Hopes, Promises and Doubts

The first report on the revolutionary events at Resna on 3 July 1908 was telegraphed from Constantinople on 8 July. It reached the Foreign Office on the same day, but was seen only the day after by the Eastern Department officials, the Permanent Under-Secretary, (Sir Charles Hardinge), and the Foreign Secretary himself, Sir Edward Grey. ¹ Not until 14 July, after more detailed reports had reached the Foreign Office, were the first important comments made. The significance of the uprising was fully grasped by the lower echelons of the Foreign Office, ² but was misunderstood by its head. Hardinge was entirely preoccupied with getting an agreement first with Russia and then with the Powers, and in mid-July did not even refer to the events in Macedonia in a private letter to Barclay, the Minister Plenipotentiary at Constantinople. ³ The latter, too, underrated the importance of the new situation and as late as 18 July could still not tell whether the rising was likely ‘to fizzle out or spread’. ⁴ By the end of the third week in July, the Foreign Office was beginning to realize that the progress made by the Young Turks had ‘a striking resemblance to revolution’. ⁵ But in the Embassy at Constantinople only Fitzmaurice saw that the Constitutional movement would win the day. ⁶