320 Our Foolish Diplomacy at Constantinople t 10 ^ 



time of the first revolution in July, 1908, the English were so popular 

 at Constantinople that Riza, who was one of the two Young Turks 

 whose duty it was to keep order in the capital, had difficulty in pre- 

 venting the crowds of demonstrators from besieging the British Em- 

 bassy with their enthusiastic attentions, while there was equal dif- 

 ficulty in preventing Bieberstein, the German Ambassador, from being 

 insulted. Now it is precisely the reverse. Lowther, our ambassador, 

 is a worthy man, Riza says, but quite ignorant of the East, and de- 

 pendent for his information on his chief dragoman, Fitzmaurice, 

 who has an anti-Islamic twist, and who went in for the so-called 

 Liberal party opposed to the Young Turks. England in consequence 

 has become entirely distrusted, and to such a point that he (Riza), who 

 has all his life been Anglomane, is now for an alliance with the 

 Triplice, England having become anti-Islamic. I told him I held just 

 that view of the position, and that it would be better for Turkey to 

 join the German powers by signing a definite treaty which would 

 guarantee her from danger either from Russia or from France. He 

 promised to repeat my opinion to the Grand Vizier and to Ahmed Riza 

 and the rest of those responsible for Ottoman policy. There is in 

 truth no other course, for England and France and Russia are all now 

 hostile to Islam. They only supported the Young Turks at the outset 

 because they imagined these to be opposed to pan-Islamism. He will 

 also show my memorandum, about the Arabian policy which should 

 be adopted, to those whom it concerns, and we are to correspond. 

 Riza is a very remarkable man. 



" I asked him about Abdul Flamid, and he told me the old Sultan 

 was very unhappy, for he is a man of restless energy, and chafes at 

 his position of powerlessness. His temper has become so bad that 

 nearly all his women folk have left him. He lives in a handsome 

 house, almost a palace, at Salonika, where he is kept close prisoner, 

 but he cannot accept his position. After the deposition of Abdul 

 Hamid, Riza saw him twice, though not to speak with personally. 

 He confirms all the stories of the Sultan's dread of assassination, and 

 says that in the room at Yildiz where the Sultan usually slept there 

 were six beds in a row, and no one knew in which he was sleeping, 

 so that if an assassin got into the room in the dark he would not 

 know where to strike. Also there was a secret way of escape under 

 the bed. Sometimes he would eat nothing for days, fearing poison, or 

 he would get some old woman to boil an egg for him in his presence. 



" 4th Oct. — George Wyndham and Beauclerk came to dine and sleep 

 and shoot to-morrow. George is busy with his rectorial address to 

 be delivered at Edinburgh on the ' Springs of Romance.' He and 

 Beauclerk get on well together. 



"8th Oct. — The last days' newspapers have been full of a revolu- 



