Germany’s Armenian Blunder

It develops, from a letter made public the other day by Dr. James L. Barton, chairman of the American society for Armenian relief, that the German government did acquiesce in the recent Armenian massacres. Dr. Tatton quotes a note filed on August 9 by the German government, in which it stated that it felt itself “obliged to remonstrate once more against these acts of horror.”

And all these months the world has held Germany guilty as the silent partner of the Turks in the most monstrous persecution that any people has been subjected in modern times.

The prevalent impression seems to have been created largely by Germany’s own spokesmen, official and unofficial. Count von Reventlow particularly denounced foreign criticisms of the Turks, and insisted that Germany must keep hands off and let them have their own way. It is more difficult, however, to understand the action of Ambassador von Bernstorff, who want out of his way to inform the American public that the stories of Turkish atrocities against the Armenians were mere lies invented by the allies.

The ambassador, apparently, was not fully informed. But why did his government when it actually tried to exert a humane. Christian influence on the Turks, keep that fact from a critical world and subject itself to additional charges of barbarism?

It’s another case of Germany blundering in her relations with the rest of the world and then lamenting that she’s misunderstood. What Germany needs above everything else is an intelligent appreciation of foreign sentiment.