Major General James Guthrie Harbord (1886-1947) was a prominent American military and political figure. Born in Illinois, he grew up in Kansas, where he graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College in 1886. Three years later he enlisted in the US Army and went on to make a successful military career, rising to the rank of major general and the position of Chief of Staff under General John J. Pershing in the American expeditionary corps during the World War I.
In 1919, after the WWI ended, US President Woodrow Wilson appointed Harbord as the Head of American Mission to Turkey and the Near East that was tasked with investigating the feasibility of the Balfour Declaration, which supported the creation of a Jewish "homeland" in Palestine. Harbord was also to investigate and report on the atrocities committed against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Upon returning to the United States, Harbord wrote the "Conditions in the Near East: Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia," which was a summary of the expedition that provided various details of the mission. In 1920 Harbord published a three-part travelogue "Investigating Turkey and Trans-Caucasia" in The World's Work (volume XL). Below are excerpts from this report, along with photos taken by the Mission members.
TIFLIS, the capital of Georgia, was two hundred miles away over uncertain roads, and we made an early start hoping to arrive there before night.
The afternoon passed with various adventures in getting over broken bridges, and we limped over the last twenty miles of rough, rocky, third-class road with a broken spring, traveling up the wooded valley of the Kura.
Tiflis is a modern city of about three hundred and fifty thousand people. It presents a very attractive aspect. Each separate part seems slightly bizarre, but taken as a whole the picture is a very interesting one. It was, of course, the Russian vice-regal capital of the whole of Trans-Caucasia, and has many handsome buildings, including the vice-regal palace last used by Grand Duke Nicholas after he was removed from the command of the Eastern front of Germany some time before the overthrow of the
The streets were crowded with people. The Georgians are exceedingly picturesque in their long Cossack coats to the knees, belted in at the waist, and with the double row of ivory camouflage cartridges diagonally across each breast. In old days the cartridges were real, and worn there for convenience. Each man in native costume wears a dagger. They are a tall race and the long coat gives the impression of very great height. A long time ago Gibbon referred to them as "that handsome and worthless race." They are still handsome, and their merit remains to be proven under the new conditions which now confront them in their little republic so near to soviet Russia. They are Christians and the Cross is a very popular ornament in Georgia. Their church has always been independent from that of Russia but uses the Greek Ritual.
As would be expected in a city once the viceregal capital of rich provinces in a powerful empire, the city of Tiflis shows many evidences of wealth and former luxury. The wealthy class is principally Armenian. Before the world war the old native aristocracy of Georgia was a landed class, owners of vast estates, inherited with princely titles, who lived in style befitting their rank, reminiscent of the old feudal days when Georgia was proud of an ancient civilization, and a royal line that had reigned as an unbroken dynasty for a thousand years. When the Russians took over Georgia in 1802, they found a feudal aristocracy and an agricultural peasantry. Nearly all the aristocracy claimed the title of "Beg" which meant little more than "Chief." In the translation from the vernacular to Russian, the title Prince was adopted as more nearly describing the dignity than any other, hence the majority of the Georgian upper classes are princely in title. Anciently the Georgian people, exclusive of their royal race, were divided into six classes, the first grade of which were Mtavari, or princes, consisting of those claiming descent from Kartlos, a legendary king of Georgia who reigned about 2600 B. C. It was said that the gentleman whose music at the piano delighted us during a reception given in our honor at the residence of the Allied High Commissioner was a Prince. Some will tell you of tailors, or ribbon salesmen and chauffeurs who are princes in Georgia, but with our theories of the dignity of labor, there is nothing incongruous in such a situation. A prince otherwise all right should not be at a disadvantage in seeking to earn a livelihood in a country where the Government has seized his property because some one else desired it.
To the members of our mission, the outstanding native figure in the Georgian capital will always be Mr. Gambichizi [Gabrichidze], who was in attendance from the moment we left our motor cars on arrival until our ship finally sailed from Batum a week later. He called himself the official representative of the Government of Georgia. We thought he might well have been called the "General Manager" of Georgia. Speaking excellent English, smooth and clever, courteous and deferential, forceful but extremely tactful, he was a very companionable gentleman and a thoroughly efficient young man. Exiled from Georgia in his early manhood he had gone to Germany, where "for disrespectful language against the holy person of the ruler of a neighboring and friendly empire" he had been expelled from the country and had gone to England. In London he had learned the language and no doubt the people, and had become a lecturer on Near Oriental affairs. After the war, he had returned to his native land and to our unskilled western eyes he seemed unmistakably in the saddle, prompting cabinets, admonishing generals, and directing banquets.
SOVIET TENDENCIES IN GEORGIA
PURSUANT to an appointment and chaperoned by the suave Gambichizi, we were received in the presence of the assembled cabinet at the old vice-regal palace by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gueguetchkori [Gegechkori], acting for the Prime Minister, Mr. Jordania [Zhordania], who was a sick man and unable to receive our mission during our visit. He had spent seventeen years in exile during the Russian regime and his health is completely broken. At the termination of our official call an appointment was made for a session with the cabinet the following day.
This interview was conducted very much like the one held in Erivan. The questioning lasted some three hours along the same general lines. The little Republic of Georgia has gone far in advance of conservative thought among the Western nations. They have, according to their statements, a peasant class of about 80 per cent, of the population, the remainder being descendants of the ancient nobility of Georgia. The condition of the peasants was practically serfdom until Alexander II liberated the serfs about the middle of the last century, when their situation became that of a landless tenantry, making, the Georgian cabinet say, ever-losing payments on lands without ever being able to effect a purchase. The Agrarian agitation in Russia has no doubt been felt in Georgia. When the army of Russia went to pieces in the Trans-Caucasus in 1917, seven hundred thousand Bolshevists in their overland flight for home passed within a few miles of Tiflis. Although it is the boast of the Georgian Government that this stream of Bolshevism was not permitted to pass through the city, it appears that it was actually due to the fact that the railroad from the south at that moment was not operating as far as Tiflis, and this stream of wild humanity was diverted at the junction for Baku. Undoubtedly their influence, however, and many of their number, penetrated Tiflis. This is reflected in the Government which has nationalized the land, taking it from the original owners without compensation and giving it to the peasants. This has not been a success, for the peasants realize that an injustice has been done to the owners and that the titles they receive from the Government are not founded on right and are therefore not to be trusted. Generally, there seems to be a tendency toward a reaction which will allow the resumption of ownership by the landed proprietors under some scheme providing for sale to the peasants on a system of progressive payments.
Another evidence of the proximity of Bolshevism was the red flag that flew over the Government palace. The cabinet said it was the flag of revolution, uncompleted until the Peace Conference should recognize their Government, not the red flag of Bolshevism. Their own flag has its principal ground of raspberry red, with a strip of white and a strip of black in one corner. Its significance is explained to be that the red represents the battle ground of the revolution; the black the period of night and oppression under the Czar; and the white, the ancient glories of Georgian independence and civilization. That a Georgian can cheer his own flag and at the same time point to the red one floating over it, shows how much their viewpoint differs from ours. This was brought out in the conference, and we were practically assured that the red flag was flying out of deference to political necessity, as a temporary concession, and would soon come down. They have other advanced ideas relating to compulsory arbitration in labor difficulties, very short hours for labor, etc. I asked the assembled cabinet how many of them had lost land under the nationalization? Only one had suffered such loss, and he had been the owner of something like four hundred acres—not a land baron by any means.
The Georgian army was practically on a war footing, stationed on the northern border, for the fear of Denikin coming south of the Caucasus Mountains was the spectre that haunted them by day and by night. There was much talk of the revenues for fine construction in Tiflis having been wrung from the Georgian citizens and of the great work done by her people. One man went so far as to say that Georgia was entitled not only to reimbursement for all revenues drawn from her during the one hundred and seventeen years of the Russian occupation but to interest on the money. As a matter of fact the expenditures of Russia in Georgia for many years have exceeded the receipts from that country. Intelligent Georgians realize that a reconstituted Russia would almost certainly demand and receive Trans-Caucasia for her necessities. Russia and the great oil fields are mutually necessary. Such men put the case this way, that their return to Russia should be a matter of negotiation and not of conquest, and that they should be guaranteed autonomy.
A LUXURIOUS RIDE IN AZARBAIJAN [Azerbaijan]
WE HAD arranged for a night run by rail to Baku in order to have a day at the latter capital, after which we would return to Tiflis and with a day there completing our business, another night run would take us to Batum, where we would meet the Martha Washington.
Our railway car was one that had formerly been used by the Czar and his Viceroy in TransCaucasia, and was, of course, the most luxurious in which any of our mission had ever traveled. It was very comfortable. A sitting room, with cushions and upholstered chairs, and a table converted on occasion into a dining table, had plate glass windows on both sides and the end, being a practical observation car. In my own room, besides the bed, there was a washstand, a well-appointed desk, and a good arrangement of electric lights. The car also had a fine bathroom, with a porcelain lined tub, and hot and cold water. The diplomatic representative of Azarbaijan at Tiflis and General Manager Gambichizi did us the honor to accompany us for the round trip. They were so solicitous for our comfort that we had little time to ourselves. Morning found us approaching the great oil fields of the Caspian Sea at Baku, a modern Russian city of half a million. We ran across the great steppes of Azarbaijan and reached our destination about 11:00 o'clock. On arrival at Baku, there was a great fanfare of trumpets and Tartar music, and a Guard of Honor was in line in the station. The platform and stairway from the train to the street were carpeted and a delegation representing the Azarbaijan cabinet met us with automobiles. We were driven to the residence of Mr. Tagiev, a wealthy Tartar oil magnate.
At the house where we were guests, we were met by the Prime Minister, Mr. Usupbekov, a very plain, common-sense man of Tartar blood, with whom I had a very interesting conference of several hours, covering the scheme of their government; its resources, aspirations, and troubles. They are principally occupied with the struggle against Bolshevism in Baku, the labor question, and the oil industry. A peculiarity of their constitution which hinders good government in Azarbaijan lies in the fact that a cabinet can only be formed by an agreement among political parties, the number of portfolios allotted to each party being fixed, and the appointment to the portfolios being dependent on the approval of the parties to which the nominees respectively belong. There are nine political parties, the important ones being the Mussavat, the Ekhbar, and the Ittehat. The former is the extreme left of the nationalist parties, and may be described as a party of moneyed nationalists, who are naturally conservative in their tendencies. It is the strongest party in Parliament, but not always strong enough to have a majority over combinations of the other parties. It is aggressive and its agitators, like those of the Dasknaksoutun in Armenia, have done much to develop the mutual hatred of Armenia and Azarbaijan. The Ekhbar is a new party, primarily of religious origin, all its members being orthodox Sunnite Moslems. In politics, however, it subordinates religious to local interests, its members supporting those of the districts they represent. The Ittehat is a frankly PanIslamic party, a direct product of Turkish influence. It is nationalist and has within its ranks a variety of political adventurers. There is also a non-partisan group of honest patriots unwilling to take part in the corrupt politics of the regular parties.
The Tartars are Moslems, about three fourths of them being Shites like the Persians, the remainder Orthodox Sunnites. The Sunnite minority includes the great land owners which accounts for the fact that the Tartars are proTurk rather than pro-Persian. The majority live by cattle raising, and are industrious, persevering, and trustworthy. There is practically no educated class among them and they are without political experience and ability. The Azarbaijanese are the least qualified of the three Trans-Caucasian republics to govern themselves independently. They are imbued with pro-Turk and pan-Islam ideas and have exaggerated conceptions of their own political importance and possible leadership. While tolerant of foreigners in the past, they, like all Moslems, dislike and have become distrustful of them. This unfriendly feeling is increased by commercial questions connected with the oil industry. It was considered wise in my interview with the Prime Minister to assure him that my mission in no way represented the great oil interests of the United States. Bolshevist influence is very strong in Azarbaijan, particularly in the oil region at Baku. From the standpoint of its products, however, this country is more self-sustaining and with its oil revenues more capable of going alone, than any other of the Trans-Caucasian governmental infants.
HOSPITALITY AT TIFLIS
IN THE afternoon we drove through the city, and down to the part devoted to oil wells, out into the inkiness which they call the "Black City" from its ever rising smoke. The day of our visit coincided with one of the sacred days of the Moslem faith. At a mosque, which we visited, preparations were being made for a great parade of veiled women, some hundreds of whom were already assembled in the compound around the mosque. Although veiled there was more than one who appeared to be willing to allow the foreign infidels a view of her pretty eyes and fair face. Among these near Oriental peoples, the high colored silks figure very largely in costumes. The eye seldom fails to rest on bright colors. Greens, yellows, and purples seemed to predominate in Baku, our farthest point east.
We left Tiflis on the evening of October sixth for Batum on the Black Sea, accompanied by our friend Gambichizi of Georgia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Azarbaijan. Our farewell at the Tiflis station was again a matter of many gay uniforms, much music and a guard of honor, our train moving out to the dying strains of the Star Spangled Banner, with everyone standing stiffly to attention in honor of our National Anthem. The lighthearted, plausible and pleasure-loving Georgians are very attractive and our mission said good-by to them with many regrets and good wishes.
In both the journey to Baku and the one to Batum, the Georgian Government was so apprehensive of trouble to our train that pilot engines were run just ahead of us. Railway wrecks as a preliminary to robbery are as common on the railroads of Georgia as are hold-ups on the highways, that is to say, very frequent. Both of our journeys, however, were without event.
Batum is the port of the Black Sea, built by Russia, through which the oil from the Caspian Sea fields finds its way to the Western world. A pipe line runs from Baku to Batum. As a matter of interest, oil brought from America was for sale there cheaper than that pumped across the short distance from the Caspian Sea. Batum was in actual possession by the British with a brigade of troops and a military governor. At the period of our visit, it was coveted by the Turks, the Georgians, and Denikin's Army. It appeared likely that the withdrawal of the British troops, which some expected at that time, would be the signal for a rush of all three of those interested parties for possession of this important well-equipped port. The Georgians claim it because its people are of their blood, and it is geographically a part of their country. Denikin wanted it because it is necessary to Russia; the Turks because they once held it and the majority of its people though of Georgian origin are Moslems. It is a city of forty or fifty thousand, built on what was once a marsh; has a beautiful botanical garden, a fine bathing beach and lovely climate.
When our journey ended at the sea, we had seen something of each of the three republics of Trans-Caucasia. While a portion of our mission had been making the long journey down the Anatolia Railway, and up through Turkish Armenia to Trans-Caucasia, the remainder had traveled by sea to Batum and entered the country from there. From the ethnographical point of view, this region lying between the Turkish and Persian frontiers on the south and the main range of the Caucasus Mountains on the north, with four hundred «niles of frontage each on the Black and Caspian seas, presents one of the strangest and most complicated problems in the world. It has been at once a highway and a natural buffer between Europe and Asia, and it still shelters remnants of the innumerable races which for ages followed the tides of emigration along its mountain ranges. In this area to-day there are five great racial [ethnic] groups with forty distinct races, twenty-five of which are purely Caucasian.
The eastern boundary of the Turkish Empire marks a separation neither of race nor of creed. The Armenian Republic of brief history lies on Russian, not on Turkish soil; it is but one of the three political groups, republics, into which the Trans-Caucasian people have aligned themselves since the Russian Revolution, each of which has been contending for recognition of its independence, each of which is desperately in need of some special assistance which will guarantee its political existence, and each of which has its Armenian problem. The territorial claims of these infant republics left a number of areas on their borders still in dispute at the time of our visit, with "neutral zones" and several semi-independent districts "under local control." Georgia and Azarbaijan were in alliance, which Armenia had declined to join. Georgia and Armenia were negotiating for settlement of their difficulties, Armenia and Azarbaijan were in desultory conflict.
The outstanding feature of the political situation in Trans-Caucasia was the intensity of racial [ethnic] hatreds, threatening violence and creating separatist tendencies, certain, if unchecked, to induce economic ruin and to leave various parts of the region in medieval isolation and anarchy. The racial [ethnic] antipathies are increased by the religious fanaticism of both Moslems and Christians which manifests itself in massacres and causes Moslems of pure Georgian blood to side with Turkey against their Christian kinsmen. Russia encouraged these tendencies in order to divide and rule, and since the collapse of the Empire, they have been inflamed by local politicians for their own ends, and have been aggravated by conflicting interests and territorial disputes.
Georgians hate Armenians, due to the economic position held by the latter in Georgia. The Tartars of Azarbaijan and the Kurds in and out of the Republic of Armenia are hereditary enemies of the Armenians wherever found, whom they massacre, and who retaliate in kind when possible. Besides these most conspicuous antagonisms, there exist countless minor feuds between the different tribes, of so many races, whose nationalistic separatist aspirations have been intensified since the promulgation of the principle of self-determination.
Notwithstanding some corruption in administration and much harshness in suppression of nationalistic aspirations, Russia gave TransCaucasia security and order; developed it, and endowed it with a civilization to which its numerous races left to themselves could not soon have attained. Most that is of value to-day in Trans-Caucasia is of Russian creation.
The three republics are existing on salvage of the wreck of the Russian Empire whose language is the only tongue that can be understood in all parts of Trans-Caucasia.
In each of the three republics there exist the forms and frameworks of responsible governments. All in varying degrees have shown themselves inefficient and corrupt. Elected under abnormal conditions, the members of the various parliaments and governments have little real authority and appear incapable of real constructive legislation. The activities of the various political parties are all in varying degrees selfish and harmful. Throughout the three republics the upper and middle class appear discontented with the results of the revolution and with the governments, who by their acts satisfy no one, and who maintain themselves by political expedients and opportunism. The working urban class, which exists in only a few larger cities, is evidently dissatisfied with the governments, despite their constant catering to it in the shape of defective and ruinous reforms. It is not doubted that the peasants are also opposed to the governments and lack confidence in them.
There exists no customs or postal union between the little republics. A letter for foreign delivery has to be carried to the coast by messenger. The currency of each is depreciated to worthlessness and the further inflation of it seems limited only by the capacity of the printing presses, and the short hours which Trans-Caucasian reform ideas require of the printers. The operation of the railroad is a joke for efficiency. Roads, rolling stock, and railroads are alike deteriorating. Governments tolerate or fail to suppress violence and brigandage, probably because of political fear of the powerful elements of disorder. In general it may be said that all parts of TransCaucasia are disorganized and need above all other things, not excluding their independence, the reestablishment of order, security of person and property, and an opportunity to resume all the normal activities of life.
While there are, no doubt, many thousands of individuals in Trans-Caucasia who do not know of the existence of the United States, the intelligent educated people profess themselves desirous of American recognition and American protection. Few of them understand the character of the measures that would be necessary in the field of administration were the United States to accept a mandate for them.
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