The European society in Erzeroum—The Russian Consul
an energetic man—How to depopulate a country—Russian
passports—Consul Taylor—The intrigues of the Russian
Consul—The Armenian upper classes—How corrupt they are—The
soldiers in Erzeroum—Discontent—_Métallique_—The military
hospital—Recruits from the South—The head surgeon—The wards—A
valuable medicine—A bad habit—Wasting ammunition.
There was not much European society at Erzeroum. It was made up of
the English, French, and Russian Consuls and their families; no other
European, so far as I could learn, being in the town. The Russian
official was an energetic man. A short time previous he had discovered
that some Circassians had the intention to leave the Caucasus, and
enter Turkey. He had telegraphed the news in cypher to the Russian
authorities. Troops had been sent to the Circassian villages. The
inhabitants had been caught in the act of packing up their goods and
chattels. Very strong measures had been taken. It was not likely that
any similar attempt would be made by the inhabitants. There were now
hardly any of them left.
An empty house is better than a bad tenant; this seems to be the policy
of the Tzar's generals in the Caucasus. It is undoubtedly cheaper to
hang a prisoner than to imprison him. The Russian officers have great
ideas of economy in this respect. The Russian Consuls at Erzeroum had
been engaged for some time past in intriguing with the Armenians. Many
Christians belonging to the higher monied classes were in favour of
Russian rule—almost all of them being supplied with Russian passports.
The traffic in such documents carried on in the Erzeroum district was
very great. No large town in Armenia is free from pseudo-Russians.
Consul Taylor, writing from Erzeroum to the Earl of Clarendon on March
the 19th, 1869, remarks about the Russian Consul, who was then in that
city, as follows: "The exaggerated pretensions, overbearing conduct,
and ostentatious display of the Russian Consul in his relations with
the local authorities, in which it is needless to say other Consuls do
not indulge, coupled with the unaccountable servility of the Turkish
officials here in their intercourse with him, tend among an ignorant
people to give a false value to his particular importance or rather
to that of the country he serves—which by still further strengthening
their belief (alluding to Armenians) that no other power than Russia
is so able or willing to help them—makes them eager to apply to him
in their differences, and to acquire DOCUMENTS that to them appear
claims to the interference of a foreign power in their behalf. That the
INTRIGUING, meddling conduct of the RUSSIAN CONSUL is approved, I may
state that although in disfavour with the Embassy at Constantinople, he
is SUPPORTED by the AUTHORITIES in the CAUCASUS, to whose diplomatic
Chancery at Tiflis, he is directly subordinate. It is the POLICY of
the RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, and therefore of its AGENTS, to encourage such
ideas—as also to exaggerate real existing evils, or trump up imaginary
complaints, in order to keep up that CHRONIC DISAFFECTION so suitable
to the line of conduct it has always pursued in the limits of Eastern
countries."
I now learnt that a very large sum of money had been nominally spent in
throwing up some earthworks round Erzeroum. They were said to have cost
a million of liras, nobody seemed to know how the money had been spent.
I had not as yet visited the fortifications. From what I could gather,
the defences were in a very bad state. It was stated that they would be
utterly untenable in the event of an attack.
One thing, seemed to be the unanimous opinion of all classes in
Erzeroum—with the exception possibly of the Russian Consul, whose
acquaintance I did not have the pleasure of making; this was, that
should the Armenians ever get the upper hand in Anatolia, their
government would be much more corrupt than the actual administration.
It was corroborated by the Armenians themselves; the stories which
they told me of several of the wealthier and more influential of their
fellow-countrymen thoroughly bore out the idea.[9]
The soldiers in Erzeroum were very discontented about the way in which
they had received their pay, or rather, I should say, some of their
back pay, as the amount owing to them was now more than twelve months
in arrear. Where formerly they used to be paid in _métallique_—a
debased coinage of silver mixed with copper, but which always keeps
its value of about 140 piastres to the lira—they were now being paid in
_caime_ or bank-notes. Caime had depreciated enormously, a lira being
worth at Constantinople 200 piastres. The Governor of Erzeroum had
issued an order that a paper piastre was to be considered as equal to
a metallic piastre. This did not prevent things from rising in value.
The soldiers were not able to buy half so much with their caime as
formerly with their _métallique_. They had petitioned the Governor on
this subject, and were in hopes that he would let them be paid after
the Constantinople rate of exchange.
The following day I went to the Military Hospital, a large building
in the middle of the town. Many of the patients were suffering from
typhoid fever, and others from frost-bite. The men who had marched
from the southern provinces of the empire had felt the extreme cold in
Erzeroum. Their clothes, well adapted for the climate of Bagdad, were
no protection against the low temperature on the mountains. There were
also several cases of ophthalmia and pneumonia.
The head surgeon in the hospital was a Greek, and one of his assistants
a Hungarian. They both appeared to be intelligent men, and bewailed the
lack of resources for the hospital.
"We have enough at present," said the Hungarian; "but it is the time
of peace. When the war breaks out we shall require medicines and
instruments, how the Government will be able to pay for them I do not
know. Every para[10] will be required for the soldiers in the field.
Notwithstanding the best intentions on the part of the authorities, the
wounded will many of them be left to rot."
The wards were well ventilated. But, owing to the dearth of
accommodation, patients laid up with typhus were lying next to men
suffering from ophthalmia. It was impossible to separate the different
cases. The doors, too, did not fit. On opening one of them, a current
of cold air cut through the room, and attacked those patients who were
suffering from inflammation of the lungs. Hollow coughs could be heard
from all sides of the apartment.
The name of every inmate, and the nature of the case, was written in
French over his pallet, and the sufferers seemed to be much attached to
their attendants.
"One of the most valuable medicines in this hospital," remarked the
Greek, as I finished my inspection, "is wine. The Turks who come from
the south suffer from poorness of blood. They have never drunk wine
before, their law prevents them; when they receive alcohol as a medicine
the effect is marvellous."
I now walked to one of the barracks, to see the cavalry regiment
which had left Sivas whilst I was in that town. It had just arrived in
Erzeroum. An officer accompanied me through the stables. They were large
and lofty. The saddles, arms, and accoutrements were clean and bright,
and the men appeared very particular about these matters; the colonel
telling me, with a certain amount of pride, that notwithstanding the
long march from Sivas, he had no cases of sore backs amongst the horses
in his regiment.
Unfortunately there was only one other cavalry regiment in that part
of Anatolia. The Turks, in the event of war, would have to depend
upon their Circassian irregulars for outpost duty. Now if there is
one branch of warfare which requires study more than another it is
outpost duty. The safety of an army depends upon this being well done.
Intelligent cavalry officers are the eyes and ears of the commander
of an expedition. A general who is not supplied with a numerous and
efficient cavalry is like a deaf and blind man; he knows nothing of
what is going on around him.[11] My companion was well aware of this.
He regretted that there were not more cavalry regiments on the frontier.
"We shall do our best," he said, "but there are only 400 troopers; when
we are killed there will be no one to replace us."
He was not so sanguine about the result of the war as many of the
officers with whom I had conversed.
"I fought against the Russians in the Crimea," was his remark on this
subject. "They have very little money," he continued; "however, we have
less. We shall have to buy arms from abroad. So long as we have gold,
your manufacturers will supply us; when we have no liras left, there
will be no more rifles and cartridges. We have plenty of men. We can
recruit from the Mussulmans throughout Asia. We can put into the field
quite as many troops as the Russians. The latter are not to be despised
as soldiers, they will die in their places. Our men will do the same.
It will be a question of money and the longest purse will win."
From the cavalry barracks I proceeded to a large Khan, originally
constructed for travellers, but now given over to the troops. Here a
battalion of redifs (reserves) was quartered. They had just received
their uniform—a blue tunic and trousers, very much like the dress worn
by the red French infantry, and were armed with Martini-Peabody rifles—a
quantity of these fire-arms having been recently purchased from an
American firm.
The rooms in which the troops were lodged had nothing to recommend them;
they were dirty and low, besides being overcrowded. The officers' rooms
adjoined the men's dormitories, and were equally filthy.
A captain was drilling his company in one of the passages, and
was making the soldiers go through the motions as if they were
volley-firing. The moment the men had their rifles to the shoulder he
gave the word "fire;" there was no time allowed for taking aim.
The same fault I subsequently observed in a battalion which was ordered
to form a square to resist cavalry. The band was placed in the middle
of the square, the men, so soon as the music struck up, commenced
firing independently—the object of each soldier being to discharge his
rifle as rapidly as possible, the officers encouraging them in this bad
habit.[12] If the same system is to be carried on in a war with Russia,
the Sultan's army in Anatolia will soon be without ammunition.