The Gallipoli deportation1 gives some idea of my difficulties in attempting to fulfil my duty as the representative of Allied2 interests in the Ottoman Empire. Yet, despite these occasional outbursts of hatred3, in the main the Turkish officials themselves behaved very well. They had promised me at the beginning that they would treat their alien enemies decently, and would permit them either to remain in Turkey, and follow their accustomed occupations, or to leave the Empire. They apparently4 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 Englishman, or an Italian enjoyed far greater security in Turkey than an Armenian, a Greek, or a Jew. Yet against this disposition5 to be decent a persistent6 malevolent7 force was constantly manifesting itself.
In a letter to the State Department I described the influence that was working against foreigners in Turkey. “The German Ambassador,” I wrote in substance, “keeps pressing on the Turks the advisability both of repressive measures and of detaining as hostages the subjects of the belligerent8 Powers. I have had to encounter the persistent opposition9 of my German colleague in endeavouring to obtain permission for the departure of the subjects of the nationalities under our protection.”
Now and then the Turkish officials would retaliate10 upon one of their enemy aliens, usually in reprisal11 for some injury, or fancied injury, inflicted12 on their own subjects in enemy countries. Such acts gave rise to many exciting episodes, some tragical13, some farcical, all illuminating14 in the light they shed upon Turkish character and upon Teutonic methods.
One afternoon I was sitting with Talaat, discussing routine matters, when his telephone rang.
“Pour vous,” said the Minister, handing me the receiver.
It was one of my secretaries. He told me that Bedri had arrested Sir Edwin Pears, had thrown him into prison, and had seized all his papers. Sir Edwin was one of the best-known British residents of Constantinople. For forty years he had{168} 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 distinguished15 appearance. When the war started I had exacted a special promise from Talaat and Bedri that in no event should Sir Edwin Pears and Prof. Van Millingen, 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 spoke16 in a manner that made no attempt to conceal17 my displeasure.
“Is this all your promises are worth?” I asked. “Can’t you find anything better to do than to molest18 such a respectable old man as Sir Edwin Pears? What has he ever done to you?”
“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 method of operation. When Bedri really wished to be reached on the telephone he was the most accessible man in the world; when his presence at the other end of the wire might prove embarrassing the most painstaking19 search could not reveal his whereabouts. As Bedri had given me his solemn promise that Sir Edwin should not be disturbed, this was an occasion when the Prefect of Police preferred to keep himself inaccessible20.
“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 situation. 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 going to the prison in my own automobile21 to get Sir Edwin Pears.
“Please don’t let him do that,” replied Bedri. “Such an occurrence would make me personally ridiculous and destroy my influence.”{169}
“Very well,” I replied, “I shall wait until 6.15. If Sir Edwin is not restored to his family by that time I shall go to the Police Headquarters and get him.”
As I returned to the Embassy I stopped at the Pears’ residence and attempted to soothe22 Lady Pears and her daughter.
“If your father is not here at 6.15,” I told Miss Pears, “please let me know immediately.”
Promptly23 at that time my telephone rang. It was Miss Pears, who informed me that Sir Edwin had just reached home.
The next day Sir Edwin called at the Embassy to thank me for my efforts on his behalf. He told me that the German Ambassador had also worked for his release. This latter statement naturally surprised me; I knew no one else had had a chance to do anything, as everything transpired24 while I was in Talaat’s office. Half an hour afterward25 I met Wangenheim himself; he dropped in at Mrs. Morgenthau’s reception. I referred to the Pears case and asked him whether he had used any influence in securing his release. My question astonished him greatly.
“What?” he said. “I helped you to secure his release! Der alte gauner! (The old rascal26.) Why, I was the man who had him arrested!”
“What have you got against him?” I asked.
“In 1876,” Wangenheim replied, “that man was pro-Russian and against Turkey!”
Such are the long memories of the Germans! In 1876 Sir Edwin wrote several articles for the London Daily News describing the Bulgarian massacres27. At that time the reports of these fiendish atrocities28 were generally disbelieved, and Sir Edwin’s letters placed all the incontrovertible facts before the English-speaking peoples and had much to do with the emancipation29 of Bulgaria from Turkish rule. This act of humanity and journalistic statesmanship had brought Sir Edwin much fame, and now, after forty years, Germany proposed to punish him by casting him into a Turkish prison! Again the Turks proved more considerate than their German allies, for they not only gave Sir Edwin his liberty and his papers, but permitted him to return to London.
Bedri, however, was a little mortified30 at my successful intervention31 in this instance, and decided32 to even up the score. Next to Sir Edwin Pears, the most prominent English-speaking barrister in Constantinople was Dr. Mizzi, a Maltese, seventy years old. The ruling powers had a grudge33 against him, for he was the proprietor34 of the Levant Herald35, a paper which had published articles criticising the union and Progress Committee.{170} On the very night of the Pears episode Bedri went to Dr. Mizzi’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 Minor36. As a terrible epidemic37 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 triumphant38 laugh. He was as good-natured about it and as pleased as a boy. At last he had “put one over” on the American Ambassador, who had been unguardedly 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 Talaat had Dr. Mizzi sent to Konia, instead of to Angora. There one of the American missionaries39, Dr. Dodd, had a splendid hospital. I arranged that Dr. Mizzi could have a nice room in this building, and here he lived 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 utterly40 miserable41—a piano. So I still thought that the honours between Bedri and myself were a little better than even.
When the English authorities arrested the Turkish Consul42 and his staff at Saloniki, the Turks promptly imprisoned43 nine leading members of the French colony. It took me nearly three weeks to have them released. Early in January, 1916, word was received that the English were maltreating Turkish war prisoners in Egypt. Soon afterward I received letters from two Australians, Commander Stoker and Lieutenant44 Fitzgerald, telling me that they had been confined for eleven days in a miserable, damp dungeon45 at the War Office, with no companions except a monstrous46 swarm47 of vermin. These two naval48 officers had come to Constantinople in submarines which had made the daring trip from England, dived under the mines in the Dardanelles, and arrived in the Marmora, where for several weeks they terrorised and dominated this inland sea, practically putting an end to all shipping49.
The particular submarine in which my correspondents arrived, the E15, 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 alleged50 maltreatment of Turkish prisoners in Egypt was received, lots were drawn51 among these prisoners to see which two should be taken to Constantinople and imprisoned in reprisal. Stoker and Fitzgerald drew the unlucky numbers, and had been lying in this{171} terrible underground cell for eleven days. I immediately took the matter up with Enver and suggested that a neutral doctor and officer examine the Turks in Egypt and report on the truth of the stories. We promptly received word that the report was false, and that, as a matter of fact, the Turkish prisoners in English hands were receiving excellent treatment.
About this time I called on Monsignor Dolci, the Apostolic Delegate in Turkey. He happened to refer to a Lieutenant Fitzgerald, who, he said, was then a prisoner of war at Afium Kara Hissar.
“I am much interested in him,” said Monsignor Dolci, “because he is engaged to the daughter of the British Minister to the Vatican. I spoke to Enver about him, and he promised that he would 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 reassured52 him, saying that his protégé would be released in a few days.
“You see how shamefully53 you treated these young men,” I now said to Enver; “you should do something to make amends54.”
“All right; what would you suggest?”
Stoker and Fitzgerald were prisoners of war, and, according to the usual rule, would have been sent back to the prison camp after being released from their dungeon. I now proposed that Enver should give them a vacation of eight days in Constantinople. He entered into the spirit of the occasion, and the men were released. They certainly presented a sorry sight; they had spent twenty-five days in the dungeon, with no chance to bathe or to shave, with no change of linen55 or any of the decencies of life. But Mr. Philip took charge, furnished them the necessaries, and in a brief period we had before us two young and handsome British naval officers. Their eight days’ freedom turned out to be a triumphal procession, notwithstanding that they were always accompanied by an English-speaking Turkish officer. Monsignor Dolci and the American Embassy entertained them at dinner, and they had a pleasant visit to the Girls’ College. When the time came to return to their prison camp, the young men declared that they would be glad to spend another month in dungeons56 if they could have a corresponding period of freedom in the city when liberated57.
In spite of all that has happened I shall always have a kindly{172} feeling toward 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 sentimental58 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 of freeing him from imprisonment59 and restoring him to happiness. As poor Stoker had formed no romantic attachments60 that would have justified61 a similar plea in his case, he had to go back to the prison in Asia Minor. He did this, however, in a genuinely sporting spirit that was worthy62 of the best traditions of the British Navy.
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1
deportation
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| n.驱逐，放逐 | |
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allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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malevolent
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| adj.有恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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belligerent
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| adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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retaliate
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| v.报复，反击 | |
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reprisal
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| n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠 | |
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inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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molest
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| vt.骚扰，干扰，调戏 | |
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painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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epidemic
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| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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51
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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52
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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53
shamefully
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| 可耻地； 丢脸地； 不体面地； 羞耻地 | |
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54
amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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55
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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56
dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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liberated
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| a.无拘束的，放纵的 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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attachments
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| n.（用电子邮件发送的）附件( attachment的名词复数 )；附着；连接；附属物 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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