[15] Pierre Loti, the well-known French writer, who was an ardent
Turkophile before the war, after adding his quota to the current, and,
one is constrained to say, cheap, comments on the lack of courage and
numberless other failings of the Armenians, adds the following P.S. in
his _Turquie Agonisante_ (pp. 94-95) after a longer sojourn in the
country and closer contact with realities. (I give the translation from
the French.)--
"Before concluding I desire to make honourable, sincere and spontaneous
amends to the Armenians, at least as regards their attitude in the ranks
of the Ottoman Army. This is certainly not due to the protestations
which they have inserted in the Constantinople Press by the power of
gold." [This is a curious admission by Pierre Loti; one of the stock
cries of the Turkophiles is that the Turk is above "bakshish."] "No, I
have many friends among Turkish officers; I have learned from them, and
there can be no doubt, that my earlier information was exaggerated, and
that, notwithstanding a good number of previous desertions, the
Armenians placed under their orders conducted themselves with courage.
Therefore, I am happy to be able to withdraw without _arrière pensée_
what I have said on this subject, and I apologize."
Of all British games and sports Armenians in different parts of the
British Empire, the Dutch Colonies and Persia have manifested a natural
predilection for Rugby Football, in which physical courage comes into
play more than in most other games. In recent years the Armenian College
of Calcutta won the Calcutta Schools' Cup three years in succession,
which gave it the right to retain the trophy. I am glad to see in the
March issue of _Ararat_ that the Boy Scouts of the same college, under
Scoutmaster Dr. G. D. Hope, have won the King's Flag, presented by His
Majesty to the troop having the largest number of King's Scouts in India
and Burmah.
[16] I may here point out that--though it is stated in the admirable
historical summary in the Blue-book (p. 649) that "the number of those
who have emerged from hiding since the Russian occupation is
extraordinarily small"--this number has been growing very considerably
of late, as may be seen from Mr. Backhouse's telegram to the chairman of
the Armenian Refugees (Lord Mayor's) Fund, dated Tiflis, November 27,
1916, published in the newspapers.
[17] Compare an Armenian officer's evidence, Blue-book, p. 231, " ...
they laid the blame for this defeat upon the Armenians, though he could
not tell why."
[18] In an article on "The Armenian Massacres" in the April
_Contemporary Review_, Mr. Lewis Einstein, ex-member of the staff of the
United States Embassy in Constantinople, says: "Talaat attributed the
disasters that befell the Turks at Sarikamish, in Azerbaijan and at Van,
to the Armenian volunteers."