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ABSTRACT
This article examines British refuge to Ottoman Armenians in the aftermath of the 1894–1897 Hamidian massacres, an episode absent from the historiography of Britain and refuge, and largely from historical refugee studies. Analysed against the backdrop of the restrictionist Aliens Bills (1894–1905), refuge offered by Britain to tens of thousands of Ottoman Armenians seems a contradiction in terms. This article seeks to go beyond this contradiction and reflects on why and how the British Conservative Prime Minister, originator of the 1894 Aliens Bill when still in the Opposition, actively helped channelling Ottoman Armenians outside of the Ottoman Empire. Rather than encouraging movement to Britain, Salisbury urged to propose a British tradition of welcome more in keeping with current sensibilities in terms of domestic immigration. In so doing, Salisbury first sought to revive a tradition of British refuge as imperial. As it largely failed, he explored alternative, liminal loci (Bulgaria) outside of the formal Empire where British humanitarians, with the official support of the Foreign Office, might provide aid to Ottoman Armenian refugees – in the margins of international law. This case study thus offers new ways of envisaging British refuge in the late nineteenth century.
Acknowledgments
The idea for this article originated from discussions in Claire Zalc's 2019-2020 seminar on ‘Migrations and Persecutions’ at the EHESS in Paris. She should be thanked, just as Mélanie Torrent and Marie Ruiz whose invitation to present at the ‘In Search of Britain’ seminar (Jan. 2021, Amiens) was the occasion to present a very preliminary version of this research. Archivists at the Frances E. Willard Library (Illinois) and Hatfield House (UK, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury Papers) generously provided access to their collections, for which I am grateful. Finally, peer-reviewers kindly helped clarify elements in this complex story and sharpen the argumentation.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Hansard, HC Debate, vol. 149, 17 July 1905, col. 959.
2 Aliens Act 1905 (5 Ed. VII c. 13), s. 1.
3 Bashford and McAdam, “The Right to Asylum.”
4 Pellew, “The Home Office and the Aliens Act, 1905,” 369; Bloom, “Arnold White and Sir William Evans-Gordon,” 153–66.
5 Hansard, HL Debate, 23 May 1898, vol 58, c. 272.
6 Pellew, “The Home Office and the Aliens Act,” 369.
7 For this paragraph, see: Ter Minassian, La Question arménienne, 1983; Adjemian and Nichanian, “Rethinking the ‘Hamidian massacres’,” 19–29; Verhej, “The Year of the Firman,” §4 sq.
8 Eldem, “1896: Anatomie d’un massacre.”
9 Gocek’s Denial of Violence (132) reminds us that the statistics by the Ottoman Interior Mnister Nazim Pasha was 4000. Some statistics only take into account some of the massacres, not the three waves (Mirak, Torn Between Two Lands). The range Gocek gives is 80,000–300,000. 80,000 is the lowest figure found in a non-denialist account (Verhej, “Die armenischen Massaker von 1894–1896,” 69–129). 300,000 is the estimate of the Armenian Patriarchate at the time, taken up by Mandalian (15). Of note, European ambassadorial figures given figures that range from 100,000 to 250,000. Koutcharian explains the problems with calculating casualty figures from Ottoman population statistics and accounts for how European population figures only partly correct this (80–91). He reminds us that the highest estimate found for the number of casualties is 400,000 (Jean-Paul Alem, 1962, quoted p. 102).
10 Ternon, Empire ottoman, 218: ‘at least 200,000’. Astourian, “The Silence of the Land,” 65: ‘probably between 150,000 and 200,000’.
11 Deringil, “The Armenian Question is Finally Closed,” 344–71.
12 On Ottoman refugees, see Blumi, Ottoman Refugees, 1879–1939, 2013. On works discussing 1890s Armenian refugees, see: 1/ for Cyprus, Pattie, Faith in History, 54–56; Prévost, “Die Auswanderung der osmanisch-armenischen Flüchtlinge nach Zypern,” forthcoming; 2/ for Bulgaria, Ovnani︠a︡n, Armeno-bŭlgarski istoricheski, 1972, esp. 314–22; Popek, “Conspiracies and Refugees: Armenian Migrants in Bulgaria in the Last Decade of the Nineteenth Century,” 249–67; and 3/ for Russia, Qosyan, “The Condition of Western Armenian Refugees,” 46–51; Yilmaz, “Governing the Armenian Question through Passports,” 388–403; 4/ for Australia: Kirkland, “Armenian Migration,” 68–69.
13 Arkun, “Into the Modern Age, 1800–1913,” 82.
14 Tusan, Smyrna’s Ashes, 72 and The British Empire and the Armenian Genocide, 11–89; Rodogno, Against Massacre, 185–211; Varnava and Harris, “It Is Quite Impossible to Receive Them,” 843–48.
15 On this shift towards more long-term refuge, see Prévost, “Humanitarian Accountability,” 24–27.
16 Of note, beside British-backed aided schemes, which may have concerned about 40,000, emigration to Russia (40,000–50,000?) and to Persia (about 10,000) remained prime destinations as borderland regions. British actors involved in emigration often collaborated with Armenians themselves and actors of other nationalities. For instance, American missionaries in loco usually provided refuge in stations priori to emigration, while grandiose emigration schemes for agricultural colonies in Arizona and New Mexico were also developed in the US. On smuggling networks, see Gutman, The Politics of Armenian Migration, 22–38 and 50.
17 Bloom, “The Politics of Immigration,” 192.
18 It is difficult to have clear statistics. Theoretically, under the 1836 Aliens Act, entries of aliens were to be noted by officers, but rapidly the act was disused. Passenger lists give little indication, even when they indicate nationality – as ‘Ottoman’ (or ‘Turkish’) would be indicated, not Armenian. Prime Ministership Ottoman Archives (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, hereafter BOA] indicate that the Armenian Homes of Refuge coped for 370 Armenian refugees, and mention only 120 has having found work in Britain (BOA, Y. A. HUS, 391/5, in Osmanlı Belgelerinde Ermeni-İngiliz İlişkileri (1896–1922), 72). British newspaper sources suggest many left Britain (“Armenians at West Hampstead,” Hampstead & Highate Express, 13 Feb 1897, 6). ‘Armenia’, the Home set up by the Thoumaians at Chigwell, was supposed to have received many orphans, but statistics have not been preserved. ‘The Thoumaian Armenian Home – Appeal’ (1897) mentions ‘17 boys connected with the home’ (Thoumaian Papers, Essex County Archives, Chelmsford, D/DU 1777/6). Others involved in Armenian relief distribution in the Ottoman Empire (James Rendel Harris) or Marseille (Lady Isabella Somerset) also housed dozens of Armenian refugees at their homes.
19 Computed from the digitised version of the 1901 Census in Ancestry.com (Keywords used: ‘Ottoman’, ‘Turkish’, ‘Armenian’).
20 On return, see: Gutman, The Politics of Armenian Migration, 5 and chapter 4.
21 Shaw, Britannia’s Embrace, 238.
22 Prévost, “La Question d’Orient dans la culture politique britannique,” 398–452; Tusan, Smyrna’s Ashes, 31.
23 Hansard, HC Debate, vol. 231, 31 July 1876, col. 203.
24 See especially Shannon, Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation, vi; Saab, Reluctant Icon, 2.
25 Hansard, HC Debate, vol. 54, 1 March 1898, col. 298.
26 “Armenian Christians' Defence,” Daily News, 11 July 1893, 6; “The Sultan and the Armenians,” The Standard, 2 Oct 1893, 5.
27 Quoted in Hertslet, The Map of Europe by Treaty, 2686.
28 Quoted in Ibid., 2723.
29 Gladstone, “England’s Mission,” 565, 569–70.
30 Medlicott, “The Gladstone Government and the Cyprus Convention,” esp. 197.
31 See for instance, “The Anglo-Armenian Association: Dinner To Mr. J. Bryce, M.P.,” The Manchester Guardian, 13 May 1893, 7.
32 For instance for Liberal newspapers: “The Truth about Armenia,” Daily News, 13 May 1895, 4–5; A.C.Y, “Letter to the Editor: The Armenian Atrocities,” The Manchester Guardian, 11 April 1895, 7. The Manchester Courier (Conservative) also reproduced all of Dillon’s reports, for instance “The Truth about Armenia,” 1 April 1895, 6.
33 Protests have been lost, but registered have been preserved. They (FO 566/1001 and 1004) reveal that the Foreign Office received 398 protests between 23 Nov 1894 and 2 July 1895, which correspond to the first phase of the agitation movement. On the agitation movement and the destruction of protests, see: Prévost, “L’opinion publique britannique et la question arménienne.”
34 “The Armenian Refugees in London,” The Manchester Evening News, 11 April 1895, page unnumbered.
35 “Easter at Hawarden: Gladstone and the Armenian Deputation,” The Daily News, 15 April 1895, 5; “Deputation to Mr. Gladstone,” The Birmingham Daily Post, 15 April 1895, 5; “Mr. Gladstone and the Armenian Refugees,” Leeds Mercury, 20 April 1895, 2; “The Armenians,” Ashburton Guardian (New Zealand), 17 April 1895, 2.
36 Prévost, “Humanitarian accountability,” 18.
37 Marsh, “Lord Salisbury and the Ottoman Massacres,” 66.
38 Note by T.H. Sanderson to Foreign Secretary Kimberley, 24 June 1896, FO 78/4693, f. 34.
39 Hansard, HC Debate, 3 March 1896, vol 38, col. 111.
40 Prévost, “Humanitarian Accountability,” 26.
41 The ARF’s secretary, Edward Atkin, even asked for the removal of Currie, denouncing his agitating on behalf of Ottoman Armenians and placing Britain at the risk of war with the Ottoman Empire. See: “The Armenian Massacres,” The Standard, 19 Sep 1896, 2.
42 Foreign Office to Woodhouse, 19 Feb 1896, Foreign Office Papers, FO 65/1522, f. 160–61.
43 Woodhouse to Salisbury, 15 Jan 1896 and March 1896, FO 65/1522, respectively f. 163 and f. 169 verso.
44 Woodhouse to Salisbury, March 1896, FO 65/1522, f. 169.
45 There were established trade routes connecting Persia and Riga used by Armenian merchants since the seventeenth century. Late nineteenth-century Armenia technically spread over three countries (the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Russia) and interregional/interstate migrations remained frequent, with porous, mountainous boundaries.
46 “Our London Letter,” The Southern Reporter, 20 Feb 1896.
47 Placed at 50,000 in the article “The Powers and the Sultan” published by The Globe on 11 Sep 1896 (4). Russian and Ottoman sources hover between 25,000 and 30,000. See Yılmaz, “Governing the Armenian Question through Passports,” 396–97.
48 Hansard, HC Debate, 3 March 1896, vol. 38, col. 49.
49 Ohannes Andreasian to Patrick Geddes, undated (1897?), Patrick Geddes Papers, University of Stratchlyde Special Collections, Glasgow, T-GED/1/8/14/21.
50 Bashford and Gilchrist, “The Colonial History of the 1905 Aliens Act,” 411.
51 Prévost, “L’opinion publique britannique et la question arménienne.”
52 Yilmaz, “Governing the Armenian Question through Passports,” 397.
53 Cf. Gutman, The Politics of Armenian Migration to North America; Karpat, “The Ottoman Emigration to the America, 1860–1914.”
54 “Sheltering the Refugees,” Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tasmania), 17 Sep 1896, 2.
55 “The Crisis in Constantinople: Armenian Refugees onboard the SS. Douro,” The Illustrated London News, 26 Sep 1896, 392.
56 Currie to Salisbury, 6 Oct 1896, Confidential Print 6957, Asiatic Turkey. Further Correspondence, FO 424/189, 43.
57 On protests, see the whole volume FO 195/1948. Karpat, “The Ottoman Emigration to America,” 192; Morris and Ze’evi, The Thirty-Year Genocide, 129.
58 The text of the edict is reproduced in Moore, A Digest of International Law, 706. On Terk-i Tâbiiyet passports: Gürsel, “Portraits of Unbelonging”; Özdemir, “Osmanlı Ermenilerinin Göçünün Fotoğrafını Çekmek,” 84.
59 Sublime Porte to British Embassy, Note verbale, 4 Oct 1896, FO 195/1947, folio not numbered.
60 “Armenian Refugees,” The Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 2 Oct 1896, 5.
61 “The Powers and the Sultan,” The Globe, 11 Sep 1896, 4.
62 Computed from New York Passenger Arrival Lists on Ancestry.com, which contains complete digitised lists for that period. ‘Armenian’ was selected under the criterion ‘race’.
63 “An act in amendment to the various acts relative to immigration,” CHAP. 550, March 1891.
64 Wilkins, The Alien Invasion, 2.
65 “The Armenian Refugees at Marseilles,” The White Ribbon, vol. 1, no. 1, Nov 1896, 1. (Papers of Frances E. Willard, Frances E. Willard Memorial Library and WCTU Archives, Evanston, Illinois, Box 19, Folder 30); “Armenian Clergyman in Cheltenham,” Cheltenham Chronicle, 7 Nov 1896, 4.
66 For instance, see: LaGumina, Wop!, 72–162.
67 “The Relief Corps,” The National Tribune (Washington), 14 Jan 1897, 6.
68 Department of State to Mavroyeni Bey, 2 and 8 Oct 1896 (despatches 105–06), National Archives, General Record Group 59, Turkey & Rumania, M99-97 (microfilmed copy).
69 Terrell to Olney, 16 Oct 1896, in Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (1897), document 884; Terrell to Olney, 30 Dec 1895, General Records of the Department of State (Record Group 59), vol. 61, no. 748.
70 “Armenian Refugees to America,” Uttoxeter Advertiser and Ashbourne Times, 28 Oct 1896, 2.
71 “Alien Immigration,” Gleanings and Memoranda: A Monthly Record of Political Events and Current Political Literature, vol. 8, London, 1897, 57.
72 “Pauper Immigrants,” Rhyl Record and Advertiser, 10 Oct 1896, 7; Hansard, HC Debate, 11 Feb 1893, col. 1180.
73 Shaw, Britannia’s Embrace.
74 Computed from Ancestry.com.
75 “A Hopeful Outlook,” The Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 16 Jan 1897, 1.
76 James R. Harris to FARC (confidential letter), 3 June 1896, Friends Armenian Relief Committee Archives. Library of the Society of Friends, London, MS BOX T2, T2/2, folio not numbered.
77 See marginalia to Sarah Sheldon Amos’s letter to C.O., 5 Sep 1896, CO 67/103, f. 453; cf. also the intense debate following Salisbury’s meeting with Amos, involving F.O. staff (especially Salisbury) and C.O. staff and administrators, in the form of notes appended to the “proposed Armenian colony in Cyprus” (June 1896?, FO 78/4793, f. 434–35): Lord Selbourne, as High Commissioner for South Africa, set the tone saying that ‘he agreed in principle, but that this was a great responsibility’.
78 Privy Council Minutes, 14–20 Aug 1896, Canadian Privy Council Office Papers, Library and Archives Canada, RG2, Series 1, vol. 699, File 1896-2623.
79 National Council of Women of Canada, 4th Annual Report, 11; “Armenian Immigrants,” The Daily Colonist (Victoria), 3 Dec 1896, 8; “From Our Own Correspondent – Ottawa,” The Daily Colonist, 31 Dec 1896, 1; “Ottawa News,” Manitoba Free Press, 31 Dec 1896, 1.
80 “Toronto News,” Manitoba Free Press, 16 Jan 1897, 1.
81 Babkenian and Stanley, Armenia, Australia and the Great War, 30.
82 For instance: “Armenian Refugees. Refused by America,” Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tas.), 23 Oct 1896, 3; “The Armenian Question,” The Argus (Melbourne), 16 Jan 1896, 5.
83 Cf. Report of a conference, 130.
84 “Armenian refugees,” The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser, 29 Jan 1897, 7.
85 On the ‘racial’ imagination of Armenians, see: Laycock, Imagining Armenia, chapter 1.
86 “Miscellaneous Information: Armenians,” The South Australian Police Gazette (Adelaide), 10 Feb 1897, 1.
87 W.O. Temple and Co. to J. Power & Co. (letter passed on to FO), 9 Sep 1896, FO 78/4793, f. 117.
88 “How to Help Armenia,” The Pall Mall Gazette, 30 Sep 1896, 2.
89 “Mr Rhodes as Farmer,” Daily News (London), 25 Aug 1897, 8.
90 “Playing Policeman for Oom Paul” (Letter to the Editor), Pall Mall Gazette, 21 May 1896, 9.
91 Colonial Office Brief to FO, 17 Sep 1896, FO 78/4793, f. 107.
92 Shaw, Britannia’s Embrace, 178.
93 Isabella Somerset to Patrick Geddes, 3 Nov 1896, Geddes Papers, T-GED/1/8/6/15.
94 Gutman, “Travel Documents,” 360.
95 Isabella Somerset to Patrick Geddes, 3 Nov 1896, Geddes Papers, T-GED/1/8/6/15.
96 Currie to FO, 17 Sep 1896, Colonial Office Papers, National Archives (Kew, London), CO 67/103, f. 125; Demiryürek, “Ermeni Olayları ve Kıbrıs (1888–1912),” 115–36.
97 Cf. Elliot’s Confidential Brief to the Foreign Office, 12 Dec 1896, FO 78/4794, f. 232.
98 BOA Y. PRK. ASK, 109/53 and BOA, Y. PRK. EŞA, 24/12, in Osmanlı Belgelerinde Ermeni-İngiliz İlişkileri (1896–1922), 15–18 and 22–24.
99 See for instance CO 67/95, f. 313 (29 April 1895) & f. 403 (10 July 1895).
100 Isabella Somerset to Patrick Geddes, 3 Nov 1896, Geddes Papers, T-GED/1/8/6/15.
101 FO to Armenian Relief Committee, Draft, 9 Oct 1896, FO 78/4793, f. 203.
102 Ovnani︠a︡n, Armeno-bŭlgarski istoricheski, 164–65.
103 Fujinami, “Between Sovereignty and Suzerainty,” 58.
104 “Mrs Ormiston Chant in Bristol,” Western Daily Press, 16 Nov 1897, 3.
105 Salisbury to Edward Atkin, Draft Letter, 22 Dec 1896, FO 78/4794, f. 279.
106 Quoted in Moore, A Digest of International Law, 706.
107 Atkin to FO, 9 June 1897, FO 78/4983, f. 150.
108 “Lord Salisbury at Guildhall,” Northern Echo, 10 Nov 1896, 4.
109 Elliott to FO, 26 Feb 1896, FO 78/4982, f. 51.
110 For instance, Percy Bunting to Patrick Geddes, 3 Nov 1896, T-GED 1/8/6/5.
111 Burbank and Cooper, Empires in World History, 16–17.
112 See records of the Eastern and Colonial Association Ltd, launched in 1897 by Geddes to attract investors. Board of Trade Archives, BT 31/31563/54294, especially report for 1907, for 1915 and the 24 April 1917 letter by Andrew Dunlop, Geddes’s associate, respectively at f. 10, 20 and 21.
113 Geddes, “Cyprus Actual and Possible,” 896.
114 Julius Van Millingen’s Report, 10 June 1897, CO 67/106, f. 457.
115 On the origins of the ‘right of refuge’, cf. Jones, “Establishing a Constitutional ‘Right of Asylum’,” 545–62.
116 Marsh, “Lord Salisbury and the Ottoman Massacres,” 65.
117 Shaw, Britannia’s Embrace, 238.
118 Ibid.
119 A similar argument is made by Altuğ and White (“Frontières et pouvoirs,” § 29–32) with reference to French resettlement of Ottoman Armenian genocide survivors to 1920s French Syria, then under the League of Nations mandate. It also has to do with the racial imagination of Armenians, here as Western, rather than ‘Asiatic’.
120 Bensimon, “Four Questions to Caroline Shaw,” 3.
121 In FO 78/4794: Atkin to Salisbury, 12 Dec 1896, f. 234; Sanderson to Salisbury, 18 Dec 1896, f. 236; FO to Atkin, 22 Dec 1896, f. 270.
122 As early as Dec 1895, Salisbury passed on Currie’s request to sound out Princess of Wales and her sister, the Russian Empress Dowager, as to whether they would establish an international Red Cross mission under British-Russian aegis to aid Armenian survivors in the Ottoman Empire. These confidential letters are kept outside of the FO official correspondence (at the National Archives) in the 3rd Marquess’s Private Papers at Hatfield House (Hatfield House 3M) and have thus largely been ignored. References are to be found in volume 3M/E51: Currie to Salisbury, Decypher, 3 Dec 1895, f. 412; Salisbury to Currie, 2 Dec 1895, f. 417.
123 Tusan, “The Concentration Camp as Site of Refuge,” 824–60.
124 This was still the main view of the main international law organ, the Institut de droit international (formed in Ghent in 1873). See Rygiel, “Une impossible tâche,” 131.
125 N.W. Sibley and A. Elias, The Aliens Act and Right of Asylum (1906) 130, quoted in Shaw, Britannia’s Embrace, 213.