The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-05

to send away the sultan and the govern
ment and practically leave the city a
prey to the English. He did not be-
heve that the allied fleets could force
spected all the Notifications and he
had every confidence in their ability TO
resist successfully. Even though the
ships did get through, he insisted that
Constanttnople should be defended to
the last man.
Yet Enver's assurance did not satisfy
his associates. They had made all their
arrangements for the British fleet. II,
in spite of the most heroic resistance
the Turkish armies could make, It still
seemed likely that teh allies were about
to capture the city, the ruling powers
had their final plans all prepared. They
proposed to do to this great capitakpre-
clsely what the Russians had done to
Moscow when Napoleon appeared be-
fore it
They will never capture an existing
city they told me. only a heap of
ashes" AS a matter Of fact, this was
no idle threat. 1t, was told that cans
Of petroleum had been already stored
in all the police stations and other
places, ready to fire the town at a
moments notice. As ~Constantinople Is
largely built of wood. this would have
been no very difficult task. But they
were determined to destroy mores than
these temporary structures; the plans
aimed at the beautiful architectural
monuments built by the Christians long
before the Turkish occupation, The
Turks had particularly marked for
dynamiting the mosque Of Saint Sophia.
This building, which had been a Chris
tian church centuries before 1t became
a MOhammedan mosque, is one OF The
most magnificent structures Of the van
ished Byzantine empire. Naturally the
suggestion of such an act of vandal-
ism aroused us all, and | made a plea
to Talaa that Saint Sophia should be
spared. He treated the proposed de-
struction lightly,
There are not six men in the com
mittee of union n progress" he told
me, who care for anything that is
old, We all like new things"
That was all the satisfaction ] OBJ
tanned in this matter at that time.
EnVer's insistence that the Darda-
nelles could resist caused his associates
to lose confidence in his judgment.
About a year afterward Bedri Bey, the
lpretect of police, gave me additional
details. While Enver was still in the
Caucasus, BedTi said, Talaat had called
a conference, a kind Of council of wa,
on the Dardanelles. This had been at
tended by Liman 0 Sanders, the Ger
man general who had reorganized the
Turkish army; Usedom, the German adj
miral who was the inspector-general
OF the Ottoman coast defenses; Brons-
sart, the German chief OF staff of the
Turkish army, and several others. Ev-
cry man present gave 1t as his opinion
that the British and French fleets
could force the straits; the only sub
ject of dispute. said Bedri, was Yheth-
er it would take the ships eight or 20
hours to reach COnstantinople after
they had destroyed the defenses. En-
ver's position was well understood, but
this council decided to ignore him and
to make preparations without his
knowledge-to eliminate the minister OF
war, at least temporarily, from their
deliberations.
in early March, Berdi and Djambolat,
who was director Of public safety,
came to see me. At that time the
exodus from the capital, had begun;
Turkish women n children were be-
ing moved into the interior; all the
banks had been compelled to send their
gold into Asia Minor; the archives Of
the sublime porte had already been
carried to Eski- ShehT. and practically
all the ambassadors and their suites,
as well as most of the government
officials, had made their preparations
to leave. The director Of the museum,
who was n of the six Turks to
whom Talaa had referred as liking
old things" had buried many of Con-
stantinople's finest works Of art in Gel
lars or covered them for protection,
Bedri came to arrange the details of
my departure. AS ambassador l was
personally accredited to the sultan, and
1t would obviously be my duty, said
Bedri, to go wherever the sultan went.
The train was all ready, he added;
he wished to know how many people
] intended to take, SO that sufficient
space could be reserved. To this pro-
posal | entered a flat refusal. I in
! formed Bedri that l thought that my
responsibilities made it necessary for
me to remain in Co~nstantinople. Only
a neutral ambassador, l said, could
forestall m~assacres and the destruction
of the city, n certainly l owed it to
the civilized world to prevent, II l
could, such calamities as these. II
my position as ambassador made it in
evitable that l should follow the sultan,
/ would resign and become honorary
consul-general.
| Both Bedri and Diambolat were much
younger and less experienced men than
l, and | therefore told them that they
needed a man of maturer years to
advise them in an international crisis
of this kind. ! was not only interested
in protecting foreigners and American
institutions, but | was also interested,
OF general humanitarian grounds, in
safeguarding the Turkish population
from the excuses that were generally
expected. The several n~ationalities,
many of them containing elements
which were given to pollage n mas
sacre, were causing great anxiety. /
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