German teacher at Aleppo, wrote on behalf of his colleagues the following report for the information of the Foreign Office in Berlin :

'We feel it our duty to draw attention to the fact that our educational work will forfeit its moral basis and the esteem of the natives, if the German Government is not in a position to put a stop to the brutality with which the wives and children of slaughtered Armenians are being treated here. Out of convoys which, when they left their homes on the Armenian plateau, numbered from two to three thousand men, women and children, only two to three hundred survivors arrive here in the south. . .

'Opposite the German Technical School at Aleppo, in which we are engaged in teaching, about four hundred emaciated forms, the remnant of such convoys, are lying in one of the hans. There are about a hundred children (boys and girls) among them, from five to seven years old. Most of them are suffering from typhoid and dysentery. When one enters the yard, one has the impression of entering a mad-house. If one brings them food, one notices that they have forgotten how to eat. Their stomachs, weakened by months of starvation, can no longer assimilate nourishment. If one gives them bread, they put it aside indifferently. They just lie there quietly waiting for death.'

Heart-rending accounts of the cruelties inflicted upon the Armenian population continued to reach both the Foreign Office at Berlin and the German Embassy at Constantinople. They reported not only the horrors perpetrated upon the helpless and innocent people but informed the German authorities at the same time that, according to common report, the Germans had organised these massacres, and that Germany's reputation would suffer irretrievable injury in consequence. While the fate of the Armenians was a matter of little interest to the leading German officials, they much disliked to hear that Germany's reputation was likely to suffer.

During many months the German Ambassador at Constantinople had sent to the Chancellor full accounts of the Armenian atrocities, and his reports had been supplemented by Consular reports and by letters and memoranda dispatched by various people and associations. According to the Imperial Constitution, responsibility for the policy of Germany, both foreign and

domestic, rested entirely with the Chancellor, to whom all the other Secretaries of State were subordinated. Now the remarkable fact is that, although Herr von Bethmann Hollweg had received during many months the fullest accounts of the misdeeds perpetrated by Germany's allies, he had apparently not taken the slightest official notice of them. At all events, in the collection of documents published by Dr Lepsius there is not a single document signed by the Chancellor until November 1915. The first document signed by him is dated Nov. 10; and it is significant that the Chancellor felt impelled to write to Herr von Neurath, not because hundreds of thousands of Armenians were cruelly put to death, but because the German Protestant and Roman Catholic Missions had indignantly protested to the Chancellor against the continuation of these barbarities. The Chancellor's intervention was aimed obviously not so much at protecting the innocent sufferers in Turkey as at protecting himself against the reproaches of the powerful German clergy. Bethmann Hollweg's first letter on the Armenian question runs thus:

'Prominent representatives of German Protestantism have put before me the facts regarding the Armenian question. I send you herewith their petition and a resolution relating to the same subject which has been passed at a Conference of the German Roman Catholic Missions. Both manifestations show that the proceedings of the Turks against the Armenians are observed with growing concern and indignation in Germany. I would ask you at every opportunity and with all emphasis to make use of your influence with the Turkish Government in favour of the Armenians and in accordance with the views and desires expressed in the two documents which I send you herewith; and I would like you particularly to watch that the measures which have been taken by the Turkish Government against the Armenians are not applied to the other Christian peoples in Turkey as well.'

While the German Government allowed its Turkish ally to slaughter innocent and defenceless people by the hundred thousand, it was stimulated into some activity by constantly recurring reproaches that Germany had egged on the Turks. For instance, on Nov. 29, 1915, the Foreign Secretary, Herr von Jagow, wrote to Count

Wolff-Metternich, who had been appointed Ambassador at Constantinople:

Hostile and neutral foreign nations do not cease to hold us Germans responsible for the activities of the Turkish Government. According to the report of Herr von Scheubner, it is widely believed by the Turkish people that Germany caused Turkey to persecute the Armenians. We think that we are entitled to expect that the Turkish Government will be loyal enough towards its German ally to deny these rumours emphatically.'

The new German Ambassador recognised speedily that paper protests and warnings and verbal admonitions were worse than useless, and that the Turkish Government would continue its policy of atrocities unless it was stopped by fear of the consequences. On Dec. 7, 1915, Count Wolff-Metternich wrote to the Imperial Chancellor as follows:

Colonel von Kress, Djemal's Chief of Staff, tells me that the misery of the Armenians is indescribable and is far greater than we have been told. At the same time, the rumour was spread about that the Germans desired to see the Armenians massacred. I have employed extremely sharp language. Protests are useless, and the Turkish assertions that no further deportations will take place are worthless. In order to have success in the Armenian question we must instil into the Turkish Government the fear of consequences. If, for military reasons, we may not dare to act firmly, it is useless to protest any longer. Mere protests rather annoy than are useful; and, if we cannot act, we must look on while our ally continues his policy of massacre.

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The Ambassador was perfectly right. The Turks would have stopped the massacre of the Armenians if the German Government had chosen to instil into the ruling Turks a wholesome fear. But that was the last thing of which the German statesmen thought. The Turks had begun their campaign against the Armenians by exterminating them indiscriminately. After the Russian revolution they even advanced into Russian Caucasia in order to continue the work of extermination on Russian soil. Subsequently it occurred to them that it would be worth while to de-Christianise and nationalise them by forcible

conversion, especially the young. That proceeding was likely to arouse the anger of the German clericals at least as much as the previous slaughter. Their protests became, indeed, loud and threatening. Consequently Herr Zimmermann instructed the Ambassador at Constantinople to protest against the forcible conversion of the Armenians to Islam.

The Turkish Government had treated the formal paper protests of Germany with the contempt which they deserved. Not till Dec. 22, 1915, did it condescend to reply to the mild and ineffective documents which the German Embassy had filed with the Porte since July 4. The Turkish Note, which referred to the various communications sent by the German Embassy in the course of six months, was extraordinarily abrupt; and Germany was practically told to mind its own business. The Turks were evidently tired of the comedy which the German diplomatists were playing. They knew that these sham protests and admonitions were made only in order to disguise the fact that Germany was largely responsible for what had happened. From the documents collected by Dr Lepsius it is not clear who, in the last resort, is to blame for Germany's policy in this regard. Theoretically, of course, the Chancellor, Bethmann Hollweg, was solely responsible. But the Emperor cannot escape his share, for under the old German Constitution, the Chancellor was little more than the private secretary and principal clerk of an autocratic sovereign. Only a cross-examination of the ex-Chancellor and of the ex-Emperor can elucidate that point.

While the German statesmen and diplomatists observed towards Turkey a policy of easy toleration with regard to the Armenian horrors, they asserted to those Germans who felt outraged at the Turkish cruelties that Germany had done everything humanly possible. For instance, on Sept. 29, 1916, Herr von Jagow stated before the Committee of the Reichstag:

'In the Armenian question we have made energetic representations to Turkey from the beginning. Perhaps later, after the War, when our position is no longer as delicate as it is to-day, we shall publish a record of the whole of our negotiations. At present I can tell you in confidence that our Ambassador has gone so far as to arouse the ill-will of

the Grand Vizier and of the Minister of the Interior. These Ministers have said, after three months of the Ambassador's activity, that our Ambassador seemed to have nothing to do but to bore them with the Armenian question. . . I think I may say that we have done all we could. The utmost we could have done beyond this would have been to break off our alliance with Turkey. You, gentlemen, will understand that we could not make up our minds to do this. Much as we deplore the fate of the Armenians from the point of view of pure humanity, our sons and brothers are nearer to us than the Armenians. They are spilling their precious blood in terrible battles and they depend for their security upon Turkey's support. The Turks are rendering us a valuable service by protecting the flank of our military position. You, gentlemen, will agree with me that we could not break off our alliance on account of the Armenian question.'

Turkey, like Germany, was fighting for her life. Turkey was absolutely dependent upon Germany's support. An ultimatum dispatched in time, or a mere threat made in full seriousness, would have ended the Armenian massacres although it might possibly have led to some temporary estrangement between the Turks and the Germans. The German diplomatists, or the German Emperor, did not care to bring adequate pressure to bear on the Turks. Possibly the Emperor did not wish Germany to intervene, and Bethmann Hollweg, who was no Bismarck, was unable to resist him. So the representatives of the Foreign Office had to pretend that, for military reasons, Germany had been unable to do anything for the Armenians. That pitiful excuse became the stock defence of the German authorities.

But, while German statesmen and and diplomatists callously looked on, German soldiers in Turkey, and even those who had been placed under the orders of Turkish commanders, protested with energy against the inhumanities of the Turks. General Liman von Sanders was roused to.indignation and threatened to oppose the continuation of the slaughter by attacking the Turks.

On July 29, 1918, Field-Marshal von Hindenburg telegraphed to Enver Pasha:

'Various reports unanimously point out the pressing necessity to allow the Armenian fugitives to return to Armenia so as to enable them to bring in the harvest. Otherwise hundreds