THE EASTERN OUTLOOK by Harns

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 6, 1879

THE EASTERN OUTLOOK.

By Harns

The following is the substance of a conversation which recently occurred between a “Russian General well known in the Russian world as the Emperor’s personal friend and one of his confidential advisers,” and a reporter of the Boston Journal. The conversation took place at Batoum, on the Black Sea. It was published at length in the Boston Journal.

R.—Do you think a war between England and Russia will grow out of the Afghan question?

G.—No.

R.—Do you think a war between England and Russia will grow out of the Eastern question?

G.—Yes.

R.—Why?

G.—England will be prompted, if not obliged, to take Constantinople as a consequence of the colonial and foreign policy she is now pursuing. Prompted, because the possession of Constantinople would put her in such a splendid position before the world; she would be Queen of the seas and mistress of all the straits worth having; prompted, because she has inaugurated an imperial, towering style of doing things akin to that of Napoleon III. of France, meddling in the affairs of the East, conniving to get Cyprus, fighting the Afghans, sending the Prince of Wales to India to play the prodigal, sending the Princess Louise to Canada to govern the Canadians; prompted, because she is intoxicated with the Earl of Beaconsfield’s unparalleled success and his dark, sinuous, Asiatic way of doing things; prompted, because she is a grasping nation anyway.

R.—But the English whom I have met say they don’t want Constantinople, and wouldn’t take it if they could.

G.—Very true; and a fortnight before Cyprus, with a possible protectorate over Asia Minor, became the property of England, if the English people had been asked, Do you want these new responsibilities? they would have answered, No. But these considerations may be very properly left out of the question; for it is almost certain that England will be obliged, as a means of securing her own safety in dealing with the Sultan, to take Constantinople whether she will or not. Turkey is already coquetting with her. She says, Give me money. England says, I won’t. Then Turkey says in a half-aside, I shall throw myself into the hands of Russia. No one knows how soon the complications of the Eastern question may compel a forward move. England is

morally pledged by the treaty of June 5 to reform Asia Minor; but she cannot reform Asia Minor without reforming the Sultan, in whom all the corruption in the Ottoman empire centers; and if England reforms the Sultan she will get into such difficulties with him and with European Turkey that she will be obliged to seize Constantinople to protect herself.

R.—Will Russia resist the English occupation of Constantinople?

G.—Most assuredly.

R.—Has Russia herself abandoned the traditional policy of the Emperors to take Constantinople?

G.—By no means. It is true many Russians say, “Russia has enough, let her develop what she has;” but these same Russians, if they could see a way to take Constantinople, would be filled with enthusiasm, and they would strain every nerve to realize a long-cherished ambition; for down in their hearts they desire Constantinople as much as any one, and are secretly determined to have it. Constantinople will eventually fall into the hands of the Russians—I have no doubt about that. It is theirs by right. They ought to have it. Six months in the year, when her Baltic ports are frozen, Russia is commercially a prisoner, or liable at any moment to be made so, unless she controls the Bosphorus. If you had a farm the way to which lay through a neighbor’s premises, and he your worst enemy and liable at any time to cut you off from your market, would you not fight him, if necessary, to keep your communications open? It is just so with Russia. She chafes under her confinement. She beats her prison bars from morning till night. And she will never rest easy, and the Eastern question will never be settled, until Constantinople is within her grasp, and Turkey is no more. I look forward hopefully to the time when the English and the Russians will face each other all the way up and down the famous water-way between the Black Sea and the Grecian Archipelago, the English on the Asiatic side and the Russians on the European, the English at Scutari and the Russians at Constantinople—a condition of things which will effectually dispose of the Eastern question, reduce the alarm, hence the armies of Europe, and not only that, but be the best thing in the world for the Turks.

R.—Then you believe the hold upon Asia Minor which the English acquired last summer will develop into a complete protectorate?

G.—Yes, a complete protectorate, amounting to actual possession and control. The English Liberals will press the government to reform Asia Minor, and the Conservatives will be disposed to yield to the pressure the better to preserve their prestige. By the terms of the treaty which Disraeli so slyly concluded, the English were to occupy Cyprus and in return to guarantee the integrity of Asia Minor, provided the Turks reformed it to the satisfaction of the English. But the Turks never reform anything. Hence the English will have to do it themselves (if it is ever done), gradually settling down, in the course of the process, as the masters of the country.

R.—Was the Berlin treaty, properly speaking, a great success?

G.—It did all it could. It unsettled the Eastern question more than ever, and, combined with the Anglo-Turkish treaty, revealed to every Russian that that question could not be disposed of by peaceable means. It did all it could do under the circumstances.

R.—What is the feeling in Russia toward England?

G.—Very bitter. We feel we must forever alienate from our minds all thought of being agreeable to England in time to come. We look forward to fighting her, and to fighting her successfully, if our money doesn’t give out. We have the men, she has the money. It is a conflict between men and money. We can lose a million of men and then whip England, provided our money doesn’t give out.

R.—And meanwhile what will Austria do?

G.—She will occupy all the western parts of European Turkey.

R.—And Turkey will disappear as a nation?

G.—In the interests of civilization.

R.—But the great powers of Europe—will not they step in, and, by erecting Constantinople into a free city under their special patronage and protection, put to flight all these nice little arrangements?

G.—The great powers will never erect Constantinople into a free city. There is nothing in Constantinople to make a city government out of. There is the Turk fearing the Christian, and the Christian fearing the Turk. Each lives in mortal fear and terror of what the other may do. Each fears the sword wielded by the hand of the other. Each fears the torch applied by the hand of the other. If Constantinople is erected into a free city, the reign of anarchy on the Bosphorus will be perpetuated, and crime, bloodshed, and all the horrors of hell, receive a new lease of life. The diplomats will never be guilty of trying an experiment so hazardous.

R.—Perhaps the diplomats will give the southern part of Turkey, including Constantinople, to Greece.

G.—I do not believe it; for what is Greece?—It is a little power which has never cared for its own affairs properly. It hasn’t a city of 50,000 inhabitants, and up to 1872 it had but one railroad—the Grecian Grand Trunk—seven and a half miles long, extending from Athens to Piraeus, and I doubt if at present it has another line of equal importance. To give Constantinople to Greece would be putting a head so prodigious upon shoulders so feeble that the shoulders could not stagger under the burden. It would be ridiculous.

Such was the gist of our conversation, if not the exact language thereof. The General’s views were particularly edifying, and, it seemed to me, entirely sound. The reader can accept them with confidence as being unqualifiedly Russian—a true Muscovite’s view of the case. Isn’t there some sense in the same? HARNS.