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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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..a32f5f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60638 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60638) diff --git a/old/60638-8.txt b/old/60638-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c3439b5..0000000 --- a/old/60638-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5741 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Two War Years in Constantinople, by Harry Stuermer - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Two War Years in Constantinople - Sketches of German and Young Turkish Ethics and Politics - -Author: Harry Stuermer - -Translator: E. Allen - -Release Date: November 6, 2019 [EBook #60638] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE *** - - - - -Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - TWO WAR YEARS IN - CONSTANTINOPLE - - - - - TWO WAR YEARS - IN - CONSTANTINOPLE - - _Sketches of German and Young Turkish - Ethics and Politics_ - - - BY - DR. HARRY STUERMER - LATE CORRESPONDENT OF THE KÖLNISCHE ZEITUNG - IN CONSTANTINOPLE (1915-16) - - - TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN - E. ALLEN - AND THE AUTHOR - - - [Illustration] - - - NEW YORK - GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY - GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY - - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - -DECLARATION - - -The undersigned hereby declares on his sworn word of honour that -in writing this volume he has been in no way inspired by outside -influence, and that he has never had any dealings whatsoever, material -or otherwise, either before or during the war, with any Government, -organisation, propaganda, or personality hostile to Germany or Turkey -or even of a neutral character. His conscience alone has urged him to -write and publish his impressions, and he hopes that by so doing he may -perform a service towards the cause of truth and civilisation. - -Moreover, he can give formal assurance that he has expressly avoided -making the acquaintance of any person resident in Switzerland until his -manuscript should have been sent to press. - -Furthermore, he has been actuated by no personal motives in thus -giving public expression to his experiences and opinions, for he has -no personal grievance, either material or moral, against any person -whatsoever. - - -[Illustration: _Dr. H. Stuermer_] - - Geneva, - _June 1917_. - - - - -PREFACE - - -While the author of this work was waiting on the frontier of -Switzerland for final permission from the German authorities to enter -that country, Germany committed her second great crime, her first -having completely missed its mark. She had begun to realise that she -was beaten in the great conflict which she had so wantonly provoked -with that characteristic over confidence in the power of her own -militarism and disdainful undervaluation of the _morale_ and general -capacities of her enemies. In final renunciation of any last remnants -of humanity in her methods, she was now making a dying effort to help -her already lost cause by a ruthless extension of her policy of piracy -at sea and a gratification of all her brutal instincts in complete -violation of the rights of neutral countries. - -It is therefore with all the more inward conviction, with all the -more urgent moral persuasion, that the author makes use of the rare -opportunity offered him by residence in Switzerland to range himself -boldly on the side of truth and show that there are still Germans who -find it impossible to condone even tacitly the moral transgression and -political stupidity of their own and an allied Government. _That is the -sole purpose of this publication._ - -Regardless of the consequences, he holds it to be his duty and his -privilege, just because he is a German, to make a frank statement, -from the point of view of human civilisation, of what have become his -convictions from personal observations made in the course of six months -of actual warfare and practically two years of subsequent journalistic -activity. He spent the time from Spring 1915 to Christmas 1916 in -Turkey, and will of course only deal with what he knows from personal -observation. The following essays are of the nature merely of sketches -and make no claim whatever to completeness. - -With regard to purely German politics and ethics, therefore, the author -will confine himself to a few indications and impressions of a personal -kind, but he cannot forget the rôle Germany has played in Turkey as -an ally of the present Young Turkish Government, nor can he ignore -Germany's responsibility for the atrocities committed by them. The -author publishes his impressions with a perfectly clear conscience, -secure in the conviction that as the representative of a German paper -he never once wrote a single word in favour of this criminal war, and -that during his stay of more than twenty months in Turkey he never -concealed his true opinions as soon as he had definitely made up his -mind what these were. - -On the contrary, he was rather dangerously candid and frank in speaking -to anyone who wanted to listen to him--so much so, that it is almost a -miracle that he ever reached a neutral country. After the war he will -be in a position to appeal to the testimony of dozens of people of high -standing in all walks of life that in both thought and action a deep -cleft has always divided him from his colleagues, and that he has ever -ardently longed for the moment when he might, freely and without fear -of consequences, do his bit towards the enlightenment of the civilised -world. - -May these lines, written in all sincerity and hereby submitted to the -tribunal of public opinion, free the author at last from the burden -of silent reproach heaped on him by a mutilated, outraged, languishing -humanity, of being a German among thousands of Germans who desired this -war. - - * * * * * - -Several months have passed since the original text of the German and -French editions of this little book was written. Baghdad was taken by -British troops before the last chapter of the German manuscript had -been completed, and since then military operations have been more and -more in favour of the Entente. A number of important political events -have occurred, such as the Russian Revolution and the entry of the -United States of America into the war. - -Further developments of Russian politics may yet have a direct effect -on the final solution of the problems surrounding the defeated Ottoman -Empire. But the author has preferred to maintain the original text of -his book, written early in March this year, and to make no changes -whatever in the conclusions he had then arrived at as a result of the -fresh impressions he carried away from Turkey. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER I - - PAGE - - At the outbreak of war in Germany--The German "world-politicians" - (_Weltpolitiker_)--German and English mentality--The - "place in the sun"--England's declaration - of war--German methods in Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine--Prussian - arrogance--Militaristic journalism 17 - - - CHAPTER II - - To Constantinople--Pro-Turkish considerations--The dilemma - of a Gallipoli correspondent--Under German military - control 35 - - - CHAPTER III - - The great Armenian persecutions--The system of Talaat and - Enver--A denunciation of Germany as a cowardly and - conscienceless accomplice 42 - - - CHAPTER IV - - The tide of war--Enver's offensive for the "liberation of the - Caucasus"--The Dardanelles Campaign; the fate of Constantinople - twice hangs in the balance--Nervous tension - in international Pera--Bulgaria's attitude--Turkish rancour - against her former enemy--German illusions of a - separate peace with Russia--King Ferdinand's time-serving--Lack - of munitions in the Dardanelles--A mysterious - death: a political murder?--The evacuation of - Gallipoli--The Turkish version of victory--Constantinople - unreleased--Kut-el-Amara--Propaganda for the "Holy - War"--A prisoner of repute--Loyalty of Anglo-Indian - officers--Turkish communiqués and their worth--The fall - of Erzerum--Official lies--The treatment of prisoners--Political - speculation with prisoners of war--Treatment - of enemy subjects--Stagnation and lassitude in the summer - of 1916--The Greeks in Turkey--Dread of Greek - massacres--Rumania's entry--Terrible disappointment--The - three phases of the war for Turkey 75 - - - CHAPTER V - - The economic situation--Exaggerated Entente hopes--Hunger - and suffering among the civil population--The system of - requisitioning and the semi-official monopolists--Profiteering - on the part of the Government clique--Frivolity and - cynicism--The "Djemiet"--The delegates of the German - _Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft_ (Central Purchases Commission)--A - hard battle between German and Turkish intrigue--Reform - of the coinage--Paper money and its depreciation--The - hoarding of bullion--The Russian rouble - the best investment 107 - - - CHAPTER VI - - German propaganda and ethics--The unsuccessful "Holy - War" and the German Government--"The Holy War" - a crime against civilisation, a chimera, a farce--Underhand - dealings--The German Embassy the dupe of adventurers--The - morality of German Press representatives--A - trusty servant of the German Embassy--Fine official - distinctions of morality--The German conception of the - rights of individuals 126 - - - CHAPTER VII - - Young Turkish nationalism--One-sided abolition of capitulations - --Anti-foreign efforts at emancipation--Abolition of - foreign languages--German simplicity--The Turkification - of commercial life--Unmistakable intellectual improvement - as a result of the war--Trade policy and customs - tariff--National production--The founding of new businesses - in Turkey--Germany supplanted--German starvation--Capitulations - or full European control?--The - colonisation and forcible Turkification of Anatolia--"The - properties of people who have been dispatched elsewhere"--The - "Mohadjirs"--Greek persecutions just before the - Great War--The "discovery" of Anatolia, the nucleus of - the Ottoman Empire--Turkey finds herself at last--Anatolian - dirt and decay--The "Greater Turkey" and the - purely Turkish Turkey--Cleavage or concentration? 151 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Religion and race--The Islam policy of Abdul-Hamid and of - the Young Turks--Turanism and Pan-Islamism as political - principles--Turanism and the Quadruple Alliance--Greed - and race-fanaticism--Religious traditions and - modern reforms--Reform in the law--A modern Sheikh-ul-Islam--Reform - and nationalization--The Armenian - and Greek Patriarchates--The failure of Pan-Islamism--The - alienation of the Arabs--Djemal Pasha's "hangman's - policy" in Syria--Djemal as a "Pro-French"--Djemal - and Enver--Djemal and Germany--His true character--The - attempts against the Suez Canal--Djemal's murderous - work nears completion--The great Arabian and - Syrian Separatist movement--The defection of the Emir - of Mecca and the great Arabian catastrophe 176 - - - CHAPTER IX - - Anti-war and pro-Entente feelings among the Turks--Turkish - pessimism about the war--How would Abdul-Hamid have - acted?--A war of prevention against Russia--Russia and - a neutral Turkey--The agreement about the Dardanelles--A - peaceful solution scorned--Alleged criminal intentions - on the part of the Entente; the example of Greece - and Salonika--To be or not to be?--German influence--Turkey - stakes on the wrong card--The results 209 - - - CHAPTER X - - The outlook for the future--The consequences of trusting - Germany--The Entente's death sentence on Turkey--The - social necessity for this deliverance--Anatolia, the - new Turkey after the war; forecasts about the Turkish - race--The Turkish element in the lost territory--Russia - and Constantinople; international guarantees--Germany, - at peace, benefits too--Farewell to the German "World - Politicians"--German interests in a victorious and in a - defeated Turkey--The German-Turkish treaty--A paradise - on earth--The Russian commercial impulse--The - new Armenia--Western Anatolia, the old Greek centre of - civilisation--Great Arabia and Syria--The reconciliation - of Germany 258 - - Appendix 283 - - - - -TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE - - - - -CHAPTER I - - At the outbreak of war in Germany--The German "world-politicians" - (_Weltpolitiker_)--German and English mentality--The "place in the - sun"--England's declaration of war--German methods in Belgium and - Alsace-Lorraine--Prussian arrogance--Militaristic journalism. - - -Anyone who, like myself, set foot on German soil for the first time -after years of sojourn in foreign lands, and more particularly in -the colonies, just at the moment that Germany was mobilising for the -great European war, must surely have been filled, as I was, with a -certain feeling of melancholy, a slight uneasiness with regard to -the state of mind of his fellow-countrymen as it showed itself in -these dramatic days of August in conversations in the street, in -cafés and restaurants, and in the articles appearing in the Press. -We Germans have never learnt to think soundly on political subjects. -Bismarck's political heritage, although set forth in most popular -form in his _Thoughts and Recollections_, a book that anyone opposing -this war from the point of view rather of prudence than of ethics -might utilise as an unending source of propaganda, has not descended -to our rulers in any sort of living form. But an unbounded political -_naďveté_, an incredible lack of judgment and of understanding of -the point of view of other peoples, who have their _raison d'ętre_ -just as much as we have, their vital interests, their standpoint of -honour--have not prevented us from trying to carry on a grand system of -_Weltpolitik_ (world politics). The average everyday German has never -really understood the English--either before or during the war; in the -latter's colonial policy, which, according to pan-German ideas, has -no other aim than to snatch from us our "place in the sun"; in their -conception of liberty and civilisation, which has entailed such mighty -sacrifices for them on behalf of their Allies; when we trod Belgian -neutrality underfoot and thought England would stand and look on; -at the time of the debates about universal service, when practically -every German, even in the highest political circles, was ready to wager -that there would be a revolution in England sooner than any general -acceptance of Conscription; and coming down to more recent events, -when the latest huge British war loan provided the only fit and proper -answer to German frightfulness at sea. - -Let me here say a word on the subject of colonial policy, on which I -may perhaps be allowed to speak with a certain amount of authority -after extended travel in the farthest corners of Africa, and from -an intimate, personal knowledge of German as well as English and -French colonies. Germany has less colonial territory than the older -colonists, it is true. It is also true that the German struggle for -the most widespread, the most intensive and lucrative employment of -the energies and capabilities of our highly developed commercial land -is justified. But at the risk of being dubbed as absolutely lacking -in patriotism, I should like to point out that in the first place the -resources we had at our disposal in our own colonial territory in -tropical and sub-tropical Africa, little exploited as they then were, -would have amply sufficed for our commercial needs and colonising -capacities--though possibly not for our aspirations after world power! -And secondly, the very liberal character of England's trade and -colonial policy did not hinder us in any way from reaching the top of -the commercial tree even in foreign colonies. - -Anyone who knows English colonies knows that the British Government, -wherever it has been possible to do so politically, that is, in all her -colonies which are already properly organised and firmly established -as British, has always met in a most generous and sympathetic way -German, and indeed any foreign, trade or other enterprises. New firms, -with German capital, were received with open arms, their excellence -and value for the young country heartily recognised and ungrudgingly -encouraged; not the slightest shadow of any jealousy of foreign -undertakings could ever exist in a British colony, and every German -could be as sure as an Englishman himself of being justly treated in -every way and encouraged in the most generous fashion in his work. - -Thousands of Germans otherwise thoroughly embued with the national -spirit make no secret of the fact that they would far rather live in -a British than a German colony. Too often in the latter the newcomer -was met at every point by an exaggerated bureaucracy and made to feel -by some official that he was not a reserve officer, and consequently a -social inferior. Hints were dropped to discourage him, and inquiries -were even made as to whether he had enough money to book his passage -back to where he came from! - -Far be it from me to wish to depreciate by these words the value of -our own colonial efforts. As pioneers in Africa we were working on -the very best possible lines, but we should have been content to go -on learning from the much superior British colonial methods, and -should have finished and perfected our own domain instead of always -shouting jealously about other people's. I am quite convinced that -another ten years of undisturbed peaceful competition and Germany, -with her own very considerable colonial possessions on the one hand, -and the possibility on the other of pushing commercial enterprise on -the highest scale not only in independent overseas states but under -the beneficent protection of English rule with its true freedom and -real furtherance of trade "uplift," would have reached her goal much -better than by means of all the sword-rattling _Weltpolitik_ of the -Pan-Germans. - -It is true that in territory not yet properly organised or guaranteed, -politically still doubtful, and in quite new protectorates, especially -along the routes to India, where vital English interests are at stake, -and on the much-talked-of Persian Gulf, England could not, until her -main object was firmly secured, meet in the same fair way German -desires with regard to commercial activity. And there she has more than -once learnt to her cost the true character of the German _Weltpolitik_. - -That is the real meaning, at any rate so far as colonial politics are -concerned, of the German-English contest for a "place in the sun." No -one who understands it aright could ever condone the outgrowths of our -_Weltpolitik_, however much he might desire to assist German ability to -find practical outlet in all suitable overseas territory, nor could he -ever forget the wealth of wonderful deeds, wrought in the service of -human civilisation and freedom, Englishmen can place to their credit -years before we ever began. With such considerations of justice in -view, we should have recognised that there was a limit to our efforts -after expansion, and as a matter of fact we should have gone further -and fared better--in a decade we should have probably been really -wealthy--for the English in their open-handed way certainly left us -a surprising amount of room for the free exercise of our commercial -talents. - -I have intentionally given an illustration only of the colonial side -of the problem affecting German-English relations, so that I may avoid -dealing with any subject I do not know from personal observation. - -It was this English people, that, in spite of all their egoism, have -really done something for civilisation, that the German of August 1914 -accused of being nothing but a nation of shopkeepers with a cowardly, -narrow-minded policy that was unprepared to make any sacrifice for -others. It was this people that the German of August 1914--and his -spokesman von Bethmann-Hollweg, who later thought it necessary to -defend himself against the charge of "having brought too much ethics -into politics"--expected to stand by and see Belgium overridden. It -was this same England that we believed would hold back even when the -Chancellor found it impossible to apply to French colonial possessions -the guarantee he had given not to aim at any territorial conquests in -the war with France! - -And so it was with all the more grimness, with all the more gravity, -that on that memorable night of August 4th the terrible blow fell. The -English declaration of war entered into the very soul of the German -people, who stood as a sacrifice to a political miscalculation that had -its roots less in a lack of thought and experience than in a boundless -arrogance. - -About the same time I was a witness of those laughable scenes which -took place on the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, where, in complete -misjudgment of the whole political situation _Japanese_ were carried -shoulder high by the enthusiastic and worthy citizens of Berlin under -the erroneous impression that these obvious arch-enemies of Russia -would naturally be allies of Germany. Every German that was not blind -to the trend of true "world-politics" must surely have shaken his head -over this lamentable spectacle. A few days afterwards Japan sent its -ultimatum against Kiao-Tchao! - -It was the same incapability of thinking in terms of true -world-politics that led us lately to believe that we might find -supporters in Mexico and Japan of the piracy we indulged in as a -result of America's intervention in the war, the same incapability -that blinded us to the effect our methods must have on other neutrals -such as China and the South American States. And although one admits -the possibility of a miscalculation being made, yet a miscalculation -with regard to England's attitude was not only the height of political -stupidity, but showed an absence of moral sense. _The moment England -entered the war, Germany lost the war._ - -And while the world-politicians of Berlin, having recovered from their -first dismay, were making jokes about the "nation of shopkeepers" and -its little army which they would just "have arrested"; while a little -later the military events up to St. Quentin and the Battle of the Marne -seemed to justify the idle mockers who knew nothing of England and had -never even ventured their noses out of Germany,--those who had lived -in the colonies were uttering warnings against any kind of optimism, -and some already felt the war would end badly for us. - -I belonged to the latter group. I expressed my conviction in this -direction as early as August 6th, 1914, in a letter which I wrote from -Berlin for my father's birthday. In it I maintained that in spite of -all our brilliant military successes, which would certainly not last, -this war was a mistake and would assuredly end in failure for Germany. -_Littera scripta manet._ Never from that moment have I believed in -final victory for Germany. Slowly but surely then I veered round to the -position that I could no longer even _desire_ victory for Germany. - -Naturally I did my military duty. I saw the fearful crime Germany was -committing, yet I hurried to the front with the millions who believed -that Germany was innocent and had been attacked without cause. There -was nothing else to be done, and it must of course be remembered that -my final rupture with Germany did not take place all of a sudden. After -a few months of war in Masuria I was released as unfit for active -service as the result of a severe illness. - -Of all the many episodes of my life at the front, none is so deeply -impressed on my memory as the silent war of mutual hatred I waged with -my immediately superior officer, a true prototype of his race, a true -Prussian. I can still see him, a man of fifty-five or so, who, in spite -of former active service, had only reached the rank of lieutenant, and -who, as he told me himself right at the beginning, in very misplaced -confidence, rushed into active service again because in this way he -could get really good pay and would even have a prospect of further -promotion. - -This Lieutenant Stein told me too of the first weeks in Belgium, when -he had been in command of a company, and I can still hear him boasting -about his warlike propensities, and how his teacher had said about -him when he was a boy "he was capable of stealing an altar-cloth and -cutting it up to make breeches for himself." - -"When we wanted to do any commandeering or to plunder a house," so he -told me, "there was a very simple means. A man belonging to my company -would be ordered to throw a Belgian rifle through an open cellar -window, the house would then be searched for weapons, and even if we -found only one rifle we had orders to seize everything without mercy -and to drive out the occupiers." I can still see the creature standing -in front of me and relating this and many a similar tale in these first -days before he knew me. I have never forgotten it; and I think I owe -much to Lieutenant Stein. He helped me on the way I was predestined to -go, for had I not just returned from the colonies and foreign lands, -imbued with liberal ideas, and from the first torn by grave doubts? - -The Lieutenant may be an exception--granted; but he is an exception -unfortunately but too often represented in that army of millions -on its invading march into unhappy Belgium, among officers and -non-commissioned officers, whom, at any rate so far as active service -is concerned, everyone who has served in the German Army will agree -with me in calling on the average thoroughly brutal. Lieutenant -Stein gave me my first real deep disgust of war. He is a type that I -have not invented, and he will easily be identified by the German -military authorities from his signature on my military pass as one -of those arch-Prussians who suddenly readopt a martial air, suddenly -revive and come into their element again, although they may be sickly -old valetudinarians--the kind of men who in civil life are probably -enthusiastic members of the "German Colonial Society," the "Naval -Union," and the "Pan-German Association," and ardent world-politicians -of the ale-bench type. - -I found his stories afterwards confirmed to the letter by one of the -most famous German war-correspondents, Paul Schweder, the author of the -four-volume work entitled _At Imperial Headquarters_. With a _naďveté_ -equal to Lieutenant Stein's, and trusting no doubt to my then official -position as correspondent of a German paper, he gave me descriptions -of Belgian atrocities committed by our soldiers and the results of -our system of occupation that, in all their horrible nakedness, put -everything that ever appeared in the Entente newspapers absolutely in -the shade. - -As early as the beginning of 1916 he told me the plain truth that we -were practically starving Belgium and that the country was really only -kept alive by the Relief Commission, and that we were attempting to -ruin any Belgian industry which might compete with ours by a systematic -removal of machinery to Germany. And that was before the time of the -Deportations! - -Schweder's descriptions dealt for the most part with the sexual -morality of our soldiers in the trenches. In spite of severe -punishments, so he assured me, thousands and thousands of cases -occurred of women and young girls out of decent Belgian and French -families being outraged. The soldier on short leave from the front, -with the prospect of a speedy return to the first-line trenches and -death staring him in the face, did not care what happened; the unhappy -victims were for the most part silent about their shame, so that the -cases of punishment were very few and far between. - -While I was at the front I heard extraordinary things, for which I -had again detailed confirmation from Schweder, who knew the whole of -the Western Front well, about the German policy of persecution in -Alsace-Lorraine. There the system was to punish with imprisonment -not only actions but opinions. The authorities did not even scruple -to imprison girls out of highly-respected houses who had perhaps made -some harmless remark in youthful ignorance, and shut them up with -common criminals and prostitutes to work out their long sentence. -Such scandalous acts, which are a disgrace to humanity, Paul Schweder -confirmed by the dozen or related at first-hand. - -He was intelligent enough, too, as was evident from the many statements -made by him in confidential circles, to see through the utter lack -of foundation, the mendacity, the immorality of what he wrote in his -books merely for the sake of filthy lucre; but when I tried one day to -take on a bet with him that Verdun would not fall, he took his revenge -by spreading the report in Constantinople that I was an Pro-Entente, -and doing his utmost to intrigue against me. That is the German -war-correspondent's idea of morality! - -When I was released from the army in the beginning of 1915, I joined -the editorial staff of the _Kölnische Zeitung_ and remained for some -weeks in Cologne. I have not retained any very special impressions -of this period of my activity, except perhaps the recollection of -the spirit of jingoistic Prussianism that I--being a Badener--had -scarcely ever come across before in its full glory, and, from the -many confidential communications and discussions among the editorial -staff, the feeling that even then there was a certain nervousness and -insecurity among those who, in their leading articles, informed the -public daily of their absolute confidence in victory. - -One curious thing at this time, perhaps worthy of mention, was the -disdainful contempt with which these Prussians--even before the fall of -Przemysl--regarded Austria. But the scornful and biting commentaries -made behind the scenes in the editorial sanctum at the fall of this -stronghold stood in most striking contrast to what the papers wrote -about it. - -Later, when I had already been a long time in Turkey, a humorous -incident gave me renewed opportunity of seeing this Prussian spirit of -unbounded exaggeration of self and depreciation of others. The incident -is at the same time characteristic of the spirit of militarism with -which the representatives of the German Press are thoroughly imbued, in -spite of the opportunities most of them have had through long visits to -other countries of gaining a little more _savoir faire_. - -One beautiful summer afternoon at a promenade concert in the "Petit -Champs" at Pera I introduced an Austrian Lieutenant of Dragoons I knew, -belonging to one of the best regiments, to our Balkan correspondent who -happened to be staying in Constantinople: "Lieutenant N.; Herr von M." -The correspondent sat down at the table and repeated very distinctly: -"_Lieutenant-Colonel von M._" It turned out that he had been a -second lieutenant in the Prussian Army, and had pushed himself up to -this wonderful rank in the Bulgarian Army, instinctively combining -journalism and militarism. My companion, however, with true Austrian -calm, took not the slightest notice of the correction, did not spring -up and greet him with an enthusiastic "Ah! my dear fellow-officer, -etc.," but began an ordinary social conversation. - -Would anyone believe that next day old Herr von M. took me roundly -to task for sitting at the same table as an Austrian officer and -appearing in public with him, and informed me quasi-officially that as -a representative of the _Kölnische Zeitung_ I should associate only -with the German colony in Constantinople. - -I wonder which is the most irritating characteristic of this type of -mind--its overbearing attitude towards our Allies, its jingoistic -"Imperial German" cant, or its wounded dignity as a militarist who -forgets that he is a journalist and no longer an officer? - - - - -CHAPTER II - - In Constantinople--Pro-Turkish considerations--The dilemma of a - Gallipoli correspondent--Under German military control. - - -A few days after the fall of Przemysl I set out for Constantinople. I -left Germany with a good deal of friendly feeling towards the Turk. I -was even quite well disposed towards the Young Turks, although I knew -and appreciated the harm caused by their régime and the reproaches -levelled against it since 1909. At any rate, when I landed on Turkish -soil I was certainly not lacking in goodwill towards the Government -of Enver and Talaat, and nothing was further from my thoughts than to -prejudice myself against my new sphere of work by any preconceived -criticism. - -In comparison with Abdul-Hamid I regarded the régime of the Young -Turks, in spite of all, as a big step in advance and a necessary -one, and the parting words of one of our old editors, a thorough -connoisseur of Turkey, lingered in my ears without very much effect. -He said: "You are going to Constantinople. You will soon be able to -see for yourself the moral bankruptcy of the Young Turks, and you will -find that Turkey is nothing but a dead body galvanised into action, -that will only last as long as the war lasts and we Germans supply the -galvanising power." I would not believe it, and went to Turkey with an -absolutely open mind to form my own opinion. - -It must also be remembered that all the pro-Turkish utterances of -Eastern experts of all shades and nationalities who emphasised the -fact that the Turks were the most respectable nation of the East, were -not without their effect upon me; also I had read Pierre Loti. I was -determined to extend to the Turkish Government the strong sympathy I -already felt for the Turkish people--and, let me here emphasise it, -still feel. To undermine that sympathy, to make me lose my confidence -in this race, things would have to go badly indeed. They went worse -than I ever thought was possible. - -I went first of all to the new Turkish front in the Dardanelles and -the Gallipoli Peninsula, where everything was ruled by militarism and -there was but little opportunity to worry about politics. The combined -attack by sea and land had just begun, and I passed the next few weeks -on the Ariburnu front. I found myself in the entirely new position of -war-correspondent. I had now to write professionally about this war, -which I detested with all my heart and soul. - -Well, I simply had to make the back fit the burden. Whatever I did or -did not do, I have certainly the clear satisfaction of knowing that I -never wrote a single word in praise of war. One will understand that, -in spite of my inward conviction that Germany by unloosing the war on -Europe had committed a terrible crime against humanity, in spite of my -consciousness of acting in a wrong cause, in spite of my deep disgust -of much that I had already seen, I was still interested in Turkey's -fight for existence, but from quite another standpoint. - -As an objective onlooker I did not have to be an absolute hypocrite to -do justice to my journalistic duties to my paper. I got to know the -Turkish soldier with his stoical heroism in defence, and the brilliant -attacking powers and courage of the Anatolians with their blind belief -in their Padishah, as they were rushed to the defence of Stamboul and -hurled themselves in a bayonet charge against the British machine-guns -under a hail of shells from the sea. I gained a high opinion of Turkish -valour and powers of resistance. I had no reason to stint my praise or -withhold my judgment. In mess-tents and at various observation-posts I -made the personal acquaintance of crowds of thoroughly sympathetic and -likeable Turkish officers. Let me mention but one--Essad Pasha, the -defender of Jannina. - -I found quite enough material on my two visits to Gallipoli during -various phases of the fighting to write a series of feuilletons without -any glorification of militarism and political aims. I confined myself -to what was of general human interest, to what was picturesque, what -was dramatic in the struggle going on in this unique theatre of war. - -But even then I was beginning to have my own opinion about much that I -saw; I was already torn by conflicting doubts. Already I was beginning -to ask myself whether my sympathies would not gradually turn more and -more definitely to those who were vainly storming these strong Turkish -forts from the sea, under a deadly machine-gun fire, for the cause of -true civilisation, the cause of liberty, was manifestly on their side. - -I had opportunity, too, of making comparisons from the dead and -wounded and the few prisoners there were between the value of the -human material sacrificed on either side--on the one, brave but stupid -Anatolians, accustomed to dirt and misery; on the other cultured and -highly civilised men, sportsmen from the colonies who had hurried from -the farthest corners of the earth to fight not only for the British -cause, but for the cause of civilisation. - -But at that time I was not yet ripe for the decision forced upon me -later by other things that I saw with my own eyes; I had not yet -reached that deep inward conviction that I should have to make a break -with Germany. The only thing I could do and felt compelled to do -then was to pay my homage not only to Turkish patriotism and Turkish -bravery, but to the wonderful courage and fearlessness of death shown -by those whom at that time I had, as a German, to regard as my enemies; -this I did over and over again in my articles. - -I saw, too, the first indications of other things. Traces of the most -outspoken jingoism among Turkish officers became gradually apparent, -and more than one Turkish commander pointed out to me with ironical -emphasis that things went just as smoothly and promptly in his sector, -where there was no German officer in charge, as anywhere else. - -On my second visit to the Dardanelles, in summer, I heard of -considerable quarrels over questions of rank, and there was more than -one outbreak of jingoistic arrogance on the part of both Turkish and -German subalterns, leading in some cases even to blows and consequent -severe punishment for insubordination. The climax was reached in the -scandal of supplanting General Weber, commanding the "Southern Group" -(Sedd-ul-Bahr) by Vehib Pasha, a grim and fanatical Turk. In this case -the Turkish point of view prevailed, for General Liman von Sanders, -Commander-in-Chief of the Gallipoli Army, was determined not to lose -his post, and agreed slavishly with all that Enver Pasha ordained. - -From other fronts, such as the Irak and the "Caucasus" (which was -becoming more and more a purely Armenian theatre of war, without losing -that chimerical designation in the official reports!), there came -even more significant tales; there German and Turkish officers seemed -to live still more of a cat-and-dog life than in the Dardanelles. Of -course under the iron discipline of both Turks and Germans, these -unpleasant occurrences were never allowed to come to such a pass that -they would interfere in any way with military operations, but they were -of significance as symptoms of a deep distrust of the Germans even in -Turkish military circles. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - The great Armenian persecutions--The system of Talaat and Enver--A - denunciation of Germany as a cowardly and conscienceless accomplice. - - -In spite of all, I returned to Constantinople from my first visit to -the Dardanelles with very little diminution of friendly feeling towards -the Turks. My first experience when I returned to the capital was the -beginning of the Armenian persecutions. And here I may as well say at -once that my love for present-day Turkey perished absolutely with this -unique example in the history of modern human civilisation of the most -appalling bestiality and misguided jingoism. This, more than everything -else I saw on the German-Turkish side throughout the war, persuaded me -to take up arms against my own people and to adopt the position I now -hold. I say "German-Turkish," for I must hold the German Government as -equally responsible with the Turks for the atrocities they allowed -them to commit. - -Here in neutral Switzerland, where so many of these unfortunate -Armenians have taken refuge and such abundance of information is -available, so much material has been collected that it is unnecessary -for me to go into details in this book. Suffice it to say that the -narration of all the heart-rending occurrences that came to my personal -knowledge during my stay in Turkey, without my even trying to collect -systematic information on the subject, would fill a book. To my deep -sorrow I have to admit that, from everything I have heard from reliable -sources--from German Red Cross doctors, officials and employees of -the Baghdad Railway, members of the American Embassy, and Turks -themselves--although they are but individual cases--I cannot regard -as exaggerated such appalling facts and reports as are contained for -example in Arnold Toynbee's _Armenian Atrocities_.[1] - -In this little book, however, which partakes more of the nature of an -essay than an exhaustive treatise, my task will be rather to determine -the system, the underlying political thought and the responsibility -of Germany in all these horrors--massacres, the seduction of women, -children left to die or thrown into the sea, pretty young girls -carried off into houses of ill repute, the compulsory conversion to -Islam and incorporation in Turkish harems of young women, the ejection -from their homes of eminent and distinguished families by brutal -gendarmes, attacks while on the march by paid bands of robbers and -criminals, "emigration" to notorious malaria swamps and barren desert -and mountain lands, victims handed over to the wild lusts of roaming -Bedouins and Kurds--in a word, the triumph of the basest brutality and -most cold-blooded refinement of cruelty in a war of extermination in -which half a million men, and according to some estimates many more, -have perished, while the remaining one and a half million of this -most intelligent and cultured race, one of the principal pioneers of -progress in the Ottoman Empire, see nothing but complete extinction -staring them in the face through the rupture of family ties, the -deprivation of their rights, and economic ruin. - -The Armenian persecutions began in all their cruelty, practically -unannounced, in April 1915. Certain events on the Caucasus front, which -no number of lies could explain away, gave the Turkish Government -the welcome pretext for falling like wild animals on the Armenians -of the eastern vilajets--the so-called Armenia Proper--and getting -to work there without deference to man, woman, or child. This was -called "the restoration of order in the war zone by military measures, -rendered necessary by the connivance of the inhabitants with the enemy, -treachery and armed support." The first two or three hundred thousand -Armenians fell in the first rounding up. - -That in those outlying districts situated directly on the Russian -frontier a number of Armenians threw in their lot with the advancing -Russians, no one will seek to deny, and not a single Armenian I -have spoken to denies it. But the "Armenian Volunteer Corps" that -fought on the side of Russia was composed for the most part--that at -least has been proved beyond doubt--of Russian Armenians settled in -Transcaucasian territory. - -So far as the Turkish Armenians taking part are concerned, no -reasonable being would think of denying Turkey as Sovereign State the -formal right of taking stringent measure against these traitors and -deserters. But if I expressly recognise this right, I do so with the -big reservation that the frightful sufferings undergone for centuries -by a people left by their rulers to the mercy of marauding Kurds and -oppressed by a government of shameless extortioners, absolutely absolve -these deserters in the eyes of the whole civilised world from any moral -crime. - -And yet I would willingly have gone so far for the benefit of the -Turks, in spite of their terrible guilt towards this people, as perhaps -to keep my own counsel on the subject, if it had merely been a case of -the execution of some hundreds under martial law or the carrying out -of other measures--such as deportation--against a couple of thousand -Armenians and these strictly confined to men. It is even possible that -Europe and America would have pardoned Turkey for taking even stronger -steps in the nature of reprisals or measures of precaution against the -male inhabitants of that part of Armenia Proper which was gradually -becoming a war zone. But from the very beginning the persecutions were -carried on against women and children as well as men, were extended -to the hundred thousand inhabitants of the six eastern vilajets, and -were characterised by such savage brutality that the methods of the -slave-drivers of the African interior and the persecution of Christians -under Nero are the only thing that can be compared with them. - -Every shred of justification for the Turkish Government in their -attempt to establish this as an "evacuation necessary for military -purposes and for the prevention of unrest" entirely vanishes in face -of such methods, and I do not believe that there is a single decent -German, cognisant of the facts of the case, who is not filled with real -disgust of the Young Turkish Government by such cold-blooded butchery -of the inhabitants of whole districts and the deportation of others -with the express purpose of letting them die _en route_. Anyone with -human feelings, however pro-Turkish he may be politically, cannot think -otherwise. - -This "evacuation necessary for military purposes" emptied Armenia -Proper of men. How often have Turks themselves told me--I could mention -names, but I will not expose my informants, who were on the whole -decent exceptions to the rule, to the wrath of Enver or Talaat--how -often have they assured me that practically not a single Armenian -is to be found in Armenia! And it is equally certain that scarcely -one can be left alive of all that horde of deported men who escaped -the first massacres and were hunted up hill and down dale in a state -of starvation, exposed to attacks by Kurds, decimated by spotted -typhus, and finally abandoned to their fate in the scorching deserts -of Northern Mesopotamia and Northern Syria. One has only to read the -statistics of the population of the six vilajets of Armenia Proper to -discover the hundreds of thousands of victims of this wholesale murder. - -But unfortunately that was not all. The Turkish Government went -farther, much farther. They aimed at the whole Armenian people, not -only in Armenia itself, but also in the "Diaspora," in Anatolia Proper -and in the capital. They were at that time some hundred thousand. In -this case they could scarcely go on the principle of "evacuation of the -war zone," for the inhabitants were hundreds of miles both from the -Eastern front and from the Dardanelles, so they had to resort to other -measures. - -They suddenly and miraculously discovered a universal conspiracy among -the Armenians of the Empire. It was only by a trick of this kind that -they could succeed in carrying out their system of exterminating the -entire Armenian race. The Turkish Government skilfully influenced -public opinion throughout the whole world, and then discovered, nay, -arranged for, local conspiracies. They then falsified all the details -so that they might go on for months in peace and quiet with their -campaign of extermination. - -In a series of semi-official articles in the newspapers of the -Committee of Young Turks it was made quite clear that _all_ Armenians -were dangerous conspirators who, in order to shake off the Ottoman -yoke, had collected firearms and bombs and had arranged, with the help -of English and Russian money, for a terrible slaughter of Turks on the -day that the English fleet overcame the armies on the Dardanelles. - -I must here emphasise the fact that all the arguments the Turkish -Government brought against the Armenians did not escape my notice. They -were indeed evident enough in official and semi-official publications -and in the writings of German "experts on Turkey." I investigated -everything, even right at the beginning of my stay in Turkey, and -always from a thoroughly pro-Turkish point of view. That did not -prevent me however, from coming to my present point of view. - -Herr Zimmermann, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has only -got to refer to the date of his letter to the editorial staff of my -paper, in which he speaks of my confidential report to the paper on -this subject which went through his hands and aroused his interest, and -he will find what opinions I held as early as the summer of 1916 on the -subject of the Armenian persecutions--and this without my having any -particular sympathy for the Armenians, for it was not till much later -that I got to know them and their high intellectual qualities through -personal intercourse. - -Here I can only give my final judgment on all these pros and cons, and -say to the best of my knowledge and opinion, that after the first act -in this drama of massacre and death--the brutal "evacuation of the war -zone" in Armenia Proper--the meanest, the lowest, the most cynical, -most criminal act of race-fanaticism that the history of mankind has to -show was the extension of the system of deportation, with its wilful -neglect and starvation of the victims, to further hundreds of thousands -of Armenians in the Capital and Interior. And these were people who, -through their place of residence, their surroundings, their social -status, their preoccupation in work and wage-earning, were quite -incapable of taking any active part in politics. - -Others of them, again, belonged to families of high social standing and -culture, bound to the land by a thousand ties, coming of a well-to-do, -old-established stock, and from traditional training and ordinary -prudence holding themselves scrupulously apart from all revolutionary -doings. All were surrounded by a far superior number of inhabitants -belonging to other races. - -This diabolical crime was committed solely and only because of the -Turkish feeling of economic and intellectual inferiority to that -non-Turkish element, for the set purpose of obtaining handsome -compensation for themselves, and was undertaken with the cowardly -acquiescence of the German Government in full knowledge of the facts. - -Of this long chain of crime I saw at least the beginning thousands of -times with my own eyes. Hardly had I returned from my first visit to -the Dardanelles when these persecutions began in the whole of Anatolia -and even in Constantinople, and continued with but slight intermissions -of a week or two at different times till shortly before I left -Constantinople in December 1916. - -That was the time when in the flourishing western vilajets of Anatolia, -beginning with Brussa and Adabazar, where the well-stocked farms -in Armenian hands must have been an eyesore to a Government that -had written "forcible nationalisation" on their standard, the whole -household goods of respectable families were thrown into the street -and sold for a mere nothing, because their owners often had only an -hour till they were routed out by the waiting gendarme and hustled off -into the Interior. The fittings of the houses, naturally unsaleable -in the hurry, usually fell to the lot of marauding "_mohadjis_" -(Mohammedan immigrants), who, often enough armed to the teeth by -the "Committee," began the disturbances which were then exposed as -"Armenian conspiracies." - -That was the time when mothers, apparently in absolute despair, sold -their own children, because they had been robbed of their last penny -and could not let their children perish on that terrible march into the -distant Interior. - -How many countless times did I have to look on at that typical -spectacle of little bands of Armenians belonging to the capital being -escorted through the streets of Pera by two gendarmes in their ragged -murky grey uniforms with their typical brutal Anatolian faces, while a -policeman who could read and write marched behind with a notebook in -his hand, beckoning people at random out of the crowd with an imperious -gesture, and if their papers showed them to be Armenians, simply -herding them in with the rest and marching them off to the "Karakol" of -Galata-Seraď, the chief police-station in Pera, where he delivered up -his daily bag of Armenians! - -The way these imprisonments and deportations were carried on is a most -striking confutation of the claims of the Turkish Government that they -were acting only in righteous indignation over the discovery of a great -conspiracy. This is entirely untrue. - -With the most cold-blooded calculation and method, the number of -Armenians to be deported were divided out over a period of many months, -indeed one may say over nearly a year and a half. The deportations -only began to abate when the downfall of the Armenian Patriarchate in -summer 1916 dealt the final blow to the social life of the Armenians. -They more or less ceased in December 1916 with the gathering-in of all -those who had formerly paid the military exemption tax--among them many -eminent Armenian business men. - -What can be said of the "righteous, spontaneous indignation" of the -Armenian Government when, for example, of two Armenian porters -belonging to the same house--brothers--one is deported to-day and the -other not till a fortnight later; or when the number of Armenians to -be delivered up daily from a certain quarter of the town is fixed at -a definite figure, say two hundred or a thousand, as I have been told -was the case by reliable Turks who were in full touch with the police -organisation and knew the system of these deportations? - -Of the ebb and flow of these persecutions, all that can be said is that -the daily number of deportations increased when the Turks were annoyed -over some Russian victory, and that the banishments miraculously abated -when the military catastrophes of Erzerum, Trebizond, and Erzindjan -gave the Government food for thought and led them to wonder if perhaps -Nemesis was going to overtake them after all. - -And then the method of transport! Every day towards evening, when -these unfortunate creatures had been collected in the police-stations, -the women and children were packed into electric-trams while the men -and boys were compelled to go off on foot to Galata with a couple of -blankets and only the barest necessities for their terrible journey -packed in a small bag. Of course they were not all poor people by any -means. - -This dire fate might befall anyone any day or any hour, from the -caretaker and the tradesman to members of the best families. I -know cases where men of high education, belonging to aristocratic -families--engineers, doctors, lawyers--were banished from Pera in -this disgusting way under cover of darkness to spend the night on -the platforms of the Haidar-Pasha station, and then be packed off in -the morning on the Anatolian Railway--of course they paid for their -tickets and all travelling expenses!--to the Interior, where they died -of spotted typhus, or, in rare cases after their recovery from this -terrible malady, were permitted, after endless pleading, to return -broken in body and soul to their homes as "harmless." Among these -bands herded about from pillar to post like cattle there were hundreds -and thousands of gentle, refined women of good family and of perfect -European culture and manners. - -For the most part it was the sad fate of those deported to be sent -off on an endless journey by foot, to the far-off Arabian frontier, -where they were treated with the most terrible brutality. There, in -the midst of a population wholly foreign and but little sympathetic -to their race, left to their fate on a barren mountain-side, without -money, without shelter, without medical assistance, without the means -of earning a livelihood, they perished in want and misery. - -The women and children were always separated from the men. That was the -characteristic of all the deportations. It was an attempt to strike -at the very core of their national being and annihilate them by the -tearing asunder of all family ties. - -That was how a very large part of the Armenian people disappeared. -They were the "persons transported elsewhere," as the elegant title -of the "Provisional Han" ran, which gave full stewardship over their -well-stocked farms to the "Committee" with its zeal for "internal -colonisation" with purely Turkish elements. In this way the great goal -was reached--the forcible nationalisation of a land of mixed races. - -While Anatolia was gradually emptied of all the forces that had -hitherto made for progress, while the deserted towns and villages and -flourishing fields of those who had been banished fell into the hands -of the lowest "_Mohadjr_"--hordes of the most dissipated Mohammedan -emigrants--that stream of unhappy beings trickled on ever more slowly -to its distant goal, leaving the dead bodies of women and children, old -men and boys, as milestones to mark the way. The few that did reach -the "settlement" alive--that is, the fever-ridden, hunger-stricken -concentration camps--continually molested by raiding Bedouins and -Kurds, gradually sickened and died a slower and even more terrible -death. - -Sometimes even this was not speedy enough for the Government, and a -case occurred in Autumn 1916--absolutely verified by statements made -by German employees on the Baghdad Railway--where some thousands of -Armenians, brought as workers to this stretch of railway, simply -vanished one day without leaving a trace. Apparently they were simply -shipped off into the desert without more ado and there massacred. - -This terrible catalogue of crime on the part of the Government of -Talaat is, however, in spite of all censorship and obstruction, being -dealt with _officially_ in all quarters of the globe--by the American -Embassy at Constantinople and in neutral and Entente countries--and at -the conclusion of peace it will be brought as an accusation against the -criminal brotherhood of Young Turks by a merciless court of all the -civilised nations of the world. - -I have spoken to Armenians who have said to me, "In former times the -old Sultan Abdul-Hamid used to have us massacred by thousands. We -were delivered over by well-organised pogroms to the Kurds at stated -times, and certainly we suffered cruelly enough. Then the Young Turks, -as Adana 1909 shows, started on a bloodshed of thousands. But after -what we have just gone through we long with all our hearts for the -days of the old massacres. Now it is no longer a case of a certain -number of massacred; now _our whole people_ is being slowly but surely -exterminated by the national hatred of an apparently civilised, -apparently modern, and therefore infinitely more dangerous Government. - -"Now they get hold of our women and children and send them long -journeys on foot to concentration camps in barren districts where they -die. The pitiful remains of our population in the villages and towns of -the Interior, where the local authorities have carried out the commands -of the central Government most zealously, are forcibly converted to -Islam, and our young girls are confined in Turkish harems and places of -low repute. - -"The race is to vanish to the very last man, and why? Because the -Turks have recognised their intellectual bankruptcy, their economic -incompetence, and their social inferiority to the progressive Armenian -element, to which Abdul-Hamid, in spite of occasional massacres, knew -well enough how to adapt himself, and which he even utilised in all its -power in high offices of state. Because now that they themselves are -being decimated by a weary and unsuccessful war of terrible bloodshed -that was lost before it was begun, they hope in this way to retain the -sympathy of their peoples and preserve the superiority of their element -in the State. - -"These are not sporadic outbursts of wrath, as they were in the case -of Hamid, but a definitely thought-out political measure against our -people, and for this very reason they can hope for no mercy. Germany, -as we have seen, tolerates the annihilation of our people through -weakness and lack of conscience, and if the war lasts much longer the -Armenian people will have ceased to exist. That is why we long for the -old régime of Abdul-Hamid, terrible as it was for us." - -Has there ever been a greater tragedy in the history of a people--and -of a people that have never held any illusions as to political -independence, wedged in as they are between two Great Powers, and who -had no real irredentistic feelings towards Russia, and, up to the -moment when the Young Turks betrayed them shamefully and broke the ties -of comradeship that had bound them together as revolutionaries against -the old despotic system of Abdul-Hamid, were as thoroughly loyal -citizens of the Ottoman Empire as any of the other peoples of this -land, excepting perhaps the Turks themselves. - -I hope that these few words may have given sufficient indication of the -spirit and outcome of this system of extermination. I should like to -mention just one more episode which affected me personally more than -anything I experienced in Turkey. - -One day in the summer of 1916 my wife went out alone about midday to -buy something in the "Grand Rue de Péra." We lived a few steps from -Galata-Seraď and had plenty of opportunity from our balcony of seeing -the bands of Armenian deportees arriving at the police-station under -the escort of gendarmes. Familiarity with such sights finally dulled -our sympathies, and we began to think of them not as episodes affecting -human individuals, but rather as political events. - -On this particular day, however, my wife came back to the house -trembling all over. She had not been able to go on her errand. As she -passed the "karakol," she had heard through the open hall door the -agonising groans of a tortured being, a dull wailing like the sound of -an animal being tormented to death. "An Armenian," she was informed -by the people standing at the door. The crowd was then dispersed by a -policeman. - -"If such scenes occur in broad daylight in the busiest part of the -European town of Pera, I should like to know what is done to Armenians -in the uncivilised Interior," my wife asked me. "If the Turks act like -wild beasts here in the capital, so that a woman going through the main -streets gets a shock like that to her nerves, then I can't live in this -frightful country." And then she burst into a fit of sobbing and let -loose all her pent-up passion against what she and I had had to witness -for more than a year every time we set a foot out of doors. - -"You are brutes, you Germans, miserable brutes, that you tolerate this -from the Turks when you still have the country absolutely in your -hands. You are cowardly brutes, and I will never set foot in your -horrible country again. God, how I hate Germany!" - -It was then, when my own wife, trembling and sobbing, in grief, rage, -and disgust at such cowardliness, flung this denunciation of my -country in my teeth that I finally and absolutely broke with Germany. -Unfortunately I had known only too long that it had to come. - -I thought of the conversations I had had about the Armenian question -with members of the German Embassy in Constantinople and, of a very -different kind, with Mr. Morgenthau, the American Ambassador. - -I had never felt fully convinced by the protestations of the German -Embassy that they had done their utmost to put a check on the murderous -attacks on harmless Armenians far from the theatre of war, who from -their whole surroundings and their social class could not be in a -position to take an active part in politics, and on the cold-blooded -neglect and starvation of women and children apparently deported for no -other reason than to die. The attitude of the German Government towards -the Armenian question had impressed me as a mixture of cowardice and -lack of conscience on the one hand and the most short-sighted stupidity -on the other. - -The American Ambassador, who took the most generous interest in the -Armenians, and has done so much for the cause of humanity in Turkey, -was naturally much too reserved on this most burning question to give -a German journalist like myself his true opinion about the attitude of -his German colleagues. But from the many conversations and discussions -I had with him, I gathered nothing that would turn me from the opinion -I had already formed of the German Embassy, and I had given him several -hints of what that opinion was. - -The attitude of Germany was, in the first place, as I have said, one of -boundless _cowardice_. For we had the Turkish Government firmly enough -in hand, from the military as well as the financial and political point -of view, to insist upon the observance of the simplest principles -of humanity if we wanted to. Enver, and still more Talaat, who as -Minister of the Interior and really Dictator of Turkey was principally -responsible for the Armenian persecutions, had no other choice than to -follow Germany's lead unconditionally, and they would have accepted -without any hesitation, if perhaps with a little grumbling, any -definite ruling of Germany's even on this Armenian question that lay so -near their hearts. - -From hundreds of examples it has been proved that the Germany Embassy -never showed any undue delicacy for even perfectly legitimate Turkish -interests and feelings in matters affecting German interests, and that -they always got their own way where it was a question, for example, of -Germans being oppressed, or superseded by Turks in the Government and -ruling bodies. And yet I had to stand and look on when our Embassy was -not even capable of granting her due and proper rights to a perfectly -innocent German lady married to an Armenian who had been deported with -many other Armenians. She appealed for redress to the German Embassy, -but her only reward was to wait day after day in the vestibule of the -Embassy for her case to be heard. - -Turks themselves have found cynical enjoyment in this measureless -cowardice of ours and compared it with the attitude of the Russian -Government, who, if they had found themselves in a similar position -to Germany, would have been prepared, in spite of the Capitulations -being abolished, to make a political case, if necessary, out of the -protection due to one poor Russian Jew. Turks have, very politely but -none the less definitely, made it quite clear to me that at bottom they -felt nothing but contempt for our policy of letting things slide. - -Our attitude was characterised, secondly, by _lack of conscience_. -To look on while life and property, the well-being and culture of -thousands, are sacrificed, and to content oneself with weak formal -protests when one is in a position to take most energetic command of -the situation, is nothing but the most criminal lack of conscience, -and I cannot get rid of the suspicion that, in spite of the fine -official phrases one was so often treated to in the German Embassy on -the subject of the "Armenian problem," our diplomats were very little -concerned with the preservation of this people. - -What leads me to bring this terrible charge against them? The fact that -I never saw anything in all this pother on the part of our diplomats -when the venerable old Armenian Patriarch appeared at the Embassy with -his suite after some particularly frightful sufferings of the Armenian -population, and begged with tears in his eyes for help from the -Embassy, however late--and I assisted more than once at such scenes in -the Embassy and listened to the conversations of the officials--I never -saw anything but concern about German prestige and offended vanity. As -far as I saw, there was never any concern for the fate of the Armenian -people. The fact that time and again I heard from the mouths of Germans -of all grades, from the highest to the lowest, so far as they did not -have to keep strictly to the official German versions, expressions of -hatred against the Armenians which were based on the most short-sighted -judgment, had no relation to the facts of the case, and were merely -thoughtless echoes of the official Turkish statements. - -And cases have actually been proved to have occurred, from the -testimony of German doctors and Red Cross nurses returned from the -Interior, of German officers light-heartedly taking the initiative in -exterminating and scattering the Armenians when the less-zealous local -authorities who still retained some remnants of human feeling, scrupled -to obey the instructions of "Nur-el-Osmanieh" (the headquarters of the -Committee at Stamboul). - -The case is well known and has been absolutely verified of the -scandalous conduct of two German officers passing through a village in -far Asia Minor, where the Armenians had taken refuge in their houses -and barricaded them to prevent being herded off like cattle. The order -had been given that guns were to be turned on them, but not a single -Turk had the courage to carry out this order and fire on women and -children. Without any authority whatsoever, the two German officers -then turned to and gave an exhibition of their shooting capacities! - -Such shameful acts are of course isolated cases, but they are on a par -with the opinions expressed about the Armenian people by dozens of -educated Germans of high position--not to speak of military men at all. - -A case of this kind where German soldiers were guilty of an attack on -Armenians in the interior of Anatolia, was the subject of frequent -official discussion at the German Embassy, and was finally brought to -the notice of the authorities in Germany by Graf Wolff-Metternich, a -really high-principled and humane man. The material result of this was -that through the unheard-of cowardice of our Government, this man--who -in spite of his age and in contrast to the weak-minded Freiherr von -Wangenheim, and criminally optimistic had made many an attempt to get -a firmer grip of the Turkish Government--was simply hounded out of -office by the Turks and weakly sacrificed without a struggle by Berlin. - -What, finally, is one to think of the spirit of our German officials -in regard to the Armenian question, when one hears such well-verified -tales as were told me shortly before I left Constantinople by an -eminent Hungarian banker (whose name I will not reveal)? He related, -for example, that "a German officer, with the title of Baron, and -closely connected with the military attaché," went one day to the -bazaar in Stamboul and chose a valuable carpet from an Armenian, which -he had put down to his account and sent to his house in Pera. Then when -it came to paying for it, he promptly set the price twenty pounds lower -than had been stipulated, and indicated to the Armenian dealer that -in view of the good understanding between himself (the officer) and -the Turkish President of police, he would do well not to trouble him -further in the matter! I only cite this case because I am unfortunately -compelled to believe in its absolute authenticity. - -Shortsighted stupidity, finally, is how I characterised the inactive -toleration on the part of our Imperial representatives of this policy -of extermination of the Armenian race. Our Government could not have -been blind to the breaking flood of Turkish jingoism, and no one with -any glimmer of foresight could have doubted for a moment since the -summer of 1915 that Turkey would only go with us so long as she needed -our military and financial aid, and that we should have no place, not -even a purely commercial one, in a fully turkified Turkey. - -In spite of the lamentations one heard often enough from the mouths -of officials over this well-recognised and unpalatable fact, we -tolerated the extermination of a race of over one and a half million -of people of progressive culture, with the European point of view, -intellectually adaptable, absolutely free from jingoism and fanaticism, -and eminently cosmopolitan in feeling; we permitted the disappearance -of the only conceivable counterbalance to the hopelessly nationalistic, -anti-foreign Young Turkish element, and through our cowardice and lack -of conscience have made deadly enemies of the few that will rise from -the ruins of a race that used to be in thorough sympathy with Germany. - -An intelligent German Government would, in face of the increasingly -evident Young Turkish spirit, have used every means in their power -to retain the sympathies of the Armenians, and indeed to win them in -greater numbers. The Armenians waited for us, trembled with impatience -for us, to give a definite ruling. Their disappointment, their hatred -of us is unbounded now--and rightly so--and if a German ever again -wants to take up business in the East he will have to reckon with this -afflicted people so long as one of them exists. - -To answer the Armenian question in the way I have done here, one does -not necessarily need to have the slightest liking or the least sympathy -for them as a race. (I have, however, intimated that they deserve at -least that much from their high intellectual and social abilities.) -One only requires to have a feeling for humanity to abhor the way in -which hundreds of thousands of these unfortunate people were disposed -of; one only requires to understand the commercial and social needs -of a vast country like Turkey, so undeveloped and yet so capable of -development, to place the highest value on the preservation of this -restless, active, and eminently useful element; one only requires to -open one's eyes and look at the facts dispassionately to deny utterly -and absolutely what the Turks have tried to make the world believe -about the Armenians, in order that they might go on with their work of -extermination in peace and quiet; one only requires to have a slight -feeling of one's dignity as a German to refuse to condone the pitiful -cowardice of our Government over the Armenian question. - -The mixture of cowardice, lack of conscience, and lack of foresight -of which our Government has been guilty in Armenian affairs is quite -enough to undermine completely the political loyalty of any thinking -man who has any regard for humanity and civilisation. Every German -cannot be expected to bear as light-heartedly as the diplomats of Pera -the shame of having history point to the fact that the annihilation, -with every refinement of cruelty, of a people of high social -development, numbering over one and a half million, was contemporaneous -with Germany's greatest power in Turkey. - -In long confidential reports to my paper I made perfectly clear to -them the whole position with regard to the Armenian persecutions and -the brutal jingoistic spirit of the Young Turks apparent in them. The -Foreign Office, too, took notice of these reports. But I saw no trace -of the fruits of this knowledge in the attitude of my paper. - -The determination never to re-enter the editorial offices of that -paper came to me on that dramatic occasion when my wife hurled her -denunciation of Germany in my teeth. I at least owe a personal debt of -gratitude to the poor murdered and tortured Armenians, for it is to -them I owe my moral and political enfranchisement. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 1: This and other works on the subject came to my notice -for the first time a few days before going to press. Before that (in -Turkey, Austria, and Germany) they were quite unprocurable.] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - The tide of war--Enver's offensive for the "liberation of the - Caucasus"--The Dardanelles Campaign; the fate of Constantinople - twice hangs in the balance--Nervous tension in international - Pera--Bulgaria's attitude--Turkish rancour against her former - enemy--German illusions of a separate peace with Russia--King - Ferdinand's time-serving--Lack of munitions in the Dardanelles--A - mysterious death: a political murder?--The evacuation of - Gallipoli--The Turkish version of victory--Constantinople - unreleased--Kut-el-Amara--Propaganda for the "Holy War"--A prisoner - of repute--Loyalty of Anglo-Indian officers--Turkish communiqués and - their worth--The fall of Erzerum--Official lies--The treatment of - prisoners--Political speculation with prisoners of war--Treatment of - enemy subjects--Stagnation and lassitude in the summer of 1916--The - Greeks in Turkey--Dread of Greek massacres--Rumania's entry--Terrible - disappointment--The three phases of the war for Turkey. - - -It will be necessary to devote a few lines to a review of the principal -features of the war, so far as it affected the life of the Turkish -capital, in order to have a military and political background for what -I saw among the Turks during my twenty months' stay in their country. -To that I will add a short description of the economic situation. - -When I arrived in Constantinople, Turkey had already completed her -first winter campaign in the Caucasus, and had repelled the attack of -the Entente fleet on the Dardanelles, culminating in the events of -March 18th, 1915. But Enver Pasha had completely misjudged the relation -between the means at his disposal and the task before him when, out of -pure vanity and a mad desire for expansion, he undertook a personally -conducted offensive for "the liberation of the Caucasus." The terrible -defeats inflicted on the Turkish army on this occasion were kept -from the knowledge of the people by a rigorous censorship and the -falsification of the communiqués. This was particularly the case in the -enormous Turkish losses sustained at Sarykamish. - -Enver had put this great Caucasus offensive in hand out of pure wanton -folly, thinking by so doing to win laurels for himself and to have -something tangible to show those Turkish ultra-Nationalists who always -had an eye on Turkestan and Turan and thought that now was the time -to carry out their programme of a "Greater Turkey." It was this mad -undertaking, bound as it was to come to grief, that first showed Enver -Pasha in his true colours. I shall have something to say about his -character in another connection, which will show how gravely he has -been over-estimated in Europe. - -From the beginning of March 1915 to the beginning of January 1916 the -situation was practically entirely commanded by the battles in the -Dardanelles and Gallipoli. It has now been accepted as a recognised -fact even in the countries belonging to the Entente that the sacrifice -of a few more ships on March 18th would have decided the fate of the -Dardanelles. To their great astonishment the gallant defenders of the -coast forts found that the attack had suddenly ceased. Dozens of the -German naval gunners who were manning the batteries of Chanakkalé on -that memorable day told me later that they had quite made up their -minds the fleet would ultimately win, and that they themselves could -not have held out much longer. Such an outcome was expected hourly -in Constantinople, and I was told by influential people that all the -archives, stores of money, etc., had already been removed to Konia. - -It is a remarkable fact that for a second time, in the first days -of September, the fate of Constantinople was again hanging in the -balance--a fact which is no longer a secret in England and France. -The British had extended their line northwards from Ariburnu to -Anaforta, and a heroic dash by the Anzacs had captured the summit -of the Koja-Jemen-Dagh, and so given them direct command of the -whole peninsula of Gallipoli and the insufficiently protected -Dardanelles forts behind them. It is still a mystery to the people of -Constantinople why the British troops did not follow up this victory. -The fact is that this time again the money and archives were hurried -off from Constantinople to Asia, and a German officer in Constantinople -gave me the entertaining information that he had really seriously -thought of hiring a window in the Grand' Rue de Péra, so that he and -his family might watch the triumphal entry of the Entente troops! It -would be easier to enjoy the joke of this if it were not overshadowed -by such fearful tragedy. - -I have already indicated the dilemma in which I was placed on my first -and second visits to the Gallipoli front. I was torn by conflicting -doubts as to whom my sympathies ought ultimately to turn to--to the -heroic Turkish defender, who was indeed fighting for the existence of -his country, although in an unsuccessful and unjust cause, for German -militarism and the exaggerated jingoism of the Young Turks, or to those -who were officially my enemies but whom, knowing as I did who was -responsible for the great crime of the war, I could not regard as such. - -In those September days I had already had some experience of Turkish -politics and their defiance of the laws of humanity, and my sympathies -were all for those thousands of fine colonial troops--such men as one -seldom sees--sacrificing their lives in one last colossal attack, -which if it had been prolonged even for another hour might have sealed -the fate of the Straits and would have meant the first decisive step -towards the overthrow of our forces; for the capture of Constantinople -would have been the beginning of the end. I am not ashamed to confess -that, German as I am, that was the only feeling I had when I heard of -the British victory and the subsequent British defeat at Anaforta. -The Battle of Anaforta was the last desperate attempt to break the -resistance in the Dardanelles. - -While the men of Stamboul and Anatolia--the nucleus of the Ottoman -Empire--were defending the City of the Caliph at the gate of the -Dardanelles, with reinforcements from Arab regiments when they were -utterly exhausted in the autumn, the other half of the metropolis, -the cosmopolitan Galata-Pera, was trembling for the safety of the -attacking Entente troops, and lived through the long months in a state -of continual tension, longing always for the moment of release. - -There was a great deal of nervous calculation about the probable -attitude of Bulgaria among both the Turks and the thousands of -thoroughly illoyal citizens of the Ottoman Empire composing the -population of the capital. From lack of information and also as a -result of Bulgaria's long delay in declaring her attitude, an undue -optimism ruled right up to the last moment among those who desired the -overthrow of the Turks. - -The Bulgarian question was closely bound up with the question of the -munitions supply. The Turkish resistance on Gallipoli threatened to -collapse through lack of munitions, and general interest centred--with -very varied desires with regard to the outcome--on the rare ammunition -trains that were brought through Rumania only after an enormous -expenditure of Turkish powers of persuasion and the application of any -amount of "palm-oil." - -I was present at Sedd-ul-Bahr at the beginning of July, when, owing to -lack of ammunition, the German-Turkish artillery could only reply with -one shot to every ten British ones, while the insufficiently equipped -factories of Top-hané and Zeitun-burnu, under the control of General -Pieper, Director of Munitions, were turning out as many shells as was -possible with the inferior material at their disposal, and the Turkish -fortresses in the Interior had to send their supply of often very -antiquated ammunition to the Dardanelles. The whole dramatic import of -the situation, which might any day give rise to epoch-making events, -was only too evident in Constantinople. It is not to be wondered at -that everyone looked forward with feverish impatience to Bulgaria's -entry either on one side or the other. - -But, in spite of all this, the Turks could scarcely bear the sight -of the first Bulgarian soldiers who appeared in autumn 1915 in full -uniform in the streets of "Carihrad." The necessary surrender of the -land along the Maritza right to the gates of the holy city of "Edirne" -(Adrianople) was but little to the liking of the Turkish patriots, -and even the successful issue of the Dardanelles campaign, only made -possible by Bulgaria's joining the Central Powers, was not sufficient -to win the real sympathies of the Turks for their new allies. - -It was not until much later that the position was altered as a result -of the combined fighting in Dobrudja. Practically right up to the end -of 1916, the real, short-sighted, jingoistic Turk looked askance at -his new ally and viewed with irritation and distrust the desecration -of his sacred "Edirne," the symbol of his national renaissance, while -the ambition of all politicians was to bring Bulgaria one day to a -surrender of the lost territory and more. - -Even in 1916 I found Young Turks, belonging to the Committee, who still -regarded the Bulgarians as their erstwhile cunning foe and as a set -of unscrupulous, unsympathetic opportunists who might again become a -menace to them. They even admitted that the Serbs were "infinitely -nicer enemies in the Balkan war," and appealed to them very much more -than the Bulgarians. The late Prince Yussuf Izzedin Effendi, of whose -tragic death I shall speak later, was always a declared opponent of the -cession of the Maritza territory. - -The possibility of Bulgaria's voluntarily surrendering this territory -and possibly much more through extending her own possessions westward -if Greece joined the Entente, had a great deal to do with Turkey's -attitude during the whole of 1916, and goes far to explain why she -dallied so long over the idea of alienating Greece, and used all sorts -of chicanery against the Ottoman and Hellenic Greeks in Turkey. Another -and much more important factor was, as we shall see, fundamental -race-hatred and avarice. - -As the question as to which side Bulgaria was to join was of decisive -moment for Turkish politics, I may perhaps be permitted to add a few -details from personal information. I had an interesting sidelight on -the German attempts to win over Bulgaria from a well-informed source in -Sofia. Everyone was much puzzled over the apparent clumsiness of the -German Ambassador in Sofia, Dr. Michahelles, in his diplomatic mission -to gain help from Bulgaria. King Ferdinand, of course, made great -difficulties, and at a very early stage of the proceedings he turned to -the Prime Minister, Radoslavoff, and said: "Away with your German Jews! -Why don't you take the good French gold?" (referring, of course, to the -offered French loan). - -The king was cunning enough in his own way, but he was a poor -politician and utterly vacillating, for he had no sort of ideals to -live up to and was prompted by a spirit of unworthy opportunism, and -it needed Radoslavoff's threat of instant resignation to bring him -to a definite decision. The transference shortly afterwards of the -German Ambassador to a northern post strengthened the impression in -confidential circles in Sofia that he had been lacking in diplomacy. - -The truth was that he had received most contradictory instructions from -Berlin, which did not allow him to do his utmost to win Bulgaria for -the German cause. The Imperial Chancellor seems even then--it was after -the great German summer offensive against Russia--to have given serious -consideration to the possibility of a separate peace with Russia, and -was quite convinced that Russia would never lay down arms without -having humiliated Bulgaria, should the latter prove a traitor to the -Slavic cause and turn against Serbia. - -In diplomatic circles in Berlin this knowledge and the decision--so -naďve in view of all their boasted _Weltpolitik_--to pursue the quite -illusory dream of a separate peace with Russia, seemed to outweigh, at -any rate for some time, anxiety with regard to the state of affairs in -Gallipoli and the complete lack of munitions shortly to be expected, -and lamed their initiative in their dealings with Bulgaria. - -It is probably not generally known that here again the military party -assumed the lead in politics, and took the Bulgarian matter in hand -themselves. In the space of no time at all, Bulgaria's entry on the -German side was an accomplished fact. It was Colonel von Leipzig, the -German military attaché at the Constantinople Embassy, that clinched -the matter at the critical moment by a journey to Sofia, and the whole -thing was arranged in less than a fortnight. But that journey cost him -his life. On the way back to the Turkish capital Herr von Leipzig--one -of the nicest and most gentlemanly men that ever wore a field-grey -uniform--visited the Dardanelles front, and on the little Thracian -railway-station of Uzunköprü he met his death mysteriously. He was -found shot through the head in the bare little waiting-room of this -miserable wayside station. - -It so happened that on my way to the Dardanelles on that day at the end -of June 1915, I passed through this little station, and was the sole -European witness of this tragic event, which increased still further -the excitement already hanging over Constantinople in these weeks of -lack of ammunition and terrible onslaughts against Gallipoli, and which -had already risen to fever-heat over the nervous rumours that were -going the rounds as to Bulgaria's attitude. The occurrence, of course, -was used by political intriguers for their own ends. - -I wrote a warm and truly heartfelt appreciation of this excellent man -and good friend, which was published in my paper at the time, and it -was not till long afterwards, weeks, indeed, after my return, that I -had any idea that the sudden death of Herr von Leipzig on his return -from a mission of the highest political importance was looked upon -by the German anti-English party as the work of English spies in the -service of Mr. Fitzmaurice, who was formerly at the English Embassy in -Constantinople. - -I was an eye-witness of the occurrence, or rather, I was beside the -Colonel a minute after I heard the shot, and saw the hole in his -revolver-holster where the bullet had gone through. I heard the -frank evidence of all the Turks present, from the policeman who had -arrived first on the scene to the staff doctor who came later, and I -immediately telegraphed to my paper from the scene of the accident, -giving them my impression of the affair. - -On my return to Constantinople I was invited to give evidence under -oath before the German Consulate General, and there one may find the -written evidence of what I had to say: a pure and absolute accident. - -I must not omit to mention here that the German authorities themselves -in Constantinople were so thoroughly convinced that the idea of murder -was out of the question, that Colonel von Leipzig's widow, who, -believing this version of the story, hurried to Turkey, to make her -own investigations, had the greatest difficulty in being officially -received by the Embassy and Consulate. I had a long interview with her -in the "Pera Palace," where she complained bitterly of her treatment in -this respect. I have tarried a little over this tragic episode as it -shows all the political ramifications that ran together in the Turkish -capital and the dramatic excitement that prevailed. - -The day came, however, when the Entente troops first evacuated -Anaforta-Ariburnu, and then, after a long and protracted struggle, -Sedd-ul-Bahr, and so the entire Gallipoli Peninsula. The Dardanelles -campaign was at an end. - -The impossibility of ever breaking down that solid Turkish resistance, -the sufferings of the soldiers practically starved to death in the -trenches during the cold winter storms, the difficulties of obtaining -supplies of provisions, drinking water, ammunition, etc., with a -frozen sea and harbourless coast, anxiety about the superior heavy -artillery that the enemy kept bringing up after the overthrow of -Serbia--everything combined to strengthen the Entente in their decision -to put an end to the campaign in Gallipoli. - -The Turkish soldiers had now free access to the sea, for all the -British Dreadnoughts and cruisers had disappeared; the warlike activity -which had raged for months on the narrow Gallipoli Peninsula suddenly -ceased; Austrian heavy and medium howitzers undertook the coast -defence, and a garrison of a few thousand Turkish soldiers stayed -behind in the Narrows for precaution's sake, while the whole huge -Gallipoli army in an endless train was marched off to the Taurus to -meet the Russian advance threatening in Armenia. - -But Constantinople remained "unrelieved." And from that moment a -dull resignation, a dreary waiting for one scarcely knew what, -disappointment, and pessimism took the place of the nervous tension -that had been so apparent in those who had been longing for the fall of -the Turkish capital. - -But the Turks rejoiced. It is scarcely to be wondered at that they -tried to construe the failure of the Gallipoli affair as a wonderful -and dazzling victory for Islam over the combined forces of the -Great Powers. It is only in line of course with Turkish official -untruthfulness that, in shameless perversion of facts, they talked -glibly of the irresistible bayonet attacks of their "ghazi" (heroes) -and of thousands of Englishmen taken prisoner or chased back into the -sea, whereas it was a well-known fact even in Pera that the retreat had -been carried out in a most masterly way with practically no loss of -life, and that the Turks themselves had been caught napping this time; -but to lie is human, and the Turks owed it to their prestige to have an -unmistakable and great military victory to form the basis of that "Holy -War" that was so long in getting under weigh; and when all is said and -done, their truly heroic defence really _was_ a victory. - -The absurd thing about all these lies was the way they were foisted on -a public who already knew the true state of affairs and had nothing -whatever to do with the "Holy War." - -The Turks made even more of the second piece of good fortune that fell -to their lot--the fall of Kut-el-Amara. General Townshend became their -cherished prisoner, and was provided with a villa on the island of -Halki in the Sea of Marmora, with a staff of Turkish naval officers to -act as interpreters. - -In the neighbouring and more fashionable _Prinkipo_ he was received -by practically everyone with open arms, and once even a concert was -arranged in his honour, which was attended by the élite of Turkish and -Levantine Society--the Turks because of their vanity and pride in their -important prisoner of war, the Levantines because of their political -sympathy with General Townshend, who, although there against his will, -seemed to bring them a breath of that world they had lost all contact -with for nearly two years and for which they longed with the most -ardent and passionate desire. - -On the occasion of the Bairam Festival--the highest Musulman -festival--in 1916, the Turkish Government made a point of sending a -group of about seventy Anglo-Indian Mohammedan officers, who had been -taken prisoner at the fall of Kut and were now interned in Eski-Shehir, -to the "Caliph City of Stamboul," where they were entertained for ten -days in different Turkish hotels and shown everything that would seem -to be of value for "Holy War" propaganda purposes. - -I had the opportunity of conversing with some of these Indian officers -in the garden of the "Petit Champs," where their appearance one -evening made a most tremendous sensation. I had of course to be very -discreet, for we were surrounded by spies, but I came away firmly -convinced that, in spite of their good treatment, which was of course -not without its purpose, and most unceasing and determined efforts to -influence them, the Turkish propaganda so far as these Indian officers -was concerned had entirely failed and that their loyalty to England -remained absolutely unshaken. Will anyone blame me, if, angry and -disgusted as I was at all these Turkish intrigues--it was shortly -after that dramatic scene of the tortured Armenian which called forth -that denunciation of Germany from my wife--I said to a group of these -Indians--just this and nothing more!--that they should not believe all -that the Turks told them, and that the result of the war would be very -different from what the Turks thought? One of the officers thanked me -with glowing eyes on behalf of his comrades and himself, and told me -what a comfort my assurance was to them. They had nothing to complain -of, he said, save being cut off from all news except official Turkish -reports. - -The very most that even the wildest fancy could find in events like -Gallipoli and Kut-el-Amara was brought forward for the benefit of -the "Holy War," but, despite everything, the propaganda was, as we -have seen, a hopeless failure. Reverses such as the fall of Erzerum, -Trebizond, and Ersindjan, on the contrary, which took place between the -two above-mentioned victories, have never to this day been even so much -as hinted at in the official war communiqués for the Ottoman public. -For the communiqués for home and foreign consumption were always -radically different. - -It was not until very much later, when the Turkish counter-offensive -against Bitlis seemed to be bearing fruit, that a few mild indications -of these defeats were made in Parliament, with a careful suppression -of all names, and the newspapers were empowered to make some mention -of a "purely temporary retreat of no strategic importance" which had -then taken place. The usual stereotyped report of 3,000 or 5,000 dead -that was officially given out after every battle throughout the whole -course of operations in the Irak scarcely came off in this case, -however, and, to tell the truth, Erzerum and these countless English -dead reported in the Irak did more than anything else to undermine -completely the people's already sadly shaken confidence in the official -war communiqués. - -If there was a real victory to be celebrated, the most stringent police -orders were issued that flags were to be flown everywhere--on every -building. Surely it is only in a land like Turkey that one could -see the curious sight I witnessed after the fall of Bucharest--the -victorious flags of the Central Powers, surmounted by the Turkish -crescent, flying even from the balconies of Rumanian subjects, because -there had been a definite police warning issued that, in the case -of non-compliance with the order, the houses would be immediately -ransacked and the families inhabiting them sent off to the interior -of Anatolia. Under the circumstances, refusal to carry out police -orders was impossible. That was the Turkish idea of the respect due to -individual liberty. - -This gives me an opportunity to say something of the treatment of -prisoners. I may say in one word that it is, on the whole, good. -Justice compels me to admit that the Turk, when he does take prisoners, -treats them kindly and chivalrously; but he takes few prisoners, for he -knows only too well how to wield his bayonet in those murderous charges -he makes. Indeed, apart from the few hundred that fell into their hands -in the Dardanelles or on the Russo-Turkish front, together with the -crews of a few captured submarines, all the Turkish prisoners of war -come from Kut-el-Amara. - -But the primitive Turk is all too sadly lacking in the comforts of -life himself to be able to provide them for his prisoners. Without the -help of the Commission that works under the protection of the American -Embassy for the relief of the Entente prisoners, and sends piles of -warm clothing, excellent shoes (which rouse the special envy of the -Turks), chocolate, cakes, etc., to the Anatolian camps, these men, -accustomed to European ways of life, would be in a sad plight. - -The repeated and humiliating marching of prisoners of war through the -streets of Constantinople to show them off to the childish gaze of a -people much influenced by externals, might with advantage be dispensed -with. And it was certainly not exactly kind to make wounded English -officers process past the Sultan at the Friday's "Selamlik"; it was -rather too like slave-driving methods and the abuses of the Middle Ages. - -I was an unwilling witness of one most regrettable incident that -took place shortly before I left Constantinople. In this case the -sufferings of some unfortunate prisoners of war were cruelly exploited -for political ends. A whole troup of about 2,000 Rumanians, from -Dobrudja, were hounded up and down the streets of Pera and Stamboul in -a purposely destitute and exhausted condition, so that the appearance -of these poor wretches, who hung their heads dejectedly and had lost -all trace of military bearing, might give the impression that the Turks -were dealing with a very inferior foe and would soon be at the end of -the business. This is how the authorities were going to increase the -confidence of the doubting population! - -The Turkish escort had apparently given these prisoners nothing to -drink on the way--although the Turk, being a great water-drinker -himself, knows only too well what a man needs on a dusty journey of -several days on a transport train--for with my own eyes I saw dozens -of them simply flinging themselves like animals full length on the -ground when they reached the Taksim Fountain, and trying to slake their -terrible thirst. It was with pitiable trickery like this--for which -no doubt Enver Pasha was responsible, for the simple Turkish soldier -is much too good-natured not to share his bread and water with his -prisoners--that attempts were made, at the expense of all feelings of -humanity, to cheer up the uneducated masses. - -The Turkish Government, however, apart from a few cases of reprisals, -where the prisoners were treated in an even more barbaric and primitive -manner, did not, as a general rule, go the length of interning -civilians. This was not without its own good grounds. In the first -place, a very large part of the trade of the country lay in the hands -of these Europeans, and they were consequently absolutely indispensable -to the Turks in their everyday commercial life; secondly, a Government -that had systematically rooted out the Armenians, hanged Arabian -notables, and brutally mishandled the Greeks, could scarcely dispense, -in the eyes of Europe, with the very last pretence of being more or -less civilised; and, lastly, perhaps the fear of being brought to book -later on may have had a restraining influence on them--we saw how -growing anxiety about the Russian advance on the Eastern front led, at -any rate for a time, to a discontinuance of Armenian persecutions. - -Besides all this, hundreds and thousands of Turks were resident in -enemy countries, and of course the desire was to avoid reprisals. So -the Government contented itself with threats and subterfuges, after a -first unsuccessful attempt to expose a large number of French subjects -to fire from the enemy guns in Gallipoli--a plan which failed entirely, -owing to the energetic opposition of officials of the American Embassy -who had accompanied these chosen victims to Gallipoli. Every means -was used, however, even announcements in the newspapers and a Vote of -Credit "for the removal of enemy subjects to the interior," to keep the -sword of Damocles for ever hanging over the heads of all subjects of -Entente countries, even women and children. - -From the fall of Kut-el-Amara up to the time of Rumania's entry into -the war, there were no important episodes of a military or political -nature from the particular point of view of Turkey. (The Arabian -catastrophe I will deal with in another connection.) With the ebb -and flow of war and constant anxiety about Russia's movements, time -passed slowly enough. It was well known that the Turkish offensive was -already considerably weakened and the lack of means of transport was -an open secret. Starvation and spotted fever raged at the Front as -well as in the interior and the capital. Asiatic cholera even made its -appearance in European Pera, but was fortunately successfully combated -by vaccination. - -Further decisive Russian victories on the west and the Gulf of -Alexandretta were expected after the fall of Ersindjian, for the -ambition and personal hatred against the Turks of the Grand Duke -Nicolai Nicolajivitch, commanding the armies in Armenia, would probably -stop short at nothing less than complete overthrow of the enemy. -Simple-minded souls, whose geography was not their strong point, -reckoned how long it would take the Russians to get from Anatolia and -when the conquest of Constantinople would take place. - -The less optimistic among those who were panting for final emancipation -from the Young Turkish military yoke set their hopes on the entry of -Rumania. In all circles Rumania's probable attitude was fairly clear, -and no one ever doubted that she would be drawn into the war. - -In consequence of the new operations after Rumania's declaration of -war, the revival of the offensive in Macedonia, and the events in -Athens, all eyes were turned again to the ever-doubtful Greece. The -Greek element, Ottoman and Hellenic combined, in Constantinople alone -may be reckoned at several hundred thousand. Never were sympathies so -great for Venizelos, never was the spirit of the Irredenta so outspoken -as among the Greeks in Turkey, who had been the dupes since 1909 of -every possible kind of Young Turkish intrigue. In contrast to the -Armenians, the great mass of whom thought and felt as loyal Ottoman -citizens right up to the very end when Talaat and Enver's policy of -extermination set in against them--in contrast to these absolutely -helpless and therefore all the more easy victims to the Turkish -national lust of persecution, the attitude of the Greek citizens was -all the more marked. - -Since the Grćco-Turkish war of 1912-13 and the impetus given to -Pan-Hellenism by the successful issue of the war, there is not -one single Greek in either country--no matter what his social -standing--that has not ardently looked forward to and desired the -overthrow of Turkey. But the Greek is much too clever to let his -feelings be seen; and he is not so unprotected as the Armenian. And -so up to the present time the Turk has confined himself more to -small intrigues against the Greek population, except in a few remote -districts--more especially the shores of the Black Sea--where massacres -like those organised among the Armenians have been carried out, but on -a very much smaller scale. - -Sympathy with Venizelos and the Irredentistic desire for Greece to -throw in her lot with the Entente are counterbalanced, however, in -the case of the Greeks living in Turkey, by grave anxiety as to their -own welfare if it came to a break between the two countries. Turkish -hatred of the Greeks knows no bounds, and it was no idle fear that made -the Greeks in Constantinople tremble, in spite of their satisfaction -politically, when the rumours were afloat in autumn 1916 of King -Constantine's abdication and Greece's entry on the side of the Entente. - -But the ideas as to how the Turks would act towards them in such a -case were diametrically opposed even among those who had lived in the -country a long time and knew the Turkish mind exactly. Many expected -immediate Greek massacres on the largest scale; others, again, expected -only brutal intrigues and chicanery, economic ruin; still others -thought that nothing at all would happen, that the Turks were already -too demoralised, and that at any rate in Pera the far superior Greek -element would completely command the situation. This last I considered -mere megalomaniac optimism in view of the fact that Turkey was still -unbroken so far as things military were concerned, and I believe that -those people were right who believed that Greece's entry on the side -of the Entente would be the signal for the carrying out of atrocities -against all Greeks, at any rate in the commercial world. - -It would be interesting to know which idea the German authorities -favoured. That the event would pass off without damage being done, they -apparently did not believe, for in those days when Greece's decision -seemed to be imminent, the former _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_, which had -been lying at Stenia on the Bosporus, were brought up with all speed -and anchored just off the coast with their guns turned on Pera, and -the German garrison, as I knew from different officers, had orders to -be prepared for an alarm. - -Did the Germans think they were going to have to protect Turks or -Greeks in the case of definite news from Athens? Was it Germany's -intention to protect the European population, who had nothing to do -with the impending political decision, although they might sympathise -with it--was it Germany's intention to protect them, at any rate in -this instance, from the Turkish lust of extermination? Had these two -ships, now known as the _Jawuz Sultan Selim_ and the _Midilli_, not -belonged for a long time to the Imperial Ottoman Navy? - -When Rumania flung off her shackles, there was great rejoicing in Pera, -and even the greatest pessimists believed that relief was near and -would be accomplished within two months at latest. But another and more -terrible reverse absolutely destroyed the last shred of anti-Turkish -hope, and the victories in Rumania, especially the fall of Bucharest, -combined with the speech of the Russian minister Trepoff, had the -effect of sending over solid to the side of the Government even the few -who had hitherto, at least in theory, formed an opposition, although a -powerless one. - -Victories shared with the Bulgarians, too, did away with the last -remains of unfriendly feelings towards that people and consolidated the -Turko-Bulgarian Alliance. Indeed, one may say that for Turkey the third -great phase of the war began with the removal of all danger of the fall -of Constantinople through the collapse of the Rumanian forces. - -The first comprised the time of the powerful attacks directed at the -very heart of the Empire, its most vulnerable point, and ended with -the English-French evacuation of Gallipoli. The second was the period -of alternate successes and reverses, almost a time of stagnation, -when practically all interest was centred on the Russian menace in -Asia Minor and the efforts made to withstand it. It ended equally -successfully with the removal of the Russian menace from the Balkans. -The third will be the phase of increasing internal weakness, of the -dissipation of strength through the sending of troops to Europe, of -the successful renewal of the English offensive in Mesopotamia, -perhaps even of an English-French offensive against Syria and of the -final revolt of all the Arabian lands, ushered in by the events in the -Hedjaz and the founding of a purely Arabian Caliphate. The third phase -_cannot_ last longer than the year 1917; it will mean the decision of -the whole European war. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - The economic situation--Exaggerated Entente hopes--Hunger and - suffering among the civil population--The system of requisitioning - and the semi-official monopolists--Profiteering on the part of - the Government clique--Frivolity and cynicism--The "Djemiet"--The - delegates of the German _Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft_ (Central - Purchases Commission)--A hard battle between German and - Turkish intrigue--Reform of the coinage--Paper money and its - depreciation--The hoarding of bullion--The Russian rouble the best - investment. - - -During the entire course of the war as I have briefly sketched it -in the foregoing pages, the economic situation in the whole country -and particularly in the capital became more and more serious. But, -let me just say here, in anticipation, that Turkey, being a purely -agricultural country with a very modest population, can never be -brought to sue for peace through starvation, nor, with Germany backing -and financing her, through any general exhaustion of commercial -resources, until Germany herself is brought to her knees. Any victory -must be a purely military and political one. The whole crux of the -food problem in Turkey is that the people suffer, suffer cruelly, but -not enough for hunger to have any results in the shape of an earlier -conclusion of peace. This is the case also with the Central Powers, as -the Entente have unfortunately only too surely convinced themselves now -after their first illusions to the contrary. - -There is another element in the Turkish question too--the large -majority of the population are a heterogeneous mass of enslaved and -degenerate beings, outcasts of society, plunged in the lowest social -and commercial depths, entirely lacking in all initiative, who can -never become a factor in any political upheaval, for in Turkey this can -only be looked for from the military or the educated classes. If the -Entente Powers ever counted on Turkey's chronic state of starvation -and lack of supplies coming to their aid in this war, they have made -a sad mistake. Therefore in attempting to sketch in a few pages the -conditions of life and the economic situation in Turkey, my aim is -solely to bring to light the underlying Turkish methods, and the ethics -and spirit of the Young Turkish Government. - -During the periods of the very acute bread crises, which occurred -more than once, but notably in the beginning of 1916, some dozen men -literally died of hunger daily in Constantinople alone. With my own -eyes I have repeatedly seen women collapsing from exhaustion in the -streets. From many parts of the interior, particularly Syria, there -were reliable reports of a still worse state of affairs. But even in -more normal times there was always a difficulty in obtaining bread, for -the means of communication in that vast and primitive land of Turkey -are precarious at best, and it was no easy matter to get the grain -transported to the centres of consumption. - -Then in Constantinople there was a shortage not only of skilled labour, -but of coal for milling purposes. The result was that the townspeople -only received a daily ration of a quarter of a kilogramme (about 8 -oz.--not a quarter of an oka, which would be about 10 oz.) of bread, -which was mostly of an indigestible and occasionally very doubtful -quality--utterly uneatable by Europeans--although occasionally it was -quite good though coarse. If the poor people in Constantinople wanted -to supplement this very insufficient allowance, they could do so when -things were in a flourishing condition at the price of about 2-1/2 or -3 piastres (1 piastre = about 2-1/4_d._) the English pound, and later -4 or 5 piastres. Even this was for the most part only procurable by -clandestine means from soldiers who were usually willing to turn part -of their bread ration into money. - -This is about all that can be said about the feeding of the people, for -bread is by far the most important food of the Oriental, and the prices -of the other foodstuffs soon reached exorbitant heights. What were the -poor to feed on when rice, reckoned in English coinage, cost roughly -from 3_s._ 2_d._ to 4_s._ 4_d._ an oka (about 2-1/2 lb.), beans 2_s._ -4_d._ the oka, meat 3_s._ to 4_s._, and the cheapest sheep's cheese and -olives, hitherto the most common Turkish condiment to eat with bread, -rose to 3_s._ and 1_s._ 8_d._ the oka? - -Wages, on the other hand, were ludicrously low. We may obtain some -idea of the standard of living from the fact that the Government, who -always favoured the soldiers, did not pay more than 5 piastres (about -1_s._) a day to the families of soldiers on active service. I have -often wondered what the people really did eat, and I was never able to -come to any satisfactory conclusion, although I often went to market -myself to buy and see what other people bought. It is significant -enough that just shortly before I left Constantinople--that is, a few -weeks after the Turko-Bulgarian-German victories in Rumania and the -fall of Bucharest--the price of bread in the Turkish capital, in spite -of the widely advertised "enormous supplies" taken in Rumania, rose -still higher. - -I cannot speak from personal experience of what happened after -Christmas 1916 in this connection, but everyone was quite convinced, -in spite of the official report, that the harvest of 1916, despite the -tremendous and praiseworthy efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture -and the military authorities, would show a very marked decrease as a -result of the mobilisation of agricultural labour, the requisitioning -of implements, and the shortage of buffaloes, which, instead of -ploughing fields, were pulling guns over the snow-covered uplands of -Armenia. There was a very general idea that the harvest of 1917 would -be a horrible catastrophe. And yet I am fully convinced, and I must -emphasise it again, that, in spite of agricultural disaster, Turkey -will still go on as a military power. - -And now let us see what the Government did in connection with the -food problem. At a comparatively early stage they followed Germany's -example and introduced bread tickets, which were quite successful -so long as the flour lasted. In the autumn of 1915 they took the -organisation of the bread supply for large towns out of the hands -of the municipalities, and gave it over to the War Office. They got -Parliament to vote a large fund to buy up all available supplies of -flour, and in view of the immense importance of bread as the chief -means of nourishment of the masses, they decided to sell it at a very -considerable loss to themselves, so that the price of the daily ration -(though not of the supplementary ration) remained very much as it -had been in peace time. The Government always favoured the purely -Mohammedan quarters of the town so far as bread supply was concerned, -and the people living in Fatih and other parts of Stamboul were very -much better off than the inhabitants of Grćco-European Pera. - -Then Talaat made speeches in the House on the food question in which -he did all in his power to throw dust in the eyes of the starving -population, but he did not really succeed in blinding anyone as to the -true state of affairs. In February 1916, when there was practically a -famine in the land, he even went so far as to declare in Parliament -that the food supplies for the whole of Turkey had been so increased by -enormous purchases in Rumania, that they were now fully assured for two -years. - -It was no doubt with cynical enjoyment that the "Committee" of -the Young Turks enlarged on the privations of the people in such -publications as the semi-official _Tanin_, in which the following -wonderful sentiment appeared: "One can pass the night in relative -brightness without oil in one's lamp if one thinks of the bright and -glorious future that this war is preparing for Turkey!" - -One could have forgiven such cheap phrases if they had been a true, -though possibly misguided, attempt to provide comfort in face of real -want; but at the same time as such paragraphs were appearing in the -_Tanin_ and thousands of poor Turkish households had to spend the -long winter nights without the slightest light, thousands of tons of -oil were lying in Constantinople alone in the stores of the official -_accapareurs_. - -This brings me to the second series of measures taken by the Turkish -Government to relieve the economic situation--those of a negative -nature. Their positive measures are pretty well exhausted when one has -mentioned their treatment of the bread crisis. - -The question of _requisitioning_ is one of the most important in -Turkish life in war-time, and is not without its ludicrous side. -In imitation of German war-time methods, either wrongly understood -or wittingly misapplied by Oriental greed, the Turkish Government -requisitioned pretty well everything in the food line or in the -shape of articles of daily use that were sure to be scarce and would -necessarily rise in price. But while in the civilised countries of -Central Europe the supplies so requisitioned were sagely applied to -the general good, the members of the "Committee of Union and Progress" -looked with fine contempt and the grim cynicism of arch-dictators on -the privations and sufferings of the people so long as they did not -actually starve, and used the supplies requisitioned for the personal -enrichment of their clique. - -When I speak of requisitioning, I do not mean the necessary military -carrying off of grain, cattle, vehicles, buffaloes, and horses, general -equipment, and so on, in exchange for a scrap of paper to be redeemed -after the war (of very doubtful value in view of Turkey's position)--I -do not mean that, even though the way it was accomplished bled the -country far more than was necessary, falling as it did in the country -districts into the hands of ignorant, brutal, and fanatical underlings, -and in the town being carried out with every kind of refinement -by the central authorities. Too often it was a means of violent -"nationalisation" and deprivation of property and rights exercised -especially against Armenians, Greeks, and subjects of other Entente -countries. If there was a particularly nice villa or handsome estate -belonging to someone who was not a Turk, soldiers were immediately -billeted there under some pretext or other, and it was not long before -these rough Anatolians had reduced everything to rack and ruin. - -I do not mean either the terrible damage to commercial life brought -about by the way the military authorities, in complete disregard of -agricultural interests, were always seizing railway waggons, and so -completely laming all initiative on the part of farmers and merchants, -whose goods were usually simply emptied out on the spot, exposed to -ruin, or disposed of without any kind of compensation being given. - -What I do mean is the huge semi-official cornering of food, which must -be regarded as typical of the Young Turks' idea of their official -responsibility towards those for whom they exercised stewardship. - -The "Bakal Clique" ("provision merchants," "grocers") was known through -the whole of Constantinople, and was keenly criticised by the much -injured public. It was, first of all, under the official patronage of -the city prefect, Ismet Bey, a creature of the Committee; but later -on, when they realised that dire necessity made a continuance of this -system of cornering quite unthinkable, he was made the scapegoat, and -his dismissal from office was freely commented on in the Committee -newspapers as "an act of deliverance." The Committee thought that -they would thus throw dust in the eyes of the sorely-tried people -of Constantinople. Hundreds of thousands of Turkish pounds were -turned into cash in the shortest possible time by this semi-official -syndicate, at the expense of the starving population, and found their -way into the pockets of the administrators. - -That was how the Young Turkish parvenus were able to fulfil their one -desire and wriggle their way into the best clubs, where they gambled -away huge sums of money. The method was simple enough: whatever was -eatable or useable, but could only be obtained by import from abroad, -was "taken charge of," and starvation rations, which were simply -ludicrously inadequate and quite insufficient for the needs of even the -poorest household, were doled out by "_vesikas_" (the ticket system). - -The great stock of goods, however, was sold secretly at exorbitant -prices by the creatures of the "Bakal Clique," who simply cornered the -market. That is how it happened that in Constantinople, cut off as it -was from the outer world and without imports, even at the end of 1916, -with a population of well over a million, there were still unlimited -stores of everything available for those who could pay fancy prices, -while by the beginning of 1915 those less well endowed with worldly -goods had quite forgotten the meaning of comfort and the poor were -starving with ample stores of everything still available. - -In businesses belonging to enemy subjects the system of requisitioning, -of course, reached a climax, stores of all kinds worth thousands of -pounds simply disappearing, without any reason being given for carrying -them off, and nothing offered in exchange, but one of these famous -"scraps of paper." Cases have been verified and were freely discussed -in Pera of ladies' shoes and ladies' clothing even being requisitioned -and turned into large sums of cash by the consequent rise in price. - -The profiteering of Ismet and company, who chose the specially -productive centre of the capital for their system of usury, was not, -however, by any means an isolated case of administrative corruption, -for exactly the same system of requisitioning, holding up and then -reselling under private management at as great a profit as possible, -underlay and underlies the great semi-official Young Turkish commercial -organisation, with branches throughout the whole country, known as the -"Djemiet" and under the distinguished patronage of Talaat himself. - -After Ismet Bey's fall, the "Djemiet" took over the supplying of the -capital as well (with the exception of bread). We will speak elsewhere -of this great organisation, which is established not only for war -purposes, but serves towards the nationalisation of economic life. So -far as the system of requisitioning is concerned, it comes into the -picture through its firm opposition to German merchants who were trying -to buy up stores of food and raw materials from their ally Turkey. -The intrigues and counter-intrigues on both sides sometimes had most -remarkable results. - -One of the really bright sides of life in Constantinople in war-time -was the amusement one extracted from the silent and desperate war -continually being waged by the many well-fed gentlemen of the "Z.E.G." -("_Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft_," "Central Purchasing Commission") and -their minions who tried to rob Turkey of foodstuffs and raw material -for the benefit of Germany, against the "Djemiet" and more particularly -the Quartermaster-General, Ismail Hakki Pasha, that wooden-legged, -enormously wealthy representative of the neo-Turkish spirit--he was the -most perfect blend of Oriental politeness and narrow-minded decision -to do exactly the opposite of what he had promised. On the Turkish -side, the determination to safeguard the interests of the Army, and in -the case of the "Djemiet" the effort not to let any foodstuffs out of -Germany--a standpoint that has at last found expression in a formal -prohibition of all export--then the quest of personal enrichment on the -part of the great "Clique"; on the German side, the insatiable hunger -for everything Turkey could provide that had been lacking for a long -time in Germany: the whole thing was a wonderfully variegated picture -of mutual intrigue. - -The gentlemen of the "Z.E.G.," after months of inactivity spent in -reviling the Turks and studying Young Turkish and other morals and -manners by frequenting all the pleasure resorts in the place, managed -at last to get the exports of raw materials set on the right road, and -so it came about that the fabulous sums in German money that had to be -put into circulation in payment of these goods, in spite of Turkey's -indebtedness to Germany, led to a very considerable depreciation in the -value of the Mark even in Turkey for some time. - -But until the understanding as to exports was finally arrived at, there -were many dramatic events in Constantinople, culminating in the Turks -re-requisitioning, with the help of armed detachments, stores already -paid for by Germany and lying in the warehouses of the "Z.E.G." and the -German Bank! - -On the financial side, apart from Turkey's enormous debt to Germany, -the wonderful attempt at a reform and standardisation of the coinage in -the middle of May 1916 is worthy of mention. The reform, which was a -simplification of huge economic value of the tremendously complicated -money system and introducing a theoretical gold unit, must be regarded -chiefly as a war measure to prevent the rapid deterioration of Turkish -paper money. - -This last attempt, as was obvious after a few months' trial, was -entirely unsuccessful, and even hastened the fall of paper money, for -the population soon discovered at the back of these drastic measures -the thinly veiled anxiety of the Government lest there should be a -further deterioration. Dire punishments, such as the closing down of -money-changers' businesses and arraignment before a military court -for the slightest offence, were meted out to anyone found guilty of -changing gold or even silver for paper. - -In November 1916, however, it was an open secret that, in spite of all -these prohibitions, there was no difficulty in the inland provinces -and in Syria and Palestine in changing a gold pound for two or more -paper pounds. In still more unfrequented spots no paper money would -be accepted, so that the whole trade of the country simply came to a -standstill. Even in Constantinople at the beginning of December 1916, -paper stood to gold as 100 to 175. - -The Anatolian population still went gaily on, burying all the available -silver _medjidiehs_ and even nickel piastres in their clay pots in the -ground, because being simple country folk they could not understand, -as the Government with all its prayers and threats were so anxious -they should, that throughout Turkey and in the greater and mightier -and equally victorious Germany, guaranteed paper money was really -much better than actual coins, and was just as valuable as gold! The -people, too, could not but remember what had happened with the "Kaimé" -after the Turko-Russian war, when thousands who had believed in the -assurances of the Government suddenly found themselves penniless. In -Constantinople it was a favourite joke to take one of the new pound, -half-pound, or quarter-pound notes issued under German paper, not gold, -guarantee and printed only on one side and say, "This [pointing to the -right side] is the present value, and that [blank side] will be the -value on the conclusion of peace." - -Even those who were better informed, however, and sat at the receipt of -custom, did exactly the same as these stupid Anatolian country-people; -no idea of patriotism prevented them from collecting everything metal -they could lay their hands on, and, in spite of all threats of -punishment--which could never overtake them!--paying the highest price -in paper money for every gold piece they could get. Their argument was: -"One must of course have something to live on in the time directly -following the conclusion of peace." In ordinary trade and commerce, -filthy, torn paper notes, down to a paper piastre, came more and more -to be practically the only exchange. - -A discerning Turk said to me once: "It would be a very good plan -sometime to have the police search these great men for bullion every -evening on their return from the official exchanges. That would be more -to the point than any reform in the coinage!" - -Those who could not get gold, bought roubles, which were regarded as -one of the very best speculations going, until one day the Turkish -Government, in their annoyance at some Russian victory, suddenly -deported to Anatolia a rich Greek banker of the name of Vlasdari, who -was accused of having speculated in roubles, which of course gave them -the double benefit of getting rid of a Greek and seizing his beautiful -estate in Pera. - -Only the greatest optimists were deceived into believing that it was a -profitable transaction to buy Austrian paper money at the fabulously -low price the Austrian _Krone_ had reached against the Turkish pound, -which was really neither politically nor financially in any better a -state. The members of the "Committee of Union and Progress" had of -course shipped their gold off to Switzerland long ago. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - German propaganda and ethics--The unsuccessful "Holy War" and the - German Government--"The Holy War" a crime against civilisation, a - chimera, a farce--Underhand dealings--The German Embassy the dupe - of adventurers--The morality of German Press representatives--A - trusty servant of the German Embassy--Fine official distinctions of - morality--The German conception of the rights of individuals. - - -Now that we have given a rough sketch of the main events of the war -as it affected the economic life of the people, and have devoted a -chapter to that sinister crime, the Armenian persecutions, we shall -leave the Young Turks for a moment and turn to an examination of German -propaganda methods. - -It is a very painful task for a German who does not profess to -be a "World Politician," but really thinks in terms of true -"world-politics," to deal with the many intrigues and machinations of -our Government in their relation to the so-called "Holy War" (Arab. -_Djihad_), where in their quest of a vain illusion they stooped to -the very lowest means. Practically all their hopes in that direction -have been sadly shattered. Their costly, unscrupulous, thoroughly -unmoral efforts against European civilisation in Mohammedan countries -have resulted in the terrific counter-stroke of the defection of the -Arabs and the foundation of a purely Arabian Chaliphate under English -protection. Thus England has already won a brilliant victory against -Germany and Turkey in spite of Gallipoli and Kut-el-Amara, although -it seems probable that even these will be wiped out by greater deeds -on the part of the Entente before long. One could not have a better -example of Germany's total inability to succeed in the sphere of -world-politics. - -The so-called "Holy War," if it had succeeded, would have been one -of the greatest crimes against human civilisation that even Germany -has on her conscience, remembering as we do her recent ruthless -"frightfulness" at sea, and her attempt to set Mexico and the Japanese -against the land of most modern civilisation and of greatest liberty. -A successful "Djihad" spreading to all the lands of Islam would have -set back by years all that civilisation so patiently and so painfully -won; it would not have been at all comparable with the Entente's use -of coloured troops in Europe which Germany deprecated so loudly, for -in the Holy War it would have been a case of letting the wildest -fanaticism loose against the armies of law and order and civilisation; -in the case of the Entente it was part of a purely military action -on the part of England and France, who held under their sway all the -inhabitants, coloured and otherwise, of those Colonial regions from -which troops were sent to Europe and to which they will return. - -But the attempt against colonial civilisation did not succeed. The -"Djihad," proclaimed as it was by the Turanian pseudo-Chaliph and -violently anti-Entente, was doomed to failure from the very start -from its obvious artificiality. It was a miserable farce, or rather a -tragicomedy, the present ending of which, namely the defection of the -Arabian Chaliphate, is the direct contrary of what had been aimed at -with such fanatical urgency and the use of such immoral propaganda. - -The attempt to "unloose" the Holy War was due primarily to the most -absurd illusions. It would seem that in Germany, the land of science, -the home of so many eminent doctors of research, even the scholars -have been attacked by that disease of being dazzled by wild political -illusions, or surely, knowing the countries of Islam outside-in as they -must, they would long ago have raised their voices against such arrant -folly. It would seem that all her inherent knowledge, all her studies, -have been of little or no avail to Germany, so that mistake after -mistake has been committed in the realm of world politics. It may be -said that Germany, even if she were doubtful of the issue, should still -not have left untried this means of crippling her opponents. To that -I can only reply by pointing to the actual position of affairs, well -known to Germany, not only in English, but also in French and Russian -Islamic colonial territory, which should have rendered the "Djihad" -entirely and absolutely out of the question. - -Let us take for example Egypt, French North-West Africa, and Russian -Turkestan, not to speak of the masterly English colonial rule in -India, which has now been tested and tried for centuries. Anyone who -has ever seen Egypt with the area under culture practically doubled -under modern English rule by the help of every kind of technical -contrivance for the betterment of existing conditions, and the skilful -utilisation of all available means at an expense of millions of pounds, -with its needy population given an opportunity to earn a living wage -and even wealth through a lucrative cultivation of the land under -conditions that are a paradise compared with what they were under the -Turkish rule of extortion and despotism--anyone who has seen that -must have looked from the very beginning with a very doubtful eye on -Germany's and Turkey's illusions of stirring up these well-doing people -against their rulers. - -The same thing occurs again in the extended territory of North-West -Africa from the Atlas lands to the Guinea coast and Lake Chad, where -France, as I know from personal experience, stands on a high level -of colonial excellence, developing all the resources of the country -with consummate skill, shaping her "_empire colonial_" more and more -into a shining gem in the crown of colonial endeavour, and, as I -can testify from my own observations in Morocco, Senegal, the Niger, -and the Interior of the Guinea territories of the "A.O.F." (Afrique -Occidentale Française), capturing the hearts of the whole population by -her essential culture, and, last but not least, winning the Mohammedans -by her clever Islam policy. - -That, finally, Russia, at any rate from the psychological standpoint, -is perhaps the best coloniser of Further Asia, even German textbooks -on colonial policy admit unreservedly, and the glowing conditions that -she has brought about especially in the basin of Ferghana in Turkestan -by the introduction of the flourishing and lucrative business of -cotton-growing are known to everyone. Only politicians of the most -wildly fantastic type, who see everywhere what they want to see, could -believe that in this war the Turkish "Turanistic" bait would ever have -any effect in Russian Central Asia, or make its inhabitants now living -in security, peace, and well-being wish back again the conditions -which prevailed under the Emirs of Samarkand, Khiva, and Bokhara. But -Germany, who should have been well informed if anyone was, believed -all these fantastic impossibilities. - -One could let it pass with a slight feeling of irritation against -Germany if it were merely a case of the failure of the "Djihad." -But unfortunately the propaganda, as stupid as it was unsuccessful, -exercised in this connection, will be written down for all time as one -of the blackest and most despicable marks against Germany's account in -this war. In Turkey alone, the underhand manipulation for the unloosing -of the "Holy War" and the German Press propaganda so closely allied -with it, indeed the whole way in which the German cause in the East -was represented journalistically throughout the war, are subjects full -of the saddest, most biting irony, to sympathise with which must lower -every German who has lived in the Turkish capital in the eyes of the -whole civilised world. - -In order to demonstrate the rôle played in this affair by the German -Embassy at Constantinople I will not make an exhaustive survey but -simply confine myself to a few episodes and outstanding features. An -eminent German Red Cross doctor, clear-sighted and reliable, who had -many tales to tell of what he had seen in the "Caucasus" campaign, -said to me one evening, as we sat together at a promenade concert: -"Do you see that man in Prussian major's uniform going past? I met -him twice in Erzerum last winter. The man was nothing but an employee -in a merchant's business in Baku, and had learnt Russian there. He -has never done military service. When war broke out, he hurried to -the Embassy in Pera and offered his services to stir up the Georgians -and other peoples of the Caucasus against Russia. Of course he got -full powers to do what he wanted, and guns and ammunition and piles -of propaganda pamphlets were placed at his disposal so that he might -carry on his work from the frontier of the then still neutral Turkey. -Whole chests full of good gold coins were sent to him to be distributed -confidentially for propaganda purposes; of course he was his own most -confidential friend! He went back to Erzerum without having won a -single soul for the cause of the 'Djihad.' That has not prevented his -living as a 'grand seigneur,' for the Embassy are not yet daunted, -and now the fellow struts about in a major's uniform, lent to him, -although he has never been a soldier, so that the cause may gain still -more prestige." - -Numerous examples of similar measures might be cited, and instances -without number given, of the German Embassy being made the dupe of -greedy adventurers who treated them as an inexhaustible source of gold. -First one would appear on the scene who announced himself as the one -man to cope with Afghanistan, then another would come along on his way -to Persia and play the great man "on a special mission" for a time in -Pera while money belonging to the German Empire would find its way into -all sorts of low haunts. And so things went on for two years until, -with the Arabian catastrophe, even the eyes of the great diplomatic -optimists of Ayas-Pasha might have been opened. - -I will only mention here how even a _bona fide_ connoisseur of the East -like Baron von Oppenheim, who had already made tours of considerable -value for research purposes right across the Arabian Peninsula, and so -should have known better than to share these false illusions, doled -out thousands of marks from his own pocket--and millions from the -Treasury!--to stir up the tribes to take part in the "Djihad," and how -he returned to Pera from his propaganda tour with a real Bedouin beard, -and, still unabashed, took over the control of the German Embassy's -"News Bureau," which kept up these much-derided war telegraph and -picture offices known in Pera and elsewhere by the non-German populace -as _sacs de mensonges_, and which flooded the whole of the East with -waggon loads of pamphlets in every conceivable tongue--in fact these, -with guns and ammunition, formed the chief load of the bi-weekly -"culture-bringing" Balkan train! - -I will only cite the one example of the far-famed Mario Passarge--a -real _Apache_ to look at. With his friend Frobenius, the ethnographer -and German agent, well known to me personally from French West -Africa for his liking for absinthe and negro women and his Teutonic -brusqueness emphasised in comparison with the kindly, helpful French -officials, as well as by hearsay from many scandalous tales, Passarge -undertook that disastrous expedition to the Abyssinians which failed -so lamentably owing to the Italians, and then after its collapse -came to Turkey as special correspondent of the _Vossische Zeitung_ -and managed to swindle his way through Macedonia with a false Italian -passport to Greece, where he wrote sensational reports for his -wonderful newspaper about the atrocities and low morale of Sarrail's -army--the same newspaper that had made itself the laughing-stock of the -whole of Europe, and at the same time had managed to get the German -Government to pursue for two years the shadow of a separate peace with -Russia, by publishing a marvellous series of "Special Reports via -Stockholm," on conditions in Russia that were nothing but a tissue of -lies inspired by blind Jewish hate; if a tithe of them had been true, -Russia would have gone under long ago. - -I need not repeat my own opinion on all the machinations of the German -Embassy, but I will simply give you word for word what a German Press -agent in Constantinople (I will mention no names) once said to me: -"It is unbelievable," he declared, "what a mob of low characters -frequent the German Embassy now. The scum of the earth, people who -would never have dared before the war to have been seen on the -pavements of Ayas-Pasha, have now free entry. Any day you can see -some doubtful-looking character accosting the porter at the Embassy, -whispering something in his ear, and then being ushered down the steps -to where the propaganda department, the news bureau, has its quarters. -There he gives wonderful assurances of what he can do, and promises to -stir up some Mohammedan people for the "Djihad." Then he waits a while -in the ante-room, and is finally received by the authorities; but the -next time he comes to the Embassy he walks in through the well-carpeted -main entrance, and requests an audience with the Ambassador or other -high official, and we soon find him comfortably equipped and setting -off on a 'special mission' as the confidential servant of the German -Embassy." But even the recognition of these truths has not prevented -this journalist from eating from the crib of the German Embassy! - -I cannot leave this disagreeable subject without making some mention -of a type that does more than anything to throw light on the morale of -this German propaganda. Everyone in Constantinople knows--or rather -knew, for he has now feathered his nest comfortably and departed to -Germany with his money--Mehmed Zekki "Bey," the publisher and chief -editor of the military paper _Die Nationalverteidigung_ and its -counterpart _La Défense_, published daily in French but representative -of Young Turkish-German interests. Hundreds of those who know Zekki -also know that he used to be called "Capitaine Nelken y Waldberg." -Fewer know that "Nelken" alone would have been more in accordance with -fact. - -I will relate the history of this individual, as I know it from the -mouths of reliable informants--the members of the Embassy and the -Consulate. Nelken, a Roumanian Jew, a shopkeeper by trade, had been -several times in prison for bankruptcy and fraud, and at last fled from -Roumania. He took refuge in the Turkish capital, where he continued -his business and married a Greek wife. Here again he became bankrupt, -as is only too clear from the public notice of restoration in the -Constantinople newspapers, when his lucrative political activity as the -champion of Krupp's, of the German cause and "the holy German war," -as much a purely pan-Germanic as Islamic affair, provided him with the -wherewithal to pay off his former disreputable debts. - -To go back to his history--with money won by fraud in his pocket, he -deserted his wife and went off, no doubt having made a thorough and -most professional study of the subject in the low haunts of Pera, -as a white-slave trader to the Argentine, and then--I rely for my -information on an official of the German Consulate in Pera--set up as -proprietor of a brothel in Buenos Ayres. Then, as often happens, the -Argentine special police took him into their service, thinking, on the -principle of "setting a thief to catch a thief," that he would have -special experience for the post. Grounds enough there for him to add -on the second name of his falsified passport "Nelken y Waldberg" and -to call himself in Europe a "Capitaine de la Gendarmerie" from the -Argentine. - -From there he went to Cairo and edited a little private paper called -_Les Petites Nouvelles Egyptiennes_. For repeated extortion he was -sentenced to one year's imprisonment, but unfortunately only _in -contumaciam_, for he had already fled the country, not, however, -before he had been publicly smacked on the face in the "Flasch" -beer garden without offering satisfaction as an "Argentine General" -should--a performance that was later repeated in every detail in -Toklian's Restaurant in Constantinople. - -He told me once that he had been sentenced in this way because, on -an understanding with the then German Diplomatic Agent in Cairo, von -Miquel, he had attacked Lord Cromer's policy sharply, and that his -patron von Miquel had given him the timely hint to leave Egypt. I -will leave it to one's imagination to discover how much truth there -was in this former brothel-keeper's connection with official German -"world-politics" and high diplomacy. From what I have seen personally -since, I believe that Zekki, alias Nelken, was probably speaking the -truth in this case, although it is certainly a fact that in German -circles in Cairo at that time ordinary extortion was recognised as -being punishable by imprisonment for a considerable length of time. - -Nelken then returned to Constantinople and devoted himself with -unflagging energy to his previous business of agent. He turned to -the Islamic faith and became a citizen of the Ottoman Empire because -he found it more profitable so to do, and could thus escape from his -former liabilities. Then in spite of lack of means, he managed to found -a military newspaper, which, however, soon petered out. Nelken became -Mehmed Zekki and a journalist, and of course called himself "Bey." - -Up to this point the history of this individual is nothing but a -characteristic extract from life as it is lived by hundreds of rogues -in the East. But now we come to something which is almost unbelievable -and which leads me to give credence to his version of his relations -with von Miquel, which after all only shows more clearly than ever that -German "world-politics" are not above making use of the scum of the -earth for their intrigues. In full knowledge of this man's whole black -past--as Dr. Weber of the German Embassy himself told me--the German -Embassy with the sanction of the Imperial Government (this I know from -letters Zekki showed me in great glee from the Foreign Office and the -War Office) appointed this fellow, whom all Pera said they would not -touch with gloves on or with the tongs, to be their confidential agent -with a large monthly honorarium and to become a pillar of "the German -cause" in the East. And it could not even be said in extenuation that -the man had any great desire or any wonderful vocation to represent -Germany, for--as the Embassy official said to me--"We knew that Zekki -was a dangerous character and rather inclined to the Entente at the -outbreak of war, so we decided to win him over by giving him a salary -rather than drive him into the enemy's camp." So it simply comes to -this, that Germany buys a bankrupt, a blackmailer, a procurer, a -brothel-keeper with cash to fight her "Holy War" for her! - -As publisher of the _Défense_ Zekki received a large salary from -Germany, one from Austria, afterwards cut down not from any excess of -moral sense, but simply from excess of economy, and a very considerable -sum from Krupp's. As representative of German interests he did all he -could to propitiate the Young Turks by the most fulsome flattery, and -more recently he was pushing hard to get on the Committee of Union and -Progress. But the Turks jibbed at what the German Embassy had brought -on themselves--seeing Zekki "Bey" moving about their sacred halls with -the most imposing nonchalance and condescension. Zekki himself once -complained to me bitterly that in spite of his having presented Enver -Pasha with a valuable clock worth eighty Turkish pounds which Enver -had accepted with pleasure, he would not even answer a written request -from Zekki craving an audience with him. (This, incidentally, is a most -excellent example of the working of Enver's mind, a megalomaniac as -greedy as he was proud.) - -The military director of the Turkish Press said to me once: "We -are only waiting for the first 'gaffe' in his paper to get this -filthy creature hunted out of his lair," and one day when through -carelessness a small uncensored and really quite harmless military -notice appeared in print (everything is submitted to the censor), -the Turkish Government gave it short shrift indeed, and banned _sine -die_ this "Ottoman" paper which lived by Krupp and the German trade -advertisements, and had become an advocate of the German Embassy, -because it was paid in good solid cash for it. The paper was replaced -by a new one in Turkish hands, called _Le Soir_. - -I could go on talking for ages from most intimate personal knowledge -about this man, superb in his own way. His doings were not without -a certain comic side which amused while it aggravated one. I could -mention, for example, his great lawsuit in Germany in 1916, in which he -brought an accusation of libel against some German who had called him a -blackmailer and a criminal who had been repeatedly punished. He managed -to win the lawsuit--that is, the defenders had to pay a fine of twenty -marks, because the evidence brought against Zekki could not be followed -up to Egypt on account of England's supremacy on the sea, and also no -doubt because the interests of Krupp and the German Embassy could not -have this cherished blossom of German propaganda disturbed! So for him -at any rate the lack of "freedom of the seas" he had so often raged -about in his leading articles was a very appreciable advantage. - -The last time I remember seeing the man he was engaged in an earnest -_tęte-ŕ-tęte_ about the propagation of German political interests by -means of arms with the Nationalist Reichstag deputy, Dr. Streesemann, a -representative of the German heavy goods trade and of German jingoism -who had hastened to Constantinople for the furtherance of German -culture. Most significantly, no doubt in remembrance of his days in -Buenos Ayres, Zekki had chosen for this interview the most private room -of the Hôtel Moderne, a pension with a bar where sect could be had; -and the worthy representative of the German people, probably nothing -loth to have a change from his eternal "Pan-German" diet, accepted his -invitation with alacrity. I followed the two gentlemen to make my own -investigations, and I certainly got as much amusement, although in a -different sense, as one usually does in such haunts. It was really -most entertaining to watch Nelken the ex-Jew and Young Turk, with his -fez on his head, nodding jovially to all the German officers at the -neighbouring tables, and settling the affairs of the realm with this -Pan-German representative of the people. - -I trust my readers will forgive me if, in spite of the distaste I -feel at having to write this unsavoury chapter about German Press -representatives and those in high diplomatic authority who commission -them, I relate one more episode of a like character before I close. -One of these writers employed in the service of the German Embassy had -done one of his female employees an injury which cannot be repeated -here. His colleague--out of professional jealousy, the other said--gave -evidence against him under oath at the German Consulate, and the other -brought a charge of perjury against him. The German Consulate, in order -not to lose such a trusty champion of the German cause for a trifle -like the wounded honour of a mere woman--an Armenian to boot!--simply -suppressed the whole case, although all Pera was speaking about it. - -Against this we have the case later on of a German journalist, most -jealous of German interests, who had a highly important document -stolen out of his desk with false keys by one of his clerks in the pay -of the Young Turkish Committee. The document was the copy of a very -confidential report addressed to high official quarters in Germany, in -which there were some rather more uncomplimentary remarks about Enver -and Talaat than appeared in the version for public consumption. An -Embassy less notoriously cowardly than the German one would simply have -shielded their man in consideration of the fact that the report was -never meant for publication and of the reprehensible way it had been -stolen and made public. But our chicken-hearted diplomats allowed him -to be dismissed in disgrace by the Turks, and so practically gave their -official sanction to the meanest Oriental methods of espionage. - -I have, however, now come to the conclusion from information I have -received that German cowardice in this case probably had a background -of hypocrisy and malice, for this same journalist had spoken with -remarkable freedom, not indeed as a pro-Englander, but in contrast -to German and Turkish narrow-mindedness, of how well he had been -treated by the English authorities, and particularly General Maxwell -in the exercise of his profession in Cairo, where he had been allowed -for fully five weeks, after the outbreak of war, to edit a German -newspaper. (I have seen the numbers myself and wondered at the almost -incredible liberality of the English censorship.) Instead of being sent -to Malta he had been treated most fairly and kindly and given every -opportunity to get away safely to Syria. Of course the narration of -events like these were rather out of place in our "God Punish England" -time, and it was no doubt on account of this, apart from all cowardice, -that the German Embassy made their fine distinctions between personal -and political morality in the case of their Press representative. - -We have spoken of German propaganda for the "Holy War," as carried -out by individuals as well as by pamphlets and the Press. The Turkish -capital saw a very appreciable amount of this in the shape of wandering -adventurers and printed paper. Several thousand Algerian, Tunisian, -French West African, Russian Tartar, and Turkestan prisoners of war -of Mohammedan religion from the German internment camps were kept for -weeks in Pera and urged by the German Government in defiance of all the -laws of the peoples to join the "Djihad" against their own rulers. - -They were told that they would have the great honour of being -presented to the Caliph in Stamboul; as devout Mohammedans they could -of course not find much to object to in that. A wonderfully attractive -picture was painted for them of the delights of settling in the -flourishing lands of the East, and living free of expense instead of -starving in prison under the rod of German non-commissioned officers -till the far-distant conclusion of peace. One can well imagine how such -marvellous conjuring tricks would appeal to these poor fellows. - -They have repeatedly told me that they had been promised to be allowed -to settle in Turkey without any mention being made of using them -again as soldiers. But once on the way to Constantinople there was no -further question of asking them what their opinion was of what was -being done to them. They were simply treated as Turkish voluntary -soldiers and sent off to the Front, to Armenia, and the Irak. How far -they were used as real front-line soldiers or in service behind the -lines I do not know; what I do know is that they left Constantinople -in as great numbers as they came from Germany, armed with rifles and -fully equipped for service in the field. One can therefore guess how -many of them became "settlers" as they had been promised. Several days -running in the early summer of 1916 I saw them being marched off in -the direction of the Haidar-Pasha station on the Anatolian Railway. -They were headed by a Turkish band, but on not one single face of all -these serried ranks did I see the slightest spark of enthusiasm, and -the German soldiers and officers escorting each separate section were -not exactly calculated to leave the impression with the public that -these were zealots fighting voluntarily for their faith who could not -get fast enough out to the Front to be shot or hanged by their former -masters! - -In her system of recruiting in the newly founded kingdom of Poland, -Germany demonstrated even more clearly of what she was capable in this -direction. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - Young Turkish nationalism--One-sided abolition of - capitulations--Anti-foreign efforts at emancipation--Abolition of - foreign languages--German simplicity--The Turkification of commercial - life--Unmistakable intellectual improvement as a result of the - war--Trade policy and customs tariff--National production--The - founding of new businesses in Turkey--Germany supplanted--German - starvation--Capitulations or full European control?--The colonisation - and forcible Turkification of Anatolia--"The properties of people who - have been dispatched elsewhere"--The "Mohadjirs"--Greek persecutions - just before the Great War--The "discovery" of Anatolia, the nucleus - of the Ottoman Empire--Turkey finds herself at last--Anatolian - dirt and decay--The "Greater Turkey" and the purely Turkish - Turkey--Cleavage or concentration? - - -From the Germans we now turn again to the Turks, to try to fathom -the exact mentality of the Young Turks during the great war, and -to discover what were the intellectual sources for their various -activities. - -To give a better idea of the whole position I will just preface my -remarks by stating a few of the outstanding features of the present -Young Turkish Government and their dependents. Their first and chief -characteristic is _hostility to foreigners_, but this does not prevent -them from making every possible use of their ally Germany, or from -appropriating in every walk of life anything European, be it a matter -of technical skill, government, civilisation, that they consider might -be profitable. Secondly they are possessed of an unbounded store of -_jingoism_, which has its origin in _Pan-Turkism_ with its ruling idea -of "Turanism." Pan-Turkism, which seems to be the governing passion of -all the leading men of the day, finds expression in two directions. -Outwardly it is a constant striving for a "Greater Turkey," a movement -that for a large part in its essence, and certainly in its territorial -aims, runs parallel with the "Holy War"; inwardly it is a fanatical -desire for a general Turkification which finds outlet in political -nationalistic measures, some of criminal barbarity, others partaking of -the nature of modern reforms, beginning with the language regulations -and "internal colonisation" and ending in the Armenian persecutions. - -It is worthy of note that of the two intellectual sources of the "Holy -War," namely Turanism--which one might reverse and call an extended -form of Old-Turkism--and Pan-Islamism, the men of the "Committee for -Unity and Progress" have only made logical though unsuccessful use -of the former, although theoretically speaking they recognise the -value of the latter as well. While Turkish race-fanaticism, which -finds practical outlet in Turanistic ideas, is still the intellectual -backbone of official Turkey to-day and has to be broken by the present -war, the Young Turkish Islam policy is already completely bankrupt and -can therefore be studied here dispassionately in all its aspects. We -propose to treat the matter in some detail. - -All New-Turkish Nationalistic efforts at emancipation had as first -principle the abolition of Capitulations. The whole Young Turkish -period we have here under review is therefore to be dated from that -day, shortly before Turkey's entry into the war, when that injunction -was flung overboard which Europe had anxiously placed for the -protection of the interests of Europeans on a State but too little -civilised. It was Turkey herself that did this after having curtly -refused the Entente offer to remove the Capitulations as a reward for -Turkey's remaining neutral. Germany, who was equally interested in -the existence or non-existence of Capitulations, never mentioned this -painful subject to her ally for a very long time, and it was 1916 -before she formally recognised the abolition of Capitulations, long -after she had lost all hold on Turkey in that direction. - -As early as summer 1915 there were clear outward indications in the -streets of Constantinople of a smouldering Nationalism ready to break -out at any moment. Turkey, under the leadership of Talaat Bey, pursued -her course along the well-trodden paths, and the first sphere in which -there was evidence of an attempt at forcible Turkification was the -language. Somewhere toward the end of 1915 Talaat suddenly ordered the -removal of all French and English inscriptions, shop signs, etc., even -in the middle of European Pera. In tramcars and at stopping-places the -French text was blocked out; boards with public police warnings in -French were either removed altogether or replaced by unreadable Turkish -scrawls; the street indications were simply abolished. The authorities -apparently thought it preferable that the Levantine public should get -into the wrong tramcar, should break their legs getting out, pick -flowers in the parks and wander round helplessly in a maze of unnamed -streets rather than that the spirit of forcible Turkification should -make even the least sacrifice to comfort. - -Of the thousand inhabitants of Pera, not ten can read Turkish; but -under the pressure of the official order and for fear of brutal assault -or some kind of underhand treatment in case of non-compliance, the -inhabitants really surpassed themselves, and before one could turn, -all the names over the shops had been painted over and replaced by -wonderful Turkish characters that looked like decorative shields or -something of the kind painted in the red and white of the national -colours. If one had not noted the entrance to the shop and the look of -the window very carefully, one might wander helplessly up and down the -Grand Rue de Péra if one wanted to buy something in a particular shop. - -But the German, as simple-minded as ever where political matters -were concerned, was highly delighted in spite of the extraordinary -difficulty of communal life. "Away with French and English," he would -shout. "God punish England; hurrah, our Turkish brothers are helping us -and favouring the extension of the German language!" - -The answer to these pan-German expansion politicians and language -fanatics, whose spiritual home was round the beer-tables of the -"Teutonia," was provided by a second decree of Talaat's some weeks -later when all German notices had to disappear. A few, who would not -believe the order, held out obstinately, and the signs remained in -German till they were either supplemented in 1916, on a very clear -hint from Stamboul, by the obligatory Turkish language or later -quite supplanted. It was not till some time after the German had -disappeared--and this is worthy of note--that the Greek signs ceased to -exist. Greek had been up to that time the most used tongue and was the -commercial language of the Armenians. - -Then came the famous language regulations, which even went so far--with -a year of grace granted owing to the extraordinary difficulties of -the Turkish script--as to decree that in the offices of all trade -undertakings of any public interest whatsoever, such as banks, -newspapers, transport agencies, etc., the Turkish language should be -used exclusively for book-keeping and any written communication with -customers. One can imagine the "Osmanic Lloyd" and the "German Bank" -with Turkish book-keeping and Turkish letters written to an exclusively -European clientčle! Old and trusty employees suddenly found themselves -faced with the choice of learning the difficult Turkish script or being -turned out in a year's time. The possibility--indeed, the necessity--of -employing Turkish hands in European businesses suddenly came within -the range of practical politics--and that was exactly what the Turkish -Government wanted. - -The arrangement had not yet come into operation when I left -Constantinople, but it was hanging like the sword of Damocles over -commercial undertakings that had hitherto been purely German. Optimists -still hoped it never would come to this pass and would have welcomed -any political-military blow that would put a damper on Turkey's -arrogance. Others, believing firmly in a final Turkish victory, began -to learn Turkish feverishly. Be that as it may, the new arrangements -were hung up on the walls of all offices in the summer of 1916 and -created confusion enough. - -Many other measures for the systematic Turkification of commercial life -and public intercourse followed hard on this first bold step, which I -need scarcely mention here. And in spite of the ever-growing number of -German officials in the different ministries, partly foisted on the -Turkish Government by the German authorities, partly gladly accepted -for the moment because the Turks had still much to learn from German -organisation and could profit from employing Germans, in spite of the -appointment of a number of German professors to the Turkish University -of Stamboul (who, however, as a matter of fact, like the German -Government officials, had to wear the fez and learn Turkish within a -year, and besides roused most unfavourable and anti-German comment -in the newspapers), it was soon perfectly evident to every unbiased -witness that Germany would find no place in a victorious Turkey after -the war if the "Committee for Union and Progress" did not need her. -Some sort of light must surely have broken over the last blind optimism -of the Germans in the course of the summer of 1916. - -Hand in hand with the nationalistic attempt to coerce European -businesses into using the Turkish language there went more practical -attempts to turkify all the important branches of commerce by the -founding of indigenous organisations and the introduction of reforms -of more material content than those language decrees. These efforts, -in spite of the enormous absorption of all intellectual capabilities -and energies in war and the clash of arms, were expressed with a truly -marvellous directness of aim, and, from the national standpoint, a -truly commendable magnificence of conception. - -This latter has indeed never been lacking as a progressive ethnic -factor in Turkish politics. The Turks have a wonderful understanding, -too, of the importance of social problems, or at least, as a sovereign -people, they feel instinctively what in a social connection will -further their sovereignty. The war with its enormous intellectual -activity has certainly brought all the political and economic resources -of the Turks--including the Young Turkish Government--to the highest -possible stage of development, and we ought not to be surprised if -we often find that measures, whether of a beneficent or injurious -character, are not lacking in modern exactness, clever technicality, -and thoroughness of conception. Without anticipating, I should just -like to note here how this change appears to affect the war. No one -can doubt that it will enormously intensify zeal in the fight for -the existence of the Turkey of the future, freed from its jingoistic -outgrowths, once more come to its senses and confined to its own proper -sphere of activity, Anatolia, the core of the Empire. But, on the other -hand, iron might and determined warfare against this misguided State -are needed to root out false and harmful ideas. - -If, after this slight digression, we glance for a moment at the -practical measures for a complete Turkification of Turkey, the -economic efforts at emancipation and the civic reforms carried -through, we find first of all that the new Turkey, when she had thrown -the Capitulations overboard, then proceeded to emancipate herself -completely from European supervision in the realm of trade and commerce. - -A very considerable step in advance in the way of Turkish sovereignty -and Turkish economic patriotism was the organisation and--since -September 1916--execution of the neo-Turkish autonomic customs tariff, -which with one blow gives Turkish finances what the Government formerly -managed to extract painfully from the Great Powers bit by bit, by -fair means or foul, at intervals of many years, and which with its -hard-and-fast scale of taxes--which there appears to be no inclination -in political circles at the moment to modify by trade treaties!--means -an exceedingly adequate protection of Turkey's national productions, -without any reference whatever to the export interests of her allies, -and is a very strong inducement to the renaissance of at any rate the -most important national industries. The far-flung net of the "Djemiet" -(whose acquaintance we have already made in another connection), -that purely Turkish commercial undertaking with Talaat Bey at its -head, regulating everything as it did, taking everything into its own -hands, from the realising of the products of the Anatolian farmers -(and incidentally bringing it about that their ally Germany had to pay -heavily and always in cash, even although the Government itself owed -millions, to Germany and got everything on credit from flour out of -Roumania to paper for their journals) to the most difficult rationing -of towns, forms a foundation for the nationalising of economic life of -the very greatest importance. - -The establishment of purely Turkish trade and transport companies, -often with pensioned Ministers as directors and principal shareholders, -and the new language regulations and other privileges will soon cut the -ground away from under the feet of European concerns. Able assistance -is given in this direction by the _Tanin_ and the _Hilal_ (the -"Crescent"), the newly founded "Committee" paper in the French language -(when it is a question of the official influencing of public opinion -in European and Levantine quarters, exceptions can be made even in -language fanaticism!) in which a series of articles invariably appear -at the founding of each new company praising the patriotic zeal of the -founders. - -Then again there are the increasingly thinly veiled efforts to -establish a purely Turkish national banking system. Quite lately there -has been a movement in favour of founding a Turkish National Bank with -the object of supplanting the much-hated "Deutsche Bank" in spite of -the credit it always gives, and that international and preponderatingly -French institution, the "Banque Impériale Ottomane," which had already -simply been sequestrated without more ado. - -The Turks have decided, too, that the mines are to be nationalised, and -Turkish companies have already been formed, without capital it is true, -to work the mines after the war. The same applies to the railways--in -spite of the fine German plans for the Baghdad Railway. - -All these wonderful efforts at emancipation are perfectly justified -from the patriotic point of view, and are so many blows dealt at -Germany, who, quite apart from Rohrbach's _Welt_-_politik_, had at -least hoped to find a lucrative field of privileged commercial activity -in the country of her close and devoted allies the Turks. It is of -supreme significance that while the war is still at its height, while -the Empire of the Sultan is defending its very existence at the gates -of the capital with German arms and German money, there is manifested -with the most startling clearness the failure of German policy, the -endangering of all these German "vital interests" in Turkey which -according to Pan-German and Imperialistic views were one of the most -important stakes to be won by wantonly letting loose this criminal war -on Europe. - -No doubt many a German was only too well aware of the fact that in -this Turkey suddenly roused by the war all the ground had been lost -that he had built on with such profit before, and many an anxious face -did one see in German circles in Constantinople. I need not tarry here -over the drastic comments I heard from so many German merchants on -this subject. They show a most curious state of mind on the part of -those who had formerly, in their quest for gain and nothing but gain, -profited in true parasitical fashion from the financial benefits of -the Capitulations and had seen nothing but the money side of this -arrangement which was, after all, entered into for other purposes. It -was no rare thing and no paradox to find a German company director say, -as I heard one say: "If things went against Turkey to-day, I would -willingly shoulder my gun, old man as I am." - -No thinking man will expend too much grief over the ruthless abolition -of the Capitulations, for they were unmoral and gave too much -opportunity to parasites and rogues, while they were quite inadequate -to protect the interests of civilisation. They may have sufficed in -the time of Abdul-Hamid, who was easily frightened off and was always -sensible and polite in his dealings with Europe. For the Turkey of -Enver and Talaat quite other measures are needed. One must, according -to one's political standpoint, either recognise and accept their -nationalistic programme of emancipation or combat it forcibly by -introducing full European control. And however willing one may be -to let foreign nations develop in their own particular way and work -out their own salvation, one's standpoint with regard to a State so -behindhand, so fanatical, so misguided as Turkey can be but one: the -introduction and continuation at all costs of whatever guarantees -the best protection to European civilisation in this land of such -importance culturally and historically. - -Not only were Europeans, but the natives themselves, affected by the -series of measures that one might class together under the heading of -Turkish Internal Colonisation and the Nationalising of Anatolia. The -programme of the Young Turks was not only a "Greater Turkey," but above -all a purely Turkish Turkey; and if the former showed signs of failing -because they had over-estimated their powers and their chances in the -war or had employed wrong methods, there was nothing at all to hinder -a sovereign Government from striving all the more ruthlessly to gain -their second point. - -The way this Turkification of Anatolia was carried on was certainly -not lacking in thoroughness, like all their nationalistic efforts. The -best means that lay to hand were the frightful Armenian persecutions -which affected a wonderful clearance among the population. "The -properties of persons who have been dispatched elsewhere" within the -meaning of the Provisory Bill were either distributed free or sold -for a mere song to anyone who applied to the Committee for them and -proved themselves of the same political persuasion or of pure Turkish -or preponderatingly Turkish nationality. The rent was often fixed -as low as 30 piastres a month (about 5_s._ 8_d._) for officials and -retired military men. In the case of the latter, Enver Pasha thought -this an excellent opportunity for getting rid, through the medium of a -kindly invitation to settle in the Interior, of those who worried him -by their dissatisfaction with his system and who might have prepared -difficulties for him. This "settling" was carried out with the greatest -zeal in the exceptionally flourishing and fruitful districts of Brussa, -Smyrna-Aidin, Eskishehir, Adabazar, Angora, and Adana, where Armenians -and Greeks had played such a great, and, to the Turks, unpopular part -as pioneers of civilisation. - -The semi-official articles in the _Tanin_ were perfectly right in -praising the local authorities who in contrast with their former -indifference and ignorance "had now fully recognised the great national -importance of internal colonisation and the settling of Mohadjirs -(emigrants from the lost Turkish territory in Bosnia, Macedonia, -Thrace, etc.) in the country." There is nothing to be said in favour -of the stupid, unprogressive character of the Anatolian as contrasted -with the strength, physical endurance, intelligence, and mobility of -these emigrants. The latter had also, generally speaking, lived in more -highly developed districts. - -The great drawback of the Mohadjirs, however, is their instability, -their idleness and love of wandering, their frivolity, and their -extraordinary fanaticism. As faithful Mohammedans following the -standard of their Padishah and leaving the parts of the country -that had fallen under Christian rule, they seemed to think they -were justified in behaving like spoilt children towards the native -population. They treated them with ruthless disregard, they were -bumptious, and, if their new neighbours were Greek or Armenian, they -inclined to use force, a proceeding which was always possible because -the Government did not take away _their_ firearms and were even known -to have doled them out to stir up unrest. It has occurred more than -once that Mohadjirs have crossed swords even with Turkish Anatolians -living peacefully in their own villages. One can then easily imagine -how much more the heretic _giaurs_ ("Christian dogs," "unclean men") -had to suffer at their hands. - -I should like to say a word here about these Greek persecutions in -Thrace and Western Anatolia that have become notorious throughout the -whole of Europe. They took place just before the outbreak of war, and -cost thousands of peaceful Greeks--men, women, and children-their -lives, and reduced to ashes dozens of flourishing villages and towns. -At the time of the murder of Sarajevo, I happened to be staying in -the vilajet of Aidin, in Smyrna and the _Hinterland_, and saw with -my own eyes such shameful deeds as must infuriate anyone against the -Turkish Government that aids and abets such barbarity--from old women -being driven along by a dozen Mohadjirs and dissipated soldiers to the -smoking ruins of Phocća. - -Everyone at that time, at any rate in Smyrna, expected the immediate -outbreak of a new Grćco-Turkish war, and perhaps the only thing -that prevented it was the method of procrastination adopted by both -sides, for both were waiting for the Dreadnoughts they had ordered, -until finally these smaller clouds were swallowed up in the mighty -thunder-cloud gathering on the European horizon. Only the extreme speed -with which one dramatic event followed another, and my own mobilisation -which precluded my writing anything of a political nature, prevented me -on that occasion from giving my sinister impressions of Young Turkish -jingoism and Mohadjir brutality. Even if I had been able to write what -I thought it is extremely doubtful if it would ever have seen the -light of day, for the German papers were but little inclined, as I had -opportunity of discovering personally, to say anything unpleasant about -the Young Turkish Government, whose help they were already reckoning -on, and preferred rather to behave in a most un-neutral manner and keep -absolutely silent about all the ill-treatment and abuse that had been -meted out to Greece. But I remembered these scenes most opportunely -later, and that visit of mine to Western Anatolia was certainly most -useful in increasing my knowledge of Young Turkish methods of "internal -colonisation." - -But all the methods used are by no means forcible. Attempts are now -being made--and this again is most significant for the spirit of the -newest Young Turkish era--to gain a footing in the world of science -as opposed to force, and so to be able to carry out their measures -more systematically and give them the appearance of beneficent modern -social reforms. So it comes about that the Turkish idea of penetrating -and "cleaning-up" Anatolia finds practical expression on the one hand -in exterminating and robbing the Christian population, while on the -other it inclines to efforts which in time may work out to be a real -blessing. The common principle underlying both is Nationalism. - -Anatolia was suddenly "discovered." At long length the Young Turkish -Government, roused intellectually and patriotically by the war and -brought to their senses by the terrible loss of human life entailed, -suddenly realised the enormous national importance of Anatolia, that -hitherto much-neglected nucleus of the Ottoman Empire. Under the -spiritual inspiration of Mehmed Emin, the national poet of Anatolian -birth whose poems with their sympathy of outlook and noble simplicity -of form make such a warm-hearted and successful appeal to the best -kind of patriotism, men have begun since 1916, even in the circles of -the arrogant "Stambul Effendi," to take an interest in the _kaba türk_ -(uncouth Turk), the Anatolian peasant, his needs and his standard of -civilisation. The real, needy, primitive Turk of the Interior has -suddenly become the general favourite. - -A whole series of most remarkable lectures was delivered publicly in -the _Türk Odjaghi_, under the auspices of the Committee, by doctors, -social politicians, and political economists, and these were reported -and discussed at great length in all the Turkish newspapers. Their -subject was the incredible destitution in Anatolia, the devastation -wrought by syphilis, malaria, and other terrible dirt diseases, -abortions as a result of hopeless poverty, the lack of men as a result -of constant military service in many wars, and they called for -immediate and drastic reforms. - -It is with the greatest pleasure that I acknowledge that this first -late step on the way of improvement, this self-knowledge, which -appeals to me more thoroughly than anything else I saw in Turkey, is -probably really the beginning of a happier era for that beautiful land -of Anatolia, so capable of development but so cruelly neglected. For -one can no longer doubt that the Government has the real intention of -carrying out actual reforms, for they must be only too well aware that -the strengthening and healing of Anatolia, the nucleus of the Turkish -race, is absolutely essential for any Turkish mastery, and is the very -first necessity for the successful carrying out of more far-reaching -national exertions. With truly modern realisation of the needs of -the case, directly after Dr. Behaeddin Shakir Bey's first compelling -lecture, different local government officials, especially the Vali -of the Vilajet of Kastamuni, which was notorious for its syphilis -epidemics, made unprecedented efforts to improve the terrible hygienic -conditions then reigning. Let us hope that such efforts will bear -fruit. But this will probably only be the case to any measurable extent -later, after the war, when Turkey will find herself really confined to -Anatolia, and will have time and strength for positive social work. - -In the meantime I cannot get rid of the uneasy impression that this -"discovery" of Anatolia and zealous Turkish social politics are no more -than a cleverly worked excuse on the part of the Government for further -measures of Turkification, and the cloven hoof is unfortunately only -too apparent in all this seemingly noble effort on the part of the -Committee. One hears and sees daily the methods that go hand in hand -with this official pushing into the foreground of the great importance -of the purely Turkish elements in Anatolia--Armenian persecutions, -trickery, expropriations carried out against Greeks, the yielding up -of flourishing districts to quarrelsome Mohadjirs. So long as the -Turkish Government fancy themselves conquerors in the great war, so -long as they pursue the shadow of a "Greater Turkey," so long as Turkey -continues to dissipate her forces she will not accomplish much for -Anatolia, in spite of her awakening and her real desire for reform. - -Finally, in this discovery of Anatolia, in this desire to put an end to -traditional destitution, this recognition of the real import of even -the poorest, most primitive, dullest peasant peoples in the undeveloped -Interior, so long as they are of Turkish race, in this sudden flood -of learned eloquence over the needs and the true inner worth of these -miserable neglected Turkish peasants, in this pressing demand for -thorough reforms for the economic and social strengthening of this -element--measures which with the present ruling spirit of jingoism -in the Government threaten to be carried through only at the expense -of the non-Turkish population of Anatolia--we see very clear proof -that the neo-Turkish movement is a pure race movement, is nothing but -Pan-Turkism both outwardly and inwardly, and has very little indeed to -do with religious questions or with Islam. The idea of Islam, or rather -Pan-Islamism, is a complete failure. This we shall try to show in the -following chapter. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - Religion and race--The Islam policy of Abdul-Hamid and of the Young - Turks--Turanism and Pan-Islamism as political principles--Turanism - and the Quadruple Alliance--Greed and race-fanaticism--Religious - traditions and modern reforms--Reform in the law--A modern - Sheikh-ul-Islam--Reform and nationalisation--The Armenian and - Greek Patriarchates--The failure of Pan-Islamism--The alienation - of the Arabs--Djemal Pasha's "hangman's policy" in Syria--Djemal - as a "Pro-French"--Djemal and Enver--Djemal and Germany--His true - character--The attempt against the Suez Canal--Djemal's murderous - work nears completion--The great Arabian and Syrian Separatist - movement--The defection of the Emir of Mecca and the great Arabian - catastrophe. - - -In little-informed circles in Europe people are still under the -false impression that the Young Turks of to-day, the intellectual -and political leaders of Turkey in this war, are authentic, zealous, -and even fanatical Mohammedans, and superficial observers explain -all unpleasant occurrences and outbreaks of Young Turkish jingoism -on Pan-Islamic grounds, especially as Turkey has not been slow in -proclaiming her "Holy War." But this conception is entirely wrong. -The artificial character of the "Djihad," which was only set in -motion against a portion of the "unbelievers," while the others -became more and more the ruling body in Turkey, is the best proof -of the untenability of this theory. The truth is that the present -political régime is the complete denial of the Pan-Islamic idea and the -substitution of the Pan-Turkish idea of race. - -Abdul-Hamid, that much-maligned and dethroned Sultan, who, however, -towers head and shoulders above all the Young Turks put together in -practical intelligence and statesmanly skill, and would never have -committed the unpardonable error of throwing in his lot with Germany -in the war and so bringing about the certain downfall of Turkey, was -the last ruler of Turkey that knew how to make use of Pan-Islamism as a -successful instrument of authority. - -Enver and Talaat and all that breed of jingoists on the _Ittahad_ -(Committee for Union and Progress) were upstarts without any schooling -in political history, and so all the more inclined to the doctrinal -revolutionism and short-sighted fanaticism of the successful -adventurer, and were much too limited to recognise the tremendous -political import of Pan-Islamism. Naturally once they had conceived -the idea of the "Djihad," they tried to make theoretical use of -Pan-Islamism; but practically, far from extending Turkey's influence -to distant Arabian lands, to the Soudan and India, they simply let -Turkey go to ruin through their Pan-Turkish illusions and their -race-fanaticism. - -Abdul-Hamid with his clever diplomacy managed to maintain, if not the -real sympathies, at any rate the formal loyalty of the Arabs and their -solidarity with the rest of the Ottoman Empire. It was he who conceived -the idea of that undertaking of eminent political importance, the -Hedjaz Railway, which facilitates pilgrimages to the holy cities of -Mecca and Medina and links up the Arabian territory with the Turkish, -and he was always able to quell any disturbances in these outlying -parts of the Empire with very few troops indeed. Nowadays the Young -Turkish Government, even if they had the troops to spare, might send -a whole army to the Hedjaz and they would be like an island of sand -in the midst of that stormy Arab sea. The Arabs, intellectually far -superior to the Turks, have at last made up their minds to defy their -oppressors, and all the Arabic-speaking parts of the Ottoman Empire may -be taken as already lost, no matter what the final result of the great -war may be. - -The Young Turks had scarcely come into power when they began with -incredible lack of tact to treat the Arabs in a most supercilious -manner, although as a matter of fact the Arabs far surpassed them in -intellect and culture. They inaugurated a most un-modern campaign of -shameless blood-sucking, cheated them of their rights, treated them -in a bureaucratic manner, and generally acted in such an unskilful -way that they finally alienated for ever the Arab element as they -had already done in the case of the Armenians, the Greeks, and the -Albanians. - -The ever-recurring disturbances in Yemen, finally somewhat -inadequately quelled by Izzet Pasha, are still in the memory of all. -And later, directly after the reconquering of Adrianople during the -Second Balkan war, there was another moment of real national rebirth -when a reconciliation might have been effected. The visit of a great -Syrian and Arabian deputation to the Sultan to congratulate him over -this auspicious event should have provided an excellent opportunity. -I was staying some months then in Constantinople on my way back from -Africa, and I certainly thought that the half-broken threads might have -been knotted together again then if the Young Turks had only approached -the Arabs in the right way. Even the great Franco-British attack on -Stamboul might have been calculated to rouse a feeling of solidarity -among the Mohammedans living under the Ottoman flag, and in the autumn -and winter of 1915-1916 Arab troops actually did defend the entrance -to the Dardanelles with great courage and skill. But Arab loyalty -could not withstand for ever the mighty flood of race-selfishness that -possessed the Young Turks right from the moment of their entry into the -war. The enthusiasm of the Arabs soon disappeared when Pan-Turkish -ideas were proclaimed all too clearly even to the inhabitants of their -own land, when an era of systematic enmity towards the non-Turkish -parts of the population was introduced and the heavy fist of the -Central Committee was laid on the southern parts of the Empire as well. - -An attempt was made to bring the ethnic principle of "Turanism" within -the region of practical politics, but it simply degenerated into -complete race-partiality and was not calculated to further the ideas -of Pan-Islamism and the Turko-Arabian alliance which were both of such -importance in the present war. It is this idea of Turanism that lies -at the back of the efforts being made towards a purely Turkish Turkey, -and that of course makes it clear at once that it must to a very large -extent oppose the idea of Pan-Islamism. It is true that both principles -may be made use of side by side as sources of propaganda for the idea -of expansion and the policy of a "Greater Turkey." Turanists peep over -the crest of the Caucasus down into the Steppes of the Volga, where the -Russian Tartars live, and to the borders of Western Siberia and Inner -China where in Russian Turkestan a race of people of very close kinship -live and where very probably the Ottoman people had their cradle. The -Pan-Islamists want the alliance of these Russian parts as well, but -from another point of view, and, above all, they aim at the expansion -of Ottoman rule to the farthest corners of Africa and South-West Asia, -to the borders of negro territory, and through Persia, Afghanistan, and -Baluchistan to the foot of the Himalayas, while on grounds of practical -politics they strive to abolish the old, seemingly insurmountable -antithesis between Sonnites and Shiites within the sanctuary of Islam. - -The programme of the so-called "Djihad" works on this principle, but -goes much farther. As well as stirring up against their present rulers -those parts of Egypt and Tripoli which once owned allegiance to the -Sultan and the Atlas lands, which are at any rate spiritually dependent -on the Caliph in Stamboul, the "Djihad" aims at introducing the spirit -of independence into all English, French, Italian, and Russian Colonial -territory by rousing the Mohammedans and so doing infinite harm to -the enemies of Turkey. It is most important, therefore, always to -differentiate between this "Holy War" "stirring-up" propaganda from -Senegal to Turkestan and British India, and the more territorial -Pan-Islamism of the present war, which goes hand in hand with the -efforts being made towards a "Greater Turkey." - -Instead of uniting all these principles skilfully for the realisation -of a great end, making sure of the Arab element by wisely restraining -their selfish and exaggeratedly pro-Turkish instincts and their -despotic lust for power, and so giving their programme of expansion -southwards some prospect of succeeding, the Turks gave way right from -the beginning of the war to such a flood of brutal, narrow-minded -race-fanaticism and desire to enrich the Turkish element at the cost -of the other inhabitants of the country, that no one can really be -surprised at the pitiable result of the efforts to secure a Greater -Turkey. - -I should just like to give one small example of the fanatical hatred -that exists even in high official circles against the non-Turkish -element in this country of mixed race. The following anecdote will -give a clear enough idea of the ruling spirit of fanaticism and -greed. I was house-hunting in Pera once and could not find anything -suitable. I approached a member of the Committee and he said in solemn -earnest: "Oh, just wait a few weeks. We are all hoping that Greece -will declare war on us before long, and then _all_ the Greeks will -be treated as the Armenians have been. I can let you have the nicest -villa on the Bosporus. But then," he added with gleaming eyes, "we -won't be so stupid as merely to turn them out. These Greek dogs (_köpek -rum_) will have the pleasure of seeing us take everything away from -them--_everything_--and compelling them to give up their own property -by formal contract." - -I can guarantee that this is practically a word-for-word rendering of -this extraordinary outburst of fanaticism and greed on the part of -an otherwise harmless and decent man. I could not help shuddering at -such opinions. Apparently it was not enough that Turkey was already at -war with three Great Powers; she must needs seek armed conflict with -Greece, so that, as was the outspoken, the open, and freely-admitted -intention of official persons, she might then deal with four and a -half millions of Ottoman Greeks, practically her own countrymen, as she -had done with the unfortunate Armenians. In face of such opinions one -cannot but realise how unsure the existence of the Young Turkish State -has become by its entry into the war, and cannot but foresee that this -race-fanaticism will lead the nation to political and social suicide. -Can one imagine a purely Turkish Turkey, when even the notion of a -Greater Turkey failed? - -Pessimists have often said of the Turkish question that the Turks' -principal aim in determining on a complete Turkification of Anatolia -by any, even the most brutal, means, is that at the conclusion of -war they can at least say with justification: "Anatolia is a purely -Turkish country and must therefore be left to us." What they propose to -bequeath to the victorious Russians is an Armenia without Armenians! - -The idea of "Turanism" is a most interesting one, and as a widespread -nationalistic principle has given much food for thought to Turkey's -ally, Germany. Turanism is the realisation, reawakened by neo-Turkish -efforts at political and territorial expansion, of the original -race-kinship existing between the Turks and the many peoples inhabiting -the regions north of the Caucasus, between the Volga and the borders of -Inner China, and particularly in Russian Central Asia. Ethnographically -this idea was perfectly justified, but politically it entails a -tremendous dissipation of strength which must in the end lead to grave -disappointment and failure. All the Turkish attempts to rouse up the -population of the Caucasus either fell on unfruitful ground or went -to pieces against the strong Russian power reigning there. Enver's -marvellous conception of an offensive against Russian Transcaucasia led -right at the beginning of the war to terrible bloodshed and defeat. - -People in neutral countries have had plenty of opportunity of judging -of the value of those arguments advanced by Tatar professors and -journalists of Russian citizenship for the "Greater-Turkish" solution -of the race questions of the Russian Tatars and Turkestan, for these -refugees from Baku and the Caucasus, paid by the Stamboul Committee, -journeyed half over Europe on their propaganda tour. The idea of -Turanism has been taken up with such enthusiasm by the men of the -Young Turkish Committee, and utilised with such effect for purposes of -propaganda and to form a scientific basis for their neo-Turkish aims -and aspirations, that a stream of feeling in favour of the Magyars has -set in in Turkey, which has not failed to demolish to a still greater -extent their already weakened enthusiasm for their German allies. And -it is not confined to purely intellectual and cultural spheres, but -takes practical form by the Turks declaring, as they have so often done -in their papers in almost anti-German articles about Turanism, that -what they really require in the way of European technique or European -help they much prefer to accept from their kinsmen the Hungarians -rather than from the Germans. - -To the great annoyance of Germany, who would like to keep her heavy -hand laid on the ally whom she has so far guided and for whom she pays, -the practical results of the idea of Turanism are already noticeable -in many branches of economic and commercial life. The Hungarians are -closely allied to the Turks not only by blood but in general outlook, -and form a marked contrast to Germany's cold and methodical calculation -in worming her way into Turkish commercial life. After the war when -Turkey is seeking for stimulation, it will be easy enough to make use -of Hungarian influence to the detriment of Germany. Turanistic ideas -have even been brought into play to establish still more firmly the -union between Turkey and her former enemy Bulgaria, and the people of -Turkey are reminded that the Bulgars are not really Slavs but Slavic -Fino-Tartars. - -In proportion as the Young Turks have brought racial politics to a -fine art, so they have neglected the other, the religious side. More -and more, Islam, the rock of Empire, has been sacrificed to the needs -of race-politics. Those who look upon Enver and Talaat and their -consorts to-day as a freemasonry of time-serving opportunists rather -than as good Mohammedans come far nearer the truth than those who -believe the idea spread by ignorant globe-trotters that every Turk is -a zealous follower of Islam. It was not for nothing that Enver Pasha, -the adventurer and revolutionary, went so far even in externals as -to arouse the stern disapproval of a wide circle of his people. With -true time-serving adaptability to all modern progress-and who will -blame him?--he even finally sacrificed the Turkish soldier's hallowed -traditional headgear, the fez. While the _kalpak_, even in its laced -variety, could still be called a kind of field-grey or variegated -or fur edition of the fez, the ragged-looking _kabalak_, called the -"Enveriak" to distinguish it from other varieties, is certainly on the -way towards being a real sun helmet. Still more recently (summer 1916) -a black-and-white cap that looks absolutely European was introduced -into the Ottoman Navy. The simple, devout Mohammedan folk were most -unwilling to accept these changes which flew direct in the face of all -tradition. They may be externals of but little importance, but in spite -of their insignificance they show clearly the ruling spirit in official -Young Turkish spheres. - -This is in the harmless realm of fashion, or at any rate military -fashion, exactly the same spirit as has caused the Turkish Government -to undertake since 1916 radical changes in the very much more -important field of private and public law. Special commissions -consisting of eminent Turkish lawyers have been formed to carry through -this reform of law and justice, and they have been hard at work ever -since their formation. What is characteristic and modern about the -reform is that the preponderating rôle hitherto played by the Sheriat -Law, founded on the Koran and at any rate semi-religious, is to be -drastically curtailed in favour of a system of purely Civil law, which -has been strung together from the most varied sources, even European -law being brought under contribution, and the "Code Napoléon," which -has hitherto only been used in Commercial law. This of course leads to -a great curtailment of the activity and influence of the _kadis_ and -_muftis_, the semi-religious judges, who have now to yield place to a -more mundane system. The first inexorable consequence of the reform -was that the Sheikh-ul-Islam, the highest authority of Islam in the -whole Ottoman Empire, had to give up a large part of his powers, and -incidentally of his income. - -The changes made were so far-reaching, and the spirit of the reform -so modern, that, in spite of the unshakable power of Talaat's truly -dictatorial Cabinet which got it passed, a concession had to be made -to the public opinion roused against the measure. The form was kept as -it was, but the Sheikh-ul-Islam, Haďri Effendi, refused ostensibly to -sign the decree and gave in his resignation. Not only, however, was an -immediate successor found for him (Mussa Kiazim Effendi), who gave his -signature and even began to work hard for the reform, but--and this -is most significant for the relationship of the Young Turks towards -Islam--Haďri Effendi, the same ex-Sheikh-ul-Islam who had proclaimed -the _Fetwa_ for the "Holy War," gave up his post without a murmur, and -in the most peaceable way, and remained one of the principal pillars of -the "Committee for Union and Progress." - -His resignation was nothing but a farce to throw dust in the eyes of -the all-too-trusting lower classes. After he had succeeded by this -manoeuvre in getting the reform of the law (which as a measure of -Turkification was of more consequence to him now than his own sadly -curtailed juristic functions) accepted at a pinch by the conservative -population who still clung firmly to Islam, he went on to play his -great rôle in the programme of jingoism. A "measure of Turkification" -we called it, for that is what it amounts to practically, like -everything else the men of the "Ittihad" take in hand. - -I tried to give some hint of this within the limits of the censorship -as long ago as the summer of 1916 in a series of articles I wrote for -the _Kölnische Zeitung_. Here I should like just to confine myself -to one point. Naturally the reform of the law aimed principally at -substituting these newly formed pure Turkish conceptions for the -Arabian legal ideas that had been the only thing available hitherto. -(Everything that this victorious Turkey had absorbed and worked up -in the way of civilised notions was either Arabian or Persian or of -European origin.) It set to work now in the sphere of family law, -which hitherto had been specially sacrosanct and only subordinate to -the religious _Sheria_, and where tradition was strongest--not like -commercial and maritime law which had been quite modern for a long time. - -The reform went so far that it even tried to introduce a kind of civil -marriage, whereas up till now all marriages, divorces, and everything -to do with inheritance had taken place exclusively before religious -officials. I may just add that these newest reforms give women no -wider rights than they had before. Perhaps this may be taken as an -indication that they have been conceived far less from a social than -from a political point of view. What induced the Turkish Government to -introduce anything so entirely modern as civil marriage in defiance -of age-old custom was more than likely the desire to put an end to -non-Turkish Ottomans contracting marriages and making arrangements -about inheritance, etc., before their own privileged, ethnically -independent organisations, and so to deal the final death-blow to the -Armenian and Greek Patriarchates. If Family Law was modernised in -this way, there would not be the faintest shadow of excuse left for -the existence of these institutions which enjoyed a far-reaching and -influential autonomy. - -The Armenian Patriarchate got short shrift indeed. By dissolving the -Patriarchate in the Capital, breaking off all relations with the -Armenian headquarters in Etzmiadjin and allowing only a very small -remainder of Patriarchate to be sent up in Jerusalem under special -State supervision, the Turks, as a logical sequence to the Armenian -atrocities, simply dealt the death-blow in the summer of 1916 to this -important social institution. - -The Greek organisation, however, conducted by a more numerous and, -outwardly at any rate, better protected people, offered far more -resistance, and could not be simply wiped out with a stroke of the pen. -A direct attempt to suppress it was made as early as 1910, but broke -down entirely in face of the firm attitude of the Greek Patriarch in -Constantinople. Now the Young Turks seem to have come to the conclusion -that less drastic methods, beginning on a juristic basis, may have a -better effect. - -We have taken this one example in order to get at the whole neo-Turkish -method of procedure. It consists in pushing forward, if need be with -greater delicacy than before and on the round-about road of real modern -reforms, towards the one immovable goal: the complete Turkification of -Turkey. The reform of the law, which we have treated more exhaustively -as an example of the first rank, is typical of the Young Turkish -national tendency. Naturally it has its use, too, as a means of further -throwing off the foreign political yoke. Through the modernising -of the whole Turkish legal system, Europe is to be shown that the -Capitulations can be dispensed with. - -The reform throws a vivid light, too, on the inner relationship -of the jingoistic, pure Pan-Turkish leaders of present-day Turkey -towards religion. And it is perhaps not generally known that at all -the deliberations of the "Committee" where the will of Talaat, the -uncrowned king of Turkey, is alone decisive, the opinion of the Grand -Master of the Turkish Freemasons is always listened to, and that he is -one of the most willing tools of the "Ittihad." - -No, the members of the "Committee for Union and Progress" have -for a very long time simply snapped their fingers at Islam if it -hindered them making use of and profiting from their own subjects. -They know very well how to retain at least the outward semblance of -friendliness so long as Islam does not directly cross the path of -Pan-Turkism. But the Armenian atrocities, instigated by Talaat, have -as little to do with religion, they are as exclusively the result -of pure race-fanaticism, professional jealousy, and greed, as the -hostile, devil-may-care attitude towards Greece, and the millions of -well-to-do Ottoman Greeks who are the next troublesome competitors -and suitable victims of aggrandisement to be disposed of after the -Armenians, or as the terrible persecutions against the highest class -of Syrians and Arabs pictured in Djemal Pasha's famous paper. They -are Turks, pure Turks with the most narrow-minded jingoistic point of -view, and not broad-minded Mohammedans, that sit on the Committee in -"Nur-el-Osmanieh" in Stamboul and make all these wonderful political -plans, from internal reforms and measures of government which attempt -to adapt themselves to European technique by sacrificing ancient -traditions, to the hangman's tactics employed against their own -subjects. - -Take the case of the Syrians and the Arabs. The "Ittihad" clique, -weltering in a fog of Pan-Turkish illusion, were yet not without -anxiety with regard to the intellectual and social superiority, to -say nothing of the political sharpness, of these peoples compared with -the Turks. They had yielded entirely to their brutal instincts of -extermination and suppression towards foreign races, and the Germans -had made no attempt to curb them. They were political parvenus suddenly -freed from the control of the civilised Great Powers, and they did not -know how to make use of that freedom. Perhaps they felt themselves -already on the edge of an abyss and were constrained to snatch what -they could while there was yet time. - -Is it any wonder, then, that the Turks should throw over all trace of -decency towards the Syrians and the Arabs once they were sure that -these peoples, who regarded their oppressors with most justifiable -hatred, would refuse to have anything to do with the "Holy War" of the -Turanian Pseudo-Caliph? - -The last remnants of the traditional Pan-Islamic esteem of their Arab -neighbours, already sadly shattered by the Young Turks' ruthless policy -towards them since 1909, were flung light-heartedly overboard by a -Government that knew they were to blame for the Arab defection but -thought they had found a substitute that appealed more to their true -Asiatic character in these Turanistic dreams of expansion and measures -of Turkification. And while fanatical adventurers and money-grubbing -deputies paid by the easily duped German Embassy were preaching a -perfectly useless "Holy War" on the confines of the Arabian territory -of the Turkish Empire, towards the part occupied by the English, while -Enver Pasha continued to visit the holy places of Islam, where he got -a frosty enough reception, although the wonderfully worded communiqués -on the subject succeeded in blinding the population to the true state -of affairs, "the hangman's policy" of Djemal Pasha, the Commander of -the Fourth Osmanic Army, and Naval Minister, had been for a long time -in full swing in the old civilised land of Syria against the best -families among the Mohammedan as well as the Christian population. The -whole civilised world is laying up a store of accusations of this kind -against the Turks, and it is to be hoped that a public sentence will be -passed on these gentlemen of the "Ittihad" on the conclusion of peace -by a combined court of Europeans and Americans. - -Here again the Young Turkish Government assumed the existence of a -widespread conspiracy and a Syrian and Arabian Separatist movement -towards autonomy, which was to free these lands from Turkish rule and -to be established under Anglo-French protection. At the time of the -Armenian persecutions the Committee had managed most cunningly to -turn the whole Armenian question to their own account by publishing -false official reports by the thousand, accompanied by any number of -photographs of "bands of conspirators," the authenticity of which never -has been proved and never will be; indeed one can only wonder where the -Turkish Government got them from. - -In this case again there was no lack of official printed commentaries -on Djemal Pasha's "hanging list," and any reader of the _Journal de -Beyrouth_ in war-time would have had no difficulty in compiling it. It -is certainly not my intention to question the existence of a Separatist -movement towards autonomy in Syria, but it was a sporadic tendency -only, and ought never to have been made the excuse for the wholesale -execution of highly respected and well-born citizens who had nothing -whatever to do with the matter. - -In the Young Turkish memorandum on this act of spying and bloodshed, -the passages most underlined and printed in the boldest characters, the -passages which, according to official intention, were to justify these -frightful reprisals, form the most terrible indictment ever brought -against Turkish despotism, and provide the most complete proof of the -truth of all the accusations made against the Turkish Government by -the ill-treated and oppressed Syrians and Arabians. On anyone who does -not read with Young Turkish eyes the memorandum makes directly the -opposite impression to what was intended. And even if the Separatist -movement had existed in any greater extent--which was quite out of the -question owing to lack of weapons, conflicting interests, the contrasts -in the people themselves, some of them Mohammedan, some Christian, -some sectarian, and the impossibility of any kind of organisation -under the stern discipline of Turkish rule--the Turks would have most -richly deserved it and it would have been justified by the thousands -of brutalities inflicted by the Old and Young Turkish régimes on the -highly civilised Arabian people and their industrious and commercial -neighbours the Syrians, who had always been much influenced by European -culture. Anyone who has once watched how the Committee in Stamboul -made a pretext of events on the borders of Caucasia to exterminate a -whole people, including women and children, even in Western and Central -Anatolia and the Capital, can no longer be in the least doubt as to the -methods employed by Djemal Pasha, the "hangman" of Syrians and Arabs, -how grossly he must have exaggerated and misstated the facts to find -enough victims so that he could look on for a year and a half with a -cigar in his mouth--as he himself boasted--while the flower of Syrian -and Arabian youth, the élite of society, and the aged heads of the best -families in the land were either hanged or shot. - -I should like to take the opportunity here of giving a short -description of Djemal Pasha, this man who, according to Turkish ideas, -is destined still to play a great part in Turkish politics. I should -also like to clear up a misunderstanding that seems to exist in -civilised Europe with regard to him. There is still an idea abroad -that Djemal Pasha is pro-French, this man who set out on his adventure -against the Suez Canal as "Vice-king of Egypt," and, after he had been -beaten there, settled in Syria as dictator with unlimited power--even -openly defying the Central Government in Constantinople when he felt -piqued--so that as commander of the Fourth Army he could support -the attempt against Egypt, but principally to satisfy his murderous -instincts. Anyone who has seen this man close at hand (whom a German -journalist belonging to the _Berliner Tageblatt_ with the most fulsome -flattery once called one of the handsomest men in Turkey) knows enough. -Small, thickset, a beard and a pair of cunning cruel eyes are the -most prominent features of this face from which everyone must turn in -disgust who remembers the "hangman's" part played by the man. - -It is extraordinary that he should still pass as Pro-French in many -quarters, and perhaps it is part of his slyness to preserve this rôle. -Djemal is not Pro-French; he is only the most calculating of all the -leading men of Turkey. He certainly had pro-French tendencies, in -the current meaning of the word, before the war; that is, he thought -the interests of his country would be best safeguarded against German -machinations for winning over the Young Turks by taking advantage -of Turkey's traditional friendship for France. He was also against -Turkey's participation in the war on the side of the Central Powers, -and he was furiously angry when the fleet which was supposed to be -under his control appeared against his will under the direction of the -German Admiral of the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ in the Black Sea. - -But when the war actually broke out, he very soon accommodated himself -to the new state of affairs. Instead of handing in his resignation, -he added to his naval duties the chief command of the army operating -against Egypt, for Djemal's chief characteristics were characterless -opportunism and inordinate ambition. Suiting his opinions to the facts -of the case, he was not long in advertising his Pro-French feelings -again so that he might be popular with the people of Syria. That of -course did not prevent him later on from carrying out his "hangman's -policy" against the Syrians who were bound by so many social ties to -France. From that it is not difficult to judge just how genuine his -Pro-French feelings are! - -The only genuine thing in his whole attitude is his admitted deep -hatred of Germany and his personal animosity towards the pro-German -Enver Pasha, arising partly from jealousy, partly from a feeling of -being slighted, and only concealed for appearance' sake. During the -war he has often enough made very plain utterances of his hatred of -Germany, and it would certainly betoken ill for German politics in -Turkey if Djemal Pasha succeeded in obtaining a more active rôle in the -Central Government. So far the Minister for War has managed to hold him -at arm's length, and Djemal has no doubt found it of advantage to wait -for a later moment, and content himself for the present with his actual -powerful position. - -From his own repeated anti-German speeches it has, however, been only -too easy to glean that his anti-German opinions and actions are not -the result of his being Pro-French, but of his being a jingoistic -Pan-Turk. He may simulate Pro-French feelings again and play them as -the trump card in his surely approaching decisive struggle with Enver -Pasha, when Enver's system has failed; Djemal will no doubt maintain -then that he foresaw everything, and that he has always been for France -and the Entente. Everyone who knows his character is at any rate sure -of one thing, and that is that he will stop at nothing, even a rising -against the Central Government, if his ambitious opportunism should -so dictate it. It is to be hoped, however, that public opinion among -the Entente will not be deceived as to his true character, and will -recognise that he is nothing more than a jingoistic, greedy, raging -Young Turkish fanatic and one of the most cunning at that. It would -really be doing too much honour to a man with a murderer's face and a -murderer's instinct to credit him with honest sympathies for France. - -Djemal's work is nearing fruition. His cruel executions, his cynical -breaking of promises in Syria, have at any rate contributed, along with -other politically more important tendencies which have been cleverly -utilised by England for the establishment of an Arabian Caliphate, -towards the decisive result that the Emir of Mecca has revolted -against the Turks. The Emir's son and his great Arabian suite had to -pay a prolonged visit to Djemal at one time, and it is evident that -the brutal execution of Arabian notables that he saw then directly -influenced his father's attitude. The movement is bound to spread, -and slowly and surely it will roll on till it ends in the full and -perfect separation from Turkey of all Arabic-speaking districts as far -as Northern Syria and the borders of Southern Kurdistan. The so-called -Separatist movement, that Djemal tried to drown in a sea of blood -before it was well begun, is now an actual fact. - -In Egypt England has been seeing for quite a long time the practical -and favourable results of her success in founding the Arabian -Caliphate. She has now gained practically absolute security for her -rule on the Nile, and she has even been able to remove troops and -artillery from the Suez Canal to other fronts. The German dream of an -offensive against Egypt vanished long ago; now even the last trace -of a German-Turkish attempt against the Canal has ceased, and the -English troops have moved the scene of their operations to Southern -Palestine. While I write these lines, there comes from the other side, -from Arabian Mesopotamia, the news of the recapture of Kut-el-Amara by -British troops. I should not like to prophesy what moral or political -results the fall of Baghdad, Medina, and Jerusalem will have for -Turkish rule; possibly, nay probably, iron necessity, the impossibility -of returning, the constraint imposed by their German Allies--for Turkey -is fully under German military rule--may weaken the direct results -of even such catastrophes as these. But the hearts which beat to-day -with high hopes for the freedom of Great Arabia and autonomy for Syria -under Franco-English protection will flame with new rapture, and in the -Turkish capital all grades of society will realise that Osmanic power -is on the decline. - -Meantime Djemal Pasha is still occupied in Syria raking in the property -of the murdered citizens and dividing it up among his minions, the -least very often being given over to commissions consisting of -individuals of extremely doubtful reputation. When he is not thus -busily engaged, he spends his time round the green table playing poker. -It is to be ardently hoped that even this great organiser will soon be -at the end of his tether in Syria and have to leave the country where -he has kinged in royally for two years. Then, perhaps, the moment may -come when things are going so badly for the whole of Turkey that Djemal -will at last have the opportunity, in spite of the failure of his -policy in Syria, of measuring his military strength against his hated -enemy Enver in Stamboul. That would be the beginning of the last stage -before the complete collapse of Turkey. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - Anti-war and pro-Entente feelings among the Turks--Turkish pessimism - about the war--How would Abdul-Hamid have acted?--A war of prevention - against Russia--Russia and a neutral Turkey--The agreement about the - Dardanelles--A peaceful solution scorned--Alleged criminal intentions - on the part of the Entente; the example of Greece and Salonika--To be - or not to be?--German influence--Turkey stakes on the wrong card--The - results. - - -There has been no lack of cross currents _against_ the war policy of -the Young Turkish Government. Ever since the entry of Turkey into the -war, there has been a deeply rooted and unshakeable conviction among -all kinds and conditions of men, even in the circles of the Pashas and -the Court--the people of Turkey take too little interest in politics -and are composed of far too heterogeneous elements for there to be -anything in the nature of what we call "public opinion"--that Turkey's -alliance with the Central Powers was a complete mistake and that it -can lead to no good. It is of course known that since the outbreak of -war Turkey has not only been under martial law and in a state of siege, -but that under the régime of a brutal military dictatorship, with its -system of espionage, personal liberty has been practically null and -void. Any expressions of disapproval, therefore, or agitations against -the "Committee" are naturally only possible in most intimate circles, -and that with all secrecy. Little or nothing of the true opinions of -this or that personage ever trickles through to publicity, and so it -is utterly impossible, except from quite detached symptoms, to get -any proper idea of what are the real thoughts and feelings of those -cultured Turks who do not belong to the "Ittihad" and have no part in -their system of pillage and aggrandisement. - -In spite of the limited information available it will be worth while, -I think, to go into these counter-streams a little more fully. In -pretty well every grade of society and among all nationalities in -Turkey, there is the conviction that the old Sultan Abdul-Hamid would -never have committed the fateful error of declaring war against the -Entente and binding himself hand and foot to Germany. In the case of -Turkey's remaining neutral, the Entente had formally promised her -territorial integrity; Turkey refused. She felt herself driven to a war -of prevention, principally through fear of the power of Russia. The -statements made by those who agreed with Enver and Pasha and pushed -for the war, that Turkey in the case of non-participation would be -completely thrown on the mercy of a victorious Russia and that Russia's -true aim in the war was the Dardanelles and Constantinople, have never -been authenticated. There are still Turks, anti-Russian Turks, who even -admitted this possibility, and yet believed the word of the Entente--at -any rate of the Western Powers--and trusted to England's throwing her -weight into the scale against Russia's plans of conquest, if Turkey -remained neutral. They saw and still see no necessity for the Turkish -Government to have entered on a war of prevention. - -Russia's aim was the Straits and Constantinople--well and good. But -Russia would by hook or by crook have had to come to a friendly -agreement with Turkey and could not have simply broken a definite -promise given by the combined Entente to Turkey. It would have been -quite different if Russia had demanded Constantinople from the Western -Powers as the price of her participation in the war against Germany; -then, but only then, the Entente would perhaps have had to come to an -agreement satisfying Russia on this head. But Russia had quite other -ideas, and long before Turkey's entry into the war and without any -prospects of getting Constantinople, she flung her whole weight against -Germany and Austria right at the beginning of the war. - -The treaty with regard to Constantinople between the Western Powers -and Russia was not signed till six months after Turkey declared war, -and England would certainly never have allowed Russia to encroach on a -really neutral or sympathetically neutral Turkey. Then, but only then, -there might have been some foundation in fact for the ideas one heard -advanced by German-Turkish illusionists who would still have liked to -believe that there was continual dissension within the Entente, even -long after the official notification of the Anglo-Russian treaty -with regard to the Straits, and by some even after the speech of the -Russian minister Trepoff, that the English occupation of the islands -at the entrance to the Dardanelles, which could be made into a second -Gibraltar, aimed chiefly at blocking the Straits and preventing Russia -from gaining undisturbed possession of Constantinople. Specially -optimistic people even look to that chimerical antagonism between -Russia and England for the salvation of Turkey, should Germany be -finally overcome. - -Whether she liked it or not, then, Russia would have had to come to -a friendly agreement with Turkey, had the latter remained neutral, -in order to gain the desired goal. And this goal would have been -necessarily limited, by the fact of Turkey's non-entry on the enemy -side, rather to the stoppage of German Berlin-Baghdad efforts at -expansion, the prevention of any strangulation of the enormous Russian -trade in the south and desperate opposition to any attempt to keep -Russia away from the Mediterranean, than to an attack on Turkey and -her vital interests. And who knows whether under such an agreement, -bound as it was to give Russia certain liberties and privileges in the -Straits, Turkey also might not have got much in exchange, at any rate -on financial lines, and might not also have obtained permission at last -to develop Armenia by that west-to-east railway so long desired by the -Turks and so strongly opposed by the Russians? - -Would the terrible bloodshed in the present war, the complete economic -exhaustion entailed, and the risk of a doubtful outcome of the fight -for existence or non-existence not have been far outweighed by the -prospect, in the case of a friendly agreement with Russia, of seeing -the orthodox cross again planted on the Hagia Sophia, an international -régime established in Constantinople--with certain Russian privileges -and the satisfaction of certain Russian moral demands, it is true, -but otherwise nothing to disturb Turkish life in Stamboul or in any -way prejudice Turkish prestige? Even the prospect of having to raze -the forts on the Straits to the ground in order to give free access -from the Mediterranean, or the necessity of having to inaugurate a -more humane and beneficent policy in Armenia, perhaps with European -supervision over the carrying out of the reforms would surely have -been preferable to the present state of affairs. These would all -have ensured for Turkey a long period of peace, capital wealth and -intellectual and social improvement, perhaps at the expense of a -momentary hurt to her feelings,--but these had been far more severely -wounded already, as, for example, when she had to look on helplessly -while bit after bit of her Empire was torn from her. It would have -been impossible for Russia to get more than this from Turkey had she -remained neutral. Her sovereignty and territorial integrity would have -been completely guaranteed. - -But Turkey thought she had to stake all, her whole existence, on -one card, and she staked on the wrong one, as is recognised now by -thousands of intelligent Turks. Believers in the war policy followed -by the Government make themselves hoarse maintaining that if Russia -had not gradually overpowered a neutral Turkey to win Constantinople -completely, at any rate the Entente would have finally forced her to -join their side; in either case, therefore, war was inevitable. They -point to Salonika, and, in face of all reason, maintain that the -Entente Powers would in all probability have treated Turkey exactly -as they treated Greece. They forget that their geographical position -is entirely different, and would have a very different effect on -military tactics. If Turkey had remained a sympathetic neutral, so -would Bulgaria; or else the whole of the Balkan States, from Roumania -and Bulgaria to Greece, would have joined the Entente right at the -beginning. In either case there would have been no necessity at all for -Turkey to join, for what military obligations had she to fulfil? The -Entente would certainly never have driven Turkey to fight, simply to -get the benefit of the Turkish soldiers available; there is no truth -whatever in the statements circulated about unscrupulous compulsion -with this end in view. - -The benefit for the Entente of Turkey's sympathetic neutrality would -have been so enormous that they would most certainly have been content -with that. Neither in Germany nor in Turkey is there any doubt whatever -in military circles that it was Turkey's entry into the war on the -German side and her blocking of the Straits, and so preventing Russia -from obtaining supplies of ammunition and other war material, that has -so far saved the Central Powers. Had Turkey remained neutral, constant -streams of ammunition would have poured into Russia, Mackensen's -offensive would have had no prospect at all of success, and Germany -would have been beaten to all intents and purposes in 1915. The Turks -do not scruple to let Germany feel that this is so on every suitable or -unsuitable occasion. - -The Entente would certainly never have moved a finger to disturb -Turkey's sympathetic neutrality and drive her into war. There would -have been tremendous material advantages for Turkey in such a -neutrality. Instead of being impoverished, bankrupt, utterly exhausted, -wholly lost, as she now is, she might have been far richer than -Roumania has ever been. There is one thing quite certain, and that is -that Abdul-Hamid would never have let this golden opportunity slide of -having a stream of money pouring in on himself and his country. And -certainly Turkey would not have lacked moral justification had she so -acted. - -These considerations I have put forward rather from the Turkish -anti-war point of view than from my own. They are opinions expressed -hundreds of times by thoroughly patriotic and intelligent Turks -who saw how the ever more intensive propaganda work of the German -Ambassadors, first Marschall von Bieberstein, then Freiherr von -Wangenheim, gradually wormed its way through opposition and prejudice, -how the German Military Mission in Constantinople tried to turn the -Russian hatred of Germany against Turkey instead, how, finally, those -optimists and jingoists on the "Committee," who knew as little about -the true position of affairs throughout the world as they did of the -intentions of the Entente or the means at their own disposal, proceeded -to guide the ship of State more and more into German waters, without -any reference to their own people, in return for promises won from -Germany of personal power and material advantage. These were those days -of excitement and smouldering unrest when Admiral von Souchon of the -_Goeben_ and the _Breslau_, with complete lack of discipline towards -his superior, Djemal Pasha, arranged with the German Government to -pull off a coup without Djemal's knowledge--chiefly because he was -itching to possess the "Pour le Mérite" order--and sailed off with the -Turkish Fleet to the Black Sea. (I have my information from the former -American Ambassador in Constantinople, Mr. Morgenthau, who was furious -at the whole affair.)[2] - -These were the days when Enver and Talaat threw all their cards on the -table in that fateful game of To Be or Not to Be, and brought on their -country, scarcely yet recovered from the bloodshed of the Balkan War, -a new and more terrible sacrifice of her manhood in a war extending -over four, and later five, fronts. The whole result of this struggle -for existence depended on final victory for Germany and that was -becoming daily more doubtful; in fact, Ottoman troops had at last to be -dispatched by German orders to the Balkans and Galicia. - -Turkey had, too, to submit to the ignominy of making friends with -her very recent enemy and preventing imminent military catastrophe -by handing over the country along the Maritza, right up to the gates -of the sacred city of Adrianople, to the Bulgarians. She had to look -on while Armenia was conquered by the Russians; while Mesopotamia -and Syria, in spite of initial successes, were threatened by -English troops; while the "Holy War" came to an untimely end, the -most consecrated of all Islam's holy places, Mecca, fell away from -Turkey, the Arabs revolted and the Caliphate was shattered; while her -population in the Interior endured the most terrible sufferings, and -economic and financial life tended slowly and surely towards complete -and hopeless collapse. - -Not even yet, indeed now less than ever, is there any general -acceptance among the people of the views held by Enver and Talaat -and their acolytes. Not yet do intelligent, independent men believe -the fine phrases of these minions of the "Committee," who are held -in leading strings by these dictators partly through gifts of money, -office, or the opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the -people, partly through fear of the consequences should they revolt, or -of those domestic servants who call themselves deputies and senators. -On the contrary, it is no exaggeration to say that three-quarters of -the intelligent out-and-out Turkish male population--quite apart from -Levantines, Greeks, and Armenians--and practically the entire female -population, who are more sensitive about the war and whose hearts are -touched more deeply by its immeasurable suffering, have either remained -perfectly friendly to England and France or have become so again -through terrible want and suffering. - -The consciousness that Turkey has committed an unbounded folly has long -ago been borne in upon wide circles of Turks in spite of falsified -reports and a stringent censorship. There would be no risk at all -in taking on a wager that in private conversation with ten separate -Turks, in no way connected with the "Committee," nine of them will -admit, as soon as they know there is no chance of betrayal, that they -do not believe Turkey will win, and that, with the exception of the -much-feared Russia, they still feel as friendly as ever towards their -present enemies. "_Quoi qu'il arrive, c'est toujours la pauvre Turquie -qui va payer le pot cassé._" ("Whatever happens, it's always poor -Turkey that'll have to pay the piper") and "_Nous avons fait une grande -gaffe_" ("We _have_ put our foot in it") were the kind of remarks made -in every single political discussion I ever had in Constantinople--even -with Turks. - -So much for the men, who judge with their reason. What of the women? -The one sigh of cultured Turkish women, up to the highest in the -land--who should have a golden book written in their honour for their -readiness to help, their sympathy, and humanity in this war--is: "When -shall we get rid of the Boches; when will our good old friends, the -English and the French, come back to us?" Nice results, these, of -German propaganda, German culture, German brotherhood of arms! What -a sad and shameful story for a German to have to tell! Naturally the -drastic system of the military dictatorship precludes the public -expression of such feelings, but one needs only have seen with one's -own eyes the looks so often cast by even real Turkish cultured society -at the German _Feldgrauen_ who often marched in close formation through -the streets of Constantinople--for a time they used to sing German -soldiers' songs, until that was prohibited at the express wish of the -Turkish Government to see how the land lies. - -There was a marked and ill-concealed contrast in the coldness shown -to Imperial German officers and the lavish affection showered on the -Austrians and Hungarians who used for a time often to pass through -Constantinople on their way to the Dardanelles or Anatolia with their -heavy artillery. They were a great deal more sociable than their -German comrades, and one could not fail to note the significance of -such freely voiced comments as "_N'est-ce pas, ils sont charmants les -Autrichiens?_" ("The Austrians _are_ delightful, aren't they?") The -sight of us Germans, especially the very considerable German garrison -stationed for a time in the Capital, awakened in the Turks, however -much they might recognise the military necessity for their presence, -remarkable ideas about the future "German Egyptising of Turkey," and -everyone blamed Enver Pasha as the man responsible for Germany's -penetrating thus far. - -A Turk in a high official position--whose name I shall naturally not -divulge--even went so far as to say to me in an intimate personal -discussion we were having one day between friend and friend: "We -Turks are and will always remain, in spite of the war, pro-English -and pro-French so far as social and intellectual life is concerned; -and it would need twenty years of hard propaganda work on Germany's -part, quite different from her present methods, to change this point -of view, if it ever could be changed." He went on to recall the time -of the pro-English era, and the enthusiastic demonstrations that had -taken place at the Sirkedji station when the horses were taken out of -the English Ambassador's carriage. "I was there myself," he said, "and -believe me, apart from the war, heaps of us are at bottom still of the -same mind." And, growing heated, he added: "What is your Embassy, tell -me? Is it really an Embassy? No representation, no intimate intercourse -with us, or at best only with your political agents, no personal charm, -nothing but brusque demands and a most humiliating economic neglect -of the Turkish population. The English and the French and even the -Russians would treat us quite differently." - -This man is no exception in his ideas. He is a thorough Young Turk, who -holds with the "Committee" through thick and thin and has to thank them -for a very pleasant billet, but he is, besides, a youngish man with a -modern European education. He is thoroughly imbued, as are all of his -kind, with modern French ideas, and even the war cannot alter that. -It only needs the final collapse of the Central Powers, and then the -break-down of the whole political system under the direction of these -jingoistic emancipationists who think they can get on without Europe, -and the Turks will all, every one of them, be as thoroughly pro-English -and pro-French as they ever were and will hate Germany and everything -German with fanatical hatred. - -Towards Hungary, their blood relation, they will probably retain some -friendliness in memory of their alliance in the Great War and the cause -of Turanism; they will be quite indifferent to Bulgaria; they will lose -their fear of Russia and come to an agreement with her; but after the -war there will be no bridging the gulf between Turkey and Germany, and -if Germany, on the conclusion of peace, is allotted any part of smaller -Turkey by the rest of the European Powers, she will have to reckon -for many a long year with the very chilly relations that will exist -between Germans and Turks. Even those who went heart and soul into the -war as a war of defence against Turkey's powerful northern neighbour -foresee that when peace is declared Turkey will, so far as her enormous -indebtedness to Germany permits, rather throw herself on the mercy -of England and France and America and beg from them the capital -necessary for reconstruction and for freeing them from the hated -German influence--an aversion which is already evident in hundreds of -different ways. Even Germany is beginning to recognise the existence -of this tendency, which, hand in hand with the jingoistic attempt to -turkify commercial life, bodes ill for German activity in Turkey after -the war. - -These are the opinions of the educated classes. The people, however, -the poor, ignorant Turkish people, were ready long ago to accept any -solution that would liberate them from their terrible sufferings. -The Turkish people have not the mental calibre of our German people -which will perhaps make them fight on, just for the sake of leaving no -stone unturned, even after it is quite evident that they are tending -towards final collapse. The stake for which they are fighting is not -so valuable to this agricultural people, who with an inferior and -extortionate set of rulers have never been able really to enjoy life, -as it is to the population of a modern industrial country like Germany, -where every political gain or loss has a direct result on their own -pockets; defeat will certainly have much less effect on the Oriental. -One can therefore speak with confidence of a general longing for -the end of the war at any price. The Turks have had quite enough of -suffering, and there are limits to what even these willing and mutely -resigned victims can bear. - -Nevertheless it is quite certain that the courageous Turkish soldier, -in obedience to iron discipline and in unconditional submission to his -Padishah, will continue to defend his lost cause to the very last -drop of his blood, with an unquestioning resignation that absolutely -precludes the idea of any defection within the army. Only a purely -political military revolution, originating with the better-informed -officers, who now really no longer believe in ultimate victory, is -within the bounds of possibility. - -But the most confiding endurance on the part of the Turkish soldier, -even when the military cause has long been lost, will not hinder this -same soldier, when he is once more back in his own home as a peasant, -from realising that European influence and European civilisation -are a very competent protection against the miserably retrogressive -Turkish rule, and that he has drawn more material profit from that -single example of European activity, the Baghdad Railway, than from -all Turkish official reforms put together, and so would willingly see -Europe exercising a powerful control in his country. He would accept -the military collapse of his country which he had so long and so -bravely defended, and the dramatic political changes, with a quietly -submissive "_Inshallah_." And although, deprived as he is of every -kind of information and without even the beginnings of knowledge, he -perhaps still believes in ultimate victory for the Padishah, he will -probably heave a sigh of relief when the unexpected collapse comes, and -he will not take long to understand what it means for him: freedom and -happiness and an undreamt-of material well-being under strong European -influence. - -The late successor to the throne, Prince Yussuf Izzedin Effendi, was -the highest of those in high authority who openly represented the -pessimistic anti-war tendency. It was for this that he was murdered -or perhaps made to commit suicide by Enver Pasha. The whole truth -about this tragic occurrence can only be sifted to the bottom when the -dictators of the "Committee" are no longer in their place and light -finally breaks on Turkey. Whether it was murder or suicide, the death -of the successor to the throne is one of the most dramatic scandals of -Turkish history, and Enver Pasha has his blood, as well as the blood -of so many others, on his head. As far as is possible during the war, -Europe has already collected all the information available on the -subject. I myself was in Constantinople when the tragic occurrence -took place, and I can speak so far from personal experience. - -In connection with this sensational event, the world has already heard -how Yussuf Izzedin was kept for years under the despotic Abdul-Hamid -shut off from the world as a semi-prisoner in his beautiful _Konak of -Sindjirlikuyu_, just outside the gates of Constantinople, where he -became a sufferer from acute neurasthenia. In recent years, however, -his health had improved and, although latently hostile to the men -of the "Committee" and their politics, he had come more into the -foreground, especially after the recapture of Adrianople, which he -visited with full pomp and ceremony as Crown Prince of the Turkish -Empire. While the Gallipoli campaign was going on, he even made a -journey to the Front to greet his soldiers. Early one morning he was -found lying dead in a pool of his own blood with a severed artery. He -had received his death wound in exactly the same place and exactly -the same way as his father, Sultan Abdul-Aziz, who fell a victim to -Abdul-Hamid's hatred. The political significance of Yussuf Izzedin's -death is perfectly clear. What we want to do now is to demonstrate -Enver Pasha's moral culpability in the matter and to show how he was -more or less directly the murderer of this quiet, cultured, highly -respected, and thoroughly patriotic man, who was some day to ascend the -throne of Turkey. - -So much at least seems to be clear, that Prince Izzedin, who was -naturally interested in retaining his accession to the throne -undisturbed and who in spite of his neurasthenia was man enough to -stand up for his own rights, foresaw ruin for his kingdom by Turkey's -entry into the war on the side of Germany. He was more far-seeing than -the careless adventurers and narrow-minded fanatics of the "Committee" -and recognised that the letting-go of the treasured Pan-Islamic -traditions of old Sultan Hamid was a grave mistake which would lead -to the alienation of the Arabs, and which endangered both the Ottoman -Caliphate and Ottoman rule in the southern parts of the Empire. He -could not console himself for the evacuation of the territory round -Adrianople, right up to the gates of the sacred city, which meant much -to him as the symbol of national enlightenment. He had a real personal -dislike for upstarts of the stamp of Enver and Talaat. Apart from -these differences of opinion and personal sympathies and antipathies, -deep-rooted though these undoubtedly were, Yussuf Izzedin was and -always would have been a thorough "Osmanli" with fiery nationalistic -feelings, who wished for nothing but the good of his Empire and his -country. And yet he was got rid of. - -It would be difficult for the present Turkish Government to prove that -the successor to the throne, apart from his feeling of sorrow that -his country had been drawn into the war, apart from his readiness to -conclude an honourable separate peace at the first possible moment, -did anything which might have caused them trouble. The officials of -the Turkish Government had themselves made repeated efforts through -their Swiss Ambassadors to find out how the land lay, and whether they -could conclude a separate peace; so they had no grounds at all for -reproaching Prince Yussuf Izzedin, who, as a leader of this movement, -naturally let no opportunity of this kind slide. But he was far too -clever not to know that any attempt in this direction behind the backs -of the present Government would have no chance of success so long as -Turkey was held under the iron fist of Germany. - -Perhaps the "Committee" had something to fear for the future, when the -time came for the reverses now regarded as inevitable. Yussuf would -then make use of his powerful influence in many circles--notably among -the discontented retired military men--to demand redress from the -"Committee." Enver, true to his unscrupulous character, quite hardened -to the sight of Turkish blood, and determined to stick to his post -at all costs--for it was not only lucrative, but flattering to his -vanity--was not the man to stick at trifles with a poor neurasthenic, -who under the present military dictatorship was absolutely at his -mercy. He therefore decided on cold-blooded murder. - -The Prince, well aware of the danger that threatened him, tried at -the last moment to leave the country and flee to safety. He had even -taken his ticket, and intended to start by the midday Balkan train next -day to travel to Switzerland via Germany. He was forbidden to travel. -Whether, feeling himself thus driven into a corner and nothing but -death at the hand of Enver's creatures staring him in the face, he -killed himself in desperation, or whether, as thousands of people in -Constantinople firmly believe, and as would seem to be corroborated by -the generally accepted, although of course not actually verified, tale -of a bloody encounter between the murderers and the Prince's bodyguard, -with victims on both sides, he was actually assassinated, is not yet -settled, and it is really not a matter of vast importance. - -One thing is clear, and that is that Izzedin Effendi did not pay -with his life for any illoyal act, but merely for his personal and -political opposition to Enver. He is but one on this murderer's long -list of victims. The numerous doctors, all well known creatures of the -"Committee" or easily won over by intimidation, who set their names -as witnesses to this "suicide as a result of severe neurasthenia"--a -most striking and suspicious similarity to the case of Abdul-Aziz--have -not prevented one single thinking man in Constantinople from forming a -correct opinion on the matter. The wily Turkish Government evidently -chose this kind of death, just like his father's, so that they could -diagnose the symptoms as those of incurable neurasthenia. History -has already formed its own opinion as to how much free-will there was -in Abdul-Aziz' death! The opinions of different people about Prince -Yussuf's death only differ as to whether he was murdered or compelled -to commit suicide. "_On l'a suicidé_," was the ironical and frank -comment of one clever Old Turk. We will leave it at that. - -The funeral of the successor to the throne was a most interesting -sight. I sent an article on it to my paper at the time, which of -course had only very, very slight allusions to anything of a sinister -character; but it did not find favour with the censor at the Berlin -Foreign Office. The editorial staff of the paper evidently saw what I -was driving at, and wrote to me: "We have revised and touched up your -report so as at least to save the most essential part of it;" but even -the altered version did not pass the censor's blue pencil. But I had at -any rate the moral satisfaction of knowing that of all the papers with -correspondents in the Turkish capital, mine, the _Kölnische Zeitung_, -was the only one that could publish nothing, not a single line, about -this important and highly sensational occurrence, for I simply wrote -nothing more. That was surely clear enough! - -When in 1913, after the unsuccessful counter-revolution, Mahmud Shevket -Pasha was assassinated and was going to be buried in Constantinople, -the "Committee" issued invitations days beforehand to all foreign -personages. This time nothing of the sort happened; and even the Press -representatives were not invited to be present. On the former occasion -everything possible was done, by putting off the interment as long as -possible and repeatedly publishing the date, by lengthening the route -of the funeral procession, to give several thousands of people an -opportunity of taking part in the ceremony. - -This time, however, the authorities arranged the burial with all speed, -and the very next day after the sensational occurrence the body was -hurried by the shortest way, through the Gülhané Park, to the Mausoleum -of Sultan Mahmud-Moshee. The coffin had been quietly brought in the -twilight the evening before from the Kiosk of Sindjirlikuyu on the -other side of Pera on the Maslak Hill, to the top of the Seraďl. Along -the whole route, however, wherever the public had access, there were -lines of police and soldiers; and the bright uniforms of the police -who were inserted in groups of twenty between every single row of the -procession of Ministers, members of the "Committee" and delegaters who -walked behind the coffin, were really the most conspicuous thing in the -whole ceremony. Enver Pasha passed quite close to me, and neither I, -nor my companions, could fail to note the ill-concealed expression of -satisfaction on his face. - -The most beautiful thing about this whole funeral, however, was the -visit paid me by the Secretary-General of the Senate, the minute -after I had reached home (and I had driven by the shortest way). With -a zeal that might have surprised even the simplest minded of men, -he offered to tell me about the Prince's life, lingering long and -going into exhaustive detail over the well-known facts of his nervous -ailment. Then, blushing at his own awkwardness and importunity, he -begged me most earnestly to publish his version of all the details and -circumstances of this tragic occurrence, "which no other paper will be -in a position to publish." Naturally it was never written. - -So, once more, in the late summer of 1916, Enver Pasha, who was so fond -of discovering conspiracies and political movements in order to get rid -of his enemies, and go scot free himself, had a fresh opportunity of -reflecting, with even more foundation than usual, on the firmness of -his position and the security of his own life. - -It is perhaps time now to give a more comprehensive description of this -man. We have already mentioned in connection with the failure of his -Caucasus offensive that Enver has been extraordinarily over-estimated -in Europe. The famous Enver is neither a prominent intellectual leader -nor a good organiser--in this direction he is far surpassed by Djemal -Pasha--nor an important strategist. In military matters his positive -qualities are personal courage, optimism, and, consequently, initiative -which is never daunted by fear of consequences, also cold-bloodedness -and determination; but he is entirely lacking in judgment, power of -discrimination, and largeness of conception. From the German point -of view he is particularly valuable for his unquestioning and -unconditional association with the Central Powers, his readiness to do -anything that will further their cause, his pliability and his zeal in -accommodating himself even to the most trenchant reforms. But it is -just these qualities that make enemies for him among retired military -men and among the people. - -Regarded from a purely personal point of view, Enver Pasha is, in spite -of the fulsome praise showered on him by Germans inspired by that -most pliant implement, German militarism, one of the most repugnant -subjects ever produced by Turkey. Even from a purely external point of -view his appearance does not at all correspond with the picture of him -generally accepted in Germany from flattering reports and falsified -photographs. Small of stature, with quite an ordinary face, he looks -rather, as one of my journalistic colleagues said, like a "gardener's -boy" than a Vice-General and War Minister, and anyone who ever has the -opportunity I have so often had, of looking really closely at him, will -certainly be repelled by his look of vanity and cunning. It was really -most painful to have to listen to him (he has always been a bad and -monotonous speaker) in the Senate and the Lower House at the conclusion -of the Dardanelles campaign reading his report in a weak, halting -voice, but with the disdainful tone of a dictator. Every third word was -an "I." Even the Turkish Press accorded this parliamentary speech a -fairly frosty reception. - -Besides this, Enver is one of the most cold-blooded liars imaginable. -Time and again there has been no necessity for him to say certain -things in Parliament, or to make certain promises, but apparently he -found cynical enjoyment in making the people and Parliament feel their -whole inferiority in his eyes. What can one think, for example, of such -performances as this? At the end of 1916 when the discussion about -military service for those who had paid the exemption tax (_bedel_) was -going on, he gave an unsolicited and solemn assurance before the whole -House that he had no intention whatever of calling up certain classes -until the Bill had been finally passed and that it would show that he -was really desirous of sparing commercial life as far as possible in -the calling up of men. Exactly two hours after this speech the drum -resounded through all the streets of Stamboul and Pera, calling up all -those classes over which Enver had as yet no power of jurisdiction, and -which he said he wanted to keep back because to tear them away from -their employment would mean the complete disorganisation of the already -sadly disordered commercial life of the country. - -This was Talaat's opinion, too, and he offered a firm resistance to -Enver's plan, which it appears had been introduced by command of the -German Government. In this case, however, resistance was useless, and -had to give way to military necessity. If Enver said something in -Parliament--this at any rate was the general conclusion--one might be -quite certain that exactly the opposite would take place. He has now -gained for himself the reputation of being a liar and a murderer among -all those who are not followers of the "Committee." - -In contrast to Talaat, who is at least intelligent enough to keep up -appearances and cunning enough to hold himself well in the background, -Enver's personal lack of integrity in money matters is a subject of -most shameful knowledge in Constantinople. It is pretty well generally -known how he has made use of his position as Military Dictator to gain -possession for himself of property worth thousands of pounds, and how -in his financial dealings with Germany hundreds have found their way -into his own pocket--up till the winter of 1915-1916, according to an -estimate from confidential Turkish circles and from German sources I -will not name, he had already managed to collect something like two -million pounds, reckoned in English money. This son of a former lowly -_conducteur_ in the service of the Roads and Bridges Board, whose -mother, as I have been assured by Turks is the case, plied in Stamboul -the much-despised trade of "layer-out" of corpses, now lives in his -Konak in more than princely luxury, with flowers and silver and gold on -his table, having married, out of pure ambition, a very plain-looking -princess. That is the true portrait of this much-coddled darling of -the Young Turks, and latterly of the German people as well. This is -the idol of so many admiring German women, who are bewitched by his -more than adventurous career and the halo surrounding him which he has -enhanced by every known and unknown means of self-advertisement. - -Enver's character won for him in "Committee" circles personal dislike -and bitter, though veiled, enmity even from his colleagues who were -of exactly the same political persuasion as himself. Of his relations -towards the infinitely more important Djemal Pasha we have already -spoken; we shall speak in a moment of his relations to Talaat. In the -world of the retired military men, however, who had been badgered about -by Enver, neglected and simply forcibly pensioned off by hundreds -before the war because of their divergent political opinions, and even -thrown into the street, the War Minister was heartily hated. A very -large part of them were of the same political views as the murdered -successor to the throne, and their opinion of the Great War was as -we have already indicated. They pointed bitterly to Enver as the -all-too-pliable servant of Germany, who was only too ready to sacrifice -the flower of Ottoman youth on those far battlefields of Galicia at -a sign from the German Staff, and open door after door to German -influence in the Interior without even attempting to protect the land -of his fathers from invasion and decay. - -As we have said, political revolutions in Turkey usually start in -military circles, not among the people, and there was an actual attempt -in this direction in the autumn of 1916. Either by chance or by -someone's betraying the plot, it was discovered by Enver in time, and -the number of military men and Old Turkish personages associated with -them, imprisoned in Constantinople alone, reached six hundred. At the -head of the movement stood Major Yakub Djemil Bey. - -During the whole of the summer of 1916 Enver's position had been looked -upon as quite insecure. The knowledge of his greed in money matters, -his tactless pushing, and his ruthless brutality had totally alienated -a wide circle of people, and many believed that he would soon have to -resign. - -In addition to this, a deep inward antagonism reigned between him and -Talaat, the real leader and by far the most important statesman of -Turkey, which was far more than a cleverly veiled personal dislike. -There was a constant struggle for power going on between the two men. -By the end of May the crisis had become pretty acute, although outward -appearances were still preserved and only well-informed circles knew -anything at all about the matter. Enver had at that time to hurry back -from the Irak, where he was on a visit of inspection with the German -Chief of Staff and the Military Attaché, in order to safeguard his -post. In confidential circles, the outbreak of open enmity between the -two was fully expected; but this time again Talaat was the cleverer. -He felt that, in spite of his own greater influence and following, in -spite of his real superiority to Enver, he might perhaps, if he tried -conclusions with him while he was still in command of the army, find -himself the loser and, in view of Enver's murderous habits, pay for his -rashness with his life. So he decided not to risk a decisive battle -just yet. He was too patriotic, also, to let things come to an open -break during the difficult time of war. Talaat disappeared for a short -time on a visit of inspection to Angora, and things settled down to -their old way again. - -There is still internal conflict going on. But Enver, with boundless -ambition and no fine feelings of honour, clings to his post, and -has shown by the way he dealt with the instigators of the conspiracy -mentioned above that nothing but force will move him from his post, -and that he will never yield to public opinion or the criticism of -his colleagues. He was troubled by no qualms, in spite of the widely -circulated opinion that he would certainly jeopardise his life if he -went on in the same ruthless way towards the retired military men. He -simply had the leader, Yakub Djemil Bey, hanged like a common criminal, -and the whole of his followers, for the most part superior officers and -highly respected persons, turned into soldiers of the second class, and -put in the front-line trenches. - -Enver's removal would not alter the whole Young Turkish régime much, -but it would take from it much of its ruthless barbarity, and its most -repugnant representative would vanish from the picture. It would also -be a severe blow for Germany and her militaristic policy of driving -Turkey mercilessly to suicide. It would be a godsend to the anti-German -Djemal Pasha. From a political point of view it would mean, far more -than Talaat's appointment as Grand Vizier, the absolute supremacy of -that statesman. - -At bottom probably less ruthless than Enver and certainly cleverer, -there is no doubt but that he would pursue his jingoistic ideas in the -realm of race-politics, but at any rate he would not want any military -system of frightfulness. Enver's removal from office will come within -the range of near possibility as soon as the new British operations -against Southern Palestine and Mesopotamia have produced a real -victory. Turkey is not in a good enough military position to prevent -this, and the whole world will soon recognise that it is this servant -of Germany, this careless optimist and very mediocre strategist who is -to blame for the inexorable breaking-up of the Ottoman Empire. - -The contrast I have noted between Enver and Talaat provides the -opportunity for saying a few words about Talaat, now Pasha and -Grand Vizier, and by far the most important man of New Turkey. -As Minister of the Interior, he has guided the whole fate of his -country, except in purely military matters, as uncrowned king. It is -he more than anyone else who is the originator of the whole system -of home politics. Solidity of character, earnestness, freedom from -careless optimism, and conspicuous power of judgment distinguish him -most favourably from Enver, who possesses the opposite of all these -qualities. A high degree of intelligence, an enormous knowledge of -men, an exceptional gift of organisation and tireless energy combined -with great personal authority, prudence and reserve, calm weighing -of the actual possibilities--in a word, all the qualities of the -real statesman--raise him head and shoulders above the whole of his -colleagues and co-workers. It would be unjust to doubt his ardent -patriotism or the honesty of his ideas and intentions. Talaat's -character is so impressive that one often hears even Armenians, the -victims of his own original policy of persecution, speak of him with -respect, and I have even heard the opinion expressed that had it not -been for Talaat's cleverness, the Committee would have gone much -further with their mischievous policy. - -But his high intellectual abilities do not prevent him from suffering -from that same plague of narrow-minded, jingoistic illusion peculiar -to the Pan-Turks. He is as if intoxicated with a race-fanaticism that -stifles all nobler emotions. Talaat is too methodical and clever not to -avoid all intentional ruthlessness, but in practice his system, which -he follows out with inflexible logic to the bitter end, turns out to -be just as brutal as Enver's intrinsically more brutal policy. And -although he accommodates himself outwardly to modern European methods -and knows how to utilise them, the ethics of his system are out-and-out -Asiatic. When Talaat speaks in the "Committee," there is very rarely -the slightest opposition. He has usually prepared and coached the -"Committee" so well beforehand that he can to all appearance keep in -the background and only follow the majority. With the exception of a -few military affairs, everything has always taken place that he has -proposed in Parliament. - -Beside this man, whose sparkling eyes, massive shoulders, broad chest, -clean-cut profile and exuberant health denote the whole unbounded -energy of the dictator, the good-natured, degenerate, and epileptically -inclined Sultan, Mehmed V, "El Ghazi" ("the hero"), is but a weak -shadow. But if we fully recognise Talaat's high intellectual qualities, -we should like all the more to emphasise that he must be held -personally responsible more than all the others for everything that is -now happening in Turkey, so far as it is not of a military character. -The spirit reigning in Turkey to-day, the spirit of Pan-Turkish -jingoism, is Talaat's spirit. The Armenian persecutions are his very -own work. And when the day of reckoning comes for the Turkey of the -"Committee of Union and Progress," it is to be hoped that Europe as -judge and chastiser and avenger of an outraged civilisation, will lay -the chief blame on Talaat Pasha rather than on his far weaker colleague -Enver. - -All his eminent qualities, however, do not prevent this intellectual -leader of Turkey, the most important man, beside the Sultan, in the -land, from showing signs of something that is typical of the whole -"Committee" clique with their dictatorial power, and which we may -perhaps be allowed to call _parvenuishness_. At all points we see -the characteristics of the parvenu in this statesman and one-time -adventurer and in these creatures of the "Committee" who have recently -become wealthy by certain abuses--I would remind you only of the -Requisitions--and by a lucrative adherence to the ruling clique. There -are of course individual cases of distinguished men of good birth -throwing in their lot with the "Committee," but they are extremely -rare, and they only help to give an even worse impression of the -average Young Turk belonging to the Government. Their past is usually -extremely doubtful, and their careers have been somewhat varied. - -No one of course would ever think of setting it down as a black mark -against Talaat, for example, that he had to work his way up to his -present supreme position from the very modest occupation of postman -and postal coach conductor on the Adrianople road, via telegraph -assistant and other branches of the Post Office; on the contrary, such -intelligence and energy are worthy of the highest praise. But Talaat's -case is a comparatively good one, and it is not so much their low -social origin that is a drawback to these political leaders of Turkey, -as their complete lack of education in statesmanship and history, -which unfits them for the high rôle they are called upon to fill. -Naturally it is not exactly pleasant when a man like Herr Paul Weitz, -the correspondent of the _Frankfurter Zeitung_, and a political agent, -can boast with a certain amount of justification that he has given tips -of money to many of the present members of the "Committee"--in the real -sense of the word, not in the political meaning of _backshish_! It is -no wonder, then, that German influence won its way through so easily! - -Even yet Talaat's lowly origin is a drawback to him socially, and, -in spite of his jovial manner and his complete confidence in his own -powers, he sometimes feels himself so unsure that he rather avoids -social duties. Probably one of the reasons of his long delay in -accepting the post of Grand Vizier--he was already definitely marked -out for it in the summer of 1915--was his own inner consciousness -that his whole past life unfitted him socially for the duties of such -an office. That he has now decided to accept it, is only the logical -sequence of the system of absolute Turkification, which, with its plan -of muzzling and supplanting all non-Turkish elements, had of course -to get rid of the Egyptian element in the Government, represented by -Prince Halim Saďd, the late Grand Vizier, and his brother, the late -Minister of Public Works. - -There are far more outstanding cases of incompatibility between social -upbringing and present activity among the "Committee." I will simply -take the single example of the Director General of the Press, Hikmet -Bey. Mischievous Pera still gives him the nick-name of "_Sütdji_" -("milkman"), because--although it is no reproach to him any more than -in Talaat's case--he still kept his father's milk shop in the Rue -Tepé Bashi in Pera before he managed to get himself launched on a -political career by close adherence to the Committee. Sometimes, of -course, one inherits from a low social origin far worse things than -social inferiority. Perhaps Djemal Pasha's murderous instincts are to -be traced to the fact that his grandfather was the official hangman in -the service of Sultan Mahmud, and that his father still retained the -nick-name of "hangman" among the people. - -One only needs to cast a glance at the Young Turks who are the -leaders of fashion in the "Club de Constantinople"--after the English -and French members are absent--with German officers who have been -admitted as temporary members at a reduced subscription, and one will -find there, as in the more exclusive "Cercle d'Orient," and in the -"Yachting Club" in Prinkipo in the summer-time, individuals belonging -to the "Committee" whose lowly origin and bad manners are evident at -the first glance. Talaat, who is himself President of the Club, knows -exactly how to get his adherents elected as members without one of them -being blackballed. People who used not to know what an International -Club was, and who perhaps, in accordance with their former social -status, got as far as the vestibule to speak to the Concierge, are -now great "club men" and can afford, with the money they have amassed -in "clique" trade and by the famous system of Requisitions, to play -poker every evening for stakes of hundreds of Turkish pounds. One -single kaleidoscopic glance into the perpetual whirl of any one of -these clubs, which used to be places of friendly social intercourse -for the best European circles, is quite sufficient to see the class -of degenerate, greedy parvenus that rule poor, bleeding, helpless, -exhausted Turkey. One cannot but be filled with a deep sympathy for -this unfortunate land. - -The Turks of decent birth are disgusted at these parvenus. I have had -conversations with many an old Pasha and Senator, true representatives -of the refined and kindly Old Turkish aristocracy, and heard many a -word of stern disapproval of the "Committee" quite apart from their -divergent political opinions. There is a whole distinguished Turkish -world in Constantinople who completely boycott Enver and his consorts -socially, although they have to put up with their caprices politically. -"I don't know Enver at all," or "_Je ne connais pas ces gens-lŕ_" -("I don't know these people"), are phrases that one very often hears -repeated with infinite disdain. In all these cases it is the purely -personal side--birth and manners--that repels them. - -Socially the cleft between the two camps is far deeper than it is -politically, for many of these same people accommodate themselves, -though with reluctance in their heart, to sharing at least formally -as Senators in the responsibility for the present Young Turkish -policy. They have to do so, for otherwise they would simply be flung -mercilessly by Enver's Clique on to the streets to beg for bread. -This is how it comes about to-day that, with very few exceptions, the -Senators, who, to tell the truth, have as little practical say as the -members of the Lower House, are all outwardly complaisant followers -of the "Committee." The more doctrinal, but at any rate courageous -and honourable opposition of Ahmed Riza is likewise of very little -significance. Once, about the middle of December, 1916, Enver even went -so far as to hurl the epithet "shameless dog" at Ahmed Riza in the -Senate without being called to order by the President. - -The Deputies are also, with even fewer exceptions than the -Senators--only one or two are reasonable men--all slaves pure and -simple of Enver and Talaat. The Lower House is nothing but a set of -employees paid by the Clique. In other countries now at war the Lower -House may have sunk to the level of a laughing-stock; in Turkey it -has become the instrument of crime. And it is these same toadies -and parasites, who daily carry out this military dictator's will in -Parliament, that he daily treats with scarcely veiled irony and open -and complete disdain. These are the "representatives of the people" in -Turkey in war-time! - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 2: Djemal Pasha learnt the news that Admiral von Souchon had -bombarded Russian ports, and so made war inevitable, one evening at the -Club. Pale with rage, he sprang up and said: "So be it; but if things -go wrong, Souchon will be the first to be hanged."] - - - - -CHAPTER X - - The outlook for the future--The consequences of trusting Germany--The - Entente's death sentence on Turkey--The social necessity for this - deliverance--Anatolia, the new Turkey after the war--Forecasts about - the Turkish race--The Turkish element in the lost territory--Russia - and Constantinople; international guarantees--Germany, at peace, - benefits too--Farewell to the German "World-politicians"--German - interests in a victorious and in an amputated Turkey--The - German-Turkish treaty--A paradise on earth--The Russian commercial - impetus--The new Armenia--Western Anatolia, the old Greek centre of - civilization--Great Arabia and Syria--The reconciliation of Germany. - - -We have come to the end of our sketches. The question before us now is: -What will become of Turkey? The Entente has pronounced formal sentence -of death on the Empire of the Sultan, and neither the slowly fading -military power of Turkey, nor the help of Germany, who is herself -already virtually conquered, will be able to arrest her fate. - -On the high frost-bound uplands of Armenia the Russians hold a -strategic position from which it is impossible to dislodge them, and -which will probably very soon extend to the Gulf of Alexandretta. In -Mesopotamia, after that enormously important political event, the Fall -of Baghdad, the union was effected between the British troops and -the Russians, advancing steadily from Persia. The Suez Canal is now -no longer threatened, and the British troops have been removed from -there for a counter-offensive in Southern Palestine, and probably, -when the psychological moment arrives, an offensive against Syria, -now so sadly shattered politically. It is quite within the bounds of -possibility, too, that during this war a big new Front may be formed -in Western Anatolia, already completely broken up by the Pan-Hellenic -Irredenta, and the Turks will be hard put to it to find troops to meet -the new offensive. Arabia is finally and absolutely lost, and England, -by establishing an Arabian Caliphate, has already won the war against -Turkey. Meantime, on the far battlefields of Galicia and the Balkans, -whole Ottoman divisions are pouring out their life-blood, fighting for -that elusive German victory that never comes any nearer, while in every -nook and corner of their own land there is a terrible lack of troops. -Enver Pasha, at length grown anxious, has attempted to recall them, but -in vain. - -That is a short résumé of the military situation. This is how the -Turkey of Enver and Talaat is atoning for the trust she has placed in -Germany. - -To a German journalist who went out two years ago to a great Turkey, -striving for a "Greater Turkey," it does indeed seem a bitter irony of -fate to see his sphere of labour thus reduced to nothingness. The fall -of Turkey is the greatest blow that could have been dealt to German -"world-politics"; it is a disappointment that will have the gravest -consequences. But from the standpoint of culture, human civilisation, -ethics, the liberty of the peoples and justice, historical progress, -the economic development of wide tracts of land of the greatest -importance from their geographical position, it is one of the most -brilliant results of the war, and one to be hailed with unmixed joy. -When I look back on how wonderfully things have shaped in the last two -and a half years I am bound to admit that I am happy things have turned -out as they have. If perchance any Turk who knows me happens to read -these lines, I beg him not to think that my ideas are saturated with -hatred of Turkey. On the contrary, I love the country and the Turkish -race with those many attractive qualities that rightly appealed to a -poet like Loti. - -I have asked myself thousands of times what would be the best political -solution of the problem, how to help this people--and the other races -inhabiting their country--to true and lasting happiness. From my many -journeys in tropical lands, I have grown accustomed to the sight of -autochthonous civilisations and semi-civilised peoples, and am as -interested in them as in the most perfectly civilised nations of -Europe. I have therefore, I think, been able to set aside entirely in -my own mind the territorial interests of the West in the development -of the Near East, and give my whole attention to Turkey's own good and -Turkey's own needs. But even then I have been obliged to subscribe -to the sentence of death passed on the Turkey of the Young Turks -and the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. It is with the fullest -consciousness of what I am doing that I agree to the only seemingly -cruel amputation of this State. It is merely the outer shell covering -a number of peoples who suffer cruelly under an unjust system, chief -among them the brave Turkish people who have been led by a criminal -Government to take the last step on the road to ruin. The point of view -I have adopted does not in any way detract from my personal sympathies, -and I still have hopes that the many personal friendships I made -in Constantinople will not be broken by the hard words I have been -obliged to utter in the cause of truth, in the interests of outraged -civilisation, and in the interests of a happier future for the Ottoman -people themselves. - -The amputation of Turkey is a stern social necessity. Someone has -said: "The greatest enemy of Turkey is the Turk." I have too much love -for the Turkish people, too much sympathy for them, to adopt this -pessimistic attitude without great inward opposition; but unfortunately -it is only too true. We have seen how the Turkey of Enver and Talaat -has reacted sharply against the Western-minded, liberal era of the -1876 and 1908 constitutions, and has turned again to Asia and her newly -discovered ideal, Turanism. To the Turks of to-day, European culture -and civilisation are at best but a technical means; they are no longer -an end in themselves. Their dream is no longer Western Europe, but a -nationally awakened and strengthened Asiatentum. - -In face of this intellectual development, how can we hope that in the -new Turkey there will be a radical alteration of what, in the whole -course of Ottoman history, has always been the one characteristic, -unchangeable, momentous fact, of what has always shattered the most -honest efforts at reform, and always will shatter every attempt at -improvement within a sovereign Turkey--I refer to the relationship -of the Turk to the "_Rajah_" (the "herd"), the Christian subjects of -the Padishah. The Ottoman, the Mohammedan conqueror, lives by the -"herd" he has found in the land he has conquered; the "herd" are the -"unbelievers," and rooted deep in the mind of this sovereign people, -who have never quite lost their nomadic instincts, is the conviction -that they have the right to live by the sweat of the brow of their -Christian subjects and on the fruits of their labour. That we -Europeans think this unjust the Turk will never be able to grasp. - -A Wali of Erzerum once said: "The Turkish Government and the Armenian -people stand in the relationship of man and wife, and any third persons -who feel sympathy for the wife and anger at the wife-beating husband -will do better not to meddle in this domestic strife." This quotation -has become famous, for it exactly characterises the relationship of -the Turk to the "Rajah," not to the Armenians. In this phrase alone -there lies, quite apart from all the crimes committed by the present -Turkish Government, a sufficient moral and political foundation for -the sentence of death passed on the sovereignty of the present Turkish -State. For so long as the Turks cling to Islam, from which springs that -opposition between Moslem rulers and "Giaur" subjects so detrimental -to all social progress, it is Europe's sacred duty not to give Turkey -sovereignty over any territory with a strong Christian element. That -is why Turkey must at all costs be confined to Inner Anatolia; that is -why complete amputation is necessary; and why the outlying districts -of Turkey, the Straits, the Anatolian coast, the whole of Armenia must -be rescued and, part of it at any rate, placed under formal European -protection. - -Even in Inner Anatolia, which will probably still be left to the -Ottomans after the war, the strongest European influence must be -brought to bear--which will probably not be difficult in view of -Turkey's financial bankruptcy; European customs and civilisation must -be introduced; in a word, Europe must exercise sufficient control -to be in a position to prevent the numerous non-Turks resident even -in Anatolia from being exposed to the old system of exploiting the -"Rajah." Discerning Turks themselves have admitted that it would be -best for Europe to put the whole of Turkey for a generation under -curatorship and general European supervision. - -I, personally, should not be satisfied with this system for the -districts occupied more by non-Turks than by Turks; but, on the other -hand, I should not go so far in the case of Inner Anatolia. I trust -that strong European influence will make it possible to make Inner -Anatolia a sovereign territory. I have pinned my faith on the Ottoman -race being given another and final opportunity on her own ground of -showing how she will develop now after the wonderful intellectual -improvement that has taken place during the war. I hope at the same -time that even in a sovereign Turkish Inner Anatolia Europe will have -enough say to prevent any outgrowths of the "Rajah principle." - -The Turks must not be deprived of the opportunity to bring their -new-found abilities, which even we must praise, to bear on the -production of a new, modern, but thoroughly Turkish civilisation -of their own on their own ground. Anatolia, beautiful and capable -of development, is, even if we confine it to those interior parts -chiefly inhabited by Ottomans, still quite a big enough field for the -production of such a civilisation; it is quite big enough too for the -terribly reduced numbers now belonging to the Osmanic race. - -The amputation and limitation of Turkey, even if they do not succeed -in altering the real Turkish point of view--and this, so far as the -relationship to the Christians is concerned, is the same, from the -Pasha down to the poorest Anatolian peasant--will at least have a -tremendously beneficial effect. The possibilities in the Turkish race -will come to flower. "The worst patriots," I once dared to say in one -of my articles in spite of the censorship, "are not those who look for -the future of the nation in concentrated cultural work in the Turkish -nucleus-land of Anatolia, instead of gaping over the Caucasus and down -into the sands of the African desert in their search for a 'Greater -Turkey.'" And in connection with the series of lectures I have already -mentioned about Anatolian hygiene and social politics, I said, with -quite unmistakable meaning: "Turkey will have a wonderful opportunity -on her own original ground, in the nucleus-land of the Ottomans, of -proving her capability and showing that she has become a really modern, -civilised State." - -My earnest wish is that all the Turks' high intellectual abilities, -brought to the front by this war, may be concentrated on this beautiful -and repaying task. Intensive labour and the concentration of all forces -on positive work in the direction of civilisation will have to take the -place of corrupt rule, boundless neglect, waste, the strangulation of -all progressive movements, political illusions, the unquenchable desire -for conquest and oppression. This is what we pray for for Anatolia, -the real New Turkey after the war. In other districts, also, now fully -under European control, the pure Turkish element will flourish much -more exceedingly than ever before under the beneficent protection of -modern, civilised Governments. Frankly, the dream of Turkish Power has -vanished. But new life springs out of ruin and decay; the history of -mankind is a continual change. - -Russia, too, after war, will no longer be what she seemed to terrified -Turkish eyes and jealous German eyes dazzled by "world-politics": a -colossal creature, stretching forth enormous suckers to swallow up her -smaller neighbours; a country ruled by a dull, unthinking despotism. - -From the standpoint of universal civilisation it is to be hoped that -the solution of the problem of the Near East will be to transform -the Straits between the Black Sea and Aegea, together with the city -of Constantinople, uniquely situated as it is, into a completely -international stretch with open harbours. Then we need no longer oppose -Russian aspirations. If England, the stronghold of Free Trade and of -all principles of freedom of intercourse, and France, the land of -culture, interested in Turkey to the extent of millions, were content -to leave Russia a free hand in the Straits; if Roumania, shut in in -the Black Sea, did not fear for her trade, but was willing to become -an ally of Russia in full knowledge of the Entente agreement about -the Straits, it is of course sufficiently evident what guarantee -with regard to international freedom modern Russia will have to give -after the war, and even the Germans have nothing to fear. Of course -the German anti-European "Antwerp-Baghdad" dream will be shattered. -But once Germany is at peace, she will probably find that even the -Russian solution of the Straits question benefits her not a little. The -final realisation of Russia's efforts, justifiable both historically -and geographically, to reach the Mediterranean at this one eminently -suitable spot, will certainly contribute in an extraordinary degree to -remove the unbearable political pressure from Europe and ensure peace -for the world. - -Just a few parting words to the German "World-politicians." Very often, -as I have said, I heard during my stay in Constantinople expressions -of anxiety on the part of Germans that all German interests, even -purely commercial ones, would be gravely endangered in the victorious -New Turkey, which would spring to life again with renewed jingoistic -passions and renewed efforts at emancipation. And more than once--all -honour to the feelings of justice and the sound common sense of those -who dared to utter such opinions--I was told by Germans, in the middle -of the war, and with no attempt at concealment, that they fully agreed -it was an absolute necessity for Russia to have the control of the -only outlet for her enormous trade to the Mediterranean, and that -commercially at any rate the fight for Constantinople and the Straits -was a fight for a just cause. - -Now, let us take these two points of view together. From the purely -German standpoint, which is better?--a victorious and self-governing -Turkey imbued with jingoism and the desire for emancipation, -practically closed to us, even commercially, or an amputated Turkey, -compelled to appeal for European help and European capital to recover -from her state of complete exhaustion; a Turkey freed from those -Young Turkish jingoists who, in spite of all their fine phrases and -the German help they had to accept for all their inward distaste of -it, hate us from the very depths of their heart; a Turkey which, even -if Russia,--as a last resort!--is allowed to become mistress of the -Dardanelles with huge international guarantees, would, in the Anatolia -that is left to her, capable of development as it is, and rich in -national wealth, offer a very considerable field of activity for German -enterprise? The short-sighted Pan-Germans, who are now fighting for the -victory of anti-foreign neo-Pan-Turkism against the modern, civilised -States of the Entente, who had no wish at all that Germany should not -fare as well as the rest in the wide domains of Asiatic Turkey, can -perhaps answer my question. They should have asked themselves this, -and foreseen the consequences before they yielded weakly to Turkish -caprices and themselves stirred up the Turks against Europe. - -As things stand now, however, the German Government has thought fit, -in her blind belief in ultimate victory, to enter on a formal treaty, -guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, at -a point in the war when no reasonable being even in Germany could -possibly still believe that a German victory would suffice to protect -Turkey after she has been solemnly condemned by the Entente for her -long list of crimes. Germany has thus given a negative answer to the -question passed from mouth to mouth in the international district of -Pera almost right from Turkey's entry into the war: "Will Germany, if -necessary, sacrifice Constantinople and the Dardanelles, if she can -thus secure peace with Russia?" She had already given the answer "No" -before the absurd illusions of a possible separate peace with Russia -at this price were finally and utterly dispelled by the speech of the -Russian Minister Trepoff, and the purposeful and cruelly clear refusal -of Germany's offer of peace. These events and the increasing excitement -about the war in Constantinople and elsewhere were not required to -show that in the Near East as well the fight must be fought "to the -bitter end." - -Never, however--and that is German World-politics, and the ethics of -the World-politician--have I ever heard a single one of those Germans, -who thought it an impossibility to sacrifice their ally Turkey in order -to gain the desired peace, put forward as an argument for his opinion -the shame of a broken promise, but only the consideration that German -activity in the lands of Islam, and particularly in the valuable Near -East, would be over and done with for ever. I wonder if those who have -decided, with the phantom of a German-Turkish victory ever before them, -to go on with the struggle on the side of Turkey even after she had -committed such abominable crimes, and to drench Europe still further -with the blood of all the civilised nations of the world, ever have -any qualms as to how much of their once brilliant possibilities of -commercial activity in Turkey, now so lightly staked, would still exist -were Turkey victorious. - -Luckily for mankind, history has decided otherwise. After the war, the -huge and flourishing trade of Southern Russia will be carried down to -the then open seaports between Europe and Asia; the wealth of Odessa -and the Pontus ports, enormously increased and free to develop, will -be concentrated on the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and the whole -hitherto neglected city of Constantinople, from Pera and Galata to -Stamboul and Scutari and Haidar-Pasha, will become an earthly paradise -of pulsing life, well-being, and comfort. The luxury and elegance of -the Crimea will move southwards to these shores of unique natural -beauty and mild climate which form the bridge between two continents -and between two seas. Anyone who returns after a decade of peaceful -labour, when the Old World has recovered from its wounds, to the -Bosporus and the shores of the Sea of Marmora, which he knew before the -war, under Turkish régime, will be astonished at the marvellous changes -which will then have been wrought in that favoured corner of the earth. - -Never, even after another hundred years of Turkish rule, would that -unique coast ever have become what it can be and what it must be--one -of the very greatest centres of international intercourse and the -Riviera of the East, not only in beauty of landscape, but in luxury -and wealth. The greatest stress in this connection is to be laid on -the lively Russian impetus that will spring from a modernised Russia, -untrammelled by restrictions in the Straits. Convinced as I am that -Russia after the war will no longer be the Russia of to-day, so feared -by Germany, the Balkan States, and Turkey, I am prepared to give this -impetus full play, as being the best possible means for the further -development of Constantinople. - -In Asia Minor, from Brussa to the slopes of the Taurus and the foot -of the Armenian mountains, there will extend a modern Turkey which -has finally come to rest, to concentration, to peaceful labour, after -centuries of conflict, despotic extortion, the suicidal policy of -military adventurers, and superficial attempts at expansion coupled -with neglect of the most important internal duties. The inhabitants -of these lands will soon have forgotten that "Greater Turkey" has -collapsed. They will be really happy at last, these people whose -idea of happiness hitherto had been a veneer of material well-being -obtained by toadying, while the great bulk of the Empire pined in dirt, -ignorance, and poverty, consumed by an outworn militarism, oppressed -by a decaying administration. Then, but not till then, the world will -see what the Turkish people is capable of. Then there will be no need -for pessimism about this kindly and honourable race. Then we can become -honest "Pro-Turks" again. - -In Western Asia Minor, Europe will not forget that the whole shore, -where once stood Troy, Ephesus, and Milet, is an out-and-out Hellenic -centre of civilisation. Quite independently of all political feelings -towards present-day Greece, this historical fact must be taken into -consideration in the final ruling. It is to be hoped that the Greek -people will not have to atone for ever for the faults of their -non-Greek king who has forgotten that it is his sacred duty to be a -Greek and nothing but a Greek, and who has betrayed the honour and the -future of the nation. - -The Armenian mountain-land, laid waste by war, and emptied of men -by Talaat's passion for persecution, will obtain autonomy from her -conqueror, Russia, and will perhaps be linked up with all the other -parts of the east, inhabited by the last remnants of the Armenian -people. Armenia, with its central position and divided into three among -Turkey, Russia, and Persia, may from its geographical position, its -unfortunate history, and the endless sufferings it has been called -upon to bear, be called the Poland of Further Asia. Delivered from the -Turkish system, freed from all antagonistic Turko-Russian military -principles of obstruction, linked up by railways to the west as well as -the already well-developed region of Transcaucasia, with a big through -trade from the Black Sea via Trapezunt to Persia and Mesopotamia, -it will once more offer an excellent field of activity to the high -intellectual and commercial abilities of its people, now, alas! -scattered to the four winds of heaven. But they will return to their -old home, bringing with them European ideas, European technique, and -the most modern methods from America. - -If men are lacking, they can be obtained from the near Caucasus with -its narrow, over-filled valleys, inhabited by a most superior race -of men, who have always had strong emigrating instincts. Even this -most unfortunate country in the whole world, which the Turks of the -Old Régime and of the New have systematically mutilated and at last -bequeathed to Russia with practically not a man left, is going to have -its spring-time. - -In the south, Great Arabia and Syria will have autonomy under the -protection of England and France with their skilful Islam policy; they -will have the benefit of the approved methods of progressive work in -Egypt, the Soudan, and India as well as the Atlas lands; they will be -exposed to the influences and incitements of the rest of civilised -Europe; they will probably be enriched with capital from America, -where thousands of Arab and Syrian, as well as Armenian, refugees have -found a home; they will provide the first opportunity in history of -showing how the Arab race accommodates itself to modern civilisation -on its own ground and with its own sovereign administration. The final -deliverance of the Arabs from the oppressive and harmful supremacy of -the Turks, now happily accomplished by the war, was one of the most -urgent demands for a race that can look back on centuries of brilliant -civilisation. The civilised world will watch with the keenest interest -the self-development of the Arabian lands. - -Even Germany, once she is at peace, will have no need to grumble at -these arrangements, however diametrically opposed they may be to the -now sadly shattered plans of the Pan-German and Expansion politicians. -Germany will not lose the countless millions she has invested in -Turkey. She will have her full and sufficient share in the European -work and commercial activity that will soon revive again in the Near -East. The Baghdad railway of "Rohrbach & Company" will never be -built, it is true; but the Baghdad Railway with a loyal international -marking off of the different zones of interest, the Baghdad Railway, -as a huge artery of peaceful intercourse linking up the whole of Asia -Minor and bringing peace and commercial prosperity, will all the more -surely rise from its ruins. And when once the German _Weltpolitik_ -with its jealousy, its tactless, sword-rattling interference in the -time-honoured vital interests of other States, its political intrigues -disguised in commercial dress, is safely dead and buried, there will be -nothing whatever to hinder Germany from making use of this railway and -carrying her purely commercial energy and the products of her peaceful -labour to the shores of the Persian Gulf and receiving in return the -rich fruits of her cultural activity on the soil of Asia Minor. - - - - -APPENDIX - - -For the better understanding of the fact that a German journalist, the -representative of a great national paper like the _Kölnische Zeitung_, -could publish such a book as this, and to ward off in advance all the -furious personal attacks which will result from its publication, and -which might, without an explanation, injuriously affect its value as -an independent and uninfluenced document, it is, I think, essential to -explain the rôle I filled in Constantinople, how I left Turkey, and how -I came to the decision to publish my experiences. - -As far as my post on the _Kölnische Zeitung_ is concerned, I accepted -it and went to Turkey although I was from the very beginning against -German "World-politics" of the present-day style at any rate (not -against German commercial and cultural activity in foreign countries) -and against militarism--as was only to be expected from one who had -studied colonial politics and universal history unreservedly, and had -spent many years studying in the English, French, and German colonies -of Africa--and although I was quite convinced that Germany's was the -crime of setting the war in motion. Besides, my "anti-militarism" is -not of a dogmatic kind, but refers merely to the relations customary -between civilised nations--witness the fact that I took part in the -Colonial War of 1904-6 in German South-West Africa as a volunteer. - -I hoped to find in Turkey some satisfaction for my extra-European -leanings, a sphere of labour less absorbed by German militarism, and -opportunity for independent study, and surely no one will take it amiss -that I seized such a chance, certainly unique in war-time, in spite of -my political views. - -Once arrived in Turkey, I kept well in the background to begin with, -so as to be able to form my own opinion, of course doing my uttermost -at the same time to be loyal to the task I had undertaken. In spite -of everything I had to witness, it was quite easy to reconcile all -oppositions, until that famous day when my wife denounced Germany to -my face. From that moment I became an enemy of present-day Germany -and began to think of one day publishing the whole truth about the -system. Until then I had contented myself with never saying a good word -about the war, as one can easily find for oneself from a perusal of my -various articles in the _Kölnische Zeitung_ during 1915-16, dated from -Constantinople and marked (a small steamship). - -That dramatic event which finally alienated me from the German cause -took place just after the end of a severe crisis in my relationship -with German-Turkish Headquarters. Some slight hints I had given of -Turkish mismanagement, cynicism, and jingoism in a series of articles -appearing from February 15th, 1916, onwards, under the title "Turkish -Economic Problems," so far as they were possible under existing -censorship conditions, was the occasion of the trouble. One can imagine -that Headquarters would certainly be furious with a journalist whose -articles appeared one fine day, literally translated, in the _Matin_ -under the title: "_Situation insupportable en Turquie, décrite par un -journaliste allemand_" ("Insufferable situation in Turkey, described -by a German journalist"), and cropped up once more on June 1st, in -the _Journal des Balcans_, I was three times over threatened with -dismissal. My paper sent a confidential man to hold an inquiry, and -after a month he made a confidential report, which resulted in my being -allowed to remain. But the fact that the same journalist that wrote -such things was married to a Czech was too much for my colleagues, -who were in part in the pay of the Embassy, in part in the pay of the -Young Turkish Committee, whose politics they praised, regardless of -their own inward convictions, like the representative of the _Berliner -Tageblatt_, to get material benefit or make sure of their own jobs. -I gleaned many humorous details at a nightly sitting of my Press -colleagues in Pera, at which I myself was branded as a "dangerous -character that must be got rid of," and my wife (who was far too young -ever to worry about politics) as a "Russian spy"--perhaps because, with -the justifiable pride and reserve of her race, she did not attempt to -cultivate the society of the German colony. That began the period of -intrigues and ill-will, but my enemies did not succeed in damaging -me, although matters went so far as a denunciation of me before the -"Prevention of Espionage Department" of the General Staff in Berlin. My -paper, after they had given me the fullest moral satisfaction, and had -arranged for me to remain in Constantinople in spite of all that had -taken place, thought it was better to give me the chance of changing -and offered me a new post on the editorial staff elsewhere. - -However, I was now quite finished with Germany, or rather with its -politics; it would have been a moral impossibility for me to write -another single word in the editorial line; so I refused the offer and -applied for sick-leave from October 1st, 1916, to the end of the war -(by telegram about the middle of August). It was granted me with an -expression of regret. - -Arrived in Switzerland (February 7th, 1917), I severed all connection -with my paper by mutual consent from October 1st, 1916, onwards. After -my resignation, no special editorial representative of the _Kölnische -Zeitung_ was appointed to take my place, as the censorship made any -kind of satisfactory work impossible. - -I should like to emphasise the fact that the intrigues against me, -the crisis with Headquarters I have just mentioned, and my departure -from Constantinople did not injure me in any way either morally -or financially, and have nothing whatever to do with the present -publication. It is certainly not any petty annoyance that could bring -me to such an action, which will probably entail more than enough -unpleasant consequences for me. The reproaches levelled against me by -my pushing, jingoistic colleagues were as impotent as their attempts to -get rid of me as "dangerous to the German Cause"; I have written proof -of this from my paper in my hand, and also of the fact that it was of -my own free-will that I retired. I can therefore look forward quite -calmly to all the personal invective that is sure to be showered on me -for political reasons. - -I had sufficient independent means not to feel the loss of my post -in Constantinople too keenly; and if I still kept my post after the -beginning of the crisis with Headquarters, it was simply and solely so -that as a newspaper correspondent I might be in possession of fuller -information, and able to follow up as long as possible the developments -that were taking place on that most interesting soil of Turkey. -When that was no longer possible, I refused the post offered me in -Cologne--in fact twice, once by letter and once by telegram--for I -could not pretend to opinions I directly opposed. I therefore remained -as a free-lance in the Turkish capital. I was extremely glad that the -difference of opinion ended as it did, for I had at last a free hand to -say and write what I thought and felt. - -My stay in Constantinople for a further three months as a silent -observer naturally did not escape the notice of the German authorities, -and after they had reported to the Foreign Office that a "satisfactory -co-operation between me and the German representatives was not longer -possible," they had of course to discover some excuse for putting an -end to my prolonged stay in Turkey. They finally attempted to get rid -of me by calling me up for military duty again. But this was useless in -my case, for my health had been badly shaken by my spell at the Front -at the beginning of the war, and besides I had the doctor's word for it -that I should never be able to stand the German climate after having -lived so long in the Tropics. - -Whether they liked it or not, the authorities had to find some -other means of getting me out of Constantinople. The Consul-General -approached me, after he had discussed the matter with the Ambassador, -to see if I would not like to go to Switzerland to get properly cured; -otherwise he was sure I would be turned out by the Turks. They were -evidently afraid, for I was getting more and more into bad odour -with the German authorities for my ill-concealed opinions, that I -would publish my impressions, with documentary support, as soon as -ever there was a change of government in Turkey, or as soon as the -German censorship was removed and anything of the kind was possible. -They apparently thought that the frontier regulations would be quite -sufficient to prevent my taking any documentary evidence with me to -Switzerland. - -As a matter of fact this was the case, and the day before my departure -from Constantinople I carefully burned the whole of my many notes, -which would have produced a much more effective indictment against the -moral sordidness of the German-Young Turkish system than these very -general sketches. But the strictest frontier regulations could not -prevent me from taking with me, free of all censorship, the impressions -I had received in Turkey, and the opinions I had arrived at after a -painful battle for loyalty to myself as a German and to the duties I -had undertaken. Even then I had considerable difficulty in getting -across the frontier, and I had to wait seventeen whole days at the -frontier before I was finally allowed into Switzerland. It was only -owing to the fact that I sent a telegram to the Chancellor, on the -authority of the Consul-General in Constantinople, begging that no -difficulties of a political kind might be placed in the way of my -going to Switzerland, as I had been permitted to do so by medical -certificate, the passport authorities and the local command, that I -finally won my point with the frontier authorities and was permitted to -cross into Switzerland. - -To tell the truth, I must admit that the high civil authorities, and -particularly the Foreign Office, treated me throughout most kindly and -courteously. For this one reason I had a hard fight with myself, right -up to the very last, even after I arrived in Switzerland, before I -sat down and wrote out my impressions and opinions of German-Turkish -politics. And if I have now finally decided to make them public, I can -only do so with an expression of the most honest regret that my private -and political conscience has not allowed me to requite the kindness of -the authorities by keeping silent about what I saw of the German and -Turkish system. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Two War Years in Constantinople, by Harry Stuermer - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE *** - -***** This file should be named 60638-8.txt or 60638-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/6/3/60638/ - -Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Two War Years in Constantinople - Sketches of German and Young Turkish Ethics and Politics - -Author: Harry Stuermer - -Translator: E. Allen - -Release Date: November 6, 2019 [EBook #60638] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE *** - - - - -Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<p class="ph1">TWO WAR YEARS</p> -<p class="ph4">IN</p> -<p class="ph1">CONSTANTINOPLE</p> - -<p class="ph4"><i>Sketches of German and Young Turkish<br /> -Ethics and Politics</i></p> - -<p class="ph5">BY</p> -<p class="ph3">DR. HARRY STUERMER</p> -<p class="ph4">LATE CORRESPONDENT OF THE KÖLNISCHE ZEITUNG<br /> -IN CONSTANTINOPLE (1915-16)</p> - -<p class="ph5">TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN</p> -<p class="ph4">E. ALLEN<br /> -AND THE AUTHOR</p> - - - -<p class="ph5">NEW YORK<br /> -GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY</p> - - - - - - -<p class="ph6" style="margin-top: 10em;">COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY<br /> -GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY</p> - -<p class="ph6">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> - - - - - -<p class="ph2">DECLARATION</p> - - -<p>The undersigned hereby declares on his sworn word of honour that -in writing this volume he has been in no way inspired by outside -influence, and that he has never had any dealings whatsoever, material -or otherwise, either before or during the war, with any Government, -organisation, propaganda, or personality hostile to Germany or Turkey -or even of a neutral character. His conscience alone has urged him to -write and publish his impressions, and he hopes that by so doing he may -perform a service towards the cause of truth and civilisation.</p> - -<p>Moreover, he can give formal assurance that he has expressly avoided -making the acquaintance of any person resident in Switzerland until his -manuscript should have been sent to press.</p> - -<p>Furthermore, he has been actuated by no personal motives in thus -giving public expression to his experiences and opinions, for he has -no personal grievance, either material or moral, against any person -whatsoever.</p> - -<p class="center"> -<img src="images/illus01.jpg" alt="sig"/> -</p> -<p class="center"> <i>Dr. H. Stuermer</i></p> - -<p class="center"> -<span style="margin-left: 5%;"><span class="smcap">Geneva</span>,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 8%;"><i>June 1917</i>.</span> -</p> - - - - -<p class="ph2">PREFACE</p> - - -<p><span class="smcap">While</span> the author of this work was waiting on the frontier of -Switzerland for final permission from the German authorities to enter -that country, Germany committed her second great crime, her first -having completely missed its mark. She had begun to realise that she -was beaten in the great conflict which she had so wantonly provoked -with that characteristic over confidence in the power of her own -militarism and disdainful undervaluation of the <i>morale</i> and general -capacities of her enemies. In final renunciation of any last remnants -of humanity in her methods, she was now making a dying effort to help -her already lost cause by a ruthless extension of her policy of piracy -at sea and a gratification of all her brutal instincts in complete -violation of the rights of neutral countries.</p> - -<p>It is therefore with all the more inward conviction, with all the -more urgent moral persuasion, that the author makes use of the rare -opportunity offered him by residence in Switzerland to range himself -boldly on the side of truth and show that there are still Germans who -find it impossible to condone even tacitly the moral transgression and -political stupidity of their own and an allied Government. <i>That is the -sole purpose of this publication.</i></p> - -<p>Regardless of the consequences, he holds it to be his duty and his -privilege, just because he is a German, to make a frank statement, -from the point of view of human civilisation, of what have become his -convictions from personal observations made in the course of six months -of actual warfare and practically two years of subsequent journalistic -activity. He spent the time from Spring 1915 to Christmas 1916 in -Turkey, and will of course only deal with what he knows from personal -observation. The following essays are of the nature merely of sketches -and make no claim whatever to completeness.</p> - -<p>With regard to purely German politics and ethics, therefore, the author -will confine himself to a few indications and impressions of a personal -kind, but he cannot forget the rôle Germany has played in Turkey as -an ally of the present Young Turkish Government, nor can he ignore -Germany's responsibility for the atrocities committed by them. The -author publishes his impressions with a perfectly clear conscience, -secure in the conviction that as the representative of a German paper -he never once wrote a single word in favour of this criminal war, and -that during his stay of more than twenty months in Turkey he never -concealed his true opinions as soon as he had definitely made up his -mind what these were.</p> - -<p>On the contrary, he was rather dangerously candid and frank in speaking -to anyone who wanted to listen to him—so much so, that it is almost a -miracle that he ever reached a neutral country. After the war he will -be in a position to appeal to the testimony of dozens of people of high -standing in all walks of life that in both thought and action a deep -cleft has always divided him from his colleagues, and that he has ever -ardently longed for the moment when he might, freely and without fear -of consequences, do his bit towards the enlightenment of the civilised -world.</p> - -<p>May these lines, written in all sincerity and hereby submitted to the -tribunal of public opinion, free the author at last from the burden -of silent reproach heaped on him by a mutilated, outraged, languishing -humanity, of being a German among thousands of Germans who desired this -war.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Several months have passed since the original text of the German and -French editions of this little book was written. Baghdad was taken by -British troops before the last chapter of the German manuscript had -been completed, and since then military operations have been more and -more in favour of the Entente. A number of important political events -have occurred, such as the Russian Revolution and the entry of the -United States of America into the war.</p> - -<p>Further developments of Russian politics may yet have a direct effect -on the final solution of the problems surrounding the defeated Ottoman -Empire. But the author has preferred to maintain the original text of -his book, written early in March this year, and to make no changes -whatever in the conclusions he had then arrived at as a result of the -fresh impressions he carried away from Turkey.</p> - - - - -<p class="ph2">CONTENTS</p> - - -<table summary="toc" width="80%"> -<tr><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr> - - - -<tr><td><p class="hang">At the outbreak of war in Germany—The German "world-politicians" -(<i>Weltpolitiker</i>)—German and English mentality—The -"place in the sun"—England's declaration -of war—German methods in Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine—Prussian -arrogance—Militaristic journalism</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">To Constantinople—Pro-Turkish considerations—The dilemma -of a Gallipoli correspondent—Under German military -control</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">The great Armenian persecutions—The system of Talaat and -Enver—A denunciation of Germany as a cowardly and -conscienceless accomplice</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">The tide of war—Enver's offensive for the "liberation of the -Caucasus"—The Dardanelles Campaign; the fate of Constantinople -twice hangs in the balance—Nervous tension -in international Pera—Bulgaria's attitude—Turkish rancour -against her former enemy—German illusions of a -separate peace with Russia—King Ferdinand's time-serving—Lack -of munitions in the Dardanelles—A mysterious -death: a political murder?—The evacuation of -Gallipoli—The Turkish version of victory—Constantinople -unreleased—Kut-el-Amara—Propaganda for the "Holy -War"—A prisoner of repute—Loyalty of Anglo-Indian -officers—Turkish communiqués and their worth—The fall -of Erzerum—Official lies—The treatment of prisoners—Political -speculation with prisoners of war—Treatment -of enemy subjects—Stagnation and lassitude in the summer -of 1916—The Greeks in Turkey—Dread of Greek -massacres—Rumania's entry—Terrible disappointment—The -three phases of the war for Turkey</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">The economic situation—Exaggerated Entente hopes—Hunger -and suffering among the civil population—The system of -requisitioning and the semi-official monopolists—Profiteering -on the part of the Government clique—Frivolity and -cynicism—The "Djemiet"—The delegates of the German -<i>Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft</i> (Central Purchases Commission)—A -hard battle between German and Turkish intrigue—Reform -of the coinage—Paper money and its depreciation—The -hoarding of bullion—The Russian rouble -the best investment</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">German propaganda and ethics—The unsuccessful "Holy -War" and the German Government—"The Holy War" -a crime against civilisation, a chimera, a farce—Underhand -dealings—The German Embassy the dupe of adventurers—The -morality of German Press representatives—A -trusty servant of the German Embassy—Fine official -distinctions of morality—The German conception of the -rights of individuals</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">Young Turkish nationalism—One-sided abolition of capitulations -—Anti-foreign efforts at emancipation—Abolition of -foreign languages—German simplicity—The Turkification -of commercial life—Unmistakable intellectual improvement -as a result of the war—Trade policy and customs -tariff—National production—The founding of new businesses -in Turkey—Germany supplanted—German starvation—Capitulations -or full European control?—The -colonisation and forcible Turkification of Anatolia—"The -properties of people who have been dispatched elsewhere"—The -"Mohadjirs"—Greek persecutions just before the -Great War—The "discovery" of Anatolia, the nucleus of -the Ottoman Empire—Turkey finds herself at last—Anatolian -dirt and decay—The "Greater Turkey" and the -purely Turkish Turkey—Cleavage or concentration?</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">Religion and race—The Islam policy of Abdul-Hamid and of -the Young Turks—Turanism and Pan-Islamism as political -principles—Turanism and the Quadruple Alliance—Greed -and race-fanaticism—Religious traditions and -modern reforms—Reform in the law—A modern Sheikh-ul-Islam—Reform -and nationalization—The Armenian -and Greek Patriarchates—The failure of Pan-Islamism—The -alienation of the Arabs—Djemal Pasha's "hangman's -policy" in Syria—Djemal as a "Pro-French"—Djemal -and Enver—Djemal and Germany—His true character—The -attempts against the Suez Canal—Djemal's murderous -work nears completion—The great Arabian and -Syrian Separatist movement—The defection of the Emir -of Mecca and the great Arabian catastrophe</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">Anti-war and pro-Entente feelings among the Turks—Turkish -pessimism about the war—How would Abdul-Hamid have -acted?—A war of prevention against Russia—Russia and -a neutral Turkey—The agreement about the Dardanelles—A -peaceful solution scorned—Alleged criminal intentions -on the part of the Entente; the example of Greece -and Salonika—To be or not to be?—German influence—Turkey -stakes on the wrong card—The results</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">The outlook for the future—The consequences of trusting -Germany—The Entente's death sentence on Turkey—The -social necessity for this deliverance—Anatolia, the -new Turkey after the war; forecasts about the Turkish -race—The Turkish element in the lost territory—Russia -and Constantinople; international guarantees—Germany, -at peace, benefits too—Farewell to the German "World -Politicians"—German interests in a victorious and in a -defeated Turkey—The German-Turkish treaty—A paradise -on earth—The Russian commercial impulse—The -new Armenia—Western Anatolia, the old Greek centre of -civilisation—Great Arabia and Syria—The reconciliation -of Germany</p></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Appendix</td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td></tr> -</table> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> -<p class="ph2">TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE</p> - - - - - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">At the outbreak of war in Germany—The German "world-politicians" -(<i>Weltpolitiker</i>)—German and English mentality—The "place in the -sun"—England's declaration of war—German methods in Belgium and -Alsace-Lorraine—Prussian arrogance—Militaristic journalism.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Anyone</span> who, like myself, set foot on German soil for the first time -after years of sojourn in foreign lands, and more particularly in -the colonies, just at the moment that Germany was mobilising for the -great European war, must surely have been filled, as I was, with a -certain feeling of melancholy, a slight uneasiness with regard to -the state of mind of his fellow-countrymen as it showed itself in -these dramatic days of August in conversations in the street, in -cafés and restaurants, and in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> articles appearing in the Press. -We Germans have never learnt to think soundly on political subjects. -Bismarck's political heritage, although set forth in most popular -form in his <i>Thoughts and Recollections</i>, a book that anyone opposing -this war from the point of view rather of prudence than of ethics -might utilise as an unending source of propaganda, has not descended -to our rulers in any sort of living form. But an unbounded political -<i>naďveté</i>, an incredible lack of judgment and of understanding of -the point of view of other peoples, who have their <i>raison d'ętre</i> -just as much as we have, their vital interests, their standpoint of -honour—have not prevented us from trying to carry on a grand system of -<i>Weltpolitik</i> (world politics). The average everyday German has never -really understood the English—either before or during the war; in the -latter's colonial policy, which, according to pan-German ideas, has -no other aim than to snatch from us our "place in the sun"; in their -conception of liberty and civilisation, which has entailed such mighty -sacrifices for them on behalf of their Allies; when we trod Belgian -neutrality underfoot and thought England would stand and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> look on; -at the time of the debates about universal service, when practically -every German, even in the highest political circles, was ready to wager -that there would be a revolution in England sooner than any general -acceptance of Conscription; and coming down to more recent events, -when the latest huge British war loan provided the only fit and proper -answer to German frightfulness at sea.</p> - -<p>Let me here say a word on the subject of colonial policy, on which I -may perhaps be allowed to speak with a certain amount of authority -after extended travel in the farthest corners of Africa, and from -an intimate, personal knowledge of German as well as English and -French colonies. Germany has less colonial territory than the older -colonists, it is true. It is also true that the German struggle for -the most widespread, the most intensive and lucrative employment of -the energies and capabilities of our highly developed commercial land -is justified. But at the risk of being dubbed as absolutely lacking -in patriotism, I should like to point out that in the first place the -resources we had at our disposal in our own colonial territory in -tropical and sub-trop<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>ical Africa, little exploited as they then were, -would have amply sufficed for our commercial needs and colonising -capacities—though possibly not for our aspirations after world power! -And secondly, the very liberal character of England's trade and -colonial policy did not hinder us in any way from reaching the top of -the commercial tree even in foreign colonies.</p> - -<p>Anyone who knows English colonies knows that the British Government, -wherever it has been possible to do so politically, that is, in all her -colonies which are already properly organised and firmly established -as British, has always met in a most generous and sympathetic way -German, and indeed any foreign, trade or other enterprises. New firms, -with German capital, were received with open arms, their excellence -and value for the young country heartily recognised and ungrudgingly -encouraged; not the slightest shadow of any jealousy of foreign -undertakings could ever exist in a British colony, and every German -could be as sure as an Englishman himself of being justly treated in -every way and encouraged in the most generous fashion in his work.</p> - -<p>Thousands of Germans otherwise thorough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>ly embued with the national -spirit make no secret of the fact that they would far rather live in -a British than a German colony. Too often in the latter the newcomer -was met at every point by an exaggerated bureaucracy and made to feel -by some official that he was not a reserve officer, and consequently a -social inferior. Hints were dropped to discourage him, and inquiries -were even made as to whether he had enough money to book his passage -back to where he came from!</p> - -<p>Far be it from me to wish to depreciate by these words the value of -our own colonial efforts. As pioneers in Africa we were working on -the very best possible lines, but we should have been content to go -on learning from the much superior British colonial methods, and -should have finished and perfected our own domain instead of always -shouting jealously about other people's. I am quite convinced that -another ten years of undisturbed peaceful competition and Germany, -with her own very considerable colonial possessions on the one hand, -and the possibility on the other of pushing commercial enterprise on -the highest scale not only in independent overseas states<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> but under -the beneficent protection of English rule with its true freedom and -real furtherance of trade "uplift," would have reached her goal much -better than by means of all the sword-rattling <i>Weltpolitik</i> of the -Pan-Germans.</p> - -<p>It is true that in territory not yet properly organised or guaranteed, -politically still doubtful, and in quite new protectorates, especially -along the routes to India, where vital English interests are at stake, -and on the much-talked-of Persian Gulf, England could not, until her -main object was firmly secured, meet in the same fair way German -desires with regard to commercial activity. And there she has more than -once learnt to her cost the true character of the German <i>Weltpolitik</i>.</p> - -<p>That is the real meaning, at any rate so far as colonial politics are -concerned, of the German-English contest for a "place in the sun." No -one who understands it aright could ever condone the outgrowths of our -<i>Weltpolitik</i>, however much he might desire to assist German ability to -find practical outlet in all suitable overseas territory, nor could he -ever forget the wealth of wonderful deeds, wrought in the service of -human civilisation and freedom,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> Englishmen can place to their credit -years before we ever began. With such considerations of justice in -view, we should have recognised that there was a limit to our efforts -after expansion, and as a matter of fact we should have gone further -and fared better—in a decade we should have probably been really -wealthy—for the English in their open-handed way certainly left us -a surprising amount of room for the free exercise of our commercial -talents.</p> - -<p>I have intentionally given an illustration only of the colonial side -of the problem affecting German-English relations, so that I may avoid -dealing with any subject I do not know from personal observation.</p> - -<p>It was this English people, that, in spite of all their egoism, have -really done something for civilisation, that the German of August 1914 -accused of being nothing but a nation of shopkeepers with a cowardly, -narrow-minded policy that was unprepared to make any sacrifice for -others. It was this people that the German of August 1914—and his -spokesman von Bethmann-Hollweg, who later thought it necessary to -defend himself against the charge of "having brought too much ethics<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> -into politics"—expected to stand by and see Belgium overridden. It -was this same England that we believed would hold back even when the -Chancellor found it impossible to apply to French colonial possessions -the guarantee he had given not to aim at any territorial conquests in -the war with France!</p> - -<p>And so it was with all the more grimness, with all the more gravity, -that on that memorable night of August 4th the terrible blow fell. The -English declaration of war entered into the very soul of the German -people, who stood as a sacrifice to a political miscalculation that had -its roots less in a lack of thought and experience than in a boundless -arrogance.</p> - -<p>About the same time I was a witness of those laughable scenes which -took place on the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, where, in complete -misjudgment of the whole political situation <i>Japanese</i> were carried -shoulder high by the enthusiastic and worthy citizens of Berlin under -the erroneous impression that these obvious arch-enemies of Russia -would naturally be allies of Germany. Every German that was not blind -to the trend of true "world-politics" must surely have shaken his head -over this lament<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>able spectacle. A few days afterwards Japan sent its -ultimatum against Kiao-Tchao!</p> - -<p>It was the same incapability of thinking in terms of true -world-politics that led us lately to believe that we might find -supporters in Mexico and Japan of the piracy we indulged in as a -result of America's intervention in the war, the same incapability -that blinded us to the effect our methods must have on other neutrals -such as China and the South American States. And although one admits -the possibility of a miscalculation being made, yet a miscalculation -with regard to England's attitude was not only the height of political -stupidity, but showed an absence of moral sense. <i>The moment England -entered the war, Germany lost the war.</i></p> - -<p>And while the world-politicians of Berlin, having recovered from their -first dismay, were making jokes about the "nation of shopkeepers" and -its little army which they would just "have arrested"; while a little -later the military events up to St. Quentin and the Battle of the Marne -seemed to justify the idle mockers who knew nothing of England and had -never even ventured their noses out of Ger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>many,—those who had lived -in the colonies were uttering warnings against any kind of optimism, -and some already felt the war would end badly for us.</p> - -<p>I belonged to the latter group. I expressed my conviction in this -direction as early as August 6th, 1914, in a letter which I wrote from -Berlin for my father's birthday. In it I maintained that in spite of -all our brilliant military successes, which would certainly not last, -this war was a mistake and would assuredly end in failure for Germany. -<i>Littera scripta manet.</i> Never from that moment have I believed in -final victory for Germany. Slowly but surely then I veered round to the -position that I could no longer even <i>desire</i> victory for Germany.</p> - -<p>Naturally I did my military duty. I saw the fearful crime Germany was -committing, yet I hurried to the front with the millions who believed -that Germany was innocent and had been attacked without cause. There -was nothing else to be done, and it must of course be remembered that -my final rupture with Germany did not take place all of a sudden. After -a few months of war in Masuria I was re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>leased as unfit for active -service as the result of a severe illness.</p> - -<p>Of all the many episodes of my life at the front, none is so deeply -impressed on my memory as the silent war of mutual hatred I waged with -my immediately superior officer, a true prototype of his race, a true -Prussian. I can still see him, a man of fifty-five or so, who, in spite -of former active service, had only reached the rank of lieutenant, and -who, as he told me himself right at the beginning, in very misplaced -confidence, rushed into active service again because in this way he -could get really good pay and would even have a prospect of further -promotion.</p> - -<p>This Lieutenant Stein told me too of the first weeks in Belgium, when -he had been in command of a company, and I can still hear him boasting -about his warlike propensities, and how his teacher had said about -him when he was a boy "he was capable of stealing an altar-cloth and -cutting it up to make breeches for himself."</p> - -<p>"When we wanted to do any commandeering or to plunder a house," so he -told me, "there was a very simple means. A man be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>longing to my company -would be ordered to throw a Belgian rifle through an open cellar -window, the house would then be searched for weapons, and even if we -found only one rifle we had orders to seize everything without mercy -and to drive out the occupiers." I can still see the creature standing -in front of me and relating this and many a similar tale in these first -days before he knew me. I have never forgotten it; and I think I owe -much to Lieutenant Stein. He helped me on the way I was predestined to -go, for had I not just returned from the colonies and foreign lands, -imbued with liberal ideas, and from the first torn by grave doubts?</p> - -<p>The Lieutenant may be an exception—granted; but he is an exception -unfortunately but too often represented in that army of millions -on its invading march into unhappy Belgium, among officers and -non-commissioned officers, whom, at any rate so far as active service -is concerned, everyone who has served in the German Army will agree -with me in calling on the average thoroughly brutal. Lieutenant -Stein gave me my first real deep disgust of war. He is a type that I -have not in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>vented, and he will easily be identified by the German -military authorities from his signature on my military pass as one -of those arch-Prussians who suddenly readopt a martial air, suddenly -revive and come into their element again, although they may be sickly -old valetudinarians—the kind of men who in civil life are probably -enthusiastic members of the "German Colonial Society," the "Naval -Union," and the "Pan-German Association," and ardent world-politicians -of the ale-bench type.</p> - -<p>I found his stories afterwards confirmed to the letter by one of the -most famous German war-correspondents, Paul Schweder, the author of the -four-volume work entitled <i>At Imperial Headquarters</i>. With a <i>naďveté</i> -equal to Lieutenant Stein's, and trusting no doubt to my then official -position as correspondent of a German paper, he gave me descriptions -of Belgian atrocities committed by our soldiers and the results of -our system of occupation that, in all their horrible nakedness, put -everything that ever appeared in the Entente newspapers absolutely in -the shade.</p> - -<p>As early as the beginning of 1916 he told me the plain truth that we -were practically<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> starving Belgium and that the country was really only -kept alive by the Relief Commission, and that we were attempting to -ruin any Belgian industry which might compete with ours by a systematic -removal of machinery to Germany. And that was before the time of the -Deportations!</p> - -<p>Schweder's descriptions dealt for the most part with the sexual -morality of our soldiers in the trenches. In spite of severe -punishments, so he assured me, thousands and thousands of cases -occurred of women and young girls out of decent Belgian and French -families being outraged. The soldier on short leave from the front, -with the prospect of a speedy return to the first-line trenches and -death staring him in the face, did not care what happened; the unhappy -victims were for the most part silent about their shame, so that the -cases of punishment were very few and far between.</p> - -<p>While I was at the front I heard extraordinary things, for which I -had again detailed confirmation from Schweder, who knew the whole of -the Western Front well, about the German policy of persecution in -Alsace-Lorraine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> There the system was to punish with imprisonment -not only actions but opinions. The authorities did not even scruple -to imprison girls out of highly-respected houses who had perhaps made -some harmless remark in youthful ignorance, and shut them up with -common criminals and prostitutes to work out their long sentence. -Such scandalous acts, which are a disgrace to humanity, Paul Schweder -confirmed by the dozen or related at first-hand.</p> - -<p>He was intelligent enough, too, as was evident from the many statements -made by him in confidential circles, to see through the utter lack -of foundation, the mendacity, the immorality of what he wrote in his -books merely for the sake of filthy lucre; but when I tried one day to -take on a bet with him that Verdun would not fall, he took his revenge -by spreading the report in Constantinople that I was an Pro-Entente, -and doing his utmost to intrigue against me. That is the German -war-correspondent's idea of morality!</p> - -<p>When I was released from the army in the beginning of 1915, I joined -the editorial staff of the <i>Kölnische Zeitung</i> and remained for some -weeks in Cologne. I have not retained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> any very special impressions -of this period of my activity, except perhaps the recollection of -the spirit of jingoistic Prussianism that I—being a Badener—had -scarcely ever come across before in its full glory, and, from the -many confidential communications and discussions among the editorial -staff, the feeling that even then there was a certain nervousness and -insecurity among those who, in their leading articles, informed the -public daily of their absolute confidence in victory.</p> - -<p>One curious thing at this time, perhaps worthy of mention, was the -disdainful contempt with which these Prussians—even before the fall of -Przemysl—regarded Austria. But the scornful and biting commentaries -made behind the scenes in the editorial sanctum at the fall of this -stronghold stood in most striking contrast to what the papers wrote -about it.</p> - -<p>Later, when I had already been a long time in Turkey, a humorous -incident gave me renewed opportunity of seeing this Prussian spirit of -unbounded exaggeration of self and depreciation of others. The incident -is at the same time characteristic of the spirit of mili<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>tarism with -which the representatives of the German Press are thoroughly imbued, in -spite of the opportunities most of them have had through long visits to -other countries of gaining a little more <i>savoir faire</i>.</p> - -<p>One beautiful summer afternoon at a promenade concert in the "Petit -Champs" at Pera I introduced an Austrian Lieutenant of Dragoons I knew, -belonging to one of the best regiments, to our Balkan correspondent who -happened to be staying in Constantinople: "Lieutenant N.; Herr von M." -The correspondent sat down at the table and repeated very distinctly: -"<i>Lieutenant-Colonel von M.</i>" It turned out that he had been a -second lieutenant in the Prussian Army, and had pushed himself up to -this wonderful rank in the Bulgarian Army, instinctively combining -journalism and militarism. My companion, however, with true Austrian -calm, took not the slightest notice of the correction, did not spring -up and greet him with an enthusiastic "Ah! my dear fellow-officer, -etc.," but began an ordinary social conversation.</p> - -<p>Would anyone believe that next day old Herr von M. took me roundly -to task for sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>ting at the same table as an Austrian officer and -appearing in public with him, and informed me quasi-officially that as -a representative of the <i>Kölnische Zeitung</i> I should associate only -with the German colony in Constantinople.</p> - -<p>I wonder which is the most irritating characteristic of this type of -mind—its overbearing attitude towards our Allies, its jingoistic -"Imperial German" cant, or its wounded dignity as a militarist who -forgets that he is a journalist and no longer an officer?</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">In Constantinople—Pro-Turkish considerations—The dilemma of a -Gallipoli correspondent—Under German military control.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">A few</span> days after the fall of Przemysl I set out for Constantinople. I -left Germany with a good deal of friendly feeling towards the Turk. I -was even quite well disposed towards the Young Turks, although I knew -and appreciated the harm caused by their régime and the reproaches -levelled against it since 1909. At any rate, when I landed on Turkish -soil I was certainly not lacking in goodwill towards the Government -of Enver and Talaat, and nothing was further from my thoughts than to -prejudice myself against my new sphere of work by any preconceived -criticism.</p> - -<p>In comparison with Abdul-Hamid I regarded the régime of the Young -Turks, in spite of all, as a big step in advance and a necessary -one, and the parting words of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> of our old editors, a thorough -connoisseur of Turkey, lingered in my ears without very much effect. -He said: "You are going to Constantinople. You will soon be able to -see for yourself the moral bankruptcy of the Young Turks, and you will -find that Turkey is nothing but a dead body galvanised into action, -that will only last as long as the war lasts and we Germans supply the -galvanising power." I would not believe it, and went to Turkey with an -absolutely open mind to form my own opinion.</p> - -<p>It must also be remembered that all the pro-Turkish utterances of -Eastern experts of all shades and nationalities who emphasised the -fact that the Turks were the most respectable nation of the East, were -not without their effect upon me; also I had read Pierre Loti. I was -determined to extend to the Turkish Government the strong sympathy I -already felt for the Turkish people—and, let me here emphasise it, -still feel. To undermine that sympathy, to make me lose my confidence -in this race, things would have to go badly indeed. They went worse -than I ever thought was possible.</p> - -<p>I went first of all to the new Turkish front<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> in the Dardanelles and -the Gallipoli Peninsula, where everything was ruled by militarism and -there was but little opportunity to worry about politics. The combined -attack by sea and land had just begun, and I passed the next few weeks -on the Ariburnu front. I found myself in the entirely new position of -war-correspondent. I had now to write professionally about this war, -which I detested with all my heart and soul.</p> - -<p>Well, I simply had to make the back fit the burden. Whatever I did or -did not do, I have certainly the clear satisfaction of knowing that I -never wrote a single word in praise of war. One will understand that, -in spite of my inward conviction that Germany by unloosing the war on -Europe had committed a terrible crime against humanity, in spite of my -consciousness of acting in a wrong cause, in spite of my deep disgust -of much that I had already seen, I was still interested in Turkey's -fight for existence, but from quite another standpoint.</p> - -<p>As an objective onlooker I did not have to be an absolute hypocrite to -do justice to my journalistic duties to my paper. I got to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> know the -Turkish soldier with his stoical heroism in defence, and the brilliant -attacking powers and courage of the Anatolians with their blind belief -in their Padishah, as they were rushed to the defence of Stamboul and -hurled themselves in a bayonet charge against the British machine-guns -under a hail of shells from the sea. I gained a high opinion of Turkish -valour and powers of resistance. I had no reason to stint my praise or -withhold my judgment. In mess-tents and at various observation-posts I -made the personal acquaintance of crowds of thoroughly sympathetic and -likeable Turkish officers. Let me mention but one—Essad Pasha, the -defender of Jannina.</p> - -<p>I found quite enough material on my two visits to Gallipoli during -various phases of the fighting to write a series of feuilletons without -any glorification of militarism and political aims. I confined myself -to what was of general human interest, to what was picturesque, what -was dramatic in the struggle going on in this unique theatre of war.</p> - -<p>But even then I was beginning to have my own opinion about much that I -saw; I was already torn by conflicting doubts. Already I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> was beginning -to ask myself whether my sympathies would not gradually turn more and -more definitely to those who were vainly storming these strong Turkish -forts from the sea, under a deadly machine-gun fire, for the cause of -true civilisation, the cause of liberty, was manifestly on their side.</p> - -<p>I had opportunity, too, of making comparisons from the dead and -wounded and the few prisoners there were between the value of the -human material sacrificed on either side—on the one, brave but stupid -Anatolians, accustomed to dirt and misery; on the other cultured and -highly civilised men, sportsmen from the colonies who had hurried from -the farthest corners of the earth to fight not only for the British -cause, but for the cause of civilisation.</p> - -<p>But at that time I was not yet ripe for the decision forced upon me -later by other things that I saw with my own eyes; I had not yet -reached that deep inward conviction that I should have to make a break -with Germany. The only thing I could do and felt compelled to do -then was to pay my homage not only to Turkish patriotism and Turkish -bravery, but to the wonderful courage and fearlessness of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> death shown -by those whom at that time I had, as a German, to regard as my enemies; -this I did over and over again in my articles.</p> - -<p>I saw, too, the first indications of other things. Traces of the most -outspoken jingoism among Turkish officers became gradually apparent, -and more than one Turkish commander pointed out to me with ironical -emphasis that things went just as smoothly and promptly in his sector, -where there was no German officer in charge, as anywhere else.</p> - -<p>On my second visit to the Dardanelles, in summer, I heard of -considerable quarrels over questions of rank, and there was more than -one outbreak of jingoistic arrogance on the part of both Turkish and -German subalterns, leading in some cases even to blows and consequent -severe punishment for insubordination. The climax was reached in the -scandal of supplanting General Weber, commanding the "Southern Group" -(Sedd-ul-Bahr) by Vehib Pasha, a grim and fanatical Turk. In this case -the Turkish point of view prevailed, for General Liman von Sanders, -Commander-in-Chief of the Gallipoli Army, was determined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> not to lose -his post, and agreed slavishly with all that Enver Pasha ordained.</p> - -<p>From other fronts, such as the Irak and the "Caucasus" (which was -becoming more and more a purely Armenian theatre of war, without losing -that chimerical designation in the official reports!), there came -even more significant tales; there German and Turkish officers seemed -to live still more of a cat-and-dog life than in the Dardanelles. Of -course under the iron discipline of both Turks and Germans, these -unpleasant occurrences were never allowed to come to such a pass that -they would interfere in any way with military operations, but they were -of significance as symptoms of a deep distrust of the Germans even in -Turkish military circles.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">The great Armenian persecutions—The system of Talaat and Enver—A -denunciation of Germany as a cowardly and conscienceless accomplice.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> spite of all, I returned to Constantinople from my first visit to -the Dardanelles with very little diminution of friendly feeling towards -the Turks. My first experience when I returned to the capital was the -beginning of the Armenian persecutions. And here I may as well say at -once that my love for present-day Turkey perished absolutely with this -unique example in the history of modern human civilisation of the most -appalling bestiality and misguided jingoism. This, more than everything -else I saw on the German-Turkish side throughout the war, persuaded me -to take up arms against my own people and to adopt the position I now -hold. I say "German-Turkish," for I must hold the German Government as -equally responsible with the Turks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> for the atrocities they allowed -them to commit.</p> - -<p>Here in neutral Switzerland, where so many of these unfortunate -Armenians have taken refuge and such abundance of information is -available, so much material has been collected that it is unnecessary -for me to go into details in this book. Suffice it to say that the -narration of all the heart-rending occurrences that came to my personal -knowledge during my stay in Turkey, without my even trying to collect -systematic information on the subject, would fill a book. To my deep -sorrow I have to admit that, from everything I have heard from reliable -sources—from German Red Cross doctors, officials and employees of -the Baghdad Railway, members of the American Embassy, and Turks -themselves—although they are but individual cases—I cannot regard -as exaggerated such appalling facts and reports as are contained for -example in Arnold Toynbee's <i>Armenian Atrocities</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<p>In this little book, however, which partakes <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>more of the nature of an -essay than an exhaustive treatise, my task will be rather to determine -the system, the underlying political thought and the responsibility -of Germany in all these horrors—massacres, the seduction of women, -children left to die or thrown into the sea, pretty young girls -carried off into houses of ill repute, the compulsory conversion to -Islam and incorporation in Turkish harems of young women, the ejection -from their homes of eminent and distinguished families by brutal -gendarmes, attacks while on the march by paid bands of robbers and -criminals, "emigration" to notorious malaria swamps and barren desert -and mountain lands, victims handed over to the wild lusts of roaming -Bedouins and Kurds—in a word, the triumph of the basest brutality and -most cold-blooded refinement of cruelty in a war of extermination in -which half a million men, and according to some estimates many more, -have perished, while the remaining one and a half million of this -most intelligent and cultured race, one of the principal pioneers of -progress in the Ottoman Empire, see nothing but complete extinction -staring them in the face through the rupture of family<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> ties, the -deprivation of their rights, and economic ruin.</p> - -<p>The Armenian persecutions began in all their cruelty, practically -unannounced, in April 1915. Certain events on the Caucasus front, which -no number of lies could explain away, gave the Turkish Government -the welcome pretext for falling like wild animals on the Armenians -of the eastern vilajets—the so-called Armenia Proper—and getting -to work there without deference to man, woman, or child. This was -called "the restoration of order in the war zone by military measures, -rendered necessary by the connivance of the inhabitants with the enemy, -treachery and armed support." The first two or three hundred thousand -Armenians fell in the first rounding up.</p> - -<p>That in those outlying districts situated directly on the Russian -frontier a number of Armenians threw in their lot with the advancing -Russians, no one will seek to deny, and not a single Armenian I -have spoken to denies it. But the "Armenian Volunteer Corps" that -fought on the side of Russia was composed for the most part—that at -least has been proved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> beyond doubt—of Russian Armenians settled in -Transcaucasian territory.</p> - -<p>So far as the Turkish Armenians taking part are concerned, no -reasonable being would think of denying Turkey as Sovereign State the -formal right of taking stringent measure against these traitors and -deserters. But if I expressly recognise this right, I do so with the -big reservation that the frightful sufferings undergone for centuries -by a people left by their rulers to the mercy of marauding Kurds and -oppressed by a government of shameless extortioners, absolutely absolve -these deserters in the eyes of the whole civilised world from any moral -crime.</p> - -<p>And yet I would willingly have gone so far for the benefit of the -Turks, in spite of their terrible guilt towards this people, as perhaps -to keep my own counsel on the subject, if it had merely been a case of -the execution of some hundreds under martial law or the carrying out -of other measures—such as deportation—against a couple of thousand -Armenians and these strictly confined to men. It is even possible that -Europe and America would have pardoned Turkey for taking even stronger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> -steps in the nature of reprisals or measures of precaution against the -male inhabitants of that part of Armenia Proper which was gradually -becoming a war zone. But from the very beginning the persecutions were -carried on against women and children as well as men, were extended -to the hundred thousand inhabitants of the six eastern vilajets, and -were characterised by such savage brutality that the methods of the -slave-drivers of the African interior and the persecution of Christians -under Nero are the only thing that can be compared with them.</p> - -<p>Every shred of justification for the Turkish Government in their -attempt to establish this as an "evacuation necessary for military -purposes and for the prevention of unrest" entirely vanishes in face -of such methods, and I do not believe that there is a single decent -German, cognisant of the facts of the case, who is not filled with real -disgust of the Young Turkish Government by such cold-blooded butchery -of the inhabitants of whole districts and the deportation of others -with the express purpose of letting them die <i>en route</i>. Any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>one with -human feelings, however pro-Turkish he may be politically, cannot think -otherwise.</p> - -<p>This "evacuation necessary for military purposes" emptied Armenia -Proper of men. How often have Turks themselves told me—I could mention -names, but I will not expose my informants, who were on the whole -decent exceptions to the rule, to the wrath of Enver or Talaat—how -often have they assured me that practically not a single Armenian -is to be found in Armenia! And it is equally certain that scarcely -one can be left alive of all that horde of deported men who escaped -the first massacres and were hunted up hill and down dale in a state -of starvation, exposed to attacks by Kurds, decimated by spotted -typhus, and finally abandoned to their fate in the scorching deserts -of Northern Mesopotamia and Northern Syria. One has only to read the -statistics of the population of the six vilajets of Armenia Proper to -discover the hundreds of thousands of victims of this wholesale murder.</p> - -<p>But unfortunately that was not all. The Turkish Government went -farther, much farther. They aimed at the whole Armenian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> people, not -only in Armenia itself, but also in the "Diaspora," in Anatolia Proper -and in the capital. They were at that time some hundred thousand. In -this case they could scarcely go on the principle of "evacuation of the -war zone," for the inhabitants were hundreds of miles both from the -Eastern front and from the Dardanelles, so they had to resort to other -measures.</p> - -<p>They suddenly and miraculously discovered a universal conspiracy among -the Armenians of the Empire. It was only by a trick of this kind that -they could succeed in carrying out their system of exterminating the -entire Armenian race. The Turkish Government skilfully influenced -public opinion throughout the whole world, and then discovered, nay, -arranged for, local conspiracies. They then falsified all the details -so that they might go on for months in peace and quiet with their -campaign of extermination.</p> - -<p>In a series of semi-official articles in the newspapers of the -Committee of Young Turks it was made quite clear that <i>all</i> Armenians -were dangerous conspirators who, in order to shake off the Ottoman -yoke, had collected firearms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> and bombs and had arranged, with the help -of English and Russian money, for a terrible slaughter of Turks on the -day that the English fleet overcame the armies on the Dardanelles.</p> - -<p>I must here emphasise the fact that all the arguments the Turkish -Government brought against the Armenians did not escape my notice. They -were indeed evident enough in official and semi-official publications -and in the writings of German "experts on Turkey." I investigated -everything, even right at the beginning of my stay in Turkey, and -always from a thoroughly pro-Turkish point of view. That did not -prevent me however, from coming to my present point of view.</p> - -<p>Herr Zimmermann, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has only -got to refer to the date of his letter to the editorial staff of my -paper, in which he speaks of my confidential report to the paper on -this subject which went through his hands and aroused his interest, and -he will find what opinions I held as early as the summer of 1916 on the -subject of the Armenian persecutions—and this without my having any -particular sympathy for the Armenians, for it was not till much later<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> -that I got to know them and their high intellectual qualities through -personal intercourse.</p> - -<p>Here I can only give my final judgment on all these pros and cons, and -say to the best of my knowledge and opinion, that after the first act -in this drama of massacre and death—the brutal "evacuation of the war -zone" in Armenia Proper—the meanest, the lowest, the most cynical, -most criminal act of race-fanaticism that the history of mankind has to -show was the extension of the system of deportation, with its wilful -neglect and starvation of the victims, to further hundreds of thousands -of Armenians in the Capital and Interior. And these were people who, -through their place of residence, their surroundings, their social -status, their preoccupation in work and wage-earning, were quite -incapable of taking any active part in politics.</p> - -<p>Others of them, again, belonged to families of high social standing and -culture, bound to the land by a thousand ties, coming of a well-to-do, -old-established stock, and from traditional training and ordinary -prudence holding themselves scrupulously apart from all revolutionary -doings. All were surrounded by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> far superior number of inhabitants -belonging to other races.</p> - -<p>This diabolical crime was committed solely and only because of the -Turkish feeling of economic and intellectual inferiority to that -non-Turkish element, for the set purpose of obtaining handsome -compensation for themselves, and was undertaken with the cowardly -acquiescence of the German Government in full knowledge of the facts.</p> - -<p>Of this long chain of crime I saw at least the beginning thousands of -times with my own eyes. Hardly had I returned from my first visit to -the Dardanelles when these persecutions began in the whole of Anatolia -and even in Constantinople, and continued with but slight intermissions -of a week or two at different times till shortly before I left -Constantinople in December 1916.</p> - -<p>That was the time when in the flourishing western vilajets of Anatolia, -beginning with Brussa and Adabazar, where the well-stocked farms -in Armenian hands must have been an eyesore to a Government that -had written "forcible nationalisation" on their standard, the whole -household goods of respectable fam<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>ilies were thrown into the street -and sold for a mere nothing, because their owners often had only an -hour till they were routed out by the waiting gendarme and hustled off -into the Interior. The fittings of the houses, naturally unsaleable -in the hurry, usually fell to the lot of marauding "<i>mohadjis</i>" -(Mohammedan immigrants), who, often enough armed to the teeth by -the "Committee," began the disturbances which were then exposed as -"Armenian conspiracies."</p> - -<p>That was the time when mothers, apparently in absolute despair, sold -their own children, because they had been robbed of their last penny -and could not let their children perish on that terrible march into the -distant Interior.</p> - -<p>How many countless times did I have to look on at that typical -spectacle of little bands of Armenians belonging to the capital being -escorted through the streets of Pera by two gendarmes in their ragged -murky grey uniforms with their typical brutal Anatolian faces, while a -policeman who could read and write marched behind with a notebook in -his hand, beckoning people at random out of the crowd with an imperious -gesture, and if their papers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> showed them to be Armenians, simply -herding them in with the rest and marching them off to the "Karakol" of -Galata-Seraď, the chief police-station in Pera, where he delivered up -his daily bag of Armenians!</p> - -<p>The way these imprisonments and deportations were carried on is a most -striking confutation of the claims of the Turkish Government that they -were acting only in righteous indignation over the discovery of a great -conspiracy. This is entirely untrue.</p> - -<p>With the most cold-blooded calculation and method, the number of -Armenians to be deported were divided out over a period of many months, -indeed one may say over nearly a year and a half. The deportations -only began to abate when the downfall of the Armenian Patriarchate in -summer 1916 dealt the final blow to the social life of the Armenians. -They more or less ceased in December 1916 with the gathering-in of all -those who had formerly paid the military exemption tax—among them many -eminent Armenian business men.</p> - -<p>What can be said of the "righteous, spontaneous indignation" of the -Armenian Govern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>ment when, for example, of two Armenian porters -belonging to the same house—brothers—one is deported to-day and the -other not till a fortnight later; or when the number of Armenians to -be delivered up daily from a certain quarter of the town is fixed at -a definite figure, say two hundred or a thousand, as I have been told -was the case by reliable Turks who were in full touch with the police -organisation and knew the system of these deportations?</p> - -<p>Of the ebb and flow of these persecutions, all that can be said is that -the daily number of deportations increased when the Turks were annoyed -over some Russian victory, and that the banishments miraculously abated -when the military catastrophes of Erzerum, Trebizond, and Erzindjan -gave the Government food for thought and led them to wonder if perhaps -Nemesis was going to overtake them after all.</p> - -<p>And then the method of transport! Every day towards evening, when -these unfortunate creatures had been collected in the police-stations, -the women and children were packed into electric-trams while the men -and boys were compelled to go off on foot to Galata with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> couple of -blankets and only the barest necessities for their terrible journey -packed in a small bag. Of course they were not all poor people by any -means.</p> - -<p>This dire fate might befall anyone any day or any hour, from the -caretaker and the tradesman to members of the best families. I -know cases where men of high education, belonging to aristocratic -families—engineers, doctors, lawyers—were banished from Pera in -this disgusting way under cover of darkness to spend the night on -the platforms of the Haidar-Pasha station, and then be packed off in -the morning on the Anatolian Railway—of course they paid for their -tickets and all travelling expenses!—to the Interior, where they died -of spotted typhus, or, in rare cases after their recovery from this -terrible malady, were permitted, after endless pleading, to return -broken in body and soul to their homes as "harmless." Among these -bands herded about from pillar to post like cattle there were hundreds -and thousands of gentle, refined women of good family and of perfect -European culture and manners.</p> - -<p>For the most part it was the sad fate of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> those deported to be sent -off on an endless journey by foot, to the far-off Arabian frontier, -where they were treated with the most terrible brutality. There, in -the midst of a population wholly foreign and but little sympathetic -to their race, left to their fate on a barren mountain-side, without -money, without shelter, without medical assistance, without the means -of earning a livelihood, they perished in want and misery.</p> - -<p>The women and children were always separated from the men. That was the -characteristic of all the deportations. It was an attempt to strike -at the very core of their national being and annihilate them by the -tearing asunder of all family ties.</p> - -<p>That was how a very large part of the Armenian people disappeared. -They were the "persons transported elsewhere," as the elegant title -of the "Provisional Han" ran, which gave full stewardship over their -well-stocked farms to the "Committee" with its zeal for "internal -colonisation" with purely Turkish elements. In this way the great goal -was reached—the forcible nationalisation of a land of mixed races.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> - -<p>While Anatolia was gradually emptied of all the forces that had -hitherto made for progress, while the deserted towns and villages and -flourishing fields of those who had been banished fell into the hands -of the lowest "<i>Mohadjr</i>"—hordes of the most dissipated Mohammedan -emigrants—that stream of unhappy beings trickled on ever more slowly -to its distant goal, leaving the dead bodies of women and children, old -men and boys, as milestones to mark the way. The few that did reach -the "settlement" alive—that is, the fever-ridden, hunger-stricken -concentration camps—continually molested by raiding Bedouins and -Kurds, gradually sickened and died a slower and even more terrible -death.</p> - -<p>Sometimes even this was not speedy enough for the Government, and a -case occurred in Autumn 1916—absolutely verified by statements made -by German employees on the Baghdad Railway—where some thousands of -Armenians, brought as workers to this stretch of railway, simply -vanished one day without leaving a trace. Apparently they were simply -shipped off into the desert without more ado and there massacred.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> - -<p>This terrible catalogue of crime on the part of the Government of -Talaat is, however, in spite of all censorship and obstruction, being -dealt with <i>officially</i> in all quarters of the globe—by the American -Embassy at Constantinople and in neutral and Entente countries—and at -the conclusion of peace it will be brought as an accusation against the -criminal brotherhood of Young Turks by a merciless court of all the -civilised nations of the world.</p> - -<p>I have spoken to Armenians who have said to me, "In former times the -old Sultan Abdul-Hamid used to have us massacred by thousands. We -were delivered over by well-organised pogroms to the Kurds at stated -times, and certainly we suffered cruelly enough. Then the Young Turks, -as Adana 1909 shows, started on a bloodshed of thousands. But after -what we have just gone through we long with all our hearts for the -days of the old massacres. Now it is no longer a case of a certain -number of massacred; now <i>our whole people</i> is being slowly but surely -exterminated by the national hatred of an apparently civilised, -apparently modern, and therefore infinitely more dangerous Government.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Now they get hold of our women and children and send them long -journeys on foot to concentration camps in barren districts where they -die. The pitiful remains of our population in the villages and towns of -the Interior, where the local authorities have carried out the commands -of the central Government most zealously, are forcibly converted to -Islam, and our young girls are confined in Turkish harems and places of -low repute.</p> - -<p>"The race is to vanish to the very last man, and why? Because the -Turks have recognised their intellectual bankruptcy, their economic -incompetence, and their social inferiority to the progressive Armenian -element, to which Abdul-Hamid, in spite of occasional massacres, knew -well enough how to adapt himself, and which he even utilised in all its -power in high offices of state. Because now that they themselves are -being decimated by a weary and unsuccessful war of terrible bloodshed -that was lost before it was begun, they hope in this way to retain the -sympathy of their peoples and preserve the superiority of their element -in the State.</p> - -<p>"These are not sporadic outbursts of wrath,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> as they were in the case -of Hamid, but a definitely thought-out political measure against our -people, and for this very reason they can hope for no mercy. Germany, -as we have seen, tolerates the annihilation of our people through -weakness and lack of conscience, and if the war lasts much longer the -Armenian people will have ceased to exist. That is why we long for the -old régime of Abdul-Hamid, terrible as it was for us."</p> - -<p>Has there ever been a greater tragedy in the history of a people—and -of a people that have never held any illusions as to political -independence, wedged in as they are between two Great Powers, and who -had no real irredentistic feelings towards Russia, and, up to the -moment when the Young Turks betrayed them shamefully and broke the ties -of comradeship that had bound them together as revolutionaries against -the old despotic system of Abdul-Hamid, were as thoroughly loyal -citizens of the Ottoman Empire as any of the other peoples of this -land, excepting perhaps the Turks themselves.</p> - -<p>I hope that these few words may have given sufficient indication of the -spirit and outcome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> of this system of extermination. I should like to -mention just one more episode which affected me personally more than -anything I experienced in Turkey.</p> - -<p>One day in the summer of 1916 my wife went out alone about midday to -buy something in the "Grand Rue de Péra." We lived a few steps from -Galata-Seraď and had plenty of opportunity from our balcony of seeing -the bands of Armenian deportees arriving at the police-station under -the escort of gendarmes. Familiarity with such sights finally dulled -our sympathies, and we began to think of them not as episodes affecting -human individuals, but rather as political events.</p> - -<p>On this particular day, however, my wife came back to the house -trembling all over. She had not been able to go on her errand. As she -passed the "karakol," she had heard through the open hall door the -agonising groans of a tortured being, a dull wailing like the sound of -an animal being tormented to death. "An Armenian," she was informed -by the people standing at the door. The crowd was then dispersed by a -policeman.</p> - -<p>"If such scenes occur in broad daylight in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> the busiest part of the -European town of Pera, I should like to know what is done to Armenians -in the uncivilised Interior," my wife asked me. "If the Turks act like -wild beasts here in the capital, so that a woman going through the main -streets gets a shock like that to her nerves, then I can't live in this -frightful country." And then she burst into a fit of sobbing and let -loose all her pent-up passion against what she and I had had to witness -for more than a year every time we set a foot out of doors.</p> - -<p>"You are brutes, you Germans, miserable brutes, that you tolerate this -from the Turks when you still have the country absolutely in your -hands. You are cowardly brutes, and I will never set foot in your -horrible country again. God, how I hate Germany!"</p> - -<p>It was then, when my own wife, trembling and sobbing, in grief, rage, -and disgust at such cowardliness, flung this denunciation of my -country in my teeth that I finally and absolutely broke with Germany. -Unfortunately I had known only too long that it had to come.</p> - -<p>I thought of the conversations I had had about the Armenian question -with members of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> the German Embassy in Constantinople and, of a very -different kind, with Mr. Morgenthau, the American Ambassador.</p> - -<p>I had never felt fully convinced by the protestations of the German -Embassy that they had done their utmost to put a check on the murderous -attacks on harmless Armenians far from the theatre of war, who from -their whole surroundings and their social class could not be in a -position to take an active part in politics, and on the cold-blooded -neglect and starvation of women and children apparently deported for no -other reason than to die. The attitude of the German Government towards -the Armenian question had impressed me as a mixture of cowardice and -lack of conscience on the one hand and the most short-sighted stupidity -on the other.</p> - -<p>The American Ambassador, who took the most generous interest in the -Armenians, and has done so much for the cause of humanity in Turkey, -was naturally much too reserved on this most burning question to give -a German journalist like myself his true opinion about the attitude of -his German colleagues. But from the many conversations and discussions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -I had with him, I gathered nothing that would turn me from the opinion -I had already formed of the German Embassy, and I had given him several -hints of what that opinion was.</p> - -<p>The attitude of Germany was, in the first place, as I have said, one of -boundless <i>cowardice</i>. For we had the Turkish Government firmly enough -in hand, from the military as well as the financial and political point -of view, to insist upon the observance of the simplest principles -of humanity if we wanted to. Enver, and still more Talaat, who as -Minister of the Interior and really Dictator of Turkey was principally -responsible for the Armenian persecutions, had no other choice than to -follow Germany's lead unconditionally, and they would have accepted -without any hesitation, if perhaps with a little grumbling, any -definite ruling of Germany's even on this Armenian question that lay so -near their hearts.</p> - -<p>From hundreds of examples it has been proved that the Germany Embassy -never showed any undue delicacy for even perfectly legitimate Turkish -interests and feelings in matters affecting German interests, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> -they always got their own way where it was a question, for example, of -Germans being oppressed, or superseded by Turks in the Government and -ruling bodies. And yet I had to stand and look on when our Embassy was -not even capable of granting her due and proper rights to a perfectly -innocent German lady married to an Armenian who had been deported with -many other Armenians. She appealed for redress to the German Embassy, -but her only reward was to wait day after day in the vestibule of the -Embassy for her case to be heard.</p> - -<p>Turks themselves have found cynical enjoyment in this measureless -cowardice of ours and compared it with the attitude of the Russian -Government, who, if they had found themselves in a similar position -to Germany, would have been prepared, in spite of the Capitulations -being abolished, to make a political case, if necessary, out of the -protection due to one poor Russian Jew. Turks have, very politely but -none the less definitely, made it quite clear to me that at bottom they -felt nothing but contempt for our policy of letting things slide.</p> - -<p>Our attitude was characterised, secondly, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> <i>lack of conscience</i>. -To look on while life and property, the well-being and culture of -thousands, are sacrificed, and to content oneself with weak formal -protests when one is in a position to take most energetic command of -the situation, is nothing but the most criminal lack of conscience, -and I cannot get rid of the suspicion that, in spite of the fine -official phrases one was so often treated to in the German Embassy on -the subject of the "Armenian problem," our diplomats were very little -concerned with the preservation of this people.</p> - -<p>What leads me to bring this terrible charge against them? The fact that -I never saw anything in all this pother on the part of our diplomats -when the venerable old Armenian Patriarch appeared at the Embassy with -his suite after some particularly frightful sufferings of the Armenian -population, and begged with tears in his eyes for help from the -Embassy, however late—and I assisted more than once at such scenes in -the Embassy and listened to the conversations of the officials—I never -saw anything but concern about German prestige and offended vanity. As -far as I saw, there was never any concern for the fate of the Ar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>menian -people. The fact that time and again I heard from the mouths of Germans -of all grades, from the highest to the lowest, so far as they did not -have to keep strictly to the official German versions, expressions of -hatred against the Armenians which were based on the most short-sighted -judgment, had no relation to the facts of the case, and were merely -thoughtless echoes of the official Turkish statements.</p> - -<p>And cases have actually been proved to have occurred, from the -testimony of German doctors and Red Cross nurses returned from the -Interior, of German officers light-heartedly taking the initiative in -exterminating and scattering the Armenians when the less-zealous local -authorities who still retained some remnants of human feeling, scrupled -to obey the instructions of "Nur-el-Osmanieh" (the headquarters of the -Committee at Stamboul).</p> - -<p>The case is well known and has been absolutely verified of the -scandalous conduct of two German officers passing through a village in -far Asia Minor, where the Armenians had taken refuge in their houses -and barricaded them to prevent being herded off like cattle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> The order -had been given that guns were to be turned on them, but not a single -Turk had the courage to carry out this order and fire on women and -children. Without any authority whatsoever, the two German officers -then turned to and gave an exhibition of their shooting capacities!</p> - -<p>Such shameful acts are of course isolated cases, but they are on a par -with the opinions expressed about the Armenian people by dozens of -educated Germans of high position—not to speak of military men at all.</p> - -<p>A case of this kind where German soldiers were guilty of an attack on -Armenians in the interior of Anatolia, was the subject of frequent -official discussion at the German Embassy, and was finally brought to -the notice of the authorities in Germany by Graf Wolff-Metternich, a -really high-principled and humane man. The material result of this was -that through the unheard-of cowardice of our Government, this man—who -in spite of his age and in contrast to the weak-minded Freiherr von -Wangenheim, and criminally optimistic had made many an attempt to get -a firmer grip of the Turkish Government—was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> simply hounded out of -office by the Turks and weakly sacrificed without a struggle by Berlin.</p> - -<p>What, finally, is one to think of the spirit of our German officials -in regard to the Armenian question, when one hears such well-verified -tales as were told me shortly before I left Constantinople by an -eminent Hungarian banker (whose name I will not reveal)? He related, -for example, that "a German officer, with the title of Baron, and -closely connected with the military attaché," went one day to the -bazaar in Stamboul and chose a valuable carpet from an Armenian, which -he had put down to his account and sent to his house in Pera. Then when -it came to paying for it, he promptly set the price twenty pounds lower -than had been stipulated, and indicated to the Armenian dealer that -in view of the good understanding between himself (the officer) and -the Turkish President of police, he would do well not to trouble him -further in the matter! I only cite this case because I am unfortunately -compelled to believe in its absolute authenticity.</p> - -<p>Shortsighted stupidity, finally, is how I characterised the inactive -toleration on the part of our Imperial representatives of this policy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> -of extermination of the Armenian race. Our Government could not have -been blind to the breaking flood of Turkish jingoism, and no one with -any glimmer of foresight could have doubted for a moment since the -summer of 1915 that Turkey would only go with us so long as she needed -our military and financial aid, and that we should have no place, not -even a purely commercial one, in a fully turkified Turkey.</p> - -<p>In spite of the lamentations one heard often enough from the mouths -of officials over this well-recognised and unpalatable fact, we -tolerated the extermination of a race of over one and a half million -of people of progressive culture, with the European point of view, -intellectually adaptable, absolutely free from jingoism and fanaticism, -and eminently cosmopolitan in feeling; we permitted the disappearance -of the only conceivable counterbalance to the hopelessly nationalistic, -anti-foreign Young Turkish element, and through our cowardice and lack -of conscience have made deadly enemies of the few that will rise from -the ruins of a race that used to be in thorough sympathy with Germany.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> - -<p>An intelligent German Government would, in face of the increasingly -evident Young Turkish spirit, have used every means in their power -to retain the sympathies of the Armenians, and indeed to win them in -greater numbers. The Armenians waited for us, trembled with impatience -for us, to give a definite ruling. Their disappointment, their hatred -of us is unbounded now—and rightly so—and if a German ever again -wants to take up business in the East he will have to reckon with this -afflicted people so long as one of them exists.</p> - -<p>To answer the Armenian question in the way I have done here, one does -not necessarily need to have the slightest liking or the least sympathy -for them as a race. (I have, however, intimated that they deserve at -least that much from their high intellectual and social abilities.) -One only requires to have a feeling for humanity to abhor the way in -which hundreds of thousands of these unfortunate people were disposed -of; one only requires to understand the commercial and social needs -of a vast country like Turkey, so undeveloped and yet so capable of -development, to place the highest value on the preservation of this -restless,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> active, and eminently useful element; one only requires to -open one's eyes and look at the facts dispassionately to deny utterly -and absolutely what the Turks have tried to make the world believe -about the Armenians, in order that they might go on with their work of -extermination in peace and quiet; one only requires to have a slight -feeling of one's dignity as a German to refuse to condone the pitiful -cowardice of our Government over the Armenian question.</p> - -<p>The mixture of cowardice, lack of conscience, and lack of foresight -of which our Government has been guilty in Armenian affairs is quite -enough to undermine completely the political loyalty of any thinking -man who has any regard for humanity and civilisation. Every German -cannot be expected to bear as light-heartedly as the diplomats of Pera -the shame of having history point to the fact that the annihilation, -with every refinement of cruelty, of a people of high social -development, numbering over one and a half million, was contemporaneous -with Germany's greatest power in Turkey.</p> - -<p>In long confidential reports to my paper I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> made perfectly clear to -them the whole position with regard to the Armenian persecutions and -the brutal jingoistic spirit of the Young Turks apparent in them. The -Foreign Office, too, took notice of these reports. But I saw no trace -of the fruits of this knowledge in the attitude of my paper.</p> - -<p>The determination never to re-enter the editorial offices of that -paper came to me on that dramatic occasion when my wife hurled her -denunciation of Germany in my teeth. I at least owe a personal debt of -gratitude to the poor murdered and tortured Armenians, for it is to -them I owe my moral and political enfranchisement.</p> - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This and other works on the subject came to my notice -for the first time a few days before going to press. Before that (in -Turkey, Austria, and Germany) they were quite unprocurable.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">The tide of war—Enver's offensive for the "liberation of the -Caucasus"—The Dardanelles Campaign; the fate of Constantinople -twice hangs in the balance—Nervous tension in international -Pera—Bulgaria's attitude—Turkish rancour against her former -enemy—German illusions of a separate peace with Russia—King -Ferdinand's time-serving—Lack of munitions in the Dardanelles—A -mysterious death: a political murder?—The evacuation of -Gallipoli—The Turkish version of victory—Constantinople -unreleased—Kut-el-Amara—Propaganda for the "Holy War"—A prisoner -of repute—Loyalty of Anglo-Indian officers—Turkish communiqués and -their worth—The fall of Erzerum—Official lies—The treatment of -prisoners—Political speculation with prisoners of war—Treatment of -enemy subjects—Stagnation and lassitude in the summer of 1916—The -Greeks in Turkey—Dread of Greek massacres—Rumania's entry—Terrible -disappointment—The three phases of the war for Turkey.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">It</span> will be necessary to devote a few lines to a review of the principal -features of the war,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> so far as it affected the life of the Turkish -capital, in order to have a military and political background for what -I saw among the Turks during my twenty months' stay in their country. -To that I will add a short description of the economic situation.</p> - -<p>When I arrived in Constantinople, Turkey had already completed her -first winter campaign in the Caucasus, and had repelled the attack of -the Entente fleet on the Dardanelles, culminating in the events of -March 18th, 1915. But Enver Pasha had completely misjudged the relation -between the means at his disposal and the task before him when, out of -pure vanity and a mad desire for expansion, he undertook a personally -conducted offensive for "the liberation of the Caucasus." The terrible -defeats inflicted on the Turkish army on this occasion were kept -from the knowledge of the people by a rigorous censorship and the -falsification of the communiqués. This was particularly the case in the -enormous Turkish losses sustained at Sarykamish.</p> - -<p>Enver had put this great Caucasus offensive in hand out of pure wanton -folly, thinking by so doing to win laurels for himself and to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> -something tangible to show those Turkish ultra-Nationalists who always -had an eye on Turkestan and Turan and thought that now was the time -to carry out their programme of a "Greater Turkey." It was this mad -undertaking, bound as it was to come to grief, that first showed Enver -Pasha in his true colours. I shall have something to say about his -character in another connection, which will show how gravely he has -been over-estimated in Europe.</p> - -<p>From the beginning of March 1915 to the beginning of January 1916 the -situation was practically entirely commanded by the battles in the -Dardanelles and Gallipoli. It has now been accepted as a recognised -fact even in the countries belonging to the Entente that the sacrifice -of a few more ships on March 18th would have decided the fate of the -Dardanelles. To their great astonishment the gallant defenders of the -coast forts found that the attack had suddenly ceased. Dozens of the -German naval gunners who were manning the batteries of Chanakkalé on -that memorable day told me later that they had quite made up their -minds the fleet would ultimately win, and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> they themselves could -not have held out much longer. Such an outcome was expected hourly -in Constantinople, and I was told by influential people that all the -archives, stores of money, etc., had already been removed to Konia.</p> - -<p>It is a remarkable fact that for a second time, in the first days -of September, the fate of Constantinople was again hanging in the -balance—a fact which is no longer a secret in England and France. -The British had extended their line northwards from Ariburnu to -Anaforta, and a heroic dash by the Anzacs had captured the summit -of the Koja-Jemen-Dagh, and so given them direct command of the -whole peninsula of Gallipoli and the insufficiently protected -Dardanelles forts behind them. It is still a mystery to the people of -Constantinople why the British troops did not follow up this victory. -The fact is that this time again the money and archives were hurried -off from Constantinople to Asia, and a German officer in Constantinople -gave me the entertaining information that he had really seriously -thought of hiring a window in the Grand' Rue de Péra, so that he and -his family<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> might watch the triumphal entry of the Entente troops! It -would be easier to enjoy the joke of this if it were not overshadowed -by such fearful tragedy.</p> - -<p>I have already indicated the dilemma in which I was placed on my first -and second visits to the Gallipoli front. I was torn by conflicting -doubts as to whom my sympathies ought ultimately to turn to—to the -heroic Turkish defender, who was indeed fighting for the existence of -his country, although in an unsuccessful and unjust cause, for German -militarism and the exaggerated jingoism of the Young Turks, or to those -who were officially my enemies but whom, knowing as I did who was -responsible for the great crime of the war, I could not regard as such.</p> - -<p>In those September days I had already had some experience of Turkish -politics and their defiance of the laws of humanity, and my sympathies -were all for those thousands of fine colonial troops—such men as one -seldom sees—sacrificing their lives in one last colossal attack, -which if it had been prolonged even for another hour might have sealed -the fate of the Straits and would have meant the first deci<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>sive step -towards the overthrow of our forces; for the capture of Constantinople -would have been the beginning of the end. I am not ashamed to confess -that, German as I am, that was the only feeling I had when I heard of -the British victory and the subsequent British defeat at Anaforta. -The Battle of Anaforta was the last desperate attempt to break the -resistance in the Dardanelles.</p> - -<p>While the men of Stamboul and Anatolia—the nucleus of the Ottoman -Empire—were defending the City of the Caliph at the gate of the -Dardanelles, with reinforcements from Arab regiments when they were -utterly exhausted in the autumn, the other half of the metropolis, -the cosmopolitan Galata-Pera, was trembling for the safety of the -attacking Entente troops, and lived through the long months in a state -of continual tension, longing always for the moment of release.</p> - -<p>There was a great deal of nervous calculation about the probable -attitude of Bulgaria among both the Turks and the thousands of -thoroughly illoyal citizens of the Ottoman Empire composing the -population of the capital. From lack of information and also as a -result<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> of Bulgaria's long delay in declaring her attitude, an undue -optimism ruled right up to the last moment among those who desired the -overthrow of the Turks.</p> - -<p>The Bulgarian question was closely bound up with the question of the -munitions supply. The Turkish resistance on Gallipoli threatened to -collapse through lack of munitions, and general interest centred—with -very varied desires with regard to the outcome—on the rare ammunition -trains that were brought through Rumania only after an enormous -expenditure of Turkish powers of persuasion and the application of any -amount of "palm-oil."</p> - -<p>I was present at Sedd-ul-Bahr at the beginning of July, when, owing to -lack of ammunition, the German-Turkish artillery could only reply with -one shot to every ten British ones, while the insufficiently equipped -factories of Top-hané and Zeitun-burnu, under the control of General -Pieper, Director of Munitions, were turning out as many shells as was -possible with the inferior material at their disposal, and the Turkish -fortresses in the Interior had to send their supply of often very -antiquated ammunition to the Dardanelles.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> The whole dramatic import of -the situation, which might any day give rise to epoch-making events, -was only too evident in Constantinople. It is not to be wondered at -that everyone looked forward with feverish impatience to Bulgaria's -entry either on one side or the other.</p> - -<p>But, in spite of all this, the Turks could scarcely bear the sight -of the first Bulgarian soldiers who appeared in autumn 1915 in full -uniform in the streets of "Carihrad." The necessary surrender of the -land along the Maritza right to the gates of the holy city of "Edirne" -(Adrianople) was but little to the liking of the Turkish patriots, -and even the successful issue of the Dardanelles campaign, only made -possible by Bulgaria's joining the Central Powers, was not sufficient -to win the real sympathies of the Turks for their new allies.</p> - -<p>It was not until much later that the position was altered as a result -of the combined fighting in Dobrudja. Practically right up to the end -of 1916, the real, short-sighted, jingoistic Turk looked askance at -his new ally and viewed with irritation and distrust the desecration -of his sacred "Edirne," the symbol of his national renaissance, while -the ambition of all politi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>cians was to bring Bulgaria one day to a -surrender of the lost territory and more.</p> - -<p>Even in 1916 I found Young Turks, belonging to the Committee, who still -regarded the Bulgarians as their erstwhile cunning foe and as a set -of unscrupulous, unsympathetic opportunists who might again become a -menace to them. They even admitted that the Serbs were "infinitely -nicer enemies in the Balkan war," and appealed to them very much more -than the Bulgarians. The late Prince Yussuf Izzedin Effendi, of whose -tragic death I shall speak later, was always a declared opponent of the -cession of the Maritza territory.</p> - -<p>The possibility of Bulgaria's voluntarily surrendering this territory -and possibly much more through extending her own possessions westward -if Greece joined the Entente, had a great deal to do with Turkey's -attitude during the whole of 1916, and goes far to explain why she -dallied so long over the idea of alienating Greece, and used all sorts -of chicanery against the Ottoman and Hellenic Greeks in Turkey. Another -and much more important factor was, as we shall see, fundamental -race-hatred and avarice.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<p>As the question as to which side Bulgaria was to join was of decisive -moment for Turkish politics, I may perhaps be permitted to add a few -details from personal information. I had an interesting sidelight on -the German attempts to win over Bulgaria from a well-informed source in -Sofia. Everyone was much puzzled over the apparent clumsiness of the -German Ambassador in Sofia, Dr. Michahelles, in his diplomatic mission -to gain help from Bulgaria. King Ferdinand, of course, made great -difficulties, and at a very early stage of the proceedings he turned to -the Prime Minister, Radoslavoff, and said: "Away with your German Jews! -Why don't you take the good French gold?" (referring, of course, to the -offered French loan).</p> - -<p>The king was cunning enough in his own way, but he was a poor -politician and utterly vacillating, for he had no sort of ideals to -live up to and was prompted by a spirit of unworthy opportunism, and -it needed Radoslavoff's threat of instant resignation to bring him -to a definite decision. The transference shortly afterwards of the -German Ambassador to a northern post strengthened the im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>pression in -confidential circles in Sofia that he had been lacking in diplomacy.</p> - -<p>The truth was that he had received most contradictory instructions from -Berlin, which did not allow him to do his utmost to win Bulgaria for -the German cause. The Imperial Chancellor seems even then—it was after -the great German summer offensive against Russia—to have given serious -consideration to the possibility of a separate peace with Russia, and -was quite convinced that Russia would never lay down arms without -having humiliated Bulgaria, should the latter prove a traitor to the -Slavic cause and turn against Serbia.</p> - -<p>In diplomatic circles in Berlin this knowledge and the decision—so -naďve in view of all their boasted <i>Weltpolitik</i>—to pursue the quite -illusory dream of a separate peace with Russia, seemed to outweigh, at -any rate for some time, anxiety with regard to the state of affairs in -Gallipoli and the complete lack of munitions shortly to be expected, -and lamed their initiative in their dealings with Bulgaria.</p> - -<p>It is probably not generally known that here again the military party -assumed the lead in politics, and took the Bulgarian matter in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> hand -themselves. In the space of no time at all, Bulgaria's entry on the -German side was an accomplished fact. It was Colonel von Leipzig, the -German military attaché at the Constantinople Embassy, that clinched -the matter at the critical moment by a journey to Sofia, and the whole -thing was arranged in less than a fortnight. But that journey cost him -his life. On the way back to the Turkish capital Herr von Leipzig—one -of the nicest and most gentlemanly men that ever wore a field-grey -uniform—visited the Dardanelles front, and on the little Thracian -railway-station of Uzunköprü he met his death mysteriously. He was -found shot through the head in the bare little waiting-room of this -miserable wayside station.</p> - -<p>It so happened that on my way to the Dardanelles on that day at the end -of June 1915, I passed through this little station, and was the sole -European witness of this tragic event, which increased still further -the excitement already hanging over Constantinople in these weeks of -lack of ammunition and terrible onslaughts against Gallipoli, and which -had already risen to fever-heat over the nervous ru<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>mours that were -going the rounds as to Bulgaria's attitude. The occurrence, of course, -was used by political intriguers for their own ends.</p> - -<p>I wrote a warm and truly heartfelt appreciation of this excellent man -and good friend, which was published in my paper at the time, and it -was not till long afterwards, weeks, indeed, after my return, that I -had any idea that the sudden death of Herr von Leipzig on his return -from a mission of the highest political importance was looked upon -by the German anti-English party as the work of English spies in the -service of Mr. Fitzmaurice, who was formerly at the English Embassy in -Constantinople.</p> - -<p>I was an eye-witness of the occurrence, or rather, I was beside the -Colonel a minute after I heard the shot, and saw the hole in his -revolver-holster where the bullet had gone through. I heard the -frank evidence of all the Turks present, from the policeman who had -arrived first on the scene to the staff doctor who came later, and I -immediately telegraphed to my paper from the scene of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> accident, -giving them my impression of the affair.</p> - -<p>On my return to Constantinople I was invited to give evidence under -oath before the German Consulate General, and there one may find the -written evidence of what I had to say: a pure and absolute accident.</p> - -<p>I must not omit to mention here that the German authorities themselves -in Constantinople were so thoroughly convinced that the idea of murder -was out of the question, that Colonel von Leipzig's widow, who, -believing this version of the story, hurried to Turkey, to make her -own investigations, had the greatest difficulty in being officially -received by the Embassy and Consulate. I had a long interview with her -in the "Pera Palace," where she complained bitterly of her treatment in -this respect. I have tarried a little over this tragic episode as it -shows all the political ramifications that ran together in the Turkish -capital and the dramatic excitement that prevailed.</p> - -<p>The day came, however, when the Entente troops first evacuated -Anaforta-Ariburnu, and then, after a long and protracted struggle, -Sedd-ul-Bahr, and so the entire Gallipoli Pe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>ninsula. The Dardanelles -campaign was at an end.</p> - -<p>The impossibility of ever breaking down that solid Turkish resistance, -the sufferings of the soldiers practically starved to death in the -trenches during the cold winter storms, the difficulties of obtaining -supplies of provisions, drinking water, ammunition, etc., with a -frozen sea and harbourless coast, anxiety about the superior heavy -artillery that the enemy kept bringing up after the overthrow of -Serbia—everything combined to strengthen the Entente in their decision -to put an end to the campaign in Gallipoli.</p> - -<p>The Turkish soldiers had now free access to the sea, for all the -British Dreadnoughts and cruisers had disappeared; the warlike activity -which had raged for months on the narrow Gallipoli Peninsula suddenly -ceased; Austrian heavy and medium howitzers undertook the coast -defence, and a garrison of a few thousand Turkish soldiers stayed -behind in the Narrows for precaution's sake, while the whole huge -Gallipoli army in an endless train was marched off to the Taurus to -meet the Russian advance threatening in Armenia.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> - -<p>But Constantinople remained "unrelieved." And from that moment a -dull resignation, a dreary waiting for one scarcely knew what, -disappointment, and pessimism took the place of the nervous tension -that had been so apparent in those who had been longing for the fall of -the Turkish capital.</p> - -<p>But the Turks rejoiced. It is scarcely to be wondered at that they -tried to construe the failure of the Gallipoli affair as a wonderful -and dazzling victory for Islam over the combined forces of the -Great Powers. It is only in line of course with Turkish official -untruthfulness that, in shameless perversion of facts, they talked -glibly of the irresistible bayonet attacks of their "ghazi" (heroes) -and of thousands of Englishmen taken prisoner or chased back into the -sea, whereas it was a well-known fact even in Pera that the retreat had -been carried out in a most masterly way with practically no loss of -life, and that the Turks themselves had been caught napping this time; -but to lie is human, and the Turks owed it to their prestige to have an -unmistakable and great military victory to form the basis of that "Holy -War" that was so long in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> getting under weigh; and when all is said and -done, their truly heroic defence really <i>was</i> a victory.</p> - -<p>The absurd thing about all these lies was the way they were foisted on -a public who already knew the true state of affairs and had nothing -whatever to do with the "Holy War."</p> - -<p>The Turks made even more of the second piece of good fortune that fell -to their lot—the fall of Kut-el-Amara. General Townshend became their -cherished prisoner, and was provided with a villa on the island of -Halki in the Sea of Marmora, with a staff of Turkish naval officers to -act as interpreters.</p> - -<p>In the neighbouring and more fashionable <i>Prinkipo</i> he was received -by practically everyone with open arms, and once even a concert was -arranged in his honour, which was attended by the élite of Turkish and -Levantine Society—the Turks because of their vanity and pride in their -important prisoner of war, the Levantines because of their political -sympathy with General Townshend, who, although there against his will, -seemed to bring them a breath of that world they had lost all contact -with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> for nearly two years and for which they longed with the most -ardent and passionate desire.</p> - -<p>On the occasion of the Bairam Festival—the highest Musulman -festival—in 1916, the Turkish Government made a point of sending a -group of about seventy Anglo-Indian Mohammedan officers, who had been -taken prisoner at the fall of Kut and were now interned in Eski-Shehir, -to the "Caliph City of Stamboul," where they were entertained for ten -days in different Turkish hotels and shown everything that would seem -to be of value for "Holy War" propaganda purposes.</p> - -<p>I had the opportunity of conversing with some of these Indian officers -in the garden of the "Petit Champs," where their appearance one -evening made a most tremendous sensation. I had of course to be very -discreet, for we were surrounded by spies, but I came away firmly -convinced that, in spite of their good treatment, which was of course -not without its purpose, and most unceasing and determined efforts to -influence them, the Turkish propaganda so far as these Indian officers -was concerned had entirely failed and that their loyalty to England -remained absolutely unshak<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>en. Will anyone blame me, if, angry and -disgusted as I was at all these Turkish intrigues—it was shortly -after that dramatic scene of the tortured Armenian which called forth -that denunciation of Germany from my wife—I said to a group of these -Indians—just this and nothing more!—that they should not believe all -that the Turks told them, and that the result of the war would be very -different from what the Turks thought? One of the officers thanked me -with glowing eyes on behalf of his comrades and himself, and told me -what a comfort my assurance was to them. They had nothing to complain -of, he said, save being cut off from all news except official Turkish -reports.</p> - -<p>The very most that even the wildest fancy could find in events like -Gallipoli and Kut-el-Amara was brought forward for the benefit of -the "Holy War," but, despite everything, the propaganda was, as we -have seen, a hopeless failure. Reverses such as the fall of Erzerum, -Trebizond, and Ersindjan, on the contrary, which took place between the -two above-mentioned victories, have never to this day been even so much -as hinted at in the of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>ficial war communiqués for the Ottoman public. -For the communiqués for home and foreign consumption were always -radically different.</p> - -<p>It was not until very much later, when the Turkish counter-offensive -against Bitlis seemed to be bearing fruit, that a few mild indications -of these defeats were made in Parliament, with a careful suppression -of all names, and the newspapers were empowered to make some mention -of a "purely temporary retreat of no strategic importance" which had -then taken place. The usual stereotyped report of 3,000 or 5,000 dead -that was officially given out after every battle throughout the whole -course of operations in the Irak scarcely came off in this case, -however, and, to tell the truth, Erzerum and these countless English -dead reported in the Irak did more than anything else to undermine -completely the people's already sadly shaken confidence in the official -war communiqués.</p> - -<p>If there was a real victory to be celebrated, the most stringent police -orders were issued that flags were to be flown everywhere—on every -building. Surely it is only in a land like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> Turkey that one could -see the curious sight I witnessed after the fall of Bucharest—the -victorious flags of the Central Powers, surmounted by the Turkish -crescent, flying even from the balconies of Rumanian subjects, because -there had been a definite police warning issued that, in the case -of non-compliance with the order, the houses would be immediately -ransacked and the families inhabiting them sent off to the interior -of Anatolia. Under the circumstances, refusal to carry out police -orders was impossible. That was the Turkish idea of the respect due to -individual liberty.</p> - -<p>This gives me an opportunity to say something of the treatment of -prisoners. I may say in one word that it is, on the whole, good. -Justice compels me to admit that the Turk, when he does take prisoners, -treats them kindly and chivalrously; but he takes few prisoners, for he -knows only too well how to wield his bayonet in those murderous charges -he makes. Indeed, apart from the few hundred that fell into their hands -in the Dardanelles or on the Russo-Turkish front, together with the -crews of a few captured submarines, all the Turkish prisoners of war -come from Kut-el-Amara.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> - -<p>But the primitive Turk is all too sadly lacking in the comforts of -life himself to be able to provide them for his prisoners. Without the -help of the Commission that works under the protection of the American -Embassy for the relief of the Entente prisoners, and sends piles of -warm clothing, excellent shoes (which rouse the special envy of the -Turks), chocolate, cakes, etc., to the Anatolian camps, these men, -accustomed to European ways of life, would be in a sad plight.</p> - -<p>The repeated and humiliating marching of prisoners of war through the -streets of Constantinople to show them off to the childish gaze of a -people much influenced by externals, might with advantage be dispensed -with. And it was certainly not exactly kind to make wounded English -officers process past the Sultan at the Friday's "Selamlik"; it was -rather too like slave-driving methods and the abuses of the Middle Ages.</p> - -<p>I was an unwilling witness of one most regrettable incident that -took place shortly before I left Constantinople. In this case the -sufferings of some unfortunate prisoners of war were cruelly exploited -for political ends.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> A whole troup of about 2,000 Rumanians, from -Dobrudja, were hounded up and down the streets of Pera and Stamboul in -a purposely destitute and exhausted condition, so that the appearance -of these poor wretches, who hung their heads dejectedly and had lost -all trace of military bearing, might give the impression that the Turks -were dealing with a very inferior foe and would soon be at the end of -the business. This is how the authorities were going to increase the -confidence of the doubting population!</p> - -<p>The Turkish escort had apparently given these prisoners nothing to -drink on the way—although the Turk, being a great water-drinker -himself, knows only too well what a man needs on a dusty journey of -several days on a transport train—for with my own eyes I saw dozens -of them simply flinging themselves like animals full length on the -ground when they reached the Taksim Fountain, and trying to slake their -terrible thirst. It was with pitiable trickery like this—for which -no doubt Enver Pasha was responsible, for the simple Turkish soldier -is much too good-natured not to share his bread and water with his -prisoners—that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> attempts were made, at the expense of all feelings of -humanity, to cheer up the uneducated masses.</p> - -<p>The Turkish Government, however, apart from a few cases of reprisals, -where the prisoners were treated in an even more barbaric and primitive -manner, did not, as a general rule, go the length of interning -civilians. This was not without its own good grounds. In the first -place, a very large part of the trade of the country lay in the hands -of these Europeans, and they were consequently absolutely indispensable -to the Turks in their everyday commercial life; secondly, a Government -that had systematically rooted out the Armenians, hanged Arabian -notables, and brutally mishandled the Greeks, could scarcely dispense, -in the eyes of Europe, with the very last pretence of being more or -less civilised; and, lastly, perhaps the fear of being brought to book -later on may have had a restraining influence on them—we saw how -growing anxiety about the Russian advance on the Eastern front led, at -any rate for a time, to a discontinuance of Armenian persecutions.</p> - -<p>Besides all this, hundreds and thousands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> Turks were resident in -enemy countries, and of course the desire was to avoid reprisals. So -the Government contented itself with threats and subterfuges, after a -first unsuccessful attempt to expose a large number of French subjects -to fire from the enemy guns in Gallipoli—a plan which failed entirely, -owing to the energetic opposition of officials of the American Embassy -who had accompanied these chosen victims to Gallipoli. Every means -was used, however, even announcements in the newspapers and a Vote of -Credit "for the removal of enemy subjects to the interior," to keep the -sword of Damocles for ever hanging over the heads of all subjects of -Entente countries, even women and children.</p> - -<p>From the fall of Kut-el-Amara up to the time of Rumania's entry into -the war, there were no important episodes of a military or political -nature from the particular point of view of Turkey. (The Arabian -catastrophe I will deal with in another connection.) With the ebb -and flow of war and constant anxiety about Russia's movements, time -passed slowly enough. It was well known that the Turkish offensive was -already considerably weakened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> and the lack of means of transport was -an open secret. Starvation and spotted fever raged at the Front as -well as in the interior and the capital. Asiatic cholera even made its -appearance in European Pera, but was fortunately successfully combated -by vaccination.</p> - -<p>Further decisive Russian victories on the west and the Gulf of -Alexandretta were expected after the fall of Ersindjian, for the -ambition and personal hatred against the Turks of the Grand Duke -Nicolai Nicolajivitch, commanding the armies in Armenia, would probably -stop short at nothing less than complete overthrow of the enemy. -Simple-minded souls, whose geography was not their strong point, -reckoned how long it would take the Russians to get from Anatolia and -when the conquest of Constantinople would take place.</p> - -<p>The less optimistic among those who were panting for final emancipation -from the Young Turkish military yoke set their hopes on the entry of -Rumania. In all circles Rumania's probable attitude was fairly clear, -and no one ever doubted that she would be drawn into the war.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> - -<p>In consequence of the new operations after Rumania's declaration of -war, the revival of the offensive in Macedonia, and the events in -Athens, all eyes were turned again to the ever-doubtful Greece. The -Greek element, Ottoman and Hellenic combined, in Constantinople alone -may be reckoned at several hundred thousand. Never were sympathies so -great for Venizelos, never was the spirit of the Irredenta so outspoken -as among the Greeks in Turkey, who had been the dupes since 1909 of -every possible kind of Young Turkish intrigue. In contrast to the -Armenians, the great mass of whom thought and felt as loyal Ottoman -citizens right up to the very end when Talaat and Enver's policy of -extermination set in against them—in contrast to these absolutely -helpless and therefore all the more easy victims to the Turkish -national lust of persecution, the attitude of the Greek citizens was -all the more marked.</p> - -<p>Since the Grćco-Turkish war of 1912-13 and the impetus given to -Pan-Hellenism by the successful issue of the war, there is not -one single Greek in either country—no matter what his social -standing—that has not ardently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> looked forward to and desired the -overthrow of Turkey. But the Greek is much too clever to let his -feelings be seen; and he is not so unprotected as the Armenian. And -so up to the present time the Turk has confined himself more to -small intrigues against the Greek population, except in a few remote -districts—more especially the shores of the Black Sea—where massacres -like those organised among the Armenians have been carried out, but on -a very much smaller scale.</p> - -<p>Sympathy with Venizelos and the Irredentistic desire for Greece to -throw in her lot with the Entente are counterbalanced, however, in -the case of the Greeks living in Turkey, by grave anxiety as to their -own welfare if it came to a break between the two countries. Turkish -hatred of the Greeks knows no bounds, and it was no idle fear that made -the Greeks in Constantinople tremble, in spite of their satisfaction -politically, when the rumours were afloat in autumn 1916 of King -Constantine's abdication and Greece's entry on the side of the Entente.</p> - -<p>But the ideas as to how the Turks would act towards them in such a -case were diametrically<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> opposed even among those who had lived in the -country a long time and knew the Turkish mind exactly. Many expected -immediate Greek massacres on the largest scale; others, again, expected -only brutal intrigues and chicanery, economic ruin; still others -thought that nothing at all would happen, that the Turks were already -too demoralised, and that at any rate in Pera the far superior Greek -element would completely command the situation. This last I considered -mere megalomaniac optimism in view of the fact that Turkey was still -unbroken so far as things military were concerned, and I believe that -those people were right who believed that Greece's entry on the side -of the Entente would be the signal for the carrying out of atrocities -against all Greeks, at any rate in the commercial world.</p> - -<p>It would be interesting to know which idea the German authorities -favoured. That the event would pass off without damage being done, they -apparently did not believe, for in those days when Greece's decision -seemed to be imminent, the former <i>Goeben</i> and the <i>Breslau</i>, which had -been lying at Stenia on the Bosporus, were brought up with all speed -and an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>chored just off the coast with their guns turned on Pera, and -the German garrison, as I knew from different officers, had orders to -be prepared for an alarm.</p> - -<p>Did the Germans think they were going to have to protect Turks or -Greeks in the case of definite news from Athens? Was it Germany's -intention to protect the European population, who had nothing to do -with the impending political decision, although they might sympathise -with it—was it Germany's intention to protect them, at any rate in -this instance, from the Turkish lust of extermination? Had these two -ships, now known as the <i>Jawuz Sultan Selim</i> and the <i>Midilli</i>, not -belonged for a long time to the Imperial Ottoman Navy?</p> - -<p>When Rumania flung off her shackles, there was great rejoicing in Pera, -and even the greatest pessimists believed that relief was near and -would be accomplished within two months at latest. But another and more -terrible reverse absolutely destroyed the last shred of anti-Turkish -hope, and the victories in Rumania, especially the fall of Bucharest, -combined with the speech of the Russian minister<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> Trepoff, had the -effect of sending over solid to the side of the Government even the few -who had hitherto, at least in theory, formed an opposition, although a -powerless one.</p> - -<p>Victories shared with the Bulgarians, too, did away with the last -remains of unfriendly feelings towards that people and consolidated the -Turko-Bulgarian Alliance. Indeed, one may say that for Turkey the third -great phase of the war began with the removal of all danger of the fall -of Constantinople through the collapse of the Rumanian forces.</p> - -<p>The first comprised the time of the powerful attacks directed at the -very heart of the Empire, its most vulnerable point, and ended with -the English-French evacuation of Gallipoli. The second was the period -of alternate successes and reverses, almost a time of stagnation, -when practically all interest was centred on the Russian menace in -Asia Minor and the efforts made to withstand it. It ended equally -successfully with the removal of the Russian menace from the Balkans. -The third will be the phase of increasing internal weakness, of the -dissipation of strength through the sending of troops to Europe, of -the successful renewal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> of the English offensive in Mesopotamia, -perhaps even of an English-French offensive against Syria and of the -final revolt of all the Arabian lands, ushered in by the events in the -Hedjaz and the founding of a purely Arabian Caliphate. The third phase -<i>cannot</i> last longer than the year 1917; it will mean the decision of -the whole European war.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">The economic situation—Exaggerated Entente hopes—Hunger and -suffering among the civil population—The system of requisitioning -and the semi-official monopolists—Profiteering on the part of -the Government clique—Frivolity and cynicism—The "Djemiet"—The -delegates of the German <i>Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft</i> (Central -Purchases Commission)—A hard battle between German and -Turkish intrigue—Reform of the coinage—Paper money and its -depreciation—The hoarding of bullion—The Russian rouble the best -investment.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">During</span> the entire course of the war as I have briefly sketched it -in the foregoing pages, the economic situation in the whole country -and particularly in the capital became more and more serious. But, -let me just say here, in anticipation, that Turkey, being a purely -agricultural country with a very modest population, can never be -brought to sue for peace through starvation, nor, with Germany backing -and financing her, through any general ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>haustion of commercial -resources, until Germany herself is brought to her knees. Any victory -must be a purely military and political one. The whole crux of the -food problem in Turkey is that the people suffer, suffer cruelly, but -not enough for hunger to have any results in the shape of an earlier -conclusion of peace. This is the case also with the Central Powers, as -the Entente have unfortunately only too surely convinced themselves now -after their first illusions to the contrary.</p> - -<p>There is another element in the Turkish question too—the large -majority of the population are a heterogeneous mass of enslaved and -degenerate beings, outcasts of society, plunged in the lowest social -and commercial depths, entirely lacking in all initiative, who can -never become a factor in any political upheaval, for in Turkey this can -only be looked for from the military or the educated classes. If the -Entente Powers ever counted on Turkey's chronic state of starvation -and lack of supplies coming to their aid in this war, they have made -a sad mistake. Therefore in attempting to sketch in a few pages the -conditions of life and the economic situation in Tur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>key, my aim is -solely to bring to light the underlying Turkish methods, and the ethics -and spirit of the Young Turkish Government.</p> - -<p>During the periods of the very acute bread crises, which occurred -more than once, but notably in the beginning of 1916, some dozen men -literally died of hunger daily in Constantinople alone. With my own -eyes I have repeatedly seen women collapsing from exhaustion in the -streets. From many parts of the interior, particularly Syria, there -were reliable reports of a still worse state of affairs. But even in -more normal times there was always a difficulty in obtaining bread, for -the means of communication in that vast and primitive land of Turkey -are precarious at best, and it was no easy matter to get the grain -transported to the centres of consumption.</p> - -<p>Then in Constantinople there was a shortage not only of skilled labour, -but of coal for milling purposes. The result was that the townspeople -only received a daily ration of a quarter of a kilogramme (about 8 -oz.—not a quarter of an oka, which would be about 10 oz.) of bread, -which was mostly of an indigestible and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> occasionally very doubtful -quality—utterly uneatable by Europeans—although occasionally it was -quite good though coarse. If the poor people in Constantinople wanted -to supplement this very insufficient allowance, they could do so when -things were in a flourishing condition at the price of about 2-1/2 or -3 piastres (1 piastre = about 2-1/4<i>d.</i>) the English pound, and later -4 or 5 piastres. Even this was for the most part only procurable by -clandestine means from soldiers who were usually willing to turn part -of their bread ration into money.</p> - -<p>This is about all that can be said about the feeding of the people, for -bread is by far the most important food of the Oriental, and the prices -of the other foodstuffs soon reached exorbitant heights. What were the -poor to feed on when rice, reckoned in English coinage, cost roughly -from 3<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> to 4<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> an oka (about 2-1/2 lb.), beans 2<i>s.</i> -4<i>d.</i> the oka, meat 3<i>s.</i> to 4<i>s.</i>, and the cheapest sheep's cheese and -olives, hitherto the most common Turkish condiment to eat with bread, -rose to 3<i>s.</i> and 1<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> the oka?</p> - -<p>Wages, on the other hand, were ludicrously low. We may obtain some -idea of the standard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> of living from the fact that the Government, who -always favoured the soldiers, did not pay more than 5 piastres (about -1<i>s.</i>) a day to the families of soldiers on active service. I have -often wondered what the people really did eat, and I was never able to -come to any satisfactory conclusion, although I often went to market -myself to buy and see what other people bought. It is significant -enough that just shortly before I left Constantinople—that is, a few -weeks after the Turko-Bulgarian-German victories in Rumania and the -fall of Bucharest—the price of bread in the Turkish capital, in spite -of the widely advertised "enormous supplies" taken in Rumania, rose -still higher.</p> - -<p>I cannot speak from personal experience of what happened after -Christmas 1916 in this connection, but everyone was quite convinced, -in spite of the official report, that the harvest of 1916, despite the -tremendous and praiseworthy efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture -and the military authorities, would show a very marked decrease as a -result of the mobilisation of agricultural labour, the requisitioning -of implements, and the shortage of buffaloes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> which, instead of -ploughing fields, were pulling guns over the snow-covered uplands of -Armenia. There was a very general idea that the harvest of 1917 would -be a horrible catastrophe. And yet I am fully convinced, and I must -emphasise it again, that, in spite of agricultural disaster, Turkey -will still go on as a military power.</p> - -<p>And now let us see what the Government did in connection with the -food problem. At a comparatively early stage they followed Germany's -example and introduced bread tickets, which were quite successful -so long as the flour lasted. In the autumn of 1915 they took the -organisation of the bread supply for large towns out of the hands -of the municipalities, and gave it over to the War Office. They got -Parliament to vote a large fund to buy up all available supplies of -flour, and in view of the immense importance of bread as the chief -means of nourishment of the masses, they decided to sell it at a very -considerable loss to themselves, so that the price of the daily ration -(though not of the supplementary ration) remained very much as it -had been in peace time. The Government always favoured the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> purely -Mohammedan quarters of the town so far as bread supply was concerned, -and the people living in Fatih and other parts of Stamboul were very -much better off than the inhabitants of Grćco-European Pera.</p> - -<p>Then Talaat made speeches in the House on the food question in which -he did all in his power to throw dust in the eyes of the starving -population, but he did not really succeed in blinding anyone as to the -true state of affairs. In February 1916, when there was practically a -famine in the land, he even went so far as to declare in Parliament -that the food supplies for the whole of Turkey had been so increased by -enormous purchases in Rumania, that they were now fully assured for two -years.</p> - -<p>It was no doubt with cynical enjoyment that the "Committee" of -the Young Turks enlarged on the privations of the people in such -publications as the semi-official <i>Tanin</i>, in which the following -wonderful sentiment appeared: "One can pass the night in relative -brightness without oil in one's lamp if one thinks of the bright and -glorious future that this war is preparing for Turkey!"</p> - -<p>One could have forgiven such cheap phrases<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> if they had been a true, -though possibly misguided, attempt to provide comfort in face of real -want; but at the same time as such paragraphs were appearing in the -<i>Tanin</i> and thousands of poor Turkish households had to spend the -long winter nights without the slightest light, thousands of tons of -oil were lying in Constantinople alone in the stores of the official -<i>accapareurs</i>.</p> - -<p>This brings me to the second series of measures taken by the Turkish -Government to relieve the economic situation—those of a negative -nature. Their positive measures are pretty well exhausted when one has -mentioned their treatment of the bread crisis.</p> - -<p>The question of <i>requisitioning</i> is one of the most important in -Turkish life in war-time, and is not without its ludicrous side. -In imitation of German war-time methods, either wrongly understood -or wittingly misapplied by Oriental greed, the Turkish Government -requisitioned pretty well everything in the food line or in the -shape of articles of daily use that were sure to be scarce and would -necessarily rise in price. But while in the civilised countries of -Central Europe the supplies so requisitioned were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> sagely applied to -the general good, the members of the "Committee of Union and Progress" -looked with fine contempt and the grim cynicism of arch-dictators on -the privations and sufferings of the people so long as they did not -actually starve, and used the supplies requisitioned for the personal -enrichment of their clique.</p> - -<p>When I speak of requisitioning, I do not mean the necessary military -carrying off of grain, cattle, vehicles, buffaloes, and horses, general -equipment, and so on, in exchange for a scrap of paper to be redeemed -after the war (of very doubtful value in view of Turkey's position)—I -do not mean that, even though the way it was accomplished bled the -country far more than was necessary, falling as it did in the country -districts into the hands of ignorant, brutal, and fanatical underlings, -and in the town being carried out with every kind of refinement -by the central authorities. Too often it was a means of violent -"nationalisation" and deprivation of property and rights exercised -especially against Armenians, Greeks, and subjects of other Entente -countries. If there was a particularly nice villa or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> handsome estate -belonging to someone who was not a Turk, soldiers were immediately -billeted there under some pretext or other, and it was not long before -these rough Anatolians had reduced everything to rack and ruin.</p> - -<p>I do not mean either the terrible damage to commercial life brought -about by the way the military authorities, in complete disregard of -agricultural interests, were always seizing railway waggons, and so -completely laming all initiative on the part of farmers and merchants, -whose goods were usually simply emptied out on the spot, exposed to -ruin, or disposed of without any kind of compensation being given.</p> - -<p>What I do mean is the huge semi-official cornering of food, which must -be regarded as typical of the Young Turks' idea of their official -responsibility towards those for whom they exercised stewardship.</p> - -<p>The "Bakal Clique" ("provision merchants," "grocers") was known through -the whole of Constantinople, and was keenly criticised by the much -injured public. It was, first of all, under the official patronage of -the city prefect, Ismet Bey, a creature of the Committee; but later -on, when they realised that dire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> necessity made a continuance of this -system of cornering quite unthinkable, he was made the scapegoat, and -his dismissal from office was freely commented on in the Committee -newspapers as "an act of deliverance." The Committee thought that -they would thus throw dust in the eyes of the sorely-tried people -of Constantinople. Hundreds of thousands of Turkish pounds were -turned into cash in the shortest possible time by this semi-official -syndicate, at the expense of the starving population, and found their -way into the pockets of the administrators.</p> - -<p>That was how the Young Turkish parvenus were able to fulfil their one -desire and wriggle their way into the best clubs, where they gambled -away huge sums of money. The method was simple enough: whatever was -eatable or useable, but could only be obtained by import from abroad, -was "taken charge of," and starvation rations, which were simply -ludicrously inadequate and quite insufficient for the needs of even the -poorest household, were doled out by "<i>vesikas</i>" (the ticket system).</p> - -<p>The great stock of goods, however, was sold secretly at exorbitant -prices by the creatures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> of the "Bakal Clique," who simply cornered the -market. That is how it happened that in Constantinople, cut off as it -was from the outer world and without imports, even at the end of 1916, -with a population of well over a million, there were still unlimited -stores of everything available for those who could pay fancy prices, -while by the beginning of 1915 those less well endowed with worldly -goods had quite forgotten the meaning of comfort and the poor were -starving with ample stores of everything still available.</p> - -<p>In businesses belonging to enemy subjects the system of requisitioning, -of course, reached a climax, stores of all kinds worth thousands of -pounds simply disappearing, without any reason being given for carrying -them off, and nothing offered in exchange, but one of these famous -"scraps of paper." Cases have been verified and were freely discussed -in Pera of ladies' shoes and ladies' clothing even being requisitioned -and turned into large sums of cash by the consequent rise in price.</p> - -<p>The profiteering of Ismet and company, who chose the specially -productive centre of the capital for their system of usury, was not, -how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>ever, by any means an isolated case of administrative corruption, -for exactly the same system of requisitioning, holding up and then -reselling under private management at as great a profit as possible, -underlay and underlies the great semi-official Young Turkish commercial -organisation, with branches throughout the whole country, known as the -"Djemiet" and under the distinguished patronage of Talaat himself.</p> - -<p>After Ismet Bey's fall, the "Djemiet" took over the supplying of the -capital as well (with the exception of bread). We will speak elsewhere -of this great organisation, which is established not only for war -purposes, but serves towards the nationalisation of economic life. So -far as the system of requisitioning is concerned, it comes into the -picture through its firm opposition to German merchants who were trying -to buy up stores of food and raw materials from their ally Turkey. -The intrigues and counter-intrigues on both sides sometimes had most -remarkable results.</p> - -<p>One of the really bright sides of life in Constantinople in war-time -was the amusement one extracted from the silent and desperate war<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> -continually being waged by the many well-fed gentlemen of the "Z.E.G." -("<i>Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft</i>," "Central Purchasing Commission") and -their minions who tried to rob Turkey of foodstuffs and raw material -for the benefit of Germany, against the "Djemiet" and more particularly -the Quartermaster-General, Ismail Hakki Pasha, that wooden-legged, -enormously wealthy representative of the neo-Turkish spirit—he was the -most perfect blend of Oriental politeness and narrow-minded decision -to do exactly the opposite of what he had promised. On the Turkish -side, the determination to safeguard the interests of the Army, and in -the case of the "Djemiet" the effort not to let any foodstuffs out of -Germany—a standpoint that has at last found expression in a formal -prohibition of all export—then the quest of personal enrichment on the -part of the great "Clique"; on the German side, the insatiable hunger -for everything Turkey could provide that had been lacking for a long -time in Germany: the whole thing was a wonderfully variegated picture -of mutual intrigue.</p> - -<p>The gentlemen of the "Z.E.G.," after months of inactivity spent in -reviling the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> Turks and studying Young Turkish and other morals and -manners by frequenting all the pleasure resorts in the place, managed -at last to get the exports of raw materials set on the right road, and -so it came about that the fabulous sums in German money that had to be -put into circulation in payment of these goods, in spite of Turkey's -indebtedness to Germany, led to a very considerable depreciation in the -value of the Mark even in Turkey for some time.</p> - -<p>But until the understanding as to exports was finally arrived at, there -were many dramatic events in Constantinople, culminating in the Turks -re-requisitioning, with the help of armed detachments, stores already -paid for by Germany and lying in the warehouses of the "Z.E.G." and the -German Bank!</p> - -<p>On the financial side, apart from Turkey's enormous debt to Germany, -the wonderful attempt at a reform and standardisation of the coinage in -the middle of May 1916 is worthy of mention. The reform, which was a -simplification of huge economic value of the tremendously complicated -money system and introducing a theoretical gold unit, must be re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>garded -chiefly as a war measure to prevent the rapid deterioration of Turkish -paper money.</p> - -<p>This last attempt, as was obvious after a few months' trial, was -entirely unsuccessful, and even hastened the fall of paper money, for -the population soon discovered at the back of these drastic measures -the thinly veiled anxiety of the Government lest there should be a -further deterioration. Dire punishments, such as the closing down of -money-changers' businesses and arraignment before a military court -for the slightest offence, were meted out to anyone found guilty of -changing gold or even silver for paper.</p> - -<p>In November 1916, however, it was an open secret that, in spite of all -these prohibitions, there was no difficulty in the inland provinces -and in Syria and Palestine in changing a gold pound for two or more -paper pounds. In still more unfrequented spots no paper money would -be accepted, so that the whole trade of the country simply came to a -standstill. Even in Constantinople at the beginning of December 1916, -paper stood to gold as 100 to 175.</p> - -<p>The Anatolian population still went gaily on, burying all the available -silver <i>medjidiehs</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> and even nickel piastres in their clay pots in the -ground, because being simple country folk they could not understand, -as the Government with all its prayers and threats were so anxious -they should, that throughout Turkey and in the greater and mightier -and equally victorious Germany, guaranteed paper money was really -much better than actual coins, and was just as valuable as gold! The -people, too, could not but remember what had happened with the "Kaimé" -after the Turko-Russian war, when thousands who had believed in the -assurances of the Government suddenly found themselves penniless. In -Constantinople it was a favourite joke to take one of the new pound, -half-pound, or quarter-pound notes issued under German paper, not gold, -guarantee and printed only on one side and say, "This [pointing to the -right side] is the present value, and that [blank side] will be the -value on the conclusion of peace."</p> - -<p>Even those who were better informed, however, and sat at the receipt of -custom, did exactly the same as these stupid Anatolian country-people; -no idea of patriotism prevented them from collecting everything metal -they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> could lay their hands on, and, in spite of all threats of -punishment—which could never overtake them!—paying the highest price -in paper money for every gold piece they could get. Their argument was: -"One must of course have something to live on in the time directly -following the conclusion of peace." In ordinary trade and commerce, -filthy, torn paper notes, down to a paper piastre, came more and more -to be practically the only exchange.</p> - -<p>A discerning Turk said to me once: "It would be a very good plan -sometime to have the police search these great men for bullion every -evening on their return from the official exchanges. That would be more -to the point than any reform in the coinage!"</p> - -<p>Those who could not get gold, bought roubles, which were regarded as -one of the very best speculations going, until one day the Turkish -Government, in their annoyance at some Russian victory, suddenly -deported to Anatolia a rich Greek banker of the name of Vlasdari, who -was accused of having speculated in roubles, which of course gave them -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> double benefit of getting rid of a Greek and seizing his beautiful -estate in Pera.</p> - -<p>Only the greatest optimists were deceived into believing that it was a -profitable transaction to buy Austrian paper money at the fabulously -low price the Austrian <i>Krone</i> had reached against the Turkish pound, -which was really neither politically nor financially in any better a -state. The members of the "Committee of Union and Progress" had of -course shipped their gold off to Switzerland long ago.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">German propaganda and ethics—The unsuccessful "Holy War" and the -German Government—"The Holy War" a crime against civilisation, a -chimera, a farce—Underhand dealings—The German Embassy the dupe -of adventurers—The morality of German Press representatives—A -trusty servant of the German Embassy—Fine official distinctions of -morality—The German conception of the rights of individuals.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> that we have given a rough sketch of the main events of the war -as it affected the economic life of the people, and have devoted a -chapter to that sinister crime, the Armenian persecutions, we shall -leave the Young Turks for a moment and turn to an examination of German -propaganda methods.</p> - -<p>It is a very painful task for a German who does not profess to -be a "World Politician," but really thinks in terms of true -"world-politics," to deal with the many intrigues and machinations of -our Government in their rela<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>tion to the so-called "Holy War" (Arab. -<i>Djihad</i>), where in their quest of a vain illusion they stooped to -the very lowest means. Practically all their hopes in that direction -have been sadly shattered. Their costly, unscrupulous, thoroughly -unmoral efforts against European civilisation in Mohammedan countries -have resulted in the terrific counter-stroke of the defection of the -Arabs and the foundation of a purely Arabian Chaliphate under English -protection. Thus England has already won a brilliant victory against -Germany and Turkey in spite of Gallipoli and Kut-el-Amara, although -it seems probable that even these will be wiped out by greater deeds -on the part of the Entente before long. One could not have a better -example of Germany's total inability to succeed in the sphere of -world-politics.</p> - -<p>The so-called "Holy War," if it had succeeded, would have been one -of the greatest crimes against human civilisation that even Germany -has on her conscience, remembering as we do her recent ruthless -"frightfulness" at sea, and her attempt to set Mexico and the Japanese -against the land of most modern civilisation and of greatest liberty. -A success<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>ful "Djihad" spreading to all the lands of Islam would have -set back by years all that civilisation so patiently and so painfully -won; it would not have been at all comparable with the Entente's use -of coloured troops in Europe which Germany deprecated so loudly, for -in the Holy War it would have been a case of letting the wildest -fanaticism loose against the armies of law and order and civilisation; -in the case of the Entente it was part of a purely military action -on the part of England and France, who held under their sway all the -inhabitants, coloured and otherwise, of those Colonial regions from -which troops were sent to Europe and to which they will return.</p> - -<p>But the attempt against colonial civilisation did not succeed. The -"Djihad," proclaimed as it was by the Turanian pseudo-Chaliph and -violently anti-Entente, was doomed to failure from the very start -from its obvious artificiality. It was a miserable farce, or rather a -tragicomedy, the present ending of which, namely the defection of the -Arabian Chaliphate, is the direct contrary of what had been aimed at -with such fanatical urgency and the use of such immoral propaganda.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> - -<p>The attempt to "unloose" the Holy War was due primarily to the most -absurd illusions. It would seem that in Germany, the land of science, -the home of so many eminent doctors of research, even the scholars -have been attacked by that disease of being dazzled by wild political -illusions, or surely, knowing the countries of Islam outside-in as they -must, they would long ago have raised their voices against such arrant -folly. It would seem that all her inherent knowledge, all her studies, -have been of little or no avail to Germany, so that mistake after -mistake has been committed in the realm of world politics. It may be -said that Germany, even if she were doubtful of the issue, should still -not have left untried this means of crippling her opponents. To that -I can only reply by pointing to the actual position of affairs, well -known to Germany, not only in English, but also in French and Russian -Islamic colonial territory, which should have rendered the "Djihad" -entirely and absolutely out of the question.</p> - -<p>Let us take for example Egypt, French North-West Africa, and Russian -Turkestan, not to speak of the masterly English colonial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> rule in -India, which has now been tested and tried for centuries. Anyone who -has ever seen Egypt with the area under culture practically doubled -under modern English rule by the help of every kind of technical -contrivance for the betterment of existing conditions, and the skilful -utilisation of all available means at an expense of millions of pounds, -with its needy population given an opportunity to earn a living wage -and even wealth through a lucrative cultivation of the land under -conditions that are a paradise compared with what they were under the -Turkish rule of extortion and despotism—anyone who has seen that -must have looked from the very beginning with a very doubtful eye on -Germany's and Turkey's illusions of stirring up these well-doing people -against their rulers.</p> - -<p>The same thing occurs again in the extended territory of North-West -Africa from the Atlas lands to the Guinea coast and Lake Chad, where -France, as I know from personal experience, stands on a high level -of colonial excellence, developing all the resources of the country -with consummate skill, shaping her "<i>empire colonial</i>" more and more -into a shining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> gem in the crown of colonial endeavour, and, as I -can testify from my own observations in Morocco, Senegal, the Niger, -and the Interior of the Guinea territories of the "A.O.F." (Afrique -Occidentale Française), capturing the hearts of the whole population by -her essential culture, and, last but not least, winning the Mohammedans -by her clever Islam policy.</p> - -<p>That, finally, Russia, at any rate from the psychological standpoint, -is perhaps the best coloniser of Further Asia, even German textbooks -on colonial policy admit unreservedly, and the glowing conditions that -she has brought about especially in the basin of Ferghana in Turkestan -by the introduction of the flourishing and lucrative business of -cotton-growing are known to everyone. Only politicians of the most -wildly fantastic type, who see everywhere what they want to see, could -believe that in this war the Turkish "Turanistic" bait would ever have -any effect in Russian Central Asia, or make its inhabitants now living -in security, peace, and well-being wish back again the conditions -which prevailed under the Emirs of Samarkand, Khiva, and Bokhara. But -Germany, who should have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> well informed if anyone was, believed -all these fantastic impossibilities.</p> - -<p>One could let it pass with a slight feeling of irritation against -Germany if it were merely a case of the failure of the "Djihad." -But unfortunately the propaganda, as stupid as it was unsuccessful, -exercised in this connection, will be written down for all time as one -of the blackest and most despicable marks against Germany's account in -this war. In Turkey alone, the underhand manipulation for the unloosing -of the "Holy War" and the German Press propaganda so closely allied -with it, indeed the whole way in which the German cause in the East -was represented journalistically throughout the war, are subjects full -of the saddest, most biting irony, to sympathise with which must lower -every German who has lived in the Turkish capital in the eyes of the -whole civilised world.</p> - -<p>In order to demonstrate the rôle played in this affair by the German -Embassy at Constantinople I will not make an exhaustive survey but -simply confine myself to a few episodes and outstanding features. An -eminent German Red Cross doctor, clear-sighted and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> reliable, who had -many tales to tell of what he had seen in the "Caucasus" campaign, -said to me one evening, as we sat together at a promenade concert: -"Do you see that man in Prussian major's uniform going past? I met -him twice in Erzerum last winter. The man was nothing but an employee -in a merchant's business in Baku, and had learnt Russian there. He -has never done military service. When war broke out, he hurried to -the Embassy in Pera and offered his services to stir up the Georgians -and other peoples of the Caucasus against Russia. Of course he got -full powers to do what he wanted, and guns and ammunition and piles -of propaganda pamphlets were placed at his disposal so that he might -carry on his work from the frontier of the then still neutral Turkey. -Whole chests full of good gold coins were sent to him to be distributed -confidentially for propaganda purposes; of course he was his own most -confidential friend! He went back to Erzerum without having won a -single soul for the cause of the 'Djihad.' That has not prevented his -living as a 'grand seigneur,' for the Embassy are not yet daunted, -and now the fellow struts about in a major's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> uniform, lent to him, -although he has never been a soldier, so that the cause may gain still -more prestige."</p> - -<p>Numerous examples of similar measures might be cited, and instances -without number given, of the German Embassy being made the dupe of -greedy adventurers who treated them as an inexhaustible source of gold. -First one would appear on the scene who announced himself as the one -man to cope with Afghanistan, then another would come along on his way -to Persia and play the great man "on a special mission" for a time in -Pera while money belonging to the German Empire would find its way into -all sorts of low haunts. And so things went on for two years until, -with the Arabian catastrophe, even the eyes of the great diplomatic -optimists of Ayas-Pasha might have been opened.</p> - -<p>I will only mention here how even a <i>bona fide</i> connoisseur of the East -like Baron von Oppenheim, who had already made tours of considerable -value for research purposes right across the Arabian Peninsula, and so -should have known better than to share these false illusions, doled -out thousands of marks from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> own pocket—and millions from the -Treasury!—to stir up the tribes to take part in the "Djihad," and how -he returned to Pera from his propaganda tour with a real Bedouin beard, -and, still unabashed, took over the control of the German Embassy's -"News Bureau," which kept up these much-derided war telegraph and -picture offices known in Pera and elsewhere by the non-German populace -as <i>sacs de mensonges</i>, and which flooded the whole of the East with -waggon loads of pamphlets in every conceivable tongue—in fact these, -with guns and ammunition, formed the chief load of the bi-weekly -"culture-bringing" Balkan train!</p> - -<p>I will only cite the one example of the far-famed Mario Passarge—a -real <i>Apache</i> to look at. With his friend Frobenius, the ethnographer -and German agent, well known to me personally from French West -Africa for his liking for absinthe and negro women and his Teutonic -brusqueness emphasised in comparison with the kindly, helpful French -officials, as well as by hearsay from many scandalous tales, Passarge -undertook that disastrous expedition to the Abyssinians which failed -so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> lamentably owing to the Italians, and then after its collapse -came to Turkey as special correspondent of the <i>Vossische Zeitung</i> -and managed to swindle his way through Macedonia with a false Italian -passport to Greece, where he wrote sensational reports for his -wonderful newspaper about the atrocities and low morale of Sarrail's -army—the same newspaper that had made itself the laughing-stock of the -whole of Europe, and at the same time had managed to get the German -Government to pursue for two years the shadow of a separate peace with -Russia, by publishing a marvellous series of "Special Reports via -Stockholm," on conditions in Russia that were nothing but a tissue of -lies inspired by blind Jewish hate; if a tithe of them had been true, -Russia would have gone under long ago.</p> - -<p>I need not repeat my own opinion on all the machinations of the German -Embassy, but I will simply give you word for word what a German Press -agent in Constantinople (I will mention no names) once said to me: -"It is unbelievable," he declared, "what a mob of low characters -frequent the German Embassy now. The scum of the earth, people who -would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> never have dared before the war to have been seen on the -pavements of Ayas-Pasha, have now free entry. Any day you can see -some doubtful-looking character accosting the porter at the Embassy, -whispering something in his ear, and then being ushered down the steps -to where the propaganda department, the news bureau, has its quarters. -There he gives wonderful assurances of what he can do, and promises to -stir up some Mohammedan people for the "Djihad." Then he waits a while -in the ante-room, and is finally received by the authorities; but the -next time he comes to the Embassy he walks in through the well-carpeted -main entrance, and requests an audience with the Ambassador or other -high official, and we soon find him comfortably equipped and setting -off on a 'special mission' as the confidential servant of the German -Embassy." But even the recognition of these truths has not prevented -this journalist from eating from the crib of the German Embassy!</p> - -<p>I cannot leave this disagreeable subject without making some mention -of a type that does more than anything to throw light on the morale of -this German propaganda. Every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>one in Constantinople knows—or rather -knew, for he has now feathered his nest comfortably and departed to -Germany with his money—Mehmed Zekki "Bey," the publisher and chief -editor of the military paper <i>Die Nationalverteidigung</i> and its -counterpart <i>La Défense</i>, published daily in French but representative -of Young Turkish-German interests. Hundreds of those who know Zekki -also know that he used to be called "Capitaine Nelken y Waldberg." -Fewer know that "Nelken" alone would have been more in accordance with -fact.</p> - -<p>I will relate the history of this individual, as I know it from the -mouths of reliable informants—the members of the Embassy and the -Consulate. Nelken, a Roumanian Jew, a shopkeeper by trade, had been -several times in prison for bankruptcy and fraud, and at last fled from -Roumania. He took refuge in the Turkish capital, where he continued -his business and married a Greek wife. Here again he became bankrupt, -as is only too clear from the public notice of restoration in the -Constantinople newspapers, when his lucrative political activity as the -champion of Krupp's, of the German cause and "the holy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> German war," -as much a purely pan-Germanic as Islamic affair, provided him with the -wherewithal to pay off his former disreputable debts.</p> - -<p>To go back to his history—with money won by fraud in his pocket, he -deserted his wife and went off, no doubt having made a thorough and -most professional study of the subject in the low haunts of Pera, -as a white-slave trader to the Argentine, and then—I rely for my -information on an official of the German Consulate in Pera—set up as -proprietor of a brothel in Buenos Ayres. Then, as often happens, the -Argentine special police took him into their service, thinking, on the -principle of "setting a thief to catch a thief," that he would have -special experience for the post. Grounds enough there for him to add -on the second name of his falsified passport "Nelken y Waldberg" and -to call himself in Europe a "Capitaine de la Gendarmerie" from the -Argentine.</p> - -<p>From there he went to Cairo and edited a little private paper called -<i>Les Petites Nouvelles Egyptiennes</i>. For repeated extortion he was -sentenced to one year's imprisonment, but unfortunately only <i>in -contumaciam</i>, for he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> had already fled the country, not, however, -before he had been publicly smacked on the face in the "Flasch" -beer garden without offering satisfaction as an "Argentine General" -should—a performance that was later repeated in every detail in -Toklian's Restaurant in Constantinople.</p> - -<p>He told me once that he had been sentenced in this way because, on -an understanding with the then German Diplomatic Agent in Cairo, von -Miquel, he had attacked Lord Cromer's policy sharply, and that his -patron von Miquel had given him the timely hint to leave Egypt. I -will leave it to one's imagination to discover how much truth there -was in this former brothel-keeper's connection with official German -"world-politics" and high diplomacy. From what I have seen personally -since, I believe that Zekki, alias Nelken, was probably speaking the -truth in this case, although it is certainly a fact that in German -circles in Cairo at that time ordinary extortion was recognised as -being punishable by imprisonment for a considerable length of time.</p> - -<p>Nelken then returned to Constantinople and devoted himself with -unflagging energy to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> his previous business of agent. He turned to -the Islamic faith and became a citizen of the Ottoman Empire because -he found it more profitable so to do, and could thus escape from his -former liabilities. Then in spite of lack of means, he managed to found -a military newspaper, which, however, soon petered out. Nelken became -Mehmed Zekki and a journalist, and of course called himself "Bey."</p> - -<p>Up to this point the history of this individual is nothing but a -characteristic extract from life as it is lived by hundreds of rogues -in the East. But now we come to something which is almost unbelievable -and which leads me to give credence to his version of his relations -with von Miquel, which after all only shows more clearly than ever that -German "world-politics" are not above making use of the scum of the -earth for their intrigues. In full knowledge of this man's whole black -past—as Dr. Weber of the German Embassy himself told me—the German -Embassy with the sanction of the Imperial Government (this I know from -letters Zekki showed me in great glee from the Foreign Office and the -War Office) appointed this fellow, whom all Pera said they would not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> -touch with gloves on or with the tongs, to be their confidential agent -with a large monthly honorarium and to become a pillar of "the German -cause" in the East. And it could not even be said in extenuation that -the man had any great desire or any wonderful vocation to represent -Germany, for—as the Embassy official said to me—"We knew that Zekki -was a dangerous character and rather inclined to the Entente at the -outbreak of war, so we decided to win him over by giving him a salary -rather than drive him into the enemy's camp." So it simply comes to -this, that Germany buys a bankrupt, a blackmailer, a procurer, a -brothel-keeper with cash to fight her "Holy War" for her!</p> - -<p>As publisher of the <i>Défense</i> Zekki received a large salary from -Germany, one from Austria, afterwards cut down not from any excess of -moral sense, but simply from excess of economy, and a very considerable -sum from Krupp's. As representative of German interests he did all he -could to propitiate the Young Turks by the most fulsome flattery, and -more recently he was pushing hard to get on the Committee of Union and -Progress. But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> Turks jibbed at what the German Embassy had brought -on themselves—seeing Zekki "Bey" moving about their sacred halls with -the most imposing nonchalance and condescension. Zekki himself once -complained to me bitterly that in spite of his having presented Enver -Pasha with a valuable clock worth eighty Turkish pounds which Enver -had accepted with pleasure, he would not even answer a written request -from Zekki craving an audience with him. (This, incidentally, is a most -excellent example of the working of Enver's mind, a megalomaniac as -greedy as he was proud.)</p> - -<p>The military director of the Turkish Press said to me once: "We -are only waiting for the first 'gaffe' in his paper to get this -filthy creature hunted out of his lair," and one day when through -carelessness a small uncensored and really quite harmless military -notice appeared in print (everything is submitted to the censor), -the Turkish Government gave it short shrift indeed, and banned <i>sine -die</i> this "Ottoman" paper which lived by Krupp and the German trade -advertisements, and had become an advocate of the German Embassy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> -because it was paid in good solid cash for it. The paper was replaced -by a new one in Turkish hands, called <i>Le Soir</i>.</p> - -<p>I could go on talking for ages from most intimate personal knowledge -about this man, superb in his own way. His doings were not without -a certain comic side which amused while it aggravated one. I could -mention, for example, his great lawsuit in Germany in 1916, in which he -brought an accusation of libel against some German who had called him a -blackmailer and a criminal who had been repeatedly punished. He managed -to win the lawsuit—that is, the defenders had to pay a fine of twenty -marks, because the evidence brought against Zekki could not be followed -up to Egypt on account of England's supremacy on the sea, and also no -doubt because the interests of Krupp and the German Embassy could not -have this cherished blossom of German propaganda disturbed! So for him -at any rate the lack of "freedom of the seas" he had so often raged -about in his leading articles was a very appreciable advantage.</p> - -<p>The last time I remember seeing the man he was engaged in an earnest -<i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i> about the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> propagation of German political interests by -means of arms with the Nationalist Reichstag deputy, Dr. Streesemann, a -representative of the German heavy goods trade and of German jingoism -who had hastened to Constantinople for the furtherance of German -culture. Most significantly, no doubt in remembrance of his days in -Buenos Ayres, Zekki had chosen for this interview the most private room -of the Hôtel Moderne, a pension with a bar where sect could be had; -and the worthy representative of the German people, probably nothing -loth to have a change from his eternal "Pan-German" diet, accepted his -invitation with alacrity. I followed the two gentlemen to make my own -investigations, and I certainly got as much amusement, although in a -different sense, as one usually does in such haunts. It was really -most entertaining to watch Nelken the ex-Jew and Young Turk, with his -fez on his head, nodding jovially to all the German officers at the -neighbouring tables, and settling the affairs of the realm with this -Pan-German representative of the people.</p> - -<p>I trust my readers will forgive me if, in spite of the distaste I -feel at having to write<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> this unsavoury chapter about German Press -representatives and those in high diplomatic authority who commission -them, I relate one more episode of a like character before I close. -One of these writers employed in the service of the German Embassy had -done one of his female employees an injury which cannot be repeated -here. His colleague—out of professional jealousy, the other said—gave -evidence against him under oath at the German Consulate, and the other -brought a charge of perjury against him. The German Consulate, in order -not to lose such a trusty champion of the German cause for a trifle -like the wounded honour of a mere woman—an Armenian to boot!—simply -suppressed the whole case, although all Pera was speaking about it.</p> - -<p>Against this we have the case later on of a German journalist, most -jealous of German interests, who had a highly important document -stolen out of his desk with false keys by one of his clerks in the pay -of the Young Turkish Committee. The document was the copy of a very -confidential report addressed to high official quarters in Germany, in -which there were some rather more uncomplimentary re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>marks about Enver -and Talaat than appeared in the version for public consumption. An -Embassy less notoriously cowardly than the German one would simply have -shielded their man in consideration of the fact that the report was -never meant for publication and of the reprehensible way it had been -stolen and made public. But our chicken-hearted diplomats allowed him -to be dismissed in disgrace by the Turks, and so practically gave their -official sanction to the meanest Oriental methods of espionage.</p> - -<p>I have, however, now come to the conclusion from information I have -received that German cowardice in this case probably had a background -of hypocrisy and malice, for this same journalist had spoken with -remarkable freedom, not indeed as a pro-Englander, but in contrast -to German and Turkish narrow-mindedness, of how well he had been -treated by the English authorities, and particularly General Maxwell -in the exercise of his profession in Cairo, where he had been allowed -for fully five weeks, after the outbreak of war, to edit a German -newspaper. (I have seen the numbers myself and wondered at the al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>most -incredible liberality of the English censorship.) Instead of being sent -to Malta he had been treated most fairly and kindly and given every -opportunity to get away safely to Syria. Of course the narration of -events like these were rather out of place in our "God Punish England" -time, and it was no doubt on account of this, apart from all cowardice, -that the German Embassy made their fine distinctions between personal -and political morality in the case of their Press representative.</p> - -<p>We have spoken of German propaganda for the "Holy War," as carried -out by individuals as well as by pamphlets and the Press. The Turkish -capital saw a very appreciable amount of this in the shape of wandering -adventurers and printed paper. Several thousand Algerian, Tunisian, -French West African, Russian Tartar, and Turkestan prisoners of war -of Mohammedan religion from the German internment camps were kept for -weeks in Pera and urged by the German Government in defiance of all the -laws of the peoples to join the "Djihad" against their own rulers.</p> - -<p>They were told that they would have the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> great honour of being -presented to the Caliph in Stamboul; as devout Mohammedans they could -of course not find much to object to in that. A wonderfully attractive -picture was painted for them of the delights of settling in the -flourishing lands of the East, and living free of expense instead of -starving in prison under the rod of German non-commissioned officers -till the far-distant conclusion of peace. One can well imagine how such -marvellous conjuring tricks would appeal to these poor fellows.</p> - -<p>They have repeatedly told me that they had been promised to be allowed -to settle in Turkey without any mention being made of using them -again as soldiers. But once on the way to Constantinople there was no -further question of asking them what their opinion was of what was -being done to them. They were simply treated as Turkish voluntary -soldiers and sent off to the Front, to Armenia, and the Irak. How far -they were used as real front-line soldiers or in service behind the -lines I do not know; what I do know is that they left Constantinople -in as great numbers as they came from Germany, armed with rifles and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> -fully equipped for service in the field. One can therefore guess how -many of them became "settlers" as they had been promised. Several days -running in the early summer of 1916 I saw them being marched off in -the direction of the Haidar-Pasha station on the Anatolian Railway. -They were headed by a Turkish band, but on not one single face of all -these serried ranks did I see the slightest spark of enthusiasm, and -the German soldiers and officers escorting each separate section were -not exactly calculated to leave the impression with the public that -these were zealots fighting voluntarily for their faith who could not -get fast enough out to the Front to be shot or hanged by their former -masters!</p> - -<p>In her system of recruiting in the newly founded kingdom of Poland, -Germany demonstrated even more clearly of what she was capable in this -direction.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">Young Turkish nationalism—One-sided abolition of -capitulations—Anti-foreign efforts at emancipation—Abolition of -foreign languages—German simplicity—The Turkification of commercial -life—Unmistakable intellectual improvement as a result of the -war—Trade policy and customs tariff—National production—The -founding of new businesses in Turkey—Germany supplanted—German -starvation—Capitulations or full European control?—The colonisation -and forcible Turkification of Anatolia—"The properties of people who -have been dispatched elsewhere"—The "Mohadjirs"—Greek persecutions -just before the Great War—The "discovery" of Anatolia, the nucleus -of the Ottoman Empire—Turkey finds herself at last—Anatolian -dirt and decay—The "Greater Turkey" and the purely Turkish -Turkey—Cleavage or concentration?</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">From</span> the Germans we now turn again to the Turks, to try to fathom -the exact mentality of the Young Turks during the great war, and -to discover what were the intellectual sources for their various -activities.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> - -<p>To give a better idea of the whole position I will just preface my -remarks by stating a few of the outstanding features of the present -Young Turkish Government and their dependents. Their first and chief -characteristic is <i>hostility to foreigners</i>, but this does not prevent -them from making every possible use of their ally Germany, or from -appropriating in every walk of life anything European, be it a matter -of technical skill, government, civilisation, that they consider might -be profitable. Secondly they are possessed of an unbounded store of -<i>jingoism</i>, which has its origin in <i>Pan-Turkism</i> with its ruling idea -of "Turanism." Pan-Turkism, which seems to be the governing passion of -all the leading men of the day, finds expression in two directions. -Outwardly it is a constant striving for a "Greater Turkey," a movement -that for a large part in its essence, and certainly in its territorial -aims, runs parallel with the "Holy War"; inwardly it is a fanatical -desire for a general Turkification which finds outlet in political -nationalistic measures, some of criminal barbarity, others partaking of -the nature of modern reforms, beginning with the language regulations -and "in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>ternal colonisation" and ending in the Armenian persecutions.</p> - -<p>It is worthy of note that of the two intellectual sources of the "Holy -War," namely Turanism—which one might reverse and call an extended -form of Old-Turkism—and Pan-Islamism, the men of the "Committee for -Unity and Progress" have only made logical though unsuccessful use -of the former, although theoretically speaking they recognise the -value of the latter as well. While Turkish race-fanaticism, which -finds practical outlet in Turanistic ideas, is still the intellectual -backbone of official Turkey to-day and has to be broken by the present -war, the Young Turkish Islam policy is already completely bankrupt and -can therefore be studied here dispassionately in all its aspects. We -propose to treat the matter in some detail.</p> - -<p>All New-Turkish Nationalistic efforts at emancipation had as first -principle the abolition of Capitulations. The whole Young Turkish -period we have here under review is therefore to be dated from that -day, shortly before Turkey's entry into the war, when that injunction -was flung overboard which Europe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> had anxiously placed for the -protection of the interests of Europeans on a State but too little -civilised. It was Turkey herself that did this after having curtly -refused the Entente offer to remove the Capitulations as a reward for -Turkey's remaining neutral. Germany, who was equally interested in -the existence or non-existence of Capitulations, never mentioned this -painful subject to her ally for a very long time, and it was 1916 -before she formally recognised the abolition of Capitulations, long -after she had lost all hold on Turkey in that direction.</p> - -<p>As early as summer 1915 there were clear outward indications in the -streets of Constantinople of a smouldering Nationalism ready to break -out at any moment. Turkey, under the leadership of Talaat Bey, pursued -her course along the well-trodden paths, and the first sphere in which -there was evidence of an attempt at forcible Turkification was the -language. Somewhere toward the end of 1915 Talaat suddenly ordered the -removal of all French and English inscriptions, shop signs, etc., even -in the middle of European Pera. In tramcars and at stopping-places the -French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> text was blocked out; boards with public police warnings in -French were either removed altogether or replaced by unreadable Turkish -scrawls; the street indications were simply abolished. The authorities -apparently thought it preferable that the Levantine public should get -into the wrong tramcar, should break their legs getting out, pick -flowers in the parks and wander round helplessly in a maze of unnamed -streets rather than that the spirit of forcible Turkification should -make even the least sacrifice to comfort.</p> - -<p>Of the thousand inhabitants of Pera, not ten can read Turkish; but -under the pressure of the official order and for fear of brutal assault -or some kind of underhand treatment in case of non-compliance, the -inhabitants really surpassed themselves, and before one could turn, -all the names over the shops had been painted over and replaced by -wonderful Turkish characters that looked like decorative shields or -something of the kind painted in the red and white of the national -colours. If one had not noted the entrance to the shop and the look of -the window very carefully, one might wander helplessly up and down the -Grand Rue de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> Péra if one wanted to buy something in a particular shop.</p> - -<p>But the German, as simple-minded as ever where political matters -were concerned, was highly delighted in spite of the extraordinary -difficulty of communal life. "Away with French and English," he would -shout. "God punish England; hurrah, our Turkish brothers are helping us -and favouring the extension of the German language!"</p> - -<p>The answer to these pan-German expansion politicians and language -fanatics, whose spiritual home was round the beer-tables of the -"Teutonia," was provided by a second decree of Talaat's some weeks -later when all German notices had to disappear. A few, who would not -believe the order, held out obstinately, and the signs remained in -German till they were either supplemented in 1916, on a very clear -hint from Stamboul, by the obligatory Turkish language or later -quite supplanted. It was not till some time after the German had -disappeared—and this is worthy of note—that the Greek signs ceased to -exist. Greek had been up to that time the most used tongue and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> was the -commercial language of the Armenians.</p> - -<p>Then came the famous language regulations, which even went so far—with -a year of grace granted owing to the extraordinary difficulties of -the Turkish script—as to decree that in the offices of all trade -undertakings of any public interest whatsoever, such as banks, -newspapers, transport agencies, etc., the Turkish language should be -used exclusively for book-keeping and any written communication with -customers. One can imagine the "Osmanic Lloyd" and the "German Bank" -with Turkish book-keeping and Turkish letters written to an exclusively -European clientčle! Old and trusty employees suddenly found themselves -faced with the choice of learning the difficult Turkish script or being -turned out in a year's time. The possibility—indeed, the necessity—of -employing Turkish hands in European businesses suddenly came within -the range of practical politics—and that was exactly what the Turkish -Government wanted.</p> - -<p>The arrangement had not yet come into operation when I left -Constantinople, but it was hanging like the sword of Damocles over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> -commercial undertakings that had hitherto been purely German. Optimists -still hoped it never would come to this pass and would have welcomed -any political-military blow that would put a damper on Turkey's -arrogance. Others, believing firmly in a final Turkish victory, began -to learn Turkish feverishly. Be that as it may, the new arrangements -were hung up on the walls of all offices in the summer of 1916 and -created confusion enough.</p> - -<p>Many other measures for the systematic Turkification of commercial life -and public intercourse followed hard on this first bold step, which I -need scarcely mention here. And in spite of the ever-growing number of -German officials in the different ministries, partly foisted on the -Turkish Government by the German authorities, partly gladly accepted -for the moment because the Turks had still much to learn from German -organisation and could profit from employing Germans, in spite of the -appointment of a number of German professors to the Turkish University -of Stamboul (who, however, as a matter of fact, like the German -Government officials, had to wear the fez and learn Turkish within a -year, and be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>sides roused most unfavourable and anti-German comment -in the newspapers), it was soon perfectly evident to every unbiased -witness that Germany would find no place in a victorious Turkey after -the war if the "Committee for Union and Progress" did not need her. -Some sort of light must surely have broken over the last blind optimism -of the Germans in the course of the summer of 1916.</p> - -<p>Hand in hand with the nationalistic attempt to coerce European -businesses into using the Turkish language there went more practical -attempts to turkify all the important branches of commerce by the -founding of indigenous organisations and the introduction of reforms -of more material content than those language decrees. These efforts, -in spite of the enormous absorption of all intellectual capabilities -and energies in war and the clash of arms, were expressed with a truly -marvellous directness of aim, and, from the national standpoint, a -truly commendable magnificence of conception.</p> - -<p>This latter has indeed never been lacking as a progressive ethnic -factor in Turkish politics. The Turks have a wonderful understanding,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> -too, of the importance of social problems, or at least, as a sovereign -people, they feel instinctively what in a social connection will -further their sovereignty. The war with its enormous intellectual -activity has certainly brought all the political and economic resources -of the Turks—including the Young Turkish Government—to the highest -possible stage of development, and we ought not to be surprised if -we often find that measures, whether of a beneficent or injurious -character, are not lacking in modern exactness, clever technicality, -and thoroughness of conception. Without anticipating, I should just -like to note here how this change appears to affect the war. No one -can doubt that it will enormously intensify zeal in the fight for -the existence of the Turkey of the future, freed from its jingoistic -outgrowths, once more come to its senses and confined to its own proper -sphere of activity, Anatolia, the core of the Empire. But, on the other -hand, iron might and determined warfare against this misguided State -are needed to root out false and harmful ideas.</p> - -<p>If, after this slight digression, we glance for a moment at the -practical measures for a com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>plete Turkification of Turkey, the -economic efforts at emancipation and the civic reforms carried -through, we find first of all that the new Turkey, when she had thrown -the Capitulations overboard, then proceeded to emancipate herself -completely from European supervision in the realm of trade and commerce.</p> - -<p>A very considerable step in advance in the way of Turkish sovereignty -and Turkish economic patriotism was the organisation and—since -September 1916—execution of the neo-Turkish autonomic customs tariff, -which with one blow gives Turkish finances what the Government formerly -managed to extract painfully from the Great Powers bit by bit, by -fair means or foul, at intervals of many years, and which with its -hard-and-fast scale of taxes—which there appears to be no inclination -in political circles at the moment to modify by trade treaties!—means -an exceedingly adequate protection of Turkey's national productions, -without any reference whatever to the export interests of her allies, -and is a very strong inducement to the renaissance of at any rate the -most important national industries. The far-flung net of the "Djemiet" -(whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> acquaintance we have already made in another connection), -that purely Turkish commercial undertaking with Talaat Bey at its -head, regulating everything as it did, taking everything into its own -hands, from the realising of the products of the Anatolian farmers -(and incidentally bringing it about that their ally Germany had to pay -heavily and always in cash, even although the Government itself owed -millions, to Germany and got everything on credit from flour out of -Roumania to paper for their journals) to the most difficult rationing -of towns, forms a foundation for the nationalising of economic life of -the very greatest importance.</p> - -<p>The establishment of purely Turkish trade and transport companies, -often with pensioned Ministers as directors and principal shareholders, -and the new language regulations and other privileges will soon cut the -ground away from under the feet of European concerns. Able assistance -is given in this direction by the <i>Tanin</i> and the <i>Hilal</i> (the -"Crescent"), the newly founded "Committee" paper in the French language -(when it is a question of the official influencing of public opinion -in Euro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>pean and Levantine quarters, exceptions can be made even in -language fanaticism!) in which a series of articles invariably appear -at the founding of each new company praising the patriotic zeal of the -founders.</p> - -<p>Then again there are the increasingly thinly veiled efforts to -establish a purely Turkish national banking system. Quite lately there -has been a movement in favour of founding a Turkish National Bank with -the object of supplanting the much-hated "Deutsche Bank" in spite of -the credit it always gives, and that international and preponderatingly -French institution, the "Banque Impériale Ottomane," which had already -simply been sequestrated without more ado.</p> - -<p>The Turks have decided, too, that the mines are to be nationalised, and -Turkish companies have already been formed, without capital it is true, -to work the mines after the war. The same applies to the railways—in -spite of the fine German plans for the Baghdad Railway.</p> - -<p>All these wonderful efforts at emancipation are perfectly justified -from the patriotic point of view, and are so many blows dealt at -Germany, who, quite apart from Rohrbach's <i>Welt</i>-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span><i>politik</i>, had at -least hoped to find a lucrative field of privileged commercial activity -in the country of her close and devoted allies the Turks. It is of -supreme significance that while the war is still at its height, while -the Empire of the Sultan is defending its very existence at the gates -of the capital with German arms and German money, there is manifested -with the most startling clearness the failure of German policy, the -endangering of all these German "vital interests" in Turkey which -according to Pan-German and Imperialistic views were one of the most -important stakes to be won by wantonly letting loose this criminal war -on Europe.</p> - -<p>No doubt many a German was only too well aware of the fact that in -this Turkey suddenly roused by the war all the ground had been lost -that he had built on with such profit before, and many an anxious face -did one see in German circles in Constantinople. I need not tarry here -over the drastic comments I heard from so many German merchants on -this subject. They show a most curious state of mind on the part of -those who had formerly, in their quest for gain and nothing but gain, -profited in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> true parasitical fashion from the financial benefits of -the Capitulations and had seen nothing but the money side of this -arrangement which was, after all, entered into for other purposes. It -was no rare thing and no paradox to find a German company director say, -as I heard one say: "If things went against Turkey to-day, I would -willingly shoulder my gun, old man as I am."</p> - -<p>No thinking man will expend too much grief over the ruthless abolition -of the Capitulations, for they were unmoral and gave too much -opportunity to parasites and rogues, while they were quite inadequate -to protect the interests of civilisation. They may have sufficed in -the time of Abdul-Hamid, who was easily frightened off and was always -sensible and polite in his dealings with Europe. For the Turkey of -Enver and Talaat quite other measures are needed. One must, according -to one's political standpoint, either recognise and accept their -nationalistic programme of emancipation or combat it forcibly by -introducing full European control. And however willing one may be -to let foreign nations develop in their own particular way and work -out their own salva<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>tion, one's standpoint with regard to a State so -behindhand, so fanatical, so misguided as Turkey can be but one: the -introduction and continuation at all costs of whatever guarantees -the best protection to European civilisation in this land of such -importance culturally and historically.</p> - -<p>Not only were Europeans, but the natives themselves, affected by the -series of measures that one might class together under the heading of -Turkish Internal Colonisation and the Nationalising of Anatolia. The -programme of the Young Turks was not only a "Greater Turkey," but above -all a purely Turkish Turkey; and if the former showed signs of failing -because they had over-estimated their powers and their chances in the -war or had employed wrong methods, there was nothing at all to hinder -a sovereign Government from striving all the more ruthlessly to gain -their second point.</p> - -<p>The way this Turkification of Anatolia was carried on was certainly -not lacking in thoroughness, like all their nationalistic efforts. The -best means that lay to hand were the frightful Armenian persecutions -which af<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>fected a wonderful clearance among the population. "The -properties of persons who have been dispatched elsewhere" within the -meaning of the Provisory Bill were either distributed free or sold -for a mere song to anyone who applied to the Committee for them and -proved themselves of the same political persuasion or of pure Turkish -or preponderatingly Turkish nationality. The rent was often fixed -as low as 30 piastres a month (about 5<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>) for officials and -retired military men. In the case of the latter, Enver Pasha thought -this an excellent opportunity for getting rid, through the medium of a -kindly invitation to settle in the Interior, of those who worried him -by their dissatisfaction with his system and who might have prepared -difficulties for him. This "settling" was carried out with the greatest -zeal in the exceptionally flourishing and fruitful districts of Brussa, -Smyrna-Aidin, Eskishehir, Adabazar, Angora, and Adana, where Armenians -and Greeks had played such a great, and, to the Turks, unpopular part -as pioneers of civilisation.</p> - -<p>The semi-official articles in the <i>Tanin</i> were perfectly right in -praising the local authorities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> who in contrast with their former -indifference and ignorance "had now fully recognised the great national -importance of internal colonisation and the settling of Mohadjirs -(emigrants from the lost Turkish territory in Bosnia, Macedonia, -Thrace, etc.) in the country." There is nothing to be said in favour -of the stupid, unprogressive character of the Anatolian as contrasted -with the strength, physical endurance, intelligence, and mobility of -these emigrants. The latter had also, generally speaking, lived in more -highly developed districts.</p> - -<p>The great drawback of the Mohadjirs, however, is their instability, -their idleness and love of wandering, their frivolity, and their -extraordinary fanaticism. As faithful Mohammedans following the -standard of their Padishah and leaving the parts of the country -that had fallen under Christian rule, they seemed to think they -were justified in behaving like spoilt children towards the native -population. They treated them with ruthless disregard, they were -bumptious, and, if their new neighbours were Greek or Armenian, they -inclined to use force, a proceeding which was always possible because -the Government did not take away <i>their</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> firearms and were even known -to have doled them out to stir up unrest. It has occurred more than -once that Mohadjirs have crossed swords even with Turkish Anatolians -living peacefully in their own villages. One can then easily imagine -how much more the heretic <i>giaurs</i> ("Christian dogs," "unclean men") -had to suffer at their hands.</p> - -<p>I should like to say a word here about these Greek persecutions in -Thrace and Western Anatolia that have become notorious throughout the -whole of Europe. They took place just before the outbreak of war, and -cost thousands of peaceful Greeks—men, women, and children-their -lives, and reduced to ashes dozens of flourishing villages and towns. -At the time of the murder of Sarajevo, I happened to be staying in -the vilajet of Aidin, in Smyrna and the <i>Hinterland</i>, and saw with -my own eyes such shameful deeds as must infuriate anyone against the -Turkish Government that aids and abets such barbarity—from old women -being driven along by a dozen Mohadjirs and dissipated soldiers to the -smoking ruins of Phocća.</p> - -<p>Everyone at that time, at any rate in Smyr<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>na, expected the immediate -outbreak of a new Grćco-Turkish war, and perhaps the only thing -that prevented it was the method of procrastination adopted by both -sides, for both were waiting for the Dreadnoughts they had ordered, -until finally these smaller clouds were swallowed up in the mighty -thunder-cloud gathering on the European horizon. Only the extreme speed -with which one dramatic event followed another, and my own mobilisation -which precluded my writing anything of a political nature, prevented me -on that occasion from giving my sinister impressions of Young Turkish -jingoism and Mohadjir brutality. Even if I had been able to write what -I thought it is extremely doubtful if it would ever have seen the -light of day, for the German papers were but little inclined, as I had -opportunity of discovering personally, to say anything unpleasant about -the Young Turkish Government, whose help they were already reckoning -on, and preferred rather to behave in a most un-neutral manner and keep -absolutely silent about all the ill-treatment and abuse that had been -meted out to Greece. But I remembered these scenes most opportunely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> -later, and that visit of mine to Western Anatolia was certainly most -useful in increasing my knowledge of Young Turkish methods of "internal -colonisation."</p> - -<p>But all the methods used are by no means forcible. Attempts are now -being made—and this again is most significant for the spirit of the -newest Young Turkish era—to gain a footing in the world of science -as opposed to force, and so to be able to carry out their measures -more systematically and give them the appearance of beneficent modern -social reforms. So it comes about that the Turkish idea of penetrating -and "cleaning-up" Anatolia finds practical expression on the one hand -in exterminating and robbing the Christian population, while on the -other it inclines to efforts which in time may work out to be a real -blessing. The common principle underlying both is Nationalism.</p> - -<p>Anatolia was suddenly "discovered." At long length the Young Turkish -Government, roused intellectually and patriotically by the war and -brought to their senses by the terrible loss of human life entailed, -suddenly realised the enormous national importance of Anatolia,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> that -hitherto much-neglected nucleus of the Ottoman Empire. Under the -spiritual inspiration of Mehmed Emin, the national poet of Anatolian -birth whose poems with their sympathy of outlook and noble simplicity -of form make such a warm-hearted and successful appeal to the best -kind of patriotism, men have begun since 1916, even in the circles of -the arrogant "Stambul Effendi," to take an interest in the <i>kaba türk</i> -(uncouth Turk), the Anatolian peasant, his needs and his standard of -civilisation. The real, needy, primitive Turk of the Interior has -suddenly become the general favourite.</p> - -<p>A whole series of most remarkable lectures was delivered publicly in -the <i>Türk Odjaghi</i>, under the auspices of the Committee, by doctors, -social politicians, and political economists, and these were reported -and discussed at great length in all the Turkish newspapers. Their -subject was the incredible destitution in Anatolia, the devastation -wrought by syphilis, malaria, and other terrible dirt diseases, -abortions as a result of hopeless poverty, the lack of men as a result -of constant military service<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> in many wars, and they called for -immediate and drastic reforms.</p> - -<p>It is with the greatest pleasure that I acknowledge that this first -late step on the way of improvement, this self-knowledge, which -appeals to me more thoroughly than anything else I saw in Turkey, is -probably really the beginning of a happier era for that beautiful land -of Anatolia, so capable of development but so cruelly neglected. For -one can no longer doubt that the Government has the real intention of -carrying out actual reforms, for they must be only too well aware that -the strengthening and healing of Anatolia, the nucleus of the Turkish -race, is absolutely essential for any Turkish mastery, and is the very -first necessity for the successful carrying out of more far-reaching -national exertions. With truly modern realisation of the needs of -the case, directly after Dr. Behaeddin Shakir Bey's first compelling -lecture, different local government officials, especially the Vali -of the Vilajet of Kastamuni, which was notorious for its syphilis -epidemics, made unprecedented efforts to improve the terrible hygienic -conditions then reigning. Let us hope that such ef<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>forts will bear -fruit. But this will probably only be the case to any measurable extent -later, after the war, when Turkey will find herself really confined to -Anatolia, and will have time and strength for positive social work.</p> - -<p>In the meantime I cannot get rid of the uneasy impression that this -"discovery" of Anatolia and zealous Turkish social politics are no more -than a cleverly worked excuse on the part of the Government for further -measures of Turkification, and the cloven hoof is unfortunately only -too apparent in all this seemingly noble effort on the part of the -Committee. One hears and sees daily the methods that go hand in hand -with this official pushing into the foreground of the great importance -of the purely Turkish elements in Anatolia—Armenian persecutions, -trickery, expropriations carried out against Greeks, the yielding up -of flourishing districts to quarrelsome Mohadjirs. So long as the -Turkish Government fancy themselves conquerors in the great war, so -long as they pursue the shadow of a "Greater Turkey," so long as Turkey -continues to dissipate her forces she will not accomplish much for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> -Anatolia, in spite of her awakening and her real desire for reform.</p> - -<p>Finally, in this discovery of Anatolia, in this desire to put an end to -traditional destitution, this recognition of the real import of even -the poorest, most primitive, dullest peasant peoples in the undeveloped -Interior, so long as they are of Turkish race, in this sudden flood -of learned eloquence over the needs and the true inner worth of these -miserable neglected Turkish peasants, in this pressing demand for -thorough reforms for the economic and social strengthening of this -element—measures which with the present ruling spirit of jingoism -in the Government threaten to be carried through only at the expense -of the non-Turkish population of Anatolia—we see very clear proof -that the neo-Turkish movement is a pure race movement, is nothing but -Pan-Turkism both outwardly and inwardly, and has very little indeed to -do with religious questions or with Islam. The idea of Islam, or rather -Pan-Islamism, is a complete failure. This we shall try to show in the -following chapter.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">Religion and race—The Islam policy of Abdul-Hamid and of the Young -Turks—Turanism and Pan-Islamism as political principles—Turanism -and the Quadruple Alliance—Greed and race-fanaticism—Religious -traditions and modern reforms—Reform in the law—A modern -Sheikh-ul-Islam—Reform and nationalisation—The Armenian and -Greek Patriarchates—The failure of Pan-Islamism—The alienation -of the Arabs—Djemal Pasha's "hangman's policy" in Syria—Djemal -as a "Pro-French"—Djemal and Enver—Djemal and Germany—His true -character—The attempt against the Suez Canal—Djemal's murderous -work nears completion—The great Arabian and Syrian Separatist -movement—The defection of the Emir of Mecca and the great Arabian -catastrophe.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> little-informed circles in Europe people are still under the -false impression that the Young Turks of to-day, the intellectual -and political leaders of Turkey in this war, are authentic, zealous, -and even fanatical Mohammedans,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> and superficial observers explain -all unpleasant occurrences and outbreaks of Young Turkish jingoism -on Pan-Islamic grounds, especially as Turkey has not been slow in -proclaiming her "Holy War." But this conception is entirely wrong. -The artificial character of the "Djihad," which was only set in -motion against a portion of the "unbelievers," while the others -became more and more the ruling body in Turkey, is the best proof -of the untenability of this theory. The truth is that the present -political régime is the complete denial of the Pan-Islamic idea and the -substitution of the Pan-Turkish idea of race.</p> - -<p>Abdul-Hamid, that much-maligned and dethroned Sultan, who, however, -towers head and shoulders above all the Young Turks put together in -practical intelligence and statesmanly skill, and would never have -committed the unpardonable error of throwing in his lot with Germany -in the war and so bringing about the certain downfall of Turkey, was -the last ruler of Turkey that knew how to make use of Pan-Islamism as a -successful instrument of authority.</p> - -<p>Enver and Talaat and all that breed of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> jingoists on the <i>Ittahad</i> -(Committee for Union and Progress) were upstarts without any schooling -in political history, and so all the more inclined to the doctrinal -revolutionism and short-sighted fanaticism of the successful -adventurer, and were much too limited to recognise the tremendous -political import of Pan-Islamism. Naturally once they had conceived -the idea of the "Djihad," they tried to make theoretical use of -Pan-Islamism; but practically, far from extending Turkey's influence -to distant Arabian lands, to the Soudan and India, they simply let -Turkey go to ruin through their Pan-Turkish illusions and their -race-fanaticism.</p> - -<p>Abdul-Hamid with his clever diplomacy managed to maintain, if not the -real sympathies, at any rate the formal loyalty of the Arabs and their -solidarity with the rest of the Ottoman Empire. It was he who conceived -the idea of that undertaking of eminent political importance, the -Hedjaz Railway, which facilitates pilgrimages to the holy cities of -Mecca and Medina and links up the Arabian territory with the Turkish, -and he was always able to quell any disturbances in these outly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>ing -parts of the Empire with very few troops indeed. Nowadays the Young -Turkish Government, even if they had the troops to spare, might send -a whole army to the Hedjaz and they would be like an island of sand -in the midst of that stormy Arab sea. The Arabs, intellectually far -superior to the Turks, have at last made up their minds to defy their -oppressors, and all the Arabic-speaking parts of the Ottoman Empire may -be taken as already lost, no matter what the final result of the great -war may be.</p> - -<p>The Young Turks had scarcely come into power when they began with -incredible lack of tact to treat the Arabs in a most supercilious -manner, although as a matter of fact the Arabs far surpassed them in -intellect and culture. They inaugurated a most un-modern campaign of -shameless blood-sucking, cheated them of their rights, treated them -in a bureaucratic manner, and generally acted in such an unskilful -way that they finally alienated for ever the Arab element as they -had already done in the case of the Armenians, the Greeks, and the -Albanians.</p> - -<p>The ever-recurring disturbances in Yemen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> finally somewhat -inadequately quelled by Izzet Pasha, are still in the memory of all. -And later, directly after the reconquering of Adrianople during the -Second Balkan war, there was another moment of real national rebirth -when a reconciliation might have been effected. The visit of a great -Syrian and Arabian deputation to the Sultan to congratulate him over -this auspicious event should have provided an excellent opportunity. -I was staying some months then in Constantinople on my way back from -Africa, and I certainly thought that the half-broken threads might have -been knotted together again then if the Young Turks had only approached -the Arabs in the right way. Even the great Franco-British attack on -Stamboul might have been calculated to rouse a feeling of solidarity -among the Mohammedans living under the Ottoman flag, and in the autumn -and winter of 1915-1916 Arab troops actually did defend the entrance -to the Dardanelles with great courage and skill. But Arab loyalty -could not withstand for ever the mighty flood of race-selfishness that -possessed the Young Turks right from the moment of their entry into the -war. The enthusiasm of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> the Arabs soon disappeared when Pan-Turkish -ideas were proclaimed all too clearly even to the inhabitants of their -own land, when an era of systematic enmity towards the non-Turkish -parts of the population was introduced and the heavy fist of the -Central Committee was laid on the southern parts of the Empire as well.</p> - -<p>An attempt was made to bring the ethnic principle of "Turanism" within -the region of practical politics, but it simply degenerated into -complete race-partiality and was not calculated to further the ideas -of Pan-Islamism and the Turko-Arabian alliance which were both of such -importance in the present war. It is this idea of Turanism that lies -at the back of the efforts being made towards a purely Turkish Turkey, -and that of course makes it clear at once that it must to a very large -extent oppose the idea of Pan-Islamism. It is true that both principles -may be made use of side by side as sources of propaganda for the idea -of expansion and the policy of a "Greater Turkey." Turanists peep over -the crest of the Caucasus down into the Steppes of the Volga, where the -Russian Tartars live, and to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> borders of Western Siberia and Inner -China where in Russian Turkestan a race of people of very close kinship -live and where very probably the Ottoman people had their cradle. The -Pan-Islamists want the alliance of these Russian parts as well, but -from another point of view, and, above all, they aim at the expansion -of Ottoman rule to the farthest corners of Africa and South-West Asia, -to the borders of negro territory, and through Persia, Afghanistan, and -Baluchistan to the foot of the Himalayas, while on grounds of practical -politics they strive to abolish the old, seemingly insurmountable -antithesis between Sonnites and Shiites within the sanctuary of Islam.</p> - -<p>The programme of the so-called "Djihad" works on this principle, but -goes much farther. As well as stirring up against their present rulers -those parts of Egypt and Tripoli which once owned allegiance to the -Sultan and the Atlas lands, which are at any rate spiritually dependent -on the Caliph in Stamboul, the "Djihad" aims at introducing the spirit -of independence into all English, French, Italian, and Russian Colonial -territory by rousing the Mohammedans and so doing infinite harm to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> -the enemies of Turkey. It is most important, therefore, always to -differentiate between this "Holy War" "stirring-up" propaganda from -Senegal to Turkestan and British India, and the more territorial -Pan-Islamism of the present war, which goes hand in hand with the -efforts being made towards a "Greater Turkey."</p> - -<p>Instead of uniting all these principles skilfully for the realisation -of a great end, making sure of the Arab element by wisely restraining -their selfish and exaggeratedly pro-Turkish instincts and their -despotic lust for power, and so giving their programme of expansion -southwards some prospect of succeeding, the Turks gave way right from -the beginning of the war to such a flood of brutal, narrow-minded -race-fanaticism and desire to enrich the Turkish element at the cost -of the other inhabitants of the country, that no one can really be -surprised at the pitiable result of the efforts to secure a Greater -Turkey.</p> - -<p>I should just like to give one small example of the fanatical hatred -that exists even in high official circles against the non-Turkish -element in this country of mixed race. The following anecdote will -give a clear enough idea of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> ruling spirit of fanaticism and -greed. I was house-hunting in Pera once and could not find anything -suitable. I approached a member of the Committee and he said in solemn -earnest: "Oh, just wait a few weeks. We are all hoping that Greece -will declare war on us before long, and then <i>all</i> the Greeks will -be treated as the Armenians have been. I can let you have the nicest -villa on the Bosporus. But then," he added with gleaming eyes, "we -won't be so stupid as merely to turn them out. These Greek dogs (<i>köpek -rum</i>) will have the pleasure of seeing us take everything away from -them—<i>everything</i>—and compelling them to give up their own property -by formal contract."</p> - -<p>I can guarantee that this is practically a word-for-word rendering of -this extraordinary outburst of fanaticism and greed on the part of -an otherwise harmless and decent man. I could not help shuddering at -such opinions. Apparently it was not enough that Turkey was already at -war with three Great Powers; she must needs seek armed conflict with -Greece, so that, as was the outspoken, the open, and freely-admitted -intention of official per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>sons, she might then deal with four and a -half millions of Ottoman Greeks, practically her own countrymen, as she -had done with the unfortunate Armenians. In face of such opinions one -cannot but realise how unsure the existence of the Young Turkish State -has become by its entry into the war, and cannot but foresee that this -race-fanaticism will lead the nation to political and social suicide. -Can one imagine a purely Turkish Turkey, when even the notion of a -Greater Turkey failed?</p> - -<p>Pessimists have often said of the Turkish question that the Turks' -principal aim in determining on a complete Turkification of Anatolia -by any, even the most brutal, means, is that at the conclusion of -war they can at least say with justification: "Anatolia is a purely -Turkish country and must therefore be left to us." What they propose to -bequeath to the victorious Russians is an Armenia without Armenians!</p> - -<p>The idea of "Turanism" is a most interesting one, and as a widespread -nationalistic principle has given much food for thought to Turkey's -ally, Germany. Turanism is the realisation, reawakened by neo-Turkish -efforts at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> political and territorial expansion, of the original -race-kinship existing between the Turks and the many peoples inhabiting -the regions north of the Caucasus, between the Volga and the borders of -Inner China, and particularly in Russian Central Asia. Ethnographically -this idea was perfectly justified, but politically it entails a -tremendous dissipation of strength which must in the end lead to grave -disappointment and failure. All the Turkish attempts to rouse up the -population of the Caucasus either fell on unfruitful ground or went -to pieces against the strong Russian power reigning there. Enver's -marvellous conception of an offensive against Russian Transcaucasia led -right at the beginning of the war to terrible bloodshed and defeat.</p> - -<p>People in neutral countries have had plenty of opportunity of judging -of the value of those arguments advanced by Tatar professors and -journalists of Russian citizenship for the "Greater-Turkish" solution -of the race questions of the Russian Tatars and Turkestan, for these -refugees from Baku and the Caucasus, paid by the Stamboul Committee, -journeyed half over Europe on their propaganda<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> tour. The idea of -Turanism has been taken up with such enthusiasm by the men of the -Young Turkish Committee, and utilised with such effect for purposes of -propaganda and to form a scientific basis for their neo-Turkish aims -and aspirations, that a stream of feeling in favour of the Magyars has -set in in Turkey, which has not failed to demolish to a still greater -extent their already weakened enthusiasm for their German allies. And -it is not confined to purely intellectual and cultural spheres, but -takes practical form by the Turks declaring, as they have so often done -in their papers in almost anti-German articles about Turanism, that -what they really require in the way of European technique or European -help they much prefer to accept from their kinsmen the Hungarians -rather than from the Germans.</p> - -<p>To the great annoyance of Germany, who would like to keep her heavy -hand laid on the ally whom she has so far guided and for whom she pays, -the practical results of the idea of Turanism are already noticeable -in many branches of economic and commercial life. The Hungarians are -closely allied to the Turks not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> only by blood but in general outlook, -and form a marked contrast to Germany's cold and methodical calculation -in worming her way into Turkish commercial life. After the war when -Turkey is seeking for stimulation, it will be easy enough to make use -of Hungarian influence to the detriment of Germany. Turanistic ideas -have even been brought into play to establish still more firmly the -union between Turkey and her former enemy Bulgaria, and the people of -Turkey are reminded that the Bulgars are not really Slavs but Slavic -Fino-Tartars.</p> - -<p>In proportion as the Young Turks have brought racial politics to a -fine art, so they have neglected the other, the religious side. More -and more, Islam, the rock of Empire, has been sacrificed to the needs -of race-politics. Those who look upon Enver and Talaat and their -consorts to-day as a freemasonry of time-serving opportunists rather -than as good Mohammedans come far nearer the truth than those who -believe the idea spread by ignorant globe-trotters that every Turk is -a zealous follower of Islam. It was not for nothing that Enver Pasha, -the adventurer and revolution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>ary, went so far even in externals as -to arouse the stern disapproval of a wide circle of his people. With -true time-serving adaptability to all modern progress-and who will -blame him?—he even finally sacrificed the Turkish soldier's hallowed -traditional headgear, the fez. While the <i>kalpak</i>, even in its laced -variety, could still be called a kind of field-grey or variegated -or fur edition of the fez, the ragged-looking <i>kabalak</i>, called the -"Enveriak" to distinguish it from other varieties, is certainly on the -way towards being a real sun helmet. Still more recently (summer 1916) -a black-and-white cap that looks absolutely European was introduced -into the Ottoman Navy. The simple, devout Mohammedan folk were most -unwilling to accept these changes which flew direct in the face of all -tradition. They may be externals of but little importance, but in spite -of their insignificance they show clearly the ruling spirit in official -Young Turkish spheres.</p> - -<p>This is in the harmless realm of fashion, or at any rate military -fashion, exactly the same spirit as has caused the Turkish Government -to undertake since 1916 radical changes in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> very much more -important field of private and public law. Special commissions -consisting of eminent Turkish lawyers have been formed to carry through -this reform of law and justice, and they have been hard at work ever -since their formation. What is characteristic and modern about the -reform is that the preponderating rôle hitherto played by the Sheriat -Law, founded on the Koran and at any rate semi-religious, is to be -drastically curtailed in favour of a system of purely Civil law, which -has been strung together from the most varied sources, even European -law being brought under contribution, and the "Code Napoléon," which -has hitherto only been used in Commercial law. This of course leads to -a great curtailment of the activity and influence of the <i>kadis</i> and -<i>muftis</i>, the semi-religious judges, who have now to yield place to a -more mundane system. The first inexorable consequence of the reform -was that the Sheikh-ul-Islam, the highest authority of Islam in the -whole Ottoman Empire, had to give up a large part of his powers, and -incidentally of his income.</p> - -<p>The changes made were so far-reaching, and the spirit of the reform -so modern, that, in spite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> of the unshakable power of Talaat's truly -dictatorial Cabinet which got it passed, a concession had to be made -to the public opinion roused against the measure. The form was kept as -it was, but the Sheikh-ul-Islam, Haďri Effendi, refused ostensibly to -sign the decree and gave in his resignation. Not only, however, was an -immediate successor found for him (Mussa Kiazim Effendi), who gave his -signature and even began to work hard for the reform, but—and this -is most significant for the relationship of the Young Turks towards -Islam—Haďri Effendi, the same ex-Sheikh-ul-Islam who had proclaimed -the <i>Fetwa</i> for the "Holy War," gave up his post without a murmur, and -in the most peaceable way, and remained one of the principal pillars of -the "Committee for Union and Progress."</p> - -<p>His resignation was nothing but a farce to throw dust in the eyes of -the all-too-trusting lower classes. After he had succeeded by this -manœuvre in getting the reform of the law (which as a measure of -Turkification was of more consequence to him now than his own sadly -curtailed juristic functions) accepted at a pinch by the conservative -population who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> still clung firmly to Islam, he went on to play his -great rôle in the programme of jingoism. A "measure of Turkification" -we called it, for that is what it amounts to practically, like -everything else the men of the "Ittihad" take in hand.</p> - -<p>I tried to give some hint of this within the limits of the censorship -as long ago as the summer of 1916 in a series of articles I wrote for -the <i>Kölnische Zeitung</i>. Here I should like just to confine myself -to one point. Naturally the reform of the law aimed principally at -substituting these newly formed pure Turkish conceptions for the -Arabian legal ideas that had been the only thing available hitherto. -(Everything that this victorious Turkey had absorbed and worked up -in the way of civilised notions was either Arabian or Persian or of -European origin.) It set to work now in the sphere of family law, -which hitherto had been specially sacrosanct and only subordinate to -the religious <i>Sheria</i>, and where tradition was strongest—not like -commercial and maritime law which had been quite modern for a long time.</p> - -<p>The reform went so far that it even tried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> to introduce a kind of civil -marriage, whereas up till now all marriages, divorces, and everything -to do with inheritance had taken place exclusively before religious -officials. I may just add that these newest reforms give women no -wider rights than they had before. Perhaps this may be taken as an -indication that they have been conceived far less from a social than -from a political point of view. What induced the Turkish Government to -introduce anything so entirely modern as civil marriage in defiance -of age-old custom was more than likely the desire to put an end to -non-Turkish Ottomans contracting marriages and making arrangements -about inheritance, etc., before their own privileged, ethnically -independent organisations, and so to deal the final death-blow to the -Armenian and Greek Patriarchates. If Family Law was modernised in -this way, there would not be the faintest shadow of excuse left for -the existence of these institutions which enjoyed a far-reaching and -influential autonomy.</p> - -<p>The Armenian Patriarchate got short shrift indeed. By dissolving the -Patriarchate in the Capital, breaking off all relations with the -Ar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>menian headquarters in Etzmiadjin and allowing only a very small -remainder of Patriarchate to be sent up in Jerusalem under special -State supervision, the Turks, as a logical sequence to the Armenian -atrocities, simply dealt the death-blow in the summer of 1916 to this -important social institution.</p> - -<p>The Greek organisation, however, conducted by a more numerous and, -outwardly at any rate, better protected people, offered far more -resistance, and could not be simply wiped out with a stroke of the pen. -A direct attempt to suppress it was made as early as 1910, but broke -down entirely in face of the firm attitude of the Greek Patriarch in -Constantinople. Now the Young Turks seem to have come to the conclusion -that less drastic methods, beginning on a juristic basis, may have a -better effect.</p> - -<p>We have taken this one example in order to get at the whole neo-Turkish -method of procedure. It consists in pushing forward, if need be with -greater delicacy than before and on the round-about road of real modern -reforms, towards the one immovable goal: the complete Turkification of -Turkey. The reform of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> law, which we have treated more exhaustively -as an example of the first rank, is typical of the Young Turkish -national tendency. Naturally it has its use, too, as a means of further -throwing off the foreign political yoke. Through the modernising -of the whole Turkish legal system, Europe is to be shown that the -Capitulations can be dispensed with.</p> - -<p>The reform throws a vivid light, too, on the inner relationship -of the jingoistic, pure Pan-Turkish leaders of present-day Turkey -towards religion. And it is perhaps not generally known that at all -the deliberations of the "Committee" where the will of Talaat, the -uncrowned king of Turkey, is alone decisive, the opinion of the Grand -Master of the Turkish Freemasons is always listened to, and that he is -one of the most willing tools of the "Ittihad."</p> - -<p>No, the members of the "Committee for Union and Progress" have -for a very long time simply snapped their fingers at Islam if it -hindered them making use of and profiting from their own subjects. -They know very well how to retain at least the outward semblance of -friendliness so long as Islam does not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> directly cross the path of -Pan-Turkism. But the Armenian atrocities, instigated by Talaat, have -as little to do with religion, they are as exclusively the result -of pure race-fanaticism, professional jealousy, and greed, as the -hostile, devil-may-care attitude towards Greece, and the millions of -well-to-do Ottoman Greeks who are the next troublesome competitors -and suitable victims of aggrandisement to be disposed of after the -Armenians, or as the terrible persecutions against the highest class -of Syrians and Arabs pictured in Djemal Pasha's famous paper. They -are Turks, pure Turks with the most narrow-minded jingoistic point of -view, and not broad-minded Mohammedans, that sit on the Committee in -"Nur-el-Osmanieh" in Stamboul and make all these wonderful political -plans, from internal reforms and measures of government which attempt -to adapt themselves to European technique by sacrificing ancient -traditions, to the hangman's tactics employed against their own -subjects.</p> - -<p>Take the case of the Syrians and the Arabs. The "Ittihad" clique, -weltering in a fog of Pan-Turkish illusion, were yet not without -anxiety with regard to the intellectual and so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>cial superiority, to -say nothing of the political sharpness, of these peoples compared with -the Turks. They had yielded entirely to their brutal instincts of -extermination and suppression towards foreign races, and the Germans -had made no attempt to curb them. They were political parvenus suddenly -freed from the control of the civilised Great Powers, and they did not -know how to make use of that freedom. Perhaps they felt themselves -already on the edge of an abyss and were constrained to snatch what -they could while there was yet time.</p> - -<p>Is it any wonder, then, that the Turks should throw over all trace of -decency towards the Syrians and the Arabs once they were sure that -these peoples, who regarded their oppressors with most justifiable -hatred, would refuse to have anything to do with the "Holy War" of the -Turanian Pseudo-Caliph?</p> - -<p>The last remnants of the traditional Pan-Islamic esteem of their Arab -neighbours, already sadly shattered by the Young Turks' ruthless policy -towards them since 1909, were flung light-heartedly overboard by a -Government that knew they were to blame for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> Arab defection but -thought they had found a substitute that appealed more to their true -Asiatic character in these Turanistic dreams of expansion and measures -of Turkification. And while fanatical adventurers and money-grubbing -deputies paid by the easily duped German Embassy were preaching a -perfectly useless "Holy War" on the confines of the Arabian territory -of the Turkish Empire, towards the part occupied by the English, while -Enver Pasha continued to visit the holy places of Islam, where he got -a frosty enough reception, although the wonderfully worded communiqués -on the subject succeeded in blinding the population to the true state -of affairs, "the hangman's policy" of Djemal Pasha, the Commander of -the Fourth Osmanic Army, and Naval Minister, had been for a long time -in full swing in the old civilised land of Syria against the best -families among the Mohammedan as well as the Christian population. The -whole civilised world is laying up a store of accusations of this kind -against the Turks, and it is to be hoped that a public sentence will be -passed on these gentlemen of the "Ittihad" on the conclusion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> peace -by a combined court of Europeans and Americans.</p> - -<p>Here again the Young Turkish Government assumed the existence of a -widespread conspiracy and a Syrian and Arabian Separatist movement -towards autonomy, which was to free these lands from Turkish rule and -to be established under Anglo-French protection. At the time of the -Armenian persecutions the Committee had managed most cunningly to -turn the whole Armenian question to their own account by publishing -false official reports by the thousand, accompanied by any number of -photographs of "bands of conspirators," the authenticity of which never -has been proved and never will be; indeed one can only wonder where the -Turkish Government got them from.</p> - -<p>In this case again there was no lack of official printed commentaries -on Djemal Pasha's "hanging list," and any reader of the <i>Journal de -Beyrouth</i> in war-time would have had no difficulty in compiling it. It -is certainly not my intention to question the existence of a Separatist -movement towards autonomy in Syria, but it was a sporadic tendency -only, and ought never to have been made the excuse for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> the wholesale -execution of highly respected and well-born citizens who had nothing -whatever to do with the matter.</p> - -<p>In the Young Turkish memorandum on this act of spying and bloodshed, -the passages most underlined and printed in the boldest characters, the -passages which, according to official intention, were to justify these -frightful reprisals, form the most terrible indictment ever brought -against Turkish despotism, and provide the most complete proof of the -truth of all the accusations made against the Turkish Government by -the ill-treated and oppressed Syrians and Arabians. On anyone who does -not read with Young Turkish eyes the memorandum makes directly the -opposite impression to what was intended. And even if the Separatist -movement had existed in any greater extent—which was quite out of the -question owing to lack of weapons, conflicting interests, the contrasts -in the people themselves, some of them Mohammedan, some Christian, -some sectarian, and the impossibility of any kind of organisation -under the stern discipline of Turkish rule—the Turks would have most -richly deserved it and it would have been justified by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> the thousands -of brutalities inflicted by the Old and Young Turkish régimes on the -highly civilised Arabian people and their industrious and commercial -neighbours the Syrians, who had always been much influenced by European -culture. Anyone who has once watched how the Committee in Stamboul -made a pretext of events on the borders of Caucasia to exterminate a -whole people, including women and children, even in Western and Central -Anatolia and the Capital, can no longer be in the least doubt as to the -methods employed by Djemal Pasha, the "hangman" of Syrians and Arabs, -how grossly he must have exaggerated and misstated the facts to find -enough victims so that he could look on for a year and a half with a -cigar in his mouth—as he himself boasted—while the flower of Syrian -and Arabian youth, the élite of society, and the aged heads of the best -families in the land were either hanged or shot.</p> - -<p>I should like to take the opportunity here of giving a short -description of Djemal Pasha, this man who, according to Turkish ideas, -is destined still to play a great part in Turkish politics. I should -also like to clear up a mis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>understanding that seems to exist in -civilised Europe with regard to him. There is still an idea abroad -that Djemal Pasha is pro-French, this man who set out on his adventure -against the Suez Canal as "Vice-king of Egypt," and, after he had been -beaten there, settled in Syria as dictator with unlimited power—even -openly defying the Central Government in Constantinople when he felt -piqued—so that as commander of the Fourth Army he could support -the attempt against Egypt, but principally to satisfy his murderous -instincts. Anyone who has seen this man close at hand (whom a German -journalist belonging to the <i>Berliner Tageblatt</i> with the most fulsome -flattery once called one of the handsomest men in Turkey) knows enough. -Small, thickset, a beard and a pair of cunning cruel eyes are the -most prominent features of this face from which everyone must turn in -disgust who remembers the "hangman's" part played by the man.</p> - -<p>It is extraordinary that he should still pass as Pro-French in many -quarters, and perhaps it is part of his slyness to preserve this rôle. -Djemal is not Pro-French; he is only the most calculating of all the -leading men of Turkey.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> He certainly had pro-French tendencies, in -the current meaning of the word, before the war; that is, he thought -the interests of his country would be best safeguarded against German -machinations for winning over the Young Turks by taking advantage -of Turkey's traditional friendship for France. He was also against -Turkey's participation in the war on the side of the Central Powers, -and he was furiously angry when the fleet which was supposed to be -under his control appeared against his will under the direction of the -German Admiral of the <i>Goeben</i> and <i>Breslau</i> in the Black Sea.</p> - -<p>But when the war actually broke out, he very soon accommodated himself -to the new state of affairs. Instead of handing in his resignation, -he added to his naval duties the chief command of the army operating -against Egypt, for Djemal's chief characteristics were characterless -opportunism and inordinate ambition. Suiting his opinions to the facts -of the case, he was not long in advertising his Pro-French feelings -again so that he might be popular with the people of Syria. That of -course did not prevent him later on from car<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>rying out his "hangman's -policy" against the Syrians who were bound by so many social ties to -France. From that it is not difficult to judge just how genuine his -Pro-French feelings are!</p> - -<p>The only genuine thing in his whole attitude is his admitted deep -hatred of Germany and his personal animosity towards the pro-German -Enver Pasha, arising partly from jealousy, partly from a feeling of -being slighted, and only concealed for appearance' sake. During the -war he has often enough made very plain utterances of his hatred of -Germany, and it would certainly betoken ill for German politics in -Turkey if Djemal Pasha succeeded in obtaining a more active rôle in the -Central Government. So far the Minister for War has managed to hold him -at arm's length, and Djemal has no doubt found it of advantage to wait -for a later moment, and content himself for the present with his actual -powerful position.</p> - -<p>From his own repeated anti-German speeches it has, however, been only -too easy to glean that his anti-German opinions and actions are not -the result of his being Pro-French, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> of his being a jingoistic -Pan-Turk. He may simulate Pro-French feelings again and play them as -the trump card in his surely approaching decisive struggle with Enver -Pasha, when Enver's system has failed; Djemal will no doubt maintain -then that he foresaw everything, and that he has always been for France -and the Entente. Everyone who knows his character is at any rate sure -of one thing, and that is that he will stop at nothing, even a rising -against the Central Government, if his ambitious opportunism should -so dictate it. It is to be hoped, however, that public opinion among -the Entente will not be deceived as to his true character, and will -recognise that he is nothing more than a jingoistic, greedy, raging -Young Turkish fanatic and one of the most cunning at that. It would -really be doing too much honour to a man with a murderer's face and a -murderer's instinct to credit him with honest sympathies for France.</p> - -<p>Djemal's work is nearing fruition. His cruel executions, his cynical -breaking of promises in Syria, have at any rate contributed, along with -other politically more important tendencies which have been cleverly -utilised by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> England for the establishment of an Arabian Caliphate, -towards the decisive result that the Emir of Mecca has revolted -against the Turks. The Emir's son and his great Arabian suite had to -pay a prolonged visit to Djemal at one time, and it is evident that -the brutal execution of Arabian notables that he saw then directly -influenced his father's attitude. The movement is bound to spread, -and slowly and surely it will roll on till it ends in the full and -perfect separation from Turkey of all Arabic-speaking districts as far -as Northern Syria and the borders of Southern Kurdistan. The so-called -Separatist movement, that Djemal tried to drown in a sea of blood -before it was well begun, is now an actual fact.</p> - -<p>In Egypt England has been seeing for quite a long time the practical -and favourable results of her success in founding the Arabian -Caliphate. She has now gained practically absolute security for her -rule on the Nile, and she has even been able to remove troops and -artillery from the Suez Canal to other fronts. The German dream of an -offensive against Egypt vanished long ago; now even the last trace -of a German-Turkish attempt against the Canal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> has ceased, and the -English troops have moved the scene of their operations to Southern -Palestine. While I write these lines, there comes from the other side, -from Arabian Mesopotamia, the news of the recapture of Kut-el-Amara by -British troops. I should not like to prophesy what moral or political -results the fall of Baghdad, Medina, and Jerusalem will have for -Turkish rule; possibly, nay probably, iron necessity, the impossibility -of returning, the constraint imposed by their German Allies—for Turkey -is fully under German military rule—may weaken the direct results -of even such catastrophes as these. But the hearts which beat to-day -with high hopes for the freedom of Great Arabia and autonomy for Syria -under Franco-English protection will flame with new rapture, and in the -Turkish capital all grades of society will realise that Osmanic power -is on the decline.</p> - -<p>Meantime Djemal Pasha is still occupied in Syria raking in the property -of the murdered citizens and dividing it up among his minions, the -least very often being given over to commissions consisting of -individuals of extremely doubtful reputation. When he is not thus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> -busily engaged, he spends his time round the green table playing poker. -It is to be ardently hoped that even this great organiser will soon be -at the end of his tether in Syria and have to leave the country where -he has kinged in royally for two years. Then, perhaps, the moment may -come when things are going so badly for the whole of Turkey that Djemal -will at last have the opportunity, in spite of the failure of his -policy in Syria, of measuring his military strength against his hated -enemy Enver in Stamboul. That would be the beginning of the last stage -before the complete collapse of Turkey.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p class="hang">Anti-war and pro-Entente feelings among the Turks—Turkish pessimism -about the war—How would Abdul-Hamid have acted?—A war of prevention -against Russia—Russia and a neutral Turkey—The agreement about the -Dardanelles—A peaceful solution scorned—Alleged criminal intentions -on the part of the Entente; the example of Greece and Salonika—To be -or not to be?—German influence—Turkey stakes on the wrong card—The -results.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">There</span> has been no lack of cross currents <i>against</i> the war policy of -the Young Turkish Government. Ever since the entry of Turkey into the -war, there has been a deeply rooted and unshakeable conviction among -all kinds and conditions of men, even in the circles of the Pashas and -the Court—the people of Turkey take too little interest in politics -and are composed of far too heterogeneous elements for there to be -anything in the nature of what we call "public opinion"—that Turkey's -alliance with the Central Powers was a complete<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> mistake and that it -can lead to no good. It is of course known that since the outbreak of -war Turkey has not only been under martial law and in a state of siege, -but that under the régime of a brutal military dictatorship, with its -system of espionage, personal liberty has been practically null and -void. Any expressions of disapproval, therefore, or agitations against -the "Committee" are naturally only possible in most intimate circles, -and that with all secrecy. Little or nothing of the true opinions of -this or that personage ever trickles through to publicity, and so it -is utterly impossible, except from quite detached symptoms, to get -any proper idea of what are the real thoughts and feelings of those -cultured Turks who do not belong to the "Ittihad" and have no part in -their system of pillage and aggrandisement.</p> - -<p>In spite of the limited information available it will be worth while, -I think, to go into these counter-streams a little more fully. In -pretty well every grade of society and among all nationalities in -Turkey, there is the conviction that the old Sultan Abdul-Hamid would -never have committed the fateful error of declaring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> war against the -Entente and binding himself hand and foot to Germany. In the case of -Turkey's remaining neutral, the Entente had formally promised her -territorial integrity; Turkey refused. She felt herself driven to a war -of prevention, principally through fear of the power of Russia. The -statements made by those who agreed with Enver and Pasha and pushed -for the war, that Turkey in the case of non-participation would be -completely thrown on the mercy of a victorious Russia and that Russia's -true aim in the war was the Dardanelles and Constantinople, have never -been authenticated. There are still Turks, anti-Russian Turks, who even -admitted this possibility, and yet believed the word of the Entente—at -any rate of the Western Powers—and trusted to England's throwing her -weight into the scale against Russia's plans of conquest, if Turkey -remained neutral. They saw and still see no necessity for the Turkish -Government to have entered on a war of prevention.</p> - -<p>Russia's aim was the Straits and Constantinople—well and good. But -Russia would by hook or by crook have had to come to a friendly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> -agreement with Turkey and could not have simply broken a definite -promise given by the combined Entente to Turkey. It would have been -quite different if Russia had demanded Constantinople from the Western -Powers as the price of her participation in the war against Germany; -then, but only then, the Entente would perhaps have had to come to an -agreement satisfying Russia on this head. But Russia had quite other -ideas, and long before Turkey's entry into the war and without any -prospects of getting Constantinople, she flung her whole weight against -Germany and Austria right at the beginning of the war.</p> - -<p>The treaty with regard to Constantinople between the Western Powers -and Russia was not signed till six months after Turkey declared war, -and England would certainly never have allowed Russia to encroach on a -really neutral or sympathetically neutral Turkey. Then, but only then, -there might have been some foundation in fact for the ideas one heard -advanced by German-Turkish illusionists who would still have liked to -believe that there was continual dissension within the Entente, even -long after the official notification<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> of the Anglo-Russian treaty -with regard to the Straits, and by some even after the speech of the -Russian minister Trepoff, that the English occupation of the islands -at the entrance to the Dardanelles, which could be made into a second -Gibraltar, aimed chiefly at blocking the Straits and preventing Russia -from gaining undisturbed possession of Constantinople. Specially -optimistic people even look to that chimerical antagonism between -Russia and England for the salvation of Turkey, should Germany be -finally overcome.</p> - -<p>Whether she liked it or not, then, Russia would have had to come to -a friendly agreement with Turkey, had the latter remained neutral, -in order to gain the desired goal. And this goal would have been -necessarily limited, by the fact of Turkey's non-entry on the enemy -side, rather to the stoppage of German Berlin-Baghdad efforts at -expansion, the prevention of any strangulation of the enormous Russian -trade in the south and desperate opposition to any attempt to keep -Russia away from the Mediterranean, than to an attack on Turkey and -her vital interests. And who knows whether under such an agreement, -bound as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> it was to give Russia certain liberties and privileges in the -Straits, Turkey also might not have got much in exchange, at any rate -on financial lines, and might not also have obtained permission at last -to develop Armenia by that west-to-east railway so long desired by the -Turks and so strongly opposed by the Russians?</p> - -<p>Would the terrible bloodshed in the present war, the complete economic -exhaustion entailed, and the risk of a doubtful outcome of the fight -for existence or non-existence not have been far outweighed by the -prospect, in the case of a friendly agreement with Russia, of seeing -the orthodox cross again planted on the Hagia Sophia, an international -régime established in Constantinople—with certain Russian privileges -and the satisfaction of certain Russian moral demands, it is true, -but otherwise nothing to disturb Turkish life in Stamboul or in any -way prejudice Turkish prestige? Even the prospect of having to raze -the forts on the Straits to the ground in order to give free access -from the Mediterranean, or the necessity of having to inaugurate a -more humane and beneficent policy in Armenia, perhaps with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> European -supervision over the carrying out of the reforms would surely have -been preferable to the present state of affairs. These would all -have ensured for Turkey a long period of peace, capital wealth and -intellectual and social improvement, perhaps at the expense of a -momentary hurt to her feelings,—but these had been far more severely -wounded already, as, for example, when she had to look on helplessly -while bit after bit of her Empire was torn from her. It would have -been impossible for Russia to get more than this from Turkey had she -remained neutral. Her sovereignty and territorial integrity would have -been completely guaranteed.</p> - -<p>But Turkey thought she had to stake all, her whole existence, on -one card, and she staked on the wrong one, as is recognised now by -thousands of intelligent Turks. Believers in the war policy followed -by the Government make themselves hoarse maintaining that if Russia -had not gradually overpowered a neutral Turkey to win Constantinople -completely, at any rate the Entente would have finally forced her to -join their side; in either case, therefore, war was inevitable. They -point to Salonika, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> in face of all reason, maintain that the -Entente Powers would in all probability have treated Turkey exactly -as they treated Greece. They forget that their geographical position -is entirely different, and would have a very different effect on -military tactics. If Turkey had remained a sympathetic neutral, so -would Bulgaria; or else the whole of the Balkan States, from Roumania -and Bulgaria to Greece, would have joined the Entente right at the -beginning. In either case there would have been no necessity at all for -Turkey to join, for what military obligations had she to fulfil? The -Entente would certainly never have driven Turkey to fight, simply to -get the benefit of the Turkish soldiers available; there is no truth -whatever in the statements circulated about unscrupulous compulsion -with this end in view.</p> - -<p>The benefit for the Entente of Turkey's sympathetic neutrality would -have been so enormous that they would most certainly have been content -with that. Neither in Germany nor in Turkey is there any doubt whatever -in military circles that it was Turkey's entry into the war on the -German side and her blocking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> of the Straits, and so preventing Russia -from obtaining supplies of ammunition and other war material, that has -so far saved the Central Powers. Had Turkey remained neutral, constant -streams of ammunition would have poured into Russia, Mackensen's -offensive would have had no prospect at all of success, and Germany -would have been beaten to all intents and purposes in 1915. The Turks -do not scruple to let Germany feel that this is so on every suitable or -unsuitable occasion.</p> - -<p>The Entente would certainly never have moved a finger to disturb -Turkey's sympathetic neutrality and drive her into war. There would -have been tremendous material advantages for Turkey in such a -neutrality. Instead of being impoverished, bankrupt, utterly exhausted, -wholly lost, as she now is, she might have been far richer than -Roumania has ever been. There is one thing quite certain, and that is -that Abdul-Hamid would never have let this golden opportunity slide of -having a stream of money pouring in on himself and his country. And -certainly Turkey would not have lacked moral justification had she so -acted.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> - -<p>These considerations I have put forward rather from the Turkish -anti-war point of view than from my own. They are opinions expressed -hundreds of times by thoroughly patriotic and intelligent Turks -who saw how the ever more intensive propaganda work of the German -Ambassadors, first Marschall von Bieberstein, then Freiherr von -Wangenheim, gradually wormed its way through opposition and prejudice, -how the German Military Mission in Constantinople tried to turn the -Russian hatred of Germany against Turkey instead, how, finally, those -optimists and jingoists on the "Committee," who knew as little about -the true position of affairs throughout the world as they did of the -intentions of the Entente or the means at their own disposal, proceeded -to guide the ship of State more and more into German waters, without -any reference to their own people, in return for promises won from -Germany of personal power and material advantage. These were those days -of excitement and smouldering unrest when Admiral von Souchon of the -<i>Goeben</i> and the <i>Breslau</i>, with complete lack of discipline towards -his superior, Djemal Pasha, arranged with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> German Government to -pull off a coup without Djemal's knowledge—chiefly because he was -itching to possess the "Pour le Mérite" order—and sailed off with the -Turkish Fleet to the Black Sea. (I have my information from the former -American Ambassador in Constantinople, Mr. Morgenthau, who was furious -at the whole affair.)<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<p>These were the days when Enver and Talaat threw all their cards on the -table in that fateful game of To Be or Not to Be, and brought on their -country, scarcely yet recovered from the bloodshed of the Balkan War, -a new and more terrible sacrifice of her manhood in a war extending -over four, and later five, fronts. The whole result of this struggle -for existence depended on final victory for Germany and that was -becoming daily more doubtful; in fact, Ottoman troops had at last to be -dispatched by German orders to the Balkans and Galicia.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> - -<p>Turkey had, too, to submit to the ignominy of making friends with -her very recent enemy and preventing imminent military catastrophe -by handing over the country along the Maritza, right up to the gates -of the sacred city of Adrianople, to the Bulgarians. She had to look -on while Armenia was conquered by the Russians; while Mesopotamia -and Syria, in spite of initial successes, were threatened by -English troops; while the "Holy War" came to an untimely end, the -most consecrated of all Islam's holy places, Mecca, fell away from -Turkey, the Arabs revolted and the Caliphate was shattered; while her -population in the Interior endured the most terrible sufferings, and -economic and financial life tended slowly and surely towards complete -and hopeless collapse.</p> - -<p>Not even yet, indeed now less than ever, is there any general -acceptance among the people of the views held by Enver and Talaat -and their acolytes. Not yet do intelligent, independent men believe -the fine phrases of these minions of the "Committee," who are held -in leading strings by these dictators partly through gifts of money, -office, or the oppor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>tunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the -people, partly through fear of the consequences should they revolt, or -of those domestic servants who call themselves deputies and senators. -On the contrary, it is no exaggeration to say that three-quarters of -the intelligent out-and-out Turkish male population—quite apart from -Levantines, Greeks, and Armenians—and practically the entire female -population, who are more sensitive about the war and whose hearts are -touched more deeply by its immeasurable suffering, have either remained -perfectly friendly to England and France or have become so again -through terrible want and suffering.</p> - -<p>The consciousness that Turkey has committed an unbounded folly has long -ago been borne in upon wide circles of Turks in spite of falsified -reports and a stringent censorship. There would be no risk at all -in taking on a wager that in private conversation with ten separate -Turks, in no way connected with the "Committee," nine of them will -admit, as soon as they know there is no chance of betrayal, that they -do not believe Turkey will win, and that, with the exception of the -much-feared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> Russia, they still feel as friendly as ever towards their -present enemies. "<i>Quoi qu'il arrive, c'est toujours la pauvre Turquie -qui va payer le pot cassé.</i>" ("Whatever happens, it's always poor -Turkey that'll have to pay the piper") and "<i>Nous avons fait une grande -gaffe</i>" ("We <i>have</i> put our foot in it") were the kind of remarks made -in every single political discussion I ever had in Constantinople—even -with Turks.</p> - -<p>So much for the men, who judge with their reason. What of the women? -The one sigh of cultured Turkish women, up to the highest in the -land—who should have a golden book written in their honour for their -readiness to help, their sympathy, and humanity in this war—is: "When -shall we get rid of the Boches; when will our good old friends, the -English and the French, come back to us?" Nice results, these, of -German propaganda, German culture, German brotherhood of arms! What -a sad and shameful story for a German to have to tell! Naturally the -drastic system of the military dictatorship precludes the public -expression of such feelings, but one needs only have seen with one's -own eyes the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> looks so often cast by even real Turkish cultured society -at the German <i>Feldgrauen</i> who often marched in close formation through -the streets of Constantinople—for a time they used to sing German -soldiers' songs, until that was prohibited at the express wish of the -Turkish Government to see how the land lies.</p> - -<p>There was a marked and ill-concealed contrast in the coldness shown -to Imperial German officers and the lavish affection showered on the -Austrians and Hungarians who used for a time often to pass through -Constantinople on their way to the Dardanelles or Anatolia with their -heavy artillery. They were a great deal more sociable than their -German comrades, and one could not fail to note the significance of -such freely voiced comments as "<i>N'est-ce pas, ils sont charmants les -Autrichiens?</i>" ("The Austrians <i>are</i> delightful, aren't they?") The -sight of us Germans, especially the very considerable German garrison -stationed for a time in the Capital, awakened in the Turks, however -much they might recognise the military necessity for their presence, -remarkable ideas about the future "German Egyptising of Turkey," and -everyone blamed Enver Pasha<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> as the man responsible for Germany's -penetrating thus far.</p> - -<p>A Turk in a high official position—whose name I shall naturally not -divulge—even went so far as to say to me in an intimate personal -discussion we were having one day between friend and friend: "We -Turks are and will always remain, in spite of the war, pro-English -and pro-French so far as social and intellectual life is concerned; -and it would need twenty years of hard propaganda work on Germany's -part, quite different from her present methods, to change this point -of view, if it ever could be changed." He went on to recall the time -of the pro-English era, and the enthusiastic demonstrations that had -taken place at the Sirkedji station when the horses were taken out of -the English Ambassador's carriage. "I was there myself," he said, "and -believe me, apart from the war, heaps of us are at bottom still of the -same mind." And, growing heated, he added: "What is your Embassy, tell -me? Is it really an Embassy? No representation, no intimate intercourse -with us, or at best only with your political agents, no personal charm, -nothing but brusque<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> demands and a most humiliating economic neglect -of the Turkish population. The English and the French and even the -Russians would treat us quite differently."</p> - -<p>This man is no exception in his ideas. He is a thorough Young Turk, who -holds with the "Committee" through thick and thin and has to thank them -for a very pleasant billet, but he is, besides, a youngish man with a -modern European education. He is thoroughly imbued, as are all of his -kind, with modern French ideas, and even the war cannot alter that. -It only needs the final collapse of the Central Powers, and then the -break-down of the whole political system under the direction of these -jingoistic emancipationists who think they can get on without Europe, -and the Turks will all, every one of them, be as thoroughly pro-English -and pro-French as they ever were and will hate Germany and everything -German with fanatical hatred.</p> - -<p>Towards Hungary, their blood relation, they will probably retain some -friendliness in memory of their alliance in the Great War and the cause -of Turanism; they will be quite indifferent to Bulgaria; they will lose -their fear of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> Russia and come to an agreement with her; but after the -war there will be no bridging the gulf between Turkey and Germany, and -if Germany, on the conclusion of peace, is allotted any part of smaller -Turkey by the rest of the European Powers, she will have to reckon -for many a long year with the very chilly relations that will exist -between Germans and Turks. Even those who went heart and soul into the -war as a war of defence against Turkey's powerful northern neighbour -foresee that when peace is declared Turkey will, so far as her enormous -indebtedness to Germany permits, rather throw herself on the mercy -of England and France and America and beg from them the capital -necessary for reconstruction and for freeing them from the hated -German influence—an aversion which is already evident in hundreds of -different ways. Even Germany is beginning to recognise the existence -of this tendency, which, hand in hand with the jingoistic attempt to -turkify commercial life, bodes ill for German activity in Turkey after -the war.</p> - -<p>These are the opinions of the educated classes. The people, however, -the poor, igno<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>rant Turkish people, were ready long ago to accept any -solution that would liberate them from their terrible sufferings. -The Turkish people have not the mental calibre of our German people -which will perhaps make them fight on, just for the sake of leaving no -stone unturned, even after it is quite evident that they are tending -towards final collapse. The stake for which they are fighting is not -so valuable to this agricultural people, who with an inferior and -extortionate set of rulers have never been able really to enjoy life, -as it is to the population of a modern industrial country like Germany, -where every political gain or loss has a direct result on their own -pockets; defeat will certainly have much less effect on the Oriental. -One can therefore speak with confidence of a general longing for -the end of the war at any price. The Turks have had quite enough of -suffering, and there are limits to what even these willing and mutely -resigned victims can bear.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless it is quite certain that the courageous Turkish soldier, -in obedience to iron discipline and in unconditional submission to his -Padishah, will continue to defend his lost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> cause to the very last -drop of his blood, with an unquestioning resignation that absolutely -precludes the idea of any defection within the army. Only a purely -political military revolution, originating with the better-informed -officers, who now really no longer believe in ultimate victory, is -within the bounds of possibility.</p> - -<p>But the most confiding endurance on the part of the Turkish soldier, -even when the military cause has long been lost, will not hinder this -same soldier, when he is once more back in his own home as a peasant, -from realising that European influence and European civilisation -are a very competent protection against the miserably retrogressive -Turkish rule, and that he has drawn more material profit from that -single example of European activity, the Baghdad Railway, than from -all Turkish official reforms put together, and so would willingly see -Europe exercising a powerful control in his country. He would accept -the military collapse of his country which he had so long and so -bravely defended, and the dramatic political changes, with a quietly -submissive "<i>Inshallah</i>." And although, deprived as he is of every -kind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> of information and without even the beginnings of knowledge, he -perhaps still believes in ultimate victory for the Padishah, he will -probably heave a sigh of relief when the unexpected collapse comes, and -he will not take long to understand what it means for him: freedom and -happiness and an undreamt-of material well-being under strong European -influence.</p> - -<p>The late successor to the throne, Prince Yussuf Izzedin Effendi, was -the highest of those in high authority who openly represented the -pessimistic anti-war tendency. It was for this that he was murdered -or perhaps made to commit suicide by Enver Pasha. The whole truth -about this tragic occurrence can only be sifted to the bottom when the -dictators of the "Committee" are no longer in their place and light -finally breaks on Turkey. Whether it was murder or suicide, the death -of the successor to the throne is one of the most dramatic scandals of -Turkish history, and Enver Pasha has his blood, as well as the blood -of so many others, on his head. As far as is possible during the war, -Europe has already collected all the information available on the -subject. I myself was in Constantinople when the tragic oc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>currence -took place, and I can speak so far from personal experience.</p> - -<p>In connection with this sensational event, the world has already heard -how Yussuf Izzedin was kept for years under the despotic Abdul-Hamid -shut off from the world as a semi-prisoner in his beautiful <i>Konak of -Sindjirlikuyu</i>, just outside the gates of Constantinople, where he -became a sufferer from acute neurasthenia. In recent years, however, -his health had improved and, although latently hostile to the men -of the "Committee" and their politics, he had come more into the -foreground, especially after the recapture of Adrianople, which he -visited with full pomp and ceremony as Crown Prince of the Turkish -Empire. While the Gallipoli campaign was going on, he even made a -journey to the Front to greet his soldiers. Early one morning he was -found lying dead in a pool of his own blood with a severed artery. He -had received his death wound in exactly the same place and exactly -the same way as his father, Sultan Abdul-Aziz, who fell a victim to -Abdul-Hamid's hatred. The political significance of Yussuf Izzedin's -death is perfectly clear. What we want to do now is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> to demonstrate -Enver Pasha's moral culpability in the matter and to show how he was -more or less directly the murderer of this quiet, cultured, highly -respected, and thoroughly patriotic man, who was some day to ascend the -throne of Turkey.</p> - -<p>So much at least seems to be clear, that Prince Izzedin, who was -naturally interested in retaining his accession to the throne -undisturbed and who in spite of his neurasthenia was man enough to -stand up for his own rights, foresaw ruin for his kingdom by Turkey's -entry into the war on the side of Germany. He was more far-seeing than -the careless adventurers and narrow-minded fanatics of the "Committee" -and recognised that the letting-go of the treasured Pan-Islamic -traditions of old Sultan Hamid was a grave mistake which would lead -to the alienation of the Arabs, and which endangered both the Ottoman -Caliphate and Ottoman rule in the southern parts of the Empire. He -could not console himself for the evacuation of the territory round -Adrianople, right up to the gates of the sacred city, which meant much -to him as the symbol of national enlightenment. He had a real per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>sonal -dislike for upstarts of the stamp of Enver and Talaat. Apart from -these differences of opinion and personal sympathies and antipathies, -deep-rooted though these undoubtedly were, Yussuf Izzedin was and -always would have been a thorough "Osmanli" with fiery nationalistic -feelings, who wished for nothing but the good of his Empire and his -country. And yet he was got rid of.</p> - -<p>It would be difficult for the present Turkish Government to prove that -the successor to the throne, apart from his feeling of sorrow that -his country had been drawn into the war, apart from his readiness to -conclude an honourable separate peace at the first possible moment, -did anything which might have caused them trouble. The officials of -the Turkish Government had themselves made repeated efforts through -their Swiss Ambassadors to find out how the land lay, and whether they -could conclude a separate peace; so they had no grounds at all for -reproaching Prince Yussuf Izzedin, who, as a leader of this movement, -naturally let no opportunity of this kind slide. But he was far too -clever not to know that any attempt in this direction behind the backs -of the present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> Government would have no chance of success so long as -Turkey was held under the iron fist of Germany.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the "Committee" had something to fear for the future, when the -time came for the reverses now regarded as inevitable. Yussuf would -then make use of his powerful influence in many circles—notably among -the discontented retired military men—to demand redress from the -"Committee." Enver, true to his unscrupulous character, quite hardened -to the sight of Turkish blood, and determined to stick to his post -at all costs—for it was not only lucrative, but flattering to his -vanity—was not the man to stick at trifles with a poor neurasthenic, -who under the present military dictatorship was absolutely at his -mercy. He therefore decided on cold-blooded murder.</p> - -<p>The Prince, well aware of the danger that threatened him, tried at -the last moment to leave the country and flee to safety. He had even -taken his ticket, and intended to start by the midday Balkan train next -day to travel to Switzerland via Germany. He was forbidden to travel. -Whether, feeling himself thus driven into a corner and nothing but -death at the hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> of Enver's creatures staring him in the face, he -killed himself in desperation, or whether, as thousands of people in -Constantinople firmly believe, and as would seem to be corroborated by -the generally accepted, although of course not actually verified, tale -of a bloody encounter between the murderers and the Prince's bodyguard, -with victims on both sides, he was actually assassinated, is not yet -settled, and it is really not a matter of vast importance.</p> - -<p>One thing is clear, and that is that Izzedin Effendi did not pay -with his life for any illoyal act, but merely for his personal and -political opposition to Enver. He is but one on this murderer's long -list of victims. The numerous doctors, all well known creatures of the -"Committee" or easily won over by intimidation, who set their names -as witnesses to this "suicide as a result of severe neurasthenia"—a -most striking and suspicious similarity to the case of Abdul-Aziz—have -not prevented one single thinking man in Constantinople from forming a -correct opinion on the matter. The wily Turkish Government evidently -chose this kind of death, just like his father's, so that they could -diagnose the symptoms as those of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> incurable neurasthenia. History -has already formed its own opinion as to how much free-will there was -in Abdul-Aziz' death! The opinions of different people about Prince -Yussuf's death only differ as to whether he was murdered or compelled -to commit suicide. "<i>On l'a suicidé</i>," was the ironical and frank -comment of one clever Old Turk. We will leave it at that.</p> - -<p>The funeral of the successor to the throne was a most interesting -sight. I sent an article on it to my paper at the time, which of -course had only very, very slight allusions to anything of a sinister -character; but it did not find favour with the censor at the Berlin -Foreign Office. The editorial staff of the paper evidently saw what I -was driving at, and wrote to me: "We have revised and touched up your -report so as at least to save the most essential part of it;" but even -the altered version did not pass the censor's blue pencil. But I had at -any rate the moral satisfaction of knowing that of all the papers with -correspondents in the Turkish capital, mine, the <i>Kölnische Zeitung</i>, -was the only one that could publish nothing, not a single line, about -this important and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> highly sensational occurrence, for I simply wrote -nothing more. That was surely clear enough!</p> - -<p>When in 1913, after the unsuccessful counter-revolution, Mahmud Shevket -Pasha was assassinated and was going to be buried in Constantinople, -the "Committee" issued invitations days beforehand to all foreign -personages. This time nothing of the sort happened; and even the Press -representatives were not invited to be present. On the former occasion -everything possible was done, by putting off the interment as long as -possible and repeatedly publishing the date, by lengthening the route -of the funeral procession, to give several thousands of people an -opportunity of taking part in the ceremony.</p> - -<p>This time, however, the authorities arranged the burial with all speed, -and the very next day after the sensational occurrence the body was -hurried by the shortest way, through the Gülhané Park, to the Mausoleum -of Sultan Mahmud-Moshee. The coffin had been quietly brought in the -twilight the evening before from the Kiosk of Sindjirlikuyu on the -other side of Pera on the Maslak Hill, to the top of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> the Seraďl. Along -the whole route, however, wherever the public had access, there were -lines of police and soldiers; and the bright uniforms of the police -who were inserted in groups of twenty between every single row of the -procession of Ministers, members of the "Committee" and delegaters who -walked behind the coffin, were really the most conspicuous thing in the -whole ceremony. Enver Pasha passed quite close to me, and neither I, -nor my companions, could fail to note the ill-concealed expression of -satisfaction on his face.</p> - -<p>The most beautiful thing about this whole funeral, however, was the -visit paid me by the Secretary-General of the Senate, the minute -after I had reached home (and I had driven by the shortest way). With -a zeal that might have surprised even the simplest minded of men, -he offered to tell me about the Prince's life, lingering long and -going into exhaustive detail over the well-known facts of his nervous -ailment. Then, blushing at his own awkwardness and importunity, he -begged me most earnestly to publish his version of all the details and -circumstances of this tragic occurrence, "which no other paper will be -in a posi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>tion to publish." Naturally it was never written.</p> - -<p>So, once more, in the late summer of 1916, Enver Pasha, who was so fond -of discovering conspiracies and political movements in order to get rid -of his enemies, and go scot free himself, had a fresh opportunity of -reflecting, with even more foundation than usual, on the firmness of -his position and the security of his own life.</p> - -<p>It is perhaps time now to give a more comprehensive description of this -man. We have already mentioned in connection with the failure of his -Caucasus offensive that Enver has been extraordinarily over-estimated -in Europe. The famous Enver is neither a prominent intellectual leader -nor a good organiser—in this direction he is far surpassed by Djemal -Pasha—nor an important strategist. In military matters his positive -qualities are personal courage, optimism, and, consequently, initiative -which is never daunted by fear of consequences, also cold-bloodedness -and determination; but he is entirely lacking in judgment, power of -discrimination, and largeness of conception. From the German point -of view he is particu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>larly valuable for his unquestioning and -unconditional association with the Central Powers, his readiness to do -anything that will further their cause, his pliability and his zeal in -accommodating himself even to the most trenchant reforms. But it is -just these qualities that make enemies for him among retired military -men and among the people.</p> - -<p>Regarded from a purely personal point of view, Enver Pasha is, in spite -of the fulsome praise showered on him by Germans inspired by that -most pliant implement, German militarism, one of the most repugnant -subjects ever produced by Turkey. Even from a purely external point of -view his appearance does not at all correspond with the picture of him -generally accepted in Germany from flattering reports and falsified -photographs. Small of stature, with quite an ordinary face, he looks -rather, as one of my journalistic colleagues said, like a "gardener's -boy" than a Vice-General and War Minister, and anyone who ever has the -opportunity I have so often had, of looking really closely at him, will -certainly be repelled by his look of vanity and cunning. It was really -most painful to have to listen to him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> (he has always been a bad and -monotonous speaker) in the Senate and the Lower House at the conclusion -of the Dardanelles campaign reading his report in a weak, halting -voice, but with the disdainful tone of a dictator. Every third word was -an "I." Even the Turkish Press accorded this parliamentary speech a -fairly frosty reception.</p> - -<p>Besides this, Enver is one of the most cold-blooded liars imaginable. -Time and again there has been no necessity for him to say certain -things in Parliament, or to make certain promises, but apparently he -found cynical enjoyment in making the people and Parliament feel their -whole inferiority in his eyes. What can one think, for example, of such -performances as this? At the end of 1916 when the discussion about -military service for those who had paid the exemption tax (<i>bedel</i>) was -going on, he gave an unsolicited and solemn assurance before the whole -House that he had no intention whatever of calling up certain classes -until the Bill had been finally passed and that it would show that he -was really desirous of sparing commercial life as far as possible in -the calling up of men. Exactly two hours after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> this speech the drum -resounded through all the streets of Stamboul and Pera, calling up all -those classes over which Enver had as yet no power of jurisdiction, and -which he said he wanted to keep back because to tear them away from -their employment would mean the complete disorganisation of the already -sadly disordered commercial life of the country.</p> - -<p>This was Talaat's opinion, too, and he offered a firm resistance to -Enver's plan, which it appears had been introduced by command of the -German Government. In this case, however, resistance was useless, and -had to give way to military necessity. If Enver said something in -Parliament—this at any rate was the general conclusion—one might be -quite certain that exactly the opposite would take place. He has now -gained for himself the reputation of being a liar and a murderer among -all those who are not followers of the "Committee."</p> - -<p>In contrast to Talaat, who is at least intelligent enough to keep up -appearances and cunning enough to hold himself well in the background, -Enver's personal lack of integrity in money matters is a subject of -most shameful knowledge in Constantinople. It is pretty well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> generally -known how he has made use of his position as Military Dictator to gain -possession for himself of property worth thousands of pounds, and how -in his financial dealings with Germany hundreds have found their way -into his own pocket—up till the winter of 1915-1916, according to an -estimate from confidential Turkish circles and from German sources I -will not name, he had already managed to collect something like two -million pounds, reckoned in English money. This son of a former lowly -<i>conducteur</i> in the service of the Roads and Bridges Board, whose -mother, as I have been assured by Turks is the case, plied in Stamboul -the much-despised trade of "layer-out" of corpses, now lives in his -Konak in more than princely luxury, with flowers and silver and gold on -his table, having married, out of pure ambition, a very plain-looking -princess. That is the true portrait of this much-coddled darling of -the Young Turks, and latterly of the German people as well. This is -the idol of so many admiring German women, who are bewitched by his -more than adventurous career and the halo surrounding him which he has -enhanced by every known<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> and unknown means of self-advertisement.</p> - -<p>Enver's character won for him in "Committee" circles personal dislike -and bitter, though veiled, enmity even from his colleagues who were -of exactly the same political persuasion as himself. Of his relations -towards the infinitely more important Djemal Pasha we have already -spoken; we shall speak in a moment of his relations to Talaat. In the -world of the retired military men, however, who had been badgered about -by Enver, neglected and simply forcibly pensioned off by hundreds -before the war because of their divergent political opinions, and even -thrown into the street, the War Minister was heartily hated. A very -large part of them were of the same political views as the murdered -successor to the throne, and their opinion of the Great War was as -we have already indicated. They pointed bitterly to Enver as the -all-too-pliable servant of Germany, who was only too ready to sacrifice -the flower of Ottoman youth on those far battlefields of Galicia at -a sign from the German Staff, and open door after door to German -influence in the Interior with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>out even attempting to protect the land -of his fathers from invasion and decay.</p> - -<p>As we have said, political revolutions in Turkey usually start in -military circles, not among the people, and there was an actual attempt -in this direction in the autumn of 1916. Either by chance or by -someone's betraying the plot, it was discovered by Enver in time, and -the number of military men and Old Turkish personages associated with -them, imprisoned in Constantinople alone, reached six hundred. At the -head of the movement stood Major Yakub Djemil Bey.</p> - -<p>During the whole of the summer of 1916 Enver's position had been looked -upon as quite insecure. The knowledge of his greed in money matters, -his tactless pushing, and his ruthless brutality had totally alienated -a wide circle of people, and many believed that he would soon have to -resign.</p> - -<p>In addition to this, a deep inward antagonism reigned between him and -Talaat, the real leader and by far the most important statesman of -Turkey, which was far more than a cleverly veiled personal dislike. -There was a constant struggle for power going on be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>tween the two men. -By the end of May the crisis had become pretty acute, although outward -appearances were still preserved and only well-informed circles knew -anything at all about the matter. Enver had at that time to hurry back -from the Irak, where he was on a visit of inspection with the German -Chief of Staff and the Military Attaché, in order to safeguard his -post. In confidential circles, the outbreak of open enmity between the -two was fully expected; but this time again Talaat was the cleverer. -He felt that, in spite of his own greater influence and following, in -spite of his real superiority to Enver, he might perhaps, if he tried -conclusions with him while he was still in command of the army, find -himself the loser and, in view of Enver's murderous habits, pay for his -rashness with his life. So he decided not to risk a decisive battle -just yet. He was too patriotic, also, to let things come to an open -break during the difficult time of war. Talaat disappeared for a short -time on a visit of inspection to Angora, and things settled down to -their old way again.</p> - -<p>There is still internal conflict going on. But Enver, with boundless -ambition and no fine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> feelings of honour, clings to his post, and -has shown by the way he dealt with the instigators of the conspiracy -mentioned above that nothing but force will move him from his post, -and that he will never yield to public opinion or the criticism of -his colleagues. He was troubled by no qualms, in spite of the widely -circulated opinion that he would certainly jeopardise his life if he -went on in the same ruthless way towards the retired military men. He -simply had the leader, Yakub Djemil Bey, hanged like a common criminal, -and the whole of his followers, for the most part superior officers and -highly respected persons, turned into soldiers of the second class, and -put in the front-line trenches.</p> - -<p>Enver's removal would not alter the whole Young Turkish régime much, -but it would take from it much of its ruthless barbarity, and its most -repugnant representative would vanish from the picture. It would also -be a severe blow for Germany and her militaristic policy of driving -Turkey mercilessly to suicide. It would be a godsend to the anti-German -Djemal Pasha. From a political point of view it would mean, far more -than Talaat's appoint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>ment as Grand Vizier, the absolute supremacy of -that statesman.</p> - -<p>At bottom probably less ruthless than Enver and certainly cleverer, -there is no doubt but that he would pursue his jingoistic ideas in the -realm of race-politics, but at any rate he would not want any military -system of frightfulness. Enver's removal from office will come within -the range of near possibility as soon as the new British operations -against Southern Palestine and Mesopotamia have produced a real -victory. Turkey is not in a good enough military position to prevent -this, and the whole world will soon recognise that it is this servant -of Germany, this careless optimist and very mediocre strategist who is -to blame for the inexorable breaking-up of the Ottoman Empire.</p> - -<p>The contrast I have noted between Enver and Talaat provides the -opportunity for saying a few words about Talaat, now Pasha and -Grand Vizier, and by far the most important man of New Turkey. -As Minister of the Interior, he has guided the whole fate of his -country, except in purely military matters, as uncrowned king. It is -he more than anyone else who is the originator of the whole system -of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> home politics. Solidity of character, earnestness, freedom from -careless optimism, and conspicuous power of judgment distinguish him -most favourably from Enver, who possesses the opposite of all these -qualities. A high degree of intelligence, an enormous knowledge of -men, an exceptional gift of organisation and tireless energy combined -with great personal authority, prudence and reserve, calm weighing -of the actual possibilities—in a word, all the qualities of the -real statesman—raise him head and shoulders above the whole of his -colleagues and co-workers. It would be unjust to doubt his ardent -patriotism or the honesty of his ideas and intentions. Talaat's -character is so impressive that one often hears even Armenians, the -victims of his own original policy of persecution, speak of him with -respect, and I have even heard the opinion expressed that had it not -been for Talaat's cleverness, the Committee would have gone much -further with their mischievous policy.</p> - -<p>But his high intellectual abilities do not prevent him from suffering -from that same plague of narrow-minded, jingoistic illusion peculiar -to the Pan-Turks. He is as if intoxicated with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> a race-fanaticism that -stifles all nobler emotions. Talaat is too methodical and clever not to -avoid all intentional ruthlessness, but in practice his system, which -he follows out with inflexible logic to the bitter end, turns out to -be just as brutal as Enver's intrinsically more brutal policy. And -although he accommodates himself outwardly to modern European methods -and knows how to utilise them, the ethics of his system are out-and-out -Asiatic. When Talaat speaks in the "Committee," there is very rarely -the slightest opposition. He has usually prepared and coached the -"Committee" so well beforehand that he can to all appearance keep in -the background and only follow the majority. With the exception of a -few military affairs, everything has always taken place that he has -proposed in Parliament.</p> - -<p>Beside this man, whose sparkling eyes, massive shoulders, broad chest, -clean-cut profile and exuberant health denote the whole unbounded -energy of the dictator, the good-natured, degenerate, and epileptically -inclined Sultan, Mehmed V, "El Ghazi" ("the hero"), is but a weak -shadow. But if we fully recognise Talaat's high intellectual qualities, -we should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> like all the more to emphasise that he must be held -personally responsible more than all the others for everything that is -now happening in Turkey, so far as it is not of a military character. -The spirit reigning in Turkey to-day, the spirit of Pan-Turkish -jingoism, is Talaat's spirit. The Armenian persecutions are his very -own work. And when the day of reckoning comes for the Turkey of the -"Committee of Union and Progress," it is to be hoped that Europe as -judge and chastiser and avenger of an outraged civilisation, will lay -the chief blame on Talaat Pasha rather than on his far weaker colleague -Enver.</p> - -<p>All his eminent qualities, however, do not prevent this intellectual -leader of Turkey, the most important man, beside the Sultan, in the -land, from showing signs of something that is typical of the whole -"Committee" clique with their dictatorial power, and which we may -perhaps be allowed to call <i>parvenuishness</i>. At all points we see -the characteristics of the parvenu in this statesman and one-time -adventurer and in these creatures of the "Committee" who have recently -become wealthy by certain abuses—I would remind you only of the -Requisitions—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>and by a lucrative adherence to the ruling clique. There -are of course individual cases of distinguished men of good birth -throwing in their lot with the "Committee," but they are extremely -rare, and they only help to give an even worse impression of the -average Young Turk belonging to the Government. Their past is usually -extremely doubtful, and their careers have been somewhat varied.</p> - -<p>No one of course would ever think of setting it down as a black mark -against Talaat, for example, that he had to work his way up to his -present supreme position from the very modest occupation of postman -and postal coach conductor on the Adrianople road, via telegraph -assistant and other branches of the Post Office; on the contrary, such -intelligence and energy are worthy of the highest praise. But Talaat's -case is a comparatively good one, and it is not so much their low -social origin that is a drawback to these political leaders of Turkey, -as their complete lack of education in statesmanship and history, -which unfits them for the high rôle they are called upon to fill. -Naturally it is not exactly pleasant when a man like Herr Paul Weitz, -the correspondent of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> the <i>Frankfurter Zeitung</i>, and a political agent, -can boast with a certain amount of justification that he has given tips -of money to many of the present members of the "Committee"—in the real -sense of the word, not in the political meaning of <i>backshish</i>! It is -no wonder, then, that German influence won its way through so easily!</p> - -<p>Even yet Talaat's lowly origin is a drawback to him socially, and, -in spite of his jovial manner and his complete confidence in his own -powers, he sometimes feels himself so unsure that he rather avoids -social duties. Probably one of the reasons of his long delay in -accepting the post of Grand Vizier—he was already definitely marked -out for it in the summer of 1915—was his own inner consciousness -that his whole past life unfitted him socially for the duties of such -an office. That he has now decided to accept it, is only the logical -sequence of the system of absolute Turkification, which, with its plan -of muzzling and supplanting all non-Turkish elements, had of course -to get rid of the Egyptian element in the Government, represented by -Prince Halim Saďd, the late<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> Grand Vizier, and his brother, the late -Minister of Public Works.</p> - -<p>There are far more outstanding cases of incompatibility between social -upbringing and present activity among the "Committee." I will simply -take the single example of the Director General of the Press, Hikmet -Bey. Mischievous Pera still gives him the nick-name of "<i>Sütdji</i>" -("milkman"), because—although it is no reproach to him any more than -in Talaat's case—he still kept his father's milk shop in the Rue -Tepé Bashi in Pera before he managed to get himself launched on a -political career by close adherence to the Committee. Sometimes, of -course, one inherits from a low social origin far worse things than -social inferiority. Perhaps Djemal Pasha's murderous instincts are to -be traced to the fact that his grandfather was the official hangman in -the service of Sultan Mahmud, and that his father still retained the -nick-name of "hangman" among the people.</p> - -<p>One only needs to cast a glance at the Young Turks who are the -leaders of fashion in the "Club de Constantinople"—after the English -and French members are absent—with Ger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>man officers who have been -admitted as temporary members at a reduced subscription, and one will -find there, as in the more exclusive "Cercle d'Orient," and in the -"Yachting Club" in Prinkipo in the summer-time, individuals belonging -to the "Committee" whose lowly origin and bad manners are evident at -the first glance. Talaat, who is himself President of the Club, knows -exactly how to get his adherents elected as members without one of them -being blackballed. People who used not to know what an International -Club was, and who perhaps, in accordance with their former social -status, got as far as the vestibule to speak to the Concierge, are -now great "club men" and can afford, with the money they have amassed -in "clique" trade and by the famous system of Requisitions, to play -poker every evening for stakes of hundreds of Turkish pounds. One -single kaleidoscopic glance into the perpetual whirl of any one of -these clubs, which used to be places of friendly social intercourse -for the best European circles, is quite sufficient to see the class -of degenerate, greedy parvenus that rule poor, bleeding, helpless, -exhausted Tur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>key. One cannot but be filled with a deep sympathy for -this unfortunate land.</p> - -<p>The Turks of decent birth are disgusted at these parvenus. I have had -conversations with many an old Pasha and Senator, true representatives -of the refined and kindly Old Turkish aristocracy, and heard many a -word of stern disapproval of the "Committee" quite apart from their -divergent political opinions. There is a whole distinguished Turkish -world in Constantinople who completely boycott Enver and his consorts -socially, although they have to put up with their caprices politically. -"I don't know Enver at all," or "<i>Je ne connais pas ces gens-lŕ</i>" -("I don't know these people"), are phrases that one very often hears -repeated with infinite disdain. In all these cases it is the purely -personal side—birth and manners—that repels them.</p> - -<p>Socially the cleft between the two camps is far deeper than it is -politically, for many of these same people accommodate themselves, -though with reluctance in their heart, to sharing at least formally -as Senators in the responsibility for the present Young Turkish -policy. They have to do so, for otherwise they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> would simply be flung -mercilessly by Enver's Clique on to the streets to beg for bread. -This is how it comes about to-day that, with very few exceptions, the -Senators, who, to tell the truth, have as little practical say as the -members of the Lower House, are all outwardly complaisant followers -of the "Committee." The more doctrinal, but at any rate courageous -and honourable opposition of Ahmed Riza is likewise of very little -significance. Once, about the middle of December, 1916, Enver even went -so far as to hurl the epithet "shameless dog" at Ahmed Riza in the -Senate without being called to order by the President.</p> - -<p>The Deputies are also, with even fewer exceptions than the -Senators—only one or two are reasonable men—all slaves pure and -simple of Enver and Talaat. The Lower House is nothing but a set of -employees paid by the Clique. In other countries now at war the Lower -House may have sunk to the level of a laughing-stock; in Turkey it -has become the instrument of crime. And it is these same toadies -and parasites, who daily carry out this military dictator's will in -Parliament, that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> daily treats with scarcely veiled irony and open -and complete disdain. These are the "representatives of the people" in -Turkey in war-time!</p> - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Djemal Pasha learnt the news that Admiral von Souchon had -bombarded Russian ports, and so made war inevitable, one evening at the -Club. Pale with rage, he sprang up and said: "So be it; but if things -go wrong, Souchon will be the first to be hanged."</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>The outlook for the future—The consequences of trusting Germany—The -Entente's death sentence on Turkey—The social necessity for this -deliverance—Anatolia, the new Turkey after the war—Forecasts about -the Turkish race—The Turkish element in the lost territory—Russia -and Constantinople; international guarantees—Germany, at peace, -benefits too—Farewell to the German "World-politicians"—German -interests in a victorious and in an amputated Turkey—The -German-Turkish treaty—A paradise on earth—The Russian commercial -impetus—The new Armenia—Western Anatolia, the old Greek centre of -civilization—Great Arabia and Syria—The reconciliation of Germany.</p></blockquote> - - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have come to the end of our sketches. The question before us now is: -What will become of Turkey? The Entente has pronounced formal sentence -of death on the Empire of the Sultan, and neither the slowly fading -military power of Turkey, nor the help of Germany, who is herself -already virtually conquered, will be able to arrest her fate.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> - -<p>On the high frost-bound uplands of Armenia the Russians hold a -strategic position from which it is impossible to dislodge them, and -which will probably very soon extend to the Gulf of Alexandretta. In -Mesopotamia, after that enormously important political event, the Fall -of Baghdad, the union was effected between the British troops and -the Russians, advancing steadily from Persia. The Suez Canal is now -no longer threatened, and the British troops have been removed from -there for a counter-offensive in Southern Palestine, and probably, -when the psychological moment arrives, an offensive against Syria, -now so sadly shattered politically. It is quite within the bounds of -possibility, too, that during this war a big new Front may be formed -in Western Anatolia, already completely broken up by the Pan-Hellenic -Irredenta, and the Turks will be hard put to it to find troops to meet -the new offensive. Arabia is finally and absolutely lost, and England, -by establishing an Arabian Caliphate, has already won the war against -Turkey. Meantime, on the far battlefields of Galicia and the Balkans, -whole Ottoman divisions are pouring out their life-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>blood, fighting for -that elusive German victory that never comes any nearer, while in every -nook and corner of their own land there is a terrible lack of troops. -Enver Pasha, at length grown anxious, has attempted to recall them, but -in vain.</p> - -<p>That is a short résumé of the military situation. This is how the -Turkey of Enver and Talaat is atoning for the trust she has placed in -Germany.</p> - -<p>To a German journalist who went out two years ago to a great Turkey, -striving for a "Greater Turkey," it does indeed seem a bitter irony of -fate to see his sphere of labour thus reduced to nothingness. The fall -of Turkey is the greatest blow that could have been dealt to German -"world-politics"; it is a disappointment that will have the gravest -consequences. But from the standpoint of culture, human civilisation, -ethics, the liberty of the peoples and justice, historical progress, -the economic development of wide tracts of land of the greatest -importance from their geographical position, it is one of the most -brilliant results of the war, and one to be hailed with unmixed joy. -When I look back on how wonderfully things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> have shaped in the last two -and a half years I am bound to admit that I am happy things have turned -out as they have. If perchance any Turk who knows me happens to read -these lines, I beg him not to think that my ideas are saturated with -hatred of Turkey. On the contrary, I love the country and the Turkish -race with those many attractive qualities that rightly appealed to a -poet like Loti.</p> - -<p>I have asked myself thousands of times what would be the best political -solution of the problem, how to help this people—and the other races -inhabiting their country—to true and lasting happiness. From my many -journeys in tropical lands, I have grown accustomed to the sight of -autochthonous civilisations and semi-civilised peoples, and am as -interested in them as in the most perfectly civilised nations of -Europe. I have therefore, I think, been able to set aside entirely in -my own mind the territorial interests of the West in the development -of the Near East, and give my whole attention to Turkey's own good and -Turkey's own needs. But even then I have been obliged to subscribe -to the sentence of death passed on the Turkey of the Young Turks -and the sovereignty of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> Ottoman Empire. It is with the fullest -consciousness of what I am doing that I agree to the only seemingly -cruel amputation of this State. It is merely the outer shell covering -a number of peoples who suffer cruelly under an unjust system, chief -among them the brave Turkish people who have been led by a criminal -Government to take the last step on the road to ruin. The point of view -I have adopted does not in any way detract from my personal sympathies, -and I still have hopes that the many personal friendships I made -in Constantinople will not be broken by the hard words I have been -obliged to utter in the cause of truth, in the interests of outraged -civilisation, and in the interests of a happier future for the Ottoman -people themselves.</p> - -<p>The amputation of Turkey is a stern social necessity. Someone has -said: "The greatest enemy of Turkey is the Turk." I have too much love -for the Turkish people, too much sympathy for them, to adopt this -pessimistic attitude without great inward opposition; but unfortunately -it is only too true. We have seen how the Turkey of Enver and Talaat -has reacted sharply against the Western-minded,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> liberal era of the -1876 and 1908 constitutions, and has turned again to Asia and her newly -discovered ideal, Turanism. To the Turks of to-day, European culture -and civilisation are at best but a technical means; they are no longer -an end in themselves. Their dream is no longer Western Europe, but a -nationally awakened and strengthened Asiatentum.</p> - -<p>In face of this intellectual development, how can we hope that in the -new Turkey there will be a radical alteration of what, in the whole -course of Ottoman history, has always been the one characteristic, -unchangeable, momentous fact, of what has always shattered the most -honest efforts at reform, and always will shatter every attempt at -improvement within a sovereign Turkey—I refer to the relationship -of the Turk to the "<i>Rajah</i>" (the "herd"), the Christian subjects of -the Padishah. The Ottoman, the Mohammedan conqueror, lives by the -"herd" he has found in the land he has conquered; the "herd" are the -"unbelievers," and rooted deep in the mind of this sovereign people, -who have never quite lost their nomadic instincts, is the conviction -that they have the right to live by the sweat of the brow of their -Chris<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>tian subjects and on the fruits of their labour. That we -Europeans think this unjust the Turk will never be able to grasp.</p> - -<p>A Wali of Erzerum once said: "The Turkish Government and the Armenian -people stand in the relationship of man and wife, and any third persons -who feel sympathy for the wife and anger at the wife-beating husband -will do better not to meddle in this domestic strife." This quotation -has become famous, for it exactly characterises the relationship of -the Turk to the "Rajah," not to the Armenians. In this phrase alone -there lies, quite apart from all the crimes committed by the present -Turkish Government, a sufficient moral and political foundation for -the sentence of death passed on the sovereignty of the present Turkish -State. For so long as the Turks cling to Islam, from which springs that -opposition between Moslem rulers and "Giaur" subjects so detrimental -to all social progress, it is Europe's sacred duty not to give Turkey -sovereignty over any territory with a strong Christian element. That -is why Turkey must at all costs be confined to Inner Anatolia; that is -why complete amputation is necessary; and why the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> outlying districts -of Turkey, the Straits, the Anatolian coast, the whole of Armenia must -be rescued and, part of it at any rate, placed under formal European -protection.</p> - -<p>Even in Inner Anatolia, which will probably still be left to the -Ottomans after the war, the strongest European influence must be -brought to bear—which will probably not be difficult in view of -Turkey's financial bankruptcy; European customs and civilisation must -be introduced; in a word, Europe must exercise sufficient control -to be in a position to prevent the numerous non-Turks resident even -in Anatolia from being exposed to the old system of exploiting the -"Rajah." Discerning Turks themselves have admitted that it would be -best for Europe to put the whole of Turkey for a generation under -curatorship and general European supervision.</p> - -<p>I, personally, should not be satisfied with this system for the -districts occupied more by non-Turks than by Turks; but, on the other -hand, I should not go so far in the case of Inner Anatolia. I trust -that strong European influence will make it possible to make Inner -Anatolia a sovereign territory. I have pinned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> my faith on the Ottoman -race being given another and final opportunity on her own ground of -showing how she will develop now after the wonderful intellectual -improvement that has taken place during the war. I hope at the same -time that even in a sovereign Turkish Inner Anatolia Europe will have -enough say to prevent any outgrowths of the "Rajah principle."</p> - -<p>The Turks must not be deprived of the opportunity to bring their -new-found abilities, which even we must praise, to bear on the -production of a new, modern, but thoroughly Turkish civilisation -of their own on their own ground. Anatolia, beautiful and capable -of development, is, even if we confine it to those interior parts -chiefly inhabited by Ottomans, still quite a big enough field for the -production of such a civilisation; it is quite big enough too for the -terribly reduced numbers now belonging to the Osmanic race.</p> - -<p>The amputation and limitation of Turkey, even if they do not succeed -in altering the real Turkish point of view—and this, so far as the -relationship to the Christians is concerned, is the same, from the -Pasha down to the poorest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> Anatolian peasant—will at least have a -tremendously beneficial effect. The possibilities in the Turkish race -will come to flower. "The worst patriots," I once dared to say in one -of my articles in spite of the censorship, "are not those who look for -the future of the nation in concentrated cultural work in the Turkish -nucleus-land of Anatolia, instead of gaping over the Caucasus and down -into the sands of the African desert in their search for a 'Greater -Turkey.'" And in connection with the series of lectures I have already -mentioned about Anatolian hygiene and social politics, I said, with -quite unmistakable meaning: "Turkey will have a wonderful opportunity -on her own original ground, in the nucleus-land of the Ottomans, of -proving her capability and showing that she has become a really modern, -civilised State."</p> - -<p>My earnest wish is that all the Turks' high intellectual abilities, -brought to the front by this war, may be concentrated on this beautiful -and repaying task. Intensive labour and the concentration of all forces -on positive work in the direction of civilisation will have to take the -place of corrupt rule, boundless neglect,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> waste, the strangulation of -all progressive movements, political illusions, the unquenchable desire -for conquest and oppression. This is what we pray for for Anatolia, -the real New Turkey after the war. In other districts, also, now fully -under European control, the pure Turkish element will flourish much -more exceedingly than ever before under the beneficent protection of -modern, civilised Governments. Frankly, the dream of Turkish Power has -vanished. But new life springs out of ruin and decay; the history of -mankind is a continual change.</p> - -<p>Russia, too, after war, will no longer be what she seemed to terrified -Turkish eyes and jealous German eyes dazzled by "world-politics": a -colossal creature, stretching forth enormous suckers to swallow up her -smaller neighbours; a country ruled by a dull, unthinking despotism.</p> - -<p>From the standpoint of universal civilisation it is to be hoped that -the solution of the problem of the Near East will be to transform -the Straits between the Black Sea and Aegea, together with the city -of Constantinople, uniquely situated as it is, into a com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>pletely -international stretch with open harbours. Then we need no longer oppose -Russian aspirations. If England, the stronghold of Free Trade and of -all principles of freedom of intercourse, and France, the land of -culture, interested in Turkey to the extent of millions, were content -to leave Russia a free hand in the Straits; if Roumania, shut in in -the Black Sea, did not fear for her trade, but was willing to become -an ally of Russia in full knowledge of the Entente agreement about -the Straits, it is of course sufficiently evident what guarantee -with regard to international freedom modern Russia will have to give -after the war, and even the Germans have nothing to fear. Of course -the German anti-European "Antwerp-Baghdad" dream will be shattered. -But once Germany is at peace, she will probably find that even the -Russian solution of the Straits question benefits her not a little. The -final realisation of Russia's efforts, justifiable both historically -and geographically, to reach the Mediterranean at this one eminently -suitable spot, will certainly contribute in an extraordinary degree to -remove the unbearable politi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>cal pressure from Europe and ensure peace -for the world.</p> - -<p>Just a few parting words to the German "World-politicians." Very often, -as I have said, I heard during my stay in Constantinople expressions -of anxiety on the part of Germans that all German interests, even -purely commercial ones, would be gravely endangered in the victorious -New Turkey, which would spring to life again with renewed jingoistic -passions and renewed efforts at emancipation. And more than once—all -honour to the feelings of justice and the sound common sense of those -who dared to utter such opinions—I was told by Germans, in the middle -of the war, and with no attempt at concealment, that they fully agreed -it was an absolute necessity for Russia to have the control of the -only outlet for her enormous trade to the Mediterranean, and that -commercially at any rate the fight for Constantinople and the Straits -was a fight for a just cause.</p> - -<p>Now, let us take these two points of view together. From the purely -German standpoint, which is better?—a victorious and self-governing -Turkey imbued with jingoism and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> the desire for emancipation, -practically closed to us, even commercially, or an amputated Turkey, -compelled to appeal for European help and European capital to recover -from her state of complete exhaustion; a Turkey freed from those -Young Turkish jingoists who, in spite of all their fine phrases and -the German help they had to accept for all their inward distaste of -it, hate us from the very depths of their heart; a Turkey which, even -if Russia,—as a last resort!—is allowed to become mistress of the -Dardanelles with huge international guarantees, would, in the Anatolia -that is left to her, capable of development as it is, and rich in -national wealth, offer a very considerable field of activity for German -enterprise? The short-sighted Pan-Germans, who are now fighting for the -victory of anti-foreign neo-Pan-Turkism against the modern, civilised -States of the Entente, who had no wish at all that Germany should not -fare as well as the rest in the wide domains of Asiatic Turkey, can -perhaps answer my question. They should have asked themselves this, -and foreseen the consequences before they yielded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> weakly to Turkish -caprices and themselves stirred up the Turks against Europe.</p> - -<p>As things stand now, however, the German Government has thought fit, -in her blind belief in ultimate victory, to enter on a formal treaty, -guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, at -a point in the war when no reasonable being even in Germany could -possibly still believe that a German victory would suffice to protect -Turkey after she has been solemnly condemned by the Entente for her -long list of crimes. Germany has thus given a negative answer to the -question passed from mouth to mouth in the international district of -Pera almost right from Turkey's entry into the war: "Will Germany, if -necessary, sacrifice Constantinople and the Dardanelles, if she can -thus secure peace with Russia?" She had already given the answer "No" -before the absurd illusions of a possible separate peace with Russia -at this price were finally and utterly dispelled by the speech of the -Russian Minister Trepoff, and the purposeful and cruelly clear refusal -of Germany's offer of peace. These events and the increasing excitement -about the war in Constantinople and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> elsewhere were not required to -show that in the Near East as well the fight must be fought "to the -bitter end."</p> - -<p>Never, however—and that is German World-politics, and the ethics of -the World-politician—have I ever heard a single one of those Germans, -who thought it an impossibility to sacrifice their ally Turkey in order -to gain the desired peace, put forward as an argument for his opinion -the shame of a broken promise, but only the consideration that German -activity in the lands of Islam, and particularly in the valuable Near -East, would be over and done with for ever. I wonder if those who have -decided, with the phantom of a German-Turkish victory ever before them, -to go on with the struggle on the side of Turkey even after she had -committed such abominable crimes, and to drench Europe still further -with the blood of all the civilised nations of the world, ever have -any qualms as to how much of their once brilliant possibilities of -commercial activity in Turkey, now so lightly staked, would still exist -were Turkey victorious.</p> - -<p>Luckily for mankind, history has decided<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> otherwise. After the war, the -huge and flourishing trade of Southern Russia will be carried down to -the then open seaports between Europe and Asia; the wealth of Odessa -and the Pontus ports, enormously increased and free to develop, will -be concentrated on the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and the whole -hitherto neglected city of Constantinople, from Pera and Galata to -Stamboul and Scutari and Haidar-Pasha, will become an earthly paradise -of pulsing life, well-being, and comfort. The luxury and elegance of -the Crimea will move southwards to these shores of unique natural -beauty and mild climate which form the bridge between two continents -and between two seas. Anyone who returns after a decade of peaceful -labour, when the Old World has recovered from its wounds, to the -Bosporus and the shores of the Sea of Marmora, which he knew before the -war, under Turkish régime, will be astonished at the marvellous changes -which will then have been wrought in that favoured corner of the earth.</p> - -<p>Never, even after another hundred years of Turkish rule, would that -unique coast ever have become what it can be and what it must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> be—one -of the very greatest centres of international intercourse and the -Riviera of the East, not only in beauty of landscape, but in luxury -and wealth. The greatest stress in this connection is to be laid on -the lively Russian impetus that will spring from a modernised Russia, -untrammelled by restrictions in the Straits. Convinced as I am that -Russia after the war will no longer be the Russia of to-day, so feared -by Germany, the Balkan States, and Turkey, I am prepared to give this -impetus full play, as being the best possible means for the further -development of Constantinople.</p> - -<p>In Asia Minor, from Brussa to the slopes of the Taurus and the foot -of the Armenian mountains, there will extend a modern Turkey which -has finally come to rest, to concentration, to peaceful labour, after -centuries of conflict, despotic extortion, the suicidal policy of -military adventurers, and superficial attempts at expansion coupled -with neglect of the most important internal duties. The inhabitants -of these lands will soon have forgotten that "Greater Turkey" has -collapsed. They will be really happy at last, these people whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> -idea of happiness hitherto had been a veneer of material well-being -obtained by toadying, while the great bulk of the Empire pined in dirt, -ignorance, and poverty, consumed by an outworn militarism, oppressed -by a decaying administration. Then, but not till then, the world will -see what the Turkish people is capable of. Then there will be no need -for pessimism about this kindly and honourable race. Then we can become -honest "Pro-Turks" again.</p> - -<p>In Western Asia Minor, Europe will not forget that the whole shore, -where once stood Troy, Ephesus, and Milet, is an out-and-out Hellenic -centre of civilisation. Quite independently of all political feelings -towards present-day Greece, this historical fact must be taken into -consideration in the final ruling. It is to be hoped that the Greek -people will not have to atone for ever for the faults of their -non-Greek king who has forgotten that it is his sacred duty to be a -Greek and nothing but a Greek, and who has betrayed the honour and the -future of the nation.</p> - -<p>The Armenian mountain-land, laid waste by war, and emptied of men -by Talaat's passion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> for persecution, will obtain autonomy from her -conqueror, Russia, and will perhaps be linked up with all the other -parts of the east, inhabited by the last remnants of the Armenian -people. Armenia, with its central position and divided into three among -Turkey, Russia, and Persia, may from its geographical position, its -unfortunate history, and the endless sufferings it has been called -upon to bear, be called the Poland of Further Asia. Delivered from the -Turkish system, freed from all antagonistic Turko-Russian military -principles of obstruction, linked up by railways to the west as well as -the already well-developed region of Transcaucasia, with a big through -trade from the Black Sea via Trapezunt to Persia and Mesopotamia, -it will once more offer an excellent field of activity to the high -intellectual and commercial abilities of its people, now, alas! -scattered to the four winds of heaven. But they will return to their -old home, bringing with them European ideas, European technique, and -the most modern methods from America.</p> - -<p>If men are lacking, they can be obtained from the near Caucasus with -its narrow, over-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>filled valleys, inhabited by a most superior race -of men, who have always had strong emigrating instincts. Even this -most unfortunate country in the whole world, which the Turks of the -Old Régime and of the New have systematically mutilated and at last -bequeathed to Russia with practically not a man left, is going to have -its spring-time.</p> - -<p>In the south, Great Arabia and Syria will have autonomy under the -protection of England and France with their skilful Islam policy; they -will have the benefit of the approved methods of progressive work in -Egypt, the Soudan, and India as well as the Atlas lands; they will be -exposed to the influences and incitements of the rest of civilised -Europe; they will probably be enriched with capital from America, -where thousands of Arab and Syrian, as well as Armenian, refugees have -found a home; they will provide the first opportunity in history of -showing how the Arab race accommodates itself to modern civilisation -on its own ground and with its own sovereign administration. The final -deliverance of the Arabs from the oppressive and harmful supremacy of -the Turks, now happily accomplished by the war,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> was one of the most -urgent demands for a race that can look back on centuries of brilliant -civilisation. The civilised world will watch with the keenest interest -the self-development of the Arabian lands.</p> - -<p>Even Germany, once she is at peace, will have no need to grumble at -these arrangements, however diametrically opposed they may be to the -now sadly shattered plans of the Pan-German and Expansion politicians. -Germany will not lose the countless millions she has invested in -Turkey. She will have her full and sufficient share in the European -work and commercial activity that will soon revive again in the Near -East. The Baghdad railway of "Rohrbach & Company" will never be -built, it is true; but the Baghdad Railway with a loyal international -marking off of the different zones of interest, the Baghdad Railway, -as a huge artery of peaceful intercourse linking up the whole of Asia -Minor and bringing peace and commercial prosperity, will all the more -surely rise from its ruins. And when once the German <i>Weltpolitik</i> -with its jealousy, its tactless, sword-rattling interference in the -time-honoured vital interests of other States,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> its political intrigues -disguised in commercial dress, is safely dead and buried, there will be -nothing whatever to hinder Germany from making use of this railway and -carrying her purely commercial energy and the products of her peaceful -labour to the shores of the Persian Gulf and receiving in return the -rich fruits of her cultural activity on the soil of Asia Minor.</p> - - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> -<p class="ph2"><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX</a></p> - - -<p><span class="smcap">For</span> the better understanding of the fact that a German journalist, the -representative of a great national paper like the <i>Kölnische Zeitung</i>, -could publish such a book as this, and to ward off in advance all the -furious personal attacks which will result from its publication, and -which might, without an explanation, injuriously affect its value as -an independent and uninfluenced document, it is, I think, essential to -explain the rôle I filled in Constantinople, how I left Turkey, and how -I came to the decision to publish my experiences.</p> - -<p>As far as my post on the <i>Kölnische Zeitung</i> is concerned, I accepted -it and went to Turkey although I was from the very beginning against -German "World-politics" of the present-day style at any rate (not -against German commercial and cultural activity in foreign countries) -and against militarism—as was only to be expected from one who had -studied colonial politics and universal history unreserved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>ly, and had -spent many years studying in the English, French, and German colonies -of Africa—and although I was quite convinced that Germany's was the -crime of setting the war in motion. Besides, my "anti-militarism" is -not of a dogmatic kind, but refers merely to the relations customary -between civilised nations—witness the fact that I took part in the -Colonial War of 1904-6 in German South-West Africa as a volunteer.</p> - -<p>I hoped to find in Turkey some satisfaction for my extra-European -leanings, a sphere of labour less absorbed by German militarism, and -opportunity for independent study, and surely no one will take it amiss -that I seized such a chance, certainly unique in war-time, in spite of -my political views.</p> - -<p>Once arrived in Turkey, I kept well in the background to begin with, -so as to be able to form my own opinion, of course doing my uttermost -at the same time to be loyal to the task I had undertaken. In spite -of everything I had to witness, it was quite easy to reconcile all -oppositions, until that famous day when my wife denounced Germany to -my face. From that moment I became an enemy of pres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>ent-day Germany -and began to think of one day publishing the whole truth about the -system. Until then I had contented myself with never saying a good word -about the war, as one can easily find for oneself from a perusal of my -various articles in the <i>Kölnische Zeitung</i> during 1915-16, dated from -Constantinople and marked (a small steamship).</p> - -<p>That dramatic event which finally alienated me from the German cause -took place just after the end of a severe crisis in my relationship -with German-Turkish Headquarters. Some slight hints I had given of -Turkish mismanagement, cynicism, and jingoism in a series of articles -appearing from February 15th, 1916, onwards, under the title "Turkish -Economic Problems," so far as they were possible under existing -censorship conditions, was the occasion of the trouble. One can imagine -that Headquarters would certainly be furious with a journalist whose -articles appeared one fine day, literally translated, in the <i>Matin</i> -under the title: "<i>Situation insupportable en Turquie, décrite par un -journaliste allemand</i>" ("Insufferable situation in Turkey, described -by a German journalist"), and cropped up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> once more on June 1st, in -the <i>Journal des Balcans</i>, I was three times over threatened with -dismissal. My paper sent a confidential man to hold an inquiry, and -after a month he made a confidential report, which resulted in my being -allowed to remain. But the fact that the same journalist that wrote -such things was married to a Czech was too much for my colleagues, -who were in part in the pay of the Embassy, in part in the pay of the -Young Turkish Committee, whose politics they praised, regardless of -their own inward convictions, like the representative of the <i>Berliner -Tageblatt</i>, to get material benefit or make sure of their own jobs. -I gleaned many humorous details at a nightly sitting of my Press -colleagues in Pera, at which I myself was branded as a "dangerous -character that must be got rid of," and my wife (who was far too young -ever to worry about politics) as a "Russian spy"—perhaps because, with -the justifiable pride and reserve of her race, she did not attempt to -cultivate the society of the German colony. That began the period of -intrigues and ill-will, but my enemies did not succeed in damaging -me, although matters went so far as a denunciation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> of me before the -"Prevention of Espionage Department" of the General Staff in Berlin. My -paper, after they had given me the fullest moral satisfaction, and had -arranged for me to remain in Constantinople in spite of all that had -taken place, thought it was better to give me the chance of changing -and offered me a new post on the editorial staff elsewhere.</p> - -<p>However, I was now quite finished with Germany, or rather with its -politics; it would have been a moral impossibility for me to write -another single word in the editorial line; so I refused the offer and -applied for sick-leave from October 1st, 1916, to the end of the war -(by telegram about the middle of August). It was granted me with an -expression of regret.</p> - -<p>Arrived in Switzerland (February 7th, 1917), I severed all connection -with my paper by mutual consent from October 1st, 1916, onwards. After -my resignation, no special editorial representative of the <i>Kölnische -Zeitung</i> was appointed to take my place, as the censorship made any -kind of satisfactory work impossible.</p> - -<p>I should like to emphasise the fact that the intrigues against me, -the crisis with Head<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>quarters I have just mentioned, and my departure -from Constantinople did not injure me in any way either morally -or financially, and have nothing whatever to do with the present -publication. It is certainly not any petty annoyance that could bring -me to such an action, which will probably entail more than enough -unpleasant consequences for me. The reproaches levelled against me by -my pushing, jingoistic colleagues were as impotent as their attempts to -get rid of me as "dangerous to the German Cause"; I have written proof -of this from my paper in my hand, and also of the fact that it was of -my own free-will that I retired. I can therefore look forward quite -calmly to all the personal invective that is sure to be showered on me -for political reasons.</p> - -<p>I had sufficient independent means not to feel the loss of my post -in Constantinople too keenly; and if I still kept my post after the -beginning of the crisis with Headquarters, it was simply and solely so -that as a newspaper correspondent I might be in possession of fuller -information, and able to follow up as long as possible the developments -that were taking place on that most interesting soil of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> Turkey. -When that was no longer possible, I refused the post offered me in -Cologne—in fact twice, once by letter and once by telegram—for I -could not pretend to opinions I directly opposed. I therefore remained -as a free-lance in the Turkish capital. I was extremely glad that the -difference of opinion ended as it did, for I had at last a free hand to -say and write what I thought and felt.</p> - -<p>My stay in Constantinople for a further three months as a silent -observer naturally did not escape the notice of the German authorities, -and after they had reported to the Foreign Office that a "satisfactory -co-operation between me and the German representatives was not longer -possible," they had of course to discover some excuse for putting an -end to my prolonged stay in Turkey. They finally attempted to get rid -of me by calling me up for military duty again. But this was useless in -my case, for my health had been badly shaken by my spell at the Front -at the beginning of the war, and besides I had the doctor's word for it -that I should never be able to stand the German climate after having -lived so long in the Tropics.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> - -<p>Whether they liked it or not, the authorities had to find some -other means of getting me out of Constantinople. The Consul-General -approached me, after he had discussed the matter with the Ambassador, -to see if I would not like to go to Switzerland to get properly cured; -otherwise he was sure I would be turned out by the Turks. They were -evidently afraid, for I was getting more and more into bad odour -with the German authorities for my ill-concealed opinions, that I -would publish my impressions, with documentary support, as soon as -ever there was a change of government in Turkey, or as soon as the -German censorship was removed and anything of the kind was possible. -They apparently thought that the frontier regulations would be quite -sufficient to prevent my taking any documentary evidence with me to -Switzerland.</p> - -<p>As a matter of fact this was the case, and the day before my departure -from Constantinople I carefully burned the whole of my many notes, -which would have produced a much more effective indictment against the -moral sordidness of the German-Young Turkish system than these very -general sketches. But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> strictest frontier regulations could not -prevent me from taking with me, free of all censorship, the impressions -I had received in Turkey, and the opinions I had arrived at after a -painful battle for loyalty to myself as a German and to the duties I -had undertaken. Even then I had considerable difficulty in getting -across the frontier, and I had to wait seventeen whole days at the -frontier before I was finally allowed into Switzerland. It was only -owing to the fact that I sent a telegram to the Chancellor, on the -authority of the Consul-General in Constantinople, begging that no -difficulties of a political kind might be placed in the way of my -going to Switzerland, as I had been permitted to do so by medical -certificate, the passport authorities and the local command, that I -finally won my point with the frontier authorities and was permitted to -cross into Switzerland.</p> - -<p>To tell the truth, I must admit that the high civil authorities, and -particularly the Foreign Office, treated me throughout most kindly and -courteously. For this one reason I had a hard fight with myself, right -up to the very last, even after I arrived in Switzerland, before I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> -sat down and wrote out my impressions and opinions of German-Turkish -politics. And if I have now finally decided to make them public, I can -only do so with an expression of the most honest regret that my private -and political conscience has not allowed me to requite the kindness of -the authorities by keeping silent about what I saw of the German and -Turkish system.</p> - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Two War Years in Constantinople, by Harry Stuermer - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE *** - -***** This file should be named 60638-h.htm or 60638-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/6/3/60638/ - -Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Two War Years in Constantinople - Sketches of German and Young Turkish Ethics and Politics - -Author: Harry Stuermer - -Translator: E. Allen - -Release Date: November 6, 2019 [EBook #60638] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE *** - - - - -Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - TWO WAR YEARS IN - CONSTANTINOPLE - - - - - TWO WAR YEARS - IN - CONSTANTINOPLE - - _Sketches of German and Young Turkish - Ethics and Politics_ - - - BY - DR. HARRY STUERMER - LATE CORRESPONDENT OF THE KOeLNISCHE ZEITUNG - IN CONSTANTINOPLE (1915-16) - - - TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN - E. ALLEN - AND THE AUTHOR - - - [Illustration] - - - NEW YORK - GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY - GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY - - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - -DECLARATION - - -The undersigned hereby declares on his sworn word of honour that -in writing this volume he has been in no way inspired by outside -influence, and that he has never had any dealings whatsoever, material -or otherwise, either before or during the war, with any Government, -organisation, propaganda, or personality hostile to Germany or Turkey -or even of a neutral character. His conscience alone has urged him to -write and publish his impressions, and he hopes that by so doing he may -perform a service towards the cause of truth and civilisation. - -Moreover, he can give formal assurance that he has expressly avoided -making the acquaintance of any person resident in Switzerland until his -manuscript should have been sent to press. - -Furthermore, he has been actuated by no personal motives in thus -giving public expression to his experiences and opinions, for he has -no personal grievance, either material or moral, against any person -whatsoever. - - -[Illustration: _Dr. H. Stuermer_] - - Geneva, - _June 1917_. - - - - -PREFACE - - -While the author of this work was waiting on the frontier of -Switzerland for final permission from the German authorities to enter -that country, Germany committed her second great crime, her first -having completely missed its mark. She had begun to realise that she -was beaten in the great conflict which she had so wantonly provoked -with that characteristic over confidence in the power of her own -militarism and disdainful undervaluation of the _morale_ and general -capacities of her enemies. In final renunciation of any last remnants -of humanity in her methods, she was now making a dying effort to help -her already lost cause by a ruthless extension of her policy of piracy -at sea and a gratification of all her brutal instincts in complete -violation of the rights of neutral countries. - -It is therefore with all the more inward conviction, with all the -more urgent moral persuasion, that the author makes use of the rare -opportunity offered him by residence in Switzerland to range himself -boldly on the side of truth and show that there are still Germans who -find it impossible to condone even tacitly the moral transgression and -political stupidity of their own and an allied Government. _That is the -sole purpose of this publication._ - -Regardless of the consequences, he holds it to be his duty and his -privilege, just because he is a German, to make a frank statement, -from the point of view of human civilisation, of what have become his -convictions from personal observations made in the course of six months -of actual warfare and practically two years of subsequent journalistic -activity. He spent the time from Spring 1915 to Christmas 1916 in -Turkey, and will of course only deal with what he knows from personal -observation. The following essays are of the nature merely of sketches -and make no claim whatever to completeness. - -With regard to purely German politics and ethics, therefore, the author -will confine himself to a few indications and impressions of a personal -kind, but he cannot forget the role Germany has played in Turkey as -an ally of the present Young Turkish Government, nor can he ignore -Germany's responsibility for the atrocities committed by them. The -author publishes his impressions with a perfectly clear conscience, -secure in the conviction that as the representative of a German paper -he never once wrote a single word in favour of this criminal war, and -that during his stay of more than twenty months in Turkey he never -concealed his true opinions as soon as he had definitely made up his -mind what these were. - -On the contrary, he was rather dangerously candid and frank in speaking -to anyone who wanted to listen to him--so much so, that it is almost a -miracle that he ever reached a neutral country. After the war he will -be in a position to appeal to the testimony of dozens of people of high -standing in all walks of life that in both thought and action a deep -cleft has always divided him from his colleagues, and that he has ever -ardently longed for the moment when he might, freely and without fear -of consequences, do his bit towards the enlightenment of the civilised -world. - -May these lines, written in all sincerity and hereby submitted to the -tribunal of public opinion, free the author at last from the burden -of silent reproach heaped on him by a mutilated, outraged, languishing -humanity, of being a German among thousands of Germans who desired this -war. - - * * * * * - -Several months have passed since the original text of the German and -French editions of this little book was written. Baghdad was taken by -British troops before the last chapter of the German manuscript had -been completed, and since then military operations have been more and -more in favour of the Entente. A number of important political events -have occurred, such as the Russian Revolution and the entry of the -United States of America into the war. - -Further developments of Russian politics may yet have a direct effect -on the final solution of the problems surrounding the defeated Ottoman -Empire. But the author has preferred to maintain the original text of -his book, written early in March this year, and to make no changes -whatever in the conclusions he had then arrived at as a result of the -fresh impressions he carried away from Turkey. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER I - - PAGE - - At the outbreak of war in Germany--The German "world-politicians" - (_Weltpolitiker_)--German and English mentality--The - "place in the sun"--England's declaration - of war--German methods in Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine--Prussian - arrogance--Militaristic journalism 17 - - - CHAPTER II - - To Constantinople--Pro-Turkish considerations--The dilemma - of a Gallipoli correspondent--Under German military - control 35 - - - CHAPTER III - - The great Armenian persecutions--The system of Talaat and - Enver--A denunciation of Germany as a cowardly and - conscienceless accomplice 42 - - - CHAPTER IV - - The tide of war--Enver's offensive for the "liberation of the - Caucasus"--The Dardanelles Campaign; the fate of Constantinople - twice hangs in the balance--Nervous tension - in international Pera--Bulgaria's attitude--Turkish rancour - against her former enemy--German illusions of a - separate peace with Russia--King Ferdinand's time-serving--Lack - of munitions in the Dardanelles--A mysterious - death: a political murder?--The evacuation of - Gallipoli--The Turkish version of victory--Constantinople - unreleased--Kut-el-Amara--Propaganda for the "Holy - War"--A prisoner of repute--Loyalty of Anglo-Indian - officers--Turkish communiques and their worth--The fall - of Erzerum--Official lies--The treatment of prisoners--Political - speculation with prisoners of war--Treatment - of enemy subjects--Stagnation and lassitude in the summer - of 1916--The Greeks in Turkey--Dread of Greek - massacres--Rumania's entry--Terrible disappointment--The - three phases of the war for Turkey 75 - - - CHAPTER V - - The economic situation--Exaggerated Entente hopes--Hunger - and suffering among the civil population--The system of - requisitioning and the semi-official monopolists--Profiteering - on the part of the Government clique--Frivolity and - cynicism--The "Djemiet"--The delegates of the German - _Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft_ (Central Purchases Commission)--A - hard battle between German and Turkish intrigue--Reform - of the coinage--Paper money and its depreciation--The - hoarding of bullion--The Russian rouble - the best investment 107 - - - CHAPTER VI - - German propaganda and ethics--The unsuccessful "Holy - War" and the German Government--"The Holy War" - a crime against civilisation, a chimera, a farce--Underhand - dealings--The German Embassy the dupe of adventurers--The - morality of German Press representatives--A - trusty servant of the German Embassy--Fine official - distinctions of morality--The German conception of the - rights of individuals 126 - - - CHAPTER VII - - Young Turkish nationalism--One-sided abolition of capitulations - --Anti-foreign efforts at emancipation--Abolition of - foreign languages--German simplicity--The Turkification - of commercial life--Unmistakable intellectual improvement - as a result of the war--Trade policy and customs - tariff--National production--The founding of new businesses - in Turkey--Germany supplanted--German starvation--Capitulations - or full European control?--The - colonisation and forcible Turkification of Anatolia--"The - properties of people who have been dispatched elsewhere"--The - "Mohadjirs"--Greek persecutions just before the - Great War--The "discovery" of Anatolia, the nucleus of - the Ottoman Empire--Turkey finds herself at last--Anatolian - dirt and decay--The "Greater Turkey" and the - purely Turkish Turkey--Cleavage or concentration? 151 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Religion and race--The Islam policy of Abdul-Hamid and of - the Young Turks--Turanism and Pan-Islamism as political - principles--Turanism and the Quadruple Alliance--Greed - and race-fanaticism--Religious traditions and - modern reforms--Reform in the law--A modern Sheikh-ul-Islam--Reform - and nationalization--The Armenian - and Greek Patriarchates--The failure of Pan-Islamism--The - alienation of the Arabs--Djemal Pasha's "hangman's - policy" in Syria--Djemal as a "Pro-French"--Djemal - and Enver--Djemal and Germany--His true character--The - attempts against the Suez Canal--Djemal's murderous - work nears completion--The great Arabian and - Syrian Separatist movement--The defection of the Emir - of Mecca and the great Arabian catastrophe 176 - - - CHAPTER IX - - Anti-war and pro-Entente feelings among the Turks--Turkish - pessimism about the war--How would Abdul-Hamid have - acted?--A war of prevention against Russia--Russia and - a neutral Turkey--The agreement about the Dardanelles--A - peaceful solution scorned--Alleged criminal intentions - on the part of the Entente; the example of Greece - and Salonika--To be or not to be?--German influence--Turkey - stakes on the wrong card--The results 209 - - - CHAPTER X - - The outlook for the future--The consequences of trusting - Germany--The Entente's death sentence on Turkey--The - social necessity for this deliverance--Anatolia, the - new Turkey after the war; forecasts about the Turkish - race--The Turkish element in the lost territory--Russia - and Constantinople; international guarantees--Germany, - at peace, benefits too--Farewell to the German "World - Politicians"--German interests in a victorious and in a - defeated Turkey--The German-Turkish treaty--A paradise - on earth--The Russian commercial impulse--The - new Armenia--Western Anatolia, the old Greek centre of - civilisation--Great Arabia and Syria--The reconciliation - of Germany 258 - - Appendix 283 - - - - -TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE - - - - -CHAPTER I - - At the outbreak of war in Germany--The German "world-politicians" - (_Weltpolitiker_)--German and English mentality--The "place in the - sun"--England's declaration of war--German methods in Belgium and - Alsace-Lorraine--Prussian arrogance--Militaristic journalism. - - -Anyone who, like myself, set foot on German soil for the first time -after years of sojourn in foreign lands, and more particularly in -the colonies, just at the moment that Germany was mobilising for the -great European war, must surely have been filled, as I was, with a -certain feeling of melancholy, a slight uneasiness with regard to -the state of mind of his fellow-countrymen as it showed itself in -these dramatic days of August in conversations in the street, in -cafes and restaurants, and in the articles appearing in the Press. -We Germans have never learnt to think soundly on political subjects. -Bismarck's political heritage, although set forth in most popular -form in his _Thoughts and Recollections_, a book that anyone opposing -this war from the point of view rather of prudence than of ethics -might utilise as an unending source of propaganda, has not descended -to our rulers in any sort of living form. But an unbounded political -_naivete_, an incredible lack of judgment and of understanding of -the point of view of other peoples, who have their _raison d'etre_ -just as much as we have, their vital interests, their standpoint of -honour--have not prevented us from trying to carry on a grand system of -_Weltpolitik_ (world politics). The average everyday German has never -really understood the English--either before or during the war; in the -latter's colonial policy, which, according to pan-German ideas, has -no other aim than to snatch from us our "place in the sun"; in their -conception of liberty and civilisation, which has entailed such mighty -sacrifices for them on behalf of their Allies; when we trod Belgian -neutrality underfoot and thought England would stand and look on; -at the time of the debates about universal service, when practically -every German, even in the highest political circles, was ready to wager -that there would be a revolution in England sooner than any general -acceptance of Conscription; and coming down to more recent events, -when the latest huge British war loan provided the only fit and proper -answer to German frightfulness at sea. - -Let me here say a word on the subject of colonial policy, on which I -may perhaps be allowed to speak with a certain amount of authority -after extended travel in the farthest corners of Africa, and from -an intimate, personal knowledge of German as well as English and -French colonies. Germany has less colonial territory than the older -colonists, it is true. It is also true that the German struggle for -the most widespread, the most intensive and lucrative employment of -the energies and capabilities of our highly developed commercial land -is justified. But at the risk of being dubbed as absolutely lacking -in patriotism, I should like to point out that in the first place the -resources we had at our disposal in our own colonial territory in -tropical and sub-tropical Africa, little exploited as they then were, -would have amply sufficed for our commercial needs and colonising -capacities--though possibly not for our aspirations after world power! -And secondly, the very liberal character of England's trade and -colonial policy did not hinder us in any way from reaching the top of -the commercial tree even in foreign colonies. - -Anyone who knows English colonies knows that the British Government, -wherever it has been possible to do so politically, that is, in all her -colonies which are already properly organised and firmly established -as British, has always met in a most generous and sympathetic way -German, and indeed any foreign, trade or other enterprises. New firms, -with German capital, were received with open arms, their excellence -and value for the young country heartily recognised and ungrudgingly -encouraged; not the slightest shadow of any jealousy of foreign -undertakings could ever exist in a British colony, and every German -could be as sure as an Englishman himself of being justly treated in -every way and encouraged in the most generous fashion in his work. - -Thousands of Germans otherwise thoroughly embued with the national -spirit make no secret of the fact that they would far rather live in -a British than a German colony. Too often in the latter the newcomer -was met at every point by an exaggerated bureaucracy and made to feel -by some official that he was not a reserve officer, and consequently a -social inferior. Hints were dropped to discourage him, and inquiries -were even made as to whether he had enough money to book his passage -back to where he came from! - -Far be it from me to wish to depreciate by these words the value of -our own colonial efforts. As pioneers in Africa we were working on -the very best possible lines, but we should have been content to go -on learning from the much superior British colonial methods, and -should have finished and perfected our own domain instead of always -shouting jealously about other people's. I am quite convinced that -another ten years of undisturbed peaceful competition and Germany, -with her own very considerable colonial possessions on the one hand, -and the possibility on the other of pushing commercial enterprise on -the highest scale not only in independent overseas states but under -the beneficent protection of English rule with its true freedom and -real furtherance of trade "uplift," would have reached her goal much -better than by means of all the sword-rattling _Weltpolitik_ of the -Pan-Germans. - -It is true that in territory not yet properly organised or guaranteed, -politically still doubtful, and in quite new protectorates, especially -along the routes to India, where vital English interests are at stake, -and on the much-talked-of Persian Gulf, England could not, until her -main object was firmly secured, meet in the same fair way German -desires with regard to commercial activity. And there she has more than -once learnt to her cost the true character of the German _Weltpolitik_. - -That is the real meaning, at any rate so far as colonial politics are -concerned, of the German-English contest for a "place in the sun." No -one who understands it aright could ever condone the outgrowths of our -_Weltpolitik_, however much he might desire to assist German ability to -find practical outlet in all suitable overseas territory, nor could he -ever forget the wealth of wonderful deeds, wrought in the service of -human civilisation and freedom, Englishmen can place to their credit -years before we ever began. With such considerations of justice in -view, we should have recognised that there was a limit to our efforts -after expansion, and as a matter of fact we should have gone further -and fared better--in a decade we should have probably been really -wealthy--for the English in their open-handed way certainly left us -a surprising amount of room for the free exercise of our commercial -talents. - -I have intentionally given an illustration only of the colonial side -of the problem affecting German-English relations, so that I may avoid -dealing with any subject I do not know from personal observation. - -It was this English people, that, in spite of all their egoism, have -really done something for civilisation, that the German of August 1914 -accused of being nothing but a nation of shopkeepers with a cowardly, -narrow-minded policy that was unprepared to make any sacrifice for -others. It was this people that the German of August 1914--and his -spokesman von Bethmann-Hollweg, who later thought it necessary to -defend himself against the charge of "having brought too much ethics -into politics"--expected to stand by and see Belgium overridden. It -was this same England that we believed would hold back even when the -Chancellor found it impossible to apply to French colonial possessions -the guarantee he had given not to aim at any territorial conquests in -the war with France! - -And so it was with all the more grimness, with all the more gravity, -that on that memorable night of August 4th the terrible blow fell. The -English declaration of war entered into the very soul of the German -people, who stood as a sacrifice to a political miscalculation that had -its roots less in a lack of thought and experience than in a boundless -arrogance. - -About the same time I was a witness of those laughable scenes which -took place on the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, where, in complete -misjudgment of the whole political situation _Japanese_ were carried -shoulder high by the enthusiastic and worthy citizens of Berlin under -the erroneous impression that these obvious arch-enemies of Russia -would naturally be allies of Germany. Every German that was not blind -to the trend of true "world-politics" must surely have shaken his head -over this lamentable spectacle. A few days afterwards Japan sent its -ultimatum against Kiao-Tchao! - -It was the same incapability of thinking in terms of true -world-politics that led us lately to believe that we might find -supporters in Mexico and Japan of the piracy we indulged in as a -result of America's intervention in the war, the same incapability -that blinded us to the effect our methods must have on other neutrals -such as China and the South American States. And although one admits -the possibility of a miscalculation being made, yet a miscalculation -with regard to England's attitude was not only the height of political -stupidity, but showed an absence of moral sense. _The moment England -entered the war, Germany lost the war._ - -And while the world-politicians of Berlin, having recovered from their -first dismay, were making jokes about the "nation of shopkeepers" and -its little army which they would just "have arrested"; while a little -later the military events up to St. Quentin and the Battle of the Marne -seemed to justify the idle mockers who knew nothing of England and had -never even ventured their noses out of Germany,--those who had lived -in the colonies were uttering warnings against any kind of optimism, -and some already felt the war would end badly for us. - -I belonged to the latter group. I expressed my conviction in this -direction as early as August 6th, 1914, in a letter which I wrote from -Berlin for my father's birthday. In it I maintained that in spite of -all our brilliant military successes, which would certainly not last, -this war was a mistake and would assuredly end in failure for Germany. -_Littera scripta manet._ Never from that moment have I believed in -final victory for Germany. Slowly but surely then I veered round to the -position that I could no longer even _desire_ victory for Germany. - -Naturally I did my military duty. I saw the fearful crime Germany was -committing, yet I hurried to the front with the millions who believed -that Germany was innocent and had been attacked without cause. There -was nothing else to be done, and it must of course be remembered that -my final rupture with Germany did not take place all of a sudden. After -a few months of war in Masuria I was released as unfit for active -service as the result of a severe illness. - -Of all the many episodes of my life at the front, none is so deeply -impressed on my memory as the silent war of mutual hatred I waged with -my immediately superior officer, a true prototype of his race, a true -Prussian. I can still see him, a man of fifty-five or so, who, in spite -of former active service, had only reached the rank of lieutenant, and -who, as he told me himself right at the beginning, in very misplaced -confidence, rushed into active service again because in this way he -could get really good pay and would even have a prospect of further -promotion. - -This Lieutenant Stein told me too of the first weeks in Belgium, when -he had been in command of a company, and I can still hear him boasting -about his warlike propensities, and how his teacher had said about -him when he was a boy "he was capable of stealing an altar-cloth and -cutting it up to make breeches for himself." - -"When we wanted to do any commandeering or to plunder a house," so he -told me, "there was a very simple means. A man belonging to my company -would be ordered to throw a Belgian rifle through an open cellar -window, the house would then be searched for weapons, and even if we -found only one rifle we had orders to seize everything without mercy -and to drive out the occupiers." I can still see the creature standing -in front of me and relating this and many a similar tale in these first -days before he knew me. I have never forgotten it; and I think I owe -much to Lieutenant Stein. He helped me on the way I was predestined to -go, for had I not just returned from the colonies and foreign lands, -imbued with liberal ideas, and from the first torn by grave doubts? - -The Lieutenant may be an exception--granted; but he is an exception -unfortunately but too often represented in that army of millions -on its invading march into unhappy Belgium, among officers and -non-commissioned officers, whom, at any rate so far as active service -is concerned, everyone who has served in the German Army will agree -with me in calling on the average thoroughly brutal. Lieutenant -Stein gave me my first real deep disgust of war. He is a type that I -have not invented, and he will easily be identified by the German -military authorities from his signature on my military pass as one -of those arch-Prussians who suddenly readopt a martial air, suddenly -revive and come into their element again, although they may be sickly -old valetudinarians--the kind of men who in civil life are probably -enthusiastic members of the "German Colonial Society," the "Naval -Union," and the "Pan-German Association," and ardent world-politicians -of the ale-bench type. - -I found his stories afterwards confirmed to the letter by one of the -most famous German war-correspondents, Paul Schweder, the author of the -four-volume work entitled _At Imperial Headquarters_. With a _naivete_ -equal to Lieutenant Stein's, and trusting no doubt to my then official -position as correspondent of a German paper, he gave me descriptions -of Belgian atrocities committed by our soldiers and the results of -our system of occupation that, in all their horrible nakedness, put -everything that ever appeared in the Entente newspapers absolutely in -the shade. - -As early as the beginning of 1916 he told me the plain truth that we -were practically starving Belgium and that the country was really only -kept alive by the Relief Commission, and that we were attempting to -ruin any Belgian industry which might compete with ours by a systematic -removal of machinery to Germany. And that was before the time of the -Deportations! - -Schweder's descriptions dealt for the most part with the sexual -morality of our soldiers in the trenches. In spite of severe -punishments, so he assured me, thousands and thousands of cases -occurred of women and young girls out of decent Belgian and French -families being outraged. The soldier on short leave from the front, -with the prospect of a speedy return to the first-line trenches and -death staring him in the face, did not care what happened; the unhappy -victims were for the most part silent about their shame, so that the -cases of punishment were very few and far between. - -While I was at the front I heard extraordinary things, for which I -had again detailed confirmation from Schweder, who knew the whole of -the Western Front well, about the German policy of persecution in -Alsace-Lorraine. There the system was to punish with imprisonment -not only actions but opinions. The authorities did not even scruple -to imprison girls out of highly-respected houses who had perhaps made -some harmless remark in youthful ignorance, and shut them up with -common criminals and prostitutes to work out their long sentence. -Such scandalous acts, which are a disgrace to humanity, Paul Schweder -confirmed by the dozen or related at first-hand. - -He was intelligent enough, too, as was evident from the many statements -made by him in confidential circles, to see through the utter lack -of foundation, the mendacity, the immorality of what he wrote in his -books merely for the sake of filthy lucre; but when I tried one day to -take on a bet with him that Verdun would not fall, he took his revenge -by spreading the report in Constantinople that I was an Pro-Entente, -and doing his utmost to intrigue against me. That is the German -war-correspondent's idea of morality! - -When I was released from the army in the beginning of 1915, I joined -the editorial staff of the _Koelnische Zeitung_ and remained for some -weeks in Cologne. I have not retained any very special impressions -of this period of my activity, except perhaps the recollection of -the spirit of jingoistic Prussianism that I--being a Badener--had -scarcely ever come across before in its full glory, and, from the -many confidential communications and discussions among the editorial -staff, the feeling that even then there was a certain nervousness and -insecurity among those who, in their leading articles, informed the -public daily of their absolute confidence in victory. - -One curious thing at this time, perhaps worthy of mention, was the -disdainful contempt with which these Prussians--even before the fall of -Przemysl--regarded Austria. But the scornful and biting commentaries -made behind the scenes in the editorial sanctum at the fall of this -stronghold stood in most striking contrast to what the papers wrote -about it. - -Later, when I had already been a long time in Turkey, a humorous -incident gave me renewed opportunity of seeing this Prussian spirit of -unbounded exaggeration of self and depreciation of others. The incident -is at the same time characteristic of the spirit of militarism with -which the representatives of the German Press are thoroughly imbued, in -spite of the opportunities most of them have had through long visits to -other countries of gaining a little more _savoir faire_. - -One beautiful summer afternoon at a promenade concert in the "Petit -Champs" at Pera I introduced an Austrian Lieutenant of Dragoons I knew, -belonging to one of the best regiments, to our Balkan correspondent who -happened to be staying in Constantinople: "Lieutenant N.; Herr von M." -The correspondent sat down at the table and repeated very distinctly: -"_Lieutenant-Colonel von M._" It turned out that he had been a -second lieutenant in the Prussian Army, and had pushed himself up to -this wonderful rank in the Bulgarian Army, instinctively combining -journalism and militarism. My companion, however, with true Austrian -calm, took not the slightest notice of the correction, did not spring -up and greet him with an enthusiastic "Ah! my dear fellow-officer, -etc.," but began an ordinary social conversation. - -Would anyone believe that next day old Herr von M. took me roundly -to task for sitting at the same table as an Austrian officer and -appearing in public with him, and informed me quasi-officially that as -a representative of the _Koelnische Zeitung_ I should associate only -with the German colony in Constantinople. - -I wonder which is the most irritating characteristic of this type of -mind--its overbearing attitude towards our Allies, its jingoistic -"Imperial German" cant, or its wounded dignity as a militarist who -forgets that he is a journalist and no longer an officer? - - - - -CHAPTER II - - In Constantinople--Pro-Turkish considerations--The dilemma of a - Gallipoli correspondent--Under German military control. - - -A few days after the fall of Przemysl I set out for Constantinople. I -left Germany with a good deal of friendly feeling towards the Turk. I -was even quite well disposed towards the Young Turks, although I knew -and appreciated the harm caused by their regime and the reproaches -levelled against it since 1909. At any rate, when I landed on Turkish -soil I was certainly not lacking in goodwill towards the Government -of Enver and Talaat, and nothing was further from my thoughts than to -prejudice myself against my new sphere of work by any preconceived -criticism. - -In comparison with Abdul-Hamid I regarded the regime of the Young -Turks, in spite of all, as a big step in advance and a necessary -one, and the parting words of one of our old editors, a thorough -connoisseur of Turkey, lingered in my ears without very much effect. -He said: "You are going to Constantinople. You will soon be able to -see for yourself the moral bankruptcy of the Young Turks, and you will -find that Turkey is nothing but a dead body galvanised into action, -that will only last as long as the war lasts and we Germans supply the -galvanising power." I would not believe it, and went to Turkey with an -absolutely open mind to form my own opinion. - -It must also be remembered that all the pro-Turkish utterances of -Eastern experts of all shades and nationalities who emphasised the -fact that the Turks were the most respectable nation of the East, were -not without their effect upon me; also I had read Pierre Loti. I was -determined to extend to the Turkish Government the strong sympathy I -already felt for the Turkish people--and, let me here emphasise it, -still feel. To undermine that sympathy, to make me lose my confidence -in this race, things would have to go badly indeed. They went worse -than I ever thought was possible. - -I went first of all to the new Turkish front in the Dardanelles and -the Gallipoli Peninsula, where everything was ruled by militarism and -there was but little opportunity to worry about politics. The combined -attack by sea and land had just begun, and I passed the next few weeks -on the Ariburnu front. I found myself in the entirely new position of -war-correspondent. I had now to write professionally about this war, -which I detested with all my heart and soul. - -Well, I simply had to make the back fit the burden. Whatever I did or -did not do, I have certainly the clear satisfaction of knowing that I -never wrote a single word in praise of war. One will understand that, -in spite of my inward conviction that Germany by unloosing the war on -Europe had committed a terrible crime against humanity, in spite of my -consciousness of acting in a wrong cause, in spite of my deep disgust -of much that I had already seen, I was still interested in Turkey's -fight for existence, but from quite another standpoint. - -As an objective onlooker I did not have to be an absolute hypocrite to -do justice to my journalistic duties to my paper. I got to know the -Turkish soldier with his stoical heroism in defence, and the brilliant -attacking powers and courage of the Anatolians with their blind belief -in their Padishah, as they were rushed to the defence of Stamboul and -hurled themselves in a bayonet charge against the British machine-guns -under a hail of shells from the sea. I gained a high opinion of Turkish -valour and powers of resistance. I had no reason to stint my praise or -withhold my judgment. In mess-tents and at various observation-posts I -made the personal acquaintance of crowds of thoroughly sympathetic and -likeable Turkish officers. Let me mention but one--Essad Pasha, the -defender of Jannina. - -I found quite enough material on my two visits to Gallipoli during -various phases of the fighting to write a series of feuilletons without -any glorification of militarism and political aims. I confined myself -to what was of general human interest, to what was picturesque, what -was dramatic in the struggle going on in this unique theatre of war. - -But even then I was beginning to have my own opinion about much that I -saw; I was already torn by conflicting doubts. Already I was beginning -to ask myself whether my sympathies would not gradually turn more and -more definitely to those who were vainly storming these strong Turkish -forts from the sea, under a deadly machine-gun fire, for the cause of -true civilisation, the cause of liberty, was manifestly on their side. - -I had opportunity, too, of making comparisons from the dead and -wounded and the few prisoners there were between the value of the -human material sacrificed on either side--on the one, brave but stupid -Anatolians, accustomed to dirt and misery; on the other cultured and -highly civilised men, sportsmen from the colonies who had hurried from -the farthest corners of the earth to fight not only for the British -cause, but for the cause of civilisation. - -But at that time I was not yet ripe for the decision forced upon me -later by other things that I saw with my own eyes; I had not yet -reached that deep inward conviction that I should have to make a break -with Germany. The only thing I could do and felt compelled to do -then was to pay my homage not only to Turkish patriotism and Turkish -bravery, but to the wonderful courage and fearlessness of death shown -by those whom at that time I had, as a German, to regard as my enemies; -this I did over and over again in my articles. - -I saw, too, the first indications of other things. Traces of the most -outspoken jingoism among Turkish officers became gradually apparent, -and more than one Turkish commander pointed out to me with ironical -emphasis that things went just as smoothly and promptly in his sector, -where there was no German officer in charge, as anywhere else. - -On my second visit to the Dardanelles, in summer, I heard of -considerable quarrels over questions of rank, and there was more than -one outbreak of jingoistic arrogance on the part of both Turkish and -German subalterns, leading in some cases even to blows and consequent -severe punishment for insubordination. The climax was reached in the -scandal of supplanting General Weber, commanding the "Southern Group" -(Sedd-ul-Bahr) by Vehib Pasha, a grim and fanatical Turk. In this case -the Turkish point of view prevailed, for General Liman von Sanders, -Commander-in-Chief of the Gallipoli Army, was determined not to lose -his post, and agreed slavishly with all that Enver Pasha ordained. - -From other fronts, such as the Irak and the "Caucasus" (which was -becoming more and more a purely Armenian theatre of war, without losing -that chimerical designation in the official reports!), there came -even more significant tales; there German and Turkish officers seemed -to live still more of a cat-and-dog life than in the Dardanelles. Of -course under the iron discipline of both Turks and Germans, these -unpleasant occurrences were never allowed to come to such a pass that -they would interfere in any way with military operations, but they were -of significance as symptoms of a deep distrust of the Germans even in -Turkish military circles. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - The great Armenian persecutions--The system of Talaat and Enver--A - denunciation of Germany as a cowardly and conscienceless accomplice. - - -In spite of all, I returned to Constantinople from my first visit to -the Dardanelles with very little diminution of friendly feeling towards -the Turks. My first experience when I returned to the capital was the -beginning of the Armenian persecutions. And here I may as well say at -once that my love for present-day Turkey perished absolutely with this -unique example in the history of modern human civilisation of the most -appalling bestiality and misguided jingoism. This, more than everything -else I saw on the German-Turkish side throughout the war, persuaded me -to take up arms against my own people and to adopt the position I now -hold. I say "German-Turkish," for I must hold the German Government as -equally responsible with the Turks for the atrocities they allowed -them to commit. - -Here in neutral Switzerland, where so many of these unfortunate -Armenians have taken refuge and such abundance of information is -available, so much material has been collected that it is unnecessary -for me to go into details in this book. Suffice it to say that the -narration of all the heart-rending occurrences that came to my personal -knowledge during my stay in Turkey, without my even trying to collect -systematic information on the subject, would fill a book. To my deep -sorrow I have to admit that, from everything I have heard from reliable -sources--from German Red Cross doctors, officials and employees of -the Baghdad Railway, members of the American Embassy, and Turks -themselves--although they are but individual cases--I cannot regard -as exaggerated such appalling facts and reports as are contained for -example in Arnold Toynbee's _Armenian Atrocities_.[1] - -In this little book, however, which partakes more of the nature of an -essay than an exhaustive treatise, my task will be rather to determine -the system, the underlying political thought and the responsibility -of Germany in all these horrors--massacres, the seduction of women, -children left to die or thrown into the sea, pretty young girls -carried off into houses of ill repute, the compulsory conversion to -Islam and incorporation in Turkish harems of young women, the ejection -from their homes of eminent and distinguished families by brutal -gendarmes, attacks while on the march by paid bands of robbers and -criminals, "emigration" to notorious malaria swamps and barren desert -and mountain lands, victims handed over to the wild lusts of roaming -Bedouins and Kurds--in a word, the triumph of the basest brutality and -most cold-blooded refinement of cruelty in a war of extermination in -which half a million men, and according to some estimates many more, -have perished, while the remaining one and a half million of this -most intelligent and cultured race, one of the principal pioneers of -progress in the Ottoman Empire, see nothing but complete extinction -staring them in the face through the rupture of family ties, the -deprivation of their rights, and economic ruin. - -The Armenian persecutions began in all their cruelty, practically -unannounced, in April 1915. Certain events on the Caucasus front, which -no number of lies could explain away, gave the Turkish Government -the welcome pretext for falling like wild animals on the Armenians -of the eastern vilajets--the so-called Armenia Proper--and getting -to work there without deference to man, woman, or child. This was -called "the restoration of order in the war zone by military measures, -rendered necessary by the connivance of the inhabitants with the enemy, -treachery and armed support." The first two or three hundred thousand -Armenians fell in the first rounding up. - -That in those outlying districts situated directly on the Russian -frontier a number of Armenians threw in their lot with the advancing -Russians, no one will seek to deny, and not a single Armenian I -have spoken to denies it. But the "Armenian Volunteer Corps" that -fought on the side of Russia was composed for the most part--that at -least has been proved beyond doubt--of Russian Armenians settled in -Transcaucasian territory. - -So far as the Turkish Armenians taking part are concerned, no -reasonable being would think of denying Turkey as Sovereign State the -formal right of taking stringent measure against these traitors and -deserters. But if I expressly recognise this right, I do so with the -big reservation that the frightful sufferings undergone for centuries -by a people left by their rulers to the mercy of marauding Kurds and -oppressed by a government of shameless extortioners, absolutely absolve -these deserters in the eyes of the whole civilised world from any moral -crime. - -And yet I would willingly have gone so far for the benefit of the -Turks, in spite of their terrible guilt towards this people, as perhaps -to keep my own counsel on the subject, if it had merely been a case of -the execution of some hundreds under martial law or the carrying out -of other measures--such as deportation--against a couple of thousand -Armenians and these strictly confined to men. It is even possible that -Europe and America would have pardoned Turkey for taking even stronger -steps in the nature of reprisals or measures of precaution against the -male inhabitants of that part of Armenia Proper which was gradually -becoming a war zone. But from the very beginning the persecutions were -carried on against women and children as well as men, were extended -to the hundred thousand inhabitants of the six eastern vilajets, and -were characterised by such savage brutality that the methods of the -slave-drivers of the African interior and the persecution of Christians -under Nero are the only thing that can be compared with them. - -Every shred of justification for the Turkish Government in their -attempt to establish this as an "evacuation necessary for military -purposes and for the prevention of unrest" entirely vanishes in face -of such methods, and I do not believe that there is a single decent -German, cognisant of the facts of the case, who is not filled with real -disgust of the Young Turkish Government by such cold-blooded butchery -of the inhabitants of whole districts and the deportation of others -with the express purpose of letting them die _en route_. Anyone with -human feelings, however pro-Turkish he may be politically, cannot think -otherwise. - -This "evacuation necessary for military purposes" emptied Armenia -Proper of men. How often have Turks themselves told me--I could mention -names, but I will not expose my informants, who were on the whole -decent exceptions to the rule, to the wrath of Enver or Talaat--how -often have they assured me that practically not a single Armenian -is to be found in Armenia! And it is equally certain that scarcely -one can be left alive of all that horde of deported men who escaped -the first massacres and were hunted up hill and down dale in a state -of starvation, exposed to attacks by Kurds, decimated by spotted -typhus, and finally abandoned to their fate in the scorching deserts -of Northern Mesopotamia and Northern Syria. One has only to read the -statistics of the population of the six vilajets of Armenia Proper to -discover the hundreds of thousands of victims of this wholesale murder. - -But unfortunately that was not all. The Turkish Government went -farther, much farther. They aimed at the whole Armenian people, not -only in Armenia itself, but also in the "Diaspora," in Anatolia Proper -and in the capital. They were at that time some hundred thousand. In -this case they could scarcely go on the principle of "evacuation of the -war zone," for the inhabitants were hundreds of miles both from the -Eastern front and from the Dardanelles, so they had to resort to other -measures. - -They suddenly and miraculously discovered a universal conspiracy among -the Armenians of the Empire. It was only by a trick of this kind that -they could succeed in carrying out their system of exterminating the -entire Armenian race. The Turkish Government skilfully influenced -public opinion throughout the whole world, and then discovered, nay, -arranged for, local conspiracies. They then falsified all the details -so that they might go on for months in peace and quiet with their -campaign of extermination. - -In a series of semi-official articles in the newspapers of the -Committee of Young Turks it was made quite clear that _all_ Armenians -were dangerous conspirators who, in order to shake off the Ottoman -yoke, had collected firearms and bombs and had arranged, with the help -of English and Russian money, for a terrible slaughter of Turks on the -day that the English fleet overcame the armies on the Dardanelles. - -I must here emphasise the fact that all the arguments the Turkish -Government brought against the Armenians did not escape my notice. They -were indeed evident enough in official and semi-official publications -and in the writings of German "experts on Turkey." I investigated -everything, even right at the beginning of my stay in Turkey, and -always from a thoroughly pro-Turkish point of view. That did not -prevent me however, from coming to my present point of view. - -Herr Zimmermann, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has only -got to refer to the date of his letter to the editorial staff of my -paper, in which he speaks of my confidential report to the paper on -this subject which went through his hands and aroused his interest, and -he will find what opinions I held as early as the summer of 1916 on the -subject of the Armenian persecutions--and this without my having any -particular sympathy for the Armenians, for it was not till much later -that I got to know them and their high intellectual qualities through -personal intercourse. - -Here I can only give my final judgment on all these pros and cons, and -say to the best of my knowledge and opinion, that after the first act -in this drama of massacre and death--the brutal "evacuation of the war -zone" in Armenia Proper--the meanest, the lowest, the most cynical, -most criminal act of race-fanaticism that the history of mankind has to -show was the extension of the system of deportation, with its wilful -neglect and starvation of the victims, to further hundreds of thousands -of Armenians in the Capital and Interior. And these were people who, -through their place of residence, their surroundings, their social -status, their preoccupation in work and wage-earning, were quite -incapable of taking any active part in politics. - -Others of them, again, belonged to families of high social standing and -culture, bound to the land by a thousand ties, coming of a well-to-do, -old-established stock, and from traditional training and ordinary -prudence holding themselves scrupulously apart from all revolutionary -doings. All were surrounded by a far superior number of inhabitants -belonging to other races. - -This diabolical crime was committed solely and only because of the -Turkish feeling of economic and intellectual inferiority to that -non-Turkish element, for the set purpose of obtaining handsome -compensation for themselves, and was undertaken with the cowardly -acquiescence of the German Government in full knowledge of the facts. - -Of this long chain of crime I saw at least the beginning thousands of -times with my own eyes. Hardly had I returned from my first visit to -the Dardanelles when these persecutions began in the whole of Anatolia -and even in Constantinople, and continued with but slight intermissions -of a week or two at different times till shortly before I left -Constantinople in December 1916. - -That was the time when in the flourishing western vilajets of Anatolia, -beginning with Brussa and Adabazar, where the well-stocked farms -in Armenian hands must have been an eyesore to a Government that -had written "forcible nationalisation" on their standard, the whole -household goods of respectable families were thrown into the street -and sold for a mere nothing, because their owners often had only an -hour till they were routed out by the waiting gendarme and hustled off -into the Interior. The fittings of the houses, naturally unsaleable -in the hurry, usually fell to the lot of marauding "_mohadjis_" -(Mohammedan immigrants), who, often enough armed to the teeth by -the "Committee," began the disturbances which were then exposed as -"Armenian conspiracies." - -That was the time when mothers, apparently in absolute despair, sold -their own children, because they had been robbed of their last penny -and could not let their children perish on that terrible march into the -distant Interior. - -How many countless times did I have to look on at that typical -spectacle of little bands of Armenians belonging to the capital being -escorted through the streets of Pera by two gendarmes in their ragged -murky grey uniforms with their typical brutal Anatolian faces, while a -policeman who could read and write marched behind with a notebook in -his hand, beckoning people at random out of the crowd with an imperious -gesture, and if their papers showed them to be Armenians, simply -herding them in with the rest and marching them off to the "Karakol" of -Galata-Serai, the chief police-station in Pera, where he delivered up -his daily bag of Armenians! - -The way these imprisonments and deportations were carried on is a most -striking confutation of the claims of the Turkish Government that they -were acting only in righteous indignation over the discovery of a great -conspiracy. This is entirely untrue. - -With the most cold-blooded calculation and method, the number of -Armenians to be deported were divided out over a period of many months, -indeed one may say over nearly a year and a half. The deportations -only began to abate when the downfall of the Armenian Patriarchate in -summer 1916 dealt the final blow to the social life of the Armenians. -They more or less ceased in December 1916 with the gathering-in of all -those who had formerly paid the military exemption tax--among them many -eminent Armenian business men. - -What can be said of the "righteous, spontaneous indignation" of the -Armenian Government when, for example, of two Armenian porters -belonging to the same house--brothers--one is deported to-day and the -other not till a fortnight later; or when the number of Armenians to -be delivered up daily from a certain quarter of the town is fixed at -a definite figure, say two hundred or a thousand, as I have been told -was the case by reliable Turks who were in full touch with the police -organisation and knew the system of these deportations? - -Of the ebb and flow of these persecutions, all that can be said is that -the daily number of deportations increased when the Turks were annoyed -over some Russian victory, and that the banishments miraculously abated -when the military catastrophes of Erzerum, Trebizond, and Erzindjan -gave the Government food for thought and led them to wonder if perhaps -Nemesis was going to overtake them after all. - -And then the method of transport! Every day towards evening, when -these unfortunate creatures had been collected in the police-stations, -the women and children were packed into electric-trams while the men -and boys were compelled to go off on foot to Galata with a couple of -blankets and only the barest necessities for their terrible journey -packed in a small bag. Of course they were not all poor people by any -means. - -This dire fate might befall anyone any day or any hour, from the -caretaker and the tradesman to members of the best families. I -know cases where men of high education, belonging to aristocratic -families--engineers, doctors, lawyers--were banished from Pera in -this disgusting way under cover of darkness to spend the night on -the platforms of the Haidar-Pasha station, and then be packed off in -the morning on the Anatolian Railway--of course they paid for their -tickets and all travelling expenses!--to the Interior, where they died -of spotted typhus, or, in rare cases after their recovery from this -terrible malady, were permitted, after endless pleading, to return -broken in body and soul to their homes as "harmless." Among these -bands herded about from pillar to post like cattle there were hundreds -and thousands of gentle, refined women of good family and of perfect -European culture and manners. - -For the most part it was the sad fate of those deported to be sent -off on an endless journey by foot, to the far-off Arabian frontier, -where they were treated with the most terrible brutality. There, in -the midst of a population wholly foreign and but little sympathetic -to their race, left to their fate on a barren mountain-side, without -money, without shelter, without medical assistance, without the means -of earning a livelihood, they perished in want and misery. - -The women and children were always separated from the men. That was the -characteristic of all the deportations. It was an attempt to strike -at the very core of their national being and annihilate them by the -tearing asunder of all family ties. - -That was how a very large part of the Armenian people disappeared. -They were the "persons transported elsewhere," as the elegant title -of the "Provisional Han" ran, which gave full stewardship over their -well-stocked farms to the "Committee" with its zeal for "internal -colonisation" with purely Turkish elements. In this way the great goal -was reached--the forcible nationalisation of a land of mixed races. - -While Anatolia was gradually emptied of all the forces that had -hitherto made for progress, while the deserted towns and villages and -flourishing fields of those who had been banished fell into the hands -of the lowest "_Mohadjr_"--hordes of the most dissipated Mohammedan -emigrants--that stream of unhappy beings trickled on ever more slowly -to its distant goal, leaving the dead bodies of women and children, old -men and boys, as milestones to mark the way. The few that did reach -the "settlement" alive--that is, the fever-ridden, hunger-stricken -concentration camps--continually molested by raiding Bedouins and -Kurds, gradually sickened and died a slower and even more terrible -death. - -Sometimes even this was not speedy enough for the Government, and a -case occurred in Autumn 1916--absolutely verified by statements made -by German employees on the Baghdad Railway--where some thousands of -Armenians, brought as workers to this stretch of railway, simply -vanished one day without leaving a trace. Apparently they were simply -shipped off into the desert without more ado and there massacred. - -This terrible catalogue of crime on the part of the Government of -Talaat is, however, in spite of all censorship and obstruction, being -dealt with _officially_ in all quarters of the globe--by the American -Embassy at Constantinople and in neutral and Entente countries--and at -the conclusion of peace it will be brought as an accusation against the -criminal brotherhood of Young Turks by a merciless court of all the -civilised nations of the world. - -I have spoken to Armenians who have said to me, "In former times the -old Sultan Abdul-Hamid used to have us massacred by thousands. We -were delivered over by well-organised pogroms to the Kurds at stated -times, and certainly we suffered cruelly enough. Then the Young Turks, -as Adana 1909 shows, started on a bloodshed of thousands. But after -what we have just gone through we long with all our hearts for the -days of the old massacres. Now it is no longer a case of a certain -number of massacred; now _our whole people_ is being slowly but surely -exterminated by the national hatred of an apparently civilised, -apparently modern, and therefore infinitely more dangerous Government. - -"Now they get hold of our women and children and send them long -journeys on foot to concentration camps in barren districts where they -die. The pitiful remains of our population in the villages and towns of -the Interior, where the local authorities have carried out the commands -of the central Government most zealously, are forcibly converted to -Islam, and our young girls are confined in Turkish harems and places of -low repute. - -"The race is to vanish to the very last man, and why? Because the -Turks have recognised their intellectual bankruptcy, their economic -incompetence, and their social inferiority to the progressive Armenian -element, to which Abdul-Hamid, in spite of occasional massacres, knew -well enough how to adapt himself, and which he even utilised in all its -power in high offices of state. Because now that they themselves are -being decimated by a weary and unsuccessful war of terrible bloodshed -that was lost before it was begun, they hope in this way to retain the -sympathy of their peoples and preserve the superiority of their element -in the State. - -"These are not sporadic outbursts of wrath, as they were in the case -of Hamid, but a definitely thought-out political measure against our -people, and for this very reason they can hope for no mercy. Germany, -as we have seen, tolerates the annihilation of our people through -weakness and lack of conscience, and if the war lasts much longer the -Armenian people will have ceased to exist. That is why we long for the -old regime of Abdul-Hamid, terrible as it was for us." - -Has there ever been a greater tragedy in the history of a people--and -of a people that have never held any illusions as to political -independence, wedged in as they are between two Great Powers, and who -had no real irredentistic feelings towards Russia, and, up to the -moment when the Young Turks betrayed them shamefully and broke the ties -of comradeship that had bound them together as revolutionaries against -the old despotic system of Abdul-Hamid, were as thoroughly loyal -citizens of the Ottoman Empire as any of the other peoples of this -land, excepting perhaps the Turks themselves. - -I hope that these few words may have given sufficient indication of the -spirit and outcome of this system of extermination. I should like to -mention just one more episode which affected me personally more than -anything I experienced in Turkey. - -One day in the summer of 1916 my wife went out alone about midday to -buy something in the "Grand Rue de Pera." We lived a few steps from -Galata-Serai and had plenty of opportunity from our balcony of seeing -the bands of Armenian deportees arriving at the police-station under -the escort of gendarmes. Familiarity with such sights finally dulled -our sympathies, and we began to think of them not as episodes affecting -human individuals, but rather as political events. - -On this particular day, however, my wife came back to the house -trembling all over. She had not been able to go on her errand. As she -passed the "karakol," she had heard through the open hall door the -agonising groans of a tortured being, a dull wailing like the sound of -an animal being tormented to death. "An Armenian," she was informed -by the people standing at the door. The crowd was then dispersed by a -policeman. - -"If such scenes occur in broad daylight in the busiest part of the -European town of Pera, I should like to know what is done to Armenians -in the uncivilised Interior," my wife asked me. "If the Turks act like -wild beasts here in the capital, so that a woman going through the main -streets gets a shock like that to her nerves, then I can't live in this -frightful country." And then she burst into a fit of sobbing and let -loose all her pent-up passion against what she and I had had to witness -for more than a year every time we set a foot out of doors. - -"You are brutes, you Germans, miserable brutes, that you tolerate this -from the Turks when you still have the country absolutely in your -hands. You are cowardly brutes, and I will never set foot in your -horrible country again. God, how I hate Germany!" - -It was then, when my own wife, trembling and sobbing, in grief, rage, -and disgust at such cowardliness, flung this denunciation of my -country in my teeth that I finally and absolutely broke with Germany. -Unfortunately I had known only too long that it had to come. - -I thought of the conversations I had had about the Armenian question -with members of the German Embassy in Constantinople and, of a very -different kind, with Mr. Morgenthau, the American Ambassador. - -I had never felt fully convinced by the protestations of the German -Embassy that they had done their utmost to put a check on the murderous -attacks on harmless Armenians far from the theatre of war, who from -their whole surroundings and their social class could not be in a -position to take an active part in politics, and on the cold-blooded -neglect and starvation of women and children apparently deported for no -other reason than to die. The attitude of the German Government towards -the Armenian question had impressed me as a mixture of cowardice and -lack of conscience on the one hand and the most short-sighted stupidity -on the other. - -The American Ambassador, who took the most generous interest in the -Armenians, and has done so much for the cause of humanity in Turkey, -was naturally much too reserved on this most burning question to give -a German journalist like myself his true opinion about the attitude of -his German colleagues. But from the many conversations and discussions -I had with him, I gathered nothing that would turn me from the opinion -I had already formed of the German Embassy, and I had given him several -hints of what that opinion was. - -The attitude of Germany was, in the first place, as I have said, one of -boundless _cowardice_. For we had the Turkish Government firmly enough -in hand, from the military as well as the financial and political point -of view, to insist upon the observance of the simplest principles -of humanity if we wanted to. Enver, and still more Talaat, who as -Minister of the Interior and really Dictator of Turkey was principally -responsible for the Armenian persecutions, had no other choice than to -follow Germany's lead unconditionally, and they would have accepted -without any hesitation, if perhaps with a little grumbling, any -definite ruling of Germany's even on this Armenian question that lay so -near their hearts. - -From hundreds of examples it has been proved that the Germany Embassy -never showed any undue delicacy for even perfectly legitimate Turkish -interests and feelings in matters affecting German interests, and that -they always got their own way where it was a question, for example, of -Germans being oppressed, or superseded by Turks in the Government and -ruling bodies. And yet I had to stand and look on when our Embassy was -not even capable of granting her due and proper rights to a perfectly -innocent German lady married to an Armenian who had been deported with -many other Armenians. She appealed for redress to the German Embassy, -but her only reward was to wait day after day in the vestibule of the -Embassy for her case to be heard. - -Turks themselves have found cynical enjoyment in this measureless -cowardice of ours and compared it with the attitude of the Russian -Government, who, if they had found themselves in a similar position -to Germany, would have been prepared, in spite of the Capitulations -being abolished, to make a political case, if necessary, out of the -protection due to one poor Russian Jew. Turks have, very politely but -none the less definitely, made it quite clear to me that at bottom they -felt nothing but contempt for our policy of letting things slide. - -Our attitude was characterised, secondly, by _lack of conscience_. -To look on while life and property, the well-being and culture of -thousands, are sacrificed, and to content oneself with weak formal -protests when one is in a position to take most energetic command of -the situation, is nothing but the most criminal lack of conscience, -and I cannot get rid of the suspicion that, in spite of the fine -official phrases one was so often treated to in the German Embassy on -the subject of the "Armenian problem," our diplomats were very little -concerned with the preservation of this people. - -What leads me to bring this terrible charge against them? The fact that -I never saw anything in all this pother on the part of our diplomats -when the venerable old Armenian Patriarch appeared at the Embassy with -his suite after some particularly frightful sufferings of the Armenian -population, and begged with tears in his eyes for help from the -Embassy, however late--and I assisted more than once at such scenes in -the Embassy and listened to the conversations of the officials--I never -saw anything but concern about German prestige and offended vanity. As -far as I saw, there was never any concern for the fate of the Armenian -people. The fact that time and again I heard from the mouths of Germans -of all grades, from the highest to the lowest, so far as they did not -have to keep strictly to the official German versions, expressions of -hatred against the Armenians which were based on the most short-sighted -judgment, had no relation to the facts of the case, and were merely -thoughtless echoes of the official Turkish statements. - -And cases have actually been proved to have occurred, from the -testimony of German doctors and Red Cross nurses returned from the -Interior, of German officers light-heartedly taking the initiative in -exterminating and scattering the Armenians when the less-zealous local -authorities who still retained some remnants of human feeling, scrupled -to obey the instructions of "Nur-el-Osmanieh" (the headquarters of the -Committee at Stamboul). - -The case is well known and has been absolutely verified of the -scandalous conduct of two German officers passing through a village in -far Asia Minor, where the Armenians had taken refuge in their houses -and barricaded them to prevent being herded off like cattle. The order -had been given that guns were to be turned on them, but not a single -Turk had the courage to carry out this order and fire on women and -children. Without any authority whatsoever, the two German officers -then turned to and gave an exhibition of their shooting capacities! - -Such shameful acts are of course isolated cases, but they are on a par -with the opinions expressed about the Armenian people by dozens of -educated Germans of high position--not to speak of military men at all. - -A case of this kind where German soldiers were guilty of an attack on -Armenians in the interior of Anatolia, was the subject of frequent -official discussion at the German Embassy, and was finally brought to -the notice of the authorities in Germany by Graf Wolff-Metternich, a -really high-principled and humane man. The material result of this was -that through the unheard-of cowardice of our Government, this man--who -in spite of his age and in contrast to the weak-minded Freiherr von -Wangenheim, and criminally optimistic had made many an attempt to get -a firmer grip of the Turkish Government--was simply hounded out of -office by the Turks and weakly sacrificed without a struggle by Berlin. - -What, finally, is one to think of the spirit of our German officials -in regard to the Armenian question, when one hears such well-verified -tales as were told me shortly before I left Constantinople by an -eminent Hungarian banker (whose name I will not reveal)? He related, -for example, that "a German officer, with the title of Baron, and -closely connected with the military attache," went one day to the -bazaar in Stamboul and chose a valuable carpet from an Armenian, which -he had put down to his account and sent to his house in Pera. Then when -it came to paying for it, he promptly set the price twenty pounds lower -than had been stipulated, and indicated to the Armenian dealer that -in view of the good understanding between himself (the officer) and -the Turkish President of police, he would do well not to trouble him -further in the matter! I only cite this case because I am unfortunately -compelled to believe in its absolute authenticity. - -Shortsighted stupidity, finally, is how I characterised the inactive -toleration on the part of our Imperial representatives of this policy -of extermination of the Armenian race. Our Government could not have -been blind to the breaking flood of Turkish jingoism, and no one with -any glimmer of foresight could have doubted for a moment since the -summer of 1915 that Turkey would only go with us so long as she needed -our military and financial aid, and that we should have no place, not -even a purely commercial one, in a fully turkified Turkey. - -In spite of the lamentations one heard often enough from the mouths -of officials over this well-recognised and unpalatable fact, we -tolerated the extermination of a race of over one and a half million -of people of progressive culture, with the European point of view, -intellectually adaptable, absolutely free from jingoism and fanaticism, -and eminently cosmopolitan in feeling; we permitted the disappearance -of the only conceivable counterbalance to the hopelessly nationalistic, -anti-foreign Young Turkish element, and through our cowardice and lack -of conscience have made deadly enemies of the few that will rise from -the ruins of a race that used to be in thorough sympathy with Germany. - -An intelligent German Government would, in face of the increasingly -evident Young Turkish spirit, have used every means in their power -to retain the sympathies of the Armenians, and indeed to win them in -greater numbers. The Armenians waited for us, trembled with impatience -for us, to give a definite ruling. Their disappointment, their hatred -of us is unbounded now--and rightly so--and if a German ever again -wants to take up business in the East he will have to reckon with this -afflicted people so long as one of them exists. - -To answer the Armenian question in the way I have done here, one does -not necessarily need to have the slightest liking or the least sympathy -for them as a race. (I have, however, intimated that they deserve at -least that much from their high intellectual and social abilities.) -One only requires to have a feeling for humanity to abhor the way in -which hundreds of thousands of these unfortunate people were disposed -of; one only requires to understand the commercial and social needs -of a vast country like Turkey, so undeveloped and yet so capable of -development, to place the highest value on the preservation of this -restless, active, and eminently useful element; one only requires to -open one's eyes and look at the facts dispassionately to deny utterly -and absolutely what the Turks have tried to make the world believe -about the Armenians, in order that they might go on with their work of -extermination in peace and quiet; one only requires to have a slight -feeling of one's dignity as a German to refuse to condone the pitiful -cowardice of our Government over the Armenian question. - -The mixture of cowardice, lack of conscience, and lack of foresight -of which our Government has been guilty in Armenian affairs is quite -enough to undermine completely the political loyalty of any thinking -man who has any regard for humanity and civilisation. Every German -cannot be expected to bear as light-heartedly as the diplomats of Pera -the shame of having history point to the fact that the annihilation, -with every refinement of cruelty, of a people of high social -development, numbering over one and a half million, was contemporaneous -with Germany's greatest power in Turkey. - -In long confidential reports to my paper I made perfectly clear to -them the whole position with regard to the Armenian persecutions and -the brutal jingoistic spirit of the Young Turks apparent in them. The -Foreign Office, too, took notice of these reports. But I saw no trace -of the fruits of this knowledge in the attitude of my paper. - -The determination never to re-enter the editorial offices of that -paper came to me on that dramatic occasion when my wife hurled her -denunciation of Germany in my teeth. I at least owe a personal debt of -gratitude to the poor murdered and tortured Armenians, for it is to -them I owe my moral and political enfranchisement. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 1: This and other works on the subject came to my notice -for the first time a few days before going to press. Before that (in -Turkey, Austria, and Germany) they were quite unprocurable.] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - The tide of war--Enver's offensive for the "liberation of the - Caucasus"--The Dardanelles Campaign; the fate of Constantinople - twice hangs in the balance--Nervous tension in international - Pera--Bulgaria's attitude--Turkish rancour against her former - enemy--German illusions of a separate peace with Russia--King - Ferdinand's time-serving--Lack of munitions in the Dardanelles--A - mysterious death: a political murder?--The evacuation of - Gallipoli--The Turkish version of victory--Constantinople - unreleased--Kut-el-Amara--Propaganda for the "Holy War"--A prisoner - of repute--Loyalty of Anglo-Indian officers--Turkish communiques and - their worth--The fall of Erzerum--Official lies--The treatment of - prisoners--Political speculation with prisoners of war--Treatment of - enemy subjects--Stagnation and lassitude in the summer of 1916--The - Greeks in Turkey--Dread of Greek massacres--Rumania's entry--Terrible - disappointment--The three phases of the war for Turkey. - - -It will be necessary to devote a few lines to a review of the principal -features of the war, so far as it affected the life of the Turkish -capital, in order to have a military and political background for what -I saw among the Turks during my twenty months' stay in their country. -To that I will add a short description of the economic situation. - -When I arrived in Constantinople, Turkey had already completed her -first winter campaign in the Caucasus, and had repelled the attack of -the Entente fleet on the Dardanelles, culminating in the events of -March 18th, 1915. But Enver Pasha had completely misjudged the relation -between the means at his disposal and the task before him when, out of -pure vanity and a mad desire for expansion, he undertook a personally -conducted offensive for "the liberation of the Caucasus." The terrible -defeats inflicted on the Turkish army on this occasion were kept -from the knowledge of the people by a rigorous censorship and the -falsification of the communiques. This was particularly the case in the -enormous Turkish losses sustained at Sarykamish. - -Enver had put this great Caucasus offensive in hand out of pure wanton -folly, thinking by so doing to win laurels for himself and to have -something tangible to show those Turkish ultra-Nationalists who always -had an eye on Turkestan and Turan and thought that now was the time -to carry out their programme of a "Greater Turkey." It was this mad -undertaking, bound as it was to come to grief, that first showed Enver -Pasha in his true colours. I shall have something to say about his -character in another connection, which will show how gravely he has -been over-estimated in Europe. - -From the beginning of March 1915 to the beginning of January 1916 the -situation was practically entirely commanded by the battles in the -Dardanelles and Gallipoli. It has now been accepted as a recognised -fact even in the countries belonging to the Entente that the sacrifice -of a few more ships on March 18th would have decided the fate of the -Dardanelles. To their great astonishment the gallant defenders of the -coast forts found that the attack had suddenly ceased. Dozens of the -German naval gunners who were manning the batteries of Chanakkale on -that memorable day told me later that they had quite made up their -minds the fleet would ultimately win, and that they themselves could -not have held out much longer. Such an outcome was expected hourly -in Constantinople, and I was told by influential people that all the -archives, stores of money, etc., had already been removed to Konia. - -It is a remarkable fact that for a second time, in the first days -of September, the fate of Constantinople was again hanging in the -balance--a fact which is no longer a secret in England and France. -The British had extended their line northwards from Ariburnu to -Anaforta, and a heroic dash by the Anzacs had captured the summit -of the Koja-Jemen-Dagh, and so given them direct command of the -whole peninsula of Gallipoli and the insufficiently protected -Dardanelles forts behind them. It is still a mystery to the people of -Constantinople why the British troops did not follow up this victory. -The fact is that this time again the money and archives were hurried -off from Constantinople to Asia, and a German officer in Constantinople -gave me the entertaining information that he had really seriously -thought of hiring a window in the Grand' Rue de Pera, so that he and -his family might watch the triumphal entry of the Entente troops! It -would be easier to enjoy the joke of this if it were not overshadowed -by such fearful tragedy. - -I have already indicated the dilemma in which I was placed on my first -and second visits to the Gallipoli front. I was torn by conflicting -doubts as to whom my sympathies ought ultimately to turn to--to the -heroic Turkish defender, who was indeed fighting for the existence of -his country, although in an unsuccessful and unjust cause, for German -militarism and the exaggerated jingoism of the Young Turks, or to those -who were officially my enemies but whom, knowing as I did who was -responsible for the great crime of the war, I could not regard as such. - -In those September days I had already had some experience of Turkish -politics and their defiance of the laws of humanity, and my sympathies -were all for those thousands of fine colonial troops--such men as one -seldom sees--sacrificing their lives in one last colossal attack, -which if it had been prolonged even for another hour might have sealed -the fate of the Straits and would have meant the first decisive step -towards the overthrow of our forces; for the capture of Constantinople -would have been the beginning of the end. I am not ashamed to confess -that, German as I am, that was the only feeling I had when I heard of -the British victory and the subsequent British defeat at Anaforta. -The Battle of Anaforta was the last desperate attempt to break the -resistance in the Dardanelles. - -While the men of Stamboul and Anatolia--the nucleus of the Ottoman -Empire--were defending the City of the Caliph at the gate of the -Dardanelles, with reinforcements from Arab regiments when they were -utterly exhausted in the autumn, the other half of the metropolis, -the cosmopolitan Galata-Pera, was trembling for the safety of the -attacking Entente troops, and lived through the long months in a state -of continual tension, longing always for the moment of release. - -There was a great deal of nervous calculation about the probable -attitude of Bulgaria among both the Turks and the thousands of -thoroughly illoyal citizens of the Ottoman Empire composing the -population of the capital. From lack of information and also as a -result of Bulgaria's long delay in declaring her attitude, an undue -optimism ruled right up to the last moment among those who desired the -overthrow of the Turks. - -The Bulgarian question was closely bound up with the question of the -munitions supply. The Turkish resistance on Gallipoli threatened to -collapse through lack of munitions, and general interest centred--with -very varied desires with regard to the outcome--on the rare ammunition -trains that were brought through Rumania only after an enormous -expenditure of Turkish powers of persuasion and the application of any -amount of "palm-oil." - -I was present at Sedd-ul-Bahr at the beginning of July, when, owing to -lack of ammunition, the German-Turkish artillery could only reply with -one shot to every ten British ones, while the insufficiently equipped -factories of Top-hane and Zeitun-burnu, under the control of General -Pieper, Director of Munitions, were turning out as many shells as was -possible with the inferior material at their disposal, and the Turkish -fortresses in the Interior had to send their supply of often very -antiquated ammunition to the Dardanelles. The whole dramatic import of -the situation, which might any day give rise to epoch-making events, -was only too evident in Constantinople. It is not to be wondered at -that everyone looked forward with feverish impatience to Bulgaria's -entry either on one side or the other. - -But, in spite of all this, the Turks could scarcely bear the sight -of the first Bulgarian soldiers who appeared in autumn 1915 in full -uniform in the streets of "Carihrad." The necessary surrender of the -land along the Maritza right to the gates of the holy city of "Edirne" -(Adrianople) was but little to the liking of the Turkish patriots, -and even the successful issue of the Dardanelles campaign, only made -possible by Bulgaria's joining the Central Powers, was not sufficient -to win the real sympathies of the Turks for their new allies. - -It was not until much later that the position was altered as a result -of the combined fighting in Dobrudja. Practically right up to the end -of 1916, the real, short-sighted, jingoistic Turk looked askance at -his new ally and viewed with irritation and distrust the desecration -of his sacred "Edirne," the symbol of his national renaissance, while -the ambition of all politicians was to bring Bulgaria one day to a -surrender of the lost territory and more. - -Even in 1916 I found Young Turks, belonging to the Committee, who still -regarded the Bulgarians as their erstwhile cunning foe and as a set -of unscrupulous, unsympathetic opportunists who might again become a -menace to them. They even admitted that the Serbs were "infinitely -nicer enemies in the Balkan war," and appealed to them very much more -than the Bulgarians. The late Prince Yussuf Izzedin Effendi, of whose -tragic death I shall speak later, was always a declared opponent of the -cession of the Maritza territory. - -The possibility of Bulgaria's voluntarily surrendering this territory -and possibly much more through extending her own possessions westward -if Greece joined the Entente, had a great deal to do with Turkey's -attitude during the whole of 1916, and goes far to explain why she -dallied so long over the idea of alienating Greece, and used all sorts -of chicanery against the Ottoman and Hellenic Greeks in Turkey. Another -and much more important factor was, as we shall see, fundamental -race-hatred and avarice. - -As the question as to which side Bulgaria was to join was of decisive -moment for Turkish politics, I may perhaps be permitted to add a few -details from personal information. I had an interesting sidelight on -the German attempts to win over Bulgaria from a well-informed source in -Sofia. Everyone was much puzzled over the apparent clumsiness of the -German Ambassador in Sofia, Dr. Michahelles, in his diplomatic mission -to gain help from Bulgaria. King Ferdinand, of course, made great -difficulties, and at a very early stage of the proceedings he turned to -the Prime Minister, Radoslavoff, and said: "Away with your German Jews! -Why don't you take the good French gold?" (referring, of course, to the -offered French loan). - -The king was cunning enough in his own way, but he was a poor -politician and utterly vacillating, for he had no sort of ideals to -live up to and was prompted by a spirit of unworthy opportunism, and -it needed Radoslavoff's threat of instant resignation to bring him -to a definite decision. The transference shortly afterwards of the -German Ambassador to a northern post strengthened the impression in -confidential circles in Sofia that he had been lacking in diplomacy. - -The truth was that he had received most contradictory instructions from -Berlin, which did not allow him to do his utmost to win Bulgaria for -the German cause. The Imperial Chancellor seems even then--it was after -the great German summer offensive against Russia--to have given serious -consideration to the possibility of a separate peace with Russia, and -was quite convinced that Russia would never lay down arms without -having humiliated Bulgaria, should the latter prove a traitor to the -Slavic cause and turn against Serbia. - -In diplomatic circles in Berlin this knowledge and the decision--so -naive in view of all their boasted _Weltpolitik_--to pursue the quite -illusory dream of a separate peace with Russia, seemed to outweigh, at -any rate for some time, anxiety with regard to the state of affairs in -Gallipoli and the complete lack of munitions shortly to be expected, -and lamed their initiative in their dealings with Bulgaria. - -It is probably not generally known that here again the military party -assumed the lead in politics, and took the Bulgarian matter in hand -themselves. In the space of no time at all, Bulgaria's entry on the -German side was an accomplished fact. It was Colonel von Leipzig, the -German military attache at the Constantinople Embassy, that clinched -the matter at the critical moment by a journey to Sofia, and the whole -thing was arranged in less than a fortnight. But that journey cost him -his life. On the way back to the Turkish capital Herr von Leipzig--one -of the nicest and most gentlemanly men that ever wore a field-grey -uniform--visited the Dardanelles front, and on the little Thracian -railway-station of Uzunkoeprue he met his death mysteriously. He was -found shot through the head in the bare little waiting-room of this -miserable wayside station. - -It so happened that on my way to the Dardanelles on that day at the end -of June 1915, I passed through this little station, and was the sole -European witness of this tragic event, which increased still further -the excitement already hanging over Constantinople in these weeks of -lack of ammunition and terrible onslaughts against Gallipoli, and which -had already risen to fever-heat over the nervous rumours that were -going the rounds as to Bulgaria's attitude. The occurrence, of course, -was used by political intriguers for their own ends. - -I wrote a warm and truly heartfelt appreciation of this excellent man -and good friend, which was published in my paper at the time, and it -was not till long afterwards, weeks, indeed, after my return, that I -had any idea that the sudden death of Herr von Leipzig on his return -from a mission of the highest political importance was looked upon -by the German anti-English party as the work of English spies in the -service of Mr. Fitzmaurice, who was formerly at the English Embassy in -Constantinople. - -I was an eye-witness of the occurrence, or rather, I was beside the -Colonel a minute after I heard the shot, and saw the hole in his -revolver-holster where the bullet had gone through. I heard the -frank evidence of all the Turks present, from the policeman who had -arrived first on the scene to the staff doctor who came later, and I -immediately telegraphed to my paper from the scene of the accident, -giving them my impression of the affair. - -On my return to Constantinople I was invited to give evidence under -oath before the German Consulate General, and there one may find the -written evidence of what I had to say: a pure and absolute accident. - -I must not omit to mention here that the German authorities themselves -in Constantinople were so thoroughly convinced that the idea of murder -was out of the question, that Colonel von Leipzig's widow, who, -believing this version of the story, hurried to Turkey, to make her -own investigations, had the greatest difficulty in being officially -received by the Embassy and Consulate. I had a long interview with her -in the "Pera Palace," where she complained bitterly of her treatment in -this respect. I have tarried a little over this tragic episode as it -shows all the political ramifications that ran together in the Turkish -capital and the dramatic excitement that prevailed. - -The day came, however, when the Entente troops first evacuated -Anaforta-Ariburnu, and then, after a long and protracted struggle, -Sedd-ul-Bahr, and so the entire Gallipoli Peninsula. The Dardanelles -campaign was at an end. - -The impossibility of ever breaking down that solid Turkish resistance, -the sufferings of the soldiers practically starved to death in the -trenches during the cold winter storms, the difficulties of obtaining -supplies of provisions, drinking water, ammunition, etc., with a -frozen sea and harbourless coast, anxiety about the superior heavy -artillery that the enemy kept bringing up after the overthrow of -Serbia--everything combined to strengthen the Entente in their decision -to put an end to the campaign in Gallipoli. - -The Turkish soldiers had now free access to the sea, for all the -British Dreadnoughts and cruisers had disappeared; the warlike activity -which had raged for months on the narrow Gallipoli Peninsula suddenly -ceased; Austrian heavy and medium howitzers undertook the coast -defence, and a garrison of a few thousand Turkish soldiers stayed -behind in the Narrows for precaution's sake, while the whole huge -Gallipoli army in an endless train was marched off to the Taurus to -meet the Russian advance threatening in Armenia. - -But Constantinople remained "unrelieved." And from that moment a -dull resignation, a dreary waiting for one scarcely knew what, -disappointment, and pessimism took the place of the nervous tension -that had been so apparent in those who had been longing for the fall of -the Turkish capital. - -But the Turks rejoiced. It is scarcely to be wondered at that they -tried to construe the failure of the Gallipoli affair as a wonderful -and dazzling victory for Islam over the combined forces of the -Great Powers. It is only in line of course with Turkish official -untruthfulness that, in shameless perversion of facts, they talked -glibly of the irresistible bayonet attacks of their "ghazi" (heroes) -and of thousands of Englishmen taken prisoner or chased back into the -sea, whereas it was a well-known fact even in Pera that the retreat had -been carried out in a most masterly way with practically no loss of -life, and that the Turks themselves had been caught napping this time; -but to lie is human, and the Turks owed it to their prestige to have an -unmistakable and great military victory to form the basis of that "Holy -War" that was so long in getting under weigh; and when all is said and -done, their truly heroic defence really _was_ a victory. - -The absurd thing about all these lies was the way they were foisted on -a public who already knew the true state of affairs and had nothing -whatever to do with the "Holy War." - -The Turks made even more of the second piece of good fortune that fell -to their lot--the fall of Kut-el-Amara. General Townshend became their -cherished prisoner, and was provided with a villa on the island of -Halki in the Sea of Marmora, with a staff of Turkish naval officers to -act as interpreters. - -In the neighbouring and more fashionable _Prinkipo_ he was received -by practically everyone with open arms, and once even a concert was -arranged in his honour, which was attended by the elite of Turkish and -Levantine Society--the Turks because of their vanity and pride in their -important prisoner of war, the Levantines because of their political -sympathy with General Townshend, who, although there against his will, -seemed to bring them a breath of that world they had lost all contact -with for nearly two years and for which they longed with the most -ardent and passionate desire. - -On the occasion of the Bairam Festival--the highest Musulman -festival--in 1916, the Turkish Government made a point of sending a -group of about seventy Anglo-Indian Mohammedan officers, who had been -taken prisoner at the fall of Kut and were now interned in Eski-Shehir, -to the "Caliph City of Stamboul," where they were entertained for ten -days in different Turkish hotels and shown everything that would seem -to be of value for "Holy War" propaganda purposes. - -I had the opportunity of conversing with some of these Indian officers -in the garden of the "Petit Champs," where their appearance one -evening made a most tremendous sensation. I had of course to be very -discreet, for we were surrounded by spies, but I came away firmly -convinced that, in spite of their good treatment, which was of course -not without its purpose, and most unceasing and determined efforts to -influence them, the Turkish propaganda so far as these Indian officers -was concerned had entirely failed and that their loyalty to England -remained absolutely unshaken. Will anyone blame me, if, angry and -disgusted as I was at all these Turkish intrigues--it was shortly -after that dramatic scene of the tortured Armenian which called forth -that denunciation of Germany from my wife--I said to a group of these -Indians--just this and nothing more!--that they should not believe all -that the Turks told them, and that the result of the war would be very -different from what the Turks thought? One of the officers thanked me -with glowing eyes on behalf of his comrades and himself, and told me -what a comfort my assurance was to them. They had nothing to complain -of, he said, save being cut off from all news except official Turkish -reports. - -The very most that even the wildest fancy could find in events like -Gallipoli and Kut-el-Amara was brought forward for the benefit of -the "Holy War," but, despite everything, the propaganda was, as we -have seen, a hopeless failure. Reverses such as the fall of Erzerum, -Trebizond, and Ersindjan, on the contrary, which took place between the -two above-mentioned victories, have never to this day been even so much -as hinted at in the official war communiques for the Ottoman public. -For the communiques for home and foreign consumption were always -radically different. - -It was not until very much later, when the Turkish counter-offensive -against Bitlis seemed to be bearing fruit, that a few mild indications -of these defeats were made in Parliament, with a careful suppression -of all names, and the newspapers were empowered to make some mention -of a "purely temporary retreat of no strategic importance" which had -then taken place. The usual stereotyped report of 3,000 or 5,000 dead -that was officially given out after every battle throughout the whole -course of operations in the Irak scarcely came off in this case, -however, and, to tell the truth, Erzerum and these countless English -dead reported in the Irak did more than anything else to undermine -completely the people's already sadly shaken confidence in the official -war communiques. - -If there was a real victory to be celebrated, the most stringent police -orders were issued that flags were to be flown everywhere--on every -building. Surely it is only in a land like Turkey that one could -see the curious sight I witnessed after the fall of Bucharest--the -victorious flags of the Central Powers, surmounted by the Turkish -crescent, flying even from the balconies of Rumanian subjects, because -there had been a definite police warning issued that, in the case -of non-compliance with the order, the houses would be immediately -ransacked and the families inhabiting them sent off to the interior -of Anatolia. Under the circumstances, refusal to carry out police -orders was impossible. That was the Turkish idea of the respect due to -individual liberty. - -This gives me an opportunity to say something of the treatment of -prisoners. I may say in one word that it is, on the whole, good. -Justice compels me to admit that the Turk, when he does take prisoners, -treats them kindly and chivalrously; but he takes few prisoners, for he -knows only too well how to wield his bayonet in those murderous charges -he makes. Indeed, apart from the few hundred that fell into their hands -in the Dardanelles or on the Russo-Turkish front, together with the -crews of a few captured submarines, all the Turkish prisoners of war -come from Kut-el-Amara. - -But the primitive Turk is all too sadly lacking in the comforts of -life himself to be able to provide them for his prisoners. Without the -help of the Commission that works under the protection of the American -Embassy for the relief of the Entente prisoners, and sends piles of -warm clothing, excellent shoes (which rouse the special envy of the -Turks), chocolate, cakes, etc., to the Anatolian camps, these men, -accustomed to European ways of life, would be in a sad plight. - -The repeated and humiliating marching of prisoners of war through the -streets of Constantinople to show them off to the childish gaze of a -people much influenced by externals, might with advantage be dispensed -with. And it was certainly not exactly kind to make wounded English -officers process past the Sultan at the Friday's "Selamlik"; it was -rather too like slave-driving methods and the abuses of the Middle Ages. - -I was an unwilling witness of one most regrettable incident that -took place shortly before I left Constantinople. In this case the -sufferings of some unfortunate prisoners of war were cruelly exploited -for political ends. A whole troup of about 2,000 Rumanians, from -Dobrudja, were hounded up and down the streets of Pera and Stamboul in -a purposely destitute and exhausted condition, so that the appearance -of these poor wretches, who hung their heads dejectedly and had lost -all trace of military bearing, might give the impression that the Turks -were dealing with a very inferior foe and would soon be at the end of -the business. This is how the authorities were going to increase the -confidence of the doubting population! - -The Turkish escort had apparently given these prisoners nothing to -drink on the way--although the Turk, being a great water-drinker -himself, knows only too well what a man needs on a dusty journey of -several days on a transport train--for with my own eyes I saw dozens -of them simply flinging themselves like animals full length on the -ground when they reached the Taksim Fountain, and trying to slake their -terrible thirst. It was with pitiable trickery like this--for which -no doubt Enver Pasha was responsible, for the simple Turkish soldier -is much too good-natured not to share his bread and water with his -prisoners--that attempts were made, at the expense of all feelings of -humanity, to cheer up the uneducated masses. - -The Turkish Government, however, apart from a few cases of reprisals, -where the prisoners were treated in an even more barbaric and primitive -manner, did not, as a general rule, go the length of interning -civilians. This was not without its own good grounds. In the first -place, a very large part of the trade of the country lay in the hands -of these Europeans, and they were consequently absolutely indispensable -to the Turks in their everyday commercial life; secondly, a Government -that had systematically rooted out the Armenians, hanged Arabian -notables, and brutally mishandled the Greeks, could scarcely dispense, -in the eyes of Europe, with the very last pretence of being more or -less civilised; and, lastly, perhaps the fear of being brought to book -later on may have had a restraining influence on them--we saw how -growing anxiety about the Russian advance on the Eastern front led, at -any rate for a time, to a discontinuance of Armenian persecutions. - -Besides all this, hundreds and thousands of Turks were resident in -enemy countries, and of course the desire was to avoid reprisals. So -the Government contented itself with threats and subterfuges, after a -first unsuccessful attempt to expose a large number of French subjects -to fire from the enemy guns in Gallipoli--a plan which failed entirely, -owing to the energetic opposition of officials of the American Embassy -who had accompanied these chosen victims to Gallipoli. Every means -was used, however, even announcements in the newspapers and a Vote of -Credit "for the removal of enemy subjects to the interior," to keep the -sword of Damocles for ever hanging over the heads of all subjects of -Entente countries, even women and children. - -From the fall of Kut-el-Amara up to the time of Rumania's entry into -the war, there were no important episodes of a military or political -nature from the particular point of view of Turkey. (The Arabian -catastrophe I will deal with in another connection.) With the ebb -and flow of war and constant anxiety about Russia's movements, time -passed slowly enough. It was well known that the Turkish offensive was -already considerably weakened and the lack of means of transport was -an open secret. Starvation and spotted fever raged at the Front as -well as in the interior and the capital. Asiatic cholera even made its -appearance in European Pera, but was fortunately successfully combated -by vaccination. - -Further decisive Russian victories on the west and the Gulf of -Alexandretta were expected after the fall of Ersindjian, for the -ambition and personal hatred against the Turks of the Grand Duke -Nicolai Nicolajivitch, commanding the armies in Armenia, would probably -stop short at nothing less than complete overthrow of the enemy. -Simple-minded souls, whose geography was not their strong point, -reckoned how long it would take the Russians to get from Anatolia and -when the conquest of Constantinople would take place. - -The less optimistic among those who were panting for final emancipation -from the Young Turkish military yoke set their hopes on the entry of -Rumania. In all circles Rumania's probable attitude was fairly clear, -and no one ever doubted that she would be drawn into the war. - -In consequence of the new operations after Rumania's declaration of -war, the revival of the offensive in Macedonia, and the events in -Athens, all eyes were turned again to the ever-doubtful Greece. The -Greek element, Ottoman and Hellenic combined, in Constantinople alone -may be reckoned at several hundred thousand. Never were sympathies so -great for Venizelos, never was the spirit of the Irredenta so outspoken -as among the Greeks in Turkey, who had been the dupes since 1909 of -every possible kind of Young Turkish intrigue. In contrast to the -Armenians, the great mass of whom thought and felt as loyal Ottoman -citizens right up to the very end when Talaat and Enver's policy of -extermination set in against them--in contrast to these absolutely -helpless and therefore all the more easy victims to the Turkish -national lust of persecution, the attitude of the Greek citizens was -all the more marked. - -Since the Graeco-Turkish war of 1912-13 and the impetus given to -Pan-Hellenism by the successful issue of the war, there is not -one single Greek in either country--no matter what his social -standing--that has not ardently looked forward to and desired the -overthrow of Turkey. But the Greek is much too clever to let his -feelings be seen; and he is not so unprotected as the Armenian. And -so up to the present time the Turk has confined himself more to -small intrigues against the Greek population, except in a few remote -districts--more especially the shores of the Black Sea--where massacres -like those organised among the Armenians have been carried out, but on -a very much smaller scale. - -Sympathy with Venizelos and the Irredentistic desire for Greece to -throw in her lot with the Entente are counterbalanced, however, in -the case of the Greeks living in Turkey, by grave anxiety as to their -own welfare if it came to a break between the two countries. Turkish -hatred of the Greeks knows no bounds, and it was no idle fear that made -the Greeks in Constantinople tremble, in spite of their satisfaction -politically, when the rumours were afloat in autumn 1916 of King -Constantine's abdication and Greece's entry on the side of the Entente. - -But the ideas as to how the Turks would act towards them in such a -case were diametrically opposed even among those who had lived in the -country a long time and knew the Turkish mind exactly. Many expected -immediate Greek massacres on the largest scale; others, again, expected -only brutal intrigues and chicanery, economic ruin; still others -thought that nothing at all would happen, that the Turks were already -too demoralised, and that at any rate in Pera the far superior Greek -element would completely command the situation. This last I considered -mere megalomaniac optimism in view of the fact that Turkey was still -unbroken so far as things military were concerned, and I believe that -those people were right who believed that Greece's entry on the side -of the Entente would be the signal for the carrying out of atrocities -against all Greeks, at any rate in the commercial world. - -It would be interesting to know which idea the German authorities -favoured. That the event would pass off without damage being done, they -apparently did not believe, for in those days when Greece's decision -seemed to be imminent, the former _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_, which had -been lying at Stenia on the Bosporus, were brought up with all speed -and anchored just off the coast with their guns turned on Pera, and -the German garrison, as I knew from different officers, had orders to -be prepared for an alarm. - -Did the Germans think they were going to have to protect Turks or -Greeks in the case of definite news from Athens? Was it Germany's -intention to protect the European population, who had nothing to do -with the impending political decision, although they might sympathise -with it--was it Germany's intention to protect them, at any rate in -this instance, from the Turkish lust of extermination? Had these two -ships, now known as the _Jawuz Sultan Selim_ and the _Midilli_, not -belonged for a long time to the Imperial Ottoman Navy? - -When Rumania flung off her shackles, there was great rejoicing in Pera, -and even the greatest pessimists believed that relief was near and -would be accomplished within two months at latest. But another and more -terrible reverse absolutely destroyed the last shred of anti-Turkish -hope, and the victories in Rumania, especially the fall of Bucharest, -combined with the speech of the Russian minister Trepoff, had the -effect of sending over solid to the side of the Government even the few -who had hitherto, at least in theory, formed an opposition, although a -powerless one. - -Victories shared with the Bulgarians, too, did away with the last -remains of unfriendly feelings towards that people and consolidated the -Turko-Bulgarian Alliance. Indeed, one may say that for Turkey the third -great phase of the war began with the removal of all danger of the fall -of Constantinople through the collapse of the Rumanian forces. - -The first comprised the time of the powerful attacks directed at the -very heart of the Empire, its most vulnerable point, and ended with -the English-French evacuation of Gallipoli. The second was the period -of alternate successes and reverses, almost a time of stagnation, -when practically all interest was centred on the Russian menace in -Asia Minor and the efforts made to withstand it. It ended equally -successfully with the removal of the Russian menace from the Balkans. -The third will be the phase of increasing internal weakness, of the -dissipation of strength through the sending of troops to Europe, of -the successful renewal of the English offensive in Mesopotamia, -perhaps even of an English-French offensive against Syria and of the -final revolt of all the Arabian lands, ushered in by the events in the -Hedjaz and the founding of a purely Arabian Caliphate. The third phase -_cannot_ last longer than the year 1917; it will mean the decision of -the whole European war. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - The economic situation--Exaggerated Entente hopes--Hunger and - suffering among the civil population--The system of requisitioning - and the semi-official monopolists--Profiteering on the part of - the Government clique--Frivolity and cynicism--The "Djemiet"--The - delegates of the German _Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft_ (Central - Purchases Commission)--A hard battle between German and - Turkish intrigue--Reform of the coinage--Paper money and its - depreciation--The hoarding of bullion--The Russian rouble the best - investment. - - -During the entire course of the war as I have briefly sketched it -in the foregoing pages, the economic situation in the whole country -and particularly in the capital became more and more serious. But, -let me just say here, in anticipation, that Turkey, being a purely -agricultural country with a very modest population, can never be -brought to sue for peace through starvation, nor, with Germany backing -and financing her, through any general exhaustion of commercial -resources, until Germany herself is brought to her knees. Any victory -must be a purely military and political one. The whole crux of the -food problem in Turkey is that the people suffer, suffer cruelly, but -not enough for hunger to have any results in the shape of an earlier -conclusion of peace. This is the case also with the Central Powers, as -the Entente have unfortunately only too surely convinced themselves now -after their first illusions to the contrary. - -There is another element in the Turkish question too--the large -majority of the population are a heterogeneous mass of enslaved and -degenerate beings, outcasts of society, plunged in the lowest social -and commercial depths, entirely lacking in all initiative, who can -never become a factor in any political upheaval, for in Turkey this can -only be looked for from the military or the educated classes. If the -Entente Powers ever counted on Turkey's chronic state of starvation -and lack of supplies coming to their aid in this war, they have made -a sad mistake. Therefore in attempting to sketch in a few pages the -conditions of life and the economic situation in Turkey, my aim is -solely to bring to light the underlying Turkish methods, and the ethics -and spirit of the Young Turkish Government. - -During the periods of the very acute bread crises, which occurred -more than once, but notably in the beginning of 1916, some dozen men -literally died of hunger daily in Constantinople alone. With my own -eyes I have repeatedly seen women collapsing from exhaustion in the -streets. From many parts of the interior, particularly Syria, there -were reliable reports of a still worse state of affairs. But even in -more normal times there was always a difficulty in obtaining bread, for -the means of communication in that vast and primitive land of Turkey -are precarious at best, and it was no easy matter to get the grain -transported to the centres of consumption. - -Then in Constantinople there was a shortage not only of skilled labour, -but of coal for milling purposes. The result was that the townspeople -only received a daily ration of a quarter of a kilogramme (about 8 -oz.--not a quarter of an oka, which would be about 10 oz.) of bread, -which was mostly of an indigestible and occasionally very doubtful -quality--utterly uneatable by Europeans--although occasionally it was -quite good though coarse. If the poor people in Constantinople wanted -to supplement this very insufficient allowance, they could do so when -things were in a flourishing condition at the price of about 2-1/2 or -3 piastres (1 piastre = about 2-1/4_d._) the English pound, and later -4 or 5 piastres. Even this was for the most part only procurable by -clandestine means from soldiers who were usually willing to turn part -of their bread ration into money. - -This is about all that can be said about the feeding of the people, for -bread is by far the most important food of the Oriental, and the prices -of the other foodstuffs soon reached exorbitant heights. What were the -poor to feed on when rice, reckoned in English coinage, cost roughly -from 3_s._ 2_d._ to 4_s._ 4_d._ an oka (about 2-1/2 lb.), beans 2_s._ -4_d._ the oka, meat 3_s._ to 4_s._, and the cheapest sheep's cheese and -olives, hitherto the most common Turkish condiment to eat with bread, -rose to 3_s._ and 1_s._ 8_d._ the oka? - -Wages, on the other hand, were ludicrously low. We may obtain some -idea of the standard of living from the fact that the Government, who -always favoured the soldiers, did not pay more than 5 piastres (about -1_s._) a day to the families of soldiers on active service. I have -often wondered what the people really did eat, and I was never able to -come to any satisfactory conclusion, although I often went to market -myself to buy and see what other people bought. It is significant -enough that just shortly before I left Constantinople--that is, a few -weeks after the Turko-Bulgarian-German victories in Rumania and the -fall of Bucharest--the price of bread in the Turkish capital, in spite -of the widely advertised "enormous supplies" taken in Rumania, rose -still higher. - -I cannot speak from personal experience of what happened after -Christmas 1916 in this connection, but everyone was quite convinced, -in spite of the official report, that the harvest of 1916, despite the -tremendous and praiseworthy efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture -and the military authorities, would show a very marked decrease as a -result of the mobilisation of agricultural labour, the requisitioning -of implements, and the shortage of buffaloes, which, instead of -ploughing fields, were pulling guns over the snow-covered uplands of -Armenia. There was a very general idea that the harvest of 1917 would -be a horrible catastrophe. And yet I am fully convinced, and I must -emphasise it again, that, in spite of agricultural disaster, Turkey -will still go on as a military power. - -And now let us see what the Government did in connection with the -food problem. At a comparatively early stage they followed Germany's -example and introduced bread tickets, which were quite successful -so long as the flour lasted. In the autumn of 1915 they took the -organisation of the bread supply for large towns out of the hands -of the municipalities, and gave it over to the War Office. They got -Parliament to vote a large fund to buy up all available supplies of -flour, and in view of the immense importance of bread as the chief -means of nourishment of the masses, they decided to sell it at a very -considerable loss to themselves, so that the price of the daily ration -(though not of the supplementary ration) remained very much as it -had been in peace time. The Government always favoured the purely -Mohammedan quarters of the town so far as bread supply was concerned, -and the people living in Fatih and other parts of Stamboul were very -much better off than the inhabitants of Graeco-European Pera. - -Then Talaat made speeches in the House on the food question in which -he did all in his power to throw dust in the eyes of the starving -population, but he did not really succeed in blinding anyone as to the -true state of affairs. In February 1916, when there was practically a -famine in the land, he even went so far as to declare in Parliament -that the food supplies for the whole of Turkey had been so increased by -enormous purchases in Rumania, that they were now fully assured for two -years. - -It was no doubt with cynical enjoyment that the "Committee" of -the Young Turks enlarged on the privations of the people in such -publications as the semi-official _Tanin_, in which the following -wonderful sentiment appeared: "One can pass the night in relative -brightness without oil in one's lamp if one thinks of the bright and -glorious future that this war is preparing for Turkey!" - -One could have forgiven such cheap phrases if they had been a true, -though possibly misguided, attempt to provide comfort in face of real -want; but at the same time as such paragraphs were appearing in the -_Tanin_ and thousands of poor Turkish households had to spend the -long winter nights without the slightest light, thousands of tons of -oil were lying in Constantinople alone in the stores of the official -_accapareurs_. - -This brings me to the second series of measures taken by the Turkish -Government to relieve the economic situation--those of a negative -nature. Their positive measures are pretty well exhausted when one has -mentioned their treatment of the bread crisis. - -The question of _requisitioning_ is one of the most important in -Turkish life in war-time, and is not without its ludicrous side. -In imitation of German war-time methods, either wrongly understood -or wittingly misapplied by Oriental greed, the Turkish Government -requisitioned pretty well everything in the food line or in the -shape of articles of daily use that were sure to be scarce and would -necessarily rise in price. But while in the civilised countries of -Central Europe the supplies so requisitioned were sagely applied to -the general good, the members of the "Committee of Union and Progress" -looked with fine contempt and the grim cynicism of arch-dictators on -the privations and sufferings of the people so long as they did not -actually starve, and used the supplies requisitioned for the personal -enrichment of their clique. - -When I speak of requisitioning, I do not mean the necessary military -carrying off of grain, cattle, vehicles, buffaloes, and horses, general -equipment, and so on, in exchange for a scrap of paper to be redeemed -after the war (of very doubtful value in view of Turkey's position)--I -do not mean that, even though the way it was accomplished bled the -country far more than was necessary, falling as it did in the country -districts into the hands of ignorant, brutal, and fanatical underlings, -and in the town being carried out with every kind of refinement -by the central authorities. Too often it was a means of violent -"nationalisation" and deprivation of property and rights exercised -especially against Armenians, Greeks, and subjects of other Entente -countries. If there was a particularly nice villa or handsome estate -belonging to someone who was not a Turk, soldiers were immediately -billeted there under some pretext or other, and it was not long before -these rough Anatolians had reduced everything to rack and ruin. - -I do not mean either the terrible damage to commercial life brought -about by the way the military authorities, in complete disregard of -agricultural interests, were always seizing railway waggons, and so -completely laming all initiative on the part of farmers and merchants, -whose goods were usually simply emptied out on the spot, exposed to -ruin, or disposed of without any kind of compensation being given. - -What I do mean is the huge semi-official cornering of food, which must -be regarded as typical of the Young Turks' idea of their official -responsibility towards those for whom they exercised stewardship. - -The "Bakal Clique" ("provision merchants," "grocers") was known through -the whole of Constantinople, and was keenly criticised by the much -injured public. It was, first of all, under the official patronage of -the city prefect, Ismet Bey, a creature of the Committee; but later -on, when they realised that dire necessity made a continuance of this -system of cornering quite unthinkable, he was made the scapegoat, and -his dismissal from office was freely commented on in the Committee -newspapers as "an act of deliverance." The Committee thought that -they would thus throw dust in the eyes of the sorely-tried people -of Constantinople. Hundreds of thousands of Turkish pounds were -turned into cash in the shortest possible time by this semi-official -syndicate, at the expense of the starving population, and found their -way into the pockets of the administrators. - -That was how the Young Turkish parvenus were able to fulfil their one -desire and wriggle their way into the best clubs, where they gambled -away huge sums of money. The method was simple enough: whatever was -eatable or useable, but could only be obtained by import from abroad, -was "taken charge of," and starvation rations, which were simply -ludicrously inadequate and quite insufficient for the needs of even the -poorest household, were doled out by "_vesikas_" (the ticket system). - -The great stock of goods, however, was sold secretly at exorbitant -prices by the creatures of the "Bakal Clique," who simply cornered the -market. That is how it happened that in Constantinople, cut off as it -was from the outer world and without imports, even at the end of 1916, -with a population of well over a million, there were still unlimited -stores of everything available for those who could pay fancy prices, -while by the beginning of 1915 those less well endowed with worldly -goods had quite forgotten the meaning of comfort and the poor were -starving with ample stores of everything still available. - -In businesses belonging to enemy subjects the system of requisitioning, -of course, reached a climax, stores of all kinds worth thousands of -pounds simply disappearing, without any reason being given for carrying -them off, and nothing offered in exchange, but one of these famous -"scraps of paper." Cases have been verified and were freely discussed -in Pera of ladies' shoes and ladies' clothing even being requisitioned -and turned into large sums of cash by the consequent rise in price. - -The profiteering of Ismet and company, who chose the specially -productive centre of the capital for their system of usury, was not, -however, by any means an isolated case of administrative corruption, -for exactly the same system of requisitioning, holding up and then -reselling under private management at as great a profit as possible, -underlay and underlies the great semi-official Young Turkish commercial -organisation, with branches throughout the whole country, known as the -"Djemiet" and under the distinguished patronage of Talaat himself. - -After Ismet Bey's fall, the "Djemiet" took over the supplying of the -capital as well (with the exception of bread). We will speak elsewhere -of this great organisation, which is established not only for war -purposes, but serves towards the nationalisation of economic life. So -far as the system of requisitioning is concerned, it comes into the -picture through its firm opposition to German merchants who were trying -to buy up stores of food and raw materials from their ally Turkey. -The intrigues and counter-intrigues on both sides sometimes had most -remarkable results. - -One of the really bright sides of life in Constantinople in war-time -was the amusement one extracted from the silent and desperate war -continually being waged by the many well-fed gentlemen of the "Z.E.G." -("_Zentraleinkaufsgesellschaft_," "Central Purchasing Commission") and -their minions who tried to rob Turkey of foodstuffs and raw material -for the benefit of Germany, against the "Djemiet" and more particularly -the Quartermaster-General, Ismail Hakki Pasha, that wooden-legged, -enormously wealthy representative of the neo-Turkish spirit--he was the -most perfect blend of Oriental politeness and narrow-minded decision -to do exactly the opposite of what he had promised. On the Turkish -side, the determination to safeguard the interests of the Army, and in -the case of the "Djemiet" the effort not to let any foodstuffs out of -Germany--a standpoint that has at last found expression in a formal -prohibition of all export--then the quest of personal enrichment on the -part of the great "Clique"; on the German side, the insatiable hunger -for everything Turkey could provide that had been lacking for a long -time in Germany: the whole thing was a wonderfully variegated picture -of mutual intrigue. - -The gentlemen of the "Z.E.G.," after months of inactivity spent in -reviling the Turks and studying Young Turkish and other morals and -manners by frequenting all the pleasure resorts in the place, managed -at last to get the exports of raw materials set on the right road, and -so it came about that the fabulous sums in German money that had to be -put into circulation in payment of these goods, in spite of Turkey's -indebtedness to Germany, led to a very considerable depreciation in the -value of the Mark even in Turkey for some time. - -But until the understanding as to exports was finally arrived at, there -were many dramatic events in Constantinople, culminating in the Turks -re-requisitioning, with the help of armed detachments, stores already -paid for by Germany and lying in the warehouses of the "Z.E.G." and the -German Bank! - -On the financial side, apart from Turkey's enormous debt to Germany, -the wonderful attempt at a reform and standardisation of the coinage in -the middle of May 1916 is worthy of mention. The reform, which was a -simplification of huge economic value of the tremendously complicated -money system and introducing a theoretical gold unit, must be regarded -chiefly as a war measure to prevent the rapid deterioration of Turkish -paper money. - -This last attempt, as was obvious after a few months' trial, was -entirely unsuccessful, and even hastened the fall of paper money, for -the population soon discovered at the back of these drastic measures -the thinly veiled anxiety of the Government lest there should be a -further deterioration. Dire punishments, such as the closing down of -money-changers' businesses and arraignment before a military court -for the slightest offence, were meted out to anyone found guilty of -changing gold or even silver for paper. - -In November 1916, however, it was an open secret that, in spite of all -these prohibitions, there was no difficulty in the inland provinces -and in Syria and Palestine in changing a gold pound for two or more -paper pounds. In still more unfrequented spots no paper money would -be accepted, so that the whole trade of the country simply came to a -standstill. Even in Constantinople at the beginning of December 1916, -paper stood to gold as 100 to 175. - -The Anatolian population still went gaily on, burying all the available -silver _medjidiehs_ and even nickel piastres in their clay pots in the -ground, because being simple country folk they could not understand, -as the Government with all its prayers and threats were so anxious -they should, that throughout Turkey and in the greater and mightier -and equally victorious Germany, guaranteed paper money was really -much better than actual coins, and was just as valuable as gold! The -people, too, could not but remember what had happened with the "Kaime" -after the Turko-Russian war, when thousands who had believed in the -assurances of the Government suddenly found themselves penniless. In -Constantinople it was a favourite joke to take one of the new pound, -half-pound, or quarter-pound notes issued under German paper, not gold, -guarantee and printed only on one side and say, "This [pointing to the -right side] is the present value, and that [blank side] will be the -value on the conclusion of peace." - -Even those who were better informed, however, and sat at the receipt of -custom, did exactly the same as these stupid Anatolian country-people; -no idea of patriotism prevented them from collecting everything metal -they could lay their hands on, and, in spite of all threats of -punishment--which could never overtake them!--paying the highest price -in paper money for every gold piece they could get. Their argument was: -"One must of course have something to live on in the time directly -following the conclusion of peace." In ordinary trade and commerce, -filthy, torn paper notes, down to a paper piastre, came more and more -to be practically the only exchange. - -A discerning Turk said to me once: "It would be a very good plan -sometime to have the police search these great men for bullion every -evening on their return from the official exchanges. That would be more -to the point than any reform in the coinage!" - -Those who could not get gold, bought roubles, which were regarded as -one of the very best speculations going, until one day the Turkish -Government, in their annoyance at some Russian victory, suddenly -deported to Anatolia a rich Greek banker of the name of Vlasdari, who -was accused of having speculated in roubles, which of course gave them -the double benefit of getting rid of a Greek and seizing his beautiful -estate in Pera. - -Only the greatest optimists were deceived into believing that it was a -profitable transaction to buy Austrian paper money at the fabulously -low price the Austrian _Krone_ had reached against the Turkish pound, -which was really neither politically nor financially in any better a -state. The members of the "Committee of Union and Progress" had of -course shipped their gold off to Switzerland long ago. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - German propaganda and ethics--The unsuccessful "Holy War" and the - German Government--"The Holy War" a crime against civilisation, a - chimera, a farce--Underhand dealings--The German Embassy the dupe - of adventurers--The morality of German Press representatives--A - trusty servant of the German Embassy--Fine official distinctions of - morality--The German conception of the rights of individuals. - - -Now that we have given a rough sketch of the main events of the war -as it affected the economic life of the people, and have devoted a -chapter to that sinister crime, the Armenian persecutions, we shall -leave the Young Turks for a moment and turn to an examination of German -propaganda methods. - -It is a very painful task for a German who does not profess to -be a "World Politician," but really thinks in terms of true -"world-politics," to deal with the many intrigues and machinations of -our Government in their relation to the so-called "Holy War" (Arab. -_Djihad_), where in their quest of a vain illusion they stooped to -the very lowest means. Practically all their hopes in that direction -have been sadly shattered. Their costly, unscrupulous, thoroughly -unmoral efforts against European civilisation in Mohammedan countries -have resulted in the terrific counter-stroke of the defection of the -Arabs and the foundation of a purely Arabian Chaliphate under English -protection. Thus England has already won a brilliant victory against -Germany and Turkey in spite of Gallipoli and Kut-el-Amara, although -it seems probable that even these will be wiped out by greater deeds -on the part of the Entente before long. One could not have a better -example of Germany's total inability to succeed in the sphere of -world-politics. - -The so-called "Holy War," if it had succeeded, would have been one -of the greatest crimes against human civilisation that even Germany -has on her conscience, remembering as we do her recent ruthless -"frightfulness" at sea, and her attempt to set Mexico and the Japanese -against the land of most modern civilisation and of greatest liberty. -A successful "Djihad" spreading to all the lands of Islam would have -set back by years all that civilisation so patiently and so painfully -won; it would not have been at all comparable with the Entente's use -of coloured troops in Europe which Germany deprecated so loudly, for -in the Holy War it would have been a case of letting the wildest -fanaticism loose against the armies of law and order and civilisation; -in the case of the Entente it was part of a purely military action -on the part of England and France, who held under their sway all the -inhabitants, coloured and otherwise, of those Colonial regions from -which troops were sent to Europe and to which they will return. - -But the attempt against colonial civilisation did not succeed. The -"Djihad," proclaimed as it was by the Turanian pseudo-Chaliph and -violently anti-Entente, was doomed to failure from the very start -from its obvious artificiality. It was a miserable farce, or rather a -tragicomedy, the present ending of which, namely the defection of the -Arabian Chaliphate, is the direct contrary of what had been aimed at -with such fanatical urgency and the use of such immoral propaganda. - -The attempt to "unloose" the Holy War was due primarily to the most -absurd illusions. It would seem that in Germany, the land of science, -the home of so many eminent doctors of research, even the scholars -have been attacked by that disease of being dazzled by wild political -illusions, or surely, knowing the countries of Islam outside-in as they -must, they would long ago have raised their voices against such arrant -folly. It would seem that all her inherent knowledge, all her studies, -have been of little or no avail to Germany, so that mistake after -mistake has been committed in the realm of world politics. It may be -said that Germany, even if she were doubtful of the issue, should still -not have left untried this means of crippling her opponents. To that -I can only reply by pointing to the actual position of affairs, well -known to Germany, not only in English, but also in French and Russian -Islamic colonial territory, which should have rendered the "Djihad" -entirely and absolutely out of the question. - -Let us take for example Egypt, French North-West Africa, and Russian -Turkestan, not to speak of the masterly English colonial rule in -India, which has now been tested and tried for centuries. Anyone who -has ever seen Egypt with the area under culture practically doubled -under modern English rule by the help of every kind of technical -contrivance for the betterment of existing conditions, and the skilful -utilisation of all available means at an expense of millions of pounds, -with its needy population given an opportunity to earn a living wage -and even wealth through a lucrative cultivation of the land under -conditions that are a paradise compared with what they were under the -Turkish rule of extortion and despotism--anyone who has seen that -must have looked from the very beginning with a very doubtful eye on -Germany's and Turkey's illusions of stirring up these well-doing people -against their rulers. - -The same thing occurs again in the extended territory of North-West -Africa from the Atlas lands to the Guinea coast and Lake Chad, where -France, as I know from personal experience, stands on a high level -of colonial excellence, developing all the resources of the country -with consummate skill, shaping her "_empire colonial_" more and more -into a shining gem in the crown of colonial endeavour, and, as I -can testify from my own observations in Morocco, Senegal, the Niger, -and the Interior of the Guinea territories of the "A.O.F." (Afrique -Occidentale Francaise), capturing the hearts of the whole population by -her essential culture, and, last but not least, winning the Mohammedans -by her clever Islam policy. - -That, finally, Russia, at any rate from the psychological standpoint, -is perhaps the best coloniser of Further Asia, even German textbooks -on colonial policy admit unreservedly, and the glowing conditions that -she has brought about especially in the basin of Ferghana in Turkestan -by the introduction of the flourishing and lucrative business of -cotton-growing are known to everyone. Only politicians of the most -wildly fantastic type, who see everywhere what they want to see, could -believe that in this war the Turkish "Turanistic" bait would ever have -any effect in Russian Central Asia, or make its inhabitants now living -in security, peace, and well-being wish back again the conditions -which prevailed under the Emirs of Samarkand, Khiva, and Bokhara. But -Germany, who should have been well informed if anyone was, believed -all these fantastic impossibilities. - -One could let it pass with a slight feeling of irritation against -Germany if it were merely a case of the failure of the "Djihad." -But unfortunately the propaganda, as stupid as it was unsuccessful, -exercised in this connection, will be written down for all time as one -of the blackest and most despicable marks against Germany's account in -this war. In Turkey alone, the underhand manipulation for the unloosing -of the "Holy War" and the German Press propaganda so closely allied -with it, indeed the whole way in which the German cause in the East -was represented journalistically throughout the war, are subjects full -of the saddest, most biting irony, to sympathise with which must lower -every German who has lived in the Turkish capital in the eyes of the -whole civilised world. - -In order to demonstrate the role played in this affair by the German -Embassy at Constantinople I will not make an exhaustive survey but -simply confine myself to a few episodes and outstanding features. An -eminent German Red Cross doctor, clear-sighted and reliable, who had -many tales to tell of what he had seen in the "Caucasus" campaign, -said to me one evening, as we sat together at a promenade concert: -"Do you see that man in Prussian major's uniform going past? I met -him twice in Erzerum last winter. The man was nothing but an employee -in a merchant's business in Baku, and had learnt Russian there. He -has never done military service. When war broke out, he hurried to -the Embassy in Pera and offered his services to stir up the Georgians -and other peoples of the Caucasus against Russia. Of course he got -full powers to do what he wanted, and guns and ammunition and piles -of propaganda pamphlets were placed at his disposal so that he might -carry on his work from the frontier of the then still neutral Turkey. -Whole chests full of good gold coins were sent to him to be distributed -confidentially for propaganda purposes; of course he was his own most -confidential friend! He went back to Erzerum without having won a -single soul for the cause of the 'Djihad.' That has not prevented his -living as a 'grand seigneur,' for the Embassy are not yet daunted, -and now the fellow struts about in a major's uniform, lent to him, -although he has never been a soldier, so that the cause may gain still -more prestige." - -Numerous examples of similar measures might be cited, and instances -without number given, of the German Embassy being made the dupe of -greedy adventurers who treated them as an inexhaustible source of gold. -First one would appear on the scene who announced himself as the one -man to cope with Afghanistan, then another would come along on his way -to Persia and play the great man "on a special mission" for a time in -Pera while money belonging to the German Empire would find its way into -all sorts of low haunts. And so things went on for two years until, -with the Arabian catastrophe, even the eyes of the great diplomatic -optimists of Ayas-Pasha might have been opened. - -I will only mention here how even a _bona fide_ connoisseur of the East -like Baron von Oppenheim, who had already made tours of considerable -value for research purposes right across the Arabian Peninsula, and so -should have known better than to share these false illusions, doled -out thousands of marks from his own pocket--and millions from the -Treasury!--to stir up the tribes to take part in the "Djihad," and how -he returned to Pera from his propaganda tour with a real Bedouin beard, -and, still unabashed, took over the control of the German Embassy's -"News Bureau," which kept up these much-derided war telegraph and -picture offices known in Pera and elsewhere by the non-German populace -as _sacs de mensonges_, and which flooded the whole of the East with -waggon loads of pamphlets in every conceivable tongue--in fact these, -with guns and ammunition, formed the chief load of the bi-weekly -"culture-bringing" Balkan train! - -I will only cite the one example of the far-famed Mario Passarge--a -real _Apache_ to look at. With his friend Frobenius, the ethnographer -and German agent, well known to me personally from French West -Africa for his liking for absinthe and negro women and his Teutonic -brusqueness emphasised in comparison with the kindly, helpful French -officials, as well as by hearsay from many scandalous tales, Passarge -undertook that disastrous expedition to the Abyssinians which failed -so lamentably owing to the Italians, and then after its collapse -came to Turkey as special correspondent of the _Vossische Zeitung_ -and managed to swindle his way through Macedonia with a false Italian -passport to Greece, where he wrote sensational reports for his -wonderful newspaper about the atrocities and low morale of Sarrail's -army--the same newspaper that had made itself the laughing-stock of the -whole of Europe, and at the same time had managed to get the German -Government to pursue for two years the shadow of a separate peace with -Russia, by publishing a marvellous series of "Special Reports via -Stockholm," on conditions in Russia that were nothing but a tissue of -lies inspired by blind Jewish hate; if a tithe of them had been true, -Russia would have gone under long ago. - -I need not repeat my own opinion on all the machinations of the German -Embassy, but I will simply give you word for word what a German Press -agent in Constantinople (I will mention no names) once said to me: -"It is unbelievable," he declared, "what a mob of low characters -frequent the German Embassy now. The scum of the earth, people who -would never have dared before the war to have been seen on the -pavements of Ayas-Pasha, have now free entry. Any day you can see -some doubtful-looking character accosting the porter at the Embassy, -whispering something in his ear, and then being ushered down the steps -to where the propaganda department, the news bureau, has its quarters. -There he gives wonderful assurances of what he can do, and promises to -stir up some Mohammedan people for the "Djihad." Then he waits a while -in the ante-room, and is finally received by the authorities; but the -next time he comes to the Embassy he walks in through the well-carpeted -main entrance, and requests an audience with the Ambassador or other -high official, and we soon find him comfortably equipped and setting -off on a 'special mission' as the confidential servant of the German -Embassy." But even the recognition of these truths has not prevented -this journalist from eating from the crib of the German Embassy! - -I cannot leave this disagreeable subject without making some mention -of a type that does more than anything to throw light on the morale of -this German propaganda. Everyone in Constantinople knows--or rather -knew, for he has now feathered his nest comfortably and departed to -Germany with his money--Mehmed Zekki "Bey," the publisher and chief -editor of the military paper _Die Nationalverteidigung_ and its -counterpart _La Defense_, published daily in French but representative -of Young Turkish-German interests. Hundreds of those who know Zekki -also know that he used to be called "Capitaine Nelken y Waldberg." -Fewer know that "Nelken" alone would have been more in accordance with -fact. - -I will relate the history of this individual, as I know it from the -mouths of reliable informants--the members of the Embassy and the -Consulate. Nelken, a Roumanian Jew, a shopkeeper by trade, had been -several times in prison for bankruptcy and fraud, and at last fled from -Roumania. He took refuge in the Turkish capital, where he continued -his business and married a Greek wife. Here again he became bankrupt, -as is only too clear from the public notice of restoration in the -Constantinople newspapers, when his lucrative political activity as the -champion of Krupp's, of the German cause and "the holy German war," -as much a purely pan-Germanic as Islamic affair, provided him with the -wherewithal to pay off his former disreputable debts. - -To go back to his history--with money won by fraud in his pocket, he -deserted his wife and went off, no doubt having made a thorough and -most professional study of the subject in the low haunts of Pera, -as a white-slave trader to the Argentine, and then--I rely for my -information on an official of the German Consulate in Pera--set up as -proprietor of a brothel in Buenos Ayres. Then, as often happens, the -Argentine special police took him into their service, thinking, on the -principle of "setting a thief to catch a thief," that he would have -special experience for the post. Grounds enough there for him to add -on the second name of his falsified passport "Nelken y Waldberg" and -to call himself in Europe a "Capitaine de la Gendarmerie" from the -Argentine. - -From there he went to Cairo and edited a little private paper called -_Les Petites Nouvelles Egyptiennes_. For repeated extortion he was -sentenced to one year's imprisonment, but unfortunately only _in -contumaciam_, for he had already fled the country, not, however, -before he had been publicly smacked on the face in the "Flasch" -beer garden without offering satisfaction as an "Argentine General" -should--a performance that was later repeated in every detail in -Toklian's Restaurant in Constantinople. - -He told me once that he had been sentenced in this way because, on -an understanding with the then German Diplomatic Agent in Cairo, von -Miquel, he had attacked Lord Cromer's policy sharply, and that his -patron von Miquel had given him the timely hint to leave Egypt. I -will leave it to one's imagination to discover how much truth there -was in this former brothel-keeper's connection with official German -"world-politics" and high diplomacy. From what I have seen personally -since, I believe that Zekki, alias Nelken, was probably speaking the -truth in this case, although it is certainly a fact that in German -circles in Cairo at that time ordinary extortion was recognised as -being punishable by imprisonment for a considerable length of time. - -Nelken then returned to Constantinople and devoted himself with -unflagging energy to his previous business of agent. He turned to -the Islamic faith and became a citizen of the Ottoman Empire because -he found it more profitable so to do, and could thus escape from his -former liabilities. Then in spite of lack of means, he managed to found -a military newspaper, which, however, soon petered out. Nelken became -Mehmed Zekki and a journalist, and of course called himself "Bey." - -Up to this point the history of this individual is nothing but a -characteristic extract from life as it is lived by hundreds of rogues -in the East. But now we come to something which is almost unbelievable -and which leads me to give credence to his version of his relations -with von Miquel, which after all only shows more clearly than ever that -German "world-politics" are not above making use of the scum of the -earth for their intrigues. In full knowledge of this man's whole black -past--as Dr. Weber of the German Embassy himself told me--the German -Embassy with the sanction of the Imperial Government (this I know from -letters Zekki showed me in great glee from the Foreign Office and the -War Office) appointed this fellow, whom all Pera said they would not -touch with gloves on or with the tongs, to be their confidential agent -with a large monthly honorarium and to become a pillar of "the German -cause" in the East. And it could not even be said in extenuation that -the man had any great desire or any wonderful vocation to represent -Germany, for--as the Embassy official said to me--"We knew that Zekki -was a dangerous character and rather inclined to the Entente at the -outbreak of war, so we decided to win him over by giving him a salary -rather than drive him into the enemy's camp." So it simply comes to -this, that Germany buys a bankrupt, a blackmailer, a procurer, a -brothel-keeper with cash to fight her "Holy War" for her! - -As publisher of the _Defense_ Zekki received a large salary from -Germany, one from Austria, afterwards cut down not from any excess of -moral sense, but simply from excess of economy, and a very considerable -sum from Krupp's. As representative of German interests he did all he -could to propitiate the Young Turks by the most fulsome flattery, and -more recently he was pushing hard to get on the Committee of Union and -Progress. But the Turks jibbed at what the German Embassy had brought -on themselves--seeing Zekki "Bey" moving about their sacred halls with -the most imposing nonchalance and condescension. Zekki himself once -complained to me bitterly that in spite of his having presented Enver -Pasha with a valuable clock worth eighty Turkish pounds which Enver -had accepted with pleasure, he would not even answer a written request -from Zekki craving an audience with him. (This, incidentally, is a most -excellent example of the working of Enver's mind, a megalomaniac as -greedy as he was proud.) - -The military director of the Turkish Press said to me once: "We -are only waiting for the first 'gaffe' in his paper to get this -filthy creature hunted out of his lair," and one day when through -carelessness a small uncensored and really quite harmless military -notice appeared in print (everything is submitted to the censor), -the Turkish Government gave it short shrift indeed, and banned _sine -die_ this "Ottoman" paper which lived by Krupp and the German trade -advertisements, and had become an advocate of the German Embassy, -because it was paid in good solid cash for it. The paper was replaced -by a new one in Turkish hands, called _Le Soir_. - -I could go on talking for ages from most intimate personal knowledge -about this man, superb in his own way. His doings were not without -a certain comic side which amused while it aggravated one. I could -mention, for example, his great lawsuit in Germany in 1916, in which he -brought an accusation of libel against some German who had called him a -blackmailer and a criminal who had been repeatedly punished. He managed -to win the lawsuit--that is, the defenders had to pay a fine of twenty -marks, because the evidence brought against Zekki could not be followed -up to Egypt on account of England's supremacy on the sea, and also no -doubt because the interests of Krupp and the German Embassy could not -have this cherished blossom of German propaganda disturbed! So for him -at any rate the lack of "freedom of the seas" he had so often raged -about in his leading articles was a very appreciable advantage. - -The last time I remember seeing the man he was engaged in an earnest -_tete-a-tete_ about the propagation of German political interests by -means of arms with the Nationalist Reichstag deputy, Dr. Streesemann, a -representative of the German heavy goods trade and of German jingoism -who had hastened to Constantinople for the furtherance of German -culture. Most significantly, no doubt in remembrance of his days in -Buenos Ayres, Zekki had chosen for this interview the most private room -of the Hotel Moderne, a pension with a bar where sect could be had; -and the worthy representative of the German people, probably nothing -loth to have a change from his eternal "Pan-German" diet, accepted his -invitation with alacrity. I followed the two gentlemen to make my own -investigations, and I certainly got as much amusement, although in a -different sense, as one usually does in such haunts. It was really -most entertaining to watch Nelken the ex-Jew and Young Turk, with his -fez on his head, nodding jovially to all the German officers at the -neighbouring tables, and settling the affairs of the realm with this -Pan-German representative of the people. - -I trust my readers will forgive me if, in spite of the distaste I -feel at having to write this unsavoury chapter about German Press -representatives and those in high diplomatic authority who commission -them, I relate one more episode of a like character before I close. -One of these writers employed in the service of the German Embassy had -done one of his female employees an injury which cannot be repeated -here. His colleague--out of professional jealousy, the other said--gave -evidence against him under oath at the German Consulate, and the other -brought a charge of perjury against him. The German Consulate, in order -not to lose such a trusty champion of the German cause for a trifle -like the wounded honour of a mere woman--an Armenian to boot!--simply -suppressed the whole case, although all Pera was speaking about it. - -Against this we have the case later on of a German journalist, most -jealous of German interests, who had a highly important document -stolen out of his desk with false keys by one of his clerks in the pay -of the Young Turkish Committee. The document was the copy of a very -confidential report addressed to high official quarters in Germany, in -which there were some rather more uncomplimentary remarks about Enver -and Talaat than appeared in the version for public consumption. An -Embassy less notoriously cowardly than the German one would simply have -shielded their man in consideration of the fact that the report was -never meant for publication and of the reprehensible way it had been -stolen and made public. But our chicken-hearted diplomats allowed him -to be dismissed in disgrace by the Turks, and so practically gave their -official sanction to the meanest Oriental methods of espionage. - -I have, however, now come to the conclusion from information I have -received that German cowardice in this case probably had a background -of hypocrisy and malice, for this same journalist had spoken with -remarkable freedom, not indeed as a pro-Englander, but in contrast -to German and Turkish narrow-mindedness, of how well he had been -treated by the English authorities, and particularly General Maxwell -in the exercise of his profession in Cairo, where he had been allowed -for fully five weeks, after the outbreak of war, to edit a German -newspaper. (I have seen the numbers myself and wondered at the almost -incredible liberality of the English censorship.) Instead of being sent -to Malta he had been treated most fairly and kindly and given every -opportunity to get away safely to Syria. Of course the narration of -events like these were rather out of place in our "God Punish England" -time, and it was no doubt on account of this, apart from all cowardice, -that the German Embassy made their fine distinctions between personal -and political morality in the case of their Press representative. - -We have spoken of German propaganda for the "Holy War," as carried -out by individuals as well as by pamphlets and the Press. The Turkish -capital saw a very appreciable amount of this in the shape of wandering -adventurers and printed paper. Several thousand Algerian, Tunisian, -French West African, Russian Tartar, and Turkestan prisoners of war -of Mohammedan religion from the German internment camps were kept for -weeks in Pera and urged by the German Government in defiance of all the -laws of the peoples to join the "Djihad" against their own rulers. - -They were told that they would have the great honour of being -presented to the Caliph in Stamboul; as devout Mohammedans they could -of course not find much to object to in that. A wonderfully attractive -picture was painted for them of the delights of settling in the -flourishing lands of the East, and living free of expense instead of -starving in prison under the rod of German non-commissioned officers -till the far-distant conclusion of peace. One can well imagine how such -marvellous conjuring tricks would appeal to these poor fellows. - -They have repeatedly told me that they had been promised to be allowed -to settle in Turkey without any mention being made of using them -again as soldiers. But once on the way to Constantinople there was no -further question of asking them what their opinion was of what was -being done to them. They were simply treated as Turkish voluntary -soldiers and sent off to the Front, to Armenia, and the Irak. How far -they were used as real front-line soldiers or in service behind the -lines I do not know; what I do know is that they left Constantinople -in as great numbers as they came from Germany, armed with rifles and -fully equipped for service in the field. One can therefore guess how -many of them became "settlers" as they had been promised. Several days -running in the early summer of 1916 I saw them being marched off in -the direction of the Haidar-Pasha station on the Anatolian Railway. -They were headed by a Turkish band, but on not one single face of all -these serried ranks did I see the slightest spark of enthusiasm, and -the German soldiers and officers escorting each separate section were -not exactly calculated to leave the impression with the public that -these were zealots fighting voluntarily for their faith who could not -get fast enough out to the Front to be shot or hanged by their former -masters! - -In her system of recruiting in the newly founded kingdom of Poland, -Germany demonstrated even more clearly of what she was capable in this -direction. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - Young Turkish nationalism--One-sided abolition of - capitulations--Anti-foreign efforts at emancipation--Abolition of - foreign languages--German simplicity--The Turkification of commercial - life--Unmistakable intellectual improvement as a result of the - war--Trade policy and customs tariff--National production--The - founding of new businesses in Turkey--Germany supplanted--German - starvation--Capitulations or full European control?--The colonisation - and forcible Turkification of Anatolia--"The properties of people who - have been dispatched elsewhere"--The "Mohadjirs"--Greek persecutions - just before the Great War--The "discovery" of Anatolia, the nucleus - of the Ottoman Empire--Turkey finds herself at last--Anatolian - dirt and decay--The "Greater Turkey" and the purely Turkish - Turkey--Cleavage or concentration? - - -From the Germans we now turn again to the Turks, to try to fathom -the exact mentality of the Young Turks during the great war, and -to discover what were the intellectual sources for their various -activities. - -To give a better idea of the whole position I will just preface my -remarks by stating a few of the outstanding features of the present -Young Turkish Government and their dependents. Their first and chief -characteristic is _hostility to foreigners_, but this does not prevent -them from making every possible use of their ally Germany, or from -appropriating in every walk of life anything European, be it a matter -of technical skill, government, civilisation, that they consider might -be profitable. Secondly they are possessed of an unbounded store of -_jingoism_, which has its origin in _Pan-Turkism_ with its ruling idea -of "Turanism." Pan-Turkism, which seems to be the governing passion of -all the leading men of the day, finds expression in two directions. -Outwardly it is a constant striving for a "Greater Turkey," a movement -that for a large part in its essence, and certainly in its territorial -aims, runs parallel with the "Holy War"; inwardly it is a fanatical -desire for a general Turkification which finds outlet in political -nationalistic measures, some of criminal barbarity, others partaking of -the nature of modern reforms, beginning with the language regulations -and "internal colonisation" and ending in the Armenian persecutions. - -It is worthy of note that of the two intellectual sources of the "Holy -War," namely Turanism--which one might reverse and call an extended -form of Old-Turkism--and Pan-Islamism, the men of the "Committee for -Unity and Progress" have only made logical though unsuccessful use -of the former, although theoretically speaking they recognise the -value of the latter as well. While Turkish race-fanaticism, which -finds practical outlet in Turanistic ideas, is still the intellectual -backbone of official Turkey to-day and has to be broken by the present -war, the Young Turkish Islam policy is already completely bankrupt and -can therefore be studied here dispassionately in all its aspects. We -propose to treat the matter in some detail. - -All New-Turkish Nationalistic efforts at emancipation had as first -principle the abolition of Capitulations. The whole Young Turkish -period we have here under review is therefore to be dated from that -day, shortly before Turkey's entry into the war, when that injunction -was flung overboard which Europe had anxiously placed for the -protection of the interests of Europeans on a State but too little -civilised. It was Turkey herself that did this after having curtly -refused the Entente offer to remove the Capitulations as a reward for -Turkey's remaining neutral. Germany, who was equally interested in -the existence or non-existence of Capitulations, never mentioned this -painful subject to her ally for a very long time, and it was 1916 -before she formally recognised the abolition of Capitulations, long -after she had lost all hold on Turkey in that direction. - -As early as summer 1915 there were clear outward indications in the -streets of Constantinople of a smouldering Nationalism ready to break -out at any moment. Turkey, under the leadership of Talaat Bey, pursued -her course along the well-trodden paths, and the first sphere in which -there was evidence of an attempt at forcible Turkification was the -language. Somewhere toward the end of 1915 Talaat suddenly ordered the -removal of all French and English inscriptions, shop signs, etc., even -in the middle of European Pera. In tramcars and at stopping-places the -French text was blocked out; boards with public police warnings in -French were either removed altogether or replaced by unreadable Turkish -scrawls; the street indications were simply abolished. The authorities -apparently thought it preferable that the Levantine public should get -into the wrong tramcar, should break their legs getting out, pick -flowers in the parks and wander round helplessly in a maze of unnamed -streets rather than that the spirit of forcible Turkification should -make even the least sacrifice to comfort. - -Of the thousand inhabitants of Pera, not ten can read Turkish; but -under the pressure of the official order and for fear of brutal assault -or some kind of underhand treatment in case of non-compliance, the -inhabitants really surpassed themselves, and before one could turn, -all the names over the shops had been painted over and replaced by -wonderful Turkish characters that looked like decorative shields or -something of the kind painted in the red and white of the national -colours. If one had not noted the entrance to the shop and the look of -the window very carefully, one might wander helplessly up and down the -Grand Rue de Pera if one wanted to buy something in a particular shop. - -But the German, as simple-minded as ever where political matters -were concerned, was highly delighted in spite of the extraordinary -difficulty of communal life. "Away with French and English," he would -shout. "God punish England; hurrah, our Turkish brothers are helping us -and favouring the extension of the German language!" - -The answer to these pan-German expansion politicians and language -fanatics, whose spiritual home was round the beer-tables of the -"Teutonia," was provided by a second decree of Talaat's some weeks -later when all German notices had to disappear. A few, who would not -believe the order, held out obstinately, and the signs remained in -German till they were either supplemented in 1916, on a very clear -hint from Stamboul, by the obligatory Turkish language or later -quite supplanted. It was not till some time after the German had -disappeared--and this is worthy of note--that the Greek signs ceased to -exist. Greek had been up to that time the most used tongue and was the -commercial language of the Armenians. - -Then came the famous language regulations, which even went so far--with -a year of grace granted owing to the extraordinary difficulties of -the Turkish script--as to decree that in the offices of all trade -undertakings of any public interest whatsoever, such as banks, -newspapers, transport agencies, etc., the Turkish language should be -used exclusively for book-keeping and any written communication with -customers. One can imagine the "Osmanic Lloyd" and the "German Bank" -with Turkish book-keeping and Turkish letters written to an exclusively -European clientele! Old and trusty employees suddenly found themselves -faced with the choice of learning the difficult Turkish script or being -turned out in a year's time. The possibility--indeed, the necessity--of -employing Turkish hands in European businesses suddenly came within -the range of practical politics--and that was exactly what the Turkish -Government wanted. - -The arrangement had not yet come into operation when I left -Constantinople, but it was hanging like the sword of Damocles over -commercial undertakings that had hitherto been purely German. Optimists -still hoped it never would come to this pass and would have welcomed -any political-military blow that would put a damper on Turkey's -arrogance. Others, believing firmly in a final Turkish victory, began -to learn Turkish feverishly. Be that as it may, the new arrangements -were hung up on the walls of all offices in the summer of 1916 and -created confusion enough. - -Many other measures for the systematic Turkification of commercial life -and public intercourse followed hard on this first bold step, which I -need scarcely mention here. And in spite of the ever-growing number of -German officials in the different ministries, partly foisted on the -Turkish Government by the German authorities, partly gladly accepted -for the moment because the Turks had still much to learn from German -organisation and could profit from employing Germans, in spite of the -appointment of a number of German professors to the Turkish University -of Stamboul (who, however, as a matter of fact, like the German -Government officials, had to wear the fez and learn Turkish within a -year, and besides roused most unfavourable and anti-German comment -in the newspapers), it was soon perfectly evident to every unbiased -witness that Germany would find no place in a victorious Turkey after -the war if the "Committee for Union and Progress" did not need her. -Some sort of light must surely have broken over the last blind optimism -of the Germans in the course of the summer of 1916. - -Hand in hand with the nationalistic attempt to coerce European -businesses into using the Turkish language there went more practical -attempts to turkify all the important branches of commerce by the -founding of indigenous organisations and the introduction of reforms -of more material content than those language decrees. These efforts, -in spite of the enormous absorption of all intellectual capabilities -and energies in war and the clash of arms, were expressed with a truly -marvellous directness of aim, and, from the national standpoint, a -truly commendable magnificence of conception. - -This latter has indeed never been lacking as a progressive ethnic -factor in Turkish politics. The Turks have a wonderful understanding, -too, of the importance of social problems, or at least, as a sovereign -people, they feel instinctively what in a social connection will -further their sovereignty. The war with its enormous intellectual -activity has certainly brought all the political and economic resources -of the Turks--including the Young Turkish Government--to the highest -possible stage of development, and we ought not to be surprised if -we often find that measures, whether of a beneficent or injurious -character, are not lacking in modern exactness, clever technicality, -and thoroughness of conception. Without anticipating, I should just -like to note here how this change appears to affect the war. No one -can doubt that it will enormously intensify zeal in the fight for -the existence of the Turkey of the future, freed from its jingoistic -outgrowths, once more come to its senses and confined to its own proper -sphere of activity, Anatolia, the core of the Empire. But, on the other -hand, iron might and determined warfare against this misguided State -are needed to root out false and harmful ideas. - -If, after this slight digression, we glance for a moment at the -practical measures for a complete Turkification of Turkey, the -economic efforts at emancipation and the civic reforms carried -through, we find first of all that the new Turkey, when she had thrown -the Capitulations overboard, then proceeded to emancipate herself -completely from European supervision in the realm of trade and commerce. - -A very considerable step in advance in the way of Turkish sovereignty -and Turkish economic patriotism was the organisation and--since -September 1916--execution of the neo-Turkish autonomic customs tariff, -which with one blow gives Turkish finances what the Government formerly -managed to extract painfully from the Great Powers bit by bit, by -fair means or foul, at intervals of many years, and which with its -hard-and-fast scale of taxes--which there appears to be no inclination -in political circles at the moment to modify by trade treaties!--means -an exceedingly adequate protection of Turkey's national productions, -without any reference whatever to the export interests of her allies, -and is a very strong inducement to the renaissance of at any rate the -most important national industries. The far-flung net of the "Djemiet" -(whose acquaintance we have already made in another connection), -that purely Turkish commercial undertaking with Talaat Bey at its -head, regulating everything as it did, taking everything into its own -hands, from the realising of the products of the Anatolian farmers -(and incidentally bringing it about that their ally Germany had to pay -heavily and always in cash, even although the Government itself owed -millions, to Germany and got everything on credit from flour out of -Roumania to paper for their journals) to the most difficult rationing -of towns, forms a foundation for the nationalising of economic life of -the very greatest importance. - -The establishment of purely Turkish trade and transport companies, -often with pensioned Ministers as directors and principal shareholders, -and the new language regulations and other privileges will soon cut the -ground away from under the feet of European concerns. Able assistance -is given in this direction by the _Tanin_ and the _Hilal_ (the -"Crescent"), the newly founded "Committee" paper in the French language -(when it is a question of the official influencing of public opinion -in European and Levantine quarters, exceptions can be made even in -language fanaticism!) in which a series of articles invariably appear -at the founding of each new company praising the patriotic zeal of the -founders. - -Then again there are the increasingly thinly veiled efforts to -establish a purely Turkish national banking system. Quite lately there -has been a movement in favour of founding a Turkish National Bank with -the object of supplanting the much-hated "Deutsche Bank" in spite of -the credit it always gives, and that international and preponderatingly -French institution, the "Banque Imperiale Ottomane," which had already -simply been sequestrated without more ado. - -The Turks have decided, too, that the mines are to be nationalised, and -Turkish companies have already been formed, without capital it is true, -to work the mines after the war. The same applies to the railways--in -spite of the fine German plans for the Baghdad Railway. - -All these wonderful efforts at emancipation are perfectly justified -from the patriotic point of view, and are so many blows dealt at -Germany, who, quite apart from Rohrbach's _Welt_-_politik_, had at -least hoped to find a lucrative field of privileged commercial activity -in the country of her close and devoted allies the Turks. It is of -supreme significance that while the war is still at its height, while -the Empire of the Sultan is defending its very existence at the gates -of the capital with German arms and German money, there is manifested -with the most startling clearness the failure of German policy, the -endangering of all these German "vital interests" in Turkey which -according to Pan-German and Imperialistic views were one of the most -important stakes to be won by wantonly letting loose this criminal war -on Europe. - -No doubt many a German was only too well aware of the fact that in -this Turkey suddenly roused by the war all the ground had been lost -that he had built on with such profit before, and many an anxious face -did one see in German circles in Constantinople. I need not tarry here -over the drastic comments I heard from so many German merchants on -this subject. They show a most curious state of mind on the part of -those who had formerly, in their quest for gain and nothing but gain, -profited in true parasitical fashion from the financial benefits of -the Capitulations and had seen nothing but the money side of this -arrangement which was, after all, entered into for other purposes. It -was no rare thing and no paradox to find a German company director say, -as I heard one say: "If things went against Turkey to-day, I would -willingly shoulder my gun, old man as I am." - -No thinking man will expend too much grief over the ruthless abolition -of the Capitulations, for they were unmoral and gave too much -opportunity to parasites and rogues, while they were quite inadequate -to protect the interests of civilisation. They may have sufficed in -the time of Abdul-Hamid, who was easily frightened off and was always -sensible and polite in his dealings with Europe. For the Turkey of -Enver and Talaat quite other measures are needed. One must, according -to one's political standpoint, either recognise and accept their -nationalistic programme of emancipation or combat it forcibly by -introducing full European control. And however willing one may be -to let foreign nations develop in their own particular way and work -out their own salvation, one's standpoint with regard to a State so -behindhand, so fanatical, so misguided as Turkey can be but one: the -introduction and continuation at all costs of whatever guarantees -the best protection to European civilisation in this land of such -importance culturally and historically. - -Not only were Europeans, but the natives themselves, affected by the -series of measures that one might class together under the heading of -Turkish Internal Colonisation and the Nationalising of Anatolia. The -programme of the Young Turks was not only a "Greater Turkey," but above -all a purely Turkish Turkey; and if the former showed signs of failing -because they had over-estimated their powers and their chances in the -war or had employed wrong methods, there was nothing at all to hinder -a sovereign Government from striving all the more ruthlessly to gain -their second point. - -The way this Turkification of Anatolia was carried on was certainly -not lacking in thoroughness, like all their nationalistic efforts. The -best means that lay to hand were the frightful Armenian persecutions -which affected a wonderful clearance among the population. "The -properties of persons who have been dispatched elsewhere" within the -meaning of the Provisory Bill were either distributed free or sold -for a mere song to anyone who applied to the Committee for them and -proved themselves of the same political persuasion or of pure Turkish -or preponderatingly Turkish nationality. The rent was often fixed -as low as 30 piastres a month (about 5_s._ 8_d._) for officials and -retired military men. In the case of the latter, Enver Pasha thought -this an excellent opportunity for getting rid, through the medium of a -kindly invitation to settle in the Interior, of those who worried him -by their dissatisfaction with his system and who might have prepared -difficulties for him. This "settling" was carried out with the greatest -zeal in the exceptionally flourishing and fruitful districts of Brussa, -Smyrna-Aidin, Eskishehir, Adabazar, Angora, and Adana, where Armenians -and Greeks had played such a great, and, to the Turks, unpopular part -as pioneers of civilisation. - -The semi-official articles in the _Tanin_ were perfectly right in -praising the local authorities who in contrast with their former -indifference and ignorance "had now fully recognised the great national -importance of internal colonisation and the settling of Mohadjirs -(emigrants from the lost Turkish territory in Bosnia, Macedonia, -Thrace, etc.) in the country." There is nothing to be said in favour -of the stupid, unprogressive character of the Anatolian as contrasted -with the strength, physical endurance, intelligence, and mobility of -these emigrants. The latter had also, generally speaking, lived in more -highly developed districts. - -The great drawback of the Mohadjirs, however, is their instability, -their idleness and love of wandering, their frivolity, and their -extraordinary fanaticism. As faithful Mohammedans following the -standard of their Padishah and leaving the parts of the country -that had fallen under Christian rule, they seemed to think they -were justified in behaving like spoilt children towards the native -population. They treated them with ruthless disregard, they were -bumptious, and, if their new neighbours were Greek or Armenian, they -inclined to use force, a proceeding which was always possible because -the Government did not take away _their_ firearms and were even known -to have doled them out to stir up unrest. It has occurred more than -once that Mohadjirs have crossed swords even with Turkish Anatolians -living peacefully in their own villages. One can then easily imagine -how much more the heretic _giaurs_ ("Christian dogs," "unclean men") -had to suffer at their hands. - -I should like to say a word here about these Greek persecutions in -Thrace and Western Anatolia that have become notorious throughout the -whole of Europe. They took place just before the outbreak of war, and -cost thousands of peaceful Greeks--men, women, and children-their -lives, and reduced to ashes dozens of flourishing villages and towns. -At the time of the murder of Sarajevo, I happened to be staying in -the vilajet of Aidin, in Smyrna and the _Hinterland_, and saw with -my own eyes such shameful deeds as must infuriate anyone against the -Turkish Government that aids and abets such barbarity--from old women -being driven along by a dozen Mohadjirs and dissipated soldiers to the -smoking ruins of Phocaea. - -Everyone at that time, at any rate in Smyrna, expected the immediate -outbreak of a new Graeco-Turkish war, and perhaps the only thing -that prevented it was the method of procrastination adopted by both -sides, for both were waiting for the Dreadnoughts they had ordered, -until finally these smaller clouds were swallowed up in the mighty -thunder-cloud gathering on the European horizon. Only the extreme speed -with which one dramatic event followed another, and my own mobilisation -which precluded my writing anything of a political nature, prevented me -on that occasion from giving my sinister impressions of Young Turkish -jingoism and Mohadjir brutality. Even if I had been able to write what -I thought it is extremely doubtful if it would ever have seen the -light of day, for the German papers were but little inclined, as I had -opportunity of discovering personally, to say anything unpleasant about -the Young Turkish Government, whose help they were already reckoning -on, and preferred rather to behave in a most un-neutral manner and keep -absolutely silent about all the ill-treatment and abuse that had been -meted out to Greece. But I remembered these scenes most opportunely -later, and that visit of mine to Western Anatolia was certainly most -useful in increasing my knowledge of Young Turkish methods of "internal -colonisation." - -But all the methods used are by no means forcible. Attempts are now -being made--and this again is most significant for the spirit of the -newest Young Turkish era--to gain a footing in the world of science -as opposed to force, and so to be able to carry out their measures -more systematically and give them the appearance of beneficent modern -social reforms. So it comes about that the Turkish idea of penetrating -and "cleaning-up" Anatolia finds practical expression on the one hand -in exterminating and robbing the Christian population, while on the -other it inclines to efforts which in time may work out to be a real -blessing. The common principle underlying both is Nationalism. - -Anatolia was suddenly "discovered." At long length the Young Turkish -Government, roused intellectually and patriotically by the war and -brought to their senses by the terrible loss of human life entailed, -suddenly realised the enormous national importance of Anatolia, that -hitherto much-neglected nucleus of the Ottoman Empire. Under the -spiritual inspiration of Mehmed Emin, the national poet of Anatolian -birth whose poems with their sympathy of outlook and noble simplicity -of form make such a warm-hearted and successful appeal to the best -kind of patriotism, men have begun since 1916, even in the circles of -the arrogant "Stambul Effendi," to take an interest in the _kaba tuerk_ -(uncouth Turk), the Anatolian peasant, his needs and his standard of -civilisation. The real, needy, primitive Turk of the Interior has -suddenly become the general favourite. - -A whole series of most remarkable lectures was delivered publicly in -the _Tuerk Odjaghi_, under the auspices of the Committee, by doctors, -social politicians, and political economists, and these were reported -and discussed at great length in all the Turkish newspapers. Their -subject was the incredible destitution in Anatolia, the devastation -wrought by syphilis, malaria, and other terrible dirt diseases, -abortions as a result of hopeless poverty, the lack of men as a result -of constant military service in many wars, and they called for -immediate and drastic reforms. - -It is with the greatest pleasure that I acknowledge that this first -late step on the way of improvement, this self-knowledge, which -appeals to me more thoroughly than anything else I saw in Turkey, is -probably really the beginning of a happier era for that beautiful land -of Anatolia, so capable of development but so cruelly neglected. For -one can no longer doubt that the Government has the real intention of -carrying out actual reforms, for they must be only too well aware that -the strengthening and healing of Anatolia, the nucleus of the Turkish -race, is absolutely essential for any Turkish mastery, and is the very -first necessity for the successful carrying out of more far-reaching -national exertions. With truly modern realisation of the needs of -the case, directly after Dr. Behaeddin Shakir Bey's first compelling -lecture, different local government officials, especially the Vali -of the Vilajet of Kastamuni, which was notorious for its syphilis -epidemics, made unprecedented efforts to improve the terrible hygienic -conditions then reigning. Let us hope that such efforts will bear -fruit. But this will probably only be the case to any measurable extent -later, after the war, when Turkey will find herself really confined to -Anatolia, and will have time and strength for positive social work. - -In the meantime I cannot get rid of the uneasy impression that this -"discovery" of Anatolia and zealous Turkish social politics are no more -than a cleverly worked excuse on the part of the Government for further -measures of Turkification, and the cloven hoof is unfortunately only -too apparent in all this seemingly noble effort on the part of the -Committee. One hears and sees daily the methods that go hand in hand -with this official pushing into the foreground of the great importance -of the purely Turkish elements in Anatolia--Armenian persecutions, -trickery, expropriations carried out against Greeks, the yielding up -of flourishing districts to quarrelsome Mohadjirs. So long as the -Turkish Government fancy themselves conquerors in the great war, so -long as they pursue the shadow of a "Greater Turkey," so long as Turkey -continues to dissipate her forces she will not accomplish much for -Anatolia, in spite of her awakening and her real desire for reform. - -Finally, in this discovery of Anatolia, in this desire to put an end to -traditional destitution, this recognition of the real import of even -the poorest, most primitive, dullest peasant peoples in the undeveloped -Interior, so long as they are of Turkish race, in this sudden flood -of learned eloquence over the needs and the true inner worth of these -miserable neglected Turkish peasants, in this pressing demand for -thorough reforms for the economic and social strengthening of this -element--measures which with the present ruling spirit of jingoism -in the Government threaten to be carried through only at the expense -of the non-Turkish population of Anatolia--we see very clear proof -that the neo-Turkish movement is a pure race movement, is nothing but -Pan-Turkism both outwardly and inwardly, and has very little indeed to -do with religious questions or with Islam. The idea of Islam, or rather -Pan-Islamism, is a complete failure. This we shall try to show in the -following chapter. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - Religion and race--The Islam policy of Abdul-Hamid and of the Young - Turks--Turanism and Pan-Islamism as political principles--Turanism - and the Quadruple Alliance--Greed and race-fanaticism--Religious - traditions and modern reforms--Reform in the law--A modern - Sheikh-ul-Islam--Reform and nationalisation--The Armenian and - Greek Patriarchates--The failure of Pan-Islamism--The alienation - of the Arabs--Djemal Pasha's "hangman's policy" in Syria--Djemal - as a "Pro-French"--Djemal and Enver--Djemal and Germany--His true - character--The attempt against the Suez Canal--Djemal's murderous - work nears completion--The great Arabian and Syrian Separatist - movement--The defection of the Emir of Mecca and the great Arabian - catastrophe. - - -In little-informed circles in Europe people are still under the -false impression that the Young Turks of to-day, the intellectual -and political leaders of Turkey in this war, are authentic, zealous, -and even fanatical Mohammedans, and superficial observers explain -all unpleasant occurrences and outbreaks of Young Turkish jingoism -on Pan-Islamic grounds, especially as Turkey has not been slow in -proclaiming her "Holy War." But this conception is entirely wrong. -The artificial character of the "Djihad," which was only set in -motion against a portion of the "unbelievers," while the others -became more and more the ruling body in Turkey, is the best proof -of the untenability of this theory. The truth is that the present -political regime is the complete denial of the Pan-Islamic idea and the -substitution of the Pan-Turkish idea of race. - -Abdul-Hamid, that much-maligned and dethroned Sultan, who, however, -towers head and shoulders above all the Young Turks put together in -practical intelligence and statesmanly skill, and would never have -committed the unpardonable error of throwing in his lot with Germany -in the war and so bringing about the certain downfall of Turkey, was -the last ruler of Turkey that knew how to make use of Pan-Islamism as a -successful instrument of authority. - -Enver and Talaat and all that breed of jingoists on the _Ittahad_ -(Committee for Union and Progress) were upstarts without any schooling -in political history, and so all the more inclined to the doctrinal -revolutionism and short-sighted fanaticism of the successful -adventurer, and were much too limited to recognise the tremendous -political import of Pan-Islamism. Naturally once they had conceived -the idea of the "Djihad," they tried to make theoretical use of -Pan-Islamism; but practically, far from extending Turkey's influence -to distant Arabian lands, to the Soudan and India, they simply let -Turkey go to ruin through their Pan-Turkish illusions and their -race-fanaticism. - -Abdul-Hamid with his clever diplomacy managed to maintain, if not the -real sympathies, at any rate the formal loyalty of the Arabs and their -solidarity with the rest of the Ottoman Empire. It was he who conceived -the idea of that undertaking of eminent political importance, the -Hedjaz Railway, which facilitates pilgrimages to the holy cities of -Mecca and Medina and links up the Arabian territory with the Turkish, -and he was always able to quell any disturbances in these outlying -parts of the Empire with very few troops indeed. Nowadays the Young -Turkish Government, even if they had the troops to spare, might send -a whole army to the Hedjaz and they would be like an island of sand -in the midst of that stormy Arab sea. The Arabs, intellectually far -superior to the Turks, have at last made up their minds to defy their -oppressors, and all the Arabic-speaking parts of the Ottoman Empire may -be taken as already lost, no matter what the final result of the great -war may be. - -The Young Turks had scarcely come into power when they began with -incredible lack of tact to treat the Arabs in a most supercilious -manner, although as a matter of fact the Arabs far surpassed them in -intellect and culture. They inaugurated a most un-modern campaign of -shameless blood-sucking, cheated them of their rights, treated them -in a bureaucratic manner, and generally acted in such an unskilful -way that they finally alienated for ever the Arab element as they -had already done in the case of the Armenians, the Greeks, and the -Albanians. - -The ever-recurring disturbances in Yemen, finally somewhat -inadequately quelled by Izzet Pasha, are still in the memory of all. -And later, directly after the reconquering of Adrianople during the -Second Balkan war, there was another moment of real national rebirth -when a reconciliation might have been effected. The visit of a great -Syrian and Arabian deputation to the Sultan to congratulate him over -this auspicious event should have provided an excellent opportunity. -I was staying some months then in Constantinople on my way back from -Africa, and I certainly thought that the half-broken threads might have -been knotted together again then if the Young Turks had only approached -the Arabs in the right way. Even the great Franco-British attack on -Stamboul might have been calculated to rouse a feeling of solidarity -among the Mohammedans living under the Ottoman flag, and in the autumn -and winter of 1915-1916 Arab troops actually did defend the entrance -to the Dardanelles with great courage and skill. But Arab loyalty -could not withstand for ever the mighty flood of race-selfishness that -possessed the Young Turks right from the moment of their entry into the -war. The enthusiasm of the Arabs soon disappeared when Pan-Turkish -ideas were proclaimed all too clearly even to the inhabitants of their -own land, when an era of systematic enmity towards the non-Turkish -parts of the population was introduced and the heavy fist of the -Central Committee was laid on the southern parts of the Empire as well. - -An attempt was made to bring the ethnic principle of "Turanism" within -the region of practical politics, but it simply degenerated into -complete race-partiality and was not calculated to further the ideas -of Pan-Islamism and the Turko-Arabian alliance which were both of such -importance in the present war. It is this idea of Turanism that lies -at the back of the efforts being made towards a purely Turkish Turkey, -and that of course makes it clear at once that it must to a very large -extent oppose the idea of Pan-Islamism. It is true that both principles -may be made use of side by side as sources of propaganda for the idea -of expansion and the policy of a "Greater Turkey." Turanists peep over -the crest of the Caucasus down into the Steppes of the Volga, where the -Russian Tartars live, and to the borders of Western Siberia and Inner -China where in Russian Turkestan a race of people of very close kinship -live and where very probably the Ottoman people had their cradle. The -Pan-Islamists want the alliance of these Russian parts as well, but -from another point of view, and, above all, they aim at the expansion -of Ottoman rule to the farthest corners of Africa and South-West Asia, -to the borders of negro territory, and through Persia, Afghanistan, and -Baluchistan to the foot of the Himalayas, while on grounds of practical -politics they strive to abolish the old, seemingly insurmountable -antithesis between Sonnites and Shiites within the sanctuary of Islam. - -The programme of the so-called "Djihad" works on this principle, but -goes much farther. As well as stirring up against their present rulers -those parts of Egypt and Tripoli which once owned allegiance to the -Sultan and the Atlas lands, which are at any rate spiritually dependent -on the Caliph in Stamboul, the "Djihad" aims at introducing the spirit -of independence into all English, French, Italian, and Russian Colonial -territory by rousing the Mohammedans and so doing infinite harm to -the enemies of Turkey. It is most important, therefore, always to -differentiate between this "Holy War" "stirring-up" propaganda from -Senegal to Turkestan and British India, and the more territorial -Pan-Islamism of the present war, which goes hand in hand with the -efforts being made towards a "Greater Turkey." - -Instead of uniting all these principles skilfully for the realisation -of a great end, making sure of the Arab element by wisely restraining -their selfish and exaggeratedly pro-Turkish instincts and their -despotic lust for power, and so giving their programme of expansion -southwards some prospect of succeeding, the Turks gave way right from -the beginning of the war to such a flood of brutal, narrow-minded -race-fanaticism and desire to enrich the Turkish element at the cost -of the other inhabitants of the country, that no one can really be -surprised at the pitiable result of the efforts to secure a Greater -Turkey. - -I should just like to give one small example of the fanatical hatred -that exists even in high official circles against the non-Turkish -element in this country of mixed race. The following anecdote will -give a clear enough idea of the ruling spirit of fanaticism and -greed. I was house-hunting in Pera once and could not find anything -suitable. I approached a member of the Committee and he said in solemn -earnest: "Oh, just wait a few weeks. We are all hoping that Greece -will declare war on us before long, and then _all_ the Greeks will -be treated as the Armenians have been. I can let you have the nicest -villa on the Bosporus. But then," he added with gleaming eyes, "we -won't be so stupid as merely to turn them out. These Greek dogs (_koepek -rum_) will have the pleasure of seeing us take everything away from -them--_everything_--and compelling them to give up their own property -by formal contract." - -I can guarantee that this is practically a word-for-word rendering of -this extraordinary outburst of fanaticism and greed on the part of -an otherwise harmless and decent man. I could not help shuddering at -such opinions. Apparently it was not enough that Turkey was already at -war with three Great Powers; she must needs seek armed conflict with -Greece, so that, as was the outspoken, the open, and freely-admitted -intention of official persons, she might then deal with four and a -half millions of Ottoman Greeks, practically her own countrymen, as she -had done with the unfortunate Armenians. In face of such opinions one -cannot but realise how unsure the existence of the Young Turkish State -has become by its entry into the war, and cannot but foresee that this -race-fanaticism will lead the nation to political and social suicide. -Can one imagine a purely Turkish Turkey, when even the notion of a -Greater Turkey failed? - -Pessimists have often said of the Turkish question that the Turks' -principal aim in determining on a complete Turkification of Anatolia -by any, even the most brutal, means, is that at the conclusion of -war they can at least say with justification: "Anatolia is a purely -Turkish country and must therefore be left to us." What they propose to -bequeath to the victorious Russians is an Armenia without Armenians! - -The idea of "Turanism" is a most interesting one, and as a widespread -nationalistic principle has given much food for thought to Turkey's -ally, Germany. Turanism is the realisation, reawakened by neo-Turkish -efforts at political and territorial expansion, of the original -race-kinship existing between the Turks and the many peoples inhabiting -the regions north of the Caucasus, between the Volga and the borders of -Inner China, and particularly in Russian Central Asia. Ethnographically -this idea was perfectly justified, but politically it entails a -tremendous dissipation of strength which must in the end lead to grave -disappointment and failure. All the Turkish attempts to rouse up the -population of the Caucasus either fell on unfruitful ground or went -to pieces against the strong Russian power reigning there. Enver's -marvellous conception of an offensive against Russian Transcaucasia led -right at the beginning of the war to terrible bloodshed and defeat. - -People in neutral countries have had plenty of opportunity of judging -of the value of those arguments advanced by Tatar professors and -journalists of Russian citizenship for the "Greater-Turkish" solution -of the race questions of the Russian Tatars and Turkestan, for these -refugees from Baku and the Caucasus, paid by the Stamboul Committee, -journeyed half over Europe on their propaganda tour. The idea of -Turanism has been taken up with such enthusiasm by the men of the -Young Turkish Committee, and utilised with such effect for purposes of -propaganda and to form a scientific basis for their neo-Turkish aims -and aspirations, that a stream of feeling in favour of the Magyars has -set in in Turkey, which has not failed to demolish to a still greater -extent their already weakened enthusiasm for their German allies. And -it is not confined to purely intellectual and cultural spheres, but -takes practical form by the Turks declaring, as they have so often done -in their papers in almost anti-German articles about Turanism, that -what they really require in the way of European technique or European -help they much prefer to accept from their kinsmen the Hungarians -rather than from the Germans. - -To the great annoyance of Germany, who would like to keep her heavy -hand laid on the ally whom she has so far guided and for whom she pays, -the practical results of the idea of Turanism are already noticeable -in many branches of economic and commercial life. The Hungarians are -closely allied to the Turks not only by blood but in general outlook, -and form a marked contrast to Germany's cold and methodical calculation -in worming her way into Turkish commercial life. After the war when -Turkey is seeking for stimulation, it will be easy enough to make use -of Hungarian influence to the detriment of Germany. Turanistic ideas -have even been brought into play to establish still more firmly the -union between Turkey and her former enemy Bulgaria, and the people of -Turkey are reminded that the Bulgars are not really Slavs but Slavic -Fino-Tartars. - -In proportion as the Young Turks have brought racial politics to a -fine art, so they have neglected the other, the religious side. More -and more, Islam, the rock of Empire, has been sacrificed to the needs -of race-politics. Those who look upon Enver and Talaat and their -consorts to-day as a freemasonry of time-serving opportunists rather -than as good Mohammedans come far nearer the truth than those who -believe the idea spread by ignorant globe-trotters that every Turk is -a zealous follower of Islam. It was not for nothing that Enver Pasha, -the adventurer and revolutionary, went so far even in externals as -to arouse the stern disapproval of a wide circle of his people. With -true time-serving adaptability to all modern progress-and who will -blame him?--he even finally sacrificed the Turkish soldier's hallowed -traditional headgear, the fez. While the _kalpak_, even in its laced -variety, could still be called a kind of field-grey or variegated -or fur edition of the fez, the ragged-looking _kabalak_, called the -"Enveriak" to distinguish it from other varieties, is certainly on the -way towards being a real sun helmet. Still more recently (summer 1916) -a black-and-white cap that looks absolutely European was introduced -into the Ottoman Navy. The simple, devout Mohammedan folk were most -unwilling to accept these changes which flew direct in the face of all -tradition. They may be externals of but little importance, but in spite -of their insignificance they show clearly the ruling spirit in official -Young Turkish spheres. - -This is in the harmless realm of fashion, or at any rate military -fashion, exactly the same spirit as has caused the Turkish Government -to undertake since 1916 radical changes in the very much more -important field of private and public law. Special commissions -consisting of eminent Turkish lawyers have been formed to carry through -this reform of law and justice, and they have been hard at work ever -since their formation. What is characteristic and modern about the -reform is that the preponderating role hitherto played by the Sheriat -Law, founded on the Koran and at any rate semi-religious, is to be -drastically curtailed in favour of a system of purely Civil law, which -has been strung together from the most varied sources, even European -law being brought under contribution, and the "Code Napoleon," which -has hitherto only been used in Commercial law. This of course leads to -a great curtailment of the activity and influence of the _kadis_ and -_muftis_, the semi-religious judges, who have now to yield place to a -more mundane system. The first inexorable consequence of the reform -was that the Sheikh-ul-Islam, the highest authority of Islam in the -whole Ottoman Empire, had to give up a large part of his powers, and -incidentally of his income. - -The changes made were so far-reaching, and the spirit of the reform -so modern, that, in spite of the unshakable power of Talaat's truly -dictatorial Cabinet which got it passed, a concession had to be made -to the public opinion roused against the measure. The form was kept as -it was, but the Sheikh-ul-Islam, Hairi Effendi, refused ostensibly to -sign the decree and gave in his resignation. Not only, however, was an -immediate successor found for him (Mussa Kiazim Effendi), who gave his -signature and even began to work hard for the reform, but--and this -is most significant for the relationship of the Young Turks towards -Islam--Hairi Effendi, the same ex-Sheikh-ul-Islam who had proclaimed -the _Fetwa_ for the "Holy War," gave up his post without a murmur, and -in the most peaceable way, and remained one of the principal pillars of -the "Committee for Union and Progress." - -His resignation was nothing but a farce to throw dust in the eyes of -the all-too-trusting lower classes. After he had succeeded by this -manoeuvre in getting the reform of the law (which as a measure of -Turkification was of more consequence to him now than his own sadly -curtailed juristic functions) accepted at a pinch by the conservative -population who still clung firmly to Islam, he went on to play his -great role in the programme of jingoism. A "measure of Turkification" -we called it, for that is what it amounts to practically, like -everything else the men of the "Ittihad" take in hand. - -I tried to give some hint of this within the limits of the censorship -as long ago as the summer of 1916 in a series of articles I wrote for -the _Koelnische Zeitung_. Here I should like just to confine myself -to one point. Naturally the reform of the law aimed principally at -substituting these newly formed pure Turkish conceptions for the -Arabian legal ideas that had been the only thing available hitherto. -(Everything that this victorious Turkey had absorbed and worked up -in the way of civilised notions was either Arabian or Persian or of -European origin.) It set to work now in the sphere of family law, -which hitherto had been specially sacrosanct and only subordinate to -the religious _Sheria_, and where tradition was strongest--not like -commercial and maritime law which had been quite modern for a long time. - -The reform went so far that it even tried to introduce a kind of civil -marriage, whereas up till now all marriages, divorces, and everything -to do with inheritance had taken place exclusively before religious -officials. I may just add that these newest reforms give women no -wider rights than they had before. Perhaps this may be taken as an -indication that they have been conceived far less from a social than -from a political point of view. What induced the Turkish Government to -introduce anything so entirely modern as civil marriage in defiance -of age-old custom was more than likely the desire to put an end to -non-Turkish Ottomans contracting marriages and making arrangements -about inheritance, etc., before their own privileged, ethnically -independent organisations, and so to deal the final death-blow to the -Armenian and Greek Patriarchates. If Family Law was modernised in -this way, there would not be the faintest shadow of excuse left for -the existence of these institutions which enjoyed a far-reaching and -influential autonomy. - -The Armenian Patriarchate got short shrift indeed. By dissolving the -Patriarchate in the Capital, breaking off all relations with the -Armenian headquarters in Etzmiadjin and allowing only a very small -remainder of Patriarchate to be sent up in Jerusalem under special -State supervision, the Turks, as a logical sequence to the Armenian -atrocities, simply dealt the death-blow in the summer of 1916 to this -important social institution. - -The Greek organisation, however, conducted by a more numerous and, -outwardly at any rate, better protected people, offered far more -resistance, and could not be simply wiped out with a stroke of the pen. -A direct attempt to suppress it was made as early as 1910, but broke -down entirely in face of the firm attitude of the Greek Patriarch in -Constantinople. Now the Young Turks seem to have come to the conclusion -that less drastic methods, beginning on a juristic basis, may have a -better effect. - -We have taken this one example in order to get at the whole neo-Turkish -method of procedure. It consists in pushing forward, if need be with -greater delicacy than before and on the round-about road of real modern -reforms, towards the one immovable goal: the complete Turkification of -Turkey. The reform of the law, which we have treated more exhaustively -as an example of the first rank, is typical of the Young Turkish -national tendency. Naturally it has its use, too, as a means of further -throwing off the foreign political yoke. Through the modernising -of the whole Turkish legal system, Europe is to be shown that the -Capitulations can be dispensed with. - -The reform throws a vivid light, too, on the inner relationship -of the jingoistic, pure Pan-Turkish leaders of present-day Turkey -towards religion. And it is perhaps not generally known that at all -the deliberations of the "Committee" where the will of Talaat, the -uncrowned king of Turkey, is alone decisive, the opinion of the Grand -Master of the Turkish Freemasons is always listened to, and that he is -one of the most willing tools of the "Ittihad." - -No, the members of the "Committee for Union and Progress" have -for a very long time simply snapped their fingers at Islam if it -hindered them making use of and profiting from their own subjects. -They know very well how to retain at least the outward semblance of -friendliness so long as Islam does not directly cross the path of -Pan-Turkism. But the Armenian atrocities, instigated by Talaat, have -as little to do with religion, they are as exclusively the result -of pure race-fanaticism, professional jealousy, and greed, as the -hostile, devil-may-care attitude towards Greece, and the millions of -well-to-do Ottoman Greeks who are the next troublesome competitors -and suitable victims of aggrandisement to be disposed of after the -Armenians, or as the terrible persecutions against the highest class -of Syrians and Arabs pictured in Djemal Pasha's famous paper. They -are Turks, pure Turks with the most narrow-minded jingoistic point of -view, and not broad-minded Mohammedans, that sit on the Committee in -"Nur-el-Osmanieh" in Stamboul and make all these wonderful political -plans, from internal reforms and measures of government which attempt -to adapt themselves to European technique by sacrificing ancient -traditions, to the hangman's tactics employed against their own -subjects. - -Take the case of the Syrians and the Arabs. The "Ittihad" clique, -weltering in a fog of Pan-Turkish illusion, were yet not without -anxiety with regard to the intellectual and social superiority, to -say nothing of the political sharpness, of these peoples compared with -the Turks. They had yielded entirely to their brutal instincts of -extermination and suppression towards foreign races, and the Germans -had made no attempt to curb them. They were political parvenus suddenly -freed from the control of the civilised Great Powers, and they did not -know how to make use of that freedom. Perhaps they felt themselves -already on the edge of an abyss and were constrained to snatch what -they could while there was yet time. - -Is it any wonder, then, that the Turks should throw over all trace of -decency towards the Syrians and the Arabs once they were sure that -these peoples, who regarded their oppressors with most justifiable -hatred, would refuse to have anything to do with the "Holy War" of the -Turanian Pseudo-Caliph? - -The last remnants of the traditional Pan-Islamic esteem of their Arab -neighbours, already sadly shattered by the Young Turks' ruthless policy -towards them since 1909, were flung light-heartedly overboard by a -Government that knew they were to blame for the Arab defection but -thought they had found a substitute that appealed more to their true -Asiatic character in these Turanistic dreams of expansion and measures -of Turkification. And while fanatical adventurers and money-grubbing -deputies paid by the easily duped German Embassy were preaching a -perfectly useless "Holy War" on the confines of the Arabian territory -of the Turkish Empire, towards the part occupied by the English, while -Enver Pasha continued to visit the holy places of Islam, where he got -a frosty enough reception, although the wonderfully worded communiques -on the subject succeeded in blinding the population to the true state -of affairs, "the hangman's policy" of Djemal Pasha, the Commander of -the Fourth Osmanic Army, and Naval Minister, had been for a long time -in full swing in the old civilised land of Syria against the best -families among the Mohammedan as well as the Christian population. The -whole civilised world is laying up a store of accusations of this kind -against the Turks, and it is to be hoped that a public sentence will be -passed on these gentlemen of the "Ittihad" on the conclusion of peace -by a combined court of Europeans and Americans. - -Here again the Young Turkish Government assumed the existence of a -widespread conspiracy and a Syrian and Arabian Separatist movement -towards autonomy, which was to free these lands from Turkish rule and -to be established under Anglo-French protection. At the time of the -Armenian persecutions the Committee had managed most cunningly to -turn the whole Armenian question to their own account by publishing -false official reports by the thousand, accompanied by any number of -photographs of "bands of conspirators," the authenticity of which never -has been proved and never will be; indeed one can only wonder where the -Turkish Government got them from. - -In this case again there was no lack of official printed commentaries -on Djemal Pasha's "hanging list," and any reader of the _Journal de -Beyrouth_ in war-time would have had no difficulty in compiling it. It -is certainly not my intention to question the existence of a Separatist -movement towards autonomy in Syria, but it was a sporadic tendency -only, and ought never to have been made the excuse for the wholesale -execution of highly respected and well-born citizens who had nothing -whatever to do with the matter. - -In the Young Turkish memorandum on this act of spying and bloodshed, -the passages most underlined and printed in the boldest characters, the -passages which, according to official intention, were to justify these -frightful reprisals, form the most terrible indictment ever brought -against Turkish despotism, and provide the most complete proof of the -truth of all the accusations made against the Turkish Government by -the ill-treated and oppressed Syrians and Arabians. On anyone who does -not read with Young Turkish eyes the memorandum makes directly the -opposite impression to what was intended. And even if the Separatist -movement had existed in any greater extent--which was quite out of the -question owing to lack of weapons, conflicting interests, the contrasts -in the people themselves, some of them Mohammedan, some Christian, -some sectarian, and the impossibility of any kind of organisation -under the stern discipline of Turkish rule--the Turks would have most -richly deserved it and it would have been justified by the thousands -of brutalities inflicted by the Old and Young Turkish regimes on the -highly civilised Arabian people and their industrious and commercial -neighbours the Syrians, who had always been much influenced by European -culture. Anyone who has once watched how the Committee in Stamboul -made a pretext of events on the borders of Caucasia to exterminate a -whole people, including women and children, even in Western and Central -Anatolia and the Capital, can no longer be in the least doubt as to the -methods employed by Djemal Pasha, the "hangman" of Syrians and Arabs, -how grossly he must have exaggerated and misstated the facts to find -enough victims so that he could look on for a year and a half with a -cigar in his mouth--as he himself boasted--while the flower of Syrian -and Arabian youth, the elite of society, and the aged heads of the best -families in the land were either hanged or shot. - -I should like to take the opportunity here of giving a short -description of Djemal Pasha, this man who, according to Turkish ideas, -is destined still to play a great part in Turkish politics. I should -also like to clear up a misunderstanding that seems to exist in -civilised Europe with regard to him. There is still an idea abroad -that Djemal Pasha is pro-French, this man who set out on his adventure -against the Suez Canal as "Vice-king of Egypt," and, after he had been -beaten there, settled in Syria as dictator with unlimited power--even -openly defying the Central Government in Constantinople when he felt -piqued--so that as commander of the Fourth Army he could support -the attempt against Egypt, but principally to satisfy his murderous -instincts. Anyone who has seen this man close at hand (whom a German -journalist belonging to the _Berliner Tageblatt_ with the most fulsome -flattery once called one of the handsomest men in Turkey) knows enough. -Small, thickset, a beard and a pair of cunning cruel eyes are the -most prominent features of this face from which everyone must turn in -disgust who remembers the "hangman's" part played by the man. - -It is extraordinary that he should still pass as Pro-French in many -quarters, and perhaps it is part of his slyness to preserve this role. -Djemal is not Pro-French; he is only the most calculating of all the -leading men of Turkey. He certainly had pro-French tendencies, in -the current meaning of the word, before the war; that is, he thought -the interests of his country would be best safeguarded against German -machinations for winning over the Young Turks by taking advantage -of Turkey's traditional friendship for France. He was also against -Turkey's participation in the war on the side of the Central Powers, -and he was furiously angry when the fleet which was supposed to be -under his control appeared against his will under the direction of the -German Admiral of the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ in the Black Sea. - -But when the war actually broke out, he very soon accommodated himself -to the new state of affairs. Instead of handing in his resignation, -he added to his naval duties the chief command of the army operating -against Egypt, for Djemal's chief characteristics were characterless -opportunism and inordinate ambition. Suiting his opinions to the facts -of the case, he was not long in advertising his Pro-French feelings -again so that he might be popular with the people of Syria. That of -course did not prevent him later on from carrying out his "hangman's -policy" against the Syrians who were bound by so many social ties to -France. From that it is not difficult to judge just how genuine his -Pro-French feelings are! - -The only genuine thing in his whole attitude is his admitted deep -hatred of Germany and his personal animosity towards the pro-German -Enver Pasha, arising partly from jealousy, partly from a feeling of -being slighted, and only concealed for appearance' sake. During the -war he has often enough made very plain utterances of his hatred of -Germany, and it would certainly betoken ill for German politics in -Turkey if Djemal Pasha succeeded in obtaining a more active role in the -Central Government. So far the Minister for War has managed to hold him -at arm's length, and Djemal has no doubt found it of advantage to wait -for a later moment, and content himself for the present with his actual -powerful position. - -From his own repeated anti-German speeches it has, however, been only -too easy to glean that his anti-German opinions and actions are not -the result of his being Pro-French, but of his being a jingoistic -Pan-Turk. He may simulate Pro-French feelings again and play them as -the trump card in his surely approaching decisive struggle with Enver -Pasha, when Enver's system has failed; Djemal will no doubt maintain -then that he foresaw everything, and that he has always been for France -and the Entente. Everyone who knows his character is at any rate sure -of one thing, and that is that he will stop at nothing, even a rising -against the Central Government, if his ambitious opportunism should -so dictate it. It is to be hoped, however, that public opinion among -the Entente will not be deceived as to his true character, and will -recognise that he is nothing more than a jingoistic, greedy, raging -Young Turkish fanatic and one of the most cunning at that. It would -really be doing too much honour to a man with a murderer's face and a -murderer's instinct to credit him with honest sympathies for France. - -Djemal's work is nearing fruition. His cruel executions, his cynical -breaking of promises in Syria, have at any rate contributed, along with -other politically more important tendencies which have been cleverly -utilised by England for the establishment of an Arabian Caliphate, -towards the decisive result that the Emir of Mecca has revolted -against the Turks. The Emir's son and his great Arabian suite had to -pay a prolonged visit to Djemal at one time, and it is evident that -the brutal execution of Arabian notables that he saw then directly -influenced his father's attitude. The movement is bound to spread, -and slowly and surely it will roll on till it ends in the full and -perfect separation from Turkey of all Arabic-speaking districts as far -as Northern Syria and the borders of Southern Kurdistan. The so-called -Separatist movement, that Djemal tried to drown in a sea of blood -before it was well begun, is now an actual fact. - -In Egypt England has been seeing for quite a long time the practical -and favourable results of her success in founding the Arabian -Caliphate. She has now gained practically absolute security for her -rule on the Nile, and she has even been able to remove troops and -artillery from the Suez Canal to other fronts. The German dream of an -offensive against Egypt vanished long ago; now even the last trace -of a German-Turkish attempt against the Canal has ceased, and the -English troops have moved the scene of their operations to Southern -Palestine. While I write these lines, there comes from the other side, -from Arabian Mesopotamia, the news of the recapture of Kut-el-Amara by -British troops. I should not like to prophesy what moral or political -results the fall of Baghdad, Medina, and Jerusalem will have for -Turkish rule; possibly, nay probably, iron necessity, the impossibility -of returning, the constraint imposed by their German Allies--for Turkey -is fully under German military rule--may weaken the direct results -of even such catastrophes as these. But the hearts which beat to-day -with high hopes for the freedom of Great Arabia and autonomy for Syria -under Franco-English protection will flame with new rapture, and in the -Turkish capital all grades of society will realise that Osmanic power -is on the decline. - -Meantime Djemal Pasha is still occupied in Syria raking in the property -of the murdered citizens and dividing it up among his minions, the -least very often being given over to commissions consisting of -individuals of extremely doubtful reputation. When he is not thus -busily engaged, he spends his time round the green table playing poker. -It is to be ardently hoped that even this great organiser will soon be -at the end of his tether in Syria and have to leave the country where -he has kinged in royally for two years. Then, perhaps, the moment may -come when things are going so badly for the whole of Turkey that Djemal -will at last have the opportunity, in spite of the failure of his -policy in Syria, of measuring his military strength against his hated -enemy Enver in Stamboul. That would be the beginning of the last stage -before the complete collapse of Turkey. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - Anti-war and pro-Entente feelings among the Turks--Turkish pessimism - about the war--How would Abdul-Hamid have acted?--A war of prevention - against Russia--Russia and a neutral Turkey--The agreement about the - Dardanelles--A peaceful solution scorned--Alleged criminal intentions - on the part of the Entente; the example of Greece and Salonika--To be - or not to be?--German influence--Turkey stakes on the wrong card--The - results. - - -There has been no lack of cross currents _against_ the war policy of -the Young Turkish Government. Ever since the entry of Turkey into the -war, there has been a deeply rooted and unshakeable conviction among -all kinds and conditions of men, even in the circles of the Pashas and -the Court--the people of Turkey take too little interest in politics -and are composed of far too heterogeneous elements for there to be -anything in the nature of what we call "public opinion"--that Turkey's -alliance with the Central Powers was a complete mistake and that it -can lead to no good. It is of course known that since the outbreak of -war Turkey has not only been under martial law and in a state of siege, -but that under the regime of a brutal military dictatorship, with its -system of espionage, personal liberty has been practically null and -void. Any expressions of disapproval, therefore, or agitations against -the "Committee" are naturally only possible in most intimate circles, -and that with all secrecy. Little or nothing of the true opinions of -this or that personage ever trickles through to publicity, and so it -is utterly impossible, except from quite detached symptoms, to get -any proper idea of what are the real thoughts and feelings of those -cultured Turks who do not belong to the "Ittihad" and have no part in -their system of pillage and aggrandisement. - -In spite of the limited information available it will be worth while, -I think, to go into these counter-streams a little more fully. In -pretty well every grade of society and among all nationalities in -Turkey, there is the conviction that the old Sultan Abdul-Hamid would -never have committed the fateful error of declaring war against the -Entente and binding himself hand and foot to Germany. In the case of -Turkey's remaining neutral, the Entente had formally promised her -territorial integrity; Turkey refused. She felt herself driven to a war -of prevention, principally through fear of the power of Russia. The -statements made by those who agreed with Enver and Pasha and pushed -for the war, that Turkey in the case of non-participation would be -completely thrown on the mercy of a victorious Russia and that Russia's -true aim in the war was the Dardanelles and Constantinople, have never -been authenticated. There are still Turks, anti-Russian Turks, who even -admitted this possibility, and yet believed the word of the Entente--at -any rate of the Western Powers--and trusted to England's throwing her -weight into the scale against Russia's plans of conquest, if Turkey -remained neutral. They saw and still see no necessity for the Turkish -Government to have entered on a war of prevention. - -Russia's aim was the Straits and Constantinople--well and good. But -Russia would by hook or by crook have had to come to a friendly -agreement with Turkey and could not have simply broken a definite -promise given by the combined Entente to Turkey. It would have been -quite different if Russia had demanded Constantinople from the Western -Powers as the price of her participation in the war against Germany; -then, but only then, the Entente would perhaps have had to come to an -agreement satisfying Russia on this head. But Russia had quite other -ideas, and long before Turkey's entry into the war and without any -prospects of getting Constantinople, she flung her whole weight against -Germany and Austria right at the beginning of the war. - -The treaty with regard to Constantinople between the Western Powers -and Russia was not signed till six months after Turkey declared war, -and England would certainly never have allowed Russia to encroach on a -really neutral or sympathetically neutral Turkey. Then, but only then, -there might have been some foundation in fact for the ideas one heard -advanced by German-Turkish illusionists who would still have liked to -believe that there was continual dissension within the Entente, even -long after the official notification of the Anglo-Russian treaty -with regard to the Straits, and by some even after the speech of the -Russian minister Trepoff, that the English occupation of the islands -at the entrance to the Dardanelles, which could be made into a second -Gibraltar, aimed chiefly at blocking the Straits and preventing Russia -from gaining undisturbed possession of Constantinople. Specially -optimistic people even look to that chimerical antagonism between -Russia and England for the salvation of Turkey, should Germany be -finally overcome. - -Whether she liked it or not, then, Russia would have had to come to -a friendly agreement with Turkey, had the latter remained neutral, -in order to gain the desired goal. And this goal would have been -necessarily limited, by the fact of Turkey's non-entry on the enemy -side, rather to the stoppage of German Berlin-Baghdad efforts at -expansion, the prevention of any strangulation of the enormous Russian -trade in the south and desperate opposition to any attempt to keep -Russia away from the Mediterranean, than to an attack on Turkey and -her vital interests. And who knows whether under such an agreement, -bound as it was to give Russia certain liberties and privileges in the -Straits, Turkey also might not have got much in exchange, at any rate -on financial lines, and might not also have obtained permission at last -to develop Armenia by that west-to-east railway so long desired by the -Turks and so strongly opposed by the Russians? - -Would the terrible bloodshed in the present war, the complete economic -exhaustion entailed, and the risk of a doubtful outcome of the fight -for existence or non-existence not have been far outweighed by the -prospect, in the case of a friendly agreement with Russia, of seeing -the orthodox cross again planted on the Hagia Sophia, an international -regime established in Constantinople--with certain Russian privileges -and the satisfaction of certain Russian moral demands, it is true, -but otherwise nothing to disturb Turkish life in Stamboul or in any -way prejudice Turkish prestige? Even the prospect of having to raze -the forts on the Straits to the ground in order to give free access -from the Mediterranean, or the necessity of having to inaugurate a -more humane and beneficent policy in Armenia, perhaps with European -supervision over the carrying out of the reforms would surely have -been preferable to the present state of affairs. These would all -have ensured for Turkey a long period of peace, capital wealth and -intellectual and social improvement, perhaps at the expense of a -momentary hurt to her feelings,--but these had been far more severely -wounded already, as, for example, when she had to look on helplessly -while bit after bit of her Empire was torn from her. It would have -been impossible for Russia to get more than this from Turkey had she -remained neutral. Her sovereignty and territorial integrity would have -been completely guaranteed. - -But Turkey thought she had to stake all, her whole existence, on -one card, and she staked on the wrong one, as is recognised now by -thousands of intelligent Turks. Believers in the war policy followed -by the Government make themselves hoarse maintaining that if Russia -had not gradually overpowered a neutral Turkey to win Constantinople -completely, at any rate the Entente would have finally forced her to -join their side; in either case, therefore, war was inevitable. They -point to Salonika, and, in face of all reason, maintain that the -Entente Powers would in all probability have treated Turkey exactly -as they treated Greece. They forget that their geographical position -is entirely different, and would have a very different effect on -military tactics. If Turkey had remained a sympathetic neutral, so -would Bulgaria; or else the whole of the Balkan States, from Roumania -and Bulgaria to Greece, would have joined the Entente right at the -beginning. In either case there would have been no necessity at all for -Turkey to join, for what military obligations had she to fulfil? The -Entente would certainly never have driven Turkey to fight, simply to -get the benefit of the Turkish soldiers available; there is no truth -whatever in the statements circulated about unscrupulous compulsion -with this end in view. - -The benefit for the Entente of Turkey's sympathetic neutrality would -have been so enormous that they would most certainly have been content -with that. Neither in Germany nor in Turkey is there any doubt whatever -in military circles that it was Turkey's entry into the war on the -German side and her blocking of the Straits, and so preventing Russia -from obtaining supplies of ammunition and other war material, that has -so far saved the Central Powers. Had Turkey remained neutral, constant -streams of ammunition would have poured into Russia, Mackensen's -offensive would have had no prospect at all of success, and Germany -would have been beaten to all intents and purposes in 1915. The Turks -do not scruple to let Germany feel that this is so on every suitable or -unsuitable occasion. - -The Entente would certainly never have moved a finger to disturb -Turkey's sympathetic neutrality and drive her into war. There would -have been tremendous material advantages for Turkey in such a -neutrality. Instead of being impoverished, bankrupt, utterly exhausted, -wholly lost, as she now is, she might have been far richer than -Roumania has ever been. There is one thing quite certain, and that is -that Abdul-Hamid would never have let this golden opportunity slide of -having a stream of money pouring in on himself and his country. And -certainly Turkey would not have lacked moral justification had she so -acted. - -These considerations I have put forward rather from the Turkish -anti-war point of view than from my own. They are opinions expressed -hundreds of times by thoroughly patriotic and intelligent Turks -who saw how the ever more intensive propaganda work of the German -Ambassadors, first Marschall von Bieberstein, then Freiherr von -Wangenheim, gradually wormed its way through opposition and prejudice, -how the German Military Mission in Constantinople tried to turn the -Russian hatred of Germany against Turkey instead, how, finally, those -optimists and jingoists on the "Committee," who knew as little about -the true position of affairs throughout the world as they did of the -intentions of the Entente or the means at their own disposal, proceeded -to guide the ship of State more and more into German waters, without -any reference to their own people, in return for promises won from -Germany of personal power and material advantage. These were those days -of excitement and smouldering unrest when Admiral von Souchon of the -_Goeben_ and the _Breslau_, with complete lack of discipline towards -his superior, Djemal Pasha, arranged with the German Government to -pull off a coup without Djemal's knowledge--chiefly because he was -itching to possess the "Pour le Merite" order--and sailed off with the -Turkish Fleet to the Black Sea. (I have my information from the former -American Ambassador in Constantinople, Mr. Morgenthau, who was furious -at the whole affair.)[2] - -These were the days when Enver and Talaat threw all their cards on the -table in that fateful game of To Be or Not to Be, and brought on their -country, scarcely yet recovered from the bloodshed of the Balkan War, -a new and more terrible sacrifice of her manhood in a war extending -over four, and later five, fronts. The whole result of this struggle -for existence depended on final victory for Germany and that was -becoming daily more doubtful; in fact, Ottoman troops had at last to be -dispatched by German orders to the Balkans and Galicia. - -Turkey had, too, to submit to the ignominy of making friends with -her very recent enemy and preventing imminent military catastrophe -by handing over the country along the Maritza, right up to the gates -of the sacred city of Adrianople, to the Bulgarians. She had to look -on while Armenia was conquered by the Russians; while Mesopotamia -and Syria, in spite of initial successes, were threatened by -English troops; while the "Holy War" came to an untimely end, the -most consecrated of all Islam's holy places, Mecca, fell away from -Turkey, the Arabs revolted and the Caliphate was shattered; while her -population in the Interior endured the most terrible sufferings, and -economic and financial life tended slowly and surely towards complete -and hopeless collapse. - -Not even yet, indeed now less than ever, is there any general -acceptance among the people of the views held by Enver and Talaat -and their acolytes. Not yet do intelligent, independent men believe -the fine phrases of these minions of the "Committee," who are held -in leading strings by these dictators partly through gifts of money, -office, or the opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the -people, partly through fear of the consequences should they revolt, or -of those domestic servants who call themselves deputies and senators. -On the contrary, it is no exaggeration to say that three-quarters of -the intelligent out-and-out Turkish male population--quite apart from -Levantines, Greeks, and Armenians--and practically the entire female -population, who are more sensitive about the war and whose hearts are -touched more deeply by its immeasurable suffering, have either remained -perfectly friendly to England and France or have become so again -through terrible want and suffering. - -The consciousness that Turkey has committed an unbounded folly has long -ago been borne in upon wide circles of Turks in spite of falsified -reports and a stringent censorship. There would be no risk at all -in taking on a wager that in private conversation with ten separate -Turks, in no way connected with the "Committee," nine of them will -admit, as soon as they know there is no chance of betrayal, that they -do not believe Turkey will win, and that, with the exception of the -much-feared Russia, they still feel as friendly as ever towards their -present enemies. "_Quoi qu'il arrive, c'est toujours la pauvre Turquie -qui va payer le pot casse._" ("Whatever happens, it's always poor -Turkey that'll have to pay the piper") and "_Nous avons fait une grande -gaffe_" ("We _have_ put our foot in it") were the kind of remarks made -in every single political discussion I ever had in Constantinople--even -with Turks. - -So much for the men, who judge with their reason. What of the women? -The one sigh of cultured Turkish women, up to the highest in the -land--who should have a golden book written in their honour for their -readiness to help, their sympathy, and humanity in this war--is: "When -shall we get rid of the Boches; when will our good old friends, the -English and the French, come back to us?" Nice results, these, of -German propaganda, German culture, German brotherhood of arms! What -a sad and shameful story for a German to have to tell! Naturally the -drastic system of the military dictatorship precludes the public -expression of such feelings, but one needs only have seen with one's -own eyes the looks so often cast by even real Turkish cultured society -at the German _Feldgrauen_ who often marched in close formation through -the streets of Constantinople--for a time they used to sing German -soldiers' songs, until that was prohibited at the express wish of the -Turkish Government to see how the land lies. - -There was a marked and ill-concealed contrast in the coldness shown -to Imperial German officers and the lavish affection showered on the -Austrians and Hungarians who used for a time often to pass through -Constantinople on their way to the Dardanelles or Anatolia with their -heavy artillery. They were a great deal more sociable than their -German comrades, and one could not fail to note the significance of -such freely voiced comments as "_N'est-ce pas, ils sont charmants les -Autrichiens?_" ("The Austrians _are_ delightful, aren't they?") The -sight of us Germans, especially the very considerable German garrison -stationed for a time in the Capital, awakened in the Turks, however -much they might recognise the military necessity for their presence, -remarkable ideas about the future "German Egyptising of Turkey," and -everyone blamed Enver Pasha as the man responsible for Germany's -penetrating thus far. - -A Turk in a high official position--whose name I shall naturally not -divulge--even went so far as to say to me in an intimate personal -discussion we were having one day between friend and friend: "We -Turks are and will always remain, in spite of the war, pro-English -and pro-French so far as social and intellectual life is concerned; -and it would need twenty years of hard propaganda work on Germany's -part, quite different from her present methods, to change this point -of view, if it ever could be changed." He went on to recall the time -of the pro-English era, and the enthusiastic demonstrations that had -taken place at the Sirkedji station when the horses were taken out of -the English Ambassador's carriage. "I was there myself," he said, "and -believe me, apart from the war, heaps of us are at bottom still of the -same mind." And, growing heated, he added: "What is your Embassy, tell -me? Is it really an Embassy? No representation, no intimate intercourse -with us, or at best only with your political agents, no personal charm, -nothing but brusque demands and a most humiliating economic neglect -of the Turkish population. The English and the French and even the -Russians would treat us quite differently." - -This man is no exception in his ideas. He is a thorough Young Turk, who -holds with the "Committee" through thick and thin and has to thank them -for a very pleasant billet, but he is, besides, a youngish man with a -modern European education. He is thoroughly imbued, as are all of his -kind, with modern French ideas, and even the war cannot alter that. -It only needs the final collapse of the Central Powers, and then the -break-down of the whole political system under the direction of these -jingoistic emancipationists who think they can get on without Europe, -and the Turks will all, every one of them, be as thoroughly pro-English -and pro-French as they ever were and will hate Germany and everything -German with fanatical hatred. - -Towards Hungary, their blood relation, they will probably retain some -friendliness in memory of their alliance in the Great War and the cause -of Turanism; they will be quite indifferent to Bulgaria; they will lose -their fear of Russia and come to an agreement with her; but after the -war there will be no bridging the gulf between Turkey and Germany, and -if Germany, on the conclusion of peace, is allotted any part of smaller -Turkey by the rest of the European Powers, she will have to reckon -for many a long year with the very chilly relations that will exist -between Germans and Turks. Even those who went heart and soul into the -war as a war of defence against Turkey's powerful northern neighbour -foresee that when peace is declared Turkey will, so far as her enormous -indebtedness to Germany permits, rather throw herself on the mercy -of England and France and America and beg from them the capital -necessary for reconstruction and for freeing them from the hated -German influence--an aversion which is already evident in hundreds of -different ways. Even Germany is beginning to recognise the existence -of this tendency, which, hand in hand with the jingoistic attempt to -turkify commercial life, bodes ill for German activity in Turkey after -the war. - -These are the opinions of the educated classes. The people, however, -the poor, ignorant Turkish people, were ready long ago to accept any -solution that would liberate them from their terrible sufferings. -The Turkish people have not the mental calibre of our German people -which will perhaps make them fight on, just for the sake of leaving no -stone unturned, even after it is quite evident that they are tending -towards final collapse. The stake for which they are fighting is not -so valuable to this agricultural people, who with an inferior and -extortionate set of rulers have never been able really to enjoy life, -as it is to the population of a modern industrial country like Germany, -where every political gain or loss has a direct result on their own -pockets; defeat will certainly have much less effect on the Oriental. -One can therefore speak with confidence of a general longing for -the end of the war at any price. The Turks have had quite enough of -suffering, and there are limits to what even these willing and mutely -resigned victims can bear. - -Nevertheless it is quite certain that the courageous Turkish soldier, -in obedience to iron discipline and in unconditional submission to his -Padishah, will continue to defend his lost cause to the very last -drop of his blood, with an unquestioning resignation that absolutely -precludes the idea of any defection within the army. Only a purely -political military revolution, originating with the better-informed -officers, who now really no longer believe in ultimate victory, is -within the bounds of possibility. - -But the most confiding endurance on the part of the Turkish soldier, -even when the military cause has long been lost, will not hinder this -same soldier, when he is once more back in his own home as a peasant, -from realising that European influence and European civilisation -are a very competent protection against the miserably retrogressive -Turkish rule, and that he has drawn more material profit from that -single example of European activity, the Baghdad Railway, than from -all Turkish official reforms put together, and so would willingly see -Europe exercising a powerful control in his country. He would accept -the military collapse of his country which he had so long and so -bravely defended, and the dramatic political changes, with a quietly -submissive "_Inshallah_." And although, deprived as he is of every -kind of information and without even the beginnings of knowledge, he -perhaps still believes in ultimate victory for the Padishah, he will -probably heave a sigh of relief when the unexpected collapse comes, and -he will not take long to understand what it means for him: freedom and -happiness and an undreamt-of material well-being under strong European -influence. - -The late successor to the throne, Prince Yussuf Izzedin Effendi, was -the highest of those in high authority who openly represented the -pessimistic anti-war tendency. It was for this that he was murdered -or perhaps made to commit suicide by Enver Pasha. The whole truth -about this tragic occurrence can only be sifted to the bottom when the -dictators of the "Committee" are no longer in their place and light -finally breaks on Turkey. Whether it was murder or suicide, the death -of the successor to the throne is one of the most dramatic scandals of -Turkish history, and Enver Pasha has his blood, as well as the blood -of so many others, on his head. As far as is possible during the war, -Europe has already collected all the information available on the -subject. I myself was in Constantinople when the tragic occurrence -took place, and I can speak so far from personal experience. - -In connection with this sensational event, the world has already heard -how Yussuf Izzedin was kept for years under the despotic Abdul-Hamid -shut off from the world as a semi-prisoner in his beautiful _Konak of -Sindjirlikuyu_, just outside the gates of Constantinople, where he -became a sufferer from acute neurasthenia. In recent years, however, -his health had improved and, although latently hostile to the men -of the "Committee" and their politics, he had come more into the -foreground, especially after the recapture of Adrianople, which he -visited with full pomp and ceremony as Crown Prince of the Turkish -Empire. While the Gallipoli campaign was going on, he even made a -journey to the Front to greet his soldiers. Early one morning he was -found lying dead in a pool of his own blood with a severed artery. He -had received his death wound in exactly the same place and exactly -the same way as his father, Sultan Abdul-Aziz, who fell a victim to -Abdul-Hamid's hatred. The political significance of Yussuf Izzedin's -death is perfectly clear. What we want to do now is to demonstrate -Enver Pasha's moral culpability in the matter and to show how he was -more or less directly the murderer of this quiet, cultured, highly -respected, and thoroughly patriotic man, who was some day to ascend the -throne of Turkey. - -So much at least seems to be clear, that Prince Izzedin, who was -naturally interested in retaining his accession to the throne -undisturbed and who in spite of his neurasthenia was man enough to -stand up for his own rights, foresaw ruin for his kingdom by Turkey's -entry into the war on the side of Germany. He was more far-seeing than -the careless adventurers and narrow-minded fanatics of the "Committee" -and recognised that the letting-go of the treasured Pan-Islamic -traditions of old Sultan Hamid was a grave mistake which would lead -to the alienation of the Arabs, and which endangered both the Ottoman -Caliphate and Ottoman rule in the southern parts of the Empire. He -could not console himself for the evacuation of the territory round -Adrianople, right up to the gates of the sacred city, which meant much -to him as the symbol of national enlightenment. He had a real personal -dislike for upstarts of the stamp of Enver and Talaat. Apart from -these differences of opinion and personal sympathies and antipathies, -deep-rooted though these undoubtedly were, Yussuf Izzedin was and -always would have been a thorough "Osmanli" with fiery nationalistic -feelings, who wished for nothing but the good of his Empire and his -country. And yet he was got rid of. - -It would be difficult for the present Turkish Government to prove that -the successor to the throne, apart from his feeling of sorrow that -his country had been drawn into the war, apart from his readiness to -conclude an honourable separate peace at the first possible moment, -did anything which might have caused them trouble. The officials of -the Turkish Government had themselves made repeated efforts through -their Swiss Ambassadors to find out how the land lay, and whether they -could conclude a separate peace; so they had no grounds at all for -reproaching Prince Yussuf Izzedin, who, as a leader of this movement, -naturally let no opportunity of this kind slide. But he was far too -clever not to know that any attempt in this direction behind the backs -of the present Government would have no chance of success so long as -Turkey was held under the iron fist of Germany. - -Perhaps the "Committee" had something to fear for the future, when the -time came for the reverses now regarded as inevitable. Yussuf would -then make use of his powerful influence in many circles--notably among -the discontented retired military men--to demand redress from the -"Committee." Enver, true to his unscrupulous character, quite hardened -to the sight of Turkish blood, and determined to stick to his post -at all costs--for it was not only lucrative, but flattering to his -vanity--was not the man to stick at trifles with a poor neurasthenic, -who under the present military dictatorship was absolutely at his -mercy. He therefore decided on cold-blooded murder. - -The Prince, well aware of the danger that threatened him, tried at -the last moment to leave the country and flee to safety. He had even -taken his ticket, and intended to start by the midday Balkan train next -day to travel to Switzerland via Germany. He was forbidden to travel. -Whether, feeling himself thus driven into a corner and nothing but -death at the hand of Enver's creatures staring him in the face, he -killed himself in desperation, or whether, as thousands of people in -Constantinople firmly believe, and as would seem to be corroborated by -the generally accepted, although of course not actually verified, tale -of a bloody encounter between the murderers and the Prince's bodyguard, -with victims on both sides, he was actually assassinated, is not yet -settled, and it is really not a matter of vast importance. - -One thing is clear, and that is that Izzedin Effendi did not pay -with his life for any illoyal act, but merely for his personal and -political opposition to Enver. He is but one on this murderer's long -list of victims. The numerous doctors, all well known creatures of the -"Committee" or easily won over by intimidation, who set their names -as witnesses to this "suicide as a result of severe neurasthenia"--a -most striking and suspicious similarity to the case of Abdul-Aziz--have -not prevented one single thinking man in Constantinople from forming a -correct opinion on the matter. The wily Turkish Government evidently -chose this kind of death, just like his father's, so that they could -diagnose the symptoms as those of incurable neurasthenia. History -has already formed its own opinion as to how much free-will there was -in Abdul-Aziz' death! The opinions of different people about Prince -Yussuf's death only differ as to whether he was murdered or compelled -to commit suicide. "_On l'a suicide_," was the ironical and frank -comment of one clever Old Turk. We will leave it at that. - -The funeral of the successor to the throne was a most interesting -sight. I sent an article on it to my paper at the time, which of -course had only very, very slight allusions to anything of a sinister -character; but it did not find favour with the censor at the Berlin -Foreign Office. The editorial staff of the paper evidently saw what I -was driving at, and wrote to me: "We have revised and touched up your -report so as at least to save the most essential part of it;" but even -the altered version did not pass the censor's blue pencil. But I had at -any rate the moral satisfaction of knowing that of all the papers with -correspondents in the Turkish capital, mine, the _Koelnische Zeitung_, -was the only one that could publish nothing, not a single line, about -this important and highly sensational occurrence, for I simply wrote -nothing more. That was surely clear enough! - -When in 1913, after the unsuccessful counter-revolution, Mahmud Shevket -Pasha was assassinated and was going to be buried in Constantinople, -the "Committee" issued invitations days beforehand to all foreign -personages. This time nothing of the sort happened; and even the Press -representatives were not invited to be present. On the former occasion -everything possible was done, by putting off the interment as long as -possible and repeatedly publishing the date, by lengthening the route -of the funeral procession, to give several thousands of people an -opportunity of taking part in the ceremony. - -This time, however, the authorities arranged the burial with all speed, -and the very next day after the sensational occurrence the body was -hurried by the shortest way, through the Guelhane Park, to the Mausoleum -of Sultan Mahmud-Moshee. The coffin had been quietly brought in the -twilight the evening before from the Kiosk of Sindjirlikuyu on the -other side of Pera on the Maslak Hill, to the top of the Serail. Along -the whole route, however, wherever the public had access, there were -lines of police and soldiers; and the bright uniforms of the police -who were inserted in groups of twenty between every single row of the -procession of Ministers, members of the "Committee" and delegaters who -walked behind the coffin, were really the most conspicuous thing in the -whole ceremony. Enver Pasha passed quite close to me, and neither I, -nor my companions, could fail to note the ill-concealed expression of -satisfaction on his face. - -The most beautiful thing about this whole funeral, however, was the -visit paid me by the Secretary-General of the Senate, the minute -after I had reached home (and I had driven by the shortest way). With -a zeal that might have surprised even the simplest minded of men, -he offered to tell me about the Prince's life, lingering long and -going into exhaustive detail over the well-known facts of his nervous -ailment. Then, blushing at his own awkwardness and importunity, he -begged me most earnestly to publish his version of all the details and -circumstances of this tragic occurrence, "which no other paper will be -in a position to publish." Naturally it was never written. - -So, once more, in the late summer of 1916, Enver Pasha, who was so fond -of discovering conspiracies and political movements in order to get rid -of his enemies, and go scot free himself, had a fresh opportunity of -reflecting, with even more foundation than usual, on the firmness of -his position and the security of his own life. - -It is perhaps time now to give a more comprehensive description of this -man. We have already mentioned in connection with the failure of his -Caucasus offensive that Enver has been extraordinarily over-estimated -in Europe. The famous Enver is neither a prominent intellectual leader -nor a good organiser--in this direction he is far surpassed by Djemal -Pasha--nor an important strategist. In military matters his positive -qualities are personal courage, optimism, and, consequently, initiative -which is never daunted by fear of consequences, also cold-bloodedness -and determination; but he is entirely lacking in judgment, power of -discrimination, and largeness of conception. From the German point -of view he is particularly valuable for his unquestioning and -unconditional association with the Central Powers, his readiness to do -anything that will further their cause, his pliability and his zeal in -accommodating himself even to the most trenchant reforms. But it is -just these qualities that make enemies for him among retired military -men and among the people. - -Regarded from a purely personal point of view, Enver Pasha is, in spite -of the fulsome praise showered on him by Germans inspired by that -most pliant implement, German militarism, one of the most repugnant -subjects ever produced by Turkey. Even from a purely external point of -view his appearance does not at all correspond with the picture of him -generally accepted in Germany from flattering reports and falsified -photographs. Small of stature, with quite an ordinary face, he looks -rather, as one of my journalistic colleagues said, like a "gardener's -boy" than a Vice-General and War Minister, and anyone who ever has the -opportunity I have so often had, of looking really closely at him, will -certainly be repelled by his look of vanity and cunning. It was really -most painful to have to listen to him (he has always been a bad and -monotonous speaker) in the Senate and the Lower House at the conclusion -of the Dardanelles campaign reading his report in a weak, halting -voice, but with the disdainful tone of a dictator. Every third word was -an "I." Even the Turkish Press accorded this parliamentary speech a -fairly frosty reception. - -Besides this, Enver is one of the most cold-blooded liars imaginable. -Time and again there has been no necessity for him to say certain -things in Parliament, or to make certain promises, but apparently he -found cynical enjoyment in making the people and Parliament feel their -whole inferiority in his eyes. What can one think, for example, of such -performances as this? At the end of 1916 when the discussion about -military service for those who had paid the exemption tax (_bedel_) was -going on, he gave an unsolicited and solemn assurance before the whole -House that he had no intention whatever of calling up certain classes -until the Bill had been finally passed and that it would show that he -was really desirous of sparing commercial life as far as possible in -the calling up of men. Exactly two hours after this speech the drum -resounded through all the streets of Stamboul and Pera, calling up all -those classes over which Enver had as yet no power of jurisdiction, and -which he said he wanted to keep back because to tear them away from -their employment would mean the complete disorganisation of the already -sadly disordered commercial life of the country. - -This was Talaat's opinion, too, and he offered a firm resistance to -Enver's plan, which it appears had been introduced by command of the -German Government. In this case, however, resistance was useless, and -had to give way to military necessity. If Enver said something in -Parliament--this at any rate was the general conclusion--one might be -quite certain that exactly the opposite would take place. He has now -gained for himself the reputation of being a liar and a murderer among -all those who are not followers of the "Committee." - -In contrast to Talaat, who is at least intelligent enough to keep up -appearances and cunning enough to hold himself well in the background, -Enver's personal lack of integrity in money matters is a subject of -most shameful knowledge in Constantinople. It is pretty well generally -known how he has made use of his position as Military Dictator to gain -possession for himself of property worth thousands of pounds, and how -in his financial dealings with Germany hundreds have found their way -into his own pocket--up till the winter of 1915-1916, according to an -estimate from confidential Turkish circles and from German sources I -will not name, he had already managed to collect something like two -million pounds, reckoned in English money. This son of a former lowly -_conducteur_ in the service of the Roads and Bridges Board, whose -mother, as I have been assured by Turks is the case, plied in Stamboul -the much-despised trade of "layer-out" of corpses, now lives in his -Konak in more than princely luxury, with flowers and silver and gold on -his table, having married, out of pure ambition, a very plain-looking -princess. That is the true portrait of this much-coddled darling of -the Young Turks, and latterly of the German people as well. This is -the idol of so many admiring German women, who are bewitched by his -more than adventurous career and the halo surrounding him which he has -enhanced by every known and unknown means of self-advertisement. - -Enver's character won for him in "Committee" circles personal dislike -and bitter, though veiled, enmity even from his colleagues who were -of exactly the same political persuasion as himself. Of his relations -towards the infinitely more important Djemal Pasha we have already -spoken; we shall speak in a moment of his relations to Talaat. In the -world of the retired military men, however, who had been badgered about -by Enver, neglected and simply forcibly pensioned off by hundreds -before the war because of their divergent political opinions, and even -thrown into the street, the War Minister was heartily hated. A very -large part of them were of the same political views as the murdered -successor to the throne, and their opinion of the Great War was as -we have already indicated. They pointed bitterly to Enver as the -all-too-pliable servant of Germany, who was only too ready to sacrifice -the flower of Ottoman youth on those far battlefields of Galicia at -a sign from the German Staff, and open door after door to German -influence in the Interior without even attempting to protect the land -of his fathers from invasion and decay. - -As we have said, political revolutions in Turkey usually start in -military circles, not among the people, and there was an actual attempt -in this direction in the autumn of 1916. Either by chance or by -someone's betraying the plot, it was discovered by Enver in time, and -the number of military men and Old Turkish personages associated with -them, imprisoned in Constantinople alone, reached six hundred. At the -head of the movement stood Major Yakub Djemil Bey. - -During the whole of the summer of 1916 Enver's position had been looked -upon as quite insecure. The knowledge of his greed in money matters, -his tactless pushing, and his ruthless brutality had totally alienated -a wide circle of people, and many believed that he would soon have to -resign. - -In addition to this, a deep inward antagonism reigned between him and -Talaat, the real leader and by far the most important statesman of -Turkey, which was far more than a cleverly veiled personal dislike. -There was a constant struggle for power going on between the two men. -By the end of May the crisis had become pretty acute, although outward -appearances were still preserved and only well-informed circles knew -anything at all about the matter. Enver had at that time to hurry back -from the Irak, where he was on a visit of inspection with the German -Chief of Staff and the Military Attache, in order to safeguard his -post. In confidential circles, the outbreak of open enmity between the -two was fully expected; but this time again Talaat was the cleverer. -He felt that, in spite of his own greater influence and following, in -spite of his real superiority to Enver, he might perhaps, if he tried -conclusions with him while he was still in command of the army, find -himself the loser and, in view of Enver's murderous habits, pay for his -rashness with his life. So he decided not to risk a decisive battle -just yet. He was too patriotic, also, to let things come to an open -break during the difficult time of war. Talaat disappeared for a short -time on a visit of inspection to Angora, and things settled down to -their old way again. - -There is still internal conflict going on. But Enver, with boundless -ambition and no fine feelings of honour, clings to his post, and -has shown by the way he dealt with the instigators of the conspiracy -mentioned above that nothing but force will move him from his post, -and that he will never yield to public opinion or the criticism of -his colleagues. He was troubled by no qualms, in spite of the widely -circulated opinion that he would certainly jeopardise his life if he -went on in the same ruthless way towards the retired military men. He -simply had the leader, Yakub Djemil Bey, hanged like a common criminal, -and the whole of his followers, for the most part superior officers and -highly respected persons, turned into soldiers of the second class, and -put in the front-line trenches. - -Enver's removal would not alter the whole Young Turkish regime much, -but it would take from it much of its ruthless barbarity, and its most -repugnant representative would vanish from the picture. It would also -be a severe blow for Germany and her militaristic policy of driving -Turkey mercilessly to suicide. It would be a godsend to the anti-German -Djemal Pasha. From a political point of view it would mean, far more -than Talaat's appointment as Grand Vizier, the absolute supremacy of -that statesman. - -At bottom probably less ruthless than Enver and certainly cleverer, -there is no doubt but that he would pursue his jingoistic ideas in the -realm of race-politics, but at any rate he would not want any military -system of frightfulness. Enver's removal from office will come within -the range of near possibility as soon as the new British operations -against Southern Palestine and Mesopotamia have produced a real -victory. Turkey is not in a good enough military position to prevent -this, and the whole world will soon recognise that it is this servant -of Germany, this careless optimist and very mediocre strategist who is -to blame for the inexorable breaking-up of the Ottoman Empire. - -The contrast I have noted between Enver and Talaat provides the -opportunity for saying a few words about Talaat, now Pasha and -Grand Vizier, and by far the most important man of New Turkey. -As Minister of the Interior, he has guided the whole fate of his -country, except in purely military matters, as uncrowned king. It is -he more than anyone else who is the originator of the whole system -of home politics. Solidity of character, earnestness, freedom from -careless optimism, and conspicuous power of judgment distinguish him -most favourably from Enver, who possesses the opposite of all these -qualities. A high degree of intelligence, an enormous knowledge of -men, an exceptional gift of organisation and tireless energy combined -with great personal authority, prudence and reserve, calm weighing -of the actual possibilities--in a word, all the qualities of the -real statesman--raise him head and shoulders above the whole of his -colleagues and co-workers. It would be unjust to doubt his ardent -patriotism or the honesty of his ideas and intentions. Talaat's -character is so impressive that one often hears even Armenians, the -victims of his own original policy of persecution, speak of him with -respect, and I have even heard the opinion expressed that had it not -been for Talaat's cleverness, the Committee would have gone much -further with their mischievous policy. - -But his high intellectual abilities do not prevent him from suffering -from that same plague of narrow-minded, jingoistic illusion peculiar -to the Pan-Turks. He is as if intoxicated with a race-fanaticism that -stifles all nobler emotions. Talaat is too methodical and clever not to -avoid all intentional ruthlessness, but in practice his system, which -he follows out with inflexible logic to the bitter end, turns out to -be just as brutal as Enver's intrinsically more brutal policy. And -although he accommodates himself outwardly to modern European methods -and knows how to utilise them, the ethics of his system are out-and-out -Asiatic. When Talaat speaks in the "Committee," there is very rarely -the slightest opposition. He has usually prepared and coached the -"Committee" so well beforehand that he can to all appearance keep in -the background and only follow the majority. With the exception of a -few military affairs, everything has always taken place that he has -proposed in Parliament. - -Beside this man, whose sparkling eyes, massive shoulders, broad chest, -clean-cut profile and exuberant health denote the whole unbounded -energy of the dictator, the good-natured, degenerate, and epileptically -inclined Sultan, Mehmed V, "El Ghazi" ("the hero"), is but a weak -shadow. But if we fully recognise Talaat's high intellectual qualities, -we should like all the more to emphasise that he must be held -personally responsible more than all the others for everything that is -now happening in Turkey, so far as it is not of a military character. -The spirit reigning in Turkey to-day, the spirit of Pan-Turkish -jingoism, is Talaat's spirit. The Armenian persecutions are his very -own work. And when the day of reckoning comes for the Turkey of the -"Committee of Union and Progress," it is to be hoped that Europe as -judge and chastiser and avenger of an outraged civilisation, will lay -the chief blame on Talaat Pasha rather than on his far weaker colleague -Enver. - -All his eminent qualities, however, do not prevent this intellectual -leader of Turkey, the most important man, beside the Sultan, in the -land, from showing signs of something that is typical of the whole -"Committee" clique with their dictatorial power, and which we may -perhaps be allowed to call _parvenuishness_. At all points we see -the characteristics of the parvenu in this statesman and one-time -adventurer and in these creatures of the "Committee" who have recently -become wealthy by certain abuses--I would remind you only of the -Requisitions--and by a lucrative adherence to the ruling clique. There -are of course individual cases of distinguished men of good birth -throwing in their lot with the "Committee," but they are extremely -rare, and they only help to give an even worse impression of the -average Young Turk belonging to the Government. Their past is usually -extremely doubtful, and their careers have been somewhat varied. - -No one of course would ever think of setting it down as a black mark -against Talaat, for example, that he had to work his way up to his -present supreme position from the very modest occupation of postman -and postal coach conductor on the Adrianople road, via telegraph -assistant and other branches of the Post Office; on the contrary, such -intelligence and energy are worthy of the highest praise. But Talaat's -case is a comparatively good one, and it is not so much their low -social origin that is a drawback to these political leaders of Turkey, -as their complete lack of education in statesmanship and history, -which unfits them for the high role they are called upon to fill. -Naturally it is not exactly pleasant when a man like Herr Paul Weitz, -the correspondent of the _Frankfurter Zeitung_, and a political agent, -can boast with a certain amount of justification that he has given tips -of money to many of the present members of the "Committee"--in the real -sense of the word, not in the political meaning of _backshish_! It is -no wonder, then, that German influence won its way through so easily! - -Even yet Talaat's lowly origin is a drawback to him socially, and, -in spite of his jovial manner and his complete confidence in his own -powers, he sometimes feels himself so unsure that he rather avoids -social duties. Probably one of the reasons of his long delay in -accepting the post of Grand Vizier--he was already definitely marked -out for it in the summer of 1915--was his own inner consciousness -that his whole past life unfitted him socially for the duties of such -an office. That he has now decided to accept it, is only the logical -sequence of the system of absolute Turkification, which, with its plan -of muzzling and supplanting all non-Turkish elements, had of course -to get rid of the Egyptian element in the Government, represented by -Prince Halim Said, the late Grand Vizier, and his brother, the late -Minister of Public Works. - -There are far more outstanding cases of incompatibility between social -upbringing and present activity among the "Committee." I will simply -take the single example of the Director General of the Press, Hikmet -Bey. Mischievous Pera still gives him the nick-name of "_Suetdji_" -("milkman"), because--although it is no reproach to him any more than -in Talaat's case--he still kept his father's milk shop in the Rue -Tepe Bashi in Pera before he managed to get himself launched on a -political career by close adherence to the Committee. Sometimes, of -course, one inherits from a low social origin far worse things than -social inferiority. Perhaps Djemal Pasha's murderous instincts are to -be traced to the fact that his grandfather was the official hangman in -the service of Sultan Mahmud, and that his father still retained the -nick-name of "hangman" among the people. - -One only needs to cast a glance at the Young Turks who are the -leaders of fashion in the "Club de Constantinople"--after the English -and French members are absent--with German officers who have been -admitted as temporary members at a reduced subscription, and one will -find there, as in the more exclusive "Cercle d'Orient," and in the -"Yachting Club" in Prinkipo in the summer-time, individuals belonging -to the "Committee" whose lowly origin and bad manners are evident at -the first glance. Talaat, who is himself President of the Club, knows -exactly how to get his adherents elected as members without one of them -being blackballed. People who used not to know what an International -Club was, and who perhaps, in accordance with their former social -status, got as far as the vestibule to speak to the Concierge, are -now great "club men" and can afford, with the money they have amassed -in "clique" trade and by the famous system of Requisitions, to play -poker every evening for stakes of hundreds of Turkish pounds. One -single kaleidoscopic glance into the perpetual whirl of any one of -these clubs, which used to be places of friendly social intercourse -for the best European circles, is quite sufficient to see the class -of degenerate, greedy parvenus that rule poor, bleeding, helpless, -exhausted Turkey. One cannot but be filled with a deep sympathy for -this unfortunate land. - -The Turks of decent birth are disgusted at these parvenus. I have had -conversations with many an old Pasha and Senator, true representatives -of the refined and kindly Old Turkish aristocracy, and heard many a -word of stern disapproval of the "Committee" quite apart from their -divergent political opinions. There is a whole distinguished Turkish -world in Constantinople who completely boycott Enver and his consorts -socially, although they have to put up with their caprices politically. -"I don't know Enver at all," or "_Je ne connais pas ces gens-la_" -("I don't know these people"), are phrases that one very often hears -repeated with infinite disdain. In all these cases it is the purely -personal side--birth and manners--that repels them. - -Socially the cleft between the two camps is far deeper than it is -politically, for many of these same people accommodate themselves, -though with reluctance in their heart, to sharing at least formally -as Senators in the responsibility for the present Young Turkish -policy. They have to do so, for otherwise they would simply be flung -mercilessly by Enver's Clique on to the streets to beg for bread. -This is how it comes about to-day that, with very few exceptions, the -Senators, who, to tell the truth, have as little practical say as the -members of the Lower House, are all outwardly complaisant followers -of the "Committee." The more doctrinal, but at any rate courageous -and honourable opposition of Ahmed Riza is likewise of very little -significance. Once, about the middle of December, 1916, Enver even went -so far as to hurl the epithet "shameless dog" at Ahmed Riza in the -Senate without being called to order by the President. - -The Deputies are also, with even fewer exceptions than the -Senators--only one or two are reasonable men--all slaves pure and -simple of Enver and Talaat. The Lower House is nothing but a set of -employees paid by the Clique. In other countries now at war the Lower -House may have sunk to the level of a laughing-stock; in Turkey it -has become the instrument of crime. And it is these same toadies -and parasites, who daily carry out this military dictator's will in -Parliament, that he daily treats with scarcely veiled irony and open -and complete disdain. These are the "representatives of the people" in -Turkey in war-time! - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 2: Djemal Pasha learnt the news that Admiral von Souchon had -bombarded Russian ports, and so made war inevitable, one evening at the -Club. Pale with rage, he sprang up and said: "So be it; but if things -go wrong, Souchon will be the first to be hanged."] - - - - -CHAPTER X - - The outlook for the future--The consequences of trusting Germany--The - Entente's death sentence on Turkey--The social necessity for this - deliverance--Anatolia, the new Turkey after the war--Forecasts about - the Turkish race--The Turkish element in the lost territory--Russia - and Constantinople; international guarantees--Germany, at peace, - benefits too--Farewell to the German "World-politicians"--German - interests in a victorious and in an amputated Turkey--The - German-Turkish treaty--A paradise on earth--The Russian commercial - impetus--The new Armenia--Western Anatolia, the old Greek centre of - civilization--Great Arabia and Syria--The reconciliation of Germany. - - -We have come to the end of our sketches. The question before us now is: -What will become of Turkey? The Entente has pronounced formal sentence -of death on the Empire of the Sultan, and neither the slowly fading -military power of Turkey, nor the help of Germany, who is herself -already virtually conquered, will be able to arrest her fate. - -On the high frost-bound uplands of Armenia the Russians hold a -strategic position from which it is impossible to dislodge them, and -which will probably very soon extend to the Gulf of Alexandretta. In -Mesopotamia, after that enormously important political event, the Fall -of Baghdad, the union was effected between the British troops and -the Russians, advancing steadily from Persia. The Suez Canal is now -no longer threatened, and the British troops have been removed from -there for a counter-offensive in Southern Palestine, and probably, -when the psychological moment arrives, an offensive against Syria, -now so sadly shattered politically. It is quite within the bounds of -possibility, too, that during this war a big new Front may be formed -in Western Anatolia, already completely broken up by the Pan-Hellenic -Irredenta, and the Turks will be hard put to it to find troops to meet -the new offensive. Arabia is finally and absolutely lost, and England, -by establishing an Arabian Caliphate, has already won the war against -Turkey. Meantime, on the far battlefields of Galicia and the Balkans, -whole Ottoman divisions are pouring out their life-blood, fighting for -that elusive German victory that never comes any nearer, while in every -nook and corner of their own land there is a terrible lack of troops. -Enver Pasha, at length grown anxious, has attempted to recall them, but -in vain. - -That is a short resume of the military situation. This is how the -Turkey of Enver and Talaat is atoning for the trust she has placed in -Germany. - -To a German journalist who went out two years ago to a great Turkey, -striving for a "Greater Turkey," it does indeed seem a bitter irony of -fate to see his sphere of labour thus reduced to nothingness. The fall -of Turkey is the greatest blow that could have been dealt to German -"world-politics"; it is a disappointment that will have the gravest -consequences. But from the standpoint of culture, human civilisation, -ethics, the liberty of the peoples and justice, historical progress, -the economic development of wide tracts of land of the greatest -importance from their geographical position, it is one of the most -brilliant results of the war, and one to be hailed with unmixed joy. -When I look back on how wonderfully things have shaped in the last two -and a half years I am bound to admit that I am happy things have turned -out as they have. If perchance any Turk who knows me happens to read -these lines, I beg him not to think that my ideas are saturated with -hatred of Turkey. On the contrary, I love the country and the Turkish -race with those many attractive qualities that rightly appealed to a -poet like Loti. - -I have asked myself thousands of times what would be the best political -solution of the problem, how to help this people--and the other races -inhabiting their country--to true and lasting happiness. From my many -journeys in tropical lands, I have grown accustomed to the sight of -autochthonous civilisations and semi-civilised peoples, and am as -interested in them as in the most perfectly civilised nations of -Europe. I have therefore, I think, been able to set aside entirely in -my own mind the territorial interests of the West in the development -of the Near East, and give my whole attention to Turkey's own good and -Turkey's own needs. But even then I have been obliged to subscribe -to the sentence of death passed on the Turkey of the Young Turks -and the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. It is with the fullest -consciousness of what I am doing that I agree to the only seemingly -cruel amputation of this State. It is merely the outer shell covering -a number of peoples who suffer cruelly under an unjust system, chief -among them the brave Turkish people who have been led by a criminal -Government to take the last step on the road to ruin. The point of view -I have adopted does not in any way detract from my personal sympathies, -and I still have hopes that the many personal friendships I made -in Constantinople will not be broken by the hard words I have been -obliged to utter in the cause of truth, in the interests of outraged -civilisation, and in the interests of a happier future for the Ottoman -people themselves. - -The amputation of Turkey is a stern social necessity. Someone has -said: "The greatest enemy of Turkey is the Turk." I have too much love -for the Turkish people, too much sympathy for them, to adopt this -pessimistic attitude without great inward opposition; but unfortunately -it is only too true. We have seen how the Turkey of Enver and Talaat -has reacted sharply against the Western-minded, liberal era of the -1876 and 1908 constitutions, and has turned again to Asia and her newly -discovered ideal, Turanism. To the Turks of to-day, European culture -and civilisation are at best but a technical means; they are no longer -an end in themselves. Their dream is no longer Western Europe, but a -nationally awakened and strengthened Asiatentum. - -In face of this intellectual development, how can we hope that in the -new Turkey there will be a radical alteration of what, in the whole -course of Ottoman history, has always been the one characteristic, -unchangeable, momentous fact, of what has always shattered the most -honest efforts at reform, and always will shatter every attempt at -improvement within a sovereign Turkey--I refer to the relationship -of the Turk to the "_Rajah_" (the "herd"), the Christian subjects of -the Padishah. The Ottoman, the Mohammedan conqueror, lives by the -"herd" he has found in the land he has conquered; the "herd" are the -"unbelievers," and rooted deep in the mind of this sovereign people, -who have never quite lost their nomadic instincts, is the conviction -that they have the right to live by the sweat of the brow of their -Christian subjects and on the fruits of their labour. That we -Europeans think this unjust the Turk will never be able to grasp. - -A Wali of Erzerum once said: "The Turkish Government and the Armenian -people stand in the relationship of man and wife, and any third persons -who feel sympathy for the wife and anger at the wife-beating husband -will do better not to meddle in this domestic strife." This quotation -has become famous, for it exactly characterises the relationship of -the Turk to the "Rajah," not to the Armenians. In this phrase alone -there lies, quite apart from all the crimes committed by the present -Turkish Government, a sufficient moral and political foundation for -the sentence of death passed on the sovereignty of the present Turkish -State. For so long as the Turks cling to Islam, from which springs that -opposition between Moslem rulers and "Giaur" subjects so detrimental -to all social progress, it is Europe's sacred duty not to give Turkey -sovereignty over any territory with a strong Christian element. That -is why Turkey must at all costs be confined to Inner Anatolia; that is -why complete amputation is necessary; and why the outlying districts -of Turkey, the Straits, the Anatolian coast, the whole of Armenia must -be rescued and, part of it at any rate, placed under formal European -protection. - -Even in Inner Anatolia, which will probably still be left to the -Ottomans after the war, the strongest European influence must be -brought to bear--which will probably not be difficult in view of -Turkey's financial bankruptcy; European customs and civilisation must -be introduced; in a word, Europe must exercise sufficient control -to be in a position to prevent the numerous non-Turks resident even -in Anatolia from being exposed to the old system of exploiting the -"Rajah." Discerning Turks themselves have admitted that it would be -best for Europe to put the whole of Turkey for a generation under -curatorship and general European supervision. - -I, personally, should not be satisfied with this system for the -districts occupied more by non-Turks than by Turks; but, on the other -hand, I should not go so far in the case of Inner Anatolia. I trust -that strong European influence will make it possible to make Inner -Anatolia a sovereign territory. I have pinned my faith on the Ottoman -race being given another and final opportunity on her own ground of -showing how she will develop now after the wonderful intellectual -improvement that has taken place during the war. I hope at the same -time that even in a sovereign Turkish Inner Anatolia Europe will have -enough say to prevent any outgrowths of the "Rajah principle." - -The Turks must not be deprived of the opportunity to bring their -new-found abilities, which even we must praise, to bear on the -production of a new, modern, but thoroughly Turkish civilisation -of their own on their own ground. Anatolia, beautiful and capable -of development, is, even if we confine it to those interior parts -chiefly inhabited by Ottomans, still quite a big enough field for the -production of such a civilisation; it is quite big enough too for the -terribly reduced numbers now belonging to the Osmanic race. - -The amputation and limitation of Turkey, even if they do not succeed -in altering the real Turkish point of view--and this, so far as the -relationship to the Christians is concerned, is the same, from the -Pasha down to the poorest Anatolian peasant--will at least have a -tremendously beneficial effect. The possibilities in the Turkish race -will come to flower. "The worst patriots," I once dared to say in one -of my articles in spite of the censorship, "are not those who look for -the future of the nation in concentrated cultural work in the Turkish -nucleus-land of Anatolia, instead of gaping over the Caucasus and down -into the sands of the African desert in their search for a 'Greater -Turkey.'" And in connection with the series of lectures I have already -mentioned about Anatolian hygiene and social politics, I said, with -quite unmistakable meaning: "Turkey will have a wonderful opportunity -on her own original ground, in the nucleus-land of the Ottomans, of -proving her capability and showing that she has become a really modern, -civilised State." - -My earnest wish is that all the Turks' high intellectual abilities, -brought to the front by this war, may be concentrated on this beautiful -and repaying task. Intensive labour and the concentration of all forces -on positive work in the direction of civilisation will have to take the -place of corrupt rule, boundless neglect, waste, the strangulation of -all progressive movements, political illusions, the unquenchable desire -for conquest and oppression. This is what we pray for for Anatolia, -the real New Turkey after the war. In other districts, also, now fully -under European control, the pure Turkish element will flourish much -more exceedingly than ever before under the beneficent protection of -modern, civilised Governments. Frankly, the dream of Turkish Power has -vanished. But new life springs out of ruin and decay; the history of -mankind is a continual change. - -Russia, too, after war, will no longer be what she seemed to terrified -Turkish eyes and jealous German eyes dazzled by "world-politics": a -colossal creature, stretching forth enormous suckers to swallow up her -smaller neighbours; a country ruled by a dull, unthinking despotism. - -From the standpoint of universal civilisation it is to be hoped that -the solution of the problem of the Near East will be to transform -the Straits between the Black Sea and Aegea, together with the city -of Constantinople, uniquely situated as it is, into a completely -international stretch with open harbours. Then we need no longer oppose -Russian aspirations. If England, the stronghold of Free Trade and of -all principles of freedom of intercourse, and France, the land of -culture, interested in Turkey to the extent of millions, were content -to leave Russia a free hand in the Straits; if Roumania, shut in in -the Black Sea, did not fear for her trade, but was willing to become -an ally of Russia in full knowledge of the Entente agreement about -the Straits, it is of course sufficiently evident what guarantee -with regard to international freedom modern Russia will have to give -after the war, and even the Germans have nothing to fear. Of course -the German anti-European "Antwerp-Baghdad" dream will be shattered. -But once Germany is at peace, she will probably find that even the -Russian solution of the Straits question benefits her not a little. The -final realisation of Russia's efforts, justifiable both historically -and geographically, to reach the Mediterranean at this one eminently -suitable spot, will certainly contribute in an extraordinary degree to -remove the unbearable political pressure from Europe and ensure peace -for the world. - -Just a few parting words to the German "World-politicians." Very often, -as I have said, I heard during my stay in Constantinople expressions -of anxiety on the part of Germans that all German interests, even -purely commercial ones, would be gravely endangered in the victorious -New Turkey, which would spring to life again with renewed jingoistic -passions and renewed efforts at emancipation. And more than once--all -honour to the feelings of justice and the sound common sense of those -who dared to utter such opinions--I was told by Germans, in the middle -of the war, and with no attempt at concealment, that they fully agreed -it was an absolute necessity for Russia to have the control of the -only outlet for her enormous trade to the Mediterranean, and that -commercially at any rate the fight for Constantinople and the Straits -was a fight for a just cause. - -Now, let us take these two points of view together. From the purely -German standpoint, which is better?--a victorious and self-governing -Turkey imbued with jingoism and the desire for emancipation, -practically closed to us, even commercially, or an amputated Turkey, -compelled to appeal for European help and European capital to recover -from her state of complete exhaustion; a Turkey freed from those -Young Turkish jingoists who, in spite of all their fine phrases and -the German help they had to accept for all their inward distaste of -it, hate us from the very depths of their heart; a Turkey which, even -if Russia,--as a last resort!--is allowed to become mistress of the -Dardanelles with huge international guarantees, would, in the Anatolia -that is left to her, capable of development as it is, and rich in -national wealth, offer a very considerable field of activity for German -enterprise? The short-sighted Pan-Germans, who are now fighting for the -victory of anti-foreign neo-Pan-Turkism against the modern, civilised -States of the Entente, who had no wish at all that Germany should not -fare as well as the rest in the wide domains of Asiatic Turkey, can -perhaps answer my question. They should have asked themselves this, -and foreseen the consequences before they yielded weakly to Turkish -caprices and themselves stirred up the Turks against Europe. - -As things stand now, however, the German Government has thought fit, -in her blind belief in ultimate victory, to enter on a formal treaty, -guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, at -a point in the war when no reasonable being even in Germany could -possibly still believe that a German victory would suffice to protect -Turkey after she has been solemnly condemned by the Entente for her -long list of crimes. Germany has thus given a negative answer to the -question passed from mouth to mouth in the international district of -Pera almost right from Turkey's entry into the war: "Will Germany, if -necessary, sacrifice Constantinople and the Dardanelles, if she can -thus secure peace with Russia?" She had already given the answer "No" -before the absurd illusions of a possible separate peace with Russia -at this price were finally and utterly dispelled by the speech of the -Russian Minister Trepoff, and the purposeful and cruelly clear refusal -of Germany's offer of peace. These events and the increasing excitement -about the war in Constantinople and elsewhere were not required to -show that in the Near East as well the fight must be fought "to the -bitter end." - -Never, however--and that is German World-politics, and the ethics of -the World-politician--have I ever heard a single one of those Germans, -who thought it an impossibility to sacrifice their ally Turkey in order -to gain the desired peace, put forward as an argument for his opinion -the shame of a broken promise, but only the consideration that German -activity in the lands of Islam, and particularly in the valuable Near -East, would be over and done with for ever. I wonder if those who have -decided, with the phantom of a German-Turkish victory ever before them, -to go on with the struggle on the side of Turkey even after she had -committed such abominable crimes, and to drench Europe still further -with the blood of all the civilised nations of the world, ever have -any qualms as to how much of their once brilliant possibilities of -commercial activity in Turkey, now so lightly staked, would still exist -were Turkey victorious. - -Luckily for mankind, history has decided otherwise. After the war, the -huge and flourishing trade of Southern Russia will be carried down to -the then open seaports between Europe and Asia; the wealth of Odessa -and the Pontus ports, enormously increased and free to develop, will -be concentrated on the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and the whole -hitherto neglected city of Constantinople, from Pera and Galata to -Stamboul and Scutari and Haidar-Pasha, will become an earthly paradise -of pulsing life, well-being, and comfort. The luxury and elegance of -the Crimea will move southwards to these shores of unique natural -beauty and mild climate which form the bridge between two continents -and between two seas. Anyone who returns after a decade of peaceful -labour, when the Old World has recovered from its wounds, to the -Bosporus and the shores of the Sea of Marmora, which he knew before the -war, under Turkish regime, will be astonished at the marvellous changes -which will then have been wrought in that favoured corner of the earth. - -Never, even after another hundred years of Turkish rule, would that -unique coast ever have become what it can be and what it must be--one -of the very greatest centres of international intercourse and the -Riviera of the East, not only in beauty of landscape, but in luxury -and wealth. The greatest stress in this connection is to be laid on -the lively Russian impetus that will spring from a modernised Russia, -untrammelled by restrictions in the Straits. Convinced as I am that -Russia after the war will no longer be the Russia of to-day, so feared -by Germany, the Balkan States, and Turkey, I am prepared to give this -impetus full play, as being the best possible means for the further -development of Constantinople. - -In Asia Minor, from Brussa to the slopes of the Taurus and the foot -of the Armenian mountains, there will extend a modern Turkey which -has finally come to rest, to concentration, to peaceful labour, after -centuries of conflict, despotic extortion, the suicidal policy of -military adventurers, and superficial attempts at expansion coupled -with neglect of the most important internal duties. The inhabitants -of these lands will soon have forgotten that "Greater Turkey" has -collapsed. They will be really happy at last, these people whose -idea of happiness hitherto had been a veneer of material well-being -obtained by toadying, while the great bulk of the Empire pined in dirt, -ignorance, and poverty, consumed by an outworn militarism, oppressed -by a decaying administration. Then, but not till then, the world will -see what the Turkish people is capable of. Then there will be no need -for pessimism about this kindly and honourable race. Then we can become -honest "Pro-Turks" again. - -In Western Asia Minor, Europe will not forget that the whole shore, -where once stood Troy, Ephesus, and Milet, is an out-and-out Hellenic -centre of civilisation. Quite independently of all political feelings -towards present-day Greece, this historical fact must be taken into -consideration in the final ruling. It is to be hoped that the Greek -people will not have to atone for ever for the faults of their -non-Greek king who has forgotten that it is his sacred duty to be a -Greek and nothing but a Greek, and who has betrayed the honour and the -future of the nation. - -The Armenian mountain-land, laid waste by war, and emptied of men -by Talaat's passion for persecution, will obtain autonomy from her -conqueror, Russia, and will perhaps be linked up with all the other -parts of the east, inhabited by the last remnants of the Armenian -people. Armenia, with its central position and divided into three among -Turkey, Russia, and Persia, may from its geographical position, its -unfortunate history, and the endless sufferings it has been called -upon to bear, be called the Poland of Further Asia. Delivered from the -Turkish system, freed from all antagonistic Turko-Russian military -principles of obstruction, linked up by railways to the west as well as -the already well-developed region of Transcaucasia, with a big through -trade from the Black Sea via Trapezunt to Persia and Mesopotamia, -it will once more offer an excellent field of activity to the high -intellectual and commercial abilities of its people, now, alas! -scattered to the four winds of heaven. But they will return to their -old home, bringing with them European ideas, European technique, and -the most modern methods from America. - -If men are lacking, they can be obtained from the near Caucasus with -its narrow, over-filled valleys, inhabited by a most superior race -of men, who have always had strong emigrating instincts. Even this -most unfortunate country in the whole world, which the Turks of the -Old Regime and of the New have systematically mutilated and at last -bequeathed to Russia with practically not a man left, is going to have -its spring-time. - -In the south, Great Arabia and Syria will have autonomy under the -protection of England and France with their skilful Islam policy; they -will have the benefit of the approved methods of progressive work in -Egypt, the Soudan, and India as well as the Atlas lands; they will be -exposed to the influences and incitements of the rest of civilised -Europe; they will probably be enriched with capital from America, -where thousands of Arab and Syrian, as well as Armenian, refugees have -found a home; they will provide the first opportunity in history of -showing how the Arab race accommodates itself to modern civilisation -on its own ground and with its own sovereign administration. The final -deliverance of the Arabs from the oppressive and harmful supremacy of -the Turks, now happily accomplished by the war, was one of the most -urgent demands for a race that can look back on centuries of brilliant -civilisation. The civilised world will watch with the keenest interest -the self-development of the Arabian lands. - -Even Germany, once she is at peace, will have no need to grumble at -these arrangements, however diametrically opposed they may be to the -now sadly shattered plans of the Pan-German and Expansion politicians. -Germany will not lose the countless millions she has invested in -Turkey. She will have her full and sufficient share in the European -work and commercial activity that will soon revive again in the Near -East. The Baghdad railway of "Rohrbach & Company" will never be -built, it is true; but the Baghdad Railway with a loyal international -marking off of the different zones of interest, the Baghdad Railway, -as a huge artery of peaceful intercourse linking up the whole of Asia -Minor and bringing peace and commercial prosperity, will all the more -surely rise from its ruins. And when once the German _Weltpolitik_ -with its jealousy, its tactless, sword-rattling interference in the -time-honoured vital interests of other States, its political intrigues -disguised in commercial dress, is safely dead and buried, there will be -nothing whatever to hinder Germany from making use of this railway and -carrying her purely commercial energy and the products of her peaceful -labour to the shores of the Persian Gulf and receiving in return the -rich fruits of her cultural activity on the soil of Asia Minor. - - - - -APPENDIX - - -For the better understanding of the fact that a German journalist, the -representative of a great national paper like the _Koelnische Zeitung_, -could publish such a book as this, and to ward off in advance all the -furious personal attacks which will result from its publication, and -which might, without an explanation, injuriously affect its value as -an independent and uninfluenced document, it is, I think, essential to -explain the role I filled in Constantinople, how I left Turkey, and how -I came to the decision to publish my experiences. - -As far as my post on the _Koelnische Zeitung_ is concerned, I accepted -it and went to Turkey although I was from the very beginning against -German "World-politics" of the present-day style at any rate (not -against German commercial and cultural activity in foreign countries) -and against militarism--as was only to be expected from one who had -studied colonial politics and universal history unreservedly, and had -spent many years studying in the English, French, and German colonies -of Africa--and although I was quite convinced that Germany's was the -crime of setting the war in motion. Besides, my "anti-militarism" is -not of a dogmatic kind, but refers merely to the relations customary -between civilised nations--witness the fact that I took part in the -Colonial War of 1904-6 in German South-West Africa as a volunteer. - -I hoped to find in Turkey some satisfaction for my extra-European -leanings, a sphere of labour less absorbed by German militarism, and -opportunity for independent study, and surely no one will take it amiss -that I seized such a chance, certainly unique in war-time, in spite of -my political views. - -Once arrived in Turkey, I kept well in the background to begin with, -so as to be able to form my own opinion, of course doing my uttermost -at the same time to be loyal to the task I had undertaken. In spite -of everything I had to witness, it was quite easy to reconcile all -oppositions, until that famous day when my wife denounced Germany to -my face. From that moment I became an enemy of present-day Germany -and began to think of one day publishing the whole truth about the -system. Until then I had contented myself with never saying a good word -about the war, as one can easily find for oneself from a perusal of my -various articles in the _Koelnische Zeitung_ during 1915-16, dated from -Constantinople and marked (a small steamship). - -That dramatic event which finally alienated me from the German cause -took place just after the end of a severe crisis in my relationship -with German-Turkish Headquarters. Some slight hints I had given of -Turkish mismanagement, cynicism, and jingoism in a series of articles -appearing from February 15th, 1916, onwards, under the title "Turkish -Economic Problems," so far as they were possible under existing -censorship conditions, was the occasion of the trouble. One can imagine -that Headquarters would certainly be furious with a journalist whose -articles appeared one fine day, literally translated, in the _Matin_ -under the title: "_Situation insupportable en Turquie, decrite par un -journaliste allemand_" ("Insufferable situation in Turkey, described -by a German journalist"), and cropped up once more on June 1st, in -the _Journal des Balcans_, I was three times over threatened with -dismissal. My paper sent a confidential man to hold an inquiry, and -after a month he made a confidential report, which resulted in my being -allowed to remain. But the fact that the same journalist that wrote -such things was married to a Czech was too much for my colleagues, -who were in part in the pay of the Embassy, in part in the pay of the -Young Turkish Committee, whose politics they praised, regardless of -their own inward convictions, like the representative of the _Berliner -Tageblatt_, to get material benefit or make sure of their own jobs. -I gleaned many humorous details at a nightly sitting of my Press -colleagues in Pera, at which I myself was branded as a "dangerous -character that must be got rid of," and my wife (who was far too young -ever to worry about politics) as a "Russian spy"--perhaps because, with -the justifiable pride and reserve of her race, she did not attempt to -cultivate the society of the German colony. That began the period of -intrigues and ill-will, but my enemies did not succeed in damaging -me, although matters went so far as a denunciation of me before the -"Prevention of Espionage Department" of the General Staff in Berlin. My -paper, after they had given me the fullest moral satisfaction, and had -arranged for me to remain in Constantinople in spite of all that had -taken place, thought it was better to give me the chance of changing -and offered me a new post on the editorial staff elsewhere. - -However, I was now quite finished with Germany, or rather with its -politics; it would have been a moral impossibility for me to write -another single word in the editorial line; so I refused the offer and -applied for sick-leave from October 1st, 1916, to the end of the war -(by telegram about the middle of August). It was granted me with an -expression of regret. - -Arrived in Switzerland (February 7th, 1917), I severed all connection -with my paper by mutual consent from October 1st, 1916, onwards. After -my resignation, no special editorial representative of the _Koelnische -Zeitung_ was appointed to take my place, as the censorship made any -kind of satisfactory work impossible. - -I should like to emphasise the fact that the intrigues against me, -the crisis with Headquarters I have just mentioned, and my departure -from Constantinople did not injure me in any way either morally -or financially, and have nothing whatever to do with the present -publication. It is certainly not any petty annoyance that could bring -me to such an action, which will probably entail more than enough -unpleasant consequences for me. The reproaches levelled against me by -my pushing, jingoistic colleagues were as impotent as their attempts to -get rid of me as "dangerous to the German Cause"; I have written proof -of this from my paper in my hand, and also of the fact that it was of -my own free-will that I retired. I can therefore look forward quite -calmly to all the personal invective that is sure to be showered on me -for political reasons. - -I had sufficient independent means not to feel the loss of my post -in Constantinople too keenly; and if I still kept my post after the -beginning of the crisis with Headquarters, it was simply and solely so -that as a newspaper correspondent I might be in possession of fuller -information, and able to follow up as long as possible the developments -that were taking place on that most interesting soil of Turkey. -When that was no longer possible, I refused the post offered me in -Cologne--in fact twice, once by letter and once by telegram--for I -could not pretend to opinions I directly opposed. I therefore remained -as a free-lance in the Turkish capital. I was extremely glad that the -difference of opinion ended as it did, for I had at last a free hand to -say and write what I thought and felt. - -My stay in Constantinople for a further three months as a silent -observer naturally did not escape the notice of the German authorities, -and after they had reported to the Foreign Office that a "satisfactory -co-operation between me and the German representatives was not longer -possible," they had of course to discover some excuse for putting an -end to my prolonged stay in Turkey. They finally attempted to get rid -of me by calling me up for military duty again. But this was useless in -my case, for my health had been badly shaken by my spell at the Front -at the beginning of the war, and besides I had the doctor's word for it -that I should never be able to stand the German climate after having -lived so long in the Tropics. - -Whether they liked it or not, the authorities had to find some -other means of getting me out of Constantinople. The Consul-General -approached me, after he had discussed the matter with the Ambassador, -to see if I would not like to go to Switzerland to get properly cured; -otherwise he was sure I would be turned out by the Turks. They were -evidently afraid, for I was getting more and more into bad odour -with the German authorities for my ill-concealed opinions, that I -would publish my impressions, with documentary support, as soon as -ever there was a change of government in Turkey, or as soon as the -German censorship was removed and anything of the kind was possible. -They apparently thought that the frontier regulations would be quite -sufficient to prevent my taking any documentary evidence with me to -Switzerland. - -As a matter of fact this was the case, and the day before my departure -from Constantinople I carefully burned the whole of my many notes, -which would have produced a much more effective indictment against the -moral sordidness of the German-Young Turkish system than these very -general sketches. But the strictest frontier regulations could not -prevent me from taking with me, free of all censorship, the impressions -I had received in Turkey, and the opinions I had arrived at after a -painful battle for loyalty to myself as a German and to the duties I -had undertaken. Even then I had considerable difficulty in getting -across the frontier, and I had to wait seventeen whole days at the -frontier before I was finally allowed into Switzerland. It was only -owing to the fact that I sent a telegram to the Chancellor, on the -authority of the Consul-General in Constantinople, begging that no -difficulties of a political kind might be placed in the way of my -going to Switzerland, as I had been permitted to do so by medical -certificate, the passport authorities and the local command, that I -finally won my point with the frontier authorities and was permitted to -cross into Switzerland. - -To tell the truth, I must admit that the high civil authorities, and -particularly the Foreign Office, treated me throughout most kindly and -courteously. For this one reason I had a hard fight with myself, right -up to the very last, even after I arrived in Switzerland, before I -sat down and wrote out my impressions and opinions of German-Turkish -politics. And if I have now finally decided to make them public, I can -only do so with an expression of the most honest regret that my private -and political conscience has not allowed me to requite the kindness of -the authorities by keeping silent about what I saw of the German and -Turkish system. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Two War Years in Constantinople, by Harry Stuermer - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO WAR YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE *** - -***** This file should be named 60638.txt or 60638.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/6/3/60638/ - -Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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