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This is the
second volume of a projected three volume history of the Royal Navy in the
Mediterranean and British policy towards the Ottoman Empire from the turn of the
century until the inception of the Dardanelles campaign. The first volume, Superior
Force: the conspiracy behind the escape of Goeben
and Breslau, published in 1996 by the University of Hull Press, examined in
detail the escape of the German Mittelmeerdivision
and revealed how that escape was facilitated as a result of the political
divisions in Greece in 1914. These divisions again play a part in the current
volume, once planning began for the Dardanelles campaign. However, the greater
portion of this book is given over to an analysis of British policy towards the
Ottoman Empire, charting the many lost opportunities and failed policies, in the
period from the Young Turk revolution of 1908 until the outbreak of war between
Britain and Turkey in November 1914. The complex situation in Constantinople
between August and October 1914 occupies the central part of the book, which
concludes with a detailed analysis of the inception and planning of the
Dardanelles campaign, including the part played by Goeben and the hidden British agenda centred on the Persian and
Mesopotamian oilfields.
Anyone attempting
such a task is at once hampered by the lack of Ottoman archival material. As
Feroz Yasamee has recently noted [in Wilson (ed.), Decisions
for War, p.229], ‘The archives of the Ottoman government have yielded
little to historians, which is not surprising…The archives of the Unionist
Party, which controlled the Ottoman government in 1914, disappeared at the end
of the war, and may have been destroyed.’ On the other hand, the British
archives, from the correspondence of the Foreign Secretary and his officials and
ambassadors down to letters written by the second Dragoman at the Embassy in
Constantinople, are voluminous. I have tried to incorporate as much Ottoman
material as is available in the public domain, but, as the sub-title indicates
and as the place of this volume in the overall scheme of the projected trilogy
dictates, this work is unashamedly Anglocentric in its approach. (The projected
third volume charts the history of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean from its
turn of the century zenith to its decline after 1912. The parlous state of
Anglo-French naval co-operation and the extent of the moral commitment to France
are also examined. Although there is a certain amount of overlapping, each
volume is designed to stand on its own; together, however, they represent the
fullest account yet published of the escape of Goeben and Breslau, the
Royal Navy in the Mediterranean and British policy towards the Ottoman Empire
for the period 1900-15.)
My researches
have been immeasurably aided by the knowledge and courtesy displayed by the
staffs of all the archives in which I have worked: the Public Record Office; the
National Maritime Museum; the Department of Documents at the Imperial War
Museum; the Naval Historical Library; the British Library Department of
Manuscripts; the National Library of Scotland; St Antony’s College, Oxford (Centre
for Middle Eastern Studies). Similarly I have received unfailingly good service
from the British Library and, more recently, their Document Supply Centre
through which deliveries were made to Flamborough library.
For permission to
quote from material to which they own the copyright, I would like to thank the
following: the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum and the British Library.
Crown copyright material is reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her
Majesty’s Stationery Office. Material from letters by the Prime Minister to
His Majesty King George V is reproduced by gracious permission of Her Majesty
the Queen. Extracts from Margaret Fitzherbert, The
Man Who Was Greenmantle (John Murray, London, 1983) are reproduced by
permission of John Murray (Publishers) Ltd. Extracts from Marian Kent (ed.), The
Great Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire (Frank Cass, London, 1984)
are reproduced by permission of Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, Publishers. Extracts
from Hankey, Lord Maurice, The Supreme
Command, 2 vols., (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1961) are reproduced by
permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Extracts from The
Hollow Detente (George Prior Publishers, London, 1979) are reproduced with
the kind permission of R. J. Crampton, MA, PhD, FRHistS. Extracts from The
Companion Volumes published by William Heinemann as an adjunct to the Life of
Winston S. Churchill are reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London
on behalf of C&T Publications: Copyright C&T Publications Ltd. Extracts
from “Notes on the Proposed Greek Participation in the War” and The
Sword and the Olive by Sir George Rendel are reproduced with the kind
permission of Miss Rosemary Rendel. I am also grateful to Miss Rendel for
supplying a transcript of her taped conversations with her father. Extracts
from, M. & E. Brock (eds), H. H.
Asquith: Letters to Venetia Stanley, (Oxford, 1982) are reproduced by
permission of Oxford University Press. An extract from the diary of Admiral Sir
Gerald Dickens is reproduced with the kind permission of the Imperial War
Museum. I am also very grateful to Mr L. G. W. Beaumont for permission to read
his father’s unpublished autobiography.
Where copyright
has not lapsed, I have attempted to trace known copyright holders; however, I
offer my sincere apology if I have inadvertently infringed any other copyright.
If the owners of such copyrights would care to contact me I will ensure that a
suitable acknowledgement is made in subsequent editions of this book.
In any book
dealing with the Ottoman Empire the question of place names and the spelling of
personal names involves certain problems. The simplest solution, and the one I
have adopted in this work, is to use throughout the spellings which were current
at the time. Thus, Constantinople not Istanbul, Smyrna not Izmir, Adrianople not
Edirne, and so on. The maps provided show 1914 names; comparison with a current
atlas will reveal other changes. Similarly, for the sake of consistency Turkish
names appear as they did in contemporary letters and dispatches: for example,
Djemal Pasha (not Cemal Pasa), Djavid Pasha (not Cavid Pasa), Abdul Hamid (not
Abdülhamit).
As before my debt
to my parents and to my partner, Lesley, is incalculable. They know, without the
need of this paragraph, that this book could not have been written without them.
With their permission I would like to move on to the next generation and
dedicate this book to my nephews, Timothy and Daniel.
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