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Tous las autres axemplairas originaux sont filmte an commenpant ^sr la pramiire page qui comporte une amprei i 1^ : PREFACE B^J^P *™^ *^^ American people have proba- , bly become convinced that the Germans delib- erately planned the conquest of the world. Yet they hesitate to convict on circumstantial evi- dence and for this reason all eye witnesses to this, the ^eatest crime in modern history, should volunteer tneif testnnony. I have therefore laid aside any scruples I had as to the propriety of disclosing to my fellow countrymen the facts which I learned while representing them in rurkey. I acquired this knowledge as the servant of the American people, and it is their property as much as it is mine. I greatly regret that I have been obliged to omit an account of the splendid activities of the American Missionary and Educational Institutions in Turkey but to do justice to this subject would require a book by Itself. I have had to omit the story of the Jews jn lurkey for the same reasons. My thanks are due to my friend. Mr. Burton J Hendrick, for the invaluable assistance he has ren- dered m the preparation ^he book. October, 1918. Henry Morgenthau. CONTENTS oBAma 3 I. A German superman at Constantinople . n. The "Boss System" in the Ottoman Em- pire and how it proved useful to Ger- many in. "The personal representative of the Kaiser.'* Wangenheim opposes the sale of American warships to Greece IV. Germany mobilizes the Turkish army V. Wangenheim smuggles the Goeben and the Breslau through the Dardanelles VI. Wangenhei n tells the American Ambas- sador how the Kaiser started the war . Vn. Germany's plans for new territories, coal- ing stations, and indemnities ... 00 Vin. A classic instance of German propaganda 96 IX. German^ closes the Dardanelles and so separates Russia from her Allies . . 105 X. Turkey's abrogation of the capitula- tions. Enver living in a palace, with plenty of money and an imperial bride 112 XI. Germany forces Turkey into the war 123 iz 20 41 61 68 82 cBAnnt XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. xvni. XIX. XX. XXI. xxn. xxni. CONTENTS The Turks attempt to treat alien en- emies decently, but the Germans msist on persecuting them . The invasion of the Notre Dame de oion School Wangenheim and the Bethlehem Steel Company. A "Holy War" that was made in Germany ^ijJ^^J; a troublesome Mark Antony. The first German attempt to get a German peace The Turks prepare to flee from Con- stantinople and establish a new cap- ital m Asia Minor. The Allied fleet bombarding the Dardanelles Enyer as the man who demonstrated fl f..''"'^ff ^'^^*-^ o' the British fleet Old-fashioned defenses of the Dardanelles rxaa 130 147 157 171 184 The Allied armada sails away, though on the brink of victory . A fight for three thousand civilians More adventures of the foreign resi- dents . . . 202 217 232 253 262 Bulgaria on the auction block The Turk reverts to the ancestral type 274 The "Revolution" at Van ... 293 ( lltl'TKH XXIV. XXV. XXVI. xxvn. XXVIIT. XXIX. CONTENTS 3jj The murder of a nation .... 301 Talaat tells why he deports the Anne- "•^"« 326 Enver Pashn discusses the Armenians 343 "I shall do nothing for the Armenians," says the German Ambassador . . 364 Enver again moves for peace. Fare- well to the Sultan and to Turkey . 385 Von Jagow, Zimmermann, and German- Americans go- ■imi to LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Henry Morgenthau FraniUrnece Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Constantinople from the American Embassy Beylerbey palace on the Bosphorus The American Embassy at Constantinople Henry Morgenthau. American Ambassador Turkey, 1913-1916 Talaat Pasha. ex-Grand Vi-ier of Turkey Turkish infantry and cavalry BustAny Effendi Mohammed V, late Sultan of Turkey . Wangenheim, the German Ambassador The Sultan. Mohammed V, going to his Friday prayers Talaat and Enver at a military review Baron Von Wangenheim, German Ambassador to lurkey regular 8 9 16 16 17 48 49 56 57 68 72 73 80 Djemal Pasha, Minister of Marine §1 The Marquis Garroni, Italian Ambassador to the oubhme Porte in 1914 112 M. TocheflF. Bulgarian Minister at Constantinople 112 The Amerionn summer Embassy on the Bosphorus 113 XUI ^"^ ILLUSTRATIONS Enver Pasha. Minister of War '^7*"J Said Ilalim, Ex-grand Vizier ...... ijj Sir Louis Mallet Gen. Liman von Sanders ^^^ German and Turkisii officers on board tiie G^ben 144 Bedri Bey, Prefect of Police at Constantinople . 145 145 The British Embassy Robert College at Constantinople . . . ' * jyy The American Embassy Staff jg^ The Modem Turkish soldier • . . . igtf TheMmistryof\Var. . onn 1 he Mmistry of Marine ^^ Ilalil Bey in Berlin . • - . gQ2 Talaat and Kuhlmann General Mertens The Red Crescent .... Enver Pasha gog Turkish quarters at the Dardanelles ... 240 Looking north to the city of Gallipoli . . .' . 241 The British ship ^/6/on The Dardanelles as it was March 16. 1915 249 Tchemenlik and Fort Anadolu Hamidie . . * 264 Fort Dardanos 265 "fe^'WL ILLUSTRATIONS The American ward of the Turkish hoipiul Students of the Constttntinoplc College Abdul Humid A characteristic view of the Armenian countiy Fishmg village on Lake Van . Refugees at Van crowding around a puMic oven hopmg to get bread .... Van in ruins Interior of the Armenian church at Urfa Armenian soldiers Those who fell by the wayside . A view of Ilarpoot View of Urfa .... A relic of the Armenian massacres at Erzingan The funeral of Baron von Wangenheim XV . «7« . £73 . 804 . 30*> 3U 313 3S8 380 33G 337 337 368 368 369 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY I i^-j m iij*/ ^^'•■^r-;^..^.- ■.^^.- ¥mm^&mf^m!^:^^-}^ .^^-Tii.,:': i 4 AMBASSADOR MOKGENTHAU-S STORY part of a connected, definite stoiy. The several in d|v,duab that moved upon the s7ene now^pZl"' players in a carefully staged, superbly manag^^l!' I see clearly enough now that Germany bT^T^ to which I had been sent as American f ,^u j "^ oneofthefour.dati„ns.o„esfe:i,^;,''ri -S cal and mUitary structure. Had Germanv n^Z • j control of Constantinople in the eariv Z, f T"""^ it is not unlikely that hostiliti"^ ha« e^d^'al;"' months after the Battle of the Mame It w2 c^'X an amazing fate that landed me in this Te^l^J^ qu^rs of intri^e at the veiy momL whefthl pS^s" 1^^^ r '="»'^°'''''gT«rkey. which he hadS^c Near East A,, I .f'^"'*'"? German ambitions in the a century in LlJZ^tttZI " '"'''^' ?' such different placM as P^^^^^n i ^"^ =»"'«» in ipiacesasFetrograd, Copenhagen, Madrid, AMBASSADOR MOHGENTHAU-S STORY 5 Athens, Mid Meaco, and he had been charge at Con bassador. He understood completely all countries mcluduus the United States; his first wife hadTen » Amenca^. and Wangenheim. when Minister to MeScT had Ultimately studied our country and hadX"n J«iuired an admiration for our energy and pLts He had a complete technical equipment for a dMlat he spoke German, English, and French with equli t^My. he knew the East thoroughly, and he LdTe widest acquaintan,^ with public men. PhysicX he wa^oneof the most imposingpersonslhaveevcrknowt When I was a boy in Germany, the Fatherland Z usually symbol^i^abeautifulandpowerfulwomar a kind of da.zhng Valkyrie; when I think of modem Germany.however.the massive, burlyflgureofWaMr heim naturally presents itself to . I w. „ *^" eet two inches taU; his huge, solid fran. ., 'his GibT^t^! like shoulders erect and impregnable, hi^ bold.lS^Jt head his piercmg eyes, his whole physical struc^l^n Jtantly pulsating with life and activity-there^^ I would say, not the Germany which I had fcno^! btt the Genminy whose limitless ambitions had transfom^ the world mto a place of horror. And WangenhS every act and every word typified this new and Su portent among the nations. Pan-Germany finTln his waking hours and directed his every Jion The dedcation of his empei^r was the o7y^S„3^t stmct which impelled him. That aristoiitic al^d auto" «at,c organization of German society which „t tte Prussian system was, in Wangenheim's eyef. s^m^ thing to be venerated and worshipped; wiU. Sis as the groundwork. Germany was ineSwesti„*^' :¥:,(-. ■I % 6 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY he beheved. to rule the world. TI.e great land-owning Junker represented the perfection of mankfnr"! would despise myself." his closest associate once told wdl " f hadT'T' Wangenheim's attitude as welJ .f I had been born m a city." Wungenheim diVKled mankmd mto two classes, the governing and the governed; and he ridiculed the idea that the upper could ever be recnuted from the lower. I recall wUh what unctum and enthusiasm he used to d.vJbe the Emperors caste organization of German estates; how he had made them non- transferable, and had even arranged it so that the possessors, or the prospective possessors could not marry without the imperial consent. "In this way," Wangenheim woulTsay Like all of his social order, Wangenheim worshipped the Prussian military system; his splendid bearing showed that he had himself served in the army and lit- ^f Tw"""' '^ '^'^'^^^ Practicallj'e"^ situation m life from a military standpoint. I had o^ curious Illustration of this when I asked WangenheTm one day why the Kaiser did not visit the United Stat^ He would like to immensely." he replied, "but ^ would be too dangerous. War might break out when he was at sea and the enemyVoulJ^Vu him. I suggested that that could hardly happen as the American Government would escort its gue- home with warships, and that no nation would car to run Inv "hMv'^'^t^ *'^ ''^''*^^' States as Germany's ally, but Wangenheim still thought that the military danger would make any such visit impossible ^ represTntadve oTT ''" I!^"^^* ^"^ ^^P'«--«- representative of Germany, depended the success of AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 7 the Kaiser's conspiracy for world domination. This German diplomat came to Constantinople with a sinde purpose, ^or twenty years the German Government til ';^"V' f ?u*^" ^""'^''^ ^^P'--^- A" this time the Kaiser had been preparing for a world war. and m this war it was destined that Turkey should play an alniost decisive part. Unless Germany should obtam the Ottoman Empire .s its ally, there was little chance Umt she could succeed in ,., general European con- flict. When I ranee had made her alliance with Russia, the man power of 170,000.000 p.ople was placed on her side, m the event of a war with Germany. For more than twenty years Germany had striven diplomatically to detachRussiafrom this French alliance, but hadfaUed 1 here was only one way in which Germany could » -ke va ueless the Franco-Russian Alliance; this was by obtaining Turkey as an ally. With Turkey on her side Germany could close the Dardanelles, the only practica line of communication between Russia and her western allies; this simple act would deprive the Czar s army of war mmiitions, destroy Russia economi- cally by stopping her grain exports, her greatest source t r vv' u «*^"'±*^"^ ^"^^'^ f'-^"^ her partners n the World War. Thus Wangenheim's missL was to make it absolutely certain that Turkey should join Germany m the great contest that was impending Wangenheim believed that, should he succeed in accomphshmg this task, he would reap the reward which for years had represented his final goal-the chancellor- ship of the Empire. His skill at establishing friendly personal relations with the Turks gave him a great advantage over his rivals. Wangenheim had precisely that combmation of force, persuasiveness, geniality, and I 8 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY brutality which was needed in dealing with the Turkish character. I have emphasized his Prussian qualities; yet Wangenheim was a Prussian not by birth but by development; he was a native of ThUringcn, and, to- gether with all the push, ambition, and overbearing traits of the Prussian, he had some of the softer characteristics which we associate with Southern Germany. He had one conspicuous quality which is not Prussian at all --that is, tact; and, as a rule, he succeeded in keep- ing his less-agreeable tendencies under the surface and showing only his more ingratiating side. He domi- nated not so much by brute strength as by a mixture of force and amiability; externally he was not a bully; his manner was more insinuating than coercive; he won by persuasiveness, not by the mailed fist, but we who knew him well understood that back of all his gentleness there lurked a terrific, remorseless, and definite ambition. Yet the impression left was not one of brutality but of excessive animal spirits and good nature. Indeed, Wangenheim had in combination the jovial enthusiasm of a college student, the rapacity of a Prussian official, and the happy-go-lucky qualities of a man of the world. I still recall the picture of this huge figure of a man, sitting at the piano, improvising on some beautiful claasic theme-and then suddenly startmg to pound out uproarious German drinking songs or popular melodies. I stUl see him jumping on his horse at the polo grounds, spurring the splendid animal to it^ speediest efforts-the horse never making sufficient speed,however,tosatisfythearabitious sports- man. Indeed m all his activities, grave or gay, Wangen- h^ displayed this same restless spirit of the chase. Whether he was ffirtmg with the Greek ladies at Pera or -jnfc: MRS. HENRY MORGE.NTHVr >>ife of the American Ambassadror at Constantinople from 1913 to 1916 'iT.?- s3f5..=^a^5f^^' AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY wa. to be pisved mnr.Ti >,.•*»"''•*'>'<* the w^:^:i;::r„tr:::^^i^r '7't'' Clous and willing to oin »n™J. .", ""* *"''*- throw. AadtSf «Xt .^, .1 "^r "■' • •»«'« ."*""' "* Oerahardi as exori^anl !t "w n empire or dowofaU"_Wan«nh,im ^ . ' , ^""'•' «uidly,a.thou«hitl,.Wh!^ , ''"' '"'' T'ioy Ian- "fin- and WW^Ht^ettl'^""" "'j™'' '" "" was conteat to accent aII th^ ^ ' ""* °« however hid«rS2el>hlt"T""' "^ l"'"~"'^' goal, and. with thT SL and t "'":5:'^ * ™«'* «h«acteriaticaUy Gerald w J*^" that arc » wide aU feeSofh^'-. ?'">"" ""'"'<' """"h interfere S^ScL He IT ^J'^^ *^' ■"«•■» famous dictum t^. cfr^d^ h" '""Bismarck's pX^"wt r:lt™kin^V^"-'■•-^"e i.«.othefSture!?Xvii:^r^:ir w^' 'r'- «P««oted the mi^^ ^ c^nt^lnT^/:!^: 10 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY val lust for conquest which constitute Prujwian mlt- politik: Pallavicini was a diplomat left over from the days of Mettemich. "Germany wants this!" Wan- genheim would insist, when an important iwint had to be decided; "I shall consult my foreign office," the cautious Pallavicini would say, on a similar occasion. The Austrian, with little upturned gray moustaches, with a rather stiff, even slightly strutthig, walk, looked like the old-fashioned Marquis that was once a stock figure on the stage. I might compare Wangenheim with the representative of a great business firm which was lavish in its expenditures j . . unscrupulous in its methods, while his Austrian colleague represented a house that prided itself on its past achievements and was entirely content with its position. The same delight that Wangenheim took in Pan-German plans, Pallavicini found in all the niceties and obscurities of diplomatic technique. The Austrian had represented his count:} I: T.irke^ numy years, and was the dean of the corps, a dignity of which he was extremely proud. He found his delight in upholding all the honours, of his position; he was expert in arranging the order of precedence at ceremonial dinners, and there was not a single detail of etiquette that he did not have at his fingers' ends. When it came to affairs of state, however, he was merely a tool of Wangenheim. From the first, indeed, he seemed to accept his position as that of a diplomat who was more or less subject to the will of his more powerful ally. In this way Palla- vicini played to his German colleague precisely the same part that his emperor was playing to that of the Kaiser. In the early months of the war the bearing of these two men completely mirrored the respective AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 11 successes and failures of their countries. As the Ger- mans boasted of victory after victory Wangenheim's already huge and erect figure seemed to become larger and more upstanding, while Pallavicini, as the Austrians lost battle after battle to the Russians, seemed to become smaller and more shrinking. The situation in Turkey, in these critical months, seemed almost to have been purposely created to give the fullest opportunities to a man of Wangenheim's genius. For ten years the Turkish Empire had been undergoing a process of dissolution, and had now reached a state of decrepitude that had left it an easy prey to German diplomacy. In order to understand the situa- tion, we must keep in mind that there was really no orderly, established government in Turkey at that time. For the Young Turks were not u government; they were really an irresponsible party, a kind of secret society, which, by intrigue, intimidation, and assassina- tion, had obtained most of the offices of state. When I describe the Young Turks in these words, per- haps I may be dispelling certain illusions. Before I came to Turkey I had entertained very different ideas of this organization. As far back as 1908 I remember reading news of Turkey that appealed strongly to my democratic sympathies. These reports informed nie that a body of young revolutionists had swept from the mountains of Macedonia, had marched upon Con- stantinople, had deposed the bloody Sultan, Abdul Hamid, and had established a constitutional system. Turkey, these glowing newspaper stories told us, had become a democracy, with a pariiament, a responsible ministry, universal suffrage, equality of all citizens before the law, freedom of speech and of the press, and ^^'^S^JS.^i.Jf^S^m 12 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STC^RY all the other essentials of a free, liberty-loving common- wealth. That a party of Turks had for years been struggling for such reforms I well knew, and that their ambitions had become realities seemed to indicate that, after all, there was such a thing as human prog- ress. The long welter of massacre and disorder in the Turkish Empire had apparently ended; "the great assassin", Abdul Hamid, had been removed to solitary confinement at Saloniki, and his brother, the gentle Mohammed V, had ascended the throne with a pro- gressive democra' 'c programme. Such had been the promise; but, by the time I reached Constantinople, in 1913, many changes had taken place. Austria had annexed two Turkish provinces, Bosnia and Herzego- vina; Italy had wrenched away Tripoli; Turkey had fought a disastrous war with the Balkan states, and had lost all her territories in Europe except Constantinople and a small hinterland. The aims for the regeneration of Turkey that had inspired the revolution had evi- dently miscarried, and I soon discovered that four years of so-called democratic rule had ended with the nation more degraded, more impoverished, and more dis- membered than ever before. Indeed, long before I had arrived, this attempt to establish a Turkish democ- racy had failed. The failure was probably the most complete and the most disheartening in the whole liistory of dem cratic institutions. I need hardly explain in detail the causes of this collapse. Let us not criticize too harshly the Young Turks, for there is no question that, at the beginning, they were sincere. In a speech in Liberty Square, Saloniki, in July, 1908, Enver Pasha, who was popularly regarded as the chival- rous young leader of this insurrection against a century- m^- m :..».• AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 13 old tyranny, had eloquently declared that, "To-day arbitrary government has disappeared. We are all brothers. There are no longer in Turkey Bulgarians, Gr^ks, Servians, Rumanians, Mussulmans, Jews Under the same blue sky we are all proud to be Otto- mans That statement represented the Young Turk Ideal for the new Turkish state, but it was an ideal which It was evidently beyond their ability to translate into a reahty. The races which had been maltreated and mas- sacred for centuries by the Turks could not transform themselves overnight into brothers, and the hatreds jealousies, and religious prejudices of the past still divided Turkey into a medley of warring clans. Above ^'xl i^',*'T*'''^ "^^'^ ^"^ *^^ ^««« «f g^-eat sections of the Turkish Empire had destroyed the prestige of the new democracy. There were plenty of other reasons for the failure, but it is hardly necessary to discuss them at this time. Thus the Young Turks had disappeared as a positive regenerating force, but they still existed as a political machme. Their leaders, Talaat, Enver, and Djemal, Had long smce abandoned any expectation of reforming their state, but they had developed an insatiable lust for personal power. Instead of a nation of nearly 20.000,000, developing happily along democratic Imes enjoying suffrage, buildmg up their industry and apiculture, laying the foundations for universal educa- tion, sanitation, and general progress, I saw that Turkey consisted of merely so many inarticulate, ignorant, and poverty-ridden slaves, with a small, wicked oligarchy at the top, which was prepared to use them in the way that would best promote its private mterests. And these men were practically the same who. a few vears 'J 14 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY before, had made Turkey a constitutional state. A more bewildering fall from the highest idealism to the crassest materialism could not be Imagined. Talaat, Enver, and Djemal w e t'^e ostensible leaders, yet back of them was the Committee, consisting of about forty men. This committee met secretly, manipulated elections! and filled the oflSces with its own henchmen. It occupied abuildingin Constantinople, and had a supreme chief who gave all his time to its affairs and issued orders to his subordinates. This functionary ruled the party and the country something like an American city boss in our most unregenerate days; and -the whole organization thus furnished a typical illustration of what we sometimes describe as "invisible government." This kind of irresponsible control has at times flourished in American cities, mainly because the citizens have devoted all their time to their private affairs and thus neglected the public good. But in Turkey the mas^ were altogether too ignorant to understand the meani, of democracy, and the bankruptcy and general vicissi tudes of the country had left the nation with practically no government and an easy prey to a determined band of adventurers. The Committee of Union and Prog- ress, with Talaat Bey as the most powerful leader, constituted such a band. Besides the forty men in' Constantinople, sub-committees were organized in all important cities of the empire. The men whom the Committee placed in power "took orders" and made the appomtments submitted to them. No man could hold an office, high or low, who was not indorsed by this committee. I must admit, however, that I do our corrupt Ameri- can gangs a great injustice in comparing them with *i^U\ £ CJ AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 13 the Turkish Coramittee of Union and Progress Ta- de taJ that has not figured extensively in AmerLn polrt.«-that of assassu,ation and .judicial S" They had wrested power from the other tactions by a deed of ™lence. This coup i'ital had taken Xe on January 26, ,913 „ot quite a year before my^fval Eamil p'l: >""';:!-' f™P.. headed by the venerable -KJamil P sha, as Grand Vizier, and Nazim Pasha as MmBler of W^.controlled the Government; they e^r" sented a fact,o„ known as the "Liberal Party," Xcl was^h,eay distinguished for its enmity to th"; Wg War and ?n, """ '"'i''"'«'" «■» disastrous Balkaf War and, m January, they had felt themselves com- peUed to accept the advice of the European powersTd surrender Adrianople to Bulgaria. The Young TuAs had been outs.de the breastworks for about six months lookmg for an opportunity to return to power The proposed surrender of Adrianople apparen ly furnished them tils opportunity. Adrianople was an imp" ta^t Turkish cty and naturally the Turkish people r^ded the contemplated surrender as marking still another mtaone toward their nationaIdoom.TalatandEnver hastily collected about two hundred followers and marched to the Sublime Porte, where the J2Tn t^ then s,ttmg Nazim, hearing the uproar, stepped Z. mtothehall. Hecourageouslyfacedthemwdaeiga "cl r™'»\"'' '■" '■""* "•"-'■•"to his pockets. Come, boys, he said, good humoureuly, "what's aU this noise about? Don't you know Lt it is mterfermg with our deliberations'" deS" rSl'l*.^ ll""'^'^ 'f "' °""'"' '^hen he feU ^:i^;.. Y :■ THE AMKRK AX KMHASSY AT rOXSTAVTIXOPLE ii...Ji' ^V-f^b :i AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 17 have described him as an energetic, masterful man It IS a miracle hat Ihe circumstances which fate had , . , "ssas&m —a man who ruled hv e»p.o„age and bloodshed, and ul.o I„.d no n,o o con Mderation for his o>v„ relaliv... , , ,<,,„,„ ,ZllZ Armenians One of Abdul Hannd's first acl! wl™ he ascended the throne, was to shnt up his heir Lartt m a palace, surrounding him with ..pics, rcstrietfnrWm for socety to his harem and a few pVe fun" tionartT and constantly holding over his head the fear of a"a ! ' nat on Naturally Mohammed's education TST .m,ted; he spoke only T, rkish, and sonTy means o" fearnmg about the outside world was an J^^aXna Turkish newspaper. So long as he remained ^ulrent t:hl-Lrr.rL7s;r^--^^^^^^^ ounan nad no characteristifs tliit suggested the "terrible Turk." He was .simply rquc easy-gomg, gentlemanly ol,l n.an. Everybody Tked hm, and I do not tlm.k that he harbour^ itfectof rr;arrly,rw:v^htt:rr"''^ -..n^aste^txr^^trdTS^^^ IB AMBAS.S,UX)R MOKGENTHAUS STORY had nol greatly improved his personal posiUon. The Committee of Union and Progress ruled him preeisdy indted they had already given him a sample of their assert h.s mdependeneo, and the conelusion of this episode le t no doubt as to who was master. A g ou 1 " thirteen "eonspiralors" and other criminals, some ^^j ones, others merely poHtieal offenders, had been s™ teneed to be hanged. Among them was .an imper'^ son-m-Iaw Before the exeeution could take pCe Le Sultan had to sign the death warrants. He begged that he be permuted to pardon the imperial son-in-law though he raised no objection to viseing the hangini of the other twelve. The nominal ruler of 20.000,000 people figuratively went do™ upon his knee be ore Talaat, but all his pleadings did not affect this dete^ mined man. Her-= Sultan or themselves A few days afterward the melancholy figure of the imperial son-in-law, dangling at the end of a rope in full v ew of the Turkish poplce, ykZy ^minded the empire that Talaat and the Co^imitl e were the masters of Turkey. After this tragical tel ^'ert^^;----:-^^.^^^^^^^ SletttfhS:^--"^'----^ T^l S^ ^^^ \ 'T^^ Constuntinople the Young lurks thus completely eontroUed the Sultan. He was popularly referred to as an "irade-machine." a phrase wbch means about the same thing as when Je rZ to a man as a "rubber stamp." His state duties con- TvJ^, W. m . I- ^fiS? n.ioamx^nesgF^'s^zjj-msiasEvm / AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY h. sisted merely in performing certain ceremonies, such as receivmg ambassadors, and in affixing his signatnrc v,ir*- •' T "" P'°'°""*' "'^^"^^ »» th« Turkish system, smce m that country for centuries the Sultan had been an unquestioned despot, whose will had been the only law and who had centred in his own person all the power of sovereignty. Not only the Sultan, but the Parliament, had become the subservient crelture berl whT""*" r '"^''^ '^"'" P"*"^^'^^"^ «" the mem- ta^rThrr V' V^^P-^^-in-nt bosses dic- tated. Ihe Committee had already filled several of the most powerful cabinet offices v,ah its followers and was reaching out for the several important places' that, for several reasons, still remained in other hands :/*»ir^.»*S'5i'Zi:«oZiJ Xl"'i'. -•S.-'^HPf.- r! CHAPTER n THE "doss system" in the ottoman empire and now IT PROVED USEPTL TO GERMANY TALAAT, the Iwulin^' man in this band of usurpers, reully had remarkable personal qual- ities. Naturally Talaat's life and character proved interesting to me, for I had for years been familiar with the Boss system in my own country, and in Talaat I saw many resemblances to the crude yet able citizens who have so frequently in the past gained power in local and state politics. Talaat's origin was so obscure that t: ere were plenty of stories in circulation concerning it. One account said that he was a Bulgarian gipsy, while another described him as a Pomak— a Pomak being a man of Bulgarian bloofl whose ancestors, centuries ago, had embraced " - Mohammedan faith! According to this latter explanui.on, which I think was the true one. this real ruler of the Turkish Empire was not a Turk at all. I can personally testify that he cared nothing for Mohammedanism for, like most of the leaders of his party, he scoffed at all religions. "I hate all priests, rabbis, and hodjas," he once told me— hodja being the nearest equivalent the Mohammedans have for a minister of religion. In American city politics many men from the humblest walks of life have not un- conimonly developed great abilities as politicians, and similarly Talaat had started life as a letter carrier. From this occupation he had risen to be a telegraph operator 20 ■>♦-?»■• j' "^^t'1|''^7Jif AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAIJS STORY n at Adrianople; and of these humble beginnings he was extremely proud. I visited him once or twice at hia house; although Tahiat was then the most powerful man in the Turkish Empire, his home was still the modest home of a man of the people. It wa.s cheaply fur- lushed; the whole establishment reminded me of a moderately priced apartment in New York His most cherished possession was the telegraph instrument with which he had once earned his living. Talaat one night told me that he had that day received his salary as Minister of the Interior; after paying his debts, he said, he had just one hundred dollars left in the world. He hked to spend part of his spare time with the rough-shod crew that made up the Committee of Union and Prog- ress; m the interims when he was out of the cabinet he used to occupy the desk daily at party headquarters, personally managing the party machine. Despite these humble beginnings. Talaat had developed some of the qualities of a man o, he world. Though his early trammg had not included instruction in the use of a knife and fork-such implements are wholly unknown among the poorer classes in Turkey-Talaat could attend diplomatic dinners and represent his country with a considerable amount of dignity and personafease. I have always regarded it as indicating his innate clever- ness that, though he had had little schooling, he had picked up enough French to converse tolerably in that language. Physically, he was a striking figure. His powerful frame his huge sweeping back, and his rocky biceps emphasized that natural mental strength and forcefulness which had made possible his career. In dis- cussing matters Talaat liked to sit at his desk, with his shoulders drawn up,hishead thrown back, and his wrists. UMik.MM^m 'H AMBASSADOR MORGENTIlAi; S STOIIV il Kr-V. i; w.ce the sue of an ordinary man's, planted firmly on t he '"'•l<'. It always seemed to me that it would take a crowbar to pry these wrists from the board, once Ta- laats slrenjrlh and defiant spirit had laid them there >M.enev-er I think of Talaat now I do not primarilv reeall h.s roll.ekmg lauKh. his uproarious enjoyment of a K00.1 story, tlu- mighty stride with which he crossed the room. Ins heroenevs. his determination, his remorse- essness-ahe whole life and nature of the man take form m those gigantic wrists. Talaat like most strong men, ha.l his forbidding even Ins ferocious, n.oods. ()no day I foun.l him sitting at the usual place, his massive shoulders drawn up. his eyes glowermg. his wrists planted on the desk I a ways anticipated trouble whenever I found him in h.s attitude. As I made request after request. Talaat, between Ins puffs at his cigarette, would answer "No!" i>o! No! I slipped around to his side of the desk. •'I think those wrists are making all'the trouble, . 'n.laafs ogre-like face began to crinkle, he threw up hKs arms. leaned back, and gave a roar of terrific laughter. He enjoyed this method of treating him so much that he granted every request that I made. At another time I came into hk room when two dignified, and refused every demand I made. "No I o?l"' ?h' f^l' ""'' 7r^ ' ^"^^"'^ ^^^ ^^^^^' idea of doing that, he would answer. I saw that he was tr>mg to impress his princely guests; to show them that he had become so great a man that he did not hesitate <3 AMBASSADOR MOBGE.NTIIAL S STORY there waiting to come in Mv,.ir..; . • to be triOe.1 wi, h" ^ "'" '"■'' '"" '"•P'"-'"'" Talaat lauglud. •'Come back in an l.our " l„- ,,i,l 1 return., ; tl.e Arab princes ha.i left, and we LTt dltEeulty ,„ arr. ,ging matter,, to ,ny .sati,fact „ Someone na» got to govern Tnrkey; why not wef " 1.0 would .eu'me. "JZ^^Ii^-^Xr"^" for it.- „„ -':^i::;, j:rLir,:;Lrer ' iStXttrr'oTaTtttr?^"^^^^ >H.omImetIregard..TaUttt:ttj:;;^r,?,! .iominance, the .^.ib'ty t^ttt^, " k llX r.™' ml an a most superhuu.an insight im'o menWvt" lli> great geniahty and hi. lively sense of huT aiucvvmiess in the measures whiVh h.. t i afier the murder of Ni/I.n t, J" • 1 *''''^' in this distracted ^J^^'^il^Z ster^o^ backed hm,, the anny. the foreign governments: ; i ¥:. 1 24 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY and the several factions that made up what then passed for public opinion in Turkey. Any of these elements might destroy him. politically and physically. He understood the dangerous path that he was treading, and he always anticipated a violent death. "I do not expect to die in my bed." he told me. By becoming Minister of the Interior, Talaat gained control of the police and the administration of the provinces, or vila- yets; this gave him a great amount of patronage, which he used to strengthen the power of the Committee. He attempted to gain the support of all influential factions by gradually placing their representatives in the other cabinet posts. Though he afterward be- came the man who was chiefly responsible for the massa- cre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians, at this time Talaat maintamed the pretense that the Committee stood for the unionization of all the races m the em- pire, and for this reason his first cabinet contained an Arab-Christian, a Deunme (a Jew by race, but a Mohammedan by religion), a Circassian, an Ar- menian, and an Egyptian. He made the latter Grand Vizier, the highest post m the Government, a position which rouglily corres- ponds to that of Chancellor in the German Empire. The man whom he selected for this office, which in ordinary times was the most dignified and important m the empire, belonged to quite a different order of society from Talaat. Not uncommonly bosses in America select high-class figureheads for mayors or even governors, men who will give respectability to their faction, yet whom, at the same time, they th.nk they can control. It was some such motive as this which led Talaat and his associates to elevate Said AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 25 Halim to the Grand Vizierate. Said Ilalim was an i^gyptian prince, the cousin of the Kliedive of E-vnt a man of great wealth and great culture. lie spoke English and French as fluently as his own tongue and was an ornament to any society in the world. But he was a man of unlimited vanity and ambition. His great desire was to become Khedive of Egypt, and this had led him to trust his political fortunes to the gang that was then ascendant in Turkev He was the heaviest "campaign contributor," and, in- deed he had largely financed the Young Turks from their earhest days. In exchange they had given him the highest office in the empire, with Ihe ta ^ understanding that he should not attempt to exercise the real powers of his office, but content hunself with enjoymg its dignities. the study of internal conditions in other countries- an indispensable part of the imperial programme had been to take advantage of such disorganlatio^s 1 f w.P"^t ^'' ^^^^^^^ °f penetration and conquest What her emissaries have attempted in France, Italy, and even the United States is apparent and their success in Russia has greatly changed the course of the war. Clearly such a situation fs tiat which prevailed in Turkey in 1913 and 1914 provided an ideal opportunity for manipulations of this kind. And Germany had one great advantage in Turkey which was not so conspicuously an element in other countries. Udlv .fr '''''''''''' f r'^'d Germany almost as badly as Germany needed Talaat. They were :.lto gether new to the busmess of managing^renipi'e: Their finances were depleted, their army and navy -i i i «6 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY almost in tatters, enemies were constantly attempt- r'Lldl"""' *'L" ^\'°"^' ^"^ ^^^ ^-t powers regarded them as seedy adventurers whose career was des jned to be brief. Without strong support from a„ outside source, it was a question how long the new re- IZ. 7- '""'" ^^'^^^* ^"^ ^^'^ Committee n'ded some foreign power to organize the army and navy, to finance the nation, to help them reconstruct thei^ industrial system, and to protect them against the encroachments of the encircling nations. Ignorant as they were of foreign statecraft, they neededfsS adviser to pilot them through all the channels of inter- obtrir'S^"?- 7^''' ^^ ^"^^ ^ Protector to be obtamed? Evidently only one of the great European power, H p,rf ^,.^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ jropean It be? Ten years before Turkey would naturally have appealed to Enghmd. But now the Turks regarded England as merely the nation that had despoiled them of Egypt and that had failed to protect Turkey from llussu, Great Britam now controlled Persia and thus constituted a constant threat-.t least so the Turk beheved-agamst their Asiatic dominions. England was gradually withdrawing her investments from rurkey. English statesmen believed that the task of driving the Turk from Europe was about compLe and the whole Near-Eastern policy of Great BritS of? o\°ia"itaming the orgauizaUon of the Balkans as It had been determined by the Treaty of Bucharest ^d r K \ ^'^ ^"?'^ ''^"^"^ *« ^^g^'-d ^ binding and which she was determmed to upset. Above all! the Turks eared Russia in 1914, just as they had feared her ever smce the days of Peter the Great. Russia W'^ ; AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 27 was the historic enemy, the nation which had civen freedom to Bulgaria and Rumania, which had been most active m dismembering the Ottoman Empire, and which regarded herself as the power that was ulti- mately to possess Constantinople. This fear of Russia 1 cannot too much insist, was the one factor which above evorythi.^ .Ise, was forcing Turkey into the arms of Germany. For more than ha': a century lurkey had regarded England as he. surest safeguard agamst Russian aggression, and now England had be- come Russia's virtual ally. There was even then a general belief, which the Turkish chieftains shared, that England was entirely willing that Russia should mh-nt Constantinople and the Dardanelles. Though Russia, in 1914, was making no such preten- sions. at least openly, the fact that she was crowding Turkey m other directions made it impossible that Talaat and Enver should look for support in that direction. Italy h.d just seized the last Turkish province in Africa, Tripoli, at that moment, was holding Rhodes and other Turkish islands, and was known to cherish aggressive plans in Asia Minor. France was the ally of Russia and Great Britain, and was also constantly extending her influence in Svria, in which province, indeed, she had made great plins for "pene- tratjon with railroads, colonies, and concessions. The personal equation played an important part in the en- sumg drama. The ambassadors of the Triple Entente hardly concealed their contempt for the dominant rurkish politicians and their methods. Sir Louis Mallet, the British Ambassador, was a high-minded and cultivated Lnglish gentleman; Bompard, the French Ambassador, was a similarly charming, honourable ! Si I \\ 1!= I I 1 28 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY Frenchman, and both were personally disqualified from participating in the murderous intrigues which then comprised Turkish politics. Giers, the Russian Ambassador, was a proud and scornful diplomat of the old aristocratic regime. He was exceedingly astute, but he treated the Young Turks contemptuously, mani- fested almost a proprietary interest in the country, and seemed to me already to be wielding the knout over this despised government. It was quite apparent that the three ambassadors of the Entente did not regard the Talaat and Enver regime as permanent, or as particularly worth their while to cultivate. That several factions had risen and fallen in ll-e last six years they knew, and they likewise believed that this latest usurpation would vanish in a few months. But there was one active man in Turkey then who had no nice scruples about using such agencies as were most available for accomplishing his purpose. Wan- genheim clearly saw, what his colleagues 'had only faintly perceived, that these men v.ere steadily fasten- ing their hold on Turkey, and that they were looking for some strong power that would recognize their posi- tion and abet them in maintaining it. In order that we may clearly understand the situation, let us trans- port ourselves, for a moment, to a country that is nearer to us than Turkey. In 1913 Victoriano Iluerta and his fellow conspirators gained control of Mexico by means not unlike those that had given Talaat and his Committee the supreme power in Turkey. Just as Huerta murdered Madero, so the Young Turks had murdered Nazim, and in both countries assassination had become a regular political weapon. Iluerta con- trolled the Mexican Congress and the offices just as ^^mffugtT AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 29 Talaat controlled the Turkish Parliament and the cluef posts of that state. ^Mexico under Iluerta was a poverty- stricken country, with depleted finances, exhausted in- dustries and agriculture, just as was Turkey under Talaat. How did Huerta seek to secure his own posi- tion and rehabilitate his distrac ted country ? There was only one way, of course — that was by enlisting the support of some strong foreign power. lie sought repeatedly to gain recognition from the United States for this reason and, when we refused to deal with a murderer, Huerta looked to Germany. Let us suppose that the Kaiser had responded; he could have reorgan- ized Mexican finances, rebuilt her railroads, reestablished her industries, modernized her army, and in this way obtained a grip on the country that would have amounted to virtual possession. Only one thing prevented Germany from doing this — the Monroe Doctrine. But there was no Monroe Doctrine in Turkey, and what I have described as a possibility in Mexico is in all essentials an accurate pic- ture of what happened in the Ottoman Empire. As I look back upon the situation, the whole thing seems so clear, so simple, so inevitable. Germany, up to that time, was practically the only great power in Europe that had not appropriated large slices of Turkish territory, a fact which gave her an initial advantage. Germany's representative at Constantinople was far better qualified than that of any other country, not only by absence of scruples, but also by knowledge and skill, to handle this situation. Wangenheim was not the only capable German then on the ground. A particularly influential outpost of Pan-Germany was Paul Weitz, who had represented the Frankfurter Zeitung in Turkey for if I I If 30 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY whole lite in Turkey he „ ."^P"''"^ pmctically hi, anr? W.,«, ^penenceu tiio, Uangenheim, Weitz genti'hol"'' °- ^'^ t™"'« »'' ''"""-able 'im aTL^XVe'LThr ',''1 "°" '""''"^ '""""^ Rv th .^'^^^ ^s t^e orderly processes of nature By the spring of 1914 Talaat and Enver renresenW the Committee of Union «nri t> representmg dominated the Tur^sh F^^ T'''' ^'^^^^^^^y came of humble fto^fctl h p puTar" «k ^.h"' 'J something of a milita^ Ctalu; hough:: Si leaders m 1908 had cost very few human lives; he com- ,' I x' x^awsr l^.yW^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU-S STORY si manded an army i„ Tripoli against the Italians in 1918 -but certainly there was nothing Napoleonic" bout hat campaign. Enver himself once told me hT th. head of h.s troops to the capture of Adrianopfe and Bu"t aint 1:7,';'"' "^"^ "^ " "O"'"-' »"-• "' certainly J^nvcr did have one trait thaf mnr^« / recess in such a distracted countH Turk^vianJ tha was audacity. He was c,uick in makhg dSsions aJways ready to stake his future and his ve^ 1^^' he succes., of a single adventure; from the begfaX "hS • «::::" \' ,'"- °"^ ■-'''^ -- ^rrTf: oiner. H,s nature had a remorsclessness n In..i- t p. y, a cold-blooded determination, of wh ci hi can e nt handsome face, h,s small but sturdy fi^re "d • ," pleasing manners gave no indication. N^fr ™dd the referred tohi,„as..CoLn™k"^;itS^^^^^^^^ Iv ctn r""" 'T"^ "'''^^"''<' Enver-s abKug conv etion. I remember sitting one night with Enver m h,s house; on one side hung a picture of NapoCn^ on the other one of FrederiVIv th^ c^ ♦ j 'ipu'eon, them sat Enver himse f r This ft^^ ^"^ ''''^''" of his vanffv tl, T . ""^ ^'^^^ ^^'"e notion hs trpot/^' . ^° ""^'"^'^ ^-^^^ Statesmen were hs great heroes and I beheve that Enver thoughtlte had a career m store for him not unhke theirs. The fact that, at twenty-six, he had taken a leading nart in fh! Z^'Z:^ '-' 'T'' ^^<^"^HaSnat "4 caused him to compare himself with Bonaparte- sev- era^ times he ha. told me that he believed hClf to be a man of destiny." Enver even affected tTS^ ^WW^l%.^J't ^^^f^ St 34 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU-S STORY he glory of Turkey -od make himself the great dicta- Z' , I '."' .T ^"egested, there was something al- most damty and feminine in Envers «,,peara„ee He was the type that in Ameriea .e somelL L eall a mat! tnee .do, and the word women frequently used to de- scr-be h,m was "dashing." Hi, ,„1 contain^ nofa s ngle Ime or furrow; it never disclosed his emotions or h.s thoughts; he was always ealm, steely, imperturbable That Enver certainly lacked Napoleon's peuetrati™ « evdent from the way he had plan^ed^o oS the supreme power, for he early allied his personal fo" tunes W'th -.ermany. For years his sympathies had b*en w.th the Kaiser. Germany, the German army and navy, the German language, and the German au™<^ preacher of Turkish democracy. After Hamid fell, Enver went on a military mission to Berlin and here the Kaiser immediately delected in him a possMe ms rument for working „„t his plans in the Orient Tnd cult,vated h,m m numerous ways. Afterward Enver spent a considerable time in Derlin as military attach* and this expenenee still further endeared him to clr- ZT; T" '''"' '""'""•""' '» Constantinople was almost more German than Turkish. He had learned o speak German fluently, he was even wearing a Zut tache shghtly curled up at the ends; indeed, he had C„ eomplrtely capt ya.ed by Pruasianism. As soon a Enver becamo Mmister of Wa., Wan.^-enheim flattered 21 ™jfi"'^ >■'"".■«"'». Pl-'yed upon his ambitions, 2^ probaby promised him Germany's complete sup: port m ach,evmg them. In his private conversation Enver made no secret of his admiration for Germany L'rm'^^m^tk!^*.:?:: AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 83 Thus Enver's elevation to the Ministry of War was virtually a German victory. He immediate! v insti- tuted a drastic reorganization. Enver told me himself that he had accepted the post only on condition that he should have a free hand, and this free hand he now pro- ceeded to exercise. The army still contained a large number of officers, many of whom were partisans of the murdered Nazim and favoured the old regime rather than the Young Turks, Enver promptly cashiered 2G8 of these, and put in their places Turks who were known as " U. and P." men, and many Germans. The Envcr- Talaat group always feared a revolution that would de- pose them as they had thrown out their predecessors Many times did they tell me that their o^vn success as revolutionists had taught them how easily a few deter- mined men could seize control of the country; they did not propose, they said, to have a little group in their army organize such a coup d'etat against them. The boldness of Enver's move alarmed even Talaat, but Enver showed the determination of his character and re- fused to reconsider his action, though one of the officers removed was Chukri Pasha, who had defended Adrian- ople in the Balkan war. Enver issued a circular to the Turkish commanders, practically telling them that they must look only to him for preferment and that they could make no headway by playing politics with any group except that dominated by the Young Turks. Thus Enver's first acts were the beginnings in the Prussification of the Turkish army, but Talaat was not an enthusiastic German hke his associa*^e. 'le had no intention of playing Germany's game; ha wa? work- ing chiefly for the Committee and for hi.nsti. But he could not succeed unless he had cor ^toI of the army; Hi I 84 AMBASSADOR MOBCENTHAUS STORY therefore, he bod made Envcr, for yran. his intlm.t. "»cmte in "U. and P." politic. Ministo of Wa " S he needed .strong army if he wo, to have an? a" all Md therefore he turned to the one wuree wh"re he could find a,, stanee. to Germany. Wangenhdn, and Talaat, m the latter part of IDI3. had arranged that the Wshould send a military mission to refrgant the Turkish forees. Talaat told me that, in calling ^Ms .TT.'.k'-' ."" "'"« ^"""^"y- 'hough G„ thought that a was using him. That there were dSe dangers m the move he well understood. A deDutv who d«cussed this situation with Talaat in W^^ 1914, has given me a memorandum of a conversation wlueh shows well „I,at was going on in Tala^^mM W-hy do you hand the management of the country over to the Germans.'" asked this deputy, refeSng to this IS part of Germany's plan to make Turkey a Ger- m^^«,l„ny-that we shall become merely "InoU,; thZVr' ■'*^'' P<^'-f«"y." replied Talaat, "that .llZ .l!!^' ' P™*""""-- We also know that we camiot pi^ th« country on its feet with our own rl sourees. We shall, therefore, take advantage orsuch technical and material assistance as the Germans "an place at our disposal. We .hall use Germany to hete us reconstruct and defend the country until wf are Me to govern ourselves with our own strength. When that ti:^zzz;-' '^-'"' *° *"' *^™"-' -•"■» heSCT'i*' '^^ ^}^.'''^ ""'""'"' of "'-= Turkish army betayed tne need of assistance from some source. T^e picture :t presented, before the Germans arrived I ! i AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY aj have always regarded as portraying the condition of the whole empire. \Vlien I issued invitations for my first reception, a large number of 'I'urkish officials asked to be permitted to come in evening clothes; they sai -f c.o,.„i ■:; n,„* a .,..,, , t ,„. A,„..ric.a„ Cha„,l„. o'f Co.Jjr^ in ( „„,-,„„l,„„„|,, ralaal, Djemal, a,,,, oUur i,„,«r|. anl Lad™ «-..rc. prison,. I ,alk„i al,,„„ t],, backward oco„o,„.e Slat., of Turkey and „,l„,o„i,l„.d ,1,..,,, not t„ be l,.,.o„raged I d«rib..d the „,„ailio„ of the Tn t..d States after the Civil War and „,ade the po nt .at o„r .levas,al«I .S„„ther„ Stal,. „resente,I a ^ 1 th. n relat..d how we ha.l gone to work, .leveloped our n.«urces,„„d.,„, It up ll„. present thriving nation. My ri marks a|,par..ntly „,a< AVALRV months- training '" "^ ""'"'"•>' ".stnictors. sIm.vv fluTesi.lt of shi >*if\:-/aij^. ^FV^^ /iiils^&"^fi iir kx-. k^rrr • >jiiuiai — »r ■TiK^i.cgCT^—din mtaaa , saCr'-*:- AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIACS STORY 40 .UU Miimr. inevitably the Gret'L. in tin. wgUm formed « barrier to Pan-Gemian usi.irations. As hmg .u, thij, re,non remained Greek, it forn.cd a natural ohHtucle to Germany s road to the P.-r^lan (Julf, precisely ^ did Serbia Any one who has read over, onrsorily the iterature of Pan-Gen.mnia is fa.nihar uilli the ntn-u- har method which German pubHcists huve ad-o- catcd fur dcal.ng with popuhtiorus that .stand in Ger- many s way That is by deportation. The violent shifting of whole peoi>le3 from one part of Europe to another. a« though they were so many herds of rattle has for years been part of the Kai.er's plans for German ''xpansior, Ihis is th<» treatment which, since the war >e-an. .siie has applied to Belgium, to Polan.i to i>erD.u; its most hideo.is manifestation, as I shall show, has been to Armenia. Acting under Germany's prompting Turkey now beg. . v. ..ppiy this principle of deportation to her Cl ,., ,;,.,, ;„ ^^^.^ ^^.^^^ Ihree years afterward who had been stationea bombardment, told mc urgently made the sug^v^i from the seashore." The :>', ..■!«,' (K ■<)■: admiral. ITsedom, iaelles during the Germans "who (jreeks be moved ■i- :i motive. Admiral TT , ., " '■ •' iuuisvr, ^'vcimirai U.edom .said, was pure!, m.i.ar>. Whether Talaat and his associates realized that they were playing the tjrennan game I am not sure, but there is no doubt that the Germans were constantly instigating them in tins congenial task. The events that followed foreshadowed the policy adopted m the Armenian massacres. The Turkish oihcials pounced upon the Greeks, herded them in groups and marched them toward the ships. They gave them no time to setUe their private affairs, and they E 50 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY took no pains to keep families together. The plan was to transport the Greeks to the wholly Greek islands in the ^gean. Naturally the Greeks rebelled against such treatment, and occasional massacres were the result, especially in Phooaea, where more than fifty people were murdered. The Turks demanded that all foreign establishments in Smyrna dismiss their Greek employees and replace them with Moslems. Among other American concerns, the Singer Manufacturing Company received such instructions, and though I interceded and obtained sixty days' delay, ultimately this American concern had to obey the mandate. An official boycott was established against all Christians, not only in Asia Minor, but in Cr>nstantinople, but this boycott did not discriminate against the Jews, who have always been more popular with the Turks than have the Christians. The officials particularly requested Jewish merchants to put signs over their doors indicat- ing their nationality and trade— such signs as "Abra- ham the Jew, tailor," "Isaac the Jew, shoemaker," and the like. I looked upon this boycott as illustrating the topsy-turvy national organization of Turkey, for here we had a nation engaging in a commercial boycott against its own subjects. This procedure against the Greeks not improperly aroused my indignation. I did not have the slightest suspicion at that time that the Germans had instigated these deportations, but I looked upon them merely as an outburst of Turkish ferocity and chauvinism. By this time I knew Talaat well; I saw him nearly every day, and he used to discuss practically every phase of international relations with me. I objected vigorously to his treatment of the Greeks; I told him that it would ■'m'y:mBL'^mm'icmmf:*i^Lf'-mfH ' 51 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 5, nalional policy: these dS„' , ^, ' ^-^.tamed his Empire, hVsaid had ^wll 2 ^'"i " ""^ T-^'h because of the hosUlitr^/ ^ '"'^'' '«'^*' Turlcey; Turkey had lost p Itnl ""r '^""' Populations Serbia, K„„a J ^^^^^"^ «''<='• P--ovinc^Greece and Tripoli. In thif"I:„rT™8»r"a. Egypt, dwindled almost to the v^ii' ^"'' ^"P'^ ^^d left of Turkey was toU-^ ^i"'"'' " "■'^* »a» get riJ of these aSXpir'-T'r' '"f''"'' '"' »-' A.n-ady ,o,o?otLtTarret'td7''Vr^^' again to urge American ht,.;„ I' ^^ "*«' me Turks He' said tSe S"tsr;^l° ^^'T ""'^■ der had been greatly exJ^'Z^ of violence and mur- commission bf se'„( Tol'X^ '^^^ «-"» « commission to whitew«.l,T. I „„: They want a British AmbassalTo J If '■^•^''^"'•^ Mallet,the eommission did brini b its^ein, JT """T"''' '"'™ t"' The Greeks in TuZvllT' "'"^"'P»«<'d Turkey. tl.e Armenians, fort:^ wtsuXr^h"''™'""^' •'^•" government, which naturanyh", a nilt"";" • ^'^^ "> them. The Turks knew thl ,r ,'"'' '"''""'■'' "ould precipitate a wTllV^"^ ■'^T'^^*''>'>' welcomed such a w,r7„ 1 '""^'' '" '»et, they enthusiastic wore Z Tu kT "TT '<" ■''• ^^ raised money by poDukr t K ^^''' "'••" *^'y '""I Cased a Bra'zili Jn SitS^rt^'' '"^- construction in England Tl ^^ ''"='" •"'der a>«. a second drfad^g Jt^^E^Zd"* "^ ""''^"^ -bmarmes and destroy^ in" ^''^ pt^^^i' f2^*l,^J'iki'i.> la m 5-1 in H I a« AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAU'S STORY of these naval preparations was no secret in Constanti- nople. As soon as they obtained these ships, or even the one dreadnaught which was nearing completion, Turkey intended to attack Greece and take back the islands. A single modern battleship like the SuUan Osman— this was the name the Turks had given the Brazilian vessel— could easily overpower the whole Greek navy and control the iEgean Sea. As this power- ful vessel would be finished and commissioned in a few months, we all expected the Greco-Turkish war to break out in the fall. WTiat cjuld the Greek navy possibly do against this impending danger? Such was the situation when, early in June, I received a most agitated visitor. : lis was Djemal Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Marine and one of the three men who then dominated the Turkish Empire. I have hardly ever seen a man who appeared more utterly worried than was Djemal on this occasion. As he began talking excitedly to my interpreter in French, his whiskers trembling with his emotions and his hands wildly gesticulating, he seemed to be almost beside himself. I knew enough French to understand what he was saying, and the news which he brought— tliis was the first I had heard of it— sufficiently explained his agitation. The American Government, he said, was negotiating with Greece for the sale of two battle- ships, the Idaho and tho Mississippi. He urged that I should immediately move to prevent any such sale. His attitude was that of a suppliant; he begged, he implored that I should intervene. All along, he said, the Turks regarded the United States as their best friend; I had frequently expressed my desire to help them; well, here was the chance to show our good feel- 35 AMB,ISSAD0R MORGENTHAUS STOKY „ of the ship^ .„ :::;„z ^'t^st^'t ""^ "■■' "ere purely a commercial on.. T , "■"■""cUon at once cab^^^r^t ft' ^J ^"'""" th« I promise.) to do "'''"^^' and on^hctH';:- txf r^ tr' '■■™«' "■« """- •-P« -re could „ol lake their pacrifL^fiTr" "'"'>•• "■"y they were ,„„erful C'U I^, "' ''"' °' ■"""-; whole Turkish navy C fhe pr""' .'" ''"™ "■" Greeks did not intend Zf.lv, Evidently the inswaruntiltheTurk sh^;' f '" r'P™" *''<' '»Pcnd- but to attack as stnt' :^t:t:, ft'""/"^'''-^' ships. Djemal's naint ^t ™^^*^^d these American However ^reat'trital7::„t, XT r--'^ states as TurW had rn.'V''';''" '° "'^ ""'ted England. ^ '" '""'^''^^<' "-cm in Brazil or te'p^L^i^tr r^t tTe-v'"™T "•>" - displayed the keen t ^e^I^ ™''",^"''»^^^^^ --..ouu,,ecr:i;"ro":K"C;s^si:: 54 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY antipathy, about the chances of war, and the projected sale of American warships. He made a long argument about the sale, his reasoning being precisely the same as Djemal's— a fact which aroused my suspicions that he had himself coached Djemal for his interview with me. "Just look at the dangerous precedent you are es- tablishing," said Wangenheim. " It is not unlikely that the United States may sometime find itself in a posi- tion like Turkey's to-day. Suppose that you were on the brink of war with Japan; then England could sell a fleet of dreadnaughts to Japan. How would the United States like that?" And then he made a statement which mdicated what really lay back of his protest. I have thought of it many times in the last three years. The scene is indelibly impressed on my mind. There we sat on our horses; the silent ancient forest of Belgrade lay aroimd us, while in the distance the Black Sea glistened in the afternoon sun. Wangenheim suddenly became quiet and extremely earnest. He looked in my eyes and said: "I don't think that the United States realizes what a serious matter this is. The sale of these shii)s might be the cause that would bring on a European war." This conversation took place on June 13th; this was about six weeks before the conflagration broke out. Wangenheim knew perfectly well that Germany was rushing preparations for this great conflict, and he also knew that preparations were not yet entirely complete. Like all the German ambassadors, Wangenheim had received instructions not to let any crisis arise that would precipitate war until all these preparations had been finished. He had no objections to the expulsion Ml- <^:-u I AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 55 of the Greeks, for that in itself was part of these prepara- tions; he was much disturbed, however, over the prospect that the Greeks might succeed in arming themselves and disturbing existing conditions in tl.e Balkans. At that moment the Balkans were a smoulder- mg volcano; Europe hud gone Uirough two Balkan wars without becommg generally involved, and Wangeniieim kriew that another would set the whole contment ablaze He knew that war was coming, but he did not want it just then. He was simply attempting to influence me at that moment to gain a little more time for Germany He went so far as to ask me to cable personally to the President explam the seriousness of the situation, and to call his attention to the telegrams that had gone to the State Department on the proposed sale of the ships I regarded his suggestion as an impertment one and declined to act upon it. To Djemal and the other Turkish officials who kept pressing me I suggested that their ambassador in Washington should take up the matter directly with the President. They acted on this advice, but the Greeks again got ahead of them. At two o'clock June 22d. the Gree-k charge d'affaires at Washmgton and Commander Tsouklas. of the Greek navy, called upon the President and arranged the sale. As tbev left the President's office, the Turkish Ambassador entered— just fifteen minutes too late' I presume that Mr. Wilson consented to the sale because he knew that Turkey was preparing to attack Greece and beheved that the Idaho and MUsiesippi Actmg under the authorization of Congress, the ..aiiA:.«,\'va^>^S- m mjLW^'mm M AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY administration sold these ships on 3u'y 8, 1914, to Fred J. Gauntlett, for $12,535,276.98. Congress im- mediately voted the money realized from the sale to the construction of a great modern drculnaught, the California. Mr. Gauntlett transferred the ships to the Greek Government. Rechristened the Killci-i and the Lcmnos, tho.se battleships immediately took their places as the most powerful vessels of tiie Greek Navy, and the enthusiasm of the Greeks in obtaining them was unbounded. By this time we had moved from the Embassy to our summer home on the Bosphorus. All the summer embassies were located there, and a more beautiful spot I have never seen. Our house was a three-story building, something in the N'enetian style; behind it the cliff rose abruptly, with several terraced gardens towering one abovo the other; the building stood so near tlie shore and tiie waters of the Bosphorus rushed by so rapidly that when we sat outside, especially on a moonlight sight, we hud uhnost a complete illusion that we were sitting on the deck of a fast saiiing ship. In the daytime the B()S[)honis, here little more than a, mtiie wi^, was alive with gaily coloured craft; I reoaii this animated scene with particular vividness beea:w*»* I rftaiis in mj' mind the contrast it presented a few i»wntli> ^terwarci. wjien Turkrv'j, entrance into the war }amd tlie immtHinU*- result of closing this strait. I^y b^ da^' tii«' iajge ilu**.sian st«amsliips, on their wjev frwni Black Sea iwart.s to Smyrna, Alexandria, and o^aiffr citi«s, made clf'ar tiw? importance of this iitt^ 0i■■■r^^■0f water and expls^sked the bloody contests »si 1^ Earepean i^lons, ext«ii&g over a thousand jpears f^^r it>; poHsess^^i. Ho'vev.-r-, these early summer Kx-Miiiistcr of ( <>r flim.iriullv r,-hal,ilitat.nK Turkey "^^■'^"'W AiucTKar, assislanc,. i,. ^Ly^Jiii^m ^*%ti, r~- MOFIAN, .IFD \. |,ATK SILTAX OF TIRKKV AMBASSADOR MOBCENTOAfS STORY « would most graciously ccort to dinner the wtfe rf n sHc1"m" ~""'7.r """"P' the most Zg^ -Ption in one oorn^ S mtX ™St d"^s:rheG^e^'•^;•'' "^"P »' -ba^sadorlu aiscuss the Greel^ situation out on the porch: the Turk scene and perhaps comment quietlv in tK«;. seemed to thiuk that the whole proce^C h«7^*' tK Th- '^ ^^^ ^^.^''^ -usemm::? ,ttat: While all this was gomg on. th..t Pcitu-r ue Grand Vizier, nor any of the other hl^N; t, 'i • ^^ ^ Ss \t:J\ T' r''-^' o-Hd:^:nd1:.t: guards to protect them from assassmaion--I>- -.ver other emotions such a vibrating atnm?nhe;e ^'^ f -ou^ U wa. certainly alive witMnterest' T^eR :,^ that there was something electric about it rM- , j'° ever the favourite topic of conversat L'- .1 " -med to realize tl,at this pence", K^::;;;;;i;,^:!;: 58 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIUUS STORY fcpark that t. to set everything aflame. Yet, when the crisis came, it produced no immediate of the Grand Duke of A-.tria and hi* consort. Every- ^imned feeh„g th .t ^meUiing momentoiis had hai>. pened. but there was practically no excitement. A day or two after this tragedy I had a long talk with Talnat on diplomatic matters; he made no inference at all to this event. I think now that we were all aflFected by a fand of emotional paralysiWa^ we were .earer the centre than most people, we certo'nly realized the dangers m the situation. In a day or two our tonnes and to talk war. When I saw Von Mutius. the German FranH i'^^'^^' '''' diplomat-correspondent of he ^^f^rterZntung Hey also discussed the impending conflict, and again they gave their forecast a character istacally Germanic touch; when war came, they said. It t^get all the Mexican and South American trade! When I called upon Pallavicini to express my con- dolences over the Grand Duke's death. 1. reived me with the most stately solemnity. He was conscious that he was representing the imperial family, and ids grief seemed to be personal; one would tlunk that he had lost lus own son. I expressed my abhorrence and hat of my nation for the deed, and our sympathy with the aged emperor. j- i«-ii tei^fw f'i: "' "' ''^' ^chrecklich- (yes. yes. it is very temblo). he answered, almost in a whisper. Serbia v'l be condemned for her conduct," iii3L- .JPi^l^ iO AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY o he^added. "She wUI be compelled to make repara. "ge, 03 the murd.. „f th"XZ dZ He,!-' rt"!; ..he Chu.h of sit Mtiet ?j;f i:^' "^^tT \' ■« looolcJ m the Grande Rue '-> "^'«">ed to our the Bosph:;„rtTlrer- lilt; 'tr-'r was also the Fourth uJulv Th '""•"''"^' " two scenes svmbolizid th.,' , '^ '"""« "' ""« sjmooiized these two national ideals. I 1 )| MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I 1.25 If IS ¥■ 1 40 1.4 2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 j= AP PLIED IIVMGE Inc ^^- 165J Eos! Wain Street r.= Rochester. New York 14609 uSA ^= (716) 482 - 0300 - Ptione ^S {716'. 2BB - 5989 - Fa« i5 i If ft II it 60 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY always think of this ambassadorial group going down those stone steps to the church, to pay their respect to the Grand Duke, and then going up to the gaily deco- rated American Embassy, to pay their respect to the Declaration of Independence. All the station ships of the foreign countries lay out in the s^ream, decorated and dressed in honour of our national holiday, and the ambassadors and ministers called in full regalin. From the upper gardens we could see the place where Darius crossed from Asia with his Persian hosts 2,500 years before — one of those ancient autocrats the line of which is not yet entirely extmct. There also we could see magnificent Robert College, an institution that represented America's conception of the way to "pene- trate" the Turkish Empire. At night our gardens were illuminated with Chinese lanterns; good old Amer- ican fireworks, lighting up the surrounding hills and the Bosphorus, and the American flag flying at the front of the house, seemed almost to act as a challenge to the plentiful reminders of autocracy and oppression which we had had in the early part of the day. Not more than a mile across the water the dark and gloomy hills of Asia, for ages the birthplace of military despotisms, caught a faint and, I think, a prophetic glow from these illuminations. In glancing at the ambassadorial group at the church and, afterward, at our reception, I was surprised to note that one familiar figure was missing. Wangenheim, Austria's ally, was not present. This somewhat puz- zled me at the time, but afterward I had the explanation from Wangenheim's own lips. lie had left some days before for Berlin. The Kaiser had summoned him to an imperial council, which met on July 5 th, and which decided to plunge Europe into war. m i' CHAPTER IV GERMANY MOBILIZES THE TURKISH ARMY IN READING the August newspapers, which de- scribed the mobilizations in Europe. I was par- ticularly struck with the emphasis which they aid upon the splendid spirit that was overnight chan^^ mg the civilian population^ inco armies. At that time Turkey had not entered the war and her political leaders were loudly protesting their intention of main- taming a strict neutrality. Despite these pacific state- ments the occurrences in Constantinople were almost as warlike as those that were taking place in the Euro- pean capitals Though Turkey was at peace, her army was mobilizing, merely, we were told, as a pre- cautionary measure. Yet the daily scenes which I witnessed m Constantinople bore few resemblances to those which were agitating every city of Europe. The martial patriotism of men, and the sublime patience and sacrifice of women, may sometimes give war an LTlTf ' ^"* '" J"^^^^ *^^ prospect was one of general hstlessness and misery. Day by day the mis- cellaneous Ottoman hordes passed through the streets Arabs, bootless and shoeless, dressed in their most gaily coloured garments, with long linen bags (contain- mg the required five days' ratio.s) throw/oter th" r shoulders, shambling in their gait and bewildered in Uieir manner touched shoulders with equally dispirited Bedoums. evidently suddenly snatched from the desert. 61 in si Fi f 68 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY A motley aggregation of Turks, Circassians, Greeks, Kurds, Armenians, and Jews, showing signs of havmg been summarily taken from their farms and shops, constantly jostled one another. Most were ragged and many looked half -starved; everything about them suggested hopelessness and a cattle-like submission to a fate which they knew that they could not avoid. There was no joy in approaching battle, no feeling that they were sacrificing themselves for a mighty cause; day by day they passed, the unwilling children of a tatter- demalion empire that was making one last despabing attempt to gird itself for action. These wretched marchers little realized what was the power that was dragging them from the four comers of their country. Even we of the diplomatic group had not then clearly grasped the real situation. We learned afterward that the signal for this mobilization had not come originally from Enver or Talaat or the Turkish Cabinet, but from the General Staff in Berlin and its rep- resentatives in Constantinople. Liman von Sanders and Bronssart were really directing tlie complicated oper- ation. There were unmistakable signs of German activ- ity. As soon as the German armies crossed the Rhine, work was begun on a mammoth wireless station a few miles outside of Constantinople. The materials all came from Germany by way of Rumania, and the skilled me- chanics, industriously working from daybreak to su"'^"t, were unmistakably Germans. Of course, the neut ^y laws would have prohibited the construction of a wireless station for a belligerent in a neutral country like Tur- key; it was therefore officially announced that a German company was building this heaven-pointing structure for the Turkish Government and on the Sultan's own \J|fcJi^. AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 63 ship that several times, when ordinary telegraphic com .1 J^\'''''^'' P^^"* ^''"^^ ^° «"t^vard symbol of the German oflScm were almost as active iis the Turks themselves m this mobilization. They enio™H, »n z^zt: ;•""' f 7 ?"- -"^ ^ign'ttatX t:" iiavmg the time of the r lives. Brons.«rt tt rushin^T.^^ ,,^t "P"""™''- G^™an officers were &xtit:nrzti^^^^^^^^^^^ thev filled «JI ti.« ^ * X ci.inan population; at nigtani elSr;?:?;»<'i;r^^^^^^ eonsumin«,ar«e,nantitiesJc£;Ullr;„ist i*-i* 04 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY f : li - tioned. A particularly spectacular and noisy figure was that of Von dcr Goltz Pasha. He was constantly making a kind of viceregal p"ogress through the streets in a huge and madly dashing automobile, on both sides of which flaring German eagles were painted. A trumpeter on the front seat would blow loud, defiant blasts as the conveyance rushed along, and woe to any one, Turk or non-Turk, who happened to get in the way! The Germans made no attempt to conceal their conviction that they owned lais town. Just as Wan- genheim had established a little Wilhelmstrasse in his Embassy, so had the German military men established a sub-station of the Berlin General Staff. They even brought their wives and families from Germany; I heard Baroness Wangenheim remark that she was hold- ing a little court at the German Embassy. The Germans, however, were about the only people who were enjoying this proceeding. The requisitioning that, accompanied the mobilization really amounted to a wholesfile looting of the civilian population. The Turks took all the horses, mules, camels, sheep, cows, and other beasts that they could lay their hands on; Enver told me that they had gathered in 150,000 animals. They did it most unintelligently, making no provision for the continuance of the species; thus they would leav" only two cows or two mares in many of the villages. This system of requisitioning, as I shall describe, had the inevitable result of destroying the nation's agriculture, and ultimately led to the starva- tion of hundreds of thousands of people. But the Turks, like the Germans, thought that the war was destined to be a very short one, and that they would quickly recuperate from the injuries which their meth- ■^!^^^ "m LMI5 ^ ',SADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 65 ods of s'.mwying an army were causing their peasant population. The Government showed precisely tho same shamelessness and lack of intelligence in the way that they requisitioned materials from merchants and shopmen. These proceedings amounted to little less than conscious highwaymanship. But practically none of these merchants were Moslems; most of them were Christians though there were a few Jews; and the 1 arkish officials therefore not only provided the needs of their army and incidentally lined their own pockets, but they found a religious joy in pillaging the infidel es ablishmen s. They would enter a retail shop, take prac ically all the merchandise on the shelves, and give merely a piece of paper in acknowledgment. As if L^tT""- "k 'r V P**^^^ ^^'^ '^' «"PP^^^ which It had taken m the Italian and Dalkan wars, the mer- chants hardly expected that ihey would ever receive anything for these latest requisitions. Afterward many who understood officialdom, and were politically mfluential, did recover to the extent of 70 per cent — what became of the remaining 30 per cent, is not a secret to those who have had experience with Turkish bureaucrats. Thus for most of the population requisitioning sim- ply meant financial ruin. That the process was merel v pillagmg IS shown by many of the materials which the army took, ostensibly for the use of the soldiers. Thus the officers seized all the mohair they could find; on occasion they even carried off women's silk stockings corsets and baby's slippers, and I heard of one ca.et which they remforced the Turkish commissary with caviar and other delicacies. They demanded blankets from one merchant who was a dealer in women's under- m^^'^^'^i^m^ l1 t •m "" h M AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY wear; because he had no such stock, they seized what he had, and he afterward saw his appropriated goods reposing in rival establishments. The Turks did the same thing in many other cases. The prevailing sys- tem was to take movable property wherever available and convert it into cash; where the money ultimately went I do not know, but that many private fortunes were made I have little doub' I told Enver that this ruthless method of mobilizing and requisitioning was destroying his country. Misery and starvation soon began to afflict the land. Out of a 4,000,000 adult male population more than 1,500,000 were ultimately en- listed and so about a million families were left without brecdwinners, all of them in a condition of extreme destitution. The Turkish Government paid its soldier? 25 cents a month, and gave the families a separation aUowance of $1.20 a month. As a result thousands were dying from lack of food and many more were en- feebled by malnutrition; I believe that the empire has lost a quarter of its Turkish population since the war started. I asked Enver why he permitted his peo- ' be destroyed in this way. But sufferings like thp> not distress him. He was much impressed by hi -; cess in raising a large army with practically no mu...^ —something, he boasted, which no other nation had ever done before. In order to accomplish this, Enver had issued orders which stigmatized the evasion of military service as desertion and therefore punishable with the death penalty. He also adopted a scheme by which any Ottoman could obtain exemption by the payment of about $190. Still Enver regarded his accomplishment as a notable one. It was really his first taste of unlimited power and he enjoyed the experience greatly. .^t^es^^^Astas, AMBASSADOB MORGENTHAU-S STORY (.7 noT^mXr^^r^"' '"r'"' ""' ■""''iliz.tio,. i. "oi a matter of opinion but of nroof T n««^ i iwb m their own name for their own uses T U „ mann, the German naval attaehe. for a shipload „fo"l -n: iT K ''?"""»' '■' ''"'•^J September T 1914 The lot by the steamship Z).r,„rf/ whieh ■ ou men t,oned ,„ your letter of the SOth," this paper reTdS" has been requ,s,l,oned by me for the Geri^an Covert Seyh:?:„t:xtrGr^^^^ cs-ng the powers of sovereignty at ConstalCfe ^Vc"?' CHAPFER V WANGENHEIM SMUGGLES THE "goEBEN" AND "bueslau" through the Dardanelles THE ON AUGUST lOtb, I wcnl out on a linle launch to meet the Sicilia, a small Italian ship which had just arrived from Venice. I was especially interested in this vessel because she was bringing to ( ^onstantmople my son-in-law and daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Wertheim. and their three little daughters, llie greeting proved even more interesting than I had 'xpected. I found the passengers considerably ex- cited, for they had witnessed, the day before, a naval engagement in the Ionian Sea. "We were lunching yesterday on deck." my daugh- ter told me. "when I saw two ^* range-looking vessels just above the horizon. I ran for uie glasses and made out two large battleships, the first one with two queer, exotic-looking towers and the other one quite an or- dmary-looking battleship. We watched and saw an- other ship coming up behind them and going very fast, bhe came nearer and nearer and then we heard guns booming. Pillar, of water sprang up in the air and there were many little puffs of wliile smoke. It took me some time to realize what it was all about, and then It burst upon me that we were actually witnessing an engagement. The ships continually shifted their posi- tion but went on and on. The two big ones turned and rushed furiously for the little one. and then appar- 68 "j^m&^i^nj- M^lM^I : ft. ! :i umiMs. AMBASSADOR MORGENTTIAUS ST^Ry gp TXw"^ '^T'^"'^ l^'''' "^'"''^ °"^ *"''"<"'l back Tl. . nothing ha tied ^sh"' -"77^'"' '^'""""^°* *'"'«• »>^'t igna ptnetl. S'ne circled around us with lii.r fon oxcled and «„■„„,•„, .„j „„^,,,„, ^i^^''^.;'; '- TUB r ,1,DANU1.E. *NB THE ItACK •lA pose the British fleet is?" """^ '''' y"" ™P- ./7*^;'ak.»- V^JT'* "C^Sf. *l ^r If 70 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY seen, he displayed an agitated interest. Immediately after lunch he called at the American Embassy with Pallavicini, the Austrian Ambassador, and asked for an interview with my daughter. The two ambassadors solemnly planted themselves m chairs before Mrs. Wertheim and subjected her to a most minute, though very polite, cross examination. "I never felt so im- portant in my life," she afterward told me. They would not permit her to leave out a single detail; they wished to know how many shots had been fired, what direc- tion the German ships had taken, what everybody on board had said, and so on. The visit seemed to give these allied ambassadors immense relief and satisfac- tion, for they left the house in an almost jubilant mood, behaving as though a great weight lind been taken off then- minds. And certainly they had good reason for their elation. My daughter had been the means of giving them the news which they had desired to hear above everything els^-that the Goeben and the Breslau had escaped the British fleet and were then steaming rapidly in the direction of the Dardanelles. For it was those famous German ships, the Goeben and the Breslau, which my daughter had seen engaged in battle with a British scout ship! The next day official business called me to the Ger- man Embassy. But Wangenheim's animated manner soon disclosed that he had no interest in routine matters. Never had I seen him so nervous and so excited. He could not rest in his chair more than a few minutes at a time; he was constantly jumping up, rushing to the wmdow and looking anxiously out toward the Boa- phorus, where his private wireless station, the Corcovado, lay about three quarters of a mile away. Wangenheim's ^^0^4^^^^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 71 "no norJ .f"';'''?""^ ^™«»e other time." JtltaT''1ir.l°° ""' '"^'™ "■"<' '"^^^d over launch pr„utfr„1i iT' 7"^°' ^ ^"^ " ■'"'= ;;We've got them!" he shouted to me. Got what?" I asked. thlotdtt -'' "■' ^™^''"' '"'- P--d though .tandthatwe W;omCthipf rTSr;^ ^^^^^ WangenheJm had more Ihan -jn'; *• more tnan i^atriotic reasons for ff t < I I if 72 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY this exultation; the arrival of these ships was the greatest day in his diplomatic career. It was really the first diplomatic victory which Germany had won. vFor years the chancellorship of the empire had been Wangenheim's laudable ambition, and he behaved now like a man who saw his prize within his grasp. The voyage of the Goeben and the Breslau was his personal triumph; he had arranged with the Turkish Cabinet for their passage through the Dardanelles, and he had directed their movements by wireless in the Mediterra- nean. By safely getting the Goeben and the Breslau into Constantinople, Wangenheim had definitely clinched Turkey as Germany's ally. All his intrigues and plot- tings for three years had now finally succeeded. I doubt if any two ships have exercised a greater in- fluence upon history than these two German cruisers. Few of us at that time realized their great importance, but subsequent developments have fully justified Wan- genheim's exuberant satisfaction. The Goeben was a powerful battle cruiser of recent construction; the Bres- lau was not so large a ship, but she, like the Goeben, had the excessive speed that made her extremely serviceable in those waters. These ships had spent the few months preceding the war cruising in the Mediterranean, and when the declaration finally came they were taking on supplies at Messina. I have always regarded it as more than a coincidence that these two vessels, both of them having a greater speed than any French or Eng- lish ships in the Mediterranean, should have been lying not far from Turkey when war broke out. The selec- tion of the Goeben was particularly fortunate, as she had twice before visited Constantmople and her officers and men knew the Dardanelles perfectly. The behav- -vr-jp*. Ej; PS = I: El — WD ai S=^ > .2ja X -^ £P C3 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 73 four of these crews, when the news of war was received, indicated the spirit with which the German navy begua hosuhties; the men broke into singing and shouthg. hf ted their Admiral upon their shoulders, and held a real German jollification. It is said that Admiral Souchon preserved as a touchmg souvenir of this occasion, his sTilorsr ""^ *^'^ ^^^' ^"°^' °' ^ ^'""y For all their joy at the prospect of battle, the Situation of these ships was still a precarious one. Ihey formed no match for the large British and French naval forces which were roammg through the Mediter- ranean. The Goeben and the Breslau were far from their native bases; with the coaling problem such an acute one, and with England in possession of all im- portant stations, where could they flee for safety? Several Italian destroyers were circling around the Ger- man ships at Messina, enforcing neutrality and occa- sionally remmdmg them that they could remain in port only twenty-four hours. England had ships sta- tioned at the Gulf of Otranto, the head of the Adriatic to cut them off in case they sought to escape into the Austrian port of Pola. The British navy also stood guard at Gibraltar and Suez, the only other exits that apparently offered the possibility of escape. There was only one other place in which the Goeben and the Breslau might find a safe and friendly rec^ ^:on That was Constantinople. Apparently the ish navy dismissed this as an impossibility. At that time, early in August, mternational law had not entirely disap- peared as the guiding conduct of nations. Turkey was then a neutral country, and, despite the many evidences of German domination, she seemed likely to maintain m i in 74 MZJASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY her neutrall ty. The Treaty of Paris, which was signed in 1850, as well as the Treaty of London, signed in 1871, provided that war ships should not use the Dardanelles except by the special permission oi the Sultan, which could be granted only m times of peace. In practice the government had seldom given this permission except for ceremonial orcasions. Under the existing conditions it would have amounted v^tually to an unfriendly act for the Sultan to have removed the ban against war vessels in the Dardanelles, and to permit the Goeben and the Breslau to remam m Turkish waters for more than twenty-four hours would have been noth- ing less than a declaration of war. It is perhaps not sur- prising that the British, in the eariy days of August, 1914, when Germany had not completely made clear her official opmion that "international law had ceased to exist," regarded these treaty stipulations as barrmg the German ships from the Dardanelles and Constan- tinople. Relying upon the sanctity of these interna- tional regulations, the British navy had shut off every pomt through which these German ships could have escaped to safety— except the entrance to the Darda- nelles. Had England, immediately on the declaration of war, rushed a powerful squadron to this vital spot how different the history of the last three years might have been! "His Majesty expects the Goeben and the Breslai' +o succeed in breaking through!" Such was the wireless that reached these vessels at Messina at five o'clock on the evening of August 4th. The twenty-four hours* stay permitted by the Italian Government had nearly expired. Outside, in the Strait of Otranto. lay the force of British battle cruisers, sending false radio 'yT^^H;^'. .^^' AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORV 75 for Pola. With bands playing and flags flying, the oratory and drmk. the two vessels started at full speed oward the awaiting British fleet. The little stantly the Gennan movements to the main squad- Zh ^^?^n"^r" °^ ^"P^ Spartivento. the *? ^ • and the Brcslau let off into the atmosphere alJ the discordant vibrations which their wireless could command, jammmg the air with such a hullabaloo that If^ r T i ^^'™^" '^'""'^'•^ *"™^d southward and kept close on their heels, and. as my daughter had re- lated. once had even audaciously offered battle. A few lessT; fotTh 'c ^"'^^^«^-^-» P-sued, but use n hlt'tl T"" '^"P^' '^^"^^ ^^' 1«^« powerful m battle, were much speedier. Even then the British admiral probably thought that he had spoiled the Ger- Dardanelles, but at that point stood international law across the path, barring the entrance. Meaawhile Wangenheim had accomplished his great diplomatic success. From the C^l.^ado wirdes station m the Bosphorus he was sei ang the most a^ee'* able news to Adniiral Souchon. He was telling hiS to^ hoist the Turkish flag when he reached the St^rait for of tf T T-t°'' ' ''"'''" ^"^ ^"^^^°^y become parts of the Turkish navy, and, therefore, the usual inter- national prohibitions did not apply. These cruisers were no longer the Goehen and i\.!Breslau. for, hke an onental magician, Wangenheim had suddenly ;hanged 7« AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY them into the Sultan Selim and the MediUi. The fact was that the German Ambassador had cleverly taken advantage of the existing situation to manufacture a "sale." As I have already told, Turkey had two dread- naughts under construction in England when the war broke out. These ships wore not exclusively govern- mental enterprises; their purchase represented what, on the surface, appeared to be a popular enthusiasm of the Turkish people. Tliey were to be the agencies through which Turkey was to attack Greece and win back the islands of the iEgean, and the Turkish people had raised the money to build them by a so-called pop- ular subscription. Agents had gone from house to house, painfully collecting these small sums of money; there had been entertainments and fairs, and, in their eagerness for the cause, Turkish women had sold their hair for the benefit of the common fund. These two vessels thus represented a spectacular outburst of patriotism that was unusual in Turkey, so unusual, indeed, that many detected signs that the Government had stimulated it. At the very moment when the war began, Turkey had made her last payment to the Eng- lish shipyards and the Turkish crews had arrived in Eng- land prepared to take the finished vessels home. Then, a few days before the time set to deliver them, the British Government stepped in and commandeered these dreadnaughts for the British navy. There is not the slightest question that England had not only a legal but a moral right to do this; there is also no question that her action was a proper one, and that, had she been dealing with almost any other nation, such a proceeding would not have aroused any resentment. But the Turkish people cared nothing for distinctions AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 77 of this sort; all they saw was that thc-y had two ships iu England, which they had greatly strained their re- sources to purchase, and that England had now stepped in and taken them. Even without external pressure they would have resented the act, but external pressure was exerted in plenty. The transaction gave Wangen- heim the greatest opportunity of his life. Violent at- tacks upon Englanrl, all emanating from the German Embassy, began to fill the Turkish press. Wangen- heini was constantly discoursing to the Turkish leaders Oil English perfidy and he now suggested that Germany, Turkey's good friend, was prepared to make compensa- tion for England's "unlawful" seizure. He suggested that Turkey go throu^'h the form of "purchasing" the Goeben and the Breslau, which were then wandering around the Mediterranean, perhaps in anticipation of this very conlingency, and incorporate them in the Turkish navy in place of the appropriated ships in England. The very day that these vessels passed through the Dardanelles, the Ikdam, a Turkish news- paper published in Constantinople, had a triumphant account of this "sale," with big headlines calling it a "great success for the Imperial Government." Thus Wangenheim's manoeuvre accomplished two purposes: it placed Germany before the populace as Turkey's friend, and it also provided a subterfuge for getting the ships through the Dardanelles, and enabling them to remain iu Turkish waters. All this beguiled the more ignorant of the Turkish people, and gave the Cabinet a plausible ground for meeting the objection of Entente diplomats, but it did not deceive any in- telligent person. The Goeben and Breslau might change their names, and the German sailors might adorn them- .: 78 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAUS STORY selves with Turk:,!i fczzcs, but wc all km-w from the beginning that this sale was a sham. Those who under- stood the financial condition of Turkey could only bo amused at the idea thai she coultl purchase these modern vessels. Moreover, tiie ships were never incorporated in the Turkish navy; on the contrary, what really happened was that the Turkish navy was annexed to these German ships. A handful of Turkish sailors were placed on board at one time for appearance sake, but their German officers and German crews still retained active charge. Wangenhe'm, in his talks with me, never made any secret of the fact that the ships still remained German property. "I never ex- pected to have such big checks to sign," he remarked one day, referring to his expenditures on the Goeben and the Breslau. He always called them "our" ships. Even Talaat told me in so many words that the cruisers did not belong to Turkey. "The Germans say they belong to the Turks," he remarked, with his characteristic laugh. "At any rate, it's very comforting for us to have them here. After the war, if the Germans win, they will forget all about it and leave the ships to us. If the Germans lose, they won't be able to take them away from us!" The German Government made no real pretension that the sale had been bona fide; at least when the Greek Minister at Berlin protested against the trans- action as unfriendly to Greece— naively forgetting the American ships which Greece had recently purchased— the German officials soothed him by admitting, sotto voce, that the ownership still remained with Germany. Yet wl the Entente ambassadors constantly pro- tested ^inst the presence of the German vessels, ;-»•*■«• -i^'-i: AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 70 th. Turki,h offimis blandly kept up the p«.e«c that they were integral parts of the Turkish navy! ^r«cal pretence that the OoeUn and Iho BrLL were Turk»h ,h,p,. They took delight in putting on TurS 1 '.>. . ^^ presenting to the world conclusive evi- ^»r nt'^^r °^"' """•'" "' «■« Kaiser were now the Bosphorus, halted in front of the Russian Embassy the deck in full view of the enemy em'-assy AU jolemnly removed their Turkish feies u,.u put on 2r« "".V.'T^ J^ '"'"'' P'"*"' "I>eutschland UbTr Aues, the Watch on the Rhine." and other German nading the Russian Ambassador, the officers and crews removed their German caps and again put on S Turkish fezes. The Goeben then picked up her aneW of the Russian diplomat the gradually dying strams of German war songs as the cruiser disappeied down if ^^V °r ? ?""''"'=■' "" «''■»' "ould have happened If the English battle cruisers, which pursued the Br.^ /a« and the Goeben up to the mouth o? the DardLflU had not been too gentlemanly to violate mtematS tacked the German cruisirs in the Marmora, and sunk Srw.?'^ ~"''' ^''f '^'"" ""'• "-''• knowing all that we know now. such an action would have been fcetf Turkev"' rr^"'^ ""^ '''^'™'«™ -"W h"e kept Turkey out of the war. For the arrival of these M 80 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY cruisers made it inevitable that Turkey, when the I)roper moment came, should join her forces \v ith Ger- many. With them the Turkish navy became stronger than the Rusj^ian Black Sea Fleet and thus made it certain that Russia could make no attack on Constan- tinople. The Goeben and the Brealau, therefore, practi- cally gave the Ottoman and German naval forces control of the Black Sea. Moreover, these two ships could easily dominate Constantinople, and thus they furnished the means by which the German navy, if the occasion should arise, could terrorize the Turks. I am convinced that, when the judicious historian reviews this war and its consequences, he will say that the passage of the Strait by these German ships made it inevitable that Turkey should join Germany at the moment that Germany desired her assistance, and that it likeTvise sealed the doom of the Turkish Empire, ihere were men in the Turkish Cabinet who perceived this, even then. The story was told in Constantinople — though I do not vouch for it as authentic history — that the cabinet meeting at which this momentous decision had been made had not been altogether harmonious. The Grand Vizier and Djemal, it was said, objected to the fictitious "sale," and demanded that it should not be completed. When the discussion had reached its height Enver, who was playing Germany's game, announced that he had already practically completed the transac- tion. In the silence that followed his statement this young Napoleon pulled out his pistol and laid it on the table. "If anv one here wishes to question this purchase," he said quietly and icily, "I am ready to meet him." A few woeks after the Goeben and the Breslau had r-4.T?i:-M':i' '-'^^:^%^:: • i-'tiH- forth. •erniai. .Iiplonmcv in its nu.st n I.L "";M«.t.I.,..ni r.-,.r,.s,.,itopulatioii il 81 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY taken up permanent headquarters in the Bosphorus. Djavid Bey Minister of Finance, happened to meet a distinguished Belgian jurist, then in Constantinople I have terrible news for you," said the sympathetic lutets/' ""'"• '""'^ ''""^"^ ^^^^ -P'-'J The Belgian, a huge figure, more than six feet high, put his arm soothingly upon the shoulder of the diminu- tive Turk. "I have even more terrible news for you," he said pomtmg out to the stream where the Goehen and the ^resl^u lay anchored. "The Germans have captured 1 CHAPTER Vl WANGENHEIM TELLS THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR HOW THE KAISER STARTED THE WAR BUT there was one quarter in which this transac- tion produced no appreciable gloom. That was the German Embassy. This great "suc- t'c\ss" fairly intoxicated the impressionable VV igen- heim, and other happenings now aroused his furor Teutonicus to a fever heat. The Goel and the Breslau arrived almost at the same time tuat the Germans captured Liege, Namur, and other Belgian towns. And now followed the German sweep into France and the apparently triumphant rush for Paris. In all these happenings Wangenheim, lilce the militant Prussian that he was, saw the fulfilment of a forty-years' dream. We were all still living in the summer embassies along the Bosphorus. Germany had a beautiful park, which the Sultan had personally prest uted to the Kaiser's government; yet for some reason Wangenheim did not seem to enjoy his headquarters during these summer (!ays. A little guartl house stood directly in front of his embassy, on the slreet, within twenty feet of the rushing Bosphorus, and in front of this was a stone bench. This bench was properly a "esting place for the guard, but Wangenheim seemed to have a strong liking for it. I shall always keep in my mind the figure of this German diplomat, in those excitmg days before the Marne, sitting out on this little bench, now and then 82 .'WTT: AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 83 jumping up for a stroll back and forth in front of his house. Everybody passing from Constantinople to 1 he northern suburbs had to pass along this road, and even the Russian and French diplomats frequently went by, stiffly ignoring, of course, the triumphant ambassadorial figure on his stone bench. I sometimes think that Wangenheim sat there for liie express purpose of i>uffin'' his cigar smoke in their direction. It all reminded me of the scene in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, where Tell sits in the mountain pass, with his bow and arrow at his side, waiting for his intended victim, Gessler, to go by: "Here through this deep defile he needs must pass; There leads no other road to KUssnacht." Wangenheim would also buttonhole his friends, or those whom he regarded as his friends, and have' his httle jollifications over German \nctories. I noticed that he stationed himself there only when the German armies were winning; if news came of a reverse, Wan- genheim was utteiK- invisible. This led me to remark that he reminded me of a toy weather prophet, which IS always outside the box when the weather is fine but which retires within when storms are gathering ^\angenheim appreciated my little joke as keenly as the rest of the diplomatic set. In those early days, however, the weather for the German Ambassador was distinctly favourable. The good fortune of the German armies so excited him that he was sometimes led into indiscretions, and his exuber- ance one day caused him to tell me certain facts which, I think, will always have great historical value. He disclosed precisely how and when Germany had pre- j-Sr ff 1 84 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY cipitated this war. To-day his revelation of this secret looks like a most monstrous indiscretion, but we must remember Wangenheim's state of mind at the time. The whole world then believed that Paris was doomed and Wangenheim reflected this attitude in his frequent declarations that the war would be over in two or three months. The whole German enterprise was evidently progressing according to programme. I have already mentioned that the German Ambassa- dor had left for Berlin soon after the assassination of the Grand Duke, and he now revealed the cause of his sudden disappearance. The Kaiser, he told me, had summoned him to Berlin for an ..nperial conference. This meeting took place at Potsdain on July 5th. The Kaiser presided and nearly all the important ambassa- dors attended. Wangenheim himself was summoned to give assurance about Turkey and enlighten his as- sociates generally on the situation in Constantinople, which was then regarded as almost the pivotal point in the impending war. In telling me who attended this conference Wangenheim used no names, though he specifically said that among them were — the facts are so important that I quote his exact words in the German w'hichheused— "die Hdupterdes Generalstahs undder Ma- rine" — (The heads of the general staff and of the navy) by which I have assumed that he meant Von Moltke and Von Tirpitz. The great bankers, railroad directors, and the captains of German industry, all of whom were as necessary to German war preparations as the army itself, also attended. Wangenheim now told me that the Kaiser solemnly put the question to each man in turn: "Are you ready for war?" All replied "yes" except the financier .j>i AMBASS.\DOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 85 They said that they must have two weelcs to sell their foreign securities and to make loans. At that time few people had looked upon the Sarajevo tragedy as some- thing that would inevitably lead to war. This conferenee Wangenheim told me. took all precautions that no such suspicion should be aroused. It decided to give the bankers time to readjust their finances for the coming war and then the several members went quietly back o their work or started on vacations. The Kaiser went to Norway on his yacht. Von Bethmann-Hollweg left for a rest, and Wangenheim returned to Constantinople In telhng me about this conference Wangenheim of course admitted that Germany had precipitated the war I think that lie was rather proud of the whole performance, proud that Germany had go t the matter in so methodical and far-seeing a wa and especially proud that he himself had been invit'ed to participate m so epoch making a gathering. I have often wondered why he revealed to me so momentous a secret, and I think that perhaps the real reason was his excessive vanity-his desire to show me how close he stood to the inner counsels of his emperor and the Whatever the motive, this indiscretion certainly had the effect of showing me who were really the guilty P.-H.S m this monstrous crime. The several^ red. and yellow books which flooded Europe during the few months following the outbreak, and the hun dreds of documents which were issued by German propagandists attemptlag to estabhsh Germany's inno- cence. have never made the slightest impression on me For my conclusions as to the responsibility are not' based on suspicions or belief or the study of circum- I* it 86 AMBASSADOR MORGEXTIIAU'S STORY stantial data. I do not have to reason or argue about Ihc matter. I know. The conspiracy that has caused tin's greatest of liuinan tragedies was hatched by the Kaiser and lils iniprrial crew at this Potsdam con- ference of Jiil^- 5, TOl 4. One of the chief participants, flushed with his triumi)h at the api>arent success of the plot, told me the details with his own mouth. Whenever I hear peoi)le arguing about tlie responsibility for this war or read the clumsy and lying excuses put forth by Germany, I simply recall the burly figure of Wangenheim as he appeared that August afternoon, puffing away at a huge black cigar, and giving me his account of this historic meeting. ^Miy waste any time discussing the matter after thai ? This imperial conference took place July 5lh and the Serbian ultimatum was sent on July 22d. That is just about the two weeks' interval which the financiers had demanded to complete their plans. All the great stock exchanges of the world show that the German bankers profitably used this interval. Their records disclose that stocks were being sold in large quantities and that prices declined rapidly. At that time the markets were somewhat puzzled at this movement but Wangenheim's explanation clears up any doubts that may still remain. Germany was changing her securi- ties into cash for war purposes. If any one wishes t-^ \erify Wangenheim, I would suggest that he examine the quotations of the New York stock market for these two liistoric weeks. He will find that there were astonishing slumps in prices, especially on the stocks that had an international market. Between July 5th and July 22d, Union Pacific dropped from 155| to 127^, Baltimore and Ohio from 91^ to 81, AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 87 United States Steel from 61 to 50J, Canadian Pacific from 194 to 185 J, and Northern Pacific from 11 1| to 108. At that time the high protectionists were bhiming the Simmons-Underwood taritf act as responsible for this fall in values, while oilier critics of the Administra- tion attributed it to the Federal Reserve Act— which had not yet been put inlo effect. How little the Wall Street brokers and the financial experts realized that an im- perial conference, which had been held in Potsdam and presided over by the Kaiser, was the real force that was then depressing the market! Wangenheim not only gave me the details of this Potsdam conference, but he disclosed the same secret to the Marquis Garroni, the ItaHan Ambassador at Constantinople. Italy was at that time technically Germany's ally. The Austrian Ambassador, the Marquis Pallavicini, also practically admitted that the Central Powers had anticipated the war. On August 18th, Francis Joseph's birthday, I made the usual ambassadorial visit of congratulation. Quite naturally the conversation turned upon the Emperor, who had that day passed his 84th year. Pallavicini spoke about him with the utmost pride and veneration. He told me how keen- minded and clear-headed the aged emperor was, how he had the most complete understanding of interna- tional affairs, and how he gave everything his personal supervision. To illustrate the Austrian Kaiser's grasp of public events, Pallavicini instanced the present war. The previous May, Pallavicini had had an audience with Francis Joseph in Vienna. At that time, Palla- vicini now told me, the Emperor had said that a Euro- pean war was imavoidable. The Central Powers would I \ 88 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY not accept the Treaty of Bucharest as a settlement of the Balkan question, and only a general war, the Emperor had told Pallavicini, could ever settle that problem. The Treaty of Bucharest, I may recall, was the settlement that ended the second Balkan war. This divided the European dominions of Turkey, excepting Constantinople and a small piece of adjoining territory, among the Balkan nations, chiefly Serbia and Greece. That treaty strengthened Serbia greatly; so much did it increase Serbia's resources, indeed, that Austria feared that it had laid the beginning of a new European state, which might grow sufficiently strong to resist her own plans of aggrandizement. Austria held a large Serbian population under her yoke in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and these Serbians desired, above everything else, annexation to their own coun- try. Moreover, the Pan-German plans in the East necessitated the destruction of Serbia, the state which, so long as it stood intact, blocked the Germanic road to the Orient. It had been the Austro-German expecta- tion that the Balkan War would destroy Serbia as a nation — that Turkey would simply annihilate King Peter's forces. This was precisely what the Germanic plans demanded, and for this reason Austria and Ger- many did nothing to prevent the Balkan wars. But the result was exactly the reverse, for out of the conflict arose a stronger Serbia than ever, standing firm like a breakwater against the Germanic flood. Most historians agree that the Treaty of Bucharest made inevitable this war. I have the Marquis Palla- vicini's evidence that this was likewise the opinion of Francis Joseph himself. The audience at which the Emperor made this statement was held in May, more AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 80 than a month before the assassination of the Grand Duke. Clearly, therefore, we have the Austrian Em- peror's assurances that the war would have come irrespective of the assassination at Sarajevo. It is quite apparent that this crime merely served as the convenient pretext for the war upon which the Central Empires had already decided. CHAPTER VII Germany's pi^ws fou new XERRironiEs, coaung STATIONS, AND INDEMNITIES A LL through that eventful August and September /A Wangenheim contintied his almost irresponsible ■*- -^ behaviour— now blandly boastful, now de- pressed, always nervous and high strung, ingratiating to an American like myself, spiteful and petty toward the representatives of the enemy powers. He was always displaying his anxiety and impatience by sitting on the bench, that he miglit be within two or three minutes' quicker access to the wireless communications that were sent him from Berlin via the Corcovado. He would never miss an opportunity to spread the news of victories; several times h.' adopted the unusual course of coming to my house unannounced, to tell mo of the latest developments, and to read me extracts from messages which he had just received. He was always apparently frank, direct, and even indiscreet. I remember his great distress the day that England declared war. Wangenheim had always professed a great admiration for England and, especially, for Amer- ica, "There are only three great couiitiies," he would say over and over again, "Germany, England, and the United States. We three should get together; then we could rule the world." This enthusiasm for the British Empire now suddenly cooled when that power decided to defend her treaty pledges and declared 90 ."at AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAUS STORY 01 war. Wangcnlu'ini had snid that the conflict would Ix' a short our and that Stuhin Day would Iw (•» K'brated in Paris. But on August 51 h, I ca^v^l at his niibassy and found him nioro than usually agitaiod and serious. 'Jaron<-ss Wangonhcini, a tall, handsonir woman, was silting in the room reading her mothcr'.s memoirs of (he war of 1S70. Uoth regarder." I was out for a stroll on August !2(»Jh, and happened to meet the (lerman Ambassador. lie began to talk as usual about the (lerman victories in France, repeat- ing, as was now his habit, his prophecy that the German armies would be in Paris within a week. The deciding factor in this war, he added, would be the Krupp ar- tillery. "And remember that this time," he said, "we are making war. And we shall make it ruc/csivln- slos (without any consideration). We shall not be hampered as we were in 1870. Then Qiic;>u Victoria, the Czar, and Francis Joseph interfered and persuaded us to spare Paris. But there is no one lo interfere now. We shall mn'e to Berlin all the Parisian art treasures that belong to the slate, just as Napoleon took Italian art works to France." li is quite evident that the battle of the Marne saved Paris from the fate of Louvain. So confidently did Wangcnheim expect an immediate victory that he began to discuss the terms of peace. Germany would demand of France, he said, after de- I f H AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAUS STORY fcating her armies, that she completely demobilize and pay an indemnity. "France now." said Wun- genheim, "can settle for $3,000,000,000; but if she persists m continuing the war. she will have to nav i?20.000.000.000." ^^ He told me that Germany would demand harbours and coalmg stations "everywhere." At that time judging from Wungenheim's statements. Germany was not looking so much for new territory as for great commercial advantages. She was determined to be the great merchant nation, and for this she must have free harbours, the Bagtlnd railroad, nnd extensive rights in South America and Africa. ^\ ..genheim said that Germany did not desire any more territory in which the populations did not speak German, for they had had all of that kind of trouble they wanted in Alsace-Lorraine. Poland, and other non-German coun- tries. This statement certainly sounds interesting now in view of recent happenings in Russia. He did not mentior. E: <. :and in s^x^aking of Germany's demand for coaling stations and harbours; he must have had England in mind, however, for what other where?"''"''^ ^'a^e given them to Germany "every- All these conversations were as illuminating to me as Wangenheim s revelation of the conference of July 5th Ihat episode clearly proved that Germany had con- sciously started the war, while these grandiose schemes. Bs outlined by this very able but somewhat talkative ambassador, showed the reasons that had impeUed her m this great enterpiise. Wangenheim gave me a complete picture of the German Empire embarking on a great buccaneering expedition, in which the II sn AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAUS STORY OS apoila of success were to be the accuimilated riches of her neighbours and the world position whicli their skill and industry had built up through the cen- turies. If England attempted to starve Germany, said Wangenheim, Germany's response would be a sample one: she would starve France. At that time, we must remember, Germany expected to have Paris within a week, and she believed that this would ultimately give her control of the whole country. It was evidently the German plan, as understood by Wangenheim, to hold this nation as a pawn for England's behaviour, a kind of hostage on a gigantic scale. In that case, should England gain any military advantage, Germany would attemi)t to counter-attack by torturing the whole French people. At that moment German soldiers were murdering innocent Belgians in return for the alleged misbehaviour of other Belgians, and evidently Germany had planned to apply tliis principle to whole nations as well as to individuals. All through this and other talks, Wangenheim showed the greatest animosity to Russia. ^^ "We've got our foot on Russia's com," he said, "and ^e propose to keep it there." By this he must have meant that Germany had sent the Goehen and the Breslau through the Dardanelles and Uiatbythatmaster-strokeshecontrolledConstantinople The old Byzantine capital, said Wangenheim, was the prize which a victorious Russia would demand, and her lack of an all-the-year-ronnd port in warm waters was Russia's tender spot— her "corn." At this time Wangenheim boasted that Germany had 174 German gunners at the Dardanelles, that the strait could be ;--,iP' W<'.:^^^l££ •^mJ-ST^^^^M- 94 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY closed in less than thirty minutes, and that Souchon. the German admiral, had informed him that the strait was impregnable. "We shall not close the Darda- nelles, however," he said, "unless England attacks them." At that time England, although she had declared war on Germany, had played no conspicuous part in the military operations; her "contemptible little armv" was making its heroic retreat from Mons. Wangen- heim entirely discounted England as an enemy. It was the German intention, he said, to place their big guns at Calais, and throw their shells across the English Channel to the English coast towns; that Germany would not have Calais within the next ten days did not occur to him as a possibility. In this and other conversations at about the same time Wangenheim laughed at the idea that England could create a large independent army. "The idea is preposterous," he said. "It takes generations of militarism to produce anything like the German army. We have been build- ing it up for two hundred years. It takes thirty years of constant training to produce such generals as we have. Our army will always maintain its organization. We have 500,000 recruits reaching military age every year and we cannot possibly lose that number annually, so that our army will be kept intact." A few weeks later civilization was outraged by the German bombardment uf English coast towns, such as Scarborough and Hartlepool. This was no sudden German inspiration, but part of their carefully con- sidered plans. Wangenheim told me, on September 6, 1914, that Germany intended to bombard all English harbours, so as to stop the food supply. It is also ap- m mm'':n^-diiiSF\H' -ix^' AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 95 parent that German ruthlessness against American sea trade was no sudden decision of Von Tirpitz, for, on this same date, the German Ambassador to Constantinople \';'*ned me that it would be very dangerous for the I nited States to send ships lo England! .:£i wFmm,W CHAPTER Vm A CLASSIC INSTANCE OF GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN THOSE August and September days Germany had no intention of precipitating Turkey immediately into the war. As I then had a deep interest in the welfare of the Turkish people and in maintaining peace, I telegraphed Washington asking if I might use my influence to keep Turkey neutral. I received a reply that I might do this provided that I made my representations unofficially and purely upon humani- tarian grounds. As the English and the French am- bassadors were exerting all their efforts to keep Turkey out of the war, I knew that my intervention in the same interest would not displease the British Government. Germany, however, might regard any interference on my part as an unneutral act, and I asked Wangenheim if there would be any objection from that source. His reply somewhat surprised me, though I saw through it soon afterward. "Not at all," he said. "Germany desires, above all, that Turkey shall remain neutral." Undoubtedly Turkey's policy at that moment pre- cisely fitted in with German plans. Wangenheim was steadily increasing his ascendancy over the Turkish Cabinet, and Turkey was then pursuing the course that best served the German aims. Her policy was keeping the Entente on tenterhooks; it never knew from day to day where Turkey stood, whether she would remain 96 nsst^sTJ^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 97 neutral or enter tlie war on Germany's side. Because Turkey's attitude was so uncertain, Russia was com- pelled to keep large forces in the Caucasus, England was obliged to strengthen her forces in Egj-pt and India, and to maintain a considerable fleet at the mouth of the Dardanelles. All this worked in beautifully with Germany's plans, for these detached forces just so much weakened England and Russia on the Euro- pean battle front. I am now speaking of the period just before the JJarne, when Germany expected to de- feat France and Russia with the aid of her ally, Austria, ' and thus obtain a victory that would have enabled her to dictate the future of Europe. Should Turkey at that time be actually engaged in military operations, she coidd do no more toward bringing a])out this victory than she was doing now, by keeping considerable Rus- sian and English forces away from the most i;nportant fronts. But should Germany win this easy victory with Turkey's aid, she might find her new ally an e.nbar- rassment. Turkey would certainly demand compen- sation and she would not be particularly modest in her demands, which most likely would include the full con- trol of Egj-pt and perhaps the return of Balkan terri- tories. Such readjustments would have interfered with the Kaiser's plans. Thus he had no interest in hav- ing Turkey as an active ally, except in the event that he did not speedily win his anticipated triumph. But if Russia should make great progress against Austria, then Turkey's active alliance would have great value, especially if her entry should be so timed as to bring in Bulgaria and Rumania as allies. Meanwhile, Wangenheim was playing a waiting game, making Turkey a potential German ally, strengthening U ; I i I 98 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STOHY her army and her navj', and preparing to use her, when- ever the moment arrived for using her to the best ad- vantage. If Germany could not win the war without Turkey's aid, Germany was prepared to take her in as an ally; if she could wu» wilhout Turkey, then she would ;.ot have to pay the Turk for his cooperation. Moan- while, the sensible course was to keep her prepared in case the Turkish forces became essential to German success. The (hul that now took place between Germany and the Entente for Turkey's favour was a most unequal one. Tlie fact was that Germany had won the vic- tory when she smuggled the Goeben and the Breslau into the Sea of Marmora. The English, French, and Russian ambassadors well understood this, and they knew that they could not make Turkey an activ-e ally of the Entente; they probably had no oiling for a fight!" he said. CHAPTER IX GKRMANY CLOSES TIIK DARDANELLES AND SO SEPARATES RUSSIA FROM HER ALLIES ON SEPTEMBER 27th, Sir Ixjuis Mallet, the Hritish Ambassador, entered my office in a considerably disturbed state of mind. The Khedive of Egyjit had just left me, and I bt>gan to talJv to Sir Louis about Egj-piian matters. "Let's discuss that some other time," he said. "I have sometliing far more important to tell you. They ha\e closed the Dardanelles." By " they" he meant, of cour not the Turkish Gov- ernment, the only power which i.ud the legal right to taJvC this drastic step, but the actual ruling powers in Turkey, the Germans. Sir Louis had good reason for bringing me this piece of news, since this was an out- rage against the United States as well as against the Allies. He asked me to go with him and make a joint protest. I suggested, however, that it would be better for us to act separately and I immediately started for the house of the Grand Vizier. When I arrived a cabinet conference was in session, and, as I sat in the anteroom, I could hear several voices m excited discussion. Among them all I could distinctly distinguish the familiar tones of Talaat, Enver, Djavid, the IVIinister of Finance, and other members of the Government. It was quite plain, from all that I could overhear through the thin partitions, that these nomi- 10.5 f" ♦ X.Mk: ! : iki j y 100 A^rHASSADOn MORGEXTTIAU'S STORY nal nilfTs of Turkey were ah.Mst as exasperated over the eltwing as were Sir loom's Mallet nnel myself. The Grand Vizier eame «)iit iti answer to my request. He presented a pitial)Ie si^jlil, Ih- wns, in title at K'nst, the ino.st iniporfan* odiri.il of tlir Turkish dov- ernment, tiie mouHii)ieee of Ihr Siillan himself, yet now he pre.sen1e(l a i»i('lnre of abject helplessness and fear. Ilis faee was hianclied and he was trembling from head to foot. He was so overcome by his emo- tions that he could lianlly speak; when I a^ked him whether the news was line thai the Dardanelles had been closed, he finally stammered out that it was. "You know this means war," I said, and I protested as strongly as I could in the name of \\w United States. All thr tiujo that we were talking T could hear the loud tones of 'J'alaat and his associates in the interior aj)artment. . The (Jrand Vi/ier excused himself and went back into tiie room. He then sent out Djavid to discuss the'matter with me. "It's all a surprise to us," ^^ere Djavid's first words— this statement l>eing a complete admission that the Cabinet had had nothing to do with it. I repeated that the United States would not submit to closing the Dardanelles; Turkey v/as at peace, the Sultan had no legal riglit to shut the strait to merchant shir)s except in case" of war. I said that an American ship, laden with siipplies and stores for the American Ejubassy, was outsid? at that moment waiting to come in. Dja- vid suggested that I have this vessel unload her cargo at Smyrna: the Turkish Government, he obligingly added, would pay the cost of transporting it overlan-l to Constantinople. This proposal, of course, was a ri- diculous evasion of the issue and T brushed it aside. 4 mwuL-mfmm'Mwmm .VMUASSAIX)R M()Ii(;i:.\TlIAL S STORY 107 Djttvid then said thut tho ("ubinK proposed to rnxv^. tigate the mutter; that, in fact, tlu-y wore ordered tlie vesse' to ^^o back; this under the eireun.slances. he had a right to do. Weber Pasha, the (iern.au general who wa. then m charge of the fortifieati. .s, did not consult the lurks but nnmediately gave orders to close the strait. Wangenliein. had already boaste.l to me as I have sai.l. that the Dardanelles could be closed in thirty minutes and the (uTinans now made goo.| his words. Down went the nu-nes and the nets; the lights m the lighthouses were extinguished; .signals were put up. notifying all ships that there was "no thorough- fare and the deed, the ,uo.l high-handed which the Germans had yet committed, was done. And here I found these Turkish statesmen, who alone had author- ity over this indispensable strip of water, trembling and stammering with fear, running hither and yon like a lot of frightened rabbits, appalled at the enormity of the German act, y<^t apparently jjowerless to take any decisive action. I certainly had a graphic ,,icture of the extremities to which Teutonic bullying had re- duced the present rulers of the Turl-bh Empire. Ind at tlie same moment before my mind rose the figure of the Sultan, whose signature was essential to close legally these waters, quietly dozing at his palace, entirely oblivious of the whole transaction. Though Djavid informed me that the Cabinet k 1 iV' 108 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY might decide to reopen the Dardanelles, it did not do so. This great passageway has now remained closed for more than four years, from September 27, 1914. I saw, of course, precisely what this action signified. That mon^h of September had been a disillusioning one for the Germans. The French had beaten back the inva- sion and had driven the German armies to entrench- ments along the Aisne. The Russians were sweeping triumphantly through Galicia; already they had cap- tured Lemberg and it seemed not improbable that they would soon cross the Carpathians into Austria- Hungary. In those days Pallavicini, the Austrian Ambassador, was a discouraged, lamentable figure. He confided to me his fears for the future, telling me that the German programme of a short, decisive war had clearly failed and that it was now quite evident that Germany could win, if she could win at all, which was exceedingly doubtful, only after a protracted struggle. I have described how Wangenheim, while preparing the Turkish army and navy for any eventual- ities, was simply holding Turkey in his hand, intending actively to use her forces only in case Germany failed to crush France and Russia in the first campaign. Now that that failure was manifest, Wangenheim was in- structed to use the Turkish Empire as an active ally. Hitherto, this nation of 20,000,000 hud been a passive partner, held back by Wangenheim until Germany had decided that it would be necessary to pay the price of letting her into the war as a real particii)ant. The time had come when Germany needed the Turkish army, and the outward sign that the situation had changed was the closing of the Dardanelles. Thus Wangen- heim had accompUshed the task for which he had been _ M:'m^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU-S STORY )oo working, and ,„ this act had fittingly crowned hi, adnevemcnt of bringing in the a„eienj.i theH„ lew Americans realize, even to-day. what an „ve": whelm,ng influence this act wielde AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAUS STORY 111 enough toaccommodale then,, and they had to swing out mto the stream, drop anchor, and await developments, rhe waters were a cluster of masts and smoke stacks, and mZZ t " ^-''"^^ '" ^^"^^ *'^^^ ^ "^«t"r boat est. The Turks held out hopes that they might <■' en the water way, and L. .his reason these vessels. - -ntly mcreasmg in number, waited patiently for a moncn or so. Then one by one they turned around, nointed their noses toward the Black Sea. and lugubri' ously started for their home ports. In a few weeks the waste. \Vhat for years had been one of the most ani- mated shipping norts in the world, was ruffled only by an occasiona launch, or a tiny Turkish caique, or now Idea of what this meant, from a military standpoint, we need only call to mmd the Russian battle front in the artmi!^r'>K^i'-' *^^ P"^''""*' '''^ ^S'^t'"g German artUIery with their unprotected bodies, having few rifles and few heavy guns, while mountains of useless am- munition were piling up in their distant Arctic and Pacific ports, with no railroads to take them to the neid of action. «; i. CHAPTER X turkey's abrogation of the capitulations — ENVER LIVING IN A PALACE, WITH PLENTY OP MONEY AND AN IMPERIAL BRIDE ANOTHER question, which had been under /J^ discussion for several months, now became in- ■^ -^ volved in the Turkish international situation. That was the matter of the capitulations. These v/ere the treaty rights which for centuries had regulated the position of foreigners in the Turkish Empire. Turkey had never been admitted to a complete equality with European nations, and in reality she had never been an independent sovereignty. The Sultan's laws and customs differed so radically from those of Europe and America that no non-Moslem country could think of submitting its citizens in Turkey to them. In many matters, therefore, the principle of ex-territoriality had always prevailed in favour of all citizens or sub- jects of countries enjoying capitulatory rights. Almost all European countries, as well as the United States, for centuries had had their own consular courts and prisons in which they tried and punished criines which their nationals committed in Turkey. We all had our schools, wliich were subject, not to Turkish law and protection, but to that of the country which maintained them. Thus Robert College and the Constantinople College for Wo- men, those wonderful institutions which American phi- lanthropy has erected on the Bosphorus, as well as hun- 112 ^t ,i*;*T iihg-yaRji^ti n.«i < wt^ aPaC' ~. i '^b^ AMBASSADOR MORGEXTIIAUS STORY lis dreds of American religious, charitable, and educational ns itutions, practically stood on American territory and looked upon the American Embassy as their guardian Several nations had Ih.ir own post offices, as they did not care to submit their mail to the Ottoman postal service Turkey likewise did not have unlimited power of taxation over foreigners. It could not even increase their customs taxes without the consent of the foreiVn, powers. In 1914 it could impose only 11 per cent, "n tariff dues and was attempting to secure the right to increase the amount to 14. We have always regarded Enghind as the only free-trade country, overlooking the fact tha this limitation in Turkey's customs dues had practically made the Ottoman Empire an unwilling oUower of Cobden. Turkey was thus prohibited by the Powers from developing any industries of her own- instead, she was forced to take large quantities of in-' ferior articles from Europe. Against these restrictions Turkish statesmen had protested for years, declaring that they constituted an insult to their pride as a nation and also mterfered with their progress. However, the agreement was a bi-lateral one. and Turkey could not change It without the consent of all the contracting powers Yet certainly the present moment, when ': *t^ ^"*^"'^ ^"^ ^^^ Central Powers were culti- vatmg Turkey served to furnish a valuable opportunity to make the change. And so, as soon as the Germans had begun their march toward Paris, the air was filled with reports that Turkey intended to abrogate the capitulations. Rumour said that Germany had consented, as part of the consideration for Turkish aid in the war.and that England had agreed to the abrogation, as part of her payment for Turkish neutrality. Neither ;.'3Pr'»'3i?: 11 f^ ■ r ] ^t^" 114 AMBASSADOR MORfJKXTIIAU'S STORY of these reports was true. "U'liat was manifest, how- ever, was the panic whicli tlic mere suggestion of abro- gation produced on the f()i'.'i;rn popuhvtion. The idea of becoming subject to tlio Tu-kislx laws and perhaps being thrown into Turkish prisons made their flesh creep— and with good reason. About this time I had a long conference with Enver. He asked me to call at his residence, as he was laid up with an infected '.oe. the result of a surgical operation. I thus had an illuminating glimpse of the Minister of War en famille. Certainly this humble man of the people had risen in the world. His house, which was in one of the quiei t and most aristocratic parts of the city, was a splendid old building, very large and very elaborate. I was ushered through a series of four or five halls, and as I went by one door the Imperial Princess, Enver's wife, slightly opened it and peeked through at me. Farther on another Turkish lady opened her door and also obtained a fleeting glimpse of the Ambassadorial figure. I was finally escorted into a beautiful room in which Enver lay recUning on a semi-sofa. He had on a long silk dressing gown and his stockinged feet hung languidly over the edge of the divan. He looked much younger than in his uniform; he was an extremely neat and well-groomed object, with a pale, smooth face, made even more striking by his black hair, and with delicate white hands, and long, tapering fingers. He might easily have passed for under thirty, and, in fact, he was ncc much over that age. He had at hand a violin, and a piano near by also testified to his musical taste. The room wa3 splendidly tapestried; perhaps its most conspicuous feature was a dais xipon which stood a golden chair; AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 115 this was the marriage throne of Enver's imperial wife. As I glanced around at all this luxury, I must admit that a few uncharitable thoughts came to mind and that I could not help pondering a question which was then being generally asked in Constantinople. Where did Enver get the money for this expensive establish- ment? He had no fortune of his own— his parents had been wretchedly poor, and his salary as a cabinet minis- ter was only about $8,000. Ilis wife had a moderate allowance as an imperial princess, but she had no private resources. Enver had never engaged in business, he had been a revolutionist, military leader, and politician all his life. But here he was living at a rate that demanded a very large income. In other ways Enver was giving evidences of great and sudden prosperity, and already I had heard much of his investments in real estate, which were the talk of the town. Enver wished to discuss the capitulations. He practically said that the Cabinet had decided on the abrogation, and he wished to know the attitude of the United States. He added that certainly a country which had fought for its independence as we had would sympathize with Turkey's attempt to shake off these shackles. We had helped Japan free herself from simi- lar burdens and wouldn't we now help Turkey.' Cer- tainly Turkey was as civilized a nation as Japan? I answered that I thought that the United States might consent to abandon the capitulations in so far as they were economic. It was my opinion that Turkey should control her customs duties and be permitted to levy the same taxes on foreigners as on her own citi- zens. So long as the Turkish courts and Turlds'i prisons maintained their present standards, how?ver. )l '^m cim jt: :■■.' hi r ! Hi 116 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY we could never agree to give up the judicial capitula- tions. Turkey should reform the abuses of her courts: then, after thoy had established European ideas in the administration of justice, the matter could be discussed. Enver replied that Turkey would be willing to have •nixcd tribunals and to have the United States designate some of the judges, but I suggested that, inasmuch as American judges did not know the Turkish language or Turkish law his scheme involved great practical diffic 1 les. I also told him that the American schools and colleges were very dear to Americans, and that we would never consent to subjecting them to Turkish jurisdiction. Despitetheprotestsof all the ambassadors, the Cabinet issued Its notification that the capitulations would be ab- rogated on October 1st. This abrogation was all a part of the Young Turks' plan to free themselves from foreign tutelage and to create a new country on the basis of Turkey for the Turks." It represented, as I shall show, what was the central point of Turkish policy, not only m the empire's 'lations to foreign powers, but to her subject peoples England's position on this ques- tion was about the .me as ouronni; the British Govern- ment would consent to the modification of the economic restrictions, but not the others. Wangenheim was greatly disturbed, and I think that his foreign office reprimanded him for letting the abrogation take place because he blandly asked me to announce that I was the responsible person ! As October 1st approached, the foreigners m Turkey were in a high state of apprehen- sion The Dardanelles had been closed, shutting them off from Europe, and now they felt that they were to be left to the mercy of Turkish courts and Turkish ■^^■Ti-..:'XiCe Jf.. {■'•W Tilrf^'-IS Kb7'7»!(IMr\ AMBASSADOR MORCiENTIIAU'S STORY 11 T prisons. Inasmuch as it was the habit in Turkish prisons to herd the innocent witli tlie /fiiilly. and to place in the same room with murderers, ix-ople who had been chargeprehensive, and in their interest I now appealed to Enver. lie assured me that the Turks had no hostile intention toward Americans. I replied that he should show in unmis- takable fashion that Americans would not be harmed. "All right," he answered. "What would you suggest?" "Why not ostentatiously visit Robert College on October 1st, the day the capitulations are abrogated?'* I said. The idea was rather a unique one, for in all the history of this institution an important Turkisli official had never entered its doors. But I knew enough of the Turkish character to understand that an open, cere- monious visit by Enver would cause a public sensation. News of it would reach the farthest limits of the Turkish Empire» and it was certain that the Turks would inter- pret it as meaning that one of the two most powerful men in Turkey had taken tliis and other American institutions under his patronage. Such a visit would exercise a greater protective influence over American colleges and schools in Turkey than an army corps. I was therefore g-»atly pleased when Enver promptly adopted my suggestion. On the day that the capitulations were abrogated, Enver appeared at the American Embassy with two autos, one for himself and me. and the other for his ■sr ^ 1 II. il^; 118 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAr'S STORY adjutants, all of whom were drcssoj in full i.niform. I was pleased that Envcr had i undo the proceeding so spectacular, fur I wisht-d it tu have tlic wiilest pub- licity. On the ridr up to I'te college I told Enver all about these American iii^litutions and what they were doing for Turkey. He nally know very little about tiiera, and, like most Turks, lu half suspected that they (on-^ealed a f>olitical purix)se. \Ve Americans are not looking for mal> rial advan- tages in Turkey," I said "\Ve merely demand that you treat kindly our children, these colleges, for wluch all the people in the United States have the warmest alfection." I told him that Mr. Cleveland II. Dodge, President of the trustees of Robert College, and Mr. Charles R. Crane, President of the trustees of the Women's College, were intimate friends of President Wilson. "These," I added, "represent what is best in America and the fine altruistic sjnrit which in our country accumulates wealth and then uses it to found colleges and schools. In establishing these institutions in Turkc;.- they are trying, not to convert your people to Christianity, but to help train them in the sciences and arts and so pre- pare to make them better citizens. Americans feel that the IJible lands have given tlum their religion and thoy wish to repay with the best thing America has —its education." I then told him about Mrs. Russell Sage and Miss Helen Gould, who had made large gifts to the Women's College. "But where do these people get all the money for such benefactions.'" Enver asked. I then entertained him for an hour or so with a few pages from our own "American Nights." I told him pr4 AMBASSADOR MORGEXTllAl - STORY liO how Jny Gould had arrived in New Vurk, n penniloss ;ind ragged boy, with a moii.sctrup which he hiid in- vented, juid how he h«d died, almost thirty years afterward, h-aving a forlutu- of nhout $100,000,000. I toKJ hint how C ommodore Van- "•"' "'<■ V..Mn« Turk IrMcU-rs (hon r«ii..i the liirkiN. Kmpire i.>, llu^.r own srifisl, purposes and .l«-v.-l.,i...,l ,.v r r- ""• ""in M r>vjtt, AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 121 but gradually to elbow his way into undisputed control. At this crisis the most popularly respected members of the Ministry were Djavid, Minister of Finance, a man who was Jewish by race, but a Mohammedan by religion; Mahmoud Pasha, Minister of Public Works, a Circassian; Bustany Effendi, Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, a Cliristian Arab; and Oskan Effendi, Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, an Armenian— and a Christian, of course. All these leaders, as well as the Grand Vizier, openly opposed war and all now informed Talaat and Enver that they would resign if Germany succeeded in her intrigues. Thus the atmosphere was exciting; how tense the situation was a single episode will show. Sir Louis Mallet, the British Ambassador, had accepted an invitation to dine at the American Embassy on October 20th, but he sent word at the last moment that he was ill and could not come. I called on the Ambassador an hour or two afterward and found him in his garden, apparently in the best of health. Sir Louis smiled and said that his illness had been purely political. He had received a letter telling him that he was to be assassinated that evening, this letter in- forming him of the precise spot where the tragedy was to take place, and the time. He therefore thought that he had better stay indoors. As I had no doubt that some such crime had been planned, I offered Sir Louis the protection of our Embassy. I gave him the key to the back gate of the garden; and, with Lord Wellesley, one of his secretaries— a descendant of the Duke of Wellington— I made all arrangements for his escape to our quarters in case a flight became necessary. Our two embassies were so located that, in the event of an attack, he might go unobserved from the back gate hi,, ■iTIi >1*ar^«HKlAl«t#H *.e to be reinstated as a world power," I sai.l. "Yoii niu.%t remember that the civilized world w ill cjuefulkv Aatch you; your future status will depend on how you conduct yourself in war." The ruling classes among the Turks, including Enver, rejili.'cd that the out- side world regarded them as a peopl<> ^.1 nnd no respect for the saeredness of human lif. - , : .- emotions and they keenly resented this alt ui! . i, reminded Enver that Turkey had a spleT;. ; ■(.;»: rtMi y to dis- prove all these criticisms. "T! i , '•^i av you are barbarians." 1 argued; ".show I,, ^ ycm treat these alien enemies that you are ')niy In this way can you b<' freed permanenliy from the ignominy of the capitulations. Prove that you are worthy of being emancipated from foreign tutelage. Be civilized — be modern!" In view of what was happening in Belgium and northern France at that moment, my use of the word "modem," was a little unfortunate. Enver quickly saw the point. Up to this time he had maintained his ;;*//:■' r^ifi.; •-i'^.y^i*. j.'>'-5 .;^nf Ni-".^i-^ ?. ,: I' I- y 132 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY usual attitude of erect and dignified composure, and his face, as always, had been attentive, imperturbable, al- most expressionless. Now in a flash his whole bearing changed. His countenance broke into a cynical smile, he leaned over, brought his fist down on the table, and said: "Modern! No; however Turkey shall wage war, at least we shall not be 'modem.' That is the most bar- baric system of all. We shall simply try to be de- cent!" Naturally I construed this as a promise; I understood the changeableness of the Turkish character well enough, however, to know that more than a promise was necessary. The Germans were constantly prodding the Turkish officials, persuading them to r.dopt the favour- ite German plan against enemy aliens. Germany has revived many of the principles of ancient and medi- eval warfare, one of her most barbaric resurrections from the past being this practice of keeping certain repre- sentatives of the population, preferably people of dis- tinction and influence, as hostages for the "good be- haviour" of others. At this moment the German mili- tary staff was urging the Turks to keep foreign residents for this purpose. Just as the Germans held non- combatants in Belgium as security for the "friendliness" of the Belgians, and placed Belgian women and children at the h?ad of their advancing armies, so the Germans in Turkey were now planning to use French and British residents as part of their protective system against the Allied fleet. That this sinister influence was constantly at work I well knew; therefore it was necessary that I should meet it immediately, and, if possible, gain the upper hand at the very start. I decided that the de- I. AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 1S3 parlure of the Entente diplomats and residents from Constantinople would really put to the test my ability to protect the foreign residents. If all the French and English who really wished to leave could safely get out of Turkey, I believed that this demonstration would have a restraining influence, not only upon the Ger- mans, but upon the underlings of the Turkish official world. As soon as I arrived at the railroad station, the day following the break, I saw that my task was to;be a diffi- cult one. I had arranged with the Turkish authori- ties for two trains; one for the English and French resi- dents, which was to leave at seven o'clock, and one for the diplomats and their staff, which was to go at nine. But the arrangement was not working according to schedule. The station was a surging mass of excited and frightened people; the police were there in full force, pushing the crowds back; the scene was an inde- scribable mixture of soldiers, gendarmes, diplomats, bag- gage, and Turkish functionaries. One of the most conspicuous figures was Bedri Bey, prefect of police, a lawyer politician, who had recently been elevated to this position, and who keenly realized the importance of his new office. Bedri was an inti- mate friend and political subordinate of Talaat and one of hiii most valuable tools. He ranked high in the Com- mittee of Union and Progress, and aspired ultimately to obtain a cabinet position. Perhaps his most im- pelling motive was his hatred of foreigners and foreign influence. In his eyes Turkey was the land exclusively of the Turks; he despised all the other elements in its popu- lation, and he particularly resented the control which the foreign embassies had for years exerted in the do- «K>^s ' m.3,bMya-vi TTTsr >l 184 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHiU'S STORY mestic concerns of his country. Indeed, there were few men in Turkey with whom the permanent aboli- tioii of the capitulations was such a serious matter Naturally in the next few months I saw much of Bedri* he was constantly crossing my path, taking an alnost malicious pleasure in interfering with every move which I made in the interest of the foreigners. His attitude was half provoking, half jocular; we were alwavs trying to outwit each other-I attempting to protect the French and British, Bedri always turning up as an obstacle to my efforts; the fight for the foreigners, mdeed. almost degenerated into a personal duel be^ tween the Prefect of Police and the American Embassy. Bedri was capable, well educated, very agile, and not particularly ill-natured, but he 1. ;ed to toy with a helpless foreigner. Naturally, he found his occupation this evening a congenial one. •'What's all the trouble about?" I asked Bedri. "We have changed our minds," he said, and his manner showed that the change had not been displeas- ing to him. "We shall let the train go that is to take the ambassadors and their staffs. But we have de- cided not to let the unofficial classes leave— the train that was to take them will not go." My staff and I had worked hard to get this safe passage for the enemy nationals. Now apparently some influence had negatived our efforts. This sudden change in plans was producing the utmost confusion and consternation. At the station there were two 'groups of passengers, one of which could go and the other of which could not. The British and French ambassadors did not wish to leave their nationals be- limd, and the latter refused to believe that their train. AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 135 '.vhich the Turkish otficiais had definitely promised, would not start someUme that evening. I immedi- ately called up Enver, who substantiated Bedri's state- ment. Turkey had iiiany subjects in Egypt, he said, whose situation was causing great anxiety. Before the French and English residents could leave Turkey, assurances must be given that tiie rigiits of Turkish subjects in these countries would be protected. I had no difficulty in arranging this detail, for Sir Louis Mai- let immediately gave the necessary assurances. How- ^-er, this did not settle the matter; indeed, it had been fNHe more than a pretext. Bedri still refused to let the train start; the order holding it up, he said, could not be rescinded, for that would now a^tri ,n •!„ ,iiili;ar% mission s^-m i, '.-ur Kawnr fo Tonstan- tifl.,pir^,* !i,.- «f;»-r part .,f IMS, ;„ -^...irKajiiw tlif rarti«ii .rfiin .n prt-pji- AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY J87 in hotels. But their situ lion caused the utmost anxiety. Evidently, despite uU official promises, Tur- key was determined to keep these foreign residents as hostages. On the one hand were Enver and Talaat, tellmg me that tlicy intended to conduct their war in a humane manner, and, on tlie other, were their underhngs, such as Bedri. behaving in a fashion that negatived all these civilized pretensions. The fact was that the officials were quarrelling among themselves about the treatment of foreigners; and the German General Staff was telling the Cabinet that they were making a great mistake in showing any leniency to their enemy aliens. Finally, I succeeded in making ar- rangements for them to leave the following day. Bedri, in more complaisant mood, spent that afternoon at the embassy, viseing passports; we both went to the sta- tion in the evening and started the train safely toward Dedeagatch. I gave a box of candy— "Turkish De- lights," to each one of the fifty women and children on the train; it altogether was a happy party and they made no attempt to hide their relief at leaving Turkey. At Dedeagatch they met the diplomatic corps, and the reunion that took place, I afterwanl learned, was ex- tremely touching. I was made happy by receiving many testimonials of their gratitude, in particular a letter, signed by more than a hundred, expressing their thanks to Mrs. Morgenthau, the embassy staff, and my- self. There were still many who wished to go and next day I called on Talaat in their behalf. I found him in one of his most giacious moods. The Cabinet, he said, had carefully considered the whole matter of English and French residents in Turkey, and my arguments, he 1 * -V .■ 1S8 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY added, had greatly influenced them. They had reached the formal decision that enemy aliens could leave or remain, as they preferred. There would be no con- centration camps, civilians could pursue their usual business in peace, and, so long as they behaved them- selves, they would not be molested. "We propose to show," said Talaat, "by our treat- ment of aliens, that w:- are not a race of barbarians." In return for this promise he asked a favour of me: would I not see that Turkey was praised in the Ameri- can and European press for this decision? Aft'^r returning to the embassy I immediately ient for Mr. Thcron Damon, correspondent of the Associ- ated Press, Doctor Lederer, correspondent of the Berliner Tagehlatt, and Doctor Sandler, who repre- sented the Paris Herald, and gave them interviews, praising the attitude of Turkey toward the foreign resi- dents. I also cabled the news to Washington, London, and Paris and to all our consuls. Hardly had I finished with the correspondents when I again received alarming news. I had arranged for another train that evening, and I now heard that the Turks were refusing to vise the passports of those whose departure I had provided for. This news, coming right after Talaat's c cplirit promise, was naturally dis- turbing. I immediately started for the railroad station, and the sight which I saw there increased my anger at the Minister of the Interior. A mass of distracted peo- ple filled the inclosure; the women were weeping, and the children were -icreaming, while a platoon of Turkish soldiers, commanded by an undersized popinjay of a major, was driving everybody out of the station with the flat sides of their guns. Bedri, as usual, was there* AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 130 and as usual, he was clearly enjoying the confusiou; cer- tain of the passengers, he told mc, had not paid their income tax, and, for this reason, they would not be permitted to leave. I announced that I would be per- sonally responsible for this payment. "I can't get ahead of you, Mr. Ambassador, can I?" said Bcdri, with a laugh. From this we all thought that my offer had settled the matter and that the train would leave according to schedule. But then suddenly, came another order holding it up again. Since I had just had a promise from Talaat I de- cided to find that functionary and Icum what all this meant. I jumped into my automobile and went to the Sublime Porte, where he usually had his headquarters. Finding no one there, I told the chauffeur to drive di- rectly to Tulaat's house. Sometime before I had visited Enver in his domestic surroundings and this occasion now gave me the opportunity to compare his manner of life with that of his more powerful associate. The contrast was a startling one. I had found Enver living in luxury, in one of the most aristocratic parts of the town, while now I was driving to one of the poorer sec- tions. We came to a narrow street, bordered by little rough, unpainted wooden houses; only one thing dis- tinguished this thoroughfare from all others :n Con- stantinople and suggested that it was the aindn.?,' pi-, :e of the most powerful man in the Turkisii h'ri:]. ne, At either end stood a policeman, letting no one entev who could not give a satisfactory reason for doing so. Our auto, like all others, was stopped, but we were prcmptly permitted to pass when we explained who we wore As contrasted with Enver 's palace, with its innumerabl. rooms and gorgeous furniture, Talaat's house was an II Ni '^. ij. |. , I 140 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY old, rickety, woodf n, three-story building. All this, I afterward learned, mis part of the setting which Talaat had staged for his career. Like many an American politician, he hnd fouml his position as a man of "the people" a vuluablo political • .set, and he knew that a sudden display of prosjKrit^ and ostentation would wiaken his inHuence wil'i tlu' Union and Progress Com- mittee, most of whosf members, like himself, had risen from the lower walks of life. The contents of the house were quite in keeping with the exterior. There were no sugg«^stiuns of Oriental magnificence. The furniture uas cheap; a few coarse prints hung o\ the walls, and one or two well-worn rugs were scat- tered on the floor. On one sioned at the other end of the room, and a huge, lumbering, gaily-decorated figure entered. I was startled by the contrast which this Talaat pres< sted to the one who had become such a famih.sr figure to me at the Sublime Porte. It was no longer the Talaat of the European clothes and th ' thin veneer of Euroiwan manners; the man whom I now saw looked like a real Bulgarian gj'psy. Talaa? wore the usual red Turkish fez; the rest of his bulky form was clothed in thick gray pajamas; and from this combination protruded a ro- tund, SHiiling faee. His mood was half genial, half deprecating; 'I' \*at well understood what pressing AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY Hi business had led me to invade his domestic privacy, and his behaviour now resembled that of the unrepentant bad boy in school. He canje and sat down with a ffood-natured grin, and began to make excuses. Quietly the door opened again, and a hesitating little girl was pushed into the room, bringing a tray of cigarettes and coffee. Presently I saw that a young woman, appar- ently about twenty-five years old, was standing back of the child, urging her to enter. Here, then, were Talaat'a wife and adopted daughter; I had already discovered that, while Turkish women never enter society or act as hostesses,^ they are extremely inquisitive about their husbands* guests, and like to get surreptitious glimpses of them. Evidently Madame Talaat, on this occa- sion, was not satisfied with her preliminary view, for, a few minutes afterward, she appeared at a window di- rectly opposite me, but entirely unseen by her husband, who was facing in the other direction, and there she remained very quiet and very observant for several minutes. As she was in the house, she was unveiled; her face was handsome and intelligent; and it was quite apparent that she enjoyed this close-range view of an American ambassador. "Well. Talaat," I said, realizing that the time had come for plain speaking, "don't you know how foolishly you are acting? You told me a few hours ago that you had decided to treat the French and English decently and you asked me to publish this news in I he American and foreign press. I at once called in the newspaper men and told them how splendidly you were behaWng. And this at your own request! The whole world will be reading about it to-morrow. Now you are doing your best to counteract all my efforts in your behalf; '-^A. i-'^J^ -■ '^i^'■■tb f>^ TT- rr- MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No 2) 1.0 !f«- IM I.I 1^ 2.2 2£ 1.8 ^ -APPLIED INA^GE Inc ^^ '65! East Moir SlrMl S^S Rochester, New Vork "4609 USA '.i^ ' '!6) 482 - OJOO - Phane SaS ['".6} 288 - 5989 - Fa. 142 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY {i I here you have repudiated your first promise to be de- cent. Are you going to keep the promises you made me? Will you stick to them, or do you intend to keep changing your mind all the time? Now let's have a real understanding. The thing we Americans particu- larly pride ourselves on is keeping our word. We do it as individuals and as a nation. We refuse to deal with people as equals who do not do this. You might as well understand now that we can do no business with each other unless I can depend on your promises." "Now, this isn't my fault," Talaat answered. "The Germans are to blame for stopping that train. The German Chief of Staff has just returned and is making a big fuss, saying that we are too easy with the French and English and that we must not let them go away. He ;.ays that we must keep them for hostages. It was his interference that did this." That was precisely what I had suspected. Talaat had given me his promise, then Bronssart, head of the German Staff, had practically countermanded his orders. Talaat's admission gave me the opening which I had wished for. By this time my relations with Talaat had become so friendly that I could talk to him with the utmost frankness. "Now, Talaat," I said, "you have got to have some- one to advise you in your relations with foreigners. You must make up your mind whether you want me or the German Staff. Don't you think you will make a mistake if you place yourself entirely in the hands of the Germans? The time may come when you will need me against them." "What do yor mean by that?" he asked, watching for my answer with intense curiosity. t < AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAU'S STORY 143 " The Germans are sure to ask you to do many tliings you don t want to do. If you can tell them that the American Ambassador objects, my support may prove useful to you. Besides, you know you all expect peace in a few months. You know that the Germans really care nothing for Turkey, and certainly you have no clamis on the Allies for assistance. There is only one nation m the ^v'orld that you can look to as a disinter- ested friend and that is the United States." This fact was so apparent that I hardly needed to argue it m any great detail. However. I had another argument that struck still nearer home. Already the struggle between the war department and the civil powers had started I knew that Talaat. although he was Minister of the Interior, and a civilian, was de- termmed not to sacrifice a tittle of his authority to J^nyer. the Germans, and the representatives of the military. "If you let the Germans wm this point to-day," I said, you are practically in their power. You are now the head of affairs, but you are still a civilian. Are you gomg to let the military, represented by Enver and the German staff, overrule your orders.' Appar- en ly that is what has happened to-day. If you submit to It, you will find that they will be running things from now on The Germans will put this co^untry unX martial law; then where will you civilians be.'" I could see that this argument was having its effect on Ta aat. He remamed quiet for a few moments. evidently pondermg my remarks. Then he said, with the utmost deliberation. "I am going to help you." He turned arouna to his table and began working I p 144 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY his telegraph instrument. I shall never forget the picture; this huge Turk, sitting there in his gray pajamas and his red fez, working mdustriously his own telegraph key, his young wife gazing at him through a little window and the late afternoon sun streaming into the room. Evidently the ruler of Tur- key was having his troubles, and, as the argument went on over the telegraph, Talaat would bang his key with increasing irritation. He told me that the pompous major at the station insisted on having En- ver's written orders — since orders over the wire might easily be counterfeited. It took Talaat some time to locate Enver, and then the dispute apparently started all over again. A piece of news which Talaat received at that moment over the wire almost ruined my case. After a prolonged thumping of his instrument, in the course of which Talaat's face lost its geniality and be- came almost savage, he turned to me and said: "The English bombarded the Dardanelles this morn- ing and killed two Turks!" And then he added : "We intend to kill three Christians for every Moslem killed!" For a moment I thought that everything was lost. Talaat's face reflected only one emotion — hatred of the English. Afterward, when reading the Cromer report on the Dardanelles, I found that the British Committee stigmatized this early attack as a mistake, since i"t gave the Turks an early warning of their plans. I testify that it was a mistake for anotlier reason, for I now found that these few strange shots almost destroyed my plans to get the foreign residents out of Turkey. Talaat was enraged, and I had to go over much of the -J Underwood & fndenviKxl GERMAN AND TIRKISH OFFUKHS ON H()\U1) TIIF ••(iOKHKN All the tnen. except the ones at the extreme left an Q _i- = „ 1; — "s / "= 1- -^ .= . "I = >. M . = ~ E - r 7"~ 3 5 ^ = i •Xr- r. c = -^ 3 M-= •^^jf^ ^^^ Sii3^mL'irm AMBASS • -^ OR MORGEXTIIAUS STORY 1 4.-, ground again, uut •;: ally I succeeded in pacifying him « ace more. I s iv, ' at he was vacillating between his desire to punish the English and his desire to assert his own authority over that of Enver and the Germans. Fortunately the latter motive gained the ascendancy. At all hazard, he was determined to show that he was boss. We remained there more than two hours, my in- voluntary host pausing now and then in his telegraplung to entertain me with the latest political gossip. Djavid the Minister of Finance, he said, had resigned, but had promised to work for them at home. The Grand Vizier despite his threats, had been persuaded to retain his office. Foreigners in the interior would not be molested unless Beirut, Alexandretta, or some unfortified port were bombarded, but, if such attacks were made, they would exact reprisals of the French and English. Ta- laat's conversation showed that he had no particular hkmg for the Germans. They were overbearing and insolent, he said, constantly interfering in military matters and treating the Turks with disdain. Finally the train was arranged. Talaat had shown several moods in this interview; he had been by turns sulky, good-natured, savage, and complaisant. There is one phase of the Turkish character which Westerners do not comprehend and that is its keen sense of hi:mour Talaat himself greatly loved a joke and a funny story Now that he had reestablished iriendly relations and redeemed his promise, Talaat became jocular once more. ^^ "Your people can go now," he said with a laugh. 'It's time to buy your candies, Mr. Ambassador!" This latter, of course, was a reference to the little gifts which I had made to the women and children it m 146 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY the night before. We immediately returned to the station, where we found the disconsolate passengers sitting around waiting for a favourable word. When I told them that the train would leave that evening, their thanks and gratitude were overwhelming. .:> f^ .i:--^.#«fii&<§iB^^%T fJhSMkpC: CHAPTER Xm THE INVASION OF NOTRE DAME DE 810N TALAAT'S statement that the (ierman Chief of Staff, Bronssart, had really held up this train, was a valuable piece of information. I decided to look into the matter further, and, with this idea in my mind, I called next day on Wangenheim. The Turkish authorities, I said, had solemnly promised that they would treat their enemies decently, and certainly I could not tolerate any interference in the matter from the German Chief of Staff. Wangenheim had repeatedly told me that the Germans were looking to President Wilson as the peacemaker and I therefore used the same argument with him that I had urged on Talaat. Proceedings of this sort would not help his country when the day of the final settlement came! Here, _ "we have a strange situation; a so-celled barbarous country, like Turkey, attempting to make civilized warfare and treat their Christian enemies with decency and kindness, and, on the other hand, a supposedly cultured and Christian nation, like Ger- many, which is trying to persuade them to revert to barbarism. " What sort of an impression do you think that will make on the American people?" I asked Wangenheim. He expressed a willingness to help and suggested, as my consideration for such help, that I should try to persuade the United States to insist on free commerce with Germany, so that his country could 147 1 18 AMLASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY )|, 4 receive pleutif ul cargoes of copper, wheat, and cotton. This was a subject to which, as I shall relate, Wangen- heim constantly returned. Despite Wangenheim's promise I had practically no support from the German £mbassy in my attempt to protect the foreign residents from Turkish ill treatment. I realized that, owing to my religion, there might be a feeling in certain quarters that I was nut exerting all my energies in behalf of these Christian peoples and religious organizations — hospitals, schools, monasteries, and convents — and I naturally thought that it would strengthen my influence with the Turks if I could have the support of my most powerful Christian colleagues. I hud a long discussion on this matter with Fallavicini, himself a Catholic and the representative of the greatest Catholic power. Pallavicini frankly told me that Wangenheim would do nothing that would annoy the Turks. There was then a constant lear that the Eng- lish and French fleets would force the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople, and hand it over to Russia, and only the Turkish forces, said Fallavicini, could pre- vent such a calamity. The Germani ♦heiefore, be- lieved that they were dependent on the good graces of the Turkish Government, and would do nothing to antagonize them. Evidently Fallavicini wished me to believe that Wangenheim and he really desired to help. Yet this plea was hardly frank, for I knew all the time that Turkey, if the Germans had not constantly interfered, would have behaved decently. I found that the evil spirit was not the Turkish Govern- ment, but Von Bronssr.rt, the German Chief of Staff. The fact that certain members of the Turkish Cabinet, who represented European and Christian culture — men AMBASSADOR MORGENTHArS STORV 149 like BustAny and Oskan— had resigned as a protest against Turkey's action in entering the war. made the situation of foreigners even more dangerous. There was also much conflict of Jiiifliority; a \n Vwy decided on one day would be reversed tJie next, the nsult being th^t we never knew where we stood. The mere fact that the Government promised me that foreigners would not be maltreatetl by no means settled the mutt«T, for soMe underling, like Bedri Bey, could frequently find an excuse for disregarding instructions. The situation, therefore, was one that called for constant vigilance; I had not only to get pledges from men like Talaat and Enver, but I had personally to see that these pledges were carried into action. I awoke one November morning at four o'clock; I had been dreaming, or I had had a "presentiment,'* that all was not going well with the Sion Soeurs, a French sisterhood which had for many years conducted a school for girls in Constantinople. Madame Bom- pard, the wife of the French Ambassador, and several ladies of ihe French colony, had particularly requested us to keep a watchful eye on this institution. It was a splendidly conducted school; the daughters of many of the best families of all nationalities attended it, and when these girls were assembled, the Christians wearing silver crosses and the non-Christians silver stars, the sight was particularly beaut if u' and impressive. Nat- urally the thought of the brutal Turks breaking into such a community was enough to arouse the wrath of any properly constituted man. Though we had clothing more definite than an uneasy feeling that soinetJ'ing might be wrong, Mrs. Morgenthau and I decided to go up immediately after breakfast. As we ^w V 11 U i 150 AMBASSADOR MORCENTIIAI'S STORY approached the building we noted nothing particularly suspicious; the place was quiet and the whole atmos- phere was one of peace and sanctity. Just as we as- cended the sl.ps, however, five Turkish policemen followed on our heels. They crowde I, aristocratic families of France; she was a woman of perhaps forty years of age, with black hair and shining black eyes, all accentuated by a pale face, that radiated culture, character, and intelligence. I could not help thinking, as I looked at her that morning. AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS ST()R\ m that there was not a diplomatic rirrle in the world to which she would not have added ^race and dignity. In a few seconds M^re Elvira had this present distract- ing sittiation comple'ely under control. She sent for a sister who spoke Turkish and questioned the poliooinen. They said that th«'V were acting uncier Bedri's orders. All the foreign schools were to be closed that morning, the Government intending to seize all their buildings. There were aliout seventy-two teachers an'' oi-.t<'rs in this conv* at; the police had orders to sh« ' ' these into two rooms, where they were to be held . >.tically as prisoners. There were about two hundred girls; t}.' e were to be tamed ouL into the streets, and left to shift for themselves. The fact that it was raining in torrents, and that the weather was extremely cold, accentuated the barbarity of this proceeding. Yet every enemy school and religious institution in Con- stantinople was undergoing a similar exjK-rience at this time. Clearly this was a situation which I could not handle alone, and I at once telephoned my Turkish- speaking legal adviser. H rein is another incident which may have an intere.^ or those "^ho believe in providential interveniion. .hen I arrived in Con- stantinople telephoii -^ had been unknowTi, but, in the last few months, ;\ii Fnglish company had been introducing •• ' vstem. The night before my experience with the Sion Soeurs, my legal adviser had called me up and proudly told me that his telephone had just been installed. I jotted down his number, and this memorandum I now found in my pocket. Without my interpreter I should have been hard pressed, and with- out this telephone I could not have immediately brought him to the spot. m ,S^^,' '.jirjr^feijifiMimiMimrL. ' ri i; I ^'r t 152 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY While waiting for his arrival I delayed the operations of , the policemen, and my wife, who fortunately speaks French, was obtaining all the details from the sisters. Mrs. Morgenthau understood the Turks well enough to know that they had other plans than the mere expulsion of the sisters and their charges. The Turks regard these institutions as repositories of treasure; the valuables which they contain are greatly exagger- ated in the popular mind; and it was a safe assumption that, among other things, this expulsion was an indus- trious raiding expedition for tangible evidences of wealth. "Have you any money and other valuables here?" Mrs. Morgenthau asked one of the sisters. Yes, they had quite a large amount; it was kept in a safe upstairs. My wife told me to keep the policemen busy and then she and one of the sisters quietly disap- peared from the scene. Upstairs the ister disclosed about a hundred square pieces of white flannel into each one of which had been sewed twenty gold coins. In all, the Sion Soeurs had in this liquid form about fifty thousand francs. They had been fearing expulsion for some time and had been getting together their money in this form, so that they could carry it away with them when forced to leave Turkey. Besides this, the sisters had several bundles of securities, and many valuable papers, such as the charter of their school. Certainly here was something that would appeal to Turkish cupidity. Mrs. Morgenthau knew that if the police once obtained control of the building there would be little likelihood that th" Sion Soeurs would ever see their money again. With the aid of the sisters, my wife promptly concealed as much as she could on ^ AMBASSADOR MORG' VTHAU'S STORY 153 her person, descended the stairs, and marched through the line of gendarmes out into the rain. INIrs. Morgen- thau told me afterward that her blood almost ran cold with fright as she passed by these guardians of the law; from all external signs, however, she was absolutely calm and collected. She stepped into the waiting auto, was driven to the American Embassy, placed the money in our vault, and promptly returned to the school. Again Mrs. Morgenthau solemnly ascended the stairs with the sisters. This time they took her to the gallery of the Cathedral, which stood behind the convent, but could be entered through it. One of the sisters lifted up a tile from a particular spot in the floor, and again disclosed a heap of gold coins. This was secreted on Mrs. Morgenthau's clothes, and once more she walked past the gendarmes, out into the rain, and was driven rapidly to the Embassy. In these two trips my wife succeeded in getting the money of the sisters to a place where it would be safe from the Turks. Between Mrs. Morgenthau's trips Bedri had arrived. He told me that Talaat had himself given the order for closing all the institutions and that they had in- tended to have the entire job finished before nine o'clock. I have already said that the Turks have a sense of humour; but to this statement I should add that it sometimes manifests itself in a perverted form. Bedri now seemed to think that locking more than seventy Catholic sisters in two rooms and turning two hundred young and carefully nurtured girls into the streets of Constantinople was a great joke. " We were going at it early in the morning and have it all over before you heard anj'thing about it," he said with a laugh. "But you seem never to be asleep." 1 5 ■ ; ' ■J. ' ■ ' r 1 1 1 1 ? i ' i i ■■-■; ! t I. 1 i 1? j •. 4 -ii 1 ' r [M f i I 154 AMLASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY "You are very foolish to try to play such tricks on us," I said. "Don't you know that I am going to write a book? If you go on behaving this way, I shall put you in as the villain." This remark was an Inspiration of the moment; it was then that it first occurred to me that these experi- ences might prove sufficiently interesting for publica- tion. Bedri took the statement seriously, and it seemed to have a sobering effect. "Do you really intend to write a book.'" he asked, almost anxiously. "Why not?" I rejoined. "General Lew Wallace was minister here — didn't he write a book? 'Sunset' Cox was also minister here — didn't he write one? Why shouldn't I? And you are such an important character that I shall have to give you a part. Why do you go on acting in a way that will make me describe you as a very bad man? These sisters here have always been your friends. They have never done you anything but good; they have educated many of your daughters; why do you treat them in this shameful fashion?" This plea produced an effect; Bedri consented to postpone execution of the order until we could get Talaat on the wire. In a few minutes I heard Talaat laughing over the telephone. "I tried to escape you," he said, "but you have caught me again. Why make such a row about this matter? Didn't the French themselves expel all their nuns and monks? Why shouldn't we do it? " After I had remonstrated over this indecent haste Talaat told Bedri to suspend the order until we had had a chance to talk the matter over. Naturally this greatly relieved M^re Elvira and the sisters. Just as i i i I I AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 155 we were about to leave, Bedri suddenly had a new idea. There was one detail which he had apparently forgotten. "We'll leave the Sion sisters alone for the present," he said, "but we must get their money." Reluctantly I acquiesced in his suggestion — knowing that all the valuables were safely reposing in the Amer- ican Embassy. So I had the pleasure of standing by and watching Bedri and his associates search the whole establishment. All they turned up was a small tin box containing a few copper coins, a prize which was so trifling that the Turks disdained to take it. They were much puzzled and disappointed, and from that day to this they have never known what became of the money. If my Turkish friends do me the honour of reading these pages, they will find that I have explained here for the first time one of the many mysteries of those exciting days. As some of the windows of the convent opened on the court of the Cathedral, which was Vatican prop- erty, we contended that the Turkish Government could not seize it. Such of the sisters as were neutrals were allowed to remain in possession of the part that faced the Vatican land, while the rest of the building was turned into an Engineers' School. We arranged that the French nuns should have ten days to leave for their own country; they all reached their destination safely, and most are at present engaged in charities and war work in France. My jocular statement that I intended to write a book deeply impressed Bedri, and, in the next few weeks, he repeatedly referred to it. I kept banteringly telling him that, unless his behaviour improved, I should be forced to picture him as the villain. One day he asked ill ': i .^ \ \ ii : !• 1 fi ,1 .: f^ 1 * ■ m ' 156 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY me, in all seriousness, whether he could not do some- thing that would justify me in portraying him in a more favourable light. This attitude gave me an opportunity I had been seeking for some time. Con- stantinople had for many years been a centre for the white-slave, trade and a particularly vicious gang was then operating under cover of a fake synagogue. A committee, organi-^ed to fight this crew, had made me an honorary chairman. I told Bedri that he now had the chance to secure a reputation; because of the war, his powers as Prefect of Police had been greatly in- creased and a little vigorous action on his part would permanently rid the city of tl:is disgrace. The enthu- siasm with which Bedri adopt'^d my suggestion and the thoroughness and ability with which he did the work entitle him to the gratitude of all decent people. In a few days every white-slave trader in Constantinople was scurrying for safety; most were arrested, a few made their escape; such as were foreigners, after serving terms in jail, were expelled from the country. Bedri furnished me photographs of all the culprits and they are now on file in our State Department. I was not writing a book at that time, but I felt obliged to secure some public recognition for Bedri's work. I therefore sent his photograph, with a few words about his achieve- ment, to the New York Times, which published it in a Sunday edition. That a great American newspaper had recognized him in this way delighted Bedri beyond words. For months he carried in his pocket the page of the Times containing his picture, showing it to all his friends. This event ended my troubles with the Prefect of Police; for the rest of my stay we had very few serious clashes. I? 1'-. ■j£5 i really regard them as your allies, but merely as pawns in the game which you are playing. Now, in stirring up anti-American feeling here you are touching my softest spot. You are exposing our educational and religious institutions to the attacks of the Turks. No one knows what they may do if they are persuaded that their relatives are being shot down by American bullets. You stop this at once, or in three weeks I will fill the whole of Turkey with animosity toward the Germans. It will be a battle between us, and«I am ready for It." Wangenheim's attitude changed at once. He turned around, put his arm on my shoulder, and assumed a most conciliatory, almost affectionate, manner. "Come, let us be friends," he said. "I see that you are right about this. I see that such attacks might injure*your friends, the missionaries. I promise you that they will be stopped." From that day the Turkish press never made the slightest unfriendly allusion to the United States. The abruptness with which the attacks ceased showed me that the Germans had evidently extended to Turkey one of the most cherished expedients of the Fatherland — absolute government control of the press. But when I think of the infamous plots which Wangenheim was instigating at that moment, his objection to the use of a few American shells by English battleships — if English battleships used any such shells, which I seriously doubt — seems almost grotesque. In the early days Wangenheim had explained to me one of Germany's main purp>oses in forcing Turkey into the conflict. He pfl ■ ' AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 161 made this explanation (juietly and nonchalantly, as though it had been (luite the most ordinary nrntter in the world. Sitting in his office, puffing away ut his big black German cigar, he unfolded Germany's scheme to arouse the whole fanatical Moslem world against the Christians. Germany had planned a real "holy war" as one means of destroying English and French influ- ence in the world. "Turkey herself is not the really important matter," said Wangenheim. " Her army is a small one, and we do not expect it to do very much. For the most part it will act on the defensive. But the big thing is the Moslem world. If we can stir the Mohammedans up against the English and Russians, We can force them to make peace." What Wangenheim evidently meant by the "Big thing" became apparent on November 13th, when the Sultan issued his declaration of war; this declaration was really an appeal for a Jihad, or a "Holy War" against the infidel. Soon afterward the Sheik-ul- Islam published his proclamation, summoning the whole Moslem world to arise and massacre their Christian op- pressors. "Oh, Moslems!" concluded this document. "Ye who are smitten with happiness and are on the verge of sacrificing youi life and your goods for the cause of right, and of braving perils, gather now around the Imperial throne, obey the commands of the Al- mighty, who, in the Koran, promises us bliss in this and in the next world; embrace ye the foot of the Caliph's throne and know ye that the state is at war with Russia, England, France, and their Allies, and that these are the enemies of Islam. The Chief of the believers, the Caliph, invites you all as Moslems to join in the Holy War!" t .-.> ii i 16« AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY The religious leaders "-cad this proclamation to their assembled congregations in the mosques; all the news- papers printed it conspicuously; it was spread broad- cast in all the countries which had large INIohammedan populations — India, China, Persia, Egypt, Algiers, Tripoli, Morocco, and the like; in all these places it was read to the assembled multitudes and the populace was exhorted to obey the mandate. The Ikdam, the TurJ-- ish newspaper which had passed into German owner- ship, was constantly inciting the masses. "The deeds of our enemies," wrote this Turco-German editor, "have brought down the wrath of God. A gleam of hope has appeared. All Mohammedans, young and old, men, women, and cliildren, must fulfil their duty so that the gleam n'ay not fade away, but give light to us forever. How many great things can be accom- plished by the arms of vigorous men, by the aid of others, of women and children! . . . The time for action has come. We shall all have to fight with all our strength, with all our soul, with teeth and nails, with all the sinews of our bodies and of our spirits. If we do it, the deliverance of the subjected Mohammedan kingdoms is assured. Then, if God so wills, we shall march unashamed by the side of our friends who send their greetings to the Crescent. Allah is our aid and the Prophet is our support." The Sultan's proclamation was an official public document, and dealt with the proposed Holy War only in a general way, but about this same time a secret pamphlet appeared which gave instructions to the faith- ful in more specific terms. This paper was not read in the mosqros; it was distributed stealthily in all Mo- hammedan ^ntries — India, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAl'S STORY 163 and many others; and it wus significantly printed in Arabic, the language of the Koran. It was a lengthy document — the English translation contains 10,000 words — full of ({uotations from the Koruii, and its .' tyle was frenzied in its appeal to racial and religious hatred. It described a detailed plan of operations for I he assas- sination and extermination of all Christ iuus— except those of German nationality. A few exlraels will fairly iwrtray its spirit: "O i>eople of the faith an«l () beloved Moslems, consider, even though but for a brief moment, the present condition of the Islamic world. For if you consider this but for a little you will w ^p long. You will behold a bewildering state of affairs which will '•ause the tear to fall and the fire of grief to blaze. You see the great country of India, which contains 'hundreds of millions of Moslems, fallen, because of re- ligious divisions and weakne,' es, into the grasp of the eneniies of God, the infidel English. You see forty millions of Moslems in Java shackled by the chains of captivity and of affliction under the rule of the Dutch, although these infidels are much fewer in number than the faithful and do not enjoy a much higher civiliza- tion. You see Egj'pt, Morocco, Tunis, Algeria, and the Sudan suflFering the extremes of pain and groaning in the grasp of the enemies of God and his apostle. You see the vast country of Siberia and Turkestan and Khiva and Bokhara and the Caucasus and the Crimea and Kazan and Ezferhan and Kosahastan, whose Mos- lem peoples believe in the unity of GoJ, ground under the feet of their oppressors, who are the enemies al- ready of our religion. You behold Persia being pre- pared for partition and you see the city of the Caliphate, which for ages has unceasingly fought breast to breast \" 1 ^ ■ • :' 104 AMBASSADOR MORGKNTHAUS STORY with the tmcmicfl of our rvUjifion, now become the target for oppression and violenee. Thus when'ver you look you see that the enemies of the true relij'ion. puiliru- larly the KuKlish, the Kussiun, untl the Freneh, have oppresMHl Ishim an JP^f^P "^ ^^1 I JC HT *J^Hi ijij^^H \ ^1 ■ » at ' Ti^^^Hl 1 ^-S"' !0 ■ ""-> ./'. Hb k. — „. — i — ■-, a 1 y-:-^ J .1 - ii 5--:^ 14/ J AMBASSADOR MORGEXTTIAUS STORY 177 exhaustion, for sucIj a fight would uieau the permanent loss of her colonies, her mercantile marine, and her whole economic aid coiumerrlal sliitus. "If we don't j?et Paris in thirty ilays, wr an- Ijoaten," Wan^enheim had told me in August, and lliough his attitude changed somewhat after the battle of the Mame, he made no attempt to conceal the fact that the great rush cam- paign had collapsed, that all the Germans could now look forward to was a tedious, exhausting war, and that all they could obtain from the existing situation would be a drawn battle. "'We have made a mistake this time," Wangenheim said, "in not laying in supplier for a protracted struggle; it was an error, however, that we shall not repeat; next time we shall store up enough copper and cotton to last for five years." Wangenheim had another reason for wishing an immediate peace, and it was a reason which shed much light upon the shamelessness of German diplomacy. The preparation which Turkey was making for the conquest of Egj^t caused this German ambassador much annoyance and anxiety. The interest and energy which the Turks had manifested in this enterprise were particularly giving him concern. Naturally I thought at first that Wangenheim was worried that Turkey would lose; yet he confided to me that his real fear was that his ally might succeed. A victorious Turkish campaign in Egypt, Wangenheim explained, might seriously interfere with Germany's plans. Should Tur- key conquer Egypt, naturally Turkey would insist at the peace table on retaining this great province and would expect Germany to support her in this claim. But Germany had no intention then of promoting the reestablbhment of the Turkish Empire. x\t that time a I f ! i ■ i \\\ 178 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY she hoped to reach an understandmg with England, the basis of which was to be something m the nature of a division of interests in the East. Germany desired above all to obtain Mesopotamia as an indispensable part of her Hamburg-Bagdad scheme. In return for this, she was prepared to give her endorsement to Eng- land's annexation of Egypt. Thus it was Germany's plan at that time that she and England should divide Turkey's two fairest dommions. This was one of the proposals which Germany intended to brmg forth in the peace conference which Wangenheim was now schemmg for, and clearly Turkey's conquest of Egypt would have presented complications in the way of car- rying out this plan. On the morality of Germany's attitude to her ally, Turkey, it is hardly necessary to comment. The whole thing was all of a piece with Germany's policy of "realism" in foreign relations. Nearly all German classes, in the latter part of 1914 and the early part of 1915, were anxiously looking for peace and they turned to Constantmople as the most promising spot where peace negotiations might most favourably be started. The Germans took it for granted that President Wilson would be the peace- maker; indeed, they never for a moment thought of any one else in this capacity. The only pomt that remained for consideration was the best way to approach the President. Such negotiations would most likely be conducted through one of the American ambassadors m Europe. Obviously, Germany had no means of ac- cess to the American ambassadors in the great enemy capitals, and other circumstances induced the German statesmen to turntotheAmericanAmbassadorin Turkey. \t this time a German diplomat appeared in Con- AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAl'S STORY 170 stantinople who has figured much in recent history— Dr. Richard von Kuhlmann, afterward Minister for For- . ';7n Affairs. In the last five years Dr. Von Kuhlmann has se' .. f'd to appear in that particular part of tho uorld ^\'.cre important confidential diplomatic nego- liations are being conducted by the German Empire. Prince Lichnowsky has described his activities in London in 1913 and 1914, and he figured even more conspicuously in the infamous peace treaty of Brest- Litovsk. Soon after the war started Dr. Von Kuhlmann came to Constantinople as ConsciUcr of the German Embassy, succeeding Von Mutius. who had been called to the colours. For one reason his appointment was appropriate, for Kuhlmann had been born in Constan- tinople, and had spent his early life there, his father having been president of the Anatolian railway. He therefore understood the Turks as only one can who has lived with them for many years. Personally, he proved to be an interesting addition to the diplomatic colony. He impressed me as not a particulariy ag- gressive, but a very entertaining, man; he apparently wished to become friendly with the American Embassy and he possessed a certain attraction for us all as he had just come from the trenches and gave us many vivid pictures of life at the front. At that time we were all keenly interested in modern warfare, and Kuhlmann's details of trench fighting held us spellbound many an afternoon and evening. His other favourite topic of conversation was Welf-Politik, and on all foreign matters he struck me as remarkably well informed. At that time we did not regard Von Kuhlmann as an important man, yet the industry with which he at- tended, to his business attracted everyone's attention .:?i5( mr'^ksm ? I ( * 111 180 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STOHV even then. Soon, however, I began to have a feeling that he was exerting a powerful influence in a quiet, velvety kind of way. He said little, but I realized that he was listening to everything and storing all kinds of information away in his mind; he was apparently Wangenheim's closest confid.Ti, and the man upon whom the Ambassador was depending for his contact with the German Foreign Office. About the middle of December, Von Kiihlmann left for Berlin, where he stayed about two weeks. On his return, in the early part of January, 1915, there w«as a noticcal)le change in the atmosphere of the German Embassy. Up to that time Wangenheim had discussed peace negotia- tions more or less informally, but now he took up the matter specifically. I gathered that Kiihlmann had been called to Berlin to receive all the latest details on this subject, and that he had come back with the definite instructions that Wangenheim should move at once. In all my talks with the German Ambassador on peace, Kiihlmann was always hovering in the back- ground; at one most important conference he was pres- ent, though he participated hardly at all in the conver- sation, but his role, as usual, was that of a subordinate and quietly eager listener. Wangenheim now mformed me that January, 1915, would be an excellent time to end the war. Italy had not yet entered, though there was every reason to believe that she would do so by spring. Bulgaria and Rumania were still holding aloof, though no one ex- pected that their waiting attitude would last forever. France and England were preparing for the first of the "spring offensives," and the Germans had no assurance that it would not succeed; indeed, they much feared AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAU'S STORY 181 that the German ai-mies would meet disaster. The British and French warships were gathering at the Dardanelles; and the German General Staff and prac- tically all military and naval experts in Constantinople believed that the Allied fleets could force their way through and capture the city. Most Turks by this time were sick of the war, and Germany always had in mmd that Turkey might make a .separate peace. Af- terward I discovered that whenever the military situa- ation looked ominous to Germany, she was always thmking about peace, but that if the situation im- proved she would inunediately l)ecome warlike again- It was a case of sick-devil, well-devil. Yet. badly as Wangenheim wanted peace in Januarv, 191o, it was quite apparent that he was not thinking of a permanent peace. The greatest obstacle to peace at that time was the fact that Germany showed no signs that she regretted her crimes, and there was not the slightest evidence of the sackcloth in Wangenheim's attitude now. Germany had made a bad guess, that was all- what Wangenheim and the other Germans saw in the situation was that their stock of wheat, cotton, and copper was inadequate for a protracted struggle. In my notes of my conversations with Wangenheim I find him frequently using such phrases as the "next war," '•nex-t time," and. in confidently looking forward to ^other greater world cataclysm than the present, he merely reflected the attitude of the dominant junker- mihtary class. The Germans apparently wanted a reconciliation— a kind of an armistice-that would give their generals and industrial leaders time to prepare for the next conflict. At that time, nearly four years ago, Germany was moving for practically the same kind H ; 182 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY • i i .1! .1*1 i urn Wm-^' Lii.l of peace negotiations which she has suggested many times since and is suggesting now; Wangenheim's plan w^as that representatives of the warring powers should gather around a table and settle things on the principle of "give and take." lie said that there was no sense in demanding that each side state its terms in advance. " For both sides to state their terms in advance would ruin the whole thing," he said. "What would we do.'' Germany, of course, would make claims which the other side would regard as ridiculously extravagant. The Entente would state terms which would put all Germany in a rage. As a result, both sides would get so angry that there would le no coi ference. No — if we really want to end this war we must have an armistice. Once we stop fighting, we shall no" go at it again. History presents no instance in a great war where an armistice has not resulted in peace. It will be so in this case." Yet, from Wangenheim's conversation I did obtain a slight inkling of Germany's terms. The matter of Egypt and Mesopotamia, set forth above, was one of them. Wangenheim was quite insistent that Germany must have permanent naval bases in Belgium, with which her navy could at all times threaten England with blockade and so make sure "the freedom of the seas." Germany wanted coaling rights everywhere; this demand looks absurd because Germany has always possessed such rights in peace times. She might give France a piece of Lorraine and a part of Belgium — per- haps Brussels — in re*u.n for the payment of an in- demnity. Wangenheim requested that I should place Ger- many's case before the American Government. My letter to Washington is dated January 11, 1915. It wm •L.^.-V'irU-"' 'U" ^T fjfcAiW'^. *.:iirk-t am fci'.j/ ».-.__ u AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAU'S STORY 183 went fully into the internal situation which then pre- vailed and gave the reasons why Germany and Turkey desired peace. A particularly interesting part of this incident was that Germany was apparently ignoring Austria. Pal- lavicmi, the Austrian Ambassador, knew nothing of the pending negotiations until T myself informed him of them. In thus -'gnoring his ally, the German Ambas- sador meant no personal disrespect; he was merely treatmg him precisely as his Foreign Office was treating Vienna-not as an equal, but practicaUy as a retainer. Ihe world IS familiar enough with Germany's military and diplomatic absorption of Austria-Hungary, but that Wangenheira should have made so important a move tis to attempt peace negotiations and have left it to Pallavi- cini to learn about it through a third party shows that, as far back as Jan-iary, 1915, the Austro-Hungarian t.mpire had ceased to be an independent nation. Nothing came of this proposal, of course. Our Gov- ernment decUned to take action, evidently not regard- ing the time as opportune. Both Germany and Tur- key, as I shall tell, recurred to this subject afterward. This parUcuIar negotiation ended in the latter part of March, when KUhlmann left Constantinople to become Minister at The Hague. He came and paid his farewell call at the American Embassy,as charming,as entertain- ing, and as debonair as ever. His last words, as he shook my hand and left the building, were-subsequent events have naturally caused me to rememb them: "We shall have peace withm three months, Ex- cellencv!" This little scene took place, and this happy forecast was made, in March, 1915! m ..J.--: :'^4 CHAPTER XVI JH., J f i II = f ! » THE TURKa PREPARE TO FLEE FROM CONSTANTINOPLE AND ESTABLISH A NEW CAPITAL IN ASIA MINOR — THE ALLIED FLEET BOMBARDING THE DARDANELLES PROBABLY one thing that stimulated this Ger- man desire for peace was the situation at the Dardanelles. In early January, w.ien Wan- genheim persuaded me to write my letter to Washing- ton, Constantinople was in a state of the utmost excite- ment. It was reported that the Allies had assembled a fleet of forty warships at the mouth of the Darda- nelles and that they intended to attempt the forcing of the straits. What made the situation particularly tense was the belief, which then generally prevailed in Constantinople, that such an attempt would suc- ceed. Wangenheiui shared this belief, and so in a modified form, did Von der Goltz, who probably knew as much about the Dardanelles defenses as any other man, as he had for years been Turkey's military in- structor. I find in my diary Von der Goltz's precise opinion on this point, as reported to me by Wangen- heim, and I quote it exactly as written at that time: "Although he thought it was almost impossible to force the Dardanelles, still, if England thought it an important move of the general war, they could, by sacrificing ten ships, force the entrance, and do it very fast, and be up in the Marmora within ten hours from the time they forced it." 184 mgmjjc:^ ^^Ci:^Mj»i^±9L^:^!j^:^h. TH1-; AMKRK AN KMHASSV STAFK under tho Amliussadorsliip of Mr. Morj,'enthau TIIK MODKIIN TniKISH SOLUIKR In the uniform and equipment introduced by the Germans. The fez— the immemorial symbol of the Ottoman— is replaced by a modern helmet mm, ^™ps AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 185 The very day that Wungenheim gave me this export opinion of Von tier Goltz, he asked me to store'several cases of his valuables in the American Embassy. Evi- dently he was making preparations for his own de- parture. Reading the Cromer report on the Dardanelles bombardment, I find that Adiiiral Sir John Fisher, then First Sea Lord, placed the price of success at twelve ships. Evidently Von der Goltz and Fisher did not differ materially in their estimates. The situation of Turkey, when these first rumours of an allied bombardment reached us, was fairly desper- ate. On all sides there were evidences of the fear and panic that imd stricken not only the populace, hut the official classes. Calamities from all sides were aj)- parently closing in on the country. I'p to January I, 1915, Turkey had done nothing to justify her par- ticipation in the war; on the contrary, she hsid met defeat practically everywhere. Djemal, as already recorded, had left Constantinople as the prospective "Conqueror of Egypt," but his expediticm had proved to be a bloody and humiliating failure. Enver's at- tempt to redeem the Caucasus from Russian rule had resulted in an even more frightful military disaster. He had ignored the advice of the Germans, which was to let the Russians advance to Sivas and make his stand there, and, instead, he had boldly attempted to gain Russian territory in the Caucasus. This army had been defeated at every point, but the military reverses did not end its suflFerings. The Turks had a most in- adequate medical and sanitary service; tj^phus and dysentery broke out in all the camps, the deaths from these diseases reaching 100,000 men. Dreadful stories J,- mif.^.^ 1 . i *i i 186 \MBASSADOR MORGEXTHAU'S STORY were constantly coming in, tellin|i? of the sufferings of these soldiers. That England was preparing for an in- vasion of Mesopotamia was well known, and no one at that lime had any reason to bcliovc that it would not succeed. Every day the Turks expected the news that the Bulgarians had declared war and were marching on Constantinople, and they knew that such an attack would nt?ccssarily bring in Rumania and Greece. It was no diplomatic secret that Italy was waituig only for the arrival of warm weather to join the Allies. At this moment the Russian fleet was bombarding Trebizond, on the Black Sea, and was daily expected at the entrance to the Bosj)horus. Meanwhile, the do- mestic situation was deplorable: all over Turkey thou- sands of the populace were daily dying of starvation; practically* all able-bodied men had been taken into the army, so that only a few wore 'eft to till the fields; the criminal requisitions had almost destroyed all busi ness; the treasury was in a more exhausted state than normally, for the closing of the Dardanelles and the blockading of the Mediterranean ports had stopped all imports and customs dues; and the increa , wrath of the people seemed likely any day to break out against Tpalat and his associates. And now, surrounded by increasing troubles on every hand, the Turks learned that this mighty armada of England and her alUes was approaching, determined to destroy the defenses and capture the city. At that time there was no force which the Turks fearetl so greatly as they feared the British fleet. Its tradition of several centuries of uninterrupted victories had completely seized their imagination. It seemed to them superhuman— the one overwhelming power which it was hopeless to contest. wnE --^^ , _*• .^^ AMBASSADOR MORGEMIIAl S STORY IH7 VVangenheitn and al.so nearly ail of the German niiiitary and naval forces not only regarded the forcing of the Dardanelles as possible, but they believed it to be inevitable. The possibility of British success was one of the most familiar topics of discussion, and the weight of opinion, both lay and professional, iticlined in favour of the Allied fleets. Taliuit told me that an attempt to force the straits would succeed —it only depended on England's willingness to sacrifice a few ships. The real reason why Turkey had sent u force against Egypt, Talaat added, was to divert England from making an attack on the Gallipoli peninsula. The state of mind that existed is shown by the fact that, on January 1st, the Turkish Government had made preparations for two trains, one of which Wiis to take the Sultan and his suite to Asia Minor, while the other wa.s intended for Wangenheim, Pall- vicini, and the rest of the diplomatic corps. On January 2d, I hud an illuminating talk with Pallavici'd. He showed me a certificate given him by Bedri, th Aefect of Police, passing him and his secretaries and servants on one of these emergency trains, lie also had seat tickets for himself and all of his suite. He said that each train would have only three cars, so that it could make great speed; he had been told to have everything ready to start at an hour's notice. Wangenheim made little attempt to conceal his apprehensions. He told me that he had made all preparations to send his wife to Berlin, and he invited Mrs. Morgenthau to accompany her, so that she, too, could be removed from the danger zone. Wangenheim showed the fear, which was then the prevailing one, that a successful bombardment would lead to fires and massacres in Constantinople -. *w AW J mtA^K' A lilfifii ^■^■^ ■{ I 18K AMHASSADOR MORCKNTIIAl S STORY as well ns in the rest of Turkey. In anticipation ol" such (Jisturhunct'S he made a ohararl eristic suj?Reslion. Should the fleet pass the Diinhinelies, he said, the life of no Englishman in 'I'urkey would he .safe— they would all \h' massacred. As it was so difficult to tell an Fnglishman from an American, he proposed that I .should K'^'t^ ^li*- Americans a (li>tinclive hutlon to wear, which would protect them from Turkish violence. .\s I was couvinre tliis amiahlc .suggestion. Another incident illustrates the nervous tension which prevailed in those January days. I noticed that some shutters at the British Emhassy were open, so Mrs. Morgenlhau and I went up to investigate. In the early days we had .sealed this hnildiiig, which had been left in my charge, and this was the first time we had broken the .seals to enter. Al)out two hours after we retunied from this tour of inspection, Wangenheim came into my office in one of his now familiar agitated moods. It haen reported, he said, that Mrs. Morgenthau and I had been up to the Embassy getting it ready for the British Admiral, who expected soon to take possession! All this .seems a little absurd now, for, in fact, the Allied fleets made no attack at thai time. At the very moment wh(>n the whole of Const an tinoj)le was fever- ishly awaiting the British dreadnaughts, the British Cabinet in London was merely considering the ad- visability of such an enterprise. The record shows that Petrograd, on January 2d, telegraphed the British (^^-syf>|^ffiPT»t a.skin"' thn.t. some kin<^l of a d em on st rat ion ■■■■ A ;n- iLiK ' .Aimi^rwAS9^^y * i> AMHASSADOIl .MORCICNTIIArs STORY ih!) be made against llu- Turks, who were pressing the Russians in the Caiir-asus. Though an encouraging reply was iniiiiedialrly seiil to this r.-(|iiesl, it \va. not until January v'SlIi that the British Cabinet definitely issued orders for an atlaek on the DanhmelKvs. It is no longer a sec-ret that there was no unanimous eonfi- denee in the sueeevs of sneh an uiiderl;iking. Admiral Carden recorded his helief thai the strait "could not he rushed, hut that exlenih'l operations with a large niunher of ships might su(veed." The penalty of failure, he added, would In- the great loss that Kngland would suffer in prestige and in.', ..iice in the Mast; how true this i)rophecy pro^•.•d I shall have occasion to show. Tp to this lime one of the fundamental and generally accepted axioms of naval operations had been that 'varships should not attempt to attack fixe.l land fortifications. Hnt the (uTinans had demonstrated the power of mobile gims against fortresses in their destruction of liie emplaremmts at large .tn.l Namnr. and there was a belief in some quarters of Kngland that these events had modified this naval principle. Mr. Churchill, at that time the head of tho Admiralty, placed great confidence in llu' nly was evident from the way in which he kept himself from public \ lew. I had my first ^'lim[)se of him, after his return, at a concert, ^'iven for the bene- fit of the Red Crescent. At this affair Enver sat far back in a box, as though he intended to keep as much as possible out of sight; it was quite apparent that he was uncertain as to the cordiality of h.s reception by the public. All the important people in Constanti- nople, the Crown Prince, the members of the Cabinet, and the ambassadors attended this function, and, in accordance with the usual custom, the Crown Prince sent for these dignitaries, one after another, for a few words of greeting and congratulation. After that the visiting from box to box became general The heir to the throne sent for Enver as well as the rest, and this recognition evidently gave him a new courage, for he began to mingle with the diplomats, who also treated him with the utmost cordiality and courtesy. Enver apparently regarded this favoiuable notice as having reestablished his standing, and now once more he as- sumed a leading part in the crisis. A few days after- ward he discussed the situation with me. He was much astonished, he said, at the fear that so generally prevailed, and he was disgusted at the preparations that had been made to send away the Sultan and the Government and practically leave the city a prey to the English. He did not believe that the Allied fleets i till '« a 1 i m 198 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY could force the Dardanelles; he had recently inspected all the fortifications and he had every confidence in their ability to resist successfully. Even though the ships did get through, he insisted that Constantinople should be defended to the last man. Yet Enver's assurance did not satisfy his associates. They had made all their arrangements for the British fleet. If, in spite of the most heroic resistance the Turk- ish armies could make, it still seemed likely that the Allies were about to capture the city, the ruling powers had their final plans all prepared. They proposed to do to this great c'oital precisely what the Russians had done to Moscow, when Napoleon appeared before it. "They will never capture an existing city," they told me, "only a heap of ashes." As a matter of fact, this was no idle threat. I was told that cans of petroleum had been already stored in all the police stations and other places, ready to fire the town at a moment's notice. As Constantinople is largely built of wood, this would have been no very difficult task. But they were determined to destroy more than these tempo- rary structures; the plans aimed at the beautiful archi- tectural monuments built by the Christians long before the Turkish occupation. The Turks had particularly marked for dynamiting the Mosque of Saint Sophia. This building, which had been a Christian church cen- turies before it became a Mohammedan mosque, is one of the most magnificent structures of the vanished Byzantine Empire. Naturally the suggestion of such an act of vandalism aroused us all, and I made a plea to Talaat that Saint Sophia should be spared. He treated the proposed destruction lightly. "There are not six men m the Committee of Union ■w^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 199 and Progress," he told me, " who care for anything that is old. We all like new things!" That was all the satisfaction I obtained in this mutter at that time. Knver's insistence that the Dardanelles could resist caused his associates to lose confidence in his judgment. About a year afterward, Bedri Bey, the Prefect of Police, gave me additional details. While Enver was still in the Caucasus, Bedri said, Talaat had called a conference, a kind of council of war, on the Dardanelles. This had been attended by Liman von Sanders, the German general who had reorganized the Turkish army; Usedom, the German admiral who was the in- spector-general of the Ottoman coast defenses, Brons- sart, the German Chief of Staff of the Turkish army, and several others. Every man present gave it as his opinion that the British and French fleets could force the straits; the only subject of dispute, said Bedri, was whether it would take the ships eight or twenty hours to reach Constantinople after they had destroyed the defenses. Enver's position was well understood, but this council decided to ignore him and to make the preparations without his knowledge — to eliminate the Minister of War, at least temporarily, from their de- liberations. In early March, Bedri and Djambolat, who was Di- rector of Public Safety, came to see me. At that time the exodus from the capital had begun; Turkish women and children were being moved into the interior; all the banks had been compelled to send their gold into Asia Minor; the archives of the Sublime Porte haci already been carried to Eski-Shehr; and practica'Jy all the ambassadors and their suites, as well as ^no. t of ;■' ,1 hi 400 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY the government officials, had made their preparations to leave. The Director of the Museum, who was one of the six Turks to whom Talaut had refcrrtd as "liking old things" had buried many of Conslan'inople's finest works of art in cellars or covered tht-m for protection. Bedri came to arrange the di'tails of my departure. As ambassador I was personally accredited to the Sultan, and it would obviously be my duty, said Bedri, to go whe> ever the Sultan went. The train was all ready, he added; he wished to know how many people I intended to take, so that sufficient space could be reserved. To this proposal I entered a flat refusal. I informed Bedri that I thought that my responsiliilitics made it neces- sary for me to remain in Constuntmople. Only a neu- tral ambassador, I said, could forestall massacres and the destruction of the city, and certainly I owed it to the civilized world to prevent, if I could, such calamities as these. If my position as ambassador made it inevit- able that I should follow the Sultan, I would resign and become hono'^ ry Consul-General. Both Bedri ar Djambolat were much younger and less experiencec' . len than I, and I therefore told them that they needeo a man of maturer years to advise them in an international crisis o( this kmd I was not only interested m protecting foreigners and American insti- tutions, but I was also interested, on general humani- tarian grounds, in safeguarding the Turkish population from the excesses that were generally expected. The several nationalities, many of them containing ele- ments which were given to pillage and massacre, were causing great anxiety. I therefore proposed to Bedn and Djambolat that the three of us form a kind of a committee to lake control m the approaching crisis. ■PWW^"*P*ii! THE MINISTRY OF WAR This was llip h<«iil iiuxk-rn." saiil Kiiv.t, prol.al.iy lliiiikiiiK of Mil^'iiim. ■tiial is llir most Imrlmric system of all Turki-y will dimply try to \k' (Ifccnt !" TlfR MINISTRY OF MARINK llt-ndqiiarters of Djcriial. who. sooji after war starttsl. went to Svria as comnianilcr of the Fourth Army < orps. Later Knver occupieil this oHice in additicjn to that of Minister of War. The position was not an onerou> cjiie, as the Turkish navy playe»•"""•' © Underwood & Underwood GKXKRAL MKRTKVS The German chief technical officer at the Dardanelles and Admiral Von Isetloin, insjKHtor general of Ottoman coast defenses :i^iM ^ Mi AMBASSADOR MORGEN IHAr S STOR\ ^oi They consented and Ihe ihrn- of us sat down and de- cided on a course of action. WV tr,ok a map of Ton- stantiuople and marked tlu- disfiicts wluVh. under the existing rules of warfan'. wt- aftrrvil tli;tf the Alh\-d fleet would have Hie n-,'lH to homlunl. 'Jlnis. ue decided that the War Oirice. Mariiu- OfHec. l.-leKraj)]! offices, railroad stati(.ii^. and all pul.!l<' huildin^'s rould (piii/. legitimately Ix- nuuK- the tar^Mn for (heir ^'luis. Then wc marked out < .rl.iin zones wlnV h we sliculd i„sUi „„ regarding as in)iMiine. Tlie main residential srction. and the part v. here all tin- t"ml>a.ssits are located, k Pera, the district on the north slu.rc of the Coldcu Honi. This wc marked as not snhjecf to attack. We also delimited certain residential areas of Stnnd)ouI and Galata, the Turkish sections. I telegraph, to Wash- ington, asking the Stat<- Department to obtain a rati- fication of these plans and an agreement to respect these zones of safety from the British and French govern- ments. I received a r.ply indorsing my action. ^ All preparations had thus been made. At th( sta- tion stood the trains which were to take the Sultan and the Government and the ambas.sudors t<» Asia Minor. They had steam up. n ,dy to move at a minute's no- tice. We were ail iuaiting the triumphant arrival of the Allied fleet. CHAPTER XVn m ■If «' ENVER AS THE MAN WlIO DEMONSTRATED THE VUL- NERABILITY OF THE BRITISH FLEET*' — OLD-FASUIONED DEFENSES OF THE DARDANELLES WHEN the situation had reached this exciting stage, Enver asked me to visit the Darda- nelles. He still insisted that the fortifications were impregnable and he could not understand, he said, the panic which was then raging in Constantinople. He had visited the Dardanelles himself, had inspected every gun and every emplacement, and he was entirely confident that his soldiers could hold of! the Allied fleet indefinitely. He had taken Talaat down, and by doing so he had considerably eased that statesman's fears. It was Enver's conviction that, if I should visit the forti- fications, I would be persuaded that the fleets could never get through, and that I would thus be able to give such assurances to the people that the prevailing excitement would subside. I disregarded certain nat- ural doubts as to whether an ambassador should ex- pose himself to the dangers of such a situation — the ships were bombarding nearly every day — and promptly accepted Enver's invitation. On the morning of the 15th, we left Constantinople on the Yuruk. Enver himself accompanied us as far as Panderma, an Asiatic town on the Sea of Marmora. The party included several other notables: Ibrahim Bey, the Minister of Justice; Husni Pasha, the general 11 'J 5 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 203 who had commanded the army which had deposed Ab- dul Hamid in the Young Turk revolution; and Senator Cheriff Djafer Pasha, an Arab and a direct descend- ant of the Prophet. A particularly congenial compan- ion wa^ Fuad Pasha, an old field marshal, who had led an adventurous career; despite his age, he had an immense capacity for enjoyment, was a huge feeder and a capacious drinker, and had as many stories to tell of exile, battle, and hair breadth escapes as Othello. All of these men were much older than Enver, and all of them were descended from far more .distinguished an- cestors, yet they treated this stripling with the utmost deference. Enver seemed particularly glud of this opportunity to discuss the situation. Immediately after breakfast, he took me aside, and together we went up to the deck. The day was a beautiful sunny one, and the sky in the Marmora wa that deep blue which we find only in this part Of the world. What most impressed me was the intense quiet, the almost desolate inactivity of these silent waters. Our ship was almost the only one in sight, and this inland sea, which in ordinary times was one of the world's greatest commercial highways, was now practically a primeval waste. The whole scene was merely a reflection of the great triumph which German diplomacy had accomplished in the Near East. For nearly six months not a Russian merchant ship had passed through the straits. All the commerce of Rumania and Bulgaria, which had nor- mally found its way to Europe across this inland sea, had long since disappeared. The ultimate significance of all this desolation was that Russia was blockaded and completely isolated from her allies. How much m 204 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY that one fact has meant in the history of the world for the last three years ! And now England and France were seeking to overcome this disadvantage; to link up their own military resources with those of their great eastern ally, and to restore to the Dardanelles and the Marmora the thousands of ships that meant Russia's existence as a military and economic, and even, as subsequent events have shown, as a political power. We were ap- proaching the scene of one of the great crises of the war. Would England and her allies succeed in this enter- prise? Would their ships at the Dardanelles smash the fortifications, break through, and again make Russia a permanent force in the war." That was the main subject which Enver and I discussed, as for nearly three hours we walked up and do^^'n the deck. Enver again referred to the "silly panic" that had seized nearly all classes in the capital. "Even though Bul- garia and Greece both turn against us," he said, "we shall defend Constantinople to the emJ. We have plenty of guns, plenty of ammunition, and we have these on terra firma, whereas the English and French bat- teries are floating ones. And the natural advantages of the straits are so great that the warships can make little progress against them. I do not care what other people may think. I have studied this problem more thoroughly than any of them, and I feel that I am rig' ''.. As long as I am at the head of the War De- partment, we shall not give up. Indeed, I do not know just what these English and French battleships are driving at. Suppose that they rush the Darda- nelles, get into the ^Marmora and reach Constantinople; what good will that do them? They can bombard and destroy the city, I admit; but they cannot capture it. AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAITS STORY 205 as they have only a few troops to land. Unless they do bring a large army, they will really be caught in a trap. They can perhaps stay here for two or three weeks until their food and supplies are all exhausted and then they will have to go back— rush the straits again, and again run the risk of annihilation. In the meantime, we would have repaired the forts, brought in troops! and made ourselves ready for them. It seems to me to be a very foolish enterprise." I have already told how Envor had taken Napoleon as his model, and in this Dardanelles expt^dition he now apparently saw a Napoleomc opportunity. As we were pacing the deck he stopped a moment, looked at me earnestly, and said: "I shall go down in history as the man who demon- strated the vulnerability of England and her fleet. I shall show that her navy is not invincible. I was in England a few years before the war and discussed England's position with many of her leading men, such as Asquith, Churchill, Haldane. I told them that their course was wrong. Winston Churchill declared that England could defend herself with her navy alone, and that she needed no large army. I told Churchill that no great empire could last that did not have both an army and a navy. I found that Churchill's opinion was the one that prevailed everywhere in England. There was only one man I met who agreed with me, that was Lord Roberts. Well, Churchill has now sent his fleet down here — perhaps to show me that his navy can do all that he said it could do. Now we'll see." Enver seemed to regard his naval expedition as a personal challenge from Mr. Churchill to himself— almost like a continuation of their argument in Ix^ndon. Hili ■ ■ i W X i ■- r 206 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY "You, too, should have a large army," said Enver, referring to the United States. • "I do not believe," he went on, "that England is trying to force the Dardanelles because Russia has asked her to. When I was in England I discussed with' Churchill the possibility of a general war. He asked me what Turkey would do in such a case, and said that, if we took Germany's side, the British fleet would force the Dardanelles and capture Constanti- nople. Churchill is not trying to help Russia— he is carrying out the threat made to me at that time." Enver spoke with the utmost determination and con- viction; he said that nearly all the damage inflicted on the outside forts had been repaired, and that the Turks had methods of defense the existence of which the en- emy little suspected. He showed great bitterness against the English; he accused theu if attempting to bribe Turkish oflBcials and even said that they had m- stigated attempts upon his own life. On the other hand, he displayed no particular friendliness toward the Germans. Wangenheim's overbearing manners had caused him much irritation, and the Turks, he said, got on none too well with the German oflScers. - "The Turks and Germans," he added, "care nothmg for each other. We are with them because it is our interest to be with them; they are with us because that is their interest. Germany will back Turkey just so long as that helps Germany; Turkey will back Germany just so long as that helps Turkey." Enver seemed much impressed at the close of our in- terview with the intimate personal relations which we had established with each other. He apparently be- lieved that he, the great Enver, the Napoleon of the 1 ;*r.-m- i^t^r&^Ffi:. AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 207 Turkish Revolution, had unbended in discussing his nation's affairs with a mere ambassador. "You know," he said, "that there is no one in Ger- many with whom the Emperor talks as intimately as I have talked with you to-day." We reached Pandenna about two o'clock. Here Enver and his auto were put ashore and our party started again, our boat arriving at Gallipoli late in the afternoon. We anchored in the harbour and spent the night on board. All the evening we could hear the guns bombarding the fortifications, but these reminders of war and death did not affect the spirits of my Turkish hosts. The occasion was for them a great lark; they had spent several months in hard, exacting work, and now they behaved like boys suddenly let out for a vacation. They cracked jokes, told stories, sang the queerest kinds of songs, and played childish pranks upon one another. The venerable Fuad, despite his nearly mnety years, developed great qualities as an enter- tainer, and the fact that his associates made him the butt of most of their horse-play apparently only added to his enjoyment of the occasion. The amusement reached its height when one of his friends surrepti- tiously poured him a glass of eau-de-cologne. The old gentleman looked at the ew drink a moment and then diluted it with water. I was told that the proper way of testing raki, the popular Turkish tipple, is by mixing it with water; if it turns white under this treat- ment, it is the real thing and may be safely drunk. Apparently water has the same effect upon eau-de- cologne, for the contents of Fuad's glass, after this test, turned white. The old genUeman, therefore, poured the whole thing down > is throat without a grimace rr'.,.'4io>i ■.:j^•^ . Ti- 208 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY ii'i ■t — much to the hilarious entertainment of his tor- mentors. In the morning we started again. We now had fairly arrived in the Dardanelles, and from Gallipoli we had a sail of nearly twenty-five miles to Tchanak Kale. For the most part this section of the strait is uninter- esting and, from a military point of view, it is unim- portant. The stream is about two miles wide, both sides are low-lying and marshy, and only a few scram- bling villages show any signs of life. I was told that there were a few ancient fortifications, their rusty guns pointing toward the Marmora, the emplacements having been erected there in the early part of the nineteenth century for the purpose of preventing hos- tile ships entering from the north. These fortifications, however, were soinconspicuous thati could notsee them; my hosts informed me that they had no fighting power, and that, inpcnt his life- time learning a trade and who now rejoiced at the chance of exercismg it. But he funiishe.in^' in Jf,- m.d.e at the time of my visit, hut fhe.s,. were small .n quantity and of no v.due in fighting .hips. I h.v fhi, stress u,^n Hann-die because tlu. was the most in'.port- ant forfficution ,n the Durdanelh^s. Throughout the whole bombardment it attractet «() ,„.r cent, of all the damage that was . ^^^^l.^^'^ ''"^"'^ '"'''' static. . .,,. u..,v new nauery which the Germans had established up to the time of my visit; It consiste.1 of several guns which they had taken from the German and Turkish warships then King in the Bosphorus. A few days before our inspection the submitted Dardanos to a terrific bombardment, the Zr"7 ^^^'"'^ ' '"^ ^° ^^^'•y ^^"J- The land for nearly half a mile about seemed to have been com- pletely churned up; it looked like photographs I had s battery was as - German. The 'U;rc modern than Krupp mod<'| (,f only new battery i!»i 31.: li .,1 214 AMBASSADOl MORGENTHAU'S STORY seen of the battlefields in France. The strange thing was that, despite all this punishment, the batteries themselves remained intact; not a single gun, my guides told me, had been destroyed. "After the war is over," said General Mertens, "we are going to establish a big tourist resort here, build a hotel, and sell relics to you Americans. We shall not have to do much excavating to find them — the British fleet is doing that for us now." This sounded like a passing joke, yet the statement was literally true. Dardanos, where this emplacer.ient is located, was one of the famous cities of the ancient world; in Homeric times it was part of the principality of Priam. Fragments of capitals and columns are still visible. And the shells fron. the Allied fleet were now ploughing up many relics which had been buried for thousands of years. One of my friends picked up a water jug which had perhaps been used in the days of Troy. The effectiveness of modern gunfire in ex- cavating these evidences of a long lost civilization was striking — though unfortunately the relics did not al- ways come to the surface intact. The Turkish generals were extremely proud of the fight which this Dardanos battery had made against the British ships. They would lead me to the guns that had done particularly good service and pat them affectionately. For my benefit Djevad called out Lieutenant Hassan, the Turkish officer who had de- fended this position. He was a little fellow, with jet- black hair, black eyes, extremely modest and almost shrinking in the presence of these great generals. Djevad patted Hassan on both cheeks, while another high Turkish oiScer stroked his hair; one would have iiiUiMS AMBASSADOR MORCENTIUUS STORY ns thought that he was a faithful dog who had just ner- formed some meritorious service •«■ JUst per- "It is men like you of whom great heroes are made " ^.d General Djevad. He asked Hassan to deserL ?/ f,""'' "■" "-y " •""' been met. The ent barrassed heutenant quietly told his story, though he ritr;:h-,r°" '" '^--^ "^ '--^ appree^;tio„t hi: er^ as suBScient compensation for all that li,. hnd suffered or all that he might suffer ^ d.f T''".,™"'^'' PU^^kd by the fact that the Allied fleet ■?^S ,1 J I' l>i'rda.,os e.„placen.e„t. I nat- uraUy thought at first that sueh u failure indicated poor marksmanship, but n,y German guided akl tl j th.s was not the case. All this misfire merdy il t trated once more the familiar fact that a rapidly ma n«uvrmg battleship is un.ler a great disadviil L i^ shootmg at a fixed fortification. But there was an hosts called my attention to its location ; it was perched on he top of the hill. i„ ,„„ view of the ship L„t' Hself a part of the skyline. Dardanos was m -rely fivf ^i:r:ir' '"^'' -•"■ - -- ^pp-hed^b:: "That." they said, "is the most difficult thing in m 216 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY the world to hit. It is so distinct that it looks easy, but the whole thing is an illusion." I do not understand completely the optics of the situation; but it seems that the skyline create-? a kind of mirage, so that it is practically impossible to hit any- thing at that point, except by accident. The gunner might get what was apparently a perfect sight, yet his shell would go wild. The record of Dardanos had been little short of marvellous. Up to March 18th, the ships had fired at it about ^ ,000 shells. One turrf-t had been hit by a si)linter, wiiich had also scratched the paint, another had been hit and slightly bent in, and another had been hit lear the base and a piece about the size of a man's hand had been knocked out. But not a single gun had been even slightly damaged. Eight men had been killed, including Lieutenant Has- san, and about forty had been wounded. That was the extent of the destruction. "It was the optical illusion that saved Dardanos," one of the Germans remarked. CHAPTER XVm THE AIMED ARMADA 8AIL3 AWAY, THOUGH ON THE BRINK OF VICTORY A GAIN getting into the automobile, we rode /-% along the shore, my host calling my attention to ^ -^ the mine fields, which strekhed from Tchanak southward about seven miles. In this area the Ger- mans and Turks had sc« t tered nearly 400 mines Tliey told nie with a good deal of gusto that the llussians had furnished a considerable number of these destructive engmes. Day after day Russian destroyers sowed muies at the Black Sea entrance to the Bosphorus hopmg that they would float down stream and fulfil their appointed task. Every morning Turkish and C^erman mme sweepers would go up, fish out these mines, and place them in the Dardanelles. The battery at Erenkeui had also been subjected to a heavy bombardment, but it had suffered little F ,likr Dardanos, it was situated back of a hill, completely shut out from view. In order to fortify this spot I jas told, the Turks had been compelled practically 'to dismantle the fortifications of the inner straits that section of the stream which extends from Tc-hanak to i'omt Nagara. This was fhe reason why this latter part of the Dardanelles was now practically unforti- fied. The guns that had been moved for this purpose were old-style Krupp pieces of the model of 1885. South of Erenkeui, on the hills bordering the road, 217 if If:;: 218 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY the Germans had introduced an innovation. They had found several Krupp howitzers left over from the Bul- garian war and had installed them on concrete founda- tions. Each battery had four or five of these emplace- ments so that, as I approached them, I found several substantial bases that apparently had no guns. I was mystified further at the sight of a herd of buffaloes— I tliiuk I counted sixteen engaged in the operation- hauling one of these howitzers from one emplacement to another. This, it seems, was part of the plan of defense. As soon as the dropping shells indicated that the fleet had obtained the range, the howitzer would be moved, with the aid of buffalo teams, to another concrete emplacement. "We have even a better trick than that," remarked one of the officers. They called out a sergeant, and recounted his achievement. Tliis soldier was the custodian of a contraption which, at a distance, looked like a real gun, but which, when I examined it near at hand, was apparently an elongated section of sewer pil)e. Back of a hill, entirely hidden from the fleet, was placed the gun with which this sergeant had co- operated. The two were connected by telephone. When the command came to fire, the gunner in charge of the howitzer would discharge his shell, while the man in charge of the sewer pipe would bum several pounds of black powder and send forth a conspicuous cloud of inky smoke. Not unnaturally the Englishmen .and Frenchmen on the ships would assume that the shells speeding in their direction came from the visible smoke cloud and would proceed to centre all their attention upon that spot. The space around this burlesque gun was pock-marked with shell holes; the ■m'^m AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 219 sergeant in charge, I was told, had attracted »,ore than 000 shots while the real artillery piece still remained mtact and undetected. From Erenkeui we motored back to (Jeneral Djevad's headquarters, where we had lunch. Djevad took me up to au observation post, and there before n.y eyes 1 had the beautiful blue expanse of the .E^ean. I could see the entrances to the Dardanelles, Sed.l-al-Bulir and Kum Kale standing like the guardians of a gat.nvay with the rippling sunny waters stretching between' l-ar out I saw the majestic ships of England and Fraiue sailing across the entrance, and still farther away I caught a glimpse of the island of Tenedos, behind which we knew that a still larger fleet lay concealed. Natur- ally this prospect brought to mind a thousand historic and legendary associations, for there is probablv no single spot in the world more crowded with poetrv and romance. Evidently my Turkish escort. Gen- eral Djevad, felt the spell, for he took a telescope and pointed at a bleak expanse, perhaps six miles away. ^ ''Look at that spot," he said, handing me the glass. Do you know what that is.'" I looked but could not identify this sandy beach ^ Those are the Plains of Troy," he said. "And the river that you see winding in and out," he added we Turks call it the Mendere, but Homer knew it as the Scamander. Back of us, only a few miles distant, IS Mount Ida." Then he turned his glass out to sea, swept the field where the British ships lay, and again asked me to look at an indicated spot. I immediatelv brought withm view a magnificent English warship, all stripp<-d :*'JMi: -IjBEi i 220 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY for battle, quietly steaining along like a man walking on patrol duty. "That," said General Djevad, "is the Agamemnon "/ "Shall I fire a shot at her?" he asked me. " Yt s, if you'll promise me not to hit her," T answered. We lunched at headquarters, where we were joined by Admiral Usedom, (ieneral Mertens, and General Pomiankowsky, the Austrian Military Attache at Constantinople. The chief note in the conversation was one of absolute conhdence in the future. Whatever the diplomats and politicians in Constantinople may have thoufdit, these men, Turks and Germans, had no expectation — at least their conversation betrayed none — that the Allied fleets would pass their defenses What they seemed to hope for above everything was that their enemies would make another attack. "If we could only get a chance at the Queen Eliza- beth! " said one eager German, referring to the greatest ship in the Bintish navj-, then lymg off the entrance. As the Rhem wine began to disappear, their eagerness for the combist increased. "If the damn fools would only make a landing!" ex- claimed ooe — I qu®te his exact words. The Turkish and German officers, indeed! . seemed to rv' with eacti otiirr in expressing their readiness for tlie l»ay. Frotiably a good deal of this wc^ bravado, int«B«fcBd for my coBsumption — iodeed, I had private inforaawt-ion that their exact estinaate of the situation was n*««h n^sm reassiHT»g. Now, however, they de- ckled ukat ibc war had presMKOted iK) real opportunity for the CW»rmari and English isa^ries 1» measure swords, an* f*w tibi' reasons the G^rw^imm at the Dardanelles iw^k5^»«d tiiif; ehaa*"" to irj* tbe -LUi^v:* AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 221 Having visited ali , he important places on the Anato- hanside, we took a launch and sailed over to the GaUi- poh peninsula. We almost had a disastrous experience on this trip. As we approached the GallipoJi shore our helmsman was asked if he knew the location of the mmefield, and if he could steer through the channel He said "yes" and then steered directly for the mines' Fortunately the other men noticed the mistake in time, and so we arrived safely at Ki!id-ul-Bahr. The batteries here were of about the same character as those on the other side; they formed one of the main defenses of the straits. Here everything, so far as a layman could judge, was in excellent condition, barring the fact that the artillery pieces were of old design and the ammunition not at all plentiful. The batteries showed signs of a heavy bombardment. None had been destroyed, but shell holes surrounded the fortifications. My Turkish and German escorts looked at these evidences of destruction rather seriously and they were outspoken in their admiration for the accuracy of the allied fire. "How do they ever get the range.?" This was the question they were asking each other. What made the shooting so remarkable was the fact that it came, not from Alhed ships in the straits, but from ships stationed in the iEgean Sea, on the other side of the (Jalhpoli peninsula. The gunners had never seen tluir target but had had to fire at a distance of nearlv ten nnles' over high hills, and yet many of their shells had barely missed the batteries at Kilid-ul-Bahr. When I was there, however, the place was quiet for no fighting was going on that day. For mv particu- lar benefit the officers put one of their gun crews i H i ■ H r 222 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY through a drill, so that I could obtain a perfect picture of the behaviour of the Turks in action. In their mind's eye these artillerists now saw the English ships advancing within range, all their guns pointed to destroy the followers of the Prophet. The bugleman blew his horn, and the whole company rushed to their appointed places. Some were bringing shells, others were opening the breeches, others were taking the ranges, others were straining at pulleys, and others were putting the charges uito place. Everything was eager- ness and activity; evidently the Germans had been excellent instructors, but there was more to it than German military precision, for the men's faces lighted up with all that fanaticism which supplies the morale of Turkish soldiers. These gunners momentarily im- agined that they were shooting once more at the infidel p]nglish, and the exercise was a congenial one. Above the shouts of all I could hear the singsong chant of the leader, intoning' the i)rayer with which the Moslem has rushed to battle for thirteen centuries. "Allah is great, there is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet!" When I looked upon these frenzied men, and saw so plainly writtcji in their faces their uncontrollable hatred of the '.nl^Uever, I called to mind what the Germans had said in the morning about the wisdom of not patting Turkish and German soldiers together. I am q(jite sure that, had this been done, here at least the "Iloiy War" would have proved a success, and that the Turks would have vented their hatred of Christians on those who happened to be nearest at hand, for the moment overlooking the fact that they were allies. AMBASSADOR MORC.ENTHAl'S STORY 2i3 I returned to Constantinople tlutt eveninK. and two days afterward, on March ISth, tl.o Allied flelay a prescribed mimber <.f fla.'s m honour of the event. Th. Turkish people have so nttle spontaneous patriotism or enthusiasm of any kin.l that they would never decorate their establishments without such definite orders. As a malt.T of fict ncitherGermans nor Turks regarded this celebration' too seriously for they were not yet persuaded that they had really won a victory. Most still believed that the Allied fleets wonl.i succeed in forcing their way through. The only question, they said, was whether the Entente was ready to sacrifice the necessary number of ships Neither Wangenheim nor Pullavicini be- heved that the disastrous experience of the ISth would end th. naval attack, and for days they anxiously wailed for the fleet to return. The hi.'h tension lastc'd for days and weeks after the rei-, is« ,J 1,^ isth We were still momentarily expecn.. Ui. r- newal of the attack. But the great armada never :• -I iiriied . Should It have come back.? Could the Alli.vl siuns really liave captured Constantinople? I ,uu c.m< « ■ ..jy asked this question. As a layman my oun oj.inioi .an have httle value, but I have quote.1 the np„.i,,os of the German generals and admirals, and of the 1 ;.rrs- ^' » 224 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY practically all of whom, except Enver, believed that the enterpri.si would succeed, and I am half inclined to believe that Enver's attitude was merely a case of graveyard whistling. In what I now have to suy on this (>oint, therefore, I \ ish it understood that I am giving not my own views, but merely those of the officials then in lurkey who were byst qualified to judge. Envor had told me, in our talk on the deck of the Vurnk, that he had "plenty of guns — plenty of ammu- nition." But this statement was not true. A glimpse at the map will show why Turkey was noi receiving munitions from (lermany or Aust ia at that time. The fact was that Turkey was just as completely iso- lated from her allies then as was Russia. There were two railroad lines leading from Constantinople to Germany. One wert by way of Bulgaria and Serbia. Bulgaria was then not an ally; even though she had winked at the passage of guns and ^hells, this line could not have been ust d, since Serbia, which controlled the vital link extending froin Nish to Belgrade, was still intact. The other railroad line went through Rumania, by way of Bucharest. This route was independent of Serbia, and, had theRumar.ian Govern- ment consented, it would have formed a clear route from the Krupps to the Dardanelles, The fact that munitions conld be s< t with the connivance of the Rumanian Govemmcnt perhaps accounts fur the sus- picion that guns and shelLs were going by that route. Day after day the Fren< h and British ministers pro- tested at Bucharest against this alleged violation of neutrality, only to be met with angry denials that the Germar ^jre using this line. There is no doubt now ma^mmm AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY «M that the Rumanian dovemment was prrfeotly honour- able in making these deniiils. It is not unlikely that the Germans themselves started all these stories, merely to fool the Allied fleet into the belief that their supplies were inexliaustible. Let us suppose that the Allies had returned, say on the morning of the nineteenth, what would have hap- pened? The one overwhelming fart is that the forti- fications were very short of ammunition. Th(>y had almost reached the linu't of their resisting power when the British flwt passed out on the afternoon of the 18th. I had secured permission for Mr. (Jeorge A. Sclireiner, the well-known American correspondent of the Associ- ated Press, to visit the Dardanelles on this occasion. On the night of the IHtli, this correspondent discussed the situation with General >rertens, who was the chief technical officer at the straits. General Mertens ad- mitted that the outlook was very discouraging for the defense. "We expect that the British will come back early to- morrow morning." he said, "and if they do, we may be able to hold out for a few hours." General Mertens did not declare In so many words that the ammunition was practically exhausted, but Mr. Schreincr discovered that such was the case. The fact was that Fort Hamidie, the most powerful defense on the Asiatic side, had just seventeen armour-piercing shells left, while at Kilid-ul-Bahr, which *vas the main defense on the European side, there were precisely ten. 'I should advice you to get up at six o'clock to- morrow morning'." said General Mertens, "and take to the Anatolian hills. That'; what we are going to do." k '■• Jf- ,- MICROCOPY RESOIUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No 2) I.I 1^ 12.8 |50 ™^* 1^ l2i ill 2.2 u 1^ ^ ii& r • -ti: |l.8 A /APPLIED INA^GE Inc ^^ '653 East Mo.n Street S^S Roctiester. New York 14609 USA '■^ '715) 452 - 0300 - Phone ^— C'e) 288 - 5989 - Fo> Ifil:'.^ 1 ; lit 226 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY The troops at all the fortifications had their orders to man the guns until the last shell had been fired and then to abandon the forts. Once these defenses became helpless, the problem of the Allied fleet would have been a simple one. The only bar to their progress would have been the mine- field, which stretched from a point about two miles north of Erenkeui to i-ilid-ul-Bahr. But the Allied fleet had plenty or mine-sweepers, which could have made a channel in a few hours. North of Tchanak, as I have already explained, there were a few guns, but they were of the 1878 model, and could not discharge projectiles that could pierce modern armour plate. North of Point Nagara there were only two batteries, and both dated from 1835 ! Thus, once having silenced the outer straits, there was nothing to bar the passage to Constantinople except the German and Turkish war- ships. The Goeben v.'as the only first-class fighting ship in either fleet, and it would not have lasted long against the Queen Elizabeth. The disproportion in the strength of the opposing fleets, indeed, was so enormous that it is doubtful whether there would ever have been an en- gagement. Thus the Allied fleet would have appeared before Constantinople on the morning of the twentieth. What would have happened then? We have heard much discussion as to whether this purely naval attack was justified. Enver, in his conversation with me, had laid much stress on the absurdity of sending a fleet to Constantinople, supported by no adequate landing force, and much of the criticism since passed upon the Dardanelles expedition has centred on that point. Yet it Lj my opinion that this exclusively naval attaJc AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 227 was justified. I base this judfrnicnt purely upon the po- litical situation which then existed in Turkey. Under ordinary circumstances such an enterprise would probably have been a foolish one, hut the political conditions in Constantinople then were not ordinary. There was no solidly established government in Tur- key at that time. A political committee, not exceeding forty members, headed by Talaat, Enver, and Djem.d, controlled the Central (Jovernment, but their authority throughout the empire was exceedingly tenuous. As a matter of fact, the whole Ottoman state, on that eigh- teenth day of March, 1915, when the Allied fleet abandoned the attack, was on the brink of dissolution. All over Turkey ambitious chieftains had arisen, who were momentarily expecting its fall, and who were look- ing for the opportunity to seize their parts of the inheri- tance. As previously described, Djenial had already organized practically an independent government in Syria. In Smyrna Rahmi Bey, the Governor-Gen- eral, had often disregarded the authorities at the capital. In Adrianople Hadji Adil, one of the most courageous Turks of the time, was believed to be plotting to set up his own government. Arabia had already become practically an independent nation. Among the subject races the spirit of revolt was rapidly spreading. The Greeks and the Armenians would also have welcomed an opportun- ity to strengthen the hands of the Allies. The existing financial and industrial conditions seemed to make revolution inevitable. Many farmers went on strike; th?y had no seeds and would not accept them as a free gift from the Government because, they said, as soon as their crops should be garnered the armies would immediately requisition them. As for Consiantinople, S28 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 4 ' 4|! i:. the populace there and the best elements among the Turks, far from opposing the arrival of the Allied fleet, would have welcomed it with joy. The Turks themselves were praying that the British and French would take their city, for this would relieve them of the controlling gang, emancipate them from the hated Ger- mans, bring about peace, and end their miseries. No one understood this better than Talaat. He was taking no chances on making an expeditious retreat, in case the Allied fleet appeared before the city. For several months the Turkish leaders had been casting envious glances at a Minerva automobile that had been rejKJsing in the Belgian legation ever since Turkey's declaration of war. Talaat finally obtained possession of the coveted prize. He had obtained somewhere another automobile, which he had loaded with extra tires, gasolene, and all the other essentials of a pro- tracted journey. This was evidently intended to accompany the more pretentious machine as a kind of "mother ship." Talaat stationed these automobiles on the Asiatic side; of the city with chauffeurs con- stantly at hand. Everything was prepared to leave for the interior of Asia Minor at a moment's notice. But the great Allied armada never returned to the attack. About a week after this momentous defeat, I hap- pened to drop in at the German Embassy. Wangen- heim had a disti^ shed visitor whom he asked me to meet. I went into his private oflBce and there was Von der Goltz Pasha, recently returned from Bel- gium, where he had served as governor. I must admit that, meeting Goltz thus informally, I had diflficulty in reconciling his personality with all the stories that AMBASSADOR MOilLGENTIIAU'S STORY 229 were then coming out of Belgium. That mornini? this mild-mannered, spectacled gentleman seemed suf- ficiently quiet and harmless. Nor did he look his age- he was then about seventy-four; his hair was or. streaked with gray, and his face was almost un wrinkled; I should not have taken him for more than sixty-five. The austerity and brusqueness and ponderous dignity which are assumed by most highly-placed Germans were not apparent. His voice was deep, musical, and pleasmg, and his manners were altogether friendly and ingratiating. The only evidence of pomp m his bear- ing was his uniform; he was dressed as a field marshal, his chest blazing with decorations and gold braid. Von der Goltz explained and half apologized for his regalia by saying that he had just returned from an audience with the Sultan. He had come to Constantinople to present his majesty a medal from the Kai -er, and was taking back to Berlin a similar mark of consideration from the Sultan to the Kaiser, besides an imperial present of 1C,000 cigarettes. The three of us sat there for some time, drinking coflFee, eating German cakes, and smoking Gei-man cigars. I did not do much of the talking, but the conversation of Von der Goltz and Wangenheim seemed to me to shed much light upon the German mind, and especially on the trustworthiness of German military reports. The aspect of the Dardanelles fight that in- terested them most at that time was England's com- plete frankness in publishing her losses. That the British Government should issue an official statement, saying that three ships had been sunk and that four others had been badly damaged, struck them as most remarkable. In this announcement I merely saw a 230 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAT'S STORY 1-1 1 ' ' -Si ii : 1 li ■ 1 , 4i ■ K i\: • .* 11: 4 i It manifestation of the usual British desir • to make public the worst — the policy which we Americans also believe to be the best in war times. But no such obvious ex- planation could satisfy these wise and solemn Teutons. No, England had some deep purpose in telling the truth so unblushingly; what could it be? "Es ist ausserordentlich I" (It is extraordinary) said Von der Goltz, referring to England's public acknowledgment of defeat. "Es ist unerhdrtT' (It is unheard of) declared the equally astonished Wangenheim. These master diplomatists canvassed one explanation after another, and finally reached a conclusion that satisfied the higher strategy. England, they agreed, really had had no enthusiasm for this attack, because, in the event of success, she would have had to hand Constantinople over to Ilussia — something which Eng- land really did not intend to do. By publishing the losses, England showed Russia the enormous diflBculties of the task; she had demonstrated, indeed, that the enterprise was impossible. After such losses, England intended Russia to understand that she had made a sincere attempt to gain this great prize of war and expected her not to insist on further sacrifices. The sequel to this great episode in the war came in the winter of 1915-16. By this time Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers, Serbia had been over- whelmed, and the Germans had obtained a' complete, unobstructed railroad line from Constantinople to Austria and Germany. Huge Krupp guns now began to come over this line — all destined for the Dardanelles. Sixteen great batteries, of the latest model, were em- placed near the entrance, completely controlling Sedd- ■Aj-wr "^anst-A* AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 231 ul-Bahr. The Germans lent the Turks 500,000,000 marks, much of which was spent defending this indis- perisable highway. The thinly fortified straits through which I passed in March, 1915, is now as impregnably fortified as Heligoland. It is doubtful if all the fleets in the world could force the Dardanelles to-day. m \% } I i t n i^ I CHAPTER XIX A FlCnX FOR THREE THOUSAND CIVILIANS ON THE second of May, 1915, Enver sent his aide to the American Embassy, bringing a message which he requested me to transmit to the French and British governments. About a week before this visit the Allies had landed on the Galli- poli peninsula. They had evidently concluded that a naval attack by itself could not destroy the defenses and open the road to Constantinople, and they had now adopted the alternative plan of despatching large bodies of troops, to be supjwrted by the guns of their warships. Already many thousands of Australians and New Zealanders had entrenched themselves at the tip of the peninsula, and the excitement that prevailed in Constantinople " « rlmost as great as that which had been caused ' ippearance of the fleet two months before. Enver now info. me that the Allied ships were bombarding in reckless fashion, and ignoring the well- established international rule that such bombardments should be directed only against fortified places; British and French shells, he said, were falling everywhere, destroying unprotected Moslem villages and killing hundreds of innocent non-combatants. Enver asked me to inform the Allied governments that such activi- ties must immediately cease. He had decided to collect all the British and French citizens who were then 232 AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAUS STORY 233 living in Constantinople, t.iko tlicin down to the Galli- poli peninsula and scatter them in ^Fosletn vilhiges and towns. The Alh'ed fleets would then he throwing their projectiles not only against peaceful and unpro- tected Moslems, but against their own countrymen. It was Enver's idea that this threat, communicated hy the American Ambassatlor to the British and French governments, would soon put aa end to "atrocities" of this kind. I was given a few days' respite to get the information to London and Paris. At that time about 3,000 British and French citizens were living in Constantinople. The great majorify belonged to the class known as Levantines; nearly all had been born in Turkey and in many cases their families had been domiciled in that country for two or more generations. The retention of theirEuropean citizenship is almost their only contact with the nation from which they have sprung. Not uncommonly we meet in the larger cities of Turkey ineu and women who are English by race and nationality, but who speak no English, French being the usual language of the Levan- tine. The gloat majority have never set foot in Eng- land, or any other European countrv; they have only one home, and that is Turkey. The fact that the Levantine usually retains citizenship in the nation of his origin was now apparently making him a fitting object for Turkish vengeance. Besides these Levan- tine?, a large number of English and French were then living in Constantinople, as teachers in the schools, as missionaries, and as important business men t d merchants. The Ottoman Government now proposed to assemble all these residents, both those who were immediately and those who were remotely connected f . } 1 .I'M! » 1 i'ii 1 [•!' «34 AMBASSADOR MORGEN'TIIAUS STORY Willi Gn'jil nritain and Francf, anlacc them in exposed iH)silion.s on llio GalliiM)li pt-ninMila as targets for tlie Allied fle<>t. Naturally my first qtiesfion wlien I received this startling information was whether the warships were really bombarding defenseless towns. If they wore murdering non-combatant men, women, and children in this reckless fashion, such an act of reprisal as Enver now proposed would probably have had some justi- fication. It seemed to me incredible, however, that the English and French could commit such barbarities. ,1 had already received many complaints of this kind from Turkish officials which, on investigation, had turned out to be untrue. Only a little while before Dr. Meyer, the first assistant to Suleyman Nouman, the Chief of the Medical Staff, had notified me that the British fleet had bombarded a Turkish hospital and killed 1,000 invalids. When I looked into the matter, I found that the building had b'*en but slightly dam- aged, and only one man killed. I now naturally sus- pected that this latest tale of Allied barbarity rested on similarly flimsy foundation. I soon discovered, indeed, that this was the case. The Allied fleet was not bombarding Moslem village," * all. A number of British warships had been sta' ed in the Gulf of Saros, an indentation of the iEgcan Sea, on the western side of the peninsula, and from this vantage point they were throwing shells into the city of Gallipoli. All the "bombarding" of towns in which they wen now engaging was limited to this one city. In doing this the British navy was not vioLang the rules of civilized warfare, for Gallipoli had long since been evacuated of its civilian population, and the Turks had AMBASSADOR MORGENTIlArS STORY 233 established military hea(lrohil)it(d an attack upon a military headcpmr- ters. As to the stories of numlcred civilians, men, women, and children, these proved to he ^'ross exa^- Keralions; as almost the entire civiliiin i>opulalion had long since left, any casualties resulting from the hom- hardnient rnusi iiuvo heen confined to the .rmed forces of the empire. I now discussed the situation for some time witli ^Ir. Ernest Weyl, who was generally recognized as the leading French citizen in Constantinople, and with Afr. Hoffman Philip, the Conseiller of the Emha.ssy, and then decided that I would go immediately to the Sub- lime Porte and i)rotest to Enver, The Council of Ministers was sifting at the time, but Enver cam.e out. His numner was more demonstrative than usual. As he d« scribed the attack of the British fleet, he became extremely angry; it was not the imper- turbable Enver with whom I had become so familiar. "These cowardly Englisli!' he exclaimed. "They tried for a long time to get through t'le Dardanelles, and we were too much for them! A i see what kind of a revenge they are taking. Thei ships sneak up into the outer bay, where our guns t.'in*-*)t reach them, and shoot over the hills at our Iji iH iL'es. kiiilrig harmless old men, women, and child bombard- ing our hospitals. Do ycju think \\ ...ing to let them do that? And what can we do." ur guns don't reach over th< hills, so that we cannot f^et them in battle. If we could, we would drive fh off, just as we did at the straits a month ago. We ha o fl. . ♦ to 890 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY lend to England to bombard their unfortified towns as they are bombarding ours. So we have decided to move all the English and French we can fin(' to GalU- poli. Let them kill their own people as well us ours." I told him that, granted that the circumstances were as he had stated them, he had grounds for indignation. But I calK (1 his attention to the fact that he was wrong; that he was accusing the Allies of crimes which tluy were not commit ling. "This is about the most barbarotis thing that you have ever contemplated," I said. "The British have a perfect right to attack a military headquarters like Gallii)oli." But my argument did not move Enver. I became convinced that he had not decided on this step as P reprisal to protect his own countrymen, but that he and his associates were blindly venting their rage. The fact that the Australians and New Zealanders had suc- cessfully effected a landing had aroused their most barbarous instincts. Enver referred tj this landing in our talk; though he professed to regard it lightly, and said that he would soon push the French and English into the sea, I saw that it was causing him much concern. The Turk, as I have said before, is psychology ^'ly primitive; to answer the British landing at Gal..^,
  • news of roposed deportation had been published Ihe amazement and despair that immediately result.d were unparalleled, even in that city of constant sensa- tions. Europeans, by living for many years in the Levant, seem to acquire its emotior >s. particularly its susceptibility to fear and horror, and , -ow. no longer hav- ing the protection of t h.-ir embassies, t hese fears were in- tensified A stream of fren..ied people began to pour into the Embassy. From their tears and cries one woidd have thought that they were immediately to be taken OMt and shot, and that there was any possibility of being saved seemed hardly to occur to them. Yet all the time they insisted that I should get individual exemptions. One could not go because he had a depen- dent family; another had a sick child; another was ill himself. My ante-room was full of frantic mothers, asking me to secure exemption for their sons, and of wives, who sought special treatment for their hus- bands. They made all kinds of impossible suggestions: 1 shouM resign my ambassadorship as a protest; I should even threaten Turkey with war by the United btates! They constantly besieged mv wife, who spent hours listening to their sto^ es and comforting them. In all this exciting mass tJ re were many who faced the situation with more courage. 5;^" A «h^''aB . I '-r^fffillC^Ia: --i.. f-i .--'Li.'JiLWJTfk'' ifc.. 1 I-, :! ■ M 238 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY The day after my talk with Envcr, Bcdri, the Prefect of Police, began to arrest some of the victims. The next morning one of my callers made what would ordinarily have seemed to be an obvious suggestion. This visitor was a German. He told me that Germany would suffer greatly in reputation if the Turks carried out theirplan; the world would not possibly be convinced that Germans had not devised the whole scheme. He said that I should call upon the German and Austrian ambassadors; he was sure that they would support me in my pleas for decent treatment. As I had made ap- peals to Wangenheim several times before in behalf of foreigners, without success, I had hardly thought it worth while to ask his cooperation in this instance. Moreover, the plan of using non-combatants as a pro- tectiA. screen in warfare was such a familiar German device that I was not at all sure that the German Staff had not instigated the Turks. I decided, however, to adopt the advice of my German visitor and seek Wan- genheim's assistance. I must admit that I did this as a forlorn hope, but at least I thought it only fair to Wangenheim to give him a chance to help. I called upon him in the evening at ten o'clock and stayed with him until eleven. I spent the larger part of this hour in a fruitless attempt to interest him in the plight of these non-combatants. Wangenheim said point blank that he would not assist me. "It is per- fectly proper," he maintained, "for the Turks to estab- lish a concentration camp at Gallipoli. It is also proper for them to put non-combatant English and French on their transports and thus insure them against attack. As I made repeated attempts to argue the matter, Wan- genheim would deftly shift the conversation to other AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 239 top^s. According to my record of this talk, written out at the time, the German Ambassador discussed almost every subject except the one upon which I had culled This act of the Turks will greatly injure Ger- many " I would begin. "Do you know that the English soldiers at Gaba Tepe are without food and drink?" he would reply. 1 hey made an attack to capture a well and were repulsed. The English have taken their ships away so as to prevent their soldiers from retreating » ^ "But about this Gallipoli business," I interrupted. Germans themselves here in Constantinople have said tnat Germany should stop it " "The Allies landed 45,000 men on the peninsula," Wangenheim answered, "and of these 10,000 were killed. In a few days we shall attack the rest and destroy them." \Vlien I attempted to approach the subject from an- other angle, this master diplomatist would begin dis- cussing Rumania and the possibility of obtaining ammu- mtion by way of that country. "Your Secretary Bryan." he said, "has just issued a statement showing that it would be unneutral for the United States to refuse to sell ammunition to the Allies bo we have used this same argument with the Ruman- ians; if It ,s unneutral not to sell ammunition, it is certainly unneutral to refuse to transport it ! " The humorous aspects of this argument appealed to Wangenheim, but I reminded him that I was there to discuss the lives of between 2,000 and 3,000 non-com- batants. As I touched upon this subject again, Wan- genheim replied that the United States would not be acceptable to Germany as a peacemaker now. because illd « ii 240 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY we were so friendly to the Entente. He insisted on giving me all the details of recent German successes in the Carpathians and the latest news on the Italian situation. "We would rather fight Italy than have her for our ally," he said. At another time all this would have greatly enter- tained me, but not then. It was quite apparent that Wangenheim would not discuss the proposed deporta- tion, further than to say that the Turks were justified. His statement that it was planned to establish a "con- centration camp" at Gallipoli unfolded his whole atti- tude. Up to this time the Turks had not established concentration camps for enemy aliens anywhere. I had earnestly advised them not to establish such camps, thus far with success. On the other hand, the Germans were protesting that Turkey was "too lenient" and urging the establishment of such camps in the interior. Wangenheim's use of the words "concentration camps in Gallipoli" showed that the German view was at last prevailing and that I was losing my battle for the foreigners. An internment camp is a distressing place under the most favourable circumstances, but who, ex- cept a German or a Turk, ever conceived of establishing one right in the field of battle? Let us suppose that the English and the French should assemble all their enemy aliens, march them to the front, and place them in a camp in No Man's Land, directly in the fire of both armies. That was precisely the kind of a "con- centration camp" which the Turks and Germans now intended to establish for the resident aliens of Constanti- nople — for my talk with Wangenheim left no doubt in my mind that the Germans were parties to the plot. Ai -I w^mi' H HKIsl, QCAHTKHS AT TIIK j, VKIMNFI I Ks These dugout-s. for tlu- ,„„st part, wor,- Veil nr,,... t. n i f , their batteriL w.,1. grJa VE . '^ .j ^- 1 urk„..fe„.,.., ■^^J^'I^'^B'. ^.w AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 241 They feared that the land ..itack on (he Dardanelles would succeed, just as th^y had feared that the naval attack would succeed, and they were prepared to use any weapon, even the lives of several thousand non- combatants, in their efforts to make it a failure. My talk with Wangenheim produced no results, so far as enlisting his support was concerned, but it stif- fened my determination to defeat this enterprise. I also called upon Pallavicini, the Austrian Ambassador. He at once declared that the proposed deportation was mhuman." "I will take up the matter with the Grand Vizier," he said, " and see if I can't stop it." .. Ju^"* ^°" ^^"^ *^^* '^ perfectly useless," I answered. The Grand Vizier has no power-he is only a figure- head. Only one man can stop this, that is Enver."'' Pallavicini had far finer sensibilities an.I a tenderer conscience than Wangenheim, and I had no doubt that he was ntirely sincere in his desire to prevent this crime. 3ut he was a diplomat of the old Austrian schojil. Nothing in his eyes was so important as diplomatic etiquette. As the representative of his emperor, propriety demanded that he should con- duct all his negotiations with the Grand Vizier, who was also at that time Minister for Foreign Affairs. He never discussed "' le matters with Talaat and Enver- mdeed, he had c limited official relations with these men, the real rulexs of Turkey. And now the saving of 3,000 lives was not. in Pallavicini's eyes, any reason why he should disregard the traditional routine of diplo- matic intercourse. "I must go strictly according to rulej in this matter," he said. And, in the goodness of his heart, he did ^^iii 242 AMBASSADOR MORGENTILVU'S STORY speak to Said Ilaliin. Following this example Wangen- heim also spoki- to the Grand Vizier. In Wangenheim'a ^ase, however, the protest was merely intended for the official record. "You may fool some people," I told the German Am- bassador, "but you know that speaking to the Grand Vizier in this matter is of about as much use as shoulinff in the ./r." ** However, there was one member of the diplomatic corps who worked wholeheartedly in behalf of the threatened foreigners. This was M. Koloucheff, the Bulgarian Minister. As soon as he heard of this latest Turco-German outrage, he immediately came to me with offers of assistance. He did not propose to waste his time by a protest to the Grand Vizier, but an- nounced his intention of going immediately to the source of authority, Enver himself. Koloucheff was an ex- tremely important man at that particular time, for Bulgaria was then neutral and both sides were angling for her support. Meanwhile, Bedri and his minions were busy arresting some of the doomed English and French. The depor- tation was arranged to take place Thursday morning. On Wednesday, the excitement reached the hysterical stage. It seemed as if the whole foreign population of Constantinople had gathered at the American Em- bassy. Scores of weeping women and haggard men assembled in front and at the side of the building; more than three hundred gained personal access to my office, hanging desperately upon the Ambassador and his staff. Many almost seemed to think that I person- ally held their fates in my hand; in theu« agony of spirit some even denounced me, insisting that I was AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY 243 not exerting al! my powers in their behalf. When- ever I left my office and passed into the hall I was almost mobbed by scores of terror-stricken and dishevelled mothers and wives. The nervous tension was fright- ful; I seized the telephone, called up Enver, and de- manded an interview. He replied that he would be happy to receive me on Thursday. By this time, however, the prisoners would already have been on their way to GallipoH. "No," I replied, "I must see you this afternoon " Enver made all kinds of excuses; he was busy, he had appomtments scheduled for the whole day. "I presume you want to see me about the Endish and French," Ire said. "If that is so, I can tell you now that It will be useless. Our minds are made up. Orders have been issued to the police to gather them all by to-night and to ship them down to-morrow morning." I still insisted that I must see him that afternoon and he still attempted to dodge the interview "My time is all t^ken." he said. "The Council of Mmisters sits at four o'clock and the meetin- is to be a very important one. I can't absent myself " Embr'dened by the thought of the crowds of women that w. . flooding the whole Embassy I decided on an altogether unprecedented move. "I shall not be denied an interview," I replied "I shall come up to the cabinet room at four o'clock If you refuse to receive me then. I shall insist on oing into the council room and discussing the matter with the whole Cabinet. I shall be interested to learn whether the Turkish Cabinet will refuse to receive the American Ambassador." :Ma 244 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY It seemed to me that I could almost hear Enver gasp over the telephone. I presume few responsible minis- ters of any country have ever had such an astounding proposition made to them. "If you will meet me at the Sublime Porte at 3'iO," he answered, after a considerable pause, "I shall :.rrange to see you." When I reached the Sublime Porte I was told that the Bulgarian :Minister was having a protracted con- ference with Enver. Naturally I was wiUiag to wait, for I knew what the two men were discussing. Pres- ently M. Kolouchof! came out; his face was tense and anxious, clearly revealing the ordeal through which he had just passed. "It is perfectly hopeless," he said to me. "Nothing will move Enver: he is absolutely determined that this thing shall go through. I cannot wish you good luck, for you will have none." The meeting which followed between Enver and my- self was the most momentous I had had up to that time. We discussed the fate of the foreigners for nearly an hour. I found Enver in one of his most polite but most unyielding moods. He told me before I began that it was useless to talk— that the matter was a closed issue. But I insisted on telling him what a splendid impression Turkey's treatment of her enemies had made on the outside world, "Your record in this matter is better than that of any other belligerent country," I said. "You have not put them into con- centration camps, you have let them stay here and continue their ordinary business, just as before. You have done this in spite of strong pressure to act other- wise. Why do you destroy all the good effect this has AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY US produced by now making such a fatal mistake as you propose?" But Enver insisted tliat the Allied fleets were bom- barding unfortified towns, killing women, cliilciren, and wounded men. "We have warned them throuKli you that they must not do this," he said, "but they don't stop." This statement, of course, was not xrue, but I could not persuade Enver that he was wrong. He expressed great appreciation for all that I had done, and regretted for my sake that he could not accept my advice. I told him that the foreigners had su^^ested that I threaten to give up the care of British and French in- terests. «,"^°*'""^ ^^"'"^ ^"^' "^ better," he quickly replied. The only difficulty we have with you is when you come around and bother us with English and French affairs." I asked him if I had ever given him any advice that had led them into trouble. He graciously repli( 1 that they had never yet made a mistake by following my suggestions. "Very well, take my advice in this case, too " I replied. "You will find later that you have made no mistake by domg so. I tell you that it is my positive opinion that your cabinet is committing a terrible error by taking this step." "But I have given orders to this effect," Enver an- swered. "I cannot countermand them. If t did my whole influence with the army would go. Once having given an order I never change it. My own wife asked me to have her servants exempted from military ser- vice and I refused. The Grand Vizier asked exemption for his secretary, and I refused him, because I had given t -I r^aPC 940 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY -.m ~ ortlers. I never revoke orders and I mHuII not do it in this case. If you can show ,ne son.e way in which this order can be carried out and your proteg^-s still saved. I shall be glad to listen." I had already discovered one of the most < ...picuous traits ,„ the Turkish character: its tendency to com- promise and to bargain. Enver's rajuest for a sug- gcstion now gave me an opiK,rtunily to play on this characteristic. "All right "I said. "I think I can. I should think you could still carry out your orders without sending all he French and English residents down. If you would send only a f. ,.. you would still win your point. \ou could stil maintain discipline in the army, and these few would be as strong a deterrent to the Allied fleet as sending all." It seemed to me that Enver almost eagerly seized upon this suggestion as a way out of his dilemma. How many will you let me send?" he asked quickly. 1 he moment he put this question I knew that I had carried my point. "I woiild suggest that you take twenty English and twenty French— forty in all." •'I^-t me have fifty'," he said. '•All right-we won't haggle over ten," I answered. Hut you must make another concession. Let me pick out the fifty who are to go." This agreement had relieved the tension, and now the gracious side of Enver's nature began to show itself again. "No, Mr. Ambassador," he replied. "You have prevented me from making a mistake this afternoon; now let me prevent you from making one. If you se AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY f»47 lect the fifty men who are to go, you will simply make fifty encniit's. I thiril- too rntuh of you to hi you . Ill p--^ iJil«oc«d la*[vw(*K Mb ir b '5*mvmodi|-? r,; THK DAUDAXKLLKS AS IT WAS MARCH 16, 1915 AVIirn Aml>assjuIor Mor^'entliau. at tlie invitation of tlio Turkish Gov- I'rnnient. visited all the latteries. Ue found tfie batteries well (h'fended, nit sliort of aniinunition and eompletely ontran^cd hv the ^nins of tlie Allied fleets. On March l!)th the (iermans and Turks were i)re|)ared t<. retreat to Anatoha and leave Constantinople at the mercy of the liritish. The Allies aljandoned the attack at the precise moment when complete victory was in their irrasp AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 219 that he might be permitted to go with the hostages anrise as this one, Mr Philip pleadod so earnestly that finally I reluctantly gave my consent. I also obtained permission for Mr. Arthur Ruhl of Collier's and Mr. Henry West Suydam, of the -Brooklyn Eagle, to accompany the party. At the end Bedri had to have his little joke. Though the fifty were informed that the boat for GaIlir>oli would leave the ne^^t morning at six o'clock, he, with his police, visited their houses at midnight, and routed them all out of bed. The crowd that assembled at the dock the next morning looked somewhat weather- beaten and worse for wear. Bedri was there, superiu- Hi' * li'* ; 'i t 250 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAUS STORY lending tlic whole proceeding, and when he came up to me, he good-naturedly reproached me again for letting him have only one ^'notable." In the main, he be- haved very decently, though he could not refrain from telling the hostages that the British airplanes were dropping bombs on Gallipoli! Of the twenty-five •Englishmen" assembled there were only two who had been born in England, and of the twenty-five "French- men" only two who had been bom in France. They carried satchels containing food and other essentials, their assembled r-'atives had additional bundles, and Mrs. Morgenthau sent several large cases of food to the si • The parting of these young men with their famih.o was affecting, but they all stood it bravely. I returned to the Embassy, somewhat wearied by the excitement of the last few days and in no particu- larly gracious humour for the honour which now awaited me. For I had been there only a few minutes when His Excellency, the German Ambassador, was an- nounced. Wangenheim discussed commonplaces for a few minutes and then approached the re-1 object of his call. He asked me to telegraph to Washington that he had been "helpful" in getting the number of the Galli- poli hostages reduced to fifty! In view of the actual happenings this request was so preoosterous that I could scarcely maintain my composure. I had known that, in going through the form of speaking to the Grand Vizier, Wangenheim had been manufacturing his protest for future use, but I had not expect^ him to fall back upon it so soon. "Well," said Wangenheim, "at least telegraph your government that I didn't 'hetz' the Turks in this matter." AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 251 The German verb "hefzen" means about the same as the English "sic," in the sense of inciting a dog. I was m no mood to give Wangenheim a clean bill of health, and told him so. In fact, I specifically reported to Washington that he had refused to h»-lp me. A day or two afterward Wangenheim called me on the telephone and began to talk in an excited and angry tone. His government had wir(>d him about my tele- gram to Washington. I told him that if he desired credit for assistance in matters of this kind, he should really exert himself and do something. The hostages had an uncomfortable time at Galli- poli; they were put into two wooden houses with no beds and no food except that which thev had brought themselves. The days and nights were made wretched by the abundant vermin that is a commonplace in Turkey. Had Mr. Philip not gone with them, they would have suffered seriously. After the unfortunates had been there for a few days I began work with Enver again to get them back. Sir Edward Grev, then British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, had requested our State Depaiiment to send me a message with the re- quest that I present it to Enver and his fellow ministers; its purport was that the British Government would hold them personally responsible for any injury to the hostages. I presented this message to Enver on May 9th. I had seen Enver in many moods, but the unbrid- led rage which Sir Edward's admonition now caused was something entirely new. As I read the telegram his face became livid, and he absolutely lost control of himself. The European polish which Enver had sedu- lously acquired dropped like a mask; I now saw him for what he really was— a savage, bloodthirsty Turk. WWt hm 252 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY "They will not come back!" he shouted. "I shall let them stay there until they rot ! " "I would like to see those English touch me!" he continued. I saw that the method which I had always used with Enver, that of persuasion, was the only possible way of handling him. I tried to soothe the Minister now, and, after a while, he quieted down. "But don't ever threaten me again!" he said. After spending a week at Galllpoli, the party re- turned. The Turks had moved their military head- quarters from Gallipoli and the English fleet, therefore, ceasr ' to bombard it. All came back in good condi- tion uad were welcomed home with great enthusiasm. ilr :m ^^.* i' CHAPTER XX MORE ADVENTURES OF THE FOREIGN RESIDENTS THE Gallipoli deportation gives some idea of my difficulties in attempting to fulfil my duty as the representative of Allied interests in the Ottoman Empire. Yet, despite these occasional out- bursts of hatred, in the main the Turkish officials them- selves behaved very well. They had promised me at the beginning that they would treat their alien enemies decently, ana ' permit them either to remain in Turkey, and follow ^ eir accustomed occupations, or to leave the empire. They apparently believed that the world would judge them, after the war was over, not by the way they treated their own subject peoples but by the way they treated the subjects of the enemy powers. The result was that a Frenchman, an English.- man, or an Italian enjoyed far greater security in Turkey than an Armenian, a Greek, or a Jew. Yet against this disposition to be decent a persistent malevo- lent force was constantly manifesting itself. In a letter to the State Department, I described the influence that was working against foreigners in Turkey. "The Ger- man Ambassador," I wroteon May 14, 191.5, "keeps press- ing on the Turks the advisability both of repressive measures and of detaining as hostages the subjects of the belligerent powers. I have had to encounter the persistent opposition of my German colleague in en- 253 I* ''4 254 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY deavouring to obtain permission for the departure of the subjects of the nationalities under our protection " Now and then the Turkish officials would retaliate upon one of their enemy aliens, usually in reprisal for some mjury, or fancied injury, inflicted on their own subjects m enemy countries. Such acts f,'ave rise to many exciting episodes, some tragical, some farcical, all lUummutmg in the light they shed upon Turkish character and ujwn Teutonic methods. One afternoon I was sitting with Talaat. discussing routme matters, when his telephone rang. "Pour roM.9," said the Minister, handing me the re- ceiver. It was one of my secretaries. He told me that Bedri had arrested Sir Edwin Pears, had throvm him into prison, and had seized all his papers. Sir Edwin was one of the best-known British residents of Constanti- nople. For forty years he had practised law in the Ottoman capital; he had also written much for the press during that period, and had published several books which had given him fame as an authority on Oriental history and politics. He was about eighty years old and of venerable and distinguished appear- ance. When the war started I had exacted a special promise from Talaat and Bedri that, in no event, should Sir Edwin Pears and Proi. Van Mfllingen of Robert College be disturbed. This telephone message which I now received— curiously enough, in Talaat's presence —seemed to indicate that this promise had been broken. I now turned to Talaat and spoke in a manner that made no attempt to conceal my displeasure. ^^ "Is this all your promises are worth.'" I asked. "Can't you find anything better to do than to molest iiii^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY i55 such a respectable old man as Sir Edwin Pears? What has he ever done to yon ? " ^^ "Come, come, don't get excited," rejoined Talaat. "He's only been in prison for a few hours, and I will see that he is released." He tried to get Bedri on the wire, but failed. By this time I knew Bedri well enough to understand his methods of opciation. ^^'hen Bedri really wished to be reached on the telephone, he was the most acces- sible man in the worid; when his presence at the other end of the wire might prove embarrassing, the most painstaking search could not reveal his whereabouts. As Bedri had civen me his solei i promise that Sir Edwin should not be disturbed, t .is was an occasion when"the Prefect of Police preferred to keep himself inaccessible. "I shall stay in this room until you get Bedri," I now told Talaat. The big Turk took the situation good- humouredly. We waited a considerable period, but Bedri succeeded in avoiding an encounter. Finally I called up one of my secretaries and told him to go out and hunt for the missing prefect. "Tell Bedri," I said, "that I have Talaat under arrest in his own office and that I shall not let him leave it until he has been able to instruct Bedri to release Sir Edwin Pears." Talaat was greatly enjoying the comedy of the situa- tion; he knew Bedri's ways even better than I did and he was much interested in seeing whether I should succeed in finding him. But in a few moments the telephone rang. It was Bedri. I told Talaat to tell him that I was _;oing to the prison in my own automo- bile to get Sir Edwin Pears. m 856 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY "Please don't let him do that," replied Befforts in his behalf. He tcld me that the German Ambassador had also worked for his release. This latter statement somewhat surprised me, as I knew no one else had had a chance to make'a move, since everything transpired while I had been in Talaat's office. Half an hour afterward I met Wangen- heim Iiimself ; he dropped in at Mrs. Morgcnthau's recep- tion. I referred to the Pears case and asked him whether he had used any influence in obtaining his free- dom. My question astonished him greatly. "What? "he said. "I helped you to secure that'raan's release! Der alte Gaunerf (The old rascal.) Why, I was the man who had him arrested ! " ^" What have you got against him? " I asked. "In 1870," Wangenheim replied, "that man was pro-Russian and against Turkey!" Such arc the long memories of the GermansI In 1876, Sir Edwin wrote several articles for the London AMBASS.UX)R MORGENTHAUS STORY 857 Daily News, describing the Bulgarian massacres. At that time the reports of these tienciish atrocities were generally disbelieved and Sir Edwin's letttrs placed all the incontrovertible facts before the English-speak- ing peoples, and had much to do with the euianeipafion of Bulgaria from Turkish rule. This act of humanity and journalistic statesmanship had brought Sir Edwin much fame and now, after forty years, Ciermauy pro- posed to punish him by casting him into a Turkish prison! Aguin the Turks proved more consid<'nile than their German allies, for they nt)t only gave Sir Edwin his liberty and his papers, but permitted him to return to London. Bedri, however, was a little mortified at my successful intervention in this instance and decided to even up the score. Next to Sir Edwin Pears, the most promi- nent English-spt^aking barrister in Constantinople was Dr. Mizzi, a Maltese, 70 years old. The ruling powers had a grudge against him, for he was the proprit-tor of the Levant Herald, a paper which had published articles criticizing the Union and Progress Committee. On the very night of the Pears episode, Bedri went to Dr. IVIiz- zi's house at eleven o'clock, routed the old gentleman out of bed, arrested him, and placed him on a train for Angora, in Asia Minor. As a terrible epidemic of typhus was raging in Angora, this was not a desirable place of residence for a man of Dr. Mizzi's years. The next morning, when I heard of it for the first time. Dr. Mizzi was well on the way to his place of exile. "This time I got ahead of you!" said Bedri, with a triumphant laugh. He was as good-na -d about it and as pleased as a boy. At last he had " put one over " on the American Ambassador, who had been un- Hi «38 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAUS STORY guardedly asleep in his bed when this old man had been railroaded to a fever camp in Asia Minor. But Bedri's success was not so complete, after all At my request Tulaat had Dr. Mizzi sent Jo Konin' mstead of to Angora. There one of the American missionaries, Dr. Dodd. had a splendid hospital- I arranged that Dr. Mizzi could have a nice room' in this building, and here he Uved for several months, with congenial associates, good food, a healthy atmosphere, all the books he wanted, and one thing without which he would have been utterly miserable -a piano. So I still thought that the honours between Bedri and my- self were a little better than even. Early in January. 1916. word was received that the Enghsh were maltreating Turkish war prisoners in Egypt. Soon afterward I received letters from two Australians, Commander Stoker and Lieutenant Fitz- gerald, telling me that they had been confined for eleven days in a miserable, damp dungeon at the War Office, with no companions except a monstrous swarm of vermin. These two naval officers had come to Constantinople on one of that famous fleet of Ameri- can-built submarines which had made the daring trip from England, dived under the mines in the Darda- nelles, and arrived in the Marmora, where for several weeks they terrorized and dominated this inland sea, practically putting an end to all shipping. The par- ticular submarine on which my correspondents arrived, the E 15, had been caught in the Dardanelles, and its crew and officers had been sent to the Turkish military prison at Afium Kara Hissar in Asia Minor. When news of the alleged maltreatment of Turkish prisoners in Egypt was received, lots were drawn among these WmHSk AMB.VSS;\DOR MORGENTIIAUS STORY 250 prisoners to sec which two should be taken to Con- stantinople and imprisoned in reprisul. Stoker and Fitzgerald drew the unlucky numbers, and had been ly- ing in this terrible underground cell for eleven days. I immediately took the matter up with Enver and sug- gested that a neutral tUx^tor and officer examine the Tiirks in Egypt and reiwrt on the truth of the stories. We promptly received word that the report was false, and th t. as a matter of fact, the Turkish prisoners in English hands were rweiving excellent treatment. About this time I culled on Monsignor Dolci, the Apostolic Delegate to Turkty. He happened to refer to a lieutenant Fitzgerald, who, he said, was then a prisoner of war at Afiuni Kara Hissar. "I am nmch interested in him," said Monsignor Dolci, "because he is engaged to the daughter of the British Minister to the Vatican. I six)ke to Enver about him and he promised that he wouhJ receive special treatment." "What is his first name.'" I asked. "Jeffrey." "He's receiving 'special treatment' indeed," I answered. "Do you know that he is in a dungeon in Constantinople this very moment?" Naturally M. Dolci was much disturbed but I reassured him, saying that his protege would be re- leased in a few days. " You see how shamefully you treated these young men," I now said to Enver, "you should do some- thing to make amends." "All right, what would you suggest.' " Stoker and Fitzgerald were prisoners of war, and, according to the usual rule, would have been sent back «60 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAUS S'IX)RY to the prison camp after being released from their dun- geon. I now proiH).sed that Enver should give them a vacation of eight days in (Constantinople. He enter- 1 into the sj)irit of the wcusion and the men wtre re- leased. They certainly pres<'nted a sorry sight; they had siK«nt twenty-five days in the dungeon, with no chance to hut he or to shave, with no change of linen or any of the deeeneiivs of lifr. Hut JMr. Philip took charge, furnished them the necessaries, and in a brief period we had before us two young and liandsome Britisn naval oflie.TS. Their eight days' freedonj turned out to be a (riuinphal procession, notwithstand- ing that they were always aceompanied by an P:iiglish- sp<>aking T. ,sh oflieiT. Consignor Dolci and the American Embassy entertained them at dinner and they had a pleasant visit at the Girls' College. \Micn the time came to return to their prison camp, the young men declared that Ihey would be glad to spend another month in dungeons if they could have a corresjwnding period of freedom in the city when lilxrated. In spite of all that has happened I shall always have one Ladly recollection of Enver for his treatment of Fitzgerald.^ I told the Minister of War about the Lieutenant's engagement. "Don't you think he's been punished enough?" I asked. " Why don't you let the boy go home and marry his sweetheart?" The proposition immediately appealed to Enver's sentimental side. "I'll do it," he replied, "if he will give me his word of honour not to fight against Turkey any more." Fitzgerald naturally gave this promise, and so his comparatively brief stay in the dungeon had the result AMUASSADOR MORGENHUUS STORY 201 of freoinj,' him from ijiiprisonmont and ri'sloring Iii'm to huppiiio.Hs. As poor Sfoktr l.ud f«»rmot] no romunlir nttuchmonts thul would luivo juslifii-d a similar pliv. in his cusc, he Inid to go hatk to the i>ri.son ii> A.siu Minor. He did this, however, in a g»iuiinely .sp«»rling spirit that was worthy of the best traditions of the British navy. f>i X'A^' Hi I i T CHAPTER : MI BULGARIA ON THE AUC rroN nr.ocK THE failure of the Allied fleet at the Dardanelles did not definiUly settle the fate of Constanti- nople Naturally the Turks and the Germans But they were by no means entirely easy in their minds GerranS''"".^"' ''''' '"^ "^ *^^ "^^^^ '"A-ntial Germans m the cj y gave me a detailed explanation of the prevaihng military situation. He summed up the whole matter in the single phrase : ^ "We cannot hold the Dardanelles without the mili- tary support of Bulgaria." >, Ji;# '"fr^' f ''°"'''^' *^^^ ""'^«« Bulgaria aligned her^lf with Turkey and the Central Empfres. the gIi hpoh expedition would sueceed, Constantinople would be reestablished as an eeonoxnie and military power, and the war. in a comparatively brief period, would terminate in a vietory for the Entente. Not imp obaty the real neutrality of Bulgaria would have had the same result. It is thus perhaps not too much to say that, m September and October of 1915, the Bulgarian Government held the duration of the war in its hands. .JT if* '" "J^ '""^^ preeminent importance that I can hardly emphasize it too strongly. I suggest that 262 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY 263 my readers take down the map of a part of the worhl with which they are not very faniiHar— that of the Balkan States, as determined by the Treaty of Bucha- rest. All that remains of European Turkey is a small irregular area stretching about one hundred miles west of Constantinople. The nation whose land is contiguous to European Turkey is Bulgaria. The mam railroad line to Western Euroi>e starts at Con- stantinople and runs through Bulgaria, by way of Adrianople, Philippopolis. and Sofia. At that time Bulgaria could muster an army of 500,000 well-trained, completely organized troops. Should these once start marching toward Constantinople, there was practically nothing to bar tlieir way. Turkey had a considerable army, it is true, but it was then finding plenty of employment repelling the Allied forces at the Dar- danelles and the Russians in the Caucasus. With Bulgaria hostile, Turkey could obtain neitlier troops nor munitions from Germany. Turkey would have been completely isolated, and, under the pounding of Bulgaria, would have disappeared as a military force, and as a European state, in one very brief campaign. I wish to direct particular attention to this railroad, for it was, after all, the main strategic prize for which Germany was contending. After leaving Sofia it crosses northeastern Serbia, the most important sta- tions being at Nish and Belgrade. From the latter point it crosses the River Save and later the River Danube, and thence pursues its course to Budapest and Vienna and thence to Beriin. Practically all the military operations that took place in the Balkans in 1915-16 had for their ultimate object the possession of this road. Once holding this line Turkey and Ger- 1-i^ -^ifei' r 264 AMBASSADOR MORGENTILiU'S STORY many would no long-r be separated; economically and militarily they would becoi o a unit. The Dardanelles, as I have described, was the link that connected Russia with her allies; with this passage closed Russia's col- lapse rapidly followed. The valleys of the Morava and the Maritza, in which this railroad is laid, constituted for Turkey a kind of waterless Dardanelles. In L jr posses- sion it gave her access to her allies; in the possession of her enemies, the Ottoman Empire would go to pieces. Only the accession of Bulgaria to tl- Teutonic cause could give the Turks and German, this advantage. As soon as Bulgaria entered, that section of the railroad extending to the Serbian frontier would at once be- come available. If Bulgaria joined the Central Powers as an active participant, the conquest of Serbia would ft^T^^^l^^^^^^^^^^^^^^r^SBi •^ ^^- m W-^ « I ~ V, /.i X. c -s — >> L^. AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 265 inevitably follow, and this would give the link ex- tending from Nish to Belgrade to the Teutonic powers. Thus the Bulgarian alliance would make Constanti- nople a suburb of Berlin, place all the resources of the jvrupps at the disposal of the Turkish army, make in- evitable the failure of the AlHed attack on Gallipoli, and lay the foundation of that Oriental Empire which had been for tliirty years the mainspring of German policy. It is thus apparent what my German friend meant when, in early September, he said that, "without Bul- garia we cannot hold the Dardanelles." Everybody sees this so clearly now thai there is a prevalent belief that Germany had arranged this Bulgarian alliance before the outbreak of the war. On this point I have no definite knowledge. That the Bulgarian king and the Kaiser may have arranged this-- cooperation in ad- vance is not unlikely. But we must not make the mistake of believing that this settled the m Iter, for the experience of the last few years shows us that trea- ties are not to '^e taken too seriously. ^'Hether there was an understanding or not, I know thai, the Turkish officials and the Germans by no means regarded it as settled that Bulgaria would take their side. In their talks with me they constantly showed the utmost ap- prehension over the outcome; and at one time the fear was general that Bulgaria would take the side of the Entente. I had my first personal contact with the Bulgarian negotiations in the latter part of May, when I was m- formed mat M. Koloucheff, the Bulgarian Minister, had notified Robert College that the Bulgarian students could not remain until the end of the college year, but ^>». !"ti 11' ! • 866 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY 'vould have to return home l)y June 5th. The Con- stantinople College for Women had also received word that all the Bulgarian girls must return at the same tune. Both these American institutions had many Bulgarian students, in most rases splendid representa- tives of their country; it is through these colleges, in- deed, that the distant Unite ' States and Bulgaria had established such friendly relations. But they had never had such an experience before. Everybody was y were being bundlet ■■JL ^^'« . ^ m If-: U' fX*'*"'!;' 270 AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIArS STORY this fifty miles, is laid in Bulgarian territory; this short strip, extending through Turkey, cuts Bulgaria's communications with the Mediterranean. Naturally Bulgaria yearned for this piece of land; and Turkey now handed it over to her. This cession changed :'y'\ AMnASSArX)R MORGENTIIAUS STORY 271 tho wholf Biilkjin situation and it made Bulgaria un ully of Turkey and tlu- Ct-ntral Powtrs. Hrsidos tho railroad, Bulgaria obtainrd that part <.f Adriaiiopli- wln'cli lay west of thf .Marilza Hivt-r. In adchtion, «.f course, Bulgaria was to receive Macedonia, a.s soon as that province coidd I;l« occupied hy Bulgaria and her allies. I vividly remember the exultation of Weitz when this agreement was signed. "It's all s,'ttled," he told m,.. " Bulgaria has .lecided to join us. II was all arranged last night at Sofia." The Turks also were greatly relieved. T'^or th<' first time they saw the way out of their troubles. The Bulgarian arrangement, p:nver told me, had taken a tremendous weight off their nu'nds. "We Turks are entitled to the credit," he said, "of bringing Bulgaria in on the side of the Central Powers. She would never have come to our assistance if we hadn't given her that slice of land. By surrendering it ir -ediatcly ani not waitirg till the «>nd of the war, we Si.owed our good faith. It was very hard for us to do it, of course, especially to give up part of the city of Adrianople, but it was worth the i)rice. We really surrendertHl this territory in exchange for Constanti- nople, for if Bulgaria had not come i' on our side, we would have lost this city. Just think how enormously we have improved our position. We have had to keep more than 200,000 men at the Bulgarian frontier, to protect us against any ix)ssible attack from that quar- ter. We can now transfer all these troops to the Gal- lipoli pemiisula, and thus make it absolutely impos- sible that the Allies' expedition can succeed. W-e are also greatly hampered at the Dardanelles by the ..*r jr. j>^i%n 272 AMnASS.UX)R MORGENTlIAl S STORY lack uf ammunitiun. But Bul^uria, Austria, and Germany are to muke a joint attack on Serbia and will completely control that country in a few weeks. So we isliall have a direct railroad line from (.'onslanti- nople into Atislriu and Germany and can ^'et all the war supplies which we need. With Hul^'aria on our side no attack can ho made on Constantinople from the north— we h. vecreatedan imprcgnahle bulwark a>,'ainst Russia. I do not deny that the situation had candied us great anxiety. We were afraid that Greece and Bul- garia Would join hands, and that wouKl also bring in Uunumia. I'hcn 'J'urkey would have been lost; IJicy would have had us between a pair of pincers. But now we have only one task before us, that is to drive the English and French at the Danlantlles into the sea. With all the soldiers and all the ammunition which we need, we shall do this iti a very short time. We gave up a small area because we saw that that was the way to win the war." The outcome justified Enver's prophecies in almost every detail. Three months after Bulgaria accepted the Adrianople bribe, the Entente admitted defeat and withdrew its forces from the Dardanelles; and, with this withdrawal, Russia, which was the greatest i)olenlial source of strength to the Allied cause and the country which, properly organized and supplied, might have brought the Allies a speedy triumph, disappeared as a vital factor in the war. When llie British and French withch-ew from Gallipoli that action turned adrift this huge hulk of a country to flounder to anarchy, dissolu- tion, and ruin. The Germans celebrated this ^rcat triumph in a way that was characteristically Teutonic. In their W § i T ' I lifistr '.tt;' r X . »■ M SlB - '^ ^^s T: liJi •i ; I ._ 2 2 o ^4 ~ «' X X i< ■™ c y. i .;: ■^ 1m M Lv tt r — >^ ^ ^ r. X a O AMBASSADOR MORGEXTIIAUS STORY i73 minds, January 17, 1910, slaiuls out as one ot the big dates 1.1 the war. There was great rejoicing in Con- stantmople, for the first Balkan express-or, as the Germans called it, the Balkanzug-syas due to arrive that afternoon! The railroad station was decorated with flags and flowers, and the whole German and Aus- ti-ian population of Constantinople, including the Embassy staffs, assembled to welcome the incoming tram. As ,t finally rolled into the station, thousands of hochs went up from as many raucous throats. bince that January 17, 191G, the Balkanzug has run regularly from Berlin to Constantinople. The Ger- mans believe that it is as permanent a feature of the new Germanic Empire as the line from Berlin to Ham- burg. '^OSSSi i I inin'-fij; i'li ii ' ' * i t-i M CHAPTER XXn THE TURK REVERTS TO THE ANCESTRAL TYPE THE withdrawal of the Allied fleet . n ; > ' e Darda- nelles had consequences which th. "M does not yet completely understand. The ^.ractical effect of the event, as I have said, was to isolate the Turkish Empire from all the world excepting Germany and Austria. England, Franco, Russia, and Italy, which for a century had held a restraining hand over the Ottoman Empire, had finally lost all power to influence or control. The Turks now perceived that a series of dazzling events had changed them from cringing depen- dents of the European Powers into free agents. For the first time in two centuries they could now^ive their national life according to their own inclinations, and govern their peoples according to their own will. The first expression of this rejuvenated national life was an episode which, so far as I know, is the most terrible in the history of the world. New Turkey, freed from European tutelage, celebrated its national rebirth by murdering not far from a million of its own sub- jects. I can hardly exaggerate the cflfoct which the repulse of the Allied fleet produced upon the Turks. They believed that they had won the really great decisive battle of the war. For several centuries, they said, the British fleet had victoriously sailed the seas and had now met its first serious reverse at the hands of i74 f >iEiv^fitt^i^'^j£4rr;'ii .^i^'M^nm^^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 275 the Turks. In the first moments of their pride, the Young Turk leaders saw visions of the complete res- urrection of their empire. What had for two cen- turies been a decaying nation had suddenly started on a new and glorious life. In their pride and arrogance the Turks began to look with disdain upon the people *hat had taught them what they knew of modern war- lure, and nothing angered them so much as any sug- gestion that they owed ai.y part of their success to their German allies. "Why should we feel any obligation to the Ger- mans?" Envcr would say to me. "WTiat have they done for us which compares with what we have done for them? They have lent us some money and sent us a few officers, it is true, but see what we have done ! We have defeated the British fleet— something which neither the Germans nor any other nation could do. We have stationed armies on the Cauca I .n front, and so have kept busy large bodies of Russian troops that would have been used on the western front. Similariy we have compelled England to keep large armies in Egypt, In Mesopotamia, and in that way we have weakened the Allied armies in France. No, t he Germans could never have achieved their military successes without us; the shoe of obligation is entirely on their foot." This conviction possessed the leaders of the Union and Progress Party and now began to have a determining eflFect upon Turkish national life and Turkish policy. Essentially the Turk is a bully and a coward; he is brave as a lion when things are going his way, but cringing, abject, and nerveless when reverses are overwhelming him. And now that the fortunes of war were appar- ently favouring the empire, I began to see an entirely ff. f? .'■ -I, 876 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY new Turk unfolding before my eyes. The hesitating and fearful Ottoman, feeling his way cautiously amid the mazes of European diplomacy, and seeking oppor- tunities to find an advantage for himself in the divided counsels of the European powers, gave place to an upstanding, almost dashing figure, proud and assertive, determined to live his own life and absolutely con- temptuous of his Christian foes. I was really witness- ing a remarkable development in race psychology — an almost classical instance of reversion to type. The ragged, unkempt Turk of the twenti(>th century was vanishing and in his place was appearing the Turk of the fourteenth and the fifteenth, the Turk who had swept out of his Asi;ilic fastnesses, conquered all the powerful peoples in his way, and founded in Asia, Africa, and Europe one of the most extensive empires that history has known. If we arc properly to appreciate this new Talaat and Enver and the events which now took place, we must understand the Turk who, under Osman and his successors, exercised this mighty but devastating influence in the world. We must realize that the basic fact underlying the Turkish mentality is its utter contempt for all other races. A fairly in- sane pride is the element that largely explains this strange human species. The common term applied by the Turk to the Christian is "dog," and in his esti- mation this is no mere rhetorical figure; he actually looks upon his European neighbours as far less worthy of consideration than his own domestic animals. "My son," an old Turk once said, "do you see that herd of swine.'' Some are white, some arc black, some are large, some are small — they differ from each other in some respects, but they are all swine. So it is with m's-'Mt^''^^' ^"--^-m- :^miam AMBASSADOR MORGFATIIAUS STORY .'77 Christian-s. Re not doccivrd, my son. Tlu'st' Chris- tians may wear fine clothes, their women may he very beautiful to look upon; their skins are white aiul splendid; many of them are very intelligent and they build wonderful cities and cn'ate what seem to be great states. But remember that underneath ail this dazzling exterior they are all t!ie sanv. — they are :ill swino." Practically all foreigners, wliile in the presence of u Turk, are conscious of tliis attitude. The Turk may be obsequiously polite, but there is invariably an almost unconscious fe(>ling that he is mentally shrink- ing from his Christian friend as something un- clean. And this fundamental conviction for centuries directed the Ottoman j>olicy toward its snh'icct I)eoples. This wild horde swept from the plains of Central Asia and, like a whirlwind, overwhelmed the nations of ^Iesoi)otann"a and Asia Minor; it conquered Egypt, Arabia, and practically all of northern Africa and then i)oured into Emope, crushed the Balkan nations, occupied a large part of Himgary, and even established the outposts of the Ottoman Empire in the southern part of Russia. So far as I can dis- cover, the Ottoman Turks had oidy one great quali'v, that of military genius. They had several military leaders of commanding ability, and the early conquer- ing Turks were brave, fanatical, and tenacious fighters, just as their descendants are to-day. I think that these old Turks present the most complete illustra- tion in history of the brigand idea in politics. They were lacking in what we may call the fundamentals of a civilized community. They had no alphabet and no art of writing; no books, no poets, no art, and no archi- I 878 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY lecture; they built no cities and they established no lasting state. They knew no law except the rule of might, and they had practically no agriculture and no industrial organization. They were simply wild and marauding horsemen, whose one conception of tribal success was to pounce upon people who were more civilized than themselves and plunder them. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries these tribes overran the cradles of modem civilization, which have given Europe its religion and, to a large extent, its civilization. At that time these territories were the seats of many peaceful and prosperous nations. The Mesopotamian valley supported a lafge indus- trious agricultural population; Bagdad was one of the largest and most flourishing cities in existence; Constantinople had a greater population than Rome,' and the Balkan region and Asia Minor contained sev- eral powerful states. Over all this part of the world the Turk now swept as a huge, destructive force. Mesopotamia in a few years became a desert; the great cities of the Near East were reduced to misery, and the subject peoples became slaves. Such graces of civili- zation as the Turk has acquired in five centuries have practically all been taken from the subject peoples whom he so greatly despises. His religion comes from the Arabs; his language has acquired a certaii liteiary value by borrowing certain Arabic and Persian ele- ments ; and his writing is Arabic. Constantinople's finest architectural monument, the Mosque of St. Sophia, was originally a Christian church, and all so-called Turkish architecture is derived from the Byzantine. The mech- anism of business and industry has always rested in the hands of the subject peoples, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 979 and Arabs. The Turks have learned little of European art or science, they have established very few educa- toal institutions, and illiteracy is the prevailing rule. Ihe result is that poverty has attained a degree of sordidness and misery in the Ottoman Empire which is almost unparalleled elsewhere. The Turkish peasant iives m a mud hut; he sleeps on a dirt floor; he has no chairs, no tables, no eating utensils, no clothes except the few scant garments which cover his back and which lie usually wears for many yc^ars. In the course of time these Turks might learn cer- tain things from their European and Arab neighbours, but there was one idea which they could never even faintly grasp. They could not understand that a conquered people were anything except slaves. WTien they took possession of a land, tl.oy found it occupied by a certain number of camels, horses, buffaloes, dags, swine and human beings. Of all these living things the object that physically most resembled themselves they regarded as the least important. It became a common saying with them that a horse or a camel was far more valuable than a man; these animals cost money whereas "infidel Christians ' were plentiful in the Ottoman countries and could easily be forced to labour. It IS true that the early Sullans gave the sub- ject peoples and the Europeans in the empire certain rights but these in themselves really reflected the con- tempt m which all non-Moslems were held. I h > ,e already described the "Capitulations." under which f^eigners in Turkey had their own courts, prisons, post- offices and other institutions. Yet the early sultans gave these privileges not from a spirit of tolerance, but merely because they looked upon the Christian nations I Iflfp' III' ■il it . M| ^■MP k. .fe'f MO AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY as unclean and therefore unfit to have any contact with the Ottoman adn Inistrative and judicial system. The sultans similarly erected the several peoples, sueJi as the Greeks and the Armenians, into separate "millets," or nations, not because they desired to promote tluir independence and welfare, but because they regardinl them as vermin, and therefore disqualified for member- ship in the Ottoman state. The attitude of the Government toward their Christian subjects was illus- trated by certain regulations which limited their free- dom of action. The buildings in which Christians lived should not be conspicuous and their churches should have no belfry. Christians could not ride a horse in the city, for that was the exclusive right of the noble Moslem. The Turk had the right to test tlie sharpness of his sword upon the neck of any Christian. Imagine a great government year in and year out maintaining this attitude toward many millions of its own subjects! And for centuries the Turks simply lived like parasites upon these overburdened and industrious people. They taxed them to economic extinction, stole their most beautiful daughters and forced them into their harems, took Christian male infants by the hundreds of thousands and brought them up as Moslem .soldiers. I have no intention of de- scribing the terrible vassalage and oppression that went on for five centuries; my purpose is merely to empha- size this innate attitude of the Moslem Turk to jjeople not of his own race and religion— that they are not human beingj with rights, but merely chattels, which may be permitted to live when they promote the in- terest of their masters, but which may be pitilessly destroyed when they have ceased to be useful. This •^T.smmm AMBASSADOR MORGEXTHAU'S STORY 281 attitude is intensified !,y a total disregard for human life and an intense delight in inflicling phy.ieal lu.nmn suffering which are not unuMially the qualities of prim- itive peoples. Such were the mental characteristics of tlie Turk in his days of military greatness. In recent times his attitude toward foreigners and his subject peoples had superficially changed. His own military decline and the ease with which the infidel nations defeated his finest armies had apparently given the haughty de- scendants of Osman a respect at least for their prowess The rapid disappearance of his own empire in a hunl dred years, the creation out of the Ottoman Empire of new states like Greece. Serbia, Bulgaria, and Rumania, and the wonderful improvement which had followed the destruction of the Turkish yoke in these benighted lands may have increased the Ottoman hatred for the unbehever, but at least they had a certain influence in opemng his eyes to his importance. Many Turks also now received the.r education in European universities; they studR^d in their professional schools, and they became physicians, surgeons, lawyers, engineers, and chemists of the modern kin.l. However much the more progressive Moslems might despise their Chris- tian associates, they could not ignore the fact that the finest things, m Jhis temporal world at least, were the products o European and American civilization. And now that one development of modern history whicu seemed to be least understandable to the Turk began to force itself upon the consciousness of the more mteUigent and progressive. Certain leaders arose who began to speak surrept tiously of such things as Constitutionalism," •J.ibe.iv," "Self-govern- I jillti. U' m : '11 f8« AAIBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY ment," and to whom the Declaration of Independence contained certain truths that might have u value even for Islam. These daring spirits began to dream of overturning the autocratic Sultan and of substituting a parliamentary system for his irresponsible rule. I have already described the rise and fall of this Young Turk movement under such leaders as Talaat, Enver, Djemal, and their associates in the Committee of Union and Progress. The p<.iul which I am emphasiz- ing here is that this moviineiit presupposed a com- plete transformation of Turkish mentality, especially in its attitude toward subject peoples. No longer, under the reformed Turkish state, were Greeks, Syrians,' Armenians, and Jews to be regarded as " filthy giaours. '' All these peoples were henceforth to have equal rights and equal duties. A general love feast now followed the establishment of the new regime, and scenes of almost frenzied reconciliation, in which Turks and Armenians embraced each other publicly, apparently signalized the absolute union of the long antagonistic peoples. The Turkish leaders, including Talaat and Enver, visited Christian churches and sent forth prayers of thanksgiving for the new order, and went to Arme- nian cemeteries to shed tears of retribution over the bones of the martyred Armenians who lay there. Armenian priests reciprocally paid their tributes to the Turks in Mohammedan mosques. Enver Pasha visited several Armenian schools, telling the children that the old days of Moslem-Christian strife had passed forever and that the two peoples were now to live to- gether as brothers and sisters. There were cynics who smiled at all these demonstrations and yet one develop- ment encouraged even thein to believe that an earthly AMBASSADOR MC'.GENTHAUS STORY «8S parmliso had arrived. All through the period of domi- na .on only the master Moslem had been permit^ to bear arms and serve in the Ottoman army ?^ "el sohher was an oceupation altogether too manly and Voung Turks encouraged all Christians to arm and enrdK.d them in the army on an equality with Zw 1 hese Chnstmns fought, both as officers and soldiers, in from ttV"L'f ''"''r ""'''' "'""'"'^ ^'«^ P-- from the Turkish generals for their valour and skill Wman leaders had figured conspicuously in the Young Turk movement; these men apparently believed that a cons itutional Turkey was possible. They were conscious of their own intellectual and industrial superf! the Ottoman Empire if left alone, whereas, under W pean control, they would have greater difficulty in mecN .ng the competition of the more rigorous EuroX colonists who might come in. With the depositiorof the Red Sultan. Abdul Hamid. and the establishment of a constitutional system, the Armenians now for the first time m several centuries felt themselves to be free men. »- *ict- "."*• ",' •>»« already described, all these aspirations va„,shed Idee a droan,. Long before the Euroj^an wir began, the Turkish democracy had disappeaL. Ti" power o the new Sultan had gone, and The hopes „£ egcnerafng Turkey on modem lines had gone also leaving only a group of individuals, headed by Talaat and Enver actually in possession of the state. HavW P anted them w,th a new national conception. In pla^ of a democratic constitutional state they resurrected the ?!>;:' «84 AMBASSAIXm MORGEXTliAU S STORY idea of Pan-Turkism; in place of earbarie ideas of their ancestors. It represented, as 1 have said, merely an atavistic reversion to the orifpnal Turk. W'v now saw that the Turkish leaders, in talking about liberty, equality, fraternity, and consti- tutionalism, were merely children repealing phrases;, that they had used the word "democracy" merely as a ladder by which to climb to pow<ption of a state as consisting of a few master individuals whose right it is to enslave and plunder and maltreat any i>eoplcs whom they can subject to their military control. Though Talaat and Enver and Djemal all came of the humblest fam- ilies, the same fundamental ideas of master and slave possessed them that formed the statecraft of Osman and the early Sultans. We now discovered that a paper constitution and even tearful visits to Christian chur- ches and cemeteries could not uproot the inborn pre- conception of tliis nomadic tribe tiiui there are only two kinds of people in the world— the conciuering and the conquered. When the Turkish Government abrogated the Capitu- lations, and in this way freed themselves fr jm the domination of the foreign powers, they were merely AMHASSAOOR MORGFATIIU S STORY 28.', taking on.- strp towar.l r.'alizin^^ 'hw Pan-Turkish ilia.i scIumjIs. J^^-ir <1, . rmination to uprrs, workmen, anle; most street signs were printee of Turkish officials. Relations between the Armenians, who lived in the bet* r section of the city and the Turks and the Kurds vn<> )ccupied the mud huts m the Moslem quarter, ha i br n tolerably agree- able for many years. The location of this vilayet, however, inevitably made it the scene of military operations, and made the activities of its Armenian population a matter of daily r ' .?. /ai^-'^.SEi K.-y:'^i?SLi'^tti ^ m I 11 294 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY suspicion. Should Russia attempt an invasion of Tur- key one of the most accessible routes lay through this province. The war had not gone far when causes of irritation arose. The requisitions of army supplies fell far more heavily upon the Christian than upon the Mohammedan elements in Van, just as they did in every other part of Turkey. The Armenians had to stand quietly by while the Turkish officers appro- priated all their cr.ttle, all their wheat, and all their goods of every kind, giving them only worthless piece? of paper in exchange. The attempt at general dis- armament that took place also aroused their apprehen- sion, which was increased by the brutal treatment visited upon Armenian soldiers in the Caucasus. On the other hand, the TurL made many charges against the Christian population, and, in fact, they attributed to them the larger share of the blame for the reverses which the Turkish armies had suffered in the Caucasus. The fact that a considerable element in the already changed forces was composed of Armenians aroused their unbridled wrath. Since about half the Armenians in the world inhabit the Russian provinces in the Caucasus and arc liable, like all Russians, to military service, there were certainly no legitimate grounds for complaint, so far as these Armenian levies were bona fide subjects of the Czar. But the Turks asserted that large numbers of Armenian soldiers in A^an and other of their Armenian provinces deserted, crossed the border, and joined the Russian army, whoro their knowledge of roads and the terrain was an important factor in the Russian vic- ■ies. Though the exact facts are not yet ascertained, K eems not unlikely that such desertions, perhaps a few hundred, did take place. At the beginning of the AMBASS.VDOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 295 war. Union and Progress agents appeared in Erzerouni and Van and appealed to the Armenian leaders to go into Russian Armenia and attempt to start revolu- tions against the Russian Government; and the fact that the Ottoman Armenians refused to do this con- tributed further to the prevailing irritation. The Turkish Government has matie much of the "trea- sonable" behaviour of the Armenians of Van and have even urged it as an excuse for their subsequent treat- ment of the whole race. Their attitude illustrates once more the perversity of the Turkish mind. After massacring hundreds of thousands of Arme- nians in the course of thirty years, outraging their women and girls, and robbing and maltreating them in every conceivable way, the Turks still ap- parently beheved that they had the right to expect from them the most enthusiastic "loyalty". That the Armenians all over Turkey sympathized with the Entente was no secret. " If you want to know how the war is going," wrote a humorous Turkish news- paper, "all you need to do is to look in the face of an Armenian. If he is smiling, then the Allies are winning: if he is downcast, then the Germans are successful."' If an Ottoman Armenian soldier should desert and join the Russians, that would unquestionably constitute a technical crime against the state, and might be pun- ished without violating the rules of all civilized coun- tries. Only the Turkish mind, however-and pos- sibly the Junker— could regard it as furnishing an excuse for the terrible barbarities that now took place. Though the air, all during the autunm and winter of 19U-15, was filled with premonitions of trouble, the Armenians behaved with remarkable self-restraint 'fymff'-i^r'rts iW AMOASvSADOR MORGENTHAUS STUin- i ^7*11 If-! For years it had been the Turkish pohcy to provoke thcChristian population into committing overt acts, and then seizing upon such mi^ibehaviour as an excuse for massacres. The Armenian ch^gy and {whtical leaders saw many evidences that the Turks were now up to their old tactics, and they therefore went among the people, cautioning them to keep quiet, to bear all in- sults and even outrages patiently, so as not to give the Moslems the oi)ening which they were seeking. "Even though they burn a few of our villages," these leaders would say, "do not ntaliale, for it is better that a few be destroyed than that the whole nation be massacred." When the war started, the Central (iovemmcnt recalled Tahsin Pasha, the conciliatory governor of Van, and replaced him with Djevdet Bey, a brother- in-law of Enver Pasha. This act in itself was most disquieting. Turkish officialdom has always con- tained a minority of men who do not believe in mas- sacre as a state i)olicy and cannot be dei>ended upon to carry out strictly the most bloody orders of the Cen- tral Government. Whenever massacres have been planned, therefore, it has been customary first to re- move such "untrustworthy" public servants and replace them by men who are regarded as more reli- able. The character of Tahsin's successor made his displacement still more alarming. Djevdet had spent the larger part of his life at Van; he was a man of un- stable character, friendly to non-Moslems one mo- ment, hostile the next, hypocritical, treacherous, and ferocious according to the worst traditions of his race. He hated the Armenians and cordially sympathized with Uie long-established Turkish plan of solving the Armenian problem. There is little question that he ->.■ J AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAL S STORY «D7 came to Van with definite injhictions to oxtormi- nate all Armenians in this provincv, Imt. for the first few months, conditions tiid not facilitate such opera- tions. I)jev(h't hims<'lf was absent fi^hlinj,' the Utis- sians in the Caticasus and the near approach of the enemy nwide it a wise pohcy for the I'lirks to refrain from maltreating,' the Armenians of Van. Hut early in the spring the Russians tempfom, they distributed the most beautiful Armenian women among th • Moslems, sacked and burned the Armenian villages, and massacred imintcr- ruptedly for days. On April 15tlj, about 500 young Ar- menian men of Akuntz were mustered to hear an onJer of the Sultan; at sunset they were marched outside the town and every man >hot in cold blood. This pro- cedure was repeated in about eighty Armenian villages in the district north of Lake Van, and in three days 24,000 Armenians were murdered in this atrocious fashion. A single episode illustrates the unspeakable depravity of Turkish methods. A conflict having broken out at Shadak, Djevdet Bey, who had mean- Hit 298 AMBASSADOR MORGE>rrHAU*S STORY vrliile returned to Van, asked four of the leading Ar- menian citizens to go to this town and attempt to quiol the multitude. These men made the trip, stop- ping at all Arnu-nian villages along the way, urging evtryJMMly to kwp puhlic order. After rompleting their work these four Armeniuiis wore murdered in a Kurdish village. And so when DjVvdt t Bey, on his return to his oflBcial IH)st, opIe were naturally in no moo.. > accede to his request. When we consider what had happened before and what hap}K'ned subsequtntly, there remains little doubt concerning tin- i>iir|»ose which underlay this demand. Dje\(let, aetiih,- in obedience to orders from Constantinople, v\as j»rc- paring to wipe out the whole population, and his pur- pose in calling for 4,000 able-bodied men wa^ m-n\\ to massacre them, so that the rest of the Armeni.cus might have no defenders. The Armenians, parleying to gain time, offered to furnish five hundred soldiers and to pay exemption money for the rest; now, how- ever, Djevdet began to talk aloud about "rebellion," and his determination to "crush" it at any cost. "If the rebels fire a single shot," he declared, "I shall kill every Christian man, woman, and" (pointing to his knee) "every child, up to here." For some time the Turks had been constructing entrenchments around the Armenian quarter and filling them with soldiers and, in response to this provocation, the Armenians began to make prepa- rations for a defense. On April 20th, a band of Tur- kish soldiers seized several Armenian women who were entering the city; a couple of Armenians ran to their assistance and were shot dead. The Turks now opened m^ A.\IBA^^A^X)U MOaCLNTIIAL S STOIl^ «!)» fire on the .Vrnuiiian (|uart(Ts with rifles and irlilLry, soon a large part of the town wa.^ in flames and a n'gii- lar siege had started. The whole Annenian tiifhting force consisteil of only 1,500 men: they hud otdv 800 rifl(^ and a most inadeply of ummuiulion, while Djevdet haelf-sacriii«ing zeal of the American mis-ionan. s, esiK-cially Doctor Ussher and his wife and Miss Crace H. Knapp, and the thousand oth-r eircumstances that mad* this terrible month one < ♦ t'u- most glorious pages in modem Arme- nian 1 ; ' >f" ii.* wonderful thing about it is that the Ar"Kr'i..>v <• . nphed. After nearly five weeks of sleepl,' !iL'!? tij:, ! _' Russian army suddenly appeared and < i i'u/Jv ^.-r, i.-to i}w surrounding country, where they iov'^',i.ev'led Armenian villagers. Doctor Ussher, the Aiui^rican medical missionary whose hospital at Van was destroyed by bombardment, is authority for the statement that, after driving off the 'J urks, the Russians began to collect and to cremate the boflies of Armenians who had been murdered in the province, with the result that 55,000 bodies were burned. I have told this story of the " Revolution " in Van not ^WW^ uim,. ,/A«BW(iiri«rmed into road labourers and pack animals. Army supij^i^'s of all kinds were loaded on their backs, and, stumbling under the burdens and driven by the whips and bayonets of the Tur. 5, they were forced to drag their weary bodies into the mountains of the Caucasus. Sometimes they would have to plough their way, burdened in this fash- ion, almost waist high through snow. They had to spend practically all their time in the open, sleeping on the bare ground — whenever the ceaseless prodding of their taskmasters gave them an occasional opportunity to sleep. They were given only scraps of food; if they fell sick they were left where they had dropped, their Turk- ish oppressors perhaps stopping long enough to rob them of all their possessions — even of their clothes. If any stragglers succeeded in reaching their destinations, they were not infrequently massacred. In many instances Armenian soldiers were disposed of in even more sum- mary fashion, for it now became almost the general practice to shoot them in cold blood. In almost all cases the procedure was the same. Here and there squads of 50 or 100 men would be taken, bound together in groups of four, and then marched out to a secluded spot a short distance from the village. Suddenly the AMBASSADOR MORGENTUAUS bXORY 30J sound of rifle diots would fill the air, and the Turkish soldiers who had acted as the escort would sullenly re- turn to camp. Those sent to bury the bodios would find them almost invariably stark naked, for, as usual. the Turks had stolen all their clothes. In cases that came to my attention, the murderers had added a re- finement to their victims' sufferings by comixlling them to dig their graves before being shot. Let me relate a single episode which is conlained in one of the reports of our consuls and which now forms part of the records of the American State Depart iivmt Early in July. '2,000 Armenian "a/neles"— such is the Turkish word for soldiers who have been reduced to workmen— were sent from Haipoot to build roads. The Armenians in that town understood what this meant and pleaded with the Govenior for mercy. But this official insisted that the mm \a ere not to be harnu d, and he even called u[>on the German missionary, :Mr.' Ehemann. to quiet the panic, giving that gentleman his word of honour that the ex-soldiers would be pro- tected. Mr. Ehemann belL-ved the Governj and assuaged the popular fear. ^Vt practically tve^y man of tli-se ^2.000 was massacred, and his bo(iy ijuown into a cave. A few escaped, and it was from t h. se that news of the massacre reached the world. A f.w days afterward another 2,000 soldiers were sent to Diarbe- kir. The only pjirpose of sending these men out in the open eountry was that they might be massacred. In order that they might have no strength to resist or to escape by flight, these fx>or creatures were sys- tematically starved. Government agents went ahead on the road, notifying the Kurds that the caravaii was approaching and ordering them to do their con- Mi; :*' i '■' 'in Ji. 304 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORV pcnial duly. Not only did the Kurdish Irihosmen pour down from the mountains ujwn this starved and weak- emnl regiment, but the Kurdish women came with buteiier's knives in order that they might gain that merit in AHah's eyes that eonies from kilHng a Chris- tian. These massacres were not isohil(>d hapi><>nings; I could detail many more episodes just as horrible as the one related above; througiiout the Turkish Em- pire a systematic attempt was made to kill all able- bodied men, iiot only for the puri)ose of removing all males who might propagate a new generation of Ar- menians, but for the purpose of rendering the weaker part of the population an easy prey. Dreadful as were these massacres of unarmed sol- ermitted to retain their arms. In many cases, however, the ptM'secuted i>eople patiently obeyed the conmiand; and then the Turkish officials almost joy- fully seized tluir rifles as evitlence that a "revolution" was being jdamied and threw their victims into prison on a charge of treason. Thousands failed to deliver arms simply because they had none to deliver, while an even greater number tenaciously refused to give them up, not because they were plotting an uprising, but because they proposed to defend their own lives ■/ 'J- t &1Ji c . f i — - "^ ' f I AMBASSAlX)ll MORGENTILM'S i^TORV 3o.: y. y. y. •J an'l tht'ir woinon's honour against, llie oufnigcs which tlicy knew were being planned. 'J'he pui.ishnient in- flicted u|K>n these recalcitrants forms one of the most hith'ous chapters of modern history. Most of us be- lieve that torture has long ceased to be an adminis- trative and judicial measure, yet I do not believe that the darkest ages ever presented scenes more horrible than those which now took pifice all over Turkej'. Nothing was sacred to the Turkish gendarmes; under the plea of searching for hidden arms, they ransacked churches, treated the altars and sacred utensils with the utmost indignity, and even held mock ceremonies in imitation of the Christian sacraments. They would beat the priests into insensibilitj-, under the pretense that they were the centres of sedition. When Ihey could discover no weapons in the churches, they would sometimes arm the bishops and priests with gims, pistols, and swords, then try them before courts-martial for possessing weai>ons against the law, and march them in this condition through the streets, merely to arouse the fanatical wrath of the mobs. The gen- darmes treated women with the same cruelty and in- decency as the men. There are cases on record in which women accused of concealing wea[K>ns were stripped ntJced and whipped with branches freshly cut from trees, and these beatings were even inflicted on women who were with child. Violations so commonly accompanied these searches that Armenian women and girls, on the approach of the gcufiarmes, would flee to the woods, the hills, or to mountain caves. As a preliminary to the searches everywhere, the strong men of the villages and towns were arrested and taken to prison. Their tormentors here would exer- r/ 1^ *,'^»?^-• . -n ^- m SOfl AMBASSADOR MORGENTIUU'S STORY cise the most diahoiical ingenuity in their attempt to make their victims declare themselves to be "revolu- tionists" and to tell the hiding places of their arms A common practice was to place the prisoner in a room.' with two lurks stationed at each end and each side 1 he examination would then begin with the bastinado! 1 his IS a form of torture not uncommon in the Orient- it consists cf beating the soles of the feet with a thin rod At first the pain is not marke ffu' "''jorseshocr of Bashkale" for this connoisseur in tfir.urr had invented what was perhaps the marte^)ieve of jiU that of nailing horse- shoes to the feet o«* uL Arrv;<^i."nn victims. Yet these happeaings did noi ro* .'■iitule what the newspapers of the time cfli«nionly referred to as the 808 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAUS STORY U • ■ I A Armenian atrocitios; they were monly tlic preparatory steps in the e wash, le t half h 7 "<■■•« ^-tehed ont of bed. the bread was ft half baked ,n the oven, the family mea! was aban- doned partly eaten, the children were taken from the schoolroo.n, leaving their books open at the daily task and the men were forced to aban.loa 1 heir ploughs in the fieuls and the.r cattle on the mountam side. Even women who had just given birth to children would be forced to leave their beds and join the panic-stricken ^Zf h""-T"« '''"^^ '■" "'■''^ ''™» Such [^ as they humedly snatched up-a shawl, a bianfcel p.^haps a few scraps of food-were all that they could v™ .1^/ , "■''' "^ '°"'^' " "'<' gendarmes would vouchsafe only one reply: "To the interior" in some eases the refugees were given a few hoirs 'i,; except,o„aI ,„.,tanecs a few days, to dispose of S property and household effects. But the proceedhS ^ unw'toT"?"' t";'^ *° """>^'^- ^^y «>"w knew that they had only a day or two to market the accnmulatu>ns of a lifetime, the prices ^btain^ represented a small fraction of their value. Sewkg machmes would bring one or two doUars-a cow wouM go for a dollar, a houseful of furniture would be sold AMBASSADOR MORGENTILVU'S STORY 311 for a pittance. In many cases Armenians were pro- hibited from selling or Turks from buying even at these ridiculous prices; under pretense that the Government intended to sell their effects to pay the creditors whom they would inevitably leave belund, their household furuitui'e would be placed in stores or heaped up in public places, where it was usually pillaged by Turkish men and women. The government officials would also inform the Armenians that, since their deportation was only te. porary, the intention being to bring them back after the war was over, they would not be per- mitted to sell their houses. Scarcely had the former possessors left the village, when Mohammedan mohcd- jirs — immigrants from other parts of Turkey — would be moved into the Armenian quarters. Similarly all their valuables — money, rings, watches, and jewellery — would be taken to the police stations for "safe keep- ing, " pending their return, and then parcelled out among the Turks. Yet these robberies gave the refugees little anguish for far more terrible and agonizing scenes were taking place under their eyes. The systematic extermination of the men continued; such males as the persecutions wh'ch I have already described had left were now violently dealt with. Before the caravans were started, it became the regular practice to separate the young men from the families, tie them together in groups of four, lead them to the outskirts, and shoot them. Public hangings without trial — the only offense being that the victims wore Armenians — were taking place constantly. The gendarmes showed a particular desire to annihilate the educj'*ed and the influential. From American consuls and missionaries I waa con- stantly receiving reports of such executions, and many of •! /^-^ara 1 ni 312 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY the events wluch they described will never fade from my memory. At Angora all Armenian men from fifteen to •seventy were arrested, bound together in groups of four, and sent on the road in the direction of Caesarea! \Vhen they had travelled five or six hours and had reached a secluded valley, a mob of Turkish peasants fell upon them with clubs, hammers, axes, scythes, spades, .md saws. Such instruments not only caused niore agonizing deaths than gims and pistols, but, ns the Turks themselves boaste ^ — fi -- •V* b. » 5^ ^ ii. W -" >; H ZI i* C £"a X > 53 1 h " 3J c - 4 5 1 L. ■■* s^; i: 3 ^2 c 5i^ ^ Na ti 3 C 4-f H^ •= F ^_ a. <; ^ § c §5 "Z .— ••"» X c 11 f^ £ ^ C *r. £ "^ C "" u X ''- ji: ^i^ & *ri C C 1^ p-*" c •- s c ■g-o c £ £ ■'! X <; £ i'c >• C - ?3 ■~- M f- ci: a •* fe ?_t. -/: •*- v: *C U llz ;^ Sep ^w ■— ■* v ^ £ - u N^ C = - ^ c &-^. , Sifc ii L^^-^ AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 3 IS compelled to surrender their children to a so-called "Moslem Orphanage," with the agreement that tJiey should be trained as devout followers of the Prophet. They themselves must then show the sincerity of their conversion by abandoning their Cliristian husbtmds and marrying Moslems. If no good Mohammedan offered himself as a husband, then the new convert was deported, however strongly she might protest her devotion to Islam. At first the Government showed some inclination to protect these departing throngs. The officers usually divided them into convoys, in some cases numbering several hundred, in others several thousand. The civil authorities occasionally furnished ox-carts which carried such household furniture as the exiles had succeeded in scrambling together. A guard of gen- darmerie accompanied each convoy, ostensibly to guide ajid protect it. Women, scantily clad, carrying babies in their arms or on their backs, marched side by side with old men hobbling along with canes. Children would run along, evidently regarding the procedure, in the early stages, as some new lark. A more prosperous member would perhaps have a horse or a donl.ey, oc- casionally a farmer had rescued a cow or a sheep, which would trudge along at his side, and the usual assort- mentof family pets— dogs, cats, and birds— became parts of the variegated procession. From thousands of Ar- menian cities and villages these despairing cari^vans now set forth; they filled all the roads hading southward; everywhere, as they moved on, they raised a huge dust, and abandoned debris, chairs, blankets, bedclothes, household utensils, and other impedimenta, marked the course of the processions. When the caravans first ♦f mim if SU AMBASSADOR MORGENTIIAU'S STORY started, tlie individuals bore some resemblance to human beings; in a few hours, however, tlie dust of the road plastered their faces and clothes, tlie mud caked their lower members, and the slowlv advancing niobs, frequently bent with fatigue and crazed by the brutality of their "protectors," resembled some new and strange animal species. Yet for the bett> part of six months, from April to October, 1!) 15, practically all the highways in Asia Minor were crowded with these unearthly bands of exiles. They could be seen winding m and out of every valley and climbing up the sides of nearly every mountain— moving on and on, they scarcely knew whither, except that every road led to death. Village after village and town after town was evacuated of its Armenian population, under the dis- tressing circumstances already detailed. In these six montLs, as far as can be ascertained, about 1,200,000 people started on this journey to the Syrian desert! "Pray for us," they would say as they left their homes— the homes in which their ancestors had lived for 2,500 years. "We shall not see you in this world again, but sometime we shall meet. Pray for us ! " The Armenians had hardly left their native villages when the persecutions began. The roads over which they travelled were little more than donkey paths; and what had started a few hours before as an orderly procession soon became a dishevelled and scrambling mob. Women were separated from their children and husbands from their wives. The old people soon lost contact with their families and became exhausted and footsore. The Turkish drivers of the ox-carts, after extorting the last coin from their charges, would suddenly dump them and their belongings into the AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY 3l« road, turn around, and return to the village for other victims. Thus in a short time practically everybody, young and old, was compelled to travel on foot. The gendarmes whom the Government had sent, supposedly to protect the exiles, in a very few hours became their tormentors. They followed their charges with fixed bayonets, prodding auy one who showed any tendency to slacken the pace. Those who attempted to stop for rest, or who fell exhausted on the road, were com- peUed, with the utmost bruUility, to rejoin the moving throng. They even prodded pregnant women with bayonets; if one, as frequently happened, gave birth along the road, she was immediately forced to get up and rejoin the marchers. The whole course of the journey became a perpetual struggle with the Moslem mhabitants. Detachments of gendarmes would go ahead, notifying the Kurdish tribes that tluir victims were approaching, and Turkish peasants were also in- formed that their long- waited opportunity had arrived. ' Government even opened the prisons and set - "^ the convicts, on the understanding that they should cnave like good Moslems to the approaching Arme- nians. Thus every caravan had a continuous battle for existence with several classes of enemies— their ac- companying gendarmes, the Turkish peasants and villagers, the Kurdish tribes and bands of Chetcs or brigands. And we must always keep in mind that the men who might have defended these wa^-farers had nearly all been killed or forced into the army as work- men, and that tlie exiles themselves had been syste- matically deprived of all weapons before the journey be- gan. , When the victims had travelled a few hours from ♦j mw ^^pU^.: m u 816 AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY their starting place, the Kurds would sweep down from thoir mountain homes. Rushing up to the young girls, they would lift their veils and carry the pretty ones off to the hills. They would steal such children as pleased their fancy and mercilessly rob all the rest of the throng. If the exiles had started with any money or food, their assailants would appropriate it, thus leaving I hem a hopeless prey to starvation. They would steal their clothing, and sometimes even leave both men and women in a state of complete nudity. All the time that they were committing these deprada- tions the Kurds wo. Id freely massacre, and the screams of women and old men would add to the general horror. Such as escaped these attacks in the open would lind new terrors awaiting them in the Moslem villages. Here the Turkish roughs would fall upon the women, leaving thom sometimes dead from their experiences or sometimes ravingly insane. After spending a night in a hideous encampment of this kind, the exiles, or such as had survived, would start again the next morning. The ferocity of the gendarmes apparently increased as the journey lengthened, for they seemed almost to resent the fact that part of their charges continued to live. Frequently any one who dropped on the road was bayoneted on the spot. The Armenians began to die by hundreds from hunger and thirst. Even when they came to rivers, the gendarmes, merely to torment them, would sometimes not let them drink. The hot sun of the desert burned their scantily clothed bodies, and their bare feet, treading the hot sand of the desert, became so sore that thousands fell and died or were killed where they lay. Thus, in a few days, what had been a procession of normal human beings became a AMBASSADOR MORGEXTILVUS STOnV S17 stumbling horde of dust-coverod .skelolon.s, ravenously lookmg for scnips of food, eating any off;;! that canu; their way, crnze I by the hideous siglils thai (ilird every hour of their oxisteuee, sick with ull the tiisrases that accompany such hardships and ])rivati.)ns, but still prodded on and on by the whips and clubs uud bayonets of their executioners. And thus, as the exiles moved, they left behind them another caravan— that of dead and unburied luidies, of old men and of women dying hi the last stages of typhus, dysentery, and cholera, of little children lyuig on their backs and setting up their last piteous-wails for food and water. There were women who held up their babies to strangers, begging them to take them and save them from their tormentors, and failing this, they would throw them into wells or leave them behind bushes, that at leLst they might die undisturbed. Behind was left a small army of girls who had been sold as slaves— frequently for a medjidie. or about eighty cents — and who, after serving the brutal purposes of their pur- chasers, were forced to lead lives of prostitution. A string of c. mpments, filled by the sick and the dying, mingled v . the unburied or half-buried bodies of the dead, marked the course of the advancing:; throngs. Flocks of vultures followed them in the air, und rave- nous dogs, fighting one another for the bodies of the dead, constantly pursued them. The most terril)le scenes took plr-^e at the rivers, especially the Euphrates. Sometimes, vniexi crossing this stream, the gendarmes would push the worn a into the water, shooting all who attempted to save themselves by swimming. Fre- quently the women themselves would save their honour by jumping into the river, their children in their arms. ■^.,j^ SIS AiMBASSADOR MORGENTnAUS STORY "In Ihe last week in June," I quote from a consular report, "several parlies of E. zerouni Annenians were tleported on successive days and ni.,.st of (hem mas- sacred on the way, cillier by siiooling oi drowning One, Madame Zarouhi. an elderly lady of means, who was thrown into the Euphrates, saved herself by cling. «ng to a boulder in the river. She succeeded in ap- proachmg the bank and rofurned to Erzeroum to hide herself in a Turkish fri.Mid'.s house. She told Prince Argoutinsky. the reprcsenlative of the 'All-Russian Urban Union m Erzeroum, that she shuddered to re- call how hundreds of children were bayoneted by the Turks and thrown into the Euphrates, and how men and women were stripped naked, tied together in hundreds, shot, and then hurled into the river In a loop of the river near Erzinghan, she said, the thousands of dead bodies created such a barrage that the Eu- phrates changed its course for about a hundred yards " It is absurd for the Turkish Government to assert that It ever seriously intended to "deport the Arme- nians to new homes"; the treatment hich was given the convoys clearly shows that extermination wa.s the real purpose of Enver and Talaat. How many exiled to the south under these revolting conditions ever reached their destinations? The experiences of a single caravan .-how how completely this plan of deportation develop.^ ,to one of annihilation. The details in question were furnished me directly by the American Consul at Aleppo, and are now on file in the State Department at Washington. On the first of June a convoy of three thousand Armenians, mostly women, girls, and children, left Harpoot. Following the usual custom the Government provided them an \Z,"X-JT» *V^9 AMBASvSADOR MORGEXTIIAUS STORY 31i» escort of sovonly gondarnics, undor the command of u Turkish leader, a ^?oy. In ncct.rdunce with llio com- mon expcru'ncc these f,'endannes j)rov<'d to be not their protectors, hiil tlieir lf»n'"nlors and their exeeti- Honors. Hardly had th«-y fjot well s'arted on the road when B<'y took K)() Uras from I he caravan, on the plea that he was l