Özet:

One of the main ‘reliable’ sources of information for British intelligence in general and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in particular in the province of Adrianople was consular reports. These reports are important because they fed a vast London-centred intelligence network that spread to almost three quarters of the world in the 19th century and influenced British decision-making. In addition, such reports can shed light on the British perspective of the period and provide clues as to how the imperial bureaucracy functioned in the Adrianople province after the transition to the constitutional monarchy, which can be considered one of the most critical periods in Turkish history. Samson, a diplomat with a military background, served as the British Consul in the province of Adrianople between 1906 and 1914. During this period, he wrote reports on the military, political, administrative, demographic and topographical structure of the province of Adrianople and supported missionary activities in the province. This article focuses on the biography of Louis Lort Rhys (L.L.R.) Samson, about whom there is not much information in the local and foreign literature, and the report he wrote about the province while he was the provincial consul of Adrianople. This report, dated 31 March 1909, is in the Cabinet Office Files at the National Archives in London. The report gives a ‘brief account’ of the general situation in the province from the proclamation of the Constitutional Monarchy on 23 July 1908 to March 1909.