ere was a
consolidation of the debt. It was reduced to one hundred and six
million pounds, but the finances of Turkey were placed under the
control of a committee representing the creditors, to whom was
transferred certain domestic Turkish monopolies and the collection of
several categories of taxes. This enabled the European powers to
intervene in the affairs of Turkey. Only by the removal of this
foreign tutelage could Turkey hope to regain its independence. It was
to achieve this end, Herzl thought, that the Jews, and the Jews alone,
could be useful. For this service, he intended to ask for a Jewish
State in Palestine. Herzl followed this line until finally the need
for refunding the Turkish debt disappeared.

But at this time Herzl was not able to obtain an audience with the
Sultan. Nevlinski reported that such an audience had been refused
because the Sultan declined to discuss sovereignty over Palestine.
Doubt was expressed as to the accuracy of the report. Whatever the
fact may be, the first venture of Herzl in Constantinople was not
successful.

Herzl moved along the lines that led to Constantinople and Berlin, but
he did not overlook the importance of maintaining contact with Jewish
philanthropies. A letter sent to the Baron de Hirsch came a day after
his death.

Herzl went to London where matters had been arranged for him to meet
the leaders of British Jewry. He met Claude Montefiore and Frederick
Mocatte, representatives of the Anglo-Jewish Association. They were
not sympathetic. Herzl fared no better at a banquet given to him by
the Maccabbeans. The personal impression Herzl made was profound. But
there was no practical issue nor did he make any progress during the
time he spent in England. He got Sir Samuel Montagu and Colonel
Goldsmith to agree to cooperate with him in an endeavor to establish a
vassal Jewish State under the sovereignty of Turkey if the Powers
would agree; provided, the Baron de Hirsch Fund placed L10,000,000 at
his disposal for the plan; and Baron Edmund de Rothschild became a
member of the Executive Committee of the proposed Society of Jews.
These conditions were fantastic at that time and Herzl could not meet
them.

He went to Paris and had a talk with Baron Edmund. Baron Edmund was
older than Herzl and felt ill at ease in the presence of a calm critic
of all he had done for Jewish colonization in Palestine. Herzl made
the impression on him of an undisciplined enthusiast. Baron Edm