After the attack by the Turkish ships on October 29 and 30, the Emperor Nicholas, on November, 1914, issued a manifesto to his people, which, though sibylline in tone, plainly asserted Russia’s designs on Constantinople and showed that she meant to avail herself of circumstances to carry them out.
“The Turkish fleet, led by Germans, has dared treacherously to attack our Black Sea coast. We, with all the peoples of Russia, feel quite confident that Turkey’s rash intervention will only hurry on her doom, and open to Russia the way to the solution of the historical problem bequeathed to us by our forefathers on the shores of the Black Sea.”[50]
In the course of an audience which Nicholas II granted to M. Maurice Paléologue, French ambassador, at Tsarkoie-Selo on November 21, 1914, and in the course of which he laid down the main lines of the peace which he thought should be dictated to the Central Powers, he considered how the settlement of the war would affect the other nations, and declared:
“In Asia Minor I shall have naturally to take care of the Armenians; I could not possibly replace them under the Turkish yoke. Shall I have to annex Armenia? I will annex it only if the Armenians expressly ask me to do so. Otherwise, I will grant them an autonomous régime. Lastly, I shall have to ensure for my Empire the free passage of the Straits....
“I have not quite made up my mind on many points; these are such fateful times! Yet I have arrived at two definite conclusions: first, that the Turks must be driven out of Europe; secondly, that Constantinople should henceforth be a neutral town, under an international régime. Of course, the Mussulmans would have every guarantee for the protection of their sanctuaries and shrines. Northern Thrace, up to the Enos-Midia line, would fall to Bulgaria. The rest of the country, between this line and the coast, with the exception of the Constantinople area, would be assigned to Russia.”[51]
About the end of 1914, according to M. Maurice Paléologue, public opinion in Russia was unanimous on this point, that—
“The possession of the Straits is of vital interest to the Empire and far exceeds in importance all the territorial advantages Russia might obtain at the expense of Germany and Austria.... The neutralisation of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles would be an unsatisfactory, mongrel compromise, pregnant with dangers for the future.... Constantinople must be a Russian town.... The Black Sea must become a Russian lake.”[52]
In the formal statement of the Government policy read on February 9, 1915, at the opening of the Duma, after mention had been made of the victories gained by the Russian armies over Turkey, the following sentence occurred: “Brighter and brighter does the radiant future of Russia shine before us in yonder place, on the shores of the sea which washes the battlements of Constantinople.”
Sazonov only hinted at the question of the Straits in the speech which followed, but he declared: “The day is drawing near when the economic and political problems arising from the necessity for Russia to have free access to the open sea will be solved.”
Evgraf Kovalevsky, deputy of Moscow, stated in his turn: “The Straits are the key of our house, so they must be handed over to us, together with the Straits area.”