he would not dip his hands in blood, but preferred to take r
his departure.
At the same time, June 1905, General Ali Khanoff, the hero of Kushk, who played such a prominent part in Russia's war in Central Asia, was sent from Erivan to Nakichevan to pacify his fellow-countrymen, the Tatars. During the month he remained on the spot, as a visitor in Ragim Khan's house, he made an inquiry into all that had taken place. Enckel had in several villages resorted to flagellation as a punishment for the Tatars, and let his Cossacks thrash the rioters with their whips, a treatment that proved infallible and acted like oil on the waves. But Ali Khanoff, himself a Tatar, was indignant that an unbeliever should dare to lash the followers of the Prophet, and sent a telegram a yard long to the Governor-General in Tiflis, an impeachment of Enckel. The latter, warned by the telegraph clerk, sent a still longer telegram to Prince Napoleon, who pleaded his cause before the Governor-General. Enckel was upheld and Ali Khanoff was recalled from his abortive mission.
Latterly the Armenians had quite turned round, and now took part with magnanimous Russia, so they said. This change of front was due to political movements, into which I gained some insight in Batum, and I learned that the Georgians threatened to revolt against Russia and aimed at acquiring dominion over Caucasia. The Armenians feared that the Georgians and Tatars might attain to power, which for them, as they are a minority, would mean that they would be more tyrannized over than under Russian supremacy. To ward off such a state of affairs they thought it better to range themselves on the side of Russia. To Russia it is a great source of strength that the native inhabitants live like cat and dog, and are occupied with their mutual rivalry—thereby alone is the ruling race able to keep them in check and in impotence. It is the same in India, where the adherents of the various religions and the maharajas hate one another much more implacably than they do the English. If the Georgians, Tatars, Armenians, and all the other peoples had clung together we should have witnessed much more serious
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