VIII
February 20, 1913.
Dear Mr. Whitman,—It will give me much pleasure to go through any chapter of your “Turkish Memories” you may choose to send me. Of course one cannot apply a too severe criticism to a writer on Western affairs who is dealing with Eastern topics unless he is under the sway of preconceived notions like Pierre Loti, who, like Lamartine, dips his pen in Castalian fountains. And, besides, Abdul Hamid was to me the most incomprehensible Oriental character I have met in all my long and variegated Eastern career, and I could not vouch for the correctness of my judgment of him. There is one danger, however, you must take care not to fall into, i.e. unconditional Turcophilism. I mean to say you must avoid all sentiment in dealing with politics. Statesmen may have ignored the horrible effects of Turkish misrule and the ruin of the finest portion of Asia, but we writers, at any rate, are bound to speak the truth.
I am no admirer of Sir Edward Grey’s policy in the Near East, and still less in Central Asia, but I cannot refrain from calling the German policy haughty and overbearing. Her Drang nach dem Osten[[43]] is silly and childish and must provoke a most bloody contest all over the world. If Germany imitates Austrian methods she will be overtaken by a similar fate, for it is no secret that the sentence, finis Austriæ, is looming in the distance.
What I pity is my poor country, whose future is not very bright.
Yours sincerely,
A. VAMBÉRY.
[43]. A current German phrase meaning “The trend towards the East.”