Ordered To Shoot Foreigners On Sight.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 25, 1912:
Turks Within the Tchatalja Lines Fire on an English Correspondent.
THEN ACCEPT SMALL BRIBE
If Any Correspondents Disappear, Wires Ashmead Bartlett, There Will Be No Doubt of Their Fate.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Monday, Nov. 25.— A Constantinople dispatch to The Telegraph from Ellis Ashmead Bartlett describes the persecutions to which correspondents are subjected whether they possess permits or not. He says:
    "All last week I was harassed and driven from point to point like a hunted motor bandit. I went to the front and chose a quiet spot, but I was immediately traced by a crowd of other correspondents, Germans and English, who dog my steps and whose presence in large numbers at once attracts the attention of the authorities. The result is natural. We are ordered to leave this particular village and return to Constantinople.
    "I managed to give the gendarmes and the Germans the slip and see the fighting on Nov. 17 and 18, but then I was again arrested by the gendarmes, and had to pay considerable sums of money to be allowed to remain on the battlefield. On Tuesday I was taken under escort to Kuk Chekmeje and ordered immediately to return to Constantinople. It was no use showing my passes from the Minister of War, as the gendarmes take no notice of passes and entirely fail to discriminate between those who have permits and those who have not. They always declare that they have verbal instructions to prevent all strangers from approaching the lines."
    By bluffing the gendarmes Ashmead Bartlett, accompanied by his interpreter, Bryant, was able to reach the right wing of the Turkish Army, remaining in concealment until the fighting started on Thursday. He then rode out, reached a high hill, giving a magnificent view of the whole theatre of operations, and dismounted for lunch.
    "We were hardly seated a moment when there was a report and a rifle bullet entered the ground with a thud at our feet. We did not think much of this occurrence, and attributed it to a soldier having let off his rifle by mistake. A minute later three other bullets, fired at very close range, struck the ground close to us. followed by two others which whistled by our heads.
    We then decided to change our positions. Mounting rapidly, we rode toward two soldiers who were minding some sheep. They handled their rifles in a somewhat significant manner as we approached, but I handed them cigarettes and they became more friendly. Bryant explained how we had been shot at and asked them how it came about.
    This is what they replied: " 'We saw the soldiers who shot at you. They form part of a line of pickets which has been placed all along the lines, with orders to shoot any foreigners at sight.'
    "We could hardly believe this statement, and then the soldiers added, 'We, too, received our orders to shoot at you.' "Bryant asked them what they intended doing, and a discussion followed, which ended in their compromising for 5 shillings. They then said: 'One of us must accompany you back, otherwise you will be shot as you go down the valley.' A soldier then led us back to the camps in the valley beneath, begging us to say nothing to the officers of their having accepted the 5 shillings. We were conducted to the General in command of this part of the line, who asked to see my pass. When he found it was in order he became extremely agreeable. We told him how we had been shot at. He said: 'Yes, it is quite true. The line of pickets has been established with orders to shoot foreigners on sight.'
    "This is a pleasant system which authorizes any common soldier to shoot at you without even inquiring whether you have a permit or not. If any correspondents mysteriously disappear there need be no uncertainty as to their fate, because the authorities can always say they were killed in action."