It is impossible in a short review to touch upon a tithe of the matters we looked to find the truth of in this book. Some of them remain as obscure as before. For instance, in the case of the two ships we were building for Turkey when the war broke out: Mr. Churchill says, in explanation of our exercising our legal right and commandeering them:
"The Turkish battleships were vital to us. With a margin of only seven Dreadnoughts we could not afford to do without these two fine ships."
Mr, A. L. Kennedy, on the other hand, in his book "Old Diplomacy and New" published by John Murray last year, speaks of this action as a "blunder definitely disastrous to our position." He asserts that "by arbitrarily (though not illegally) seizing them (the ships) at once we not only irremediably impaired our bargains (for Turkey's assistance of neutrality), but we wounded the just susceptibilities of the Porte and the Turkish people, and gratuitously embarrassed the position of our friends it Constantinople." If Mr. Churchill ever had any hesitation in his mind on this vitally important matter -he does not mention it in his book. On July 28, 1914. in a request to Director Intelligence Division" for a list of "'all British and German. Dreadnought battleships available for war," he writes "You should include the two Turkish ships in your calculation."
And on the next page of his book he says:
"One of the Turkish baittle-ships (the Reshadieh) whicn Armstrongs were building on the Tyne when the crisis began, was actually complete. The Turkisr crew, over 500 strong, had already arrived to take her over and were lying in their steamer in the river. There seemed to be a great danger of their coming on. board, brushing aside Messrs. Armstrongs' workmen and hoisting the Turkish flag, in which case a very difficult diplomatic situation would have been created. I determined to run no risks and on the 31st July I sent written instructions that adequate military guards were to be placed on board this vease! and that in no circumstances wan she to be boarded by the Turks. it has sometimes Leen made ground for reproach against me that the requisition of these ships was one of the causes which brought Turkey into the war three months later. We know that negotiations' were taking place from the 24th July onwards between the Germans and the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress for alliance between G and Turkey, and that such Alliance vee actually signed on August Mr. Kennedy puts it this way:
"An accident of war made this blunder definitely disastrous to our position. The German warships "Goeben" and "Breslau" were allowed to escape by our own Mediterranean—squadron. They headed for the Bosphorus. Immediately on leaving the news Wangenheim, with a swiftness of resolution and resource con-tresting sharply with our diplomacy, hurried to the Ports and negotiated a bogus sale of the ships to Turkey. He was thus able to inform them by wireless telegraphy, when they were still in the Aegean, that they could hoist the Turkish flag out side the Dardanelles and pass through to Constantinople as part of the Turkish navy! Their arrival determined the destiny of Turkey. Wangenheim was in a position to contrast the perfidy of Britain in withholding delivery of promised warships with Germany's swift provision for their "deficiency: Germany was Turkey's friend in act as well as in word, and had made the Turkish navy stronger than the Russian Black Sea fleet. Meanwhile. this very actuated ambassador resisted all the endeavours of Britain's representatives to secure from the orte the removal of the German crews. They donned fezes, and the vessels were re-named the Sultan Scrim and the Medilli; but they remained so completely under German) orders that Wangenhelm with their aid completely dominated Constantinople. Thus 10 days before the British Ambassador even arrived upon the scene his cause was lost. The counsels of Enver Pasha and the advocates of alliance with Germany prevailed in the Turkish Cabinet; the British case went almost by default, and the tragedy of Gallipoli followed."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.