The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-11

CHAPTER NIX.


Dh me second Of May, 1915, Enve,
III ms alde to the American embassy.
mt"s'HB a message which he reuuester
~ 70 transmit to the French anC
nltlish governments, About a weel
o or'Vo ms VISIT the allies had landed
az the daIIipoli peninsula. They had
tFIuentIy concluded that a naval at.
5dCh ny Itself could not destroy ths
ueleuses and open the road to Constan.
ulopIe' ana they had now adopted the
hnfLhatlve plan OF dlspatching large
,yoHleS OF troops, to re supported by
, ~ salS OF their warships. Already
lazy thousands of Australians and New
nealanders had entrenChed thmseIves at
sne UP or the peninsula, ana the excite
lieht mat prevailed in C"onstantInOple
vas Utmost as great as that which had
1"et caused by the appearance of the
'ieet TWO months before.
EhVe now Informed Inc that the al.
iIeu ships were bombarding in reck-
teSs fashion, and ignoring the well-es-
.dpiiShed international rule that such
COMPARTMENTS should be directed onIv
against fortified places, British and
frenCh shells, he said, were falling ey-
ery"here, destroying unprotected Mos
,anl villages and killing hundreds Of
innocent noncOmbatants. Enver asked
me to inform the allied government
mat such activities must Immediately
ease lie had decided to collect ali
the British and French citizens who
were then living in Constantinople, take
them down to the Gallipoli peninsula
aha scatter them in Moslem villages
aapd towns. The allied fleets would then
oe throwing their projectiles not only
against peaceful and unprotected Mos
ems, "put against their own country
men, II was Enver's idea that this
threat, communicated ny the American
atnoassador to the British and French
governments, would SCOT put an end
to atrocities" Of this KIND. was given
a few days respite to get the informa-
tIoh TO London and Paris.
Al that time about 5000 British and
french citizens were living In Constan-
lhople, The great majority belonged
to the class known as L~evantines,
nearly all had been born IN Turkey and
IN many cases their families had been
domiciied IN that country for two or
more generations. The retention Of their
European citizenship is almost their
only contact with the nation from which
they have sprung Not uncommoniy
we meet IN the larger cities of Turkey
men and women who are English by
race and nationality, but who speak no
English, French being the usual Ian
Ruage OF the Levanttne. The great ma
1oritN have never set foot In England,
or any other European county: they
nave only one home and that Is Turkey.
The fact that the levantine usually
citizenship in the nation OF
his origin was now apparently making
him a fitting object for Turkish ven
gtahce Besides these L~eNantlnes, a
large number OF English and French
were then living In Constantlnople, AZ
teachers In the schools, as missionar-
les, and RS important business men and
merchants TIT ottoman government
now proposed to assemble all these resi-
uHnt9 hnIh thnqp Whn WPTp t.lN
and those who were remotely connect
ed with Great Britain and France, and
TO place them IN exposed positions on
the Gallipoli peninsula as targets for
the allied fleet
Naturally my first question when
this startling information was
the warships were really BON
harding defeuseless towns. II they
were numbering nonCompatant men,
women, and children In this reckless
fashion, such an act OF reprisal as En-
yer now proposed would probably have
had some Justification. It seemed to
me incredible. however, that the Eng
and French could commit such bar !
b~arities had already received many
OF this kind from Turkish
officials witch, on investigation, had
out to I've untrue. Only a little
while before pr Meyer. the first assist
ant to Suleyman .Nouman, the chief Of
Nv llltNlNh At NAhilt 90 lAAN lANAllAN' NV AllhN
British fleet had bombarded Il
hospital and killed 1000 in
when | looked into the mater,
found that the halildInG had been but
damaged. and only one man
| now naturally suspected that
his latest tai" or allied ~barbarity rest. |
ID on a similarly flimSy foundation |
soon discovered, indeed, that this was
he case. The alltd fleet was not bonn
,arding Moslem villages at all. A MUM
YER Of British waVshipS had been sta
toned in the Eulf 'ot Saros, an inden-
Of the Aegean sea, on the west
IN side Of the Eninsula, and from
ug shells into tina city Of Gallipoli. |
All the "hcpbarding" of towns in which
hey were now engaging was limited to
his one city. In doing this the Brit
sh navy was not violating the rules
I civilized warfare, for Gallipoli had
nng since been evacuated OF its civil.
population, and the Turks had es-
abIished military headquarters in sew.
rnl Of the houses, which had properly
become the object Of the allied attack.
certainly knew of I'M rule OF warfare
hitch prohibited an attack upon II miIi-
AIRY headquarters. As to the stories
( murdered civilians, men, women and
hildren, those proved to be gross ex-
operations. as almost the entire civil
an population had long since left, any
asualties resulting from the lombard
ncnt must have been confined to the
rmCd forces OF the ctnpdre.
now discussed the situation FOR
ONO time with MIR, Ernest Weyl, who
,as generally ~rccognigrd "a the lead
NIX French citizen in ~Constantinople.
nd MIR. Hoffman Philip, the counsellor
{ the embassy, and tnon decided that
would 60 Immediately to the sublime
orte and protest to FnVcr.
rA -. r. t-V AV- V.a Ea~ l
{ the time. but Envcr came NJ His
tanner was more demonstrative than
.sual As he described the attack Of
he British fleet, he became extremely
ngrN. it was not the im~perttRhahle En-.
er with whom | had become so famil.
These cowardly English" he en-
laimcd They tried for a long time to
ct through the pardanelles. and we
ere too much for them, And sec wha
ind Of n revenge they are taking Their
hips sneak up into the outer bay,
,here our guns can not reach them.
shoot over the hills at our little
tllages, killing harmless old men.
Nomen n children, and bomhardiug
,ur hospitals, DO YOU think we are
,otnr to let them do that And what
an We do Our guns don't reach over
he hills. so that we can not meet them
n battle. II We could. we would drive
hem of, Just as we did at the straits
. England to lombard their unfortined
owns as they are bombarding ours.
20 We have decided To move all the
and French we can find TO
iallipn,i. Let them XIII their own peo-
lie as well as ours"