'Memorandum on Intellectual and Political Forces in the Ottoman Empire' [‎3r] (5/26)

5
now opened an anti-EnglisK campaign. It was impossible for the represent
atives of the British Government in Turkey to do more than they had done
during this period : the British Government too had done its utmost for the
new regime. England's relations with Austria-Hungnry had been cordial
for nearly a century, yet England had openly manifested her displeasure
at the Austro-Hungarian -violation of the Treaty of Berlin and the blow struck
at the hopes of the Turkish new regime. She had given Turkey advisers at
least as competent as, and less costly than, those supplied by the German
Embassy, her press had hailed the Ottoman revolution in enthusiastic terms.
The ingratitude of the Young Turks was, therefore, the more regrettable.
It did not, however, occur to the British Government that this was more than
a mere outburst of pique inspired by the belief that Great Britain had become
slightly sceptical, not of the good intentions, but of the political finesse of the
Committee of Union and Progress. After a while the press agitation against
Great Britain seemed to die down, but late in 1909 incidents occurred in the
Turkish House of Commons which showed the extent to which German
influence had made its way among Ottoman politicians.
Eerid Effendi, a well-known Deputy, on the occasion of the debate
concerning the payment of the Kilometric Guarantees to the Baghdad Railway
Company, made a most violent attack on Great Britain which, though reproved
by the Grand Vizier Hilmi Pacha, was not disavowed by the leading members
of the parliamentary wing of the Committee of Union and Progress. A few
weeks later there came the question of the concession promised by the Sublime
Porte to the Lynch firm, which had demanded greater facilities for river
navigation on the Tigris and Euphrates. The Government did indeed obtain
a vote authorising it to grant the concession, but the debate showed that the
Committee majority in the Chamber of Deputies was hostile to and suspicious
of Great Britain, and there can be no doubt that German and Jewish wire
pullers, Baron Von Oppenheim and Ezkiel Sassoon, the M. P. for Baghdad,
amono- them, had won the Young Turks to their side. A little later Hussein
Hilmf Pacha resigned. The Committee party did not altogether approve his
conduct of affairs, the Germans had the aflair of the Lynch concession against
him and there can be little doubt that it was this that brought about his fall.
To him succeeded as Grand Vizier Hakki Pacha, a venal and subtle favourite
of Abdul Hamid, who had contrived to make his peace with Abdul Hamid'a
successors. He was on terms of intimacy with the German Ambassador and
had paid several visits to Berlin. In a few weeks Hakki had become a regular
visitor, one might almost say a client, at the German Embassy, while Germany
did her utmosAo improve her position in Turkey, she lost no chance of
impressing Turkish visitors to her cities. Turkish Parliamentary Delegates
who visited France and England were shown factories and workshops,
philanthropic institutions and museums : in Germany no opportunity was lost of
hvpnotisin 0, them with the spectacle of endless masses of marching troops,
of dazzling 0 them with the splendour of Court ceremonial, of compelling their
belief in ^the military power and the unsurpassed national efficiency of
Germany.
The Congress of the Committee of Union and Progress which met at
Salonica in the summer of 1910 discussed the question of Turkey's future
foreign policy at considerable length and eventually decided that, while
Turkey had most to ^ain from an alliance with the Central Powers, the Porte
would be well -advised to abstain from any immediate entanglements, till the
reorganisation of the army had made gieatei progress.
In the autumn of 1910, Germany sold two antique ironclads and four
modern destroyers to the Porte. This produced a fresh outbreak of journal
istic enthusiasm in favour of Germany and the Porte began foolish to
encourage anti -French intrigues in N. Africa. Articles of an highly
inflammatory description were written by Tunisian agitators and pub
lished (with the permission of a normally severe Censorship) in the Turkish
Press. Large military orders were placed in Germany and many Turkish
officers sent there for purposes of study. Enver Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , Military Attache at