Free The Great Fire by Lou Ureneck Page B

for the United States to have a person with broad authority in Constantinople. Bristol was standing by. President Wilson accepted the recommendation of Secretary of State Robert Lansing, who had been helped along in his thinking by Bristol’s superior officer, Admiral William S. Benson, chief of Naval Operations. Benson would be remembered for his inability to conceive of any use the navy could make of aviation.
    Bristol claimed authority over the entire region inside the prewar borders of the Ottoman Empire. His headquarters were in Constantinople, but there were also posts in Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut, Baghdad, Samsun, and Smyrna. His staff consisted of consuls, military and commercial attachés, counselors, secretaries, and translators. He consolidated his authority rapidly and set up an extensive system for collecting intelligence employing his ships’ commanders as well as a staff of intelligence officers. For Bristol no detail seemed too trivial for the files he kept on the missionaries. One of his officers provided him with personality sketches of the missionaries in Mersina, a port in southern Anatolia: “Rev. Mr. Willson: About 40 to 45 years old, of the Reformed Presbyteriandenomination; is very much of a ‘stay at home’ does not go out and mingle the people: this may be on account of his not speaking Turkish. He speaks Arabic. His denomination is one of the strictest. Is a fair conversationalist and is fairly broad-minded. Does not think any great results can be obtained by the missionaries in a short time, but hopes for results after a long time by absorption. . . . His wife is a typical missionary type.”
    A lot of Bristol’s intelligence was questionable. He once reported that a British general was on his way to Turkey with an important Turkish political prisoner—only to have the State Department wire back that the general was in New York. The British considered him naive in dealing with the Turks, and the State Department suggested removing his principal intelligence officer, Robert Steed Dunn. Dunn had a reputation for dealing in barroom gossip, and the intemperate prose in his reports drew a rebuke from Admiral Harry Knapp, vice admiral of the navy.
    Mrs. Bristol had joined her husband in Constantinople in the summer of 1920. He was devoted to her, and she to him. She accompanied him on his sea trips, including one to Smyrna when she had apparently made a remark that was construed as impolitic by Armenian residents. On learning that a Smyrna newspaper had made a reference to it, Bristol wanted George Horton to correct the record. Horton, responding diplomatically to his boss, suggested that it was better not to stir up more attention. There was one other incident, Horton said, that he had struggled about mentioning to the admiral, but felt that he should. He told Bristol of a tea he had attended following Bristol’s stay in Smyrna. “The Armenians present were discussing your party in the most friendly—even enthusiastic way, speaking in English. One young lady remarked that it was a pity that Mrs. Bristol was doing some indiscreet talking.” It seemed that Mrs. Bristol’s opinions about the “races” in the Near East were every bit as strong as her husband’s. Horton offered to interview the lady if Bristol wanted him to, but he advised against it. Bristol agreed that it would not be helpful, but the subsequent correspondence between Horton and Bristol afterward was cool. Sometimes Bristol didn’t respond at all.
    The Bristols ran the American naval and diplomatic apparatus in Constantinople like a mom-and-pop business. Helen Bristol threw herself into creating a busy and useful social life for them in Constantinoplethat included charity and relief work on behalf of Russian refugees. She arranged parties and dances to raise money for the displaced and homeless Russians and was not above twisting the arms of acquaintances with the means to make donations. She spoke to tourists