AT WAR WITH TURKEY.
At the beginning of the great struggle King George sent a message to the Sultan, in which he referred to the friendship which had existed between the United Kingdom and Turkey for more than a century. Two days before the fall of Tsingtau this old friendship was broken; we were forced to declare war on the Power which we had so often befriended during more than a hundred years. The fact was that Germany had become all-powerful in Turkey, and the Sultan was merely a puppet in the Kaiser's hands.
I have already told you how the Kaiser courted the Sultan in 1889,[170] and won for Germany many important industrial and commercial advantages in Asia Minor. In July 1908 an event took place in Turkey which seemed at first to be a great blow to Germany. Up to that time the government of Turkey had been Oriental; the Sultan was absolute; there was no parliament, and bad governors robbed the people right and left. Western ideas, however, had gradually been gaining ground, especially amongst the younger men. In July 1908 the Young Turks, after long preparation, rose in rebellion under a vain but very pushing man named Enver Bey. The Sultan, the Kaiser's friend, was deposed; his younger brother was placed on the throne, and a new form of government, in which the people had some share, was set up. Before long, Enver Bey became the most powerful man in the country. He was a simple captain when the reform movement began, but he rapidly rose to be Chief of the General Staff and Secretary for War.
This revolution seemed to have overturned Germany's plans, and to have robbed her at one blow of all the power and influence which she had gained in Turkey. Thanks, however, to the army which von der Goltz had drilled and trained and officered, Germany managed to retain her influence. Enver Bey and other leading Young Turks were won over, and Germany continued to hold the reins of military power. Then came the war with Italy, and in 1912 the sudden and unexpected Balkan War, in which the German-trained Turkish army was badly beaten. When all was over, Turkey had been reduced to a little country less than twice the size of Wales.
After this disaster the Turkish army was practically handed over to Germany, lock, stock, and barrel. German officers were poured into the army, and nearly all the divisions and brigades had German commanders. In January 1914 General Liman von Sanders became commander of all the thirteen corps of the Turkish army.
Now, I think you can understand that when the great European war broke out it was highly improbable that Turkey would remain neutral. We were most anxious to keep Turkey out of the fight, and on 7th August Sir Edward Grey promised, on behalf of Great Britain, France, and Russia, that if she would refrain from war we would guarantee her independence, and would see that she lost no territory when the struggle was over. We also undertook to make no change in the government of Egypt, which, as you know, was then supposed to be under the overlordship of the Sultan.
When we declared war on Germany there were in this country two men-of-war which Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company had built for the Turkish Government, but which had not been handed over to their owners. According to what is called International Law,[171] a nation going to war has a perfect right to acquire any warships which have been built or are building in its ports, but have not left the country. Our Admiralty very properly bought these vessels from the builders. Sir Edward Grey telegraphed to the Sultan on 25th August, expressing his deep regret that the Government had been obliged to take this course, and promising to restore the ships at the end of the war if Turkey would remain strictly neutral. There seemed to be a good deal of angry feeling against Britain in Constantinople when the Turks learnt that we had taken over their ships. The Turkish Prime Minister, however, assured us that this angry feeling was largely pretence, and meant nothing. Turkey, however, was soon to show herself in her true colours.
In Chapter XXI. of our second volume I told you that the two German cruisers Goeben and Breslau were chased by a British squadron in the Mediterranean, but that they managed to escape, and on 10th August took refuge in the Dardanelles. It was the duty of Turkey as a neutral Power to see that these ships did not pass through the Strait, and that they were either sent off to sea again in the course of twenty-four hours, or were disarmed and interned until the end of the war. Next day, to the astonishment of the world, the Turks announced that they had bought the cruisers from Germany because Britain had seized the ships which had been built for them on the Tyne. I have already told you that Britain had every right to take over the Turkish ships. On the other hand, Turkey had no right whatever to buy warships from a nation that was at war with another nation. To do so was a friendly act to Germany and an unfriendly act to Britain, France, and Russia. If the Turks had acted according to international law, they would have ordered the Goeben and Breslau out of their waters, in which case the Allied ships in the Mediterranean would have captured them. By buying them, the Turks prevented Britain from reducing the enemy's naval strength, and at the same time they assisted Germany by paying over their price. By means of these ships the Turks hoped to make themselves masters of the Black Sea.
This unfriendly act in itself afforded Great Britain good grounds for declaring war on Turkey; but she was very patient, and confined herself to protests. The Turkish Government promised to send away the German officers and crews of the Goeben and Breslau, but did not do so. All the while the Turkish Prime Minister was protesting that Turkey wished to be neutral; but he was merely playing for time. Attempts were being made to stir up rebellion in Egypt and India, and Turkey was holding her hand until the Moslems in these countries should be ready to rise.
Towards the end of October the British Government learned that Turkish ships, without any declaration of war, and without warning of any kind, had wantonly attacked open, undefended Russian towns on the Black Sea. It was well known, too, that Enver Bey, the Turkish Minister of War, was strongly pro-German, and that since the war began German officers in large numbers had poured into Constantinople. Certain rights enjoyed by foreigners living in Turkey had been abolished; the army had been mobilized, and there was no doubt that an attack was being prepared against Egypt. On 29th October a horde of Bedouins[172] invaded the Sinai Peninsula,[173] and seized certain wells. The same day Turkish torpedo boats raided Odessa, sank and damaged several ships, and bombarded the town.
Next day the ambassadors of the Allies had interviews with the Sultan and his advisers. The Sultan and the Prime Minister were in favour of peace, but Enver Bey and the military party overruled them. On 1st November the ambassadors left Constantinople, and four days later the King issued a proclamation which began as follows:—
"Owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German officers, a state of war now exists between Us and the Sultan of Turkey."
Before I describe the part played by Turkey in the war during the year 1914, let me tell you something about the army which she was able to put into the field. Every man in Turkey is supposed to serve, but as a rule only Mohammedans are called upon to do so. The conscript belongs to the army for twenty years—nine in the Nizam, or first line; nine in the Redif, or Active Reserve; and two in the Mustafiz, or Territorial Militia. Probably, at a pinch, the Turks could put into the field between 700,000 and 800,000 men, providing there was equipment for them. Their artillery had suffered heavily in the Balkan War; but since then Turkey had bought many quick-firing guns from Krupp and the famous Austrian firm of Skoda. Germany had also provided the Turks with a number of heavy batteries.
The Turkish foot-soldier has always been famous as a fighting man. He is, as a rule, strong and well built, his nerves are steady, he is very stubborn in defence, and he can bear fatigue wonderfully well. But, as you know, he did not come off with flying colours during the Balkan War, probably because the German discipline to which he had been subjected had robbed him of his old dash and go, and because he was not in full sympathy with the German officers who commanded him. As a soldier, he was half Turk, half German; he had lost many of his Turkish virtues as a fighting man, and had not fully acquired those of Germany. Nevertheless, he is still brave, still dogged, still much enduring, and will always prove a formidable foe.
An American caricature of the time showed the Sultan laying his head upon a block and chopping it off with his own hand. Most observers in Western Europe felt that by acting as the cat's-paw of Germany, Turkey was deliberately committing suicide. She was solving the century-old problem—Shall Turkey remain a European Power? However the war might end, Turkey was bound to be wiped off the map of Europe as an independent state. There were many people in this country who were deeply sorry to see a brave people thus tricked into disaster for a cause which they could not understand, and for which they had no sympathy. Before long, however, the children of Osman[174] were fighting and dying amidst the snows of the Caucasus or on the sands of the desert in their old fearless, uncomplaining fashion—fighting and dying for no purpose save to ensure the destruction of their race as a ruling power.
Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium. Photo, Exclusive News Agency.
Naturally the Turks wished to fight in the Balkan Peninsula, and to recover, if possible, some of the territory which they had lost during the recent disastrous wars. This, however, they could not do, because Greece and Bulgaria, their neighbours, remained neutral. The Germans wished to use the Turkish army to create diversions—that is, to attack the Allies at a distance from the main theatres of war, and thus compel them to divide their forces. The frontiers of Turkey in Asia touch that wild, mountainous region in which Russia holds sway beneath the towering masses of the Caucasus; they also touch the bounds of Egypt, in which Britain is supreme, and draw near to the head of the Persian Gulf, which for generations we have watched and guarded in the interests of our Indian Empire, and have long regarded as a British sphere of influence. In these three regions the Turks might be of real assistance to their German masters. If they fought in Transcaucasia, they would draw off Russian troops from the thousand-mile line which the soldiers of the Tsar were then holding from the Niemen to the Dniester. If they attacked the Suez Canal, they might bar Britain's short road to India, and force her to keep a large army in Egypt. Further, when the Turks advanced, their Moslem brethren in Egypt and India might rise in rebellion, and force Britain to withdraw troops from the Western front to put them down. Then, again, the Turks might push down to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and obtain a foothold from which India might be threatened and the oil fields of Persia secured. The Turks, therefore, attacked on the Persian Gulf, in Transcaucasia, and in Egypt. With their descent upon the Suez Canal I shall deal in our next volume; in this and the next chapter I will describe the fighting at the head of the Persian Gulf, and afterwards I will tell you something of the operations in Transcaucasia.
South of Transcaucasia lies the Armenian plateau, which consists of lofty ranges of sterile mountains, with fertile vales and wide plains between them. The highest peak of this plateau is Ararat, on which it is said that the Ark rested after the flood. Ararat stands where the Russian, the Turkish, and the Persian empires meet, and from its southern slopes that famous river the Euphrates goes leaping through the mountain gorges on its way to the distant Persian Gulf. In the mountains to the south-east of Ararat rises the Tigris, which also flows towards the Persian Gulf, and gradually draws nearer and nearer to the Euphrates, with which it finally unites. Between the two rivers is Mesopotamia, which in early times was a wonderfully fertile country, but under the blighting hand of the Turk has become a wilderness, though it might again "blossom as the rose" if the waters of the rivers were properly distributed over the land.
On the plain of the Euphrates and the Tigris are the ruins of cities which were famous at the very dawn of history. Near the busy town of Mosul, on the Tigris, is the site of the ancient city of Nineveh; and near the Euphrates, not far from the town of Hilla, are the ruins of Babylon. Two hundred miles below Mosul is Bagdad, which recalls the "Arabian Nights." Above Basra, the city of Sindbad the Sailor, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite, and the combined stream flows for about seventy miles to the Persian Gulf as the Shat-el-Arab. On the eastern side of its lower course is Abadan Island, on which about 1,000 tons of crude oil are refined daily. The oil comes down a pipe line from the wells, which are about 150 miles north-east of the refinery.
The Persian Gulf.[175]
The region between Basra and the Persian Gulf is the ancient land of Chaldea, the original home of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people. Britons and Turks were now to meet in warfare on the river flats where the written history of the world began.
You can easily understand that the refinery at Abadan and the pipe line from the oil wells would be open to attack if we should go to war with Turkey. To lose this great source of supply would be a grievous blow to us, for more and more of our warships now raise their steam with oil instead of coal. As soon as the European war began the Government of India dispatched an Anglo-Indian force, consisting of the 2nd Dorsets and of Indian infantry and artillery, to the Persian Gulf. This force was landed on the island of Bahrein, but when war was declared with Turkey it re-embarked, and on 7th November reached the bar at the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, near the village of Fao. A gunboat bombarded the mud fort of this village, and reduced it to silence in about an hour. A force of marines was then landed, and the place was occupied.
The transports then sailed up the estuary, passing Abadan on the left bank, and after a voyage of about thirty-five miles, disembarked, unopposed, at the Turkish village of Sanijeh,[176] where trenches were dug. While General Delamain, who commanded the British expedition, was waiting for reinforcements he was attacked by a force of Turks from Basra. The Indians quickly checked them, and later in the day showed the utmost gallantry in turning them out of a village in which they had established themselves.
On 13th November, soon after daybreak, two Anglo-Indian brigades, including the 1st Oxford Light Infantry and the 2nd Norfolks, arrived, under the command of Sir Arthur Barrett, off the bar of the Shat-el-Arab, and by the 15th were ready to disembark at Sanijeh. It was no easy task to get men, guns, and stores ashore on the slippery mud banks of a broad tidal river, but the work was accomplished before sunset. Meanwhile General Delamain attacked the village of Sahain, four miles to the north. A short, sharp action took place; but the 2,000 Turks who were posted in a date grove were not entirely cleared out of it. On the 16th the newly-arrived forces rested, and received the news that the Turkish garrison of Basra was advancing to give battle. There were Europeans in Basra, and General Barrett was eager to capture the place speedily, lest evil should befall the foreign residents.