Then, M. Miliukov, after thanking M. Sazonov for his declaration, concluded his speech in these terms:
“We are happy to hear that our national task will soon be completed. We now feel confident that the possession of Constantinople and the Straits will be ensured in due time, through diplomatic and military channels.”
The question of Constantinople captivated public opinion at that time, and in February, 1915, it engrossed the minds of all prominent men in Russia. Public feeling agreed with the declarations we have just read, that a victorious peace must give Constantinople to Russia.
At the beginning of March, M. Sazonov could not refrain from raising this question with the ambassadors of France and Great Britain, and asked them to give him an assurance that the Governments of London and Paris would consent after the war to the annexation of Constantinople by Russia.[53]
On March 3, at the dinner given in honour of General Pau, Nicholas II talked on the same subject to M. Paléologue. The Emperor, after recalling the conversation he had had with him in November of the previous year, in the course of which he had said France could rely upon Russia, and telling him he had not altered his mind, said:
“There is a point, however, about which recent events compel me to say a few words; I mean Constantinople. The question of the Straits engrosses the Russian mind more and more every day. I consider I have no right to impose on my people the dreadful sacrifices of the present war without granting as a reward the fulfilment of their age-long aspirations. So I have made up my mind, sir. I do not want half-measures to solve the problem of Constantinople and the Straits. The solution I pointed out to you in November last is the only possible one, the only practical one. The city of Constantinople and Southern Thrace must be incorporated into my Empire; yet I have no objection, as far as the administration of the city is concerned, to a special régime making allowance for foreign interests. You know that England has already sent me her approval. If any minor difficulties should arise, I rely on your Government to help me to smooth them.”[54]
On March 8, M. Paléologue told M. Sazonov that he had just received a telegram from M. Delcassé, and was in a position to give him the assurance that he could rely on the French Government’s friendly offices in settling the questions of Constantinople and the Straits according to the wishes of Russia. M. Sazonov thanked him very warmly, and added these significant words: “Your Government has done the Alliance a priceless service ... a service the extent of which perhaps you do not realise.”[55] On the 15th the French Government, having examined the conditions of peace which the Allies meant to impose on Turkey, informed the Russian Government of the compensations France required in Syria.
On March 16, after being received by the Emperor at the General Headquarters at Baranovitchi, the Grand Duke Nicholas, speaking as commander-in-chief of the Russian armies, had a formal conversation with M. Paléologue, speaking as French ambassador, and requested him to inform his Government that he considered the immediate military co-operation of Rumania and Italy as an imperative necessity. The French ambassador suggested that the Russian claims on Constantinople and the Straits would, perhaps, prevent Rumania and Italy joining the Allies. Upon which the Grand Duke answered: “That’s the business of diplomacy. I won’t have anything to do with it.”[56]
Finally, the following letter of M. Koudashev to M. Sazonov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, printed in the collection of secret documents of the Russian Foreign Office published in December, 1917,[57] shows how deeply the leaders of Russia and the Russian people had this question at heart, that it commanded all their foreign policy, and that they were determined to use any means, to resort to any artifice, in order to solve it in conformity with their wishes. No wonder, then, as we pointed out at the beginning of this book, that Turkey, being fully aware of the Russian enmity, should have consented to stand by the side of Germany in a war in which her very existence was at stake.