British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914.
The Eve of War
Edited by G. P. Gooch and Harold Temperley. Vol. X. Part I. (H.M. Stationery Office. 17s. 6d.)
Da. Goocn and Protestor Temperley have almost reached the end of their tremendous task. The tenth volume of the British Documents is, in fact, the last, for though there are eleven volumes in all, the eleventh, dealing with the events of July and August, 1914, was published first. All, therefore, that still remains is part II of this tenth volume, and that will appear in a few months' time.
The documents here presented deal with the Near and Middle East on the eve of war, and they will seem to concern themselves with side-issues only to those who forget that it was in the Near East that the shot that sent the world into conflagration was fired. Except in the case of Russo-British relations in Persia, which go back to 1908, and the Potsdam meeting of 1910 between the Czar and the Kaiser (which was also concerned with Persia in another aspect), the questions discussed cover the years 1913 and 1914. They include the brief rule of the Prince of Wied in Albania, general Balkan politics in the year Lefore the War, the mission of General Liman von Sanders to Turkey and the American Reforms of 1918-1914. In every theatre the groupings of 1914 were beginning to shape themselves. In 1913, of course, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were in recognised existence, but each was strained by inner tensions—between Austria and Italy in the one case and between Britain and Russia in the other. But in this period Italy assumes little prominence. She takes a nominal part in the talks of Ambassadors at Constantinople over Turkish problems, but the most instructive glimpse of her—of particular interest in
the light it throws on the national mentality—is given in a letter from the British Charge d'Affaires at Vienna to. Sir
Arthur Nicolson in November, 1913:
"'An Austrian newspaper editor,' he writes, ' recently made a tour in Italy and returned to Vienna simply amazed at the wave of Impenialiarn which is sweeping over that country. He had an interview in Rome with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The former shrugged his shoulders when discussing the Island question and said that it would be impossible to resist the will of the people. As to the Marquis San Giuliano, he seemed like one intoxicated with the fumes of Imperialism ! He talked of Italian aspirations which seemed to know no limits, for his remarks embraced the Aegean islands, Albania and even Tunis, and he gave vent to his irredentism by uttering the words " Trentino " and " Savoy." ' "
But for the most part the documents disclose the gradual crystallisation of the Balkan States into the associations they assumed in 1914 and 1915 and the uneasy resistance of the Triple Entente to the stress laid on it by the incom- patibility of temper between Britain and Russia and by the characteristic attempts of Germany to drive wedges between its members. As to the Balkan States themselves, Servia was, of course, from the first in Russia's orbit. Telegraphing front Belgrade to Sir Edward Grey, in February, 1914, Mr. Cracken- thorpe said he had been privately assured that understandings had been reached at St. Petersburg and Bucharest which guaranteed Servia against an attack by Austria. Rumania had also by that time attached herself to Russia. Mr. Cracken- thorpe got that from many sources. Even the Austrian Minister had told him in the same month that "he feared Rumania was now definitely turning towards Russia." But Bulgaria had as definitely turned towards Austria, "thrown herself whole-heartedly into Austrian arms," as Sir Arthur Nicolson put it.
Russia and Austria were predestined to be rival patrons of the various Balkan States, but how far Austria was acting on her own initiative is an important question on which these particular documents throw little light. Mr. Russell at Vienna did, however, deliver himself of one notable obiter dictum when he wrote to Sir Edward Grey, of a relatively unimportant difference of opinion between Vienna and London, that "it is only too apparent that inability to yield to all our demands is due entirely to the grip that -German influence has in this country." At Constantinople Germany was more conspicuous, and more than eighty pages of this volume are devoted to the agitated diplomatic interchanges arising from the appointment by the Porte of General Liman von Sanders to organise the Turkish Army and command the First Army Corps, which gave him control of the Turkish
capital. Russia boiled with indignation and alarm, and , M. Sazonow urged Sir Edward Grey to vigorous protests. But the position was delicate. bemuse a British Admiral was not only naval adviser to Turkey, but actually --though no one in the Foreign Office seemed to know it—commander of the Turkish Fleet. The question, which M. Sazonow described as a test of the value of the Triple Entente, was ultimatety settled by the acceptance by von Sanders of the position of Inspector-General of the Turkish Army, without an active command, but the controversy had added something to the general antagonism between Russia and Germany. Relations between Russia and Britain would not have been much better but for the forbearance of Sir Edward Grey, in view of the unreasonable petulance with which M. Sazonow pressed his objections to the appointment of a few British officers by Turkey to organise a gendarmerie in Armenia, and the violence of his protests at the appointment by Mr. Morgan Shuster, the American Treasurer-General in Persia, of Major Stokes, of the Indian Army, to build up a Treasury gen- darmerie in Persia.
The Great War was not made in the Near East. It only happened to break out there first. But since it did break out there the alignments and predispositions of the various Balkan States became a matter of great importance. On that the documents in this volume throw valuable light. The chief impression they leave is of surprise that Britain and Russia could hold together at all ; for Britain in those years was full of Liberalism, and Russia hardly understood the
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