Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; Morgenthau, Henry, 1856-1946; United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century
A rather amusing incident occurred late in January, 1914, when upon
receiving word that my wife had left Vienna for Constantinople, I
communicated at once with Talaat and told him I wished him to facilitate
my intention of meeting Mrs. Morgenthau at the boundary of Turkey. I
told him I proposed to go to Adrianople, the point at which her train
would enter Turkey, to meet her. Talaat’s reply was characteristically
Turkish:
“What!” he exclaimed, “going to all that trouble to meet one’s wife! I
never heard of such a thing.”
“I cannot imagine an American,” I replied, “failing to do it. In my
country, our wives share all their husbands’ interests, and I should
certainly consider myself lacking in both respect and affection if I
failed to show my wife this attention.”
Talaat was frankly bewildered.
“In Turkey,” he said, “we let our wives come to us, we do not go to
them.”
As a last resort, he interposed what he intended to be an unanswerable
objection.
“Adrianople!” he exclaimed. “It’s out of the question. There is not even
a hotel in the whole city.”
“Very well then,” I replied, “I shall find accommodations in a private
residence. But to Adrianople I am going.”
With this retort, I left him.
Mr. Schmavonian later went to Talaat and told him that I was quite
serious in my intention. Talaat then sent me word that he would arrange
with the Governor of Adrianople to entertain me, and that I could
dismiss all thought of other preparations from my mind. I therefore
contented myself with arranging to arrive in Adrianople in the morning,
planning to spend a day there sightseeing, and then joining my wife on
the train, which was due to come through the following morning at 3:30
o’clock. Imagine my astonishment, therefore, upon arriving at
Adrianople, to find that the Governor, acting on Talaat’s orders, had
transformed part of the City Hall into a hotel for my reception. The
office furniture had been removed and a suite of bedrooms for myself, my
son Henry (who had now joined me), and a member of my staff, had been
freshly furnished, with comfortable beds and bedding specially bought
for this occasion. One room had been fitted up as a kitchen; another as
a dining room. Talaat’s attentions had gone so far as even to see that
we were provided with pyjamas, bedroom slippers, and toothbrushes.
When I arrived at Adrianople, the Governor was at the station to meet
me, accompanied by a military guard of honour. He at once took us in his
automobile for a sightseeing tour of the city. I found him a man of
great intelligence--some months later he became a member of the Turkish
Cabinet at Constantinople. He was especially interested in the answers
that my son was able to make to his numerous questions about American
farm machinery, which he wished to import for use on his large estate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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