The Times’ Greatest Scoop

In June 1878 representatives of Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro, gathered in Berlin for a congress to determine the boundaries of the states in the Balkan peninsula following the Russo-Turkish War. The Times sent four journalists to cover the congress: Henri de Blowitz, Paris Correspondent and principal representative, Ferdinand Eber, Vienna and Budapest Correspondent, Carl Abel, Berlin Correspondent, and Donald Mackenzie Wallace who served as de Blowitz’s deputy.

Portrait of Henri de Blowitz by Jean Baptiste Guth, 1889.

In the early weeks journalists struggled to break through the discretion being observed by the representatives. However, at the beginning of July, Blowitz succeeded in getting himself invited to a private dinner with the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. This impressed representatives and improved Blowitz’s standing.

The congress was due to end on Saturday July 13 and Blowitz was keen to obtain as much of the text of the treaty as he could in advance so that it could be published in The Times on the 13th rather than the following week. If successful, his next challenge was to get the text back to London. He could not telegraph it from Berlin as his exclusive would be compromised and it was too far to travel back to Paris, so he made arrangements for telegraphing from Brussels. Blowitz called on Baron Nothomb, the Belgian Minister in Berlin, explained that The Times was considering organising a service between Brussels and London and asked him to provide Blowitz with a letter of authority to allow him to send a lengthy test transmission to prove the quality of the service.

By the morning of the 12th he had obtained all the text of the treaty except for two articles, not yet adopted, and the preamble, not yet written. Blowitz needed a pretext for leaving so he formally asked through the German delegation for Bismarck to provide him with a copy of the text. This was refused and Blowitz left Berlin with a visible show of pique.

This cedar wood fan was presented to Blowitz at the time of the negotiations and signed by several of the participants at the congress. The signatories are: the Marquis of Salisbury, Prince Gortschakoff (Russia), Count Corti (Italy), Lord Beasonsfield, Lord Odo Russell, Prince Hohenlohe (Germany), Henri Waddington (France), Comte de St Vallier (France), Monsieur Desprez (France), Otto von Bismarck (Germany), Count Launay (Italy), Count Schouvaloff (Russia), Count Andrassy (Austria), Baron Haymerle (Austria), Count Karolyi (Italy), Karatheodory Pasha (Turkey), Sadullah Bey (Turkey), Mehemet Ali Pasha (Turkey), Herr von Bulow (Germany), Baron d’Oubril (Russia). Blowitz has inscribed it in French “a Mme Walter. Souvenir du Congres de Berlin [?] 12 Juillet 1878 Blowitz”. Madame Walter is Flora, the second wife of John Walter III, proprietor of *The Times*, 1947–1894.

On his way to the station he called upon St Vallier, the French Ambassador in Berlin, who read him the missing text. Blowitz memorised it and left for the station where he met Mackenzie Wallace. Once aboard the train Blowitz dictated what St Vallier had told him and the text was sown into the lining of Wallace’s coat for security. Wallace left the Paris train at Cologne and took one for Brussels carrying the treaty and Nothomb’s letter. He arrived at 5am on Saturday 13th and headed straight for the telegraph office. The text was successfully transmitted to London and staff at The Times set to work on a special Saturday morning edition. At midday most of the text of the treaty was published in London, across seven columns in its original French and with an English translation, as it was being formally signed in Berlin.

The tops of the first two columns of the text of the treaty taken from its republication in The Times on Monday, July 15, 1878.

Start of the leading article in The Times on the treaty.

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