Evening star., 1939-05-22
Praises Diplomacy
OF Admiral Bristol
Naval Officer Credited With
Enhancing Our Prestige
In Turkey

Enhancing Our Prestige
In Turkey
To the Editor OF The Star:
1t was a dark night Of deep and
devious plottings in Turkey. The ma
tionalists at Angora had deposed the
Sultan, thus bringing to an end what had
been for more than four centuries one
of the mighty institutions of the Near
East. The jobless and pathetic old Sui
tan, filter for monastery than for
throne, sat miserably in Yildiz Kiosk,
forsaken by most Of his courtiers. His
power was gone, yet he still remained a
significant symbol of sovereignty and of
history. Neither Mustapha Kemal Pasha
nor the monarchists knew what to do
with the throneless monarch. Plots and
intrigues moved almost as fast as popu-
lar speculation.
Those master minds at meeting inter-
AAoeAcAioA SAiiSA SCliSlCo, lIlC oTlJlSn QlDlO-
mats, had the deepest, darkest design of
all. Chinese wall of impenetrable Sc
crecy surrounded their scheme. At mid
night British launch quietly made fast
to Dolma Bache quay; small party of
mufhed fgures and quantity of lug
gage were quickly taken abroad, and pas
sengers and baggage were transferred to
hn oct 1f H.
been taken abroad one of His Maiestvs
battleshlps, as a sensational coup in the
herce international struggle for control
OF Turkey. The unsuspecting world
would get its first word of this master
stroke when the British Embassy chose
to speak it.
Early the next morning British diplo-
mat called upon Admiral Mark L. Bristol
the American high commissioner, who
casually informed his visitor of the
event OF the night before, of the identity
OF the Sultans fellow exies and even
OF the number OF pieces of baggage! His
MaJesty's representative was dumb
founded. Not living SOUL outside of
the inner circle of highest British au-
est inkling of this world startling coup.
yet here was this inscrutable Yankee
naval officer, no trained diplomat at all,
conversant with every detail. How did
he do it? What else did he know?
Then, to add to the chagrin of the
creSt1allen diplomat the breezy sailor
man frankly told him that the carving
of of the Sultan was a capital blunder.
exactly serving the purposes Of the ma
tlonallsts, who had not known what to
do with their ex-ruler, and who were
glad to have the British possess him. as
a symbol of their reactionary interests
and sympathy and as eliminating proof
that the late Sultan had been intriguing
with foreign powers!
From the day of his arrival in Con-
stantlnople, in January, 1919 as COM
mander OF the American forces in Asiatic
waters, until his departure from the CITY
after an astonishing career of eight wears
as American high commissioner to Tlr-
key-ln effect. acting Ambassador-Ad-
mlral Bristol had been mystery to the
European old school diplomats. With
out playing their game in their wav.
with no espionage force to match their
bands of secret agents, with no bribed
Turkish officials in his pay, he yet always
knew more about conditions than they:
always was blocking their game; always
was keeping America several Jumps
ahead of other nations in Turkish favor.
and yet throughout was a simple.
straight-speaking, direct-acting Yankee
sailorman
1t was the plan of Washington to name
Admiral Bristol as our first Ambassador
to the Turkish Republic, that he might
for few months preceding his transfer
to command of the Asiatic fleet. enioy
the official honor and full title that prop
erly belonged to him. The filibuster at
the close of the last session of Congress
prevented this.
Every naval officer is expected to be
quallfied to represent his country dip
lomatically in emergencies. Admiral
Bristol made his first conspicuous en-
trance into this field as a member of
the International Armistice Commission
in Belgium, in November, 1918. From his
post in Turkey he went to the Lausanne
) Conference to represent America. As
crowning diplomatic achievement he ne
gotiated the agreement with Turkey
under which the two nations long
operated, thus saving America from the
consequences of the Senate's rejection
OF the Lausanne treaty. Only his per-
sonality and the confidence reposed in
him by the Turks made this feat Dos
sible.
During the days of international dis
organization in the Near East, he put
American destroyers at the service Of
Americans having proper business
about the Mediterranean-relief work.
ers, newspapermen, missionaries, busi-
nessmen, visitors. once was on
a destroyer in the Black Sea (even
the captain was seasick in those terri
BILE waters) which rushed an American
nurse from Samsoun to Trebizond for
the help of missionary stricken with
typhus. 1t would take great minstrel
to sing the saga of the varied services
OF altruism performed by the American
peacetime Navy in the Near East under
Admiral Bristol. At Smyrna during the
holocaust of 1922 it was the American
destroyers and their officers and crew,
in cooperation with civilian Americans,
who saved that tragedy from its most