Land & Water 
May 9, 1918 
enemy would capture liim." I suggested that that could 
hardly happen, as the American Government would escort 
its guest home with warships, and that no nation would care 
to run the risk of involving tlie United States as Germany's 
ally ; but he still thought that the military danger would 
make any such , visit impossible. 
Wangenheim's Nature ^ 
From the day that he reached Constantinople, Wangen- 
heim had one absorbing ambition ; that was to make Turkey 
Germany's ally in the struggle which he knew was impending. 
He believed that should he succeed in doing this, he would 
reap the reward which for years had represented his final 
goal — the Chancellorship of 
the Empire. His personal 
popularity with the Turks 
gave him a great advan- 
tage over his rivals. Wan- 
genheim had precisely that 
combination of force, per- 
suasiveness, geniality, and 
brutality needed in dealing 
. with the Turkish charac- 
ter. I have emphasised his 
Prussian qualities ; yet 
Wangenheim was a Prus- 
sian not by birth, but by 
development ; he was a 
native of Cassel, and, to- 
gether with ail the push, 
ambition, and overbearing 
traits of the Prussian, he 
had some of the softer 
characteristics which we 
associate with Southern 
Germany. He had one 
conspicuous quality, which 
is not Prussian at all — ■ 
that is, tact ; and for the 
most part he succeeded in 
keeping his less agreeable 
tendencies under the sur- 
face and showing only his 
more ingratiating side. He 
dominated not so much by 
brute strength as by a 
mixture of force and ami- 
ability. Externally he was 
not a bully ; his manner 
was more insinuating than 
coercive ; he won by per- 
suasiveness, not by the 
mailed fist ; but we who 
knew him well understood 
that back of all his gentle- 
ness there lurked a terrific, 
remorseless ambition. Yet 
the impression left was not one of brutality, but of excessive 
animal spirits and good nature. Indeed, Wangenheim had 
in combination the jovial enthusiasm of a college student, the 
rapacity of a Prussian official, and the happy-go-lucky 
qualities of a man of the world. I still recall the picture of 
this German diplomat, seated at the piano, playing the finest 
productions of the Fatherland— and then suddenly starting 
to pound out uproarious German drinking songs or popular 
melodies. I still see him jumping on his horse on the polo 
grounds, spurring the splendid animal to its speediest efforts 
— never .making sufficient speed, however, to satisfy the 
ambitious sportsman. Indeed, in all his activities, grave 
and gay, Wangenheim displayed this same restless spirit of 
the chase. Whether he weis flirting with the Greek ladies at 
Pera, or spending hours over the card -table at the Cercle 
d'Orient, or bending the Turkish officials to his will in the 
interest of Germany, all life was to him a game, which was to 
be played more or less recklessly, and in which the chances 
favoured the man who was bold and audacious and willing 
to pin success or failure on a single throw. And this greatest 
game of all — that upon which was staked, as Bernhardi has 
expressed it, "world-empire or downfall" — Wangenheim did 
not play languidly, insidiously, as though it had been nierely 
a duty to which he had been assigned ; to use the German 
phrase, he was " fire and flame " for it ; he had the conscious- 
ness that he was a big man set aside to perform a mighty 
task. As I write of VV'angenheim I feel myself alfectcd by 
the force of his personality, yet I know all the time that, 
like the government he served so loyally, he was funda- 
mentally ruthless, shameless, and cruel. He accepted in 
Baron von Wangenheim, German Ambassador to Turkey 
He was personally selected by the Kaiser to bring Turkey into line with Germany and 
transform that country into an ally of Germany in the forthcoming war — a task at 
which he succeeded. Wangenheim represented German diplomacy in its most ruthless 
and most shameless aspects. He believed with Bismarck that a patriotic German must 
stand ready to sacrifice for Kaiser and Fatherland not only his life, but his honour as 
well. With wonderful skill he manipulated the desperate and corrupt adventurers who 
controlled Turkey in 1914 into becoming an instrument of Germany. 
full Bismarck's famous dictum that a German must be ready 
to sacrifice for Kaiser and Fatherland not only his life, but 
his honour as well. 
The Austrian Ambassador 
Just as Wangenheim personified Germany, so did his 
colleague, Pallavicini, personify Austria. Wangenheim was 
always looking to the future, Pallavicini to the past. Wan- 
genheim represented that mixture of commercialism and 
mediaeval lust for conquest that constitute Prussian ivell- 
politik ; Pallavicini was a diplomat left over from the days 
of Mettemich. "Germany wants this I" Wangenheim would 
shout when an important point had to be decided ; "I shall 
consult my Foreign Office," 
the hesitating Pallavicini 
would say on a similar 
occasion. The Austrian, 
with little, upturned grey 
moustaches, with a rather 
stiff, even shghtly strut- 
ting walk, looked like the 
old-fashioned Marquess of 
the Opera Comique. I 
might compare Wangen- 
heim with the representa- 
tive of a great business 
firm that was lavish in its 
expenditures and obtained 
its trade by generous en- 
tertaining, while his Aus- 
trian colleague represented 
a house that prided itself 
on its past achievements 
and was entirely content 
with its position. The 
same delight that Wan- 
genheim took in Pan- 
German plans, Pallavicini 
found in all the niceties 
and obscurities of diplo- 
matic technique. The Aus- 
trian had represented his 
country in Turkey many 
years, and was the dean 
of the corps, a dignity of 
which he was extremely 
proud. He found his de- 
light in upholding all the 
honours of his position ; he 
was expert in arranging 
the order of precedence at 
ceremonial dinners, and 
there was not a single 
detail of etiquette that he 
did not have at his finger's 
ends. When it came to 
affairs of state, however, 
he was merely a tool of Wangenheim. In this way, Pallavicini 
played to his German ally precisely the same part that his 
Empire was playing to that of the Kaiser. In the early 
months of the war the bearing of these two men completely 
mirrored the respective successes and failures of their coun- 
tries. As the Germans boasted of victory after victory, 
Wangenheim's already huge and erect figure seemed to 
become larger and more upstanding, while Pallavicini, as 
the Austnans lost battle after battle to the Russians, seemed 
to become smaller and more shrinking. 
The situation in Turkey in these critical months seemed 
almost to have, been artificially created to give the fullest 
opportunities to a man of Wangenheim's genius. The so- 
called Young Turks— more properly the committee of Union 
and Progress— now dominated the Turkish Empire. Several 
years before I came to Turkey I remember reading a most 
encouraging piece of news. A body of young revolutionists 
had swept from the mountains of Macedonia, marched upon 
the capital, deposed the Sultan Abdul Hamid, and estab- 
lished a constitutional system. Turkey, these glowing news- 
paper stories told us, had become a democracy, with a 
parliament, a responsible ministry, universal suffrage equaUty 
of all citizens before the law, freedom of speech and of the 
Press, and all the other essentials of a free, hberty-loving 
commonwealth. That a party of Turks had for years been 
struggling for such reforms I well knew ; that their ambitions 
had become realities seemed to indicate that, after all there 
was such a thing as human progress. The long welter of 
