ABSTRACT
Despite the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and Turkey in late-October 1914, Mallet’s contemporaries (both inside and outside the Foreign Office) did not consider him to have been a failure in his post before July of that year. This judgment has been shared by historians. 2 It is generally agreed that he was not personally responsible for the earlier tension in Anglo-Ottoman relations, since Britain’s support for Greece (which was principally responsible for that tension) had been decided upon in London. If Mallet can be faulted, it is for his inability to persuade the Foreign Office to initiate a more conciliatory policy towards the Porte. Here too, however, Mallet is not altogether blameworthy. For almost nine months (since October 1913), he had assiduously courted the Young Turks. But officials in London, whilst always encouraging him to continue his policy of flattery, had themselves persistently refused his appeals to adopt a similarly conciliatory tone.
