Note 3 — Chapter XXIV · STATISTICAL AND POLITICAL

An attempt was made by Mr. Goschen, Ambassador at Constantinople under the Gladstone régime, to grapple with the inherent difficulties of the case. Immediately after the Berlin Treaty a number of able consular officers had been despatched by England over the whole of Asia Minor with instructions to report upon the general condition of the country, and upon the measures of reform, extending over the whole field of Turkish administration, which it would be necessary to recommend. Their reports are an interesting contribution to the literature of Blue-books; but in respect of the Armenian Question our Ambassador cannot have been enabled to extract from them the information which was necessary to provide him with that sure ground upon which to build that he was seeking to acquire. The Armenians themselves, for whom he was working, supplied him with misleading statistics, and seem never to have inspired him with any real confidence as to the soundness of their cause.3 As a consequence, no definite plan was placed before the Porte, and, what is more important, no definite policy seems ever to have been brought to the mind of our Ambassador or of his colleagues representing the signatory Powers. The teasing activity of England in Asia Minor, and the reports of misgovernment in every direction which she showered upon the Porte, seem not only to have alarmed Turkey but the European Powers as well; and it only required a word from Prince Bismarck to dismiss the whole question of Armenian reforms.4