Gallipoli by Peter Fitzsimons Read Free Book Online

behind the British Empire, whatever the cost.
    And, not to be outdone in what has clearly become a burning election issue (all’s fair in love and war), at his own meeting in Horsham the night after Fisher has declared for the Empire, Prime Minister Cook – a former coalminer just like Fisher and every bit as passionate for the Old Country – makes the level of his own loyalty to that Empire clear. ‘Remember,’ he thunders with outrage on behalf of Britain, ‘that when the Empire is at war, so is Australia at war. I want to make it quite clear that all our resources in Australia are in the Empire, and for the Empire, and for the preservation and the security of the Empire.’ 13
    Prime Minister Cook repeats that assertion the next day at another meeting, in Colac, and goes a little further: ‘There is no use blinking at our responsibilities. If the Old Country is at war so are we. It is not a matter of chance at all … All obligations necessary for the defence of the Empire must be placed at the disposal of the responsible authorities whenever they are needed and at whatever time they were called for.’ 14
    Hurrah! Hurrah! HURRAH!
    MORNING, 1 AUGUST 1914, IN LONDON, CHURCHILL CLIPS TURKEY’S WINGS
    It is a great day for what is left of the Ottoman Empire. It is the day that Captain Hüseyin Rauf, the Ottoman Empire’s greatest naval hero, arrives with his Turkish crew to Armstrong Whitworth’s Elswick shipyard at Newcastle-on-Tyne, north-east England, where he is to formally take possession of Sultan Osman I – the bigger of the two dreadnoughts that have been built for the Ottoman Navy. The next morning, at 8 am sharp, the crew are to run the Turkish flag up on this powerful nautical beauty and hold a ceremony to mark this highly anticipated occasion.
    Turkey has laboured long to raise the 2.3 million lira (some £6 million) to pay for these battleships. Extra taxes have been placed on such staples as tobacco and bread. The previous December, the monthly salaries of all civil servants had been summarily diverted into the ship fund. In every Turkish town and village, women had cut and sold their hair to wigmakers to raise yet more money. Donation boxes had been placed on bridges across the Golden Horn in Constantinople and on the ferryboats traversing the mighty Bosphorus. The purchase of these powerful dreadnoughts from Great Britain has been something that has brought the people of the nation together in difficult times, something that will give them security – allowing them, most importantly, to defend themselves against the Greeks to their west, and to rule the Black Sea and thwart Russian plans to invade their land.
    And what is this?
    For as Captain Rauf is looking out across the dockyard, preparing himself for the pomp and pageantry of the handing-over ceremony, he suddenly notices men in uniform – and not Turkish uniforms – with guns and bayonets drawn, marching towards Turkey’s ship. In minutes, these British Army troops of Sherwood Foresters Regiment have made an armed guard around the ship and claimed it for Great Britain.
    How is this possible? What has happened? Who has done this?
    It is typical Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
    With war ever more imminent, it is ever more obvious that the British Empire will likely be needing every bullet, bomb and battleship it can get its hands on. Churchill had suddenly given the orders for the troops to move in and reclaim the two ships in the name of His Majesty, and now it is done. ‘In view of present circumstances,’ the First Lord tells the builders of the ships, ‘the Government cannot permit the ships to be handed over to a Foreign Power.’ 15
    With this requisition of Sultan Osman (renamed Agincourt ), and soon thereafter that of her sister ship Reshadieh (renamed Erin ), Britain can now count on 26 dreadnoughts in the North Sea, against just 17