ABDUL THE DAMNED

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 72, 18 December 1919, Page 5

ABDUL THE DAMNED

LORD FISHER'S "MEMORIES" SOME RACY STORIES HOW BRITAIN ENCOURAGES TRADE In his "Memories," recently published bv Messrs. Hod'ter and Stoughton, Admiral Lord Fisher writes of his exueriences in tho Mediterranean. Ho 6avs.— s Two great personalities camo across inv path when I commanded the Mediterranean Fleet for threo years—the Sultan Abdul Hamid ami Pope Leo XIIIThey each greatly admired the- Astuteness of the other. Wily as Abdul *os, tho Pono was tho subtler of tho two.' 1 oid not have the interviews with tho Pono which I might have had-,. There was no real occasion for it, as was the case' with Abdul Hamid; and also, thoucli hv the accident of birth I was of tho Church' of England (nearly everybody's religion is the accident of his birth), yet by taste and conviction I was a Covenanter,, and therefore dead asainst tho Pope. I would have loved to participate in tho fight against Clavcrhouse at tho Battle of Drumclog.

Neither rats nor Jews can exist at Malta. .The Maltoso are too much for either A Maltese can't get a living in tho Levant. Tho Levantino i 6 too much for tho Maltose. No Levantino has ever been seen in Armenia, His late Maiestv. Abmil Hamid, was an Armenian. He massacred more Armenians than had ever been massacred before. I've no doubt that can bo explained. It is supposed that tho Armenian coachman of the previous Sultan was his father. Ho certainly was not a bit like his Diesumed father, the Sultan. When I dined several times with the Sultan, his father's pioturo hung behind him. and he used to ask people it' they traced the likeness—there wasn't ovon a resoniblauoe. In the Dardanelles. The Sultan paw! mo a very special honour in sending his most distinguished admiral with his staff down to the British Fleet lying at Leninos. to .'escort me up to Constantinople. This admiral was known to me. and it afforded mo an opportunity, in tho passage up the Dardanelles, of making a thorough, inspection of the forts and all the particulars connected with the defence of the Dardanelles. Nothing was-kept, back'from me: ana' incidentally it was through this inspection I becamo on suoh terms with the Pashas that a, mosjt amicable arrangement was reached between us ns to our ever having to work in common. A very striking incident occurred illustrating luamil Pasha's remark to me of how every Turk in the Turkish Eranire trusted tho English when they trusted no ono else. Kiamil'e argument was that such trust was only natural after the Crimean War i.nd after the war with Russia—when Busjia wasatthe gates of Constantinople, and, tho British Fleot, coming up under Admiral Hornby in a blinding suowstonn, encountering great rjsks and not knowing but what the forts, bribed by Eussia,- might open fire—that British Fleet by its opportune arrival, hardly a minute too soon, ellectually banged, barred, and bolted the gates of Constantinople against the Russians and produced peace. And Kiamil's emphasis was that, notwithstanding all the wonderful things that England had done for Turkey, England.never asked for the very smallest favour or. concessions in return, whereas other nations were all of them notoriously always grabbing; and I told Kiamil Pasha that Ifelt very proud indeed, ns a British admiral, that England had this no>ble character nnd deserved it. The incident I leferred to was this. Upon an observation' being made to tho Turkish Commander-in-Chief in the Dardanelles as io whether 6omo written document'wouldn't be satisfactory to him, lie replied ho wanted no ', such document—if a British midshipman '| brought him a message, lhe : word of a British midshipman was enough for him. ! Abdul's Diplomacy;^ Personally I had a treat regard for Abdul Hamid. Our Ambassadors had not. One who knew of theso matters considered Abdul Hamia the greatest diplomatist in Europe. I have mentioned elsewhere how greatly he resented Lord Salisbury throwing over the traditional English alliance with Turkey, and Lord Salisbury saying in a memorable speech that in making that allianco in past years we had backed tho wrong horse. For were not (was Abdul Kamid's argument) England and Turkey tho two greatest Mohammedan nations on earth—Englaud bej ing somewhat tho greater? Kiamil—the Grand Old Man of Turkey-told me the ' same. He had been many times Grand Vizier, and. I went especially with tho Mediterranean Fleet to Smyrna to. do him j honour, lie was tho Ynli there, nis nicknamo in Turkey was ''The Englishman" ; he was so devoted to us. He lamented to me that England' had had only one diplomatist' of ability at Constantinople since the days of Sir Stratford Canning, whom he knew. His exception was a Sir William White, who had teen a Consul somewhere in tho Balkan States. No other English Ambassador had over been a'ble to cope with the Germans. I remon'strated with Kiamil by saying that Ambassadors now were only telegraph m- } struments—they only conveyed messages, and quite probably- from some quite ./, young'man at the foreign Offico who had '■' charge of that Department. I venture to romark here in passing what I havo very frequently urged to those in au- ' tho'ritv—that the. United States system is infinitely better than ours. Their diplomatic representatives are .ill fresh from home, with each change of President; ours live all their live* abroad and practically cease to be Englishmen, and very often,'like Solomon, marry foreign wives. Another thing I've urged on authority is that some great personage should annually make a tour of inspection of all the diplomatic and Consular Agonts (exactly as tho big banks havo a travelling inspector), who would ask how much he had increased the trade of the great British. Commonwealth of Nations; and if it weren't more than 5 per cent, would give him tho sack. This great travelling personage must bo a man independent in means and station of any Governme.ntcoivncct'on.nnd undertake the duty as Sir Edward (now Lord) Grey goes to Washington. The German Ambassador at Constantinople used to go round selling beetroot Migar by tho pound! TheiEnglish Ambassador said to me at a garden party he gave by those lovely sweet waters of the Bosporus: "You see that fellow there with a white hat on? He's the President of the British Chamber of Commerce; he's an awful nuisance. He's always bothering roe about seme peddling commercial business \" A Secret Service, Abdul Hamid was exceedingly kind to me, and invited mo to Constantinople, and lie descanted (the Boer War tiion being on) on what a risk there was of n big coalition against England. Curiously enough, his colleague the Popo had the same feeling. J wa3 so impressed with what the Sultan told mo Hint I set to work on my own account; and through tho patriotism of several magnificent Englishmen who occupied high commercial positions on the shores of the Mediterranean I got a central forwarding station for information fixed up privately in Switzerland; and it fo happened, through a . most providential slate of circumstances, that I was thus able to obtain 'all the cipher messages passing 'from the various foreign Embassies, Consulates, and Legations through a certain central focus, and I also obtained a koy to their respective ciphers. Tho chief man who did it for me was not in Government employ; and I'm glad to think that ho is now in a great position —though not rewarded as ho should have been. No one is. Blit as to any information from an official source reaching me, who was so vastly interested in tho matter, in tho event of war whero the Fleet should strike first—all our diplomatists and Consuls i>-id Metlicence Departments illicit have been dead and buried. And how striking flic case in the late war—tho Prima Minister not knowing at the Guildhall Banquet on November 0. 11)18, that the inost humiliating armistice ever known would be accepted bj the Gei-mans ynth-

in 38 hours, and one of our principal Cabinet Ministers saying tho Sunday before that tho Allies were at their last gasp. And read how Ludemlorif, Tirpitz, Falkonhayn, Lbnan von Sanders, and others—tliey knew exactly what tho Allies' condition was and what their own was. And if tho Dardanelles evidence is over published, it will bo found absolutely ludicrous how the official spokesmen gravely give evidence that tho Turks had come to thoir last round of ammunition and that tho roofs of tho houses in Constantinople woro crowded vfltli people looking for tho adveait of the approaching British Fleet. Why! ii; took our Admiral, on tho conclusion of the armistice, with tho holp of the Turks and all his own fleet, sevoral weeks to dear a passage through the mines on whioh Marshal Limon von. Sondevs'fio accurately based his reliance against any likeliuoqd of tho Dardanelles being forced.