12 
LAND 6? WATER 
October 24, 1918 
Allied Subjects in Constantinople 
By HENRY MORGENTHAU 
There was more than a trace of irresponsibiiity^from 
the Western- standpoint — in Turkish metliods of dealing 
with such Entente subjects as were at the wercv of the 
Constantinople authorities. The stories related here of the 
arrest of Sir Edwin Pears, and of others, attest the mixed 
characteristics and impulse^ of- the Turk. 
THE Gallipoli deportation gives some idea of my 
difficulties in attempting to fulfil my duty as the 
representative of Allied interests ,in the Ottoman 
Empire. Yet, despite these occasional outbursts 
of hatred, in the main the Turkish officials them- 
selves behaved very well. They had promised me at the 
beginning that they would treat their alien enemies decently, 
and would permit them to remain in Turkey and follow their 
atcustomed occupations, or to leave the .Empire. They 
apparently believed that the world would judge them, after 
the war was over, not by the way they treated their own 
subject peoples, but by the way they treated th6 subjects 
of the enemy Powers. 
Now and then the Turkish officials would retahate upon 
one of their enemy aliens, usually in reprisalfor some injury, 
or fancied injury, inflicted on their own subjects in enemy 
countries. Such acts gave rise to many exciting episodes, 
some tragical, some farcical, all illuminating in the light 
they shed upon Turkish character and upon Teutonic methods. 
One afternoon I was sitting with Talaat, discussing routine 
matters, when his telephone rang. 
■ "Pour vous," said the Minister, handing me the receiver. 
It was one of my secretaries. He told me that Bedri 
had arrested Sir Edward Pears, had thrown him into prison, 
and had seized all his papers. When the war started I had 
exacted a special promise from Talaat and Bedri that in no 
event should Sir Edwin Pears and Professor van Millingen, 
of Robert College, be disturbed. This telephone message 
which I now received seemed to indicate that this promise 
had been broken. 
I now turned to Talaat and spoke in a manner that made 
no attempt to conceal my displeasure. 
"Is this all your promises are worth ?" I asked. "Can't 
you find anything better to do than to molest such a respect- 
able old man as Sir Edwin Pears ? What has he ever done 
to you ? " 
"Come, come, do not get excited," rejoined Talaat. ."He 
has only been in prison for a few hours, and I will see that 
he is released." 
He tried to get Bedri on the wire, but failed. By this 
time I knew Bedri well enough to understand his method 
of operation. When Bedri really wished to be reached on 
the telephone, he was the most accessible man in the world ; 
when his presence at the other end of the wire might prove 
embarrassing, the most painstaking search could not reveal 
his whereabouts. As Bedri had given me his solemn promise 
that Sir Edwin should not be disturbed, this was an occasion 
when the Prefect of Police preferred to keep himself in- 
accessible. 
"I shall stay in this room until you get Bedri," I now 
told Talaat. The big Turk took the situation good- 
humouredly. We waited a considerable period, but Bedri 
succeeded in avoiding an encounter. Finally, I called up 
one of my secretaries, and told him to go out and hunt for 
the missing Prefect. 
"Tell Bedri," Isaid, "that I have Talaat under arrest in 
his own office, and that I shall not let him leave it until he 
has been able to instruct Bedri to release Sir Edwin Pears." 
Talaat was- greatly enjoying the comedy of the situation ; 
he. knew Bedri's ways even better than I did, and he was 
much interested in seeing whether I should succeed in finding 
him. But in a few moments the telephone rang. It was 
Bedri. I told Talaat to tell him that I was going to the 
prison in my own automobile to get Sir Edwin Pears. 
"Please do not let him do that," rephed Bedri. "Such an 
occurrence would make me personally ridiculous and destroy 
my influence." 
"Very well," I replied, "I shall wait until 6.15. If Sir 
Edwin is not restored to his family by that time I shall go 
to the Pohce Headquarters and get him." 
As I returned to the Embassy I stopped at the Pears' 
residence, and attempted to soothe Lady Pears and her 
daughter. 
"If your father is not here at 6.15," I told Miss Pears, 
"please let me know immediately." 
Promptly at. that time mj' telephone rang. It was Miss 
Pears, who informed me that Sir Edwin had just reached 
home. 
The next day Sir Edwin called at the Embassy to thank me 
for my efforts on his behalf. He told me that the German 
Ambassador had also worked for his release. This latter 
statement naturally surprised me, as I knew no one else 
had had a chance to do anything, as everything transpired 
while I was in Talaat's office. Half an hour afterwards I 
met Wangenhcim himself ; he dropped in at Mrs. Mor- 
genthau's reception. I referred to the Pears case, and asked 
him whether he had used any influence in securing his release. 
My question astonished him greatly. 
"What ?" he said. "I helped you to secure his release ! 
Dcr alte gauner! (The old rascal.) Why, I was the man 
who had him arrested ! " ' 
"What have you got against him?" I asked. 
"In 1876," Wangenheim replied, "that man was pro- 
Russian and against Turkey ! " 
Such are the long memories of the Germans ! In 1876, 
Sir Edwin wrote several articles for the London Daily News 
describing the Bulgarian massacres. At that time the 
reports of these fiendish atrocities were generally disbelieved, 
and Sir Edwin's letters placed all the incontrovertible facts 
before the English-speaking peoples, and had much to do 
with the emancipation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule. 
Bedri, however, was a little mortified at my successful 
intervention in this instance, and decided to even up the 
score. Next to Sir Edwin Pears, the most prominent English- 
speaking barrister in Constantinople was Dr. Mizzi, a Maltese, 
seventy j'ears old., The ruling powers had a grudge against 
him, for he was the proprietor of the Levant Herald, a paper 
which had published articles criticising the Union and Progress 
Committee. On the very night of the Pears episode, Bedri 
went to Dr. Mizzi's house at eleven o'clock, routed the old 
gentleman out of bed, arrested him, t\nd placed him on a 
train for Angora, in Asia Minor. As a terrible epidemic of 
typhus was raging at Angora, this was not a desirable place 
of residence for a man of Dr. Mizzi's years. The next morn- 
ing, when I heard of it for the first time. Dr. Mizzi was well 
on the way to his place of exile. 
"This time 1 got ahead of you," said Bedri, with a trium- 
phant laugh. He was as good-natured about it and as 
pleased as a boy. At last he had "put one over" on the 
American Ambassador, who had been unguardedly asleep 
in his bed when this old man had been railroaded to a fever 
camp in Asia Minor. 
But Bedri's success was not so complete, after all. At 
my request, Talaat had Dr. Mizzi sent to Konia, instead of 
to Angora. There one of the American missionaries, Dr. 
Dodd, had a splendid hospital ; I arranged that Dr. Mizzi 
could have a nice room in this building, and here he lived 
for several months, with congenial associates, good food, 
a healthy atmosphere, all the books he wanted, and one 
thing which without he would have been utterly miserable — 
a piano. So I still thought that the honours between Bedri 
and myself were a little better than even. 
When the English authorities arrested the Turkish Consul 
and his staff at Salonika, the Turks promptly imprisoned 
nine leading members of the French colony. It took me 
nearly three weeks to have them released. Early in January, 
1916, word was receiv'ed that the English, were maltreating 
Turkish war prisoners in Egypt. Soon afterward I received 
letters from two Australians, Commander Stoker and Lieu- 
tenant Fitzgerald, telhng me that they had been confined 
for eleven days in a miserable, damp dungeon at the War 
Office, with no companions except a monstrous swarm of 
vermin. These two naval officers had come to Constantinople 
on submarines which had made the daring trip from England, 
dived under the mines in the Dardanelles, and arrived in the" 
Marmora, where for several weeks they terrorised and dom- 
inated this inland sea, practically putting an end to all 
shipping. The particular submarine on which my corre- 
spondents arrived, the E 15, had been caught in the Dar- 
danelles, and its crew and officers had- been sent to the 
Turkish military prison at Afium Kara Hissar in Asia Minor. 
When news of the alleged maltreatment of Turkish prisoners 
in Egypt was received, lots were drawn among these pri- 
soners to see which two should be taken to Constantinople 
and imprisoned in reprisal. Stoker and Fitzgerald drew the 
unlucky numbers, and had b'een lying in this terrible under- 
ground cell for eleven days. I immediately took the matter 
