Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:34:51.981Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lord Salisbury and the Ottoman Massacres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Peter Marsh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1876, and again from 1894 to 1896, thousands of Christians in Bulgaria and Armenia, then provinces of the Ottoman Empire, were massacred by Turkish troops, local irregulars known with romantic barbarity as bashi-bazouks, and Moslem tribesmen. The victims were raped or mutilated, many were burned alive. Weeks later streets were littered with corpses. The Armenians, even in the best of times, were subjected to an almost systematic starvation: Moslem tribesmen were permitted to take the crops of Armenian farms when times were peaceful, and to burn them in periods of violence. Naturally such treatment provoked insurrections, which renewed the cycle of repression.

These massacres drove a section of the English public to peaks of moral indignation. Nonconformist ministers and liberal academics, and their followers, were imbued with a reverence for the independent individual. High church clergy had rediscovered a religious affinity with the ancient Churches of the Near East. Humanitarian concern for the sufferings of one's fellow men – prison inmates and child laborers at home, for example, or slaves abroad – had been a steady force in the nineteenth century, and fortified these sectarian sensitivities. These Englishmen would have been distressed by the Ottoman massacres even if the British Government had been in no way involved. Since they believed the Government to be in fact gravely responsible, they conducted extensive political agitations.

Britain was the foremost defender of the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , May 1972 , pp. 63 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. The Bulgarian agitation and Gladstone's response to it are most ably analyzed in Shannon's, R. T.Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation, 1876 (London, 1963)Google Scholar.

2. LadyCecil, Gwendolen, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury (London, 1921–1932)Google Scholar, particularly vol. I, chap. 4, and vol. II, chaps. 4-8. Seton-Watson, R. W. comes close to the point in Disraeli, Gladstone and the Eastern Question (London, 1935)Google Scholar but, preoccupied with the two chief protagonists, he just glances at Salisbury. Salisbury's diplomacy from the Congress of Berlin to the fall of the Disraeli Ministry in 1880 is treated in Penson's, L. M. “The foreign policy of Lord Salisbury, 1878-80: The problem of the Ottoman Empire,” Studies in Anglo-French History, ed. Coville, Alfred and Temperley, H. W. V. (Cambridge, 1935), pp. 125–42Google Scholar, and much more extensively in Medlicott's, W. N.The Congress of Berlin and After (2nd ed.; London, 1963)Google Scholar.

3. Cecil, , Salisbury, I, 102Google Scholar.

4. E.g. at the Lord Mayor's banquet in 1876, quoted in Pulling, F. S., The Life and Speeches of the Marquis of Salisbury (London, 1885), I, 241–42Google Scholar; and on the same occasion twenty years later, 9 Nov. 1896, reported in The Times, 10 Nov. 1896.

5. Salisbury's doubt is implicit in the “axiom of his that, in foreign affairs, the choice of a policy is as a rule of less importance than the methods by which it is pursued.” Cecil, , Salisbury, II, 136Google Scholar.

6. Hardinge, Arthur, The Life of Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, Fourth Earl of Carnarvon (London, 1925), II, 357Google Scholar.

7. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Derby, 21 Sept. 1876, copy, and to Disraeli, 23 Sept. 1876, copy, Salisbury Papers. Disraeli had just been created Earl of Beaconsfield but will be referred to throughout this paper by his more familiar name. I wish to thank the fifth Marquis of Salisbury for permission to cite his grandfather's papers.

8. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Carnarvon, 13 Sept. 1876, copy, and to Bath, 10 Nov. 1876, copy, Salisbury Papers.

9. Pulling, , Life and Speeches, I, 241–42Google Scholar.

10. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Derby, 5 Oct. 1876, copy, Salisbury Papers.

11. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Sir Louis Mallet, 19 Jan. 1877, copy, Salisbury Papers.

12. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Carnarvon, 14 Dec. 1876, copy, Salisbury Papers.

13. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Disraeli, 22 Dec. 1876, copy, Salisbury Papers.

14. Royal Archives, Salisbury to the Queen, 4 Jan. 1877, H. 12/18. I wish to acknowledge ths gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen to cite the Royal Archives.

15. Royal Archives, Disraeli to the Queen, 22 Dec. 1876, H. 11/272.

16. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Carnarvon, 11 Jan. 1877, copy, Salisbury Papers.

17. Royal Archives, Disraeli to the Queen, 23 Mar. 1877, H. 12/200.

18. Royal Archives, Derby to the Queen, 11 June 1877, H. 14/75.

19. It was implicit in his fear during the Constantinople Conference that, unless the Powers' united proposals were accepted by Turkey, it would find itself without allies and at war with Russia, which could then impose its own peace settlement.

20. Christ Church, Oxford, narrative of the events of 1877-78, and Salisbury's notes on the narrative, in the Salisbury Papers' collection of papers used by Lady Gwendolen Cecil in writing the biography of her father.

21. Royal Archives, Disraeli's telegram of 21 July and letter of 22 July 1877 to the Queen, B. 52/10-11. In a memorandum composed two years later, Carnarvon maintained that the Cabinet was inclining toward the abandonment of the proposal when Salisbury spoke up. Carnarvon thought that this intervention marked the watershed in the Cabinet's discussion. “It revived the drooping spirits of the Turkish section of the Cabinet, it turned the balance of parties, and it is not too much to say that it led directly to the important changes in the composition of the Government which subsequently followed.” Hardinge, , Carnarvon, II, 359Google Scholar.

22. Royal Archives, Disraeli's memorandum for the Queen on the Cabinet of 18 [17] Dec. 1877, B. 54/21.

23. Royal Archives, Disraeli to the Queen, 12 Jan. 1878, B. 54/69.

24. Salisbury to Disraeli, 21 Mar. 1878, reprinted in Temperley, H. W. V. and Penson, L. M. (eds.), Foundations of British Foreign Policy from Pitt (1792) to Salisbury (1902) (Cambridge, 1938), p. 366Google Scholar.

25. A base on the Persian Gulf closer to Armenia would have been better for this purpose. See Temperley, H. W. V., “Further evidence on Disraeli and Cyprus,” English Historical Review, XLVI (1931), 457–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26. Penson, , “The foreign policy of Lord Salisbury, 1878-80: The problem of the Ottoman Empire,” Studies in Anglo-French History, p. 131Google Scholar.

27. Not to James Bryce or to Liddon (though Liddon in regular politics was no Gladstonian), Seton-Watson, , Disraeli, pp. 525–26Google Scholar.

28. Penson, , “The Foreign Policy of Lord Salisbury,” Studies in Anglo-French History, pp. 131–34Google Scholar.

29. In the Duke of Wellington's Riding School, 27 July 1878, reported in The Times, 29 July 1878.

30. Cecil, , Salisbury, II, 312–14Google Scholar.

31. Medlicott, W. N., Congress of Berlin, pp. 305–06Google Scholar.

32. Hansard, 3rd series, CCCLIV, 1060-1 (22 June 1891).

33. There are good accounts of the massacres in Whates, H., The Third Salisbury Administration, 1895-1900 (London, 1900)Google Scholar, book I, and in Sarkissian, A. O., “Concert Diplomacy and the Armenians, 1890-1897,” in Studies in Diplomatic History and Historiography, ed. Sarkissian, A. O. (London, 1961), pp. 48–75Google Scholar.

34. James, R. Rhodes, Rosebery (London, 1963), p. 377Google Scholar.

35. Gwynn, Stephen and Tuckwell, G. M., The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke (London, 1917), II, 491Google Scholar.

36. Cecil, , Salisbury, I, 99–100Google Scholar.

37. At the beginning of the new Parliament. Hansard, 4th series, XXXVI, 49-50 (15 Aug. 1895).

38. At Chester on 6 Aug. 1895, reported in The Times, 7 Aug. 1895.

39. The Times, Salisbury's speech to the Nonconformist Unionist Association, 31 Jan. 1896, reported on 1 Feb. 1896. The remark was indiscreet because of the millions of Moslems under British rule in India.

40. See Grenville, J. A. S., Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy: The close of the nineteenth century (London, 1964), pp. 31–43Google Scholar.

41. Lowe, C. J., Salisbury and the Mediterranean, 1886-1896 (London, 1965), p. 100Google Scholar, and, more hesitantly, Sarkissian, , “Concert Diplomacy,” Studies in Diplomatic History, p. 62Google Scholar.

42. James, , Rosebery, pp. 390–96Google Scholar.

43. Except briefly in mid-December 1895, when it was responding to the autumn massacres, the longest and largest of all. Before the end of the month he told Chamberlain, “The Armenian squall seems to be blowing out.” Earlier, at the beginning of August, he even welcomed the prospect of Gladstone's speaking up on the massacres. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Currie, 17 Dec. 1895, copy, Salisbury Papers; Birmingham University Library, Salisbury to Chamberlain, 23 Dec. 1895, Chamberlain Papers; McColl, Malcolm, Memoirs and Correspondence, ed. Russell, G. W. E. (London, 1914), p. 145Google Scholar.

44. The Bishop of Hereford's words, reported in The Times, 20 Oct. 1896.

45. Public Record Office, Salisbury to Currie, 10 July 1895, copy, F. O. 78/4606, and Hansard, 4th series, XXXVI, 49 (15 Aug. 1895).

46. Salisbury modified it only by trying to sharpen its teeth. He paid close attention to the points he considered essential to the effectiveness of any scheme of reform: selection of a Turkish administrator for Armenia whom Europe could trust, with full powers and security of tenure so that the Sultan could not undercut or dismiss him; alternatively, the creation of a supervisory commission including representatives of the Powers. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury's telegrams to Currie, 29 June and 1 July 1895, and his letters to Currie, 1 July and 12 Aug. 1895, copies, Salisbury papers; and Public Record Office, Salisbury's letter to Currie, 10 July 1895, draft, F. O. 78/4606, Salisbury's telegram to Currie, 16 Aug. 1895, and Sanderson's telegram to Currie from a minute by Salisbury, 29 Aug. 1895, F. O. 78/4627.

47. Christ Church, Oxford, 1 July 1895, Salisbury Papers.

48. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Currie, 27 July and 12 Aug. 1895, copies, and his telegram to Currie, 7 Aug. 1895, Salisbury Papers.

49. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Currie, 12 Aug. 1895, copy, Salisbury Papers.

50. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Currie, 27 Aug. 1895, copy, Salisbury Papers.

51. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Currie, 27 Aug. and 13 Sept. 1895, copies, Salisbury Papers.

52. The Armenians were not, however, Orthodox, and Russia treated its non-Orthodox minorities harshly.

53. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Currie, 10 July 1895, Salisbury Papers.

54. Royal Archives, Salisbury to the Queen, 7 Nov. 1895, H. 37/62.

55. Grenville, , Salisbury and Foreign Policy, p. 48Google Scholar.

56. Langer, W. L., The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1890-1902 (2nd ed.; N.Y., 1956), 207Google Scholar.

57. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Goschen, 3 Dec. 1895, Salisbury Papers.

58. Public Record Office, Currie's telegram no. 756 of 28 Nov. 1895, F. O. 78/4629; Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Goschen, 28 Nov. and 3 Dec. 1895, and Goschen to Salisbury, 30 Nov. and 2 and 7 Dec. 1895, Salisbury Papers.

59. Gloucestershire County Record Office, Salisbury to Sir Michael Hicks Beach, 2 Jan. 1896, St. Aldwyn Papers.

60. Langer, , Diplomacy of Imperialism, p. 205Google Scholar.

61. Christ Church, Oxford, Goschen to Salisbury, 29 Nov., 2 and 7 Dec. 1895, Salisbury Papers.

62. Public Record Office, Salisbury's telegrams to Sir E. Monson, 2 Dec. 1895, and to Currie, 16 Dec. 1895 and 7 Jan. 1896, F. O. 78/4627, 4698 and 4884.

63. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Goschen, 18 and 23 Dec. 1895, Salisbury Papers.

64. This was the speech quoted supra, p. 75.

65. Hansard, 4th series, XXXVII, 54-8 (11 Feb. 1896).

66. Hansard, 4th series, XXXIX, 449 (30 Mar. 1896).

67. Christ Church, Oxford, note by Salisbury to S. K. McDonnell, 2 Mar. 1896, copy, Salisbury Papers.

68. To the Primrose League, 29 Apr. 1896, reported in The Times, 30 Apr. 1896; and in Parliament, Hansard, 4th series, XLIII, 113 (20 July 1896).

69. Jefferson, Margaret, “Lord Salisbury's conversations with the Tzar at Balmoral, 27 and 29 September 1896,” The Slavonic and East European Review, XXXIX (1960), 216–22Google Scholar.

70. Parliamentary Papers, Turkey No. 2 (1897), no. 2.

71. Christ Church, Oxford, Salisbury to Currie, 22 Sept. 1896, Salisbury Papers.

72. E.g. James Bryce speaking at Aberdeen, 21 Jan. 1896, reported in The Times, 22 Jan. 1896.

73. Langer, , Diplomacy of Imperialism, pp. 330–48Google Scholar.

74. Royal Archives, Salisbury to the Queen, 12 Jan. 1897, D. 43/36.

75. In the last great speech of his life, on 24 Sept. 1896, at Liverpool, reported in The Times, 25 Sept. 1896.

76. Lady Gwendolen Cecil recalled this in the uncompleted draft of a fifth volume (p. 86) to her biography of her father, now at Christ Church, Oxford.