File No. 867.00/692
The Ambassador in Turkey (Morgenthau) to the Secretary of State
Constantinople, October 19, 1914, 5 p.m.
[Received October 20, 8 a.m.]
[Telegram]
The air is surcharged with all kinds of rumors, largely due to the present excited state of Government and diplomatic circles in Constantinople. As time progresses and the Germans have not been [Page 120] compelled to remove sailors and officers from the Goeben and Breslau, their actions are becoming more aggressive and correspondingly offensive to the English, French and Russians, whose patience may become exhausted. English and Russian Ambassadors have told me they are expecting trouble here, the English on account of warlike preparations in progress in vicinity of Egyptian boundaries and the Russian on account of the massing of Turkish troops at the Caucasian frontier and the maneuvering in the Black Sea of Turkish Fleet, augmented by the Goeben and Breslau and all officered by Germans. It seems that the Turkish war party desires to delay open conflict until result of general war can be more definitely forecast. Real danger consists in the war faction of the Union and Progress Party doing some foolish act that will precipitate a rupture, for instance, British Ambassador has remained at the Embassy for the past three days on account of warning received of plot to assassinate him. Time and place were [not stated]. British Ambassador abstained from attending memorial services for Roumanian King on Sunday. British Ambassador frankly told me that owing to British retention of Turkish dreadnoughts and the placing of British Fleet at the mouth of the [Dardanelles] and inflammatory articles against the English in Turkish press, he feared that he might receive similar treatment as Buxtons. When I spoke to the Grand Vizier to-day about the rumor as to the British Ambassador he assured me that nothing of the kind would happen. He also informed me that the Minister of the Interior would call on British Ambassador this afternoon and give him every assurance that his life was not in danger.