CONSPIRATORS AT WORK 287 war a country whose first interest was peace, which desired peace, was an act of miserable turpitude. The entire story is, indeed, intensely sordid, from the false sale of the refugee cruisers to the bombardment of Odessa. It may roughly be divided into two parts: the period before October 26th, and the three days following. During the first period the German" Conspirators," to use Sir Louis Mallet's description, proceeded mainly by negotiations mixed with corruption. When those methods seemed likely to fail, force was employed, and force availed. cer From the opening of the war there was a tain liveliness in Turkey, partly due to the action of the British Government in acquiring the Turkish vessels then being built in England, but for the most part probably the artificial result of subterranean intrigue. The sending of the Goeben and Breslau belonged to the plot. Ostensibly they were sold to the Turkish Government, but they still remained in charge of their German crews. German officers and German money reached Constantinople. Though neutrality was professed by the Government, it was not observed. There were mysterious meetings between Enver Pasha and Bedouin chiefs; the Valis of certain coast towns used language of menace towards British naval commanders; untenable pretensions to territorial waters were advanced; there was even a large manufacture of Indian military uniforms, to be used by Turkish agents in Egypt. All along the Nile Valley, from Cairo to Kordofan, Turkish and German emissaries were busy, fomenting discontent among Arab chiefs, tempting officers and civil servants with bribes, smuggling explosives against the day when these seductions would bear fruit. The Allies would have had ample excuse for breaking off diplomatic relations any time during August, September and October. This, however, they were resolved not to do. Their policy was clearly to let the breach come, if it must come, from Turkey herself. It was plain that Germany's object was to create unrest among the Moslem peoples of India and Africa. To have been impatient with Turkey would have been to play Germany's game. So it was that Ambassadors quietly endured gross affronts. They knew themselves played with, but they did their duty by pointing out how foolish Turkey was to let herself be made a cat's-paw. They warned Turkey of what would happen if she sided with Germany and Germany was beaten. On the other hand, they did not ask her to join the Allies. They asked her neutrality, and for it they promised a guarantee of her integrity and independence. All they said was plain and simple, all they did was open and aboveboard. The wisdom of their course has been justified by results. The world of Islam with one accord has seen through German intrigue, and has at once bewailed and condemned the insensate folly of those who yielded to it. Towards the end of October the Conspirators found themselves compelled to take decisive action. They had got as much money from Germany as they were likely to get, and things were not going well with the German armies. If Turkey was to be brought in, it had to be then or never. Accordingly they decided to bring matters to a climax by ofer ing the Grand Vizier the alternative of complicity or resignation. It would appear that this scheme was abandoned, owing to the Russian victories on the Vistula occurring about this time. The ill-success of the German armies, indeed, threatened to wreck everything. At a meeting of the Committee Leaders on Oct. 26th, it was decided THE LAST CHANCE 289 to send Halil Bey, the President, on a mission to Berlin; and this was regarded as a partial victory for the Peace Party. Halil Bey did not go, however, because "of a more than usually blunt hint from the German representative in Constantinople." At this point, the War Party took matters into their own hands. Two capital events occurred: a body of 2,000 Bedouins entered the Sinai Peninsula, with the idea of making a raid on the Suez Canal; and Odessa and other Russian ports were bombarded on Oct. 29th. After this event the situation became hopeless. As Germany had, a few months earlier, precipitated war by her ultimatum to Russia, at the moment when negotiation promised to bring about accommodation between Russia and Austria; so now, for her own ends, Turkey was dragged into a war to which her Government, and probably the bulk of the people, were opposed. But even then the Allies gave Turkey a last chance. The Grand Vizier, who, throughout the piece, seems to have exaggerated his own influence or underestimated the strength of the unscrupulous forces opposing him, protested that he could still undo the work of Enver, Talaat, and the German Ambassador. Would the Allies await the issue of a Council to be held that night at his house? They waited, the Council was held, the Grand Vizier and Djavid Bey fought for peace, and the majority of the Ministers upheld them; but nothing was done. Nothing indeed could be done to avert war save to dismiss the German naval officers and to expel the German military mission. Germany's intrigues, however, had been too effective, her bribery too complete. The conspirators stayed, while the trusted patriots repeated the crime of their forebears who sold the Schipka Pass thirty-five years before. As in the old Arabian tale, Turkey was bestridden and throttled by an incubus from which she never could free herself. On the fourth of November Tewfik Pasha took leave of Sir Edward Grey. Even at that last moment, the door was opened for Turkey's retreat from ruin. "I informed Tewfik Pasha," says Sir Edward Grey," that if his Government wished that hostilities between the two countries should cease, the only chance was to dismiss the German naval and military missions." A few days before this M. Sazonoff had used the same language to the Turkish Chargé d'Affaires at Petrograd. It was of no avail. Forbearance could go no further. Anger at Turkish folly cannot altogether obliterate a feeling of pity for the nation thus deceived and ruined by Germany's remorseless and conscienceless policy. The responsibility for what may happen lies, however, not with the Allied Powers but with corrupt and misguided Turkey, and with Germany the jungle enemy of civilization. CHAPTER XV SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE AND THE BALKAN QUESTION "TO-DAY events move so rapidly that it is exceedingly difficult to state with technical accuracy the actual state of affairs, but it is clear that the peace of Europe cannot be preserved." 1 In one sense these words would have been almost equally true at any time during the past decade, as previous chapters will have indicated. The only real change in European conditions on the afternoon of the third of August, 1914, was one of swift acceleration. Events slowly moving over a lengthened past had come to sudden climax. In spite of outward seeming Europe had not been at peace for many years. To say that two hostile armies camped within sight of each other's camp fires, are at peace, merely because they await the dawn before exchanging shots, is an illusion; and that had been the state of Europe since the beginning of the twentieth century, through causes already discussed, through ambitions and policies now familiar to the world. In all those trembling years there was, to all anxious Europe, a recognized source from which fatal disturbance might spring. The festering wound in the South Eastern States was spreading year by year its malignant influence through the diseased body of Europe. In the end it did the worst that all men feared. What the apparition in shining armour and the cruise of the 1 Sir Edward Grey, in the House of Commons, August 3rd, 1914. |