10th March 1915

[michaeldr]

From ‘Gallipoli’ by Robert Rhodes James:

“On March 10th [1915] the British felt obliged to agree to further Russian demands that Constantinople, the European side of the Bosphorus, the Marmara and the Dardanelles should be handed over to Russia when they were captured. This was a formidable diplomatic achievement for the Russians; committed to nothing save a naval bombardment of the Bosphorus, they had assured themselves of vast territorial gains after the British and French had done the hard work. It was not until many years later that true consequences of the Russian attitude could be appreciated. But the short term effects were equally important, as the signing away of Constantinople had destroyed Whittall’s and Eady’s mission at Dedeagach.”

What was that ‘mission’?

again from James:

“Unknown to the Cabinet, the Foreign Office, or the War Office, secret negotiations had been proceeding between Turkish and British emissaries about the bloodless surrender of Turkey which had come very close to success. The details of this curious episode have only recently [1963] come to light.

On the personal instructions of Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, the Director of Naval Intelligence, a Mr. George Eady, a contractor who knew the Middle East well, and Mr Edwin Whittall, assisted by Gerald Fitzmaurice, who had been attached to the British Embassy at Constantinople for several years, had been secretly conveyed to Turkey to contact leading members of the Turkish Government who were thought prepared to negotiate a peace treaty. An unspecified Turkish Minister sent emissaries to the remote Thracian coastal town of Dedeagach. The British were instructed to negotiate a treaty with the Turks whereby Turkey would withdraw from the war, retain strict neutrality, and open the Dardanelles to Allied shipping; Hall gave the British agents a letter guaranteeing a sum of £3,000,000 to be paid to the Turks, with authority to go to £4,000,000 if necessary. At the beginning of March it became necessary to press for a quick decision, and Hall telegraphed that each day’s delay would bring with it a lowering of the subsidy; on March 5th he offered £500,000 for the complete surrender of the Dardanelles with all mines removed, with a similar sum for the surrender of the Goeben if undamaged. The fatal flaw in the position of the British negotiators was that they were not permitted to give any undertaking that Constantinople should remain in the hands of the Turkish Government. Whittall and Eady were unaware of the fact that their Government had promised the capital to the Russians, and could not understand why their appeals to Hall to be permitted to guarantee Constantinople’s integrity were refused.”

[michaeldr]

This subject has come to mind once again following the Gallipoli Association's Autumn Lunch where the guest of honour was a senior member of the S.I.S. who alluded to this incident in his talk.
On going back to Robert Rhodes James' book I see that his footnote refers to 
“A Ghost from Gallipoli” by Capt. G. R. G. Allen  CBE, DSO, RN. (rtd) which appeared on pages 137-138 of the May 1963 issue of 'The Royal United Services Institution Journal'. There was also a follow-up in that journal's November 1963 issue by Admiral Sir William James.
Does anyone have these papers in their collection, and are you willing to share them?
 

Thanks 
Michael

[michaeldr]

12 hours ago, michaeldr said:

“A Ghost from Gallipoli” by Capt. G. R. G. Allen  CBE, DSO, RN. (rtd) which appeared on pages 137-138 of the May 1963 issue of 'The Royal United Services Institution Journal'.

My thanks to our GWF Pal 'b3rn' who has kindly supplied the first of the RUSIJ pieces  

[KizmeRD]

Just to clarify, Dedeagach where the talks took place was in neutral Bulgaria, and part of the reason why Whittall and Eady could not understand Hall’s apparent intransigence was that they were unaware of the fact that Hall was in receipt of intercepted messages between Constantinople and Berlin revealing that the Turkish forts in the Dardanelles were short on ammunition.

A British delegation returned to Dadeagach later the same month, this time to negotiate with the Bulgarians in order to keep them out of the war. These talks were equally fruitless.

MB

Edited 6 November , 2023 by KizmeRD