I suggested, and Halidé Hanoum agreed, we could not refuse to find a safe home for our vassal; although, certainly, his visit to Mecca could not be justified by our refusal to go on paying his board in Malta.
Ahmed Bey expressed his enthusiasm for Lord Curzon’s books on the East. As a young student, he told me, he had written glowing appreciations of this brilliant statesman, in whom all the Moslems had once put their trust. From Malta, he wrote to Lord Curzon: “One of your greatest admirers, who has often expressed his eulogies in public, is now in prison, a prisoner of peace, taken out of his bed....”
The names of Calthorpe and Milne will go down through the history of Turkey; but not to the credit of England.
Here is the charming message sent to me by Aga Aglou Ahmed Bey, Director of the Press of Angora:—
“I am, indeed, sorry that illness prevents my coming to tell you personally what your visit means to us, and the feelings of gratitude and respect that you inspire in the hearts of all the Turks by your courage and love of the truth....”
I was particularly glad to hear that although, like most of his compatriots, Ahmed Bey holds that all propaganda is foreign to the character of the Turks, he has determined to open a “Bureau of Information” as soon as Peace is signed. I cannot doubt that this will be a great benefit to all Islam.
“My propaganda,” I told him, “would be inspired by the determination to blazon abroad the marvellous kindness of all your race. Few people have any idea how hospitable and generous the Turks have been.”
“Dear Mademoiselle,” he replied, “you are right. We have not the sky-scrapers of New York; but we have big hearts. Yet we have given you so little comfort....”
“You have given me your best, and I appreciate it. Hygiene and luxury are not everything; though I have a pet theory of my own as to the holding of hands between East and West in the realm of hygiene: ‘First, I wash myself à la West, or, as you call it, in dirty water; then I perfect the ceremony à la East, that is, in running water. On the other hand, for a bath, I like to start with the Turkish and end with the English. You see I am already half-Oriental.’”
Though rather exceptionally sympathetic and broad-minded, I gathered from the Director that he, and others, were not quite so enthusiastic about the French, as they, certainly, had been quite recently. Much was expected of France at Lausanne, and they were disappointed in proportion.