FLIGHT TO ENGLAND.
I obtain a passage on a merchant vessel--A fortune
of forty pounds--The people on board the ship--The
difficulty of conversation--English cooking--Coffee
and pig! Gibraltar, a first impression of British
soldiers--From Hull to London--An instance of feminine
courtesy--Lost in the Underground--Olympia--An interview
with the Turkish Ambassador--A promise of justice
conditional on my return to Turkey.
WHEN I described my last night's experience, my English friend promised
to see about getting me out of the country, and to let me know soon
what he could do in the matter. A few days after this he sent word
telling me to come and see him. I went, and he informed me that
another English resident, who had something to do with the British
steamers which pass through the Bosphorus, carrying cargoes between
the Black Sea ports and England, would arrange with a captain to take
me on board his ship, and after some days it was actually done. I
must not give here the name of the latter gentleman, who is still in
Constantinople, because he asked me not to tell anyone.
Forty pounds of ready money was all I possessed in the world. It was
no longer possible for me to get any more money from my confiscated
lands, and moreover, whatever the excuse, I felt ashamed to ask for any
further help from my mother, now that I was of an age at which I ought
to have been able to help her, and increase the comfort of her life. I
think my venture in coming to the great capital of the British empire
with forty pounds in my pocket was more risky than that of those who
come to it with the proverbial half-crown, because they are at least
either British-born or English-speaking people, whereas I was coming
from an Eastern country, without knowing anyone in England, and without
speaking English. However, I did not think much about what might happen
to me. I eagerly hastened my departure from the capital of my country
to England. I knew that there, whatever else might befall, the personal
freedom of a law-abiding individual was secure. My idea was to remain
in England until a more tolerable state of things should be established
in Turkey, when I would return to Constantinople; or, in case of not
being able to remain in England, I would learn some English, and go to
some British possession in the East where I should find myself more at
home.
It was on the morning of April 22, 1894, that I was informed that an
English steamer had just arrived from a Russian port on the Black Sea,
and that she was going to leave the harbour of Constantinople the same
afternoon. The English gentleman kindly spoke to the captain of the
ship about me, and obtained his promise to take me on board if I paid
him five pounds for the whole journey, everything included. Of course,
I had been waiting for some days for the arrival of an English boat in
which I could take my flight I had placed all the clothes and documents
which I wanted to take with me in a portmanteau. As an additional
kindness, the Englishman offered to bring my portmanteau to the ship,
as in this case it would be free from examination by the customs and
police officers in the port After sending my bag to him, I crossed
over the Asiatic coast of the Constantinople harbour, where I engaged
a boatman to take me across to the English ship. I had previously had
her pointed out to me at her moorings. My object in going over to the
Asiatic coast and then crossing back to the steamer was to avoid the
suspicion and pursuit of the secret police, as I had no passport, and
in fact could not have procured one. Indeed, very few Ottoman subjects
are given passports for going abroad, and then only under special
circumstances, and with the permission of the Palace. Happily, at that
time the cargo ships bound for European ports were not much watched,
though all passenger boats were rigidly inspected by the police before
starting. So I got on board without any difficulty, though with much
anxiety, and found that the Englishman was already there. He gave me
my portmanteau, introduced me to the captain, and after bidding me
good-bye went on shore. It was not long before the steamer started.
The steamer, on which I was the only passenger, was laden with wheat,
and her destination was Hull. The captain, a middle-aged man of
somewhat stern appearance, had with him on board his wife and her
sister, and they were all very kind to me. We were very cheerful, and
the steward, who was an Irishman, was full of fun, and particularly
fond of addressing me with what I imagined to be humorous remarks,
and thus making me and the others laugh, though, unfortunately, I
did not understand a word he said My English was as yet confined to
a very limited number of words, and whenever they wanted to tell me
something they wrote it down on a slip of paper, and with great labour
I managed to translate their snatches of conversation by looking out
every word in my pocket dictionary. Although there was no possibility
of my learning any European language in my school days in Asia Minor, I
had nevertheless picked up some French by reading a French grammar in
Turkish while residing in Pera, and I thought that my French, little
as it was, would be of some help to me in talking to the people of the
ship, but not a single person on board seemed to know any French. My
chief amusement on board was playing with the two baby daughters of
the captain, who were typical specimens of the clean, healthy, and
lovable children one so often sees in England. I spent hours every
day with these two pretty babies, and my voluntary assistance must
have been a great relief to their good-looking fair-haired nurse, who,
while I was playing with the children, either read a book or amused
herself by chatting and laughing with the officers of the ship. I could
not understand their conversation, of course, but it was obvious that
the men found the task of amusing her pleasant enough. The captain,
who appeared to be part-owner of the boat, was a man who appreciated
good living, and he supplied us with satisfactory food. The English
cooking, which I tasted for the first time on this boat, seemed to me
quite different from the European dishes to be obtained in the new
restaurants and brasseries in Constantinople. It was also quite unlike
Turkish cooking, which, though I lived in foreign countries and become
accustomed to their food, I still maintain is excellent. Although I had
no reason to be fastidious, and grumble about the food on board, which
was decidedly superior to that which families of limited means and
residents in boarding-houses get in England, there were two things I
did not like. One of these was the English coffee, which was given to
us both with breakfast and with the last meal, served out about six in
the afternoon. I missed very much the coffee of my country.[9]
The other was pork. The very sight of the fatty meat on the table was
quite enough to destroy my appetite. It was not so much on account
of the rules of the faith which I profess that I was horrified to
see the flesh of the pig before me; drinking wine is as strictly
forbidden to us as eating pork, but I had already transgressed the
good rules of total abstinence. My invincible objection to pork is
based upon my early impressions, when I was taught to look upon the
pig as the dirtiest animal in creation, and I cannot even now get over
that feeling of dislike, though I have been living among pig-eating
Europeans for several years.
On the eleventh day after our departure from the Bosphorus we arrived
at Gibraltar, where the ship stopped for a few hours, and taking
advantage of this, I hailed a Spanish boatman and was rowed to the
town. In the town I discovered a Moorish shop, in which an elderly
white-turbaned Arab was sitting. Owing to my ignorance of English I
had not been able to talk with anyone since our departure, and I was
longing to find someone with whom I could have a chat, so I greeted him
with a salaam and talked to him. At first he appeared rather reluctant
to enter into conversation with me. I think he suspected me of being
a fraud, posing as the follower of the same Prophet in order to cheat
or swindle him. However, we parted on friendly terms. He entertained a
poor opinion of the Spaniards, but liked the English. In this town I
saw British soldiers for the first time. They were on parade. I admired
the neatness and newness of their uniform, which was decidedly much
superior to that of our troops; but, on the other hand, I thought the
bearing of the Turkish soldiery was more naturally military than that
of the Englishmen. But I was much struck by the appearance of some
hardy, weather-beaten, and determined--looking blue jackets who were
walking about. It may be that what I had already heard of the men who
had helped to build up Great Britain's sea-power made me admire these
brave sailors the more. After seeing one or two more of the sights of
Gibraltar, I hurried back to our ship, which started about an hour
later for England. How dreadfully slowly cargo boats move! It took
seven days to go from Gibraltar to Hull.
On May 8th our boat reached Hull at dusk, but she could not enter
the docks before the next morning. Next day, early in the morning, I
landed, and the captain's sister-in-law kindly accompanied me, took
me to the station, and put me into a train for London. On the journey
I was delighted and wonderstruck with the beauty of the scenery, the
high state of cultivation visible, the canals and the railways, with
what seemed to me a prodigious number of trains constantly passing
to and fro, the activity apparent at the crowded stations, and many
signs of prosperity everywhere, all of which were then strange to me.
Already I could perceive how great a difference existed between little
England and large but poverty-stricken Asia Minor. If an Englishman
of the eighteenth century could rise out of his grave and see what I
saw on that day, his bewilderment at the advancement of his country
would not, I think, be greater than was mine. At every large station I
anxiously tried to find out whether we were in London. At one place,
putting some of the few English words I knew together, I made up an
interrogatory sentence, and addressed it to a middle-aged well-dressed
lady who was sitting opposite me in the carriage. I wanted to ask her
whether we were far from London. The lady could not understand my
meaning, and turning her face towards the other people in the carriage
she said, with a thoroughly unsympathetic air, "Foreigner!" I remember
this word so well. I was sadly impressed by this lady's rudeness. She
was quite right in saying I was a foreigner, but I was not one of those
foreigners who are so narrow-minded as to think evilly of a whole
nation because they have been treated rudely or without sympathy by
one or more of its members. Happily she could not know I was a Turk,
as, like most of her class, she would probably have taken for Turks
those short, dark, shabby persons, with turban or fez, who occasionally
come to this country from different corners of the vast Orient. If she
had known I was a real Turk, a member of the much maligned nation,
against which her Christian heart must needs have been full of mediæval
prejudices, I fancy her rudeness towards me would probably have been
still more marked.
At a huge station the train again stopped and everyone in the carriage
got out I said to myself doubtfully that this must be London. A porter
came to the door, looked round the carriage, and then stared at me.
I said to him "Laundaun?" He said, "Yes, London." So I got out and
he took my bag. Whither was I going now? I was going to a place of
which the name was written in my pocket-book, no less a place than
Olympia. It was the year that some enterprising Israelite gentlemen
had undertaken to represent Constantinople in London, and they sent
an agent to Constantinople to bring over some Turks as boatmen, and
to perform other services in their show. The agent whom I met at the
Turkish capital did not, however, succeed in bringing a single Turk,
as the police, by order of the Sultan, would not allow any such men
to leave Turkey. The agent therefore engaged some Greeks as boatmen,
and some Jews came to set up stalls of embroidery and other things at
Olympia. I hoped that some of these people would help me in finding a
lodging. I said to the porter at King's Cross station "Olympia?" and
he nodded and said "Yes, Kensington," and signed to me to follow him
through a subterranean passage down to the Underground, and put me
into a train which I believe was not going direct to Olympia I lost my
way in the Underground, got out at many stations, changed often into
many trains, and paid several fares. It was nearly dark by now, and
the trains were all full. I mixed up Kensington, of which the porter
had told me, with the somewhat similar name of Kennington. I found it
very trying to rush in and out at every station with my heavy bag in
my hand. Many people laughed at my stupid excitement, but some, better
bred than the others, attempted to assist me, though their efforts
were not of much use to a person who was practically speechless. At
one station my French vocabulary came to my assistance, so I succeeded
in hiring a boy to come with me, and at last I got to Addison Road
station. Outside Olympia I saw a man with a red fez on his head, and
wearing some sort of odd Oriental dress which I had never seen in
Turkey. I spoke to this man in Turkish, and from his accent discovered
that he was a Turkish Jew. Through this fellow I engaged a room in a
neighbouring lodging-house.
On the day following my arrival in London I addressed a letter to the
Sultan, explaining to him how I and my people had been ruined by our
many years' lawsuit in his courts, agitating for the restoration of
our property, and requesting him to issue an _iradé_ granting us, if
not all the rights we had lost, at least the income from our lands
which had accumulated during our lawsuit, and was being misapplied by
some of his officials. I based my appeal on the imperial firmans and
legal documents of the case, and stuck to my point firmly. I learned
the result of this petition a fortnight later, when I was invited to
the Ottoman Embassy. The late Rustem Pasha, who was then Ambassador,
received me with a cheerful courtesy which was, I thought, more than a
private individual like myself could deserve. This was at a time when
the Sultan was extremely anxious lest his discontented subjects should
form revolutionary committees in Europe to stir up an agitation for
general reforms in his dominions. He was particularly suspicious of
those of his subjects who came to the free capital of Great Britain,
as relations between this country and the Sultan were then anything
but friendly. The Ambassador asked my object in coming to England,
and I told him that I had merely desired to learn English and gain
experience abroad which might be of use to me later in my own country.
I said that all I wanted was the payment of my own money, so that I
might devote myself to study. The old Ambassador said that most careful
consideration would be given to my case, and that I should be given a
suitable Government post if I would return to Constantinople at the
Sultan's expense. I declined the offer.