Sea of Marmora. +Here, if anywhere, there may be thought to be some justification for +measures which might have been undertaken for the sake of public safety. +At any rate, there were definite charges brought against Armenians in +these districts, and the Armenian boatmen of Silivri, for instance, were +imprisoned, but not, as far as I know, massacred, on the charge of +revictualling English submarines, which at that time, as the reader will +remember, had penetrated into the Sea of Marmora, and indeed had reached +Constantinople itself. It is not, of course, consonant with Turkish or +Prussian justice to substantiate charges before inflicting penalties, it +is sufficient in the new World-justice to accuse. But here round +Constantinople, there was some pretence at procedure before resorting to +murder and deportation. A register was drawn up of all Armenians +resident in the capital, dividing into separate classes those who were +born in Constantinople, and those who were immigrants from Armenia, with +a view to deporting those who were not native to the city. Here, I +think, we may see traces of the Prussian instinct for tabulation, for +classification, for category-mongering. Enver and his colleagues lost +patience with these dilatory tactics. The Armenians of the province of +Brussa were deported wholesale, and long before the registration lists +of Constantinople were finished, all Armenians were moved out of the +town. Ten thousand males were massacred in the mountains of Ismid, and +the Armenian women and children taken into collecting stations for +deportation to 'agricultural colonies' (so the phrase ran in the +Pecksniff language of Prussia) situated in the Anatolian desert, in the +desert of Arabia, and in malarious marshes on the Euphrates. With this +clearing out of Armenians from Thrace, from Constantinople, and from +Armenia itself, we have finished with our first class of the Armenian +atrocities. For it reasons were at least invented by German apologists. +Military necessities, which here, as in Belgium, knew no law, dictated +it; the frightfulness involved was incidental to War. But such +considerations were not even alleged for the second class of the +murder-scheme. Before passing on, it will be well to review, quite +shortly, the reasons which dictated it, and penetrate into the infernal +councils of Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey. + +The text of the scheme is to be found in the defined policy of the +Young Turk party as set forth in their Congress of 1911. 'Turkey must +become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem ideas and Moslem +influence must be preponderant.... Sooner or later the complete +Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must be effected: it is clear, +however, that this can never be attained by persuasion, but that we must +resort to armed force.' + +There is the text that was expanded into the discourse of murder; it is +the definition of a policy. Within a few years there followed the +European War, and that probably was the immediate cause of its being put +into effect. No more admirable opportunity for Ottomanisation could +present itself, for the entry of Turkey into the war was most unpopular +with the bulk of the Turkish population, and it was advisable to bribe +them into acceptance of it. The bribe was the houses, the property, the +money and the trade that throughout the length and breadth of Turkey was +in Armenian hands. For the Armenians were by far the wealthiest of the +alien populations, and some 90 per cent. of Turkish trade passed through +their shops and offices. Here, then, was the psychological moment: +Turkey for the Turk was the aim of the Committee of Union and Progress, +and with a discontented population, unwilling to fight, the moment had +come for restoring to the Turk this mass of property which at present +belonged to an alien race. War might have its drawbacks and its clouds, +but war would be seen to have its advantages and its silver linings, if +out of it there came this legacy of Armenian wealth. And by the same +stroke Turkey could get rid of those thousands of meddlesome +missionaries, American and French, who spread religion and learning and +other undesirable things among the cursed race. Once remove the cursed +race, and there would be an end of their instructors also, for there +would be none to instruct. 'Thanks to their schools,' so we read in the +_Hilal_, an organ of the Young Turks, 'foreigners were able to exercise +great moral influence over the young men of the country.... By closing +them (i.e. by exterminating their pupils) the Government has put an end +to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous.' + +Such, then, was the spirit that animated Enver and Talaat, and during +the winter of 1914-15 they perfected their plans. The Armenian race was +to cease, and the Valis and other officials were, each in his district, +to see to the thoroughness of its cessation. Sometimes, as happened at +Erzerum, the Vali in question, not having the broad out-look of Enver, +or quaintly and curiously having a womanish objection to the national +duty of flogging men to death and giving over young girls to a barbarous +soldiery, remonstrated with the authorities, or even refused to obey +orders. Such a one was instantly removed from his office, and a +stauncher patriot substituted. All was put on an orderly footing: here +Kurds were to be employed on the old Abdul Hamid formula, who by way of +wage would enjoy the privilege of raping as many women and girls out of +their hapless convoy as seemed desirable, while in agricultural +districts they were allowed also to take over the sheep and cattle of +their murdered victims. Here, in towns where there was more chance of +resistance than in scattered homesteads, it would be wise to employ +regular troops, backed, if necessary, by artillery, to whom would be +entrusted the murder of the whole male population, after suitable +tortures, supposing the executioners had a taste for the sport, and to +them was given the right of general plunder. Then, as soon as the number +and capacity of the vacant houses were telegraphed to Constantinople, +occupiers from the discontented townsfolk and natives of Thrace were +assigned to them. Sometimes there would be a big school building to give +away as well, but that was not always so, for it might be more +convenient to assemble Armenians there for purposes of registration or +so forth, and then, if it happened to catch fire, why Enver would +understand that such accidents would occur. Among other careful and +well-thought-out instructions came the order that, when possible, the +murders should not take place in the town, but outside it, for clean +Allah-fearing Moslems would not like to live in habitations defiled by +Christian corpses. But, above all, there must be thoroughness; not a man +must be left alive, not a girl nor a woman who must not drag her +outraged body, so long as breath and the heart-beat remained in it, to, +or rather towards those 'agricultural colonies,' as Talaat Bey, in a +flash of whimsical Prussian humour, called them. One was advantageously +situated in the middle of the Anatolian desert at the village of +Sultanieh. There, for miles round, stretched the rocks and sands of a +waterless wilderness, but no doubt the women and children of this very +industrious race would manage to make it wave with cornfields. Another +agricultural colony, by way of contrast, should be established a couple +of days' journey south of Aleppo, where the river loses itself in +pestilential and malarious swamps. Arabs could not live there, but who +knew whether those hardy Armenians (the women and children, of them at +least who had proved themselves robust enough to reach the place) would +not flourish there out of harm's way? After the swamps one came to the +Arabian desert, and there, a hundred miles south-east, was a place +called Deir-el-Zor; wandering Arab tribes sometimes passed through it, +but, arrived there, the Armenians should wander no more. In those arid +sands and waterless furnaces of barren rock there was room for all and +to spare. Sultanieh, the swamps, and Deir-el-Zor: these were the chief +of Talaat Bey's agricultural colonies. + +There must be collecting stations for these tragic colonists, centres to +which they must be herded in from surrounding districts: one at +Osmanieh, let us say, one at Aleppo, one at Ras-el-Ain, one at Damascus. +And since it would be a pity to let so many flowers of girlhood waste +their sweetness on the desert air of Deir-el-Zor, slave markets must be +established at these collecting stations. There would be plenty of +girls, and prices would be low, but the reverend ministers of Allah the +God of Love, the Ulemas, the Padis and the Muftis, should be accorded a +preferential tariff. Indeed they should pay nothing at all; they should +just choose a girl and take her away, and, with the help of Allah the +God of Love, convert her to the blessed creed. No one was too young for +these lessons.... A little abstemiousness would not hurt these pampered +Christians, so when they set out on their marches they need not be +provided with rations or water. Perhaps some might die, but Talaat had +no use for weaklings at his agricultural colonies. Nor must there be any +poking and prying on the part of those interfering American +missionaries; and so Talaat Bey put all the agricultural colonies out of +bounds for foreigners.... + +There was no hurry over these deportations, for the plea of military +exigencies, which had caused the deportations in Armenia itself to be +terminated by massacre with a rapidity almost inartistic, did not apply +to Armenians so far from the seat of war. Their picnics could be +conducted quietly and pleasantly in the leisurely Oriental manner. Even +the men need not be murdered absolutely out of hand. Strong young +fellows might be stripped and tied down and then beaten to death by +bastinadoing the feet till they burst, or by five hundred blows on the +chest and stomach. Their cries would mingle with the screams of their +sisters in the embrace of Turkish soldiers. And, talking of embraces, if +a woman was desirable, she need not walk all the way to Deir-el-Zor, but +by embracing Islamism be transferred to a harem. But these were details +that might be left to individual taste: there were no precise +instructions save that no Armenian men must be discoverable in the +Ottoman Empire at all, and no women save those who had become Turkish +women, or who were at work on the waterless and the malarial +agricultural colonies. + +Talaat Bey reviewed his finished scheme. He thought it would do, and +Enver Pasha agreed with him, and Jemal Bey (who soon after styled +himself Jemal the Great), the Military Governor of Syria, and so +responsible for the last stages of their pilgrimage, thought it would do +very well indeed. And instructions were sent out to every town in the +Empire where there were Armenians, in accordance with the programme of +Talaat Bey. + +How Enver carried out his part of the programme in Armenia itself we +have seen, and by the end of the year (1915) his work was done, and +Armenia was Armenia no longer. But operations, as I have said, were +conducted in a more leisurely manner elsewhere, and the agony of that +butchery protracted. But Jemal got to work at once in the thickly +populated district round Zeitun. He had had no success in the campaign +of the winter in the direction of the Suez Canal, and his troops were +hungry for some sort of victory. The Zeitunlis were hardy independent +mountaineers, who were possessed of arms, and Jemal thought it more +prudent not to dally with deportations, but conduct a regular campaign +against them. For two or three months they resisted, entrenching +themselves in the hills, but they could not hold out against artillery +and the modern apparatus of war, and the whole tribe was wiped out. That +done, Jemal became Jemal the Great by reason of his national services, +and paid a visit to Germany. On his return we shall hear of him again. + +Meanwhile, from all the reports that have arrived from missionaries and +others, we may take one or two, almost at random. At certain places, as +in the governments of Ismid, Angora and Diarbekr, the Armenian +population was completely wiped out. Sometimes tortures were added, as +at a certain Anatolian town where there was a big Armenian school, in +which a number of professors and instructors, some of whom had studied +in America, in Scotland, and in Germany, had for years been working. + +What happened to them was this:-- + +(1) Professor A served the College thirty-five years, and taught +Turkish and history. He was arrested without charge, the hair of his +head and beard were pulled out in order to secure damaging confessions. +He was starved and hung up by the arms for a day and a night and +repeatedly beaten. He was then murdered. + +(2) Professor B, who had served the College thirty-three years, and +taught mathematics, suffered the same fate. + +(3) Professor C, head of the preparatory department, had served the +College for twenty years. He was made to witness the spectacle of a man +being beaten almost to death, and became mentally deranged. He was +murdered with his family. + +(4) Professor D, who taught mental and moral sciences, was treated in +the same way as Professor A. He also had three finger nails pulled out +by the roots, and was subsequently murdered. + +Similarly, at Diarbekr, the Armenians were collected in batches of 600, +taken out of the town, and killed to the last man. Among them was the +Armenian Archbishop; his eyes and nails were dragged out before he was +butchered. + +Or let us take a look at some of the collecting camps. At one, described +by an eye-witness, we find that the convoy had arrived after several +months of travel. More than half were already dead, they had been +pillaged by bandits and Kurds seven times. They were forbidden to drink +water when they passed by a stream, three-quarters of the young women +and girls had been kidnapped, the rest were compelled to sleep with the +gendarmes who conducted them. At Osmanieh it was decided to deport the +women and children by train. They lay about the station starving and +fever-stricken. When the train arrived many were jostled on to the line, +and the driver yelled with joy, crying out, 'Did you see how I smashed +them up?' + +At another camp typhus broke out; those who died of it were left +unburied, as vouched for by a Turkish officer, in order to increase the +infection.... + +Urfa was another collecting camp for the Armenians in that district, and +the following account is based on the information of an eye-witness. +Here, before the concentration began, the Armenians living in the town +offered resistance to the Turks, and held out until Fahri Bey, second in +command to Jemal the Great, arrived with artillery, bombarded the town, +and massacred every Armenian there. Quiet being thus restored, the bands +of deported began to arrive. They came by rail or on foot, and, with +the Prussian love of tabulation, were divided into three groups. + +The first group consisted of old men, old women, and young children. +They, guarded by gendarmes, were sent marching through the desert to +Deir-el-Zor. Few, if any, ever arrived there, all dying by the way. + +The second group, consisting of able-bodied men, was led off in batches +and slaughtered. Among them were Zohrab and Vartkes, Armenian deputies +who had been brought there from Constantinople. + +The third group consisted of young marriageable girls. Some, perhaps, +found their way into harems. + +From Aleppo (one of the final concentration camps before such as were +left of the convoys set forth for their goal, the swamps or the desert +round Deir-el-Zor) we have the detailed evidence of Dr. Martin Niepage, +High Grade teacher in the German Technical School. This gentleman, with +a courage and a humanity to which the highest tribute must be paid, +addressed a report of protest to the German Ambassador at +Constantinople, and wrote an open letter to the Reichstag on the subject +of what he had seen with his own eyes in that town. In his preliminary +matter he speaks as follows:-- + +'In dilapidated caravanserais I found quantities of dead, many corpses +being half-decomposed, and others still living among them who were soon +to breathe their last. In other yards I found quantities of sick and +dying people, whom nobody was looking after.... We teachers and our +pupils had to pass them every day. Every time we went out we saw through +the open windows their pitiful forms, emaciated and wrapped in rags. In +the morning our school children, on their way through the narrow +streets, had to push past the two-wheeled ox-carts on which every day, +from eight to ten rigid corpses without coffin or shroud, were carried +away, their arms and legs trailing out of the vehicle.' + +From the report itself:-- + +'Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the Armenian +plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, women, and children, +only two or three hundred survivors arrived here in the south. The men +were slaughtered on the way, the women and girls, with the exception of +the old, the ugly and those who are still children, have been abused by +Turkish soldiers and officers.... Even when they are fording rivers they +do not allow those dying of thirst to drink. All the nourishment they +receive is a daily ration of a little meal sprinkled on their hands.... +Opposite the German Technical School at Aleppo, a mass of about four +hundred emaciated forms, the remnant of such convoys, is lying in one of +the caravanserais. There are about a hundred children (boys and girls) +among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them are suffering +from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the yard, one has the +impression of entering a madhouse. If one brings food, one notices that +they have forgotten how to eat.... If one gives them bread, they put it +aside indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for death.' + +Dr. Niepage wrote this report in the hope of saving such as then (1915) +survived. No notice whatever was taken of it, and his postscript, +written in May 1916, records the fact that 'the exiles encamped at +Ras-el-Ain on the Bagdad Railway, estimated at 20,000 men, women and +children, were slaughtered to the last one.'[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is right to add that at Aleppo an officer called Bekir +Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected from neighbouring +districts, who were threatened with massacre, and I find that a German +missionary states that there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This +forms confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is nothing to +show that they were not subsequently deported to Deir-el-Zor. In this +case it is highly improbable that any survive.] + +In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the Germans are +directly responsible for the continuance of the massacres. Such, too, is +the opinion, he tells us, of the educated Moslems, and his courage in +stating this has lost him his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely +hoped that he has escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for +drawing attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian +massacres, has been arrested for high treason. + +Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had refused to +interfere in the massacres, and both in the official press and through +official utterances had expressed their support of this Ottomanisation +of the Empire, began to think that you might have too much of a good +thing, and that the massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason +was clear and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour +in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for which they +had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. There had been some +talk, they said, of saving 500,000 Armenians out of the race, but, in +the way things were going on, it seemed that the remnant would not +nearly approach that figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper +their patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he wanted +to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh from his visit +to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of Talaat's opposition, +made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, in which, beyond doubt, we +can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' in the following manner. + +There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in Constantinople +which was to be led out for murder and deportation, and Jemal gave +orders that it should be spared and sent back to its highland home. He +gave orders also that the entire convoy should be informed who was their +saviour, and should be led in procession past his house and show their +gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, half-starved +crowd streamed by the house of Jemal the Great, with murmurs of +thanksgiving and uplifted hands, and all manner of obeisances, while +Jemal the Great stood in his porch with stern, impassive face, and hand +on his sword-hilt in the best Potsdam manner, and acknowledged these +thanksgivings....[1] + +[Footnote 1: In support of Jemal's claim to clemency it must be added +that, according to a report coming from Alexandria, he hanged twelve of +the worst assassins sent to Syria as ringleaders of the massacres. I +cannot find corroboration of this.] + +Here, then, is the absurd, the Williamesque side of this ludicrous +popinjay, Jemal the Great, and it contains not only the obvious seeds of +laughter, but the more helpful seeds of hope. He has a strong hand on +the very efficient army of Syria, and his visits to Berlin seem perhaps +to have turned his head not quite in the direction that the +Master-egalo-megalomaniac of Berlin intended. I gather that Jemal the +Great was not so much impressed by the magnificence of William II. as to +fall dazzled and prone at the Imperial feet, and lick with enraptured +tongue the imperial boot polish, but rather to be inspired to do the +same himself, to become the God-anointed of the newly acquired German +province, which is Turkey, and make a Potsdam of his own. This is only a +guess, but the conduct of Jemal the Great in the matter of these +Armenian refugees, and in other affairs, has been distinctly imperial. +In June of this year, for instance, he telegraphed to H.E. the Vali of +Syria, and an extract from his text is truly Potsdamish. 'One and a half +million of sandbags,' he wrote, 'are required for the fortress of +Gaza.... The bags should be made, if necessary, of all the silk-hangings +in houses of Syria and Palestine.' With his army behind him, he has +twice already defied the orders of Talaat, and I am inclined to think +that he is the coming Strong Man of the effete Empire with whom it would +be well worth while to make friends, even at a highish price. The Allied +Powers should keep an undazzled eye on him, for it is quite possible +that, having defied Talaat successfully, he may go on to defy the real +rulers of Turkey, who live in Berlin. His Syrian army, from such sources +as are available, appears to be more efficient than any other body of +troops the Turks can put into the field, and he has them in control. +Probably in the winter of 1917-1918 our troops will come into collision +with them. But in the interval, also quite probably, Jemal the Great may +resent German superintendence.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See note at end of this chapter.] + +But in addition to his ludicrous side, there is in him a refined +hypocrisy and a subtle cruelty worthy of Abdul Hamid. One instance will +suffice. + +There had been some talk that at certain of these concentration camps +there was no water supply, and he gave orders, did Jemal the Great and +the Merciful, that water should be sent. A train consisting of trucks +of water accordingly was despatched to one of those camps, situated in +the desert, with no supply nearer than six miles, and an eye-witness +describes its arrival. The mob of Armenians, mad with thirst, surrounded +it, and, since everything must be done in an orderly and seemly manner, +were beaten back by the Turkish guards, and made to stand at a due +distance for the distribution. And when those ranks, with their parched +throats and sun-cracked lips, were all ready, the Turkish guards opened +the taps of the reservoirs, and allowed the whole of their contents to +run away into the sand. Whether Jemal the Great planned that, or whether +it was but a humorous freak on the part of the officials, I cannot say. +But as a refinement of cruelty I have, outside the page of Poe's tales, +only once come across anything to equal it, and that in a letter from +the _Times'_ correspondent at Berne on April 11, 1917. He describes the +treatment of English prisoners in Germany: 'An equally common +entertainment with those women (German Red Cross nurses) was to offer a +wounded man a glass, perhaps, of water, then, standing just outside his +reach, to pour it slowly on the ground.' Could those sisters of mercy +have read the account of Jemal's clemency, or is it merely an instance +of the parallelism of similar minds? + +So the empty train returned, and Jemal the Great caused it to be known +in Berlin that he was active in securing a proper water supply for the +famous agricultural settlements in the desert, and loud were the +encomiums in the press of the Central Powers over the colonisation of +Syria by the Armenians, the progress and enlightenment of the Turks, and +the skilful and humane organisation of Jemal the Great. + +There is no difficulty in estimating to-day the number of Armenian men +who survive in the Turkish Empire. All appeals to the Prussian +overlords, such as were made by Dr. Niepage, and the belated +remonstrance of the Prussians themselves when they foresaw a dearth of +labour for the husbandry of beet and cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I +cannot see any reason for supposing that Armenian men exist any more in +the Empire. It is more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who, +by accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. Certainly +in some districts there were considerable 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage +rates them as many thousands. But the willingness to accept those +conditions was not always a guarantee for their being granted, and I +have read reports where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was +a more serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they +were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can scarcely +consider these women as constituting an Armenian element any more in the +country. The work of butchery, the torture, the long-drawn agonies of +those inhuman pilgrimages have come to an end because there are no more +Armenian victims available. Apart from those who escaped over the +Russian frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race +exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest deed that +ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It is not in revenge +on the murderers, but in order to rescue the other subject peoples, +Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still enclosed within the frontiers of the +Empire, that the Allied Governments, in their answer to President +Wilson, stated that among their aims as belligerents, was the +'liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again, +after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the destinies +of races not his own. Too long already--and to their disgrace be it +spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations of Europe tolerated at +their very doors a tyranny that has steadily grown more murderous and +more monstrous, because they feared the upset of the Balance of Power. +Now at least such Powers as value national honour, and regard a national +promise as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, have +resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk over his alien +subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the least they can do (and +unhappily the most) to redeem the century-long neglect of their duty. +Even now, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril +threatens those other peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule, +and we can but pray that the end of the war will come before Arabs or +Greeks or Jews suffer the same fate as has exterminated the Armenians. +Too often have we been too late; we must only hope that another item +will not have to be added to that miserable list, and that, when the day +of reckoning comes, no half-hearted and pusillanimous policy will stay +our hands from the complete execution of that to which we stand pledged. +The Balance of Power has gone the way of other rickety makeshifts, but +there must be no makeshift in our dealings with the Turk, no compromise +and no delay. What shall be done with those who planned and executed the +greatest massacres known to history matters little; let them be hanged +as high as Haman, and have done with them. But what does matter is that +at no future time must it be in the power of a Government that has never +been other than barbaric and butcherous, to do again as it has done +before. + +NOTE ON JEMAL THE GREAT + +Jemal the Great has very obligingly done what I suggested we might +expect him to do, and has kicked against the German control of the +Syrian army. General von Falkenhayn was sent to take supreme command, +and on June 28th of this year Jemal the Great refused to receive orders +from him. In consequence General von Falkenhayn refused responsibility +for any offensive movement there if Jemal remained in command. + +This promised well for trouble between Turks and Germans, but we must +not, I am afraid, build very high hopes on it, for Germany has dealt +with the situation in a masterly manner. Jemal was already Minister of +Marine as well as commander of the Syrian army, so the Emperor asked him +to pay another visit to Berlin, and he has been visiting Krupp's works +and German naval yards, and we shall find probably that in the future +his activities will be marine rather than military, and that von +Falkenhayn will have a free hand in Syria. + +But this will prove rather disappointing for Jemal, since it seems +beyond mere coincidence that towards the end of August Herr von +Kuhlmann, the new German Foreign Minister, induced the Turkish +Government (while Jemal was at Berlin) to put their navy and their +merchant fleet under the orders of the German Admiralty, and already +many Turkish naval officers have been replaced by Germans. Thus Jemal +will find himself deprived of his military command, because the navy so +urgently needed his guiding hand, while his guiding hand over the navy +will be itself guided by the German Admiralty.... In fact, it looks +rather like checkmate for Jemal the Great, and an end to the trouble he +might have given the German control. + +On the eve of his leaving Germany, as yet unconscious probably of the +subordination of the entire Turkish fleet to the German Admiralty, he +gave an interview to a representative of the _Cologne Gazette_, which +deserves more than that ephemeral appearance. It shows Jemal the Great +in a sort of hypnotic trance induced at Potsdam. 'The German fleet,' he +says, 'is simply spotless in its power, and a model for all states which +need a modern navy--a model which cannot be surpassed.' ... He went for +a cruise in a submarine which proceeded 'so smoothly, elegantly, calmly +and securely that I had the impression of cruising in a great +steamship.' ... He was taken to Belgium, and describes the 'idyllic life +there': in the towns 'the people go for walks all day long,' and in the +country the peasants blithely gather in the harvest with the help of +happy prisoners.' (He does not tell us where the harvest goes to, any +more than the Germans tell us where the Turkish harvests go to.) He was +taken to General Headquarters, which he describes as 'majestic.' Finally +he was taken into the presence of the All-Highest, and seems to have +emerged in the condition in which Moses came down from Sinai.... But one +must not altogether despair of Jemal the Great. It is still possible +that, on his return to Constantinople, when he found that his position, +as Minister of Marine was but a clerkship in the German Admiralty, the +hypnotic trance began to pass off, and his ambitions to re-assert +themselves. He may yet give trouble to the Germans if properly handled. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter IV_ + + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +It is impossible to leave this heart-rending tale of the sufferings of +the Armenian people under the Turks without some account of that devoted +band of American missionaries who, with a heroism unsurpassed, and +perhaps unequalled, so eagerly sacrificed themselves to the ravages of +pestilence and starvation in order to alleviate the horrors that +descended on the people to whom they had been sent. Often they were +forcibly driven from the care of their flocks, often in the +extermination of their flocks there was none left whom they could +shepherd, but wherever a remnant still lingered there remained these +dauntless and self-sacrificing men and women, regardless of everything +except the cause to which they had devoted themselves. They recked +nothing of the dangers to which they exposed themselves so long as +there was a child or a woman or a man whom they could feed or nurse. +Terrible as were the sufferings through which the Armenians passed, they +must have been infinitely more unbearable had it not been for these +American missionaries; small as was the remnant that escaped into the +safety of Persia or Russian Trans-Caucasia, their numbers must have been +halved had it not been for the heroism of these men and women. While the +German Consuls contented themselves with a few faint protests to their +Ambassador at Constantinople, followed by an acquiescence of silence, +the missionaries constituted themselves into a Red Cross Society of +intrepid workers, and, as one well-qualified authority tells us, +'suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical exhaustion as any +proportionate body of workers on the European battlefields.' Fully +indeed did they live up to the mandate of the American board that sent +them out: 'Your great business is with the fundamental doctrines and +duties of the Gospel.' + +At the opening of the European War the American Missions had been at +work for nearly a hundred years, and were disseminated over Anatolia and +Armenia. They had opened 163 Protestant churches and 450 schools, they +established hospitals, and in every possible way spread civilisation in +a country where the spirit of the governing class was barbarism. It was +not their object to proselytise. 'Let the Armenian remain an Armenian if +he will,' so ran the instructions from which I have already quoted, 'the +Greek a Greek, the Nestorian a Nestorian, the Oriental an Oriental,' and +in the same wise and open-minded spirit they encouraged native +Protestant Churches which were independent of them and largely +self-supporting. Naturally in a country governed by monsters like Abdul +Hamid and Enver Pasha in later days, they earned the enmity which is the +tribute of barbarians to those who stand for civilisation, and when, +owing to the extermination or flight of their Armenian flocks, they were +left without a charge, and their schools were closed, we find a paean of +self-congratulation going up from the Turkish press inspired by the +butchers of Armenia. But till the massacres and the flight were +complete, they gave themselves to the 'duties of the Gospel,' and their +deeds shine like a star into the blackness of that night of murder. + +I will take as an example of the superb heroism of those men and women +the diary of an American lady attached to the mission at Urmia, a +document that, anonymously, is one of the noblest, least self-conscious +records I have ever read. The period of it extends over five months. + +Early in January 1915 the Russian troops were withdrawn from Urmia, +which lies on the frontier between Turkey and Persia, and simultaneously +the Moslem population began to plunder the Christian villages, the +inhabitants of which fled for refuge to the missions in the city. +Talaat's official murder-scheme was not completed yet, but the Kurds, +together with the Turks, had planned a local massacre at Geogtapa, which +was stopped by the American doctor of this mission, Dr. Packard, who, at +great personal risk, obtained an interview with the Kurdish chief, and +succeeded in inducing him to spare the lives of the Christians, if they +gave up arms and ammunition and property. The American flag was hoisted +over the Mission buildings, and before a week was out there were over +ten thousand refugees housed in the yards and rooms, where they remained +for five months, the places of the dead being taken by fresh influxes. +The dining-room, the sitting-room, the church, the school, were all +given over to these destitute people, and from the beginning fear of +massacre, as well as prevalence of disease, haunted the camp. It was +impossible to move dead bodies outside; they had to be buried in the +thronged yards, and every day children were born. But here is the spirit +that animated their protectors. 'We have just had a Praise meeting,' +records the diarist at the close of the first fortnight, 'with fifty or +sixty we could gather from the halls and rooms near, and we feel more +cheerful. We thought if Paul and Silas, with their stripes, could sing +praises in prison, so could we.' + +The weeks, of which each day was a procession of hours too full of work +to leave time for anxiety, began to enrol themselves into months, and +the hope of rescue by a Russian advance made their hearts sick, so long +was it deferred. Refugees from neighbouring villages kept arriving, and +there was the constant problem before these devoted friends of their +flock, as to how to feed them. All such were welcome, and eager was the +welcome they received, though every foot of space in the buildings and +in the yards was occupied. But somehow they managed to make room for all +who came, and for those villagers who, under threat of torture and +massacre, had apostatised, there was but yearning and sorrow, but never +a word of blame or bitterness. Sometimes there was a visit of Turkish +troops to search for concealed Russians, and, as our diarist remarks, +'We can't complain of the monotony of life, for we never know what is +going to happen next. On Tuesday morning we had a wedding in my room +here. The boy and girl were simple villagers.... The wedding was fixed +for the Syrian New Year, but the Kurds came and carried off wedding +clothes and everything else in the house. They all fled here, and were +married in the old dirty garments they were wearing when they ran for +their lives.... Their only present was a little tea and sugar that I +tied up in a handkerchief and gave to the bride.' + +The eternal feminine and the eternal human speak there; and there, for +this gallantest of women, were two keys that locked up the endless +troubles and anxieties that ceased not day or night. But sometimes the +flesh was weak, and in the privacy of her diary she says, 'How long, O +Lord?' But for that there was the master-key that unlocks all wards, and +a little further on we read, 'One of the verses that helps to keep my +faith steady is, "He that spared not His own Son." For weeks we have had +no word from the outside world, but we "rest in Jehovah and wait +patiently for Him."' + +The conditions inside the crowded yards grew steadily worse. Dysentery +was rife, and the deaths from it in that narrow space averaged thirty a +day. The state of the sufferers grew so terrible that it was difficult +to get any one to look after them at all, and many were lying in the +open yards, and the weather, which hitherto had been warm, got cold, and +snow fell. It was with the greatest difficulty that food could be +obtained for those in health, and that of a kind utterly unsuitable to +the sick, while in the minds of their nurses was the bitter knowledge +that with proper diet hundreds of lives could have been saved, and +hundreds of cases of illness avoided. + +For the dead there was but a small percentage of coffins available, and +'the great mass are just dropped into the great trench of rotting +humanity (in the yard). As I stand at my window I see one after another +of the little bodies carried by ... and the condition of the living is +more pitiful than that of the dead--hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, +wet, swarming with vermin. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of +Europe would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the suffering +and misery of this one little corner of the world alone. A helpless +unarmed Christian community turned over to the sword and the passion of +Islam!' + +On the top of this came an epidemic of typhoid, twenty-seven cases on +the first day. Outside in the town the Turkish Consul began hanging +Christians, and the missioners were allowed to take the bodies and bury +them. There were threats that the mission would be entered, and all +young men (possible combatants) killed, but this fear was not realised. +The typhoid increased, and the doctor of the mission and others of the +staff fell ill with it; but the patience and service of the remainder +never faltered, while the same spirit of uncomplaining suffering +animated the refugees. 'Mr. McDowell,' so the diarist relates, 'saw a +tired and weary woman with a baby in her arms, sitting in one of the +seats, and said to her, "Where do you stay?" She said "Just here." "How +long have you been here?" "Since the beginning." (two months) she +replied. "How do you sleep at night?" "I lay the baby on the desk in +front of me, and I have this post at the back to lean against. This is a +very good place. Thank you very much."' + +In April there comes a break in the diary after the day on which the +following entry is made:-- + +'I felt on Sunday as if I ought to get my own burial clothes ready, so +as to make as little trouble as possible when my time comes, for in +these days we all go about our work knowing that any one of us may be +the next to go down. And yet I think our friends would be surprised to +see how cheerful we have kept, and how many occasions we find for +laughing: for ludicrous things do happen. Then, too, after dwelling so +intimately with Death for three months, he doesn't seem to have so +unfriendly an aspect, and the "Other Side" seems near, and our Pilot +close beside us.... I find the Rock on which I can anchor in peace are +the words of Christ Himself: "Where I am, there ye may be also." ... +That is enough, to be where He is....' + +Then comes a break of two months, during which the writer was down with +typhoid. She resumes again in June, finding that death has made many +changes, and gets back to work again at once. By that time the Russians +had entered Urmia, a thanksgiving service was held, the refugees +dispersed, and the American Mission went quietly on with its normal +work. + +Now I have taken this one instance of the work of Americans at Urmia to +show in some detail the character of the work that they were doing, and +the Christian and humanising influence of it. But all over Armenia and +Anatolia were similar settlements, and, as already mentioned, at the +time of the massacres there were established there over a hundred of +their churches and over four hundred schools, and from these extracts +which concern only one not very large centre, it may be gathered what +leaven of civilising influence the sum of their energies must have +implied. That lamp shone steady and clear, a 'kindly light' in the +darkness of Turkish misrule, and in the havoc of the massacres a beacon +of hope, not always reached by those hapless refugees. Indeed it seems +to have been only on the frontier that the missions were able to save +those foredoomed hordes of fleeing Christians; in Armenia and in +Anatolia generally the massacres and 'deportations' were complete, and +by the end of 1915 all American missions were closed, for there were +none to tend and care for. Even if the massacres had not occurred, the +entry of America into the war would have resulted in a similar cessation +of their work, and most probably in a massacre of the American +missioners themselves. Their withdrawal, of course, was hailed with a +peacock scream of pride by that enlightened body under Talaat and Enver, +called the New Turkish party of Progress, for their presence was a bar +to the Turkish notions of civilisation, in that their influence made for +humanity, and health and education. Now 'the humiliating and dangerous +situation' (to quote from the columns of _Hilal_) was put an end to, and +Turkish progress could make headway again. + +Similarly in Syria the outbreak of war put an end to 'the humiliating +and dangerous situation' of the presence of French schools and missions. +There, for many years, French missioners had done the same work as +Americans in Armenia, work in every sense liberal and civilising, but +undenominational in religious matters and unproselytising. That came to +an end earlier than the organisations in Armenia, and in Syria now, as +over the rest of the Turkish people, Arabs and Jews and Greeks have +nothing except German influence and Kultur to stand between them and the +spirit of Turkish progress of which the Armenian massacres were the +latest epiphany. Germany, as we have seen, stood by and let the Armenian +massacres go on, professing herself unable to interfere in the internal +affairs of Turkey, though at the time there was not a single branch of +Turkish industries, railways, telegraphs, armies, navies over which she +had not complete control, exercising it precisely as she thought fit. + +It is useless, then, to base any confidence in the safety of Jews, +Greeks, and Arabs from suffering the same fate as the Armenians, on a +veto from Germany. If it suits Germany to let those unfortunate peoples +be murdered or deported to agricultural colonies, Germany will assuredly +not stir a finger on their behalf nor prevent a repetition of the +horrors I have dealt with in the previous chapter. Sooner than risk her +hold over Turkey by enforcing unacceptable demands, she will, unless +other considerations of self-interest determine her, let further +massacres occur, if Talaat Bey insists on them. That spokesman of her +policy, Ernst Marre, makes this perfectly explicit in his book, _Die +Tuerken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, upholding from the German standpoint +the right of Turkey and the wisdom of Turkey in dealing with her subject +peoples as she had dealt with the Armenians. 'The Turkish State,' he +tells us, 'is no united whole: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, +cannot be welded together.' (This, by a somewhat grim and ominous +coincidence, is in exact accordance with a remark made to a Danish Red +Cross Sister by a Turkish gendarme then engaged in massacring Armenians: +'First we get rid of the Armenians,' he said, 'then the Greeks, then the +Kurds.') Or again, in defence of the Armenian massacres, 'Only by +energetic interference and by expelling of the obstinate Armenian +element, could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian dominion.' Or +again, 'The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' Here, then, is the German point of view: the Ottoman +Government will be right to 'dispose of' its subject peoples as it +thinks fit. So far from interfering, Germany endorses, and German +influence to-day is all that stands between 'the murderous tyranny' and +its subject peoples. French, English, and finally American pressure can +no longer, since the entry of these nations into the war, be exercised +within the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, and the only protection of +defenceless aliens is the German Government. It did not stir a finger to +save the Armenians, until it saw that depopulation threatened the +prosperity of its industries, and it is idle to expect that it will do +more if the consolidation of Turkish supremacy demands a further +campaign of murder. Greeks, Arabs, and Jews are all completely at the +mercy of Talaat's murder-schedules. The only chance that can save them +is that further extermination may not suit Germany's political aims, +and that she may find it worth her while to be peremptory, and forbid +instead of endorsing. + +There are unhappily many signs that the butchers of Constantinople are +planning further massacres. In February of this year preliminary +measures were begun against the Greeks settled in Anatolia. Many were +forcibly proselytised, their property was confiscated, and they were +forbidden to carry on their businesses. Deportations also occurred, and +all Greeks were removed from many villages in Anatolia, into the +interior, presumably to 'agricultural colonies' such as those provided +for Armenians. They suffered terribly from hunger and exposure, and it +is estimated that ten per cent. of them died on their marches. Since +then, however, there has been no more heard of any extension of those +measures, and there seems to have been as yet no massacre of Greeks. It +is reasonable to infer that Germany has in this case intervened. She +still hoped to win Greece over to the Central European Powers, and +clearly any massacre of Greeks by her own Allies was not desirable. +King Constantine, among his endless vacillations and pusillanimous +treacheries, probably made a firm protest on the subject. But in the +kaleidoscope of war, should Greece come to the side of the Allies, it +seems most probable that there will occur a wholesale massacre of +Greeks. From what we know of the principles on which German Kultur is +based, the most optimistic can scarcely hope that the very faintest +remonstrance will emanate from Berlin. + +The case of the Arabs in Syria is even more precarious. From the moment +that the policy of the Young Turks was evolved, namely, to consolidate +Osmanli supremacy by the weakening of its subject peoples, the Ottoman +Government has been waiting for its opportunity to get rid of the 'Arab +menace.' As we have seen, they began by substituting Turkish for Arabic +as a written language in all official usages from the printing of the +Koran and the prayers for the Sultan down to the legends on railway +tickets. The Arab spirit, according to one of the spokesmen of the New +Turk party, had to be suppressed, the Arab lands had to become Turkish +colonies. 'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence,' we +read in Jelal Noury Bey's propaganda, 'to Turkise the Arab lands, for +the particularistic idea of nationality is awaking among the younger +generations of Arabs, and already threatens us with a great +catastrophe.' Against the Arabs the Young Turks formed and fostered a +special animosity; they were powerful and warlike, and Enver, Talaat, +and others saw that the idea of an Osmanli supremacy could never be +realised unless very drastic measures were taken against them. The +tenets of Islamism, it is true, forbade Moslems to fight Moslems, but +Islamism, as a binding force, was already obsolete in the counsels of +the new regime, having given place to Kultur. Of all their subject +peoples, the Young Turks hated the Arabs the most, and, had not the +European War intervened, there is no doubt that the Armenian massacres, +already being planned, would have been followed by Arab massacres. But +the armed and warlike Arabian tribes were not so easy to deal with as +the defenceless Armenians, and Turkish troops could not be spared in +sufficient numbers to render an Arab massacre the safe, pleasant, and +lucrative pursuit that massacres should be. But Jemal the Great, black +with his triumph over the Armenians at Zeitun, was Military Governor of +Syria, and, the Armenian question being solved, he began to get to work +on the Arab question. Owing to the expulsion of the French Missions from +Syria in 1914, we have no such full or detailed information as we have +from Americans in Armenia, and the following account is mainly derived +from the Arabic journal _Mokattam,_ published in Cairo, the information +in which is based on the account given by a Syrian refugee. It agrees +with pieces of evidence that have come to hand from other sources. + +Ever since the beginning of the war Syria has been an area of direst +poverty, starvation, and sickness, which have been the natural +co-operators in Jemal's policy there. All supplies have been +commandeered for the troops (including by special clause from Potsdam, +the German troops); even fish caught by the fishermen of Lebanon have +to be handed over to the military authorities, and the shortage of +supplies in Smyrna, for instance, is such that at the end of 1916 there +were two hundred deaths daily from sheer starvation, while Germany was +importing from Turkey hundreds of tons of corn and of meat. Thus this +was no natural shortage, for though supplies were low all over the +Turkish Empire, there was not dearth of that kind. It was an artificial +shortage made possible by German demands, and made intentional by +Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better case than Smyrna; Lebanon +perhaps was in sorer straits than either. Money was equally scarce, and +it fitted Jemal's policy that this should be so, for when Americans in +Beirut had raised funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the +Turkish Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were +dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent decrees +of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets of towns the poor +have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane and orange peel; in the +country, to quote from _Molcattam_, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans +start to grow than the fields are filled with women and children who +pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes (including +the victualling of German troops) transportation has ceased to exist, +and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal the Great. + +On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came typhus. In +the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, over 8000 persons had +died of it. Doctors and medicines were unobtainable, for all were +requisitioned for the needs of the army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in +Hama and Homs, the epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent +from Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the charitable +from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the Arabs were working for +the policy of Jemal the Great. There were no troops to spare who should +hasten on the work, but the work was progressing by swift and 'natural' +means. Hunger and pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of +Love! How superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the +Arabs. 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news +of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was +established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, and if +any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations which passed, +the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. Too much news about +Armenian massacres filtered through; there should not now be such +leakage. And when starvation and pestilence had firmly established +themselves, Jemal the Great went down to see what his personal exertions +could effect. All was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer +classes of Arabs were dying like flies, but mortality was not so +successful among the wealthier, who could, to some extent, purchase +food. So Jemal the Great set to work among them. He began by hanging the +heads of Syrian-Arabs in Damascus, Beirut, and other cities. No +semblance of trial, no prosecution or arraignment, were necessary: he +established courts-martial under military control, made lists of the +accused, and ordered the courts-martial to condemn them to death. +Sometimes he made mistakes, appointing as the members of his +court-martial men who were not such sturdy patriots as he, and refused +to sentence for no crime the accused whom he nominated. He remedied such +mistakes by appointing new boards of more seasoned stuff. Moslem and +Christian alike were brought before them, and a general accusation of +pro-French tendencies seems to have been sufficient to secure a sentence +of death or lifelong imprisonment. He aimed not at the poor and the +obscure, for whom hunger and pestilence were providing, but at the rich +and the influential. The higher clergy in Christian circles, Bishops and +Monsignors, were a favourite target, and among Moslems influential +Sheikhs. Sometimes there was a parody of a trial; sometimes the parody +was dispensed with, and when the black curtain was last raised over +Syria, Jemal the Great had disposed of over eight hundred of the heads +of the most influential of Syrian Arabs. He had got rid, in fact, of +the whole House of Lords, and something more. Those who are acquainted +with 'feudal values' among the Arabs will understand what that means. He +decapitated, not individuals only, but groups. For devilish ingenuity in +this combination of starvation and pestilence for the poor, and death or +lifelong imprisonment for the chiefs, Jemal the Great must take rank +with Abdul Hamid and the contrivers of the Armenian massacres. He +cannot, it is true, owing to lack of troops, obtain the swift results of +Enver in Armenia, but between typhus, starvation, and courts-martial, +his solution of the Arab question in Syria is making steady progress. +And those measures, hideously efficient in themselves, are, beyond any +doubt whatever, only the precursors of more sweeping exterminations of +the Arab race, which will be effected after the war, if the Allied +Powers do not step in to save it. The Faithful of the Holy City, Mecca, +have revolted and thrown off the Turkish yoke, and while the war lasts, +and Turkish troops are otherwise occupied under Teutonic supervision, +they will be able to maintain their independence, for there is no +considerable body of Turks which can seriously threaten them. But the +Syrian Arabs, so long as the war lasts, are being, and will be, the +victims of a quiet scheme of extermination, which, if long continued, +will be as complete as that devised and carried out by the butchers of +Constantinople for the peoples of Armenia. It is not in the interest of +the Germans to save them, and no check is being put on Jemal the Great +to hinder him from assisting starvation and typhus to ravage the +country, and supplementing their deadly work by court-martial without +trial. + +Equally significant of the rage for the destruction of Arabs was the +treatment of the Bagdad Arab army corps. In spite of the need for troops +one half of it was sent from Bagdad to Erzerum in the depth of winter, +without any provision of warm clothing. There, in those cold uplands, +the men died at the rate of fifty to sixty a day. Their commanding +officer was a Turk, and a creature of Enver's, called Abdul Kader. +Though these troops had fought admirably, he openly called them Arab +traitors, and his orders seem to have been merely to get rid of them. +There were no courts-martial; they were just taken into a climate which +killed them. + +While for the last thirty years the Armenians and Syrians have emigrated +in large numbers from the Ottoman Empire, there has been a large +immigration of Jews into it. This movement was originally due to the +persecution they suffered in Russia. Germany and Austria were closed to +them, and, flying from the hideous pogroms that threatened them with +extermination, they begun to settle in Palestine. Wealthy compatriots +such as Baron Edmond de Rothschild assisted them, and, with the amazing +versatility of their race, they, trades-people and town-folk, adapted +themselves to new conditions, turned their wits towards husbandry and +agriculture, and during the last thirty years have flourished and +multiplied in a manner quite unrealised by the western world. In 1881 +there were not more than 25,000 of them in the home of their race, but +by the beginning of the European War, when their immigration ceased for +the present, they numbered 120,000 souls. Till then the Ottoman +Government adopted the ancient Turkish policy of neglect towards them, +for they were not powerful enough numerically to earn the honour of a +massacre, and, in addition, they were useful settlers. Backed by +powerful Western influence, French, English, and German alike, they +improved out of knowledge the values of the lands where they established +themselves, and by intelligent management, by conserving and increasing +the water supply with irrigation and well-digging, they have brought +many thousand acres into cultivation. Originally refugees, fleeing from +outrageous persecutions, their immigration by degrees took on a +different spirit. Not only were they coming out of captivity, but they +were entering into the ancient Land of Promise again. Zionism, the +spirit of the returning exiles, animated them, and, according to their +prophets, they realised that 'The Lord shall comfort Zion, He shall +comfort all her waste places.' They had sowed in tears; now, on their +return, they were reaping in joy, and, though their land was still +under the infidel yoke, they were allowed to dwell in peace, busy, +industrious, with the halo of home-coming in their hearts. They paid, of +course, their Turkish taxes, but these were not levied in any oppressive +manner, and their colonies were thrifty, self-governing, and prosperous. +Already before the war, one-tenth of the cultivated land in Palestine +was in their hands, they had their own schools, their own methods of +organisation, and, more significant than all, Hebrew became a living +language again. Germany, intent on her penetration of Turkey, made an +attempt to Germanise them also (for Germany, as we shall see, has a very +special interest in these Jewish colonies), shook her head over Zionism, +for which she tried to substitute Prussianism, and wanted to make the +German language compulsory in Jewish schools at Haifa and Jaffa, but her +effort completely failed. Nothing could show the inherent vitality of +this Jewish colonisation more strikingly. + +These Jewish settlers then were left in peace; from minuteness they +escaped the notice of the Young Turk party in its schemes for the +complete Ottomanisation of the Empire, and, until the present year 1917, +no mention of 'the Jewish question' was propounded. But it will he +remembered that in 1915, certain Jewish refugees, taking warning from +the Armenian massacres, fled to Egypt, and there founded a Zionist +mule-corps, which served under the English in the Gallipoli campaign. It +seems very probable that it was this that directed the attention of +Jemal the Great to the Jewish colonies in Palestine: possibly it was +merely that he was a more thorough Ottomaniser than his colleagues in +Constantinople. In any case he ordered the 'deportation' of all Jews +from Jaffa, Gaza, and other agricultural districts. All Jews were +commanded to leave Jaffa within forty-eight hours, no means of transport +was given them, and they were forbidden to take with them either +provisions or any of their belongings. Eight thousand Jews were evicted +from Jaffa alone, and their houses were pillaged, and they robbed, +maltreated, and many were murdered. Thus, and in no other way had the +massacres of the Armenians begun, and, that there should be no mistake +about it, Jemal threatened them explicitly with the fate of the +Armenians. Next day Ludd was evacuated also; the evacuation of Haifa and +Jerusalem was threatened, and artillery was sent to Jerusalem. There can +be no doubt in fact that Jemal planned and began to carry out a massacre +of all Jews. + +At that point the Germans intervened, and for the present (but only for +the present, for so long in fact as Germany has complete control over +all Turkish internal affairs, in which she protested she could not +meddle) the Jewish colonies in Palestine seem to be safe.[1] The German +chief of the General Staff telegraphed to Berlin that the 'military +considerations' on which Jemal based his deportations did not exist, and +Herr Cohn in the Reichstag drew the Imperial Chancellor's attention to +this. How seriously the menace was regarded in Germany, and how far the +deportations had gone may be gathered from his words, 'Is the Imperial +Chancellor prepared to influence the Turkish Government in such a manner +as to prevent with certainty--so far as this is still possible--a +repetition in Palestine of the Armenian atrocities?' This was +sufficient: Germany, who could not dream of interfering in Turkish +internal affairs when only the massacre of hundreds of thousands of +Armenians was concerned, sent her order, and, for the present, Jemal the +Great has been unable to proceed with the solution of the Jewish +question in Turkey, which he had just discovered. We need not yet in +fact give Jemal his Jew. But some sort of explanation to soothe the +exasperation of the Turks in not being allowed to murder when and how +and where they pleased, was thought advisable, and the explanation (an +extraordinarily significant one) was given in an inspired paragraph of +the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ not long after. 'The valuable structure of +Zionist cultural work, in which the German Empire must have well founded +interest in view of future and very promising trade relations, will, it +is very much to be hoped, be preserved from destruction so far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary. Pan-Turkish ideals have +no sort of meaning in Palestine where practically no Turks dwell.' + +[Footnote 1: This view seems to be borne out by subsequent events, for +the Jews evacuated from Jaffa have been permitted to return owing to the +intervention of the Spanish Government. It is not hard to guess who +prompted that.] + +We may take it, then, that with regard to the projected Jewish +massacres, quite clearly foreshadowed by the schemes of deportation from +Jaffa and Gaza, Germany has made strong representations to the Ottoman +Government. She did not do so (indeed she officially refused to do so) +when the Armenian massacres began, for she could not interfere in +Turkey's internal affairs. But now she has discovered that Pan-Turkish +ideals have no sort of meaning in Palestine, and thus, with amazing +astuteness, has provided herself with a reason for interfering, while +still not giving up the policy of non-interference in Turkish affairs, +for Turkey, she has discovered, _has_ no affairs in Palestine. At the +same time she guards herself from diplomatic defeat by the hope that +Zionist cultural work will be saved from destruction so _far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary_. In other words, +supposing Jemal the Great got completely out of hand, and proceeded to +indiscriminate massacre of the Jews, Germany would doubtless accept his +plea that military requirements had made it necessary.... And we were +once so ignorant as to assure ourselves that Germany had no notions of +diplomacy! + +The full significance of her intervention on behalf of the Jews, when +neither the extermination of the Armenians, the persecution of the +Arabs, nor the deportation of the Greeks moved Germany to any decided +action or energetic protest, must be left, in so far as it concerns the +future, to another chapter. But as regards the present and the past it +will be useful to consider here what has prompted her to make a protest +(which we may regard, so long as her foot is on the neck of the Turks, +as having been successful) against these projected massacres. Certainly +it was not humanity; it was not the faintest desire to save innocent +people in general from being murdered wholesale, for in the similar +case of the Armenians, her bowels of compassion were not moved. Or, +possibly, if we incline to lenience, we may say that she was sorry for +the Armenians, but could not then risk a disagreement with their +murderers who were her allies, whereas now, feeling herself more +completely dominant over the Turks than she then did, she could risk +being peremptory, especially since there was that saving clause about +military requirements. For during the Armenian massacres, the +Dardanelles expedition was still on the shores of Gallipoli, and the +menace to Constantinople acute. It was possible that if she opposed a +firm front to the Armenian massacres, the Turks, already on the verge of +despair with regard to saving the capital from capture, might have made +terms with the Allies. But now no such imminence of danger threatened +them, and, with Germany's domination over them vastly more secure than +it had been in 1915, she could afford to treat them less as allies and +more as a conquered people. This alone might have accounted for her +unprecedented impulse of humanity in the minds of those who still +attribute such instincts to her, but she had far stronger reasons than +that for wanting to save the Jews of Palestine. + +Her policy with regard to them is set forth in a pamphlet by Dr. Davis +Treitsch, called _Die Jueden der Tuerkei_, published in 1915, which is a +most illuminating little document. These Jewish colonies, as we have +seen, came from Russia, and as Germany realised, long before the war, +they might easily form a German nucleus in the Near East, for they +largely consisted of German-speaking Jews, akin in language and blood to +a most important element in her own population. 'In a certain sense,' +says Dr. Treitsch, 'the Jews are a Near Eastern element in Germany and a +German element in Turkey.' He goes on with unerring acumen to lament the +exodus of German-speaking Jews to the United States and to England. +'Annually some 100,000 of these are lost to Germany, the empire of the +English language and the economic system that goes with it is being +enlarged, while a German asset is being proportionately depreciated.... +It will no longer do simply to close the German frontiers to them, and +in view of the difficulties which would result from a wholesale +migration of Jews into Germany itself, Germans will only be too glad to +find a way out in the emigration of those Jews to Turkey--a solution +extraordinarily favourable to the interests of all three parties +concerned.' + +Here, then, is the matter in a nutshell: Germany, wide-awake as ever, +saw long ago the advantage to her of a growing Jewish population from +the Pale in Turkey. She was perhaps a little overloaded with them +herself, but in this immigration from Russia to Palestine she saw the +formation of a colony that was well worth German protection, and the +result of the war, provided the Palestinian immigrants were left in +peace, would be to augment very largely the number of those settling +there. 'Galicia,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'and the western provinces of +Russia, which between them contain more than half the Jews in the world, +have suffered more from the war than any other region. Jewish homes +have been broken up by hundreds of thousands, and there is no doubt +whatever that, as a result of the war, there will be an emigration of +East European Jews on an unprecedented scale.' This emigration, then, to +Palestine was, in Germany's view, a counter-weight to the 100,000 +annually lost to her through emigration to America and England. With her +foot on Turkey's neck she had control over these German-speaking Jews, +and saw in them the elements of a German colony. Her calculations, it is +true, were somewhat upset by the development of the Zionist movement, by +which those settlers declared themselves to have a nationality of their +own, and a language of their own, and Dr. Treitsch concedes that. 'But,' +he adds, 'in addition to Hebrew, to which they are more and more +inclined, the Jews must have a world-language, and this can only be +German.' + +This, then, in brief, and only up to the present, is the story of how +the Jewish massacres were stayed. The Jews were potential Germans, and +Germany, who sat by with folded hands when Arabs and Armenians were led +to torture and death, put up a warning finger, and, for the present, +saved them. In her whole conduct of the war, nothing has been more +characteristic than her 'verboten' to one projected massacre and her +acquiescence in others. But, as for her having saved the Jews out of +motives of humanity, 'Credant Judaei!' + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter V_ + + +DEUTSCHLAND UeBER ALLAH + +It was commonly said at the beginning of this war that, whatever +Germany's military resources might be, she was hopelessly and childishly +lacking in diplomatic ability and in knowledge of psychology, from which +all success in diplomacy is distilled. As instances of this grave +defect, people adduced the fact that, apparently, she had not +anticipated the entry of Great Britain into the war at all, while her +treatment of Belgium immediately afterwards was universally pronounced +to be not a crime merely, but a blunder of the stupidest sort. It is +perfectly true that Germany did not understand, and, as seems likely in +the light of innumerable other atrocities, never will understand, the +psychology of civilised peoples; she has never shown any signs up till +now, at any rate, of 'having got the hang of it' at all. But critics of +her diplomacy failed to see the root-fact that she did not understand it +merely because it did not interest her. It was not worth her while to +master the psychology of other civilised nations, since she was out not +to understand them, but to conquer them. She had all the information she +wanted about their armies and navies and guns and ammunition neatly and +correctly tabulated. Why, then, since this was all that concerned her, +should she cram her head with irrelevant information about what they +might feel on the subject of gas-attacks or the torpedoing of neutral +ships without warning? As long as her fumes were deadly and her +submarines subtle, nothing further concerned her. + +But Europe generally made a great mistake in supposing that Germany +could not learn psychology, and the process of its distillation into +diplomacy when it interested her. The psychology of the French and +English was a useless study, for she was merely going to fight them, but +for years she had been studying with an industry and a patience that +put our diplomacy to shame (as was most swiftly and ignominiously proven +when it came into conflict with hers) the psychology of the Turks. For +years she had watched the dealings of the Great Powers with Turkey, but +she had never really associated herself with that policy. She sat +quietly by and saw how it worked. Briefly it was this. For a hundred +years Turkey had been kept alive in Europe by the sedulous attentions of +the Physician Powers, who dared not let him die for fear of the +stupendous quarrels which would instantly arise over his corpse. So +there they all sat round his bed, and kept him alive with injections of +strychnine and oxygen, and, no less, by a policy of rousing and +irritating the patient. All through the reign of Abdul Hamid they +persevered: Great Britain plucked his pillow from him, so to speak, by +her protectorate of Egypt; Russia tweaked Eastern Rumelia from him; +France deprived him of his hot-water bottle when she snatched at the +Constantinople quays, and they all shook and slapped him when he went to +war with Greece in 1896, and instantly deprived him of the territory he +had won in Thessaly. That was the principle of European diplomacy +towards Turkey, and from it Germany always held aloof. + +But from about the beginning of the reign of the present German Emperor, +German or rather Prussian diplomacy had been going quietly about its +work. It was worth while to study the psychology of the Turks, because +dimly then, but with ever-increasing distinctness, Germany foresaw that +Turkey might be a counter of immense importance in the great conflict +which was assuredly drawing nearer, though as yet its existence was but +foreshadowed by the most distant reflections of summer lightning on a +serene horizon. But if Turkey was to be of any profit to her, she wanted +a strong Turkey who could fight with her (or rather for her), and she +had no use for the Sick Man whom the other Powers were bent on keeping +alive, but no more. Her own eventual domination of Turkey was always the +end in view, but she wanted to dominate not a weak but a strong servant. +And her diplomacy was not less than brilliant simply from the fact that +on the one hand it soothed Turkey instead of irritating, and, on the +other, that it went absolutely unnoticed for a long time. Nobody knew +that it was going on. She sent officers to train the Turkish army, well +knowing what magnificent material Anatolia afforded, and she had +thoroughly grasped the salient fact that to make any way with Oriental +peoples your purse must be open and your backshish unlimited. 'There is +no God but backshish, and the Deutsche Bank is his prophet.' + +For years this went on very quietly, and all over the great field of the +Ottoman Empire the first tiny blades of the crop that Germany was sowing +began to appear. To-day that crop waves high, and covers the whole field +with its ripe and fruitful ears. For to-day Turkey is neither more nor +less than a German colony, and more than makes up to her for the +colonies she has lost and hopes to regain. She knows that perfectly +well, and so do any who have at all studied the history and the results +of her diplomacy there. Even Turkey itself must, as in an uneasy dream, +be faintly conscious of it. For who to-day is the Sultan of Turkey? No +other than William II. of Germany. It is in Berlin that his Cabinet +meets, and sometimes he asks Talaat Bey to attend in a strictly honorary +capacity. And Talaat Bey goes back to Constantinople with a strictly +honorary sword of honour. Or else he gives one to William II. from his +_soi-disant_ master, the Sultan, or takes one back to his _soi-disant_ +master from his real master. For no one knows better than William II. +the use that swords of honour play in deeds of dishonour. + +The object of this chapter is to trace and mount the hewn and solid +staircase of steps by which Germany's present supremacy over Turkey was +achieved. + +Apart from the quiet spade-work that had been going on for some years, +Germany made no important move till the moment when, in 1909, the Young +Turk party, after the forced abdication of Abdul Hamid, proclaimed the +aims and ideals of the new regime. At once Germany saw her opportunity, +for here, with her help, might arise the strong Turkey which she +desired to see, instead of the weak Turkey which all the other European +Powers had been keeping on a lowering diet for so long (desirous only +that it should not quite expire), and from that moment she began to +lend, or rather let, to Turkey in ever-increasing quantities, the +resources of her scientific and her military knowledge. It was in her +interests, if Turkey was to be of use to her, that she should educate, +and irrigate, and develop the unexploited treasures of human material, +of fertility and mineral wealth; and Germany's gold, her schools, her +laboratories were at Turkey's disposal. But in every case she, as in +duty bound to her people, saw that she got very good value for her +outlay. + +Here, then, was the great psychological moment when Germany instantly +moved. The Young Turks proclaimed that they were going to weld the +Ottoman Empire into one homogeneous and harmonious whole, and by a piece +of brilliant paradoxical reasoning Germany determined that it was she +who was going to do it for them. In flat contradiction of the spirit of +their manifestoes, which proclaimed the Pan-Turkish ideal, she conceived +and began to carry out under their very noses the great new chapter of +the Pan-Germanic ideal. And the Young Turks did not know the difference! +They mistook that lusty Teutonic changeling for their own new-born +Turkish babe, and they nursed and nourished it. Amazingly it throve, and +soon it cut its teeth, and one day, when they thought it was asleep, it +arose from its cradle a baby no more, but a great Prussian guardsman who +shouted, 'Deutschland ueber Allah!' + +Only once was there a check in the growth of the Prussian infant, and +that was no more than a childish ailment. For when the Balkan wars broke +out the Turkish army was in the transitional stage. Its German tutors +had not yet had time to inspire the army with German discipline and +tradition; they had only weeded out, so to speak, the old Turkish +spirit, the blind obedience to the Ministers of the Shadow of God. The +Shadow of God, in fact, in the person of the Sultan, had been dragged +out into the light, and his Shadow had grown appreciably less. In +consequence there was not at this juncture any cohesion in the army, and +it suffered reverse after reverse. But a strong though a curtailed +Turkey was more in accordance with Prussian ideas than a weak and +sprawling one, and Germany bore the Turkish defeats very valiantly. And +that was the only set-back that this Pan-Prussian youngster experienced, +and it was no more than an attack of German measles which he very +quickly got over. For two or three years German influence wavered, then +recovered, 'with blessings on the falling out, that all the more +endears.' + +It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish ideal to +her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of Germany's methods, the +best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal is to be found in a publication +of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was written as German propaganda and by +Germany disseminated broadcast over the Turkish Empire. An account of +this movement has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the +Turkish side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the +German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish Phoenix. The +Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of Love, in whose name the +Armenians were tortured and massacred, were the two wings on which it +was to soar. Auxiliary soaring societies were organised, among them a +Turkish Ojagha with similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of +it were founded throughout the Empire. There were also a Turkish Guiji +or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts' club. A union of merchants +worked for the same object in districts where hitherto trade had been in +the hands of Greeks and Armenians, and signs appeared on their shops +that only Turkish labour was employed. Religious funds also were used +for similar economic restoration. + +Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and took out her +long spoon, for her hour was come. She did not interfere: she only +helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. With her usual foresight she +perceived that the Izji, for instance, was a thing to encourage, for +the boys who were being trained now would in a few years be precisely +the young men of whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy +scout movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously and +methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely reliable source of +information, we find that the whole boy scout movement, with its +innumerable branches, was under the control of a German officer, Colonel +von Hoff. In its classes (derneks) boys are trained in military +practices, in 'a recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively +enjoy (a Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use +to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn +skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements of their +companies, they are shown neat ways of judging distances. They are +divided into two classes, the junior class ranging from the ages of +twelve to seventeen, the senior class consisting of boys over seventeen, +but not yet of military age. But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, +the military age has been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to +serve their country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore, +saw that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class has +become the senior class, and a new junior class has been set on foot +which begins its recreational exercises in the service of William II., +Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It is all great fun, but those +pigeon-livered little boys who are not diverted by it have to go on with +their fun all the same, for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on +all boys. Of course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is +of a 'semi-military' character. + +The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from the early age +of eight, was the first object of Germany's peaceful and benign +penetration. As from the Pisgah height of the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw +the promised land, but she had no idea of seeing it only, like Moses, +and expiring without entering it, and her faith that she would enter it +and possess it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has +not only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like Aleppo +were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie there were separate +wooden barracks for the exclusive use of German troops. There is a +military mission at Mamoura, where all the buildings are permanent +erections solidly built of stone, for no merely temporary occupation is +intended, and thousands of freight-cars with Belgian marks upon them +throng the railways, and on some is the significant German title of +'Military Headquarters of the Imperial Staff.' There are troops in the +Turkish army, to which is given the title of 'Pasha formation,' in +compliment to Turkey, but the Pasha formations are under command of +Baron Kress von Kressenstein, and are salted with German officers, +N.C.O.'s, and privates, who, although in the Turkish army, retain their +German uniforms. + +This German leaven forms an instructional class for the remainder of the +troops in these formations, who are Turkish. The Germans are urged to +respect Moslem customs and to show particular consideration for their +religious observances. Every German contingent arriving at +Constantinople to join the Pasha formations finds quarters prepared on a +ship, and when the troops leave for their 'destination' they take +supplies from depots at the railway station which will last them two or +three months. They are enjoined to write war diaries, and are provided +with handbooks on the military and geographical conditions in +Mesopotamia, with maps, and with notes on the training and management of +camels. This looks as if they were intended for use against the English +troops in Mesopotamia, but I cannot find that they have been identified +there. The greatest secrecy is observed with regard to those Pasha +formations, and their constitution and movements are kept extremely well +veiled. + +Wireless stations have been set up in Asia Minor and Palestine, and +these are under the command of Major Schlee. A Turkish air-service was +instituted, at the head of which was Major Serno, a Prussian officer, +and Turkish aviators are now in training at Ostend, where they will very +usefully defend their native country. At Constantinople there is a +naval school for Turkish engineers and mechanics in the arsenal, to help +on the Pan-Turkish ideal, and with a view to that all the instructors +are German: a floating dock is in construction at Ismid, and the order +has been placed with German firms. It will be capable of accommodating +ships of Dreadnought build, which is a new departure for the strictly +Pan-Turkish ideal. The cost is L740,000, to be repaid three years after +the end of the war. Similarly, by the spring of this year, Germany had +arranged to start submarine training in Constantinople for the Turks, +and a submarine school was open and at work in March. A few months later +it was established at the island of Prinkipo, where it is now hard at +work under German instructors. Other naval cadets were sent to Germany +for their training, and Turkish officers were present at the battle of +Jutland in June 1916, and of course were decorated by the Emperor in +person for their coolness and courage.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In October 1917 a bill was passed for the entire +remodelling of the Turkish fleet after the war, on the lines of the +German fleet, 'which proved its perfect training in the battle of Skager +Rak.'] + +A complete revision of the Turkish system of exemptions from military +service was necessary as soon as Germany began to want men badly. The +age for military service was first raised, and we find a Turkish order +of October 1916, calling on all men of forty-three, forty-four, and +forty-five years of age to pay their exemption tax if they did not wish +to be called to the colours. That secured their money, and, with truly +Prussian irony, hardly had this been done when a fresh army order was +issued calling out all men, whether they had paid their exemption tax or +not. Germany thus secured both their money and their lives. + +Still more men were needed, and in November a fresh levy of boys was +raised regardless of whether they had reached the military age or not. +This absorbed the senior class of the boy scouts, who hitherto had +learned their drill in a 'recreationary manner.' Neither Jews nor +Christians are exempt from service, and frequent press gangs go round +Constantinople rounding up those who are in hiding. + +Again the Prussian Moloch was hungry for more, and in December 1916 the +Turkish _Gazette_ announced that all males in Asia Minor between the +ages of fourteen and sixty-five were to be enrolled for military +service, and in January of this year, 1917, fresh recruiting was +foreshadowed by the order that men of forty-six to fifty-two, who had +paid their exemption money, should be medically examined to see if they +were fit for active service. This fresh recruiting was also put in force +in the case of boys, and during the summer of 1917 all boys above the +age of twelve, provided they were sound and well-built, were taken for +the army. Wider and wider the net was spread, and in the same month a +fresh Turco-German convention was signed, whereby was enforced a +reciprocal surrender in both countries of persons liable to military +service, and of deserters, and simultaneously all Turks living in +Switzerland, and who had paid exemption money, were recalled to their +Germanised fatherland. By now the first crops of the year were ripening +in Smyrna, and in default of civilian labour (for every one was now a +soldier) they were reaped by Turkish soldiers and the produce sent +direct to Germany. + +Already in August 1916, certificates of Ottoman nationality had been +granted to Serbians resident in the Empire who were willing to become +Ottoman subjects, and their 'willingness' was intensified by hints that +incidents akin to the Armenian massacres might possibly occur among +other alien peoples. They had to sign a declaration that they would not +revert to their former nationality, and thus, no doubt, many Serbs +passed into the Turkish army. Further enrolments were desirable, and, in +March 1917, all Greeks living in Anatolia were forcibly proselytised, +their property was confiscated, and they were made liable to military +service. Unfortunately all were not available, for of those who were +removed from the villages where they lived to military centres, ten per +cent. died on the forced marches from hunger and exposure. That was +annoying for the German recruiting agents, but it suited well enough the +Pan-Turkish ideal of exterminating foreign nationalities. When trouble +or discontent occurred among the troops, it was firmly dealt with, as, +for instance, when, in November 1916, there were considerable desertions +from the 49th Division. On that occasion the order was given to fire on +them, and many were killed and wounded. The officer who gave the order +was commended by the Prussian authorities for his firmness. Should such +an incident occur again, it will no doubt be dealt with no less +firmness, for, in April 1917, Mackensen was put in supreme command of +all troops in Asia Minor. But in spite of this desertions have largely +increased lately, and during the summer deserters out of all the Turkish +armies were believed to number about 200,000. Many of those have formed +themselves into brigand bands, who make the roads dangerous for +travellers. The exchange of honours goes on, for not long ago, in +Berlin, Prince Zia-ed-Din, the Turkish Sultan's heir, presented a sword +of honour to the Sultan William II. Probably he gave him good news of +the progress of the German harbour works begun in the winter at +Stamboul, and himself learned that the railway bridge which the Turks +proposed to build over the Bosporus was not to be proceeded with, for +the German high command had superseded that scheme by their own idea of +making a tunnel under the Bosporus instead, which would be safer from +aircraft. + +Such up-to-date, though in brief outline, is the history of the +establishment of the Prussian octopus grip on military and naval matters +in Turkey. We have largely ourselves to blame for it. Upon that pathetic +and lamb-like record of our diplomacy during the months between the +outbreak of the European War, and the entry of Turkey into it in October +1914, it would be morbid to dwell at any length, though a short summary +is necessary. As we all know now, Turkey had concluded a treaty with +Germany early in August, and when our Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir +Louis Malet, who was on leave in England at that date, returned to his +post on August 16th, all that Turkey wanted was to gain time in which to +effect her mobilisation. This she did, with complete success, and our +Ambassador telegraphed to England stating his perfect confidence in the +sincerity with which the Grand Vizier professed his friendship for +England. All through those weeks of August and September this confidence +appeared to continue unabated. The Moderate party in Turkey--that is to +say, the hoodwinking party--were reported to be daily gaining strength, +and it was most important that the Allies should give them every +assistance, and above all not precipitate matters. All was going well: +all we had to do was to wait. So we waited, still blindly confident in +the sincerity of Turkey's friendship for England, while the mobilisation +of the Turkish forces proceeded merrily. By the end of September this +was nearly complete, and quite suddenly the Ambassador informed the +Foreign Office that Turkey appeared to be temporising. That was +perfectly true, but the period of temporisation was nearly over, and by +mid-October Turkey had something like 800,000 men under arms, and for +nine weeks Enver Pasha had had his signed treaty with Germany in his +pocket. Possibly this diplomatic procrastination was useful to us, for +it enabled us to bring troops from India in security, and send others to +Egypt. But without doubt it was useful to the Turks, for it enabled them +to mobilise their armies, and to strengthen enormously the defences of +the Dardanelles. Then came the day when Germany and Turkey were ready, +the attack was made on Odessa, and out of Constantinople we went. We +climbed into the railway carriages that took the last rays of English +influence out of the Ottoman Empire, and steep were the stairs in the +house of a stranger! Turks are not much given to laughter, but Enver +Pasha must at least have smiled on that day. + +Already, of course, German influence was strong in the army, which now +was thoroughly trained in German methods, but that army might still be +called a Turkish army. Nowadays, by no stretch of language can it be +called Turkish except in so far that all Turkish efficient manhood is +helplessly enlisted in it, for there is no branch or department of it +over which the Prussian octopus has not thrown its paralysing tentacles +and affixed its immovable suckers. Army and navy alike, the wireless +stations, the submarines, the aircraft, are all directly controlled from +Berlin, and, as we have seen, the generalissimo of the forces is +Mackensen, who is absolutely the Hindenburg of the East. But thorough as +is the control of Berlin over Constantinople in military and naval +matters, it is not one whit more thorough than her control in all other +matters of national life. Never before has Germany been very successful +in her colonisation; but if complete domination--the sucking of a +country till it is a mere rind of itself, and yet at the same time full +to bursting of Prussian ichor--may be taken as Germany's equivalent of +colonisation, then indeed we must be forced to recognise her success. +And it was all done in the name and for the sake of the Pan-Turkish +ideal. Even now Prussian Pecksniffs like Herr Ernst Marre, whose +pamphlet, _Die Tuerken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was published in 1916, +continue to insist that Germany is nobly devoting herself to the +well-being of Turkey. 'In doing this,' he exclaims in that illuminating +document, 'we are benefiting Turkey.... This is a war of liberation for +Turkey,' though omitting to say from whom Turkey is being liberated. +Perhaps the Armenians. Occasionally, it is true, he forgets that, and +naively remarks, 'Turkey is a very difficult country to govern. But +after the war Turkey will be very important as a transit country.' But +then he remembers again and says, 'We wish to give besides taking, and +we should often like to give more than we can hope to give.' Let us look +into this, and see the manner in which Germany expresses her yearning to +impoverish herself for the sake of Turkey. + +All this reorganisation of the Turkish army was of course a very +expensive affair, and required skilful financing, and it was necessary +to get the whole of Turkey's exchequer arrangements into German hands. A +series of financial regulations was promulgated. The Finance Minister, +during 1916, was still Turkish, but the official immediately under him +was a German. He was authorised to deposit with the Controllers of the +Ottoman National Debt German Imperial Bills of LT30,000,000, and to +issue German paper money to the like amount. This arrangement insures +the circulation of the German notes, which are redeemable by Turkey in +_gold_ two years after the declaration of peace. Gold is declared to be +the standard currency, and no creditor is obliged to accept in payment +of a debt more than 300 piastres in silver or fifty in nickel. And since +there is no gold in currency (for it has been all called in, and +penalties of death have been authorised for hoarders) it follows that +this and other issues of German paper will filter right through the +Empire. At the same time a German expert, Dr. Kautz, was appointed to +start banks throughout Turkey in order to free the peasants from the +Turkish village usurer, and in consequence enslave them to the German +banks. Similarly a German was put at the head of the Ottoman +Agricultural Bank. These new branches worked very well, but it is +pleasant to think that one such was started by the Deutsche Bank at +Bagdad in October 1916, which now has its shutters up. Before this, as +we learn from the _Oesterreichischer Volkswirt_ (June 1916), Germany had +issued other gold notes, in payment for gold from Turkey, which is +retainable in Berlin till six months after the end of the war. (It is +reasonable to wonder whether it will not be retained rather longer than +that.) These gold notes were accepted willingly at first by the public, +but the increase in their number (by the second issue) has caused them +to be viewed with justifiable suspicion, and the depreciation in them +continues. But the Turkish public has no redress except by hoarding +gold, which is a penal offence. That these arrangements have not +particularly helped Turkish credit may be gathered from the fact that +the Turkish gold L1, nominally 100 piastres, was very soon worth 280 +piastres in the German paper standard, and it now fetches a great deal +more. + +Again, the Deutsche Orientbank has made many extensions, and is already +financing cotton and wool trade for after the war. The establishment of +this provoked much applause in German financial circles, who find it to +be an instance of the 'far-reaching and powerful Germano-Austrian unity, +which replaces the disunion of Turkish finance.' This is profoundly +true, especially if we omit the word 'Austrian' inserted for diplomatic +reasons. Again we find Germany advancing L3,000,000 of German paper to +the Turkish Government in January 1917, for the payment of supplies they +have received from Krupp's works and (vaguely) for interest to the +German Financial Minister. This, too, we may conjecture, is to be +redeemed after the war in gold. + +In March of this year we find in the report of the Ottoman Bank a German +loan of L1,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural implements by +Turkey, and this is guaranteed by house-taxes. In all up to that month, +as was announced in the Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople, Germany +had advanced to Turkey the sum of L142,000,000, entirely, it would seem, +in German paper, to be repaid at various dates in gold. The grip, in +fact, is a strangle-hold, all for Turkey's good, as no doubt will prove +the 'New Conventions' announced by Zimmermann in May 1917, to take the +place of the abolished Capitulations, 'which left Turkey at the mercy of +predatory Powers who looked for the disruption of the Ottoman Empire.' +Herr Zimmermann does not look for that: he looks for its absorption. And +sees it. + +The industrial development of Turkey by this benevolent and +disinterested Power has been equally thorough and far-reaching, though +Germany here has had a certain amount of competition by Hungary to +contend against, for Hungary considered that Germany was trespassing on +her sphere of interest. But she has been able to make no appreciable +headway against her more acute partner, and her application for a +monopoly of sugar-production was not favourably received, for Germany +already had taken the beet industry well in hand. In Asia Minor the +acreage of cultivation early in 1917 had fallen more than 50 per cent. +from that under crops before the war, but owing to the importation of +machinery from the Central Powers, backed up by a compulsory +Agricultural Service Law, which has just been passed, it is hoped that +the acreage will be increased this year by something like 30 per cent. +The yield per acre also will be greatly increased this year, for Germany +has, though needing artificial manures badly herself, sent large +quantities into Turkey, where they will be more profitably employed. She +has no fear about securing the produce. This augmented yield will, it is +true, not be adequate to supply the needs of Turkey, who for the last +two years has suffered from very acute food shortage, which in certain +districts has amounted to famine and wholesale starvation of the poorer +classes. But it is unlikely that their needs will be considered at all, +for Germany's needs (she, the fairy godmother of the Pan-Turk ideal) +must obviously have the first call on such provisions as are obtainable. +Thus, in the new preserved meat factory at Aidin, the whole of the +produce is sent to Germany. Thus, too, though in February 1917 there was +a daily shortage in Smyrna of 700 sacks of flour, and the Arab and +Greek population was starving, no flour at all was allowed to be +imported into Smyrna. But simultaneously Germany was making huge +purchases of fish, meat, and flour in Constantinople (paid for in German +paper), including 100,000 sheep. Yet such was the villainous selfishness +of the famine-stricken folk at Adrianople that, when the trains +containing these supplies were passing through, a mob held them up and +sold the contents to the inhabitants. That, however, was an isolated +instance, and in any case a law was passed in October 1916, appointing a +military commission to control all supplies. It enacts that troops shall +be supplied first, and specially ordains that the requirements of German +troops come under this head. (Private firms have been expressly +prohibited from purchasing these augmented wheat supplies, but special +permission was given in 1915 to German and Austro-Hungarian societies to +buy.) A few months later we find that there are a hundred deaths daily +in Constantinople from starvation, and two hundred in Smyrna, where +there is a complete shortage of oil. But oil is still being sent to +Germany, and during 1916 five hundred reservoirs of oil were sent there, +each containing up to 15,000 kilogrammes. Similarly during this summer +the price of fruit has gone up in Smyrna, for the Germans have reopened +certain factories for preserving it and turning it into jam, which is +being sent to Germany. The sugar is supplied from the new beet-fields of +Konia. But Kultur must be supplied first, else Kultur would grow lean, +and the Turkish God of Love will look after the Smyrniotes. It is no +wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the desired result +a little quicker, for food is already pouring in from Turkey, and when +the artificial manures have produced their early harvest the stream will +become a torrent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant.] + +But during all these busy and tremendous months of war Germany has not +only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, for the sake of the +Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic spirit she has been vastly +increasing the productiveness of her new and most important colony. The +great irrigation works at Konia, begun several years ago, are in +operation, and the revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled. +In fact, as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province +has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At Adana are +similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche Bank. Ernst Marre +gives us a most hopeful survey of them, for Adana was already linked up +with the Bagdad Railway in October 1916, which was to be the great +artery connecting Germany with the East. There is some considerable +shortage of labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to +which we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are in +excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in German hands, +and have been paid for by German paper; and to get the reservoirs, etc., +back into her own control, it has been agreed that Turkey, already +completely bankrupt, will have to pay not only what has been spent, but +a handsome sum in compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour, +prisoners have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This +irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by four times +the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab magazine, _El Alem el +Ismali_, which tells us also of the electric-power stations erected +there. + +The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian merchants that +transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of engines and trucks from +Germany, while _Die Zeit_ (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future +for this Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely +imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German capital on +terms above stated--will, in the process of internal development so +unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow cotton for herself, and be +kind enough to give a preferential tariff to Germany. + +A similarly bright future may be predicted for the sugar-beet industry +at Konia, where are the irrigation works already referred to. Artesian +wells have been sunk, and there is the suggestion to introduce +Bulgarian labour in default of Turkish. As we have seen, Hungary +attempted to obtain a monopoly with regard to sugar, but Germany has +been victorious on this point (as on every other where she competes with +Hungary), and has obtained the concession for a period of thirty years. +She reaped the first-fruits this last spring (1917), when, on a single +occasion, 350 trucks laden with sugar were despatched to Berlin. A +similar irrigation scheme is bringing into cultivation the Makischelin +Valley, near Aleppo, and Herr Wied has been appointed as expert for +irrigation plant in Syria. There has been considerable shortage of coal, +but now more is arriving from the Black Sea, and the new coal-fields at +Rodosto will soon be giving an output. + +Indeed, it would be easier to enumerate the industries and economical +developments of Turkey over which Germany has not at the present moment +got the control than those over which she has. In particular she has +shown a parental interest in Turkish educational questions. She +established last year, under German management, a school for the study +of German in Constantinople; she has put under the protection of the +German Government the Jewish institution at Haifa for technical +education in Palestine; from Sivas a mission of schoolmasters has been +sent to Germany for the study of German methods. Ernst Marre surmises +that German will doubtless become compulsory even in the Turkish +intermediate (secondary) schools. In April 1917, the first stone of the +'House of Friendship' was laid at Constantinople, the object of which +institution is to create among Turkish students an interest in +everything German, while earlier in the year arrangements were made for +10,000 Turkish youths to go to Germany to be taught trades. These I +imagine were unfit for military service. With regard to such a scheme +Halil Haled Bey praises the arrangement for the education of Turks in +Germany. When they used to go to France, he tells us, 'they lost their +religion' (certainly Prussian Got is nearer akin to Turkish Allah) 'and +returned home unpatriotic and useless. In Germany they will have access +to suitable religious literature' (Gott!) 'and must adopt all they see +good in German methods without losing their original characteristics.' +Comment on this script is needless. The hand is the hand of Halil Haled +Bey, but the voice is the voice of Potsdam. Occasionally, but rarely, +Austrian competition is seen. Professor Schmoller, in an Austrian +quarterly review, shows jealousy of German influence, and we find, in +October 1916, an Ottoman-Austrian college started at Vienna for 250 +pupils of the Ottoman Empire. But Germany has 10,000 in Berlin. At Adana +(where are the German irrigation works) the German-Turkish Society has +opened a German school of 300, while, reciprocally, courses in Turkish +have been organised at Berlin for the sake of future German colonists. +In Constantinople the _Tanin_ announces a course of lectures to be held +by the Turco-German Friendship Society. Professor von Marx discoursed +last April on foreign influence and the development of nations, with +special reference to Turkey and the parallel case of Germany. A few +months later we find Hilmet Nazim Bey, official head of the Turkish +press, proceeding to Berlin to learn German press methods. A number of +editors of Turkish papers will follow him, and soon, no doubt, the +Turkish press will rival Cologne and Frankfort. + +So much for German education, but her penetrative power extends into +every branch of industry and economics. In November 1916, a Munich +expert was put in charge of the College of Forestry, and an economic +society was started in Constantinople on German lines with German +instructors. Inoculation against small-pox, typhoid, and cholera was +made compulsory; and we find that the Turkish Ministers of Posts, of +Justice, and of Commerce, figureheads all of them, have Germans as their +acting Ministers. In the same year a German was appointed as expert for +silkworm breeding and for the cultivation of beet. Practically all the +railways in Asia Minor are pure German concerns by right of purchase. +Germany owns the Anatolian railway concession (originally British), +with right to build to Angora and Konia; the Bagdad railway concession, +with preferential rights over minerals; they have bought the +Mersina-Adana Railway, with right of linking up to the Bagdad Railway; +they have bought the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, built with French capital. +They have secured also the Haidar Pasha Harbour concession, thereby +controlling and handling all merchandise arriving at railhead from the +interior of Asia Minor.[1] Already on the Bagdad Railway the big tunnels +of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge petrol-driven +motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be complete. Meanwhile +railway construction is pushed on in all directions under German +control, and the Turkish Minister of Finance (August 1916) allocated a +large sum of German paper money for the construction of ordinary roads, +military roads, local government roads, all of which are new to Turkey, +but which will be useful for the complete German occupation which is +being swiftly consolidated. To stop the mouths of the people, all +political clubs have been suppressed by the Minister of the Interior, +for Prussia does not care for criticism. To supply German ammunition +needs, lead and zinc have been taken from the roofs of mosques and +door-handles from mosque-gates, and the iron railings along the Champs +de Mars at Pera have been carted away for the manufacture of bombs. Not +long after eight truck-loads of copper were sent to Germany: these, I +imagine, represent the first produce of copper roofs and utensils. A +Turco-German convention signed in Berlin in January of this year, +permits subjects of one country to settle in the other while retaining +their nationality and enjoying trading and other privileges. In Lebanon +Dr. Koenig has opened an agricultural school for Syrians of all +religions. In the Homs district the threatening plague of locusts in +February 1917 was combatted by Germans; and a German expert, Dr. Bucher, +had been already sent to superintend the whole question. For this +concerns supplies to Germany, as does also the ordinance passed in the +same month that two-thirds of all fish caught in the Lebanon district +should be given to the military authorities (these are German), and that +every fish weighing over six ounces in the Beirut district should be +Korban also. The copper mines at Arghana Maden, near Diarbekr, are busy +exporting their produce into Germany; the coal-mines at Rodosto will +very soon be making a large output.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The balance-sheets for 1916 of certain of those railways in +which the Deutsche Bank has an interest have come to hand. They show a +very disagreeable degree of prosperity. The Anatolia Railway Company has +large profits with a gross revenue of 25,737,995 marks. The profit on +the Haidar-Pasha-Angora Line has risen from 42,566 francs per kilometre +to 45,552. The Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway has paid 6 per cent. on its +preference shares, and 3 per cent. on its ordinary shares. The Haidar +Pasha Harbour Company has paid 8 per cent.] + +[Footnote 2: Later in this year we find three trains daily leaving +Constantinople for Germany, laden with coal and military supplies.] + +There is no end to this penetration: German water-seekers, with divining +and boring apparatus, accompanied the Turkish expedition into Sinai; +Russian prisoners were sent by Germany for agricultural work in Asia +Minor, to take the place of slaughtered Armenians; a German-Turkish +treaty, signed January 11, 1917, gives the whole reorganisations of the +economic system to a special German mission. A Stuttgart journal chants +a characteristic _Lobgesang_ over this feat. 'That is how,' it proudly +exclaims, 'we work for the liberation of peoples and nationalities.' + +In the same noble spirit, we must suppose, German legal reforms were +introduced in December 1916, to replace the Turkish Shuriat, and in the +same month all the Turks in telegraph offices in Constantinople were +replaced by Germans. Ernst Marre gives valuable advice to young Germans +settling in Turkey. He particularly recommends them, knowing how +religion is one of the strongest bonds in this murderous race, to 'trade +in articles of devotion, in rosaries, in bags to hold the Koran,' and +points out what good business might be built up in gramophones. Earlier +in this year we find a 'German Oriental Trading Company' founded for the +import of fibrous materials for needs of military authorities, and a +great carpet business established at Urfa with German machinery that +will supplant the looms of Smyrna. A saltpetre factory is established +at Konia by Herr Toepfer, whose enterprise is rewarded with an Iron +Cross and a Turkish decoration. The afforestation near Constantinople, +ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture, is put into German hands, and in +the vilayet of Aidin (April 1916) ninety concessions were granted to +German capitalists to undertake the exploitation of metallic ores. +Occasionally the German octopus finds it has gone too far for the +moment, and releases some struggling limb of its victim, as, for +instance, when we see that, in September 1916, the German Director's +stamp for the 'Imperial German Great Radio Station' at Damascus has been +discarded temporarily, as that station 'should be treated for the +present as a Turkish concern.' + +A 'Trading and Weaving Company' was established at Angora in 1916, an +'Import and Export Company' at Smyrna, a 'Trading and Industrial +Society' at Beirut, a 'Tobacco Trading Company' at Latakieh, an +'Agricultural Company' at Tripoli, a 'Corn Exporting Company' in +Lebanon, a 'Rebuilding Commission' (perhaps for sacked Armenian houses) +at Konia. More curious yet will be a Tourist's Guide Book--a Baedeker, +in fact--for travellers in Anatolia, and the erection of a monument in +honour of Turkish _women_ who have replaced men called up for military +duty. Truly these last two items--a guide-book for Anatolia, and a +monument to women--are strange enterprises for Turks. A new Prussian day +is dawning, it seems, for Turkish women as well, for the _Tanin_ (April +1917) tells us that diplomas are to be conferred on ladies who have +completed their studies in the Technical School at Constantinople. + +It is needless to multiply instances of German penetration: I have but +given the skeleton of this German monster that has fastened itself with +tentacles and suckers on every branch of Turkish industry. There is none +round which it has not cast its feelers--no Semitic moneylender ever +obtained a surer hold on his victim. In matters naval, military, +educational, legal, industrial, financial, Germany has a strangle-hold. +Turkey's life is already crushed out of her, and, as we have seen, it +has been crushed out of her by the benevolent Kultur-mongers, who, among +all the Great Powers of Europe, invested their time and their money in +the achievement of the Pan-Turkish ideal. Silently and skilfully they +worked, bamboozling their chief tool, Enver Pasha, even as Enver Pasha +bamboozled us. As long as he was of service to them they retained him; +for his peace of mind at one time they stopped up all letter-boxes in +Constantinople because so many threatening letters were sent him. But +now Enver Pasha seems to have had his day; he became a little +autocratic, and thought that he was the head of the Pan-Turkish ideal. +So he was, but the Pan-Turkish ideal had become Pan-Prussian, and he had +not noticed the transformation. Talaat Bey has taken his place; it was +he who, in May 1917, was received by the Emperor William, by King +Ludwig, and by the Austrian Emperor, and he who was the mouthpiece of +the German efforts to make a separate peace with Russia. Under Czardom, +he proclaimed, the existence of Turkey was threatened, but now the +revolution has made friendship possible, for Russia no longer desires +territorial annexation. And, oh, how Turkey would like to be Russia's +friend! Enver Pasha has of late been somewhat out of favour in Berlin, +and I cannot but think it curious that when, on April 2, 1917, he +visited the submarine base at Wilhelmshaven, he was very nearly killed +in a motor accident. But it may have been an accident. Since then I +cannot find that he has taken any more active part in Pan-Turkish ideals +than to open a soup-kitchen in some provincial town, and lecture the +Central Committee of the Young Turks on the subject of internal affairs +in Great Britain. I do not like lectures, but I should have liked to +hear that one. + + +I have left to the end of this chapter the question of Germany's +knowledge of, and complicity in the Armenian massacres. From the tribune +of the Reichstag, on January 15, 1916, there was made a definite denial +of the existence of such massacres at all; on another subsequent +occasion it was stated that Germany could not interfere in Turkish +internal affairs. + +In view of the fact that there is no internal affair appertaining to +Turkey in which Germany has not interfered, the second of these +statements may be called insincere. But the denial of the massacres is a +deliberate lie. Germany--official Germany--knew all about them, and she +permitted them to go on. A few proofs of this are here shortly stated. + +(1) In September 1915, four months before the denial of the massacres +was made in the Reichstag, Dr. Martin Niepage, higher grade teacher in +the German Technical School at Aleppo, prepared and sent, as we have +seen, in his name, and that of several of his colleagues, a report of +the massacres to the German Embassy at Constantinople. In that report he +gives a terrible account of what he has seen with his own eyes, and also +states that the country Turks' explanation with regard to the origin of +these measures is that it was 'the teaching of the Germans.' The German +Embassy at Constantinople therefore knew of the massacres, and knew +also that the Turks attributed them to orders from Germany. Dr. Niepage +also consulted, before sending his report, with the German Consul at +Aleppo, Herr Hoffman, who told him that the German Embassy had been +already advised in detail about the massacres from the consulates at +Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Mosul, but that he welcomed a further protest +on the subject. + +(2) These reports, or others like them, had not gone astray, for in +August 1915, the German Ambassador in Constantinople, Baron Wangenheim, +made a formal protest to the Turkish Government about the massacres. + +There is, then, no doubt that the German Government, when it officially +denied the massacres, was perfectly cognisant of them. It was also +perfectly capable of stopping them, for they were not local violences, +but wholesale murders organised at Constantinople. In support of this +view I find an independent witness stating that 'there is no Turk of +standing who will not readily declare that it would have been perfectly +possible for Germany to have vetoed the massacres had she chosen.' +Germany had indeed already given assurances that such massacres should +not occur. She had assured the Armenian Katholikos at Adana that so long +as Germany has any influence in Turkey he need not fear a repetition of +the horrors that had taken place under Abdul Hamid. Had she, then, no +influence in Constantinople, or how was it that she had obtained +complete control over all Turkish branches of government? The same +assurance was given by the German Ambassador in April 1915, to the +Armenian Patriarch and the President of the Armenian National Council. + +So, in support of the Pan-Turkish ideal, and in the name of the Turkish +Allah, the God of Love, Germany stood by and let the infamous tale of +lust and rapine and murder be told to its end. The Turks had planned to +exterminate the whole Armenian race except some half-million, who would +be deported penniless to work on agricultural developments under German +rule, but this quality of Turkish mercy was too strained for Major +Pohl, who proclaimed that it was a mistake to spare so many. But he was +a soldier, and did not duly weigh the claims of agriculture. + +The choice was open to Germany; Germany chose, and let the Armenian +massacres go on. But she was in a difficulty. What if the Turkish +Government retorted (perhaps it did so retort), 'You are not consistent. +Why do you mind about the slaughter of a few Armenians? What about +Belgium and your atrocities there?' + +And all the ingenuity of the Wilhelmstrasse would not be able to find an +answer to that. + +I do not say that Germany wanted the massacres, for she did not. She +wanted more agricultural labour, and I think that, if only for that +reason, she deprecated them. But she allowed them to go on when it was +in her power to stop them, and all the perfumes of Arabia will not wash +clean her hand from that stinking horror. + +Here, then, are some of the problems which those who, at the end of the +war, will have to deal with the problem of Turkey must tackle. It is +just as well to recognise that at the present moment Turkey is virtually +and actually a German colony, and the most valuable colony that Germany +has ever had. It will not be enough to limit, or rather abolish, the +supremacy of Turkey over aliens and martyrised peoples; it will be +necessary first to abolish the supremacy of Germany over Turkey. To do +this the victory of our Allied Nations must be complete, and Germany's +octopus envelopment of Turkish industries severed. Otherwise we shall +immediately be confronted with a Germany that already reaches as far as +Mesopotamia. That is done now; and that, before there can come any +permanent peace for Europe, must be undone. Nothing less than the +complete release of that sucker and tentacle embrace will suffice. + + +NOTE + +As throwing a sidelight on the German complicity in the Armenian +massacres, the following is of interest. It is known that when +Metternich succeeded Wangenheim as German Ambassador in Constantinople, +he brought with him a speech, written in Berlin, which, by the Kaiser's +orders, he was to read when presenting his credentials to the Sultan. +This contained a sentence which implied that Germany had been unable to +stop the Armenian massacres. Talaat refused to allow the speech to be +read, obviously because it threw the responsibility of the massacres on +to the Turks, whereas the accepted opinion in Turkey was that they took +place with the connivance and even at the instigation of the Germans. +Eventually a compromise was arrived at, and the speech _in toto_ was +read privately, the part referring to the Armenian massacre not being +published.... It is a pity that Germany is always found out.... + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VI_ + + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +Let us commit the crime of _lese-majeste_, and assume (though the +Emperor Wilhelm II. has repeatedly announced the contrary) that Germany +is not at the conclusion of the European War to find herself in +possession of the world. She has prepared her plans in anticipation of +the auspicious event; in fact she has had a most interesting map of +Europe produced which, except by its general shape, is scarcely +recognisable. The printing of it, it is true, was a little premature, +for it shows what Europe was to have been like in 1916, and the +apportionments are not borne out by facts. But assuming that there is +some radical error about it all from her point of view, and assuming +that there will not be either a conclusive peace favourable to Prussian +interests, or even an inconclusive peace, but one in which the Allies +will be able to dictate and enforce their own terms, the magnitude of +the problems that will await their decision may well appal the most +ingenious of their statesmen. And of all those problems none, it is safe +to prophesy, will be found more difficult of solution than that which +will deal with the future of the corrupt and barbarous Government which +has for centuries made hell of the Ottoman Empire. We know more or less +what will happen to Alsace and Lorraine, to Belgium, to the Trentino, +because in those cases the claims of one or other of our Allies to +demand a particular settlement are quite certain to be agreed to by +those not so immediately and vitally concerned. But in the Balkans these +problems will be more complicated because of conflicting interests, and +most complicated of all will they be in Turkey. One thing, however, is +certain, that there can be no going back to the conditions that existed +there before the war. + +Ever since the Osmanlis came out of remoter Asia into the Nearer East +and into Europe, the government of their Empire has gone from bad to +worse. In the early days, as we have seen, their policy was to absorb +the strength of their subject peoples by incorporating the youth of them +into the Turkish army, by giving them Turkish wives, and by converting +them to Mohammedanism. Such was the foundation of the Empire and such +its growth. But having absorbed their strength, the Sultan's Government +neglected them until they milked them again. They were allowed to +prosper if they could: all that was demanded of them was a toll of their +strength. They were cattle, and for the right to graze on Turkish lands +they paid back a pail of their milk of manhood. But an empire founded on +such principles contains within it active and prolific seeds of decay, +and, as we have seen, more stringent measures had to be resorted to in +order to preserve the supremacy of the ruling people. Instead of +absorbing their strength, Abdul Hamid hit upon the new method of killing +them, so that the Turks should still maintain their domination. And the +policy set on foot by him was developed but a few years ago into a +scheme of slaughter, which in atrocity has far surpassed the killings of +Attila, of whom the Nationalist poet sings, or even the designs of the +deposed Sultan. The Armenian nation, with the exception of such part of +it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been exterminated, and +similar measures have been planned and indeed begun, against the Greeks, +the Arabs, and the Jews. + +In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European War, the +policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has been at length +abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared in their joint note to +President Wilson their aims in the war, and for those they have pledged +themselves to fight until final and complete victory wreathes their +arms. Among these aims are:-- + +(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous +tyranny of the Turks. + +(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which has proved +itself so radically alien to Western civilisation. + +For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called the Concert +of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the Balance of Power, kept +Turkey together, and in particular has maintained the centre of its +government at Constantinople simply because the Balance of Power would +be upset if anybody else held the key of the straits that separate +Russia from the Mediterranean. England, above all others, was +instrumental in preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must +confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a century. It +is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse of that which for so +many decades has been the keystone of our ruling with regard to our +Eastern Empire, but the arch has collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone +out, and all our efforts to exclude Russia from free access to the +Mediterranean have only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds +Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The situation, as +it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse than it could have been +for a century back, if at any moment during those hundred years we had +done what we always ought to have done, and declared that the +anachronism of Turkey being in Europe was more intolerable than anything +that could happen in consequence of her expulsion. But we have +acknowledged that now. We have also acknowledged the even greater +anachronism of Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any +of those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman Empire, for +the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that the remedy of these +two monstrous abuses forms an essential part of their aim in the war, +which in costliness of life and of treasure has already far exceeded any +cataclysm that could have come to Europe through its doing its clear and +Christian duty with regard to Turkey during the preceding hundred years. +And among the benefits which eventually mankind will reap in the fields +that have been sown by the blood of the slain will be the fact that the +Confusion of Europe will have accomplished a task which the Concert of +Europe was too craven of consequences to undertake; and Constantinople +and the subject peoples of the Turks will have passed from the yoke of +that murderous tyranny for ever. + +We will take these two avowed aims of the Allies in order, and first try +to draw (though with diffident pencil) some sketch of what will be the +confines of the Ottoman Empire, when we pluck the fruits of the great +crusade against the barbarism of Turkey and of Germany. It is quite +useless to attempt to keep the map as it was, and peg out claims within +the Empire where we shall proclaim that Arabs and Greeks and Armenians +shall live in peace, for it is exactly that plan which has formed a +century's failure. At the International Congress of Berlin, for +instance, a solemn pact was entered into by Turkey for the reform of the +Armenian vilayets. She carried out her promise by slaughtering every +Armenian male, and outraging every Armenian woman who inhabited them. +The _soi-disant_ protectorate of Crete was not a whit more successful in +securing for the Cretans a tolerable existence, and the Allies had to +bring it to an end twenty years ago, and free them from the execrable +yoke; while finally the repudiation by Turkey of the Capitulations, +which provided some sort of guarantee for the safety of foreign peoples +in Turkey, has shown us, if further proof was needed, the value of +covenants with the Osmanli. It must be rendered impossible for Turkey to +repeat such outrages: the soil where her alien peoples dwell must be +hers no more, and any Turkish aggression on that soil must be, _ipso +facto_, an act of war against the European Power under the protection of +whom such a province is placed. + +The difficulty of this part of the problem is not so great as might at +first appear. We do not, when we come to look at it in detail, find such +a conflict of interests as would seem to face us on a general view. Even +the precarious Balance of Power was not upset by a quantity of similar +adjustments made by the Concert of Europe during the last hundred years. +The Powers freed Serbia, giving Turkey first a suzerainty over her, and +finally abolishing that: they freed Bulgaria, they freed Greece, Eastern +Rumelia, Macedonia, Albania. But, as by some strange lapse of humanity, +they always regarded the subject peoples of Turkey in Asia as more +peculiarly Turkish, as if at the Bosporus a new moral geography began, +and massacre in Asia was comparatively venial as compared with massacre +in Europe. But now the Allies have said that there must be no more +massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, it will +be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the alien peoples +dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the protectorate of one or +other of the allied nations. In most cases we shall find that there is a +protecting Power more or less clearly indicated, whose sphere of +interest is obviously concerned with one or other of these new and +independent provinces. + +The alien race which for the last thirty years has suffered the most +atrociously from Turkish inhumanity is that of the Armenians, and it is +fitting to begin our belated campaign of liberation with it. If the +reader will turn to the map at the end of this book, he will see that +the district marked Armenia lies at the north-west corner of the old +Ottoman Empire, and extends across its frontiers into Russian +Trans-Caucasia. That indicates the district which once was peopled by +Armenians. To-day, owing to the various Armenian massacres, the latest +of which, described in another chapter, was by far the most appalling, +such part of Armenia as lies in the Ottoman Empire is practically, and +probably absolutely, depopulated of its Armenian inhabitants. Such as +survive, apart from the women whose lives were spared on their +professing Islamism and entering Turkish harems, have escaped beyond the +Russian frontier, and are believed to number about a quarter of a +million. In the meantime their homes have partly been destroyed and +partly occupied by mouhadjirs from Thrace, and by the Kurds who were +largely instrumental in butchering them. Their lands have been +appropriated haphazardly, by, any who laid hands on them. + +Here the problem is of no great difficulty. The robber-tenants must be +evicted, and the remnant of the Armenians repatriated. Without +exception they escaped into Trans-Caucasia from villages and districts +near the frontier, else they could never have escaped from the pursuing +Turks and Kurds. Naturally, this remnant of a people will not nearly +suffice to fill their entire province, but in order to satisfy the +claims of justice at all adequately, the whole district of Armenia, as +Armenia was known before its people were exterminated, must be amputated +by a clean cut out of the Ottoman Empire and placed, in an autonomous +condition in a new protected province, which will include all the +vilayets of Armenia. + +There is no doubt about a prosperous future for Armenia if this is done, +and to do less than this would be to fail signally as regards the solemn +promise made by the Allies when they stated to President Wilson their +aims in the war. The Armenians have ever been a thrifty and industrious +people, possessed of an inherent vitality which has withstood centuries +of fiendish oppression. With facilities given them for their +re-settlement, and with foreign protection to establish them, they will, +beyond question, more than hold their own against the Kurds. As a +nation they are, as we have seen, partly agricultural in their pursuits; +but a considerable proportion of them (and these the more intelligent) +are men of business, merchants, doctors, educationalists, and gravitate +to towns. Constantinople, as we shall see, will be open to them again, +where lately they numbered nearly as many as the entire remnant of their +nation numbers now; so, too, will be the cities of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia in the New Turkey which we are attempting to sketch. +They will probably not care to settle in the towns and districts that +will remain in the hands of their late oppressors and murderers. + +In the work of their repatriation none will be more eager to help than +the American missionaries, who, at the time of the last massacre, as so +often before, showed themselves so nobly disregardant of all personal +danger and risk in doing their utmost for their murdered flock, and who +have explicitly declared their intention of resuming their work. With +regard to the eviction of Kurds that will be necessary, it must be +remembered that the Kurd is a trespasser on the plains and towns of +Armenia, and properly belongs to the mountains from which he was +encouraged to descend by the Turks for purposes of massacre. Out of +those towns and plains he must go, either into the mountains of Armenia +from whence he came, or over the frontier of Armenia into the New Turkey +presently to be defined. He must, in fact, be deported, though not in +the manner of the deportations at which he himself so often assisted. + +The Armenians who will thus be reinstated within the boundaries of their +own territory, will be practically penniless and without any of the +means or paraphernalia of life, and the necessary outlay on supplies for +them, and the cost of their rehabilitation would naturally fall on the +protecting Power. They will, however, be free from the taxes they have +hitherto paid to the Turks, and it should not be difficult for them by +means of taxes far less oppressive, to pay an adequate interest on the +moneys expended on them. These would thus take the form of a very small +loan, the whole of which could easily be repaid by the Armenians in the +course of a generation or so. Once back on their own soil, and free from +Turkish tyranny and the possibility of it, they are bound to prosper, +even as they have prospered hitherto in spite of oppressions and +massacres up till the year 1915, when, as we have seen, the liberal and +progressive Nationalists organised and executed the extermination from +which so few escaped. + +It is hardly necessary to point out who the protecting Power would be in +the case of the repatriated Armenians, for none but Russia is either +desirable or possible. With one side along the Russian frontier of +Trans-Caucasia, the New Armenia necessarily falls into the sphere of +Russian influence. + +It has been suggested that not only Armenia proper, but part of Cilicia +should also become a district of the repatriated Armenians, with an +outlet to the sea. But while it is true that complete compensation would +demand this, since Zeitun and other districts in Cilicia were almost +pure Armenian settlements, I cannot think that such a restoration is +desirable. For, in the first place, the extermination of the Zeitunlis +(as carried out by Jemal the Great) was practically complete. All the +men were slaughtered, and it does not seem likely that any of the women +and girls who were deported reached the 'agricultural colony' of +Deir-el-Zor in the Arabian desert. It is therefore difficult to see of +whom the repatriation would consist. In the second place, the New +Armenia will be for several generations to come of an area more than +ample for all the Armenians who have survived the flight into Russia, +and it obviously will give them the best chance of corporate prosperity, +if the whole of them are repatriated in a compact body rather than that +a portion of them should be formed into a mere patch severed from their +countrymen by so large a distance. Another sphere of influence also will +be operating near the borders of Cilicia, and to place the Armenians +under two protecting Powers would have serious disadvantages. In +addition they never were a sea-going people, and I cannot see what +object would be served by giving them a coast-board. In any case, if a +coast-board was found necessary, the most convenient would be the +coast-board of the Black Sea, lying adjacent to their main territory. + +If it seems clear that for New Armenia the proper protecting Power is +Russia, it is no less clear that for the freed inhabitants of New Syria, +Arabs and Greeks alike, the proper protecting Power is France. +Historically France's connection with Syria dates from the time of the +Crusades in 1099; it has never been severed, and of late years the ties +between the two countries have been both strengthened and multiplied. +The Treaties of Paris, of London, of San Stefano, and of Berlin have all +recognised the affiliation; so, too, from an ecclesiastical standpoint, +have the encyclicals of Leo XIII. in 1888 and 1898. Similarly, it was +France who intervened in the Syrian massacres of 1845, who landed troops +for the protection of the Maronites in 1860, and established a +protectorate of the Lebanon there a few years later, which lasted up +till the outbreak of the European War. France was the largest holder, as +she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the harbour of +Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most flourishing ports +of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a French enterprise. And perhaps +more important than all these, as a link between Syria and France, has +been the educational penetration which France has effected there. What +the American missionaries did for Armenia, France has done for Syria, +and according to a recent estimate, of the 65,000 children who attended +European schools throughout Syria, not less than 40,000 attended French +schools. When we consider that that proportion has been maintained for +many years in Syria, it can be estimated how strong the intellectual +bond between the Syrian and the French now is. The French language, +similarly, is talked everywhere: it is as current as is modern Greek in +ports of the Levant. + +In virtue of such claims few, if any, would dispute the title of France +to be the protecting Power in the case of Syria. Here there will not +be, as was the case with the Armenians, any work of repatriation to be +done. Such devastation and depopulation as has been wrought by Jemal the +Great, with hunger and disease to help him, was wrought on the spot, +and, though it will take many years to heal the wounds inflicted by that +barbaric plagiarist of Potsdam, it is exactly the deft and practical +sympathy of the French with the race they have so long tended, which +will most speedily bring back health to the Syrians. + +It will be with regard to the geographical limits of a French +protectorate that most difficulty is likely to be experienced; there +will also be points claiming careful solution, as will be seen later, +with regard to railway control. Northwards and eastwards the natural +delimitations seem clear enough: northwards French Syria would terminate +with, and include, the province of Aleppo, eastwards the Syrian desert +marks its practical limits, the technical limit being supplied by the +course of the Euphrates. But southwards there is no such natural line of +demarcation; the Arab occupation stretches right down till it reaches +the Hedjaz, which already has thrown off the Turkish yoke and, under the +Shereef of Mecca, declared its independence. Inset into this long strip +of territory lies Palestine. + +Now to make one single French protectorate over this very considerable +territory seems at first sight a large order, but the objections to any +other course are many and insuperable. Should the line of French +influence be drawn farther north than the Hedjaz, under what protection +is the intervening territory to be left? At present it is Turkish, but +inhabited by Arabs, and, unless the Allies revoke the fulness of their +declaration not to leave alien peoples under the 'murderous tyranny' of +the Turks, Turkish it cannot remain. But both by geographical situation +and by racial interest, it belongs to French-protected Syria, and there +seems no answer to the question as to what sphere of influence it comes +under if not under the French. Just as properly, if we take this view of +the question, the Sinaitic Peninsula, largely desert, would fall to +Egypt, the French protectorate being defined westwards at Akabah. That +the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez should not be under the same +control as the Western has always been an anomaly, admitted even by the +sternest opponents of the status of Egypt; and in the absence of any +canal corresponding to that of Suez, and debouching into the Red Sea +_via_ the Gulf of Akabah, the most advanced champion of French influence +in the Near East would see no objection to this rectified frontier. +There is no question of competition involved. The proposed change is but +a rational rectification of the present status. + +This scheme of delimitation leaves Palestine inset into the French +protectorate of Syria, and it is difficult to see to whom the +protectorate of Palestine should be properly assigned except to France. +Italy has no expansive ambitions in that sector of the Mediterranean; +England's national sphere of influence in this partition of the +districts now occupied by alien peoples in the Ottoman Empire lies +obviously elsewhere; and since the Jews, who settled in ever-increasing +numbers in Palestine before the war, and will assuredly continue to +settle there again, come and will come as refugees from the Russian +Pale, it would be clearly inadvisable to assign to Russia the +protectorate of her own refugees. The only other alternative would be to +create an independent Palestine for the Jews, and the reasons against +that are overwhelming. It would be merely playing into the hands of +Germany to make such an arrangement. For the last thirty years Germany +has watched with personal and special interest this immigration of Jews +into Palestine, seeing in it not so much a Jewish but a German +expansion. Indeed, when, in the spring of this year, as we have noticed, +a massacre and deportation of Jews was planned and begun by Jemal, +Germany so far reversed her usual attitude towards massacres in general, +and her expressed determination never to interfere in Turkey's internal +affairs, as to lodge a peremptory protest, and of course got the +persecution instantly stopped. Her reason was that Pan-Turkish 'ideals' +(the equivalent for the massacre of alien people) had no sort of +meaning in Palestine. But the Pan-Germanic ideals had a great deal of +meaning in Palestine, as Dr. Davis Treitsch _(Die Jueden der Tuerkei)_ +very clearly states. For 'as a result of the war,' he tells us, 'there +will be an emigration of East-European Jews on an unprecedented scale + ... the disposal of the East European Jews will be a problem for Germany +(and) Germans will be only too glad to find a way out in the emigration +of those Jews to Turkey, a solution extraordinarily favourable to the +interests of all _three [sic]_ parties concerned. There are grounds for +talking of a German protectorate over the whole of Jewry.' + +Now this is explicit enough; Germany clearly contemplated a protectorate +over Palestine, and if the Jews who are German-speaking Jews are left +independent, there is nothing more certain than that, after the war, her +penetration of Palestine will instantly begin. These colonists are, and +will be, in want of funds for the development and increase of their +cultivated territories, and when we consider the names of the prominent +financiers in the Central Empires, Mendelssohn, Hirsch, Goldsmid, +Bleichroeder, Speyer, to name only a few, we cannot be in much doubt as +to the quarter from which that financial assistance will be forthcoming, +on extremely favourable terms. It is safe to prophesy that, if Palestine +is given independence without protectorate, in three years from the end +of the war it will be under not only a protectorate, but a despotism as +complete as ever ruled either Turkey or Prussia. True it is that the +Zionist movement will offer, even as it has offered in the past, a +strenuous opposition to Germanisation, but it would be crediting it with +an inconceivable vitality to imagine that it will be able to resist the +blandishments that Germany is certainly prepared to shower on it. For +great as is the progress the Jewish settlers made in Palestine during +the twenty or twenty-five years before the war, and strong as is the +spirit of Zionism, the emigrants do not as yet number more than about +120,000, nor have they under crops more than ten per cent. of the +cultivated land of Palestine. They are as yet but settlers, and their +work is before them. If left without a protectorate they will not be +without a protectorate long, but not such an one as the Allies desire. A +protectorate there must be, and no reason is really of weight against +that protectorate being French. Let that, then, extend from the +Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from Alexandretta to where the +Hedjaz already prospers in its self-proclaimed independence. It will be +completely severed from Turkey by tracts under protection of one or +other of the Allied Powers, any expedition through which would be an act +of war. + +The Euphrates, then, will form the eastern boundary of the French +protectorate: it will also, it is hoped, form the western boundary of +the English protectorate, which we know as Mesopotamia. Just as no other +Power has any real claim to Armenia, except Russia, just as Syria can +fall to no other than France, it seems equally clear that the proper +sphere of English influence is in this plain that stretches southwards +from the semicircle of hills where the two great rivers approach each +other near Diarbekr to the head of the Persian Gulf. As Germany very +well knows, it is intimately concerned with our safe tenure of India, +and the hold the Germans hoped to gain over it, and have for ever lost, +by their possession of the Bagdad Railway was vital to their dreams of +world-conquest. Equally vital to England was it that Germany should +never get it. But its importance to us as a land-route to India is by no +means the only reason why an English sphere of influence is indicated +here: it is the possibilities it harbours, which, as far as can be seen, +England is the only Power capable of developing, that cause us to put in +a claim for its protectorate which none of our Allies will dispute. + +To restore Mesopotamia to the rank it has held, and to the rank it still +might hold among the productive districts of the East, there is needed a +huge capital for outlay, and a huge population of workers. Even Germany, +in her nightmare of world-dominion, from which she shall be soon dragged +screaming-awake, never formulated a scheme for the restoration of +Southern Mesopotamia to its productive pre-eminence, and never so much +as contemplated it, except as an object that would be possible of +realisation after the Empire of India had fallen over-ripe into her +pelican mouth. Therein she was perfectly right--she usually is right in +these dreams of empire in so far as they are empirical--for she seems +dimly to have conjectured in these methodical visions, that India was +the key to unlock Southern Mesopotamia. But nowhere can I find that she +guessed it: I only guess that she guessed it. + +This problem of capital outlay and of the necessary man-power for work +and restoration applies exclusively to Southern Mesopotamia, which we +may roughly define as the district stretching from Samara on the Tigris +and Hit on the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Northern Mesopotamia, as +Dr. Rohrbach points out in his _Bagdadbahn_, needs only the guarantee of +security of life and property to induce the Kurds to descend from the +hills and the Bedouin Arabs to settle down there; and by degrees, under +a protectorate that insures them against massacre and confiscation of +property, there seems no doubt that the area of cultivation will spread +and something of the ancient prosperity return. The land is immensely +fertile: it is only Ottoman misrule, which here, as everywhere else, has +left desolation in the place of prosperity and death in place of life. +The rainfall is adequate, the climate suitable to those who will +naturally spread there: it needs only freedom from the murderous tyranny +that has bled it for centuries past, to guarantee its future prosperity. + +But Southern Mesopotamia is a totally different proposition. The land +lies low between the rivers, and, though of unparalleled fertility, +yields under present conditions but a precarious livelihood to its +sparse population. For nine months of the year it is a desert, for three +months when its rivers are in flood, a swamp. Once, as we all know, it +was the very heart of civilisation, and from its arteries flowed out the +life-blood of the world. Rainfall was scarcely existent, any more than +it is existent in Southern or Upper Egypt; but in the days of Babylon +the Great there were true rulers and men of wisdom over these +desiccated regions, who saw that every drop of water in the river, that +now pours senselessly through swamp and desert into the sea, was a grain +of corn or a stalk of cotton. They dug canals, they made reservoirs, and +harnessed like some noble horse of the gods the torrents that now gallop +unbridled through dreary deserts. The black land, the Sawad, was then +the green land of waving corn, where three crops were annually harvested +and the average yield was two hundredfold of the seed sown. The wheat +and barley, so Herodotus tells us, were a palm-breadth long in the +blade, and millet and sesame grew like trees. And in these details the +revered Father of Lies seems to have spoken less than the truth, for the +statistics we get elsewhere more than bear out his accounts of its +amazing fertility. From its wealth before his day had arisen the might +of Babylon, and for centuries later, while the canals still regulated +the water supply, it remained the granary of the world. More than a +thousand years after Herodotus there were over 12,500,000 acres in +cultivation, and the husbandmen thereof with the dwellers in its cities +numbered 5,000,000 men. Then came the Arab invasion, which was bad +enough, but colossally worse was the invasion of the Osmanli. Truly 'a +fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell +therein.' + +But the potentiality for production of that great alluvial plain is not +diminished; the Turks could not dispose of that by massacre, as a means +of weakening the strength of their subject peoples. It is still there, +ready to respond to the spell of the waters of Tigris and Euphrates, +which once, when handled and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of +the Lord. + +Not long before the present European War Sir William Willcocks, under +whose guidance the great modern irrigation works at Assouan were +constructed, was appointed adviser to the Ottoman Ministry of Public +Works, and his report on the Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in +1911. He tells us that the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable +of easy levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic +scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the +refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we need not +go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly conservative basis, +give the following results. He proposes to restore, of course with +modern technical improvements, the old system of canals, and, allowing +for interest on loans, estimates the total expense at L26,000,000 (or +the cost of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of +the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no enlargement in +detail and no comment. + +But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the irrigation works +is easy, the profits are safe so long as the Tigris and 'the ancient +river,' the river Euphrates, run their course. But all the irrigation +works in the world will not raise a penny for the investor or a grain +for the miller unless there are men to sow and gather the crops. A +million are necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is +'Egypt and India.' + +This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and its future +must be in English hands, why no other country can undertake it with +hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. Rohrbach, whose _Bagdadbahn_ I +have quoted before, is forced to acknowledge that there is no solution +to the man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans from +other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak prevail.' It is +true that he starts upon the assumption that Mesopotamia will remain +Turkish (under a German protectorate, as we read between his lines), +with which we must be permitted to disagree, but his conclusion is quite +correct. Even under German protection he realises that citizens of +well-governed states will not flock by the million to put themselves +under Turkish control, and he dismisses as inadequate the numbers of +Syrians, Arabs, Armenians and Jews who can be transported to Mesopotamia +from inside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Their numbers are even +more inadequate since the Armenian massacres permitted by Dr. Rohrbach's +Fatherland, and even he cannot picture a million of his own countrymen +forsaking the beer-gardens for summers in the Sawad. He does not +positively state our answer, that it is from India and Egypt that the +man-power will be supplied, but, as mentioned before, I think he guesses +it. His prophetic gifts are not convincing enough to himself to let him +state the glorious future, when India and Egypt shall become German, but +that, I feel sure, is his vision: 'he sees it, but not now; he beholds +it, but not nigh.' + +But we can give the answer which he does not quite like to state, since +for the English it is clearly more easily realisable. The native labour +we can supply from Egypt and India, especially India, will furnish a +million labourers, and, if we wished, two millions without difficulty. +But no Power except England can furnish it. And that, I submit, is the +solution of the problem of Mesopotamia; a solution well within the power +of English enterprise to attain in the hands of such men as have already +bridled the Nile, the water-horsemen of the world. And I cannot do +better, in trying to convey the spirit in which this work of +reclamation should be undertaken, than by quoting some very noble words +from Sir William Willcocks's report, in which he speaks of the +desolation that has come to this garden of fruitfulness through wicked +stewardship. + +'The last voyage I made before coming to this country was up the Nile +from Khartoum to the Equatorial lakes. In this most desperate and +forbidding region I was filled with pride to think I belonged to a race +whose sons, even in this inhospitable waste of waters, were struggling +in the face of a thousand discouragements to introduce new forest trees +and new agricultural products and ameliorate in some degree the +conditions of life of the naked and miserable inhabitants. How should I +have felt, if in traversing the deserts and swamps which to-day +represent what was the richest and most famous tract in the world, I had +thought that I was the scion of a race in whose hands God has placed, +for hundreds of years, the destinies of this great country, and that my +countrymen could give no better account of their stewardship than the +exhibition of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste +themselves in the sea for nine months of the year, and desolating +everything in their way for the remaining three? No effort that Turkey +can make can be too great to roll away the reproach of those parched and +weary lands, whose cry ascends to heaven.' + +But the harvests of Mesopotamia, when gathered in, must needs be +transported, and for that railways are necessary. Water transport would, +of course, carry them easily down to the Persian Gulf, but the supply +will be mainly, if not wholly, wanted westwards, and it must be conveyed +to the shores of the Mediterranean. Already, in preparation for +world-conquest, Germany has proceeded far with her construction of the +Bagdad Railway, which was intended, after her absorption of Turkey, to +link up Berlin with her next Oriental objective, namely, India; the +Taurus has been tunnelled, the Euphrates bridged, and but for a hiatus +of a few miles the line is practically complete from Constantinople into +Northern Mesopotamia. But its route was chosen for German strategic +reasons, for the linking up of Berlin with Constantinople and Bagdad. +This, it may be permitted to say, does not form part of the schemes of +the Allies: it is to snap rather than weld such links that they have +taken the field. What we want in the matter of railway transport for the +harvests of Mesopotamia, and generally for our Eastern communications, +is not a line that passes through Turkish and German soil, and +terminates at Berlin, but one which, after the directest possible +land-route, reaches the Mediterranean and terminates in suitable ports. + +The reader therefore is requested to _unthink_ the present Bagdad +Railway altogether, to 'scrap' it in his mind, as it will be probably +scrapped on the map, since it is utterly useless for our purposes. For +taking Aleppo as (roughly) the half-way house in the existent line, we +find that the western half of it lies in Asia Minor, in territory which, +as we shall see, will remain Turkish, while the eastern half of it makes +a long detour instead of striking directly for Bagdad. After our +experience with Turkey there is nothing less conceivable than that we +should allow a single mile of our new Mesopotamia Railway to run +through the territory of the Turks, for who knows that she might not +(say when harvests are ripe and ready for delivery), on any arbitrary +pretext, close or destroy the line, even as before now she has closed +the Dardanelles? Besides, for our purposes, a line that goes to +Constantinople (in whosoever hands Constantinople may be after the war) +is out of the way and altogether unsuitable. Eastwards, again, from +Aleppo the present Bagdad line is circuitous and indirect, admirably +adapted to the German purposes for which it was constructed, but utterly +unadapted to ours. + +Let us then 'scrap' the existent Bagdad route altogether, and consider +not what the Germans want, but what we want, which, as has been already +stated, is a direct land communication with suitable Mediterranean +ports. Of those there are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and +Beirut, of which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and +potentiality of increased importance. Two possible routes therefore +would seem to suggest themselves, one running from Alexandretta to +Aleppo, and thence following pretty closely the course of the Euphrates +till it reaches Hit, and from there striking directly to Bagdad. Aleppo +is already connected with Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of +Tripoli), and also with Beirut by branch lines making a junction at +Homs, and thus all those ports will be brought together on one system. +But if the reader will glance at the map, he will see that by far the +most direct communication with Bagdad would be to run the railway direct +from there to Homs, thus making Homs rather than Aleppo the central +junction of the system. From Homs lines would run northward to Aleppo, +due west to Tripoli, and south-west to Beirut. Either of those routes, +in any case, would be infinitely preferable to the long loop which the +present Bagdad Railway traverses, as planned on German lines and for +German requirements. The new railway will thus lie exclusively in +territory under French and English protectorate, and will probably be +their joint enterprise and property. + +Prospectively then, as regards the fulfilment of the solemn pledge of +the Allies to liberate subject peoples from the murderous tyranny of the +Turks, we have discussed the future of Armenia, of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia. All those are well defined districts, and the +demarcation of their respective protectorates should not present great +difficulties. But there remains, before we pass on to the problem of +Constantinople, a further district less easily defined, largely +inhabited by European peoples whose liberty in the future we are pledged +to secure. This is the Mediterranean coastline to the south and west of +Asia Minor, the towns of which have been so extensively peopled and made +prosperous by Greeks and Italians. Similarly among those of our European +Allies who are desirous and capable of Eastern expansion, there remains +one, Italy, whose rights to partake in this Turkish partition we have +not yet considered. In the shifting kaleidoscope of national +war-politics, it seems at the moment of writing by no means impossible +that Greece, having at length got rid of a treacherous and unstable +Reuben of a monarch, may redeem her pledge to Serbia, in which case, no +doubt, she too would state the terms of her desired and legitimate +expansion. But these would more reasonably be concerned with the +redistribution of the Balkan Peninsula, which does not come within the +scope of this book, and we may prophesy without fear of invoking the +Nemesis that so closely dogs the heels of seers, that Italy will +legitimately claim (or perhaps has already claimed) the protectorate of +this valuable littoral. Certain it is that, when peace returns, the +large population of Greeks and Italians once resident (and soon again to +be) on these coasts, must be given the liberty and security which they +will never enjoy so long as they remain in Turkish hands, and the hands +that have earned the right to be protecting Power are assuredly Italian. +Along the south coast a line including the Taurus range would seem to +suggest a natural frontier inland from Adana on the east to the +south-west corner of Asia Minor, and from there a similar strip would +pass up the coast as far as, and inclusive of, Smyrna. That at least +Italy has every right to expect, and there seems no great fear that +among the International Councils there will arise a dissentient voice. +The inland boundary on the west coast is the difficult section of this +delimitation, and into the details of that it would be both rash and +inexpedient to enter. + + +II + +We pass, then, to the second avowed object of the Allies, namely, the +expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman rule, which has proved itself so +radically alien to Western civilisation. This must be taken to include +not only the expulsion of the Turkish control from Thrace and +Constantinople, but from the eastern side as well of the Bosporus, the +Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. At no future time must Turkey be in +a position to command even partially a single yard of that momentous +channel through which alone our Allies, Russia and Rumania, have access +to the Mediterranean. Though this was not formally stated in the Allies' +reply to President Wilson, it is clearly part and parcel of the object +in view, for while the Ottoman Empire retains the smallest control on +either side of either of the Straits, she is so far able to interfere in +European concerns, in which she must never more have a hand. The east +shore, then, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora, as well as the west, +must be under the control of a Power, or a group of Powers, not alien to +Western civilisation. Germany and her allies therefore, no less than +Turkey, must be excluded from the guardianship of the Straits. + +As we have had previous occasion to note, this ejection of the Turkish +power from Constantinople is the absolute reversal of European and, in +especial, of English policy for the last hundred years. No crime that +the Ottoman Government could commit, no act of barbarism, would ever +persuade us to do away with the anachronism of Turkey's existence in +Europe; but at last the seismic convulsion of the war has knocked this +policy into a heap of disjected ruins, and it can never be rebuilt again +on the old lines. For among our other avowed objects in prosecuting the +war to its victorious end, we have pledged ourselves to uphold the +right which all peoples, whether small or great, have to the enjoyment +of full security and free economic development. But while Turkey can +close the Straits at her own arbitrary will, or at the bidding of a +superior and malevolent Power, and block the passage of ships from +Russian and Rumanian ports into the Mediterranean, the economic +development of both these countries is seriously menaced. Three times +within the last six years has she exercised that right, and while she +holds the shores of the Straits she can at any moment blockade all +southern Russian ports. That such power should be in the hands of any +nation is highly undesirable; that it should be in the hands of a +corrupt despotism like Turkey, especially now that Germany, as things +stand, can dictate to Turkey when and what she pleases, is a thing +unthinkable by the most improvident of statesmen. Already we have paid +dearly enough for the pusillanimity of a hundred years: it is impossible +that we should ever allow a similar bill to be again presented. +Whatever be the guardianship of the Straits, whoever the holder of +Constantinople, it will not be Turkey. + +At the beginning of the war, and indeed till after the revolution in +Russia, it was announced and stated as an axiom that on the conclusion +of peace, Russia should be the door-keeper of what after all is her own +lodge-gate. Subsequently, in the unhappy splits and disintegration of +her Government, it was announced that she favoured peace without +annexation--in other words, that she neither claimed nor desired the +guardianship of Constantinople. But I think we should be utterly wrong +if we regarded that as an expression of the will of the Russian people: +it is far more probable that it was the expression of the will of +Germany, directly inspired by German influence with a view to concluding +a separate peace with Russia. As we have seen, it had its due effect in +Turkey, and Talaat Bey gave vent to pious ejaculations of thanksgiving, +that now all cause of quarrel with Russia was removed, and Turkey and +she could be friends. It is possible that when out of the confused +cries there again rises from Russia the clear call of the people's +voice, we shall find her wishing to set in order her own house before +she projects herself on new missions, but, as far as the manifesto of +'peace without territorial annexation' goes, we shall be wise to regard +it for the present with the profoundest suspicion. It sounds far more +like the tones of the Central European wolf than those of Little Red +Riding Hood's proper grandmother. + +But be Russia's decision what it may, the Turk will hold sway no longer +in Thrace or Constantinople, or on the shores of the Straits of the Sea +of Marmora. There is, of course, no question of deporting the whole of +the Turkish population that lives in those regions, nor would it be +desirable, even if it were possible, to realise Gladstone's robust +vision of seeing every Turk, 'bag and baggage,' clear out from the +provinces they have desolated and profaned. But if not under Russia, +then under the joint control of certain of the Allied Powers there will +be a complete reconstruction of the administration of those districts. +The headquarters of the protectorate will doubtless be at +Constantinople, which will be reorganised somewhat on the lines of the +Treaty Port of Shanghai, and will be open to the ships of all nations. +The security of the town must be assured by a military garrison either +of mixed troops of the controlling nations, or possibly by a rotation of +troops drawn from the armies of each in turn. More important even than +this will be the adequate control of the Straits by sea. A naval base +must be formed, which by the gospel of the freedom of the seas (but not +according to St. Goeben and the submarine disciples) will constitute a +patrolling police force of the waters. Whether the system of +fortifications and defences that lately rendered the Dardanelles +impregnable shall be retained or not is a question demanding the most +careful consideration. Some will hold that they should be maintained in +order to insure that none but the guarantors of the freedom of the +Straits shall ever take possession of them: others that they shall be +utterly dismantled and destroyed, so that the closing of the Straits +shall be an impossibility. The matter really turns on the question as to +the extent to which the Allies will have the prudence to cut Germany's +claws when the war is over. It is eminently to be hoped that they will +be cut so short that never again will they be able to show those +chiselled talons beyond her velvet--that sense, in fact, will allow +sentiment no word to say. Unfortunately, there are a great many people +the basis of whose character consists of a washy confidence in the good +intentions of everybody. Most mistakenly they call it Christianity. + +Here, then, has been outlined the effect of the Allies' declared aims. +Such territories as Turkey holds in Europe, such control as she +possesses over the free passage of the Straits must pass from her, and +the alien peoples, who for centuries have fainted and bled underneath +her infamous yoke, must be led out of the land of bondage. As we have +seen throughout preceding chapters, it was the fixed policy of the +Ottoman Government to rid itself of their presence, and already it has +gone far in its murderous mission. Indeed the avowed aims of the +Allies, when accomplished, will do that work for her, for the Allies are +determined to remove those peoples from Turkey. The difference of +execution, however, consists in this, that they will not remove Arabs +and Greeks and Italians and Jews, as Turkey has already done with the +Armenians by the simple process of massacres, but by a process no less +simple, namely, of taking out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire +the districts where such peoples dwell. The Allies will accomplish, in +fact, for the Turks that policy of Ottomanisation which was the aim of +Abdul Hamid, and has been the aim of his more murderous successors. +Turkey shall henceforth be for the Turks: she shall no more be in +'danger' from the defenceless nations, who at present exist within her +borders. The Sultan of Turkey, in some year of grace now not far +distant, will find that his Ottomanisation has been done for him, and, +though his realm is curtailed, he will have his rest broken no more by +the thought of Arab risings, nor will he have to devise measures that +will solve the Arab question. Except for a strip along the west and +south coast, all Asia Minor and Anatolia will be his from the Black Sea +to the Mediterranean, but Syria, Armenia, the coast of Asia Minor, +Palestine, and Mesopotamia shall have passed from him. It is no +dismemberment of an Empire that the Allies contemplate, for they cannot +dismember limbs that never belonged to the real trunk. It was a despotic +military control that the Osmanlis had established, they always regarded +their subject peoples as aliens, whom they did not scruple to destroy if +they exhibited symptoms of progress and civilisation. Henceforth the +Turkish Government shall govern Turks, and Turks alone. That for many +years has been its aim, and, by the disastrous dispensation of fate, it +has been largely able to realise its purpose. Now, though by different +methods, the Allies will see thorough accomplishment of it. There will +be no question, of course, of turning out or of deporting Turks who live +in Syria, in Armenia, in Constantinople, for the ways of the Allies are +not those of Talaat and Enver and Jemal the Great. Where to-day Turks +dwell, there shall they continue to dwell, but they must dwell there in +peace in equal liberties and rights with the once-subject peoples whom +the Allies shall have delivered. If they do not like that they can +migrate, not by forced marches and under the guardianship of murderous +Kurds, but in protection and security, to the lands where they can still +enjoy the beneficent sway of their own governors, and be Ottomanised to +the top of their bent. But Syrians and Armenians and Greeks and Jews +will be Ottomanised no longer. + +The Turk was always a fighter, disciplined and courageous, and he has +never lost that virtue of valour. But he has been a fighter because he +has always lived under a military despotism which demanded his services, +and it is much to be doubted whether his qualities in this regard will +for the future be exercised as they have been in the past. For the +Turkish armies, in so far as they have consisted of Turks, have been +chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of Anatolia, who, +when not summoned to their country's colours, or ordered to maltreat and +massacre, are quiet, rather indolent folk, content to plough their lands +and reap an exiguous but sufficient harvest. And for their lords and +governors, who, until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies, +there will no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as +in the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the necessity +for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit lands which it +governed. But now, instead of having alien and defenceless tribes within +their borders, tribes forbidden to bear arms and chafing at the Turkish +yoke, they will see free peoples under the protectorates of Powers that +are capable of self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment. +Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be established +in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and the New Turkey will be +as powerless for aggression as she will be for defence, should she +provoke attack. But within their borders there may the Osmanlis dwell +secure and undisturbed, so long as they conform to the habits of +civilised people with regard to their neighbours, and it is a question +whether, now that the military despotism which has always misguided the +fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, and no +need of securing security, the nation will not settle down into the +quiet existence of small neutral countries. Perhaps the last chapter of +its savage and blood-stained history is already almost finished, and in +years to come some little light of progress and of civilisation may be +kindled in the abode where the household gods for centuries have been +cruelty and hate. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII_ + + +THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS + +It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' aims as +regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the subject peoples +dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself has to be delivered from +a domination not less barbaric than her own, which, if allowed to +continue, would soon again be a menace to the peace of the world. We +have seen in a previous chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's +nippers, how closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have +to consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, and +what will be the condition of the victim, already bled white, when that +has been done. In the beginning, as we have seen, Germany obtained her +hold by professing a touchingly beautiful and philanthropic desire to +help Turkey to realise her national ideals, and her Pecksniffs, Tekin +Alp and Herr Ernst Marre, were bidden to write parallel histories, the +one describing the aims of the Nationalist party, the other the +benevolent interest which Germany took in them. Occasionally Herr Ernst +Marre could not but remember that he was a German, and permitted us to +see the claws of the cat, without quite letting it out of the bag, but +then he pulled the strings tight again, and only loud comfortable +purrings could be heard, the Prussian musings over the 'liberation' of +Turkey which she was helping to accomplish. But nowadays, so it seems to +me, the strings have been loosened, and the claws and teeth are clearly +visible. It is not so long since Dr. Schnee, Governor of German East +Africa, sent a very illuminating document to Berlin from which I extract +the following:-- + +'Do you consider it possible to make a regulation prohibiting Islam +altogether? The encouragement of pig-breeding among natives is +recommended by experts as an effective means of stopping the spread of +Islam....' + +That seems clear enough, and I can imagine Talaat Bey, with his sword +of honour in his hand, exclaiming with the Oysters in _Alice in +Wonderland_:-- + +'After such kindness that would be + A dismal thing to do.' + +But I am afraid that Germany is contemplating (as indeed she has always +done) a quantity of dismal things to do, and is now, like the Walrus and +the Carpenter, beginning to let them appear. She has taken the Turkish +oysters out for a nice long walk, and when the war is over she proposes +to sit down and eat them. And did she not also interfere in the affair +of Jewish massacres and declare that 'Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of +meaning in Palestine'? That must have been almost an unfriendly act from +Turkey's point of view, for it cannot be stated too clearly that part of +the price which Germany paid for Turkey's entry on her side into the +war, was the liberty, as far as Germany was concerned, of managing her +internal affairs, massacres and the rest, as best suited the damnable +doctrines of Ottomanisation. The other Powers could not interfere, for +they failed to force the Dardanelles, and Germany promised not to. That +promise, of course, was binding on Germany for just so long as it suited +her to keep it, and it suited her to keep it, on the whole, during the +Armenian massacres. And in that matter her refusal to interfere is, +among all her crimes, the very flower and felicity of her vileness. + +Signs are not wanting that Turkey is beginning to realise the position +in which she has placed herself, namely, that of a bankrupt dependant at +the mercy of a nation to whom that quality is a mere derision. Lately a +quantity of small incidents have occurred, such as disputes over the +ownership of properties financed by Germany and the really melodramatic +depreciation in the German coinage, which unmistakably show the swift +ebb of Turkey's misplaced confidence. More significant perhaps than any +is a transaction that took place in May 1917, when Talaat Bey and Enver +Pasha took the whole of their private fortunes out of the Deutsche Bank +in Constantinople, and invested them in two Swiss banks, namely, the +Banque Nationale de Suisse, and the Banque Federale: they drew out also +the whole funds of the Committee of Union and Progress, and similarly +transferred them. This operation was not effected without loss, for in +return for the Turkish L1 they received only thirteen francs. But it is +significant that they preferred to lose over fifty per cent. of their +capital, and have the moiety secure in Switzerland to leaving it in +Constantinople.[1] It is certain therefore that at both ends of the +scale a distrust of German management has begun. A starving population +has wrecked trains loaded with food-stuffs going to Germany, and at the +other end the men with the swords of honour and dishonour deem it wise +to put their money out of reach of the great Prussian cat. That the +Germans themselves are not quite at their ease concerning the security +of their hold may also be conjectured, for they are, as far as possible, +removing Turkish troops from Constantinople, and replacing them with +their own regiments. An instance of this occurred in June 1917, when, +owing to the discontent in the capital, it was found necessary to guard +bridges, residences of Ministers, and Government offices. But instead of +recalling Turkish troops from Galicia to do this, they kept them there +in the manner of hostages, mixed up in German regiments, and sent picked +bodies of German troops to Constantinople. Fresh corps of secret police +have also been formed to suppress popular manifestations. They are +allowed to 'remove' suspects by any means they choose, quite in the old +style of bag and Bosporus, but the organisation of them is German. And +well may the German Government distrust those signs of popular +discontent in a starving population: already the people have awoke to +the fact that the German paper money does not represent its face-value, +and, despite assurances to the contrary, it is at a discount scarcely +credible. Three German L1 notes are held even in Constantinople to be +the equivalent of a gold L1, while in the provinces upwards of five are +asked for, and given, in exchange for one gold pound. It is in vain that +German manifestoes are put forth declaring that all Government offices +will take the notes as an equivalent for gold, for what the people want +is not a traffic with Government offices, but the cash to buy food. Even +more serious is the fact that Austrian and Hungarian directors of banks +will no longer accept these scraps of paper. In vain, too, is it that +the hungry folk see the walls of the 'House of Friendship' rise higher +and higher in Constantinople, for every day they see with starving eyes +the trains loaded with sugar from Konia, and the harvests raised in +Anatolia with German artificial manures guarded by German troops and +rolling westwards to Berlin. According to present estimates the harvest +this year is so vastly more abundant than that of previous years, that +no comparison, as the Minister of Agriculture tells his gratified +Government, is possible. But the poorer classes get no more than the +leavings of it when the armies, which include the German army, have had +their wants supplied. The governing classes, whom it is necessary to +feed, are not yet suffering, for the Germans grant them enough, issuing +rations to such families as are proved adherents of the German-Turkish +combination, and until the pinch of want attacks them we should be +foolishly optimistic if we thought that a starving peasantry would cause +the collapse or the defection of Germany's newest and most valuable +colony. There is enough discontent to make Germany uneasy, but that is +all.[2] Long ago she proved the efficiency of her control, and the +successful pulling of her puppet-strings, and no instance of that is +more complete than the brief story of Yakub Jemil and the extinction of +him and his party, which, though it happened a full year ago, has only +lately been completely transmitted. Yakub Jemil was an influential +commander of a frontier guard near the Black Sea coast. In July 1916 he +went to Constantinople, accompanied by his staff (which included the +informant from whom this account is derived), and, being cordially +received by Enver and Talaat, discussed the situation with them. He +pointed out the demoralising effect of the Armenian massacres, and the +danger of Jemal the Great's attitude towards the Arabs in Syria, +realising, and seeking to make them realise, the stupendous folly of +making enemies of the subject peoples, and urging the re-establishment +of cordial relations between the Turks and them. That, considering that +Enver and Talaat were responsible (under the Germans) for the Armenian +massacres, was a brave outspeaking. He went on to say that Turkey was at +war not on behalf of herself, but on behalf of Germany, and that it +would be wise of the Government to consider the possibility of a +separate peace with the Powers of the Entente. He was heard with +interest, and took his leave. He remained in Constantinople, and his +views obtained him many adherents, not only among Turkish officers whose +sympathies were already alienated from Germany, but among members of the +Committee of Union and Progress. But before long his adherents began to +disappear, and he asked for another interview with Talaat. He was +received, as the informant states, 'with open arms,' for Talaat seized +and held him, called for the guard, and he was searched, and on him were +found certain documents which proved him to hold the views he had +already expressed. That now, was enough. He was 'interrogated' for two +days (interrogation is otherwise called torture), and was then hanged. +Subsequently 111 officers and men in the army also disappeared. Some +were marched into the Khiat Khana Valley, opposite Pera, and were +stabbed: others were sent under escort to the provinces and murdered. No +courts-martial of any kind were held. + +[Footnote 1: Similarly, in October of this year, a new Turkish law was +passed, prohibiting the acquisition of Turkish land by foreign settlers. +This is aimed point-blank at Germany, and has naturally annoyed Berlin +very much.] + +[Footnote 2: The army rations have lately been reduced, each Turkish +soldier receiving daily an oke of bread and a dried mackerel.] + +And should anybody doubt the efficiency of German control in Turkey, and +be disposed to be optimistic about the imminence of Turkey's detachment, +he might do well to ponder that story. + +Meantime the efficacy of our naval blockade is largely discounted by +Germany's new source of supply. Possibly in the ensuing winter of +1917-18 conditions may get unbearable, but if the Turkish Government +only two years ago massacred more than a million of its subjects, it +would be absurd to expect that the starving of a million more would +produce much effect on the Ministers of the Turkish God of Love.[1] The +people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how famine is +decimating England and France, and how the total starvation of those +unfortunate countries is imminent. Indeed, of all the signs of want of +confidence in their German overlords, by far the most promising are the +facts that Talaat and Enver have sent their money out of the country, +and that Jemal the Great has a swelled head. On these facts there is a +certain justifiable optimism to be based. It will do no good to consider +them academically in London; but are there not practical channels to +reach the instincts of the Turkish triumvirate that might be navigated? + +[Footnote 1: The following list of prices in Constantinople is of +interest:-- + + July 1914. July 1917. +Rice, per lb. 2-1/4 d. 3s. 4d. +Milk, per quart 5d. 2s. +Flour, per lb. 3d. 2s. 6d. +Petroleum, per lb. 1d. 4s. 6d. +Pair of boots L1 L8. ] + +We need not trouble ourselves with considering what the Allies will +have to do with the Turkish army when once the end of the war comes, for +the collapse of the military party in Turkey, which owes its whole +vitality to Germany, will be perfect and complete. But the economical +future of Turkey is not so plain: at the present moment its bankruptcy +is total. Early in the war Germany drained it of such bullion as it had, +and has since then advanced it about L150,000,000, which, as far as I +can trace, is entirely in German paper, and must be redeemed in gold at +some period (chiefly two years) after the end of the war. That is +wonderful finance, and one marvels that Turkey could have been so far +blinded as to accept it. But I expect that the swallowing of the first +loan was sweetened by a spoonful of jam of this kind. Germany pointed +out that, though England was quite certainly going to lose the war, she +had issued an immense paper coinage which had all the purchasing power +of gold. Germany, on the other hand, with her dear Ally to help her, was +just as certainly going to win the war. How, then, could there be the +slightest risk of the German paper money depreciating a single piastre +in value? That sounded very good sense to Turkey, who was equally +convinced that she would be on the victorious side (else she would not +have joined it), and down went the loan with a pleasant sensation of +sweetness. A second loan was easily induced by the failure of the +Dardanelles expedition, and about then the 'ignorant' Turkish peasant +began to wonder whether the paper was quite as valuable as gold, and to +prefer gold or even the ordinary silver piastre to its German +equivalent. To counteract that, as we have seen, a law was passed making +it criminal to hoard gold, and, to complete the ruin, the silver piastre +was called in, and a nickel token was substituted.... We can but bow our +heads in reverence of the thoroughness of German swindling. + +Now Turkey is completely bankrupt, and we must ask ourselves why Germany +ever bargained for the repayment in gold, after the war, of the millions +she had lent the Turks in paper, if she knew that Turkey could never +repay her. True, the loans had only cost her the paper the notes were +printed on, so that in no case could she prove a loser, but how could +she be a gainer? The answer to that question shouts at us from every +acre of Turkish soil. The immense undeveloped riches of Turkey supply +the answer. Some indeed are already being developed, and the labour and +most of the materials have been paid for by the German paper notes. +There are the irrigation works at Adana, there is the beet-sugar +industry at Konia, the irrigation works in the Makischelin Valley, the +mineral concessions of the Bagdad Railway, the Haidar Pasha Harbour +concessions, the afforestation scheme near Constantinople, the cotton +industry in Anatolia--there is no end to them. Turkey may not be able to +pay in cash, but over all these concessions already working, and over a +hundred more, of which the concessions have been granted, Germany has a +complete hold, and her victim will pay in minerals and cotton and sugar +and corn. She will pay over and over and over again, as none who have +the smallest knowledge of Kultur-finance can possibly doubt. She is +bled white already, and for the rest of time bloodless and white will +she remain. Only one event can possibly avert her fate, and that is the +victory of the Allies. + +We have been so bold as to assume that this is not an impossible +contingency, and on that assumption there is a brighter future for +Turkey than the Prussian domination could ever bring her. Bankrupt she +is, but, as Germany saw, she is rich in possibilities even with regard +to the restricted territory to which she will surely find herself +limited, and it is a pleasant chance for her that Germany has already +been so busy in developing the resources of Anatolia. For Germany may +safely bet her last piece of paper money that she will not lay a finger +on them. + +The Turkey of the future is to be for the Turks; not for the persecuted +Armenians, nor for the Arabs, nor for the Greeks, and assuredly it is +not to be for the Prussians. While the war lasts, Germany may draw +supplies from the fields her artificial manures have enriched, and from +the acres that her paper money has planted, but after that no more. Her +Ottomanising work will be over. Such development (and it is far from +negligible) as she has done in Syria will be continued under French +protection for the Arabs, such as she has done in Mesopotamia under +English protection, and such as she has done in Anatolia will be +continued by the Turks to drag them out of the utter insolvency that she +has brought them to. Never before has a country so justly and so richly +deserved the repudiation of a debt incurred by the confidence trick. Not +a civilised Government in the world would dream of enforcing payment, +any more than a magistrate would enforce a payment to some +thimble-rigger returning from a race-meeting. + + +The roar of battle still renders inaudible all voices save its own, but +already the dusk begins to gather over the halls where sit the War-lord +and those who, for the realisation of their monstrous dreams, loosed +hell upon the world, and in the growing dusk there begin to steal upon +the wall the letters of pale flame that to them portend the doom, and to +us give promise of dawn. Faintly they can see the legend _Mene, Mene, +Tekel, Upharsin...._ + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b21e6c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10881 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10881) diff --git a/old/10881-8.txt b/old/10881-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3a1843 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10881-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4981 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crescent and Iron Cross + +Author: E. F. Benson + +Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, L Barber and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS + + +BY E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface_ + + +In compiling the following pages I have had access to certain sources of +official information, the nature of which I am not at liberty to specify +further. I have used these freely in such chapters of this book as deal +with recent and contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in +connection with Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland +über Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I have tried to be +discriminating in their use, and have not, as far as I am aware, stated +anything derived from them as a fact, for which I had not found +corroborative evidence. With regard to the Armenian massacres I have +drawn largely on the testimony collected by Lord Bryce, on that brought +forward by Mr. Arnold J. Toynbee in his pamphlet _The Murder of a +Nation_, and _The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks,_ and on the pamphlet +by Dr. Martin Niepage, called _The Horrors of Aleppo_. In the first +chapter I have based the short historical survey on the contribution of +Mr. D.G. Hogarth to _The Balkans_ (Clarendon Press, 1915). The chapter +called 'Thy Kingdom is Divided' is in no respect at all an official +utterance, and merely represents the individual opinions and surmises of +the author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies have +pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from Constantinople, +and to remove out of the power of the Turk the alien peoples who have +too long already been subject to his murderous rule. I have, in fact, +but attempted to conjecture in what kind of manner that promise will be +fulfilled. + +Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey are +continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one would have to +wait to the end of the war before beginning to write at all on this +subject. But since such usefulness as this book may possibly have is +involved with the necessity of its appearance before the end of the war, +I set a term to the gathering of material, and, with the exception of +two or three notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. +But up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys and +arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on my part. + +E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents_ + + +CHAPTER I + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +CHAPTER II + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +CHAPTER III + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +CHAPTER V + +DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLAH + +CHAPTER VI + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GRIP OF THE OCTOPUS + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his phrase is +applicable for the moment and for the situation in view of which he +coined it, but his coin has only a temporary validity: it is good for a +month or for a year, or for whatever period during which the crisis +lasts, and after that it lapses again into a mere token, a thing without +value and without meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a +monetary coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over +the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on being +passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription defaced by wear, +long after it has ceased to represent anything. In itself it is +obsolete, but people still trade with it, and think it represents what +it represented when it came hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it +sometimes happens that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery +(which it may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives +those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded possession. + +Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined by Lord +Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a sick man,' he +said, and added something which gave great offence then about the +advisability of putting Turkey out of his misery. I do not pretend to +quote correctly, but that was the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the +truth of Lord Aberdeen's phrase at the period when he made it. It +possibly contained a temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if +it had been acted on, might have saved a great deal of trouble +afterwards, but it missed then, and more than misses now, the essential +and salient truth about Turkey. The phrase, unfortunately, still +continued to obtain credit, and nowadays it is a forgery; it rings +false. + +For at whatever period we regard Turkey, and try to define that +monstrous phenomenon, we can make a far truer phrase than Lord +Aberdeen's. For Turkey is not a sick man: Turkey is a sickness. He is +not sick, nor ever has been, for he is the cancer itself, the devouring +tumour that for centuries has fed on living tissue, absorbing it and +killing it. It has never had life in itself, except in so far that the +power of preying on and destroying life constitutes life, and such a +power, after all, we are accustomed to call not life, but death. Turkey, +like death, continues to exist and to dominate, through its function of +killing. Life cannot kill, it is disease and death that kill, and from +the moment that Turkey passed from being a nomadic tribe moving +westwards from the confines of Persia, it has existed only and thrived +on a process of absorption and of murder. When first the Turks came out +of their Eastern fastnesses they absorbed; when they grew more or less +settled, and by degrees the power of mere absorption, as by some failure +of digestion, left them, they killed. They became a huge tumour, that +nourished itself by killing the living tissues that came in contact +with it. Now, by the amazing irony of fate, who weaves stranger dramas +than could ever be set on censored stages, for they both take hundreds +of years to unravel themselves, and are of the most unedifying +character, Turkey, the rodent cancer, has been infected by another with +greater organisation for devouring; the disease of Ottomanism is +threatened by a more deadly hungerer, and Prussianism has inserted its +crab-pincers into the cancer that came out of Asia. Those claws are +already deeply set, and the problem for civilised nations is first to +disentangle the nippers that are cancer in a cancer, and next to deprive +of all power over alien peoples the domination that has already been +allowed to exist too long. + +The object of this book is the statement of the case on which all +defenders of liberty base their prosecution against Turkey itself, and +against the Power that to-day has Turkey in its grip. + +Historical surveys are apt to be tedious, but in order to understand at +all adequately the case against Turkey as a ruler and controller of +subject peoples, it is necessary to go, though briefly, into her +blood-stained genealogy. There is no need to enter into ethnological +discussions as to earlier history, or define the difference between the +Osmanli Turks and those who were spread over Asia Minor before the +advent of the Osmanlis from the East. But it was the Osmanlis who were +the cancerous and devouring nation, and it is they who to-day rule over +a vast territory (subject to Germany) of peoples alien to them by +religion and blood and all the instincts common to civilised folk. Until +Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' suddenly hoisted her colours as a +champion of murder and rapine and barbarism, she the mother of art and +literature and science, there was nothing in Europe that could compare +with the anachronism of Turkey being there at all. Then, in August 1914, +there was hoisted the German flag, superimposed with skulls and +cross-bones, and all the insignia of piracy and highway robbery on land +and on sea, and Germany showed herself an anachronism worthy to impale +her arms on the shield of the most execrable domination that has ever +oppressed the world since the time when the Huns under Attila raged like +a forest fire across the cultivated fields of European civilisation. +To-day, in the name of Kultur, a similar invasion has broken on shores +that seemed secure, and it is no wonder that it has found its most +valuable victim and ally in the Power that adopted the same methods of +absorption and extermination centuries before the Hohenzollerns ever +started on their career of highway robbery. But like seeks like, and +perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our astonishing diplomacy in +Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like some desirable maiden, cast in +her lot with the Power that by instinct and tradition most resembled +her. Spiritual blood, no less than physical blood, is thicker than +water, and Gott and Allah, hand-in-hand, pledged each other in the cups +they had filled with the blood that poured from the wine-presses of +Belgium and of Armenia. + +For centuries before the Osmanli Turks made their appearance in Asia +Minor, there had come from out of the misty East numerous bodies of +Turks, pushing westwards, and spreading over the Euphrates valley and +over Persia, in nomadic or military colonisations, and it is not until +the thirteenth century that we find the Osmanli Turks, who give their +name to that congregation of races known as the Ottoman Empire, +established in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Like all previous +Turkish immigrations, they came not in any overwhelming horde, with +sword in one hand and Koran in the other, but as a small compact body +with a genius for military organisation, and the gift, which they retain +to this day, of stalwart fighting. The policy to which they owed their +growth was absorption, and the people whom they first began to absorb +were Greeks and other Christians, and it was to a Christian girl, +Nilufer, that Osman married his son Orkhan. They took Christian youths +from the families of Greek dwellers, forced them to apostatise, gave +them military training, and married them to Turkish girls. It was out of +this blend of Greek and Turkish blood, as Mr. D.G. Hogarth points out, +that they derived their national being and their national strength. This +system of recruiting they steadily pursued not only among the Christian +peoples with whom they came in contact, but among the settlements of +Turks who had preceded them in this process of pushing westwards, and +formed out of them the professional soldiery known as Janissaries. They +did not fight for themselves alone, but as mercenaries lent their arms +to other peoples, Moslem and Christian alike, who would hire their +services. This was a policy that paid well, for, after having delivered +some settlement from the depredations of an inconvenient neighbour, and +with their pay in their pocket, they sometimes turned on those who had +hired their arms, took their toll of youths, and finally incorporated +them in their growing empire. Like an insatiable sponge, they mopped up +the sprinklings of disconnected peoples over the fruitful floor of Asia +Minor, and swelled and prospered. But as yet the extermination of these +was not part of their programme: they absorbed the strength and manhood +of their annexations into their own soldiery, and came back for more. +They did not levy those taxes paid in the persons of soldiers for their +armies from their co-religionists, since Islam may not fight against +Islam, but by means of peaceful penetration (a policy long since +abandoned) they united scattered settlements of Turks to themselves by +marriages and the bond of a common tongue and religion. + +Their expansion into Europe began in the middle of the fourteenth +century, when, as mercenaries, they fought against the Serbs, and fifty +years later they had a firm hold over Bulgaria as well. Greece was their +next prey; they penetrated Bosnia and Macedonia, and in 1453 attacked +and took Constantinople under Mohammed the Conqueror. Still true to the +policy of incorporation they continued to mop up the remainder of the +Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time consolidated themselves further +in Asia Minor. By the beginning of the seventeenth century their +expansion reached its utmost geographical limits, but already the Empire +held within it the seeds of its own decay, and by a curious irony the +force that should still keep it together was derived not from its own +strength, but from the jealousies of the European Powers among +themselves, who would willingly have dismembered it, but feared the +quarrels that would surely result from the apportionment of its +territories. The Ottoman Empire from then onwards has owed its existence +to its enemies. + +Its weakness lay in itself, for it was very loosely knit together, and +no bond, whether of blood or religion or tongue, bound to it the +assembly of Christian and Jewish and non-Moslem races of which it was so +largely composed. The Empire never grew (as, for instance, the British +Empire grew) by the emigration and settlement of the Osmanli stock in +the territories it absorbed: it never gave, it only took. From the +beginning right up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it has +been a military despotism, imposing itself on unwilling and alien tribes +whom it drained of their blood, and then left in neglect until some +further levy was needed. None of its conquered peoples was ever given a +share in the government; they were left unorganised and, so to speak, +undigested elements under the Power which had forced them into +subjection, and one by one the whole of the European peoples included in +that uncemented tyranny have passed from under Turkish control. Turkey +in Europe has dwindled to a strip along the Bosporus to the Sea of +Marmora and the Dardanelles, Egypt has been lost, Tripoli also, and the +only force that, for the last hundred years has kept alive in Europe the +existence of that monstrous anachronism has been the strange political +phenomenon, now happily extinct, called the Balance of Power. No one of +the Great Powers, from fear of the complications that would ensue, could +risk the expulsion of the Turkish Government from Constantinople, and +there all through the nineteenth century it has been maintained lest the +Key of the Black Sea, which unlocked the bolts that barred Russia's +development into the Mediterranean, should lead to such a war as we are +now passing through. That policy, for the present, has utterly defeated +its own ends, for the key is in the pockets of Prussia. But all through +that century, though the Powers maintained Turkey there, they helped to +liberate, or saw liberate themselves, the various Christian kingdoms in +Europe over which at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey +exercised a military despotism. They weakened her in so far as they +could, but they one and all refused to let her die, and above all +refused to give her that stab in the heart which would have been implied +in her expulsion from Constantinople. + +For centuries from the first appearance of the Osmanlis in north-west +Asia Minor down to the reign of Abdul Hamid, the Empire maintained +itself, with alternate bouts of vigour and relapses, on the general +principle of drawing its strength from its subject peoples. Internally, +from whatever standpoint we view it, whether educational, economic, or +industrial, it has had the worst record of any domination known to +history. Rich in mineral wealth, possessed of lands that were once the +granary of the world, watered by amazing rivers, and with its strategic +position on the Mediterranean that holds the master-key of the Black Sea +in its hands, it has remained the most barbaric and least progressive of +all states. Its roads and means of communication remained up till the +last quarter of the nineteenth century much as they had been in the days +of Osman; except along an insignificant strip of sea-coast railways were +non-existent; it was bankrupt in finance and in morals, and did not +contain a single seed that might ripen into progress or civilisation. +Mesopotamia was once the most fertile of all lands, capable of +supporting not itself alone, but half the civilised world: nowadays, +under the stewardship of the Turk, it has been suffered to become a +desert for the greater part of the year and an impracticable swamp for +the remainder. Where great cities flourished, where once was reared the +pride of Babylon and of Nineveh, there huddle the squalid huts of +fever-stricken peasants, scarce able to gain their half-starved living +from the soil that once supported in luxury and pomp the grandeur of +metropolitan cities. The ancient barrages, the canals, the systems of +irrigation were all allowed to silt up and become useless; and at the +end of the nineteenth century you would not find in all Mesopotamia an +agricultural implement that was in any way superior to the ploughs and +the flails of more than two thousand years ago. But so long as there was +a palace-guard about the gates to secure the safety of the Sultan and +his corrupt military oligarchy, so long as there were houris to divert +their leisure, tribute of youths to swell their armies, and taxes wrung +from starving subjects to maintain their pomp, there was not one of +those who held the reins of government who cared the flick of an eyelash +for the needs of the nations on whom the Empire rested, for the +cultivation of its soil that would yield a hundredfold to the skilled +husbandman, or for the exploitation and development of its internal +wealth. While there was left in the emaciated carcase of the Turkish +Empire enough live tissue for the cancerous Government to grow fat on, +it gave not one thought to the welfare of all those races on whom it had +fastened itself. Province after province of its European dominions +might be lost to it, but the Balance of Power still kept the Sultan on +his throne, and left the peoples of Asia Minor and Syria at his mercy. +They were largely of alien religion and of alien tongue, and their +individual weakness was his strength. Neglect, and the decay consequent +on neglect, was the lot of all who languished under that abominable +despotism. + +With the accession in 1876 of Abdul Hamid, of cursed memory, there +dawned on the doomed subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire a day of +bloodier import than any yet. The year before and during that year had +occurred the Bulgarian atrocities and massacres, and the word 'massacre' +lingered and made music in Abdul Hamid's brain. He said it over to +himself and dwelt upon it, and meditated on the nature and possibilities +of massacre. The troubles which massacre had calmed had arisen before +his accession out of the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which +corresponded to the Greek Patriarchate, and was given power over +districts and peoples whom the Greeks justly considered to belong to +them by blood and religion. Greek armed bands came into collision with +Bulgarian bands, and in order to calm these disturbances by thoroughly +effectual means, irregular Turkish troops were sent into Bulgaria, +charged with the command to 'stop the row,' but with no other +instructions. Indiscriminate killing, with all the passions and horrors +that bloodshed evokes in the half-civilised, followed, and there was no +more trouble just then in the disturbed districts, for there was none to +make trouble. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was deposed by a group of king-makers +under Midhat Pasha, Murad V. reigned shadow-like for three months, and +during the same year Abdul Hamid was finally selected to fill the +throne, and stand forth as the Shadow of God. It was a disturbed and +tottering inheritance to which he succeeded, riddled with the dry-rot of +corruption, but the inheritor proved himself equal to the occasion. + +For a little while he was all abroad, and at the bidding of Midhat, who +had placed him on the throne, he summoned a kind of representative +Turkish Parliament, by way of imbuing the Great Powers with the idea +that he was an enlightened Shadow of God bent on reform. This parody of +a Parliament lasted but a short time: it was no more than a faint, +dissolving magic-lantern picture. In the spring of 1877 Rumania, under +Russian encouragement, broke away from Turkish rule. Turkey declared war +on Russia, and in 1878 found herself utterly defeated. At Adrianople was +drawn up the Treaty of San Stefano, creating an independent Bulgarian +state, and, in the opinion of Great Britain and Germany, giving Russia +far greater influence in the Balkan Peninsula than was agreeable to that +disastrous supporter of Turkey, the Balance of Power. In consequence the +Treaty of San Stefano was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin. + +In those arrangements Abdul Hamid had no voice, but he was well content +to sit quiet, think about what was to be done with what was left him, +and thank his waning crescent that once again the Balance of Power had +secured Constantinople for him, leaving him free to deal with his +Asiatic dominions, and such part of Europe as was left him, as he +thought fit. He could safely trust that he would never be ejected from +his throne by a foreign Power, and all he need do was to make himself +safe against internal disturbances and revolutions which might upset +him. And it was then that he begot in the womb of his cold and cunning +brain a policy that was all his own, except in so far as the Bulgarian +atrocities, consequent on feuds between Bulgars and Greeks, may be +considered the father of that hideous birth. But it was he who suckled +and nourished it, it was from his brain that it emerged, full-grown and +in panoply of armour, as from the brain of Olympian Zeus came Pallas +Athene. This new policy was in flat contradiction of all the previous +policy, as he had received it from his predecessors, of strengthening +Turkey by tributes of man-power from his subject tribes, but it would, +he thought, have the same result of keeping the Turk supreme among the +alien elements of the Empire. Times had changed; it behoved him to +change the methods which hitherto had held together his hapless +inheritance. + +Now Abdul Hamid was not in any sense a wise man, and the ability which +has been attributed to him, in view of the manner in which he +successfully defied the civilisations of Europe, is based on premisses +altogether false. He never really defied Europe at all; he always +yielded, secure in his belief that Europe in the shape of the Balance of +Power, was unanimous in keeping him where he was. He never even risked +being turned out of Constantinople, for he knew--none better--that all +Europe insisted on retaining him there. As regards wisdom, there was +never a greater fool, but as regards cunning there was never a greater +fox. He had a brain that was absolutely impervious to large ideas: the +notion of consolidating and strengthening his Empire by ameliorating its +internal conditions, by bringing it within speaking distance of the +influence of civilisation and progress, by taking advantage of and +developing its immense natural resources, by employing the brains and +the industry of his subject races, seems never to have entered his head. +He could easily have done all this: there was not a Power in Europe that +would not have lent him a helping hand in development and reform, in the +establishment of a solvent state, in aiding the condition of the peoples +over whom he ruled. In whatever he did, provided that it furthered the +welfare of his subjects, whether Turk, Armenian, or Arab, the whole +Concert of Europe would have provided him with cash, with missionaries, +with engineers, and all the resources of the arts and sciences of peace +and of progress. But being a felon, with crime and cunning to take the +place of wisdom, he preferred to develop his Empire on his own original +lines. In Europe he was but suffered to exist. There remained Asia. + +The policy of previous Osmanli rulers has already been roughly defined. +They strengthened themselves and the military Turkish despotism round +them by absorbing the manhood of the tribes over which they had obtained +dominion. Abdul Hamid reversed that policy; he strengthened the Turkish +supremacy, not by drawing into it the manhood of his subject peoples, +but by destroying that manhood. In proportion, so his foxlike brain +reasoned, as his alien subjects were weak, so were the Turks strong. A +consistent weakening of alien nations would strengthen the hold of those +who governed the Ottoman Empire. It was as if a man suffered from gout +in his foot: he could get rid of the gout by wholesome living, the +result of which would be that his foot ceased to trouble him. But the +plan which he adopted was to cause his foot to mortify by process of +inhuman savagery. When it was dead it would trouble him no longer. + +He was well aware that the Turkish people only comprised some forty per +cent, of the population of the Turkish Empire: numerically they were +weaker than the alien peoples who composed the rest of it. Something had +to be done to bring the governing Power up to such a proportionate +strength as should secure its supremacy, and the most convenient plan +was to weaken the alien elements. The scheme, though yet inchoate, had +been tried with success in the case of the Bulgarians and Greeks, and to +test it further he stirred up Albanians against the inhabitants of Old +Servia with gratifying results. They weakened each other, and he further +weakened them both by the employment of Turkish troops in Macedonia to +quell the disturbances which he had himself fomented. There were +massacres and atrocities, and no more trouble just then from Macedonia. +Having thus tested his plan and found no flaw in it, he settled to adopt +it. But European combinations did not really much interest him, for he +was aware that the Great Powers, to whose sacred Balance he owed the +permanence of his throne, would not tolerate interference with European +peoples, and he turned his attention to Asia Minor. There were +excrescences there which he could not absorb, but which might be +destroyed. He could use the knife on living tissues which the impaired +digestion of the Ottoman Empire could not assimilate. So he hit on this +fresh scheme, which his hellish cunning devised with a matchless sense +of the adaptation of the means to the end, and he created (though he did +not live to perfect) a new policy that reversed the traditions of five +hundred years. That is no light task to undertake, and when we consider +that since his deposition, now nine years ago, that policy has reaped +results undreamed of perhaps by him, we can see how far-sighted his +cunning was. To-day it is being followed out by the very combination +that deposed him; his aims have been fully justified, and for that +precise reason we are right to classify him among the abhorred of +mankind. He had an opportunity such as is given to the few, and he made +the utmost of it, even as his greater successor on the throne of Turkey +for the present, namely Wilhelm II. of Prussia, has done, in the service +of the devil. 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' must surely +have been his well-deserved welcome, when he left the hell he had made +on earth for another. + +Of all his subjects the Armenians were the most progressive, the most +industrious, the most capable. They therefore contributed, according to +that perverted foxlike mind, one of the greatest menaces to the +stability of his throne, which henceforth should owe its strength to the +weakness of those it governed. They, as all the world knows, are a +peaceful Christian people, and it was against them that Abdul Hamid +directed the policy which he had tested in Europe. The instruments he +employed to put it in force were the Kurds, a turbulent shepherd race +marching with and mixed up among the Armenians. By this means he had the +excuse ready that these massacres were local disturbances among remote +and insubordinate tribes, one of whom, however, the Kurds, he armed with +modern rifles and caused to be instructed in some elementary military +training. Their task was to murder Armenians, their pay was the +privilege to rape their girls and their women, and to rob the houses of +the men they had killed. The Armenians resisted with at first some small +success, upon which Abdul Hamid reinforced the Kurds with regular +troops, and caused it to be proclaimed that this was a war of Moslems +against the infidel, a Holy War. Moslem fanaticism, ever smouldering +and ready to burst into flames, blazed high, and a fury of massacres +broke forth against all Armenians, east and west, north and south. The +streets of Constantinople ran with their blood, and before Abdul Hamid +was obliged by foreign civilised Powers to stop those holocausts, he had +so decimated the race that not for at least a generation would they +conceivably be a menace again even to that zealous guardian of the +supremacy in its own dominions of the Ottoman power. Very unwillingly, +when obliged to do so, he whistled off his bands of Kurds, and dismissed +them: unwillingly, too, he gave orders that the Armenian hunts which had +so pleasantly diverted the sportsmen of Constantinople, must be +abandoned: then was decreed a 'close time' for Armenians, the shooting +season was over. There is no exaggeration in this: eye-witnesses have +recorded how at the close of the business day in Constantinople, +shooting parties used literally to go out, and beat the coverts of +tenement houses for Armenians, of whom there were at that time in +Constantinople some 150,000. But when Abdul Hamid had finished his +sport, I do not think more than 80,000 at the most survived. These were +saved by the protests of Europe, and perhaps by the knowledge that if +all the Armenians were killed, there could never be any more shooting. +The Kurds also had lost a considerable number of men, and that was far +from displeasing to the yellow-faced butcher of Yildiz. A little +blood-letting among those turbulent Kurds was not at all a bad thing. + +Here, then, we see defined and at work the new Ottoman policy with +regard to its peoples. Hitherto, it had been sufficient to take from +them its fill of man-power, and leave the tribe in question to its own +devices. There was no objection whatever to its developing the resources +of its territory, to its increasing in prosperity and in population. +Indeed the central Power was quite pleased that it should do so, for +when next the gathering of taxes and youths came round the collectors +would find a creditable harvest awaiting them. Such a tribe received no +encouragement or help from the Government; that would have been too +much to expect, but as long as it kept quiet and obedient it might, +without interference, prosper as well as it could. But now, in the last +quarter of the nineteenth century, all that was changed; instead of a +policy of neglect there was substituted a policy of murder. The state no +longer considered itself secure when in various parts of its dominions +its subjects showed themselves progressive and industrious. They had to +be kept down, and clearly the most efficient way of keeping people down +was killing them. Let it not be supposed for a moment that either the +first massacre, or any that followed, was the result of local +disturbances and fanaticism. It was nothing of the sort: each was +arranged and planned at Constantinople, as the official means, invented +by the arch-butcher, Abdul Hamid, of maintaining in power the most +devilish despotism that has ever disgraced the world. Something had to +be done to prevent the alien tribes in Asia slipping out of the noose of +Ottoman strangulation, even as the European tribes had done, and +forming themselves into separate and independent states. A ruler with +progressive ideas, one who had any perception of the internal prosperity +which alone can render an empire stable, would have made the attempt to +weld his loose and wavering domination together by encouraging and +working for the prosperity of its component peoples, so that he might, +though late in the day, give birth to a Turkey that was strong, because +its citizens were prosperous and content. Not so did Abdul Hamid; the +Turkey that he sought to establish was merely to be strong because he +had battered into a blood-stained pulp the most progressive and the most +industrious of the alien peoples over whom he ruled. + +It is significant that, while yet the blood of the murdered Christians +was scarcely washed from the streets of Constantinople, the Emperor +Wilhelm II. visited his brother-sovereign at Yildiz, after making his +tour throughout the Holy Land. The two can hardly, in their intimate +conversations, have completely avoided the subject of the massacres; but +after all, that was not such an unmanageably awkward topic, for Wilhelm +II. could tactfully have reminded Abdul Hamid that his own throne also +was based on the murderous progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there +was the war between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss, +and there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of +Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. Altogether, in +spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit the Holy Places in +Palestine, it was an odd moment for a Christian monarch to visit the +butcher of Constantinople. But the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very +strong reason for going to see his brother, for the fruit of German +policy in Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the +minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while still his +hands were red with blood was more than compensated for by the +advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him on other subjects. +Germany had already begun her peaceful penetration, and the real motive +of the Emperor's visit was, after swords and orders had been exchanged, +to make the definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be +allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and a hint no +doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room for them now that +there were so many Armenian farms unfortunately without a master. But, +like Uriah Heep, the Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it +was ripe, or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to +reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense advantages +which would result to Turkey by the establishment of those Gott-like +German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his colossal egalo-megalomania, of +which we know more now, he thought that any request which the +All-Highest should deign to make must instantly be granted. But he met +with a perfectly flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left +Constantinople in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the +good that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of Jerusalem +had done him. It is pleasant to think of the Pan-Islamic merriment with +which Abdul Hamid must have viewed the indignant exit of his Christian +brother, who had come such a long way to see him, and was so tactful +about the Armenian atrocities. He might perhaps--for those Christians +were very odd pigs--have expressed horror or remonstrance. Not at all: +he was much too anxious to get his request granted, to make himself +disagreeable. But did his Christian brother really think that all those +massacres over which Abdul Hamid had spent so much time and money, had +been arranged in order to settle those nasty progressive Germans in the +lands that had been so carefully depopulated? Why, the whole point of +them had been that the Armenians were too progressive and prosperous, +thus constituting a menace to the central Government, and certainly +Abdul Hamid was not meaning to put in their place settlers even more +progressive and with a stronger backing behind them. So off went the +All-Highest back home again, very much vexed with Abdul Hamid, and +possibly (if that was not sacrilegious) with himself for having been in +too great a hurry. There was more spade-work to be done yet before +Turkey was ripe for open and avowed colonisation by the Fatherland. + +The episode, strictly historical, is of a certain importance, for it +shows the date at which Wilhelm II. thought that the time had come for +Germans to colonise Turkey. The peaceful penetration (which now amounts +to perforation) was even then pretty far advanced. But Abdul Hamid seems +to have seen the significance of the request, and for some little while +after that German influence had a certain set-back in Turkey. The date +of this marks an era, and Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' set to work +again, in no way discouraged, to set her cancer-nippers in the cancer +that already had begun to eat the live tissues round it. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter II_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +In the year 1908 a military group in Constantinople, styling itself the +'Young Turk' party, seized and deposed Abdul Hamid, and shut him up at +Salonika, there to spend the remainder of his infamous days. They put +forth a Liberal programme of reformation, one that earned them at the +moment the sympathy of civilised Europe (including Germany), and the +Balance of Power very mistakenly and prematurely heaved a sigh of +relief. For upwards of a century it had maintained in Constantinople the +corrupt and bloody autocracy of the Sultans, fearing the European +quarrels that would attend the dismemberment of that charnel-house of +decay known as the Ottoman Empire, and now (just for the moment) it +seemed as if a sudden rally had come to the Sick Man, and he showed +signs of returning animation and wholesome vitality. The policy of the +Powers, after a century of failure, looked as if it was justifying +itself, and they were full of congratulations towards Turkey and each +other. But never, in the whole century of their pusillanimous cacklings, +had they made a greater mistake. + +Whether the Young Turks ever meant well or not, whether there was or was +not a grain of sincerity in this profession of their policy, is a +disputed question. There are those who say that originally they were +prompted by patriotic and high-minded aims, when they proclaimed their +object of 'Organisation,' and of reform. But all are agreed that it +matters very little what their original aims were, so speedily did their +Liberal intentions narrow down to an Ottomanisation such as Adbul Hamid +had aimed at, but had been unable to accomplish before his evil sceptre +ceased to sway the destinies of his kingdom. In any case this programme +earned its authors the sympathy of Europe, and probably this, and no +more than this, prompted it. They wished to establish themselves, +unquestioned and undisturbed, and did so; and I do not think we shall +be far wrong if we take the original Young Turk programme about as +seriously as we took the parody of a Parliament with which Abdul Hamid +opened (as with a blessing) his atrocious reign. The very next year +(1909) they permitted (if they did not arrange) the Armenian massacres +at Adana, and the Balance of Power began faintly to wonder whether the +Young Turks in their deposition of Abdul Hamid had not slain an asp and +hatched a cockatrice. Given that their aims originally were sincere, we +can but marvel at the swiftness of the corruption which in little more +than a year had begun to lead them not into paths of reform and Liberal +policy, but along the road towards which the butcher they had deposed +had pointed the way. It must have made Abdul Hamid gnaw his nails and +shake impotent hands to see those who had torn him from his throne so +soon pursuing the very policy which he invented, and to which he +nominally owed his dethronement. Strange, too, was it that his overthrow +should come from the very quarter to which he looked for security, for +it was on the army that each Sultan in turn had most relied for the +stability of his throne. But Abdul Hamid, in order, perhaps, to deal +more effectually with the subject races he wished to exterminate, had +introduced a system of foreign training for the officers of his army, a +course of Potsdam efficiency, and it was just they, on whom Sultans from +time immemorial had relied, who knocked the prop of the army away from +him. Though publicly, for the edification of Europe his deposers +professed a Liberal policy, it was not on account of Armenian massacres +that they turned him off his throne, but because of the muddle and +corruption and debility of his rule. Herein we may easily trace the hand +of Germany, no longer publicly beckoning as when Wilhelm II., just after +the first Armenian massacres, made his request of the Sultan for the +establishment in Turkey of German colonists, but working underground, +sapping and mining like a mole. For Germany, her mind already fixed on +securing Turkey as an instrument of her Eastern policy, wanted a strong +Turkey, and without doubt desired to bring an end to the disorganisation +and decay of the Empire, and create and at the same time interpenetrate +an efficient state that should be useful to her. We may take it for +granted that she, like the rest of Europe, welcomed any sign of +regeneration in the Ottoman Empire, but there was an ulterior purpose +behind that. Turkey, already grasped by the Prussian hand, must be in +that hand a weapon fit for use, a blade on which she could rely. She +strengthened the Turkish army by the introduction of Prussian +discipline, and worked on good material. Already she has realised her +ambition in this respect, and now controls the material which she then +worked on. + +The troubled years of the Balkan wars which followed this false dawn, +coupled with the loss of all the territory which remained to the Ottoman +Empire in Europe, with the exception of Thrace, caused an immediate +reaction from the open-minded policy of the Young Turks, if we decide to +credit them at the outset with a sincere purpose. Organisation by a +slightly different spelling became Ottomanisation, and the aims of the +Young Turks were identified with those of the Nationalist party which +followed out and developed into a finished and super-fiendish policy the +dreams of Abdul Hamid. He, as we have seen, had invented the idea of +securing Ottoman supremacy in the Empire, not as before by absorption of +the strength of its subject peoples, but by their extermination, and +this formed part of the new programme which was to be more efficiently +administered. Already, in 1909, the experimental massacre at Adana took +place, and the Young Turk party, with its possibly Liberal aims, had +become a party that had as its main object a system of tyranny and +murder such as the world had never seen. Simultaneously Turkey itself, +Nationalist party and all, became enslaved to German influence. Link by +link the chains were forged and the manacles welded on, and before the +European War broke out in 1914, the incarceration of Turkey in Germany +was complete, and Wilhelm II. had a fine revenge for the snub inflicted +on him by Abdul Hamid when he proposed the scheme of German +colonisation in the lands depopulated by the Armenian massacres of 1895. + +From the first the aim of the Nationalists, who thus formed so deadly a +blend with the Young Turk party, was Ottomanisation, or the +establishment within the Empire of an Ottoman domination which should be +pure and undefiled, and in which none of the subject peoples, be they +Armenians or Kurds, Arabs or Greeks or Jews, Christian or Moslem, should +have any part. The inception of the scheme was no doubt inspired by the +example given by Prussia's treatment of the Poles, and Hungary's of +Roumans and Slovaks. But in thoroughness of method Prussia's pupil was +to prove Prussia's master, for it aimed not merely at expropriation, but +extermination, and sought to become strong, not merely by weakening +alien elements, but by abolishing them. It did not set this out quite +explicitly in its manifestoes and the resolutions of its congresses, but +two extracts, the first from the proceedings of the 'Committee of Union +and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a sinister +suggestiveness about them for which the acts and measures of the +Committee had already supplied the comment. + +'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the country must be +suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal ideas prevented. Turkey +must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem influence must be +preponderant. Every other religious propaganda must be suppressed.... +Sooner or later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must +be effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained by +persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other +nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for +decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish Empire.' + +Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul Hamid, than +this formal resolution, passed within three years of the time when the +Young Turks deposed him? The conviction begins to dawn on one--as it +began to dawn on the Balancers of Power--that he owed his downfall not +to his illiberal and butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough +enough. + +The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may be added, +which defines the policy, not with regard to the Christian or Jewish +subjects of the Turks, but with regard to the Arabs, Moslem by creed, +and the guardians of the Holy Cities. + +'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for us to +Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of nationality is +awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, and already threatens us +with a great catastrophe. Against this we must be fore-armed.' + +The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical form. +Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of patriotism, and any +means which secured it, massacres such as, in 1909, had taken place at +Adana, or the treatment accorded to the Greeks and Bulgarians who +remained in Thrace after the Balkan wars, were in accordance with the +new 'Liberal' gospel. Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in +Europe, and as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it +could not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under +the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed to put the +entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and lay hands on their +property. In fact this was the first of the 'deportation' schemes which, +in 1915, proved so successful with the Armenians, and the effect of it +was that neither Greeks nor Bulgarians were left in Thrace. Then +followed the expulsion of Greeks from the Mediterranean sea-board, but +this was never completely carried out because the European war +intervened, and the attention of the Nationalists was claimed by their +over-lord. Later, as we shall see, a further deportation of Greeks was +begun, but again that was stopped, for Germany saw that it would never +do to have her Turkish allies murdering settlers of the same blood as +those she hoped would become her allies. Of course, when it was only a +question of Armenians she did not interfere. + +The design, then, of the new 'Liberal' regime, of which those three +measures, the massacres at Adana, the expulsion of Greeks and Bulgarians +from Thrace, and of Greeks from the sea-board of the Mediterranean, were +early instances, was to restore the absolute supremacy of the Turks in +the Ottoman Empire. It was obvious that the problem was one of +considerable difficulty, since the Turks at the time composed only some +forty per cent, of the whole population. They numbered about 8,000,000, +while in the Empire were included about 7,000,000 Arabs, 2,000,000 +Greeks, 2,000,000 Armenians, and 3,000,000 more of smaller +nationalities, such as Kurds, Druses, and Jews. But the Turks were +backed by Germany, and nowadays, since the abolition of the +Capitulations, which leaves all alien races unprotected by foreign +Powers, such as survive, after the extermination of the Armenians, are +completely at the mercy of the Government in Constantinople. All these +peoples speak a different language from the Turks, and have a different +religion, for the Nationalist party, with a view to the Ottomanisation +of the Arabs, have definitely stated that Arab Moslems are not of the +true faith, and that their own Allah (in whose name they subsequently +exterminated the Armenians) is the God of Love--German equivalent +Got--whereas the Arab Allah is the God of vengeance. The sinister motive +in this discovery needs no comment, for it is obvious that it releases +the Ottoman Government from the prohibition in the Koran, whereby Moslem +may not fight against Moslem. Therefore the Arabs were declared not to +be true Moslems. Later on, that motive was translated into practical +measures. + +Among the first tasks with regard to the Arabs that faced the +Nationalist party from what we may call the pacific side of their +mission was to substitute the Turkish language for Arabic. Kemal Bey, a +Nationalist of Salonika, with the help of Ziya Bey, collected round him +a group of young writers, and these proceeded to translate the Koran out +of Arabic into Turkish, and to publish the prayers for the Caliphate in +their own language, and orders went out that these revised versions +should be used in all mosques. Turkish was to be the official language +for use in all public proclamations, and, with Prussian thoroughness, it +was even substituted on such railway tickets as had hitherto been +printed in Arabic. The new Turkish tongue (Yeni Lisan) had also to be +purged of all foreign words, but here some difficulty was experienced, +for Persian and Arabic formed an enormous percentage in the language as +hitherto employed, and the promoters of this Ottoman purity of tongue +found themselves left with a very jejune instrument for the rhapsodies +of their patriotic aims. Poets in especial (for the Nationalists, like +all well-equipped founders of romantic movements, had their bards) found +themselves in sore straits owing to the limited vocabulary; and we read +of one, Mehmed Emin Bey, who was forced to publish his odes in small +provincial papers, since no well-established journal would admit so +scrannel an expression of views however exalted.[1] But the translation +of the Koran was the greatest linguistic feat, and Tekin Alp, the most +prominent exponent of Nationalism, refers to it as one of the noblest +tasks undertaken by the new movement. It mattered not at all that by +religious ordinance the translation of the Koran into any other tongue +was a sin. 'The Nationalists,' he tells us, 'have cut themselves off +from the superstitious prejudice.' A further attempt was made to +substitute Turkish letters for Arabic letters in the alphabet, but this +seems to have presented insuperable difficulties, and I gather that it +has been abandoned. + +[Footnote 1: This thwarted poet retired from the Committee of Union and +Progress not long after, and his place was taken by Enver.] + +The Ottomanisation of religion and language, then, was among the pacific +methods of spreading Pan-Turkism through the Empire. A monstrous idol +was set up, a Hindenburg idol, in front of which all peoples and +languages, not Christians alone, but Moslems, were bound to prostrate +themselves. Indeed it was against Arabs mainly that these provisions +were directed, for the Arabs constituted the most menacing obstacle to +the spread of Ottomanisation, since they numbered in the Empire only a +million less than the Turks themselves. It was ordained by statute that +no Arab could have a seat on the Committee of Union and Progress, and +the Cabinet similarly was purged of any Greek or Armenian element. Never +any more must there be new parties in the Chamber, never any more must +Liberal ideas (to champion which the New Turk party had come into being) +be allowed to prick up their pernicious heads. For the Nationalist +party, with whom the New Turks were now identical, had taken as their +creed all that the deposed Abdul Hamid stood for, and only differed from +him in that as their schemes developed they looked forward to logical +conclusions far beyond what he had ever dreamed of. But Abdul Hamid may, +I think, be taken to be the true founder of the new Nationalism: at any +rate it was he who had first seen the possibilities of massacre as a +means of maintaining Ottoman supremacy. In the hands of Nationalists +that was to prove a more effective weapon than the printing of railway +tickets in Turkish. But already before the European War the Nationalists +had vastly extended his ideas, and had seen the danger of allowing even +Arabs to have a standing of any kind in the new state. Henceforth all +subject people were to be _rayas_, cattle, as in the old days of the +Sultans who absorbed the strength of the aliens, but did not exterminate +them. But now the cattle were not only to be used for milk, but were to +be slaughtered when advisable. Till then they must be dumb, or speak the +language of their masters only, for this alone can save them from the +shambles. Ahmed Sherif Bey, a prominent Nationalist, lays this down. 'It +is the business of the Porte to make the Arabs forget their own +language, and to impose upon them instead that of the nation that rules +them. If the Porte loses sight of this duty, it will be digging its +grave with its own hands, for if the Arabs do not forget their language, +their history, and their customs, they will seek to restore their +ancient empire on the ruins of Ottomanism and of Turkish rule in Asia.' + +Here, then, is the definite statement of the Nationalists' hostility to +all things Arab, and we shall see how they translated it into practice. +Even Moslems were but cattle for them, as also were Armenians and Greeks +and Kurds. Armenians were doomed to be the first complete sacrifice on +the bloody altar of the Nationalists, and, as a Turkish gendarme engaged +in that sacrifice said to a Danish Red Cross nurse, 'First we kill the +Armenians, then the Greeks, and then the Kurds.' And if he had been a +Progressive Minister he would certainly have added, 'And then the +Arabs.' + +It was not only within the present limits of the Ottoman Empire that the +Committee of Union and Progress proposed to accomplish their unitive +purpose, for after having seen a glorious and exclusive Turkey arise +over the depopulated territories of their alien peoples, a vaster +vision, for an account of which we are indebted to Tekin Alp, opened +before their prophetic eyes. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of Persia +they claim that one-third are of true Turkish blood, and in the new +Turkey which, so they almost pathetically hope, will be established at +the conclusion of the European War by the help of Wilhelm II., those +Persian Turks must be incorporated into the true fold of Allah, God of +Love. The province of Adarbaijan, for instance, the richest and most +enlightened district of Persia, they claim, is entirely Turkish, and +here the needful rectification will be made in the new atlases that bear +the imprimatur of Potsdam. Similarly, all the country south of the +Caucasus must rank as Turkish territory, since the Turks form from fifty +to eighty per cent, of the population; all Kazan, for the same reason, +is truly Turkish, with the alluvial plains of the Volga, while the +Crimea, so Tekin Alp discovers, is also a lost sheep longing for the +Turkish fold. All this is Turkey (or Turania) Irredenta, and, may we not +add:-- + +'Jerusalem and Madagascar +And North and South Amerikee.' + +And then what a glorious future awaits the Power that Europe once +thought of as a sick man. 'With the crushing of Russian despotism,' +exclaims Tekin Alp, 'by the brave German, Austrian, and Turkish armies, +thirty to forty million Turks will receive their independence. With the +ten million Ottoman Turks this will form a nation of fifty millions, +advancing towards a great civilisation which may perhaps be compared to +that of Germany, in that it will have the strength and energy to rise +even higher. In some ways it will be even superior to the degenerate +French and English civilisations.' + +The arithmetic and the enthusiasm of the foregoing paragraph are, of +course, those of Tekin Alp, from whose book, _The Turkish and +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, the quotation is made. The work was published in +1915, and, appearing as it did after the beginning of the European War, +it is but natural to find in it an expression not only of the +Nationalist aims for Turkey, but of the Prussian aims for Turkey, or, to +speak more correctly, of the dream which Prussia has induced in a +hypnotised Turkey. It sets forth in fact the bait which Prussia has +dangled in front of Turkey, the hunger for which has inspired the +projected future which is here sketched out; and significantly enough +this book has been spread broadcast over Turkey by the agency of German +propagandists. The Ottomanisation of the Empire, the vision of its +further extension, free from all consideration of subject peoples, was +exactly the lure which was most likely to keep the Turks staunch to +their Prussian masters. It will be noticed that there is no suggestion +of the Turks recovering their lost provinces and kingdoms in Europe, +Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia, and the rest, for it would never do +to let Fox Ferdinand awake from _his_ hypnotic sleep of a sort of +Czardom over the Balkans, or cease to dangle dreams, that included even +Constantinople before the shifty eye of King Constantine So, before +Turkey was spread the prospect of appropriating Russian and Persian +spoils: Prussia had already given the lost Turkish kingdoms in Europe +elsewhere, but would there not be a dismembered Russian Empire to +dispose of? The Crimea, the province of Kazan, the province of +Trans-Caucasia: all these might be held before Turkey's nose, as a dog +has a piece of meat held up before it to make it beg. Then there was the +province of Adarbaijan: certainly Turkey might be permitted to promise +herself that, without incurring the jealousy of Austria or Bulgaria. +Greedily Turkey took the bait. She gulped it down whole, and never +considered that there was a string attached to it, or that, should ever +the time come when Germany, the conqueror of the world, would be in a +position to reward her Allies with the realisation of the dreams she had +induced, the string would be pulled, and up, with retchings and +vomitings, would come these succulent morsels of Russia and Persia. +Indeed these bright pictures flashed on to the sheet as the visions of +Nationalists are but the slides in a German magic-lantern, designed to +keep Turkey amused, and it was with the same object that Ernst Marré, in +his _Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was bidden to make other +pictures ready in case Turkey grew fractious or sleepy. 'From the ruins +of antiquity,' he says, when speaking of the Ottoman Empire, 'new life +will spring, if we can manage to raise the treasures which time and sand +have covered.' Then he remembers that he must be less Pan-Germanic for +the moment, and dangles the bait again. 'In doing this,' he adds, 'we +are benefiting Turkey. The Turkish state is no united whole, and it has +always been very difficult to govern. Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, +Kurds, cannot be welded together. This is a war of liberation for +Turkey.... Only by energetic interference, and by "expelling" the +obstinate Armenian element could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian +domination.... The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' + +There is no need for further quotations, which might be multiplied +indefinitely. The Prussian programme is for the moment identical with +the Turkish Nationalist programme: Turkey, in order to be kept 'in with' +Germany, must be encouraged to dream of depopulated Armenia (that dream +has come tragically true) and of annexations in Russia and Persia. All +this fitted in with the Turkish programme: Germany had scarcely to +inspire, only to encourage. That encouragement she gave, for, +simultaneously she was penetrating Turkey as water penetrates a sponge, +and reducing it to the position of a vassal state. To keep Turkey happy +she allowed the Armenian massacres to run their deadly course, and only +interfered with other massacres when they did not suit her purpose. But +supposing (to suppose the impossible) that a peace to the European War +was dictated by Germany, how much of the future Pan-Turkish programme +would be realised? Would there be a Turkey at all? I think not: there +would be a Germany in Europe, and a Germany in Asia, where Turkey once +was. Indeed, in all but name, they are in existence now; so complete, as +we shall see, has been Germany's penetration of the Ottoman Empire. Just +for the present she calls herself Turkey in those regions; that is her +incognito. But Turkey as an independent Power has already ceased to +exist, and Tekin Alp and the Nationalists still dream on with rainbow +visions of Ottomanisation, the vistas of which stretch far into Persia +and the plains of the Volga. And all the while she has been put out like +a candle, and all that is left of her is the smouldering wick ready to +be pinched between the horny fingers of her stepmother. There she +stands, her stepmother, with her grinning teeth already disclosing the +Wolf.... + +Whatever the end of the European War may be, in no circumstances can the +dreams of the Nationalists be realised. Even if Germany and her arms +were so victorious that Russia lay at her feet a mere inert carcase +ready for the chopper, she would no more dream of giving Russian +provinces to an independent Turkey than she would hand over to her +Berlin itself. And if, as we know, Germany can never be victorious, will +the Allies once more strive to keep the Sick Man alive, or leave in his +ruthless power the peoples whom he is longing to exterminate? Even Tekin +Alp can hardly expect that. + +Here then, in brief, is the policy of New Turkey. Its subject +peoples--Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews--are to be totally +unrepresented in its councils, though together they number sixty per +cent, of the population of the Empire. But they are not only to be +unrepresented in Government--they are, if the programme is to be carried +conclusively out, to have no existence. In accordance with the plans of +the murderous ruffians who to-day administer the Nationalist policy, +those of the Armenians who have not fled beyond the frontiers have +already been exterminated, and the same fate threatens Arabs, Greeks, +and Jews. Hence, when the Allied Governments wrote their joint note to +President Wilson, they stated that among their aims in the war was 'the +liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' From that avowed determination they will never recede. + + * * * * * + +NOTE.--It is to be hoped that Tekin Alp's pamphlet, _Turks and the +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, may soon be accessible to English readers. The +author is a Macedonian Jew who writes under the pseudonym of Tekin Alp, +and his mind is such that he appears to find romance in the idea of a +united Turkey purged by indiscriminate massacre from all alien elements. +But he sets forth with admirable lucidity the aims of the Nationalist +party and the steps already achieved by them in their progress towards +their ideal. Already the sequestered ladies of the harem have come out +of their retirement and join in the crusade, and not only do men give +lectures to women, but 'women mount the platform and address the men.' +There are corporations to advance economic organisations, boy-scout +centres all over the Empire, and 'intellectual parties' among the guilds +of merchants--England and Russia appear as the most virulent foes of +Pan-Turkism, 'the colossus of darkest barbarism joined with the colossus +of a degenerate civilisation.' + +In the second part of his pamphlet Tekin Alp passes on with an +enthusiasm which is as sincere as it is pathetic to the vision of a +tremendous Turkey, extending from Thrace on the west to the Desert of +Gobi on the east. It embraces, as his map shows, Egypt as far south as +Victoria Nyanza, Arabia, Persia, the greater part of India, the littoral +of the Black Sea, the plains of the Volga, the circuit of the Caspian +Sea and the Aral Sea, and in the north-east nearly touches Tomsk. All +this naturally is dependent on complete German victory in the war, and, +pathetically enough, Tekin Alp appears to think that his ideal Turkey +will meet with the approval of Germany. Indeed it is no wonder that his +pamphlet is circulated broadcast by German propagandists, for it is +precisely what Germany wants Turkey to believe. + +The romance of the movement appeals also very strongly to Ziya Gök Alp, +the official bard of the butchers of Constantinople. He has written a +sort of Ode to Attila, quoted by Tekin Alp, which is a fine frenzy in +favour of barbarism. This preposterous poem begins: + +'I do not read the famous deeds of my ancestors in the dead, faded, +dusty leaves of the history books, but in my own veins, in my own heart. +My Attila, my Huns, those heroic figures which stand for the proud fame +of my race, appear in those dry pages to our malicious and slanderous +age as covered with shame and disgrace, while in reality they are no +less than Alexander and Caesar,' etc. etc. + +I have been at present unable to ascertain whether it is true that the +German Emperor has set it to music, under the impression that it refers +to him and the German armies. It is very popular in Prussia, which need +arouse no surprise. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter III_ + + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +We have traced in brief the backward progress of Ottoman domination, and +have seen how, from the rough and ready methods of a military barbarism, +the Turks evolved a more emphatic and a more highly organised negation +of all those principles which we may sum up under the general term of +civilisation. The comparatively humane neglect of the unfortunate alien +peoples herded within the frontiers of earlier Sultans was improved upon +by Abdul Hamid, who struck out the swifter and superior methods of +maintaining the dominating strength of the Turkish element in the +kingdom not by the absorption of subject peoples, but by their +extermination. This in turn, this new and effective idea, served as a +first sketch of an artist with regard to his finished picture, and +starting with that the Nationalist party enlarged and elaborated it +into that masterpiece of massacre which they exhibited to the world in +the years 1915 and 1916 of the Christian Era, when from end to end of +the Empire there flashed the signal for the extermination of the +Armenian race. Abdul Hamid was but tentative and experimental as +compared to their systematised thoroughness, but then the Nationalist +party had learned thoroughness under the tutelage of its Prussian +masters. And in addition to instruction they had had the advantage of +seeing how Prussian firmness, with the soothing balm of Kultur to +follow, had dealt with the now-subject remnant of Belgians. That was the +way to treat subject people: 'the first care of a state is to protect +itself,' as Enver and Talaat could read in the text-books now translated +into Turkish, in copies, maybe, presented to them by their Master in +Berlin, and Turkey could best show the proof of her enlightenment and +regeneration, by following in the footsteps of Prussian Kultur. Perhaps +a few thousand innocent men might suffer the inconvenience of having +their nails torn out, of being bastinadoed to death, of being shot, +burned or hanged, perhaps a few thousand girls and women might die by +the wayside in being deported to 'agricultural colonies,' might fall +victims to the lusts of Turkish soldiers, or have babes torn from their +wombs, but these paltry individual pains signified nothing compared to +the national duty of 'suffering the state to run no risks.' As one of +this party of Union and Progress said, 'The innocent of to-day may be +the guilty of to-morrow,' and it was therefore wise to provide that for +innocent and guilty alike there should be no to-morrow at all. Years +before the statesmanship of Abdul Hamid had prophetically foreseen the +dawning of this day, when he remarked 'The way to get rid of the +Armenian question is to get rid of the Armenians,' and temporarily for +twenty years he did get rid of the Armenian question. But when, in 1915, +Talaat Bey completed his arrangements for a further contribution to the +solution of the same problem, he said, 'After this, there will be no +Armenian question for fifty years.' As far as we can judge, he rather +under-estimated the thoroughness of his arrangements.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lately (September 1917), when the massacres were all over, +Talaat, speaking at a Congress of the Committee of Union and Progress, +upheld as right and proper the treatment of the Armenian race.] + +The race thus marked out for extermination was one of the oldest +settlements in Asiatic Turkey. Originally it was confined to Armenia +proper, a highland district comprising part of what is now the Russian +province of Trans-Caucasia, part of Persia, notably the province of +Adarbaijan, and, within the Turkish frontier, the province of Armenia, +itself. According to legend, which may well be correct, the Armenians +were the oldest national Christian Church in the world, with a liturgy +that dates from the first century of the Christian Era, while their +translation of the Bible dates from the early years of the fifth century +A.D. Here in these uplands they formed a compact and homogeneous +population, spread over towns and country alike, and were occupied in +the main with agrarian and pastoral pursuits. But they had in addition +much of the versatility and business capacity of the Jews, as well as a +strong liberal-mindedness towards progress and education, and thus, +while they still continued up to the present day their pastoral life in +the countryside, others gravitated towards towns, and by degrees they +spread over a large part of the Turkish Empire, until most of the towns +in Turkey had a progressive and peaceful quota of Armenian citizens, +tolerated by their Moslem neighbours, and, though possessed of no great +share of political influence, powerful, in that the trade and commerce +of inland Turkey was largely in their hands. Wherever they went they +established their schools; many were lawyers, doctors, and professors of +education. Certain repressive measures were brought to bear on them; +they were not, for instance, allowed to carry arms, except when, in +accordance with Turkish conscriptive laws, they served in the Ottoman +army. But many of them, by paying their exemption money, got off +military service, and they confined themselves to the arts of peace, +whether pastorally in their native highlands, or in the shops and +offices of the towns to which they migrated. They were not, till the +time of Abdul Hamid, held to be in any sense a national danger, for, +except in Armenia proper, they were too scattered and too peace-loving +an element of the population to be capable of united action, and never +do they seem to have provoked any outburst of Moslem fanaticism. They +had local quarrels and fights with the more warlike Kurds who encroached +on Armenia, and in the towns where they settled they often incurred the +vague jealousy and dislike which are the penalties of a race superior +morally and intellectually to those among whom they live. But that +superiority constituted in course of time the 'Armenian question,' to +which Abdul Hamid alluded. In all, some sixty years ago their entire +race numbered about 4,000,000 persons, of whom about 1,250,000 inhabited +Russian Trans-Caucasia, about 150,000 were in the province of +Adarbaijan, and there were smaller bodies of them in Austria and India. +The remainder, some 2,500,000, were spread over Armenia, over the +villages and towns of Turkey, notably the eastern edge of the Cilician +uplands, while in Constantinople itself there were certainly not less +than 150,000, and probably as many as 200,000. To-day, the male portion +of the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire has practically ceased to +exist: a quarter of a million men and women escaped over the Russian +frontier, five thousand escaped to Egypt, and there are a few thousand +women and girls (it is impossible to ascertain the exact number) in +Turkish harems. Turkism, as administered by Abdul Hamid first, then, far +more efficiently, by Enver Pasha, and Talaat Bey, has solved the +Armenian question. + +The history of its solution falls under two heads, of which the first +concerns the manner in which it was solved in Armenia itself, where the +population was almost exclusively Armenian, both in towns and in the +country. Here the eastern and north-eastern frontiers of Turkey, across +which lie the province of Russian Trans-Caucasia and Persia, pass +through the middle of districts peopled by men of Armenian blood, and +when, in the autumn of 1914, the Turks made their entry into the +European War, their eastern armies, operating against Russia, found +themselves confronted by troops among whom were many Armenians, while in +their advance into the Persian province of Adarbaijan, there were in the +ranks of their opponents, Armenians and Syriac Christians. They advanced +in fact, in the first weeks of the war, into a country largely peopled +with men of the same blood as those on their own side of the frontier. +Though the edict had not yet come from Constantinople for the massacre +of the Armenians (Talaat Bey did not complete his arrangements till the +following April), the slaughter of them began then, first in the advance +of the Turkish armies, and following on that movement, which lasted but +a few weeks, in their subsequent retreat before the Russians. All +villages through which the Turkish armies passed were plundered and +burned, all the inhabitants on whom the Turks could lay their hands were +killed. Sometimes women and children were given to the Kurds, who formed +bands of irregular troops in conjunction with the Turkish army, and +these were outraged before they were slaughtered. A price was put on +every Christian head, and in the Turkish retreat the corpses were thrust +into the wells in order to pollute them. The excuse for this, as given +by German apologists (not apologists, perhaps, so much as supporters and +adherents of the policy), was that since behind the Turkish lines the +country was populated by a race of the same blood as that through which +they advanced, and then retreated, extermination was necessary in order +to prevent or to punish treachery and collusion. But I have been nowhere +able to find that there were instances of such, nor that the Turks put +forward that excuse themselves. Indeed it would have been an unnecessary +explanation, for but a few months after the opening of the war, Talaat +Bey's plans were complete, and the extermination of Armenians hundreds +of miles from any sphere of military operations rendered it needless to +say anything about it, or to invent instances of treachery if there were +actually none to hand. + +Simultaneously the massacre of Armenians behind the Turkish lines +began. The whole male population of the district round Bitlis was +murdered, so too were all males in Bitlis itself. Then all women and +children were driven in, as a herdsman might drive sheep, from the +reeking villages round, and, for purposes of convenience, concentrated +in Bitlis. When they were all collected, they were driven in a flock to +the edge of the Tigris, shot, and the corpses were thrown into the +river. That was the solution of the Armenian question in Bitlis. + +North-west of Bitlis, and some sixty miles distant, lies the town of +Mush. It used to contain about 25,000 Armenian inhabitants, and in the +district round there were some three hundred villages chiefly consisting +of Armenians. Arrangements were on foot for a general massacre there +when the arrival of Russian troops at Liz, some fifteen hours' march +away, caused the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till +July a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a +warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in the face +of superior forces, had to retire again, and the massacres were put on a +systematic footing. The account which follows is based on four +independent authorities: (1) The statement of a German eye-witness in +Mush in charge of an Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman +deported from a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3) +information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the journal +_Horizon_ of Tiflis. These supplement each other, often verify each +other, and in no instance are contradictory. + +Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end of 1914, at +a time when the massacres across the frontier had begun. The Mutessarif +of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver Pasha, had openly declared that 'at +an opportune moment' the slaughter of the whole Armenian race was +contemplated, and later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of +the American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been the +chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia itself, while +Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in towns throughout the +rest of Turkey. During the whole of that winter, a very severe one, +signs of the approaching extermination multiplied. In the villages round +fresh taxes were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they +were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in question +was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable delay caused by the +proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, and the massacre began in +earnest. + +Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from Constantinople, and an +order was given that all Armenians must leave the town within three +days, after 'registering themselves' at the Government office. The women +and children were to remain, but their money and their property would be +confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to fresh +orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the crowds in the +streets flocking to the registry offices, and after that systematic +house-to-house murder began. Prominent Armenians were tortured to +death, houses containing women and children were set on fire, a body of +men collected together was thrown into the river, girls were outraged +and slaughtered. For two days the massacre continued, and by the end of +the second day the Armenian question was solved as regards Mush. + +In the surrounding villages the same Prussian thoroughness was observed, +and out of all the inhabitants of the plain 5000 only seemed to have +survived, who fled to Sasun (there to be subsequently massacred in +1916), while a few from outlying villages escaped to the Russian troops. +In certain villages the girls and young women were given to the Kurd +soldiery, who raped them publicly in the presence of their families, not +sparing girls of eight and ten years of age, who then, bleeding and +violated, were shot in company with the old women, for whom the Kurds +(inspired by Allah, the God of Love) had no use. Elsewhere, as the story +of a deported woman from Kheiban tells us, the women guarded by Kurdish +troops were driven out of their villages, leaving behind the corpses of +the men and of old women who could not walk, and for days were marched +along the roads, nearly naked, under the fierce heat of the July sun. +Once every other day they were given bread, but all did not get it, and +many fell exhausted by the wayside, and were either whipped to their +feet again or allowed to lie down and die. As they passed through +villages Kurds would come out and rape a girl or two, and when they +halted at night their guards would come among them.... Some few escaped; +the rest, in dwindling company, went on through days of blinding sun and +nights of shame till at last there were only a few remaining. It was not +worth while going farther, for the work of Enver Pasha was nearly done, +and the rest were pushed into the river. One alone survived, who could +swim, and she, with her two-year-old baby on her back, got across the +stream and made her way to a village where were a party of Armenians who +had escaped massacre. She arrived there at midnight, and at first they +thought she was a ghost. To them she told her story of the outraged and +ever-dwindling caravan of helpless women and girls driven onwards all +day beneath the smiting arrows of the sun, and encamped by the wayside, +where they halted with their barbarous guards and their lusts for a +terror by night. Of them none but this one was left, who had carried her +baby with her every step of that infernal pilgrimage. Two days +afterwards he died from want of nourishment, and before the week was out +the mother fell into the hands of a body of patrolling Kurds, and was +killed. + +So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if in the +history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with wanton cruelty +and made God to hide His face, there is any so atrocious a tale, I do +not know it. But if among the annals of heroism and of mother-love we +want to find a nobler record than that of this woman of Kheiban, equally +am I at a loss as to where we should look for it. Among the true and +golden legends of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a +memorial of her. + +Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of Erzerum, with the +town of the same name, that contained in the autumn of 1914 some 20,000 +Armenians. Here the first hint of coming trouble was the order that all +Armenian soldiers serving in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was +followed in June by another order that all the inhabitants of the +hundred villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours' +notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of these a few +took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the remainder a few only lived +to reach Erzinjan, where they were again deported, and the rest were +murdered as they marched. In Erzerum itself orders were received by +Tahsin Bey, the Vali of the town, that all Armenians were to be killed +without distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out, +but his unwillingness was overruled.[1] Simultaneously, the German +Consul telegraphed protests to his Ambassador at Constantinople, and +was told that Germany could not interfere in the internal affairs of +Turkey. + +[Footnote 1: At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the Governor +resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing happened at Konia and at +Kutaia.] + +Here the method employed was deportation: the victims were murdered, not +in the town itself, but were given orders to leave their homes, and +under guard march (for no conveyances were given them) to other +districts. The first company was to go to Diarbekr. All these, with the +exception of one man and forty women, were murdered on the first day's +march. The remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or +collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells us what +fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked out, their +breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their torturers hew off their +feet, or else hammer nails into them as they do in shoeing horses. This +is all done at night-time, in order that people may not hear their +screams and know of their agony. Soldiers are stationed round the +prisons, beating drums and blowing whistles. It is needless to relate +that many died of these tortures. When they die, the soldiers cry, "Now +let your Christ help you."' A second caravan of five hundred families +left Erzerum: at Baiburt they were joined by another contingent deported +from that town, and the account that follows is based on the information +supplied by the Rev. Robert Stapleton, an American minister at Erzerum, +and by an Armenian woman who was among the deported, and whose life was +spared on her embracing Islamism. + +The convoy numbered, when it left Baiburt, some 15,000 persons, and it +reached Erzinjan in safety. There the massacres had already taken place, +and the women and children had been deported, for they found no +Armenians there. But the convoy had not yet arrived at its goal, and it +started out again moving south by east till it came to Kamakh. There +bands of Kurds descended on them, and in the space of seven days every +male above fifteen years of age, including an aged priest of ninety, was +killed. Thereafter a pilgrimage of women, as from Kheiban, moved +southwards across plain and mountain, and every day its numbers were +diminished, for the youthful and the good-looking were carried off by +brigands. At night they were halted outside villages, and the gendarmes +and villagers took what they chose. Many died from hunger and +heat-stroke: others were left by the wayside. When they came to the +banks of the river Kara-Su there was a debauch of horror. Women and +girls and little children were raped and mutilated, and the children who +still survived were thrown into the river. Those who could swim were +shot. Thereafter the movements of this caravan are hard to trace. +Probably there was then but little left of it. But others followed on +the same route 'through fields and hillsides dotted with swollen and +blackened corpses that filled and fouled the air with their stench.' +Some of them reached Mosul, some reached Aleppo, another collecting +station, where, by the mouth of other witnesses, we shall hear of them +again. + +Corroborative and additional evidence is given by the Danish Red Cross +nurses who, with a noble disregard of their own safety, accompanied one +of these caravans from Erzerum to Erzinjan. They speak of the massacres +at Kamakh, of the killing by the river, and of a _battue_ through the +cornfields, where the wheat was high, into which some Armenians had +escaped. At one time these Danish Sisters were in the charge of a +gendarme who had superintended a massacre of 3000 women and children +driven from their homes into the country, rounded up and killed. He told +the Sisters that this was the best method of getting rid of them, for +they should be made to suffer first, and besides it would be +inconvenient for Moslems to live in a village with so many corpses +about. At another place they came to a shambles, where Armenian +soldiers, deprived of their arms, and sent to make roads, had been +slaughtered: at another there were three gangs of labourers, one Moslem, +one Greek, and one Armenian. These latter were guarded. Presently, as +they proceeded along their road, they looked round and saw that the +Armenian gang was being formed up by itself, a little off the +highroad.... + +And so the ghastly record went on all over Armenia. At one place only, +the town of Van, was any resistance organised. There, after the massacre +had begun, some 1500 Armenians got hold of arms (probably many of these +men were soldiers who had not yet had their arms taken from them), and +for the space of twenty-seven days defended themselves against five +thousand Turkish troops, till the Russian advance relieved them. During +that advance Armenian refugees, into whose districts the massacres had +not yet penetrated, fled for refuge to the invading army, and in all +some 250,000 Armenians under its protection crossed in safety the +Russian frontier into Trans-Caucasia. How many died on the way from +hunger and exhaustion is not known. Cholera, dysentery, and spotted +fever broke out among them, and the path of their passage was lined with +dead and dying. Companies of Kurds made descents upon them, taking toll +of their maidenhood, but, with the Russian line to protect them at their +rear, they struggled on out of the cemetery and brothel of their native +country, and out of the accursed confines of that hell on earth, the +Ottoman Empire, leaving behind them the murdered myriads of their +husbands and their sons, their violated wives and daughters. Through +incredible hardships they passed, but, unlike the other pilgrimages we +have briefly traced, they moved not towards death, but towards safety +and life, and their dark steps were lightened with Hope. + +Before the last of those who survived the hunger and the pestilence of +that pilgrimage had reached Russian soil, it is probable that in all +Armenia there was not a man of their race left alive, nor a woman either +unless she had accepted Islamism and the life of the harem. A peaceful +and progressive nation had been wiped out with every accompaniment of +horror and cruelty and bestial lust, and in Armenia itself there would +never more be an Armenian question. Abdul Hamid had hinted at the +solution of it, and had made, as we have seen, experiments in that +direction; but it was reserved for Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, +enlightened men of the Young Turk party, with the advantages of a +Prussian example, to complete the work. Already Enver had said that he +would never rest until the last Armenian in the Ottoman Empire had been +killed, and before the end of 1915, as far as Armenia itself went, he +was able to see a reasonable prospect of repose before him. But there +was much work still left to do in other provinces. + +We have seen that for the extirpation of Armenians in Armenia proper, +the excuse put forward, if not by the Turks themselves, by their German +apologists, was the necessity of guarding against treachery in the +vicinity of the Turkish army, and against spying and collusion between +the Armenians behind the Russian lines and those behind Turkish lines. +The same pretext was put forward for the massacres and deportations from +Thrace, from Constantinople, and from the shores of the Sea of Marmora. +Here, if anywhere, there may be thought to be some justification for +measures which might have been undertaken for the sake of public safety. +At any rate, there were definite charges brought against Armenians in +these districts, and the Armenian boatmen of Silivri, for instance, were +imprisoned, but not, as far as I know, massacred, on the charge of +revictualling English submarines, which at that time, as the reader will +remember, had penetrated into the Sea of Marmora, and indeed had reached +Constantinople itself. It is not, of course, consonant with Turkish or +Prussian justice to substantiate charges before inflicting penalties, it +is sufficient in the new World-justice to accuse. But here round +Constantinople, there was some pretence at procedure before resorting to +murder and deportation. A register was drawn up of all Armenians +resident in the capital, dividing into separate classes those who were +born in Constantinople, and those who were immigrants from Armenia, with +a view to deporting those who were not native to the city. Here, I +think, we may see traces of the Prussian instinct for tabulation, for +classification, for category-mongering. Enver and his colleagues lost +patience with these dilatory tactics. The Armenians of the province of +Brussa were deported wholesale, and long before the registration lists +of Constantinople were finished, all Armenians were moved out of the +town. Ten thousand males were massacred in the mountains of Ismid, and +the Armenian women and children taken into collecting stations for +deportation to 'agricultural colonies' (so the phrase ran in the +Pecksniff language of Prussia) situated in the Anatolian desert, in the +desert of Arabia, and in malarious marshes on the Euphrates. With this +clearing out of Armenians from Thrace, from Constantinople, and from +Armenia itself, we have finished with our first class of the Armenian +atrocities. For it reasons were at least invented by German apologists. +Military necessities, which here, as in Belgium, knew no law, dictated +it; the frightfulness involved was incidental to War. But such +considerations were not even alleged for the second class of the +murder-scheme. Before passing on, it will be well to review, quite +shortly, the reasons which dictated it, and penetrate into the infernal +councils of Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey. + +The text of the scheme is to be found in the defined policy of the +Young Turk party as set forth in their Congress of 1911. 'Turkey must +become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem ideas and Moslem +influence must be preponderant.... Sooner or later the complete +Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must be effected: it is clear, +however, that this can never be attained by persuasion, but that we must +resort to armed force.' + +There is the text that was expanded into the discourse of murder; it is +the definition of a policy. Within a few years there followed the +European War, and that probably was the immediate cause of its being put +into effect. No more admirable opportunity for Ottomanisation could +present itself, for the entry of Turkey into the war was most unpopular +with the bulk of the Turkish population, and it was advisable to bribe +them into acceptance of it. The bribe was the houses, the property, the +money and the trade that throughout the length and breadth of Turkey was +in Armenian hands. For the Armenians were by far the wealthiest of the +alien populations, and some 90 per cent. of Turkish trade passed through +their shops and offices. Here, then, was the psychological moment: +Turkey for the Turk was the aim of the Committee of Union and Progress, +and with a discontented population, unwilling to fight, the moment had +come for restoring to the Turk this mass of property which at present +belonged to an alien race. War might have its drawbacks and its clouds, +but war would be seen to have its advantages and its silver linings, if +out of it there came this legacy of Armenian wealth. And by the same +stroke Turkey could get rid of those thousands of meddlesome +missionaries, American and French, who spread religion and learning and +other undesirable things among the cursed race. Once remove the cursed +race, and there would be an end of their instructors also, for there +would be none to instruct. 'Thanks to their schools,' so we read in the +_Hilal_, an organ of the Young Turks, 'foreigners were able to exercise +great moral influence over the young men of the country.... By closing +them (i.e. by exterminating their pupils) the Government has put an end +to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous.' + +Such, then, was the spirit that animated Enver and Talaat, and during +the winter of 1914-15 they perfected their plans. The Armenian race was +to cease, and the Valis and other officials were, each in his district, +to see to the thoroughness of its cessation. Sometimes, as happened at +Erzerum, the Vali in question, not having the broad out-look of Enver, +or quaintly and curiously having a womanish objection to the national +duty of flogging men to death and giving over young girls to a barbarous +soldiery, remonstrated with the authorities, or even refused to obey +orders. Such a one was instantly removed from his office, and a +stauncher patriot substituted. All was put on an orderly footing: here +Kurds were to be employed on the old Abdul Hamid formula, who by way of +wage would enjoy the privilege of raping as many women and girls out of +their hapless convoy as seemed desirable, while in agricultural +districts they were allowed also to take over the sheep and cattle of +their murdered victims. Here, in towns where there was more chance of +resistance than in scattered homesteads, it would be wise to employ +regular troops, backed, if necessary, by artillery, to whom would be +entrusted the murder of the whole male population, after suitable +tortures, supposing the executioners had a taste for the sport, and to +them was given the right of general plunder. Then, as soon as the number +and capacity of the vacant houses were telegraphed to Constantinople, +occupiers from the discontented townsfolk and natives of Thrace were +assigned to them. Sometimes there would be a big school building to give +away as well, but that was not always so, for it might be more +convenient to assemble Armenians there for purposes of registration or +so forth, and then, if it happened to catch fire, why Enver would +understand that such accidents would occur. Among other careful and +well-thought-out instructions came the order that, when possible, the +murders should not take place in the town, but outside it, for clean +Allah-fearing Moslems would not like to live in habitations defiled by +Christian corpses. But, above all, there must be thoroughness; not a man +must be left alive, not a girl nor a woman who must not drag her +outraged body, so long as breath and the heart-beat remained in it, to, +or rather towards those 'agricultural colonies,' as Talaat Bey, in a +flash of whimsical Prussian humour, called them. One was advantageously +situated in the middle of the Anatolian desert at the village of +Sultanieh. There, for miles round, stretched the rocks and sands of a +waterless wilderness, but no doubt the women and children of this very +industrious race would manage to make it wave with cornfields. Another +agricultural colony, by way of contrast, should be established a couple +of days' journey south of Aleppo, where the river loses itself in +pestilential and malarious swamps. Arabs could not live there, but who +knew whether those hardy Armenians (the women and children, of them at +least who had proved themselves robust enough to reach the place) would +not flourish there out of harm's way? After the swamps one came to the +Arabian desert, and there, a hundred miles south-east, was a place +called Deir-el-Zor; wandering Arab tribes sometimes passed through it, +but, arrived there, the Armenians should wander no more. In those arid +sands and waterless furnaces of barren rock there was room for all and +to spare. Sultanieh, the swamps, and Deir-el-Zor: these were the chief +of Talaat Bey's agricultural colonies. + +There must be collecting stations for these tragic colonists, centres to +which they must be herded in from surrounding districts: one at +Osmanieh, let us say, one at Aleppo, one at Ras-el-Ain, one at Damascus. +And since it would be a pity to let so many flowers of girlhood waste +their sweetness on the desert air of Deir-el-Zor, slave markets must be +established at these collecting stations. There would be plenty of +girls, and prices would be low, but the reverend ministers of Allah the +God of Love, the Ulemas, the Padis and the Muftis, should be accorded a +preferential tariff. Indeed they should pay nothing at all; they should +just choose a girl and take her away, and, with the help of Allah the +God of Love, convert her to the blessed creed. No one was too young for +these lessons.... A little abstemiousness would not hurt these pampered +Christians, so when they set out on their marches they need not be +provided with rations or water. Perhaps some might die, but Talaat had +no use for weaklings at his agricultural colonies. Nor must there be any +poking and prying on the part of those interfering American +missionaries; and so Talaat Bey put all the agricultural colonies out of +bounds for foreigners.... + +There was no hurry over these deportations, for the plea of military +exigencies, which had caused the deportations in Armenia itself to be +terminated by massacre with a rapidity almost inartistic, did not apply +to Armenians so far from the seat of war. Their picnics could be +conducted quietly and pleasantly in the leisurely Oriental manner. Even +the men need not be murdered absolutely out of hand. Strong young +fellows might be stripped and tied down and then beaten to death by +bastinadoing the feet till they burst, or by five hundred blows on the +chest and stomach. Their cries would mingle with the screams of their +sisters in the embrace of Turkish soldiers. And, talking of embraces, if +a woman was desirable, she need not walk all the way to Deir-el-Zor, but +by embracing Islamism be transferred to a harem. But these were details +that might be left to individual taste: there were no precise +instructions save that no Armenian men must be discoverable in the +Ottoman Empire at all, and no women save those who had become Turkish +women, or who were at work on the waterless and the malarial +agricultural colonies. + +Talaat Bey reviewed his finished scheme. He thought it would do, and +Enver Pasha agreed with him, and Jemal Bey (who soon after styled +himself Jemal the Great), the Military Governor of Syria, and so +responsible for the last stages of their pilgrimage, thought it would do +very well indeed. And instructions were sent out to every town in the +Empire where there were Armenians, in accordance with the programme of +Talaat Bey. + +How Enver carried out his part of the programme in Armenia itself we +have seen, and by the end of the year (1915) his work was done, and +Armenia was Armenia no longer. But operations, as I have said, were +conducted in a more leisurely manner elsewhere, and the agony of that +butchery protracted. But Jemal got to work at once in the thickly +populated district round Zeitun. He had had no success in the campaign +of the winter in the direction of the Suez Canal, and his troops were +hungry for some sort of victory. The Zeitunlis were hardy independent +mountaineers, who were possessed of arms, and Jemal thought it more +prudent not to dally with deportations, but conduct a regular campaign +against them. For two or three months they resisted, entrenching +themselves in the hills, but they could not hold out against artillery +and the modern apparatus of war, and the whole tribe was wiped out. That +done, Jemal became Jemal the Great by reason of his national services, +and paid a visit to Germany. On his return we shall hear of him again. + +Meanwhile, from all the reports that have arrived from missionaries and +others, we may take one or two, almost at random. At certain places, as +in the governments of Ismid, Angora and Diarbekr, the Armenian +population was completely wiped out. Sometimes tortures were added, as +at a certain Anatolian town where there was a big Armenian school, in +which a number of professors and instructors, some of whom had studied +in America, in Scotland, and in Germany, had for years been working. + +What happened to them was this:-- + +(1) Professor A served the College thirty-five years, and taught +Turkish and history. He was arrested without charge, the hair of his +head and beard were pulled out in order to secure damaging confessions. +He was starved and hung up by the arms for a day and a night and +repeatedly beaten. He was then murdered. + +(2) Professor B, who had served the College thirty-three years, and +taught mathematics, suffered the same fate. + +(3) Professor C, head of the preparatory department, had served the +College for twenty years. He was made to witness the spectacle of a man +being beaten almost to death, and became mentally deranged. He was +murdered with his family. + +(4) Professor D, who taught mental and moral sciences, was treated in +the same way as Professor A. He also had three finger nails pulled out +by the roots, and was subsequently murdered. + +Similarly, at Diarbekr, the Armenians were collected in batches of 600, +taken out of the town, and killed to the last man. Among them was the +Armenian Archbishop; his eyes and nails were dragged out before he was +butchered. + +Or let us take a look at some of the collecting camps. At one, described +by an eye-witness, we find that the convoy had arrived after several +months of travel. More than half were already dead, they had been +pillaged by bandits and Kurds seven times. They were forbidden to drink +water when they passed by a stream, three-quarters of the young women +and girls had been kidnapped, the rest were compelled to sleep with the +gendarmes who conducted them. At Osmanieh it was decided to deport the +women and children by train. They lay about the station starving and +fever-stricken. When the train arrived many were jostled on to the line, +and the driver yelled with joy, crying out, 'Did you see how I smashed +them up?' + +At another camp typhus broke out; those who died of it were left +unburied, as vouched for by a Turkish officer, in order to increase the +infection.... + +Urfa was another collecting camp for the Armenians in that district, and +the following account is based on the information of an eye-witness. +Here, before the concentration began, the Armenians living in the town +offered resistance to the Turks, and held out until Fahri Bey, second in +command to Jemal the Great, arrived with artillery, bombarded the town, +and massacred every Armenian there. Quiet being thus restored, the bands +of deported began to arrive. They came by rail or on foot, and, with +the Prussian love of tabulation, were divided into three groups. + +The first group consisted of old men, old women, and young children. +They, guarded by gendarmes, were sent marching through the desert to +Deir-el-Zor. Few, if any, ever arrived there, all dying by the way. + +The second group, consisting of able-bodied men, was led off in batches +and slaughtered. Among them were Zohrab and Vartkes, Armenian deputies +who had been brought there from Constantinople. + +The third group consisted of young marriageable girls. Some, perhaps, +found their way into harems. + +From Aleppo (one of the final concentration camps before such as were +left of the convoys set forth for their goal, the swamps or the desert +round Deir-el-Zor) we have the detailed evidence of Dr. Martin Niepage, +High Grade teacher in the German Technical School. This gentleman, with +a courage and a humanity to which the highest tribute must be paid, +addressed a report of protest to the German Ambassador at +Constantinople, and wrote an open letter to the Reichstag on the subject +of what he had seen with his own eyes in that town. In his preliminary +matter he speaks as follows:-- + +'In dilapidated caravanserais I found quantities of dead, many corpses +being half-decomposed, and others still living among them who were soon +to breathe their last. In other yards I found quantities of sick and +dying people, whom nobody was looking after.... We teachers and our +pupils had to pass them every day. Every time we went out we saw through +the open windows their pitiful forms, emaciated and wrapped in rags. In +the morning our school children, on their way through the narrow +streets, had to push past the two-wheeled ox-carts on which every day, +from eight to ten rigid corpses without coffin or shroud, were carried +away, their arms and legs trailing out of the vehicle.' + +From the report itself:-- + +'Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the Armenian +plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, women, and children, +only two or three hundred survivors arrived here in the south. The men +were slaughtered on the way, the women and girls, with the exception of +the old, the ugly and those who are still children, have been abused by +Turkish soldiers and officers.... Even when they are fording rivers they +do not allow those dying of thirst to drink. All the nourishment they +receive is a daily ration of a little meal sprinkled on their hands.... +Opposite the German Technical School at Aleppo, a mass of about four +hundred emaciated forms, the remnant of such convoys, is lying in one of +the caravanserais. There are about a hundred children (boys and girls) +among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them are suffering +from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the yard, one has the +impression of entering a madhouse. If one brings food, one notices that +they have forgotten how to eat.... If one gives them bread, they put it +aside indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for death.' + +Dr. Niepage wrote this report in the hope of saving such as then (1915) +survived. No notice whatever was taken of it, and his postscript, +written in May 1916, records the fact that 'the exiles encamped at +Ras-el-Ain on the Bagdad Railway, estimated at 20,000 men, women and +children, were slaughtered to the last one.'[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is right to add that at Aleppo an officer called Bekir +Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected from neighbouring +districts, who were threatened with massacre, and I find that a German +missionary states that there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This +forms confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is nothing to +show that they were not subsequently deported to Deir-el-Zor. In this +case it is highly improbable that any survive.] + +In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the Germans are +directly responsible for the continuance of the massacres. Such, too, is +the opinion, he tells us, of the educated Moslems, and his courage in +stating this has lost him his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely +hoped that he has escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for +drawing attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian +massacres, has been arrested for high treason. + +Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had refused to +interfere in the massacres, and both in the official press and through +official utterances had expressed their support of this Ottomanisation +of the Empire, began to think that you might have too much of a good +thing, and that the massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason +was clear and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour +in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for which they +had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. There had been some +talk, they said, of saving 500,000 Armenians out of the race, but, in +the way things were going on, it seemed that the remnant would not +nearly approach that figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper +their patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he wanted +to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh from his visit +to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of Talaat's opposition, +made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, in which, beyond doubt, we +can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' in the following manner. + +There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in Constantinople +which was to be led out for murder and deportation, and Jemal gave +orders that it should be spared and sent back to its highland home. He +gave orders also that the entire convoy should be informed who was their +saviour, and should be led in procession past his house and show their +gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, half-starved +crowd streamed by the house of Jemal the Great, with murmurs of +thanksgiving and uplifted hands, and all manner of obeisances, while +Jemal the Great stood in his porch with stern, impassive face, and hand +on his sword-hilt in the best Potsdam manner, and acknowledged these +thanksgivings....[1] + +[Footnote 1: In support of Jemal's claim to clemency it must be added +that, according to a report coming from Alexandria, he hanged twelve of +the worst assassins sent to Syria as ringleaders of the massacres. I +cannot find corroboration of this.] + +Here, then, is the absurd, the Williamesque side of this ludicrous +popinjay, Jemal the Great, and it contains not only the obvious seeds of +laughter, but the more helpful seeds of hope. He has a strong hand on +the very efficient army of Syria, and his visits to Berlin seem perhaps +to have turned his head not quite in the direction that the +Master-egalo-megalomaniac of Berlin intended. I gather that Jemal the +Great was not so much impressed by the magnificence of William II. as to +fall dazzled and prone at the Imperial feet, and lick with enraptured +tongue the imperial boot polish, but rather to be inspired to do the +same himself, to become the God-anointed of the newly acquired German +province, which is Turkey, and make a Potsdam of his own. This is only a +guess, but the conduct of Jemal the Great in the matter of these +Armenian refugees, and in other affairs, has been distinctly imperial. +In June of this year, for instance, he telegraphed to H.E. the Vali of +Syria, and an extract from his text is truly Potsdamish. 'One and a half +million of sandbags,' he wrote, 'are required for the fortress of +Gaza.... The bags should be made, if necessary, of all the silk-hangings +in houses of Syria and Palestine.' With his army behind him, he has +twice already defied the orders of Talaat, and I am inclined to think +that he is the coming Strong Man of the effete Empire with whom it would +be well worth while to make friends, even at a highish price. The Allied +Powers should keep an undazzled eye on him, for it is quite possible +that, having defied Talaat successfully, he may go on to defy the real +rulers of Turkey, who live in Berlin. His Syrian army, from such sources +as are available, appears to be more efficient than any other body of +troops the Turks can put into the field, and he has them in control. +Probably in the winter of 1917-1918 our troops will come into collision +with them. But in the interval, also quite probably, Jemal the Great may +resent German superintendence.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See note at end of this chapter.] + +But in addition to his ludicrous side, there is in him a refined +hypocrisy and a subtle cruelty worthy of Abdul Hamid. One instance will +suffice. + +There had been some talk that at certain of these concentration camps +there was no water supply, and he gave orders, did Jemal the Great and +the Merciful, that water should be sent. A train consisting of trucks +of water accordingly was despatched to one of those camps, situated in +the desert, with no supply nearer than six miles, and an eye-witness +describes its arrival. The mob of Armenians, mad with thirst, surrounded +it, and, since everything must be done in an orderly and seemly manner, +were beaten back by the Turkish guards, and made to stand at a due +distance for the distribution. And when those ranks, with their parched +throats and sun-cracked lips, were all ready, the Turkish guards opened +the taps of the reservoirs, and allowed the whole of their contents to +run away into the sand. Whether Jemal the Great planned that, or whether +it was but a humorous freak on the part of the officials, I cannot say. +But as a refinement of cruelty I have, outside the page of Poe's tales, +only once come across anything to equal it, and that in a letter from +the _Times'_ correspondent at Berne on April 11, 1917. He describes the +treatment of English prisoners in Germany: 'An equally common +entertainment with those women (German Red Cross nurses) was to offer a +wounded man a glass, perhaps, of water, then, standing just outside his +reach, to pour it slowly on the ground.' Could those sisters of mercy +have read the account of Jemal's clemency, or is it merely an instance +of the parallelism of similar minds? + +So the empty train returned, and Jemal the Great caused it to be known +in Berlin that he was active in securing a proper water supply for the +famous agricultural settlements in the desert, and loud were the +encomiums in the press of the Central Powers over the colonisation of +Syria by the Armenians, the progress and enlightenment of the Turks, and +the skilful and humane organisation of Jemal the Great. + +There is no difficulty in estimating to-day the number of Armenian men +who survive in the Turkish Empire. All appeals to the Prussian +overlords, such as were made by Dr. Niepage, and the belated +remonstrance of the Prussians themselves when they foresaw a dearth of +labour for the husbandry of beet and cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I +cannot see any reason for supposing that Armenian men exist any more in +the Empire. It is more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who, +by accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. Certainly +in some districts there were considerable 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage +rates them as many thousands. But the willingness to accept those +conditions was not always a guarantee for their being granted, and I +have read reports where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was +a more serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they +were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can scarcely +consider these women as constituting an Armenian element any more in the +country. The work of butchery, the torture, the long-drawn agonies of +those inhuman pilgrimages have come to an end because there are no more +Armenian victims available. Apart from those who escaped over the +Russian frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race +exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest deed that +ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It is not in revenge +on the murderers, but in order to rescue the other subject peoples, +Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still enclosed within the frontiers of the +Empire, that the Allied Governments, in their answer to President +Wilson, stated that among their aims as belligerents, was the +'liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again, +after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the destinies +of races not his own. Too long already--and to their disgrace be it +spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations of Europe tolerated at +their very doors a tyranny that has steadily grown more murderous and +more monstrous, because they feared the upset of the Balance of Power. +Now at least such Powers as value national honour, and regard a national +promise as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, have +resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk over his alien +subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the least they can do (and +unhappily the most) to redeem the century-long neglect of their duty. +Even now, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril +threatens those other peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule, +and we can but pray that the end of the war will come before Arabs or +Greeks or Jews suffer the same fate as has exterminated the Armenians. +Too often have we been too late; we must only hope that another item +will not have to be added to that miserable list, and that, when the day +of reckoning comes, no half-hearted and pusillanimous policy will stay +our hands from the complete execution of that to which we stand pledged. +The Balance of Power has gone the way of other rickety makeshifts, but +there must be no makeshift in our dealings with the Turk, no compromise +and no delay. What shall be done with those who planned and executed the +greatest massacres known to history matters little; let them be hanged +as high as Haman, and have done with them. But what does matter is that +at no future time must it be in the power of a Government that has never +been other than barbaric and butcherous, to do again as it has done +before. + +NOTE ON JEMAL THE GREAT + +Jemal the Great has very obligingly done what I suggested we might +expect him to do, and has kicked against the German control of the +Syrian army. General von Falkenhayn was sent to take supreme command, +and on June 28th of this year Jemal the Great refused to receive orders +from him. In consequence General von Falkenhayn refused responsibility +for any offensive movement there if Jemal remained in command. + +This promised well for trouble between Turks and Germans, but we must +not, I am afraid, build very high hopes on it, for Germany has dealt +with the situation in a masterly manner. Jemal was already Minister of +Marine as well as commander of the Syrian army, so the Emperor asked him +to pay another visit to Berlin, and he has been visiting Krupp's works +and German naval yards, and we shall find probably that in the future +his activities will be marine rather than military, and that von +Falkenhayn will have a free hand in Syria. + +But this will prove rather disappointing for Jemal, since it seems +beyond mere coincidence that towards the end of August Herr von +Kuhlmann, the new German Foreign Minister, induced the Turkish +Government (while Jemal was at Berlin) to put their navy and their +merchant fleet under the orders of the German Admiralty, and already +many Turkish naval officers have been replaced by Germans. Thus Jemal +will find himself deprived of his military command, because the navy so +urgently needed his guiding hand, while his guiding hand over the navy +will be itself guided by the German Admiralty.... In fact, it looks +rather like checkmate for Jemal the Great, and an end to the trouble he +might have given the German control. + +On the eve of his leaving Germany, as yet unconscious probably of the +subordination of the entire Turkish fleet to the German Admiralty, he +gave an interview to a representative of the _Cologne Gazette_, which +deserves more than that ephemeral appearance. It shows Jemal the Great +in a sort of hypnotic trance induced at Potsdam. 'The German fleet,' he +says, 'is simply spotless in its power, and a model for all states which +need a modern navy--a model which cannot be surpassed.' ... He went for +a cruise in a submarine which proceeded 'so smoothly, elegantly, calmly +and securely that I had the impression of cruising in a great +steamship.' ... He was taken to Belgium, and describes the 'idyllic life +there': in the towns 'the people go for walks all day long,' and in the +country the peasants blithely gather in the harvest with the help of +happy prisoners.' (He does not tell us where the harvest goes to, any +more than the Germans tell us where the Turkish harvests go to.) He was +taken to General Headquarters, which he describes as 'majestic.' Finally +he was taken into the presence of the All-Highest, and seems to have +emerged in the condition in which Moses came down from Sinai.... But one +must not altogether despair of Jemal the Great. It is still possible +that, on his return to Constantinople, when he found that his position, +as Minister of Marine was but a clerkship in the German Admiralty, the +hypnotic trance began to pass off, and his ambitions to re-assert +themselves. He may yet give trouble to the Germans if properly handled. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter IV_ + + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +It is impossible to leave this heart-rending tale of the sufferings of +the Armenian people under the Turks without some account of that devoted +band of American missionaries who, with a heroism unsurpassed, and +perhaps unequalled, so eagerly sacrificed themselves to the ravages of +pestilence and starvation in order to alleviate the horrors that +descended on the people to whom they had been sent. Often they were +forcibly driven from the care of their flocks, often in the +extermination of their flocks there was none left whom they could +shepherd, but wherever a remnant still lingered there remained these +dauntless and self-sacrificing men and women, regardless of everything +except the cause to which they had devoted themselves. They recked +nothing of the dangers to which they exposed themselves so long as +there was a child or a woman or a man whom they could feed or nurse. +Terrible as were the sufferings through which the Armenians passed, they +must have been infinitely more unbearable had it not been for these +American missionaries; small as was the remnant that escaped into the +safety of Persia or Russian Trans-Caucasia, their numbers must have been +halved had it not been for the heroism of these men and women. While the +German Consuls contented themselves with a few faint protests to their +Ambassador at Constantinople, followed by an acquiescence of silence, +the missionaries constituted themselves into a Red Cross Society of +intrepid workers, and, as one well-qualified authority tells us, +'suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical exhaustion as any +proportionate body of workers on the European battlefields.' Fully +indeed did they live up to the mandate of the American board that sent +them out: 'Your great business is with the fundamental doctrines and +duties of the Gospel.' + +At the opening of the European War the American Missions had been at +work for nearly a hundred years, and were disseminated over Anatolia and +Armenia. They had opened 163 Protestant churches and 450 schools, they +established hospitals, and in every possible way spread civilisation in +a country where the spirit of the governing class was barbarism. It was +not their object to proselytise. 'Let the Armenian remain an Armenian if +he will,' so ran the instructions from which I have already quoted, 'the +Greek a Greek, the Nestorian a Nestorian, the Oriental an Oriental,' and +in the same wise and open-minded spirit they encouraged native +Protestant Churches which were independent of them and largely +self-supporting. Naturally in a country governed by monsters like Abdul +Hamid and Enver Pasha in later days, they earned the enmity which is the +tribute of barbarians to those who stand for civilisation, and when, +owing to the extermination or flight of their Armenian flocks, they were +left without a charge, and their schools were closed, we find a paean of +self-congratulation going up from the Turkish press inspired by the +butchers of Armenia. But till the massacres and the flight were +complete, they gave themselves to the 'duties of the Gospel,' and their +deeds shine like a star into the blackness of that night of murder. + +I will take as an example of the superb heroism of those men and women +the diary of an American lady attached to the mission at Urmia, a +document that, anonymously, is one of the noblest, least self-conscious +records I have ever read. The period of it extends over five months. + +Early in January 1915 the Russian troops were withdrawn from Urmia, +which lies on the frontier between Turkey and Persia, and simultaneously +the Moslem population began to plunder the Christian villages, the +inhabitants of which fled for refuge to the missions in the city. +Talaat's official murder-scheme was not completed yet, but the Kurds, +together with the Turks, had planned a local massacre at Geogtapa, which +was stopped by the American doctor of this mission, Dr. Packard, who, at +great personal risk, obtained an interview with the Kurdish chief, and +succeeded in inducing him to spare the lives of the Christians, if they +gave up arms and ammunition and property. The American flag was hoisted +over the Mission buildings, and before a week was out there were over +ten thousand refugees housed in the yards and rooms, where they remained +for five months, the places of the dead being taken by fresh influxes. +The dining-room, the sitting-room, the church, the school, were all +given over to these destitute people, and from the beginning fear of +massacre, as well as prevalence of disease, haunted the camp. It was +impossible to move dead bodies outside; they had to be buried in the +thronged yards, and every day children were born. But here is the spirit +that animated their protectors. 'We have just had a Praise meeting,' +records the diarist at the close of the first fortnight, 'with fifty or +sixty we could gather from the halls and rooms near, and we feel more +cheerful. We thought if Paul and Silas, with their stripes, could sing +praises in prison, so could we.' + +The weeks, of which each day was a procession of hours too full of work +to leave time for anxiety, began to enrol themselves into months, and +the hope of rescue by a Russian advance made their hearts sick, so long +was it deferred. Refugees from neighbouring villages kept arriving, and +there was the constant problem before these devoted friends of their +flock, as to how to feed them. All such were welcome, and eager was the +welcome they received, though every foot of space in the buildings and +in the yards was occupied. But somehow they managed to make room for all +who came, and for those villagers who, under threat of torture and +massacre, had apostatised, there was but yearning and sorrow, but never +a word of blame or bitterness. Sometimes there was a visit of Turkish +troops to search for concealed Russians, and, as our diarist remarks, +'We can't complain of the monotony of life, for we never know what is +going to happen next. On Tuesday morning we had a wedding in my room +here. The boy and girl were simple villagers.... The wedding was fixed +for the Syrian New Year, but the Kurds came and carried off wedding +clothes and everything else in the house. They all fled here, and were +married in the old dirty garments they were wearing when they ran for +their lives.... Their only present was a little tea and sugar that I +tied up in a handkerchief and gave to the bride.' + +The eternal feminine and the eternal human speak there; and there, for +this gallantest of women, were two keys that locked up the endless +troubles and anxieties that ceased not day or night. But sometimes the +flesh was weak, and in the privacy of her diary she says, 'How long, O +Lord?' But for that there was the master-key that unlocks all wards, and +a little further on we read, 'One of the verses that helps to keep my +faith steady is, "He that spared not His own Son." For weeks we have had +no word from the outside world, but we "rest in Jehovah and wait +patiently for Him."' + +The conditions inside the crowded yards grew steadily worse. Dysentery +was rife, and the deaths from it in that narrow space averaged thirty a +day. The state of the sufferers grew so terrible that it was difficult +to get any one to look after them at all, and many were lying in the +open yards, and the weather, which hitherto had been warm, got cold, and +snow fell. It was with the greatest difficulty that food could be +obtained for those in health, and that of a kind utterly unsuitable to +the sick, while in the minds of their nurses was the bitter knowledge +that with proper diet hundreds of lives could have been saved, and +hundreds of cases of illness avoided. + +For the dead there was but a small percentage of coffins available, and +'the great mass are just dropped into the great trench of rotting +humanity (in the yard). As I stand at my window I see one after another +of the little bodies carried by ... and the condition of the living is +more pitiful than that of the dead--hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, +wet, swarming with vermin. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of +Europe would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the suffering +and misery of this one little corner of the world alone. A helpless +unarmed Christian community turned over to the sword and the passion of +Islam!' + +On the top of this came an epidemic of typhoid, twenty-seven cases on +the first day. Outside in the town the Turkish Consul began hanging +Christians, and the missioners were allowed to take the bodies and bury +them. There were threats that the mission would be entered, and all +young men (possible combatants) killed, but this fear was not realised. +The typhoid increased, and the doctor of the mission and others of the +staff fell ill with it; but the patience and service of the remainder +never faltered, while the same spirit of uncomplaining suffering +animated the refugees. 'Mr. McDowell,' so the diarist relates, 'saw a +tired and weary woman with a baby in her arms, sitting in one of the +seats, and said to her, "Where do you stay?" She said "Just here." "How +long have you been here?" "Since the beginning." (two months) she +replied. "How do you sleep at night?" "I lay the baby on the desk in +front of me, and I have this post at the back to lean against. This is a +very good place. Thank you very much."' + +In April there comes a break in the diary after the day on which the +following entry is made:-- + +'I felt on Sunday as if I ought to get my own burial clothes ready, so +as to make as little trouble as possible when my time comes, for in +these days we all go about our work knowing that any one of us may be +the next to go down. And yet I think our friends would be surprised to +see how cheerful we have kept, and how many occasions we find for +laughing: for ludicrous things do happen. Then, too, after dwelling so +intimately with Death for three months, he doesn't seem to have so +unfriendly an aspect, and the "Other Side" seems near, and our Pilot +close beside us.... I find the Rock on which I can anchor in peace are +the words of Christ Himself: "Where I am, there ye may be also." ... +That is enough, to be where He is....' + +Then comes a break of two months, during which the writer was down with +typhoid. She resumes again in June, finding that death has made many +changes, and gets back to work again at once. By that time the Russians +had entered Urmia, a thanksgiving service was held, the refugees +dispersed, and the American Mission went quietly on with its normal +work. + +Now I have taken this one instance of the work of Americans at Urmia to +show in some detail the character of the work that they were doing, and +the Christian and humanising influence of it. But all over Armenia and +Anatolia were similar settlements, and, as already mentioned, at the +time of the massacres there were established there over a hundred of +their churches and over four hundred schools, and from these extracts +which concern only one not very large centre, it may be gathered what +leaven of civilising influence the sum of their energies must have +implied. That lamp shone steady and clear, a 'kindly light' in the +darkness of Turkish misrule, and in the havoc of the massacres a beacon +of hope, not always reached by those hapless refugees. Indeed it seems +to have been only on the frontier that the missions were able to save +those foredoomed hordes of fleeing Christians; in Armenia and in +Anatolia generally the massacres and 'deportations' were complete, and +by the end of 1915 all American missions were closed, for there were +none to tend and care for. Even if the massacres had not occurred, the +entry of America into the war would have resulted in a similar cessation +of their work, and most probably in a massacre of the American +missioners themselves. Their withdrawal, of course, was hailed with a +peacock scream of pride by that enlightened body under Talaat and Enver, +called the New Turkish party of Progress, for their presence was a bar +to the Turkish notions of civilisation, in that their influence made for +humanity, and health and education. Now 'the humiliating and dangerous +situation' (to quote from the columns of _Hilal_) was put an end to, and +Turkish progress could make headway again. + +Similarly in Syria the outbreak of war put an end to 'the humiliating +and dangerous situation' of the presence of French schools and missions. +There, for many years, French missioners had done the same work as +Americans in Armenia, work in every sense liberal and civilising, but +undenominational in religious matters and unproselytising. That came to +an end earlier than the organisations in Armenia, and in Syria now, as +over the rest of the Turkish people, Arabs and Jews and Greeks have +nothing except German influence and Kultur to stand between them and the +spirit of Turkish progress of which the Armenian massacres were the +latest epiphany. Germany, as we have seen, stood by and let the Armenian +massacres go on, professing herself unable to interfere in the internal +affairs of Turkey, though at the time there was not a single branch of +Turkish industries, railways, telegraphs, armies, navies over which she +had not complete control, exercising it precisely as she thought fit. + +It is useless, then, to base any confidence in the safety of Jews, +Greeks, and Arabs from suffering the same fate as the Armenians, on a +veto from Germany. If it suits Germany to let those unfortunate peoples +be murdered or deported to agricultural colonies, Germany will assuredly +not stir a finger on their behalf nor prevent a repetition of the +horrors I have dealt with in the previous chapter. Sooner than risk her +hold over Turkey by enforcing unacceptable demands, she will, unless +other considerations of self-interest determine her, let further +massacres occur, if Talaat Bey insists on them. That spokesman of her +policy, Ernst Marré, makes this perfectly explicit in his book, _Die +Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, upholding from the German standpoint +the right of Turkey and the wisdom of Turkey in dealing with her subject +peoples as she had dealt with the Armenians. 'The Turkish State,' he +tells us, 'is no united whole: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, +cannot be welded together.' (This, by a somewhat grim and ominous +coincidence, is in exact accordance with a remark made to a Danish Red +Cross Sister by a Turkish gendarme then engaged in massacring Armenians: +'First we get rid of the Armenians,' he said, 'then the Greeks, then the +Kurds.') Or again, in defence of the Armenian massacres, 'Only by +energetic interference and by expelling of the obstinate Armenian +element, could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian dominion.' Or +again, 'The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' Here, then, is the German point of view: the Ottoman +Government will be right to 'dispose of' its subject peoples as it +thinks fit. So far from interfering, Germany endorses, and German +influence to-day is all that stands between 'the murderous tyranny' and +its subject peoples. French, English, and finally American pressure can +no longer, since the entry of these nations into the war, be exercised +within the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, and the only protection of +defenceless aliens is the German Government. It did not stir a finger to +save the Armenians, until it saw that depopulation threatened the +prosperity of its industries, and it is idle to expect that it will do +more if the consolidation of Turkish supremacy demands a further +campaign of murder. Greeks, Arabs, and Jews are all completely at the +mercy of Talaat's murder-schedules. The only chance that can save them +is that further extermination may not suit Germany's political aims, +and that she may find it worth her while to be peremptory, and forbid +instead of endorsing. + +There are unhappily many signs that the butchers of Constantinople are +planning further massacres. In February of this year preliminary +measures were begun against the Greeks settled in Anatolia. Many were +forcibly proselytised, their property was confiscated, and they were +forbidden to carry on their businesses. Deportations also occurred, and +all Greeks were removed from many villages in Anatolia, into the +interior, presumably to 'agricultural colonies' such as those provided +for Armenians. They suffered terribly from hunger and exposure, and it +is estimated that ten per cent. of them died on their marches. Since +then, however, there has been no more heard of any extension of those +measures, and there seems to have been as yet no massacre of Greeks. It +is reasonable to infer that Germany has in this case intervened. She +still hoped to win Greece over to the Central European Powers, and +clearly any massacre of Greeks by her own Allies was not desirable. +King Constantine, among his endless vacillations and pusillanimous +treacheries, probably made a firm protest on the subject. But in the +kaleidoscope of war, should Greece come to the side of the Allies, it +seems most probable that there will occur a wholesale massacre of +Greeks. From what we know of the principles on which German Kultur is +based, the most optimistic can scarcely hope that the very faintest +remonstrance will emanate from Berlin. + +The case of the Arabs in Syria is even more precarious. From the moment +that the policy of the Young Turks was evolved, namely, to consolidate +Osmanli supremacy by the weakening of its subject peoples, the Ottoman +Government has been waiting for its opportunity to get rid of the 'Arab +menace.' As we have seen, they began by substituting Turkish for Arabic +as a written language in all official usages from the printing of the +Koran and the prayers for the Sultan down to the legends on railway +tickets. The Arab spirit, according to one of the spokesmen of the New +Turk party, had to be suppressed, the Arab lands had to become Turkish +colonies. 'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence,' we +read in Jelal Noury Bey's propaganda, 'to Turkise the Arab lands, for +the particularistic idea of nationality is awaking among the younger +generations of Arabs, and already threatens us with a great +catastrophe.' Against the Arabs the Young Turks formed and fostered a +special animosity; they were powerful and warlike, and Enver, Talaat, +and others saw that the idea of an Osmanli supremacy could never be +realised unless very drastic measures were taken against them. The +tenets of Islamism, it is true, forbade Moslems to fight Moslems, but +Islamism, as a binding force, was already obsolete in the counsels of +the new regime, having given place to Kultur. Of all their subject +peoples, the Young Turks hated the Arabs the most, and, had not the +European War intervened, there is no doubt that the Armenian massacres, +already being planned, would have been followed by Arab massacres. But +the armed and warlike Arabian tribes were not so easy to deal with as +the defenceless Armenians, and Turkish troops could not be spared in +sufficient numbers to render an Arab massacre the safe, pleasant, and +lucrative pursuit that massacres should be. But Jemal the Great, black +with his triumph over the Armenians at Zeitun, was Military Governor of +Syria, and, the Armenian question being solved, he began to get to work +on the Arab question. Owing to the expulsion of the French Missions from +Syria in 1914, we have no such full or detailed information as we have +from Americans in Armenia, and the following account is mainly derived +from the Arabic journal _Mokattam,_ published in Cairo, the information +in which is based on the account given by a Syrian refugee. It agrees +with pieces of evidence that have come to hand from other sources. + +Ever since the beginning of the war Syria has been an area of direst +poverty, starvation, and sickness, which have been the natural +co-operators in Jemal's policy there. All supplies have been +commandeered for the troops (including by special clause from Potsdam, +the German troops); even fish caught by the fishermen of Lebanon have +to be handed over to the military authorities, and the shortage of +supplies in Smyrna, for instance, is such that at the end of 1916 there +were two hundred deaths daily from sheer starvation, while Germany was +importing from Turkey hundreds of tons of corn and of meat. Thus this +was no natural shortage, for though supplies were low all over the +Turkish Empire, there was not dearth of that kind. It was an artificial +shortage made possible by German demands, and made intentional by +Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better case than Smyrna; Lebanon +perhaps was in sorer straits than either. Money was equally scarce, and +it fitted Jemal's policy that this should be so, for when Americans in +Beirut had raised funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the +Turkish Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were +dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent decrees +of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets of towns the poor +have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane and orange peel; in the +country, to quote from _Molcattam_, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans +start to grow than the fields are filled with women and children who +pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes (including +the victualling of German troops) transportation has ceased to exist, +and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal the Great. + +On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came typhus. In +the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, over 8000 persons had +died of it. Doctors and medicines were unobtainable, for all were +requisitioned for the needs of the army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in +Hama and Homs, the epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent +from Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the charitable +from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the Arabs were working for +the policy of Jemal the Great. There were no troops to spare who should +hasten on the work, but the work was progressing by swift and 'natural' +means. Hunger and pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of +Love! How superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the +Arabs. 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news +of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was +established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, and if +any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations which passed, +the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. Too much news about +Armenian massacres filtered through; there should not now be such +leakage. And when starvation and pestilence had firmly established +themselves, Jemal the Great went down to see what his personal exertions +could effect. All was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer +classes of Arabs were dying like flies, but mortality was not so +successful among the wealthier, who could, to some extent, purchase +food. So Jemal the Great set to work among them. He began by hanging the +heads of Syrian-Arabs in Damascus, Beirut, and other cities. No +semblance of trial, no prosecution or arraignment, were necessary: he +established courts-martial under military control, made lists of the +accused, and ordered the courts-martial to condemn them to death. +Sometimes he made mistakes, appointing as the members of his +court-martial men who were not such sturdy patriots as he, and refused +to sentence for no crime the accused whom he nominated. He remedied such +mistakes by appointing new boards of more seasoned stuff. Moslem and +Christian alike were brought before them, and a general accusation of +pro-French tendencies seems to have been sufficient to secure a sentence +of death or lifelong imprisonment. He aimed not at the poor and the +obscure, for whom hunger and pestilence were providing, but at the rich +and the influential. The higher clergy in Christian circles, Bishops and +Monsignors, were a favourite target, and among Moslems influential +Sheikhs. Sometimes there was a parody of a trial; sometimes the parody +was dispensed with, and when the black curtain was last raised over +Syria, Jemal the Great had disposed of over eight hundred of the heads +of the most influential of Syrian Arabs. He had got rid, in fact, of +the whole House of Lords, and something more. Those who are acquainted +with 'feudal values' among the Arabs will understand what that means. He +decapitated, not individuals only, but groups. For devilish ingenuity in +this combination of starvation and pestilence for the poor, and death or +lifelong imprisonment for the chiefs, Jemal the Great must take rank +with Abdul Hamid and the contrivers of the Armenian massacres. He +cannot, it is true, owing to lack of troops, obtain the swift results of +Enver in Armenia, but between typhus, starvation, and courts-martial, +his solution of the Arab question in Syria is making steady progress. +And those measures, hideously efficient in themselves, are, beyond any +doubt whatever, only the precursors of more sweeping exterminations of +the Arab race, which will be effected after the war, if the Allied +Powers do not step in to save it. The Faithful of the Holy City, Mecca, +have revolted and thrown off the Turkish yoke, and while the war lasts, +and Turkish troops are otherwise occupied under Teutonic supervision, +they will be able to maintain their independence, for there is no +considerable body of Turks which can seriously threaten them. But the +Syrian Arabs, so long as the war lasts, are being, and will be, the +victims of a quiet scheme of extermination, which, if long continued, +will be as complete as that devised and carried out by the butchers of +Constantinople for the peoples of Armenia. It is not in the interest of +the Germans to save them, and no check is being put on Jemal the Great +to hinder him from assisting starvation and typhus to ravage the +country, and supplementing their deadly work by court-martial without +trial. + +Equally significant of the rage for the destruction of Arabs was the +treatment of the Bagdad Arab army corps. In spite of the need for troops +one half of it was sent from Bagdad to Erzerum in the depth of winter, +without any provision of warm clothing. There, in those cold uplands, +the men died at the rate of fifty to sixty a day. Their commanding +officer was a Turk, and a creature of Enver's, called Abdul Kader. +Though these troops had fought admirably, he openly called them Arab +traitors, and his orders seem to have been merely to get rid of them. +There were no courts-martial; they were just taken into a climate which +killed them. + +While for the last thirty years the Armenians and Syrians have emigrated +in large numbers from the Ottoman Empire, there has been a large +immigration of Jews into it. This movement was originally due to the +persecution they suffered in Russia. Germany and Austria were closed to +them, and, flying from the hideous pogroms that threatened them with +extermination, they begun to settle in Palestine. Wealthy compatriots +such as Baron Edmond de Rothschild assisted them, and, with the amazing +versatility of their race, they, trades-people and town-folk, adapted +themselves to new conditions, turned their wits towards husbandry and +agriculture, and during the last thirty years have flourished and +multiplied in a manner quite unrealised by the western world. In 1881 +there were not more than 25,000 of them in the home of their race, but +by the beginning of the European War, when their immigration ceased for +the present, they numbered 120,000 souls. Till then the Ottoman +Government adopted the ancient Turkish policy of neglect towards them, +for they were not powerful enough numerically to earn the honour of a +massacre, and, in addition, they were useful settlers. Backed by +powerful Western influence, French, English, and German alike, they +improved out of knowledge the values of the lands where they established +themselves, and by intelligent management, by conserving and increasing +the water supply with irrigation and well-digging, they have brought +many thousand acres into cultivation. Originally refugees, fleeing from +outrageous persecutions, their immigration by degrees took on a +different spirit. Not only were they coming out of captivity, but they +were entering into the ancient Land of Promise again. Zionism, the +spirit of the returning exiles, animated them, and, according to their +prophets, they realised that 'The Lord shall comfort Zion, He shall +comfort all her waste places.' They had sowed in tears; now, on their +return, they were reaping in joy, and, though their land was still +under the infidel yoke, they were allowed to dwell in peace, busy, +industrious, with the halo of home-coming in their hearts. They paid, of +course, their Turkish taxes, but these were not levied in any oppressive +manner, and their colonies were thrifty, self-governing, and prosperous. +Already before the war, one-tenth of the cultivated land in Palestine +was in their hands, they had their own schools, their own methods of +organisation, and, more significant than all, Hebrew became a living +language again. Germany, intent on her penetration of Turkey, made an +attempt to Germanise them also (for Germany, as we shall see, has a very +special interest in these Jewish colonies), shook her head over Zionism, +for which she tried to substitute Prussianism, and wanted to make the +German language compulsory in Jewish schools at Haifa and Jaffa, but her +effort completely failed. Nothing could show the inherent vitality of +this Jewish colonisation more strikingly. + +These Jewish settlers then were left in peace; from minuteness they +escaped the notice of the Young Turk party in its schemes for the +complete Ottomanisation of the Empire, and, until the present year 1917, +no mention of 'the Jewish question' was propounded. But it will he +remembered that in 1915, certain Jewish refugees, taking warning from +the Armenian massacres, fled to Egypt, and there founded a Zionist +mule-corps, which served under the English in the Gallipoli campaign. It +seems very probable that it was this that directed the attention of +Jemal the Great to the Jewish colonies in Palestine: possibly it was +merely that he was a more thorough Ottomaniser than his colleagues in +Constantinople. In any case he ordered the 'deportation' of all Jews +from Jaffa, Gaza, and other agricultural districts. All Jews were +commanded to leave Jaffa within forty-eight hours, no means of transport +was given them, and they were forbidden to take with them either +provisions or any of their belongings. Eight thousand Jews were evicted +from Jaffa alone, and their houses were pillaged, and they robbed, +maltreated, and many were murdered. Thus, and in no other way had the +massacres of the Armenians begun, and, that there should be no mistake +about it, Jemal threatened them explicitly with the fate of the +Armenians. Next day Ludd was evacuated also; the evacuation of Haifa and +Jerusalem was threatened, and artillery was sent to Jerusalem. There can +be no doubt in fact that Jemal planned and began to carry out a massacre +of all Jews. + +At that point the Germans intervened, and for the present (but only for +the present, for so long in fact as Germany has complete control over +all Turkish internal affairs, in which she protested she could not +meddle) the Jewish colonies in Palestine seem to be safe.[1] The German +chief of the General Staff telegraphed to Berlin that the 'military +considerations' on which Jemal based his deportations did not exist, and +Herr Cohn in the Reichstag drew the Imperial Chancellor's attention to +this. How seriously the menace was regarded in Germany, and how far the +deportations had gone may be gathered from his words, 'Is the Imperial +Chancellor prepared to influence the Turkish Government in such a manner +as to prevent with certainty--so far as this is still possible--a +repetition in Palestine of the Armenian atrocities?' This was +sufficient: Germany, who could not dream of interfering in Turkish +internal affairs when only the massacre of hundreds of thousands of +Armenians was concerned, sent her order, and, for the present, Jemal the +Great has been unable to proceed with the solution of the Jewish +question in Turkey, which he had just discovered. We need not yet in +fact give Jemal his Jew. But some sort of explanation to soothe the +exasperation of the Turks in not being allowed to murder when and how +and where they pleased, was thought advisable, and the explanation (an +extraordinarily significant one) was given in an inspired paragraph of +the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ not long after. 'The valuable structure of +Zionist cultural work, in which the German Empire must have well founded +interest in view of future and very promising trade relations, will, it +is very much to be hoped, be preserved from destruction so far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary. Pan-Turkish ideals have +no sort of meaning in Palestine where practically no Turks dwell.' + +[Footnote 1: This view seems to be borne out by subsequent events, for +the Jews evacuated from Jaffa have been permitted to return owing to the +intervention of the Spanish Government. It is not hard to guess who +prompted that.] + +We may take it, then, that with regard to the projected Jewish +massacres, quite clearly foreshadowed by the schemes of deportation from +Jaffa and Gaza, Germany has made strong representations to the Ottoman +Government. She did not do so (indeed she officially refused to do so) +when the Armenian massacres began, for she could not interfere in +Turkey's internal affairs. But now she has discovered that Pan-Turkish +ideals have no sort of meaning in Palestine, and thus, with amazing +astuteness, has provided herself with a reason for interfering, while +still not giving up the policy of non-interference in Turkish affairs, +for Turkey, she has discovered, _has_ no affairs in Palestine. At the +same time she guards herself from diplomatic defeat by the hope that +Zionist cultural work will be saved from destruction so _far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary_. In other words, +supposing Jemal the Great got completely out of hand, and proceeded to +indiscriminate massacre of the Jews, Germany would doubtless accept his +plea that military requirements had made it necessary.... And we were +once so ignorant as to assure ourselves that Germany had no notions of +diplomacy! + +The full significance of her intervention on behalf of the Jews, when +neither the extermination of the Armenians, the persecution of the +Arabs, nor the deportation of the Greeks moved Germany to any decided +action or energetic protest, must be left, in so far as it concerns the +future, to another chapter. But as regards the present and the past it +will be useful to consider here what has prompted her to make a protest +(which we may regard, so long as her foot is on the neck of the Turks, +as having been successful) against these projected massacres. Certainly +it was not humanity; it was not the faintest desire to save innocent +people in general from being murdered wholesale, for in the similar +case of the Armenians, her bowels of compassion were not moved. Or, +possibly, if we incline to lenience, we may say that she was sorry for +the Armenians, but could not then risk a disagreement with their +murderers who were her allies, whereas now, feeling herself more +completely dominant over the Turks than she then did, she could risk +being peremptory, especially since there was that saving clause about +military requirements. For during the Armenian massacres, the +Dardanelles expedition was still on the shores of Gallipoli, and the +menace to Constantinople acute. It was possible that if she opposed a +firm front to the Armenian massacres, the Turks, already on the verge of +despair with regard to saving the capital from capture, might have made +terms with the Allies. But now no such imminence of danger threatened +them, and, with Germany's domination over them vastly more secure than +it had been in 1915, she could afford to treat them less as allies and +more as a conquered people. This alone might have accounted for her +unprecedented impulse of humanity in the minds of those who still +attribute such instincts to her, but she had far stronger reasons than +that for wanting to save the Jews of Palestine. + +Her policy with regard to them is set forth in a pamphlet by Dr. Davis +Treitsch, called _Die Jüden der Türkei_, published in 1915, which is a +most illuminating little document. These Jewish colonies, as we have +seen, came from Russia, and as Germany realised, long before the war, +they might easily form a German nucleus in the Near East, for they +largely consisted of German-speaking Jews, akin in language and blood to +a most important element in her own population. 'In a certain sense,' +says Dr. Treitsch, 'the Jews are a Near Eastern element in Germany and a +German element in Turkey.' He goes on with unerring acumen to lament the +exodus of German-speaking Jews to the United States and to England. +'Annually some 100,000 of these are lost to Germany, the empire of the +English language and the economic system that goes with it is being +enlarged, while a German asset is being proportionately depreciated.... +It will no longer do simply to close the German frontiers to them, and +in view of the difficulties which would result from a wholesale +migration of Jews into Germany itself, Germans will only be too glad to +find a way out in the emigration of those Jews to Turkey--a solution +extraordinarily favourable to the interests of all three parties +concerned.' + +Here, then, is the matter in a nutshell: Germany, wide-awake as ever, +saw long ago the advantage to her of a growing Jewish population from +the Pale in Turkey. She was perhaps a little overloaded with them +herself, but in this immigration from Russia to Palestine she saw the +formation of a colony that was well worth German protection, and the +result of the war, provided the Palestinian immigrants were left in +peace, would be to augment very largely the number of those settling +there. 'Galicia,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'and the western provinces of +Russia, which between them contain more than half the Jews in the world, +have suffered more from the war than any other region. Jewish homes +have been broken up by hundreds of thousands, and there is no doubt +whatever that, as a result of the war, there will be an emigration of +East European Jews on an unprecedented scale.' This emigration, then, to +Palestine was, in Germany's view, a counter-weight to the 100,000 +annually lost to her through emigration to America and England. With her +foot on Turkey's neck she had control over these German-speaking Jews, +and saw in them the elements of a German colony. Her calculations, it is +true, were somewhat upset by the development of the Zionist movement, by +which those settlers declared themselves to have a nationality of their +own, and a language of their own, and Dr. Treitsch concedes that. 'But,' +he adds, 'in addition to Hebrew, to which they are more and more +inclined, the Jews must have a world-language, and this can only be +German.' + +This, then, in brief, and only up to the present, is the story of how +the Jewish massacres were stayed. The Jews were potential Germans, and +Germany, who sat by with folded hands when Arabs and Armenians were led +to torture and death, put up a warning finger, and, for the present, +saved them. In her whole conduct of the war, nothing has been more +characteristic than her 'verboten' to one projected massacre and her +acquiescence in others. But, as for her having saved the Jews out of +motives of humanity, 'Credant Judaei!' + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter V_ + + +DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLAH + +It was commonly said at the beginning of this war that, whatever +Germany's military resources might be, she was hopelessly and childishly +lacking in diplomatic ability and in knowledge of psychology, from which +all success in diplomacy is distilled. As instances of this grave +defect, people adduced the fact that, apparently, she had not +anticipated the entry of Great Britain into the war at all, while her +treatment of Belgium immediately afterwards was universally pronounced +to be not a crime merely, but a blunder of the stupidest sort. It is +perfectly true that Germany did not understand, and, as seems likely in +the light of innumerable other atrocities, never will understand, the +psychology of civilised peoples; she has never shown any signs up till +now, at any rate, of 'having got the hang of it' at all. But critics of +her diplomacy failed to see the root-fact that she did not understand it +merely because it did not interest her. It was not worth her while to +master the psychology of other civilised nations, since she was out not +to understand them, but to conquer them. She had all the information she +wanted about their armies and navies and guns and ammunition neatly and +correctly tabulated. Why, then, since this was all that concerned her, +should she cram her head with irrelevant information about what they +might feel on the subject of gas-attacks or the torpedoing of neutral +ships without warning? As long as her fumes were deadly and her +submarines subtle, nothing further concerned her. + +But Europe generally made a great mistake in supposing that Germany +could not learn psychology, and the process of its distillation into +diplomacy when it interested her. The psychology of the French and +English was a useless study, for she was merely going to fight them, but +for years she had been studying with an industry and a patience that +put our diplomacy to shame (as was most swiftly and ignominiously proven +when it came into conflict with hers) the psychology of the Turks. For +years she had watched the dealings of the Great Powers with Turkey, but +she had never really associated herself with that policy. She sat +quietly by and saw how it worked. Briefly it was this. For a hundred +years Turkey had been kept alive in Europe by the sedulous attentions of +the Physician Powers, who dared not let him die for fear of the +stupendous quarrels which would instantly arise over his corpse. So +there they all sat round his bed, and kept him alive with injections of +strychnine and oxygen, and, no less, by a policy of rousing and +irritating the patient. All through the reign of Abdul Hamid they +persevered: Great Britain plucked his pillow from him, so to speak, by +her protectorate of Egypt; Russia tweaked Eastern Rumelia from him; +France deprived him of his hot-water bottle when she snatched at the +Constantinople quays, and they all shook and slapped him when he went to +war with Greece in 1896, and instantly deprived him of the territory he +had won in Thessaly. That was the principle of European diplomacy +towards Turkey, and from it Germany always held aloof. + +But from about the beginning of the reign of the present German Emperor, +German or rather Prussian diplomacy had been going quietly about its +work. It was worth while to study the psychology of the Turks, because +dimly then, but with ever-increasing distinctness, Germany foresaw that +Turkey might be a counter of immense importance in the great conflict +which was assuredly drawing nearer, though as yet its existence was but +foreshadowed by the most distant reflections of summer lightning on a +serene horizon. But if Turkey was to be of any profit to her, she wanted +a strong Turkey who could fight with her (or rather for her), and she +had no use for the Sick Man whom the other Powers were bent on keeping +alive, but no more. Her own eventual domination of Turkey was always the +end in view, but she wanted to dominate not a weak but a strong servant. +And her diplomacy was not less than brilliant simply from the fact that +on the one hand it soothed Turkey instead of irritating, and, on the +other, that it went absolutely unnoticed for a long time. Nobody knew +that it was going on. She sent officers to train the Turkish army, well +knowing what magnificent material Anatolia afforded, and she had +thoroughly grasped the salient fact that to make any way with Oriental +peoples your purse must be open and your backshish unlimited. 'There is +no God but backshish, and the Deutsche Bank is his prophet.' + +For years this went on very quietly, and all over the great field of the +Ottoman Empire the first tiny blades of the crop that Germany was sowing +began to appear. To-day that crop waves high, and covers the whole field +with its ripe and fruitful ears. For to-day Turkey is neither more nor +less than a German colony, and more than makes up to her for the +colonies she has lost and hopes to regain. She knows that perfectly +well, and so do any who have at all studied the history and the results +of her diplomacy there. Even Turkey itself must, as in an uneasy dream, +be faintly conscious of it. For who to-day is the Sultan of Turkey? No +other than William II. of Germany. It is in Berlin that his Cabinet +meets, and sometimes he asks Talaat Bey to attend in a strictly honorary +capacity. And Talaat Bey goes back to Constantinople with a strictly +honorary sword of honour. Or else he gives one to William II. from his +_soi-disant_ master, the Sultan, or takes one back to his _soi-disant_ +master from his real master. For no one knows better than William II. +the use that swords of honour play in deeds of dishonour. + +The object of this chapter is to trace and mount the hewn and solid +staircase of steps by which Germany's present supremacy over Turkey was +achieved. + +Apart from the quiet spade-work that had been going on for some years, +Germany made no important move till the moment when, in 1909, the Young +Turk party, after the forced abdication of Abdul Hamid, proclaimed the +aims and ideals of the new regime. At once Germany saw her opportunity, +for here, with her help, might arise the strong Turkey which she +desired to see, instead of the weak Turkey which all the other European +Powers had been keeping on a lowering diet for so long (desirous only +that it should not quite expire), and from that moment she began to +lend, or rather let, to Turkey in ever-increasing quantities, the +resources of her scientific and her military knowledge. It was in her +interests, if Turkey was to be of use to her, that she should educate, +and irrigate, and develop the unexploited treasures of human material, +of fertility and mineral wealth; and Germany's gold, her schools, her +laboratories were at Turkey's disposal. But in every case she, as in +duty bound to her people, saw that she got very good value for her +outlay. + +Here, then, was the great psychological moment when Germany instantly +moved. The Young Turks proclaimed that they were going to weld the +Ottoman Empire into one homogeneous and harmonious whole, and by a piece +of brilliant paradoxical reasoning Germany determined that it was she +who was going to do it for them. In flat contradiction of the spirit of +their manifestoes, which proclaimed the Pan-Turkish ideal, she conceived +and began to carry out under their very noses the great new chapter of +the Pan-Germanic ideal. And the Young Turks did not know the difference! +They mistook that lusty Teutonic changeling for their own new-born +Turkish babe, and they nursed and nourished it. Amazingly it throve, and +soon it cut its teeth, and one day, when they thought it was asleep, it +arose from its cradle a baby no more, but a great Prussian guardsman who +shouted, 'Deutschland über Allah!' + +Only once was there a check in the growth of the Prussian infant, and +that was no more than a childish ailment. For when the Balkan wars broke +out the Turkish army was in the transitional stage. Its German tutors +had not yet had time to inspire the army with German discipline and +tradition; they had only weeded out, so to speak, the old Turkish +spirit, the blind obedience to the Ministers of the Shadow of God. The +Shadow of God, in fact, in the person of the Sultan, had been dragged +out into the light, and his Shadow had grown appreciably less. In +consequence there was not at this juncture any cohesion in the army, and +it suffered reverse after reverse. But a strong though a curtailed +Turkey was more in accordance with Prussian ideas than a weak and +sprawling one, and Germany bore the Turkish defeats very valiantly. And +that was the only set-back that this Pan-Prussian youngster experienced, +and it was no more than an attack of German measles which he very +quickly got over. For two or three years German influence wavered, then +recovered, 'with blessings on the falling out, that all the more +endears.' + +It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish ideal to +her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of Germany's methods, the +best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal is to be found in a publication +of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was written as German propaganda and by +Germany disseminated broadcast over the Turkish Empire. An account of +this movement has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the +Turkish side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the +German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish Phoenix. The +Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of Love, in whose name the +Armenians were tortured and massacred, were the two wings on which it +was to soar. Auxiliary soaring societies were organised, among them a +Turkish Ojagha with similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of +it were founded throughout the Empire. There were also a Turkish Guiji +or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts' club. A union of merchants +worked for the same object in districts where hitherto trade had been in +the hands of Greeks and Armenians, and signs appeared on their shops +that only Turkish labour was employed. Religious funds also were used +for similar economic restoration. + +Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and took out her +long spoon, for her hour was come. She did not interfere: she only +helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. With her usual foresight she +perceived that the Izji, for instance, was a thing to encourage, for +the boys who were being trained now would in a few years be precisely +the young men of whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy +scout movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously and +methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely reliable source of +information, we find that the whole boy scout movement, with its +innumerable branches, was under the control of a German officer, Colonel +von Hoff. In its classes (derneks) boys are trained in military +practices, in 'a recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively +enjoy (a Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use +to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn +skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements of their +companies, they are shown neat ways of judging distances. They are +divided into two classes, the junior class ranging from the ages of +twelve to seventeen, the senior class consisting of boys over seventeen, +but not yet of military age. But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, +the military age has been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to +serve their country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore, +saw that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class has +become the senior class, and a new junior class has been set on foot +which begins its recreational exercises in the service of William II., +Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It is all great fun, but those +pigeon-livered little boys who are not diverted by it have to go on with +their fun all the same, for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on +all boys. Of course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is +of a 'semi-military' character. + +The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from the early age +of eight, was the first object of Germany's peaceful and benign +penetration. As from the Pisgah height of the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw +the promised land, but she had no idea of seeing it only, like Moses, +and expiring without entering it, and her faith that she would enter it +and possess it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has +not only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like Aleppo +were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie there were separate +wooden barracks for the exclusive use of German troops. There is a +military mission at Mamoura, where all the buildings are permanent +erections solidly built of stone, for no merely temporary occupation is +intended, and thousands of freight-cars with Belgian marks upon them +throng the railways, and on some is the significant German title of +'Military Headquarters of the Imperial Staff.' There are troops in the +Turkish army, to which is given the title of 'Pasha formation,' in +compliment to Turkey, but the Pasha formations are under command of +Baron Kress von Kressenstein, and are salted with German officers, +N.C.O.'s, and privates, who, although in the Turkish army, retain their +German uniforms. + +This German leaven forms an instructional class for the remainder of the +troops in these formations, who are Turkish. The Germans are urged to +respect Moslem customs and to show particular consideration for their +religious observances. Every German contingent arriving at +Constantinople to join the Pasha formations finds quarters prepared on a +ship, and when the troops leave for their 'destination' they take +supplies from depots at the railway station which will last them two or +three months. They are enjoined to write war diaries, and are provided +with handbooks on the military and geographical conditions in +Mesopotamia, with maps, and with notes on the training and management of +camels. This looks as if they were intended for use against the English +troops in Mesopotamia, but I cannot find that they have been identified +there. The greatest secrecy is observed with regard to those Pasha +formations, and their constitution and movements are kept extremely well +veiled. + +Wireless stations have been set up in Asia Minor and Palestine, and +these are under the command of Major Schlee. A Turkish air-service was +instituted, at the head of which was Major Serno, a Prussian officer, +and Turkish aviators are now in training at Ostend, where they will very +usefully defend their native country. At Constantinople there is a +naval school for Turkish engineers and mechanics in the arsenal, to help +on the Pan-Turkish ideal, and with a view to that all the instructors +are German: a floating dock is in construction at Ismid, and the order +has been placed with German firms. It will be capable of accommodating +ships of Dreadnought build, which is a new departure for the strictly +Pan-Turkish ideal. The cost is £740,000, to be repaid three years after +the end of the war. Similarly, by the spring of this year, Germany had +arranged to start submarine training in Constantinople for the Turks, +and a submarine school was open and at work in March. A few months later +it was established at the island of Prinkipo, where it is now hard at +work under German instructors. Other naval cadets were sent to Germany +for their training, and Turkish officers were present at the battle of +Jutland in June 1916, and of course were decorated by the Emperor in +person for their coolness and courage.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In October 1917 a bill was passed for the entire +remodelling of the Turkish fleet after the war, on the lines of the +German fleet, 'which proved its perfect training in the battle of Skager +Rak.'] + +A complete revision of the Turkish system of exemptions from military +service was necessary as soon as Germany began to want men badly. The +age for military service was first raised, and we find a Turkish order +of October 1916, calling on all men of forty-three, forty-four, and +forty-five years of age to pay their exemption tax if they did not wish +to be called to the colours. That secured their money, and, with truly +Prussian irony, hardly had this been done when a fresh army order was +issued calling out all men, whether they had paid their exemption tax or +not. Germany thus secured both their money and their lives. + +Still more men were needed, and in November a fresh levy of boys was +raised regardless of whether they had reached the military age or not. +This absorbed the senior class of the boy scouts, who hitherto had +learned their drill in a 'recreationary manner.' Neither Jews nor +Christians are exempt from service, and frequent press gangs go round +Constantinople rounding up those who are in hiding. + +Again the Prussian Moloch was hungry for more, and in December 1916 the +Turkish _Gazette_ announced that all males in Asia Minor between the +ages of fourteen and sixty-five were to be enrolled for military +service, and in January of this year, 1917, fresh recruiting was +foreshadowed by the order that men of forty-six to fifty-two, who had +paid their exemption money, should be medically examined to see if they +were fit for active service. This fresh recruiting was also put in force +in the case of boys, and during the summer of 1917 all boys above the +age of twelve, provided they were sound and well-built, were taken for +the army. Wider and wider the net was spread, and in the same month a +fresh Turco-German convention was signed, whereby was enforced a +reciprocal surrender in both countries of persons liable to military +service, and of deserters, and simultaneously all Turks living in +Switzerland, and who had paid exemption money, were recalled to their +Germanised fatherland. By now the first crops of the year were ripening +in Smyrna, and in default of civilian labour (for every one was now a +soldier) they were reaped by Turkish soldiers and the produce sent +direct to Germany. + +Already in August 1916, certificates of Ottoman nationality had been +granted to Serbians resident in the Empire who were willing to become +Ottoman subjects, and their 'willingness' was intensified by hints that +incidents akin to the Armenian massacres might possibly occur among +other alien peoples. They had to sign a declaration that they would not +revert to their former nationality, and thus, no doubt, many Serbs +passed into the Turkish army. Further enrolments were desirable, and, in +March 1917, all Greeks living in Anatolia were forcibly proselytised, +their property was confiscated, and they were made liable to military +service. Unfortunately all were not available, for of those who were +removed from the villages where they lived to military centres, ten per +cent. died on the forced marches from hunger and exposure. That was +annoying for the German recruiting agents, but it suited well enough the +Pan-Turkish ideal of exterminating foreign nationalities. When trouble +or discontent occurred among the troops, it was firmly dealt with, as, +for instance, when, in November 1916, there were considerable desertions +from the 49th Division. On that occasion the order was given to fire on +them, and many were killed and wounded. The officer who gave the order +was commended by the Prussian authorities for his firmness. Should such +an incident occur again, it will no doubt be dealt with no less +firmness, for, in April 1917, Mackensen was put in supreme command of +all troops in Asia Minor. But in spite of this desertions have largely +increased lately, and during the summer deserters out of all the Turkish +armies were believed to number about 200,000. Many of those have formed +themselves into brigand bands, who make the roads dangerous for +travellers. The exchange of honours goes on, for not long ago, in +Berlin, Prince Zia-ed-Din, the Turkish Sultan's heir, presented a sword +of honour to the Sultan William II. Probably he gave him good news of +the progress of the German harbour works begun in the winter at +Stamboul, and himself learned that the railway bridge which the Turks +proposed to build over the Bosporus was not to be proceeded with, for +the German high command had superseded that scheme by their own idea of +making a tunnel under the Bosporus instead, which would be safer from +aircraft. + +Such up-to-date, though in brief outline, is the history of the +establishment of the Prussian octopus grip on military and naval matters +in Turkey. We have largely ourselves to blame for it. Upon that pathetic +and lamb-like record of our diplomacy during the months between the +outbreak of the European War, and the entry of Turkey into it in October +1914, it would be morbid to dwell at any length, though a short summary +is necessary. As we all know now, Turkey had concluded a treaty with +Germany early in August, and when our Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir +Louis Malet, who was on leave in England at that date, returned to his +post on August 16th, all that Turkey wanted was to gain time in which to +effect her mobilisation. This she did, with complete success, and our +Ambassador telegraphed to England stating his perfect confidence in the +sincerity with which the Grand Vizier professed his friendship for +England. All through those weeks of August and September this confidence +appeared to continue unabated. The Moderate party in Turkey--that is to +say, the hoodwinking party--were reported to be daily gaining strength, +and it was most important that the Allies should give them every +assistance, and above all not precipitate matters. All was going well: +all we had to do was to wait. So we waited, still blindly confident in +the sincerity of Turkey's friendship for England, while the mobilisation +of the Turkish forces proceeded merrily. By the end of September this +was nearly complete, and quite suddenly the Ambassador informed the +Foreign Office that Turkey appeared to be temporising. That was +perfectly true, but the period of temporisation was nearly over, and by +mid-October Turkey had something like 800,000 men under arms, and for +nine weeks Enver Pasha had had his signed treaty with Germany in his +pocket. Possibly this diplomatic procrastination was useful to us, for +it enabled us to bring troops from India in security, and send others to +Egypt. But without doubt it was useful to the Turks, for it enabled them +to mobilise their armies, and to strengthen enormously the defences of +the Dardanelles. Then came the day when Germany and Turkey were ready, +the attack was made on Odessa, and out of Constantinople we went. We +climbed into the railway carriages that took the last rays of English +influence out of the Ottoman Empire, and steep were the stairs in the +house of a stranger! Turks are not much given to laughter, but Enver +Pasha must at least have smiled on that day. + +Already, of course, German influence was strong in the army, which now +was thoroughly trained in German methods, but that army might still be +called a Turkish army. Nowadays, by no stretch of language can it be +called Turkish except in so far that all Turkish efficient manhood is +helplessly enlisted in it, for there is no branch or department of it +over which the Prussian octopus has not thrown its paralysing tentacles +and affixed its immovable suckers. Army and navy alike, the wireless +stations, the submarines, the aircraft, are all directly controlled from +Berlin, and, as we have seen, the generalissimo of the forces is +Mackensen, who is absolutely the Hindenburg of the East. But thorough as +is the control of Berlin over Constantinople in military and naval +matters, it is not one whit more thorough than her control in all other +matters of national life. Never before has Germany been very successful +in her colonisation; but if complete domination--the sucking of a +country till it is a mere rind of itself, and yet at the same time full +to bursting of Prussian ichor--may be taken as Germany's equivalent of +colonisation, then indeed we must be forced to recognise her success. +And it was all done in the name and for the sake of the Pan-Turkish +ideal. Even now Prussian Pecksniffs like Herr Ernst Marré, whose +pamphlet, _Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was published in 1916, +continue to insist that Germany is nobly devoting herself to the +well-being of Turkey. 'In doing this,' he exclaims in that illuminating +document, 'we are benefiting Turkey.... This is a war of liberation for +Turkey,' though omitting to say from whom Turkey is being liberated. +Perhaps the Armenians. Occasionally, it is true, he forgets that, and +naively remarks, 'Turkey is a very difficult country to govern. But +after the war Turkey will be very important as a transit country.' But +then he remembers again and says, 'We wish to give besides taking, and +we should often like to give more than we can hope to give.' Let us look +into this, and see the manner in which Germany expresses her yearning to +impoverish herself for the sake of Turkey. + +All this reorganisation of the Turkish army was of course a very +expensive affair, and required skilful financing, and it was necessary +to get the whole of Turkey's exchequer arrangements into German hands. A +series of financial regulations was promulgated. The Finance Minister, +during 1916, was still Turkish, but the official immediately under him +was a German. He was authorised to deposit with the Controllers of the +Ottoman National Debt German Imperial Bills of £T30,000,000, and to +issue German paper money to the like amount. This arrangement insures +the circulation of the German notes, which are redeemable by Turkey in +_gold_ two years after the declaration of peace. Gold is declared to be +the standard currency, and no creditor is obliged to accept in payment +of a debt more than 300 piastres in silver or fifty in nickel. And since +there is no gold in currency (for it has been all called in, and +penalties of death have been authorised for hoarders) it follows that +this and other issues of German paper will filter right through the +Empire. At the same time a German expert, Dr. Kautz, was appointed to +start banks throughout Turkey in order to free the peasants from the +Turkish village usurer, and in consequence enslave them to the German +banks. Similarly a German was put at the head of the Ottoman +Agricultural Bank. These new branches worked very well, but it is +pleasant to think that one such was started by the Deutsche Bank at +Bagdad in October 1916, which now has its shutters up. Before this, as +we learn from the _Oesterreichischer Volkswirt_ (June 1916), Germany had +issued other gold notes, in payment for gold from Turkey, which is +retainable in Berlin till six months after the end of the war. (It is +reasonable to wonder whether it will not be retained rather longer than +that.) These gold notes were accepted willingly at first by the public, +but the increase in their number (by the second issue) has caused them +to be viewed with justifiable suspicion, and the depreciation in them +continues. But the Turkish public has no redress except by hoarding +gold, which is a penal offence. That these arrangements have not +particularly helped Turkish credit may be gathered from the fact that +the Turkish gold £1, nominally 100 piastres, was very soon worth 280 +piastres in the German paper standard, and it now fetches a great deal +more. + +Again, the Deutsche Orientbank has made many extensions, and is already +financing cotton and wool trade for after the war. The establishment of +this provoked much applause in German financial circles, who find it to +be an instance of the 'far-reaching and powerful Germano-Austrian unity, +which replaces the disunion of Turkish finance.' This is profoundly +true, especially if we omit the word 'Austrian' inserted for diplomatic +reasons. Again we find Germany advancing £3,000,000 of German paper to +the Turkish Government in January 1917, for the payment of supplies they +have received from Krupp's works and (vaguely) for interest to the +German Financial Minister. This, too, we may conjecture, is to be +redeemed after the war in gold. + +In March of this year we find in the report of the Ottoman Bank a German +loan of £1,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural implements by +Turkey, and this is guaranteed by house-taxes. In all up to that month, +as was announced in the Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople, Germany +had advanced to Turkey the sum of £142,000,000, entirely, it would seem, +in German paper, to be repaid at various dates in gold. The grip, in +fact, is a strangle-hold, all for Turkey's good, as no doubt will prove +the 'New Conventions' announced by Zimmermann in May 1917, to take the +place of the abolished Capitulations, 'which left Turkey at the mercy of +predatory Powers who looked for the disruption of the Ottoman Empire.' +Herr Zimmermann does not look for that: he looks for its absorption. And +sees it. + +The industrial development of Turkey by this benevolent and +disinterested Power has been equally thorough and far-reaching, though +Germany here has had a certain amount of competition by Hungary to +contend against, for Hungary considered that Germany was trespassing on +her sphere of interest. But she has been able to make no appreciable +headway against her more acute partner, and her application for a +monopoly of sugar-production was not favourably received, for Germany +already had taken the beet industry well in hand. In Asia Minor the +acreage of cultivation early in 1917 had fallen more than 50 per cent. +from that under crops before the war, but owing to the importation of +machinery from the Central Powers, backed up by a compulsory +Agricultural Service Law, which has just been passed, it is hoped that +the acreage will be increased this year by something like 30 per cent. +The yield per acre also will be greatly increased this year, for Germany +has, though needing artificial manures badly herself, sent large +quantities into Turkey, where they will be more profitably employed. She +has no fear about securing the produce. This augmented yield will, it is +true, not be adequate to supply the needs of Turkey, who for the last +two years has suffered from very acute food shortage, which in certain +districts has amounted to famine and wholesale starvation of the poorer +classes. But it is unlikely that their needs will be considered at all, +for Germany's needs (she, the fairy godmother of the Pan-Turk ideal) +must obviously have the first call on such provisions as are obtainable. +Thus, in the new preserved meat factory at Aidin, the whole of the +produce is sent to Germany. Thus, too, though in February 1917 there was +a daily shortage in Smyrna of 700 sacks of flour, and the Arab and +Greek population was starving, no flour at all was allowed to be +imported into Smyrna. But simultaneously Germany was making huge +purchases of fish, meat, and flour in Constantinople (paid for in German +paper), including 100,000 sheep. Yet such was the villainous selfishness +of the famine-stricken folk at Adrianople that, when the trains +containing these supplies were passing through, a mob held them up and +sold the contents to the inhabitants. That, however, was an isolated +instance, and in any case a law was passed in October 1916, appointing a +military commission to control all supplies. It enacts that troops shall +be supplied first, and specially ordains that the requirements of German +troops come under this head. (Private firms have been expressly +prohibited from purchasing these augmented wheat supplies, but special +permission was given in 1915 to German and Austro-Hungarian societies to +buy.) A few months later we find that there are a hundred deaths daily +in Constantinople from starvation, and two hundred in Smyrna, where +there is a complete shortage of oil. But oil is still being sent to +Germany, and during 1916 five hundred reservoirs of oil were sent there, +each containing up to 15,000 kilogrammes. Similarly during this summer +the price of fruit has gone up in Smyrna, for the Germans have reopened +certain factories for preserving it and turning it into jam, which is +being sent to Germany. The sugar is supplied from the new beet-fields of +Konia. But Kultur must be supplied first, else Kultur would grow lean, +and the Turkish God of Love will look after the Smyrniotes. It is no +wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the desired result +a little quicker, for food is already pouring in from Turkey, and when +the artificial manures have produced their early harvest the stream will +become a torrent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant.] + +But during all these busy and tremendous months of war Germany has not +only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, for the sake of the +Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic spirit she has been vastly +increasing the productiveness of her new and most important colony. The +great irrigation works at Konia, begun several years ago, are in +operation, and the revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled. +In fact, as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province +has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At Adana are +similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche Bank. Ernst Marré +gives us a most hopeful survey of them, for Adana was already linked up +with the Bagdad Railway in October 1916, which was to be the great +artery connecting Germany with the East. There is some considerable +shortage of labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to +which we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are in +excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in German hands, +and have been paid for by German paper; and to get the reservoirs, etc., +back into her own control, it has been agreed that Turkey, already +completely bankrupt, will have to pay not only what has been spent, but +a handsome sum in compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour, +prisoners have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This +irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by four times +the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab magazine, _El Alem el +Ismali_, which tells us also of the electric-power stations erected +there. + +The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian merchants that +transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of engines and trucks from +Germany, while _Die Zeit_ (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future +for this Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely +imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German capital on +terms above stated--will, in the process of internal development so +unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow cotton for herself, and be +kind enough to give a preferential tariff to Germany. + +A similarly bright future may be predicted for the sugar-beet industry +at Konia, where are the irrigation works already referred to. Artesian +wells have been sunk, and there is the suggestion to introduce +Bulgarian labour in default of Turkish. As we have seen, Hungary +attempted to obtain a monopoly with regard to sugar, but Germany has +been victorious on this point (as on every other where she competes with +Hungary), and has obtained the concession for a period of thirty years. +She reaped the first-fruits this last spring (1917), when, on a single +occasion, 350 trucks laden with sugar were despatched to Berlin. A +similar irrigation scheme is bringing into cultivation the Makischelin +Valley, near Aleppo, and Herr Wied has been appointed as expert for +irrigation plant in Syria. There has been considerable shortage of coal, +but now more is arriving from the Black Sea, and the new coal-fields at +Rodosto will soon be giving an output. + +Indeed, it would be easier to enumerate the industries and economical +developments of Turkey over which Germany has not at the present moment +got the control than those over which she has. In particular she has +shown a parental interest in Turkish educational questions. She +established last year, under German management, a school for the study +of German in Constantinople; she has put under the protection of the +German Government the Jewish institution at Haifa for technical +education in Palestine; from Sivas a mission of schoolmasters has been +sent to Germany for the study of German methods. Ernst Marré surmises +that German will doubtless become compulsory even in the Turkish +intermediate (secondary) schools. In April 1917, the first stone of the +'House of Friendship' was laid at Constantinople, the object of which +institution is to create among Turkish students an interest in +everything German, while earlier in the year arrangements were made for +10,000 Turkish youths to go to Germany to be taught trades. These I +imagine were unfit for military service. With regard to such a scheme +Halil Haled Bey praises the arrangement for the education of Turks in +Germany. When they used to go to France, he tells us, 'they lost their +religion' (certainly Prussian Got is nearer akin to Turkish Allah) 'and +returned home unpatriotic and useless. In Germany they will have access +to suitable religious literature' (Gott!) 'and must adopt all they see +good in German methods without losing their original characteristics.' +Comment on this script is needless. The hand is the hand of Halil Haled +Bey, but the voice is the voice of Potsdam. Occasionally, but rarely, +Austrian competition is seen. Professor Schmoller, in an Austrian +quarterly review, shows jealousy of German influence, and we find, in +October 1916, an Ottoman-Austrian college started at Vienna for 250 +pupils of the Ottoman Empire. But Germany has 10,000 in Berlin. At Adana +(where are the German irrigation works) the German-Turkish Society has +opened a German school of 300, while, reciprocally, courses in Turkish +have been organised at Berlin for the sake of future German colonists. +In Constantinople the _Tanin_ announces a course of lectures to be held +by the Turco-German Friendship Society. Professor von Marx discoursed +last April on foreign influence and the development of nations, with +special reference to Turkey and the parallel case of Germany. A few +months later we find Hilmet Nazim Bey, official head of the Turkish +press, proceeding to Berlin to learn German press methods. A number of +editors of Turkish papers will follow him, and soon, no doubt, the +Turkish press will rival Cologne and Frankfort. + +So much for German education, but her penetrative power extends into +every branch of industry and economics. In November 1916, a Munich +expert was put in charge of the College of Forestry, and an economic +society was started in Constantinople on German lines with German +instructors. Inoculation against small-pox, typhoid, and cholera was +made compulsory; and we find that the Turkish Ministers of Posts, of +Justice, and of Commerce, figureheads all of them, have Germans as their +acting Ministers. In the same year a German was appointed as expert for +silkworm breeding and for the cultivation of beet. Practically all the +railways in Asia Minor are pure German concerns by right of purchase. +Germany owns the Anatolian railway concession (originally British), +with right to build to Angora and Konia; the Bagdad railway concession, +with preferential rights over minerals; they have bought the +Mersina-Adana Railway, with right of linking up to the Bagdad Railway; +they have bought the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, built with French capital. +They have secured also the Haidar Pasha Harbour concession, thereby +controlling and handling all merchandise arriving at railhead from the +interior of Asia Minor.[1] Already on the Bagdad Railway the big tunnels +of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge petrol-driven +motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be complete. Meanwhile +railway construction is pushed on in all directions under German +control, and the Turkish Minister of Finance (August 1916) allocated a +large sum of German paper money for the construction of ordinary roads, +military roads, local government roads, all of which are new to Turkey, +but which will be useful for the complete German occupation which is +being swiftly consolidated. To stop the mouths of the people, all +political clubs have been suppressed by the Minister of the Interior, +for Prussia does not care for criticism. To supply German ammunition +needs, lead and zinc have been taken from the roofs of mosques and +door-handles from mosque-gates, and the iron railings along the Champs +de Mars at Pera have been carted away for the manufacture of bombs. Not +long after eight truck-loads of copper were sent to Germany: these, I +imagine, represent the first produce of copper roofs and utensils. A +Turco-German convention signed in Berlin in January of this year, +permits subjects of one country to settle in the other while retaining +their nationality and enjoying trading and other privileges. In Lebanon +Dr. König has opened an agricultural school for Syrians of all +religions. In the Homs district the threatening plague of locusts in +February 1917 was combatted by Germans; and a German expert, Dr. Bucher, +had been already sent to superintend the whole question. For this +concerns supplies to Germany, as does also the ordinance passed in the +same month that two-thirds of all fish caught in the Lebanon district +should be given to the military authorities (these are German), and that +every fish weighing over six ounces in the Beirut district should be +Korban also. The copper mines at Arghana Maden, near Diarbekr, are busy +exporting their produce into Germany; the coal-mines at Rodosto will +very soon be making a large output.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The balance-sheets for 1916 of certain of those railways in +which the Deutsche Bank has an interest have come to hand. They show a +very disagreeable degree of prosperity. The Anatolia Railway Company has +large profits with a gross revenue of 25,737,995 marks. The profit on +the Haidar-Pasha-Angora Line has risen from 42,566 francs per kilometre +to 45,552. The Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway has paid 6 per cent. on its +preference shares, and 3 per cent. on its ordinary shares. The Haidar +Pasha Harbour Company has paid 8 per cent.] + +[Footnote 2: Later in this year we find three trains daily leaving +Constantinople for Germany, laden with coal and military supplies.] + +There is no end to this penetration: German water-seekers, with divining +and boring apparatus, accompanied the Turkish expedition into Sinai; +Russian prisoners were sent by Germany for agricultural work in Asia +Minor, to take the place of slaughtered Armenians; a German-Turkish +treaty, signed January 11, 1917, gives the whole reorganisations of the +economic system to a special German mission. A Stuttgart journal chants +a characteristic _Lobgesang_ over this feat. 'That is how,' it proudly +exclaims, 'we work for the liberation of peoples and nationalities.' + +In the same noble spirit, we must suppose, German legal reforms were +introduced in December 1916, to replace the Turkish Shuriat, and in the +same month all the Turks in telegraph offices in Constantinople were +replaced by Germans. Ernst Marré gives valuable advice to young Germans +settling in Turkey. He particularly recommends them, knowing how +religion is one of the strongest bonds in this murderous race, to 'trade +in articles of devotion, in rosaries, in bags to hold the Koran,' and +points out what good business might be built up in gramophones. Earlier +in this year we find a 'German Oriental Trading Company' founded for the +import of fibrous materials for needs of military authorities, and a +great carpet business established at Urfa with German machinery that +will supplant the looms of Smyrna. A saltpetre factory is established +at Konia by Herr Toepfer, whose enterprise is rewarded with an Iron +Cross and a Turkish decoration. The afforestation near Constantinople, +ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture, is put into German hands, and in +the vilayet of Aidin (April 1916) ninety concessions were granted to +German capitalists to undertake the exploitation of metallic ores. +Occasionally the German octopus finds it has gone too far for the +moment, and releases some struggling limb of its victim, as, for +instance, when we see that, in September 1916, the German Director's +stamp for the 'Imperial German Great Radio Station' at Damascus has been +discarded temporarily, as that station 'should be treated for the +present as a Turkish concern.' + +A 'Trading and Weaving Company' was established at Angora in 1916, an +'Import and Export Company' at Smyrna, a 'Trading and Industrial +Society' at Beirut, a 'Tobacco Trading Company' at Latakieh, an +'Agricultural Company' at Tripoli, a 'Corn Exporting Company' in +Lebanon, a 'Rebuilding Commission' (perhaps for sacked Armenian houses) +at Konia. More curious yet will be a Tourist's Guide Book--a Baedeker, +in fact--for travellers in Anatolia, and the erection of a monument in +honour of Turkish _women_ who have replaced men called up for military +duty. Truly these last two items--a guide-book for Anatolia, and a +monument to women--are strange enterprises for Turks. A new Prussian day +is dawning, it seems, for Turkish women as well, for the _Tanin_ (April +1917) tells us that diplomas are to be conferred on ladies who have +completed their studies in the Technical School at Constantinople. + +It is needless to multiply instances of German penetration: I have but +given the skeleton of this German monster that has fastened itself with +tentacles and suckers on every branch of Turkish industry. There is none +round which it has not cast its feelers--no Semitic moneylender ever +obtained a surer hold on his victim. In matters naval, military, +educational, legal, industrial, financial, Germany has a strangle-hold. +Turkey's life is already crushed out of her, and, as we have seen, it +has been crushed out of her by the benevolent Kultur-mongers, who, among +all the Great Powers of Europe, invested their time and their money in +the achievement of the Pan-Turkish ideal. Silently and skilfully they +worked, bamboozling their chief tool, Enver Pasha, even as Enver Pasha +bamboozled us. As long as he was of service to them they retained him; +for his peace of mind at one time they stopped up all letter-boxes in +Constantinople because so many threatening letters were sent him. But +now Enver Pasha seems to have had his day; he became a little +autocratic, and thought that he was the head of the Pan-Turkish ideal. +So he was, but the Pan-Turkish ideal had become Pan-Prussian, and he had +not noticed the transformation. Talaat Bey has taken his place; it was +he who, in May 1917, was received by the Emperor William, by King +Ludwig, and by the Austrian Emperor, and he who was the mouthpiece of +the German efforts to make a separate peace with Russia. Under Czardom, +he proclaimed, the existence of Turkey was threatened, but now the +revolution has made friendship possible, for Russia no longer desires +territorial annexation. And, oh, how Turkey would like to be Russia's +friend! Enver Pasha has of late been somewhat out of favour in Berlin, +and I cannot but think it curious that when, on April 2, 1917, he +visited the submarine base at Wilhelmshaven, he was very nearly killed +in a motor accident. But it may have been an accident. Since then I +cannot find that he has taken any more active part in Pan-Turkish ideals +than to open a soup-kitchen in some provincial town, and lecture the +Central Committee of the Young Turks on the subject of internal affairs +in Great Britain. I do not like lectures, but I should have liked to +hear that one. + + +I have left to the end of this chapter the question of Germany's +knowledge of, and complicity in the Armenian massacres. From the tribune +of the Reichstag, on January 15, 1916, there was made a definite denial +of the existence of such massacres at all; on another subsequent +occasion it was stated that Germany could not interfere in Turkish +internal affairs. + +In view of the fact that there is no internal affair appertaining to +Turkey in which Germany has not interfered, the second of these +statements may be called insincere. But the denial of the massacres is a +deliberate lie. Germany--official Germany--knew all about them, and she +permitted them to go on. A few proofs of this are here shortly stated. + +(1) In September 1915, four months before the denial of the massacres +was made in the Reichstag, Dr. Martin Niepage, higher grade teacher in +the German Technical School at Aleppo, prepared and sent, as we have +seen, in his name, and that of several of his colleagues, a report of +the massacres to the German Embassy at Constantinople. In that report he +gives a terrible account of what he has seen with his own eyes, and also +states that the country Turks' explanation with regard to the origin of +these measures is that it was 'the teaching of the Germans.' The German +Embassy at Constantinople therefore knew of the massacres, and knew +also that the Turks attributed them to orders from Germany. Dr. Niepage +also consulted, before sending his report, with the German Consul at +Aleppo, Herr Hoffman, who told him that the German Embassy had been +already advised in detail about the massacres from the consulates at +Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Mosul, but that he welcomed a further protest +on the subject. + +(2) These reports, or others like them, had not gone astray, for in +August 1915, the German Ambassador in Constantinople, Baron Wangenheim, +made a formal protest to the Turkish Government about the massacres. + +There is, then, no doubt that the German Government, when it officially +denied the massacres, was perfectly cognisant of them. It was also +perfectly capable of stopping them, for they were not local violences, +but wholesale murders organised at Constantinople. In support of this +view I find an independent witness stating that 'there is no Turk of +standing who will not readily declare that it would have been perfectly +possible for Germany to have vetoed the massacres had she chosen.' +Germany had indeed already given assurances that such massacres should +not occur. She had assured the Armenian Katholikos at Adana that so long +as Germany has any influence in Turkey he need not fear a repetition of +the horrors that had taken place under Abdul Hamid. Had she, then, no +influence in Constantinople, or how was it that she had obtained +complete control over all Turkish branches of government? The same +assurance was given by the German Ambassador in April 1915, to the +Armenian Patriarch and the President of the Armenian National Council. + +So, in support of the Pan-Turkish ideal, and in the name of the Turkish +Allah, the God of Love, Germany stood by and let the infamous tale of +lust and rapine and murder be told to its end. The Turks had planned to +exterminate the whole Armenian race except some half-million, who would +be deported penniless to work on agricultural developments under German +rule, but this quality of Turkish mercy was too strained for Major +Pohl, who proclaimed that it was a mistake to spare so many. But he was +a soldier, and did not duly weigh the claims of agriculture. + +The choice was open to Germany; Germany chose, and let the Armenian +massacres go on. But she was in a difficulty. What if the Turkish +Government retorted (perhaps it did so retort), 'You are not consistent. +Why do you mind about the slaughter of a few Armenians? What about +Belgium and your atrocities there?' + +And all the ingenuity of the Wilhelmstrasse would not be able to find an +answer to that. + +I do not say that Germany wanted the massacres, for she did not. She +wanted more agricultural labour, and I think that, if only for that +reason, she deprecated them. But she allowed them to go on when it was +in her power to stop them, and all the perfumes of Arabia will not wash +clean her hand from that stinking horror. + +Here, then, are some of the problems which those who, at the end of the +war, will have to deal with the problem of Turkey must tackle. It is +just as well to recognise that at the present moment Turkey is virtually +and actually a German colony, and the most valuable colony that Germany +has ever had. It will not be enough to limit, or rather abolish, the +supremacy of Turkey over aliens and martyrised peoples; it will be +necessary first to abolish the supremacy of Germany over Turkey. To do +this the victory of our Allied Nations must be complete, and Germany's +octopus envelopment of Turkish industries severed. Otherwise we shall +immediately be confronted with a Germany that already reaches as far as +Mesopotamia. That is done now; and that, before there can come any +permanent peace for Europe, must be undone. Nothing less than the +complete release of that sucker and tentacle embrace will suffice. + + +NOTE + +As throwing a sidelight on the German complicity in the Armenian +massacres, the following is of interest. It is known that when +Metternich succeeded Wangenheim as German Ambassador in Constantinople, +he brought with him a speech, written in Berlin, which, by the Kaiser's +orders, he was to read when presenting his credentials to the Sultan. +This contained a sentence which implied that Germany had been unable to +stop the Armenian massacres. Talaat refused to allow the speech to be +read, obviously because it threw the responsibility of the massacres on +to the Turks, whereas the accepted opinion in Turkey was that they took +place with the connivance and even at the instigation of the Germans. +Eventually a compromise was arrived at, and the speech _in toto_ was +read privately, the part referring to the Armenian massacre not being +published.... It is a pity that Germany is always found out.... + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VI_ + + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +Let us commit the crime of _lèse-majesté_, and assume (though the +Emperor Wilhelm II. has repeatedly announced the contrary) that Germany +is not at the conclusion of the European War to find herself in +possession of the world. She has prepared her plans in anticipation of +the auspicious event; in fact she has had a most interesting map of +Europe produced which, except by its general shape, is scarcely +recognisable. The printing of it, it is true, was a little premature, +for it shows what Europe was to have been like in 1916, and the +apportionments are not borne out by facts. But assuming that there is +some radical error about it all from her point of view, and assuming +that there will not be either a conclusive peace favourable to Prussian +interests, or even an inconclusive peace, but one in which the Allies +will be able to dictate and enforce their own terms, the magnitude of +the problems that will await their decision may well appal the most +ingenious of their statesmen. And of all those problems none, it is safe +to prophesy, will be found more difficult of solution than that which +will deal with the future of the corrupt and barbarous Government which +has for centuries made hell of the Ottoman Empire. We know more or less +what will happen to Alsace and Lorraine, to Belgium, to the Trentino, +because in those cases the claims of one or other of our Allies to +demand a particular settlement are quite certain to be agreed to by +those not so immediately and vitally concerned. But in the Balkans these +problems will be more complicated because of conflicting interests, and +most complicated of all will they be in Turkey. One thing, however, is +certain, that there can be no going back to the conditions that existed +there before the war. + +Ever since the Osmanlis came out of remoter Asia into the Nearer East +and into Europe, the government of their Empire has gone from bad to +worse. In the early days, as we have seen, their policy was to absorb +the strength of their subject peoples by incorporating the youth of them +into the Turkish army, by giving them Turkish wives, and by converting +them to Mohammedanism. Such was the foundation of the Empire and such +its growth. But having absorbed their strength, the Sultan's Government +neglected them until they milked them again. They were allowed to +prosper if they could: all that was demanded of them was a toll of their +strength. They were cattle, and for the right to graze on Turkish lands +they paid back a pail of their milk of manhood. But an empire founded on +such principles contains within it active and prolific seeds of decay, +and, as we have seen, more stringent measures had to be resorted to in +order to preserve the supremacy of the ruling people. Instead of +absorbing their strength, Abdul Hamid hit upon the new method of killing +them, so that the Turks should still maintain their domination. And the +policy set on foot by him was developed but a few years ago into a +scheme of slaughter, which in atrocity has far surpassed the killings of +Attila, of whom the Nationalist poet sings, or even the designs of the +deposed Sultan. The Armenian nation, with the exception of such part of +it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been exterminated, and +similar measures have been planned and indeed begun, against the Greeks, +the Arabs, and the Jews. + +In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European War, the +policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has been at length +abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared in their joint note to +President Wilson their aims in the war, and for those they have pledged +themselves to fight until final and complete victory wreathes their +arms. Among these aims are:-- + +(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous +tyranny of the Turks. + +(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which has proved +itself so radically alien to Western civilisation. + +For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called the Concert +of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the Balance of Power, kept +Turkey together, and in particular has maintained the centre of its +government at Constantinople simply because the Balance of Power would +be upset if anybody else held the key of the straits that separate +Russia from the Mediterranean. England, above all others, was +instrumental in preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must +confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a century. It +is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse of that which for so +many decades has been the keystone of our ruling with regard to our +Eastern Empire, but the arch has collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone +out, and all our efforts to exclude Russia from free access to the +Mediterranean have only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds +Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The situation, as +it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse than it could have been +for a century back, if at any moment during those hundred years we had +done what we always ought to have done, and declared that the +anachronism of Turkey being in Europe was more intolerable than anything +that could happen in consequence of her expulsion. But we have +acknowledged that now. We have also acknowledged the even greater +anachronism of Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any +of those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman Empire, for +the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that the remedy of these +two monstrous abuses forms an essential part of their aim in the war, +which in costliness of life and of treasure has already far exceeded any +cataclysm that could have come to Europe through its doing its clear and +Christian duty with regard to Turkey during the preceding hundred years. +And among the benefits which eventually mankind will reap in the fields +that have been sown by the blood of the slain will be the fact that the +Confusion of Europe will have accomplished a task which the Concert of +Europe was too craven of consequences to undertake; and Constantinople +and the subject peoples of the Turks will have passed from the yoke of +that murderous tyranny for ever. + +We will take these two avowed aims of the Allies in order, and first try +to draw (though with diffident pencil) some sketch of what will be the +confines of the Ottoman Empire, when we pluck the fruits of the great +crusade against the barbarism of Turkey and of Germany. It is quite +useless to attempt to keep the map as it was, and peg out claims within +the Empire where we shall proclaim that Arabs and Greeks and Armenians +shall live in peace, for it is exactly that plan which has formed a +century's failure. At the International Congress of Berlin, for +instance, a solemn pact was entered into by Turkey for the reform of the +Armenian vilayets. She carried out her promise by slaughtering every +Armenian male, and outraging every Armenian woman who inhabited them. +The _soi-disant_ protectorate of Crete was not a whit more successful in +securing for the Cretans a tolerable existence, and the Allies had to +bring it to an end twenty years ago, and free them from the execrable +yoke; while finally the repudiation by Turkey of the Capitulations, +which provided some sort of guarantee for the safety of foreign peoples +in Turkey, has shown us, if further proof was needed, the value of +covenants with the Osmanli. It must be rendered impossible for Turkey to +repeat such outrages: the soil where her alien peoples dwell must be +hers no more, and any Turkish aggression on that soil must be, _ipso +facto_, an act of war against the European Power under the protection of +whom such a province is placed. + +The difficulty of this part of the problem is not so great as might at +first appear. We do not, when we come to look at it in detail, find such +a conflict of interests as would seem to face us on a general view. Even +the precarious Balance of Power was not upset by a quantity of similar +adjustments made by the Concert of Europe during the last hundred years. +The Powers freed Serbia, giving Turkey first a suzerainty over her, and +finally abolishing that: they freed Bulgaria, they freed Greece, Eastern +Rumelia, Macedonia, Albania. But, as by some strange lapse of humanity, +they always regarded the subject peoples of Turkey in Asia as more +peculiarly Turkish, as if at the Bosporus a new moral geography began, +and massacre in Asia was comparatively venial as compared with massacre +in Europe. But now the Allies have said that there must be no more +massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, it will +be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the alien peoples +dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the protectorate of one or +other of the allied nations. In most cases we shall find that there is a +protecting Power more or less clearly indicated, whose sphere of +interest is obviously concerned with one or other of these new and +independent provinces. + +The alien race which for the last thirty years has suffered the most +atrociously from Turkish inhumanity is that of the Armenians, and it is +fitting to begin our belated campaign of liberation with it. If the +reader will turn to the map at the end of this book, he will see that +the district marked Armenia lies at the north-west corner of the old +Ottoman Empire, and extends across its frontiers into Russian +Trans-Caucasia. That indicates the district which once was peopled by +Armenians. To-day, owing to the various Armenian massacres, the latest +of which, described in another chapter, was by far the most appalling, +such part of Armenia as lies in the Ottoman Empire is practically, and +probably absolutely, depopulated of its Armenian inhabitants. Such as +survive, apart from the women whose lives were spared on their +professing Islamism and entering Turkish harems, have escaped beyond the +Russian frontier, and are believed to number about a quarter of a +million. In the meantime their homes have partly been destroyed and +partly occupied by mouhadjirs from Thrace, and by the Kurds who were +largely instrumental in butchering them. Their lands have been +appropriated haphazardly, by, any who laid hands on them. + +Here the problem is of no great difficulty. The robber-tenants must be +evicted, and the remnant of the Armenians repatriated. Without +exception they escaped into Trans-Caucasia from villages and districts +near the frontier, else they could never have escaped from the pursuing +Turks and Kurds. Naturally, this remnant of a people will not nearly +suffice to fill their entire province, but in order to satisfy the +claims of justice at all adequately, the whole district of Armenia, as +Armenia was known before its people were exterminated, must be amputated +by a clean cut out of the Ottoman Empire and placed, in an autonomous +condition in a new protected province, which will include all the +vilayets of Armenia. + +There is no doubt about a prosperous future for Armenia if this is done, +and to do less than this would be to fail signally as regards the solemn +promise made by the Allies when they stated to President Wilson their +aims in the war. The Armenians have ever been a thrifty and industrious +people, possessed of an inherent vitality which has withstood centuries +of fiendish oppression. With facilities given them for their +re-settlement, and with foreign protection to establish them, they will, +beyond question, more than hold their own against the Kurds. As a +nation they are, as we have seen, partly agricultural in their pursuits; +but a considerable proportion of them (and these the more intelligent) +are men of business, merchants, doctors, educationalists, and gravitate +to towns. Constantinople, as we shall see, will be open to them again, +where lately they numbered nearly as many as the entire remnant of their +nation numbers now; so, too, will be the cities of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia in the New Turkey which we are attempting to sketch. +They will probably not care to settle in the towns and districts that +will remain in the hands of their late oppressors and murderers. + +In the work of their repatriation none will be more eager to help than +the American missionaries, who, at the time of the last massacre, as so +often before, showed themselves so nobly disregardant of all personal +danger and risk in doing their utmost for their murdered flock, and who +have explicitly declared their intention of resuming their work. With +regard to the eviction of Kurds that will be necessary, it must be +remembered that the Kurd is a trespasser on the plains and towns of +Armenia, and properly belongs to the mountains from which he was +encouraged to descend by the Turks for purposes of massacre. Out of +those towns and plains he must go, either into the mountains of Armenia +from whence he came, or over the frontier of Armenia into the New Turkey +presently to be defined. He must, in fact, be deported, though not in +the manner of the deportations at which he himself so often assisted. + +The Armenians who will thus be reinstated within the boundaries of their +own territory, will be practically penniless and without any of the +means or paraphernalia of life, and the necessary outlay on supplies for +them, and the cost of their rehabilitation would naturally fall on the +protecting Power. They will, however, be free from the taxes they have +hitherto paid to the Turks, and it should not be difficult for them by +means of taxes far less oppressive, to pay an adequate interest on the +moneys expended on them. These would thus take the form of a very small +loan, the whole of which could easily be repaid by the Armenians in the +course of a generation or so. Once back on their own soil, and free from +Turkish tyranny and the possibility of it, they are bound to prosper, +even as they have prospered hitherto in spite of oppressions and +massacres up till the year 1915, when, as we have seen, the liberal and +progressive Nationalists organised and executed the extermination from +which so few escaped. + +It is hardly necessary to point out who the protecting Power would be in +the case of the repatriated Armenians, for none but Russia is either +desirable or possible. With one side along the Russian frontier of +Trans-Caucasia, the New Armenia necessarily falls into the sphere of +Russian influence. + +It has been suggested that not only Armenia proper, but part of Cilicia +should also become a district of the repatriated Armenians, with an +outlet to the sea. But while it is true that complete compensation would +demand this, since Zeitun and other districts in Cilicia were almost +pure Armenian settlements, I cannot think that such a restoration is +desirable. For, in the first place, the extermination of the Zeitunlis +(as carried out by Jemal the Great) was practically complete. All the +men were slaughtered, and it does not seem likely that any of the women +and girls who were deported reached the 'agricultural colony' of +Deir-el-Zor in the Arabian desert. It is therefore difficult to see of +whom the repatriation would consist. In the second place, the New +Armenia will be for several generations to come of an area more than +ample for all the Armenians who have survived the flight into Russia, +and it obviously will give them the best chance of corporate prosperity, +if the whole of them are repatriated in a compact body rather than that +a portion of them should be formed into a mere patch severed from their +countrymen by so large a distance. Another sphere of influence also will +be operating near the borders of Cilicia, and to place the Armenians +under two protecting Powers would have serious disadvantages. In +addition they never were a sea-going people, and I cannot see what +object would be served by giving them a coast-board. In any case, if a +coast-board was found necessary, the most convenient would be the +coast-board of the Black Sea, lying adjacent to their main territory. + +If it seems clear that for New Armenia the proper protecting Power is +Russia, it is no less clear that for the freed inhabitants of New Syria, +Arabs and Greeks alike, the proper protecting Power is France. +Historically France's connection with Syria dates from the time of the +Crusades in 1099; it has never been severed, and of late years the ties +between the two countries have been both strengthened and multiplied. +The Treaties of Paris, of London, of San Stefano, and of Berlin have all +recognised the affiliation; so, too, from an ecclesiastical standpoint, +have the encyclicals of Leo XIII. in 1888 and 1898. Similarly, it was +France who intervened in the Syrian massacres of 1845, who landed troops +for the protection of the Maronites in 1860, and established a +protectorate of the Lebanon there a few years later, which lasted up +till the outbreak of the European War. France was the largest holder, as +she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the harbour of +Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most flourishing ports +of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a French enterprise. And perhaps +more important than all these, as a link between Syria and France, has +been the educational penetration which France has effected there. What +the American missionaries did for Armenia, France has done for Syria, +and according to a recent estimate, of the 65,000 children who attended +European schools throughout Syria, not less than 40,000 attended French +schools. When we consider that that proportion has been maintained for +many years in Syria, it can be estimated how strong the intellectual +bond between the Syrian and the French now is. The French language, +similarly, is talked everywhere: it is as current as is modern Greek in +ports of the Levant. + +In virtue of such claims few, if any, would dispute the title of France +to be the protecting Power in the case of Syria. Here there will not +be, as was the case with the Armenians, any work of repatriation to be +done. Such devastation and depopulation as has been wrought by Jemal the +Great, with hunger and disease to help him, was wrought on the spot, +and, though it will take many years to heal the wounds inflicted by that +barbaric plagiarist of Potsdam, it is exactly the deft and practical +sympathy of the French with the race they have so long tended, which +will most speedily bring back health to the Syrians. + +It will be with regard to the geographical limits of a French +protectorate that most difficulty is likely to be experienced; there +will also be points claiming careful solution, as will be seen later, +with regard to railway control. Northwards and eastwards the natural +delimitations seem clear enough: northwards French Syria would terminate +with, and include, the province of Aleppo, eastwards the Syrian desert +marks its practical limits, the technical limit being supplied by the +course of the Euphrates. But southwards there is no such natural line of +demarcation; the Arab occupation stretches right down till it reaches +the Hedjaz, which already has thrown off the Turkish yoke and, under the +Shereef of Mecca, declared its independence. Inset into this long strip +of territory lies Palestine. + +Now to make one single French protectorate over this very considerable +territory seems at first sight a large order, but the objections to any +other course are many and insuperable. Should the line of French +influence be drawn farther north than the Hedjaz, under what protection +is the intervening territory to be left? At present it is Turkish, but +inhabited by Arabs, and, unless the Allies revoke the fulness of their +declaration not to leave alien peoples under the 'murderous tyranny' of +the Turks, Turkish it cannot remain. But both by geographical situation +and by racial interest, it belongs to French-protected Syria, and there +seems no answer to the question as to what sphere of influence it comes +under if not under the French. Just as properly, if we take this view of +the question, the Sinaitic Peninsula, largely desert, would fall to +Egypt, the French protectorate being defined westwards at Akabah. That +the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez should not be under the same +control as the Western has always been an anomaly, admitted even by the +sternest opponents of the status of Egypt; and in the absence of any +canal corresponding to that of Suez, and debouching into the Red Sea +_via_ the Gulf of Akabah, the most advanced champion of French influence +in the Near East would see no objection to this rectified frontier. +There is no question of competition involved. The proposed change is but +a rational rectification of the present status. + +This scheme of delimitation leaves Palestine inset into the French +protectorate of Syria, and it is difficult to see to whom the +protectorate of Palestine should be properly assigned except to France. +Italy has no expansive ambitions in that sector of the Mediterranean; +England's national sphere of influence in this partition of the +districts now occupied by alien peoples in the Ottoman Empire lies +obviously elsewhere; and since the Jews, who settled in ever-increasing +numbers in Palestine before the war, and will assuredly continue to +settle there again, come and will come as refugees from the Russian +Pale, it would be clearly inadvisable to assign to Russia the +protectorate of her own refugees. The only other alternative would be to +create an independent Palestine for the Jews, and the reasons against +that are overwhelming. It would be merely playing into the hands of +Germany to make such an arrangement. For the last thirty years Germany +has watched with personal and special interest this immigration of Jews +into Palestine, seeing in it not so much a Jewish but a German +expansion. Indeed, when, in the spring of this year, as we have noticed, +a massacre and deportation of Jews was planned and begun by Jemal, +Germany so far reversed her usual attitude towards massacres in general, +and her expressed determination never to interfere in Turkey's internal +affairs, as to lodge a peremptory protest, and of course got the +persecution instantly stopped. Her reason was that Pan-Turkish 'ideals' +(the equivalent for the massacre of alien people) had no sort of +meaning in Palestine. But the Pan-Germanic ideals had a great deal of +meaning in Palestine, as Dr. Davis Treitsch _(Die Jüden der Türkei)_ +very clearly states. For 'as a result of the war,' he tells us, 'there +will be an emigration of East-European Jews on an unprecedented scale + ... the disposal of the East European Jews will be a problem for Germany +(and) Germans will be only too glad to find a way out in the emigration +of those Jews to Turkey, a solution extraordinarily favourable to the +interests of all _three [sic]_ parties concerned. There are grounds for +talking of a German protectorate over the whole of Jewry.' + +Now this is explicit enough; Germany clearly contemplated a protectorate +over Palestine, and if the Jews who are German-speaking Jews are left +independent, there is nothing more certain than that, after the war, her +penetration of Palestine will instantly begin. These colonists are, and +will be, in want of funds for the development and increase of their +cultivated territories, and when we consider the names of the prominent +financiers in the Central Empires, Mendelssohn, Hirsch, Goldsmid, +Bleichroeder, Speyer, to name only a few, we cannot be in much doubt as +to the quarter from which that financial assistance will be forthcoming, +on extremely favourable terms. It is safe to prophesy that, if Palestine +is given independence without protectorate, in three years from the end +of the war it will be under not only a protectorate, but a despotism as +complete as ever ruled either Turkey or Prussia. True it is that the +Zionist movement will offer, even as it has offered in the past, a +strenuous opposition to Germanisation, but it would be crediting it with +an inconceivable vitality to imagine that it will be able to resist the +blandishments that Germany is certainly prepared to shower on it. For +great as is the progress the Jewish settlers made in Palestine during +the twenty or twenty-five years before the war, and strong as is the +spirit of Zionism, the emigrants do not as yet number more than about +120,000, nor have they under crops more than ten per cent. of the +cultivated land of Palestine. They are as yet but settlers, and their +work is before them. If left without a protectorate they will not be +without a protectorate long, but not such an one as the Allies desire. A +protectorate there must be, and no reason is really of weight against +that protectorate being French. Let that, then, extend from the +Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from Alexandretta to where the +Hedjaz already prospers in its self-proclaimed independence. It will be +completely severed from Turkey by tracts under protection of one or +other of the Allied Powers, any expedition through which would be an act +of war. + +The Euphrates, then, will form the eastern boundary of the French +protectorate: it will also, it is hoped, form the western boundary of +the English protectorate, which we know as Mesopotamia. Just as no other +Power has any real claim to Armenia, except Russia, just as Syria can +fall to no other than France, it seems equally clear that the proper +sphere of English influence is in this plain that stretches southwards +from the semicircle of hills where the two great rivers approach each +other near Diarbekr to the head of the Persian Gulf. As Germany very +well knows, it is intimately concerned with our safe tenure of India, +and the hold the Germans hoped to gain over it, and have for ever lost, +by their possession of the Bagdad Railway was vital to their dreams of +world-conquest. Equally vital to England was it that Germany should +never get it. But its importance to us as a land-route to India is by no +means the only reason why an English sphere of influence is indicated +here: it is the possibilities it harbours, which, as far as can be seen, +England is the only Power capable of developing, that cause us to put in +a claim for its protectorate which none of our Allies will dispute. + +To restore Mesopotamia to the rank it has held, and to the rank it still +might hold among the productive districts of the East, there is needed a +huge capital for outlay, and a huge population of workers. Even Germany, +in her nightmare of world-dominion, from which she shall be soon dragged +screaming-awake, never formulated a scheme for the restoration of +Southern Mesopotamia to its productive pre-eminence, and never so much +as contemplated it, except as an object that would be possible of +realisation after the Empire of India had fallen over-ripe into her +pelican mouth. Therein she was perfectly right--she usually is right in +these dreams of empire in so far as they are empirical--for she seems +dimly to have conjectured in these methodical visions, that India was +the key to unlock Southern Mesopotamia. But nowhere can I find that she +guessed it: I only guess that she guessed it. + +This problem of capital outlay and of the necessary man-power for work +and restoration applies exclusively to Southern Mesopotamia, which we +may roughly define as the district stretching from Samara on the Tigris +and Hit on the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Northern Mesopotamia, as +Dr. Rohrbach points out in his _Bagdadbahn_, needs only the guarantee of +security of life and property to induce the Kurds to descend from the +hills and the Bedouin Arabs to settle down there; and by degrees, under +a protectorate that insures them against massacre and confiscation of +property, there seems no doubt that the area of cultivation will spread +and something of the ancient prosperity return. The land is immensely +fertile: it is only Ottoman misrule, which here, as everywhere else, has +left desolation in the place of prosperity and death in place of life. +The rainfall is adequate, the climate suitable to those who will +naturally spread there: it needs only freedom from the murderous tyranny +that has bled it for centuries past, to guarantee its future prosperity. + +But Southern Mesopotamia is a totally different proposition. The land +lies low between the rivers, and, though of unparalleled fertility, +yields under present conditions but a precarious livelihood to its +sparse population. For nine months of the year it is a desert, for three +months when its rivers are in flood, a swamp. Once, as we all know, it +was the very heart of civilisation, and from its arteries flowed out the +life-blood of the world. Rainfall was scarcely existent, any more than +it is existent in Southern or Upper Egypt; but in the days of Babylon +the Great there were true rulers and men of wisdom over these +desiccated regions, who saw that every drop of water in the river, that +now pours senselessly through swamp and desert into the sea, was a grain +of corn or a stalk of cotton. They dug canals, they made reservoirs, and +harnessed like some noble horse of the gods the torrents that now gallop +unbridled through dreary deserts. The black land, the Sawad, was then +the green land of waving corn, where three crops were annually harvested +and the average yield was two hundredfold of the seed sown. The wheat +and barley, so Herodotus tells us, were a palm-breadth long in the +blade, and millet and sesame grew like trees. And in these details the +revered Father of Lies seems to have spoken less than the truth, for the +statistics we get elsewhere more than bear out his accounts of its +amazing fertility. From its wealth before his day had arisen the might +of Babylon, and for centuries later, while the canals still regulated +the water supply, it remained the granary of the world. More than a +thousand years after Herodotus there were over 12,500,000 acres in +cultivation, and the husbandmen thereof with the dwellers in its cities +numbered 5,000,000 men. Then came the Arab invasion, which was bad +enough, but colossally worse was the invasion of the Osmanli. Truly 'a +fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell +therein.' + +But the potentiality for production of that great alluvial plain is not +diminished; the Turks could not dispose of that by massacre, as a means +of weakening the strength of their subject peoples. It is still there, +ready to respond to the spell of the waters of Tigris and Euphrates, +which once, when handled and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of +the Lord. + +Not long before the present European War Sir William Willcocks, under +whose guidance the great modern irrigation works at Assouan were +constructed, was appointed adviser to the Ottoman Ministry of Public +Works, and his report on the Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in +1911. He tells us that the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable +of easy levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic +scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the +refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we need not +go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly conservative basis, +give the following results. He proposes to restore, of course with +modern technical improvements, the old system of canals, and, allowing +for interest on loans, estimates the total expense at £26,000,000 (or +the cost of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of +the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no enlargement in +detail and no comment. + +But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the irrigation works +is easy, the profits are safe so long as the Tigris and 'the ancient +river,' the river Euphrates, run their course. But all the irrigation +works in the world will not raise a penny for the investor or a grain +for the miller unless there are men to sow and gather the crops. A +million are necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is +'Egypt and India.' + +This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and its future +must be in English hands, why no other country can undertake it with +hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. Rohrbach, whose _Bagdadbahn_ I +have quoted before, is forced to acknowledge that there is no solution +to the man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans from +other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak prevail.' It is +true that he starts upon the assumption that Mesopotamia will remain +Turkish (under a German protectorate, as we read between his lines), +with which we must be permitted to disagree, but his conclusion is quite +correct. Even under German protection he realises that citizens of +well-governed states will not flock by the million to put themselves +under Turkish control, and he dismisses as inadequate the numbers of +Syrians, Arabs, Armenians and Jews who can be transported to Mesopotamia +from inside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Their numbers are even +more inadequate since the Armenian massacres permitted by Dr. Rohrbach's +Fatherland, and even he cannot picture a million of his own countrymen +forsaking the beer-gardens for summers in the Sawad. He does not +positively state our answer, that it is from India and Egypt that the +man-power will be supplied, but, as mentioned before, I think he guesses +it. His prophetic gifts are not convincing enough to himself to let him +state the glorious future, when India and Egypt shall become German, but +that, I feel sure, is his vision: 'he sees it, but not now; he beholds +it, but not nigh.' + +But we can give the answer which he does not quite like to state, since +for the English it is clearly more easily realisable. The native labour +we can supply from Egypt and India, especially India, will furnish a +million labourers, and, if we wished, two millions without difficulty. +But no Power except England can furnish it. And that, I submit, is the +solution of the problem of Mesopotamia; a solution well within the power +of English enterprise to attain in the hands of such men as have already +bridled the Nile, the water-horsemen of the world. And I cannot do +better, in trying to convey the spirit in which this work of +reclamation should be undertaken, than by quoting some very noble words +from Sir William Willcocks's report, in which he speaks of the +desolation that has come to this garden of fruitfulness through wicked +stewardship. + +'The last voyage I made before coming to this country was up the Nile +from Khartoum to the Equatorial lakes. In this most desperate and +forbidding region I was filled with pride to think I belonged to a race +whose sons, even in this inhospitable waste of waters, were struggling +in the face of a thousand discouragements to introduce new forest trees +and new agricultural products and ameliorate in some degree the +conditions of life of the naked and miserable inhabitants. How should I +have felt, if in traversing the deserts and swamps which to-day +represent what was the richest and most famous tract in the world, I had +thought that I was the scion of a race in whose hands God has placed, +for hundreds of years, the destinies of this great country, and that my +countrymen could give no better account of their stewardship than the +exhibition of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste +themselves in the sea for nine months of the year, and desolating +everything in their way for the remaining three? No effort that Turkey +can make can be too great to roll away the reproach of those parched and +weary lands, whose cry ascends to heaven.' + +But the harvests of Mesopotamia, when gathered in, must needs be +transported, and for that railways are necessary. Water transport would, +of course, carry them easily down to the Persian Gulf, but the supply +will be mainly, if not wholly, wanted westwards, and it must be conveyed +to the shores of the Mediterranean. Already, in preparation for +world-conquest, Germany has proceeded far with her construction of the +Bagdad Railway, which was intended, after her absorption of Turkey, to +link up Berlin with her next Oriental objective, namely, India; the +Taurus has been tunnelled, the Euphrates bridged, and but for a hiatus +of a few miles the line is practically complete from Constantinople into +Northern Mesopotamia. But its route was chosen for German strategic +reasons, for the linking up of Berlin with Constantinople and Bagdad. +This, it may be permitted to say, does not form part of the schemes of +the Allies: it is to snap rather than weld such links that they have +taken the field. What we want in the matter of railway transport for the +harvests of Mesopotamia, and generally for our Eastern communications, +is not a line that passes through Turkish and German soil, and +terminates at Berlin, but one which, after the directest possible +land-route, reaches the Mediterranean and terminates in suitable ports. + +The reader therefore is requested to _unthink_ the present Bagdad +Railway altogether, to 'scrap' it in his mind, as it will be probably +scrapped on the map, since it is utterly useless for our purposes. For +taking Aleppo as (roughly) the half-way house in the existent line, we +find that the western half of it lies in Asia Minor, in territory which, +as we shall see, will remain Turkish, while the eastern half of it makes +a long detour instead of striking directly for Bagdad. After our +experience with Turkey there is nothing less conceivable than that we +should allow a single mile of our new Mesopotamia Railway to run +through the territory of the Turks, for who knows that she might not +(say when harvests are ripe and ready for delivery), on any arbitrary +pretext, close or destroy the line, even as before now she has closed +the Dardanelles? Besides, for our purposes, a line that goes to +Constantinople (in whosoever hands Constantinople may be after the war) +is out of the way and altogether unsuitable. Eastwards, again, from +Aleppo the present Bagdad line is circuitous and indirect, admirably +adapted to the German purposes for which it was constructed, but utterly +unadapted to ours. + +Let us then 'scrap' the existent Bagdad route altogether, and consider +not what the Germans want, but what we want, which, as has been already +stated, is a direct land communication with suitable Mediterranean +ports. Of those there are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and +Beirut, of which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and +potentiality of increased importance. Two possible routes therefore +would seem to suggest themselves, one running from Alexandretta to +Aleppo, and thence following pretty closely the course of the Euphrates +till it reaches Hit, and from there striking directly to Bagdad. Aleppo +is already connected with Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of +Tripoli), and also with Beirut by branch lines making a junction at +Homs, and thus all those ports will be brought together on one system. +But if the reader will glance at the map, he will see that by far the +most direct communication with Bagdad would be to run the railway direct +from there to Homs, thus making Homs rather than Aleppo the central +junction of the system. From Homs lines would run northward to Aleppo, +due west to Tripoli, and south-west to Beirut. Either of those routes, +in any case, would be infinitely preferable to the long loop which the +present Bagdad Railway traverses, as planned on German lines and for +German requirements. The new railway will thus lie exclusively in +territory under French and English protectorate, and will probably be +their joint enterprise and property. + +Prospectively then, as regards the fulfilment of the solemn pledge of +the Allies to liberate subject peoples from the murderous tyranny of the +Turks, we have discussed the future of Armenia, of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia. All those are well defined districts, and the +demarcation of their respective protectorates should not present great +difficulties. But there remains, before we pass on to the problem of +Constantinople, a further district less easily defined, largely +inhabited by European peoples whose liberty in the future we are pledged +to secure. This is the Mediterranean coastline to the south and west of +Asia Minor, the towns of which have been so extensively peopled and made +prosperous by Greeks and Italians. Similarly among those of our European +Allies who are desirous and capable of Eastern expansion, there remains +one, Italy, whose rights to partake in this Turkish partition we have +not yet considered. In the shifting kaleidoscope of national +war-politics, it seems at the moment of writing by no means impossible +that Greece, having at length got rid of a treacherous and unstable +Reuben of a monarch, may redeem her pledge to Serbia, in which case, no +doubt, she too would state the terms of her desired and legitimate +expansion. But these would more reasonably be concerned with the +redistribution of the Balkan Peninsula, which does not come within the +scope of this book, and we may prophesy without fear of invoking the +Nemesis that so closely dogs the heels of seers, that Italy will +legitimately claim (or perhaps has already claimed) the protectorate of +this valuable littoral. Certain it is that, when peace returns, the +large population of Greeks and Italians once resident (and soon again to +be) on these coasts, must be given the liberty and security which they +will never enjoy so long as they remain in Turkish hands, and the hands +that have earned the right to be protecting Power are assuredly Italian. +Along the south coast a line including the Taurus range would seem to +suggest a natural frontier inland from Adana on the east to the +south-west corner of Asia Minor, and from there a similar strip would +pass up the coast as far as, and inclusive of, Smyrna. That at least +Italy has every right to expect, and there seems no great fear that +among the International Councils there will arise a dissentient voice. +The inland boundary on the west coast is the difficult section of this +delimitation, and into the details of that it would be both rash and +inexpedient to enter. + + +II + +We pass, then, to the second avowed object of the Allies, namely, the +expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman rule, which has proved itself so +radically alien to Western civilisation. This must be taken to include +not only the expulsion of the Turkish control from Thrace and +Constantinople, but from the eastern side as well of the Bosporus, the +Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. At no future time must Turkey be in +a position to command even partially a single yard of that momentous +channel through which alone our Allies, Russia and Rumania, have access +to the Mediterranean. Though this was not formally stated in the Allies' +reply to President Wilson, it is clearly part and parcel of the object +in view, for while the Ottoman Empire retains the smallest control on +either side of either of the Straits, she is so far able to interfere in +European concerns, in which she must never more have a hand. The east +shore, then, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora, as well as the west, +must be under the control of a Power, or a group of Powers, not alien to +Western civilisation. Germany and her allies therefore, no less than +Turkey, must be excluded from the guardianship of the Straits. + +As we have had previous occasion to note, this ejection of the Turkish +power from Constantinople is the absolute reversal of European and, in +especial, of English policy for the last hundred years. No crime that +the Ottoman Government could commit, no act of barbarism, would ever +persuade us to do away with the anachronism of Turkey's existence in +Europe; but at last the seismic convulsion of the war has knocked this +policy into a heap of disjected ruins, and it can never be rebuilt again +on the old lines. For among our other avowed objects in prosecuting the +war to its victorious end, we have pledged ourselves to uphold the +right which all peoples, whether small or great, have to the enjoyment +of full security and free economic development. But while Turkey can +close the Straits at her own arbitrary will, or at the bidding of a +superior and malevolent Power, and block the passage of ships from +Russian and Rumanian ports into the Mediterranean, the economic +development of both these countries is seriously menaced. Three times +within the last six years has she exercised that right, and while she +holds the shores of the Straits she can at any moment blockade all +southern Russian ports. That such power should be in the hands of any +nation is highly undesirable; that it should be in the hands of a +corrupt despotism like Turkey, especially now that Germany, as things +stand, can dictate to Turkey when and what she pleases, is a thing +unthinkable by the most improvident of statesmen. Already we have paid +dearly enough for the pusillanimity of a hundred years: it is impossible +that we should ever allow a similar bill to be again presented. +Whatever be the guardianship of the Straits, whoever the holder of +Constantinople, it will not be Turkey. + +At the beginning of the war, and indeed till after the revolution in +Russia, it was announced and stated as an axiom that on the conclusion +of peace, Russia should be the door-keeper of what after all is her own +lodge-gate. Subsequently, in the unhappy splits and disintegration of +her Government, it was announced that she favoured peace without +annexation--in other words, that she neither claimed nor desired the +guardianship of Constantinople. But I think we should be utterly wrong +if we regarded that as an expression of the will of the Russian people: +it is far more probable that it was the expression of the will of +Germany, directly inspired by German influence with a view to concluding +a separate peace with Russia. As we have seen, it had its due effect in +Turkey, and Talaat Bey gave vent to pious ejaculations of thanksgiving, +that now all cause of quarrel with Russia was removed, and Turkey and +she could be friends. It is possible that when out of the confused +cries there again rises from Russia the clear call of the people's +voice, we shall find her wishing to set in order her own house before +she projects herself on new missions, but, as far as the manifesto of +'peace without territorial annexation' goes, we shall be wise to regard +it for the present with the profoundest suspicion. It sounds far more +like the tones of the Central European wolf than those of Little Red +Riding Hood's proper grandmother. + +But be Russia's decision what it may, the Turk will hold sway no longer +in Thrace or Constantinople, or on the shores of the Straits of the Sea +of Marmora. There is, of course, no question of deporting the whole of +the Turkish population that lives in those regions, nor would it be +desirable, even if it were possible, to realise Gladstone's robust +vision of seeing every Turk, 'bag and baggage,' clear out from the +provinces they have desolated and profaned. But if not under Russia, +then under the joint control of certain of the Allied Powers there will +be a complete reconstruction of the administration of those districts. +The headquarters of the protectorate will doubtless be at +Constantinople, which will be reorganised somewhat on the lines of the +Treaty Port of Shanghai, and will be open to the ships of all nations. +The security of the town must be assured by a military garrison either +of mixed troops of the controlling nations, or possibly by a rotation of +troops drawn from the armies of each in turn. More important even than +this will be the adequate control of the Straits by sea. A naval base +must be formed, which by the gospel of the freedom of the seas (but not +according to St. Goeben and the submarine disciples) will constitute a +patrolling police force of the waters. Whether the system of +fortifications and defences that lately rendered the Dardanelles +impregnable shall be retained or not is a question demanding the most +careful consideration. Some will hold that they should be maintained in +order to insure that none but the guarantors of the freedom of the +Straits shall ever take possession of them: others that they shall be +utterly dismantled and destroyed, so that the closing of the Straits +shall be an impossibility. The matter really turns on the question as to +the extent to which the Allies will have the prudence to cut Germany's +claws when the war is over. It is eminently to be hoped that they will +be cut so short that never again will they be able to show those +chiselled talons beyond her velvet--that sense, in fact, will allow +sentiment no word to say. Unfortunately, there are a great many people +the basis of whose character consists of a washy confidence in the good +intentions of everybody. Most mistakenly they call it Christianity. + +Here, then, has been outlined the effect of the Allies' declared aims. +Such territories as Turkey holds in Europe, such control as she +possesses over the free passage of the Straits must pass from her, and +the alien peoples, who for centuries have fainted and bled underneath +her infamous yoke, must be led out of the land of bondage. As we have +seen throughout preceding chapters, it was the fixed policy of the +Ottoman Government to rid itself of their presence, and already it has +gone far in its murderous mission. Indeed the avowed aims of the +Allies, when accomplished, will do that work for her, for the Allies are +determined to remove those peoples from Turkey. The difference of +execution, however, consists in this, that they will not remove Arabs +and Greeks and Italians and Jews, as Turkey has already done with the +Armenians by the simple process of massacres, but by a process no less +simple, namely, of taking out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire +the districts where such peoples dwell. The Allies will accomplish, in +fact, for the Turks that policy of Ottomanisation which was the aim of +Abdul Hamid, and has been the aim of his more murderous successors. +Turkey shall henceforth be for the Turks: she shall no more be in +'danger' from the defenceless nations, who at present exist within her +borders. The Sultan of Turkey, in some year of grace now not far +distant, will find that his Ottomanisation has been done for him, and, +though his realm is curtailed, he will have his rest broken no more by +the thought of Arab risings, nor will he have to devise measures that +will solve the Arab question. Except for a strip along the west and +south coast, all Asia Minor and Anatolia will be his from the Black Sea +to the Mediterranean, but Syria, Armenia, the coast of Asia Minor, +Palestine, and Mesopotamia shall have passed from him. It is no +dismemberment of an Empire that the Allies contemplate, for they cannot +dismember limbs that never belonged to the real trunk. It was a despotic +military control that the Osmanlis had established, they always regarded +their subject peoples as aliens, whom they did not scruple to destroy if +they exhibited symptoms of progress and civilisation. Henceforth the +Turkish Government shall govern Turks, and Turks alone. That for many +years has been its aim, and, by the disastrous dispensation of fate, it +has been largely able to realise its purpose. Now, though by different +methods, the Allies will see thorough accomplishment of it. There will +be no question, of course, of turning out or of deporting Turks who live +in Syria, in Armenia, in Constantinople, for the ways of the Allies are +not those of Talaat and Enver and Jemal the Great. Where to-day Turks +dwell, there shall they continue to dwell, but they must dwell there in +peace in equal liberties and rights with the once-subject peoples whom +the Allies shall have delivered. If they do not like that they can +migrate, not by forced marches and under the guardianship of murderous +Kurds, but in protection and security, to the lands where they can still +enjoy the beneficent sway of their own governors, and be Ottomanised to +the top of their bent. But Syrians and Armenians and Greeks and Jews +will be Ottomanised no longer. + +The Turk was always a fighter, disciplined and courageous, and he has +never lost that virtue of valour. But he has been a fighter because he +has always lived under a military despotism which demanded his services, +and it is much to be doubted whether his qualities in this regard will +for the future be exercised as they have been in the past. For the +Turkish armies, in so far as they have consisted of Turks, have been +chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of Anatolia, who, +when not summoned to their country's colours, or ordered to maltreat and +massacre, are quiet, rather indolent folk, content to plough their lands +and reap an exiguous but sufficient harvest. And for their lords and +governors, who, until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies, +there will no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as +in the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the necessity +for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit lands which it +governed. But now, instead of having alien and defenceless tribes within +their borders, tribes forbidden to bear arms and chafing at the Turkish +yoke, they will see free peoples under the protectorates of Powers that +are capable of self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment. +Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be established +in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and the New Turkey will be +as powerless for aggression as she will be for defence, should she +provoke attack. But within their borders there may the Osmanlis dwell +secure and undisturbed, so long as they conform to the habits of +civilised people with regard to their neighbours, and it is a question +whether, now that the military despotism which has always misguided the +fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, and no +need of securing security, the nation will not settle down into the +quiet existence of small neutral countries. Perhaps the last chapter of +its savage and blood-stained history is already almost finished, and in +years to come some little light of progress and of civilisation may be +kindled in the abode where the household gods for centuries have been +cruelty and hate. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII_ + + +THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS + +It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' aims as +regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the subject peoples +dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself has to be delivered from +a domination not less barbaric than her own, which, if allowed to +continue, would soon again be a menace to the peace of the world. We +have seen in a previous chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's +nippers, how closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have +to consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, and +what will be the condition of the victim, already bled white, when that +has been done. In the beginning, as we have seen, Germany obtained her +hold by professing a touchingly beautiful and philanthropic desire to +help Turkey to realise her national ideals, and her Pecksniffs, Tekin +Alp and Herr Ernst Marré, were bidden to write parallel histories, the +one describing the aims of the Nationalist party, the other the +benevolent interest which Germany took in them. Occasionally Herr Ernst +Marré could not but remember that he was a German, and permitted us to +see the claws of the cat, without quite letting it out of the bag, but +then he pulled the strings tight again, and only loud comfortable +purrings could be heard, the Prussian musings over the 'liberation' of +Turkey which she was helping to accomplish. But nowadays, so it seems to +me, the strings have been loosened, and the claws and teeth are clearly +visible. It is not so long since Dr. Schnee, Governor of German East +Africa, sent a very illuminating document to Berlin from which I extract +the following:-- + +'Do you consider it possible to make a regulation prohibiting Islam +altogether? The encouragement of pig-breeding among natives is +recommended by experts as an effective means of stopping the spread of +Islam....' + +That seems clear enough, and I can imagine Talaat Bey, with his sword +of honour in his hand, exclaiming with the Oysters in _Alice in +Wonderland_:-- + +'After such kindness that would be + A dismal thing to do.' + +But I am afraid that Germany is contemplating (as indeed she has always +done) a quantity of dismal things to do, and is now, like the Walrus and +the Carpenter, beginning to let them appear. She has taken the Turkish +oysters out for a nice long walk, and when the war is over she proposes +to sit down and eat them. And did she not also interfere in the affair +of Jewish massacres and declare that 'Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of +meaning in Palestine'? That must have been almost an unfriendly act from +Turkey's point of view, for it cannot be stated too clearly that part of +the price which Germany paid for Turkey's entry on her side into the +war, was the liberty, as far as Germany was concerned, of managing her +internal affairs, massacres and the rest, as best suited the damnable +doctrines of Ottomanisation. The other Powers could not interfere, for +they failed to force the Dardanelles, and Germany promised not to. That +promise, of course, was binding on Germany for just so long as it suited +her to keep it, and it suited her to keep it, on the whole, during the +Armenian massacres. And in that matter her refusal to interfere is, +among all her crimes, the very flower and felicity of her vileness. + +Signs are not wanting that Turkey is beginning to realise the position +in which she has placed herself, namely, that of a bankrupt dependant at +the mercy of a nation to whom that quality is a mere derision. Lately a +quantity of small incidents have occurred, such as disputes over the +ownership of properties financed by Germany and the really melodramatic +depreciation in the German coinage, which unmistakably show the swift +ebb of Turkey's misplaced confidence. More significant perhaps than any +is a transaction that took place in May 1917, when Talaat Bey and Enver +Pasha took the whole of their private fortunes out of the Deutsche Bank +in Constantinople, and invested them in two Swiss banks, namely, the +Banque Nationale de Suisse, and the Banque Fédérale: they drew out also +the whole funds of the Committee of Union and Progress, and similarly +transferred them. This operation was not effected without loss, for in +return for the Turkish £1 they received only thirteen francs. But it is +significant that they preferred to lose over fifty per cent. of their +capital, and have the moiety secure in Switzerland to leaving it in +Constantinople.[1] It is certain therefore that at both ends of the +scale a distrust of German management has begun. A starving population +has wrecked trains loaded with food-stuffs going to Germany, and at the +other end the men with the swords of honour and dishonour deem it wise +to put their money out of reach of the great Prussian cat. That the +Germans themselves are not quite at their ease concerning the security +of their hold may also be conjectured, for they are, as far as possible, +removing Turkish troops from Constantinople, and replacing them with +their own regiments. An instance of this occurred in June 1917, when, +owing to the discontent in the capital, it was found necessary to guard +bridges, residences of Ministers, and Government offices. But instead of +recalling Turkish troops from Galicia to do this, they kept them there +in the manner of hostages, mixed up in German regiments, and sent picked +bodies of German troops to Constantinople. Fresh corps of secret police +have also been formed to suppress popular manifestations. They are +allowed to 'remove' suspects by any means they choose, quite in the old +style of bag and Bosporus, but the organisation of them is German. And +well may the German Government distrust those signs of popular +discontent in a starving population: already the people have awoke to +the fact that the German paper money does not represent its face-value, +and, despite assurances to the contrary, it is at a discount scarcely +credible. Three German £1 notes are held even in Constantinople to be +the equivalent of a gold £1, while in the provinces upwards of five are +asked for, and given, in exchange for one gold pound. It is in vain that +German manifestoes are put forth declaring that all Government offices +will take the notes as an equivalent for gold, for what the people want +is not a traffic with Government offices, but the cash to buy food. Even +more serious is the fact that Austrian and Hungarian directors of banks +will no longer accept these scraps of paper. In vain, too, is it that +the hungry folk see the walls of the 'House of Friendship' rise higher +and higher in Constantinople, for every day they see with starving eyes +the trains loaded with sugar from Konia, and the harvests raised in +Anatolia with German artificial manures guarded by German troops and +rolling westwards to Berlin. According to present estimates the harvest +this year is so vastly more abundant than that of previous years, that +no comparison, as the Minister of Agriculture tells his gratified +Government, is possible. But the poorer classes get no more than the +leavings of it when the armies, which include the German army, have had +their wants supplied. The governing classes, whom it is necessary to +feed, are not yet suffering, for the Germans grant them enough, issuing +rations to such families as are proved adherents of the German-Turkish +combination, and until the pinch of want attacks them we should be +foolishly optimistic if we thought that a starving peasantry would cause +the collapse or the defection of Germany's newest and most valuable +colony. There is enough discontent to make Germany uneasy, but that is +all.[2] Long ago she proved the efficiency of her control, and the +successful pulling of her puppet-strings, and no instance of that is +more complete than the brief story of Yakub Jemil and the extinction of +him and his party, which, though it happened a full year ago, has only +lately been completely transmitted. Yakub Jemil was an influential +commander of a frontier guard near the Black Sea coast. In July 1916 he +went to Constantinople, accompanied by his staff (which included the +informant from whom this account is derived), and, being cordially +received by Enver and Talaat, discussed the situation with them. He +pointed out the demoralising effect of the Armenian massacres, and the +danger of Jemal the Great's attitude towards the Arabs in Syria, +realising, and seeking to make them realise, the stupendous folly of +making enemies of the subject peoples, and urging the re-establishment +of cordial relations between the Turks and them. That, considering that +Enver and Talaat were responsible (under the Germans) for the Armenian +massacres, was a brave outspeaking. He went on to say that Turkey was at +war not on behalf of herself, but on behalf of Germany, and that it +would be wise of the Government to consider the possibility of a +separate peace with the Powers of the Entente. He was heard with +interest, and took his leave. He remained in Constantinople, and his +views obtained him many adherents, not only among Turkish officers whose +sympathies were already alienated from Germany, but among members of the +Committee of Union and Progress. But before long his adherents began to +disappear, and he asked for another interview with Talaat. He was +received, as the informant states, 'with open arms,' for Talaat seized +and held him, called for the guard, and he was searched, and on him were +found certain documents which proved him to hold the views he had +already expressed. That now, was enough. He was 'interrogated' for two +days (interrogation is otherwise called torture), and was then hanged. +Subsequently 111 officers and men in the army also disappeared. Some +were marched into the Khiat Khana Valley, opposite Pera, and were +stabbed: others were sent under escort to the provinces and murdered. No +courts-martial of any kind were held. + +[Footnote 1: Similarly, in October of this year, a new Turkish law was +passed, prohibiting the acquisition of Turkish land by foreign settlers. +This is aimed point-blank at Germany, and has naturally annoyed Berlin +very much.] + +[Footnote 2: The army rations have lately been reduced, each Turkish +soldier receiving daily an oke of bread and a dried mackerel.] + +And should anybody doubt the efficiency of German control in Turkey, and +be disposed to be optimistic about the imminence of Turkey's detachment, +he might do well to ponder that story. + +Meantime the efficacy of our naval blockade is largely discounted by +Germany's new source of supply. Possibly in the ensuing winter of +1917-18 conditions may get unbearable, but if the Turkish Government +only two years ago massacred more than a million of its subjects, it +would be absurd to expect that the starving of a million more would +produce much effect on the Ministers of the Turkish God of Love.[1] The +people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how famine is +decimating England and France, and how the total starvation of those +unfortunate countries is imminent. Indeed, of all the signs of want of +confidence in their German overlords, by far the most promising are the +facts that Talaat and Enver have sent their money out of the country, +and that Jemal the Great has a swelled head. On these facts there is a +certain justifiable optimism to be based. It will do no good to consider +them academically in London; but are there not practical channels to +reach the instincts of the Turkish triumvirate that might be navigated? + +[Footnote 1: The following list of prices in Constantinople is of +interest:-- + + July 1914. July 1917. +Rice, per lb. 2-1/4 d. 3s. 4d. +Milk, per quart 5d. 2s. +Flour, per lb. 3d. 2s. 6d. +Petroleum, per lb. 1d. 4s. 6d. +Pair of boots £1 £8. ] + +We need not trouble ourselves with considering what the Allies will +have to do with the Turkish army when once the end of the war comes, for +the collapse of the military party in Turkey, which owes its whole +vitality to Germany, will be perfect and complete. But the economical +future of Turkey is not so plain: at the present moment its bankruptcy +is total. Early in the war Germany drained it of such bullion as it had, +and has since then advanced it about £150,000,000, which, as far as I +can trace, is entirely in German paper, and must be redeemed in gold at +some period (chiefly two years) after the end of the war. That is +wonderful finance, and one marvels that Turkey could have been so far +blinded as to accept it. But I expect that the swallowing of the first +loan was sweetened by a spoonful of jam of this kind. Germany pointed +out that, though England was quite certainly going to lose the war, she +had issued an immense paper coinage which had all the purchasing power +of gold. Germany, on the other hand, with her dear Ally to help her, was +just as certainly going to win the war. How, then, could there be the +slightest risk of the German paper money depreciating a single piastre +in value? That sounded very good sense to Turkey, who was equally +convinced that she would be on the victorious side (else she would not +have joined it), and down went the loan with a pleasant sensation of +sweetness. A second loan was easily induced by the failure of the +Dardanelles expedition, and about then the 'ignorant' Turkish peasant +began to wonder whether the paper was quite as valuable as gold, and to +prefer gold or even the ordinary silver piastre to its German +equivalent. To counteract that, as we have seen, a law was passed making +it criminal to hoard gold, and, to complete the ruin, the silver piastre +was called in, and a nickel token was substituted.... We can but bow our +heads in reverence of the thoroughness of German swindling. + +Now Turkey is completely bankrupt, and we must ask ourselves why Germany +ever bargained for the repayment in gold, after the war, of the millions +she had lent the Turks in paper, if she knew that Turkey could never +repay her. True, the loans had only cost her the paper the notes were +printed on, so that in no case could she prove a loser, but how could +she be a gainer? The answer to that question shouts at us from every +acre of Turkish soil. The immense undeveloped riches of Turkey supply +the answer. Some indeed are already being developed, and the labour and +most of the materials have been paid for by the German paper notes. +There are the irrigation works at Adana, there is the beet-sugar +industry at Konia, the irrigation works in the Makischelin Valley, the +mineral concessions of the Bagdad Railway, the Haidar Pasha Harbour +concessions, the afforestation scheme near Constantinople, the cotton +industry in Anatolia--there is no end to them. Turkey may not be able to +pay in cash, but over all these concessions already working, and over a +hundred more, of which the concessions have been granted, Germany has a +complete hold, and her victim will pay in minerals and cotton and sugar +and corn. She will pay over and over and over again, as none who have +the smallest knowledge of Kultur-finance can possibly doubt. She is +bled white already, and for the rest of time bloodless and white will +she remain. Only one event can possibly avert her fate, and that is the +victory of the Allies. + +We have been so bold as to assume that this is not an impossible +contingency, and on that assumption there is a brighter future for +Turkey than the Prussian domination could ever bring her. Bankrupt she +is, but, as Germany saw, she is rich in possibilities even with regard +to the restricted territory to which she will surely find herself +limited, and it is a pleasant chance for her that Germany has already +been so busy in developing the resources of Anatolia. For Germany may +safely bet her last piece of paper money that she will not lay a finger +on them. + +The Turkey of the future is to be for the Turks; not for the persecuted +Armenians, nor for the Arabs, nor for the Greeks, and assuredly it is +not to be for the Prussians. While the war lasts, Germany may draw +supplies from the fields her artificial manures have enriched, and from +the acres that her paper money has planted, but after that no more. Her +Ottomanising work will be over. Such development (and it is far from +negligible) as she has done in Syria will be continued under French +protection for the Arabs, such as she has done in Mesopotamia under +English protection, and such as she has done in Anatolia will be +continued by the Turks to drag them out of the utter insolvency that she +has brought them to. Never before has a country so justly and so richly +deserved the repudiation of a debt incurred by the confidence trick. Not +a civilised Government in the world would dream of enforcing payment, +any more than a magistrate would enforce a payment to some +thimble-rigger returning from a race-meeting. + + +The roar of battle still renders inaudible all voices save its own, but +already the dusk begins to gather over the halls where sit the War-lord +and those who, for the realisation of their monstrous dreams, loosed +hell upon the world, and in the growing dusk there begin to steal upon +the wall the letters of pale flame that to them portend the doom, and to +us give promise of dawn. Faintly they can see the legend _Mene, Mene, +Tekel, Upharsin...._ + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. 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In The First.</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + * { font-family: Times;} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; right: 100%; font-size: 8pt; justify: right;} /* page numbers */ + // --> + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crescent and Iron Cross + +Author: E. F. Benson + +Release Date: February 17, 2004 [EBook #10881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, L Barber and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + <center> + <h1><b>CRESCENT AND</b></h1> + </center> + + <center> + <h1><b>IRON CROSS BY</b></h1> + </center> + + <center> + + </center> + + <center> + <h2><b>E.F. BENSON</b></h2> + </center> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Preface"></a> + + <center> + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface</i></h2> + </center>In compiling the following pages I have had access to + certain sources of official information, the nature of which I + am not at liberty to specify further. I have used these freely + in such chapters of this book as deal with recent and + contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in connection with + Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland + über Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I + have tried to be discriminating in their use, and have not, as + far as I am aware, stated anything derived from them as a fact, + for which I had not found corroborative evidence. With regard + to the Armenian massacres I have drawn largely on the testimony + collected by Lord Bryce, on that brought forward by Mr. Arnold + J. Toynbee in his pamphlet <i>The Murder of a Nation</i>, and + <i>The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks,</i> and on the pamphlet + by Dr. Martin Niepage, called <i>The Horrors of Aleppo</i>. In + the first chapter I have based the short historical survey on + the contribution of Mr. D.G. Hogarth to <i>The Balkans</i> + (Clarendon Press, 1915). The chapter called 'Thy Kingdom is + Divided' is in no respect at all an official utterance, and + merely represents the individual opinions and surmises of the + author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies + have pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from + Constantinople, and to remove out of the power of the Turk the + alien peoples who have too long already been subject to his + murderous rule. I have, in fact, but attempted to conjecture in + what kind of manner that promise will be fulfilled. + + <p>Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey + are continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one + would have to wait to the end of the war before beginning to + write at all on this subject. But since such usefulness as this + book may possibly have is involved with the necessity of its + appearance before the end of the war, I set a term to the + gathering of material, and, with the exception of two or three + notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. But + up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys + and arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on + my part.</p> + + <p>E.F. BENSON</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Contents"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents</i></h2> + <!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --><b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Preface"> + Preface</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_I">Chapter I - + The Theory of the Old Turks</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_II">Chapter II + - The Theory of the New Turks</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_III">Chapter + III - The End of the Armenian Question</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_IV">Chapter IV- + The Question of Syria and Palestine</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_V">Chapter V - + Deutschland Uber Allah</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VI">Chapter VI + - 'Thy Kingdom is Divided'</a></i></b> <br> + <b><i><a href="#Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VII">Chapter + VII - The Grip of the Octopus</a></i></b> + + <p><b><i>Images:</i></b><br> + <br> + <a href="Map1.JPG">Map 1 - The Turkish Empire (Top)</a><br> + <a href="Map2.JPG">Map 2 - The Turkish Empire (Bottom)</a><br> + <a href="Map3.JPG">Map 3 - The Balkan States 1878 & + 1914</a> <!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + <br> + </p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_I"></a> + + <center> + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I</i></h2> + </center> + + <center> + THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + </center> + + <p>The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his + phrase is applicable for the moment and for the situation in + view of which he coined it, but his coin has only a temporary + validity: it is good for a month or for a year, or for whatever + period during which the crisis lasts, and after that it lapses + again into a mere token, a thing without value and without + meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a monetary + coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over + the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on + being passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription + defaced by wear, long after it has ceased to represent + anything. In itself it is obsolete, but people still trade with + it, and think it represents what it represented when it came + hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it sometimes happens + that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery (which it + may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives + those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded + possession.</p> + + <p>Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined + by Lord Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a + sick man,' he said, and added something which gave great + offence then about the advisability of putting Turkey out of + his misery. I do not pretend to quote correctly, but that was + the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the truth of Lord Aberdeen's + phrase at the period when he made it. It possibly contained a + temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if it had been + acted on, might have saved a great deal of trouble afterwards, + but it missed then, and more than misses now, the essential and + salient truth about Turkey. The phrase, unfortunately, still + continued to obtain credit, and nowadays it is a forgery; it + rings false.</p> + + <p>For at whatever period we regard Turkey, and try to define + that monstrous phenomenon, we can make a far truer phrase than + Lord Aberdeen's. For Turkey is not a sick man: Turkey is a + sickness. He is not sick, nor ever has been, for he is the + cancer itself, the devouring tumour that for centuries has fed + on living tissue, absorbing it and killing it. It has never had + life in itself, except in so far that the power of preying on + and destroying life constitutes life, and such a power, after + all, we are accustomed to call not life, but death. Turkey, + like death, continues to exist and to dominate, through its + function of killing. Life cannot kill, it is disease and death + that kill, and from the moment that Turkey passed from being a + nomadic tribe moving westwards from the confines of Persia, it + has existed only and thrived on a process of absorption and of + murder. When first the Turks came out of their Eastern + fastnesses they absorbed; when they grew more or less settled, + and by degrees the power of mere absorption, as by some failure + of digestion, left them, they killed. They became a huge + tumour, that nourished itself by killing the living tissues + that came in contact with it. Now, by the amazing irony of + fate, who weaves stranger dramas than could ever be set on + censored stages, for they both take hundreds of years to + unravel themselves, and are of the most unedifying character, + Turkey, the rodent cancer, has been infected by another with + greater organisation for devouring; the disease of Ottomanism + is threatened by a more deadly hungerer, and Prussianism has + inserted its crab-pincers into the cancer that came out of + Asia. Those claws are already deeply set, and the problem for + civilised nations is first to disentangle the nippers that are + cancer in a cancer, and next to deprive of all power over alien + peoples the domination that has already been allowed to exist + too long.</p> + + <p>The object of this book is the statement of the case on + which all defenders of liberty base their prosecution against + Turkey itself, and against the Power that to-day has Turkey in + its grip.</p> + + <p>Historical surveys are apt to be tedious, but in order to + understand at all adequately the case against Turkey as a ruler + and controller of subject peoples, it is necessary to go, + though briefly, into her blood-stained genealogy. There is no + need to enter into ethnological discussions as to earlier + history, or define the difference between the Osmanli Turks and + those who were spread over Asia Minor before the advent of the + Osmanlis from the East. But it was the Osmanlis who were the + cancerous and devouring nation, and it is they who to-day rule + over a vast territory (subject to Germany) of peoples alien to + them by religion and blood and all the instincts common to + civilised folk. Until Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' suddenly + hoisted her colours as a champion of murder and rapine and + barbarism, she the mother of art and literature and science, + there was nothing in Europe that could compare with the + anachronism of Turkey being there at all. Then, in August 1914, + there was hoisted the German flag, superimposed with skulls and + cross-bones, and all the insignia of piracy and highway robbery + on land and on sea, and Germany showed herself an anachronism + worthy to impale her arms on the shield of the most execrable + domination that has ever oppressed the world since the time + when the Huns under Attila raged like a forest fire across the + cultivated fields of European civilisation. To-day, in the name + of Kultur, a similar invasion has broken on shores that seemed + secure, and it is no wonder that it has found its most valuable + victim and ally in the Power that adopted the same methods of + absorption and extermination centuries before the Hohenzollerns + ever started on their career of highway robbery. But like seeks + like, and perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our + astonishing diplomacy in Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like + some desirable maiden, cast in her lot with the Power that by + instinct and tradition most resembled her. Spiritual blood, no + less than physical blood, is thicker than water, and Gott and + Allah, hand-in-hand, pledged each other in the cups they had + filled with the blood that poured from the wine-presses of + Belgium and of Armenia.</p> + + <p>For centuries before the Osmanli Turks made their appearance + in Asia Minor, there had come from out of the misty East + numerous bodies of Turks, pushing westwards, and spreading over + the Euphrates valley and over Persia, in nomadic or military + colonisations, and it is not until the thirteenth century that + we find the Osmanli Turks, who give their name to that + congregation of races known as the Ottoman Empire, established + in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Like all previous + Turkish immigrations, they came not in any overwhelming horde, + with sword in one hand and Koran in the other, but as a small + compact body with a genius for military organisation, and the + gift, which they retain to this day, of stalwart fighting. The + policy to which they owed their growth was absorption, and the + people whom they first began to absorb were Greeks and other + Christians, and it was to a Christian girl, Nilufer, that Osman + married his son Orkhan. They took Christian youths from the + families of Greek dwellers, forced them to apostatise, gave + them military training, and married them to Turkish girls. It + was out of this blend of Greek and Turkish blood, as Mr. D.G. + Hogarth points out, that they derived their national being and + their national strength. This system of recruiting they + steadily pursued not only among the Christian peoples with whom + they came in contact, but among the settlements of Turks who + had preceded them in this process of pushing westwards, and + formed out of them the professional soldiery known as + Janissaries. They did not fight for themselves alone, but as + mercenaries lent their arms to other peoples, Moslem and + Christian alike, who would hire their services. This was a + policy that paid well, for, after having delivered some + settlement from the depredations of an inconvenient neighbour, + and with their pay in their pocket, they sometimes turned on + those who had hired their arms, took their toll of youths, and + finally incorporated them in their growing empire. Like an + insatiable sponge, they mopped up the sprinklings of + disconnected peoples over the fruitful floor of Asia Minor, and + swelled and prospered. But as yet the extermination of these + was not part of their programme: they absorbed the strength and + manhood of their annexations into their own soldiery, and came + back for more. They did not levy those taxes paid in the + persons of soldiers for their armies from their + co-religionists, since Islam may not fight against Islam, but + by means of peaceful penetration (a policy long since + abandoned) they united scattered settlements of Turks to + themselves by marriages and the bond of a common tongue and + religion.</p> + + <p>Their expansion into Europe began in the middle of the + fourteenth century, when, as mercenaries, they fought against + the Serbs, and fifty years later they had a firm hold over + Bulgaria as well. Greece was their next prey; they penetrated + Bosnia and Macedonia, and in 1453 attacked and took + Constantinople under Mohammed the Conqueror. Still true to the + policy of incorporation they continued to mop up the remainder + of the Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time consolidated + themselves further in Asia Minor. By the beginning of the + seventeenth century their expansion reached its utmost + geographical limits, but already the Empire held within it the + seeds of its own decay, and by a curious irony the force that + should still keep it together was derived not from its own + strength, but from the jealousies of the European Powers among + themselves, who would willingly have dismembered it, but feared + the quarrels that would surely result from the apportionment of + its territories. The Ottoman Empire from then onwards has owed + its existence to its enemies.</p> + + <p>Its weakness lay in itself, for it was very loosely knit + together, and no bond, whether of blood or religion or tongue, + bound to it the assembly of Christian and Jewish and non-Moslem + races of which it was so largely composed. The Empire never + grew (as, for instance, the British Empire grew) by the + emigration and settlement of the Osmanli stock in the + territories it absorbed: it never gave, it only took. From the + beginning right up to the last quarter of the nineteenth + century, it has been a military despotism, imposing itself on + unwilling and alien tribes whom it drained of their blood, and + then left in neglect until some further levy was needed. None + of its conquered peoples was ever given a share in the + government; they were left unorganised and, so to speak, + undigested elements under the Power which had forced them into + subjection, and one by one the whole of the European peoples + included in that uncemented tyranny have passed from under + Turkish control. Turkey in Europe has dwindled to a strip along + the Bosporus to the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles, Egypt + has been lost, Tripoli also, and the only force that, for the + last hundred years has kept alive in Europe the existence of + that monstrous anachronism has been the strange political + phenomenon, now happily extinct, called the Balance of Power. + No one of the Great Powers, from fear of the complications that + would ensue, could risk the expulsion of the Turkish Government + from Constantinople, and there all through the nineteenth + century it has been maintained lest the Key of the Black Sea, + which unlocked the bolts that barred Russia's development into + the Mediterranean, should lead to such a war as we are now + passing through. That policy, for the present, has utterly + defeated its own ends, for the key is in the pockets of + Prussia. But all through that century, though the Powers + maintained Turkey there, they helped to liberate, or saw + liberate themselves, the various Christian kingdoms in Europe + over which at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey + exercised a military despotism. They weakened her in so far as + they could, but they one and all refused to let her die, and + above all refused to give her that stab in the heart which + would have been implied in her expulsion from + Constantinople.</p> + + <p>For centuries from the first appearance of the Osmanlis in + north-west Asia Minor down to the reign of Abdul Hamid, the + Empire maintained itself, with alternate bouts of vigour and + relapses, on the general principle of drawing its strength from + its subject peoples. Internally, from whatever standpoint we + view it, whether educational, economic, or industrial, it has + had the worst record of any domination known to history. Rich + in mineral wealth, possessed of lands that were once the + granary of the world, watered by amazing rivers, and with its + strategic position on the Mediterranean that holds the + master-key of the Black Sea in its hands, it has remained the + most barbaric and least progressive of all states. Its roads + and means of communication remained up till the last quarter of + the nineteenth century much as they had been in the days of + Osman; except along an insignificant strip of sea-coast + railways were non-existent; it was bankrupt in finance and in + morals, and did not contain a single seed that might ripen into + progress or civilisation. Mesopotamia was once the most fertile + of all lands, capable of supporting not itself alone, but half + the civilised world: nowadays, under the stewardship of the + Turk, it has been suffered to become a desert for the greater + part of the year and an impracticable swamp for the remainder. + Where great cities flourished, where once was reared the pride + of Babylon and of Nineveh, there huddle the squalid huts of + fever-stricken peasants, scarce able to gain their half-starved + living from the soil that once supported in luxury and pomp the + grandeur of metropolitan cities. The ancient barrages, the + canals, the systems of irrigation were all allowed to silt up + and become useless; and at the end of the nineteenth century + you would not find in all Mesopotamia an agricultural implement + that was in any way superior to the ploughs and the flails of + more than two thousand years ago. But so long as there was a + palace-guard about the gates to secure the safety of the Sultan + and his corrupt military oligarchy, so long as there were + houris to divert their leisure, tribute of youths to swell + their armies, and taxes wrung from starving subjects to + maintain their pomp, there was not one of those who held the + reins of government who cared the flick of an eyelash for the + needs of the nations on whom the Empire rested, for the + cultivation of its soil that would yield a hundredfold to the + skilled husbandman, or for the exploitation and development of + its internal wealth. While there was left in the emaciated + carcase of the Turkish Empire enough live tissue for the + cancerous Government to grow fat on, it gave not one thought to + the welfare of all those races on whom it had fastened itself. + Province after province of its European dominions might be lost + to it, but the Balance of Power still kept the Sultan on his + throne, and left the peoples of Asia Minor and Syria at his + mercy. They were largely of alien religion and of alien tongue, + and their individual weakness was his strength. Neglect, and + the decay consequent on neglect, was the lot of all who + languished under that abominable despotism.</p> + + <p>With the accession in 1876 of Abdul Hamid, of cursed memory, + there dawned on the doomed subject peoples of the Ottoman + Empire a day of bloodier import than any yet. The year before + and during that year had occurred the Bulgarian atrocities and + massacres, and the word 'massacre' lingered and made music in + Abdul Hamid's brain. He said it over to himself and dwelt upon + it, and meditated on the nature and possibilities of massacre. + The troubles which massacre had calmed had arisen before his + accession out of the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, + which corresponded to the Greek Patriarchate, and was given + power over districts and peoples whom the Greeks justly + considered to belong to them by blood and religion. Greek armed + bands came into collision with Bulgarian bands, and in order to + calm these disturbances by thoroughly effectual means, + irregular Turkish troops were sent into Bulgaria, charged with + the command to 'stop the row,' but with no other instructions. + Indiscriminate killing, with all the passions and horrors that + bloodshed evokes in the half-civilised, followed, and there was + no more trouble just then in the disturbed districts, for there + was none to make trouble. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was deposed by a + group of king-makers under Midhat Pasha, Murad V. reigned + shadow-like for three months, and during the same year Abdul + Hamid was finally selected to fill the throne, and stand forth + as the Shadow of God. It was a disturbed and tottering + inheritance to which he succeeded, riddled with the dry-rot of + corruption, but the inheritor proved himself equal to the + occasion.</p> + + <p>For a little while he was all abroad, and at the bidding of + Midhat, who had placed him on the throne, he summoned a kind of + representative Turkish Parliament, by way of imbuing the Great + Powers with the idea that he was an enlightened Shadow of God + bent on reform. This parody of a Parliament lasted but a short + time: it was no more than a faint, dissolving magic-lantern + picture. In the spring of 1877 Rumania, under Russian + encouragement, broke away from Turkish rule. Turkey declared + war on Russia, and in 1878 found herself utterly defeated. At + Adrianople was drawn up the Treaty of San Stefano, creating an + independent Bulgarian state, and, in the opinion of Great + Britain and Germany, giving Russia far greater influence in the + Balkan Peninsula than was agreeable to that disastrous + supporter of Turkey, the Balance of Power. In consequence the + Treaty of San Stefano was superseded by the Treaty of + Berlin.</p> + + <p>In those arrangements Abdul Hamid had no voice, but he was + well content to sit quiet, think about what was to be done with + what was left him, and thank his waning crescent that once + again the Balance of Power had secured Constantinople for him, + leaving him free to deal with his Asiatic dominions, and such + part of Europe as was left him, as he thought fit. He could + safely trust that he would never be ejected from his throne by + a foreign Power, and all he need do was to make himself safe + against internal disturbances and revolutions which might upset + him. And it was then that he begot in the womb of his cold and + cunning brain a policy that was all his own, except in so far + as the Bulgarian atrocities, consequent on feuds between + Bulgars and Greeks, may be considered the father of that + hideous birth. But it was he who suckled and nourished it, it + was from his brain that it emerged, full-grown and in panoply + of armour, as from the brain of Olympian Zeus came Pallas + Athene. This new policy was in flat contradiction of all the + previous policy, as he had received it from his predecessors, + of strengthening Turkey by tributes of man-power from his + subject tribes, but it would, he thought, have the same result + of keeping the Turk supreme among the alien elements of the + Empire. Times had changed; it behoved him to change the methods + which hitherto had held together his hapless inheritance.</p> + + <p>Now Abdul Hamid was not in any sense a wise man, and the + ability which has been attributed to him, in view of the manner + in which he successfully defied the civilisations of Europe, is + based on premisses altogether false. He never really defied + Europe at all; he always yielded, secure in his belief that + Europe in the shape of the Balance of Power, was unanimous in + keeping him where he was. He never even risked being turned out + of Constantinople, for he knew--none better--that all Europe + insisted on retaining him there. As regards wisdom, there was + never a greater fool, but as regards cunning there was never a + greater fox. He had a brain that was absolutely impervious to + large ideas: the notion of consolidating and strengthening his + Empire by ameliorating its internal conditions, by bringing it + within speaking distance of the influence of civilisation and + progress, by taking advantage of and developing its immense + natural resources, by employing the brains and the industry of + his subject races, seems never to have entered his head. He + could easily have done all this: there was not a Power in + Europe that would not have lent him a helping hand in + development and reform, in the establishment of a solvent + state, in aiding the condition of the peoples over whom he + ruled. In whatever he did, provided that it furthered the + welfare of his subjects, whether Turk, Armenian, or Arab, the + whole Concert of Europe would have provided him with cash, with + missionaries, with engineers, and all the resources of the arts + and sciences of peace and of progress. But being a felon, with + crime and cunning to take the place of wisdom, he preferred to + develop his Empire on his own original lines. In Europe he was + but suffered to exist. There remained Asia.</p> + + <p>The policy of previous Osmanli rulers has already been + roughly defined. They strengthened themselves and the military + Turkish despotism round them by absorbing the manhood of the + tribes over which they had obtained dominion. Abdul Hamid + reversed that policy; he strengthened the Turkish supremacy, + not by drawing into it the manhood of his subject peoples, but + by destroying that manhood. In proportion, so his foxlike brain + reasoned, as his alien subjects were weak, so were the Turks + strong. A consistent weakening of alien nations would + strengthen the hold of those who governed the Ottoman Empire. + It was as if a man suffered from gout in his foot: he could get + rid of the gout by wholesome living, the result of which would + be that his foot ceased to trouble him. But the plan which he + adopted was to cause his foot to mortify by process of inhuman + savagery. When it was dead it would trouble him no longer.</p> + + <p>He was well aware that the Turkish people only comprised + some forty per cent, of the population of the Turkish Empire: + numerically they were weaker than the alien peoples who + composed the rest of it. Something had to be done to bring the + governing Power up to such a proportionate strength as should + secure its supremacy, and the most convenient plan was to + weaken the alien elements. The scheme, though yet inchoate, had + been tried with success in the case of the Bulgarians and + Greeks, and to test it further he stirred up Albanians against + the inhabitants of Old Servia with gratifying results. They + weakened each other, and he further weakened them both by the + employment of Turkish troops in Macedonia to quell the + disturbances which he had himself fomented. There were + massacres and atrocities, and no more trouble just then from + Macedonia. Having thus tested his plan and found no flaw in it, + he settled to adopt it. But European combinations did not + really much interest him, for he was aware that the Great + Powers, to whose sacred Balance he owed the permanence of his + throne, would not tolerate interference with European peoples, + and he turned his attention to Asia Minor. There were + excrescences there which he could not absorb, but which might + be destroyed. He could use the knife on living tissues which + the impaired digestion of the Ottoman Empire could not + assimilate. So he hit on this fresh scheme, which his hellish + cunning devised with a matchless sense of the adaptation of the + means to the end, and he created (though he did not live to + perfect) a new policy that reversed the traditions of five + hundred years. That is no light task to undertake, and when we + consider that since his deposition, now nine years ago, that + policy has reaped results undreamed of perhaps by him, we can + see how far-sighted his cunning was. To-day it is being + followed out by the very combination that deposed him; his aims + have been fully justified, and for that precise reason we are + right to classify him among the abhorred of mankind. He had an + opportunity such as is given to the few, and he made the utmost + of it, even as his greater successor on the throne of Turkey + for the present, namely Wilhelm II. of Prussia, has done, in + the service of the devil. 'Well done, thou good and faithful + servant,' must surely have been his well-deserved welcome, when + he left the hell he had made on earth for another.</p> + + <p>Of all his subjects the Armenians were the most progressive, + the most industrious, the most capable. They therefore + contributed, according to that perverted foxlike mind, one of + the greatest menaces to the stability of his throne, which + henceforth should owe its strength to the weakness of those it + governed. They, as all the world knows, are a peaceful + Christian people, and it was against them that Abdul Hamid + directed the policy which he had tested in Europe. The + instruments he employed to put it in force were the Kurds, a + turbulent shepherd race marching with and mixed up among the + Armenians. By this means he had the excuse ready that these + massacres were local disturbances among remote and + insubordinate tribes, one of whom, however, the Kurds, he armed + with modern rifles and caused to be instructed in some + elementary military training. Their task was to murder + Armenians, their pay was the privilege to rape their girls and + their women, and to rob the houses of the men they had killed. + The Armenians resisted with at first some small success, upon + which Abdul Hamid reinforced the Kurds with regular troops, and + caused it to be proclaimed that this was a war of Moslems + against the infidel, a Holy War. Moslem fanaticism, ever + smouldering and ready to burst into flames, blazed high, and a + fury of massacres broke forth against all Armenians, east and + west, north and south. The streets of Constantinople ran with + their blood, and before Abdul Hamid was obliged by foreign + civilised Powers to stop those holocausts, he had so decimated + the race that not for at least a generation would they + conceivably be a menace again even to that zealous guardian of + the supremacy in its own dominions of the Ottoman power. Very + unwillingly, when obliged to do so, he whistled off his bands + of Kurds, and dismissed them: unwillingly, too, he gave orders + that the Armenian hunts which had so pleasantly diverted the + sportsmen of Constantinople, must be abandoned: then was + decreed a 'close time' for Armenians, the shooting season was + over. There is no exaggeration in this: eye-witnesses have + recorded how at the close of the business day in + Constantinople, shooting parties used literally to go out, and + beat the coverts of tenement houses for Armenians, of whom + there were at that time in Constantinople some 150,000. But + when Abdul Hamid had finished his sport, I do not think more + than 80,000 at the most survived. These were saved by the + protests of Europe, and perhaps by the knowledge that if all + the Armenians were killed, there could never be any more + shooting. The Kurds also had lost a considerable number of men, + and that was far from displeasing to the yellow-faced butcher + of Yildiz. A little blood-letting among those turbulent Kurds + was not at all a bad thing.</p> + + <p>Here, then, we see defined and at work the new Ottoman + policy with regard to its peoples. Hitherto, it had been + sufficient to take from them its fill of man-power, and leave + the tribe in question to its own devices. There was no + objection whatever to its developing the resources of its + territory, to its increasing in prosperity and in population. + Indeed the central Power was quite pleased that it should do + so, for when next the gathering of taxes and youths came round + the collectors would find a creditable harvest awaiting them. + Such a tribe received no encouragement or help from the + Government; that would have been too much to expect, but as + long as it kept quiet and obedient it might, without + interference, prosper as well as it could. But now, in the last + quarter of the nineteenth century, all that was changed; + instead of a policy of neglect there was substituted a policy + of murder. The state no longer considered itself secure when in + various parts of its dominions its subjects showed themselves + progressive and industrious. They had to be kept down, and + clearly the most efficient way of keeping people down was + killing them. Let it not be supposed for a moment that either + the first massacre, or any that followed, was the result of + local disturbances and fanaticism. It was nothing of the sort: + each was arranged and planned at Constantinople, as the + official means, invented by the arch-butcher, Abdul Hamid, of + maintaining in power the most devilish despotism that has ever + disgraced the world. Something had to be done to prevent the + alien tribes in Asia slipping out of the noose of Ottoman + strangulation, even as the European tribes had done, and + forming themselves into separate and independent states. A + ruler with progressive ideas, one who had any perception of the + internal prosperity which alone can render an empire stable, + would have made the attempt to weld his loose and wavering + domination together by encouraging and working for the + prosperity of its component peoples, so that he might, though + late in the day, give birth to a Turkey that was strong, + because its citizens were prosperous and content. Not so did + Abdul Hamid; the Turkey that he sought to establish was merely + to be strong because he had battered into a blood-stained pulp + the most progressive and the most industrious of the alien + peoples over whom he ruled.</p> + + <p>It is significant that, while yet the blood of the murdered + Christians was scarcely washed from the streets of + Constantinople, the Emperor Wilhelm II. visited his + brother-sovereign at Yildiz, after making his tour throughout + the Holy Land. The two can hardly, in their intimate + conversations, have completely avoided the subject of the + massacres; but after all, that was not such an unmanageably + awkward topic, for Wilhelm II. could tactfully have reminded + Abdul Hamid that his own throne also was based on the murderous + progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there was the war + between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss, and + there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of + Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. + Altogether, in spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit + the Holy Places in Palestine, it was an odd moment for a + Christian monarch to visit the butcher of Constantinople. But + the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very strong reason for + going to see his brother, for the fruit of German policy in + Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the + minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while + still his hands were red with blood was more than compensated + for by the advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him + on other subjects. Germany had already begun her peaceful + penetration, and the real motive of the Emperor's visit was, + after swords and orders had been exchanged, to make the + definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be + allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and + a hint no doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room + for them now that there were so many Armenian farms + unfortunately without a master. But, like Uriah Heep, the + Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it was ripe, + or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to + reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense + advantages which would result to Turkey by the establishment of + those Gott-like German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his + colossal egalo-megalomania, of which we know more now, he + thought that any request which the All-Highest should deign to + make must instantly be granted. But he met with a perfectly + flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left Constantinople + in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the good + that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of + Jerusalem had done him. It is pleasant to think of the + Pan-Islamic merriment with which Abdul Hamid must have viewed + the indignant exit of his Christian brother, who had come such + a long way to see him, and was so tactful about the Armenian + atrocities. He might perhaps--for those Christians were very + odd pigs--have expressed horror or remonstrance. Not at all: he + was much too anxious to get his request granted, to make + himself disagreeable. But did his Christian brother really + think that all those massacres over which Abdul Hamid had spent + so much time and money, had been arranged in order to settle + those nasty progressive Germans in the lands that had been so + carefully depopulated? Why, the whole point of them had been + that the Armenians were too progressive and prosperous, thus + constituting a menace to the central Government, and certainly + Abdul Hamid was not meaning to put in their place settlers even + more progressive and with a stronger backing behind them. So + off went the All-Highest back home again, very much vexed with + Abdul Hamid, and possibly (if that was not sacrilegious) with + himself for having been in too great a hurry. There was more + spade-work to be done yet before Turkey was ripe for open and + avowed colonisation by the Fatherland.</p> + + <p>The episode, strictly historical, is of a certain + importance, for it shows the date at which Wilhelm II. thought + that the time had come for Germans to colonise Turkey. The + peaceful penetration (which now amounts to perforation) was + even then pretty far advanced. But Abdul Hamid seems to have + seen the significance of the request, and for some little while + after that German influence had a certain set-back in Turkey. + The date of this marks an era, and Germany, 'deep patient + Germany,' set to work again, in no way discouraged, to set her + cancer-nippers in the cancer that already had begun to eat the + live tissues round it.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_II"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter II</i></h2> + + <center> + THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + </center> + + <p>In the year 1908 a military group in Constantinople, styling + itself the 'Young Turk' party, seized and deposed Abdul Hamid, + and shut him up at Salonika, there to spend the remainder of + his infamous days. They put forth a Liberal programme of + reformation, one that earned them at the moment the sympathy of + civilised Europe (including Germany), and the Balance of Power + very mistakenly and prematurely heaved a sigh of relief. For + upwards of a century it had maintained in Constantinople the + corrupt and bloody autocracy of the Sultans, fearing the + European quarrels that would attend the dismemberment of that + charnel-house of decay known as the Ottoman Empire, and now + (just for the moment) it seemed as if a sudden rally had come + to the Sick Man, and he showed signs of returning animation and + wholesome vitality. The policy of the Powers, after a century + of failure, looked as if it was justifying itself, and they + were full of congratulations towards Turkey and each other. But + never, in the whole century of their pusillanimous cacklings, + had they made a greater mistake.</p> + + <p>Whether the Young Turks ever meant well or not, whether + there was or was not a grain of sincerity in this profession of + their policy, is a disputed question. There are those who say + that originally they were prompted by patriotic and high-minded + aims, when they proclaimed their object of 'Organisation,' and + of reform. But all are agreed that it matters very little what + their original aims were, so speedily did their Liberal + intentions narrow down to an Ottomanisation such as Adbul Hamid + had aimed at, but had been unable to accomplish before his evil + sceptre ceased to sway the destinies of his kingdom. In any + case this programme earned its authors the sympathy of Europe, + and probably this, and no more than this, prompted it. They + wished to establish themselves, unquestioned and undisturbed, + and did so; and I do not think we shall be far wrong if we take + the original Young Turk programme about as seriously as we took + the parody of a Parliament with which Abdul Hamid opened (as + with a blessing) his atrocious reign. The very next year (1909) + they permitted (if they did not arrange) the Armenian massacres + at Adana, and the Balance of Power began faintly to wonder + whether the Young Turks in their deposition of Abdul Hamid had + not slain an asp and hatched a cockatrice. Given that their + aims originally were sincere, we can but marvel at the + swiftness of the corruption which in little more than a year + had begun to lead them not into paths of reform and Liberal + policy, but along the road towards which the butcher they had + deposed had pointed the way. It must have made Abdul Hamid gnaw + his nails and shake impotent hands to see those who had torn + him from his throne so soon pursuing the very policy which he + invented, and to which he nominally owed his dethronement. + Strange, too, was it that his overthrow should come from the + very quarter to which he looked for security, for it was on the + army that each Sultan in turn had most relied for the stability + of his throne. But Abdul Hamid, in order, perhaps, to deal more + effectually with the subject races he wished to exterminate, + had introduced a system of foreign training for the officers of + his army, a course of Potsdam efficiency, and it was just they, + on whom Sultans from time immemorial had relied, who knocked + the prop of the army away from him. Though publicly, for the + edification of Europe his deposers professed a Liberal policy, + it was not on account of Armenian massacres that they turned + him off his throne, but because of the muddle and corruption + and debility of his rule. Herein we may easily trace the hand + of Germany, no longer publicly beckoning as when Wilhelm II., + just after the first Armenian massacres, made his request of + the Sultan for the establishment in Turkey of German colonists, + but working underground, sapping and mining like a mole. For + Germany, her mind already fixed on securing Turkey as an + instrument of her Eastern policy, wanted a strong Turkey, and + without doubt desired to bring an end to the disorganisation + and decay of the Empire, and create and at the same time + interpenetrate an efficient state that should be useful to her. + We may take it for granted that she, like the rest of Europe, + welcomed any sign of regeneration in the Ottoman Empire, but + there was an ulterior purpose behind that. Turkey, already + grasped by the Prussian hand, must be in that hand a weapon fit + for use, a blade on which she could rely. She strengthened the + Turkish army by the introduction of Prussian discipline, and + worked on good material. Already she has realised her ambition + in this respect, and now controls the material which she then + worked on.</p> + + <p>The troubled years of the Balkan wars which followed this + false dawn, coupled with the loss of all the territory which + remained to the Ottoman Empire in Europe, with the exception of + Thrace, caused an immediate reaction from the open-minded + policy of the Young Turks, if we decide to credit them at the + outset with a sincere purpose. Organisation by a slightly + different spelling became Ottomanisation, and the aims of the + Young Turks were identified with those of the Nationalist party + which followed out and developed into a finished and + super-fiendish policy the dreams of Abdul Hamid. He, as we have + seen, had invented the idea of securing Ottoman supremacy in + the Empire, not as before by absorption of the strength of its + subject peoples, but by their extermination, and this formed + part of the new programme which was to be more efficiently + administered. Already, in 1909, the experimental massacre at + Adana took place, and the Young Turk party, with its possibly + Liberal aims, had become a party that had as its main object a + system of tyranny and murder such as the world had never seen. + Simultaneously Turkey itself, Nationalist party and all, became + enslaved to German influence. Link by link the chains were + forged and the manacles welded on, and before the European War + broke out in 1914, the incarceration of Turkey in Germany was + complete, and Wilhelm II. had a fine revenge for the snub + inflicted on him by Abdul Hamid when he proposed the scheme of + German colonisation in the lands depopulated by the Armenian + massacres of 1895.</p> + + <p>From the first the aim of the Nationalists, who thus formed + so deadly a blend with the Young Turk party, was + Ottomanisation, or the establishment within the Empire of an + Ottoman domination which should be pure and undefiled, and in + which none of the subject peoples, be they Armenians or Kurds, + Arabs or Greeks or Jews, Christian or Moslem, should have any + part. The inception of the scheme was no doubt inspired by the + example given by Prussia's treatment of the Poles, and + Hungary's of Roumans and Slovaks. But in thoroughness of method + Prussia's pupil was to prove Prussia's master, for it aimed not + merely at expropriation, but extermination, and sought to + become strong, not merely by weakening alien elements, but by + abolishing them. It did not set this out quite explicitly in + its manifestoes and the resolutions of its congresses, but two + extracts, the first from the proceedings of the 'Committee of + Union and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a + sinister suggestiveness about them for which the acts and + measures of the Committee had already supplied the comment.</p> + + <p>'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the + country must be suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal + ideas prevented. Turkey must become a really Mohammedan + country, and Moslem influence must be preponderant. Every other + religious propaganda must be suppressed.... Sooner or later the + complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must be + effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained + by persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other + nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for + decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish + Empire.'</p> + + <p>Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul + Hamid, than this formal resolution, passed within three years + of the time when the Young Turks deposed him? The conviction + begins to dawn on one--as it began to dawn on the Balancers of + Power--that he owed his downfall not to his illiberal and + butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough enough.</p> + + <p>The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may + be added, which defines the policy, not with regard to the + Christian or Jewish subjects of the Turks, but with regard to + the Arabs, Moslem by creed, and the guardians of the Holy + Cities.</p> + + <p>'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for + us to Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of + nationality is awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, + and already threatens us with a great catastrophe. Against this + we must be fore-armed.'</p> + + <p>The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical + form. Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of + patriotism, and any means which secured it, massacres such as, + in 1909, had taken place at Adana, or the treatment accorded to + the Greeks and Bulgarians who remained in Thrace after the + Balkan wars, were in accordance with the new 'Liberal' gospel. + Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in Europe, and + as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it could + not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under + the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed + to put the entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and + lay hands on their property. In fact this was the first of the + 'deportation' schemes which, in 1915, proved so successful with + the Armenians, and the effect of it was that neither Greeks nor + Bulgarians were left in Thrace. Then followed the expulsion of + Greeks from the Mediterranean sea-board, but this was never + completely carried out because the European war intervened, and + the attention of the Nationalists was claimed by their + over-lord. Later, as we shall see, a further deportation of + Greeks was begun, but again that was stopped, for Germany saw + that it would never do to have her Turkish allies murdering + settlers of the same blood as those she hoped would become her + allies. Of course, when it was only a question of Armenians she + did not interfere.</p> + + <p>The design, then, of the new 'Liberal' regime, of which + those three measures, the massacres at Adana, the expulsion of + Greeks and Bulgarians from Thrace, and of Greeks from the + sea-board of the Mediterranean, were early instances, was to + restore the absolute supremacy of the Turks in the Ottoman + Empire. It was obvious that the problem was one of considerable + difficulty, since the Turks at the time composed only some + forty per cent, of the whole population. They numbered about + 8,000,000, while in the Empire were included about 7,000,000 + Arabs, 2,000,000 Greeks, 2,000,000 Armenians, and 3,000,000 + more of smaller nationalities, such as Kurds, Druses, and Jews. + But the Turks were backed by Germany, and nowadays, since the + abolition of the Capitulations, which leaves all alien races + unprotected by foreign Powers, such as survive, after the + extermination of the Armenians, are completely at the mercy of + the Government in Constantinople. All these peoples speak a + different language from the Turks, and have a different + religion, for the Nationalist party, with a view to the + Ottomanisation of the Arabs, have definitely stated that Arab + Moslems are not of the true faith, and that their own Allah (in + whose name they subsequently exterminated the Armenians) is the + God of Love--German equivalent Got--whereas the Arab Allah is + the God of vengeance. The sinister motive in this discovery + needs no comment, for it is obvious that it releases the + Ottoman Government from the prohibition in the Koran, whereby + Moslem may not fight against Moslem. Therefore the Arabs were + declared not to be true Moslems. Later on, that motive was + translated into practical measures.</p> + + <p>Among the first tasks with regard to the Arabs that faced + the Nationalist party from what we may call the pacific side of + their mission was to substitute the Turkish language for + Arabic. Kemal Bey, a Nationalist of Salonika, with the help of + Ziya Bey, collected round him a group of young writers, and + these proceeded to translate the Koran out of Arabic into + Turkish, and to publish the prayers for the Caliphate in their + own language, and orders went out that these revised versions + should be used in all mosques. Turkish was to be the official + language for use in all public proclamations, and, with + Prussian thoroughness, it was even substituted on such railway + tickets as had hitherto been printed in Arabic. The new Turkish + tongue (Yeni Lisan) had also to be purged of all foreign words, + but here some difficulty was experienced, for Persian and + Arabic formed an enormous percentage in the language as + hitherto employed, and the promoters of this Ottoman purity of + tongue found themselves left with a very jejune instrument for + the rhapsodies of their patriotic aims. Poets in especial (for + the Nationalists, like all well-equipped founders of romantic + movements, had their bards) found themselves in sore straits + owing to the limited vocabulary; and we read of one, Mehmed + Emin Bey, who was forced to publish his odes in small + provincial papers, since no well-established journal would + admit so scrannel an expression of views however + exalted.<a name="FNanchor1"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_1">[1]</a></sup> But the translation of the Koran + was the greatest linguistic feat, and Tekin Alp, the most + prominent exponent of Nationalism, refers to it as one of the + noblest tasks undertaken by the new movement. It mattered not + at all that by religious ordinance the translation of the Koran + into any other tongue was a sin. 'The Nationalists,' he tells + us, 'have cut themselves off from the superstitious prejudice.' + A further attempt was made to substitute Turkish letters for + Arabic letters in the alphabet, but this seems to have + presented insuperable difficulties, and I gather that it has + been abandoned.</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + This thwarted poet retired from the Committee of + Union and Progress not long after, and his place was taken + by Enver. + </div>The Ottomanisation of religion and language, then, was + among the pacific methods of spreading Pan-Turkism through the + Empire. A monstrous idol was set up, a Hindenburg idol, in + front of which all peoples and languages, not Christians alone, + but Moslems, were bound to prostrate themselves. Indeed it was + against Arabs mainly that these provisions were directed, for + the Arabs constituted the most menacing obstacle to the spread + of Ottomanisation, since they numbered in the Empire only a + million less than the Turks themselves. It was ordained by + statute that no Arab could have a seat on the Committee of + Union and Progress, and the Cabinet similarly was purged of any + Greek or Armenian element. Never any more must there be new + parties in the Chamber, never any more must Liberal ideas (to + champion which the New Turk party had come into being) be + allowed to prick up their pernicious heads. For the Nationalist + party, with whom the New Turks were now identical, had taken as + their creed all that the deposed Abdul Hamid stood for, and + only differed from him in that as their schemes developed they + looked forward to logical conclusions far beyond what he had + ever dreamed of. But Abdul Hamid may, I think, be taken to be + the true founder of the new Nationalism: at any rate it was he + who had first seen the possibilities of massacre as a means of + maintaining Ottoman supremacy. In the hands of Nationalists + that was to prove a more effective weapon than the printing of + railway tickets in Turkish. But already before the European War + the Nationalists had vastly extended his ideas, and had seen + the danger of allowing even Arabs to have a standing of any + kind in the new state. Henceforth all subject people were to be + <i>rayas</i>, cattle, as in the old days of the Sultans who + absorbed the strength of the aliens, but did not exterminate + them. But now the cattle were not only to be used for milk, but + were to be slaughtered when advisable. Till then they must be + dumb, or speak the language of their masters only, for this + alone can save them from the shambles. Ahmed Sherif Bey, a + prominent Nationalist, lays this down. 'It is the business of + the Porte to make the Arabs forget their own language, and to + impose upon them instead that of the nation that rules them. If + the Porte loses sight of this duty, it will be digging its + grave with its own hands, for if the Arabs do not forget their + language, their history, and their customs, they will seek to + restore their ancient empire on the ruins of Ottomanism and of + Turkish rule in Asia.' + + <p>Here, then, is the definite statement of the Nationalists' + hostility to all things Arab, and we shall see how they + translated it into practice. Even Moslems were but cattle for + them, as also were Armenians and Greeks and Kurds. Armenians + were doomed to be the first complete sacrifice on the bloody + altar of the Nationalists, and, as a Turkish gendarme engaged + in that sacrifice said to a Danish Red Cross nurse, 'First we + kill the Armenians, then the Greeks, and then the Kurds.' And + if he had been a Progressive Minister he would certainly have + added, 'And then the Arabs.'</p> + + <p>It was not only within the present limits of the Ottoman + Empire that the Committee of Union and Progress proposed to + accomplish their unitive purpose, for after having seen a + glorious and exclusive Turkey arise over the depopulated + territories of their alien peoples, a vaster vision, for an + account of which we are indebted to Tekin Alp, opened before + their prophetic eyes. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of + Persia they claim that one-third are of true Turkish blood, and + in the new Turkey which, so they almost pathetically hope, will + be established at the conclusion of the European War by the + help of Wilhelm II., those Persian Turks must be incorporated + into the true fold of Allah, God of Love. The province of + Adarbaijan, for instance, the richest and most enlightened + district of Persia, they claim, is entirely Turkish, and here + the needful rectification will be made in the new atlases that + bear the imprimatur of Potsdam. Similarly, all the country + south of the Caucasus must rank as Turkish territory, since the + Turks form from fifty to eighty per cent, of the population; + all Kazan, for the same reason, is truly Turkish, with the + alluvial plains of the Volga, while the Crimea, so Tekin Alp + discovers, is also a lost sheep longing for the Turkish fold. + All this is Turkey (or Turania) Irredenta, and, may we not + add:--</p> + + <p>'Jerusalem and Madagascar And North and South Amerikee.'</p> + + <p>And then what a glorious future awaits the Power that Europe + once thought of as a sick man. 'With the crushing of Russian + despotism,' exclaims Tekin Alp, 'by the brave German, Austrian, + and Turkish armies, thirty to forty million Turks will receive + their independence. With the ten million Ottoman Turks this + will form a nation of fifty millions, advancing towards a great + civilisation which may perhaps be compared to that of Germany, + in that it will have the strength and energy to rise even + higher. In some ways it will be even superior to the degenerate + French and English civilisations.'</p> + + <p>The arithmetic and the enthusiasm of the foregoing paragraph + are, of course, those of Tekin Alp, from whose book, <i>The + Turkish and Pan-Turkish Ideal</i>, the quotation is made. The + work was published in 1915, and, appearing as it did after the + beginning of the European War, it is but natural to find in it + an expression not only of the Nationalist aims for Turkey, but + of the Prussian aims for Turkey, or, to speak more correctly, + of the dream which Prussia has induced in a hypnotised Turkey. + It sets forth in fact the bait which Prussia has dangled in + front of Turkey, the hunger for which has inspired the + projected future which is here sketched out; and significantly + enough this book has been spread broadcast over Turkey by the + agency of German propagandists. The Ottomanisation of the + Empire, the vision of its further extension, free from all + consideration of subject peoples, was exactly the lure which + was most likely to keep the Turks staunch to their Prussian + masters. It will be noticed that there is no suggestion of the + Turks recovering their lost provinces and kingdoms in Europe, + Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia, and the rest, for it would + never do to let Fox Ferdinand awake from <i>his</i> hypnotic + sleep of a sort of Czardom over the Balkans, or cease to dangle + dreams, that included even Constantinople before the shifty eye + of King Constantine So, before Turkey was spread the prospect + of appropriating Russian and Persian spoils: Prussia had + already given the lost Turkish kingdoms in Europe elsewhere, + but would there not be a dismembered Russian Empire to dispose + of? The Crimea, the province of Kazan, the province of + Trans-Caucasia: all these might be held before Turkey's nose, + as a dog has a piece of meat held up before it to make it beg. + Then there was the province of Adarbaijan: certainly Turkey + might be permitted to promise herself that, without incurring + the jealousy of Austria or Bulgaria. Greedily Turkey took the + bait. She gulped it down whole, and never considered that there + was a string attached to it, or that, should ever the time come + when Germany, the conqueror of the world, would be in a + position to reward her Allies with the realisation of the + dreams she had induced, the string would be pulled, and up, + with retchings and vomitings, would come these succulent + morsels of Russia and Persia. Indeed these bright pictures + flashed on to the sheet as the visions of Nationalists are but + the slides in a German magic-lantern, designed to keep Turkey + amused, and it was with the same object that Ernst + Marré, in his <i>Die Türken und Wir nach dem + Kriege</i>, was bidden to make other pictures ready in case + Turkey grew fractious or sleepy. 'From the ruins of antiquity,' + he says, when speaking of the Ottoman Empire, 'new life will + spring, if we can manage to raise the treasures which time and + sand have covered.' Then he remembers that he must be less + Pan-Germanic for the moment, and dangles the bait again. 'In + doing this,' he adds, 'we are benefiting Turkey. The Turkish + state is no united whole, and it has always been very difficult + to govern. Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, cannot be + welded together. This is a war of liberation for Turkey.... + Only by energetic interference, and by "expelling" the + obstinate Armenian element could the Ottoman Empire get rid of + a Russian domination.... The non-Turkish population of the + Ottoman Empire must be Ottomanised.'</p> + + <p>There is no need for further quotations, which might be + multiplied indefinitely. The Prussian programme is for the + moment identical with the Turkish Nationalist programme: + Turkey, in order to be kept 'in with' Germany, must be + encouraged to dream of depopulated Armenia (that dream has come + tragically true) and of annexations in Russia and Persia. All + this fitted in with the Turkish programme: Germany had scarcely + to inspire, only to encourage. That encouragement she gave, + for, simultaneously she was penetrating Turkey as water + penetrates a sponge, and reducing it to the position of a + vassal state. To keep Turkey happy she allowed the Armenian + massacres to run their deadly course, and only interfered with + other massacres when they did not suit her purpose. But + supposing (to suppose the impossible) that a peace to the + European War was dictated by Germany, how much of the future + Pan-Turkish programme would be realised? Would there be a + Turkey at all? I think not: there would be a Germany in Europe, + and a Germany in Asia, where Turkey once was. Indeed, in all + but name, they are in existence now; so complete, as we shall + see, has been Germany's penetration of the Ottoman Empire. Just + for the present she calls herself Turkey in those regions; that + is her incognito. But Turkey as an independent Power has + already ceased to exist, and Tekin Alp and the Nationalists + still dream on with rainbow visions of Ottomanisation, the + vistas of which stretch far into Persia and the plains of the + Volga. And all the while she has been put out like a candle, + and all that is left of her is the smouldering wick ready to be + pinched between the horny fingers of her stepmother. There she + stands, her stepmother, with her grinning teeth already + disclosing the Wolf....</p> + + <p>Whatever the end of the European War may be, in no + circumstances can the dreams of the Nationalists be realised. + Even if Germany and her arms were so victorious that Russia lay + at her feet a mere inert carcase ready for the chopper, she + would no more dream of giving Russian provinces to an + independent Turkey than she would hand over to her Berlin + itself. And if, as we know, Germany can never be victorious, + will the Allies once more strive to keep the Sick Man alive, or + leave in his ruthless power the peoples whom he is longing to + exterminate? Even Tekin Alp can hardly expect that.</p> + + <p>Here then, in brief, is the policy of New Turkey. Its + subject peoples--Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews--are + to be totally unrepresented in its councils, though together + they number sixty per cent, of the population of the Empire. + But they are not only to be unrepresented in Government--they + are, if the programme is to be carried conclusively out, to + have no existence. In accordance with the plans of the + murderous ruffians who to-day administer the Nationalist + policy, those of the Armenians who have not fled beyond the + frontiers have already been exterminated, and the same fate + threatens Arabs, Greeks, and Jews. Hence, when the Allied + Governments wrote their joint note to President Wilson, they + stated that among their aims in the war was 'the liberation of + the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of the + Turks.' From that avowed determination they will never + recede.</p> + <hr style="width: 45%;"> + + <p>NOTE.--It is to be hoped that Tekin Alp's pamphlet, <i>Turks + and the Pan-Turkish Ideal</i>, may soon be accessible to + English readers. The author is a Macedonian Jew who writes + under the pseudonym of Tekin Alp, and his mind is such that he + appears to find romance in the idea of a united Turkey purged + by indiscriminate massacre from all alien elements. But he sets + forth with admirable lucidity the aims of the Nationalist party + and the steps already achieved by them in their progress + towards their ideal. Already the sequestered ladies of the + harem have come out of their retirement and join in the + crusade, and not only do men give lectures to women, but 'women + mount the platform and address the men.' There are corporations + to advance economic organisations, boy-scout centres all over + the Empire, and 'intellectual parties' among the guilds of + merchants--England and Russia appear as the most virulent foes + of Pan-Turkism, 'the colossus of darkest barbarism joined with + the colossus of a degenerate civilisation.'</p> + + <p>In the second part of his pamphlet Tekin Alp passes on with + an enthusiasm which is as sincere as it is pathetic to the + vision of a tremendous Turkey, extending from Thrace on the + west to the Desert of Gobi on the east. It embraces, as his map + shows, Egypt as far south as Victoria Nyanza, Arabia, Persia, + the greater part of India, the littoral of the Black Sea, the + plains of the Volga, the circuit of the Caspian Sea and the + Aral Sea, and in the north-east nearly touches Tomsk. All this + naturally is dependent on complete German victory in the war, + and, pathetically enough, Tekin Alp appears to think that his + ideal Turkey will meet with the approval of Germany. Indeed it + is no wonder that his pamphlet is circulated broadcast by + German propagandists, for it is precisely what Germany wants + Turkey to believe.</p> + + <p>The romance of the movement appeals also very strongly to + Ziya Gök Alp, the official bard of the butchers of + Constantinople. He has written a sort of Ode to Attila, quoted + by Tekin Alp, which is a fine frenzy in favour of barbarism. + This preposterous poem begins:</p> + + <p>'I do not read the famous deeds of my ancestors in the dead, + faded, dusty leaves of the history books, but in my own veins, + in my own heart. My Attila, my Huns, those heroic figures which + stand for the proud fame of my race, appear in those dry pages + to our malicious and slanderous age as covered with shame and + disgrace, while in reality they are no less than Alexander and + Caesar,' etc. etc.</p> + + <p>I have been at present unable to ascertain whether it is + true that the German Emperor has set it to music, under the + impression that it refers to him and the German armies. It is + very popular in Prussia, which need arouse no surprise.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_III"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter III</i></h2> + + <center> + THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + </center> + + <p>We have traced in brief the backward progress of Ottoman + domination, and have seen how, from the rough and ready methods + of a military barbarism, the Turks evolved a more emphatic and + a more highly organised negation of all those principles which + we may sum up under the general term of civilisation. The + comparatively humane neglect of the unfortunate alien peoples + herded within the frontiers of earlier Sultans was improved + upon by Abdul Hamid, who struck out the swifter and superior + methods of maintaining the dominating strength of the Turkish + element in the kingdom not by the absorption of subject + peoples, but by their extermination. This in turn, this new and + effective idea, served as a first sketch of an artist with + regard to his finished picture, and starting with that the + Nationalist party enlarged and elaborated it into that + masterpiece of massacre which they exhibited to the world in + the years 1915 and 1916 of the Christian Era, when from end to + end of the Empire there flashed the signal for the + extermination of the Armenian race. Abdul Hamid was but + tentative and experimental as compared to their systematised + thoroughness, but then the Nationalist party had learned + thoroughness under the tutelage of its Prussian masters. And in + addition to instruction they had had the advantage of seeing + how Prussian firmness, with the soothing balm of Kultur to + follow, had dealt with the now-subject remnant of Belgians. + That was the way to treat subject people: 'the first care of a + state is to protect itself,' as Enver and Talaat could read in + the text-books now translated into Turkish, in copies, maybe, + presented to them by their Master in Berlin, and Turkey could + best show the proof of her enlightenment and regeneration, by + following in the footsteps of Prussian Kultur. Perhaps a few + thousand innocent men might suffer the inconvenience of having + their nails torn out, of being bastinadoed to death, of being + shot, burned or hanged, perhaps a few thousand girls and women + might die by the wayside in being deported to 'agricultural + colonies,' might fall victims to the lusts of Turkish soldiers, + or have babes torn from their wombs, but these paltry + individual pains signified nothing compared to the national + duty of 'suffering the state to run no risks.' As one of this + party of Union and Progress said, 'The innocent of to-day may + be the guilty of to-morrow,' and it was therefore wise to + provide that for innocent and guilty alike there should be no + to-morrow at all. Years before the statesmanship of Abdul Hamid + had prophetically foreseen the dawning of this day, when he + remarked 'The way to get rid of the Armenian question is to get + rid of the Armenians,' and temporarily for twenty years he did + get rid of the Armenian question. But when, in 1915, Talaat Bey + completed his arrangements for a further contribution to the + solution of the same problem, he said, 'After this, there will + be no Armenian question for fifty years.' As far as we can + judge, he rather under-estimated the thoroughness of his + arrangements.<a name="FNanchor2"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_2">[2]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + Lately (September 1917), when the massacres were all + over, Talaat, speaking at a Congress of the Committee of + Union and Progress, upheld as right and proper the + treatment of the Armenian race. + </div>The race thus marked out for extermination was one of the + oldest settlements in Asiatic Turkey. Originally it was + confined to Armenia proper, a highland district comprising part + of what is now the Russian province of Trans-Caucasia, part of + Persia, notably the province of Adarbaijan, and, within the + Turkish frontier, the province of Armenia, itself. According to + legend, which may well be correct, the Armenians were the + oldest national Christian Church in the world, with a liturgy + that dates from the first century of the Christian Era, while + their translation of the Bible dates from the early years of + the fifth century A.D. Here in these uplands they formed a + compact and homogeneous population, spread over towns and + country alike, and were occupied in the main with agrarian and + pastoral pursuits. But they had in addition much of the + versatility and business capacity of the Jews, as well as a + strong liberal-mindedness towards progress and education, and + thus, while they still continued up to the present day their + pastoral life in the countryside, others gravitated towards + towns, and by degrees they spread over a large part of the + Turkish Empire, until most of the towns in Turkey had a + progressive and peaceful quota of Armenian citizens, tolerated + by their Moslem neighbours, and, though possessed of no great + share of political influence, powerful, in that the trade and + commerce of inland Turkey was largely in their hands. Wherever + they went they established their schools; many were lawyers, + doctors, and professors of education. Certain repressive + measures were brought to bear on them; they were not, for + instance, allowed to carry arms, except when, in accordance + with Turkish conscriptive laws, they served in the Ottoman + army. But many of them, by paying their exemption money, got + off military service, and they confined themselves to the arts + of peace, whether pastorally in their native highlands, or in + the shops and offices of the towns to which they migrated. They + were not, till the time of Abdul Hamid, held to be in any sense + a national danger, for, except in Armenia proper, they were too + scattered and too peace-loving an element of the population to + be capable of united action, and never do they seem to have + provoked any outburst of Moslem fanaticism. They had local + quarrels and fights with the more warlike Kurds who encroached + on Armenia, and in the towns where they settled they often + incurred the vague jealousy and dislike which are the penalties + of a race superior morally and intellectually to those among + whom they live. But that superiority constituted in course of + time the 'Armenian question,' to which Abdul Hamid alluded. In + all, some sixty years ago their entire race numbered about + 4,000,000 persons, of whom about 1,250,000 inhabited Russian + Trans-Caucasia, about 150,000 were in the province of + Adarbaijan, and there were smaller bodies of them in Austria + and India. The remainder, some 2,500,000, were spread over + Armenia, over the villages and towns of Turkey, notably the + eastern edge of the Cilician uplands, while in Constantinople + itself there were certainly not less than 150,000, and probably + as many as 200,000. To-day, the male portion of the Armenian + race in the Ottoman Empire has practically ceased to exist: a + quarter of a million men and women escaped over the Russian + frontier, five thousand escaped to Egypt, and there are a few + thousand women and girls (it is impossible to ascertain the + exact number) in Turkish harems. Turkism, as administered by + Abdul Hamid first, then, far more efficiently, by Enver Pasha, + and Talaat Bey, has solved the Armenian question. + + <p>The history of its solution falls under two heads, of which + the first concerns the manner in which it was solved in Armenia + itself, where the population was almost exclusively Armenian, + both in towns and in the country. Here the eastern and + north-eastern frontiers of Turkey, across which lie the + province of Russian Trans-Caucasia and Persia, pass through the + middle of districts peopled by men of Armenian blood, and when, + in the autumn of 1914, the Turks made their entry into the + European War, their eastern armies, operating against Russia, + found themselves confronted by troops among whom were many + Armenians, while in their advance into the Persian province of + Adarbaijan, there were in the ranks of their opponents, + Armenians and Syriac Christians. They advanced in fact, in the + first weeks of the war, into a country largely peopled with men + of the same blood as those on their own side of the frontier. + Though the edict had not yet come from Constantinople for the + massacre of the Armenians (Talaat Bey did not complete his + arrangements till the following April), the slaughter of them + began then, first in the advance of the Turkish armies, and + following on that movement, which lasted but a few weeks, in + their subsequent retreat before the Russians. All villages + through which the Turkish armies passed were plundered and + burned, all the inhabitants on whom the Turks could lay their + hands were killed. Sometimes women and children were given to + the Kurds, who formed bands of irregular troops in conjunction + with the Turkish army, and these were outraged before they were + slaughtered. A price was put on every Christian head, and in + the Turkish retreat the corpses were thrust into the wells in + order to pollute them. The excuse for this, as given by German + apologists (not apologists, perhaps, so much as supporters and + adherents of the policy), was that since behind the Turkish + lines the country was populated by a race of the same blood as + that through which they advanced, and then retreated, + extermination was necessary in order to prevent or to punish + treachery and collusion. But I have been nowhere able to find + that there were instances of such, nor that the Turks put + forward that excuse themselves. Indeed it would have been an + unnecessary explanation, for but a few months after the opening + of the war, Talaat Bey's plans were complete, and the + extermination of Armenians hundreds of miles from any sphere of + military operations rendered it needless to say anything about + it, or to invent instances of treachery if there were actually + none to hand.</p> + + <p>Simultaneously the massacre of Armenians behind the Turkish + lines began. The whole male population of the district round + Bitlis was murdered, so too were all males in Bitlis itself. + Then all women and children were driven in, as a herdsman might + drive sheep, from the reeking villages round, and, for purposes + of convenience, concentrated in Bitlis. When they were all + collected, they were driven in a flock to the edge of the + Tigris, shot, and the corpses were thrown into the river. That + was the solution of the Armenian question in Bitlis.</p> + + <p>North-west of Bitlis, and some sixty miles distant, lies the + town of Mush. It used to contain about 25,000 Armenian + inhabitants, and in the district round there were some three + hundred villages chiefly consisting of Armenians. Arrangements + were on foot for a general massacre there when the arrival of + Russian troops at Liz, some fifteen hours' march away, caused + the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till July + a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a + warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in + the face of superior forces, had to retire again, and the + massacres were put on a systematic footing. The account which + follows is based on four independent authorities: (1) The + statement of a German eye-witness in Mush in charge of an + Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman deported from + a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3) + information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the + journal <i>Horizon</i> of Tiflis. These supplement each other, + often verify each other, and in no instance are + contradictory.</p> + + <p>Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end + of 1914, at a time when the massacres across the frontier had + begun. The Mutessarif of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver + Pasha, had openly declared that 'at an opportune moment' the + slaughter of the whole Armenian race was contemplated, and + later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of the + American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been + the chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia + itself, while Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in + towns throughout the rest of Turkey. During the whole of that + winter, a very severe one, signs of the approaching + extermination multiplied. In the villages round fresh taxes + were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they + were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in + question was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable + delay caused by the proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, + and the massacre began in earnest.</p> + + <p>Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from + Constantinople, and an order was given that all Armenians must + leave the town within three days, after 'registering + themselves' at the Government office. The women and children + were to remain, but their money and their property would be + confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to + fresh orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the + crowds in the streets flocking to the registry offices, and + after that systematic house-to-house murder began. Prominent + Armenians were tortured to death, houses containing women and + children were set on fire, a body of men collected together was + thrown into the river, girls were outraged and slaughtered. For + two days the massacre continued, and by the end of the second + day the Armenian question was solved as regards Mush.</p> + + <p>In the surrounding villages the same Prussian thoroughness + was observed, and out of all the inhabitants of the plain 5000 + only seemed to have survived, who fled to Sasun (there to be + subsequently massacred in 1916), while a few from outlying + villages escaped to the Russian troops. In certain villages the + girls and young women were given to the Kurd soldiery, who + raped them publicly in the presence of their families, not + sparing girls of eight and ten years of age, who then, bleeding + and violated, were shot in company with the old women, for whom + the Kurds (inspired by Allah, the God of Love) had no use. + Elsewhere, as the story of a deported woman from Kheiban tells + us, the women guarded by Kurdish troops were driven out of + their villages, leaving behind the corpses of the men and of + old women who could not walk, and for days were marched along + the roads, nearly naked, under the fierce heat of the July sun. + Once every other day they were given bread, but all did not get + it, and many fell exhausted by the wayside, and were either + whipped to their feet again or allowed to lie down and die. As + they passed through villages Kurds would come out and rape a + girl or two, and when they halted at night their guards would + come among them.... Some few escaped; the rest, in dwindling + company, went on through days of blinding sun and nights of + shame till at last there were only a few remaining. It was not + worth while going farther, for the work of Enver Pasha was + nearly done, and the rest were pushed into the river. One alone + survived, who could swim, and she, with her two-year-old baby + on her back, got across the stream and made her way to a + village where were a party of Armenians who had escaped + massacre. She arrived there at midnight, and at first they + thought she was a ghost. To them she told her story of the + outraged and ever-dwindling caravan of helpless women and girls + driven onwards all day beneath the smiting arrows of the sun, + and encamped by the wayside, where they halted with their + barbarous guards and their lusts for a terror by night. Of them + none but this one was left, who had carried her baby with her + every step of that infernal pilgrimage. Two days afterwards he + died from want of nourishment, and before the week was out the + mother fell into the hands of a body of patrolling Kurds, and + was killed.</p> + + <p>So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if + in the history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with + wanton cruelty and made God to hide His face, there is any so + atrocious a tale, I do not know it. But if among the annals of + heroism and of mother-love we want to find a nobler record than + that of this woman of Kheiban, equally am I at a loss as to + where we should look for it. Among the true and golden legends + of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a + memorial of her.</p> + + <p>Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of + Erzerum, with the town of the same name, that contained in the + autumn of 1914 some 20,000 Armenians. Here the first hint of + coming trouble was the order that all Armenian soldiers serving + in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was followed in June + by another order that all the inhabitants of the hundred + villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours' + notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of + these a few took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the + remainder a few only lived to reach Erzinjan, where they were + again deported, and the rest were murdered as they marched. In + Erzerum itself orders were received by Tahsin Bey, the Vali of + the town, that all Armenians were to be killed without + distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out, + but his unwillingness was overruled.<a name= + "FNanchor3"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_3">[3]</a></sup> + Simultaneously, the German Consul telegraphed protests to his + Ambassador at Constantinople, and was told that Germany could + not interfere in the internal affairs of Turkey.</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the + Governor resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing + happened at Konia and at Kutaia. + </div>Here the method employed was deportation: the victims + were murdered, not in the town itself, but were given orders to + leave their homes, and under guard march (for no conveyances + were given them) to other districts. The first company was to + go to Diarbekr. All these, with the exception of one man and + forty women, were murdered on the first day's march. The + remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or + collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells + us what fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked + out, their breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their + torturers hew off their feet, or else hammer nails into them as + they do in shoeing horses. This is all done at night-time, in + order that people may not hear their screams and know of their + agony. Soldiers are stationed round the prisons, beating drums + and blowing whistles. It is needless to relate that many died + of these tortures. When they die, the soldiers cry, "Now let + your Christ help you."' A second caravan of five hundred + families left Erzerum: at Baiburt they were joined by another + contingent deported from that town, and the account that + follows is based on the information supplied by the Rev. Robert + Stapleton, an American minister at Erzerum, and by an Armenian + woman who was among the deported, and whose life was spared on + her embracing Islamism. + + <p>The convoy numbered, when it left Baiburt, some 15,000 + persons, and it reached Erzinjan in safety. There the massacres + had already taken place, and the women and children had been + deported, for they found no Armenians there. But the convoy had + not yet arrived at its goal, and it started out again moving + south by east till it came to Kamakh. There bands of Kurds + descended on them, and in the space of seven days every male + above fifteen years of age, including an aged priest of ninety, + was killed. Thereafter a pilgrimage of women, as from Kheiban, + moved southwards across plain and mountain, and every day its + numbers were diminished, for the youthful and the good-looking + were carried off by brigands. At night they were halted outside + villages, and the gendarmes and villagers took what they chose. + Many died from hunger and heat-stroke: others were left by the + wayside. When they came to the banks of the river Kara-Su there + was a debauch of horror. Women and girls and little children + were raped and mutilated, and the children who still survived + were thrown into the river. Those who could swim were shot. + Thereafter the movements of this caravan are hard to trace. + Probably there was then but little left of it. But others + followed on the same route 'through fields and hillsides dotted + with swollen and blackened corpses that filled and fouled the + air with their stench.' Some of them reached Mosul, some + reached Aleppo, another collecting station, where, by the mouth + of other witnesses, we shall hear of them again.</p> + + <p>Corroborative and additional evidence is given by the Danish + Red Cross nurses who, with a noble disregard of their own + safety, accompanied one of these caravans from Erzerum to + Erzinjan. They speak of the massacres at Kamakh, of the killing + by the river, and of a <i>battue</i> through the cornfields, + where the wheat was high, into which some Armenians had + escaped. At one time these Danish Sisters were in the charge of + a gendarme who had superintended a massacre of 3000 women and + children driven from their homes into the country, rounded up + and killed. He told the Sisters that this was the best method + of getting rid of them, for they should be made to suffer + first, and besides it would be inconvenient for Moslems to live + in a village with so many corpses about. At another place they + came to a shambles, where Armenian soldiers, deprived of their + arms, and sent to make roads, had been slaughtered: at another + there were three gangs of labourers, one Moslem, one Greek, and + one Armenian. These latter were guarded. Presently, as they + proceeded along their road, they looked round and saw that the + Armenian gang was being formed up by itself, a little off the + highroad....</p> + + <p>And so the ghastly record went on all over Armenia. At one + place only, the town of Van, was any resistance organised. + There, after the massacre had begun, some 1500 Armenians got + hold of arms (probably many of these men were soldiers who had + not yet had their arms taken from them), and for the space of + twenty-seven days defended themselves against five thousand + Turkish troops, till the Russian advance relieved them. During + that advance Armenian refugees, into whose districts the + massacres had not yet penetrated, fled for refuge to the + invading army, and in all some 250,000 Armenians under its + protection crossed in safety the Russian frontier into + Trans-Caucasia. How many died on the way from hunger and + exhaustion is not known. Cholera, dysentery, and spotted fever + broke out among them, and the path of their passage was lined + with dead and dying. Companies of Kurds made descents upon + them, taking toll of their maidenhood, but, with the Russian + line to protect them at their rear, they struggled on out of + the cemetery and brothel of their native country, and out of + the accursed confines of that hell on earth, the Ottoman + Empire, leaving behind them the murdered myriads of their + husbands and their sons, their violated wives and daughters. + Through incredible hardships they passed, but, unlike the other + pilgrimages we have briefly traced, they moved not towards + death, but towards safety and life, and their dark steps were + lightened with Hope.</p> + + <p>Before the last of those who survived the hunger and the + pestilence of that pilgrimage had reached Russian soil, it is + probable that in all Armenia there was not a man of their race + left alive, nor a woman either unless she had accepted Islamism + and the life of the harem. A peaceful and progressive nation + had been wiped out with every accompaniment of horror and + cruelty and bestial lust, and in Armenia itself there would + never more be an Armenian question. Abdul Hamid had hinted at + the solution of it, and had made, as we have seen, experiments + in that direction; but it was reserved for Enver Pasha and + Talaat Bey, enlightened men of the Young Turk party, with the + advantages of a Prussian example, to complete the work. Already + Enver had said that he would never rest until the last Armenian + in the Ottoman Empire had been killed, and before the end of + 1915, as far as Armenia itself went, he was able to see a + reasonable prospect of repose before him. But there was much + work still left to do in other provinces.</p> + + <p>We have seen that for the extirpation of Armenians in + Armenia proper, the excuse put forward, if not by the Turks + themselves, by their German apologists, was the necessity of + guarding against treachery in the vicinity of the Turkish army, + and against spying and collusion between the Armenians behind + the Russian lines and those behind Turkish lines. The same + pretext was put forward for the massacres and deportations from + Thrace, from Constantinople, and from the shores of the Sea of + Marmora. Here, if anywhere, there may be thought to be some + justification for measures which might have been undertaken for + the sake of public safety. At any rate, there were definite + charges brought against Armenians in these districts, and the + Armenian boatmen of Silivri, for instance, were imprisoned, but + not, as far as I know, massacred, on the charge of + revictualling English submarines, which at that time, as the + reader will remember, had penetrated into the Sea of Marmora, + and indeed had reached Constantinople itself. It is not, of + course, consonant with Turkish or Prussian justice to + substantiate charges before inflicting penalties, it is + sufficient in the new World-justice to accuse. But here round + Constantinople, there was some pretence at procedure before + resorting to murder and deportation. A register was drawn up of + all Armenians resident in the capital, dividing into separate + classes those who were born in Constantinople, and those who + were immigrants from Armenia, with a view to deporting those + who were not native to the city. Here, I think, we may see + traces of the Prussian instinct for tabulation, for + classification, for category-mongering. Enver and his + colleagues lost patience with these dilatory tactics. The + Armenians of the province of Brussa were deported wholesale, + and long before the registration lists of Constantinople were + finished, all Armenians were moved out of the town. Ten + thousand males were massacred in the mountains of Ismid, and + the Armenian women and children taken into collecting stations + for deportation to 'agricultural colonies' (so the phrase ran + in the Pecksniff language of Prussia) situated in the Anatolian + desert, in the desert of Arabia, and in malarious marshes on + the Euphrates. With this clearing out of Armenians from Thrace, + from Constantinople, and from Armenia itself, we have finished + with our first class of the Armenian atrocities. For it reasons + were at least invented by German apologists. Military + necessities, which here, as in Belgium, knew no law, dictated + it; the frightfulness involved was incidental to War. But such + considerations were not even alleged for the second class of + the murder-scheme. Before passing on, it will be well to + review, quite shortly, the reasons which dictated it, and + penetrate into the infernal councils of Enver Pasha and Talaat + Bey.</p> + + <p>The text of the scheme is to be found in the defined policy + of the Young Turk party as set forth in their Congress of 1911. + 'Turkey must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem + ideas and Moslem influence must be preponderant.... Sooner or + later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must + be effected: it is clear, however, that this can never be + attained by persuasion, but that we must resort to armed + force.'</p> + + <p>There is the text that was expanded into the discourse of + murder; it is the definition of a policy. Within a few years + there followed the European War, and that probably was the + immediate cause of its being put into effect. No more admirable + opportunity for Ottomanisation could present itself, for the + entry of Turkey into the war was most unpopular with the bulk + of the Turkish population, and it was advisable to bribe them + into acceptance of it. The bribe was the houses, the property, + the money and the trade that throughout the length and breadth + of Turkey was in Armenian hands. For the Armenians were by far + the wealthiest of the alien populations, and some 90 per cent. + of Turkish trade passed through their shops and offices. Here, + then, was the psychological moment: Turkey for the Turk was the + aim of the Committee of Union and Progress, and with a + discontented population, unwilling to fight, the moment had + come for restoring to the Turk this mass of property which at + present belonged to an alien race. War might have its drawbacks + and its clouds, but war would be seen to have its advantages + and its silver linings, if out of it there came this legacy of + Armenian wealth. And by the same stroke Turkey could get rid of + those thousands of meddlesome missionaries, American and + French, who spread religion and learning and other undesirable + things among the cursed race. Once remove the cursed race, and + there would be an end of their instructors also, for there + would be none to instruct. 'Thanks to their schools,' so we + read in the <i>Hilal</i>, an organ of the Young Turks, + 'foreigners were able to exercise great moral influence over + the young men of the country.... By closing them (i.e. by + exterminating their pupils) the Government has put an end to a + situation as humiliating as it was dangerous.'</p> + + <p>Such, then, was the spirit that animated Enver and Talaat, + and during the winter of 1914-15 they perfected their plans. + The Armenian race was to cease, and the Valis and other + officials were, each in his district, to see to the + thoroughness of its cessation. Sometimes, as happened at + Erzerum, the Vali in question, not having the broad out-look of + Enver, or quaintly and curiously having a womanish objection to + the national duty of flogging men to death and giving over + young girls to a barbarous soldiery, remonstrated with the + authorities, or even refused to obey orders. Such a one was + instantly removed from his office, and a stauncher patriot + substituted. All was put on an orderly footing: here Kurds were + to be employed on the old Abdul Hamid formula, who by way of + wage would enjoy the privilege of raping as many women and + girls out of their hapless convoy as seemed desirable, while in + agricultural districts they were allowed also to take over the + sheep and cattle of their murdered victims. Here, in towns + where there was more chance of resistance than in scattered + homesteads, it would be wise to employ regular troops, backed, + if necessary, by artillery, to whom would be entrusted the + murder of the whole male population, after suitable tortures, + supposing the executioners had a taste for the sport, and to + them was given the right of general plunder. Then, as soon as + the number and capacity of the vacant houses were telegraphed + to Constantinople, occupiers from the discontented townsfolk + and natives of Thrace were assigned to them. Sometimes there + would be a big school building to give away as well, but that + was not always so, for it might be more convenient to assemble + Armenians there for purposes of registration or so forth, and + then, if it happened to catch fire, why Enver would understand + that such accidents would occur. Among other careful and + well-thought-out instructions came the order that, when + possible, the murders should not take place in the town, but + outside it, for clean Allah-fearing Moslems would not like to + live in habitations defiled by Christian corpses. But, above + all, there must be thoroughness; not a man must be left alive, + not a girl nor a woman who must not drag her outraged body, so + long as breath and the heart-beat remained in it, to, or rather + towards those 'agricultural colonies,' as Talaat Bey, in a + flash of whimsical Prussian humour, called them. One was + advantageously situated in the middle of the Anatolian desert + at the village of Sultanieh. There, for miles round, stretched + the rocks and sands of a waterless wilderness, but no doubt the + women and children of this very industrious race would manage + to make it wave with cornfields. Another agricultural colony, + by way of contrast, should be established a couple of days' + journey south of Aleppo, where the river loses itself in + pestilential and malarious swamps. Arabs could not live there, + but who knew whether those hardy Armenians (the women and + children, of them at least who had proved themselves robust + enough to reach the place) would not flourish there out of + harm's way? After the swamps one came to the Arabian desert, + and there, a hundred miles south-east, was a place called + Deir-el-Zor; wandering Arab tribes sometimes passed through it, + but, arrived there, the Armenians should wander no more. In + those arid sands and waterless furnaces of barren rock there + was room for all and to spare. Sultanieh, the swamps, and + Deir-el-Zor: these were the chief of Talaat Bey's agricultural + colonies.</p> + + <p>There must be collecting stations for these tragic + colonists, centres to which they must be herded in from + surrounding districts: one at Osmanieh, let us say, one at + Aleppo, one at Ras-el-Ain, one at Damascus. And since it would + be a pity to let so many flowers of girlhood waste their + sweetness on the desert air of Deir-el-Zor, slave markets must + be established at these collecting stations. There would be + plenty of girls, and prices would be low, but the reverend + ministers of Allah the God of Love, the Ulemas, the Padis and + the Muftis, should be accorded a preferential tariff. Indeed + they should pay nothing at all; they should just choose a girl + and take her away, and, with the help of Allah the God of Love, + convert her to the blessed creed. No one was too young for + these lessons.... A little abstemiousness would not hurt these + pampered Christians, so when they set out on their marches they + need not be provided with rations or water. Perhaps some might + die, but Talaat had no use for weaklings at his agricultural + colonies. Nor must there be any poking and prying on the part + of those interfering American missionaries; and so Talaat Bey + put all the agricultural colonies out of bounds for + foreigners....</p> + + <p>There was no hurry over these deportations, for the plea of + military exigencies, which had caused the deportations in + Armenia itself to be terminated by massacre with a rapidity + almost inartistic, did not apply to Armenians so far from the + seat of war. Their picnics could be conducted quietly and + pleasantly in the leisurely Oriental manner. Even the men need + not be murdered absolutely out of hand. Strong young fellows + might be stripped and tied down and then beaten to death by + bastinadoing the feet till they burst, or by five hundred blows + on the chest and stomach. Their cries would mingle with the + screams of their sisters in the embrace of Turkish soldiers. + And, talking of embraces, if a woman was desirable, she need + not walk all the way to Deir-el-Zor, but by embracing Islamism + be transferred to a harem. But these were details that might be + left to individual taste: there were no precise instructions + save that no Armenian men must be discoverable in the Ottoman + Empire at all, and no women save those who had become Turkish + women, or who were at work on the waterless and the malarial + agricultural colonies.</p> + + <p>Talaat Bey reviewed his finished scheme. He thought it would + do, and Enver Pasha agreed with him, and Jemal Bey (who soon + after styled himself Jemal the Great), the Military Governor of + Syria, and so responsible for the last stages of their + pilgrimage, thought it would do very well indeed. And + instructions were sent out to every town in the Empire where + there were Armenians, in accordance with the programme of + Talaat Bey.</p> + + <p>How Enver carried out his part of the programme in Armenia + itself we have seen, and by the end of the year (1915) his work + was done, and Armenia was Armenia no longer. But operations, as + I have said, were conducted in a more leisurely manner + elsewhere, and the agony of that butchery protracted. But Jemal + got to work at once in the thickly populated district round + Zeitun. He had had no success in the campaign of the winter in + the direction of the Suez Canal, and his troops were hungry for + some sort of victory. The Zeitunlis were hardy independent + mountaineers, who were possessed of arms, and Jemal thought it + more prudent not to dally with deportations, but conduct a + regular campaign against them. For two or three months they + resisted, entrenching themselves in the hills, but they could + not hold out against artillery and the modern apparatus of war, + and the whole tribe was wiped out. That done, Jemal became + Jemal the Great by reason of his national services, and paid a + visit to Germany. On his return we shall hear of him again.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile, from all the reports that have arrived from + missionaries and others, we may take one or two, almost at + random. At certain places, as in the governments of Ismid, + Angora and Diarbekr, the Armenian population was completely + wiped out. Sometimes tortures were added, as at a certain + Anatolian town where there was a big Armenian school, in which + a number of professors and instructors, some of whom had + studied in America, in Scotland, and in Germany, had for years + been working.</p> + + <p>What happened to them was this:--</p> + + <p>(1) Professor A served the College thirty-five years, and + taught Turkish and history. He was arrested without charge, the + hair of his head and beard were pulled out in order to secure + damaging confessions. He was starved and hung up by the arms + for a day and a night and repeatedly beaten. He was then + murdered.</p> + + <p>(2) Professor B, who had served the College thirty-three + years, and taught mathematics, suffered the same fate.</p> + + <p>(3) Professor C, head of the preparatory department, had + served the College for twenty years. He was made to witness the + spectacle of a man being beaten almost to death, and became + mentally deranged. He was murdered with his family.</p> + + <p>(4) Professor D, who taught mental and moral sciences, was + treated in the same way as Professor A. He also had three + finger nails pulled out by the roots, and was subsequently + murdered.</p> + + <p>Similarly, at Diarbekr, the Armenians were collected in + batches of 600, taken out of the town, and killed to the last + man. Among them was the Armenian Archbishop; his eyes and nails + were dragged out before he was butchered.</p> + + <p>Or let us take a look at some of the collecting camps. At + one, described by an eye-witness, we find that the convoy had + arrived after several months of travel. More than half were + already dead, they had been pillaged by bandits and Kurds seven + times. They were forbidden to drink water when they passed by a + stream, three-quarters of the young women and girls had been + kidnapped, the rest were compelled to sleep with the gendarmes + who conducted them. At Osmanieh it was decided to deport the + women and children by train. They lay about the station + starving and fever-stricken. When the train arrived many were + jostled on to the line, and the driver yelled with joy, crying + out, 'Did you see how I smashed them up?'</p> + + <p>At another camp typhus broke out; those who died of it were + left unburied, as vouched for by a Turkish officer, in order to + increase the infection....</p> + + <p>Urfa was another collecting camp for the Armenians in that + district, and the following account is based on the information + of an eye-witness. Here, before the concentration began, the + Armenians living in the town offered resistance to the Turks, + and held out until Fahri Bey, second in command to Jemal the + Great, arrived with artillery, bombarded the town, and + massacred every Armenian there. Quiet being thus restored, the + bands of deported began to arrive. They came by rail or on + foot, and, with the Prussian love of tabulation, were divided + into three groups.</p> + + <p>The first group consisted of old men, old women, and young + children. They, guarded by gendarmes, were sent marching + through the desert to Deir-el-Zor. Few, if any, ever arrived + there, all dying by the way.</p> + + <p>The second group, consisting of able-bodied men, was led off + in batches and slaughtered. Among them were Zohrab and Vartkes, + Armenian deputies who had been brought there from + Constantinople.</p> + + <p>The third group consisted of young marriageable girls. Some, + perhaps, found their way into harems.</p> + + <p>From Aleppo (one of the final concentration camps before + such as were left of the convoys set forth for their goal, the + swamps or the desert round Deir-el-Zor) we have the detailed + evidence of Dr. Martin Niepage, High Grade teacher in the + German Technical School. This gentleman, with a courage and a + humanity to which the highest tribute must be paid, addressed a + report of protest to the German Ambassador at Constantinople, + and wrote an open letter to the Reichstag on the subject of + what he had seen with his own eyes in that town. In his + preliminary matter he speaks as follows:--</p> + + <p>'In dilapidated caravanserais I found quantities of dead, + many corpses being half-decomposed, and others still living + among them who were soon to breathe their last. In other yards + I found quantities of sick and dying people, whom nobody was + looking after.... We teachers and our pupils had to pass them + every day. Every time we went out we saw through the open + windows their pitiful forms, emaciated and wrapped in rags. In + the morning our school children, on their way through the + narrow streets, had to push past the two-wheeled ox-carts on + which every day, from eight to ten rigid corpses without coffin + or shroud, were carried away, their arms and legs trailing out + of the vehicle.'</p> + + <p>From the report itself:--</p> + + <p>'Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the + Armenian plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, + women, and children, only two or three hundred survivors + arrived here in the south. The men were slaughtered on the way, + the women and girls, with the exception of the old, the ugly + and those who are still children, have been abused by Turkish + soldiers and officers.... Even when they are fording rivers + they do not allow those dying of thirst to drink. All the + nourishment they receive is a daily ration of a little meal + sprinkled on their hands.... Opposite the German Technical + School at Aleppo, a mass of about four hundred emaciated forms, + the remnant of such convoys, is lying in one of the + caravanserais. There are about a hundred children (boys and + girls) among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them + are suffering from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the + yard, one has the impression of entering a madhouse. If one + brings food, one notices that they have forgotten how to + eat.... If one gives them bread, they put it aside + indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for + death.'</p> + + <p>Dr. Niepage wrote this report in the hope of saving such as + then (1915) survived. No notice whatever was taken of it, and + his postscript, written in May 1916, records the fact that 'the + exiles encamped at Ras-el-Ain on the Bagdad Railway, estimated + at 20,000 men, women and children, were slaughtered to the last + one.'<a name="FNanchor4"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_4">[4]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + It is right to add that at Aleppo an officer called + Bekir Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected + from neighbouring districts, who were threatened with + massacre, and I find that a German missionary states that + there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This forms + confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is + nothing to show that they were not subsequently deported to + Deir-el-Zor. In this case it is highly improbable that any + survive. + </div>In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the + Germans are directly responsible for the continuance of the + massacres. Such, too, is the opinion, he tells us, of the + educated Moslems, and his courage in stating this has lost him + his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely hoped that he has + escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for drawing + attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian + massacres, has been arrested for high treason. + + <p>Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had + refused to interfere in the massacres, and both in the official + press and through official utterances had expressed their + support of this Ottomanisation of the Empire, began to think + that you might have too much of a good thing, and that the + massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason was clear + and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour + in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for + which they had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. + There had been some talk, they said, of saving 500,000 + Armenians out of the race, but, in the way things were going + on, it seemed that the remnant would not nearly approach that + figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper their + patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he + wanted to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh + from his visit to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of + Talaat's opposition, made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, + in which, beyond doubt, we can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' + in the following manner.</p> + + <p>There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in + Constantinople which was to be led out for murder and + deportation, and Jemal gave orders that it should be spared and + sent back to its highland home. He gave orders also that the + entire convoy should be informed who was their saviour, and + should be led in procession past his house and show their + gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, + half-starved crowd streamed by the house of Jemal the Great, + with murmurs of thanksgiving and uplifted hands, and all manner + of obeisances, while Jemal the Great stood in his porch with + stern, impassive face, and hand on his sword-hilt in the best + Potsdam manner, and acknowledged these + thanksgivings....<a name="FNanchor5"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_5">[5]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + In support of Jemal's claim to clemency it must be + added that, according to a report coming from Alexandria, + he hanged twelve of the worst assassins sent to Syria as + ringleaders of the massacres. I cannot find corroboration + of this. + </div>Here, then, is the absurd, the Williamesque side of this + ludicrous popinjay, Jemal the Great, and it contains not only + the obvious seeds of laughter, but the more helpful seeds of + hope. He has a strong hand on the very efficient army of Syria, + and his visits to Berlin seem perhaps to have turned his head + not quite in the direction that the Master-egalo-megalomaniac + of Berlin intended. I gather that Jemal the Great was not so + much impressed by the magnificence of William II. as to fall + dazzled and prone at the Imperial feet, and lick with + enraptured tongue the imperial boot polish, but rather to be + inspired to do the same himself, to become the God-anointed of + the newly acquired German province, which is Turkey, and make a + Potsdam of his own. This is only a guess, but the conduct of + Jemal the Great in the matter of these Armenian refugees, and + in other affairs, has been distinctly imperial. In June of this + year, for instance, he telegraphed to H.E. the Vali of Syria, + and an extract from his text is truly Potsdamish. 'One and a + half million of sandbags,' he wrote, 'are required for the + fortress of Gaza.... The bags should be made, if necessary, of + all the silk-hangings in houses of Syria and Palestine.' With + his army behind him, he has twice already defied the orders of + Talaat, and I am inclined to think that he is the coming Strong + Man of the effete Empire with whom it would be well worth while + to make friends, even at a highish price. The Allied Powers + should keep an undazzled eye on him, for it is quite possible + that, having defied Talaat successfully, he may go on to defy + the real rulers of Turkey, who live in Berlin. His Syrian army, + from such sources as are available, appears to be more + efficient than any other body of troops the Turks can put into + the field, and he has them in control. Probably in the winter + of 1917-1918 our troops will come into collision with them. But + in the interval, also quite probably, Jemal the Great may + resent German superintendence.<a name= + "FNanchor6"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_6">[6]</a></sup> + + <p><a name="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + See note at end of this chapter. + </div>But in addition to his ludicrous side, there is in him a + refined hypocrisy and a subtle cruelty worthy of Abdul Hamid. + One instance will suffice. + + <p>There had been some talk that at certain of these + concentration camps there was no water supply, and he gave + orders, did Jemal the Great and the Merciful, that water should + be sent. A train consisting of trucks of water accordingly was + despatched to one of those camps, situated in the desert, with + no supply nearer than six miles, and an eye-witness describes + its arrival. The mob of Armenians, mad with thirst, surrounded + it, and, since everything must be done in an orderly and seemly + manner, were beaten back by the Turkish guards, and made to + stand at a due distance for the distribution. And when those + ranks, with their parched throats and sun-cracked lips, were + all ready, the Turkish guards opened the taps of the + reservoirs, and allowed the whole of their contents to run away + into the sand. Whether Jemal the Great planned that, or whether + it was but a humorous freak on the part of the officials, I + cannot say. But as a refinement of cruelty I have, outside the + page of Poe's tales, only once come across anything to equal + it, and that in a letter from the <i>Times'</i> correspondent + at Berne on April 11, 1917. He describes the treatment of + English prisoners in Germany: 'An equally common entertainment + with those women (German Red Cross nurses) was to offer a + wounded man a glass, perhaps, of water, then, standing just + outside his reach, to pour it slowly on the ground.' Could + those sisters of mercy have read the account of Jemal's + clemency, or is it merely an instance of the parallelism of + similar minds?</p> + + <p>So the empty train returned, and Jemal the Great caused it + to be known in Berlin that he was active in securing a proper + water supply for the famous agricultural settlements in the + desert, and loud were the encomiums in the press of the Central + Powers over the colonisation of Syria by the Armenians, the + progress and enlightenment of the Turks, and the skilful and + humane organisation of Jemal the Great.</p> + + <p>There is no difficulty in estimating to-day the number of + Armenian men who survive in the Turkish Empire. All appeals to + the Prussian overlords, such as were made by Dr. Niepage, and + the belated remonstrance of the Prussians themselves when they + foresaw a dearth of labour for the husbandry of beet and + cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I cannot see any reason for + supposing that Armenian men exist any more in the Empire. It is + more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who, by + accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. + Certainly in some districts there were considerable + 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage rates them as many thousands. + But the willingness to accept those conditions was not always a + guarantee for their being granted, and I have read reports + where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was a more + serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they + were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can + scarcely consider these women as constituting an Armenian + element any more in the country. The work of butchery, the + torture, the long-drawn agonies of those inhuman pilgrimages + have come to an end because there are no more Armenian victims + available. Apart from those who escaped over the Russian + frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race + exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest + deed that ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It + is not in revenge on the murderers, but in order to rescue the + other subject peoples, Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still + enclosed within the frontiers of the Empire, that the Allied + Governments, in their answer to President Wilson, stated that + among their aims as belligerents, was the 'liberation of the + peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of the + Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again, + after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the + destinies of races not his own. Too long already--and to their + disgrace be it spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations + of Europe tolerated at their very doors a tyranny that has + steadily grown more murderous and more monstrous, because they + feared the upset of the Balance of Power. Now at least such + Powers as value national honour, and regard a national promise + as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, + have resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk + over his alien subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the + least they can do (and unhappily the most) to redeem the + century-long neglect of their duty. Even now, as we shall see + in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril threatens those other + peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule, and we can but + pray that the end of the war will come before Arabs or Greeks + or Jews suffer the same fate as has exterminated the Armenians. + Too often have we been too late; we must only hope that another + item will not have to be added to that miserable list, and + that, when the day of reckoning comes, no half-hearted and + pusillanimous policy will stay our hands from the complete + execution of that to which we stand pledged. The Balance of + Power has gone the way of other rickety makeshifts, but there + must be no makeshift in our dealings with the Turk, no + compromise and no delay. What shall be done with those who + planned and executed the greatest massacres known to history + matters little; let them be hanged as high as Haman, and have + done with them. But what does matter is that at no future time + must it be in the power of a Government that has never been + other than barbaric and butcherous, to do again as it has done + before.</p> + + <p>NOTE ON JEMAL THE GREAT</p> + + <p>Jemal the Great has very obligingly done what I suggested we + might expect him to do, and has kicked against the German + control of the Syrian army. General von Falkenhayn was sent to + take supreme command, and on June 28th of this year Jemal the + Great refused to receive orders from him. In consequence + General von Falkenhayn refused responsibility for any offensive + movement there if Jemal remained in command.</p> + + <p>This promised well for trouble between Turks and Germans, + but we must not, I am afraid, build very high hopes on it, for + Germany has dealt with the situation in a masterly manner. + Jemal was already Minister of Marine as well as commander of + the Syrian army, so the Emperor asked him to pay another visit + to Berlin, and he has been visiting Krupp's works and German + naval yards, and we shall find probably that in the future his + activities will be marine rather than military, and that von + Falkenhayn will have a free hand in Syria.</p> + + <p>But this will prove rather disappointing for Jemal, since it + seems beyond mere coincidence that towards the end of August + Herr von Kuhlmann, the new German Foreign Minister, induced the + Turkish Government (while Jemal was at Berlin) to put their + navy and their merchant fleet under the orders of the German + Admiralty, and already many Turkish naval officers have been + replaced by Germans. Thus Jemal will find himself deprived of + his military command, because the navy so urgently needed his + guiding hand, while his guiding hand over the navy will be + itself guided by the German Admiralty.... In fact, it looks + rather like checkmate for Jemal the Great, and an end to the + trouble he might have given the German control.</p> + + <p>On the eve of his leaving Germany, as yet unconscious + probably of the subordination of the entire Turkish fleet to + the German Admiralty, he gave an interview to a representative + of the <i>Cologne Gazette</i>, which deserves more than that + ephemeral appearance. It shows Jemal the Great in a sort of + hypnotic trance induced at Potsdam. 'The German fleet,' he + says, 'is simply spotless in its power, and a model for all + states which need a modern navy--a model which cannot be + surpassed.' ... He went for a cruise in a submarine which + proceeded 'so smoothly, elegantly, calmly and securely that I + had the impression of cruising in a great steamship.' ... He + was taken to Belgium, and describes the 'idyllic life there': + in the towns 'the people go for walks all day long,' and in the + country the peasants blithely gather in the harvest with the + help of happy prisoners.' (He does not tell us where the + harvest goes to, any more than the Germans tell us where the + Turkish harvests go to.) He was taken to General Headquarters, + which he describes as 'majestic.' Finally he was taken into the + presence of the All-Highest, and seems to have emerged in the + condition in which Moses came down from Sinai.... But one must + not altogether despair of Jemal the Great. It is still possible + that, on his return to Constantinople, when he found that his + position, as Minister of Marine was but a clerkship in the + German Admiralty, the hypnotic trance began to pass off, and + his ambitions to re-assert themselves. He may yet give trouble + to the Germans if properly handled.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_IV"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter IV</i></h2> + + <center> + THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + </center> + + <p>It is impossible to leave this heart-rending tale of the + sufferings of the Armenian people under the Turks without some + account of that devoted band of American missionaries who, with + a heroism unsurpassed, and perhaps unequalled, so eagerly + sacrificed themselves to the ravages of pestilence and + starvation in order to alleviate the horrors that descended on + the people to whom they had been sent. Often they were forcibly + driven from the care of their flocks, often in the + extermination of their flocks there was none left whom they + could shepherd, but wherever a remnant still lingered there + remained these dauntless and self-sacrificing men and women, + regardless of everything except the cause to which they had + devoted themselves. They recked nothing of the dangers to which + they exposed themselves so long as there was a child or a woman + or a man whom they could feed or nurse. Terrible as were the + sufferings through which the Armenians passed, they must have + been infinitely more unbearable had it not been for these + American missionaries; small as was the remnant that escaped + into the safety of Persia or Russian Trans-Caucasia, their + numbers must have been halved had it not been for the heroism + of these men and women. While the German Consuls contented + themselves with a few faint protests to their Ambassador at + Constantinople, followed by an acquiescence of silence, the + missionaries constituted themselves into a Red Cross Society of + intrepid workers, and, as one well-qualified authority tells + us, 'suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical + exhaustion as any proportionate body of workers on the European + battlefields.' Fully indeed did they live up to the mandate of + the American board that sent them out: 'Your great business is + with the fundamental doctrines and duties of the Gospel.'</p> + + <p>At the opening of the European War the American Missions had + been at work for nearly a hundred years, and were disseminated + over Anatolia and Armenia. They had opened 163 Protestant + churches and 450 schools, they established hospitals, and in + every possible way spread civilisation in a country where the + spirit of the governing class was barbarism. It was not their + object to proselytise. 'Let the Armenian remain an Armenian if + he will,' so ran the instructions from which I have already + quoted, 'the Greek a Greek, the Nestorian a Nestorian, the + Oriental an Oriental,' and in the same wise and open-minded + spirit they encouraged native Protestant Churches which were + independent of them and largely self-supporting. Naturally in a + country governed by monsters like Abdul Hamid and Enver Pasha + in later days, they earned the enmity which is the tribute of + barbarians to those who stand for civilisation, and when, owing + to the extermination or flight of their Armenian flocks, they + were left without a charge, and their schools were closed, we + find a paean of self-congratulation going up from the Turkish + press inspired by the butchers of Armenia. But till the + massacres and the flight were complete, they gave themselves to + the 'duties of the Gospel,' and their deeds shine like a star + into the blackness of that night of murder.</p> + + <p>I will take as an example of the superb heroism of those men + and women the diary of an American lady attached to the mission + at Urmia, a document that, anonymously, is one of the noblest, + least self-conscious records I have ever read. The period of it + extends over five months.</p> + + <p>Early in January 1915 the Russian troops were withdrawn from + Urmia, which lies on the frontier between Turkey and Persia, + and simultaneously the Moslem population began to plunder the + Christian villages, the inhabitants of which fled for refuge to + the missions in the city. Talaat's official murder-scheme was + not completed yet, but the Kurds, together with the Turks, had + planned a local massacre at Geogtapa, which was stopped by the + American doctor of this mission, Dr. Packard, who, at great + personal risk, obtained an interview with the Kurdish chief, + and succeeded in inducing him to spare the lives of the + Christians, if they gave up arms and ammunition and property. + The American flag was hoisted over the Mission buildings, and + before a week was out there were over ten thousand refugees + housed in the yards and rooms, where they remained for five + months, the places of the dead being taken by fresh influxes. + The dining-room, the sitting-room, the church, the school, were + all given over to these destitute people, and from the + beginning fear of massacre, as well as prevalence of disease, + haunted the camp. It was impossible to move dead bodies + outside; they had to be buried in the thronged yards, and every + day children were born. But here is the spirit that animated + their protectors. 'We have just had a Praise meeting,' records + the diarist at the close of the first fortnight, 'with fifty or + sixty we could gather from the halls and rooms near, and we + feel more cheerful. We thought if Paul and Silas, with their + stripes, could sing praises in prison, so could we.'</p> + + <p>The weeks, of which each day was a procession of hours too + full of work to leave time for anxiety, began to enrol + themselves into months, and the hope of rescue by a Russian + advance made their hearts sick, so long was it deferred. + Refugees from neighbouring villages kept arriving, and there + was the constant problem before these devoted friends of their + flock, as to how to feed them. All such were welcome, and eager + was the welcome they received, though every foot of space in + the buildings and in the yards was occupied. But somehow they + managed to make room for all who came, and for those villagers + who, under threat of torture and massacre, had apostatised, + there was but yearning and sorrow, but never a word of blame or + bitterness. Sometimes there was a visit of Turkish troops to + search for concealed Russians, and, as our diarist remarks, 'We + can't complain of the monotony of life, for we never know what + is going to happen next. On Tuesday morning we had a wedding in + my room here. The boy and girl were simple villagers.... The + wedding was fixed for the Syrian New Year, but the Kurds came + and carried off wedding clothes and everything else in the + house. They all fled here, and were married in the old dirty + garments they were wearing when they ran for their lives.... + Their only present was a little tea and sugar that I tied up in + a handkerchief and gave to the bride.'</p> + + <p>The eternal feminine and the eternal human speak there; and + there, for this gallantest of women, were two keys that locked + up the endless troubles and anxieties that ceased not day or + night. But sometimes the flesh was weak, and in the privacy of + her diary she says, 'How long, O Lord?' But for that there was + the master-key that unlocks all wards, and a little further on + we read, 'One of the verses that helps to keep my faith steady + is, "He that spared not His own Son." For weeks we have had no + word from the outside world, but we "rest in Jehovah and wait + patiently for Him."'</p> + + <p>The conditions inside the crowded yards grew steadily worse. + Dysentery was rife, and the deaths from it in that narrow space + averaged thirty a day. The state of the sufferers grew so + terrible that it was difficult to get any one to look after + them at all, and many were lying in the open yards, and the + weather, which hitherto had been warm, got cold, and snow fell. + It was with the greatest difficulty that food could be obtained + for those in health, and that of a kind utterly unsuitable to + the sick, while in the minds of their nurses was the bitter + knowledge that with proper diet hundreds of lives could have + been saved, and hundreds of cases of illness avoided.</p> + + <p>For the dead there was but a small percentage of coffins + available, and 'the great mass are just dropped into the great + trench of rotting humanity (in the yard). As I stand at my + window I see one after another of the little bodies carried by + ... and the condition of the living is more pitiful than that + of the dead--hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, wet, swarming + with vermin. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of Europe + would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the + suffering and misery of this one little corner of the world + alone. A helpless unarmed Christian community turned over to + the sword and the passion of Islam!'</p> + + <p>On the top of this came an epidemic of typhoid, twenty-seven + cases on the first day. Outside in the town the Turkish Consul + began hanging Christians, and the missioners were allowed to + take the bodies and bury them. There were threats that the + mission would be entered, and all young men (possible + combatants) killed, but this fear was not realised. The typhoid + increased, and the doctor of the mission and others of the + staff fell ill with it; but the patience and service of the + remainder never faltered, while the same spirit of + uncomplaining suffering animated the refugees. 'Mr. McDowell,' + so the diarist relates, 'saw a tired and weary woman with a + baby in her arms, sitting in one of the seats, and said to her, + "Where do you stay?" She said "Just here." "How long have you + been here?" "Since the beginning." (two months) she replied. + "How do you sleep at night?" "I lay the baby on the desk in + front of me, and I have this post at the back to lean against. + This is a very good place. Thank you very much."'</p> + + <p>In April there comes a break in the diary after the day on + which the following entry is made:--</p> + + <p>'I felt on Sunday as if I ought to get my own burial clothes + ready, so as to make as little trouble as possible when my time + comes, for in these days we all go about our work knowing that + any one of us may be the next to go down. And yet I think our + friends would be surprised to see how cheerful we have kept, + and how many occasions we find for laughing: for ludicrous + things do happen. Then, too, after dwelling so intimately with + Death for three months, he doesn't seem to have so unfriendly + an aspect, and the "Other Side" seems near, and our Pilot close + beside us.... I find the Rock on which I can anchor in peace + are the words of Christ Himself: "Where I am, there ye may be + also." ... That is enough, to be where He is....'</p> + + <p>Then comes a break of two months, during which the writer + was down with typhoid. She resumes again in June, finding that + death has made many changes, and gets back to work again at + once. By that time the Russians had entered Urmia, a + thanksgiving service was held, the refugees dispersed, and the + American Mission went quietly on with its normal work.</p> + + <p>Now I have taken this one instance of the work of Americans + at Urmia to show in some detail the character of the work that + they were doing, and the Christian and humanising influence of + it. But all over Armenia and Anatolia were similar settlements, + and, as already mentioned, at the time of the massacres there + were established there over a hundred of their churches and + over four hundred schools, and from these extracts which + concern only one not very large centre, it may be gathered what + leaven of civilising influence the sum of their energies must + have implied. That lamp shone steady and clear, a 'kindly + light' in the darkness of Turkish misrule, and in the havoc of + the massacres a beacon of hope, not always reached by those + hapless refugees. Indeed it seems to have been only on the + frontier that the missions were able to save those foredoomed + hordes of fleeing Christians; in Armenia and in Anatolia + generally the massacres and 'deportations' were complete, and + by the end of 1915 all American missions were closed, for there + were none to tend and care for. Even if the massacres had not + occurred, the entry of America into the war would have resulted + in a similar cessation of their work, and most probably in a + massacre of the American missioners themselves. Their + withdrawal, of course, was hailed with a peacock scream of + pride by that enlightened body under Talaat and Enver, called + the New Turkish party of Progress, for their presence was a bar + to the Turkish notions of civilisation, in that their influence + made for humanity, and health and education. Now 'the + humiliating and dangerous situation' (to quote from the columns + of <i>Hilal</i>) was put an end to, and Turkish progress could + make headway again.</p> + + <p>Similarly in Syria the outbreak of war put an end to 'the + humiliating and dangerous situation' of the presence of French + schools and missions. There, for many years, French missioners + had done the same work as Americans in Armenia, work in every + sense liberal and civilising, but undenominational in religious + matters and unproselytising. That came to an end earlier than + the organisations in Armenia, and in Syria now, as over the + rest of the Turkish people, Arabs and Jews and Greeks have + nothing except German influence and Kultur to stand between + them and the spirit of Turkish progress of which the Armenian + massacres were the latest epiphany. Germany, as we have seen, + stood by and let the Armenian massacres go on, professing + herself unable to interfere in the internal affairs of Turkey, + though at the time there was not a single branch of Turkish + industries, railways, telegraphs, armies, navies over which she + had not complete control, exercising it precisely as she + thought fit.</p> + + <p>It is useless, then, to base any confidence in the safety of + Jews, Greeks, and Arabs from suffering the same fate as the + Armenians, on a veto from Germany. If it suits Germany to let + those unfortunate peoples be murdered or deported to + agricultural colonies, Germany will assuredly not stir a finger + on their behalf nor prevent a repetition of the horrors I have + dealt with in the previous chapter. Sooner than risk her hold + over Turkey by enforcing unacceptable demands, she will, unless + other considerations of self-interest determine her, let + further massacres occur, if Talaat Bey insists on them. That + spokesman of her policy, Ernst Marré, makes this + perfectly explicit in his book, <i>Die Türken und Wir nach + dem Kriege</i>, upholding from the German standpoint the right + of Turkey and the wisdom of Turkey in dealing with her subject + peoples as she had dealt with the Armenians. 'The Turkish + State,' he tells us, 'is no united whole: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, + Armenians, Kurds, cannot be welded together.' (This, by a + somewhat grim and ominous coincidence, is in exact accordance + with a remark made to a Danish Red Cross Sister by a Turkish + gendarme then engaged in massacring Armenians: 'First we get + rid of the Armenians,' he said, 'then the Greeks, then the + Kurds.') Or again, in defence of the Armenian massacres, 'Only + by energetic interference and by expelling of the obstinate + Armenian element, could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian + dominion.' Or again, 'The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman + Empire must be Ottomanised.' Here, then, is the German point of + view: the Ottoman Government will be right to 'dispose of' its + subject peoples as it thinks fit. So far from interfering, + Germany endorses, and German influence to-day is all that + stands between 'the murderous tyranny' and its subject peoples. + French, English, and finally American pressure can no longer, + since the entry of these nations into the war, be exercised + within the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, and the only + protection of defenceless aliens is the German Government. It + did not stir a finger to save the Armenians, until it saw that + depopulation threatened the prosperity of its industries, and + it is idle to expect that it will do more if the consolidation + of Turkish supremacy demands a further campaign of murder. + Greeks, Arabs, and Jews are all completely at the mercy of + Talaat's murder-schedules. The only chance that can save them + is that further extermination may not suit Germany's political + aims, and that she may find it worth her while to be + peremptory, and forbid instead of endorsing.</p> + + <p>There are unhappily many signs that the butchers of + Constantinople are planning further massacres. In February of + this year preliminary measures were begun against the Greeks + settled in Anatolia. Many were forcibly proselytised, their + property was confiscated, and they were forbidden to carry on + their businesses. Deportations also occurred, and all Greeks + were removed from many villages in Anatolia, into the interior, + presumably to 'agricultural colonies' such as those provided + for Armenians. They suffered terribly from hunger and exposure, + and it is estimated that ten per cent. of them died on their + marches. Since then, however, there has been no more heard of + any extension of those measures, and there seems to have been + as yet no massacre of Greeks. It is reasonable to infer that + Germany has in this case intervened. She still hoped to win + Greece over to the Central European Powers, and clearly any + massacre of Greeks by her own Allies was not desirable. King + Constantine, among his endless vacillations and pusillanimous + treacheries, probably made a firm protest on the subject. But + in the kaleidoscope of war, should Greece come to the side of + the Allies, it seems most probable that there will occur a + wholesale massacre of Greeks. From what we know of the + principles on which German Kultur is based, the most optimistic + can scarcely hope that the very faintest remonstrance will + emanate from Berlin.</p> + + <p>The case of the Arabs in Syria is even more precarious. From + the moment that the policy of the Young Turks was evolved, + namely, to consolidate Osmanli supremacy by the weakening of + its subject peoples, the Ottoman Government has been waiting + for its opportunity to get rid of the 'Arab menace.' As we have + seen, they began by substituting Turkish for Arabic as a + written language in all official usages from the printing of + the Koran and the prayers for the Sultan down to the legends on + railway tickets. The Arab spirit, according to one of the + spokesmen of the New Turk party, had to be suppressed, the Arab + lands had to become Turkish colonies. 'It is a peculiarly + imperious necessity of our existence,' we read in Jelal Noury + Bey's propaganda, 'to Turkise the Arab lands, for the + particularistic idea of nationality is awaking among the + younger generations of Arabs, and already threatens us with a + great catastrophe.' Against the Arabs the Young Turks formed + and fostered a special animosity; they were powerful and + warlike, and Enver, Talaat, and others saw that the idea of an + Osmanli supremacy could never be realised unless very drastic + measures were taken against them. The tenets of Islamism, it is + true, forbade Moslems to fight Moslems, but Islamism, as a + binding force, was already obsolete in the counsels of the new + regime, having given place to Kultur. Of all their subject + peoples, the Young Turks hated the Arabs the most, and, had not + the European War intervened, there is no doubt that the + Armenian massacres, already being planned, would have been + followed by Arab massacres. But the armed and warlike Arabian + tribes were not so easy to deal with as the defenceless + Armenians, and Turkish troops could not be spared in sufficient + numbers to render an Arab massacre the safe, pleasant, and + lucrative pursuit that massacres should be. But Jemal the + Great, black with his triumph over the Armenians at Zeitun, was + Military Governor of Syria, and, the Armenian question being + solved, he began to get to work on the Arab question. Owing to + the expulsion of the French Missions from Syria in 1914, we + have no such full or detailed information as we have from + Americans in Armenia, and the following account is mainly + derived from the Arabic journal <i>Mokattam,</i> published in + Cairo, the information in which is based on the account given + by a Syrian refugee. It agrees with pieces of evidence that + have come to hand from other sources.</p> + + <p>Ever since the beginning of the war Syria has been an area + of direst poverty, starvation, and sickness, which have been + the natural co-operators in Jemal's policy there. All supplies + have been commandeered for the troops (including by special + clause from Potsdam, the German troops); even fish caught by + the fishermen of Lebanon have to be handed over to the military + authorities, and the shortage of supplies in Smyrna, for + instance, is such that at the end of 1916 there were two + hundred deaths daily from sheer starvation, while Germany was + importing from Turkey hundreds of tons of corn and of meat. + Thus this was no natural shortage, for though supplies were low + all over the Turkish Empire, there was not dearth of that kind. + It was an artificial shortage made possible by German demands, + and made intentional by Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better + case than Smyrna; Lebanon perhaps was in sorer straits than + either. Money was equally scarce, and it fitted Jemal's policy + that this should be so, for when Americans in Beirut had raised + funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the Turkish + Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were + dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent + decrees of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets + of towns the poor have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane + and orange peel; in the country, to quote from + <i>Molcattam</i>, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans start to + grow than the fields are filled with women and children who + pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes + (including the victualling of German troops) transportation has + ceased to exist, and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal + the Great.</p> + + <p>On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came + typhus. In the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, + over 8000 persons had died of it. Doctors and medicines were + unobtainable, for all were requisitioned for the needs of the + army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in Hama and Homs, the + epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent from + Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the + charitable from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the + Arabs were working for the policy of Jemal the Great. There + were no troops to spare who should hasten on the work, but the + work was progressing by swift and 'natural' means. Hunger and + pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of Love! How + superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the Arabs. + 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news + of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was + established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, + and if any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations + which passed, the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. + Too much news about Armenian massacres filtered through; there + should not now be such leakage. And when starvation and + pestilence had firmly established themselves, Jemal the Great + went down to see what his personal exertions could effect. All + was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer classes of + Arabs were dying like flies, but mortality was not so + successful among the wealthier, who could, to some extent, + purchase food. So Jemal the Great set to work among them. He + began by hanging the heads of Syrian-Arabs in Damascus, Beirut, + and other cities. No semblance of trial, no prosecution or + arraignment, were necessary: he established courts-martial + under military control, made lists of the accused, and ordered + the courts-martial to condemn them to death. Sometimes he made + mistakes, appointing as the members of his court-martial men + who were not such sturdy patriots as he, and refused to + sentence for no crime the accused whom he nominated. He + remedied such mistakes by appointing new boards of more + seasoned stuff. Moslem and Christian alike were brought before + them, and a general accusation of pro-French tendencies seems + to have been sufficient to secure a sentence of death or + lifelong imprisonment. He aimed not at the poor and the + obscure, for whom hunger and pestilence were providing, but at + the rich and the influential. The higher clergy in Christian + circles, Bishops and Monsignors, were a favourite target, and + among Moslems influential Sheikhs. Sometimes there was a parody + of a trial; sometimes the parody was dispensed with, and when + the black curtain was last raised over Syria, Jemal the Great + had disposed of over eight hundred of the heads of the most + influential of Syrian Arabs. He had got rid, in fact, of the + whole House of Lords, and something more. Those who are + acquainted with 'feudal values' among the Arabs will understand + what that means. He decapitated, not individuals only, but + groups. For devilish ingenuity in this combination of + starvation and pestilence for the poor, and death or lifelong + imprisonment for the chiefs, Jemal the Great must take rank + with Abdul Hamid and the contrivers of the Armenian massacres. + He cannot, it is true, owing to lack of troops, obtain the + swift results of Enver in Armenia, but between typhus, + starvation, and courts-martial, his solution of the Arab + question in Syria is making steady progress. And those + measures, hideously efficient in themselves, are, beyond any + doubt whatever, only the precursors of more sweeping + exterminations of the Arab race, which will be effected after + the war, if the Allied Powers do not step in to save it. The + Faithful of the Holy City, Mecca, have revolted and thrown off + the Turkish yoke, and while the war lasts, and Turkish troops + are otherwise occupied under Teutonic supervision, they will be + able to maintain their independence, for there is no + considerable body of Turks which can seriously threaten them. + But the Syrian Arabs, so long as the war lasts, are being, and + will be, the victims of a quiet scheme of extermination, which, + if long continued, will be as complete as that devised and + carried out by the butchers of Constantinople for the peoples + of Armenia. It is not in the interest of the Germans to save + them, and no check is being put on Jemal the Great to hinder + him from assisting starvation and typhus to ravage the country, + and supplementing their deadly work by court-martial without + trial.</p> + + <p>Equally significant of the rage for the destruction of Arabs + was the treatment of the Bagdad Arab army corps. In spite of + the need for troops one half of it was sent from Bagdad to + Erzerum in the depth of winter, without any provision of warm + clothing. There, in those cold uplands, the men died at the + rate of fifty to sixty a day. Their commanding officer was a + Turk, and a creature of Enver's, called Abdul Kader. Though + these troops had fought admirably, he openly called them Arab + traitors, and his orders seem to have been merely to get rid of + them. There were no courts-martial; they were just taken into a + climate which killed them.</p> + + <p>While for the last thirty years the Armenians and Syrians + have emigrated in large numbers from the Ottoman Empire, there + has been a large immigration of Jews into it. This movement was + originally due to the persecution they suffered in Russia. + Germany and Austria were closed to them, and, flying from the + hideous pogroms that threatened them with extermination, they + begun to settle in Palestine. Wealthy compatriots such as Baron + Edmond de Rothschild assisted them, and, with the amazing + versatility of their race, they, trades-people and town-folk, + adapted themselves to new conditions, turned their wits towards + husbandry and agriculture, and during the last thirty years + have flourished and multiplied in a manner quite unrealised by + the western world. In 1881 there were not more than 25,000 of + them in the home of their race, but by the beginning of the + European War, when their immigration ceased for the present, + they numbered 120,000 souls. Till then the Ottoman Government + adopted the ancient Turkish policy of neglect towards them, for + they were not powerful enough numerically to earn the honour of + a massacre, and, in addition, they were useful settlers. Backed + by powerful Western influence, French, English, and German + alike, they improved out of knowledge the values of the lands + where they established themselves, and by intelligent + management, by conserving and increasing the water supply with + irrigation and well-digging, they have brought many thousand + acres into cultivation. Originally refugees, fleeing from + outrageous persecutions, their immigration by degrees took on a + different spirit. Not only were they coming out of captivity, + but they were entering into the ancient Land of Promise again. + Zionism, the spirit of the returning exiles, animated them, + and, according to their prophets, they realised that 'The Lord + shall comfort Zion, He shall comfort all her waste places.' + They had sowed in tears; now, on their return, they were + reaping in joy, and, though their land was still under the + infidel yoke, they were allowed to dwell in peace, busy, + industrious, with the halo of home-coming in their hearts. They + paid, of course, their Turkish taxes, but these were not levied + in any oppressive manner, and their colonies were thrifty, + self-governing, and prosperous. Already before the war, + one-tenth of the cultivated land in Palestine was in their + hands, they had their own schools, their own methods of + organisation, and, more significant than all, Hebrew became a + living language again. Germany, intent on her penetration of + Turkey, made an attempt to Germanise them also (for Germany, as + we shall see, has a very special interest in these Jewish + colonies), shook her head over Zionism, for which she tried to + substitute Prussianism, and wanted to make the German language + compulsory in Jewish schools at Haifa and Jaffa, but her effort + completely failed. Nothing could show the inherent vitality of + this Jewish colonisation more strikingly.</p> + + <p>These Jewish settlers then were left in peace; from + minuteness they escaped the notice of the Young Turk party in + its schemes for the complete Ottomanisation of the Empire, and, + until the present year 1917, no mention of 'the Jewish + question' was propounded. But it will he remembered that in + 1915, certain Jewish refugees, taking warning from the Armenian + massacres, fled to Egypt, and there founded a Zionist + mule-corps, which served under the English in the Gallipoli + campaign. It seems very probable that it was this that directed + the attention of Jemal the Great to the Jewish colonies in + Palestine: possibly it was merely that he was a more thorough + Ottomaniser than his colleagues in Constantinople. In any case + he ordered the 'deportation' of all Jews from Jaffa, Gaza, and + other agricultural districts. All Jews were commanded to leave + Jaffa within forty-eight hours, no means of transport was given + them, and they were forbidden to take with them either + provisions or any of their belongings. Eight thousand Jews were + evicted from Jaffa alone, and their houses were pillaged, and + they robbed, maltreated, and many were murdered. Thus, and in + no other way had the massacres of the Armenians begun, and, + that there should be no mistake about it, Jemal threatened them + explicitly with the fate of the Armenians. Next day Ludd was + evacuated also; the evacuation of Haifa and Jerusalem was + threatened, and artillery was sent to Jerusalem. There can be + no doubt in fact that Jemal planned and began to carry out a + massacre of all Jews.</p> + + <p>At that point the Germans intervened, and for the present + (but only for the present, for so long in fact as Germany has + complete control over all Turkish internal affairs, in which + she protested she could not meddle) the Jewish colonies in + Palestine seem to be safe.<a name= + "FNanchor7"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_7">[7]</a></sup> The + German chief of the General Staff telegraphed to Berlin that + the 'military considerations' on which Jemal based his + deportations did not exist, and Herr Cohn in the Reichstag + drew the Imperial Chancellor's attention to this. How + seriously the menace was regarded in Germany, and how far + the deportations had gone may be gathered from his words, + 'Is the Imperial Chancellor prepared to influence the + Turkish Government in such a manner as to prevent with + certainty--so far as this is still possible--a repetition in + Palestine of the Armenian atrocities?' This was sufficient: + Germany, who could not dream of interfering in Turkish + internal affairs when only the massacre of hundreds of + thousands of Armenians was concerned, sent her order, and, + for the present, Jemal the Great has been unable to proceed + with the solution of the Jewish question in Turkey, which he + had just discovered. We need not yet in fact give Jemal his + Jew. But some sort of explanation to soothe the exasperation + of the Turks in not being allowed to murder when and how and + where they pleased, was thought advisable, and the + explanation (an extraordinarily significant one) was given + in an inspired paragraph of the <i>Frankfurter Zeitung</i> + not long after. 'The valuable structure of Zionist cultural + work, in which the German Empire must have well founded + interest in view of future and very promising trade + relations, will, it is very much to be hoped, be preserved + from destruction so far as purely military requirements do + not make it necessary. Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of + meaning in Palestine where practically no Turks dwell.'</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + This view seems to be borne out by subsequent events, + for the Jews evacuated from Jaffa have been permitted to + return owing to the intervention of the Spanish Government. + It is not hard to guess who prompted that. + </div>We may take it, then, that with regard to the projected + Jewish massacres, quite clearly foreshadowed by the schemes of + deportation from Jaffa and Gaza, Germany has made strong + representations to the Ottoman Government. She did not do so + (indeed she officially refused to do so) when the Armenian + massacres began, for she could not interfere in Turkey's + internal affairs. But now she has discovered that Pan-Turkish + ideals have no sort of meaning in Palestine, and thus, with + amazing astuteness, has provided herself with a reason for + interfering, while still not giving up the policy of + non-interference in Turkish affairs, for Turkey, she has + discovered, <i>has</i> no affairs in Palestine. At the same + time she guards herself from diplomatic defeat by the hope that + Zionist cultural work will be saved from destruction so <i>far + as purely military requirements do not make it necessary</i>. + In other words, supposing Jemal the Great got completely out of + hand, and proceeded to indiscriminate massacre of the Jews, + Germany would doubtless accept his plea that military + requirements had made it necessary.... And we were once so + ignorant as to assure ourselves that Germany had no notions of + diplomacy! + + <p>The full significance of her intervention on behalf of the + Jews, when neither the extermination of the Armenians, the + persecution of the Arabs, nor the deportation of the Greeks + moved Germany to any decided action or energetic protest, must + be left, in so far as it concerns the future, to another + chapter. But as regards the present and the past it will be + useful to consider here what has prompted her to make a protest + (which we may regard, so long as her foot is on the neck of the + Turks, as having been successful) against these projected + massacres. Certainly it was not humanity; it was not the + faintest desire to save innocent people in general from being + murdered wholesale, for in the similar case of the Armenians, + her bowels of compassion were not moved. Or, possibly, if we + incline to lenience, we may say that she was sorry for the + Armenians, but could not then risk a disagreement with their + murderers who were her allies, whereas now, feeling herself + more completely dominant over the Turks than she then did, she + could risk being peremptory, especially since there was that + saving clause about military requirements. For during the + Armenian massacres, the Dardanelles expedition was still on the + shores of Gallipoli, and the menace to Constantinople acute. It + was possible that if she opposed a firm front to the Armenian + massacres, the Turks, already on the verge of despair with + regard to saving the capital from capture, might have made + terms with the Allies. But now no such imminence of danger + threatened them, and, with Germany's domination over them + vastly more secure than it had been in 1915, she could afford + to treat them less as allies and more as a conquered people. + This alone might have accounted for her unprecedented impulse + of humanity in the minds of those who still attribute such + instincts to her, but she had far stronger reasons than that + for wanting to save the Jews of Palestine.</p> + + <p>Her policy with regard to them is set forth in a pamphlet by + Dr. Davis Treitsch, called <i>Die Jüden der + Türkei</i>, published in 1915, which is a most + illuminating little document. These Jewish colonies, as we have + seen, came from Russia, and as Germany realised, long before + the war, they might easily form a German nucleus in the Near + East, for they largely consisted of German-speaking Jews, akin + in language and blood to a most important element in her own + population. 'In a certain sense,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'the Jews + are a Near Eastern element in Germany and a German element in + Turkey.' He goes on with unerring acumen to lament the exodus + of German-speaking Jews to the United States and to England. + 'Annually some 100,000 of these are lost to Germany, the empire + of the English language and the economic system that goes with + it is being enlarged, while a German asset is being + proportionately depreciated.... It will no longer do simply to + close the German frontiers to them, and in view of the + difficulties which would result from a wholesale migration of + Jews into Germany itself, Germans will only be too glad to find + a way out in the emigration of those Jews to Turkey--a solution + extraordinarily favourable to the interests of all three + parties concerned.'</p> + + <p>Here, then, is the matter in a nutshell: Germany, wide-awake + as ever, saw long ago the advantage to her of a growing Jewish + population from the Pale in Turkey. She was perhaps a little + overloaded with them herself, but in this immigration from + Russia to Palestine she saw the formation of a colony that was + well worth German protection, and the result of the war, + provided the Palestinian immigrants were left in peace, would + be to augment very largely the number of those settling there. + 'Galicia,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'and the western provinces of + Russia, which between them contain more than half the Jews in + the world, have suffered more from the war than any other + region. Jewish homes have been broken up by hundreds of + thousands, and there is no doubt whatever that, as a result of + the war, there will be an emigration of East European Jews on + an unprecedented scale.' This emigration, then, to Palestine + was, in Germany's view, a counter-weight to the 100,000 + annually lost to her through emigration to America and England. + With her foot on Turkey's neck she had control over these + German-speaking Jews, and saw in them the elements of a German + colony. Her calculations, it is true, were somewhat upset by + the development of the Zionist movement, by which those + settlers declared themselves to have a nationality of their + own, and a language of their own, and Dr. Treitsch concedes + that. 'But,' he adds, 'in addition to Hebrew, to which they are + more and more inclined, the Jews must have a world-language, + and this can only be German.'</p> + + <p>This, then, in brief, and only up to the present, is the + story of how the Jewish massacres were stayed. The Jews were + potential Germans, and Germany, who sat by with folded hands + when Arabs and Armenians were led to torture and death, put up + a warning finger, and, for the present, saved them. In her + whole conduct of the war, nothing has been more characteristic + than her 'verboten' to one projected massacre and her + acquiescence in others. But, as for her having saved the Jews + out of motives of humanity, 'Credant Judaei!'</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_V"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter V</i></h2> + + <center> + DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLAH + </center> + + <p>It was commonly said at the beginning of this war that, + whatever Germany's military resources might be, she was + hopelessly and childishly lacking in diplomatic ability and in + knowledge of psychology, from which all success in diplomacy is + distilled. As instances of this grave defect, people adduced + the fact that, apparently, she had not anticipated the entry of + Great Britain into the war at all, while her treatment of + Belgium immediately afterwards was universally pronounced to be + not a crime merely, but a blunder of the stupidest sort. It is + perfectly true that Germany did not understand, and, as seems + likely in the light of innumerable other atrocities, never will + understand, the psychology of civilised peoples; she has never + shown any signs up till now, at any rate, of 'having got the + hang of it' at all. But critics of her diplomacy failed to see + the root-fact that she did not understand it merely because it + did not interest her. It was not worth her while to master the + psychology of other civilised nations, since she was out not to + understand them, but to conquer them. She had all the + information she wanted about their armies and navies and guns + and ammunition neatly and correctly tabulated. Why, then, since + this was all that concerned her, should she cram her head with + irrelevant information about what they might feel on the + subject of gas-attacks or the torpedoing of neutral ships + without warning? As long as her fumes were deadly and her + submarines subtle, nothing further concerned her.</p> + + <p>But Europe generally made a great mistake in supposing that + Germany could not learn psychology, and the process of its + distillation into diplomacy when it interested her. The + psychology of the French and English was a useless study, for + she was merely going to fight them, but for years she had been + studying with an industry and a patience that put our diplomacy + to shame (as was most swiftly and ignominiously proven when it + came into conflict with hers) the psychology of the Turks. For + years she had watched the dealings of the Great Powers with + Turkey, but she had never really associated herself with that + policy. She sat quietly by and saw how it worked. Briefly it + was this. For a hundred years Turkey had been kept alive in + Europe by the sedulous attentions of the Physician Powers, who + dared not let him die for fear of the stupendous quarrels which + would instantly arise over his corpse. So there they all sat + round his bed, and kept him alive with injections of strychnine + and oxygen, and, no less, by a policy of rousing and irritating + the patient. All through the reign of Abdul Hamid they + persevered: Great Britain plucked his pillow from him, so to + speak, by her protectorate of Egypt; Russia tweaked Eastern + Rumelia from him; France deprived him of his hot-water bottle + when she snatched at the Constantinople quays, and they all + shook and slapped him when he went to war with Greece in 1896, + and instantly deprived him of the territory he had won in + Thessaly. That was the principle of European diplomacy towards + Turkey, and from it Germany always held aloof.</p> + + <p>But from about the beginning of the reign of the present + German Emperor, German or rather Prussian diplomacy had been + going quietly about its work. It was worth while to study the + psychology of the Turks, because dimly then, but with + ever-increasing distinctness, Germany foresaw that Turkey might + be a counter of immense importance in the great conflict which + was assuredly drawing nearer, though as yet its existence was + but foreshadowed by the most distant reflections of summer + lightning on a serene horizon. But if Turkey was to be of any + profit to her, she wanted a strong Turkey who could fight with + her (or rather for her), and she had no use for the Sick Man + whom the other Powers were bent on keeping alive, but no more. + Her own eventual domination of Turkey was always the end in + view, but she wanted to dominate not a weak but a strong + servant. And her diplomacy was not less than brilliant simply + from the fact that on the one hand it soothed Turkey instead of + irritating, and, on the other, that it went absolutely + unnoticed for a long time. Nobody knew that it was going on. + She sent officers to train the Turkish army, well knowing what + magnificent material Anatolia afforded, and she had thoroughly + grasped the salient fact that to make any way with Oriental + peoples your purse must be open and your backshish unlimited. + 'There is no God but backshish, and the Deutsche Bank is his + prophet.'</p> + + <p>For years this went on very quietly, and all over the great + field of the Ottoman Empire the first tiny blades of the crop + that Germany was sowing began to appear. To-day that crop waves + high, and covers the whole field with its ripe and fruitful + ears. For to-day Turkey is neither more nor less than a German + colony, and more than makes up to her for the colonies she has + lost and hopes to regain. She knows that perfectly well, and so + do any who have at all studied the history and the results of + her diplomacy there. Even Turkey itself must, as in an uneasy + dream, be faintly conscious of it. For who to-day is the Sultan + of Turkey? No other than William II. of Germany. It is in + Berlin that his Cabinet meets, and sometimes he asks Talaat Bey + to attend in a strictly honorary capacity. And Talaat Bey goes + back to Constantinople with a strictly honorary sword of + honour. Or else he gives one to William II. from his + <i>soi-disant</i> master, the Sultan, or takes one back to his + <i>soi-disant</i> master from his real master. For no one knows + better than William II. the use that swords of honour play in + deeds of dishonour.</p> + + <p>The object of this chapter is to trace and mount the hewn + and solid staircase of steps by which Germany's present + supremacy over Turkey was achieved.</p> + + <p>Apart from the quiet spade-work that had been going on for + some years, Germany made no important move till the moment + when, in 1909, the Young Turk party, after the forced + abdication of Abdul Hamid, proclaimed the aims and ideals of + the new regime. At once Germany saw her opportunity, for here, + with her help, might arise the strong Turkey which she desired + to see, instead of the weak Turkey which all the other European + Powers had been keeping on a lowering diet for so long + (desirous only that it should not quite expire), and from that + moment she began to lend, or rather let, to Turkey in + ever-increasing quantities, the resources of her scientific and + her military knowledge. It was in her interests, if Turkey was + to be of use to her, that she should educate, and irrigate, and + develop the unexploited treasures of human material, of + fertility and mineral wealth; and Germany's gold, her schools, + her laboratories were at Turkey's disposal. But in every case + she, as in duty bound to her people, saw that she got very good + value for her outlay.</p> + + <p>Here, then, was the great psychological moment when Germany + instantly moved. The Young Turks proclaimed that they were + going to weld the Ottoman Empire into one homogeneous and + harmonious whole, and by a piece of brilliant paradoxical + reasoning Germany determined that it was she who was going to + do it for them. In flat contradiction of the spirit of their + manifestoes, which proclaimed the Pan-Turkish ideal, she + conceived and began to carry out under their very noses the + great new chapter of the Pan-Germanic ideal. And the Young + Turks did not know the difference! They mistook that lusty + Teutonic changeling for their own new-born Turkish babe, and + they nursed and nourished it. Amazingly it throve, and soon it + cut its teeth, and one day, when they thought it was asleep, it + arose from its cradle a baby no more, but a great Prussian + guardsman who shouted, 'Deutschland über Allah!'</p> + + <p>Only once was there a check in the growth of the Prussian + infant, and that was no more than a childish ailment. For when + the Balkan wars broke out the Turkish army was in the + transitional stage. Its German tutors had not yet had time to + inspire the army with German discipline and tradition; they had + only weeded out, so to speak, the old Turkish spirit, the blind + obedience to the Ministers of the Shadow of God. The Shadow of + God, in fact, in the person of the Sultan, had been dragged out + into the light, and his Shadow had grown appreciably less. In + consequence there was not at this juncture any cohesion in the + army, and it suffered reverse after reverse. But a strong + though a curtailed Turkey was more in accordance with Prussian + ideas than a weak and sprawling one, and Germany bore the + Turkish defeats very valiantly. And that was the only set-back + that this Pan-Prussian youngster experienced, and it was no + more than an attack of German measles which he very quickly got + over. For two or three years German influence wavered, then + recovered, 'with blessings on the falling out, that all the + more endears.'</p> + + <p>It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish + ideal to her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of + Germany's methods, the best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal + is to be found in a publication of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was + written as German propaganda and by Germany disseminated + broadcast over the Turkish Empire. An account of this movement + has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the Turkish + side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the + German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish + Phoenix. The Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of + Love, in whose name the Armenians were tortured and massacred, + were the two wings on which it was to soar. Auxiliary soaring + societies were organised, among them a Turkish Ojagha with + similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of it were + founded throughout the Empire. There were also a Turkish Guiji + or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts' club. A union of + merchants worked for the same object in districts where + hitherto trade had been in the hands of Greeks and Armenians, + and signs appeared on their shops that only Turkish labour was + employed. Religious funds also were used for similar economic + restoration.</p> + + <p>Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and + took out her long spoon, for her hour was come. She did not + interfere: she only helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. + With her usual foresight she perceived that the Izji, for + instance, was a thing to encourage, for the boys who were being + trained now would in a few years be precisely the young men of + whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy scout + movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously + and methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely + reliable source of information, we find that the whole boy + scout movement, with its innumerable branches, was under the + control of a German officer, Colonel von Hoff. In its classes + (derneks) boys are trained in military practices, in 'a + recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively enjoy (a + Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use + to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn + skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements + of their companies, they are shown neat ways of judging + distances. They are divided into two classes, the junior class + ranging from the ages of twelve to seventeen, the senior class + consisting of boys over seventeen, but not yet of military age. + But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, the military age has + been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to serve their + country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore, saw + that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class + has become the senior class, and a new junior class has been + set on foot which begins its recreational exercises in the + service of William II., Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It + is all great fun, but those pigeon-livered little boys who are + not diverted by it have to go on with their fun all the same, + for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on all boys. Of + course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is of a + 'semi-military' character.</p> + + <p>The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from + the early age of eight, was the first object of Germany's + peaceful and benign penetration. As from the Pisgah height of + the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw the promised land, but she had no + idea of seeing it only, like Moses, and expiring without + entering it, and her faith that she would enter it and possess + it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has not + only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like + Aleppo were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie + there were separate wooden barracks for the exclusive use of + German troops. There is a military mission at Mamoura, where + all the buildings are permanent erections solidly built of + stone, for no merely temporary occupation is intended, and + thousands of freight-cars with Belgian marks upon them throng + the railways, and on some is the significant German title of + 'Military Headquarters of the Imperial Staff.' There are troops + in the Turkish army, to which is given the title of 'Pasha + formation,' in compliment to Turkey, but the Pasha formations + are under command of Baron Kress von Kressenstein, and are + salted with German officers, N.C.O.'s, and privates, who, + although in the Turkish army, retain their German uniforms.</p> + + <p>This German leaven forms an instructional class for the + remainder of the troops in these formations, who are Turkish. + The Germans are urged to respect Moslem customs and to show + particular consideration for their religious observances. Every + German contingent arriving at Constantinople to join the Pasha + formations finds quarters prepared on a ship, and when the + troops leave for their 'destination' they take supplies from + depots at the railway station which will last them two or three + months. They are enjoined to write war diaries, and are + provided with handbooks on the military and geographical + conditions in Mesopotamia, with maps, and with notes on the + training and management of camels. This looks as if they were + intended for use against the English troops in Mesopotamia, but + I cannot find that they have been identified there. The + greatest secrecy is observed with regard to those Pasha + formations, and their constitution and movements are kept + extremely well veiled.</p> + + <p>Wireless stations have been set up in Asia Minor and + Palestine, and these are under the command of Major Schlee. A + Turkish air-service was instituted, at the head of which was + Major Serno, a Prussian officer, and Turkish aviators are now + in training at Ostend, where they will very usefully defend + their native country. At Constantinople there is a naval school + for Turkish engineers and mechanics in the arsenal, to help on + the Pan-Turkish ideal, and with a view to that all the + instructors are German: a floating dock is in construction at + Ismid, and the order has been placed with German firms. It will + be capable of accommodating ships of Dreadnought build, which + is a new departure for the strictly Pan-Turkish ideal. The cost + is £740,000, to be repaid three years after the end of + the war. Similarly, by the spring of this year, Germany had + arranged to start submarine training in Constantinople for the + Turks, and a submarine school was open and at work in March. A + few months later it was established at the island of Prinkipo, + where it is now hard at work under German instructors. Other + naval cadets were sent to Germany for their training, and + Turkish officers were present at the battle of Jutland in June + 1916, and of course were decorated by the Emperor in person for + their coolness and courage.<a name= + "FNanchor8"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_8">[8]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8">[8]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + In October 1917 a bill was passed for the entire + remodelling of the Turkish fleet after the war, on the + lines of the German fleet, 'which proved its perfect + training in the battle of Skager Rak.' + </div>A complete revision of the Turkish system of exemptions + from military service was necessary as soon as Germany began to + want men badly. The age for military service was first raised, + and we find a Turkish order of October 1916, calling on all men + of forty-three, forty-four, and forty-five years of age to pay + their exemption tax if they did not wish to be called to the + colours. That secured their money, and, with truly Prussian + irony, hardly had this been done when a fresh army order was + issued calling out all men, whether they had paid their + exemption tax or not. Germany thus secured both their money and + their lives. + + <p>Still more men were needed, and in November a fresh levy of + boys was raised regardless of whether they had reached the + military age or not. This absorbed the senior class of the boy + scouts, who hitherto had learned their drill in a + 'recreationary manner.' Neither Jews nor Christians are exempt + from service, and frequent press gangs go round Constantinople + rounding up those who are in hiding.</p> + + <p>Again the Prussian Moloch was hungry for more, and in + December 1916 the Turkish <i>Gazette</i> announced that all + males in Asia Minor between the ages of fourteen and sixty-five + were to be enrolled for military service, and in January of + this year, 1917, fresh recruiting was foreshadowed by the order + that men of forty-six to fifty-two, who had paid their + exemption money, should be medically examined to see if they + were fit for active service. This fresh recruiting was also put + in force in the case of boys, and during the summer of 1917 all + boys above the age of twelve, provided they were sound and + well-built, were taken for the army. Wider and wider the net + was spread, and in the same month a fresh Turco-German + convention was signed, whereby was enforced a reciprocal + surrender in both countries of persons liable to military + service, and of deserters, and simultaneously all Turks living + in Switzerland, and who had paid exemption money, were recalled + to their Germanised fatherland. By now the first crops of the + year were ripening in Smyrna, and in default of civilian labour + (for every one was now a soldier) they were reaped by Turkish + soldiers and the produce sent direct to Germany.</p> + + <p>Already in August 1916, certificates of Ottoman nationality + had been granted to Serbians resident in the Empire who were + willing to become Ottoman subjects, and their 'willingness' was + intensified by hints that incidents akin to the Armenian + massacres might possibly occur among other alien peoples. They + had to sign a declaration that they would not revert to their + former nationality, and thus, no doubt, many Serbs passed into + the Turkish army. Further enrolments were desirable, and, in + March 1917, all Greeks living in Anatolia were forcibly + proselytised, their property was confiscated, and they were + made liable to military service. Unfortunately all were not + available, for of those who were removed from the villages + where they lived to military centres, ten per cent. died on the + forced marches from hunger and exposure. That was annoying for + the German recruiting agents, but it suited well enough the + Pan-Turkish ideal of exterminating foreign nationalities. When + trouble or discontent occurred among the troops, it was firmly + dealt with, as, for instance, when, in November 1916, there + were considerable desertions from the 49th Division. On that + occasion the order was given to fire on them, and many were + killed and wounded. The officer who gave the order was + commended by the Prussian authorities for his firmness. Should + such an incident occur again, it will no doubt be dealt with no + less firmness, for, in April 1917, Mackensen was put in supreme + command of all troops in Asia Minor. But in spite of this + desertions have largely increased lately, and during the summer + deserters out of all the Turkish armies were believed to number + about 200,000. Many of those have formed themselves into + brigand bands, who make the roads dangerous for travellers. The + exchange of honours goes on, for not long ago, in Berlin, + Prince Zia-ed-Din, the Turkish Sultan's heir, presented a sword + of honour to the Sultan William II. Probably he gave him good + news of the progress of the German harbour works begun in the + winter at Stamboul, and himself learned that the railway bridge + which the Turks proposed to build over the Bosporus was not to + be proceeded with, for the German high command had superseded + that scheme by their own idea of making a tunnel under the + Bosporus instead, which would be safer from aircraft.</p> + + <p>Such up-to-date, though in brief outline, is the history of + the establishment of the Prussian octopus grip on military and + naval matters in Turkey. We have largely ourselves to blame for + it. Upon that pathetic and lamb-like record of our diplomacy + during the months between the outbreak of the European War, and + the entry of Turkey into it in October 1914, it would be morbid + to dwell at any length, though a short summary is necessary. As + we all know now, Turkey had concluded a treaty with Germany + early in August, and when our Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir + Louis Malet, who was on leave in England at that date, returned + to his post on August 16th, all that Turkey wanted was to gain + time in which to effect her mobilisation. This she did, with + complete success, and our Ambassador telegraphed to England + stating his perfect confidence in the sincerity with which the + Grand Vizier professed his friendship for England. All through + those weeks of August and September this confidence appeared to + continue unabated. The Moderate party in Turkey--that is to + say, the hoodwinking party--were reported to be daily gaining + strength, and it was most important that the Allies should give + them every assistance, and above all not precipitate matters. + All was going well: all we had to do was to wait. So we waited, + still blindly confident in the sincerity of Turkey's friendship + for England, while the mobilisation of the Turkish forces + proceeded merrily. By the end of September this was nearly + complete, and quite suddenly the Ambassador informed the + Foreign Office that Turkey appeared to be temporising. That was + perfectly true, but the period of temporisation was nearly + over, and by mid-October Turkey had something like 800,000 men + under arms, and for nine weeks Enver Pasha had had his signed + treaty with Germany in his pocket. Possibly this diplomatic + procrastination was useful to us, for it enabled us to bring + troops from India in security, and send others to Egypt. But + without doubt it was useful to the Turks, for it enabled them + to mobilise their armies, and to strengthen enormously the + defences of the Dardanelles. Then came the day when Germany and + Turkey were ready, the attack was made on Odessa, and out of + Constantinople we went. We climbed into the railway carriages + that took the last rays of English influence out of the Ottoman + Empire, and steep were the stairs in the house of a stranger! + Turks are not much given to laughter, but Enver Pasha must at + least have smiled on that day.</p> + + <p>Already, of course, German influence was strong in the army, + which now was thoroughly trained in German methods, but that + army might still be called a Turkish army. Nowadays, by no + stretch of language can it be called Turkish except in so far + that all Turkish efficient manhood is helplessly enlisted in + it, for there is no branch or department of it over which the + Prussian octopus has not thrown its paralysing tentacles and + affixed its immovable suckers. Army and navy alike, the + wireless stations, the submarines, the aircraft, are all + directly controlled from Berlin, and, as we have seen, the + generalissimo of the forces is Mackensen, who is absolutely the + Hindenburg of the East. But thorough as is the control of + Berlin over Constantinople in military and naval matters, it is + not one whit more thorough than her control in all other + matters of national life. Never before has Germany been very + successful in her colonisation; but if complete domination--the + sucking of a country till it is a mere rind of itself, and yet + at the same time full to bursting of Prussian ichor--may be + taken as Germany's equivalent of colonisation, then indeed we + must be forced to recognise her success. And it was all done in + the name and for the sake of the Pan-Turkish ideal. Even now + Prussian Pecksniffs like Herr Ernst Marré, whose + pamphlet, <i>Die Türken und Wir nach dem Kriege</i>, was + published in 1916, continue to insist that Germany is nobly + devoting herself to the well-being of Turkey. 'In doing this,' + he exclaims in that illuminating document, 'we are benefiting + Turkey.... This is a war of liberation for Turkey,' though + omitting to say from whom Turkey is being liberated. Perhaps + the Armenians. Occasionally, it is true, he forgets that, and + naively remarks, 'Turkey is a very difficult country to govern. + But after the war Turkey will be very important as a transit + country.' But then he remembers again and says, 'We wish to + give besides taking, and we should often like to give more than + we can hope to give.' Let us look into this, and see the manner + in which Germany expresses her yearning to impoverish herself + for the sake of Turkey.</p> + + <p>All this reorganisation of the Turkish army was of course a + very expensive affair, and required skilful financing, and it + was necessary to get the whole of Turkey's exchequer + arrangements into German hands. A series of financial + regulations was promulgated. The Finance Minister, during 1916, + was still Turkish, but the official immediately under him was a + German. He was authorised to deposit with the Controllers of + the Ottoman National Debt German Imperial Bills of + £T30,000,000, and to issue German paper money to the like + amount. This arrangement insures the circulation of the German + notes, which are redeemable by Turkey in <i>gold</i> two years + after the declaration of peace. Gold is declared to be the + standard currency, and no creditor is obliged to accept in + payment of a debt more than 300 piastres in silver or fifty in + nickel. And since there is no gold in currency (for it has been + all called in, and penalties of death have been authorised for + hoarders) it follows that this and other issues of German paper + will filter right through the Empire. At the same time a German + expert, Dr. Kautz, was appointed to start banks throughout + Turkey in order to free the peasants from the Turkish village + usurer, and in consequence enslave them to the German banks. + Similarly a German was put at the head of the Ottoman + Agricultural Bank. These new branches worked very well, but it + is pleasant to think that one such was started by the Deutsche + Bank at Bagdad in October 1916, which now has its shutters up. + Before this, as we learn from the <i>Oesterreichischer + Volkswirt</i> (June 1916), Germany had issued other gold notes, + in payment for gold from Turkey, which is retainable in Berlin + till six months after the end of the war. (It is reasonable to + wonder whether it will not be retained rather longer than + that.) These gold notes were accepted willingly at first by the + public, but the increase in their number (by the second issue) + has caused them to be viewed with justifiable suspicion, and + the depreciation in them continues. But the Turkish public has + no redress except by hoarding gold, which is a penal offence. + That these arrangements have not particularly helped Turkish + credit may be gathered from the fact that the Turkish gold + £1, nominally 100 piastres, was very soon worth 280 + piastres in the German paper standard, and it now fetches a + great deal more.</p> + + <p>Again, the Deutsche Orientbank has made many extensions, and + is already financing cotton and wool trade for after the war. + The establishment of this provoked much applause in German + financial circles, who find it to be an instance of the + 'far-reaching and powerful Germano-Austrian unity, which + replaces the disunion of Turkish finance.' This is profoundly + true, especially if we omit the word 'Austrian' inserted for + diplomatic reasons. Again we find Germany advancing + £3,000,000 of German paper to the Turkish Government in + January 1917, for the payment of supplies they have received + from Krupp's works and (vaguely) for interest to the German + Financial Minister. This, too, we may conjecture, is to be + redeemed after the war in gold.</p> + + <p>In March of this year we find in the report of the Ottoman + Bank a German loan of £1,000,000 for the purchase of + agricultural implements by Turkey, and this is guaranteed by + house-taxes. In all up to that month, as was announced in the + Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople, Germany had advanced to + Turkey the sum of £142,000,000, entirely, it would seem, + in German paper, to be repaid at various dates in gold. The + grip, in fact, is a strangle-hold, all for Turkey's good, as no + doubt will prove the 'New Conventions' announced by Zimmermann + in May 1917, to take the place of the abolished Capitulations, + 'which left Turkey at the mercy of predatory Powers who looked + for the disruption of the Ottoman Empire.' Herr Zimmermann does + not look for that: he looks for its absorption. And sees + it.</p> + + <p>The industrial development of Turkey by this benevolent and + disinterested Power has been equally thorough and far-reaching, + though Germany here has had a certain amount of competition by + Hungary to contend against, for Hungary considered that Germany + was trespassing on her sphere of interest. But she has been + able to make no appreciable headway against her more acute + partner, and her application for a monopoly of sugar-production + was not favourably received, for Germany already had taken the + beet industry well in hand. In Asia Minor the acreage of + cultivation early in 1917 had fallen more than 50 per cent. + from that under crops before the war, but owing to the + importation of machinery from the Central Powers, backed up by + a compulsory Agricultural Service Law, which has just been + passed, it is hoped that the acreage will be increased this + year by something like 30 per cent. The yield per acre also + will be greatly increased this year, for Germany has, though + needing artificial manures badly herself, sent large quantities + into Turkey, where they will be more profitably employed. She + has no fear about securing the produce. This augmented yield + will, it is true, not be adequate to supply the needs of + Turkey, who for the last two years has suffered from very acute + food shortage, which in certain districts has amounted to + famine and wholesale starvation of the poorer classes. But it + is unlikely that their needs will be considered at all, for + Germany's needs (she, the fairy godmother of the Pan-Turk + ideal) must obviously have the first call on such provisions as + are obtainable. Thus, in the new preserved meat factory at + Aidin, the whole of the produce is sent to Germany. Thus, too, + though in February 1917 there was a daily shortage in Smyrna of + 700 sacks of flour, and the Arab and Greek population was + starving, no flour at all was allowed to be imported into + Smyrna. But simultaneously Germany was making huge purchases of + fish, meat, and flour in Constantinople (paid for in German + paper), including 100,000 sheep. Yet such was the villainous + selfishness of the famine-stricken folk at Adrianople that, + when the trains containing these supplies were passing through, + a mob held them up and sold the contents to the inhabitants. + That, however, was an isolated instance, and in any case a law + was passed in October 1916, appointing a military commission to + control all supplies. It enacts that troops shall be supplied + first, and specially ordains that the requirements of German + troops come under this head. (Private firms have been expressly + prohibited from purchasing these augmented wheat supplies, but + special permission was given in 1915 to German and + Austro-Hungarian societies to buy.) A few months later we find + that there are a hundred deaths daily in Constantinople from + starvation, and two hundred in Smyrna, where there is a + complete shortage of oil. But oil is still being sent to + Germany, and during 1916 five hundred reservoirs of oil were + sent there, each containing up to 15,000 kilogrammes. Similarly + during this summer the price of fruit has gone up in Smyrna, + for the Germans have reopened certain factories for preserving + it and turning it into jam, which is being sent to Germany. The + sugar is supplied from the new beet-fields of Konia. But Kultur + must be supplied first, else Kultur would grow lean, and the + Turkish God of Love will look after the Smyrniotes. It is no + wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the + desired result a little quicker, for food is already pouring in + from Turkey, and when the artificial manures have produced + their early harvest the stream will become a + torrent.<a name="FNanchor9"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_9">[9]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9">[9]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant. + </div>But during all these busy and tremendous months of war + Germany has not only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, + for the sake of the Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic + spirit she has been vastly increasing the productiveness of her + new and most important colony. The great irrigation works at + Konia, begun several years ago, are in operation, and the + revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled. In fact, + as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province + has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At + Adana are similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche + Bank. Ernst Marré gives us a most hopeful survey of + them, for Adana was already linked up with the Bagdad Railway + in October 1916, which was to be the great artery connecting + Germany with the East. There is some considerable shortage of + labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to which + we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are + in excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in + German hands, and have been paid for by German paper; and to + get the reservoirs, etc., back into her own control, it has + been agreed that Turkey, already completely bankrupt, will have + to pay not only what has been spent, but a handsome sum in + compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour, prisoners + have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This + irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by + four times the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab + magazine, <i>El Alem el Ismali</i>, which tells us also of the + electric-power stations erected there. + + <p>The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian + merchants that transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of + engines and trucks from Germany, while <i>Die Zeit</i> + (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future for this + Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely + imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German + capital on terms above stated--will, in the process of internal + development so unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow + cotton for herself, and be kind enough to give a preferential + tariff to Germany.</p> + + <p>A similarly bright future may be predicted for the + sugar-beet industry at Konia, where are the irrigation works + already referred to. Artesian wells have been sunk, and there + is the suggestion to introduce Bulgarian labour in default of + Turkish. As we have seen, Hungary attempted to obtain a + monopoly with regard to sugar, but Germany has been victorious + on this point (as on every other where she competes with + Hungary), and has obtained the concession for a period of + thirty years. She reaped the first-fruits this last spring + (1917), when, on a single occasion, 350 trucks laden with sugar + were despatched to Berlin. A similar irrigation scheme is + bringing into cultivation the Makischelin Valley, near Aleppo, + and Herr Wied has been appointed as expert for irrigation plant + in Syria. There has been considerable shortage of coal, but now + more is arriving from the Black Sea, and the new coal-fields at + Rodosto will soon be giving an output.</p> + + <p>Indeed, it would be easier to enumerate the industries and + economical developments of Turkey over which Germany has not at + the present moment got the control than those over which she + has. In particular she has shown a parental interest in Turkish + educational questions. She established last year, under German + management, a school for the study of German in Constantinople; + she has put under the protection of the German Government the + Jewish institution at Haifa for technical education in + Palestine; from Sivas a mission of schoolmasters has been sent + to Germany for the study of German methods. Ernst Marré + surmises that German will doubtless become compulsory even in + the Turkish intermediate (secondary) schools. In April 1917, + the first stone of the 'House of Friendship' was laid at + Constantinople, the object of which institution is to create + among Turkish students an interest in everything German, while + earlier in the year arrangements were made for 10,000 Turkish + youths to go to Germany to be taught trades. These I imagine + were unfit for military service. With regard to such a scheme + Halil Haled Bey praises the arrangement for the education of + Turks in Germany. When they used to go to France, he tells us, + 'they lost their religion' (certainly Prussian Got is nearer + akin to Turkish Allah) 'and returned home unpatriotic and + useless. In Germany they will have access to suitable religious + literature' (Gott!) 'and must adopt all they see good in German + methods without losing their original characteristics.' Comment + on this script is needless. The hand is the hand of Halil Haled + Bey, but the voice is the voice of Potsdam. Occasionally, but + rarely, Austrian competition is seen. Professor Schmoller, in + an Austrian quarterly review, shows jealousy of German + influence, and we find, in October 1916, an Ottoman-Austrian + college started at Vienna for 250 pupils of the Ottoman Empire. + But Germany has 10,000 in Berlin. At Adana (where are the + German irrigation works) the German-Turkish Society has opened + a German school of 300, while, reciprocally, courses in Turkish + have been organised at Berlin for the sake of future German + colonists. In Constantinople the <i>Tanin</i> announces a + course of lectures to be held by the Turco-German Friendship + Society. Professor von Marx discoursed last April on foreign + influence and the development of nations, with special + reference to Turkey and the parallel case of Germany. A few + months later we find Hilmet Nazim Bey, official head of the + Turkish press, proceeding to Berlin to learn German press + methods. A number of editors of Turkish papers will follow him, + and soon, no doubt, the Turkish press will rival Cologne and + Frankfort.</p> + + <p>So much for German education, but her penetrative power + extends into every branch of industry and economics. In + November 1916, a Munich expert was put in charge of the College + of Forestry, and an economic society was started in + Constantinople on German lines with German instructors. + Inoculation against small-pox, typhoid, and cholera was made + compulsory; and we find that the Turkish Ministers of Posts, of + Justice, and of Commerce, figureheads all of them, have Germans + as their acting Ministers. In the same year a German was + appointed as expert for silkworm breeding and for the + cultivation of beet. Practically all the railways in Asia Minor + are pure German concerns by right of purchase. Germany owns the + Anatolian railway concession (originally British), with right + to build to Angora and Konia; the Bagdad railway concession, + with preferential rights over minerals; they have bought the + Mersina-Adana Railway, with right of linking up to the Bagdad + Railway; they have bought the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, built + with French capital. They have secured also the Haidar Pasha + Harbour concession, thereby controlling and handling all + merchandise arriving at railhead from the interior of Asia + Minor.<a name="FNanchor10"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_10">[10]</a></sup> Already on the Bagdad Railway the + big tunnels of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge + petrol-driven motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be + complete. Meanwhile railway construction is pushed on in all + directions under German control, and the Turkish Minister of + Finance (August 1916) allocated a large sum of German paper + money for the construction of ordinary roads, military roads, + local government roads, all of which are new to Turkey, but + which will be useful for the complete German occupation which + is being swiftly consolidated. To stop the mouths of the + people, all political clubs have been suppressed by the + Minister of the Interior, for Prussia does not care for + criticism. To supply German ammunition needs, lead and zinc + have been taken from the roofs of mosques and door-handles from + mosque-gates, and the iron railings along the Champs de Mars at + Pera have been carted away for the manufacture of bombs. Not + long after eight truck-loads of copper were sent to Germany: + these, I imagine, represent the first produce of copper roofs + and utensils. A Turco-German convention signed in Berlin in + January of this year, permits subjects of one country to settle + in the other while retaining their nationality and enjoying + trading and other privileges. In Lebanon Dr. König has + opened an agricultural school for Syrians of all religions. In + the Homs district the threatening plague of locusts in February + 1917 was combatted by Germans; and a German expert, Dr. Bucher, + had been already sent to superintend the whole question. For + this concerns supplies to Germany, as does also the ordinance + passed in the same month that two-thirds of all fish caught in + the Lebanon district should be given to the military + authorities (these are German), and that every fish weighing + over six ounces in the Beirut district should be Korban also. + The copper mines at Arghana Maden, near Diarbekr, are busy + exporting their produce into Germany; the coal-mines at Rodosto + will very soon be making a large output.<a name= + "FNanchor11"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_11">[11]</a></sup></p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10">[10]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + The balance-sheets for 1916 of certain of those + railways in which the Deutsche Bank has an interest have + come to hand. They show a very disagreeable degree of + prosperity. The Anatolia Railway Company has large profits + with a gross revenue of 25,737,995 marks. The profit on the + Haidar-Pasha-Angora Line has risen from 42,566 francs per + kilometre to 45,552. The Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway has + paid 6 per cent. on its preference shares, and 3 per cent. + on its ordinary shares. The Haidar Pasha Harbour Company + has paid 8 per cent. + </div><a name="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor11">[11]</a> + + <div class="note"> + Later in this year we find three trains daily leaving + Constantinople for Germany, laden with coal and military + supplies. + </div>There is no end to this penetration: German + water-seekers, with divining and boring apparatus, accompanied + the Turkish expedition into Sinai; Russian prisoners were sent + by Germany for agricultural work in Asia Minor, to take the + place of slaughtered Armenians; a German-Turkish treaty, signed + January 11, 1917, gives the whole reorganisations of the + economic system to a special German mission. A Stuttgart + journal chants a characteristic <i>Lobgesang</i> over this + feat. 'That is how,' it proudly exclaims, 'we work for the + liberation of peoples and nationalities.' + + <p>In the same noble spirit, we must suppose, German legal + reforms were introduced in December 1916, to replace the + Turkish Shuriat, and in the same month all the Turks in + telegraph offices in Constantinople were replaced by Germans. + Ernst Marré gives valuable advice to young Germans + settling in Turkey. He particularly recommends them, knowing + how religion is one of the strongest bonds in this murderous + race, to 'trade in articles of devotion, in rosaries, in bags + to hold the Koran,' and points out what good business might be + built up in gramophones. Earlier in this year we find a 'German + Oriental Trading Company' founded for the import of fibrous + materials for needs of military authorities, and a great carpet + business established at Urfa with German machinery that will + supplant the looms of Smyrna. A saltpetre factory is + established at Konia by Herr Toepfer, whose enterprise is + rewarded with an Iron Cross and a Turkish decoration. The + afforestation near Constantinople, ordered by the Ministry of + Agriculture, is put into German hands, and in the vilayet of + Aidin (April 1916) ninety concessions were granted to German + capitalists to undertake the exploitation of metallic ores. + Occasionally the German octopus finds it has gone too far for + the moment, and releases some struggling limb of its victim, + as, for instance, when we see that, in September 1916, the + German Director's stamp for the 'Imperial German Great Radio + Station' at Damascus has been discarded temporarily, as that + station 'should be treated for the present as a Turkish + concern.'</p> + + <p>A 'Trading and Weaving Company' was established at Angora in + 1916, an 'Import and Export Company' at Smyrna, a 'Trading and + Industrial Society' at Beirut, a 'Tobacco Trading Company' at + Latakieh, an 'Agricultural Company' at Tripoli, a 'Corn + Exporting Company' in Lebanon, a 'Rebuilding Commission' + (perhaps for sacked Armenian houses) at Konia. More curious yet + will be a Tourist's Guide Book--a Baedeker, in fact--for + travellers in Anatolia, and the erection of a monument in + honour of Turkish <i>women</i> who have replaced men called up + for military duty. Truly these last two items--a guide-book for + Anatolia, and a monument to women--are strange enterprises for + Turks. A new Prussian day is dawning, it seems, for Turkish + women as well, for the <i>Tanin</i> (April 1917) tells us that + diplomas are to be conferred on ladies who have completed their + studies in the Technical School at Constantinople.</p> + + <p>It is needless to multiply instances of German penetration: + I have but given the skeleton of this German monster that has + fastened itself with tentacles and suckers on every branch of + Turkish industry. There is none round which it has not cast its + feelers--no Semitic moneylender ever obtained a surer hold on + his victim. In matters naval, military, educational, legal, + industrial, financial, Germany has a strangle-hold. Turkey's + life is already crushed out of her, and, as we have seen, it + has been crushed out of her by the benevolent Kultur-mongers, + who, among all the Great Powers of Europe, invested their time + and their money in the achievement of the Pan-Turkish ideal. + Silently and skilfully they worked, bamboozling their chief + tool, Enver Pasha, even as Enver Pasha bamboozled us. As long + as he was of service to them they retained him; for his peace + of mind at one time they stopped up all letter-boxes in + Constantinople because so many threatening letters were sent + him. But now Enver Pasha seems to have had his day; he became a + little autocratic, and thought that he was the head of the + Pan-Turkish ideal. So he was, but the Pan-Turkish ideal had + become Pan-Prussian, and he had not noticed the transformation. + Talaat Bey has taken his place; it was he who, in May 1917, was + received by the Emperor William, by King Ludwig, and by the + Austrian Emperor, and he who was the mouthpiece of the German + efforts to make a separate peace with Russia. Under Czardom, he + proclaimed, the existence of Turkey was threatened, but now the + revolution has made friendship possible, for Russia no longer + desires territorial annexation. And, oh, how Turkey would like + to be Russia's friend! Enver Pasha has of late been somewhat + out of favour in Berlin, and I cannot but think it curious that + when, on April 2, 1917, he visited the submarine base at + Wilhelmshaven, he was very nearly killed in a motor accident. + But it may have been an accident. Since then I cannot find that + he has taken any more active part in Pan-Turkish ideals than to + open a soup-kitchen in some provincial town, and lecture the + Central Committee of the Young Turks on the subject of internal + affairs in Great Britain. I do not like lectures, but I should + have liked to hear that one.</p> + + <p>I have left to the end of this chapter the question of + Germany's knowledge of, and complicity in the Armenian + massacres. From the tribune of the Reichstag, on January 15, + 1916, there was made a definite denial of the existence of such + massacres at all; on another subsequent occasion it was stated + that Germany could not interfere in Turkish internal + affairs.</p> + + <p>In view of the fact that there is no internal affair + appertaining to Turkey in which Germany has not interfered, the + second of these statements may be called insincere. But the + denial of the massacres is a deliberate lie. Germany--official + Germany--knew all about them, and she permitted them to go on. + A few proofs of this are here shortly stated.</p> + + <p>(1) In September 1915, four months before the denial of the + massacres was made in the Reichstag, Dr. Martin Niepage, higher + grade teacher in the German Technical School at Aleppo, + prepared and sent, as we have seen, in his name, and that of + several of his colleagues, a report of the massacres to the + German Embassy at Constantinople. In that report he gives a + terrible account of what he has seen with his own eyes, and + also states that the country Turks' explanation with regard to + the origin of these measures is that it was 'the teaching of + the Germans.' The German Embassy at Constantinople therefore + knew of the massacres, and knew also that the Turks attributed + them to orders from Germany. Dr. Niepage also consulted, before + sending his report, with the German Consul at Aleppo, Herr + Hoffman, who told him that the German Embassy had been already + advised in detail about the massacres from the consulates at + Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Mosul, but that he welcomed a further + protest on the subject.</p> + + <p>(2) These reports, or others like them, had not gone astray, + for in August 1915, the German Ambassador in Constantinople, + Baron Wangenheim, made a formal protest to the Turkish + Government about the massacres.</p> + + <p>There is, then, no doubt that the German Government, when it + officially denied the massacres, was perfectly cognisant of + them. It was also perfectly capable of stopping them, for they + were not local violences, but wholesale murders organised at + Constantinople. In support of this view I find an independent + witness stating that 'there is no Turk of standing who will not + readily declare that it would have been perfectly possible for + Germany to have vetoed the massacres had she chosen.' Germany + had indeed already given assurances that such massacres should + not occur. She had assured the Armenian Katholikos at Adana + that so long as Germany has any influence in Turkey he need not + fear a repetition of the horrors that had taken place under + Abdul Hamid. Had she, then, no influence in Constantinople, or + how was it that she had obtained complete control over all + Turkish branches of government? The same assurance was given by + the German Ambassador in April 1915, to the Armenian Patriarch + and the President of the Armenian National Council.</p> + + <p>So, in support of the Pan-Turkish ideal, and in the name of + the Turkish Allah, the God of Love, Germany stood by and let + the infamous tale of lust and rapine and murder be told to its + end. The Turks had planned to exterminate the whole Armenian + race except some half-million, who would be deported penniless + to work on agricultural developments under German rule, but + this quality of Turkish mercy was too strained for Major Pohl, + who proclaimed that it was a mistake to spare so many. But he + was a soldier, and did not duly weigh the claims of + agriculture.</p> + + <p>The choice was open to Germany; Germany chose, and let the + Armenian massacres go on. But she was in a difficulty. What if + the Turkish Government retorted (perhaps it did so retort), + 'You are not consistent. Why do you mind about the slaughter of + a few Armenians? What about Belgium and your atrocities + there?'</p> + + <p>And all the ingenuity of the Wilhelmstrasse would not be + able to find an answer to that.</p> + + <p>I do not say that Germany wanted the massacres, for she did + not. She wanted more agricultural labour, and I think that, if + only for that reason, she deprecated them. But she allowed them + to go on when it was in her power to stop them, and all the + perfumes of Arabia will not wash clean her hand from that + stinking horror.</p> + + <p>Here, then, are some of the problems which those who, at the + end of the war, will have to deal with the problem of Turkey + must tackle. It is just as well to recognise that at the + present moment Turkey is virtually and actually a German + colony, and the most valuable colony that Germany has ever had. + It will not be enough to limit, or rather abolish, the + supremacy of Turkey over aliens and martyrised peoples; it will + be necessary first to abolish the supremacy of Germany over + Turkey. To do this the victory of our Allied Nations must be + complete, and Germany's octopus envelopment of Turkish + industries severed. Otherwise we shall immediately be + confronted with a Germany that already reaches as far as + Mesopotamia. That is done now; and that, before there can come + any permanent peace for Europe, must be undone. Nothing less + than the complete release of that sucker and tentacle embrace + will suffice.</p> + + <p>NOTE</p> + + <p>As throwing a sidelight on the German complicity in the + Armenian massacres, the following is of interest. It is known + that when Metternich succeeded Wangenheim as German Ambassador + in Constantinople, he brought with him a speech, written in + Berlin, which, by the Kaiser's orders, he was to read when + presenting his credentials to the Sultan. This contained a + sentence which implied that Germany had been unable to stop the + Armenian massacres. Talaat refused to allow the speech to be + read, obviously because it threw the responsibility of the + massacres on to the Turks, whereas the accepted opinion in + Turkey was that they took place with the connivance and even at + the instigation of the Germans. Eventually a compromise was + arrived at, and the speech <i>in toto</i> was read privately, + the part referring to the Armenian massacre not being + published.... It is a pity that Germany is always found + out....</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VI"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VI</i></h2> + + <center> + 'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + </center> + + <p>Let us commit the crime of + <i>lèse-majesté</i>, and assume (though the + Emperor Wilhelm II. has repeatedly announced the contrary) that + Germany is not at the conclusion of the European War to find + herself in possession of the world. She has prepared her plans + in anticipation of the auspicious event; in fact she has had a + most interesting map of Europe produced which, except by its + general shape, is scarcely recognisable. The printing of it, it + is true, was a little premature, for it shows what Europe was + to have been like in 1916, and the apportionments are not borne + out by facts. But assuming that there is some radical error + about it all from her point of view, and assuming that there + will not be either a conclusive peace favourable to Prussian + interests, or even an inconclusive peace, but one in which the + Allies will be able to dictate and enforce their own terms, the + magnitude of the problems that will await their decision may + well appal the most ingenious of their statesmen. And of all + those problems none, it is safe to prophesy, will be found more + difficult of solution than that which will deal with the future + of the corrupt and barbarous Government which has for centuries + made hell of the Ottoman Empire. We know more or less what will + happen to Alsace and Lorraine, to Belgium, to the Trentino, + because in those cases the claims of one or other of our Allies + to demand a particular settlement are quite certain to be + agreed to by those not so immediately and vitally concerned. + But in the Balkans these problems will be more complicated + because of conflicting interests, and most complicated of all + will they be in Turkey. One thing, however, is certain, that + there can be no going back to the conditions that existed there + before the war.</p> + + <p>Ever since the Osmanlis came out of remoter Asia into the + Nearer East and into Europe, the government of their Empire has + gone from bad to worse. In the early days, as we have seen, + their policy was to absorb the strength of their subject + peoples by incorporating the youth of them into the Turkish + army, by giving them Turkish wives, and by converting them to + Mohammedanism. Such was the foundation of the Empire and such + its growth. But having absorbed their strength, the Sultan's + Government neglected them until they milked them again. They + were allowed to prosper if they could: all that was demanded of + them was a toll of their strength. They were cattle, and for + the right to graze on Turkish lands they paid back a pail of + their milk of manhood. But an empire founded on such principles + contains within it active and prolific seeds of decay, and, as + we have seen, more stringent measures had to be resorted to in + order to preserve the supremacy of the ruling people. Instead + of absorbing their strength, Abdul Hamid hit upon the new + method of killing them, so that the Turks should still maintain + their domination. And the policy set on foot by him was + developed but a few years ago into a scheme of slaughter, which + in atrocity has far surpassed the killings of Attila, of whom + the Nationalist poet sings, or even the designs of the deposed + Sultan. The Armenian nation, with the exception of such part of + it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been + exterminated, and similar measures have been planned and indeed + begun, against the Greeks, the Arabs, and the Jews.</p> + + <p>In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European + War, the policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has + been at length abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared + in their joint note to President Wilson their aims in the war, + and for those they have pledged themselves to fight until final + and complete victory wreathes their arms. Among these aims + are:--</p> + + <p>(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the + murderous tyranny of the Turks.</p> + + <p>(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which + has proved itself so radically alien to Western + civilisation.</p> + + <p>For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called + the Concert of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the + Balance of Power, kept Turkey together, and in particular has + maintained the centre of its government at Constantinople + simply because the Balance of Power would be upset if anybody + else held the key of the straits that separate Russia from the + Mediterranean. England, above all others, was instrumental in + preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must + confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a + century. It is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse + of that which for so many decades has been the keystone of our + ruling with regard to our Eastern Empire, but the arch has + collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone out, and all our efforts + to exclude Russia from free access to the Mediterranean have + only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds + Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The + situation, as it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse + than it could have been for a century back, if at any moment + during those hundred years we had done what we always ought to + have done, and declared that the anachronism of Turkey being in + Europe was more intolerable than anything that could happen in + consequence of her expulsion. But we have acknowledged that + now. We have also acknowledged the even greater anachronism of + Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any of + those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman + Empire, for the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that + the remedy of these two monstrous abuses forms an essential + part of their aim in the war, which in costliness of life and + of treasure has already far exceeded any cataclysm that could + have come to Europe through its doing its clear and Christian + duty with regard to Turkey during the preceding hundred years. + And among the benefits which eventually mankind will reap in + the fields that have been sown by the blood of the slain will + be the fact that the Confusion of Europe will have accomplished + a task which the Concert of Europe was too craven of + consequences to undertake; and Constantinople and the subject + peoples of the Turks will have passed from the yoke of that + murderous tyranny for ever.</p> + + <p>We will take these two avowed aims of the Allies in order, + and first try to draw (though with diffident pencil) some + sketch of what will be the confines of the Ottoman Empire, when + we pluck the fruits of the great crusade against the barbarism + of Turkey and of Germany. It is quite useless to attempt to + keep the map as it was, and peg out claims within the Empire + where we shall proclaim that Arabs and Greeks and Armenians + shall live in peace, for it is exactly that plan which has + formed a century's failure. At the International Congress of + Berlin, for instance, a solemn pact was entered into by Turkey + for the reform of the Armenian vilayets. She carried out her + promise by slaughtering every Armenian male, and outraging + every Armenian woman who inhabited them. The <i>soi-disant</i> + protectorate of Crete was not a whit more successful in + securing for the Cretans a tolerable existence, and the Allies + had to bring it to an end twenty years ago, and free them from + the execrable yoke; while finally the repudiation by Turkey of + the Capitulations, which provided some sort of guarantee for + the safety of foreign peoples in Turkey, has shown us, if + further proof was needed, the value of covenants with the + Osmanli. It must be rendered impossible for Turkey to repeat + such outrages: the soil where her alien peoples dwell must be + hers no more, and any Turkish aggression on that soil must be, + <i>ipso facto</i>, an act of war against the European Power + under the protection of whom such a province is placed.</p> + + <p>The difficulty of this part of the problem is not so great + as might at first appear. We do not, when we come to look at it + in detail, find such a conflict of interests as would seem to + face us on a general view. Even the precarious Balance of Power + was not upset by a quantity of similar adjustments made by the + Concert of Europe during the last hundred years. The Powers + freed Serbia, giving Turkey first a suzerainty over her, and + finally abolishing that: they freed Bulgaria, they freed + Greece, Eastern Rumelia, Macedonia, Albania. But, as by some + strange lapse of humanity, they always regarded the subject + peoples of Turkey in Asia as more peculiarly Turkish, as if at + the Bosporus a new moral geography began, and massacre in Asia + was comparatively venial as compared with massacre in Europe. + But now the Allies have said that there must be no more + massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, + it will be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the + alien peoples dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the + protectorate of one or other of the allied nations. In most + cases we shall find that there is a protecting Power more or + less clearly indicated, whose sphere of interest is obviously + concerned with one or other of these new and independent + provinces.</p> + + <p>The alien race which for the last thirty years has suffered + the most atrociously from Turkish inhumanity is that of the + Armenians, and it is fitting to begin our belated campaign of + liberation with it. If the reader will turn to the map at the + end of this book, he will see that the district marked Armenia + lies at the north-west corner of the old Ottoman Empire, and + extends across its frontiers into Russian Trans-Caucasia. That + indicates the district which once was peopled by Armenians. + To-day, owing to the various Armenian massacres, the latest of + which, described in another chapter, was by far the most + appalling, such part of Armenia as lies in the Ottoman Empire + is practically, and probably absolutely, depopulated of its + Armenian inhabitants. Such as survive, apart from the women + whose lives were spared on their professing Islamism and + entering Turkish harems, have escaped beyond the Russian + frontier, and are believed to number about a quarter of a + million. In the meantime their homes have partly been destroyed + and partly occupied by mouhadjirs from Thrace, and by the Kurds + who were largely instrumental in butchering them. Their lands + have been appropriated haphazardly, by, any who laid hands on + them.</p> + + <p>Here the problem is of no great difficulty. The + robber-tenants must be evicted, and the remnant of the + Armenians repatriated. Without exception they escaped into + Trans-Caucasia from villages and districts near the frontier, + else they could never have escaped from the pursuing Turks and + Kurds. Naturally, this remnant of a people will not nearly + suffice to fill their entire province, but in order to satisfy + the claims of justice at all adequately, the whole district of + Armenia, as Armenia was known before its people were + exterminated, must be amputated by a clean cut out of the + Ottoman Empire and placed, in an autonomous condition in a new + protected province, which will include all the vilayets of + Armenia.</p> + + <p>There is no doubt about a prosperous future for Armenia if + this is done, and to do less than this would be to fail + signally as regards the solemn promise made by the Allies when + they stated to President Wilson their aims in the war. The + Armenians have ever been a thrifty and industrious people, + possessed of an inherent vitality which has withstood centuries + of fiendish oppression. With facilities given them for their + re-settlement, and with foreign protection to establish them, + they will, beyond question, more than hold their own against + the Kurds. As a nation they are, as we have seen, partly + agricultural in their pursuits; but a considerable proportion + of them (and these the more intelligent) are men of business, + merchants, doctors, educationalists, and gravitate to towns. + Constantinople, as we shall see, will be open to them again, + where lately they numbered nearly as many as the entire remnant + of their nation numbers now; so, too, will be the cities of + Syria, of Palestine, and of Mesopotamia in the New Turkey which + we are attempting to sketch. They will probably not care to + settle in the towns and districts that will remain in the hands + of their late oppressors and murderers.</p> + + <p>In the work of their repatriation none will be more eager to + help than the American missionaries, who, at the time of the + last massacre, as so often before, showed themselves so nobly + disregardant of all personal danger and risk in doing their + utmost for their murdered flock, and who have explicitly + declared their intention of resuming their work. With regard to + the eviction of Kurds that will be necessary, it must be + remembered that the Kurd is a trespasser on the plains and + towns of Armenia, and properly belongs to the mountains from + which he was encouraged to descend by the Turks for purposes of + massacre. Out of those towns and plains he must go, either into + the mountains of Armenia from whence he came, or over the + frontier of Armenia into the New Turkey presently to be + defined. He must, in fact, be deported, though not in the + manner of the deportations at which he himself so often + assisted.</p> + + <p>The Armenians who will thus be reinstated within the + boundaries of their own territory, will be practically + penniless and without any of the means or paraphernalia of + life, and the necessary outlay on supplies for them, and the + cost of their rehabilitation would naturally fall on the + protecting Power. They will, however, be free from the taxes + they have hitherto paid to the Turks, and it should not be + difficult for them by means of taxes far less oppressive, to + pay an adequate interest on the moneys expended on them. These + would thus take the form of a very small loan, the whole of + which could easily be repaid by the Armenians in the course of + a generation or so. Once back on their own soil, and free from + Turkish tyranny and the possibility of it, they are bound to + prosper, even as they have prospered hitherto in spite of + oppressions and massacres up till the year 1915, when, as we + have seen, the liberal and progressive Nationalists organised + and executed the extermination from which so few escaped.</p> + + <p>It is hardly necessary to point out who the protecting Power + would be in the case of the repatriated Armenians, for none but + Russia is either desirable or possible. With one side along the + Russian frontier of Trans-Caucasia, the New Armenia necessarily + falls into the sphere of Russian influence.</p> + + <p>It has been suggested that not only Armenia proper, but part + of Cilicia should also become a district of the repatriated + Armenians, with an outlet to the sea. But while it is true that + complete compensation would demand this, since Zeitun and other + districts in Cilicia were almost pure Armenian settlements, I + cannot think that such a restoration is desirable. For, in the + first place, the extermination of the Zeitunlis (as carried out + by Jemal the Great) was practically complete. All the men were + slaughtered, and it does not seem likely that any of the women + and girls who were deported reached the 'agricultural colony' + of Deir-el-Zor in the Arabian desert. It is therefore difficult + to see of whom the repatriation would consist. In the second + place, the New Armenia will be for several generations to come + of an area more than ample for all the Armenians who have + survived the flight into Russia, and it obviously will give + them the best chance of corporate prosperity, if the whole of + them are repatriated in a compact body rather than that a + portion of them should be formed into a mere patch severed from + their countrymen by so large a distance. Another sphere of + influence also will be operating near the borders of Cilicia, + and to place the Armenians under two protecting Powers would + have serious disadvantages. In addition they never were a + sea-going people, and I cannot see what object would be served + by giving them a coast-board. In any case, if a coast-board was + found necessary, the most convenient would be the coast-board + of the Black Sea, lying adjacent to their main territory.</p> + + <p>If it seems clear that for New Armenia the proper protecting + Power is Russia, it is no less clear that for the freed + inhabitants of New Syria, Arabs and Greeks alike, the proper + protecting Power is France. Historically France's connection + with Syria dates from the time of the Crusades in 1099; it has + never been severed, and of late years the ties between the two + countries have been both strengthened and multiplied. The + Treaties of Paris, of London, of San Stefano, and of Berlin + have all recognised the affiliation; so, too, from an + ecclesiastical standpoint, have the encyclicals of Leo XIII. in + 1888 and 1898. Similarly, it was France who intervened in the + Syrian massacres of 1845, who landed troops for the protection + of the Maronites in 1860, and established a protectorate of the + Lebanon there a few years later, which lasted up till the + outbreak of the European War. France was the largest holder, as + she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the + harbour of Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most + flourishing ports of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a + French enterprise. And perhaps more important than all these, + as a link between Syria and France, has been the educational + penetration which France has effected there. What the American + missionaries did for Armenia, France has done for Syria, and + according to a recent estimate, of the 65,000 children who + attended European schools throughout Syria, not less than + 40,000 attended French schools. When we consider that that + proportion has been maintained for many years in Syria, it can + be estimated how strong the intellectual bond between the + Syrian and the French now is. The French language, similarly, + is talked everywhere: it is as current as is modern Greek in + ports of the Levant.</p> + + <p>In virtue of such claims few, if any, would dispute the + title of France to be the protecting Power in the case of + Syria. Here there will not be, as was the case with the + Armenians, any work of repatriation to be done. Such + devastation and depopulation as has been wrought by Jemal the + Great, with hunger and disease to help him, was wrought on the + spot, and, though it will take many years to heal the wounds + inflicted by that barbaric plagiarist of Potsdam, it is exactly + the deft and practical sympathy of the French with the race + they have so long tended, which will most speedily bring back + health to the Syrians.</p> + + <p>It will be with regard to the geographical limits of a + French protectorate that most difficulty is likely to be + experienced; there will also be points claiming careful + solution, as will be seen later, with regard to railway + control. Northwards and eastwards the natural delimitations + seem clear enough: northwards French Syria would terminate + with, and include, the province of Aleppo, eastwards the Syrian + desert marks its practical limits, the technical limit being + supplied by the course of the Euphrates. But southwards there + is no such natural line of demarcation; the Arab occupation + stretches right down till it reaches the Hedjaz, which already + has thrown off the Turkish yoke and, under the Shereef of + Mecca, declared its independence. Inset into this long strip of + territory lies Palestine.</p> + + <p>Now to make one single French protectorate over this very + considerable territory seems at first sight a large order, but + the objections to any other course are many and insuperable. + Should the line of French influence be drawn farther north than + the Hedjaz, under what protection is the intervening territory + to be left? At present it is Turkish, but inhabited by Arabs, + and, unless the Allies revoke the fulness of their declaration + not to leave alien peoples under the 'murderous tyranny' of the + Turks, Turkish it cannot remain. But both by geographical + situation and by racial interest, it belongs to + French-protected Syria, and there seems no answer to the + question as to what sphere of influence it comes under if not + under the French. Just as properly, if we take this view of the + question, the Sinaitic Peninsula, largely desert, would fall to + Egypt, the French protectorate being defined westwards at + Akabah. That the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez should not be + under the same control as the Western has always been an + anomaly, admitted even by the sternest opponents of the status + of Egypt; and in the absence of any canal corresponding to that + of Suez, and debouching into the Red Sea <i>via</i> the Gulf of + Akabah, the most advanced champion of French influence in the + Near East would see no objection to this rectified frontier. + There is no question of competition involved. The proposed + change is but a rational rectification of the present + status.</p> + + <p>This scheme of delimitation leaves Palestine inset into the + French protectorate of Syria, and it is difficult to see to + whom the protectorate of Palestine should be properly assigned + except to France. Italy has no expansive ambitions in that + sector of the Mediterranean; England's national sphere of + influence in this partition of the districts now occupied by + alien peoples in the Ottoman Empire lies obviously elsewhere; + and since the Jews, who settled in ever-increasing numbers in + Palestine before the war, and will assuredly continue to settle + there again, come and will come as refugees from the Russian + Pale, it would be clearly inadvisable to assign to Russia the + protectorate of her own refugees. The only other alternative + would be to create an independent Palestine for the Jews, and + the reasons against that are overwhelming. It would be merely + playing into the hands of Germany to make such an arrangement. + For the last thirty years Germany has watched with personal and + special interest this immigration of Jews into Palestine, + seeing in it not so much a Jewish but a German expansion. + Indeed, when, in the spring of this year, as we have noticed, a + massacre and deportation of Jews was planned and begun by + Jemal, Germany so far reversed her usual attitude towards + massacres in general, and her expressed determination never to + interfere in Turkey's internal affairs, as to lodge a + peremptory protest, and of course got the persecution instantly + stopped. Her reason was that Pan-Turkish 'ideals' (the + equivalent for the massacre of alien people) had no sort of + meaning in Palestine. But the Pan-Germanic ideals had a great + deal of meaning in Palestine, as Dr. Davis Treitsch <i>(Die + Jüden der Türkei)</i> very clearly states. For 'as a + result of the war,' he tells us, 'there will be an emigration + of East-European Jews on an unprecedented scale<br> + <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">... the disposal of the East + European Jews will be a problem for Germany</span><br> + (and) Germans will be only too glad to find a way out in the + emigration of those Jews to Turkey, a solution extraordinarily + favourable to the interests of all <i>three [sic]</i> parties + concerned. There are grounds for talking of a German + protectorate over the whole of Jewry.'</p> + + <p>Now this is explicit enough; Germany clearly contemplated a + protectorate over Palestine, and if the Jews who are + German-speaking Jews are left independent, there is nothing + more certain than that, after the war, her penetration of + Palestine will instantly begin. These colonists are, and will + be, in want of funds for the development and increase of their + cultivated territories, and when we consider the names of the + prominent financiers in the Central Empires, Mendelssohn, + Hirsch, Goldsmid, Bleichroeder, Speyer, to name only a few, we + cannot be in much doubt as to the quarter from which that + financial assistance will be forthcoming, on extremely + favourable terms. It is safe to prophesy that, if Palestine is + given independence without protectorate, in three years from + the end of the war it will be under not only a protectorate, + but a despotism as complete as ever ruled either Turkey or + Prussia. True it is that the Zionist movement will offer, even + as it has offered in the past, a strenuous opposition to + Germanisation, but it would be crediting it with an + inconceivable vitality to imagine that it will be able to + resist the blandishments that Germany is certainly prepared to + shower on it. For great as is the progress the Jewish settlers + made in Palestine during the twenty or twenty-five years before + the war, and strong as is the spirit of Zionism, the emigrants + do not as yet number more than about 120,000, nor have they + under crops more than ten per cent. of the cultivated land of + Palestine. They are as yet but settlers, and their work is + before them. If left without a protectorate they will not be + without a protectorate long, but not such an one as the Allies + desire. A protectorate there must be, and no reason is really + of weight against that protectorate being French. Let that, + then, extend from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from + Alexandretta to where the Hedjaz already prospers in its + self-proclaimed independence. It will be completely severed + from Turkey by tracts under protection of one or other of the + Allied Powers, any expedition through which would be an act of + war.</p> + + <p>The Euphrates, then, will form the eastern boundary of the + French protectorate: it will also, it is hoped, form the + western boundary of the English protectorate, which we know as + Mesopotamia. Just as no other Power has any real claim to + Armenia, except Russia, just as Syria can fall to no other than + France, it seems equally clear that the proper sphere of + English influence is in this plain that stretches southwards + from the semicircle of hills where the two great rivers + approach each other near Diarbekr to the head of the Persian + Gulf. As Germany very well knows, it is intimately concerned + with our safe tenure of India, and the hold the Germans hoped + to gain over it, and have for ever lost, by their possession of + the Bagdad Railway was vital to their dreams of world-conquest. + Equally vital to England was it that Germany should never get + it. But its importance to us as a land-route to India is by no + means the only reason why an English sphere of influence is + indicated here: it is the possibilities it harbours, which, as + far as can be seen, England is the only Power capable of + developing, that cause us to put in a claim for its + protectorate which none of our Allies will dispute.</p> + + <p>To restore Mesopotamia to the rank it has held, and to the + rank it still might hold among the productive districts of the + East, there is needed a huge capital for outlay, and a huge + population of workers. Even Germany, in her nightmare of + world-dominion, from which she shall be soon dragged + screaming-awake, never formulated a scheme for the restoration + of Southern Mesopotamia to its productive pre-eminence, and + never so much as contemplated it, except as an object that + would be possible of realisation after the Empire of India had + fallen over-ripe into her pelican mouth. Therein she was + perfectly right--she usually is right in these dreams of empire + in so far as they are empirical--for she seems dimly to have + conjectured in these methodical visions, that India was the key + to unlock Southern Mesopotamia. But nowhere can I find that she + guessed it: I only guess that she guessed it.</p> + + <p>This problem of capital outlay and of the necessary + man-power for work and restoration applies exclusively to + Southern Mesopotamia, which we may roughly define as the + district stretching from Samara on the Tigris and Hit on the + Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Northern Mesopotamia, as Dr. + Rohrbach points out in his <i>Bagdadbahn</i>, needs only the + guarantee of security of life and property to induce the Kurds + to descend from the hills and the Bedouin Arabs to settle down + there; and by degrees, under a protectorate that insures them + against massacre and confiscation of property, there seems no + doubt that the area of cultivation will spread and something of + the ancient prosperity return. The land is immensely fertile: + it is only Ottoman misrule, which here, as everywhere else, has + left desolation in the place of prosperity and death in place + of life. The rainfall is adequate, the climate suitable to + those who will naturally spread there: it needs only freedom + from the murderous tyranny that has bled it for centuries past, + to guarantee its future prosperity.</p> + + <p>But Southern Mesopotamia is a totally different proposition. + The land lies low between the rivers, and, though of + unparalleled fertility, yields under present conditions but a + precarious livelihood to its sparse population. For nine months + of the year it is a desert, for three months when its rivers + are in flood, a swamp. Once, as we all know, it was the very + heart of civilisation, and from its arteries flowed out the + life-blood of the world. Rainfall was scarcely existent, any + more than it is existent in Southern or Upper Egypt; but in the + days of Babylon the Great there were true rulers and men of + wisdom over these desiccated regions, who saw that every drop + of water in the river, that now pours senselessly through swamp + and desert into the sea, was a grain of corn or a stalk of + cotton. They dug canals, they made reservoirs, and harnessed + like some noble horse of the gods the torrents that now gallop + unbridled through dreary deserts. The black land, the Sawad, + was then the green land of waving corn, where three crops were + annually harvested and the average yield was two hundredfold of + the seed sown. The wheat and barley, so Herodotus tells us, + were a palm-breadth long in the blade, and millet and sesame + grew like trees. And in these details the revered Father of + Lies seems to have spoken less than the truth, for the + statistics we get elsewhere more than bear out his accounts of + its amazing fertility. From its wealth before his day had + arisen the might of Babylon, and for centuries later, while the + canals still regulated the water supply, it remained the + granary of the world. More than a thousand years after + Herodotus there were over 12,500,000 acres in cultivation, and + the husbandmen thereof with the dwellers in its cities numbered + 5,000,000 men. Then came the Arab invasion, which was bad + enough, but colossally worse was the invasion of the Osmanli. + Truly 'a fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of + them that dwell therein.'</p> + + <p>But the potentiality for production of that great alluvial + plain is not diminished; the Turks could not dispose of that by + massacre, as a means of weakening the strength of their subject + peoples. It is still there, ready to respond to the spell of + the waters of Tigris and Euphrates, which once, when handled + and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of the Lord.</p> + + <p>Not long before the present European War Sir William + Willcocks, under whose guidance the great modern irrigation + works at Assouan were constructed, was appointed adviser to the + Ottoman Ministry of Public Works, and his report on the + Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in 1911. He tells us that + the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable of easy + levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic + scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the + refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we + need not go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly + conservative basis, give the following results. He proposes to + restore, of course with modern technical improvements, the old + system of canals, and, allowing for interest on loans, + estimates the total expense at £26,000,000 (or the cost + of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of + the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no + enlargement in detail and no comment.</p> + + <p>But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the + irrigation works is easy, the profits are safe so long as the + Tigris and 'the ancient river,' the river Euphrates, run their + course. But all the irrigation works in the world will not + raise a penny for the investor or a grain for the miller unless + there are men to sow and gather the crops. A million are + necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is + 'Egypt and India.'</p> + + <p>This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and + its future must be in English hands, why no other country can + undertake it with hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. + Rohrbach, whose <i>Bagdadbahn</i> I have quoted before, is + forced to acknowledge that there is no solution to the + man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans + from other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak + prevail.' It is true that he starts upon the assumption that + Mesopotamia will remain Turkish (under a German protectorate, + as we read between his lines), with which we must be permitted + to disagree, but his conclusion is quite correct. Even under + German protection he realises that citizens of well-governed + states will not flock by the million to put themselves under + Turkish control, and he dismisses as inadequate the numbers of + Syrians, Arabs, Armenians and Jews who can be transported to + Mesopotamia from inside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. + Their numbers are even more inadequate since the Armenian + massacres permitted by Dr. Rohrbach's Fatherland, and even he + cannot picture a million of his own countrymen forsaking the + beer-gardens for summers in the Sawad. He does not positively + state our answer, that it is from India and Egypt that the + man-power will be supplied, but, as mentioned before, I think + he guesses it. His prophetic gifts are not convincing enough to + himself to let him state the glorious future, when India and + Egypt shall become German, but that, I feel sure, is his + vision: 'he sees it, but not now; he beholds it, but not + nigh.'</p> + + <p>But we can give the answer which he does not quite like to + state, since for the English it is clearly more easily + realisable. The native labour we can supply from Egypt and + India, especially India, will furnish a million labourers, and, + if we wished, two millions without difficulty. But no Power + except England can furnish it. And that, I submit, is the + solution of the problem of Mesopotamia; a solution well within + the power of English enterprise to attain in the hands of such + men as have already bridled the Nile, the water-horsemen of the + world. And I cannot do better, in trying to convey the spirit + in which this work of reclamation should be undertaken, than by + quoting some very noble words from Sir William Willcocks's + report, in which he speaks of the desolation that has come to + this garden of fruitfulness through wicked stewardship.</p> + + <p>'The last voyage I made before coming to this country was up + the Nile from Khartoum to the Equatorial lakes. In this most + desperate and forbidding region I was filled with pride to + think I belonged to a race whose sons, even in this + inhospitable waste of waters, were struggling in the face of a + thousand discouragements to introduce new forest trees and new + agricultural products and ameliorate in some degree the + conditions of life of the naked and miserable inhabitants. How + should I have felt, if in traversing the deserts and swamps + which to-day represent what was the richest and most famous + tract in the world, I had thought that I was the scion of a + race in whose hands God has placed, for hundreds of years, the + destinies of this great country, and that my countrymen could + give no better account of their stewardship than the exhibition + of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste + themselves in the sea for nine months of the year, and + desolating everything in their way for the remaining three? No + effort that Turkey can make can be too great to roll away the + reproach of those parched and weary lands, whose cry ascends to + heaven.'</p> + + <p>But the harvests of Mesopotamia, when gathered in, must + needs be transported, and for that railways are necessary. + Water transport would, of course, carry them easily down to the + Persian Gulf, but the supply will be mainly, if not wholly, + wanted westwards, and it must be conveyed to the shores of the + Mediterranean. Already, in preparation for world-conquest, + Germany has proceeded far with her construction of the Bagdad + Railway, which was intended, after her absorption of Turkey, to + link up Berlin with her next Oriental objective, namely, India; + the Taurus has been tunnelled, the Euphrates bridged, and but + for a hiatus of a few miles the line is practically complete + from Constantinople into Northern Mesopotamia. But its route + was chosen for German strategic reasons, for the linking up of + Berlin with Constantinople and Bagdad. This, it may be + permitted to say, does not form part of the schemes of the + Allies: it is to snap rather than weld such links that they + have taken the field. What we want in the matter of railway + transport for the harvests of Mesopotamia, and generally for + our Eastern communications, is not a line that passes through + Turkish and German soil, and terminates at Berlin, but one + which, after the directest possible land-route, reaches the + Mediterranean and terminates in suitable ports.</p> + + <p>The reader therefore is requested to <i>unthink</i> the + present Bagdad Railway altogether, to 'scrap' it in his mind, + as it will be probably scrapped on the map, since it is utterly + useless for our purposes. For taking Aleppo as (roughly) the + half-way house in the existent line, we find that the western + half of it lies in Asia Minor, in territory which, as we shall + see, will remain Turkish, while the eastern half of it makes a + long detour instead of striking directly for Bagdad. After our + experience with Turkey there is nothing less conceivable than + that we should allow a single mile of our new Mesopotamia + Railway to run through the territory of the Turks, for who + knows that she might not (say when harvests are ripe and ready + for delivery), on any arbitrary pretext, close or destroy the + line, even as before now she has closed the Dardanelles? + Besides, for our purposes, a line that goes to Constantinople + (in whosoever hands Constantinople may be after the war) is out + of the way and altogether unsuitable. Eastwards, again, from + Aleppo the present Bagdad line is circuitous and indirect, + admirably adapted to the German purposes for which it was + constructed, but utterly unadapted to ours.</p> + + <p>Let us then 'scrap' the existent Bagdad route altogether, + and consider not what the Germans want, but what we want, + which, as has been already stated, is a direct land + communication with suitable Mediterranean ports. Of those there + are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and Beirut, of + which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and + potentiality of increased importance. Two possible routes + therefore would seem to suggest themselves, one running from + Alexandretta to Aleppo, and thence following pretty closely the + course of the Euphrates till it reaches Hit, and from there + striking directly to Bagdad. Aleppo is already connected with + Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of Tripoli), and also with + Beirut by branch lines making a junction at Homs, and thus all + those ports will be brought together on one system. But if the + reader will glance at the map, he will see that by far the most + direct communication with Bagdad would be to run the railway + direct from there to Homs, thus making Homs rather than Aleppo + the central junction of the system. From Homs lines would run + northward to Aleppo, due west to Tripoli, and south-west to + Beirut. Either of those routes, in any case, would be + infinitely preferable to the long loop which the present Bagdad + Railway traverses, as planned on German lines and for German + requirements. The new railway will thus lie exclusively in + territory under French and English protectorate, and will + probably be their joint enterprise and property.</p> + + <p>Prospectively then, as regards the fulfilment of the solemn + pledge of the Allies to liberate subject peoples from the + murderous tyranny of the Turks, we have discussed the future of + Armenia, of Syria, of Palestine, and of Mesopotamia. All those + are well defined districts, and the demarcation of their + respective protectorates should not present great difficulties. + But there remains, before we pass on to the problem of + Constantinople, a further district less easily defined, largely + inhabited by European peoples whose liberty in the future we + are pledged to secure. This is the Mediterranean coastline to + the south and west of Asia Minor, the towns of which have been + so extensively peopled and made prosperous by Greeks and + Italians. Similarly among those of our European Allies who are + desirous and capable of Eastern expansion, there remains one, + Italy, whose rights to partake in this Turkish partition we + have not yet considered. In the shifting kaleidoscope of + national war-politics, it seems at the moment of writing by no + means impossible that Greece, having at length got rid of a + treacherous and unstable Reuben of a monarch, may redeem her + pledge to Serbia, in which case, no doubt, she too would state + the terms of her desired and legitimate expansion. But these + would more reasonably be concerned with the redistribution of + the Balkan Peninsula, which does not come within the scope of + this book, and we may prophesy without fear of invoking the + Nemesis that so closely dogs the heels of seers, that Italy + will legitimately claim (or perhaps has already claimed) the + protectorate of this valuable littoral. Certain it is that, + when peace returns, the large population of Greeks and Italians + once resident (and soon again to be) on these coasts, must be + given the liberty and security which they will never enjoy so + long as they remain in Turkish hands, and the hands that have + earned the right to be protecting Power are assuredly Italian. + Along the south coast a line including the Taurus range would + seem to suggest a natural frontier inland from Adana on the + east to the south-west corner of Asia Minor, and from there a + similar strip would pass up the coast as far as, and inclusive + of, Smyrna. That at least Italy has every right to expect, and + there seems no great fear that among the International Councils + there will arise a dissentient voice. The inland boundary on + the west coast is the difficult section of this delimitation, + and into the details of that it would be both rash and + inexpedient to enter.</p> + + <center> + II + </center> + + <p>We pass, then, to the second avowed object of the Allies, + namely, the expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman rule, which + has proved itself so radically alien to Western civilisation. + This must be taken to include not only the expulsion of the + Turkish control from Thrace and Constantinople, but from the + eastern side as well of the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and + the Dardanelles. At no future time must Turkey be in a position + to command even partially a single yard of that momentous + channel through which alone our Allies, Russia and Rumania, + have access to the Mediterranean. Though this was not formally + stated in the Allies' reply to President Wilson, it is clearly + part and parcel of the object in view, for while the Ottoman + Empire retains the smallest control on either side of either of + the Straits, she is so far able to interfere in European + concerns, in which she must never more have a hand. The east + shore, then, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora, as well as + the west, must be under the control of a Power, or a group of + Powers, not alien to Western civilisation. Germany and her + allies therefore, no less than Turkey, must be excluded from + the guardianship of the Straits.</p> + + <p>As we have had previous occasion to note, this ejection of + the Turkish power from Constantinople is the absolute reversal + of European and, in especial, of English policy for the last + hundred years. No crime that the Ottoman Government could + commit, no act of barbarism, would ever persuade us to do away + with the anachronism of Turkey's existence in Europe; but at + last the seismic convulsion of the war has knocked this policy + into a heap of disjected ruins, and it can never be rebuilt + again on the old lines. For among our other avowed objects in + prosecuting the war to its victorious end, we have pledged + ourselves to uphold the right which all peoples, whether small + or great, have to the enjoyment of full security and free + economic development. But while Turkey can close the Straits at + her own arbitrary will, or at the bidding of a superior and + malevolent Power, and block the passage of ships from Russian + and Rumanian ports into the Mediterranean, the economic + development of both these countries is seriously menaced. Three + times within the last six years has she exercised that right, + and while she holds the shores of the Straits she can at any + moment blockade all southern Russian ports. That such power + should be in the hands of any nation is highly undesirable; + that it should be in the hands of a corrupt despotism like + Turkey, especially now that Germany, as things stand, can + dictate to Turkey when and what she pleases, is a thing + unthinkable by the most improvident of statesmen. Already we + have paid dearly enough for the pusillanimity of a hundred + years: it is impossible that we should ever allow a similar + bill to be again presented. Whatever be the guardianship of the + Straits, whoever the holder of Constantinople, it will not be + Turkey.</p> + + <p>At the beginning of the war, and indeed till after the + revolution in Russia, it was announced and stated as an axiom + that on the conclusion of peace, Russia should be the + door-keeper of what after all is her own lodge-gate. + Subsequently, in the unhappy splits and disintegration of her + Government, it was announced that she favoured peace without + annexation--in other words, that she neither claimed nor + desired the guardianship of Constantinople. But I think we + should be utterly wrong if we regarded that as an expression of + the will of the Russian people: it is far more probable that it + was the expression of the will of Germany, directly inspired by + German influence with a view to concluding a separate peace + with Russia. As we have seen, it had its due effect in Turkey, + and Talaat Bey gave vent to pious ejaculations of thanksgiving, + that now all cause of quarrel with Russia was removed, and + Turkey and she could be friends. It is possible that when out + of the confused cries there again rises from Russia the clear + call of the people's voice, we shall find her wishing to set in + order her own house before she projects herself on new + missions, but, as far as the manifesto of 'peace without + territorial annexation' goes, we shall be wise to regard it for + the present with the profoundest suspicion. It sounds far more + like the tones of the Central European wolf than those of + Little Red Riding Hood's proper grandmother.</p> + + <p>But be Russia's decision what it may, the Turk will hold + sway no longer in Thrace or Constantinople, or on the shores of + the Straits of the Sea of Marmora. There is, of course, no + question of deporting the whole of the Turkish population that + lives in those regions, nor would it be desirable, even if it + were possible, to realise Gladstone's robust vision of seeing + every Turk, 'bag and baggage,' clear out from the provinces + they have desolated and profaned. But if not under Russia, then + under the joint control of certain of the Allied Powers there + will be a complete reconstruction of the administration of + those districts. The headquarters of the protectorate will + doubtless be at Constantinople, which will be reorganised + somewhat on the lines of the Treaty Port of Shanghai, and will + be open to the ships of all nations. The security of the town + must be assured by a military garrison either of mixed troops + of the controlling nations, or possibly by a rotation of troops + drawn from the armies of each in turn. More important even than + this will be the adequate control of the Straits by sea. A + naval base must be formed, which by the gospel of the freedom + of the seas (but not according to St. Goeben and the submarine + disciples) will constitute a patrolling police force of the + waters. Whether the system of fortifications and defences that + lately rendered the Dardanelles impregnable shall be retained + or not is a question demanding the most careful consideration. + Some will hold that they should be maintained in order to + insure that none but the guarantors of the freedom of the + Straits shall ever take possession of them: others that they + shall be utterly dismantled and destroyed, so that the closing + of the Straits shall be an impossibility. The matter really + turns on the question as to the extent to which the Allies will + have the prudence to cut Germany's claws when the war is over. + It is eminently to be hoped that they will be cut so short that + never again will they be able to show those chiselled talons + beyond her velvet--that sense, in fact, will allow sentiment no + word to say. Unfortunately, there are a great many people the + basis of whose character consists of a washy confidence in the + good intentions of everybody. Most mistakenly they call it + Christianity.</p> + + <p>Here, then, has been outlined the effect of the Allies' + declared aims. Such territories as Turkey holds in Europe, such + control as she possesses over the free passage of the Straits + must pass from her, and the alien peoples, who for centuries + have fainted and bled underneath her infamous yoke, must be led + out of the land of bondage. As we have seen throughout + preceding chapters, it was the fixed policy of the Ottoman + Government to rid itself of their presence, and already it has + gone far in its murderous mission. Indeed the avowed aims of + the Allies, when accomplished, will do that work for her, for + the Allies are determined to remove those peoples from Turkey. + The difference of execution, however, consists in this, that + they will not remove Arabs and Greeks and Italians and Jews, as + Turkey has already done with the Armenians by the simple + process of massacres, but by a process no less simple, namely, + of taking out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire the + districts where such peoples dwell. The Allies will accomplish, + in fact, for the Turks that policy of Ottomanisation which was + the aim of Abdul Hamid, and has been the aim of his more + murderous successors. Turkey shall henceforth be for the Turks: + she shall no more be in 'danger' from the defenceless nations, + who at present exist within her borders. The Sultan of Turkey, + in some year of grace now not far distant, will find that his + Ottomanisation has been done for him, and, though his realm is + curtailed, he will have his rest broken no more by the thought + of Arab risings, nor will he have to devise measures that will + solve the Arab question. Except for a strip along the west and + south coast, all Asia Minor and Anatolia will be his from the + Black Sea to the Mediterranean, but Syria, Armenia, the coast + of Asia Minor, Palestine, and Mesopotamia shall have passed + from him. It is no dismemberment of an Empire that the Allies + contemplate, for they cannot dismember limbs that never + belonged to the real trunk. It was a despotic military control + that the Osmanlis had established, they always regarded their + subject peoples as aliens, whom they did not scruple to destroy + if they exhibited symptoms of progress and civilisation. + Henceforth the Turkish Government shall govern Turks, and Turks + alone. That for many years has been its aim, and, by the + disastrous dispensation of fate, it has been largely able to + realise its purpose. Now, though by different methods, the + Allies will see thorough accomplishment of it. There will be no + question, of course, of turning out or of deporting Turks who + live in Syria, in Armenia, in Constantinople, for the ways of + the Allies are not those of Talaat and Enver and Jemal the + Great. Where to-day Turks dwell, there shall they continue to + dwell, but they must dwell there in peace in equal liberties + and rights with the once-subject peoples whom the Allies shall + have delivered. If they do not like that they can migrate, not + by forced marches and under the guardianship of murderous + Kurds, but in protection and security, to the lands where they + can still enjoy the beneficent sway of their own governors, and + be Ottomanised to the top of their bent. But Syrians and + Armenians and Greeks and Jews will be Ottomanised no + longer.</p> + + <p>The Turk was always a fighter, disciplined and courageous, + and he has never lost that virtue of valour. But he has been a + fighter because he has always lived under a military despotism + which demanded his services, and it is much to be doubted + whether his qualities in this regard will for the future be + exercised as they have been in the past. For the Turkish + armies, in so far as they have consisted of Turks, have been + chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of + Anatolia, who, when not summoned to their country's colours, or + ordered to maltreat and massacre, are quiet, rather indolent + folk, content to plough their lands and reap an exiguous but + sufficient harvest. And for their lords and governors, who, + until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies, there will + no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as in + the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the + necessity for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit + lands which it governed. But now, instead of having alien and + defenceless tribes within their borders, tribes forbidden to + bear arms and chafing at the Turkish yoke, they will see free + peoples under the protectorates of Powers that are capable of + self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment. + Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be + established in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and + the New Turkey will be as powerless for aggression as she will + be for defence, should she provoke attack. But within their + borders there may the Osmanlis dwell secure and undisturbed, so + long as they conform to the habits of civilised people with + regard to their neighbours, and it is a question whether, now + that the military despotism which has always misguided the + fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, + and no need of securing security, the nation will not settle + down into the quiet existence of small neutral countries. + Perhaps the last chapter of its savage and blood-stained + history is already almost finished, and in years to come some + little light of progress and of civilisation may be kindled in + the abode where the household gods for centuries have been + cruelty and hate.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;"> + <a name="Crescent_and_Iron_Cross_Chapter_VII"></a> + + <h2><i>Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII</i></h2> + + <center> + THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS + </center> + + <p>It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' + aims as regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the + subject peoples dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself + has to be delivered from a domination not less barbaric than + her own, which, if allowed to continue, would soon again be a + menace to the peace of the world. We have seen in a previous + chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's nippers, how + closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have to + consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, + and what will be the condition of the victim, already bled + white, when that has been done. In the beginning, as we have + seen, Germany obtained her hold by professing a touchingly + beautiful and philanthropic desire to help Turkey to realise + her national ideals, and her Pecksniffs, Tekin Alp and Herr + Ernst Marré, were bidden to write parallel histories, + the one describing the aims of the Nationalist party, the other + the benevolent interest which Germany took in them. + Occasionally Herr Ernst Marré could not but remember + that he was a German, and permitted us to see the claws of the + cat, without quite letting it out of the bag, but then he + pulled the strings tight again, and only loud comfortable + purrings could be heard, the Prussian musings over the + 'liberation' of Turkey which she was helping to accomplish. But + nowadays, so it seems to me, the strings have been loosened, + and the claws and teeth are clearly visible. It is not so long + since Dr. Schnee, Governor of German East Africa, sent a very + illuminating document to Berlin from which I extract the + following:--</p> + + <p>'Do you consider it possible to make a regulation + prohibiting Islam altogether? The encouragement of pig-breeding + among natives is recommended by experts as an effective means + of stopping the spread of Islam....'</p> + + <p>That seems clear enough, and I can imagine Talaat Bey, with + his sword of honour in his hand, exclaiming with the Oysters in + <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>:--<br> + 'After such kindness that would be<br> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">A dismal thing to + do.'</span></p> + + <p>But I am afraid that Germany is contemplating (as indeed she + has always done) a quantity of dismal things to do, and is now, + like the Walrus and the Carpenter, beginning to let them + appear. She has taken the Turkish oysters out for a nice long + walk, and when the war is over she proposes to sit down and eat + them. And did she not also interfere in the affair of Jewish + massacres and declare that 'Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of + meaning in Palestine'? That must have been almost an unfriendly + act from Turkey's point of view, for it cannot be stated too + clearly that part of the price which Germany paid for Turkey's + entry on her side into the war, was the liberty, as far as + Germany was concerned, of managing her internal affairs, + massacres and the rest, as best suited the damnable doctrines + of Ottomanisation. The other Powers could not interfere, for + they failed to force the Dardanelles, and Germany promised not + to. That promise, of course, was binding on Germany for just so + long as it suited her to keep it, and it suited her to keep it, + on the whole, during the Armenian massacres. And in that matter + her refusal to interfere is, among all her crimes, the very + flower and felicity of her vileness.</p> + + <p>Signs are not wanting that Turkey is beginning to realise + the position in which she has placed herself, namely, that of a + bankrupt dependant at the mercy of a nation to whom that + quality is a mere derision. Lately a quantity of small + incidents have occurred, such as disputes over the ownership of + properties financed by Germany and the really melodramatic + depreciation in the German coinage, which unmistakably show the + swift ebb of Turkey's misplaced confidence. More significant + perhaps than any is a transaction that took place in May 1917, + when Talaat Bey and Enver Pasha took the whole of their private + fortunes out of the Deutsche Bank in Constantinople, and + invested them in two Swiss banks, namely, the Banque Nationale + de Suisse, and the Banque Fédérale: they drew out + also the whole funds of the Committee of Union and Progress, + and similarly transferred them. This operation was not effected + without loss, for in return for the Turkish £1 they + received only thirteen francs. But it is significant that they + preferred to lose over fifty per cent. of their capital, and + have the moiety secure in Switzerland to leaving it in + Constantinople.<a name="FNanchor12"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_12">[12]</a></sup> It is certain therefore that at + both ends of the scale a distrust of German management has + begun. A starving population has wrecked trains loaded with + food-stuffs going to Germany, and at the other end the men with + the swords of honour and dishonour deem it wise to put their + money out of reach of the great Prussian cat. That the Germans + themselves are not quite at their ease concerning the security + of their hold may also be conjectured, for they are, as far as + possible, removing Turkish troops from Constantinople, and + replacing them with their own regiments. An instance of this + occurred in June 1917, when, owing to the discontent in the + capital, it was found necessary to guard bridges, residences of + Ministers, and Government offices. But instead of recalling + Turkish troops from Galicia to do this, they kept them there in + the manner of hostages, mixed up in German regiments, and sent + picked bodies of German troops to Constantinople. Fresh corps + of secret police have also been formed to suppress popular + manifestations. They are allowed to 'remove' suspects by any + means they choose, quite in the old style of bag and Bosporus, + but the organisation of them is German. And well may the German + Government distrust those signs of popular discontent in a + starving population: already the people have awoke to the fact + that the German paper money does not represent its face-value, + and, despite assurances to the contrary, it is at a discount + scarcely credible. Three German £1 notes are held even in + Constantinople to be the equivalent of a gold £1, while + in the provinces upwards of five are asked for, and given, in + exchange for one gold pound. It is in vain that German + manifestoes are put forth declaring that all Government offices + will take the notes as an equivalent for gold, for what the + people want is not a traffic with Government offices, but the + cash to buy food. Even more serious is the fact that Austrian + and Hungarian directors of banks will no longer accept these + scraps of paper. In vain, too, is it that the hungry folk see + the walls of the 'House of Friendship' rise higher and higher + in Constantinople, for every day they see with starving eyes + the trains loaded with sugar from Konia, and the harvests + raised in Anatolia with German artificial manures guarded by + German troops and rolling westwards to Berlin. According to + present estimates the harvest this year is so vastly more + abundant than that of previous years, that no comparison, as + the Minister of Agriculture tells his gratified Government, is + possible. But the poorer classes get no more than the leavings + of it when the armies, which include the German army, have had + their wants supplied. The governing classes, whom it is + necessary to feed, are not yet suffering, for the Germans grant + them enough, issuing rations to such families as are proved + adherents of the German-Turkish combination, and until the + pinch of want attacks them we should be foolishly optimistic if + we thought that a starving peasantry would cause the collapse + or the defection of Germany's newest and most valuable colony. + There is enough discontent to make Germany uneasy, but that is + all.<a name="FNanchor13"></a><sup><a href= + "#Footnote_13">[13]</a></sup> Long ago she proved the + efficiency of her control, and the successful pulling of her + puppet-strings, and no instance of that is more complete than + the brief story of Yakub Jemil and the extinction of him and + his party, which, though it happened a full year ago, has only + lately been completely transmitted. Yakub Jemil was an + influential commander of a frontier guard near the Black Sea + coast. In July 1916 he went to Constantinople, accompanied by + his staff (which included the informant from whom this account + is derived), and, being cordially received by Enver and Talaat, + discussed the situation with them. He pointed out the + demoralising effect of the Armenian massacres, and the danger + of Jemal the Great's attitude towards the Arabs in Syria, + realising, and seeking to make them realise, the stupendous + folly of making enemies of the subject peoples, and urging the + re-establishment of cordial relations between the Turks and + them. That, considering that Enver and Talaat were responsible + (under the Germans) for the Armenian massacres, was a brave + outspeaking. He went on to say that Turkey was at war not on + behalf of herself, but on behalf of Germany, and that it would + be wise of the Government to consider the possibility of a + separate peace with the Powers of the Entente. He was heard + with interest, and took his leave. He remained in + Constantinople, and his views obtained him many adherents, not + only among Turkish officers whose sympathies were already + alienated from Germany, but among members of the Committee of + Union and Progress. But before long his adherents began to + disappear, and he asked for another interview with Talaat. He + was received, as the informant states, 'with open arms,' for + Talaat seized and held him, called for the guard, and he was + searched, and on him were found certain documents which proved + him to hold the views he had already expressed. That now, was + enough. He was 'interrogated' for two days (interrogation is + otherwise called torture), and was then hanged. Subsequently + 111 officers and men in the army also disappeared. Some were + marched into the Khiat Khana Valley, opposite Pera, and were + stabbed: others were sent under escort to the provinces and + murdered. No courts-martial of any kind were held.</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor12">[12]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + Similarly, in October of this year, a new Turkish law + was passed, prohibiting the acquisition of Turkish land by + foreign settlers. This is aimed point-blank at Germany, and + has naturally annoyed Berlin very much. + </div><a name="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor13">[13]</a> + + <div class="note"> + The army rations have lately been reduced, each + Turkish soldier receiving daily an oke of bread and a dried + mackerel. + </div>And should anybody doubt the efficiency of German control + in Turkey, and be disposed to be optimistic about the imminence + of Turkey's detachment, he might do well to ponder that story. + + <p>Meantime the efficacy of our naval blockade is largely + discounted by Germany's new source of supply. Possibly in the + ensuing winter of 1917-18 conditions may get unbearable, but if + the Turkish Government only two years ago massacred more than a + million of its subjects, it would be absurd to expect that the + starving of a million more would produce much effect on the + Ministers of the Turkish God of Love.<a name= + "FNanchor14"></a><sup><a href="#Footnote_14">[14]</a></sup> The + people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how + famine is decimating England and France, and how the total + starvation of those unfortunate countries is imminent. Indeed, + of all the signs of want of confidence in their German + overlords, by far the most promising are the facts that Talaat + and Enver have sent their money out of the country, and that + Jemal the Great has a swelled head. On these facts there is a + certain justifiable optimism to be based. It will do no good to + consider them academically in London; but are there not + practical channels to reach the instincts of the Turkish + triumvirate that might be navigated?</p> + + <p><a name="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor14">[14]</a></p> + + <div class="note"> + The following list of prices in Constantinople is of + interest:-;<br> + + + July 1914. July 1917.<br> + Rice, per + lb. + 2-1/4 d. + 3s. 4d.<br> + Milk, per + quart + 5d. + 2s.<br> + Flour, per + lb. + 3d. 2s. + 6d.<br> + Petroleum, per + lb. + 1d. + 4s.6d.<br> + Pair of + boots + £1 + £8. + </div>We need not trouble ourselves with considering what the + Allies will have to do with the Turkish army when once the end + of the war comes, for the collapse of the military party in + Turkey, which owes its whole vitality to Germany, will be + perfect and complete. But the economical future of Turkey is + not so plain: at the present moment its bankruptcy is total. + Early in the war Germany drained it of such bullion as it had, + and has since then advanced it about £150,000,000, which, + as far as I can trace, is entirely in German paper, and must be + redeemed in gold at some period (chiefly two years) after the + end of the war. That is wonderful finance, and one marvels that + Turkey could have been so far blinded as to accept it. But I + expect that the swallowing of the first loan was sweetened by a + spoonful of jam of this kind. Germany pointed out that, though + England was quite certainly going to lose the war, she had + issued an immense paper coinage which had all the purchasing + power of gold. Germany, on the other hand, with her dear Ally + to help her, was just as certainly going to win the war. How, + then, could there be the slightest risk of the German paper + money depreciating a single piastre in value? That sounded very + good sense to Turkey, who was equally convinced that she would + be on the victorious side (else she would not have joined it), + and down went the loan with a pleasant sensation of sweetness. + A second loan was easily induced by the failure of the + Dardanelles expedition, and about then the 'ignorant' Turkish + peasant began to wonder whether the paper was quite as valuable + as gold, and to prefer gold or even the ordinary silver piastre + to its German equivalent. To counteract that, as we have seen, + a law was passed making it criminal to hoard gold, and, to + complete the ruin, the silver piastre was called in, and a + nickel token was substituted.... We can but bow our heads in + reverence of the thoroughness of German swindling. + + <p>Now Turkey is completely bankrupt, and we must ask ourselves + why Germany ever bargained for the repayment in gold, after the + war, of the millions she had lent the Turks in paper, if she + knew that Turkey could never repay her. True, the loans had + only cost her the paper the notes were printed on, so that in + no case could she prove a loser, but how could she be a gainer? + The answer to that question shouts at us from every acre of + Turkish soil. The immense undeveloped riches of Turkey supply + the answer. Some indeed are already being developed, and the + labour and most of the materials have been paid for by the + German paper notes. There are the irrigation works at Adana, + there is the beet-sugar industry at Konia, the irrigation works + in the Makischelin Valley, the mineral concessions of the + Bagdad Railway, the Haidar Pasha Harbour concessions, the + afforestation scheme near Constantinople, the cotton industry + in Anatolia--there is no end to them. Turkey may not be able to + pay in cash, but over all these concessions already working, + and over a hundred more, of which the concessions have been + granted, Germany has a complete hold, and her victim will pay + in minerals and cotton and sugar and corn. She will pay over + and over and over again, as none who have the smallest + knowledge of Kultur-finance can possibly doubt. She is bled + white already, and for the rest of time bloodless and white + will she remain. Only one event can possibly avert her fate, + and that is the victory of the Allies.</p> + + <p>We have been so bold as to assume that this is not an + impossible contingency, and on that assumption there is a + brighter future for Turkey than the Prussian domination could + ever bring her. Bankrupt she is, but, as Germany saw, she is + rich in possibilities even with regard to the restricted + territory to which she will surely find herself limited, and it + is a pleasant chance for her that Germany has already been so + busy in developing the resources of Anatolia. For Germany may + safely bet her last piece of paper money that she will not lay + a finger on them.</p> + + <p>The Turkey of the future is to be for the Turks; not for the + persecuted Armenians, nor for the Arabs, nor for the Greeks, + and assuredly it is not to be for the Prussians. While the war + lasts, Germany may draw supplies from the fields her artificial + manures have enriched, and from the acres that her paper money + has planted, but after that no more. Her Ottomanising work will + be over. Such development (and it is far from negligible) as + she has done in Syria will be continued under French protection + for the Arabs, such as she has done in Mesopotamia under + English protection, and such as she has done in Anatolia will + be continued by the Turks to drag them out of the utter + insolvency that she has brought them to. Never before has a + country so justly and so richly deserved the repudiation of a + debt incurred by the confidence trick. Not a civilised + Government in the world would dream of enforcing payment, any + more than a magistrate would enforce a payment to some + thimble-rigger returning from a race-meeting.</p> + + <p>The roar of battle still renders inaudible all voices save + its own, but already the dusk begins to gather over the halls + where sit the War-lord and those who, for the realisation of + their monstrous dreams, loosed hell upon the world, and in the + growing dusk there begin to steal upon the wall the letters of + pale flame that to them portend the doom, and to us give + promise of dawn. Faintly they can see the legend <i>Mene, Mene, + Tekel, Upharsin....</i></p> + + <p>THE END</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. 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Benson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crescent and Iron Cross + +Author: E. F. Benson + +Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, L Barber and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS + + +BY E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface_ + + +In compiling the following pages I have had access to certain sources of +official information, the nature of which I am not at liberty to specify +further. I have used these freely in such chapters of this book as deal +with recent and contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in +connection with Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland +ueber Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I have tried to be +discriminating in their use, and have not, as far as I am aware, stated +anything derived from them as a fact, for which I had not found +corroborative evidence. With regard to the Armenian massacres I have +drawn largely on the testimony collected by Lord Bryce, on that brought +forward by Mr. Arnold J. Toynbee in his pamphlet _The Murder of a +Nation_, and _The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks,_ and on the pamphlet +by Dr. Martin Niepage, called _The Horrors of Aleppo_. In the first +chapter I have based the short historical survey on the contribution of +Mr. D.G. Hogarth to _The Balkans_ (Clarendon Press, 1915). The chapter +called 'Thy Kingdom is Divided' is in no respect at all an official +utterance, and merely represents the individual opinions and surmises of +the author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies have +pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from Constantinople, +and to remove out of the power of the Turk the alien peoples who have +too long already been subject to his murderous rule. I have, in fact, +but attempted to conjecture in what kind of manner that promise will be +fulfilled. + +Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey are +continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one would have to +wait to the end of the war before beginning to write at all on this +subject. But since such usefulness as this book may possibly have is +involved with the necessity of its appearance before the end of the war, +I set a term to the gathering of material, and, with the exception of +two or three notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. +But up to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys and +arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on my part. + +E.F. BENSON + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents_ + + +CHAPTER I + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +CHAPTER II + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +CHAPTER III + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +CHAPTER V + +DEUTSCHLAND UeBER ALLAH + +CHAPTER VI + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GRIP OF THE OCTOPUS + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS + +The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his phrase is +applicable for the moment and for the situation in view of which he +coined it, but his coin has only a temporary validity: it is good for a +month or for a year, or for whatever period during which the crisis +lasts, and after that it lapses again into a mere token, a thing without +value and without meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a +monetary coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over +the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on being +passed from hand to hand, its image and superscription defaced by wear, +long after it has ceased to represent anything. In itself it is +obsolete, but people still trade with it, and think it represents what +it represented when it came hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it +sometimes happens that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery +(which it may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives +those who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded possession. + +Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined by Lord +Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a sick man,' he +said, and added something which gave great offence then about the +advisability of putting Turkey out of his misery. I do not pretend to +quote correctly, but that was the gist of it. Nor do I challenge the +truth of Lord Aberdeen's phrase at the period when he made it. It +possibly contained a temporary truth, a valid point of view, which, if +it had been acted on, might have saved a great deal of trouble +afterwards, but it missed then, and more than misses now, the essential +and salient truth about Turkey. The phrase, unfortunately, still +continued to obtain credit, and nowadays it is a forgery; it rings +false. + +For at whatever period we regard Turkey, and try to define that +monstrous phenomenon, we can make a far truer phrase than Lord +Aberdeen's. For Turkey is not a sick man: Turkey is a sickness. He is +not sick, nor ever has been, for he is the cancer itself, the devouring +tumour that for centuries has fed on living tissue, absorbing it and +killing it. It has never had life in itself, except in so far that the +power of preying on and destroying life constitutes life, and such a +power, after all, we are accustomed to call not life, but death. Turkey, +like death, continues to exist and to dominate, through its function of +killing. Life cannot kill, it is disease and death that kill, and from +the moment that Turkey passed from being a nomadic tribe moving +westwards from the confines of Persia, it has existed only and thrived +on a process of absorption and of murder. When first the Turks came out +of their Eastern fastnesses they absorbed; when they grew more or less +settled, and by degrees the power of mere absorption, as by some failure +of digestion, left them, they killed. They became a huge tumour, that +nourished itself by killing the living tissues that came in contact +with it. Now, by the amazing irony of fate, who weaves stranger dramas +than could ever be set on censored stages, for they both take hundreds +of years to unravel themselves, and are of the most unedifying +character, Turkey, the rodent cancer, has been infected by another with +greater organisation for devouring; the disease of Ottomanism is +threatened by a more deadly hungerer, and Prussianism has inserted its +crab-pincers into the cancer that came out of Asia. Those claws are +already deeply set, and the problem for civilised nations is first to +disentangle the nippers that are cancer in a cancer, and next to deprive +of all power over alien peoples the domination that has already been +allowed to exist too long. + +The object of this book is the statement of the case on which all +defenders of liberty base their prosecution against Turkey itself, and +against the Power that to-day has Turkey in its grip. + +Historical surveys are apt to be tedious, but in order to understand at +all adequately the case against Turkey as a ruler and controller of +subject peoples, it is necessary to go, though briefly, into her +blood-stained genealogy. There is no need to enter into ethnological +discussions as to earlier history, or define the difference between the +Osmanli Turks and those who were spread over Asia Minor before the +advent of the Osmanlis from the East. But it was the Osmanlis who were +the cancerous and devouring nation, and it is they who to-day rule over +a vast territory (subject to Germany) of peoples alien to them by +religion and blood and all the instincts common to civilised folk. Until +Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' suddenly hoisted her colours as a +champion of murder and rapine and barbarism, she the mother of art and +literature and science, there was nothing in Europe that could compare +with the anachronism of Turkey being there at all. Then, in August 1914, +there was hoisted the German flag, superimposed with skulls and +cross-bones, and all the insignia of piracy and highway robbery on land +and on sea, and Germany showed herself an anachronism worthy to impale +her arms on the shield of the most execrable domination that has ever +oppressed the world since the time when the Huns under Attila raged like +a forest fire across the cultivated fields of European civilisation. +To-day, in the name of Kultur, a similar invasion has broken on shores +that seemed secure, and it is no wonder that it has found its most +valuable victim and ally in the Power that adopted the same methods of +absorption and extermination centuries before the Hohenzollerns ever +started on their career of highway robbery. But like seeks like, and +perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our astonishing diplomacy in +Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like some desirable maiden, cast in +her lot with the Power that by instinct and tradition most resembled +her. Spiritual blood, no less than physical blood, is thicker than +water, and Gott and Allah, hand-in-hand, pledged each other in the cups +they had filled with the blood that poured from the wine-presses of +Belgium and of Armenia. + +For centuries before the Osmanli Turks made their appearance in Asia +Minor, there had come from out of the misty East numerous bodies of +Turks, pushing westwards, and spreading over the Euphrates valley and +over Persia, in nomadic or military colonisations, and it is not until +the thirteenth century that we find the Osmanli Turks, who give their +name to that congregation of races known as the Ottoman Empire, +established in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. Like all previous +Turkish immigrations, they came not in any overwhelming horde, with +sword in one hand and Koran in the other, but as a small compact body +with a genius for military organisation, and the gift, which they retain +to this day, of stalwart fighting. The policy to which they owed their +growth was absorption, and the people whom they first began to absorb +were Greeks and other Christians, and it was to a Christian girl, +Nilufer, that Osman married his son Orkhan. They took Christian youths +from the families of Greek dwellers, forced them to apostatise, gave +them military training, and married them to Turkish girls. It was out of +this blend of Greek and Turkish blood, as Mr. D.G. Hogarth points out, +that they derived their national being and their national strength. This +system of recruiting they steadily pursued not only among the Christian +peoples with whom they came in contact, but among the settlements of +Turks who had preceded them in this process of pushing westwards, and +formed out of them the professional soldiery known as Janissaries. They +did not fight for themselves alone, but as mercenaries lent their arms +to other peoples, Moslem and Christian alike, who would hire their +services. This was a policy that paid well, for, after having delivered +some settlement from the depredations of an inconvenient neighbour, and +with their pay in their pocket, they sometimes turned on those who had +hired their arms, took their toll of youths, and finally incorporated +them in their growing empire. Like an insatiable sponge, they mopped up +the sprinklings of disconnected peoples over the fruitful floor of Asia +Minor, and swelled and prospered. But as yet the extermination of these +was not part of their programme: they absorbed the strength and manhood +of their annexations into their own soldiery, and came back for more. +They did not levy those taxes paid in the persons of soldiers for their +armies from their co-religionists, since Islam may not fight against +Islam, but by means of peaceful penetration (a policy long since +abandoned) they united scattered settlements of Turks to themselves by +marriages and the bond of a common tongue and religion. + +Their expansion into Europe began in the middle of the fourteenth +century, when, as mercenaries, they fought against the Serbs, and fifty +years later they had a firm hold over Bulgaria as well. Greece was their +next prey; they penetrated Bosnia and Macedonia, and in 1453 attacked +and took Constantinople under Mohammed the Conqueror. Still true to the +policy of incorporation they continued to mop up the remainder of the +Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time consolidated themselves further +in Asia Minor. By the beginning of the seventeenth century their +expansion reached its utmost geographical limits, but already the Empire +held within it the seeds of its own decay, and by a curious irony the +force that should still keep it together was derived not from its own +strength, but from the jealousies of the European Powers among +themselves, who would willingly have dismembered it, but feared the +quarrels that would surely result from the apportionment of its +territories. The Ottoman Empire from then onwards has owed its existence +to its enemies. + +Its weakness lay in itself, for it was very loosely knit together, and +no bond, whether of blood or religion or tongue, bound to it the +assembly of Christian and Jewish and non-Moslem races of which it was so +largely composed. The Empire never grew (as, for instance, the British +Empire grew) by the emigration and settlement of the Osmanli stock in +the territories it absorbed: it never gave, it only took. From the +beginning right up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it has +been a military despotism, imposing itself on unwilling and alien tribes +whom it drained of their blood, and then left in neglect until some +further levy was needed. None of its conquered peoples was ever given a +share in the government; they were left unorganised and, so to speak, +undigested elements under the Power which had forced them into +subjection, and one by one the whole of the European peoples included in +that uncemented tyranny have passed from under Turkish control. Turkey +in Europe has dwindled to a strip along the Bosporus to the Sea of +Marmora and the Dardanelles, Egypt has been lost, Tripoli also, and the +only force that, for the last hundred years has kept alive in Europe the +existence of that monstrous anachronism has been the strange political +phenomenon, now happily extinct, called the Balance of Power. No one of +the Great Powers, from fear of the complications that would ensue, could +risk the expulsion of the Turkish Government from Constantinople, and +there all through the nineteenth century it has been maintained lest the +Key of the Black Sea, which unlocked the bolts that barred Russia's +development into the Mediterranean, should lead to such a war as we are +now passing through. That policy, for the present, has utterly defeated +its own ends, for the key is in the pockets of Prussia. But all through +that century, though the Powers maintained Turkey there, they helped to +liberate, or saw liberate themselves, the various Christian kingdoms in +Europe over which at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey +exercised a military despotism. They weakened her in so far as they +could, but they one and all refused to let her die, and above all +refused to give her that stab in the heart which would have been implied +in her expulsion from Constantinople. + +For centuries from the first appearance of the Osmanlis in north-west +Asia Minor down to the reign of Abdul Hamid, the Empire maintained +itself, with alternate bouts of vigour and relapses, on the general +principle of drawing its strength from its subject peoples. Internally, +from whatever standpoint we view it, whether educational, economic, or +industrial, it has had the worst record of any domination known to +history. Rich in mineral wealth, possessed of lands that were once the +granary of the world, watered by amazing rivers, and with its strategic +position on the Mediterranean that holds the master-key of the Black Sea +in its hands, it has remained the most barbaric and least progressive of +all states. Its roads and means of communication remained up till the +last quarter of the nineteenth century much as they had been in the days +of Osman; except along an insignificant strip of sea-coast railways were +non-existent; it was bankrupt in finance and in morals, and did not +contain a single seed that might ripen into progress or civilisation. +Mesopotamia was once the most fertile of all lands, capable of +supporting not itself alone, but half the civilised world: nowadays, +under the stewardship of the Turk, it has been suffered to become a +desert for the greater part of the year and an impracticable swamp for +the remainder. Where great cities flourished, where once was reared the +pride of Babylon and of Nineveh, there huddle the squalid huts of +fever-stricken peasants, scarce able to gain their half-starved living +from the soil that once supported in luxury and pomp the grandeur of +metropolitan cities. The ancient barrages, the canals, the systems of +irrigation were all allowed to silt up and become useless; and at the +end of the nineteenth century you would not find in all Mesopotamia an +agricultural implement that was in any way superior to the ploughs and +the flails of more than two thousand years ago. But so long as there was +a palace-guard about the gates to secure the safety of the Sultan and +his corrupt military oligarchy, so long as there were houris to divert +their leisure, tribute of youths to swell their armies, and taxes wrung +from starving subjects to maintain their pomp, there was not one of +those who held the reins of government who cared the flick of an eyelash +for the needs of the nations on whom the Empire rested, for the +cultivation of its soil that would yield a hundredfold to the skilled +husbandman, or for the exploitation and development of its internal +wealth. While there was left in the emaciated carcase of the Turkish +Empire enough live tissue for the cancerous Government to grow fat on, +it gave not one thought to the welfare of all those races on whom it had +fastened itself. Province after province of its European dominions +might be lost to it, but the Balance of Power still kept the Sultan on +his throne, and left the peoples of Asia Minor and Syria at his mercy. +They were largely of alien religion and of alien tongue, and their +individual weakness was his strength. Neglect, and the decay consequent +on neglect, was the lot of all who languished under that abominable +despotism. + +With the accession in 1876 of Abdul Hamid, of cursed memory, there +dawned on the doomed subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire a day of +bloodier import than any yet. The year before and during that year had +occurred the Bulgarian atrocities and massacres, and the word 'massacre' +lingered and made music in Abdul Hamid's brain. He said it over to +himself and dwelt upon it, and meditated on the nature and possibilities +of massacre. The troubles which massacre had calmed had arisen before +his accession out of the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which +corresponded to the Greek Patriarchate, and was given power over +districts and peoples whom the Greeks justly considered to belong to +them by blood and religion. Greek armed bands came into collision with +Bulgarian bands, and in order to calm these disturbances by thoroughly +effectual means, irregular Turkish troops were sent into Bulgaria, +charged with the command to 'stop the row,' but with no other +instructions. Indiscriminate killing, with all the passions and horrors +that bloodshed evokes in the half-civilised, followed, and there was no +more trouble just then in the disturbed districts, for there was none to +make trouble. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was deposed by a group of king-makers +under Midhat Pasha, Murad V. reigned shadow-like for three months, and +during the same year Abdul Hamid was finally selected to fill the +throne, and stand forth as the Shadow of God. It was a disturbed and +tottering inheritance to which he succeeded, riddled with the dry-rot of +corruption, but the inheritor proved himself equal to the occasion. + +For a little while he was all abroad, and at the bidding of Midhat, who +had placed him on the throne, he summoned a kind of representative +Turkish Parliament, by way of imbuing the Great Powers with the idea +that he was an enlightened Shadow of God bent on reform. This parody of +a Parliament lasted but a short time: it was no more than a faint, +dissolving magic-lantern picture. In the spring of 1877 Rumania, under +Russian encouragement, broke away from Turkish rule. Turkey declared war +on Russia, and in 1878 found herself utterly defeated. At Adrianople was +drawn up the Treaty of San Stefano, creating an independent Bulgarian +state, and, in the opinion of Great Britain and Germany, giving Russia +far greater influence in the Balkan Peninsula than was agreeable to that +disastrous supporter of Turkey, the Balance of Power. In consequence the +Treaty of San Stefano was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin. + +In those arrangements Abdul Hamid had no voice, but he was well content +to sit quiet, think about what was to be done with what was left him, +and thank his waning crescent that once again the Balance of Power had +secured Constantinople for him, leaving him free to deal with his +Asiatic dominions, and such part of Europe as was left him, as he +thought fit. He could safely trust that he would never be ejected from +his throne by a foreign Power, and all he need do was to make himself +safe against internal disturbances and revolutions which might upset +him. And it was then that he begot in the womb of his cold and cunning +brain a policy that was all his own, except in so far as the Bulgarian +atrocities, consequent on feuds between Bulgars and Greeks, may be +considered the father of that hideous birth. But it was he who suckled +and nourished it, it was from his brain that it emerged, full-grown and +in panoply of armour, as from the brain of Olympian Zeus came Pallas +Athene. This new policy was in flat contradiction of all the previous +policy, as he had received it from his predecessors, of strengthening +Turkey by tributes of man-power from his subject tribes, but it would, +he thought, have the same result of keeping the Turk supreme among the +alien elements of the Empire. Times had changed; it behoved him to +change the methods which hitherto had held together his hapless +inheritance. + +Now Abdul Hamid was not in any sense a wise man, and the ability which +has been attributed to him, in view of the manner in which he +successfully defied the civilisations of Europe, is based on premisses +altogether false. He never really defied Europe at all; he always +yielded, secure in his belief that Europe in the shape of the Balance of +Power, was unanimous in keeping him where he was. He never even risked +being turned out of Constantinople, for he knew--none better--that all +Europe insisted on retaining him there. As regards wisdom, there was +never a greater fool, but as regards cunning there was never a greater +fox. He had a brain that was absolutely impervious to large ideas: the +notion of consolidating and strengthening his Empire by ameliorating its +internal conditions, by bringing it within speaking distance of the +influence of civilisation and progress, by taking advantage of and +developing its immense natural resources, by employing the brains and +the industry of his subject races, seems never to have entered his head. +He could easily have done all this: there was not a Power in Europe that +would not have lent him a helping hand in development and reform, in the +establishment of a solvent state, in aiding the condition of the peoples +over whom he ruled. In whatever he did, provided that it furthered the +welfare of his subjects, whether Turk, Armenian, or Arab, the whole +Concert of Europe would have provided him with cash, with missionaries, +with engineers, and all the resources of the arts and sciences of peace +and of progress. But being a felon, with crime and cunning to take the +place of wisdom, he preferred to develop his Empire on his own original +lines. In Europe he was but suffered to exist. There remained Asia. + +The policy of previous Osmanli rulers has already been roughly defined. +They strengthened themselves and the military Turkish despotism round +them by absorbing the manhood of the tribes over which they had obtained +dominion. Abdul Hamid reversed that policy; he strengthened the Turkish +supremacy, not by drawing into it the manhood of his subject peoples, +but by destroying that manhood. In proportion, so his foxlike brain +reasoned, as his alien subjects were weak, so were the Turks strong. A +consistent weakening of alien nations would strengthen the hold of those +who governed the Ottoman Empire. It was as if a man suffered from gout +in his foot: he could get rid of the gout by wholesome living, the +result of which would be that his foot ceased to trouble him. But the +plan which he adopted was to cause his foot to mortify by process of +inhuman savagery. When it was dead it would trouble him no longer. + +He was well aware that the Turkish people only comprised some forty per +cent, of the population of the Turkish Empire: numerically they were +weaker than the alien peoples who composed the rest of it. Something had +to be done to bring the governing Power up to such a proportionate +strength as should secure its supremacy, and the most convenient plan +was to weaken the alien elements. The scheme, though yet inchoate, had +been tried with success in the case of the Bulgarians and Greeks, and to +test it further he stirred up Albanians against the inhabitants of Old +Servia with gratifying results. They weakened each other, and he further +weakened them both by the employment of Turkish troops in Macedonia to +quell the disturbances which he had himself fomented. There were +massacres and atrocities, and no more trouble just then from Macedonia. +Having thus tested his plan and found no flaw in it, he settled to adopt +it. But European combinations did not really much interest him, for he +was aware that the Great Powers, to whose sacred Balance he owed the +permanence of his throne, would not tolerate interference with European +peoples, and he turned his attention to Asia Minor. There were +excrescences there which he could not absorb, but which might be +destroyed. He could use the knife on living tissues which the impaired +digestion of the Ottoman Empire could not assimilate. So he hit on this +fresh scheme, which his hellish cunning devised with a matchless sense +of the adaptation of the means to the end, and he created (though he did +not live to perfect) a new policy that reversed the traditions of five +hundred years. That is no light task to undertake, and when we consider +that since his deposition, now nine years ago, that policy has reaped +results undreamed of perhaps by him, we can see how far-sighted his +cunning was. To-day it is being followed out by the very combination +that deposed him; his aims have been fully justified, and for that +precise reason we are right to classify him among the abhorred of +mankind. He had an opportunity such as is given to the few, and he made +the utmost of it, even as his greater successor on the throne of Turkey +for the present, namely Wilhelm II. of Prussia, has done, in the service +of the devil. 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' must surely +have been his well-deserved welcome, when he left the hell he had made +on earth for another. + +Of all his subjects the Armenians were the most progressive, the most +industrious, the most capable. They therefore contributed, according to +that perverted foxlike mind, one of the greatest menaces to the +stability of his throne, which henceforth should owe its strength to the +weakness of those it governed. They, as all the world knows, are a +peaceful Christian people, and it was against them that Abdul Hamid +directed the policy which he had tested in Europe. The instruments he +employed to put it in force were the Kurds, a turbulent shepherd race +marching with and mixed up among the Armenians. By this means he had the +excuse ready that these massacres were local disturbances among remote +and insubordinate tribes, one of whom, however, the Kurds, he armed with +modern rifles and caused to be instructed in some elementary military +training. Their task was to murder Armenians, their pay was the +privilege to rape their girls and their women, and to rob the houses of +the men they had killed. The Armenians resisted with at first some small +success, upon which Abdul Hamid reinforced the Kurds with regular +troops, and caused it to be proclaimed that this was a war of Moslems +against the infidel, a Holy War. Moslem fanaticism, ever smouldering +and ready to burst into flames, blazed high, and a fury of massacres +broke forth against all Armenians, east and west, north and south. The +streets of Constantinople ran with their blood, and before Abdul Hamid +was obliged by foreign civilised Powers to stop those holocausts, he had +so decimated the race that not for at least a generation would they +conceivably be a menace again even to that zealous guardian of the +supremacy in its own dominions of the Ottoman power. Very unwillingly, +when obliged to do so, he whistled off his bands of Kurds, and dismissed +them: unwillingly, too, he gave orders that the Armenian hunts which had +so pleasantly diverted the sportsmen of Constantinople, must be +abandoned: then was decreed a 'close time' for Armenians, the shooting +season was over. There is no exaggeration in this: eye-witnesses have +recorded how at the close of the business day in Constantinople, +shooting parties used literally to go out, and beat the coverts of +tenement houses for Armenians, of whom there were at that time in +Constantinople some 150,000. But when Abdul Hamid had finished his +sport, I do not think more than 80,000 at the most survived. These were +saved by the protests of Europe, and perhaps by the knowledge that if +all the Armenians were killed, there could never be any more shooting. +The Kurds also had lost a considerable number of men, and that was far +from displeasing to the yellow-faced butcher of Yildiz. A little +blood-letting among those turbulent Kurds was not at all a bad thing. + +Here, then, we see defined and at work the new Ottoman policy with +regard to its peoples. Hitherto, it had been sufficient to take from +them its fill of man-power, and leave the tribe in question to its own +devices. There was no objection whatever to its developing the resources +of its territory, to its increasing in prosperity and in population. +Indeed the central Power was quite pleased that it should do so, for +when next the gathering of taxes and youths came round the collectors +would find a creditable harvest awaiting them. Such a tribe received no +encouragement or help from the Government; that would have been too +much to expect, but as long as it kept quiet and obedient it might, +without interference, prosper as well as it could. But now, in the last +quarter of the nineteenth century, all that was changed; instead of a +policy of neglect there was substituted a policy of murder. The state no +longer considered itself secure when in various parts of its dominions +its subjects showed themselves progressive and industrious. They had to +be kept down, and clearly the most efficient way of keeping people down +was killing them. Let it not be supposed for a moment that either the +first massacre, or any that followed, was the result of local +disturbances and fanaticism. It was nothing of the sort: each was +arranged and planned at Constantinople, as the official means, invented +by the arch-butcher, Abdul Hamid, of maintaining in power the most +devilish despotism that has ever disgraced the world. Something had to +be done to prevent the alien tribes in Asia slipping out of the noose of +Ottoman strangulation, even as the European tribes had done, and +forming themselves into separate and independent states. A ruler with +progressive ideas, one who had any perception of the internal prosperity +which alone can render an empire stable, would have made the attempt to +weld his loose and wavering domination together by encouraging and +working for the prosperity of its component peoples, so that he might, +though late in the day, give birth to a Turkey that was strong, because +its citizens were prosperous and content. Not so did Abdul Hamid; the +Turkey that he sought to establish was merely to be strong because he +had battered into a blood-stained pulp the most progressive and the most +industrious of the alien peoples over whom he ruled. + +It is significant that, while yet the blood of the murdered Christians +was scarcely washed from the streets of Constantinople, the Emperor +Wilhelm II. visited his brother-sovereign at Yildiz, after making his +tour throughout the Holy Land. The two can hardly, in their intimate +conversations, have completely avoided the subject of the massacres; but +after all, that was not such an unmanageably awkward topic, for Wilhelm +II. could tactfully have reminded Abdul Hamid that his own throne also +was based on the murderous progress of the Teutonic Knights. Then there +was the war between Turkey and Greece only lately concluded to discuss, +and there again--for the Emperor's sister was Crown Princess of +Greece--conversation must have been a shade difficult. Altogether, in +spite of the Emperor's lifelong desire to visit the Holy Places in +Palestine, it was an odd moment for a Christian monarch to visit the +butcher of Constantinople. But the truth is that Wilhelm II. had a very +strong reason for going to see his brother, for the fruit of German +policy in Turkey was already ripening and swelling on the tree, and the +minor disadvantages of visiting this murderous tyrant while still his +hands were red with blood was more than compensated for by the +advantages of having a heart-to-heart talk with him on other subjects. +Germany had already begun her peaceful penetration, and the real motive +of the Emperor's visit was, after swords and orders had been exchanged, +to make the definite request that bodies of colonising Germans should be +allowed to settle on the Sultan's dominions in Asia Minor, and a hint no +doubt was conveyed that there would be plenty of room for them now that +there were so many Armenian farms unfortunately without a master. But, +like Uriah Heep, the Emperor had attempted to pluck the fruit before it +was ripe, or, to use a more exact simile, before he was tall enough to +reach it. In vain he represented to Abdul Hamid the immense advantages +which would result to Turkey by the establishment of those Gott-like +German settlers in Asia Minor. Out of his colossal egalo-megalomania, of +which we know more now, he thought that any request which the +All-Highest should deign to make must instantly be granted. But he met +with a perfectly flat refusal, and the baffled All-Highest left +Constantinople in an exceedingly bad temper, which quite undid all the +good that the balm in Gilead and the sacred associations of Jerusalem +had done him. It is pleasant to think of the Pan-Islamic merriment with +which Abdul Hamid must have viewed the indignant exit of his Christian +brother, who had come such a long way to see him, and was so tactful +about the Armenian atrocities. He might perhaps--for those Christians +were very odd pigs--have expressed horror or remonstrance. Not at all: +he was much too anxious to get his request granted, to make himself +disagreeable. But did his Christian brother really think that all those +massacres over which Abdul Hamid had spent so much time and money, had +been arranged in order to settle those nasty progressive Germans in the +lands that had been so carefully depopulated? Why, the whole point of +them had been that the Armenians were too progressive and prosperous, +thus constituting a menace to the central Government, and certainly +Abdul Hamid was not meaning to put in their place settlers even more +progressive and with a stronger backing behind them. So off went the +All-Highest back home again, very much vexed with Abdul Hamid, and +possibly (if that was not sacrilegious) with himself for having been in +too great a hurry. There was more spade-work to be done yet before +Turkey was ripe for open and avowed colonisation by the Fatherland. + +The episode, strictly historical, is of a certain importance, for it +shows the date at which Wilhelm II. thought that the time had come for +Germans to colonise Turkey. The peaceful penetration (which now amounts +to perforation) was even then pretty far advanced. But Abdul Hamid seems +to have seen the significance of the request, and for some little while +after that German influence had a certain set-back in Turkey. The date +of this marks an era, and Germany, 'deep patient Germany,' set to work +again, in no way discouraged, to set her cancer-nippers in the cancer +that already had begun to eat the live tissues round it. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter II_ + + +THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS + +In the year 1908 a military group in Constantinople, styling itself the +'Young Turk' party, seized and deposed Abdul Hamid, and shut him up at +Salonika, there to spend the remainder of his infamous days. They put +forth a Liberal programme of reformation, one that earned them at the +moment the sympathy of civilised Europe (including Germany), and the +Balance of Power very mistakenly and prematurely heaved a sigh of +relief. For upwards of a century it had maintained in Constantinople the +corrupt and bloody autocracy of the Sultans, fearing the European +quarrels that would attend the dismemberment of that charnel-house of +decay known as the Ottoman Empire, and now (just for the moment) it +seemed as if a sudden rally had come to the Sick Man, and he showed +signs of returning animation and wholesome vitality. The policy of the +Powers, after a century of failure, looked as if it was justifying +itself, and they were full of congratulations towards Turkey and each +other. But never, in the whole century of their pusillanimous cacklings, +had they made a greater mistake. + +Whether the Young Turks ever meant well or not, whether there was or was +not a grain of sincerity in this profession of their policy, is a +disputed question. There are those who say that originally they were +prompted by patriotic and high-minded aims, when they proclaimed their +object of 'Organisation,' and of reform. But all are agreed that it +matters very little what their original aims were, so speedily did their +Liberal intentions narrow down to an Ottomanisation such as Adbul Hamid +had aimed at, but had been unable to accomplish before his evil sceptre +ceased to sway the destinies of his kingdom. In any case this programme +earned its authors the sympathy of Europe, and probably this, and no +more than this, prompted it. They wished to establish themselves, +unquestioned and undisturbed, and did so; and I do not think we shall +be far wrong if we take the original Young Turk programme about as +seriously as we took the parody of a Parliament with which Abdul Hamid +opened (as with a blessing) his atrocious reign. The very next year +(1909) they permitted (if they did not arrange) the Armenian massacres +at Adana, and the Balance of Power began faintly to wonder whether the +Young Turks in their deposition of Abdul Hamid had not slain an asp and +hatched a cockatrice. Given that their aims originally were sincere, we +can but marvel at the swiftness of the corruption which in little more +than a year had begun to lead them not into paths of reform and Liberal +policy, but along the road towards which the butcher they had deposed +had pointed the way. It must have made Abdul Hamid gnaw his nails and +shake impotent hands to see those who had torn him from his throne so +soon pursuing the very policy which he invented, and to which he +nominally owed his dethronement. Strange, too, was it that his overthrow +should come from the very quarter to which he looked for security, for +it was on the army that each Sultan in turn had most relied for the +stability of his throne. But Abdul Hamid, in order, perhaps, to deal +more effectually with the subject races he wished to exterminate, had +introduced a system of foreign training for the officers of his army, a +course of Potsdam efficiency, and it was just they, on whom Sultans from +time immemorial had relied, who knocked the prop of the army away from +him. Though publicly, for the edification of Europe his deposers +professed a Liberal policy, it was not on account of Armenian massacres +that they turned him off his throne, but because of the muddle and +corruption and debility of his rule. Herein we may easily trace the hand +of Germany, no longer publicly beckoning as when Wilhelm II., just after +the first Armenian massacres, made his request of the Sultan for the +establishment in Turkey of German colonists, but working underground, +sapping and mining like a mole. For Germany, her mind already fixed on +securing Turkey as an instrument of her Eastern policy, wanted a strong +Turkey, and without doubt desired to bring an end to the disorganisation +and decay of the Empire, and create and at the same time interpenetrate +an efficient state that should be useful to her. We may take it for +granted that she, like the rest of Europe, welcomed any sign of +regeneration in the Ottoman Empire, but there was an ulterior purpose +behind that. Turkey, already grasped by the Prussian hand, must be in +that hand a weapon fit for use, a blade on which she could rely. She +strengthened the Turkish army by the introduction of Prussian +discipline, and worked on good material. Already she has realised her +ambition in this respect, and now controls the material which she then +worked on. + +The troubled years of the Balkan wars which followed this false dawn, +coupled with the loss of all the territory which remained to the Ottoman +Empire in Europe, with the exception of Thrace, caused an immediate +reaction from the open-minded policy of the Young Turks, if we decide to +credit them at the outset with a sincere purpose. Organisation by a +slightly different spelling became Ottomanisation, and the aims of the +Young Turks were identified with those of the Nationalist party which +followed out and developed into a finished and super-fiendish policy the +dreams of Abdul Hamid. He, as we have seen, had invented the idea of +securing Ottoman supremacy in the Empire, not as before by absorption of +the strength of its subject peoples, but by their extermination, and +this formed part of the new programme which was to be more efficiently +administered. Already, in 1909, the experimental massacre at Adana took +place, and the Young Turk party, with its possibly Liberal aims, had +become a party that had as its main object a system of tyranny and +murder such as the world had never seen. Simultaneously Turkey itself, +Nationalist party and all, became enslaved to German influence. Link by +link the chains were forged and the manacles welded on, and before the +European War broke out in 1914, the incarceration of Turkey in Germany +was complete, and Wilhelm II. had a fine revenge for the snub inflicted +on him by Abdul Hamid when he proposed the scheme of German +colonisation in the lands depopulated by the Armenian massacres of 1895. + +From the first the aim of the Nationalists, who thus formed so deadly a +blend with the Young Turk party, was Ottomanisation, or the +establishment within the Empire of an Ottoman domination which should be +pure and undefiled, and in which none of the subject peoples, be they +Armenians or Kurds, Arabs or Greeks or Jews, Christian or Moslem, should +have any part. The inception of the scheme was no doubt inspired by the +example given by Prussia's treatment of the Poles, and Hungary's of +Roumans and Slovaks. But in thoroughness of method Prussia's pupil was +to prove Prussia's master, for it aimed not merely at expropriation, but +extermination, and sought to become strong, not merely by weakening +alien elements, but by abolishing them. It did not set this out quite +explicitly in its manifestoes and the resolutions of its congresses, but +two extracts, the first from the proceedings of the 'Committee of Union +and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a sinister +suggestiveness about them for which the acts and measures of the +Committee had already supplied the comment. + +'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the country must be +suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal ideas prevented. Turkey +must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem influence must be +preponderant. Every other religious propaganda must be suppressed.... +Sooner or later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must +be effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained by +persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other +nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for +decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish Empire.' + +Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul Hamid, than +this formal resolution, passed within three years of the time when the +Young Turks deposed him? The conviction begins to dawn on one--as it +began to dawn on the Balancers of Power--that he owed his downfall not +to his illiberal and butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough +enough. + +The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may be added, +which defines the policy, not with regard to the Christian or Jewish +subjects of the Turks, but with regard to the Arabs, Moslem by creed, +and the guardians of the Holy Cities. + +'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for us to +Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of nationality is +awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, and already threatens us +with a great catastrophe. Against this we must be fore-armed.' + +The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical form. +Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of patriotism, and any +means which secured it, massacres such as, in 1909, had taken place at +Adana, or the treatment accorded to the Greeks and Bulgarians who +remained in Thrace after the Balkan wars, were in accordance with the +new 'Liberal' gospel. Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in +Europe, and as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it +could not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under +the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed to put the +entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and lay hands on their +property. In fact this was the first of the 'deportation' schemes which, +in 1915, proved so successful with the Armenians, and the effect of it +was that neither Greeks nor Bulgarians were left in Thrace. Then +followed the expulsion of Greeks from the Mediterranean sea-board, but +this was never completely carried out because the European war +intervened, and the attention of the Nationalists was claimed by their +over-lord. Later, as we shall see, a further deportation of Greeks was +begun, but again that was stopped, for Germany saw that it would never +do to have her Turkish allies murdering settlers of the same blood as +those she hoped would become her allies. Of course, when it was only a +question of Armenians she did not interfere. + +The design, then, of the new 'Liberal' regime, of which those three +measures, the massacres at Adana, the expulsion of Greeks and Bulgarians +from Thrace, and of Greeks from the sea-board of the Mediterranean, were +early instances, was to restore the absolute supremacy of the Turks in +the Ottoman Empire. It was obvious that the problem was one of +considerable difficulty, since the Turks at the time composed only some +forty per cent, of the whole population. They numbered about 8,000,000, +while in the Empire were included about 7,000,000 Arabs, 2,000,000 +Greeks, 2,000,000 Armenians, and 3,000,000 more of smaller +nationalities, such as Kurds, Druses, and Jews. But the Turks were +backed by Germany, and nowadays, since the abolition of the +Capitulations, which leaves all alien races unprotected by foreign +Powers, such as survive, after the extermination of the Armenians, are +completely at the mercy of the Government in Constantinople. All these +peoples speak a different language from the Turks, and have a different +religion, for the Nationalist party, with a view to the Ottomanisation +of the Arabs, have definitely stated that Arab Moslems are not of the +true faith, and that their own Allah (in whose name they subsequently +exterminated the Armenians) is the God of Love--German equivalent +Got--whereas the Arab Allah is the God of vengeance. The sinister motive +in this discovery needs no comment, for it is obvious that it releases +the Ottoman Government from the prohibition in the Koran, whereby Moslem +may not fight against Moslem. Therefore the Arabs were declared not to +be true Moslems. Later on, that motive was translated into practical +measures. + +Among the first tasks with regard to the Arabs that faced the +Nationalist party from what we may call the pacific side of their +mission was to substitute the Turkish language for Arabic. Kemal Bey, a +Nationalist of Salonika, with the help of Ziya Bey, collected round him +a group of young writers, and these proceeded to translate the Koran out +of Arabic into Turkish, and to publish the prayers for the Caliphate in +their own language, and orders went out that these revised versions +should be used in all mosques. Turkish was to be the official language +for use in all public proclamations, and, with Prussian thoroughness, it +was even substituted on such railway tickets as had hitherto been +printed in Arabic. The new Turkish tongue (Yeni Lisan) had also to be +purged of all foreign words, but here some difficulty was experienced, +for Persian and Arabic formed an enormous percentage in the language as +hitherto employed, and the promoters of this Ottoman purity of tongue +found themselves left with a very jejune instrument for the rhapsodies +of their patriotic aims. Poets in especial (for the Nationalists, like +all well-equipped founders of romantic movements, had their bards) found +themselves in sore straits owing to the limited vocabulary; and we read +of one, Mehmed Emin Bey, who was forced to publish his odes in small +provincial papers, since no well-established journal would admit so +scrannel an expression of views however exalted.[1] But the translation +of the Koran was the greatest linguistic feat, and Tekin Alp, the most +prominent exponent of Nationalism, refers to it as one of the noblest +tasks undertaken by the new movement. It mattered not at all that by +religious ordinance the translation of the Koran into any other tongue +was a sin. 'The Nationalists,' he tells us, 'have cut themselves off +from the superstitious prejudice.' A further attempt was made to +substitute Turkish letters for Arabic letters in the alphabet, but this +seems to have presented insuperable difficulties, and I gather that it +has been abandoned. + +[Footnote 1: This thwarted poet retired from the Committee of Union and +Progress not long after, and his place was taken by Enver.] + +The Ottomanisation of religion and language, then, was among the pacific +methods of spreading Pan-Turkism through the Empire. A monstrous idol +was set up, a Hindenburg idol, in front of which all peoples and +languages, not Christians alone, but Moslems, were bound to prostrate +themselves. Indeed it was against Arabs mainly that these provisions +were directed, for the Arabs constituted the most menacing obstacle to +the spread of Ottomanisation, since they numbered in the Empire only a +million less than the Turks themselves. It was ordained by statute that +no Arab could have a seat on the Committee of Union and Progress, and +the Cabinet similarly was purged of any Greek or Armenian element. Never +any more must there be new parties in the Chamber, never any more must +Liberal ideas (to champion which the New Turk party had come into being) +be allowed to prick up their pernicious heads. For the Nationalist +party, with whom the New Turks were now identical, had taken as their +creed all that the deposed Abdul Hamid stood for, and only differed from +him in that as their schemes developed they looked forward to logical +conclusions far beyond what he had ever dreamed of. But Abdul Hamid may, +I think, be taken to be the true founder of the new Nationalism: at any +rate it was he who had first seen the possibilities of massacre as a +means of maintaining Ottoman supremacy. In the hands of Nationalists +that was to prove a more effective weapon than the printing of railway +tickets in Turkish. But already before the European War the Nationalists +had vastly extended his ideas, and had seen the danger of allowing even +Arabs to have a standing of any kind in the new state. Henceforth all +subject people were to be _rayas_, cattle, as in the old days of the +Sultans who absorbed the strength of the aliens, but did not exterminate +them. But now the cattle were not only to be used for milk, but were to +be slaughtered when advisable. Till then they must be dumb, or speak the +language of their masters only, for this alone can save them from the +shambles. Ahmed Sherif Bey, a prominent Nationalist, lays this down. 'It +is the business of the Porte to make the Arabs forget their own +language, and to impose upon them instead that of the nation that rules +them. If the Porte loses sight of this duty, it will be digging its +grave with its own hands, for if the Arabs do not forget their language, +their history, and their customs, they will seek to restore their +ancient empire on the ruins of Ottomanism and of Turkish rule in Asia.' + +Here, then, is the definite statement of the Nationalists' hostility to +all things Arab, and we shall see how they translated it into practice. +Even Moslems were but cattle for them, as also were Armenians and Greeks +and Kurds. Armenians were doomed to be the first complete sacrifice on +the bloody altar of the Nationalists, and, as a Turkish gendarme engaged +in that sacrifice said to a Danish Red Cross nurse, 'First we kill the +Armenians, then the Greeks, and then the Kurds.' And if he had been a +Progressive Minister he would certainly have added, 'And then the +Arabs.' + +It was not only within the present limits of the Ottoman Empire that the +Committee of Union and Progress proposed to accomplish their unitive +purpose, for after having seen a glorious and exclusive Turkey arise +over the depopulated territories of their alien peoples, a vaster +vision, for an account of which we are indebted to Tekin Alp, opened +before their prophetic eyes. Out of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of Persia +they claim that one-third are of true Turkish blood, and in the new +Turkey which, so they almost pathetically hope, will be established at +the conclusion of the European War by the help of Wilhelm II., those +Persian Turks must be incorporated into the true fold of Allah, God of +Love. The province of Adarbaijan, for instance, the richest and most +enlightened district of Persia, they claim, is entirely Turkish, and +here the needful rectification will be made in the new atlases that bear +the imprimatur of Potsdam. Similarly, all the country south of the +Caucasus must rank as Turkish territory, since the Turks form from fifty +to eighty per cent, of the population; all Kazan, for the same reason, +is truly Turkish, with the alluvial plains of the Volga, while the +Crimea, so Tekin Alp discovers, is also a lost sheep longing for the +Turkish fold. All this is Turkey (or Turania) Irredenta, and, may we not +add:-- + +'Jerusalem and Madagascar +And North and South Amerikee.' + +And then what a glorious future awaits the Power that Europe once +thought of as a sick man. 'With the crushing of Russian despotism,' +exclaims Tekin Alp, 'by the brave German, Austrian, and Turkish armies, +thirty to forty million Turks will receive their independence. With the +ten million Ottoman Turks this will form a nation of fifty millions, +advancing towards a great civilisation which may perhaps be compared to +that of Germany, in that it will have the strength and energy to rise +even higher. In some ways it will be even superior to the degenerate +French and English civilisations.' + +The arithmetic and the enthusiasm of the foregoing paragraph are, of +course, those of Tekin Alp, from whose book, _The Turkish and +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, the quotation is made. The work was published in +1915, and, appearing as it did after the beginning of the European War, +it is but natural to find in it an expression not only of the +Nationalist aims for Turkey, but of the Prussian aims for Turkey, or, to +speak more correctly, of the dream which Prussia has induced in a +hypnotised Turkey. It sets forth in fact the bait which Prussia has +dangled in front of Turkey, the hunger for which has inspired the +projected future which is here sketched out; and significantly enough +this book has been spread broadcast over Turkey by the agency of German +propagandists. The Ottomanisation of the Empire, the vision of its +further extension, free from all consideration of subject peoples, was +exactly the lure which was most likely to keep the Turks staunch to +their Prussian masters. It will be noticed that there is no suggestion +of the Turks recovering their lost provinces and kingdoms in Europe, +Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia, and the rest, for it would never do +to let Fox Ferdinand awake from _his_ hypnotic sleep of a sort of +Czardom over the Balkans, or cease to dangle dreams, that included even +Constantinople before the shifty eye of King Constantine So, before +Turkey was spread the prospect of appropriating Russian and Persian +spoils: Prussia had already given the lost Turkish kingdoms in Europe +elsewhere, but would there not be a dismembered Russian Empire to +dispose of? The Crimea, the province of Kazan, the province of +Trans-Caucasia: all these might be held before Turkey's nose, as a dog +has a piece of meat held up before it to make it beg. Then there was the +province of Adarbaijan: certainly Turkey might be permitted to promise +herself that, without incurring the jealousy of Austria or Bulgaria. +Greedily Turkey took the bait. She gulped it down whole, and never +considered that there was a string attached to it, or that, should ever +the time come when Germany, the conqueror of the world, would be in a +position to reward her Allies with the realisation of the dreams she had +induced, the string would be pulled, and up, with retchings and +vomitings, would come these succulent morsels of Russia and Persia. +Indeed these bright pictures flashed on to the sheet as the visions of +Nationalists are but the slides in a German magic-lantern, designed to +keep Turkey amused, and it was with the same object that Ernst Marre, in +his _Die Tuerken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was bidden to make other +pictures ready in case Turkey grew fractious or sleepy. 'From the ruins +of antiquity,' he says, when speaking of the Ottoman Empire, 'new life +will spring, if we can manage to raise the treasures which time and sand +have covered.' Then he remembers that he must be less Pan-Germanic for +the moment, and dangles the bait again. 'In doing this,' he adds, 'we +are benefiting Turkey. The Turkish state is no united whole, and it has +always been very difficult to govern. Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, +Kurds, cannot be welded together. This is a war of liberation for +Turkey.... Only by energetic interference, and by "expelling" the +obstinate Armenian element could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian +domination.... The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' + +There is no need for further quotations, which might be multiplied +indefinitely. The Prussian programme is for the moment identical with +the Turkish Nationalist programme: Turkey, in order to be kept 'in with' +Germany, must be encouraged to dream of depopulated Armenia (that dream +has come tragically true) and of annexations in Russia and Persia. All +this fitted in with the Turkish programme: Germany had scarcely to +inspire, only to encourage. That encouragement she gave, for, +simultaneously she was penetrating Turkey as water penetrates a sponge, +and reducing it to the position of a vassal state. To keep Turkey happy +she allowed the Armenian massacres to run their deadly course, and only +interfered with other massacres when they did not suit her purpose. But +supposing (to suppose the impossible) that a peace to the European War +was dictated by Germany, how much of the future Pan-Turkish programme +would be realised? Would there be a Turkey at all? I think not: there +would be a Germany in Europe, and a Germany in Asia, where Turkey once +was. Indeed, in all but name, they are in existence now; so complete, as +we shall see, has been Germany's penetration of the Ottoman Empire. Just +for the present she calls herself Turkey in those regions; that is her +incognito. But Turkey as an independent Power has already ceased to +exist, and Tekin Alp and the Nationalists still dream on with rainbow +visions of Ottomanisation, the vistas of which stretch far into Persia +and the plains of the Volga. And all the while she has been put out like +a candle, and all that is left of her is the smouldering wick ready to +be pinched between the horny fingers of her stepmother. There she +stands, her stepmother, with her grinning teeth already disclosing the +Wolf.... + +Whatever the end of the European War may be, in no circumstances can the +dreams of the Nationalists be realised. Even if Germany and her arms +were so victorious that Russia lay at her feet a mere inert carcase +ready for the chopper, she would no more dream of giving Russian +provinces to an independent Turkey than she would hand over to her +Berlin itself. And if, as we know, Germany can never be victorious, will +the Allies once more strive to keep the Sick Man alive, or leave in his +ruthless power the peoples whom he is longing to exterminate? Even Tekin +Alp can hardly expect that. + +Here then, in brief, is the policy of New Turkey. Its subject +peoples--Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews--are to be totally +unrepresented in its councils, though together they number sixty per +cent, of the population of the Empire. But they are not only to be +unrepresented in Government--they are, if the programme is to be carried +conclusively out, to have no existence. In accordance with the plans of +the murderous ruffians who to-day administer the Nationalist policy, +those of the Armenians who have not fled beyond the frontiers have +already been exterminated, and the same fate threatens Arabs, Greeks, +and Jews. Hence, when the Allied Governments wrote their joint note to +President Wilson, they stated that among their aims in the war was 'the +liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' From that avowed determination they will never recede. + + * * * * * + +NOTE.--It is to be hoped that Tekin Alp's pamphlet, _Turks and the +Pan-Turkish Ideal_, may soon be accessible to English readers. The +author is a Macedonian Jew who writes under the pseudonym of Tekin Alp, +and his mind is such that he appears to find romance in the idea of a +united Turkey purged by indiscriminate massacre from all alien elements. +But he sets forth with admirable lucidity the aims of the Nationalist +party and the steps already achieved by them in their progress towards +their ideal. Already the sequestered ladies of the harem have come out +of their retirement and join in the crusade, and not only do men give +lectures to women, but 'women mount the platform and address the men.' +There are corporations to advance economic organisations, boy-scout +centres all over the Empire, and 'intellectual parties' among the guilds +of merchants--England and Russia appear as the most virulent foes of +Pan-Turkism, 'the colossus of darkest barbarism joined with the colossus +of a degenerate civilisation.' + +In the second part of his pamphlet Tekin Alp passes on with an +enthusiasm which is as sincere as it is pathetic to the vision of a +tremendous Turkey, extending from Thrace on the west to the Desert of +Gobi on the east. It embraces, as his map shows, Egypt as far south as +Victoria Nyanza, Arabia, Persia, the greater part of India, the littoral +of the Black Sea, the plains of the Volga, the circuit of the Caspian +Sea and the Aral Sea, and in the north-east nearly touches Tomsk. All +this naturally is dependent on complete German victory in the war, and, +pathetically enough, Tekin Alp appears to think that his ideal Turkey +will meet with the approval of Germany. Indeed it is no wonder that his +pamphlet is circulated broadcast by German propagandists, for it is +precisely what Germany wants Turkey to believe. + +The romance of the movement appeals also very strongly to Ziya Goek Alp, +the official bard of the butchers of Constantinople. He has written a +sort of Ode to Attila, quoted by Tekin Alp, which is a fine frenzy in +favour of barbarism. This preposterous poem begins: + +'I do not read the famous deeds of my ancestors in the dead, faded, +dusty leaves of the history books, but in my own veins, in my own heart. +My Attila, my Huns, those heroic figures which stand for the proud fame +of my race, appear in those dry pages to our malicious and slanderous +age as covered with shame and disgrace, while in reality they are no +less than Alexander and Caesar,' etc. etc. + +I have been at present unable to ascertain whether it is true that the +German Emperor has set it to music, under the impression that it refers +to him and the German armies. It is very popular in Prussia, which need +arouse no surprise. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter III_ + + +THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION + +We have traced in brief the backward progress of Ottoman domination, and +have seen how, from the rough and ready methods of a military barbarism, +the Turks evolved a more emphatic and a more highly organised negation +of all those principles which we may sum up under the general term of +civilisation. The comparatively humane neglect of the unfortunate alien +peoples herded within the frontiers of earlier Sultans was improved upon +by Abdul Hamid, who struck out the swifter and superior methods of +maintaining the dominating strength of the Turkish element in the +kingdom not by the absorption of subject peoples, but by their +extermination. This in turn, this new and effective idea, served as a +first sketch of an artist with regard to his finished picture, and +starting with that the Nationalist party enlarged and elaborated it +into that masterpiece of massacre which they exhibited to the world in +the years 1915 and 1916 of the Christian Era, when from end to end of +the Empire there flashed the signal for the extermination of the +Armenian race. Abdul Hamid was but tentative and experimental as +compared to their systematised thoroughness, but then the Nationalist +party had learned thoroughness under the tutelage of its Prussian +masters. And in addition to instruction they had had the advantage of +seeing how Prussian firmness, with the soothing balm of Kultur to +follow, had dealt with the now-subject remnant of Belgians. That was the +way to treat subject people: 'the first care of a state is to protect +itself,' as Enver and Talaat could read in the text-books now translated +into Turkish, in copies, maybe, presented to them by their Master in +Berlin, and Turkey could best show the proof of her enlightenment and +regeneration, by following in the footsteps of Prussian Kultur. Perhaps +a few thousand innocent men might suffer the inconvenience of having +their nails torn out, of being bastinadoed to death, of being shot, +burned or hanged, perhaps a few thousand girls and women might die by +the wayside in being deported to 'agricultural colonies,' might fall +victims to the lusts of Turkish soldiers, or have babes torn from their +wombs, but these paltry individual pains signified nothing compared to +the national duty of 'suffering the state to run no risks.' As one of +this party of Union and Progress said, 'The innocent of to-day may be +the guilty of to-morrow,' and it was therefore wise to provide that for +innocent and guilty alike there should be no to-morrow at all. Years +before the statesmanship of Abdul Hamid had prophetically foreseen the +dawning of this day, when he remarked 'The way to get rid of the +Armenian question is to get rid of the Armenians,' and temporarily for +twenty years he did get rid of the Armenian question. But when, in 1915, +Talaat Bey completed his arrangements for a further contribution to the +solution of the same problem, he said, 'After this, there will be no +Armenian question for fifty years.' As far as we can judge, he rather +under-estimated the thoroughness of his arrangements.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Lately (September 1917), when the massacres were all over, +Talaat, speaking at a Congress of the Committee of Union and Progress, +upheld as right and proper the treatment of the Armenian race.] + +The race thus marked out for extermination was one of the oldest +settlements in Asiatic Turkey. Originally it was confined to Armenia +proper, a highland district comprising part of what is now the Russian +province of Trans-Caucasia, part of Persia, notably the province of +Adarbaijan, and, within the Turkish frontier, the province of Armenia, +itself. According to legend, which may well be correct, the Armenians +were the oldest national Christian Church in the world, with a liturgy +that dates from the first century of the Christian Era, while their +translation of the Bible dates from the early years of the fifth century +A.D. Here in these uplands they formed a compact and homogeneous +population, spread over towns and country alike, and were occupied in +the main with agrarian and pastoral pursuits. But they had in addition +much of the versatility and business capacity of the Jews, as well as a +strong liberal-mindedness towards progress and education, and thus, +while they still continued up to the present day their pastoral life in +the countryside, others gravitated towards towns, and by degrees they +spread over a large part of the Turkish Empire, until most of the towns +in Turkey had a progressive and peaceful quota of Armenian citizens, +tolerated by their Moslem neighbours, and, though possessed of no great +share of political influence, powerful, in that the trade and commerce +of inland Turkey was largely in their hands. Wherever they went they +established their schools; many were lawyers, doctors, and professors of +education. Certain repressive measures were brought to bear on them; +they were not, for instance, allowed to carry arms, except when, in +accordance with Turkish conscriptive laws, they served in the Ottoman +army. But many of them, by paying their exemption money, got off +military service, and they confined themselves to the arts of peace, +whether pastorally in their native highlands, or in the shops and +offices of the towns to which they migrated. They were not, till the +time of Abdul Hamid, held to be in any sense a national danger, for, +except in Armenia proper, they were too scattered and too peace-loving +an element of the population to be capable of united action, and never +do they seem to have provoked any outburst of Moslem fanaticism. They +had local quarrels and fights with the more warlike Kurds who encroached +on Armenia, and in the towns where they settled they often incurred the +vague jealousy and dislike which are the penalties of a race superior +morally and intellectually to those among whom they live. But that +superiority constituted in course of time the 'Armenian question,' to +which Abdul Hamid alluded. In all, some sixty years ago their entire +race numbered about 4,000,000 persons, of whom about 1,250,000 inhabited +Russian Trans-Caucasia, about 150,000 were in the province of +Adarbaijan, and there were smaller bodies of them in Austria and India. +The remainder, some 2,500,000, were spread over Armenia, over the +villages and towns of Turkey, notably the eastern edge of the Cilician +uplands, while in Constantinople itself there were certainly not less +than 150,000, and probably as many as 200,000. To-day, the male portion +of the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire has practically ceased to +exist: a quarter of a million men and women escaped over the Russian +frontier, five thousand escaped to Egypt, and there are a few thousand +women and girls (it is impossible to ascertain the exact number) in +Turkish harems. Turkism, as administered by Abdul Hamid first, then, far +more efficiently, by Enver Pasha, and Talaat Bey, has solved the +Armenian question. + +The history of its solution falls under two heads, of which the first +concerns the manner in which it was solved in Armenia itself, where the +population was almost exclusively Armenian, both in towns and in the +country. Here the eastern and north-eastern frontiers of Turkey, across +which lie the province of Russian Trans-Caucasia and Persia, pass +through the middle of districts peopled by men of Armenian blood, and +when, in the autumn of 1914, the Turks made their entry into the +European War, their eastern armies, operating against Russia, found +themselves confronted by troops among whom were many Armenians, while in +their advance into the Persian province of Adarbaijan, there were in the +ranks of their opponents, Armenians and Syriac Christians. They advanced +in fact, in the first weeks of the war, into a country largely peopled +with men of the same blood as those on their own side of the frontier. +Though the edict had not yet come from Constantinople for the massacre +of the Armenians (Talaat Bey did not complete his arrangements till the +following April), the slaughter of them began then, first in the advance +of the Turkish armies, and following on that movement, which lasted but +a few weeks, in their subsequent retreat before the Russians. All +villages through which the Turkish armies passed were plundered and +burned, all the inhabitants on whom the Turks could lay their hands were +killed. Sometimes women and children were given to the Kurds, who formed +bands of irregular troops in conjunction with the Turkish army, and +these were outraged before they were slaughtered. A price was put on +every Christian head, and in the Turkish retreat the corpses were thrust +into the wells in order to pollute them. The excuse for this, as given +by German apologists (not apologists, perhaps, so much as supporters and +adherents of the policy), was that since behind the Turkish lines the +country was populated by a race of the same blood as that through which +they advanced, and then retreated, extermination was necessary in order +to prevent or to punish treachery and collusion. But I have been nowhere +able to find that there were instances of such, nor that the Turks put +forward that excuse themselves. Indeed it would have been an unnecessary +explanation, for but a few months after the opening of the war, Talaat +Bey's plans were complete, and the extermination of Armenians hundreds +of miles from any sphere of military operations rendered it needless to +say anything about it, or to invent instances of treachery if there were +actually none to hand. + +Simultaneously the massacre of Armenians behind the Turkish lines +began. The whole male population of the district round Bitlis was +murdered, so too were all males in Bitlis itself. Then all women and +children were driven in, as a herdsman might drive sheep, from the +reeking villages round, and, for purposes of convenience, concentrated +in Bitlis. When they were all collected, they were driven in a flock to +the edge of the Tigris, shot, and the corpses were thrown into the +river. That was the solution of the Armenian question in Bitlis. + +North-west of Bitlis, and some sixty miles distant, lies the town of +Mush. It used to contain about 25,000 Armenian inhabitants, and in the +district round there were some three hundred villages chiefly consisting +of Armenians. Arrangements were on foot for a general massacre there +when the arrival of Russian troops at Liz, some fifteen hours' march +away, caused the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till +July a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a +warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in the face +of superior forces, had to retire again, and the massacres were put on a +systematic footing. The account which follows is based on four +independent authorities: (1) The statement of a German eye-witness in +Mush in charge of an Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman +deported from a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3) +information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the journal +_Horizon_ of Tiflis. These supplement each other, often verify each +other, and in no instance are contradictory. + +Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end of 1914, at +a time when the massacres across the frontier had begun. The Mutessarif +of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver Pasha, had openly declared that 'at +an opportune moment' the slaughter of the whole Armenian race was +contemplated, and later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of +the American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been the +chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia itself, while +Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in towns throughout the +rest of Turkey. During the whole of that winter, a very severe one, +signs of the approaching extermination multiplied. In the villages round +fresh taxes were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they +were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in question +was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable delay caused by the +proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, and the massacre began in +earnest. + +Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from Constantinople, and an +order was given that all Armenians must leave the town within three +days, after 'registering themselves' at the Government office. The women +and children were to remain, but their money and their property would be +confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to fresh +orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the crowds in the +streets flocking to the registry offices, and after that systematic +house-to-house murder began. Prominent Armenians were tortured to +death, houses containing women and children were set on fire, a body of +men collected together was thrown into the river, girls were outraged +and slaughtered. For two days the massacre continued, and by the end of +the second day the Armenian question was solved as regards Mush. + +In the surrounding villages the same Prussian thoroughness was observed, +and out of all the inhabitants of the plain 5000 only seemed to have +survived, who fled to Sasun (there to be subsequently massacred in +1916), while a few from outlying villages escaped to the Russian troops. +In certain villages the girls and young women were given to the Kurd +soldiery, who raped them publicly in the presence of their families, not +sparing girls of eight and ten years of age, who then, bleeding and +violated, were shot in company with the old women, for whom the Kurds +(inspired by Allah, the God of Love) had no use. Elsewhere, as the story +of a deported woman from Kheiban tells us, the women guarded by Kurdish +troops were driven out of their villages, leaving behind the corpses of +the men and of old women who could not walk, and for days were marched +along the roads, nearly naked, under the fierce heat of the July sun. +Once every other day they were given bread, but all did not get it, and +many fell exhausted by the wayside, and were either whipped to their +feet again or allowed to lie down and die. As they passed through +villages Kurds would come out and rape a girl or two, and when they +halted at night their guards would come among them.... Some few escaped; +the rest, in dwindling company, went on through days of blinding sun and +nights of shame till at last there were only a few remaining. It was not +worth while going farther, for the work of Enver Pasha was nearly done, +and the rest were pushed into the river. One alone survived, who could +swim, and she, with her two-year-old baby on her back, got across the +stream and made her way to a village where were a party of Armenians who +had escaped massacre. She arrived there at midnight, and at first they +thought she was a ghost. To them she told her story of the outraged and +ever-dwindling caravan of helpless women and girls driven onwards all +day beneath the smiting arrows of the sun, and encamped by the wayside, +where they halted with their barbarous guards and their lusts for a +terror by night. Of them none but this one was left, who had carried her +baby with her every step of that infernal pilgrimage. Two days +afterwards he died from want of nourishment, and before the week was out +the mother fell into the hands of a body of patrolling Kurds, and was +killed. + +So the problem of the village of Kheiban was solved, and if in the +history of the crimes that have blackened the earth with wanton cruelty +and made God to hide His face, there is any so atrocious a tale, I do +not know it. But if among the annals of heroism and of mother-love we +want to find a nobler record than that of this woman of Kheiban, equally +am I at a loss as to where we should look for it. Among the true and +golden legends of the world shall that which she did be inscribed for a +memorial of her. + +Northward from Mush, and Bitlis lies the province of Erzerum, with the +town of the same name, that contained in the autumn of 1914 some 20,000 +Armenians. Here the first hint of coming trouble was the order that all +Armenian soldiers serving in Turkish ranks should be disarmed. This was +followed in June by another order that all the inhabitants of the +hundred villages in the district should leave their homes at two hours' +notice. They numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 persons. Of these a few +took refuge with friendly Kurds, but of the remainder a few only lived +to reach Erzinjan, where they were again deported, and the rest were +murdered as they marched. In Erzerum itself orders were received by +Tahsin Bey, the Vali of the town, that all Armenians were to be killed +without distinction of age or sex. He refused to carry this order out, +but his unwillingness was overruled.[1] Simultaneously, the German +Consul telegraphed protests to his Ambassador at Constantinople, and +was told that Germany could not interfere in the internal affairs of +Turkey. + +[Footnote 1: At Angora a similar refusal on the part of the Governor +resulted in his dismissal, and the same thing happened at Konia and at +Kutaia.] + +Here the method employed was deportation: the victims were murdered, not +in the town itself, but were given orders to leave their homes, and +under guard march (for no conveyances were given them) to other +districts. The first company was to go to Diarbekr. All these, with the +exception of one man and forty women, were murdered on the first day's +march. The remainder reached Kharput, which was another station or +collecting place for the deported. A German eye-witness tells us what +fate waited them. 'They have had their eyebrows plucked out, their +breasts cut off, their nails torn off; their torturers hew off their +feet, or else hammer nails into them as they do in shoeing horses. This +is all done at night-time, in order that people may not hear their +screams and know of their agony. Soldiers are stationed round the +prisons, beating drums and blowing whistles. It is needless to relate +that many died of these tortures. When they die, the soldiers cry, "Now +let your Christ help you."' A second caravan of five hundred families +left Erzerum: at Baiburt they were joined by another contingent deported +from that town, and the account that follows is based on the information +supplied by the Rev. Robert Stapleton, an American minister at Erzerum, +and by an Armenian woman who was among the deported, and whose life was +spared on her embracing Islamism. + +The convoy numbered, when it left Baiburt, some 15,000 persons, and it +reached Erzinjan in safety. There the massacres had already taken place, +and the women and children had been deported, for they found no +Armenians there. But the convoy had not yet arrived at its goal, and it +started out again moving south by east till it came to Kamakh. There +bands of Kurds descended on them, and in the space of seven days every +male above fifteen years of age, including an aged priest of ninety, was +killed. Thereafter a pilgrimage of women, as from Kheiban, moved +southwards across plain and mountain, and every day its numbers were +diminished, for the youthful and the good-looking were carried off by +brigands. At night they were halted outside villages, and the gendarmes +and villagers took what they chose. Many died from hunger and +heat-stroke: others were left by the wayside. When they came to the +banks of the river Kara-Su there was a debauch of horror. Women and +girls and little children were raped and mutilated, and the children who +still survived were thrown into the river. Those who could swim were +shot. Thereafter the movements of this caravan are hard to trace. +Probably there was then but little left of it. But others followed on +the same route 'through fields and hillsides dotted with swollen and +blackened corpses that filled and fouled the air with their stench.' +Some of them reached Mosul, some reached Aleppo, another collecting +station, where, by the mouth of other witnesses, we shall hear of them +again. + +Corroborative and additional evidence is given by the Danish Red Cross +nurses who, with a noble disregard of their own safety, accompanied one +of these caravans from Erzerum to Erzinjan. They speak of the massacres +at Kamakh, of the killing by the river, and of a _battue_ through the +cornfields, where the wheat was high, into which some Armenians had +escaped. At one time these Danish Sisters were in the charge of a +gendarme who had superintended a massacre of 3000 women and children +driven from their homes into the country, rounded up and killed. He told +the Sisters that this was the best method of getting rid of them, for +they should be made to suffer first, and besides it would be +inconvenient for Moslems to live in a village with so many corpses +about. At another place they came to a shambles, where Armenian +soldiers, deprived of their arms, and sent to make roads, had been +slaughtered: at another there were three gangs of labourers, one Moslem, +one Greek, and one Armenian. These latter were guarded. Presently, as +they proceeded along their road, they looked round and saw that the +Armenian gang was being formed up by itself, a little off the +highroad.... + +And so the ghastly record went on all over Armenia. At one place only, +the town of Van, was any resistance organised. There, after the massacre +had begun, some 1500 Armenians got hold of arms (probably many of these +men were soldiers who had not yet had their arms taken from them), and +for the space of twenty-seven days defended themselves against five +thousand Turkish troops, till the Russian advance relieved them. During +that advance Armenian refugees, into whose districts the massacres had +not yet penetrated, fled for refuge to the invading army, and in all +some 250,000 Armenians under its protection crossed in safety the +Russian frontier into Trans-Caucasia. How many died on the way from +hunger and exhaustion is not known. Cholera, dysentery, and spotted +fever broke out among them, and the path of their passage was lined with +dead and dying. Companies of Kurds made descents upon them, taking toll +of their maidenhood, but, with the Russian line to protect them at their +rear, they struggled on out of the cemetery and brothel of their native +country, and out of the accursed confines of that hell on earth, the +Ottoman Empire, leaving behind them the murdered myriads of their +husbands and their sons, their violated wives and daughters. Through +incredible hardships they passed, but, unlike the other pilgrimages we +have briefly traced, they moved not towards death, but towards safety +and life, and their dark steps were lightened with Hope. + +Before the last of those who survived the hunger and the pestilence of +that pilgrimage had reached Russian soil, it is probable that in all +Armenia there was not a man of their race left alive, nor a woman either +unless she had accepted Islamism and the life of the harem. A peaceful +and progressive nation had been wiped out with every accompaniment of +horror and cruelty and bestial lust, and in Armenia itself there would +never more be an Armenian question. Abdul Hamid had hinted at the +solution of it, and had made, as we have seen, experiments in that +direction; but it was reserved for Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, +enlightened men of the Young Turk party, with the advantages of a +Prussian example, to complete the work. Already Enver had said that he +would never rest until the last Armenian in the Ottoman Empire had been +killed, and before the end of 1915, as far as Armenia itself went, he +was able to see a reasonable prospect of repose before him. But there +was much work still left to do in other provinces. + +We have seen that for the extirpation of Armenians in Armenia proper, +the excuse put forward, if not by the Turks themselves, by their German +apologists, was the necessity of guarding against treachery in the +vicinity of the Turkish army, and against spying and collusion between +the Armenians behind the Russian lines and those behind Turkish lines. +The same pretext was put forward for the massacres and deportations from +Thrace, from Constantinople, and from the shores of the Sea of Marmora. +Here, if anywhere, there may be thought to be some justification for +measures which might have been undertaken for the sake of public safety. +At any rate, there were definite charges brought against Armenians in +these districts, and the Armenian boatmen of Silivri, for instance, were +imprisoned, but not, as far as I know, massacred, on the charge of +revictualling English submarines, which at that time, as the reader will +remember, had penetrated into the Sea of Marmora, and indeed had reached +Constantinople itself. It is not, of course, consonant with Turkish or +Prussian justice to substantiate charges before inflicting penalties, it +is sufficient in the new World-justice to accuse. But here round +Constantinople, there was some pretence at procedure before resorting to +murder and deportation. A register was drawn up of all Armenians +resident in the capital, dividing into separate classes those who were +born in Constantinople, and those who were immigrants from Armenia, with +a view to deporting those who were not native to the city. Here, I +think, we may see traces of the Prussian instinct for tabulation, for +classification, for category-mongering. Enver and his colleagues lost +patience with these dilatory tactics. The Armenians of the province of +Brussa were deported wholesale, and long before the registration lists +of Constantinople were finished, all Armenians were moved out of the +town. Ten thousand males were massacred in the mountains of Ismid, and +the Armenian women and children taken into collecting stations for +deportation to 'agricultural colonies' (so the phrase ran in the +Pecksniff language of Prussia) situated in the Anatolian desert, in the +desert of Arabia, and in malarious marshes on the Euphrates. With this +clearing out of Armenians from Thrace, from Constantinople, and from +Armenia itself, we have finished with our first class of the Armenian +atrocities. For it reasons were at least invented by German apologists. +Military necessities, which here, as in Belgium, knew no law, dictated +it; the frightfulness involved was incidental to War. But such +considerations were not even alleged for the second class of the +murder-scheme. Before passing on, it will be well to review, quite +shortly, the reasons which dictated it, and penetrate into the infernal +councils of Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey. + +The text of the scheme is to be found in the defined policy of the +Young Turk party as set forth in their Congress of 1911. 'Turkey must +become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem ideas and Moslem +influence must be preponderant.... Sooner or later the complete +Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must be effected: it is clear, +however, that this can never be attained by persuasion, but that we must +resort to armed force.' + +There is the text that was expanded into the discourse of murder; it is +the definition of a policy. Within a few years there followed the +European War, and that probably was the immediate cause of its being put +into effect. No more admirable opportunity for Ottomanisation could +present itself, for the entry of Turkey into the war was most unpopular +with the bulk of the Turkish population, and it was advisable to bribe +them into acceptance of it. The bribe was the houses, the property, the +money and the trade that throughout the length and breadth of Turkey was +in Armenian hands. For the Armenians were by far the wealthiest of the +alien populations, and some 90 per cent. of Turkish trade passed through +their shops and offices. Here, then, was the psychological moment: +Turkey for the Turk was the aim of the Committee of Union and Progress, +and with a discontented population, unwilling to fight, the moment had +come for restoring to the Turk this mass of property which at present +belonged to an alien race. War might have its drawbacks and its clouds, +but war would be seen to have its advantages and its silver linings, if +out of it there came this legacy of Armenian wealth. And by the same +stroke Turkey could get rid of those thousands of meddlesome +missionaries, American and French, who spread religion and learning and +other undesirable things among the cursed race. Once remove the cursed +race, and there would be an end of their instructors also, for there +would be none to instruct. 'Thanks to their schools,' so we read in the +_Hilal_, an organ of the Young Turks, 'foreigners were able to exercise +great moral influence over the young men of the country.... By closing +them (i.e. by exterminating their pupils) the Government has put an end +to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous.' + +Such, then, was the spirit that animated Enver and Talaat, and during +the winter of 1914-15 they perfected their plans. The Armenian race was +to cease, and the Valis and other officials were, each in his district, +to see to the thoroughness of its cessation. Sometimes, as happened at +Erzerum, the Vali in question, not having the broad out-look of Enver, +or quaintly and curiously having a womanish objection to the national +duty of flogging men to death and giving over young girls to a barbarous +soldiery, remonstrated with the authorities, or even refused to obey +orders. Such a one was instantly removed from his office, and a +stauncher patriot substituted. All was put on an orderly footing: here +Kurds were to be employed on the old Abdul Hamid formula, who by way of +wage would enjoy the privilege of raping as many women and girls out of +their hapless convoy as seemed desirable, while in agricultural +districts they were allowed also to take over the sheep and cattle of +their murdered victims. Here, in towns where there was more chance of +resistance than in scattered homesteads, it would be wise to employ +regular troops, backed, if necessary, by artillery, to whom would be +entrusted the murder of the whole male population, after suitable +tortures, supposing the executioners had a taste for the sport, and to +them was given the right of general plunder. Then, as soon as the number +and capacity of the vacant houses were telegraphed to Constantinople, +occupiers from the discontented townsfolk and natives of Thrace were +assigned to them. Sometimes there would be a big school building to give +away as well, but that was not always so, for it might be more +convenient to assemble Armenians there for purposes of registration or +so forth, and then, if it happened to catch fire, why Enver would +understand that such accidents would occur. Among other careful and +well-thought-out instructions came the order that, when possible, the +murders should not take place in the town, but outside it, for clean +Allah-fearing Moslems would not like to live in habitations defiled by +Christian corpses. But, above all, there must be thoroughness; not a man +must be left alive, not a girl nor a woman who must not drag her +outraged body, so long as breath and the heart-beat remained in it, to, +or rather towards those 'agricultural colonies,' as Talaat Bey, in a +flash of whimsical Prussian humour, called them. One was advantageously +situated in the middle of the Anatolian desert at the village of +Sultanieh. There, for miles round, stretched the rocks and sands of a +waterless wilderness, but no doubt the women and children of this very +industrious race would manage to make it wave with cornfields. Another +agricultural colony, by way of contrast, should be established a couple +of days' journey south of Aleppo, where the river loses itself in +pestilential and malarious swamps. Arabs could not live there, but who +knew whether those hardy Armenians (the women and children, of them at +least who had proved themselves robust enough to reach the place) would +not flourish there out of harm's way? After the swamps one came to the +Arabian desert, and there, a hundred miles south-east, was a place +called Deir-el-Zor; wandering Arab tribes sometimes passed through it, +but, arrived there, the Armenians should wander no more. In those arid +sands and waterless furnaces of barren rock there was room for all and +to spare. Sultanieh, the swamps, and Deir-el-Zor: these were the chief +of Talaat Bey's agricultural colonies. + +There must be collecting stations for these tragic colonists, centres to +which they must be herded in from surrounding districts: one at +Osmanieh, let us say, one at Aleppo, one at Ras-el-Ain, one at Damascus. +And since it would be a pity to let so many flowers of girlhood waste +their sweetness on the desert air of Deir-el-Zor, slave markets must be +established at these collecting stations. There would be plenty of +girls, and prices would be low, but the reverend ministers of Allah the +God of Love, the Ulemas, the Padis and the Muftis, should be accorded a +preferential tariff. Indeed they should pay nothing at all; they should +just choose a girl and take her away, and, with the help of Allah the +God of Love, convert her to the blessed creed. No one was too young for +these lessons.... A little abstemiousness would not hurt these pampered +Christians, so when they set out on their marches they need not be +provided with rations or water. Perhaps some might die, but Talaat had +no use for weaklings at his agricultural colonies. Nor must there be any +poking and prying on the part of those interfering American +missionaries; and so Talaat Bey put all the agricultural colonies out of +bounds for foreigners.... + +There was no hurry over these deportations, for the plea of military +exigencies, which had caused the deportations in Armenia itself to be +terminated by massacre with a rapidity almost inartistic, did not apply +to Armenians so far from the seat of war. Their picnics could be +conducted quietly and pleasantly in the leisurely Oriental manner. Even +the men need not be murdered absolutely out of hand. Strong young +fellows might be stripped and tied down and then beaten to death by +bastinadoing the feet till they burst, or by five hundred blows on the +chest and stomach. Their cries would mingle with the screams of their +sisters in the embrace of Turkish soldiers. And, talking of embraces, if +a woman was desirable, she need not walk all the way to Deir-el-Zor, but +by embracing Islamism be transferred to a harem. But these were details +that might be left to individual taste: there were no precise +instructions save that no Armenian men must be discoverable in the +Ottoman Empire at all, and no women save those who had become Turkish +women, or who were at work on the waterless and the malarial +agricultural colonies. + +Talaat Bey reviewed his finished scheme. He thought it would do, and +Enver Pasha agreed with him, and Jemal Bey (who soon after styled +himself Jemal the Great), the Military Governor of Syria, and so +responsible for the last stages of their pilgrimage, thought it would do +very well indeed. And instructions were sent out to every town in the +Empire where there were Armenians, in accordance with the programme of +Talaat Bey. + +How Enver carried out his part of the programme in Armenia itself we +have seen, and by the end of the year (1915) his work was done, and +Armenia was Armenia no longer. But operations, as I have said, were +conducted in a more leisurely manner elsewhere, and the agony of that +butchery protracted. But Jemal got to work at once in the thickly +populated district round Zeitun. He had had no success in the campaign +of the winter in the direction of the Suez Canal, and his troops were +hungry for some sort of victory. The Zeitunlis were hardy independent +mountaineers, who were possessed of arms, and Jemal thought it more +prudent not to dally with deportations, but conduct a regular campaign +against them. For two or three months they resisted, entrenching +themselves in the hills, but they could not hold out against artillery +and the modern apparatus of war, and the whole tribe was wiped out. That +done, Jemal became Jemal the Great by reason of his national services, +and paid a visit to Germany. On his return we shall hear of him again. + +Meanwhile, from all the reports that have arrived from missionaries and +others, we may take one or two, almost at random. At certain places, as +in the governments of Ismid, Angora and Diarbekr, the Armenian +population was completely wiped out. Sometimes tortures were added, as +at a certain Anatolian town where there was a big Armenian school, in +which a number of professors and instructors, some of whom had studied +in America, in Scotland, and in Germany, had for years been working. + +What happened to them was this:-- + +(1) Professor A served the College thirty-five years, and taught +Turkish and history. He was arrested without charge, the hair of his +head and beard were pulled out in order to secure damaging confessions. +He was starved and hung up by the arms for a day and a night and +repeatedly beaten. He was then murdered. + +(2) Professor B, who had served the College thirty-three years, and +taught mathematics, suffered the same fate. + +(3) Professor C, head of the preparatory department, had served the +College for twenty years. He was made to witness the spectacle of a man +being beaten almost to death, and became mentally deranged. He was +murdered with his family. + +(4) Professor D, who taught mental and moral sciences, was treated in +the same way as Professor A. He also had three finger nails pulled out +by the roots, and was subsequently murdered. + +Similarly, at Diarbekr, the Armenians were collected in batches of 600, +taken out of the town, and killed to the last man. Among them was the +Armenian Archbishop; his eyes and nails were dragged out before he was +butchered. + +Or let us take a look at some of the collecting camps. At one, described +by an eye-witness, we find that the convoy had arrived after several +months of travel. More than half were already dead, they had been +pillaged by bandits and Kurds seven times. They were forbidden to drink +water when they passed by a stream, three-quarters of the young women +and girls had been kidnapped, the rest were compelled to sleep with the +gendarmes who conducted them. At Osmanieh it was decided to deport the +women and children by train. They lay about the station starving and +fever-stricken. When the train arrived many were jostled on to the line, +and the driver yelled with joy, crying out, 'Did you see how I smashed +them up?' + +At another camp typhus broke out; those who died of it were left +unburied, as vouched for by a Turkish officer, in order to increase the +infection.... + +Urfa was another collecting camp for the Armenians in that district, and +the following account is based on the information of an eye-witness. +Here, before the concentration began, the Armenians living in the town +offered resistance to the Turks, and held out until Fahri Bey, second in +command to Jemal the Great, arrived with artillery, bombarded the town, +and massacred every Armenian there. Quiet being thus restored, the bands +of deported began to arrive. They came by rail or on foot, and, with +the Prussian love of tabulation, were divided into three groups. + +The first group consisted of old men, old women, and young children. +They, guarded by gendarmes, were sent marching through the desert to +Deir-el-Zor. Few, if any, ever arrived there, all dying by the way. + +The second group, consisting of able-bodied men, was led off in batches +and slaughtered. Among them were Zohrab and Vartkes, Armenian deputies +who had been brought there from Constantinople. + +The third group consisted of young marriageable girls. Some, perhaps, +found their way into harems. + +From Aleppo (one of the final concentration camps before such as were +left of the convoys set forth for their goal, the swamps or the desert +round Deir-el-Zor) we have the detailed evidence of Dr. Martin Niepage, +High Grade teacher in the German Technical School. This gentleman, with +a courage and a humanity to which the highest tribute must be paid, +addressed a report of protest to the German Ambassador at +Constantinople, and wrote an open letter to the Reichstag on the subject +of what he had seen with his own eyes in that town. In his preliminary +matter he speaks as follows:-- + +'In dilapidated caravanserais I found quantities of dead, many corpses +being half-decomposed, and others still living among them who were soon +to breathe their last. In other yards I found quantities of sick and +dying people, whom nobody was looking after.... We teachers and our +pupils had to pass them every day. Every time we went out we saw through +the open windows their pitiful forms, emaciated and wrapped in rags. In +the morning our school children, on their way through the narrow +streets, had to push past the two-wheeled ox-carts on which every day, +from eight to ten rigid corpses without coffin or shroud, were carried +away, their arms and legs trailing out of the vehicle.' + +From the report itself:-- + +'Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the Armenian +plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, women, and children, +only two or three hundred survivors arrived here in the south. The men +were slaughtered on the way, the women and girls, with the exception of +the old, the ugly and those who are still children, have been abused by +Turkish soldiers and officers.... Even when they are fording rivers they +do not allow those dying of thirst to drink. All the nourishment they +receive is a daily ration of a little meal sprinkled on their hands.... +Opposite the German Technical School at Aleppo, a mass of about four +hundred emaciated forms, the remnant of such convoys, is lying in one of +the caravanserais. There are about a hundred children (boys and girls) +among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them are suffering +from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the yard, one has the +impression of entering a madhouse. If one brings food, one notices that +they have forgotten how to eat.... If one gives them bread, they put it +aside indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for death.' + +Dr. Niepage wrote this report in the hope of saving such as then (1915) +survived. No notice whatever was taken of it, and his postscript, +written in May 1916, records the fact that 'the exiles encamped at +Ras-el-Ain on the Bagdad Railway, estimated at 20,000 men, women and +children, were slaughtered to the last one.'[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is right to add that at Aleppo an officer called Bekir +Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected from neighbouring +districts, who were threatened with massacre, and I find that a German +missionary states that there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This +forms confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is nothing to +show that they were not subsequently deported to Deir-el-Zor. In this +case it is highly improbable that any survive.] + +In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the Germans are +directly responsible for the continuance of the massacres. Such, too, is +the opinion, he tells us, of the educated Moslems, and his courage in +stating this has lost him his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely +hoped that he has escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for +drawing attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian +massacres, has been arrested for high treason. + +Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had refused to +interfere in the massacres, and both in the official press and through +official utterances had expressed their support of this Ottomanisation +of the Empire, began to think that you might have too much of a good +thing, and that the massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason +was clear and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour +in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for which they +had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. There had been some +talk, they said, of saving 500,000 Armenians out of the race, but, in +the way things were going on, it seemed that the remnant would not +nearly approach that figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper +their patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he wanted +to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh from his visit +to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of Talaat's opposition, +made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, in which, beyond doubt, we +can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' in the following manner. + +There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in Constantinople +which was to be led out for murder and deportation, and Jemal gave +orders that it should be spared and sent back to its highland home. He +gave orders also that the entire convoy should be informed who was their +saviour, and should be led in procession past his house and show their +gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, half-starved +crowd streamed by the house of Jemal the Great, with murmurs of +thanksgiving and uplifted hands, and all manner of obeisances, while +Jemal the Great stood in his porch with stern, impassive face, and hand +on his sword-hilt in the best Potsdam manner, and acknowledged these +thanksgivings....[1] + +[Footnote 1: In support of Jemal's claim to clemency it must be added +that, according to a report coming from Alexandria, he hanged twelve of +the worst assassins sent to Syria as ringleaders of the massacres. I +cannot find corroboration of this.] + +Here, then, is the absurd, the Williamesque side of this ludicrous +popinjay, Jemal the Great, and it contains not only the obvious seeds of +laughter, but the more helpful seeds of hope. He has a strong hand on +the very efficient army of Syria, and his visits to Berlin seem perhaps +to have turned his head not quite in the direction that the +Master-egalo-megalomaniac of Berlin intended. I gather that Jemal the +Great was not so much impressed by the magnificence of William II. as to +fall dazzled and prone at the Imperial feet, and lick with enraptured +tongue the imperial boot polish, but rather to be inspired to do the +same himself, to become the God-anointed of the newly acquired German +province, which is Turkey, and make a Potsdam of his own. This is only a +guess, but the conduct of Jemal the Great in the matter of these +Armenian refugees, and in other affairs, has been distinctly imperial. +In June of this year, for instance, he telegraphed to H.E. the Vali of +Syria, and an extract from his text is truly Potsdamish. 'One and a half +million of sandbags,' he wrote, 'are required for the fortress of +Gaza.... The bags should be made, if necessary, of all the silk-hangings +in houses of Syria and Palestine.' With his army behind him, he has +twice already defied the orders of Talaat, and I am inclined to think +that he is the coming Strong Man of the effete Empire with whom it would +be well worth while to make friends, even at a highish price. The Allied +Powers should keep an undazzled eye on him, for it is quite possible +that, having defied Talaat successfully, he may go on to defy the real +rulers of Turkey, who live in Berlin. His Syrian army, from such sources +as are available, appears to be more efficient than any other body of +troops the Turks can put into the field, and he has them in control. +Probably in the winter of 1917-1918 our troops will come into collision +with them. But in the interval, also quite probably, Jemal the Great may +resent German superintendence.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See note at end of this chapter.] + +But in addition to his ludicrous side, there is in him a refined +hypocrisy and a subtle cruelty worthy of Abdul Hamid. One instance will +suffice. + +There had been some talk that at certain of these concentration camps +there was no water supply, and he gave orders, did Jemal the Great and +the Merciful, that water should be sent. A train consisting of trucks +of water accordingly was despatched to one of those camps, situated in +the desert, with no supply nearer than six miles, and an eye-witness +describes its arrival. The mob of Armenians, mad with thirst, surrounded +it, and, since everything must be done in an orderly and seemly manner, +were beaten back by the Turkish guards, and made to stand at a due +distance for the distribution. And when those ranks, with their parched +throats and sun-cracked lips, were all ready, the Turkish guards opened +the taps of the reservoirs, and allowed the whole of their contents to +run away into the sand. Whether Jemal the Great planned that, or whether +it was but a humorous freak on the part of the officials, I cannot say. +But as a refinement of cruelty I have, outside the page of Poe's tales, +only once come across anything to equal it, and that in a letter from +the _Times'_ correspondent at Berne on April 11, 1917. He describes the +treatment of English prisoners in Germany: 'An equally common +entertainment with those women (German Red Cross nurses) was to offer a +wounded man a glass, perhaps, of water, then, standing just outside his +reach, to pour it slowly on the ground.' Could those sisters of mercy +have read the account of Jemal's clemency, or is it merely an instance +of the parallelism of similar minds? + +So the empty train returned, and Jemal the Great caused it to be known +in Berlin that he was active in securing a proper water supply for the +famous agricultural settlements in the desert, and loud were the +encomiums in the press of the Central Powers over the colonisation of +Syria by the Armenians, the progress and enlightenment of the Turks, and +the skilful and humane organisation of Jemal the Great. + +There is no difficulty in estimating to-day the number of Armenian men +who survive in the Turkish Empire. All appeals to the Prussian +overlords, such as were made by Dr. Niepage, and the belated +remonstrance of the Prussians themselves when they foresaw a dearth of +labour for the husbandry of beet and cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I +cannot see any reason for supposing that Armenian men exist any more in +the Empire. It is more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who, +by accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. Certainly +in some districts there were considerable 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage +rates them as many thousands. But the willingness to accept those +conditions was not always a guarantee for their being granted, and I +have read reports where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was +a more serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they +were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can scarcely +consider these women as constituting an Armenian element any more in the +country. The work of butchery, the torture, the long-drawn agonies of +those inhuman pilgrimages have come to an end because there are no more +Armenian victims available. Apart from those who escaped over the +Russian frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race +exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest deed that +ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It is not in revenge +on the murderers, but in order to rescue the other subject peoples, +Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still enclosed within the frontiers of the +Empire, that the Allied Governments, in their answer to President +Wilson, stated that among their aims as belligerents, was the +'liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of +the Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again, +after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the destinies +of races not his own. Too long already--and to their disgrace be it +spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations of Europe tolerated at +their very doors a tyranny that has steadily grown more murderous and +more monstrous, because they feared the upset of the Balance of Power. +Now at least such Powers as value national honour, and regard a national +promise as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, have +resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk over his alien +subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the least they can do (and +unhappily the most) to redeem the century-long neglect of their duty. +Even now, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril +threatens those other peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule, +and we can but pray that the end of the war will come before Arabs or +Greeks or Jews suffer the same fate as has exterminated the Armenians. +Too often have we been too late; we must only hope that another item +will not have to be added to that miserable list, and that, when the day +of reckoning comes, no half-hearted and pusillanimous policy will stay +our hands from the complete execution of that to which we stand pledged. +The Balance of Power has gone the way of other rickety makeshifts, but +there must be no makeshift in our dealings with the Turk, no compromise +and no delay. What shall be done with those who planned and executed the +greatest massacres known to history matters little; let them be hanged +as high as Haman, and have done with them. But what does matter is that +at no future time must it be in the power of a Government that has never +been other than barbaric and butcherous, to do again as it has done +before. + +NOTE ON JEMAL THE GREAT + +Jemal the Great has very obligingly done what I suggested we might +expect him to do, and has kicked against the German control of the +Syrian army. General von Falkenhayn was sent to take supreme command, +and on June 28th of this year Jemal the Great refused to receive orders +from him. In consequence General von Falkenhayn refused responsibility +for any offensive movement there if Jemal remained in command. + +This promised well for trouble between Turks and Germans, but we must +not, I am afraid, build very high hopes on it, for Germany has dealt +with the situation in a masterly manner. Jemal was already Minister of +Marine as well as commander of the Syrian army, so the Emperor asked him +to pay another visit to Berlin, and he has been visiting Krupp's works +and German naval yards, and we shall find probably that in the future +his activities will be marine rather than military, and that von +Falkenhayn will have a free hand in Syria. + +But this will prove rather disappointing for Jemal, since it seems +beyond mere coincidence that towards the end of August Herr von +Kuhlmann, the new German Foreign Minister, induced the Turkish +Government (while Jemal was at Berlin) to put their navy and their +merchant fleet under the orders of the German Admiralty, and already +many Turkish naval officers have been replaced by Germans. Thus Jemal +will find himself deprived of his military command, because the navy so +urgently needed his guiding hand, while his guiding hand over the navy +will be itself guided by the German Admiralty.... In fact, it looks +rather like checkmate for Jemal the Great, and an end to the trouble he +might have given the German control. + +On the eve of his leaving Germany, as yet unconscious probably of the +subordination of the entire Turkish fleet to the German Admiralty, he +gave an interview to a representative of the _Cologne Gazette_, which +deserves more than that ephemeral appearance. It shows Jemal the Great +in a sort of hypnotic trance induced at Potsdam. 'The German fleet,' he +says, 'is simply spotless in its power, and a model for all states which +need a modern navy--a model which cannot be surpassed.' ... He went for +a cruise in a submarine which proceeded 'so smoothly, elegantly, calmly +and securely that I had the impression of cruising in a great +steamship.' ... He was taken to Belgium, and describes the 'idyllic life +there': in the towns 'the people go for walks all day long,' and in the +country the peasants blithely gather in the harvest with the help of +happy prisoners.' (He does not tell us where the harvest goes to, any +more than the Germans tell us where the Turkish harvests go to.) He was +taken to General Headquarters, which he describes as 'majestic.' Finally +he was taken into the presence of the All-Highest, and seems to have +emerged in the condition in which Moses came down from Sinai.... But one +must not altogether despair of Jemal the Great. It is still possible +that, on his return to Constantinople, when he found that his position, +as Minister of Marine was but a clerkship in the German Admiralty, the +hypnotic trance began to pass off, and his ambitions to re-assert +themselves. He may yet give trouble to the Germans if properly handled. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter IV_ + + +THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE + +It is impossible to leave this heart-rending tale of the sufferings of +the Armenian people under the Turks without some account of that devoted +band of American missionaries who, with a heroism unsurpassed, and +perhaps unequalled, so eagerly sacrificed themselves to the ravages of +pestilence and starvation in order to alleviate the horrors that +descended on the people to whom they had been sent. Often they were +forcibly driven from the care of their flocks, often in the +extermination of their flocks there was none left whom they could +shepherd, but wherever a remnant still lingered there remained these +dauntless and self-sacrificing men and women, regardless of everything +except the cause to which they had devoted themselves. They recked +nothing of the dangers to which they exposed themselves so long as +there was a child or a woman or a man whom they could feed or nurse. +Terrible as were the sufferings through which the Armenians passed, they +must have been infinitely more unbearable had it not been for these +American missionaries; small as was the remnant that escaped into the +safety of Persia or Russian Trans-Caucasia, their numbers must have been +halved had it not been for the heroism of these men and women. While the +German Consuls contented themselves with a few faint protests to their +Ambassador at Constantinople, followed by an acquiescence of silence, +the missionaries constituted themselves into a Red Cross Society of +intrepid workers, and, as one well-qualified authority tells us, +'suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical exhaustion as any +proportionate body of workers on the European battlefields.' Fully +indeed did they live up to the mandate of the American board that sent +them out: 'Your great business is with the fundamental doctrines and +duties of the Gospel.' + +At the opening of the European War the American Missions had been at +work for nearly a hundred years, and were disseminated over Anatolia and +Armenia. They had opened 163 Protestant churches and 450 schools, they +established hospitals, and in every possible way spread civilisation in +a country where the spirit of the governing class was barbarism. It was +not their object to proselytise. 'Let the Armenian remain an Armenian if +he will,' so ran the instructions from which I have already quoted, 'the +Greek a Greek, the Nestorian a Nestorian, the Oriental an Oriental,' and +in the same wise and open-minded spirit they encouraged native +Protestant Churches which were independent of them and largely +self-supporting. Naturally in a country governed by monsters like Abdul +Hamid and Enver Pasha in later days, they earned the enmity which is the +tribute of barbarians to those who stand for civilisation, and when, +owing to the extermination or flight of their Armenian flocks, they were +left without a charge, and their schools were closed, we find a paean of +self-congratulation going up from the Turkish press inspired by the +butchers of Armenia. But till the massacres and the flight were +complete, they gave themselves to the 'duties of the Gospel,' and their +deeds shine like a star into the blackness of that night of murder. + +I will take as an example of the superb heroism of those men and women +the diary of an American lady attached to the mission at Urmia, a +document that, anonymously, is one of the noblest, least self-conscious +records I have ever read. The period of it extends over five months. + +Early in January 1915 the Russian troops were withdrawn from Urmia, +which lies on the frontier between Turkey and Persia, and simultaneously +the Moslem population began to plunder the Christian villages, the +inhabitants of which fled for refuge to the missions in the city. +Talaat's official murder-scheme was not completed yet, but the Kurds, +together with the Turks, had planned a local massacre at Geogtapa, which +was stopped by the American doctor of this mission, Dr. Packard, who, at +great personal risk, obtained an interview with the Kurdish chief, and +succeeded in inducing him to spare the lives of the Christians, if they +gave up arms and ammunition and property. The American flag was hoisted +over the Mission buildings, and before a week was out there were over +ten thousand refugees housed in the yards and rooms, where they remained +for five months, the places of the dead being taken by fresh influxes. +The dining-room, the sitting-room, the church, the school, were all +given over to these destitute people, and from the beginning fear of +massacre, as well as prevalence of disease, haunted the camp. It was +impossible to move dead bodies outside; they had to be buried in the +thronged yards, and every day children were born. But here is the spirit +that animated their protectors. 'We have just had a Praise meeting,' +records the diarist at the close of the first fortnight, 'with fifty or +sixty we could gather from the halls and rooms near, and we feel more +cheerful. We thought if Paul and Silas, with their stripes, could sing +praises in prison, so could we.' + +The weeks, of which each day was a procession of hours too full of work +to leave time for anxiety, began to enrol themselves into months, and +the hope of rescue by a Russian advance made their hearts sick, so long +was it deferred. Refugees from neighbouring villages kept arriving, and +there was the constant problem before these devoted friends of their +flock, as to how to feed them. All such were welcome, and eager was the +welcome they received, though every foot of space in the buildings and +in the yards was occupied. But somehow they managed to make room for all +who came, and for those villagers who, under threat of torture and +massacre, had apostatised, there was but yearning and sorrow, but never +a word of blame or bitterness. Sometimes there was a visit of Turkish +troops to search for concealed Russians, and, as our diarist remarks, +'We can't complain of the monotony of life, for we never know what is +going to happen next. On Tuesday morning we had a wedding in my room +here. The boy and girl were simple villagers.... The wedding was fixed +for the Syrian New Year, but the Kurds came and carried off wedding +clothes and everything else in the house. They all fled here, and were +married in the old dirty garments they were wearing when they ran for +their lives.... Their only present was a little tea and sugar that I +tied up in a handkerchief and gave to the bride.' + +The eternal feminine and the eternal human speak there; and there, for +this gallantest of women, were two keys that locked up the endless +troubles and anxieties that ceased not day or night. But sometimes the +flesh was weak, and in the privacy of her diary she says, 'How long, O +Lord?' But for that there was the master-key that unlocks all wards, and +a little further on we read, 'One of the verses that helps to keep my +faith steady is, "He that spared not His own Son." For weeks we have had +no word from the outside world, but we "rest in Jehovah and wait +patiently for Him."' + +The conditions inside the crowded yards grew steadily worse. Dysentery +was rife, and the deaths from it in that narrow space averaged thirty a +day. The state of the sufferers grew so terrible that it was difficult +to get any one to look after them at all, and many were lying in the +open yards, and the weather, which hitherto had been warm, got cold, and +snow fell. It was with the greatest difficulty that food could be +obtained for those in health, and that of a kind utterly unsuitable to +the sick, while in the minds of their nurses was the bitter knowledge +that with proper diet hundreds of lives could have been saved, and +hundreds of cases of illness avoided. + +For the dead there was but a small percentage of coffins available, and +'the great mass are just dropped into the great trench of rotting +humanity (in the yard). As I stand at my window I see one after another +of the little bodies carried by ... and the condition of the living is +more pitiful than that of the dead--hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, +wet, swarming with vermin. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of +Europe would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the suffering +and misery of this one little corner of the world alone. A helpless +unarmed Christian community turned over to the sword and the passion of +Islam!' + +On the top of this came an epidemic of typhoid, twenty-seven cases on +the first day. Outside in the town the Turkish Consul began hanging +Christians, and the missioners were allowed to take the bodies and bury +them. There were threats that the mission would be entered, and all +young men (possible combatants) killed, but this fear was not realised. +The typhoid increased, and the doctor of the mission and others of the +staff fell ill with it; but the patience and service of the remainder +never faltered, while the same spirit of uncomplaining suffering +animated the refugees. 'Mr. McDowell,' so the diarist relates, 'saw a +tired and weary woman with a baby in her arms, sitting in one of the +seats, and said to her, "Where do you stay?" She said "Just here." "How +long have you been here?" "Since the beginning." (two months) she +replied. "How do you sleep at night?" "I lay the baby on the desk in +front of me, and I have this post at the back to lean against. This is a +very good place. Thank you very much."' + +In April there comes a break in the diary after the day on which the +following entry is made:-- + +'I felt on Sunday as if I ought to get my own burial clothes ready, so +as to make as little trouble as possible when my time comes, for in +these days we all go about our work knowing that any one of us may be +the next to go down. And yet I think our friends would be surprised to +see how cheerful we have kept, and how many occasions we find for +laughing: for ludicrous things do happen. Then, too, after dwelling so +intimately with Death for three months, he doesn't seem to have so +unfriendly an aspect, and the "Other Side" seems near, and our Pilot +close beside us.... I find the Rock on which I can anchor in peace are +the words of Christ Himself: "Where I am, there ye may be also." ... +That is enough, to be where He is....' + +Then comes a break of two months, during which the writer was down with +typhoid. She resumes again in June, finding that death has made many +changes, and gets back to work again at once. By that time the Russians +had entered Urmia, a thanksgiving service was held, the refugees +dispersed, and the American Mission went quietly on with its normal +work. + +Now I have taken this one instance of the work of Americans at Urmia to +show in some detail the character of the work that they were doing, and +the Christian and humanising influence of it. But all over Armenia and +Anatolia were similar settlements, and, as already mentioned, at the +time of the massacres there were established there over a hundred of +their churches and over four hundred schools, and from these extracts +which concern only one not very large centre, it may be gathered what +leaven of civilising influence the sum of their energies must have +implied. That lamp shone steady and clear, a 'kindly light' in the +darkness of Turkish misrule, and in the havoc of the massacres a beacon +of hope, not always reached by those hapless refugees. Indeed it seems +to have been only on the frontier that the missions were able to save +those foredoomed hordes of fleeing Christians; in Armenia and in +Anatolia generally the massacres and 'deportations' were complete, and +by the end of 1915 all American missions were closed, for there were +none to tend and care for. Even if the massacres had not occurred, the +entry of America into the war would have resulted in a similar cessation +of their work, and most probably in a massacre of the American +missioners themselves. Their withdrawal, of course, was hailed with a +peacock scream of pride by that enlightened body under Talaat and Enver, +called the New Turkish party of Progress, for their presence was a bar +to the Turkish notions of civilisation, in that their influence made for +humanity, and health and education. Now 'the humiliating and dangerous +situation' (to quote from the columns of _Hilal_) was put an end to, and +Turkish progress could make headway again. + +Similarly in Syria the outbreak of war put an end to 'the humiliating +and dangerous situation' of the presence of French schools and missions. +There, for many years, French missioners had done the same work as +Americans in Armenia, work in every sense liberal and civilising, but +undenominational in religious matters and unproselytising. That came to +an end earlier than the organisations in Armenia, and in Syria now, as +over the rest of the Turkish people, Arabs and Jews and Greeks have +nothing except German influence and Kultur to stand between them and the +spirit of Turkish progress of which the Armenian massacres were the +latest epiphany. Germany, as we have seen, stood by and let the Armenian +massacres go on, professing herself unable to interfere in the internal +affairs of Turkey, though at the time there was not a single branch of +Turkish industries, railways, telegraphs, armies, navies over which she +had not complete control, exercising it precisely as she thought fit. + +It is useless, then, to base any confidence in the safety of Jews, +Greeks, and Arabs from suffering the same fate as the Armenians, on a +veto from Germany. If it suits Germany to let those unfortunate peoples +be murdered or deported to agricultural colonies, Germany will assuredly +not stir a finger on their behalf nor prevent a repetition of the +horrors I have dealt with in the previous chapter. Sooner than risk her +hold over Turkey by enforcing unacceptable demands, she will, unless +other considerations of self-interest determine her, let further +massacres occur, if Talaat Bey insists on them. That spokesman of her +policy, Ernst Marre, makes this perfectly explicit in his book, _Die +Tuerken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, upholding from the German standpoint +the right of Turkey and the wisdom of Turkey in dealing with her subject +peoples as she had dealt with the Armenians. 'The Turkish State,' he +tells us, 'is no united whole: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, +cannot be welded together.' (This, by a somewhat grim and ominous +coincidence, is in exact accordance with a remark made to a Danish Red +Cross Sister by a Turkish gendarme then engaged in massacring Armenians: +'First we get rid of the Armenians,' he said, 'then the Greeks, then the +Kurds.') Or again, in defence of the Armenian massacres, 'Only by +energetic interference and by expelling of the obstinate Armenian +element, could the Ottoman Empire get rid of a Russian dominion.' Or +again, 'The non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire must be +Ottomanised.' Here, then, is the German point of view: the Ottoman +Government will be right to 'dispose of' its subject peoples as it +thinks fit. So far from interfering, Germany endorses, and German +influence to-day is all that stands between 'the murderous tyranny' and +its subject peoples. French, English, and finally American pressure can +no longer, since the entry of these nations into the war, be exercised +within the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, and the only protection of +defenceless aliens is the German Government. It did not stir a finger to +save the Armenians, until it saw that depopulation threatened the +prosperity of its industries, and it is idle to expect that it will do +more if the consolidation of Turkish supremacy demands a further +campaign of murder. Greeks, Arabs, and Jews are all completely at the +mercy of Talaat's murder-schedules. The only chance that can save them +is that further extermination may not suit Germany's political aims, +and that she may find it worth her while to be peremptory, and forbid +instead of endorsing. + +There are unhappily many signs that the butchers of Constantinople are +planning further massacres. In February of this year preliminary +measures were begun against the Greeks settled in Anatolia. Many were +forcibly proselytised, their property was confiscated, and they were +forbidden to carry on their businesses. Deportations also occurred, and +all Greeks were removed from many villages in Anatolia, into the +interior, presumably to 'agricultural colonies' such as those provided +for Armenians. They suffered terribly from hunger and exposure, and it +is estimated that ten per cent. of them died on their marches. Since +then, however, there has been no more heard of any extension of those +measures, and there seems to have been as yet no massacre of Greeks. It +is reasonable to infer that Germany has in this case intervened. She +still hoped to win Greece over to the Central European Powers, and +clearly any massacre of Greeks by her own Allies was not desirable. +King Constantine, among his endless vacillations and pusillanimous +treacheries, probably made a firm protest on the subject. But in the +kaleidoscope of war, should Greece come to the side of the Allies, it +seems most probable that there will occur a wholesale massacre of +Greeks. From what we know of the principles on which German Kultur is +based, the most optimistic can scarcely hope that the very faintest +remonstrance will emanate from Berlin. + +The case of the Arabs in Syria is even more precarious. From the moment +that the policy of the Young Turks was evolved, namely, to consolidate +Osmanli supremacy by the weakening of its subject peoples, the Ottoman +Government has been waiting for its opportunity to get rid of the 'Arab +menace.' As we have seen, they began by substituting Turkish for Arabic +as a written language in all official usages from the printing of the +Koran and the prayers for the Sultan down to the legends on railway +tickets. The Arab spirit, according to one of the spokesmen of the New +Turk party, had to be suppressed, the Arab lands had to become Turkish +colonies. 'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence,' we +read in Jelal Noury Bey's propaganda, 'to Turkise the Arab lands, for +the particularistic idea of nationality is awaking among the younger +generations of Arabs, and already threatens us with a great +catastrophe.' Against the Arabs the Young Turks formed and fostered a +special animosity; they were powerful and warlike, and Enver, Talaat, +and others saw that the idea of an Osmanli supremacy could never be +realised unless very drastic measures were taken against them. The +tenets of Islamism, it is true, forbade Moslems to fight Moslems, but +Islamism, as a binding force, was already obsolete in the counsels of +the new regime, having given place to Kultur. Of all their subject +peoples, the Young Turks hated the Arabs the most, and, had not the +European War intervened, there is no doubt that the Armenian massacres, +already being planned, would have been followed by Arab massacres. But +the armed and warlike Arabian tribes were not so easy to deal with as +the defenceless Armenians, and Turkish troops could not be spared in +sufficient numbers to render an Arab massacre the safe, pleasant, and +lucrative pursuit that massacres should be. But Jemal the Great, black +with his triumph over the Armenians at Zeitun, was Military Governor of +Syria, and, the Armenian question being solved, he began to get to work +on the Arab question. Owing to the expulsion of the French Missions from +Syria in 1914, we have no such full or detailed information as we have +from Americans in Armenia, and the following account is mainly derived +from the Arabic journal _Mokattam,_ published in Cairo, the information +in which is based on the account given by a Syrian refugee. It agrees +with pieces of evidence that have come to hand from other sources. + +Ever since the beginning of the war Syria has been an area of direst +poverty, starvation, and sickness, which have been the natural +co-operators in Jemal's policy there. All supplies have been +commandeered for the troops (including by special clause from Potsdam, +the German troops); even fish caught by the fishermen of Lebanon have +to be handed over to the military authorities, and the shortage of +supplies in Smyrna, for instance, is such that at the end of 1916 there +were two hundred deaths daily from sheer starvation, while Germany was +importing from Turkey hundreds of tons of corn and of meat. Thus this +was no natural shortage, for though supplies were low all over the +Turkish Empire, there was not dearth of that kind. It was an artificial +shortage made possible by German demands, and made intentional by +Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better case than Smyrna; Lebanon +perhaps was in sorer straits than either. Money was equally scarce, and +it fitted Jemal's policy that this should be so, for when Americans in +Beirut had raised funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the +Turkish Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were +dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent decrees +of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets of towns the poor +have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane and orange peel; in the +country, to quote from _Molcattam_, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans +start to grow than the fields are filled with women and children who +pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes (including +the victualling of German troops) transportation has ceased to exist, +and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal the Great. + +On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came typhus. In +the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, over 8000 persons had +died of it. Doctors and medicines were unobtainable, for all were +requisitioned for the needs of the army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in +Hama and Homs, the epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent +from Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the charitable +from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the Arabs were working for +the policy of Jemal the Great. There were no troops to spare who should +hasten on the work, but the work was progressing by swift and 'natural' +means. Hunger and pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of +Love! How superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the +Arabs. 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news +of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was +established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, and if +any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations which passed, +the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. Too much news about +Armenian massacres filtered through; there should not now be such +leakage. And when starvation and pestilence had firmly established +themselves, Jemal the Great went down to see what his personal exertions +could effect. All was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer +classes of Arabs were dying like flies, but mortality was not so +successful among the wealthier, who could, to some extent, purchase +food. So Jemal the Great set to work among them. He began by hanging the +heads of Syrian-Arabs in Damascus, Beirut, and other cities. No +semblance of trial, no prosecution or arraignment, were necessary: he +established courts-martial under military control, made lists of the +accused, and ordered the courts-martial to condemn them to death. +Sometimes he made mistakes, appointing as the members of his +court-martial men who were not such sturdy patriots as he, and refused +to sentence for no crime the accused whom he nominated. He remedied such +mistakes by appointing new boards of more seasoned stuff. Moslem and +Christian alike were brought before them, and a general accusation of +pro-French tendencies seems to have been sufficient to secure a sentence +of death or lifelong imprisonment. He aimed not at the poor and the +obscure, for whom hunger and pestilence were providing, but at the rich +and the influential. The higher clergy in Christian circles, Bishops and +Monsignors, were a favourite target, and among Moslems influential +Sheikhs. Sometimes there was a parody of a trial; sometimes the parody +was dispensed with, and when the black curtain was last raised over +Syria, Jemal the Great had disposed of over eight hundred of the heads +of the most influential of Syrian Arabs. He had got rid, in fact, of +the whole House of Lords, and something more. Those who are acquainted +with 'feudal values' among the Arabs will understand what that means. He +decapitated, not individuals only, but groups. For devilish ingenuity in +this combination of starvation and pestilence for the poor, and death or +lifelong imprisonment for the chiefs, Jemal the Great must take rank +with Abdul Hamid and the contrivers of the Armenian massacres. He +cannot, it is true, owing to lack of troops, obtain the swift results of +Enver in Armenia, but between typhus, starvation, and courts-martial, +his solution of the Arab question in Syria is making steady progress. +And those measures, hideously efficient in themselves, are, beyond any +doubt whatever, only the precursors of more sweeping exterminations of +the Arab race, which will be effected after the war, if the Allied +Powers do not step in to save it. The Faithful of the Holy City, Mecca, +have revolted and thrown off the Turkish yoke, and while the war lasts, +and Turkish troops are otherwise occupied under Teutonic supervision, +they will be able to maintain their independence, for there is no +considerable body of Turks which can seriously threaten them. But the +Syrian Arabs, so long as the war lasts, are being, and will be, the +victims of a quiet scheme of extermination, which, if long continued, +will be as complete as that devised and carried out by the butchers of +Constantinople for the peoples of Armenia. It is not in the interest of +the Germans to save them, and no check is being put on Jemal the Great +to hinder him from assisting starvation and typhus to ravage the +country, and supplementing their deadly work by court-martial without +trial. + +Equally significant of the rage for the destruction of Arabs was the +treatment of the Bagdad Arab army corps. In spite of the need for troops +one half of it was sent from Bagdad to Erzerum in the depth of winter, +without any provision of warm clothing. There, in those cold uplands, +the men died at the rate of fifty to sixty a day. Their commanding +officer was a Turk, and a creature of Enver's, called Abdul Kader. +Though these troops had fought admirably, he openly called them Arab +traitors, and his orders seem to have been merely to get rid of them. +There were no courts-martial; they were just taken into a climate which +killed them. + +While for the last thirty years the Armenians and Syrians have emigrated +in large numbers from the Ottoman Empire, there has been a large +immigration of Jews into it. This movement was originally due to the +persecution they suffered in Russia. Germany and Austria were closed to +them, and, flying from the hideous pogroms that threatened them with +extermination, they begun to settle in Palestine. Wealthy compatriots +such as Baron Edmond de Rothschild assisted them, and, with the amazing +versatility of their race, they, trades-people and town-folk, adapted +themselves to new conditions, turned their wits towards husbandry and +agriculture, and during the last thirty years have flourished and +multiplied in a manner quite unrealised by the western world. In 1881 +there were not more than 25,000 of them in the home of their race, but +by the beginning of the European War, when their immigration ceased for +the present, they numbered 120,000 souls. Till then the Ottoman +Government adopted the ancient Turkish policy of neglect towards them, +for they were not powerful enough numerically to earn the honour of a +massacre, and, in addition, they were useful settlers. Backed by +powerful Western influence, French, English, and German alike, they +improved out of knowledge the values of the lands where they established +themselves, and by intelligent management, by conserving and increasing +the water supply with irrigation and well-digging, they have brought +many thousand acres into cultivation. Originally refugees, fleeing from +outrageous persecutions, their immigration by degrees took on a +different spirit. Not only were they coming out of captivity, but they +were entering into the ancient Land of Promise again. Zionism, the +spirit of the returning exiles, animated them, and, according to their +prophets, they realised that 'The Lord shall comfort Zion, He shall +comfort all her waste places.' They had sowed in tears; now, on their +return, they were reaping in joy, and, though their land was still +under the infidel yoke, they were allowed to dwell in peace, busy, +industrious, with the halo of home-coming in their hearts. They paid, of +course, their Turkish taxes, but these were not levied in any oppressive +manner, and their colonies were thrifty, self-governing, and prosperous. +Already before the war, one-tenth of the cultivated land in Palestine +was in their hands, they had their own schools, their own methods of +organisation, and, more significant than all, Hebrew became a living +language again. Germany, intent on her penetration of Turkey, made an +attempt to Germanise them also (for Germany, as we shall see, has a very +special interest in these Jewish colonies), shook her head over Zionism, +for which she tried to substitute Prussianism, and wanted to make the +German language compulsory in Jewish schools at Haifa and Jaffa, but her +effort completely failed. Nothing could show the inherent vitality of +this Jewish colonisation more strikingly. + +These Jewish settlers then were left in peace; from minuteness they +escaped the notice of the Young Turk party in its schemes for the +complete Ottomanisation of the Empire, and, until the present year 1917, +no mention of 'the Jewish question' was propounded. But it will he +remembered that in 1915, certain Jewish refugees, taking warning from +the Armenian massacres, fled to Egypt, and there founded a Zionist +mule-corps, which served under the English in the Gallipoli campaign. It +seems very probable that it was this that directed the attention of +Jemal the Great to the Jewish colonies in Palestine: possibly it was +merely that he was a more thorough Ottomaniser than his colleagues in +Constantinople. In any case he ordered the 'deportation' of all Jews +from Jaffa, Gaza, and other agricultural districts. All Jews were +commanded to leave Jaffa within forty-eight hours, no means of transport +was given them, and they were forbidden to take with them either +provisions or any of their belongings. Eight thousand Jews were evicted +from Jaffa alone, and their houses were pillaged, and they robbed, +maltreated, and many were murdered. Thus, and in no other way had the +massacres of the Armenians begun, and, that there should be no mistake +about it, Jemal threatened them explicitly with the fate of the +Armenians. Next day Ludd was evacuated also; the evacuation of Haifa and +Jerusalem was threatened, and artillery was sent to Jerusalem. There can +be no doubt in fact that Jemal planned and began to carry out a massacre +of all Jews. + +At that point the Germans intervened, and for the present (but only for +the present, for so long in fact as Germany has complete control over +all Turkish internal affairs, in which she protested she could not +meddle) the Jewish colonies in Palestine seem to be safe.[1] The German +chief of the General Staff telegraphed to Berlin that the 'military +considerations' on which Jemal based his deportations did not exist, and +Herr Cohn in the Reichstag drew the Imperial Chancellor's attention to +this. How seriously the menace was regarded in Germany, and how far the +deportations had gone may be gathered from his words, 'Is the Imperial +Chancellor prepared to influence the Turkish Government in such a manner +as to prevent with certainty--so far as this is still possible--a +repetition in Palestine of the Armenian atrocities?' This was +sufficient: Germany, who could not dream of interfering in Turkish +internal affairs when only the massacre of hundreds of thousands of +Armenians was concerned, sent her order, and, for the present, Jemal the +Great has been unable to proceed with the solution of the Jewish +question in Turkey, which he had just discovered. We need not yet in +fact give Jemal his Jew. But some sort of explanation to soothe the +exasperation of the Turks in not being allowed to murder when and how +and where they pleased, was thought advisable, and the explanation (an +extraordinarily significant one) was given in an inspired paragraph of +the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ not long after. 'The valuable structure of +Zionist cultural work, in which the German Empire must have well founded +interest in view of future and very promising trade relations, will, it +is very much to be hoped, be preserved from destruction so far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary. Pan-Turkish ideals have +no sort of meaning in Palestine where practically no Turks dwell.' + +[Footnote 1: This view seems to be borne out by subsequent events, for +the Jews evacuated from Jaffa have been permitted to return owing to the +intervention of the Spanish Government. It is not hard to guess who +prompted that.] + +We may take it, then, that with regard to the projected Jewish +massacres, quite clearly foreshadowed by the schemes of deportation from +Jaffa and Gaza, Germany has made strong representations to the Ottoman +Government. She did not do so (indeed she officially refused to do so) +when the Armenian massacres began, for she could not interfere in +Turkey's internal affairs. But now she has discovered that Pan-Turkish +ideals have no sort of meaning in Palestine, and thus, with amazing +astuteness, has provided herself with a reason for interfering, while +still not giving up the policy of non-interference in Turkish affairs, +for Turkey, she has discovered, _has_ no affairs in Palestine. At the +same time she guards herself from diplomatic defeat by the hope that +Zionist cultural work will be saved from destruction so _far as purely +military requirements do not make it necessary_. In other words, +supposing Jemal the Great got completely out of hand, and proceeded to +indiscriminate massacre of the Jews, Germany would doubtless accept his +plea that military requirements had made it necessary.... And we were +once so ignorant as to assure ourselves that Germany had no notions of +diplomacy! + +The full significance of her intervention on behalf of the Jews, when +neither the extermination of the Armenians, the persecution of the +Arabs, nor the deportation of the Greeks moved Germany to any decided +action or energetic protest, must be left, in so far as it concerns the +future, to another chapter. But as regards the present and the past it +will be useful to consider here what has prompted her to make a protest +(which we may regard, so long as her foot is on the neck of the Turks, +as having been successful) against these projected massacres. Certainly +it was not humanity; it was not the faintest desire to save innocent +people in general from being murdered wholesale, for in the similar +case of the Armenians, her bowels of compassion were not moved. Or, +possibly, if we incline to lenience, we may say that she was sorry for +the Armenians, but could not then risk a disagreement with their +murderers who were her allies, whereas now, feeling herself more +completely dominant over the Turks than she then did, she could risk +being peremptory, especially since there was that saving clause about +military requirements. For during the Armenian massacres, the +Dardanelles expedition was still on the shores of Gallipoli, and the +menace to Constantinople acute. It was possible that if she opposed a +firm front to the Armenian massacres, the Turks, already on the verge of +despair with regard to saving the capital from capture, might have made +terms with the Allies. But now no such imminence of danger threatened +them, and, with Germany's domination over them vastly more secure than +it had been in 1915, she could afford to treat them less as allies and +more as a conquered people. This alone might have accounted for her +unprecedented impulse of humanity in the minds of those who still +attribute such instincts to her, but she had far stronger reasons than +that for wanting to save the Jews of Palestine. + +Her policy with regard to them is set forth in a pamphlet by Dr. Davis +Treitsch, called _Die Jueden der Tuerkei_, published in 1915, which is a +most illuminating little document. These Jewish colonies, as we have +seen, came from Russia, and as Germany realised, long before the war, +they might easily form a German nucleus in the Near East, for they +largely consisted of German-speaking Jews, akin in language and blood to +a most important element in her own population. 'In a certain sense,' +says Dr. Treitsch, 'the Jews are a Near Eastern element in Germany and a +German element in Turkey.' He goes on with unerring acumen to lament the +exodus of German-speaking Jews to the United States and to England. +'Annually some 100,000 of these are lost to Germany, the empire of the +English language and the economic system that goes with it is being +enlarged, while a German asset is being proportionately depreciated.... +It will no longer do simply to close the German frontiers to them, and +in view of the difficulties which would result from a wholesale +migration of Jews into Germany itself, Germans will only be too glad to +find a way out in the emigration of those Jews to Turkey--a solution +extraordinarily favourable to the interests of all three parties +concerned.' + +Here, then, is the matter in a nutshell: Germany, wide-awake as ever, +saw long ago the advantage to her of a growing Jewish population from +the Pale in Turkey. She was perhaps a little overloaded with them +herself, but in this immigration from Russia to Palestine she saw the +formation of a colony that was well worth German protection, and the +result of the war, provided the Palestinian immigrants were left in +peace, would be to augment very largely the number of those settling +there. 'Galicia,' says Dr. Treitsch, 'and the western provinces of +Russia, which between them contain more than half the Jews in the world, +have suffered more from the war than any other region. Jewish homes +have been broken up by hundreds of thousands, and there is no doubt +whatever that, as a result of the war, there will be an emigration of +East European Jews on an unprecedented scale.' This emigration, then, to +Palestine was, in Germany's view, a counter-weight to the 100,000 +annually lost to her through emigration to America and England. With her +foot on Turkey's neck she had control over these German-speaking Jews, +and saw in them the elements of a German colony. Her calculations, it is +true, were somewhat upset by the development of the Zionist movement, by +which those settlers declared themselves to have a nationality of their +own, and a language of their own, and Dr. Treitsch concedes that. 'But,' +he adds, 'in addition to Hebrew, to which they are more and more +inclined, the Jews must have a world-language, and this can only be +German.' + +This, then, in brief, and only up to the present, is the story of how +the Jewish massacres were stayed. The Jews were potential Germans, and +Germany, who sat by with folded hands when Arabs and Armenians were led +to torture and death, put up a warning finger, and, for the present, +saved them. In her whole conduct of the war, nothing has been more +characteristic than her 'verboten' to one projected massacre and her +acquiescence in others. But, as for her having saved the Jews out of +motives of humanity, 'Credant Judaei!' + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter V_ + + +DEUTSCHLAND UeBER ALLAH + +It was commonly said at the beginning of this war that, whatever +Germany's military resources might be, she was hopelessly and childishly +lacking in diplomatic ability and in knowledge of psychology, from which +all success in diplomacy is distilled. As instances of this grave +defect, people adduced the fact that, apparently, she had not +anticipated the entry of Great Britain into the war at all, while her +treatment of Belgium immediately afterwards was universally pronounced +to be not a crime merely, but a blunder of the stupidest sort. It is +perfectly true that Germany did not understand, and, as seems likely in +the light of innumerable other atrocities, never will understand, the +psychology of civilised peoples; she has never shown any signs up till +now, at any rate, of 'having got the hang of it' at all. But critics of +her diplomacy failed to see the root-fact that she did not understand it +merely because it did not interest her. It was not worth her while to +master the psychology of other civilised nations, since she was out not +to understand them, but to conquer them. She had all the information she +wanted about their armies and navies and guns and ammunition neatly and +correctly tabulated. Why, then, since this was all that concerned her, +should she cram her head with irrelevant information about what they +might feel on the subject of gas-attacks or the torpedoing of neutral +ships without warning? As long as her fumes were deadly and her +submarines subtle, nothing further concerned her. + +But Europe generally made a great mistake in supposing that Germany +could not learn psychology, and the process of its distillation into +diplomacy when it interested her. The psychology of the French and +English was a useless study, for she was merely going to fight them, but +for years she had been studying with an industry and a patience that +put our diplomacy to shame (as was most swiftly and ignominiously proven +when it came into conflict with hers) the psychology of the Turks. For +years she had watched the dealings of the Great Powers with Turkey, but +she had never really associated herself with that policy. She sat +quietly by and saw how it worked. Briefly it was this. For a hundred +years Turkey had been kept alive in Europe by the sedulous attentions of +the Physician Powers, who dared not let him die for fear of the +stupendous quarrels which would instantly arise over his corpse. So +there they all sat round his bed, and kept him alive with injections of +strychnine and oxygen, and, no less, by a policy of rousing and +irritating the patient. All through the reign of Abdul Hamid they +persevered: Great Britain plucked his pillow from him, so to speak, by +her protectorate of Egypt; Russia tweaked Eastern Rumelia from him; +France deprived him of his hot-water bottle when she snatched at the +Constantinople quays, and they all shook and slapped him when he went to +war with Greece in 1896, and instantly deprived him of the territory he +had won in Thessaly. That was the principle of European diplomacy +towards Turkey, and from it Germany always held aloof. + +But from about the beginning of the reign of the present German Emperor, +German or rather Prussian diplomacy had been going quietly about its +work. It was worth while to study the psychology of the Turks, because +dimly then, but with ever-increasing distinctness, Germany foresaw that +Turkey might be a counter of immense importance in the great conflict +which was assuredly drawing nearer, though as yet its existence was but +foreshadowed by the most distant reflections of summer lightning on a +serene horizon. But if Turkey was to be of any profit to her, she wanted +a strong Turkey who could fight with her (or rather for her), and she +had no use for the Sick Man whom the other Powers were bent on keeping +alive, but no more. Her own eventual domination of Turkey was always the +end in view, but she wanted to dominate not a weak but a strong servant. +And her diplomacy was not less than brilliant simply from the fact that +on the one hand it soothed Turkey instead of irritating, and, on the +other, that it went absolutely unnoticed for a long time. Nobody knew +that it was going on. She sent officers to train the Turkish army, well +knowing what magnificent material Anatolia afforded, and she had +thoroughly grasped the salient fact that to make any way with Oriental +peoples your purse must be open and your backshish unlimited. 'There is +no God but backshish, and the Deutsche Bank is his prophet.' + +For years this went on very quietly, and all over the great field of the +Ottoman Empire the first tiny blades of the crop that Germany was sowing +began to appear. To-day that crop waves high, and covers the whole field +with its ripe and fruitful ears. For to-day Turkey is neither more nor +less than a German colony, and more than makes up to her for the +colonies she has lost and hopes to regain. She knows that perfectly +well, and so do any who have at all studied the history and the results +of her diplomacy there. Even Turkey itself must, as in an uneasy dream, +be faintly conscious of it. For who to-day is the Sultan of Turkey? No +other than William II. of Germany. It is in Berlin that his Cabinet +meets, and sometimes he asks Talaat Bey to attend in a strictly honorary +capacity. And Talaat Bey goes back to Constantinople with a strictly +honorary sword of honour. Or else he gives one to William II. from his +_soi-disant_ master, the Sultan, or takes one back to his _soi-disant_ +master from his real master. For no one knows better than William II. +the use that swords of honour play in deeds of dishonour. + +The object of this chapter is to trace and mount the hewn and solid +staircase of steps by which Germany's present supremacy over Turkey was +achieved. + +Apart from the quiet spade-work that had been going on for some years, +Germany made no important move till the moment when, in 1909, the Young +Turk party, after the forced abdication of Abdul Hamid, proclaimed the +aims and ideals of the new regime. At once Germany saw her opportunity, +for here, with her help, might arise the strong Turkey which she +desired to see, instead of the weak Turkey which all the other European +Powers had been keeping on a lowering diet for so long (desirous only +that it should not quite expire), and from that moment she began to +lend, or rather let, to Turkey in ever-increasing quantities, the +resources of her scientific and her military knowledge. It was in her +interests, if Turkey was to be of use to her, that she should educate, +and irrigate, and develop the unexploited treasures of human material, +of fertility and mineral wealth; and Germany's gold, her schools, her +laboratories were at Turkey's disposal. But in every case she, as in +duty bound to her people, saw that she got very good value for her +outlay. + +Here, then, was the great psychological moment when Germany instantly +moved. The Young Turks proclaimed that they were going to weld the +Ottoman Empire into one homogeneous and harmonious whole, and by a piece +of brilliant paradoxical reasoning Germany determined that it was she +who was going to do it for them. In flat contradiction of the spirit of +their manifestoes, which proclaimed the Pan-Turkish ideal, she conceived +and began to carry out under their very noses the great new chapter of +the Pan-Germanic ideal. And the Young Turks did not know the difference! +They mistook that lusty Teutonic changeling for their own new-born +Turkish babe, and they nursed and nourished it. Amazingly it throve, and +soon it cut its teeth, and one day, when they thought it was asleep, it +arose from its cradle a baby no more, but a great Prussian guardsman who +shouted, 'Deutschland ueber Allah!' + +Only once was there a check in the growth of the Prussian infant, and +that was no more than a childish ailment. For when the Balkan wars broke +out the Turkish army was in the transitional stage. Its German tutors +had not yet had time to inspire the army with German discipline and +tradition; they had only weeded out, so to speak, the old Turkish +spirit, the blind obedience to the Ministers of the Shadow of God. The +Shadow of God, in fact, in the person of the Sultan, had been dragged +out into the light, and his Shadow had grown appreciably less. In +consequence there was not at this juncture any cohesion in the army, and +it suffered reverse after reverse. But a strong though a curtailed +Turkey was more in accordance with Prussian ideas than a weak and +sprawling one, and Germany bore the Turkish defeats very valiantly. And +that was the only set-back that this Pan-Prussian youngster experienced, +and it was no more than an attack of German measles which he very +quickly got over. For two or three years German influence wavered, then +recovered, 'with blessings on the falling out, that all the more +endears.' + +It is interesting to see how Germany adapted the Pan-Turkish ideal to +her own ends, and, by a triumphant vindication of Germany's methods, the +best account of this Pan-Turkish ideal is to be found in a publication +of 1915 by Tekin Alp, which was written as German propaganda and by +Germany disseminated broadcast over the Turkish Empire. An account of +this movement has already been given in Chapter II., as far as the +Turkish side of it is concerned, and it remains only to enumerate the +German contribution to the fledging of this new Turkish Phoenix. The +Turkish language and the Turkish Allah, God of Love, in whose name the +Armenians were tortured and massacred, were the two wings on which it +was to soar. Auxiliary soaring societies were organised, among them a +Turkish Ojagha with similar aims, and no fewer than sixteen branches of +it were founded throughout the Empire. There were also a Turkish Guiji +or gymnastic club, and an Izji or boy scouts' club. A union of merchants +worked for the same object in districts where hitherto trade had been in +the hands of Greeks and Armenians, and signs appeared on their shops +that only Turkish labour was employed. Religious funds also were used +for similar economic restoration. + +Germany saw, Germany tabulated, Germany licked her lips and took out her +long spoon, for her hour was come. She did not interfere: she only +helped to further the Pan-Turkish ideal. With her usual foresight she +perceived that the Izji, for instance, was a thing to encourage, for +the boys who were being trained now would in a few years be precisely +the young men of whom she could not have too many. By all means the boy +scout movement was to be encouraged. She encouraged it so generously and +methodically that in 1916, according to an absolutely reliable source of +information, we find that the whole boy scout movement, with its +innumerable branches, was under the control of a German officer, Colonel +von Hoff. In its classes (derneks) boys are trained in military +practices, in 'a recreational manner,' so that they enjoy--positively +enjoy (a Prussian touch)--the exercises that will fit them to be of use +to the Sultan William II. They learn trigger-drill, they learn +skirmishing, they are taught to make reports on the movements of their +companies, they are shown neat ways of judging distances. They are +divided into two classes, the junior class ranging from the ages of +twelve to seventeen, the senior class consisting of boys over seventeen, +but not yet of military age. But since Colonel von Hoff organised this, +the military age has been extended, and boys of seventeen have got to +serve their country on German fronts. Prussian thoroughness, therefore, +saw that their training must begin earlier; the old junior class has +become the senior class, and a new junior class has been set on foot +which begins its recreational exercises in the service of William II., +Got and Allah, at the age of eight. It is all great fun, but those +pigeon-livered little boys who are not diverted by it have to go on with +their fun all the same, for, needless to say, the Izji is compulsory on +all boys. Of course they wear a uniform which is made in Germany and is +of a 'semi-military' character. + +The provision of soldiers and sailors, then, trained from the early age +of eight, was the first object of Germany's peaceful and benign +penetration. As from the Pisgah height of the Pan-Turkish ideal she saw +the promised land, but she had no idea of seeing it only, like Moses, +and expiring without entering it, and her faith that she would enter it +and possess it and organise it has been wonderfully justified. She has +not only penetrated, but has dominated; a year ago towns like Aleppo +were crammed with German officers, while at Islahie there were separate +wooden barracks for the exclusive use of German troops. There is a +military mission at Mamoura, where all the buildings are permanent +erections solidly built of stone, for no merely temporary occupation is +intended, and thousands of freight-cars with Belgian marks upon them +throng the railways, and on some is the significant German title of +'Military Headquarters of the Imperial Staff.' There are troops in the +Turkish army, to which is given the title of 'Pasha formation,' in +compliment to Turkey, but the Pasha formations are under command of +Baron Kress von Kressenstein, and are salted with German officers, +N.C.O.'s, and privates, who, although in the Turkish army, retain their +German uniforms. + +This German leaven forms an instructional class for the remainder of the +troops in these formations, who are Turkish. The Germans are urged to +respect Moslem customs and to show particular consideration for their +religious observances. Every German contingent arriving at +Constantinople to join the Pasha formations finds quarters prepared on a +ship, and when the troops leave for their 'destination' they take +supplies from depots at the railway station which will last them two or +three months. They are enjoined to write war diaries, and are provided +with handbooks on the military and geographical conditions in +Mesopotamia, with maps, and with notes on the training and management of +camels. This looks as if they were intended for use against the English +troops in Mesopotamia, but I cannot find that they have been identified +there. The greatest secrecy is observed with regard to those Pasha +formations, and their constitution and movements are kept extremely well +veiled. + +Wireless stations have been set up in Asia Minor and Palestine, and +these are under the command of Major Schlee. A Turkish air-service was +instituted, at the head of which was Major Serno, a Prussian officer, +and Turkish aviators are now in training at Ostend, where they will very +usefully defend their native country. At Constantinople there is a +naval school for Turkish engineers and mechanics in the arsenal, to help +on the Pan-Turkish ideal, and with a view to that all the instructors +are German: a floating dock is in construction at Ismid, and the order +has been placed with German firms. It will be capable of accommodating +ships of Dreadnought build, which is a new departure for the strictly +Pan-Turkish ideal. The cost is L740,000, to be repaid three years after +the end of the war. Similarly, by the spring of this year, Germany had +arranged to start submarine training in Constantinople for the Turks, +and a submarine school was open and at work in March. A few months later +it was established at the island of Prinkipo, where it is now hard at +work under German instructors. Other naval cadets were sent to Germany +for their training, and Turkish officers were present at the battle of +Jutland in June 1916, and of course were decorated by the Emperor in +person for their coolness and courage.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In October 1917 a bill was passed for the entire +remodelling of the Turkish fleet after the war, on the lines of the +German fleet, 'which proved its perfect training in the battle of Skager +Rak.'] + +A complete revision of the Turkish system of exemptions from military +service was necessary as soon as Germany began to want men badly. The +age for military service was first raised, and we find a Turkish order +of October 1916, calling on all men of forty-three, forty-four, and +forty-five years of age to pay their exemption tax if they did not wish +to be called to the colours. That secured their money, and, with truly +Prussian irony, hardly had this been done when a fresh army order was +issued calling out all men, whether they had paid their exemption tax or +not. Germany thus secured both their money and their lives. + +Still more men were needed, and in November a fresh levy of boys was +raised regardless of whether they had reached the military age or not. +This absorbed the senior class of the boy scouts, who hitherto had +learned their drill in a 'recreationary manner.' Neither Jews nor +Christians are exempt from service, and frequent press gangs go round +Constantinople rounding up those who are in hiding. + +Again the Prussian Moloch was hungry for more, and in December 1916 the +Turkish _Gazette_ announced that all males in Asia Minor between the +ages of fourteen and sixty-five were to be enrolled for military +service, and in January of this year, 1917, fresh recruiting was +foreshadowed by the order that men of forty-six to fifty-two, who had +paid their exemption money, should be medically examined to see if they +were fit for active service. This fresh recruiting was also put in force +in the case of boys, and during the summer of 1917 all boys above the +age of twelve, provided they were sound and well-built, were taken for +the army. Wider and wider the net was spread, and in the same month a +fresh Turco-German convention was signed, whereby was enforced a +reciprocal surrender in both countries of persons liable to military +service, and of deserters, and simultaneously all Turks living in +Switzerland, and who had paid exemption money, were recalled to their +Germanised fatherland. By now the first crops of the year were ripening +in Smyrna, and in default of civilian labour (for every one was now a +soldier) they were reaped by Turkish soldiers and the produce sent +direct to Germany. + +Already in August 1916, certificates of Ottoman nationality had been +granted to Serbians resident in the Empire who were willing to become +Ottoman subjects, and their 'willingness' was intensified by hints that +incidents akin to the Armenian massacres might possibly occur among +other alien peoples. They had to sign a declaration that they would not +revert to their former nationality, and thus, no doubt, many Serbs +passed into the Turkish army. Further enrolments were desirable, and, in +March 1917, all Greeks living in Anatolia were forcibly proselytised, +their property was confiscated, and they were made liable to military +service. Unfortunately all were not available, for of those who were +removed from the villages where they lived to military centres, ten per +cent. died on the forced marches from hunger and exposure. That was +annoying for the German recruiting agents, but it suited well enough the +Pan-Turkish ideal of exterminating foreign nationalities. When trouble +or discontent occurred among the troops, it was firmly dealt with, as, +for instance, when, in November 1916, there were considerable desertions +from the 49th Division. On that occasion the order was given to fire on +them, and many were killed and wounded. The officer who gave the order +was commended by the Prussian authorities for his firmness. Should such +an incident occur again, it will no doubt be dealt with no less +firmness, for, in April 1917, Mackensen was put in supreme command of +all troops in Asia Minor. But in spite of this desertions have largely +increased lately, and during the summer deserters out of all the Turkish +armies were believed to number about 200,000. Many of those have formed +themselves into brigand bands, who make the roads dangerous for +travellers. The exchange of honours goes on, for not long ago, in +Berlin, Prince Zia-ed-Din, the Turkish Sultan's heir, presented a sword +of honour to the Sultan William II. Probably he gave him good news of +the progress of the German harbour works begun in the winter at +Stamboul, and himself learned that the railway bridge which the Turks +proposed to build over the Bosporus was not to be proceeded with, for +the German high command had superseded that scheme by their own idea of +making a tunnel under the Bosporus instead, which would be safer from +aircraft. + +Such up-to-date, though in brief outline, is the history of the +establishment of the Prussian octopus grip on military and naval matters +in Turkey. We have largely ourselves to blame for it. Upon that pathetic +and lamb-like record of our diplomacy during the months between the +outbreak of the European War, and the entry of Turkey into it in October +1914, it would be morbid to dwell at any length, though a short summary +is necessary. As we all know now, Turkey had concluded a treaty with +Germany early in August, and when our Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir +Louis Malet, who was on leave in England at that date, returned to his +post on August 16th, all that Turkey wanted was to gain time in which to +effect her mobilisation. This she did, with complete success, and our +Ambassador telegraphed to England stating his perfect confidence in the +sincerity with which the Grand Vizier professed his friendship for +England. All through those weeks of August and September this confidence +appeared to continue unabated. The Moderate party in Turkey--that is to +say, the hoodwinking party--were reported to be daily gaining strength, +and it was most important that the Allies should give them every +assistance, and above all not precipitate matters. All was going well: +all we had to do was to wait. So we waited, still blindly confident in +the sincerity of Turkey's friendship for England, while the mobilisation +of the Turkish forces proceeded merrily. By the end of September this +was nearly complete, and quite suddenly the Ambassador informed the +Foreign Office that Turkey appeared to be temporising. That was +perfectly true, but the period of temporisation was nearly over, and by +mid-October Turkey had something like 800,000 men under arms, and for +nine weeks Enver Pasha had had his signed treaty with Germany in his +pocket. Possibly this diplomatic procrastination was useful to us, for +it enabled us to bring troops from India in security, and send others to +Egypt. But without doubt it was useful to the Turks, for it enabled them +to mobilise their armies, and to strengthen enormously the defences of +the Dardanelles. Then came the day when Germany and Turkey were ready, +the attack was made on Odessa, and out of Constantinople we went. We +climbed into the railway carriages that took the last rays of English +influence out of the Ottoman Empire, and steep were the stairs in the +house of a stranger! Turks are not much given to laughter, but Enver +Pasha must at least have smiled on that day. + +Already, of course, German influence was strong in the army, which now +was thoroughly trained in German methods, but that army might still be +called a Turkish army. Nowadays, by no stretch of language can it be +called Turkish except in so far that all Turkish efficient manhood is +helplessly enlisted in it, for there is no branch or department of it +over which the Prussian octopus has not thrown its paralysing tentacles +and affixed its immovable suckers. Army and navy alike, the wireless +stations, the submarines, the aircraft, are all directly controlled from +Berlin, and, as we have seen, the generalissimo of the forces is +Mackensen, who is absolutely the Hindenburg of the East. But thorough as +is the control of Berlin over Constantinople in military and naval +matters, it is not one whit more thorough than her control in all other +matters of national life. Never before has Germany been very successful +in her colonisation; but if complete domination--the sucking of a +country till it is a mere rind of itself, and yet at the same time full +to bursting of Prussian ichor--may be taken as Germany's equivalent of +colonisation, then indeed we must be forced to recognise her success. +And it was all done in the name and for the sake of the Pan-Turkish +ideal. Even now Prussian Pecksniffs like Herr Ernst Marre, whose +pamphlet, _Die Tuerken und Wir nach dem Kriege_, was published in 1916, +continue to insist that Germany is nobly devoting herself to the +well-being of Turkey. 'In doing this,' he exclaims in that illuminating +document, 'we are benefiting Turkey.... This is a war of liberation for +Turkey,' though omitting to say from whom Turkey is being liberated. +Perhaps the Armenians. Occasionally, it is true, he forgets that, and +naively remarks, 'Turkey is a very difficult country to govern. But +after the war Turkey will be very important as a transit country.' But +then he remembers again and says, 'We wish to give besides taking, and +we should often like to give more than we can hope to give.' Let us look +into this, and see the manner in which Germany expresses her yearning to +impoverish herself for the sake of Turkey. + +All this reorganisation of the Turkish army was of course a very +expensive affair, and required skilful financing, and it was necessary +to get the whole of Turkey's exchequer arrangements into German hands. A +series of financial regulations was promulgated. The Finance Minister, +during 1916, was still Turkish, but the official immediately under him +was a German. He was authorised to deposit with the Controllers of the +Ottoman National Debt German Imperial Bills of LT30,000,000, and to +issue German paper money to the like amount. This arrangement insures +the circulation of the German notes, which are redeemable by Turkey in +_gold_ two years after the declaration of peace. Gold is declared to be +the standard currency, and no creditor is obliged to accept in payment +of a debt more than 300 piastres in silver or fifty in nickel. And since +there is no gold in currency (for it has been all called in, and +penalties of death have been authorised for hoarders) it follows that +this and other issues of German paper will filter right through the +Empire. At the same time a German expert, Dr. Kautz, was appointed to +start banks throughout Turkey in order to free the peasants from the +Turkish village usurer, and in consequence enslave them to the German +banks. Similarly a German was put at the head of the Ottoman +Agricultural Bank. These new branches worked very well, but it is +pleasant to think that one such was started by the Deutsche Bank at +Bagdad in October 1916, which now has its shutters up. Before this, as +we learn from the _Oesterreichischer Volkswirt_ (June 1916), Germany had +issued other gold notes, in payment for gold from Turkey, which is +retainable in Berlin till six months after the end of the war. (It is +reasonable to wonder whether it will not be retained rather longer than +that.) These gold notes were accepted willingly at first by the public, +but the increase in their number (by the second issue) has caused them +to be viewed with justifiable suspicion, and the depreciation in them +continues. But the Turkish public has no redress except by hoarding +gold, which is a penal offence. That these arrangements have not +particularly helped Turkish credit may be gathered from the fact that +the Turkish gold L1, nominally 100 piastres, was very soon worth 280 +piastres in the German paper standard, and it now fetches a great deal +more. + +Again, the Deutsche Orientbank has made many extensions, and is already +financing cotton and wool trade for after the war. The establishment of +this provoked much applause in German financial circles, who find it to +be an instance of the 'far-reaching and powerful Germano-Austrian unity, +which replaces the disunion of Turkish finance.' This is profoundly +true, especially if we omit the word 'Austrian' inserted for diplomatic +reasons. Again we find Germany advancing L3,000,000 of German paper to +the Turkish Government in January 1917, for the payment of supplies they +have received from Krupp's works and (vaguely) for interest to the +German Financial Minister. This, too, we may conjecture, is to be +redeemed after the war in gold. + +In March of this year we find in the report of the Ottoman Bank a German +loan of L1,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural implements by +Turkey, and this is guaranteed by house-taxes. In all up to that month, +as was announced in the Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople, Germany +had advanced to Turkey the sum of L142,000,000, entirely, it would seem, +in German paper, to be repaid at various dates in gold. The grip, in +fact, is a strangle-hold, all for Turkey's good, as no doubt will prove +the 'New Conventions' announced by Zimmermann in May 1917, to take the +place of the abolished Capitulations, 'which left Turkey at the mercy of +predatory Powers who looked for the disruption of the Ottoman Empire.' +Herr Zimmermann does not look for that: he looks for its absorption. And +sees it. + +The industrial development of Turkey by this benevolent and +disinterested Power has been equally thorough and far-reaching, though +Germany here has had a certain amount of competition by Hungary to +contend against, for Hungary considered that Germany was trespassing on +her sphere of interest. But she has been able to make no appreciable +headway against her more acute partner, and her application for a +monopoly of sugar-production was not favourably received, for Germany +already had taken the beet industry well in hand. In Asia Minor the +acreage of cultivation early in 1917 had fallen more than 50 per cent. +from that under crops before the war, but owing to the importation of +machinery from the Central Powers, backed up by a compulsory +Agricultural Service Law, which has just been passed, it is hoped that +the acreage will be increased this year by something like 30 per cent. +The yield per acre also will be greatly increased this year, for Germany +has, though needing artificial manures badly herself, sent large +quantities into Turkey, where they will be more profitably employed. She +has no fear about securing the produce. This augmented yield will, it is +true, not be adequate to supply the needs of Turkey, who for the last +two years has suffered from very acute food shortage, which in certain +districts has amounted to famine and wholesale starvation of the poorer +classes. But it is unlikely that their needs will be considered at all, +for Germany's needs (she, the fairy godmother of the Pan-Turk ideal) +must obviously have the first call on such provisions as are obtainable. +Thus, in the new preserved meat factory at Aidin, the whole of the +produce is sent to Germany. Thus, too, though in February 1917 there was +a daily shortage in Smyrna of 700 sacks of flour, and the Arab and +Greek population was starving, no flour at all was allowed to be +imported into Smyrna. But simultaneously Germany was making huge +purchases of fish, meat, and flour in Constantinople (paid for in German +paper), including 100,000 sheep. Yet such was the villainous selfishness +of the famine-stricken folk at Adrianople that, when the trains +containing these supplies were passing through, a mob held them up and +sold the contents to the inhabitants. That, however, was an isolated +instance, and in any case a law was passed in October 1916, appointing a +military commission to control all supplies. It enacts that troops shall +be supplied first, and specially ordains that the requirements of German +troops come under this head. (Private firms have been expressly +prohibited from purchasing these augmented wheat supplies, but special +permission was given in 1915 to German and Austro-Hungarian societies to +buy.) A few months later we find that there are a hundred deaths daily +in Constantinople from starvation, and two hundred in Smyrna, where +there is a complete shortage of oil. But oil is still being sent to +Germany, and during 1916 five hundred reservoirs of oil were sent there, +each containing up to 15,000 kilogrammes. Similarly during this summer +the price of fruit has gone up in Smyrna, for the Germans have reopened +certain factories for preserving it and turning it into jam, which is +being sent to Germany. The sugar is supplied from the new beet-fields of +Konia. But Kultur must be supplied first, else Kultur would grow lean, +and the Turkish God of Love will look after the Smyrniotes. It is no +wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the desired result +a little quicker, for food is already pouring in from Turkey, and when +the artificial manures have produced their early harvest the stream will +become a torrent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant.] + +But during all these busy and tremendous months of war Germany has not +only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, for the sake of the +Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic spirit she has been vastly +increasing the productiveness of her new and most important colony. The +great irrigation works at Konia, begun several years ago, are in +operation, and the revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled. +In fact, as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province +has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At Adana are +similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche Bank. Ernst Marre +gives us a most hopeful survey of them, for Adana was already linked up +with the Bagdad Railway in October 1916, which was to be the great +artery connecting Germany with the East. There is some considerable +shortage of labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to +which we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are in +excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in German hands, +and have been paid for by German paper; and to get the reservoirs, etc., +back into her own control, it has been agreed that Turkey, already +completely bankrupt, will have to pay not only what has been spent, but +a handsome sum in compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour, +prisoners have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This +irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by four times +the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab magazine, _El Alem el +Ismali_, which tells us also of the electric-power stations erected +there. + +The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian merchants that +transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of engines and trucks from +Germany, while _Die Zeit_ (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future +for this Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely +imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German capital on +terms above stated--will, in the process of internal development so +unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow cotton for herself, and be +kind enough to give a preferential tariff to Germany. + +A similarly bright future may be predicted for the sugar-beet industry +at Konia, where are the irrigation works already referred to. Artesian +wells have been sunk, and there is the suggestion to introduce +Bulgarian labour in default of Turkish. As we have seen, Hungary +attempted to obtain a monopoly with regard to sugar, but Germany has +been victorious on this point (as on every other where she competes with +Hungary), and has obtained the concession for a period of thirty years. +She reaped the first-fruits this last spring (1917), when, on a single +occasion, 350 trucks laden with sugar were despatched to Berlin. A +similar irrigation scheme is bringing into cultivation the Makischelin +Valley, near Aleppo, and Herr Wied has been appointed as expert for +irrigation plant in Syria. There has been considerable shortage of coal, +but now more is arriving from the Black Sea, and the new coal-fields at +Rodosto will soon be giving an output. + +Indeed, it would be easier to enumerate the industries and economical +developments of Turkey over which Germany has not at the present moment +got the control than those over which she has. In particular she has +shown a parental interest in Turkish educational questions. She +established last year, under German management, a school for the study +of German in Constantinople; she has put under the protection of the +German Government the Jewish institution at Haifa for technical +education in Palestine; from Sivas a mission of schoolmasters has been +sent to Germany for the study of German methods. Ernst Marre surmises +that German will doubtless become compulsory even in the Turkish +intermediate (secondary) schools. In April 1917, the first stone of the +'House of Friendship' was laid at Constantinople, the object of which +institution is to create among Turkish students an interest in +everything German, while earlier in the year arrangements were made for +10,000 Turkish youths to go to Germany to be taught trades. These I +imagine were unfit for military service. With regard to such a scheme +Halil Haled Bey praises the arrangement for the education of Turks in +Germany. When they used to go to France, he tells us, 'they lost their +religion' (certainly Prussian Got is nearer akin to Turkish Allah) 'and +returned home unpatriotic and useless. In Germany they will have access +to suitable religious literature' (Gott!) 'and must adopt all they see +good in German methods without losing their original characteristics.' +Comment on this script is needless. The hand is the hand of Halil Haled +Bey, but the voice is the voice of Potsdam. Occasionally, but rarely, +Austrian competition is seen. Professor Schmoller, in an Austrian +quarterly review, shows jealousy of German influence, and we find, in +October 1916, an Ottoman-Austrian college started at Vienna for 250 +pupils of the Ottoman Empire. But Germany has 10,000 in Berlin. At Adana +(where are the German irrigation works) the German-Turkish Society has +opened a German school of 300, while, reciprocally, courses in Turkish +have been organised at Berlin for the sake of future German colonists. +In Constantinople the _Tanin_ announces a course of lectures to be held +by the Turco-German Friendship Society. Professor von Marx discoursed +last April on foreign influence and the development of nations, with +special reference to Turkey and the parallel case of Germany. A few +months later we find Hilmet Nazim Bey, official head of the Turkish +press, proceeding to Berlin to learn German press methods. A number of +editors of Turkish papers will follow him, and soon, no doubt, the +Turkish press will rival Cologne and Frankfort. + +So much for German education, but her penetrative power extends into +every branch of industry and economics. In November 1916, a Munich +expert was put in charge of the College of Forestry, and an economic +society was started in Constantinople on German lines with German +instructors. Inoculation against small-pox, typhoid, and cholera was +made compulsory; and we find that the Turkish Ministers of Posts, of +Justice, and of Commerce, figureheads all of them, have Germans as their +acting Ministers. In the same year a German was appointed as expert for +silkworm breeding and for the cultivation of beet. Practically all the +railways in Asia Minor are pure German concerns by right of purchase. +Germany owns the Anatolian railway concession (originally British), +with right to build to Angora and Konia; the Bagdad railway concession, +with preferential rights over minerals; they have bought the +Mersina-Adana Railway, with right of linking up to the Bagdad Railway; +they have bought the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, built with French capital. +They have secured also the Haidar Pasha Harbour concession, thereby +controlling and handling all merchandise arriving at railhead from the +interior of Asia Minor.[1] Already on the Bagdad Railway the big tunnels +of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge petrol-driven +motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be complete. Meanwhile +railway construction is pushed on in all directions under German +control, and the Turkish Minister of Finance (August 1916) allocated a +large sum of German paper money for the construction of ordinary roads, +military roads, local government roads, all of which are new to Turkey, +but which will be useful for the complete German occupation which is +being swiftly consolidated. To stop the mouths of the people, all +political clubs have been suppressed by the Minister of the Interior, +for Prussia does not care for criticism. To supply German ammunition +needs, lead and zinc have been taken from the roofs of mosques and +door-handles from mosque-gates, and the iron railings along the Champs +de Mars at Pera have been carted away for the manufacture of bombs. Not +long after eight truck-loads of copper were sent to Germany: these, I +imagine, represent the first produce of copper roofs and utensils. A +Turco-German convention signed in Berlin in January of this year, +permits subjects of one country to settle in the other while retaining +their nationality and enjoying trading and other privileges. In Lebanon +Dr. Koenig has opened an agricultural school for Syrians of all +religions. In the Homs district the threatening plague of locusts in +February 1917 was combatted by Germans; and a German expert, Dr. Bucher, +had been already sent to superintend the whole question. For this +concerns supplies to Germany, as does also the ordinance passed in the +same month that two-thirds of all fish caught in the Lebanon district +should be given to the military authorities (these are German), and that +every fish weighing over six ounces in the Beirut district should be +Korban also. The copper mines at Arghana Maden, near Diarbekr, are busy +exporting their produce into Germany; the coal-mines at Rodosto will +very soon be making a large output.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The balance-sheets for 1916 of certain of those railways in +which the Deutsche Bank has an interest have come to hand. They show a +very disagreeable degree of prosperity. The Anatolia Railway Company has +large profits with a gross revenue of 25,737,995 marks. The profit on +the Haidar-Pasha-Angora Line has risen from 42,566 francs per kilometre +to 45,552. The Mersina-Tarsus-Adana Railway has paid 6 per cent. on its +preference shares, and 3 per cent. on its ordinary shares. The Haidar +Pasha Harbour Company has paid 8 per cent.] + +[Footnote 2: Later in this year we find three trains daily leaving +Constantinople for Germany, laden with coal and military supplies.] + +There is no end to this penetration: German water-seekers, with divining +and boring apparatus, accompanied the Turkish expedition into Sinai; +Russian prisoners were sent by Germany for agricultural work in Asia +Minor, to take the place of slaughtered Armenians; a German-Turkish +treaty, signed January 11, 1917, gives the whole reorganisations of the +economic system to a special German mission. A Stuttgart journal chants +a characteristic _Lobgesang_ over this feat. 'That is how,' it proudly +exclaims, 'we work for the liberation of peoples and nationalities.' + +In the same noble spirit, we must suppose, German legal reforms were +introduced in December 1916, to replace the Turkish Shuriat, and in the +same month all the Turks in telegraph offices in Constantinople were +replaced by Germans. Ernst Marre gives valuable advice to young Germans +settling in Turkey. He particularly recommends them, knowing how +religion is one of the strongest bonds in this murderous race, to 'trade +in articles of devotion, in rosaries, in bags to hold the Koran,' and +points out what good business might be built up in gramophones. Earlier +in this year we find a 'German Oriental Trading Company' founded for the +import of fibrous materials for needs of military authorities, and a +great carpet business established at Urfa with German machinery that +will supplant the looms of Smyrna. A saltpetre factory is established +at Konia by Herr Toepfer, whose enterprise is rewarded with an Iron +Cross and a Turkish decoration. The afforestation near Constantinople, +ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture, is put into German hands, and in +the vilayet of Aidin (April 1916) ninety concessions were granted to +German capitalists to undertake the exploitation of metallic ores. +Occasionally the German octopus finds it has gone too far for the +moment, and releases some struggling limb of its victim, as, for +instance, when we see that, in September 1916, the German Director's +stamp for the 'Imperial German Great Radio Station' at Damascus has been +discarded temporarily, as that station 'should be treated for the +present as a Turkish concern.' + +A 'Trading and Weaving Company' was established at Angora in 1916, an +'Import and Export Company' at Smyrna, a 'Trading and Industrial +Society' at Beirut, a 'Tobacco Trading Company' at Latakieh, an +'Agricultural Company' at Tripoli, a 'Corn Exporting Company' in +Lebanon, a 'Rebuilding Commission' (perhaps for sacked Armenian houses) +at Konia. More curious yet will be a Tourist's Guide Book--a Baedeker, +in fact--for travellers in Anatolia, and the erection of a monument in +honour of Turkish _women_ who have replaced men called up for military +duty. Truly these last two items--a guide-book for Anatolia, and a +monument to women--are strange enterprises for Turks. A new Prussian day +is dawning, it seems, for Turkish women as well, for the _Tanin_ (April +1917) tells us that diplomas are to be conferred on ladies who have +completed their studies in the Technical School at Constantinople. + +It is needless to multiply instances of German penetration: I have but +given the skeleton of this German monster that has fastened itself with +tentacles and suckers on every branch of Turkish industry. There is none +round which it has not cast its feelers--no Semitic moneylender ever +obtained a surer hold on his victim. In matters naval, military, +educational, legal, industrial, financial, Germany has a strangle-hold. +Turkey's life is already crushed out of her, and, as we have seen, it +has been crushed out of her by the benevolent Kultur-mongers, who, among +all the Great Powers of Europe, invested their time and their money in +the achievement of the Pan-Turkish ideal. Silently and skilfully they +worked, bamboozling their chief tool, Enver Pasha, even as Enver Pasha +bamboozled us. As long as he was of service to them they retained him; +for his peace of mind at one time they stopped up all letter-boxes in +Constantinople because so many threatening letters were sent him. But +now Enver Pasha seems to have had his day; he became a little +autocratic, and thought that he was the head of the Pan-Turkish ideal. +So he was, but the Pan-Turkish ideal had become Pan-Prussian, and he had +not noticed the transformation. Talaat Bey has taken his place; it was +he who, in May 1917, was received by the Emperor William, by King +Ludwig, and by the Austrian Emperor, and he who was the mouthpiece of +the German efforts to make a separate peace with Russia. Under Czardom, +he proclaimed, the existence of Turkey was threatened, but now the +revolution has made friendship possible, for Russia no longer desires +territorial annexation. And, oh, how Turkey would like to be Russia's +friend! Enver Pasha has of late been somewhat out of favour in Berlin, +and I cannot but think it curious that when, on April 2, 1917, he +visited the submarine base at Wilhelmshaven, he was very nearly killed +in a motor accident. But it may have been an accident. Since then I +cannot find that he has taken any more active part in Pan-Turkish ideals +than to open a soup-kitchen in some provincial town, and lecture the +Central Committee of the Young Turks on the subject of internal affairs +in Great Britain. I do not like lectures, but I should have liked to +hear that one. + + +I have left to the end of this chapter the question of Germany's +knowledge of, and complicity in the Armenian massacres. From the tribune +of the Reichstag, on January 15, 1916, there was made a definite denial +of the existence of such massacres at all; on another subsequent +occasion it was stated that Germany could not interfere in Turkish +internal affairs. + +In view of the fact that there is no internal affair appertaining to +Turkey in which Germany has not interfered, the second of these +statements may be called insincere. But the denial of the massacres is a +deliberate lie. Germany--official Germany--knew all about them, and she +permitted them to go on. A few proofs of this are here shortly stated. + +(1) In September 1915, four months before the denial of the massacres +was made in the Reichstag, Dr. Martin Niepage, higher grade teacher in +the German Technical School at Aleppo, prepared and sent, as we have +seen, in his name, and that of several of his colleagues, a report of +the massacres to the German Embassy at Constantinople. In that report he +gives a terrible account of what he has seen with his own eyes, and also +states that the country Turks' explanation with regard to the origin of +these measures is that it was 'the teaching of the Germans.' The German +Embassy at Constantinople therefore knew of the massacres, and knew +also that the Turks attributed them to orders from Germany. Dr. Niepage +also consulted, before sending his report, with the German Consul at +Aleppo, Herr Hoffman, who told him that the German Embassy had been +already advised in detail about the massacres from the consulates at +Alexandretta, Aleppo, and Mosul, but that he welcomed a further protest +on the subject. + +(2) These reports, or others like them, had not gone astray, for in +August 1915, the German Ambassador in Constantinople, Baron Wangenheim, +made a formal protest to the Turkish Government about the massacres. + +There is, then, no doubt that the German Government, when it officially +denied the massacres, was perfectly cognisant of them. It was also +perfectly capable of stopping them, for they were not local violences, +but wholesale murders organised at Constantinople. In support of this +view I find an independent witness stating that 'there is no Turk of +standing who will not readily declare that it would have been perfectly +possible for Germany to have vetoed the massacres had she chosen.' +Germany had indeed already given assurances that such massacres should +not occur. She had assured the Armenian Katholikos at Adana that so long +as Germany has any influence in Turkey he need not fear a repetition of +the horrors that had taken place under Abdul Hamid. Had she, then, no +influence in Constantinople, or how was it that she had obtained +complete control over all Turkish branches of government? The same +assurance was given by the German Ambassador in April 1915, to the +Armenian Patriarch and the President of the Armenian National Council. + +So, in support of the Pan-Turkish ideal, and in the name of the Turkish +Allah, the God of Love, Germany stood by and let the infamous tale of +lust and rapine and murder be told to its end. The Turks had planned to +exterminate the whole Armenian race except some half-million, who would +be deported penniless to work on agricultural developments under German +rule, but this quality of Turkish mercy was too strained for Major +Pohl, who proclaimed that it was a mistake to spare so many. But he was +a soldier, and did not duly weigh the claims of agriculture. + +The choice was open to Germany; Germany chose, and let the Armenian +massacres go on. But she was in a difficulty. What if the Turkish +Government retorted (perhaps it did so retort), 'You are not consistent. +Why do you mind about the slaughter of a few Armenians? What about +Belgium and your atrocities there?' + +And all the ingenuity of the Wilhelmstrasse would not be able to find an +answer to that. + +I do not say that Germany wanted the massacres, for she did not. She +wanted more agricultural labour, and I think that, if only for that +reason, she deprecated them. But she allowed them to go on when it was +in her power to stop them, and all the perfumes of Arabia will not wash +clean her hand from that stinking horror. + +Here, then, are some of the problems which those who, at the end of the +war, will have to deal with the problem of Turkey must tackle. It is +just as well to recognise that at the present moment Turkey is virtually +and actually a German colony, and the most valuable colony that Germany +has ever had. It will not be enough to limit, or rather abolish, the +supremacy of Turkey over aliens and martyrised peoples; it will be +necessary first to abolish the supremacy of Germany over Turkey. To do +this the victory of our Allied Nations must be complete, and Germany's +octopus envelopment of Turkish industries severed. Otherwise we shall +immediately be confronted with a Germany that already reaches as far as +Mesopotamia. That is done now; and that, before there can come any +permanent peace for Europe, must be undone. Nothing less than the +complete release of that sucker and tentacle embrace will suffice. + + +NOTE + +As throwing a sidelight on the German complicity in the Armenian +massacres, the following is of interest. It is known that when +Metternich succeeded Wangenheim as German Ambassador in Constantinople, +he brought with him a speech, written in Berlin, which, by the Kaiser's +orders, he was to read when presenting his credentials to the Sultan. +This contained a sentence which implied that Germany had been unable to +stop the Armenian massacres. Talaat refused to allow the speech to be +read, obviously because it threw the responsibility of the massacres on +to the Turks, whereas the accepted opinion in Turkey was that they took +place with the connivance and even at the instigation of the Germans. +Eventually a compromise was arrived at, and the speech _in toto_ was +read privately, the part referring to the Armenian massacre not being +published.... It is a pity that Germany is always found out.... + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VI_ + + +'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED' + +Let us commit the crime of _lese-majeste_, and assume (though the +Emperor Wilhelm II. has repeatedly announced the contrary) that Germany +is not at the conclusion of the European War to find herself in +possession of the world. She has prepared her plans in anticipation of +the auspicious event; in fact she has had a most interesting map of +Europe produced which, except by its general shape, is scarcely +recognisable. The printing of it, it is true, was a little premature, +for it shows what Europe was to have been like in 1916, and the +apportionments are not borne out by facts. But assuming that there is +some radical error about it all from her point of view, and assuming +that there will not be either a conclusive peace favourable to Prussian +interests, or even an inconclusive peace, but one in which the Allies +will be able to dictate and enforce their own terms, the magnitude of +the problems that will await their decision may well appal the most +ingenious of their statesmen. And of all those problems none, it is safe +to prophesy, will be found more difficult of solution than that which +will deal with the future of the corrupt and barbarous Government which +has for centuries made hell of the Ottoman Empire. We know more or less +what will happen to Alsace and Lorraine, to Belgium, to the Trentino, +because in those cases the claims of one or other of our Allies to +demand a particular settlement are quite certain to be agreed to by +those not so immediately and vitally concerned. But in the Balkans these +problems will be more complicated because of conflicting interests, and +most complicated of all will they be in Turkey. One thing, however, is +certain, that there can be no going back to the conditions that existed +there before the war. + +Ever since the Osmanlis came out of remoter Asia into the Nearer East +and into Europe, the government of their Empire has gone from bad to +worse. In the early days, as we have seen, their policy was to absorb +the strength of their subject peoples by incorporating the youth of them +into the Turkish army, by giving them Turkish wives, and by converting +them to Mohammedanism. Such was the foundation of the Empire and such +its growth. But having absorbed their strength, the Sultan's Government +neglected them until they milked them again. They were allowed to +prosper if they could: all that was demanded of them was a toll of their +strength. They were cattle, and for the right to graze on Turkish lands +they paid back a pail of their milk of manhood. But an empire founded on +such principles contains within it active and prolific seeds of decay, +and, as we have seen, more stringent measures had to be resorted to in +order to preserve the supremacy of the ruling people. Instead of +absorbing their strength, Abdul Hamid hit upon the new method of killing +them, so that the Turks should still maintain their domination. And the +policy set on foot by him was developed but a few years ago into a +scheme of slaughter, which in atrocity has far surpassed the killings of +Attila, of whom the Nationalist poet sings, or even the designs of the +deposed Sultan. The Armenian nation, with the exception of such part of +it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been exterminated, and +similar measures have been planned and indeed begun, against the Greeks, +the Arabs, and the Jews. + +In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European War, the +policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has been at length +abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared in their joint note to +President Wilson their aims in the war, and for those they have pledged +themselves to fight until final and complete victory wreathes their +arms. Among these aims are:-- + +(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous +tyranny of the Turks. + +(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which has proved +itself so radically alien to Western civilisation. + +For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called the Concert +of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the Balance of Power, kept +Turkey together, and in particular has maintained the centre of its +government at Constantinople simply because the Balance of Power would +be upset if anybody else held the key of the straits that separate +Russia from the Mediterranean. England, above all others, was +instrumental in preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must +confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a century. It +is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse of that which for so +many decades has been the keystone of our ruling with regard to our +Eastern Empire, but the arch has collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone +out, and all our efforts to exclude Russia from free access to the +Mediterranean have only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds +Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The situation, as +it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse than it could have been +for a century back, if at any moment during those hundred years we had +done what we always ought to have done, and declared that the +anachronism of Turkey being in Europe was more intolerable than anything +that could happen in consequence of her expulsion. But we have +acknowledged that now. We have also acknowledged the even greater +anachronism of Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any +of those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman Empire, for +the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that the remedy of these +two monstrous abuses forms an essential part of their aim in the war, +which in costliness of life and of treasure has already far exceeded any +cataclysm that could have come to Europe through its doing its clear and +Christian duty with regard to Turkey during the preceding hundred years. +And among the benefits which eventually mankind will reap in the fields +that have been sown by the blood of the slain will be the fact that the +Confusion of Europe will have accomplished a task which the Concert of +Europe was too craven of consequences to undertake; and Constantinople +and the subject peoples of the Turks will have passed from the yoke of +that murderous tyranny for ever. + +We will take these two avowed aims of the Allies in order, and first try +to draw (though with diffident pencil) some sketch of what will be the +confines of the Ottoman Empire, when we pluck the fruits of the great +crusade against the barbarism of Turkey and of Germany. It is quite +useless to attempt to keep the map as it was, and peg out claims within +the Empire where we shall proclaim that Arabs and Greeks and Armenians +shall live in peace, for it is exactly that plan which has formed a +century's failure. At the International Congress of Berlin, for +instance, a solemn pact was entered into by Turkey for the reform of the +Armenian vilayets. She carried out her promise by slaughtering every +Armenian male, and outraging every Armenian woman who inhabited them. +The _soi-disant_ protectorate of Crete was not a whit more successful in +securing for the Cretans a tolerable existence, and the Allies had to +bring it to an end twenty years ago, and free them from the execrable +yoke; while finally the repudiation by Turkey of the Capitulations, +which provided some sort of guarantee for the safety of foreign peoples +in Turkey, has shown us, if further proof was needed, the value of +covenants with the Osmanli. It must be rendered impossible for Turkey to +repeat such outrages: the soil where her alien peoples dwell must be +hers no more, and any Turkish aggression on that soil must be, _ipso +facto_, an act of war against the European Power under the protection of +whom such a province is placed. + +The difficulty of this part of the problem is not so great as might at +first appear. We do not, when we come to look at it in detail, find such +a conflict of interests as would seem to face us on a general view. Even +the precarious Balance of Power was not upset by a quantity of similar +adjustments made by the Concert of Europe during the last hundred years. +The Powers freed Serbia, giving Turkey first a suzerainty over her, and +finally abolishing that: they freed Bulgaria, they freed Greece, Eastern +Rumelia, Macedonia, Albania. But, as by some strange lapse of humanity, +they always regarded the subject peoples of Turkey in Asia as more +peculiarly Turkish, as if at the Bosporus a new moral geography began, +and massacre in Asia was comparatively venial as compared with massacre +in Europe. But now the Allies have said that there must be no more +massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, it will +be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the alien peoples +dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the protectorate of one or +other of the allied nations. In most cases we shall find that there is a +protecting Power more or less clearly indicated, whose sphere of +interest is obviously concerned with one or other of these new and +independent provinces. + +The alien race which for the last thirty years has suffered the most +atrociously from Turkish inhumanity is that of the Armenians, and it is +fitting to begin our belated campaign of liberation with it. If the +reader will turn to the map at the end of this book, he will see that +the district marked Armenia lies at the north-west corner of the old +Ottoman Empire, and extends across its frontiers into Russian +Trans-Caucasia. That indicates the district which once was peopled by +Armenians. To-day, owing to the various Armenian massacres, the latest +of which, described in another chapter, was by far the most appalling, +such part of Armenia as lies in the Ottoman Empire is practically, and +probably absolutely, depopulated of its Armenian inhabitants. Such as +survive, apart from the women whose lives were spared on their +professing Islamism and entering Turkish harems, have escaped beyond the +Russian frontier, and are believed to number about a quarter of a +million. In the meantime their homes have partly been destroyed and +partly occupied by mouhadjirs from Thrace, and by the Kurds who were +largely instrumental in butchering them. Their lands have been +appropriated haphazardly, by, any who laid hands on them. + +Here the problem is of no great difficulty. The robber-tenants must be +evicted, and the remnant of the Armenians repatriated. Without +exception they escaped into Trans-Caucasia from villages and districts +near the frontier, else they could never have escaped from the pursuing +Turks and Kurds. Naturally, this remnant of a people will not nearly +suffice to fill their entire province, but in order to satisfy the +claims of justice at all adequately, the whole district of Armenia, as +Armenia was known before its people were exterminated, must be amputated +by a clean cut out of the Ottoman Empire and placed, in an autonomous +condition in a new protected province, which will include all the +vilayets of Armenia. + +There is no doubt about a prosperous future for Armenia if this is done, +and to do less than this would be to fail signally as regards the solemn +promise made by the Allies when they stated to President Wilson their +aims in the war. The Armenians have ever been a thrifty and industrious +people, possessed of an inherent vitality which has withstood centuries +of fiendish oppression. With facilities given them for their +re-settlement, and with foreign protection to establish them, they will, +beyond question, more than hold their own against the Kurds. As a +nation they are, as we have seen, partly agricultural in their pursuits; +but a considerable proportion of them (and these the more intelligent) +are men of business, merchants, doctors, educationalists, and gravitate +to towns. Constantinople, as we shall see, will be open to them again, +where lately they numbered nearly as many as the entire remnant of their +nation numbers now; so, too, will be the cities of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia in the New Turkey which we are attempting to sketch. +They will probably not care to settle in the towns and districts that +will remain in the hands of their late oppressors and murderers. + +In the work of their repatriation none will be more eager to help than +the American missionaries, who, at the time of the last massacre, as so +often before, showed themselves so nobly disregardant of all personal +danger and risk in doing their utmost for their murdered flock, and who +have explicitly declared their intention of resuming their work. With +regard to the eviction of Kurds that will be necessary, it must be +remembered that the Kurd is a trespasser on the plains and towns of +Armenia, and properly belongs to the mountains from which he was +encouraged to descend by the Turks for purposes of massacre. Out of +those towns and plains he must go, either into the mountains of Armenia +from whence he came, or over the frontier of Armenia into the New Turkey +presently to be defined. He must, in fact, be deported, though not in +the manner of the deportations at which he himself so often assisted. + +The Armenians who will thus be reinstated within the boundaries of their +own territory, will be practically penniless and without any of the +means or paraphernalia of life, and the necessary outlay on supplies for +them, and the cost of their rehabilitation would naturally fall on the +protecting Power. They will, however, be free from the taxes they have +hitherto paid to the Turks, and it should not be difficult for them by +means of taxes far less oppressive, to pay an adequate interest on the +moneys expended on them. These would thus take the form of a very small +loan, the whole of which could easily be repaid by the Armenians in the +course of a generation or so. Once back on their own soil, and free from +Turkish tyranny and the possibility of it, they are bound to prosper, +even as they have prospered hitherto in spite of oppressions and +massacres up till the year 1915, when, as we have seen, the liberal and +progressive Nationalists organised and executed the extermination from +which so few escaped. + +It is hardly necessary to point out who the protecting Power would be in +the case of the repatriated Armenians, for none but Russia is either +desirable or possible. With one side along the Russian frontier of +Trans-Caucasia, the New Armenia necessarily falls into the sphere of +Russian influence. + +It has been suggested that not only Armenia proper, but part of Cilicia +should also become a district of the repatriated Armenians, with an +outlet to the sea. But while it is true that complete compensation would +demand this, since Zeitun and other districts in Cilicia were almost +pure Armenian settlements, I cannot think that such a restoration is +desirable. For, in the first place, the extermination of the Zeitunlis +(as carried out by Jemal the Great) was practically complete. All the +men were slaughtered, and it does not seem likely that any of the women +and girls who were deported reached the 'agricultural colony' of +Deir-el-Zor in the Arabian desert. It is therefore difficult to see of +whom the repatriation would consist. In the second place, the New +Armenia will be for several generations to come of an area more than +ample for all the Armenians who have survived the flight into Russia, +and it obviously will give them the best chance of corporate prosperity, +if the whole of them are repatriated in a compact body rather than that +a portion of them should be formed into a mere patch severed from their +countrymen by so large a distance. Another sphere of influence also will +be operating near the borders of Cilicia, and to place the Armenians +under two protecting Powers would have serious disadvantages. In +addition they never were a sea-going people, and I cannot see what +object would be served by giving them a coast-board. In any case, if a +coast-board was found necessary, the most convenient would be the +coast-board of the Black Sea, lying adjacent to their main territory. + +If it seems clear that for New Armenia the proper protecting Power is +Russia, it is no less clear that for the freed inhabitants of New Syria, +Arabs and Greeks alike, the proper protecting Power is France. +Historically France's connection with Syria dates from the time of the +Crusades in 1099; it has never been severed, and of late years the ties +between the two countries have been both strengthened and multiplied. +The Treaties of Paris, of London, of San Stefano, and of Berlin have all +recognised the affiliation; so, too, from an ecclesiastical standpoint, +have the encyclicals of Leo XIII. in 1888 and 1898. Similarly, it was +France who intervened in the Syrian massacres of 1845, who landed troops +for the protection of the Maronites in 1860, and established a +protectorate of the Lebanon there a few years later, which lasted up +till the outbreak of the European War. France was the largest holder, as +she was also the constructor, of Syrian railways, and the harbour of +Beirut, without doubt destined to be one of the most flourishing ports +of the Eastern Mediterranean, was also a French enterprise. And perhaps +more important than all these, as a link between Syria and France, has +been the educational penetration which France has effected there. What +the American missionaries did for Armenia, France has done for Syria, +and according to a recent estimate, of the 65,000 children who attended +European schools throughout Syria, not less than 40,000 attended French +schools. When we consider that that proportion has been maintained for +many years in Syria, it can be estimated how strong the intellectual +bond between the Syrian and the French now is. The French language, +similarly, is talked everywhere: it is as current as is modern Greek in +ports of the Levant. + +In virtue of such claims few, if any, would dispute the title of France +to be the protecting Power in the case of Syria. Here there will not +be, as was the case with the Armenians, any work of repatriation to be +done. Such devastation and depopulation as has been wrought by Jemal the +Great, with hunger and disease to help him, was wrought on the spot, +and, though it will take many years to heal the wounds inflicted by that +barbaric plagiarist of Potsdam, it is exactly the deft and practical +sympathy of the French with the race they have so long tended, which +will most speedily bring back health to the Syrians. + +It will be with regard to the geographical limits of a French +protectorate that most difficulty is likely to be experienced; there +will also be points claiming careful solution, as will be seen later, +with regard to railway control. Northwards and eastwards the natural +delimitations seem clear enough: northwards French Syria would terminate +with, and include, the province of Aleppo, eastwards the Syrian desert +marks its practical limits, the technical limit being supplied by the +course of the Euphrates. But southwards there is no such natural line of +demarcation; the Arab occupation stretches right down till it reaches +the Hedjaz, which already has thrown off the Turkish yoke and, under the +Shereef of Mecca, declared its independence. Inset into this long strip +of territory lies Palestine. + +Now to make one single French protectorate over this very considerable +territory seems at first sight a large order, but the objections to any +other course are many and insuperable. Should the line of French +influence be drawn farther north than the Hedjaz, under what protection +is the intervening territory to be left? At present it is Turkish, but +inhabited by Arabs, and, unless the Allies revoke the fulness of their +declaration not to leave alien peoples under the 'murderous tyranny' of +the Turks, Turkish it cannot remain. But both by geographical situation +and by racial interest, it belongs to French-protected Syria, and there +seems no answer to the question as to what sphere of influence it comes +under if not under the French. Just as properly, if we take this view of +the question, the Sinaitic Peninsula, largely desert, would fall to +Egypt, the French protectorate being defined westwards at Akabah. That +the Eastern side of the Gulf of Suez should not be under the same +control as the Western has always been an anomaly, admitted even by the +sternest opponents of the status of Egypt; and in the absence of any +canal corresponding to that of Suez, and debouching into the Red Sea +_via_ the Gulf of Akabah, the most advanced champion of French influence +in the Near East would see no objection to this rectified frontier. +There is no question of competition involved. The proposed change is but +a rational rectification of the present status. + +This scheme of delimitation leaves Palestine inset into the French +protectorate of Syria, and it is difficult to see to whom the +protectorate of Palestine should be properly assigned except to France. +Italy has no expansive ambitions in that sector of the Mediterranean; +England's national sphere of influence in this partition of the +districts now occupied by alien peoples in the Ottoman Empire lies +obviously elsewhere; and since the Jews, who settled in ever-increasing +numbers in Palestine before the war, and will assuredly continue to +settle there again, come and will come as refugees from the Russian +Pale, it would be clearly inadvisable to assign to Russia the +protectorate of her own refugees. The only other alternative would be to +create an independent Palestine for the Jews, and the reasons against +that are overwhelming. It would be merely playing into the hands of +Germany to make such an arrangement. For the last thirty years Germany +has watched with personal and special interest this immigration of Jews +into Palestine, seeing in it not so much a Jewish but a German +expansion. Indeed, when, in the spring of this year, as we have noticed, +a massacre and deportation of Jews was planned and begun by Jemal, +Germany so far reversed her usual attitude towards massacres in general, +and her expressed determination never to interfere in Turkey's internal +affairs, as to lodge a peremptory protest, and of course got the +persecution instantly stopped. Her reason was that Pan-Turkish 'ideals' +(the equivalent for the massacre of alien people) had no sort of +meaning in Palestine. But the Pan-Germanic ideals had a great deal of +meaning in Palestine, as Dr. Davis Treitsch _(Die Jueden der Tuerkei)_ +very clearly states. For 'as a result of the war,' he tells us, 'there +will be an emigration of East-European Jews on an unprecedented scale + ... the disposal of the East European Jews will be a problem for Germany +(and) Germans will be only too glad to find a way out in the emigration +of those Jews to Turkey, a solution extraordinarily favourable to the +interests of all _three [sic]_ parties concerned. There are grounds for +talking of a German protectorate over the whole of Jewry.' + +Now this is explicit enough; Germany clearly contemplated a protectorate +over Palestine, and if the Jews who are German-speaking Jews are left +independent, there is nothing more certain than that, after the war, her +penetration of Palestine will instantly begin. These colonists are, and +will be, in want of funds for the development and increase of their +cultivated territories, and when we consider the names of the prominent +financiers in the Central Empires, Mendelssohn, Hirsch, Goldsmid, +Bleichroeder, Speyer, to name only a few, we cannot be in much doubt as +to the quarter from which that financial assistance will be forthcoming, +on extremely favourable terms. It is safe to prophesy that, if Palestine +is given independence without protectorate, in three years from the end +of the war it will be under not only a protectorate, but a despotism as +complete as ever ruled either Turkey or Prussia. True it is that the +Zionist movement will offer, even as it has offered in the past, a +strenuous opposition to Germanisation, but it would be crediting it with +an inconceivable vitality to imagine that it will be able to resist the +blandishments that Germany is certainly prepared to shower on it. For +great as is the progress the Jewish settlers made in Palestine during +the twenty or twenty-five years before the war, and strong as is the +spirit of Zionism, the emigrants do not as yet number more than about +120,000, nor have they under crops more than ten per cent. of the +cultivated land of Palestine. They are as yet but settlers, and their +work is before them. If left without a protectorate they will not be +without a protectorate long, but not such an one as the Allies desire. A +protectorate there must be, and no reason is really of weight against +that protectorate being French. Let that, then, extend from the +Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from Alexandretta to where the +Hedjaz already prospers in its self-proclaimed independence. It will be +completely severed from Turkey by tracts under protection of one or +other of the Allied Powers, any expedition through which would be an act +of war. + +The Euphrates, then, will form the eastern boundary of the French +protectorate: it will also, it is hoped, form the western boundary of +the English protectorate, which we know as Mesopotamia. Just as no other +Power has any real claim to Armenia, except Russia, just as Syria can +fall to no other than France, it seems equally clear that the proper +sphere of English influence is in this plain that stretches southwards +from the semicircle of hills where the two great rivers approach each +other near Diarbekr to the head of the Persian Gulf. As Germany very +well knows, it is intimately concerned with our safe tenure of India, +and the hold the Germans hoped to gain over it, and have for ever lost, +by their possession of the Bagdad Railway was vital to their dreams of +world-conquest. Equally vital to England was it that Germany should +never get it. But its importance to us as a land-route to India is by no +means the only reason why an English sphere of influence is indicated +here: it is the possibilities it harbours, which, as far as can be seen, +England is the only Power capable of developing, that cause us to put in +a claim for its protectorate which none of our Allies will dispute. + +To restore Mesopotamia to the rank it has held, and to the rank it still +might hold among the productive districts of the East, there is needed a +huge capital for outlay, and a huge population of workers. Even Germany, +in her nightmare of world-dominion, from which she shall be soon dragged +screaming-awake, never formulated a scheme for the restoration of +Southern Mesopotamia to its productive pre-eminence, and never so much +as contemplated it, except as an object that would be possible of +realisation after the Empire of India had fallen over-ripe into her +pelican mouth. Therein she was perfectly right--she usually is right in +these dreams of empire in so far as they are empirical--for she seems +dimly to have conjectured in these methodical visions, that India was +the key to unlock Southern Mesopotamia. But nowhere can I find that she +guessed it: I only guess that she guessed it. + +This problem of capital outlay and of the necessary man-power for work +and restoration applies exclusively to Southern Mesopotamia, which we +may roughly define as the district stretching from Samara on the Tigris +and Hit on the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Northern Mesopotamia, as +Dr. Rohrbach points out in his _Bagdadbahn_, needs only the guarantee of +security of life and property to induce the Kurds to descend from the +hills and the Bedouin Arabs to settle down there; and by degrees, under +a protectorate that insures them against massacre and confiscation of +property, there seems no doubt that the area of cultivation will spread +and something of the ancient prosperity return. The land is immensely +fertile: it is only Ottoman misrule, which here, as everywhere else, has +left desolation in the place of prosperity and death in place of life. +The rainfall is adequate, the climate suitable to those who will +naturally spread there: it needs only freedom from the murderous tyranny +that has bled it for centuries past, to guarantee its future prosperity. + +But Southern Mesopotamia is a totally different proposition. The land +lies low between the rivers, and, though of unparalleled fertility, +yields under present conditions but a precarious livelihood to its +sparse population. For nine months of the year it is a desert, for three +months when its rivers are in flood, a swamp. Once, as we all know, it +was the very heart of civilisation, and from its arteries flowed out the +life-blood of the world. Rainfall was scarcely existent, any more than +it is existent in Southern or Upper Egypt; but in the days of Babylon +the Great there were true rulers and men of wisdom over these +desiccated regions, who saw that every drop of water in the river, that +now pours senselessly through swamp and desert into the sea, was a grain +of corn or a stalk of cotton. They dug canals, they made reservoirs, and +harnessed like some noble horse of the gods the torrents that now gallop +unbridled through dreary deserts. The black land, the Sawad, was then +the green land of waving corn, where three crops were annually harvested +and the average yield was two hundredfold of the seed sown. The wheat +and barley, so Herodotus tells us, were a palm-breadth long in the +blade, and millet and sesame grew like trees. And in these details the +revered Father of Lies seems to have spoken less than the truth, for the +statistics we get elsewhere more than bear out his accounts of its +amazing fertility. From its wealth before his day had arisen the might +of Babylon, and for centuries later, while the canals still regulated +the water supply, it remained the granary of the world. More than a +thousand years after Herodotus there were over 12,500,000 acres in +cultivation, and the husbandmen thereof with the dwellers in its cities +numbered 5,000,000 men. Then came the Arab invasion, which was bad +enough, but colossally worse was the invasion of the Osmanli. Truly 'a +fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell +therein.' + +But the potentiality for production of that great alluvial plain is not +diminished; the Turks could not dispose of that by massacre, as a means +of weakening the strength of their subject peoples. It is still there, +ready to respond to the spell of the waters of Tigris and Euphrates, +which once, when handled and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of +the Lord. + +Not long before the present European War Sir William Willcocks, under +whose guidance the great modern irrigation works at Assouan were +constructed, was appointed adviser to the Ottoman Ministry of Public +Works, and his report on the Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in +1911. He tells us that the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable +of easy levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic +scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the +refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we need not +go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly conservative basis, +give the following results. He proposes to restore, of course with +modern technical improvements, the old system of canals, and, allowing +for interest on loans, estimates the total expense at L26,000,000 (or +the cost of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of +the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no enlargement in +detail and no comment. + +But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the irrigation works +is easy, the profits are safe so long as the Tigris and 'the ancient +river,' the river Euphrates, run their course. But all the irrigation +works in the world will not raise a penny for the investor or a grain +for the miller unless there are men to sow and gather the crops. A +million are necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is +'Egypt and India.' + +This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and its future +must be in English hands, why no other country can undertake it with +hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. Rohrbach, whose _Bagdadbahn_ I +have quoted before, is forced to acknowledge that there is no solution +to the man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans from +other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak prevail.' It is +true that he starts upon the assumption that Mesopotamia will remain +Turkish (under a German protectorate, as we read between his lines), +with which we must be permitted to disagree, but his conclusion is quite +correct. Even under German protection he realises that citizens of +well-governed states will not flock by the million to put themselves +under Turkish control, and he dismisses as inadequate the numbers of +Syrians, Arabs, Armenians and Jews who can be transported to Mesopotamia +from inside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Their numbers are even +more inadequate since the Armenian massacres permitted by Dr. Rohrbach's +Fatherland, and even he cannot picture a million of his own countrymen +forsaking the beer-gardens for summers in the Sawad. He does not +positively state our answer, that it is from India and Egypt that the +man-power will be supplied, but, as mentioned before, I think he guesses +it. His prophetic gifts are not convincing enough to himself to let him +state the glorious future, when India and Egypt shall become German, but +that, I feel sure, is his vision: 'he sees it, but not now; he beholds +it, but not nigh.' + +But we can give the answer which he does not quite like to state, since +for the English it is clearly more easily realisable. The native labour +we can supply from Egypt and India, especially India, will furnish a +million labourers, and, if we wished, two millions without difficulty. +But no Power except England can furnish it. And that, I submit, is the +solution of the problem of Mesopotamia; a solution well within the power +of English enterprise to attain in the hands of such men as have already +bridled the Nile, the water-horsemen of the world. And I cannot do +better, in trying to convey the spirit in which this work of +reclamation should be undertaken, than by quoting some very noble words +from Sir William Willcocks's report, in which he speaks of the +desolation that has come to this garden of fruitfulness through wicked +stewardship. + +'The last voyage I made before coming to this country was up the Nile +from Khartoum to the Equatorial lakes. In this most desperate and +forbidding region I was filled with pride to think I belonged to a race +whose sons, even in this inhospitable waste of waters, were struggling +in the face of a thousand discouragements to introduce new forest trees +and new agricultural products and ameliorate in some degree the +conditions of life of the naked and miserable inhabitants. How should I +have felt, if in traversing the deserts and swamps which to-day +represent what was the richest and most famous tract in the world, I had +thought that I was the scion of a race in whose hands God has placed, +for hundreds of years, the destinies of this great country, and that my +countrymen could give no better account of their stewardship than the +exhibition of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste +themselves in the sea for nine months of the year, and desolating +everything in their way for the remaining three? No effort that Turkey +can make can be too great to roll away the reproach of those parched and +weary lands, whose cry ascends to heaven.' + +But the harvests of Mesopotamia, when gathered in, must needs be +transported, and for that railways are necessary. Water transport would, +of course, carry them easily down to the Persian Gulf, but the supply +will be mainly, if not wholly, wanted westwards, and it must be conveyed +to the shores of the Mediterranean. Already, in preparation for +world-conquest, Germany has proceeded far with her construction of the +Bagdad Railway, which was intended, after her absorption of Turkey, to +link up Berlin with her next Oriental objective, namely, India; the +Taurus has been tunnelled, the Euphrates bridged, and but for a hiatus +of a few miles the line is practically complete from Constantinople into +Northern Mesopotamia. But its route was chosen for German strategic +reasons, for the linking up of Berlin with Constantinople and Bagdad. +This, it may be permitted to say, does not form part of the schemes of +the Allies: it is to snap rather than weld such links that they have +taken the field. What we want in the matter of railway transport for the +harvests of Mesopotamia, and generally for our Eastern communications, +is not a line that passes through Turkish and German soil, and +terminates at Berlin, but one which, after the directest possible +land-route, reaches the Mediterranean and terminates in suitable ports. + +The reader therefore is requested to _unthink_ the present Bagdad +Railway altogether, to 'scrap' it in his mind, as it will be probably +scrapped on the map, since it is utterly useless for our purposes. For +taking Aleppo as (roughly) the half-way house in the existent line, we +find that the western half of it lies in Asia Minor, in territory which, +as we shall see, will remain Turkish, while the eastern half of it makes +a long detour instead of striking directly for Bagdad. After our +experience with Turkey there is nothing less conceivable than that we +should allow a single mile of our new Mesopotamia Railway to run +through the territory of the Turks, for who knows that she might not +(say when harvests are ripe and ready for delivery), on any arbitrary +pretext, close or destroy the line, even as before now she has closed +the Dardanelles? Besides, for our purposes, a line that goes to +Constantinople (in whosoever hands Constantinople may be after the war) +is out of the way and altogether unsuitable. Eastwards, again, from +Aleppo the present Bagdad line is circuitous and indirect, admirably +adapted to the German purposes for which it was constructed, but utterly +unadapted to ours. + +Let us then 'scrap' the existent Bagdad route altogether, and consider +not what the Germans want, but what we want, which, as has been already +stated, is a direct land communication with suitable Mediterranean +ports. Of those there are three obvious ones, Alexandretta, Tripoli, and +Beirut, of which Beirut is a long way the first in importance and +potentiality of increased importance. Two possible routes therefore +would seem to suggest themselves, one running from Alexandretta to +Aleppo, and thence following pretty closely the course of the Euphrates +till it reaches Hit, and from there striking directly to Bagdad. Aleppo +is already connected with Tripoli and El Mina (the actual port of +Tripoli), and also with Beirut by branch lines making a junction at +Homs, and thus all those ports will be brought together on one system. +But if the reader will glance at the map, he will see that by far the +most direct communication with Bagdad would be to run the railway direct +from there to Homs, thus making Homs rather than Aleppo the central +junction of the system. From Homs lines would run northward to Aleppo, +due west to Tripoli, and south-west to Beirut. Either of those routes, +in any case, would be infinitely preferable to the long loop which the +present Bagdad Railway traverses, as planned on German lines and for +German requirements. The new railway will thus lie exclusively in +territory under French and English protectorate, and will probably be +their joint enterprise and property. + +Prospectively then, as regards the fulfilment of the solemn pledge of +the Allies to liberate subject peoples from the murderous tyranny of the +Turks, we have discussed the future of Armenia, of Syria, of Palestine, +and of Mesopotamia. All those are well defined districts, and the +demarcation of their respective protectorates should not present great +difficulties. But there remains, before we pass on to the problem of +Constantinople, a further district less easily defined, largely +inhabited by European peoples whose liberty in the future we are pledged +to secure. This is the Mediterranean coastline to the south and west of +Asia Minor, the towns of which have been so extensively peopled and made +prosperous by Greeks and Italians. Similarly among those of our European +Allies who are desirous and capable of Eastern expansion, there remains +one, Italy, whose rights to partake in this Turkish partition we have +not yet considered. In the shifting kaleidoscope of national +war-politics, it seems at the moment of writing by no means impossible +that Greece, having at length got rid of a treacherous and unstable +Reuben of a monarch, may redeem her pledge to Serbia, in which case, no +doubt, she too would state the terms of her desired and legitimate +expansion. But these would more reasonably be concerned with the +redistribution of the Balkan Peninsula, which does not come within the +scope of this book, and we may prophesy without fear of invoking the +Nemesis that so closely dogs the heels of seers, that Italy will +legitimately claim (or perhaps has already claimed) the protectorate of +this valuable littoral. Certain it is that, when peace returns, the +large population of Greeks and Italians once resident (and soon again to +be) on these coasts, must be given the liberty and security which they +will never enjoy so long as they remain in Turkish hands, and the hands +that have earned the right to be protecting Power are assuredly Italian. +Along the south coast a line including the Taurus range would seem to +suggest a natural frontier inland from Adana on the east to the +south-west corner of Asia Minor, and from there a similar strip would +pass up the coast as far as, and inclusive of, Smyrna. That at least +Italy has every right to expect, and there seems no great fear that +among the International Councils there will arise a dissentient voice. +The inland boundary on the west coast is the difficult section of this +delimitation, and into the details of that it would be both rash and +inexpedient to enter. + + +II + +We pass, then, to the second avowed object of the Allies, namely, the +expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman rule, which has proved itself so +radically alien to Western civilisation. This must be taken to include +not only the expulsion of the Turkish control from Thrace and +Constantinople, but from the eastern side as well of the Bosporus, the +Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. At no future time must Turkey be in +a position to command even partially a single yard of that momentous +channel through which alone our Allies, Russia and Rumania, have access +to the Mediterranean. Though this was not formally stated in the Allies' +reply to President Wilson, it is clearly part and parcel of the object +in view, for while the Ottoman Empire retains the smallest control on +either side of either of the Straits, she is so far able to interfere in +European concerns, in which she must never more have a hand. The east +shore, then, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora, as well as the west, +must be under the control of a Power, or a group of Powers, not alien to +Western civilisation. Germany and her allies therefore, no less than +Turkey, must be excluded from the guardianship of the Straits. + +As we have had previous occasion to note, this ejection of the Turkish +power from Constantinople is the absolute reversal of European and, in +especial, of English policy for the last hundred years. No crime that +the Ottoman Government could commit, no act of barbarism, would ever +persuade us to do away with the anachronism of Turkey's existence in +Europe; but at last the seismic convulsion of the war has knocked this +policy into a heap of disjected ruins, and it can never be rebuilt again +on the old lines. For among our other avowed objects in prosecuting the +war to its victorious end, we have pledged ourselves to uphold the +right which all peoples, whether small or great, have to the enjoyment +of full security and free economic development. But while Turkey can +close the Straits at her own arbitrary will, or at the bidding of a +superior and malevolent Power, and block the passage of ships from +Russian and Rumanian ports into the Mediterranean, the economic +development of both these countries is seriously menaced. Three times +within the last six years has she exercised that right, and while she +holds the shores of the Straits she can at any moment blockade all +southern Russian ports. That such power should be in the hands of any +nation is highly undesirable; that it should be in the hands of a +corrupt despotism like Turkey, especially now that Germany, as things +stand, can dictate to Turkey when and what she pleases, is a thing +unthinkable by the most improvident of statesmen. Already we have paid +dearly enough for the pusillanimity of a hundred years: it is impossible +that we should ever allow a similar bill to be again presented. +Whatever be the guardianship of the Straits, whoever the holder of +Constantinople, it will not be Turkey. + +At the beginning of the war, and indeed till after the revolution in +Russia, it was announced and stated as an axiom that on the conclusion +of peace, Russia should be the door-keeper of what after all is her own +lodge-gate. Subsequently, in the unhappy splits and disintegration of +her Government, it was announced that she favoured peace without +annexation--in other words, that she neither claimed nor desired the +guardianship of Constantinople. But I think we should be utterly wrong +if we regarded that as an expression of the will of the Russian people: +it is far more probable that it was the expression of the will of +Germany, directly inspired by German influence with a view to concluding +a separate peace with Russia. As we have seen, it had its due effect in +Turkey, and Talaat Bey gave vent to pious ejaculations of thanksgiving, +that now all cause of quarrel with Russia was removed, and Turkey and +she could be friends. It is possible that when out of the confused +cries there again rises from Russia the clear call of the people's +voice, we shall find her wishing to set in order her own house before +she projects herself on new missions, but, as far as the manifesto of +'peace without territorial annexation' goes, we shall be wise to regard +it for the present with the profoundest suspicion. It sounds far more +like the tones of the Central European wolf than those of Little Red +Riding Hood's proper grandmother. + +But be Russia's decision what it may, the Turk will hold sway no longer +in Thrace or Constantinople, or on the shores of the Straits of the Sea +of Marmora. There is, of course, no question of deporting the whole of +the Turkish population that lives in those regions, nor would it be +desirable, even if it were possible, to realise Gladstone's robust +vision of seeing every Turk, 'bag and baggage,' clear out from the +provinces they have desolated and profaned. But if not under Russia, +then under the joint control of certain of the Allied Powers there will +be a complete reconstruction of the administration of those districts. +The headquarters of the protectorate will doubtless be at +Constantinople, which will be reorganised somewhat on the lines of the +Treaty Port of Shanghai, and will be open to the ships of all nations. +The security of the town must be assured by a military garrison either +of mixed troops of the controlling nations, or possibly by a rotation of +troops drawn from the armies of each in turn. More important even than +this will be the adequate control of the Straits by sea. A naval base +must be formed, which by the gospel of the freedom of the seas (but not +according to St. Goeben and the submarine disciples) will constitute a +patrolling police force of the waters. Whether the system of +fortifications and defences that lately rendered the Dardanelles +impregnable shall be retained or not is a question demanding the most +careful consideration. Some will hold that they should be maintained in +order to insure that none but the guarantors of the freedom of the +Straits shall ever take possession of them: others that they shall be +utterly dismantled and destroyed, so that the closing of the Straits +shall be an impossibility. The matter really turns on the question as to +the extent to which the Allies will have the prudence to cut Germany's +claws when the war is over. It is eminently to be hoped that they will +be cut so short that never again will they be able to show those +chiselled talons beyond her velvet--that sense, in fact, will allow +sentiment no word to say. Unfortunately, there are a great many people +the basis of whose character consists of a washy confidence in the good +intentions of everybody. Most mistakenly they call it Christianity. + +Here, then, has been outlined the effect of the Allies' declared aims. +Such territories as Turkey holds in Europe, such control as she +possesses over the free passage of the Straits must pass from her, and +the alien peoples, who for centuries have fainted and bled underneath +her infamous yoke, must be led out of the land of bondage. As we have +seen throughout preceding chapters, it was the fixed policy of the +Ottoman Government to rid itself of their presence, and already it has +gone far in its murderous mission. Indeed the avowed aims of the +Allies, when accomplished, will do that work for her, for the Allies are +determined to remove those peoples from Turkey. The difference of +execution, however, consists in this, that they will not remove Arabs +and Greeks and Italians and Jews, as Turkey has already done with the +Armenians by the simple process of massacres, but by a process no less +simple, namely, of taking out of the territories of the Ottoman Empire +the districts where such peoples dwell. The Allies will accomplish, in +fact, for the Turks that policy of Ottomanisation which was the aim of +Abdul Hamid, and has been the aim of his more murderous successors. +Turkey shall henceforth be for the Turks: she shall no more be in +'danger' from the defenceless nations, who at present exist within her +borders. The Sultan of Turkey, in some year of grace now not far +distant, will find that his Ottomanisation has been done for him, and, +though his realm is curtailed, he will have his rest broken no more by +the thought of Arab risings, nor will he have to devise measures that +will solve the Arab question. Except for a strip along the west and +south coast, all Asia Minor and Anatolia will be his from the Black Sea +to the Mediterranean, but Syria, Armenia, the coast of Asia Minor, +Palestine, and Mesopotamia shall have passed from him. It is no +dismemberment of an Empire that the Allies contemplate, for they cannot +dismember limbs that never belonged to the real trunk. It was a despotic +military control that the Osmanlis had established, they always regarded +their subject peoples as aliens, whom they did not scruple to destroy if +they exhibited symptoms of progress and civilisation. Henceforth the +Turkish Government shall govern Turks, and Turks alone. That for many +years has been its aim, and, by the disastrous dispensation of fate, it +has been largely able to realise its purpose. Now, though by different +methods, the Allies will see thorough accomplishment of it. There will +be no question, of course, of turning out or of deporting Turks who live +in Syria, in Armenia, in Constantinople, for the ways of the Allies are +not those of Talaat and Enver and Jemal the Great. Where to-day Turks +dwell, there shall they continue to dwell, but they must dwell there in +peace in equal liberties and rights with the once-subject peoples whom +the Allies shall have delivered. If they do not like that they can +migrate, not by forced marches and under the guardianship of murderous +Kurds, but in protection and security, to the lands where they can still +enjoy the beneficent sway of their own governors, and be Ottomanised to +the top of their bent. But Syrians and Armenians and Greeks and Jews +will be Ottomanised no longer. + +The Turk was always a fighter, disciplined and courageous, and he has +never lost that virtue of valour. But he has been a fighter because he +has always lived under a military despotism which demanded his services, +and it is much to be doubted whether his qualities in this regard will +for the future be exercised as they have been in the past. For the +Turkish armies, in so far as they have consisted of Turks, have been +chiefly, if not wholly, recruited from the peasantry of Anatolia, who, +when not summoned to their country's colours, or ordered to maltreat and +massacre, are quiet, rather indolent folk, content to plough their lands +and reap an exiguous but sufficient harvest. And for their lords and +governors, who, until Prussia assumed command of the Turkish armies, +there will no longer be either the possibility of further conquests as +in the old Osmanli days, or, in less progressive times, the necessity +for securing Ottoman supremacy over the huge ill-knit lands which it +governed. But now, instead of having alien and defenceless tribes within +their borders, tribes forbidden to bear arms and chafing at the Turkish +yoke, they will see free peoples under the protectorates of Powers that +are capable of self-defence and, if necessary, of inflicting punishment. +Russia, France, England, Italy, all allied nations, will be established +in close proximity to the Turkish frontiers, and the New Turkey will be +as powerless for aggression as she will be for defence, should she +provoke attack. But within their borders there may the Osmanlis dwell +secure and undisturbed, so long as they conform to the habits of +civilised people with regard to their neighbours, and it is a question +whether, now that the military despotism which has always misguided the +fortunes of this people, has no possible fields for conquest, and no +need of securing security, the nation will not settle down into the +quiet existence of small neutral countries. Perhaps the last chapter of +its savage and blood-stained history is already almost finished, and in +years to come some little light of progress and of civilisation may be +kindled in the abode where the household gods for centuries have been +cruelty and hate. + + + + +_Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter VII_ + + +THE GRIP OP THE OCTOPUS + +It will not be sufficient for the fulfilment of the Allies' aims as +regards Turkey to free from her barbarous control the subject peoples +dwelling within her borders, for Turkey herself has to be delivered from +a domination not less barbaric than her own, which, if allowed to +continue, would soon again be a menace to the peace of the world. We +have seen in a previous chapter how deeply set in her are Germany's +nippers, how closely the octopus-embrace envelops her, and we now have +to consider how those tentacles must be unloosed from their grip, and +what will be the condition of the victim, already bled white, when that +has been done. In the beginning, as we have seen, Germany obtained her +hold by professing a touchingly beautiful and philanthropic desire to +help Turkey to realise her national ideals, and her Pecksniffs, Tekin +Alp and Herr Ernst Marre, were bidden to write parallel histories, the +one describing the aims of the Nationalist party, the other the +benevolent interest which Germany took in them. Occasionally Herr Ernst +Marre could not but remember that he was a German, and permitted us to +see the claws of the cat, without quite letting it out of the bag, but +then he pulled the strings tight again, and only loud comfortable +purrings could be heard, the Prussian musings over the 'liberation' of +Turkey which she was helping to accomplish. But nowadays, so it seems to +me, the strings have been loosened, and the claws and teeth are clearly +visible. It is not so long since Dr. Schnee, Governor of German East +Africa, sent a very illuminating document to Berlin from which I extract +the following:-- + +'Do you consider it possible to make a regulation prohibiting Islam +altogether? The encouragement of pig-breeding among natives is +recommended by experts as an effective means of stopping the spread of +Islam....' + +That seems clear enough, and I can imagine Talaat Bey, with his sword +of honour in his hand, exclaiming with the Oysters in _Alice in +Wonderland_:-- + +'After such kindness that would be + A dismal thing to do.' + +But I am afraid that Germany is contemplating (as indeed she has always +done) a quantity of dismal things to do, and is now, like the Walrus and +the Carpenter, beginning to let them appear. She has taken the Turkish +oysters out for a nice long walk, and when the war is over she proposes +to sit down and eat them. And did she not also interfere in the affair +of Jewish massacres and declare that 'Pan-Turkish ideals have no sort of +meaning in Palestine'? That must have been almost an unfriendly act from +Turkey's point of view, for it cannot be stated too clearly that part of +the price which Germany paid for Turkey's entry on her side into the +war, was the liberty, as far as Germany was concerned, of managing her +internal affairs, massacres and the rest, as best suited the damnable +doctrines of Ottomanisation. The other Powers could not interfere, for +they failed to force the Dardanelles, and Germany promised not to. That +promise, of course, was binding on Germany for just so long as it suited +her to keep it, and it suited her to keep it, on the whole, during the +Armenian massacres. And in that matter her refusal to interfere is, +among all her crimes, the very flower and felicity of her vileness. + +Signs are not wanting that Turkey is beginning to realise the position +in which she has placed herself, namely, that of a bankrupt dependant at +the mercy of a nation to whom that quality is a mere derision. Lately a +quantity of small incidents have occurred, such as disputes over the +ownership of properties financed by Germany and the really melodramatic +depreciation in the German coinage, which unmistakably show the swift +ebb of Turkey's misplaced confidence. More significant perhaps than any +is a transaction that took place in May 1917, when Talaat Bey and Enver +Pasha took the whole of their private fortunes out of the Deutsche Bank +in Constantinople, and invested them in two Swiss banks, namely, the +Banque Nationale de Suisse, and the Banque Federale: they drew out also +the whole funds of the Committee of Union and Progress, and similarly +transferred them. This operation was not effected without loss, for in +return for the Turkish L1 they received only thirteen francs. But it is +significant that they preferred to lose over fifty per cent. of their +capital, and have the moiety secure in Switzerland to leaving it in +Constantinople.[1] It is certain therefore that at both ends of the +scale a distrust of German management has begun. A starving population +has wrecked trains loaded with food-stuffs going to Germany, and at the +other end the men with the swords of honour and dishonour deem it wise +to put their money out of reach of the great Prussian cat. That the +Germans themselves are not quite at their ease concerning the security +of their hold may also be conjectured, for they are, as far as possible, +removing Turkish troops from Constantinople, and replacing them with +their own regiments. An instance of this occurred in June 1917, when, +owing to the discontent in the capital, it was found necessary to guard +bridges, residences of Ministers, and Government offices. But instead of +recalling Turkish troops from Galicia to do this, they kept them there +in the manner of hostages, mixed up in German regiments, and sent picked +bodies of German troops to Constantinople. Fresh corps of secret police +have also been formed to suppress popular manifestations. They are +allowed to 'remove' suspects by any means they choose, quite in the old +style of bag and Bosporus, but the organisation of them is German. And +well may the German Government distrust those signs of popular +discontent in a starving population: already the people have awoke to +the fact that the German paper money does not represent its face-value, +and, despite assurances to the contrary, it is at a discount scarcely +credible. Three German L1 notes are held even in Constantinople to be +the equivalent of a gold L1, while in the provinces upwards of five are +asked for, and given, in exchange for one gold pound. It is in vain that +German manifestoes are put forth declaring that all Government offices +will take the notes as an equivalent for gold, for what the people want +is not a traffic with Government offices, but the cash to buy food. Even +more serious is the fact that Austrian and Hungarian directors of banks +will no longer accept these scraps of paper. In vain, too, is it that +the hungry folk see the walls of the 'House of Friendship' rise higher +and higher in Constantinople, for every day they see with starving eyes +the trains loaded with sugar from Konia, and the harvests raised in +Anatolia with German artificial manures guarded by German troops and +rolling westwards to Berlin. According to present estimates the harvest +this year is so vastly more abundant than that of previous years, that +no comparison, as the Minister of Agriculture tells his gratified +Government, is possible. But the poorer classes get no more than the +leavings of it when the armies, which include the German army, have had +their wants supplied. The governing classes, whom it is necessary to +feed, are not yet suffering, for the Germans grant them enough, issuing +rations to such families as are proved adherents of the German-Turkish +combination, and until the pinch of want attacks them we should be +foolishly optimistic if we thought that a starving peasantry would cause +the collapse or the defection of Germany's newest and most valuable +colony. There is enough discontent to make Germany uneasy, but that is +all.[2] Long ago she proved the efficiency of her control, and the +successful pulling of her puppet-strings, and no instance of that is +more complete than the brief story of Yakub Jemil and the extinction of +him and his party, which, though it happened a full year ago, has only +lately been completely transmitted. Yakub Jemil was an influential +commander of a frontier guard near the Black Sea coast. In July 1916 he +went to Constantinople, accompanied by his staff (which included the +informant from whom this account is derived), and, being cordially +received by Enver and Talaat, discussed the situation with them. He +pointed out the demoralising effect of the Armenian massacres, and the +danger of Jemal the Great's attitude towards the Arabs in Syria, +realising, and seeking to make them realise, the stupendous folly of +making enemies of the subject peoples, and urging the re-establishment +of cordial relations between the Turks and them. That, considering that +Enver and Talaat were responsible (under the Germans) for the Armenian +massacres, was a brave outspeaking. He went on to say that Turkey was at +war not on behalf of herself, but on behalf of Germany, and that it +would be wise of the Government to consider the possibility of a +separate peace with the Powers of the Entente. He was heard with +interest, and took his leave. He remained in Constantinople, and his +views obtained him many adherents, not only among Turkish officers whose +sympathies were already alienated from Germany, but among members of the +Committee of Union and Progress. But before long his adherents began to +disappear, and he asked for another interview with Talaat. He was +received, as the informant states, 'with open arms,' for Talaat seized +and held him, called for the guard, and he was searched, and on him were +found certain documents which proved him to hold the views he had +already expressed. That now, was enough. He was 'interrogated' for two +days (interrogation is otherwise called torture), and was then hanged. +Subsequently 111 officers and men in the army also disappeared. Some +were marched into the Khiat Khana Valley, opposite Pera, and were +stabbed: others were sent under escort to the provinces and murdered. No +courts-martial of any kind were held. + +[Footnote 1: Similarly, in October of this year, a new Turkish law was +passed, prohibiting the acquisition of Turkish land by foreign settlers. +This is aimed point-blank at Germany, and has naturally annoyed Berlin +very much.] + +[Footnote 2: The army rations have lately been reduced, each Turkish +soldier receiving daily an oke of bread and a dried mackerel.] + +And should anybody doubt the efficiency of German control in Turkey, and +be disposed to be optimistic about the imminence of Turkey's detachment, +he might do well to ponder that story. + +Meantime the efficacy of our naval blockade is largely discounted by +Germany's new source of supply. Possibly in the ensuing winter of +1917-18 conditions may get unbearable, but if the Turkish Government +only two years ago massacred more than a million of its subjects, it +would be absurd to expect that the starving of a million more would +produce much effect on the Ministers of the Turkish God of Love.[1] The +people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how famine is +decimating England and France, and how the total starvation of those +unfortunate countries is imminent. Indeed, of all the signs of want of +confidence in their German overlords, by far the most promising are the +facts that Talaat and Enver have sent their money out of the country, +and that Jemal the Great has a swelled head. On these facts there is a +certain justifiable optimism to be based. It will do no good to consider +them academically in London; but are there not practical channels to +reach the instincts of the Turkish triumvirate that might be navigated? + +[Footnote 1: The following list of prices in Constantinople is of +interest:-- + + July 1914. July 1917. +Rice, per lb. 2-1/4 d. 3s. 4d. +Milk, per quart 5d. 2s. +Flour, per lb. 3d. 2s. 6d. +Petroleum, per lb. 1d. 4s. 6d. +Pair of boots L1 L8. ] + +We need not trouble ourselves with considering what the Allies will +have to do with the Turkish army when once the end of the war comes, for +the collapse of the military party in Turkey, which owes its whole +vitality to Germany, will be perfect and complete. But the economical +future of Turkey is not so plain: at the present moment its bankruptcy +is total. Early in the war Germany drained it of such bullion as it had, +and has since then advanced it about L150,000,000, which, as far as I +can trace, is entirely in German paper, and must be redeemed in gold at +some period (chiefly two years) after the end of the war. That is +wonderful finance, and one marvels that Turkey could have been so far +blinded as to accept it. But I expect that the swallowing of the first +loan was sweetened by a spoonful of jam of this kind. Germany pointed +out that, though England was quite certainly going to lose the war, she +had issued an immense paper coinage which had all the purchasing power +of gold. Germany, on the other hand, with her dear Ally to help her, was +just as certainly going to win the war. How, then, could there be the +slightest risk of the German paper money depreciating a single piastre +in value? That sounded very good sense to Turkey, who was equally +convinced that she would be on the victorious side (else she would not +have joined it), and down went the loan with a pleasant sensation of +sweetness. A second loan was easily induced by the failure of the +Dardanelles expedition, and about then the 'ignorant' Turkish peasant +began to wonder whether the paper was quite as valuable as gold, and to +prefer gold or even the ordinary silver piastre to its German +equivalent. To counteract that, as we have seen, a law was passed making +it criminal to hoard gold, and, to complete the ruin, the silver piastre +was called in, and a nickel token was substituted.... We can but bow our +heads in reverence of the thoroughness of German swindling. + +Now Turkey is completely bankrupt, and we must ask ourselves why Germany +ever bargained for the repayment in gold, after the war, of the millions +she had lent the Turks in paper, if she knew that Turkey could never +repay her. True, the loans had only cost her the paper the notes were +printed on, so that in no case could she prove a loser, but how could +she be a gainer? The answer to that question shouts at us from every +acre of Turkish soil. The immense undeveloped riches of Turkey supply +the answer. Some indeed are already being developed, and the labour and +most of the materials have been paid for by the German paper notes. +There are the irrigation works at Adana, there is the beet-sugar +industry at Konia, the irrigation works in the Makischelin Valley, the +mineral concessions of the Bagdad Railway, the Haidar Pasha Harbour +concessions, the afforestation scheme near Constantinople, the cotton +industry in Anatolia--there is no end to them. Turkey may not be able to +pay in cash, but over all these concessions already working, and over a +hundred more, of which the concessions have been granted, Germany has a +complete hold, and her victim will pay in minerals and cotton and sugar +and corn. She will pay over and over and over again, as none who have +the smallest knowledge of Kultur-finance can possibly doubt. She is +bled white already, and for the rest of time bloodless and white will +she remain. Only one event can possibly avert her fate, and that is the +victory of the Allies. + +We have been so bold as to assume that this is not an impossible +contingency, and on that assumption there is a brighter future for +Turkey than the Prussian domination could ever bring her. Bankrupt she +is, but, as Germany saw, she is rich in possibilities even with regard +to the restricted territory to which she will surely find herself +limited, and it is a pleasant chance for her that Germany has already +been so busy in developing the resources of Anatolia. For Germany may +safely bet her last piece of paper money that she will not lay a finger +on them. + +The Turkey of the future is to be for the Turks; not for the persecuted +Armenians, nor for the Arabs, nor for the Greeks, and assuredly it is +not to be for the Prussians. While the war lasts, Germany may draw +supplies from the fields her artificial manures have enriched, and from +the acres that her paper money has planted, but after that no more. Her +Ottomanising work will be over. Such development (and it is far from +negligible) as she has done in Syria will be continued under French +protection for the Arabs, such as she has done in Mesopotamia under +English protection, and such as she has done in Anatolia will be +continued by the Turks to drag them out of the utter insolvency that she +has brought them to. Never before has a country so justly and so richly +deserved the repudiation of a debt incurred by the confidence trick. Not +a civilised Government in the world would dream of enforcing payment, +any more than a magistrate would enforce a payment to some +thimble-rigger returning from a race-meeting. + + +The roar of battle still renders inaudible all voices save its own, but +already the dusk begins to gather over the halls where sit the War-lord +and those who, for the realisation of their monstrous dreams, loosed +hell upon the world, and in the growing dusk there begin to steal upon +the wall the letters of pale flame that to them portend the doom, and to +us give promise of dawn. Faintly they can see the legend _Mene, Mene, +Tekel, Upharsin...._ + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F. 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