Under Four Administrations Part 11

There was considerable clamor, from missionaries and others, that we send warships to Turkey. Of this I entirely disapproved and so told the President. He answered me: "I shall be guided by you; I shall support you; I have confidence in your ability and foresight. No vessels will be sent to Turkey unless you demand them, and then, only then, will they be sent. And when you get to London I wish you to see Amba.s.sador Hay"--Hay was about to return to take up the post of Secretary of State--"and tell him that I have not only const.i.tuted you Minister to Turkey, but Secretary of State for Turkey, and that both he and I will be guided entirely by your judgment and advice."

CHAPTER VI

MY SECOND MISSION TO TURKEY

Conferences with Amba.s.sador Hay and Dr. Angell in London regarding Turkish matters--I make suggestions for coordinating work in our diplomatic service--With Baroness de Hirsch in Vienna--Arrival at Constantinople; audience with the Sultan--The visit of the Emperor and Empress of Germany--Breaking Turkish pa.s.sport regulations--The Porte refuses to negotiate a treaty of naturalization--The indemnities for missionaries at Harpoot and Marash; the Sultan admits claim and promises to pay; I obtain irade for rebuilding college at Harpoot--The Philippine Mohammedans; a diplomatic romance--American flour cheapens bread in Turkey--Aid to the British amba.s.sador in the protection of Armenian orphanages--A renegade Roman priest--Lord Rosebery--Dr. S. Weir Mitch.e.l.l--The Sultan entertains American tourists--His Majesty's only smile--A visit to Athens--Happy days on the Bosphorus--The Sultan's gift of vases--Dr. Theodor Hertzl--A visit to Rome--I return to Washington and conduct negotiations from there--LL.D. from Pennsylvania University--I end my mission.

In London I had several conferences with Amba.s.sador John Hay, who was shortly to return to Washington as Secretary of State in the place of William R. Day, chosen to head the Spanish-American Peace Commission at Paris. Mr. Day a few years afterward was made a.s.sociate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and the duties of that post he still discharges with distinction.

Mr. Hay and I went over in detail the questions at issue in Turkey and the plans I proposed for their adjustment. I told him of the pressure being brought upon the President to send warships to the Bosphorus, and said I regarded such a course as mixing up in the Eastern question, that traditional tinder box of Europe, aside from the possible danger of another incident like the blowing-up of the Maine. Mr. Hay agreed and promised to support me to the fullest extent in settling matters with Turkey.

I also met Dr. Angell in London on his way back from Constantinople, and went over matters with him. He told me what a fruitless year and a half he had had there and how he was made to feel he was _persona non grata_.

He had not been invited to dine at the Palace once during his entire stay.

Before I left London I had a call from William E. Dodge, of Phelps, Dodge, & Company, New York, and president of the Evangelical Alliance of America. He came to express his appreciation for my making the personal and business sacrifice to go to Turkey again. He was one of our most benevolent citizens, prominently connected with the missionary bodies and therefore deeply interested in the American colleges and schools in the Ottoman Empire.

When I left for Constantinople this time, there were with me, besides my wife, my daughters, Aline and Mildred, respectively fourteen and fifteen years old; my little son Roger, six and a half years old, and his nurse; my niece Sissy, daughter of my brother Nathan; and my nephew Percy, second son of my brother Isidor, who was to be my private secretary.

Mildred we allowed to return from Paris to continue her studies at Barnard, as we were unable to find a suitable school for her in either England or France. We had sailed for Liverpool on the S.S. Lusitania on September 3d.

My friend General Horace Porter had been appointed amba.s.sador to France, and while in Paris I dined with him several times. He was a man of means and had located the emba.s.sy in a magnificent residence in one of the most fashionable parts of Paris. There we met among others Ferdinand W.

Peck, United States Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, and Mrs. Peck; also William F. Draper, amba.s.sador to Italy, who with Mrs. Draper was in Paris on a leave of absence.

To Messrs. Porter and Draper I proposed what I had felt the need for during my earlier mission: some sort of coordination and cooperation among our various diplomatic representatives throughout Europe. I suggested we might have conferences from time to time, or prevail upon the State Department to keep each of us informed respecting negotiations between the Department and all the others. Much of this material would be of interest and value to us in connection with our respective emba.s.sies or missions. It was being done by other foreign offices. The British Foreign Office, for instance, issues confidential communications in the form of blueprints, which are sent to the heads of all British missions. During my previous sojourn at Constantinople my colleague, Sir William White, frequently gave me the benefit of extracts from these blueprints referring to American matters. They were very informing and helpful.

Porter and Draper said they would cooperate with me in urging the State Department to adopt some such scheme, and when I wrote to our colleague at Berlin, Andrew D. White, he gave similar support. However, when I suggested the idea to the State Department nothing came of it. Since then some further effort has been made in that direction, but I have not learned to what extent this desired system has been effected.

We went on to Vienna to meet Baroness de Hirsch, who was coming from her estate at Eichhorn. She had put her beautiful Paris residence on the rue d'Elysee at our disposal, but unfortunately my appointments made it impossible for us to avail ourselves of her hospitality. The Baroness looked ill to me, and I warned her against allowing her intense occupation with benevolent activities to wear upon her. She said she had had the grippe, and later told my wife that her physicians feared her ailment might be more serious. In spite of this, however, she went right on, while at the Hotel Bristol in Vienna, with conferences with her almoners, among others Ritter von Gutmann and Baron Gunzburg, who were a.s.sociated with her in her endowed enterprises in Austria and elsewhere.

Alas, her malady was more serious than grippe, for it was only a short time after our reaching Constantinople that her family informed us of her death.

We met some of the leading Jewish scholars, artists, and literary men while in Vienna: the architect, Wilhelm Stia.s.sny; the actor, Adolf von Sonnenthal; Dr. Adam Politzer; the Hungarian artists, Leopold Horowitz and Isidor Kaufmann; Professor David Heinrich Miller, of the Vienna University; and the attorney, Dr. Adolph Stein. Herr Stia.s.sny was president of the Jewish Historical Society, and at a meeting of that body at which I was present he referred in glowing terms to my appointment, saying that, amid the anti-Semitic spirit that was taking hold of Austria and other European countries, America had shown by my appointment that no race or religious distinction existed here, which could not fail to have an influence in Austria and in several other European states.

On arriving at Constantinople we were welcomed by the secretary of the legation and acting charge, John W. Riddle, together with other members of the legation and consulate and several of the missionaries. Mr.

Riddle, by the way, had conducted the affairs of the legation in the interim with discretion and ability. He has since filled several other posts most creditably; he was amba.s.sador to Russia under Roosevelt, and at the present writing is amba.s.sador to Argentina.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Porte now was Tewfik Pasha, who had been amba.s.sador to Germany. He spoke German better than French, so I conversed with him in the former language. As was customary, I left with him the letters of recall of my predecessor and a copy of my presentation address. I was informed that the Sultan and all the officials at the Porte were pleased at my return, because they knew me and had every confidence in me both personally and officially. Of course, these remarks may have been diplomatic politeness, but events seemed to show some sincerity in them. My audience, for instance, instead of being delayed for weeks, was granted within one week of my arrival; and instead of being accorded the lesser formalities of a minister, I was received with all the ceremony accorded an amba.s.sador: four state carriages were placed at my disposal, preceded by four postilions and outriders; a detachment of guards rendered military honors as I arrived at the Palace; the Sultan was attended by Osman Pasha, Fouad Pasha, general-in-chief of the Turkish armies, and some thirty other high civil and military officers.

After the formality of presenting my credentials and making my address, the Sultan reiterated three times that he felt great pleasure in welcoming me back, as my former mission had given him much satisfaction.

He said that he knew I was a "gentleman"; and that is the only English word I had ever heard him use.

President McKinley had authorized me to arrange for the elevation of the mission at Constantinople to an emba.s.sy, as by the Act of March 3, 1893, provision was made for the appointment of amba.s.sadors. Up to that time, based on the idea that amba.s.sadors represented the person of a monarch and that republics should not thus be represented, we had had only ministers. The act reads:

Whenever the President shall be advised that any foreign government is represented, or is about to be represented, in the United States by an amba.s.sador, envoy extraordinary, minister plenipotentiary, minister resident, special envoy, or charge d'affaires, he is authorized, in his discretion, to direct that the representative of the United States to such government shall bear the same designation.

The initiative for sending an amba.s.sador, therefore, rested with the foreign power, and we could not send an amba.s.sador to Turkey until that Government accredited an amba.s.sador to us.

During my audience I informed the Sultan that the President had said he would be pleased to raise our mission to an emba.s.sy, but I observed that His Majesty did not take kindly to the suggestion. He replied politely that he would take it under consideration.

Among my colleagues, Baron Calice still represented Austria-Hungary.

Germany was represented by Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, former Prussian minister, a large man of the von Moltke physique; he died later in London (1912) after a short service as amba.s.sador to Britain. From France there was Paul Cambon, brother of Jules Cambon, who was amba.s.sador at Washington at the time of the Spanish-American War and continued the Spanish negotiations after our rupture with Spain; a little while after my arrival in Constantinople Paul Cambon was transferred to London. From Great Britain there was Nicholas R. O'Conor, whom I met during my former mission when he was consul-general and charge at Sophia; he had meanwhile been amba.s.sador to Russia. And from Italy there was Signor Pansa. Severally they informed me that since my first mission, ten years before, the power of the Ottoman Government had been more and more concentrated in the Palace, that the Sultan himself was the "whole show" and very little power was left at the Porte.

Constantinople was all agog with preparation and excitement, for the Emperor and Empress of Germany were expected on October 17th! (As a matter of fact, rough weather on the aegean caused them to arrive a day late.) The main streets of Pera were paved anew, and the walls surrounding Yildis were newly whitewashed. All business at the Porte was suspended. A Government official told me that the visit would probably cost the Ottoman Empire not less than five hundred thousand pounds! One of the residences at Yildis, near the Palace, was placed at the Emperor's disposal.

As is customary on such visits, all the heads of missions left their cards at the German emba.s.sy and inscribed their names in the Emperor's visiting register. Each visit was promptly returned the next day by von Bulow, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who left his card.

The Emperor and Empress drove through Pera in state, preceded by a company of Turkish lancers and followed by numerous officers on horses and in carriages. They rode in the royal victoria, drawn by four horses, accompanied by numerous outriders in gala uniforms and on caparisoned horses. The whole procession was gorgeous, and the royal pair bowed to left and right as the crowds in the streets greeted them.

Some time after midnight on October 20-21 the doorbell rang and my portier brought me a communication, just received from the Grand Master of Ceremonies at the Palace, inviting Mrs. Straus, myself, and our first dragoman to the banquet to the German Emperor and Empress at 7.15 o'clock on the evening of the 21st. The doyen of the diplomatic corps had sent suggestions that the ladies wear high neck and long sleeves, as the Sultan objected to the regulation European evening dress. The ladies accordingly contrived to cover their necks and arms with chiffons, laces, and long gloves. It proved unnecessary, however, because the Empress and her ladies-in-waiting wore the usual decollete.

In the recollection of the oldest diplomats present, this banquet was the most brilliant in its appointments that had ever been given at the Palace. More than one hundred persons were there, all the heads of missions and the leading officials of the empire. The approach to the Palace for quite a distance was illuminated and lined on both sides of the way with rows of soldiers. At the Palace entrance, where we were met by the court officials, we pa.s.sed between rows of magnificently uniformed Turkish and German officers, each wearing his full regalia of numerous decorations.

At the proper time we were ushered into the audience room, where the diplomats and their wives were arranged in a circle, the ladies on one side and the gentlemen on the other. When the Emperor and Empress with the Sultan entered, every one made a court bow. The Sultan and the Emperor then engaged in conversation through an interpreter in the center of the circle, while the Empress greeted each lady individually.

Each person, as was the custom, bowed before and after being spoken to.

When the Empress had greeted all the ladies and started with the gentlemen, the Emperor started with the ladies.

When he came to Mrs. Straus, he made some mention of having seen her queen lately and that she was as beautiful as ever. Mrs. Straus, by way of indicating that she was from the United States, said, "I suppose Your Majesty refers to Mrs. McKinley"; but the Emperor, evidently without stopping to listen to what was being said, clicked his heels, made his courtesy, and greeted the next person. It seems on being introduced he had misunderstood "Roumanie" for "Etats-Unis," especially since Mrs.

Straus was next to the Serbian minister's wife. Count Eulenburg later explained to Mrs. Straus that the Emperor's hearing was a little defective.

When the Emperor reached me, he at once expressed a keen desire that it might be possible for him to visit my country, and especially our great shipyards, such as those of Cramp, which he had heard were wonderful. He then asked me whether I knew our amba.s.sador at Berlin, Andrew D. White; and when I informed him that Mr. White had been a friend of mine for a number of years, he said a few complimentary words about him.

The dinner service included gold plates and gold knives and forks. The waiters wore brilliant red and gold uniforms. Between courses the Sultan and the Emperor conversed by means of the interpreter who stood behind them, and until they had finished talking the waiters were patiently holding the next course up in the air for a cooling.

After the dinner we again formed a circle, made more courtesies at the proper time, while the Sultan himself went round and greeted and shook hands with each one. That ended the royal dinner.

During the meal I sat next to the Emperor's personal physician, Dr.

Lidhold. He had held the same position under the late Frederick III, whom he characterized as a most lovable man. He said William II was active and fond of amusing himself, and enjoyed constantly traveling about, which was not so pleasant for his physician and other members of his train. He admitted that the Emperor's left arm was quite lame, but it did not interfere much with his movements because he had acquired such dexterity with the other. He added that the magnificent attentions of the Sultan could not fail to have a great influence upon Germany's att.i.tude toward the Ottoman Empire.

The visit of the Emperor at this time, following as it did the dreadful ma.s.sacre of Armenians only a few years before at Harpoot and then at Constantinople itself, was very much resented by the Christians throughout Europe. It was interpreted as an effort on the part of the Emperor, for his own gain, to reinstate the "b.l.o.o.d.y Sultan" in the esteem of the world. It was stated that the Sultan presented the Empress with a very costly string of pearls.

One of the four outstanding questions included in my instructions concerned the right of our citizens to travel in the interior of Turkey.

Following the Armenian ma.s.sacres of 1896 the Turkish Government made new pa.s.sport regulations, and all foreigners were required to get a tezkirah, or special local pa.s.sport, from the Sultan before traveling into the interior. As usual in Turkey, asking for a permit of any kind was one thing; getting it was quite another. This regulation proved most obstructive to our missionaries and those of Great Britain who had missions in the interior. They would go home or to Europe on a leave of absence, and upon returning to Constantinople would be held up, sometimes for weeks, on account of these tezkirahs, which were not definitely refused, but not given, which practically amounted to the same thing.

When I arrived at Constantinople eight Americans, bound for Erzerum and Harpoot, were being held up in this way. One of them was Dr. C. F.

Gates, president of the Euphrates College at Harpoot. After exhaustive negotiations with the authorities, in which I pointed out the fact that refusal of the tezkirah was in violation of treaty rights, I myself gave Dr. Gates a permit, signed by me, with the seal of the legation on it. I then informed the Porte of my action and said that if any injury befell the party _en route_ I should hold the Turkish Government responsible. I also sent an open cable to our State Department informing Secretary Hay what I had done. My British colleague was a bit disturbed when he heard of it, because there were several British missionaries in the party.

That same night I got another of those Turkish midnight messages. After apologizing for disturbing me, the messenger brought me the intelligence that my cable had been held back, and that the Minister of Foreign Affairs sent word that instructions had been given for the full protection of the missionaries _en route_ to their posts. That broke down the pa.s.sport regulations, and a very few days thereafter I received notice that the Council of Ministers had taken up the matter and ruled that the regulations for traveling into the interior should be restored to what they were before the Armenian troubles.