Crescent and Iron Cross

Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F.
Benson

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crescent and Iron Cross, by E. F.
Benson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Crescent and Iron Cross
Author: E. F. Benson
Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10881]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESCENT
AND IRON CROSS ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, L Barber and PG Distributed
Proofreaders

CRESCENT AND IRON CROSS
BY E.F. BENSON

Crescent and Iron Cross, Preface
In compiling the following pages I have had access to certain sources
of official information, the nature of which I am not at liberty to specify
further. I have used these freely in such chapters of this book as deal
with recent and contemporary events in Turkey or in Germany in
connection with Turkey: the chapter, for instance, entitled 'Deutschland
über Allah,' is based very largely on such documents. I have tried to be
discriminating in their use, and have not, as far as I am aware, stated
anything derived from them as a fact, for which I had not found
corroborative evidence. With regard to the Armenian massacres I have
drawn largely on the testimony collected by Lord Bryce, on that
brought forward by Mr. Arnold J. Toynbee in his pamphlet The Murder
of a Nation, and The Murderous Tyranny of the Turks, and on the
pamphlet by Dr. Martin Niepage, called The Horrors of Aleppo. In the
first chapter I have based the short historical survey on the contribution
of Mr. D.G. Hogarth to The Balkans (Clarendon Press, 1915). The
chapter called 'Thy Kingdom is Divided' is in no respect at all an
official utterance, and merely represents the individual opinions and
surmises of the author. It has, however, the official basis that the Allies
have pledged themselves to remove the power of the Turk from
Constantinople, and to remove out of the power of the Turk the alien
peoples who have too long already been subject to his murderous rule. I
have, in fact, but attempted to conjecture in what kind of manner that
promise will be fulfilled.
Fresh items of news respecting internal conditions in Turkey are
continually coming in, and if one waited for them all, one would have
to wait to the end of the war before beginning to write at all on this
subject. But since such usefulness as this book may possibly have is
involved with the necessity of its appearance before the end of the war,
I set a term to the gathering of material, and, with the exception of two
or three notes inserted later, ceased to collect it after June 1917. But up
to then anything that should have been inserted in surveys and
arguments, and is not, constitutes a culpable omission on my part.

E.F. BENSON

Crescent and Iron Cross, Contents
CHAPTER I
THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS
CHAPTER II
THE THEORY OF THE NEW TURKS
CHAPTER III
THE END OF THE ARMENIAN QUESTION
CHAPTER IV
THE QUESTION OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE
CHAPTER V
DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLAH
CHAPTER VI
'THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED'
CHAPTER VII
THE GRIP OF THE OCTOPUS

Crescent and Iron Cross, Chapter I
THE THEORY OF THE OLD TURKS

The maker of phrases plies a dangerous trade. Very often his phrase is
applicable for the moment and for the situation in view of which he
coined it, but his coin has only a temporary validity: it is good for a
month or for a year, or for whatever period during which the crisis lasts,
and after that it lapses again into a mere token, a thing without value
and without meaning. But the phrase cannot, as in the case of a
monetary coinage, at once be recalled, for it has gone broadcast over
the land, or, at any rate, it is not recalled, and it goes on being passed
from hand to hand, its image and superscription defaced by wear, long
after it has ceased to represent anything. In itself it is obsolete, but
people still trade with it, and think it represents what it represented
when it came hot from the Mint. And, unfortunately, it sometimes
happens that it is worse than valueless; it becomes a forgery (which it
may not have been when it came into circulation), and deceives those
who traffic with it, flattering them with an unfounded possession.
Such a phrase, which still holds currency, was once coined by Lord
Aberdeen in the period of the Crimean War. 'Turkey is a sick man,' he
said, and added