June 20, 19 1 8 
Land & Water 
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Even then the British admiral probably thought that he 
had spoiled the German plans. The German ships might 
get first to the Dardanelles; but at that point stood inter- 
national law across the path and barring the entrance ! 
Meanwhile, Wangenheim had accomplished his great 
diplomatic triumph. From the Corcovado wireless station 
in the Bosphorus he was sending the most agreeable news to 
Admiral Souchon. He was telling him to hoist the Turkish 
flag when he reached the Strait, for Admiral Souchon's 
cruisers had suddenly become parts of the :Turkish Navy, 
and, therefore, the usual international prohibitions did not 
apply ! These cruisers were no longer the Goeben and the 
Breslau ; like an Oriental magician, Wangenheim had sud- 
denly changed them into the Sultan Selim and the Medilli. 
The fact was that the German Ambassador had with 
his usual cleverness taken advantage of the existing 
•situation to manufacture a "sale." 
As I have already 
told, Turkey had two 
■dreadnoughts under 
construction in Eng- 
land when the war 
broke out. These ships 
were not exclusively 
governmental enter- 
prises ; they repre- 
sented a great popular 
movement of the Turk- 
ish people.. They were 
to be the agencies 
through which Turkey 
was to attack Greece 
and win back the 
islands of the .lEgean, 
and in a burst of 
patriotism the Turkish 
people had raised the 
money to build them 
by popular subscrip- 
tion. Agents had gone 
from house to house, 
painfully collecting 
these small subscrip- 
tions ; there had been 
entertainments and 
fairs ; in their eagerness for the cause, Turkish women had sold 
their hair for the benefit of the common fund. These two vessels 
thus represented a spectacular outburst of patriotism that was 
unusual in Turkey ; so unusual, indeed, that many detected 
-signs that the government had stimulated it. At the very 
moment when the war began, Turkey had made her 
- last payment to the English shipyards, and the Turkish 
crews had arrived in England prepared to take the 
finished vessels home. Then the British Government stepped 
in and commandeered them for the British Navy. 
There is not the slightest question that England had not 
only a legal, but a moral right to do this ; there is also no 
question that her action was a perfectly proper one, and 
that, had she been dealing with almost any other nation, it 
would not have aroused any resentment. But the Turkish 
people cared nothing for distinctions of this sort ; all they 
saw was that they had two ships in England, which they 
had almost starved themselves Vo purchase, and that England 
had now stepped in and taken them. Even without external 
pressure they would have resented the act ; but external 
pressure was exerted, in plenty. 
The transaction gave Wangenheim the greatest opportunity. 
Violent attacks upon England, all stimulated by him, 
began to fill the Turkish Press. Wangenheim was constantly 
discoursing to the Turkish leaders on English perfidy. He 
now suggested that Germany, Turkey's good friend, was 
prepared to make compensation for England's "unlawful" 
seizure.. He suggested that Turkey go through the form of 
"purchasing" the Goeben and .the Breslau, then wandering 
around the Mediterranean perhaps in anticipation of this 
very contingency— and incorporate them in the Turkish 
Navy in place of the appropriated ships in England. The 
very day that these vessels passed through the Dardanelles, 
the Ikdam, a Turkish newspaper published in Constantinople, 
had a triumphant account of this "sale," with big headlines 
calling it a "great success for the Imperial Government." 
Thus Wangenheim's manoeuvre accomplished two pur- 
poses ; it placed Germany before the populace as Turkey's 
friend, and it also provided a subterfuge for getting the ships 
through the Dardanelles, and, enabling them to remain in 
Turkish waters. All this beguiled the more ignorant part of 
the Turkish people, and gave the cabinet a plausible ground 
ifor meeting the objection of Entente diplomats, but it did 
not deceive any intelligent person. The Goeben and Breslau 
might change their names, and the German sailors might 
adorn themselves with Turkish fezzes, but we all knew from 
the beginning that this sale was a sham. Those who under- 
stood the financial condition of Turkey could only be amused 
at the idea that she could purchase these modern vessels. 
Wangenheim, in his talks with me, never made any secret 
of the fact that the ships still remained German property. 
"I never expected to have such big cheques to sign," he 
remarked one day, referring to.his expenditures on the Goeben 
and the Breslau. "The Germans say they belong to the 
Turks," Talaat remarked with his characteristic laugh; "at 
any rate, it's very comforting for us to have them here. After 
the war, if the Germans win, they will forget all about it and 
leave the ships to us. If the Germans lose, they won't be 
able to take them away from us ! " 
The German Government made no real pretension that the 
sale had been bona 
fide ; at least, when 
the Greek Minister at 
Berlin protested , 
against the transaction 
as unfriendly to Greece 
— naively forgetting 
the American ships 
which Greece had re- 
cently purchased — the 
German officials 
soothed him by 'ad- 
mitting, sotto voce, 
that the ownership ■ 
still resided in ' Ger- 
many. Yet when the 
Entente Ambassadors 
constantly protested 
against the presence 
of the German vessels, 
the Turkish officials 
blandly ^kept up the 
pretence that they 
were integral parts of 
the Turkish Navy ! 
The German officers 
and crews greatly 
enjoyed this farcical 
pretence that the Goeben and the Breslau were Turkish ships. 
One day the Goeben sailed up the Bosphorus, halted in front 
of the Russian Embassy, and dropped anchor. Then the 
officers and men lined the deck in full view of the enemy 
Ambassador. All solemnly removed their Turkish fezzes and 
put on German caps. The band played "Deutschland fiber.. 
Alles," the "Watch on the Rhine," and other German songs, 
the German sailors singing loudly to the accompaniment. 
When they had spent an hour or two serenading the Russian 
Ambassador, the officers and crews removed their German 
caps and again put on their Turkish fezzes. The Goeben then 
picked up her anchor and started south to her station, leaving 
in the ears of the Russian diplomat the gradually dying strains 
of German war songs as the cruiser disappeared down stream. 
/ have often speculated on ivhat would have happened if 
the English battle cruisers, xnhich pursued the Breslau and 
Goeben up to the mouth of the Dardenelles, had not been .too 
gentlemmly to violate international law. Suppose that they 
had entered the Strait, attacked the German cruisers in the 
Marmora, and sunk them. They could have done this, and, 
knowing all that we know now, such an action would have 
been justified. Not improbably the destruction would have 
kept Turkey out of the war. There were men in the Turkish 
Cabinet who perceived this, even then. 
The story was told in Constantinople — though I do not 
vouch for it — -that the cabinet meeting at which this 
decision had been made was not altogether harmonious. The 
Grand Vizier and Djemal, it was said, objected to the fictitious 
"sale," and demanded that it should be made a real one. 
When the discussion had reached its height, Enver, who was 
playing Germany's game, announced that he had already 
completed the transaction. 
In the silence that followed his statement this young Napoleon 
pulled out his pistol and laid it on the table. 
" If any one here xvishes to question this purchase," he said 
quietly and icily, "I am ready to m';et him." 
Mr. Morgenthau in the succeeding chapter, to 
be printed in ne.xt week's Land & Water, tells 
exactly how the German A diniral took the law into 
his own hands and committed the act of hostility 
which finally plunged Turkey into the war. 
The Golden Horn, Harbour of Constantinople 
The big building at the water edge in the centre is the Turkish Admiralty 
