40 Ë The Russo-Japanese War
ended, the government had decided to send an additional ninety thousdand soldiers
with artillery units to the Caucasus.⁷⁸Ten days later Sakhokia wrote again, urging
Dekanozishvili to suspend the operation temporarily, because it would be impossible
to receive and distribute weapons from abroad: “An enormous number of troops are
advancing from all directions.... They have no mercy. If they suspect that you are
hiding something, they’ll take it, if you resist, they’ll kill you. They have orders to
spare no one.”⁷⁹Meanwhile, the loading of the cargo of weapons and ammunition
had been completed by 21 September.⁸⁰
Dekanozishvili despaired of success in the Caucasus and, apparently, was about
to commit suicide when Kereselidze visited him in Paris to receive his nal approval.
Dekanozishvili declared: “But don’t they realize that I have given my word of honour
to the Japanese? I have taken their money and used it. Our people will rise whether
they get the arms or not. It is too late to turn back. Unless they get the arms they will be
defeated. The whole success of this revolt depends on it. I shall be dishonoured. I shall
have betrayed them. All the blame and disgrace will fall on me. I can see no way out
but suicide.” Dissuading Dekanozishvili from taking such a drastic step, Kereselidze
traveled to Georgia and won their comrades back to carrying out the planned revolt.⁸¹
He also travelled to Istanbul where, with the aid of high-ranking o cials from the
Muslim areas of Georgia, he met with Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who sympathized with
the Caucasians ghting against Russia. The sultan said to him: “It was in Asia that
she [Russia] raised her great empire by the spilling of much oriental blood, and it is in
Asia that she has just received the blow from which she will never recover..... Russia
is the common enemy of your country and mine.” The sultan, through his emissary,
wished Kereselidze good luck in Georgian: “Gum arjoba– may success be with you
and Victory yours.”⁸²The sultan thus allowed theSiriuspassage to the Black Sea, al-
though all available evidence suggests that he did not permit the cargo (weapons and
ammunition) to be discharged on Turkish territory. Therefore, a decision was made for
theSiriusto unload its cargo at a Georgian port.
Finally on 7 October 1905, theSiriusleft Amsterdam and proceeded toward Gibral-
tar.⁸³Meanwhile, the political situation in Russia was turning more favorable for the
revolutionaries. “In spite of repressive measures,” a foreign observer reported later
78 Sakhokia to Dekanozishvili (16 September 1905). Fonds Georges Dekanozichvili, CHAN, boxe 345
AP/1.
79 Fonds Georges Dekanozichvili, CHAN, boxe 345 AP/1 (letter dated 26 September 1906).
80 “Stoom-Journaal van het Stoomschip Sirius, gevoerd door Kapitein W. van Oppen” (the Sirius log
kept by the captain W. van Oppen, entries for 19, 20, 21 September). The log shows that the crew took
extraordinary care to guard the boat throughout. Fonds Georges Dekanozichvili, CHAN, boxe 345 AP/2.
81 Armstrong,Unending Battle, 41.
82 Armstrong,Unending Battle, 36–37.
83 The log by Captain van Oppen suggests that the boat may in fact have left Amsterdam around 7
October. He received 1,000 francs from Dekanozishvili on 6 October 1905 in “Algiers,” possibly a code
name for Amsterdam. See his receipt: Fonds Georges Dekanozichvili, CHAN, 345 AP/1.