acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

:
154 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
hastily forsook
on his hands.
Sivas, and these goods had been left
Perhaps little is remembered in England now of
that short period, more than thirty years ago, when
British military consuls were stationed at various cities
in Asia Minor. There, however, the memory of them
still is fresh, and remains to the honour of themselves
and their country. In Sivas I heard of these officers
often, both from American missionaries and natives.
They bulked large in the imagination of the country
as pot3nt, inflexible, incorruptible men, before whom
even VaUs had to give way ; as men, too, who could
and did protect the Aveak, and whose presence was a
guarantee against great v/rong. Their reputation for
power was greater perhaps than the power they really
possessed ; but I would hear this sort of remark
*'
If a British military consul had been there the
massacre would not have happened." Or the interesting
speculations of a missionary who, having remarked
that these consuls " feared neither man nor
devil," attributed that quality, and also a certain
facility in dealing with native matters, to their having
served in India. During the time of these consuls
British prestige was at its highest in the country. It
is said that some natives looked for a British Protectorate
at the time, and even prayed for it. And
an American of long experience in Asia Minor told
me that an Anatolian dervish sheikh had said to
him once :
" Nothing will be well with this country
until the English take it. I have been in Egypt
on pilgrimage, and have seen what the English do
there."
There is a considerable American mission in Sivas,
but, unlike the mission at Marsovan, its schools,
hospital, and residences are not collected within a
compound. If Marsovan complains of being cut off
from the outer world of subscriptions and benefactions,
much more so is there cause for Sivas. The
very road to Sivas, it is pointed out, lies past Marsovan—always
thirsty for subscriptions. The chance