the signing of the armistice—the voyage home—the dardanelles—the straits of messina—turkish opinion on the war—ada kalé—review of present situation.
after november 17th a period of inactivity set in outside, by the lines of chatalja, the heavy sound of guns ceased to accompany the daily round of work or pleasure which makes the life of constantinople, pera, and galata. refugees still moved with their creaking waggons and sought the shelter of the mosques, or camped on open spaces. some pitched their wandering tents round a dilapidated monastery on the heights whereon stands the wireless telegraphy station. the golf-links are on this open space—here you may see intent englishmen, who have snatched an hour or so between work and their voluntary duties at the hospitals, stalking after the elusive golf-ball, in their wake a listless caddie, preceding them a ragged urchin with a flag to mark the next green.
in the meantime rumours floated about the city, tales of atrocities committed by the greek soldiery at saloniki, accounts of the solemn reconsecration of the agia sophia in that town by its metropolitans and the one of athens. reports came of the sufferings of those jews who had lived contentedly under turkish rule at saloniki since the days when ferdinand and isabella expelled their forebears from spain, still retaining the spanish language written in hebrew characters. then was borne another rumour, which grew, assumed the air of certainty, and then emerged as an accomplished fact—it concerned the negotiations for{319} an armistice to be concluded between the porte and the allies.
an historic event that meeting between representatives of the sultan’s army and the enemy who had been clamouring for admittance without the lines of chatalja, so near the capital of the sultan’s empire. they met at four o’clock on december 4th, at a place between the outposts of the armies. the delegates came by rail as far as a point where the line was broken at batchekeui. where the broken line resumes its road to constantinople the train bearing nazim pasha and his suite awaited the delegates. nazim pasha descended from his saloon car and went on foot to meet the delegates, bulgarians, to represent servian and montenegrin interests as well as their own, greeks to speak for themselves. they all entered the saloon car, which the greek representatives left again after a little while. the sitting of the bulgarians and turks, conducted with great secrecy, lasted till 8.15 p.m. turkish officers were sitting round a huge camp-fire which lit up the tents of their army’s head-quarters at hademkeui, the smoke curling up into the sky of a cold, damp winter’s evening; these officers discussed the probable results of the conference, and hoped for a continuance of the war. a shrill whistle heralded the return of nazim pasha’s train. he alighted, gave an order to one of the officers attending him, and soon the news spread that an armistice had been arranged. by the lines of chatalja, the last defences of constantinople, the ottoman army agreed to a cessation of hostilities with the former subjects of so many victorious sultans.
the armistice soon broadened out into a desire for peace proposals, and london was chosen as the place where they should be discussed.
when the ottoman delegates left constantinople for england my work was done, and i turned homewards.{320} it was a cold, cloudy morning when my ship swung slowly out from her moorings at galata, and the smoke of the city hung over it as a heavy canopy into which the cypresses pointed warning fingers. slowly we moved past the mighty warships of foreign nations, round seraglio point out into the sea of marmora. a slight breeze arose and disturbed the canopy of smoke, broke the heavy banks of clouds, and admitted rays of hopeful sunlight through the rifts. here and there light broke upon the moving waters, called forth glittering reflections from the portholes of some sombre man-of-war, or tipped the muzzle of a gun with flashing silver. under the uncertain sunshine seraglio point stood out white against the dark cypresses, whose outlines were blurred by the heavy mass of crowded galata and pera, crowned by the tower. the sun shone out stronger as we ploughed through the steel-blue waters, throwing up the gleaming brasswork on the dome of st. sophia like a bright star in a murky night. the yellow buildings of the palace of justice stood out bravely from their commanding position, and the distant towers of yedi koulé showed up against the heavy background of shadowed, undulating country. as the sun rose higher in the heavens the snow-clad mountains of asia gloriously reflected its victorious rays.
we arrived early in the morning at the dardanelles, and there we had one more experience of turkish procrastination. without any apparent reason, the tug appointed to pilot us through the mine-fields failed to answer to our signals, and kept us waiting several hours. then she came bustling up, went about, and bade us follow her. ours was the first of a string of ships; we were followed by a fretful-looking roumanian mail-steamer, and behind her came several patient tramps, thumping leisurely along. everywhere along the european side of the{321} dardanelles, to which we kept quite close, were evidences of military preparations against attack; machine-guns were artlessly concealed by dry brushwood among the green undergrowth of the cliffs, old field-guns stood out lonely behind insufficient earthworks, here and there were groups of soldiers, sentries—one i noticed with his back to the sea—and patrols of cavalry scurried along the road. the daylight brightened as we sailed on past ruined castles and obsolescent earthworks into the blue ?gean sea, losing sight of the turkish fleet—grey and heavy, and listlessly at anchor by the old towers of the dardanelles. no sooner had our ship put her nose out into the open than we saw black clouds of smoke hurrying along the skyline: greek destroyers on the look-out for any ships coming out of the dardanelles.
there was one more evidence of war as we drew near to tenedos, with its medi?val fortress. greek destroyers were lying under the ancient walls, and one of them dashed out to hold us up in the approved style. first a blank shot across our bows and then a boarding-party of greek sailors, who wandered about our ship in what seemed to me a very aimless manner. then we sailed on again southward, past many islands, till we turned into the mediterranean sea. a strong breeze came off the land, where cloud shadows were chasing each other over rocky promontories, foam-tipped waves were playing at the foot of steep cliffs, and little white-winged sailing vessels came dancing over the sea.
there was “festa” at reggio and messina, for it was sunday, and myriads of lights cast fitful reflections on the waters of the straits as we sailed through them. then came a day of tumbling seas, roused by the wind that sweeps across from the gulf of lions, and then sunshine on the southern coast of france, lighting up the stern walls{322} of chateau d’if, and shining on notre-dame-de-la-garde, over the busy port of marseilles. then a furious rush through fair provence, to paris, thence through normandy, and then again the sea, green under a grey sky, boisterous as the free winds that whistled in the rigging, as the smart little turbine packet thrust her saucy nose into the waves and tossed them over her back, pitching, rolling, until fitful gleams of sunlight lit up the chalk cliffs of england.
in the meantime the fate of a broken empire was being decided in london. not at first with the dignity which such an event demands, so deeply important in the world’s history; rather was it characterized by the methods of the oriental bazaar, and its small, haggling spirit. while adrianople was starving, while the sultan’s troops shivered on the bleak, wind-swept outposts that guard constantinople at the lines of chatalja, unseemly procrastination marked the course of events at the meetings of the delegates, who met for an hour or so now and again, then returned to their luxurious quarters.
meanwhile the tone and temper of the turks, as expressed in constantinople, caused much anxiety to those who longed for peace. i had seen some signs of this before leaving the east. the minds of some turks with whom i discussed the situation were still full of imagined victories for the future; they declined to consider themselves defeated, and expressed their confidence that victorious ottoman armies would yet hold triumphant entry into sofia—and athens. their opinion may be set aside as worthless. those who know, and there are many, though they keep their convictions secret, are aware that inefficiency has brought the east down before the organized, purposeful west, and that the days of turkish rule in europe are numbered, that the ottoman empire this side of the bosphorus is as much doomed as was that of{323} ancient byzant when amurath made adrianople his capital.
the great majority of turks appear to be of the same mind as ali, the master-weaver; they know little of what is happening, they seem to care less. those soldiers that i have seen returned from the front looked too listless and miserable to form an opinion, and they probably know as little of what went on during the war as the private soldier generally does in these days of warfare over a large extent of country. i have generally found the task of drawing out old soldiers on their war experiences to result in recitals too romantic for use in anything but a work of fiction, or else quite fruitless. there was one, a german barber, who had been through the campaign of 1870-1871; when asked to relate his experiences, all he could say, after deep reflection, was: “every day i shave de captain.”
it may be taken for granted that the ottoman empire as a european power is a thing of the past, that all those provinces carved out of europe by the sword of othman have been lost by the sword, and that of turkey in europe nothing remains but the strips of land which the allies are pleased to leave to their old enemy. constantinople will remain turkish for some time yet—ten years, perhaps fifteen—but methinks the turk is tired of his stay in europe, that he will soon pack up his small possessions and return to asia minor, whence he came.
one tiny patch of european territory may yet remain turkish, perhaps by an oversight similar to that which kept it so since the berlin treaty overlooked it, ada kalé. this is a small island in the middle of the danube, opposite the broad, poplar-lined avenue which leads to the koronzi kapella, where the crown of st. stephan, the saintly king of hungary, was buried when kossuth fled in 1848. ada kalé is a typical turkish settlement, with little wooden{324} houses growing out of masses of old fortifications, around a mosque with its slender minaret standing out against the dark forests and rocks that rise up to form the iron gate. the small population is typically turkish, very partial to the smuggling of tobacco, and not untouched by modern ideas. they share a deputy in the turkish parliament with some other place, and have, at least some of them, a well-developed thirst for pilsener beer. i have seen two turks from the island making exceeding merry over large beakers of that beverage in a garden restaurant at orsova one fine summer’s day.
when turkey has finally jettisoned those encumbrances, the european vilayets, and withdrawn to asia minor, the ottoman empire will probably gain considerably in strength by consolidation, and by carrying out many social and economical reforms which have been kept in abeyance during the constant trouble caused by the war-clouds that hung over eastern europe. a strong turkish empire in asia minor, real control over the tribes in syria, strict surveillance of the eastern and north-eastern frontiers, will mean some prospect of peace in those very unsettled regions. great britain, of all european powers, should aid in this enterprise, and that at once, for there are other powers interested in asia minor.
the fountain at rado?l in the foreground helenka, a bulgarian maiden
the fountain at rado?l
in the foreground helenka, a bulgarian maiden
it is high time that the people of great britain should realize the change which recent warlike happenings have brought about, and that they should bend their great minds to a consideration of the future. four small balkan kingdoms united to formidable strength have brought down the military power of an empire which, in spite of its many weaknesses, was considered strong enough to be an important factor in the affairs of europe. this feat was accomplished in seven weeks, and by armies composed of the whole manhood of each militant state,{326}{325} just as the manhood of the barbarian races vanquished the paid soldiery of rome and shattered the world-empire of the first “v?lkerwanderung.” then as now fresh young nations put all their strength into the struggle, their opponents did not, for imperial rome sent out hired armies to defend their possessions while the roman citizens lived a life of idleness and pleasure at the expense of the state; and the sublime porte, excluding the population of the capital from military service even as byzant had done, and for the same reason, namely, that it was not considered expedient to have a populace trained to arms round the palace walls, sent thousands of ignorant anatolian peasants to a war the cause of which they could not understand. enthusiasm, efficiency, and the spirit of self-sacrifice led the young nations on the road to victory; moreover, they found an ally in the selfishness of their antagonists, sycophants and pleasure-seekers, trusting to the paid legionaries of rome or the foreign-trained political intriguers of the sultan’s army. imperial rome perished of corruption and had to make way for something cleaner, wholesomer. the turkish empire in europe has gone the same way, and the same causes brought about its fall. would it not be as well for us britons to look at home? it would indeed be advisable, for the end is not yet.
that turkey retains some small portions of her former european possessions is of little moment, what really matters is that the forces which have for so long been controlled by diplomacy have now been set in motion, and to my mind the recent balkan war is little more than an advanced-guard action. the theatre of war had to be cleared of an encumbrance, so the allied states of the balkans drove the turks out in order that no side issue should interfere with the solution of the great problem.
the problem is much the same as that which presented{328} itself during the first migration of nations. the german races felt drawn to the south and the east, the slavs were impelled towards the west, and then, as now, have blocked the way of the former’s progress.
the movements of nations during the first “v?lkerwanderung” had probably no very definite aim; the barbarians beat down resistance when they could, but when too strongly opposed they went elsewhere. the present movement is caused by the same desire for expansion, but it is also inspired by very definite aims and ambitions. the probable resistance to be met with has been calculated to a nicety, plans have been made to overcome obstacles, and all this is due to efficiency.
the turk was in the way, he proved inefficient and went under. now that he is down it will be noticed how few friends he has.
it has been asserted that we britons are in the way. are we efficient? if not, who are our friends and what their worth should heavy troubles come upon us by our own fault?
