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Mavi Boncuk |Who truly was James Bryce? An alpine climber of Ararat who penned a British propaganda book together with Toynbee. Louis Raemaekers propaganda cartoons quotes him too.
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James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, OM, GCVO, FRS, PC, FBA (10 May 1838 – 22 January 1922) was a British jurist, historian and politician.

He was educated at the Belfast Academy and then continued his education in the University of Glasgow. He went to Trinity College, Oxford. He went to the bar and practised in London for a few years, but he was soon called back to Oxford as Regius Professor of Civil Law (1870–1893). His reputation as an historian had been made as early as 1864 by his work on the Holy Roman Empire. In 1872 he traveled to Iceland to see the land of the Icelandic sagas as he was a great admirer of Njals saga. In 1876, he climbed above the tree line on Mount Ararat and found a slab of hand hewn timber, four feet long and five inches thick, which he claims was from Noah's Ark. He published a volume on Transcaucasia and Ararat in 1877. From his Caucasian journey he brought back a deep distrust of Ottoman rule in Asia Minor and a distinct sympathy for the Armenian people.

He was an ardent Liberal in politics, and in 1880 he was elected to parliament for the Tower Hamlets constituency of London. On February 1907 Bryce was appointed British Ambassador to the United States of America. He kept this diplomatic office until 1913 and was very efficient in strengthening the Anglo-American friendship.

American cartoon (1888) depicting John Bull (England) as the "octopus of imperialism;" click for larger image

Following the outbreak of the First World War, Lord Bryce was commissioned by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith to give the official Bryce Report on alleged German atrocities in Belgium. The report was published in 1915, and was damning of German behaviour against civilians. Bryce also strongly condemned the Armenian Genocide that took place in the Ottoman Empire mainly in the year 1915. Bryce was the first to speak on that subject in The House of Lords, in July 1915, and later - with the assistance of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee - he produced a documentary record of the massacres, published by the British government in 1916 as THE TREATMENT OF ARMENIANS in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16 known as the Blue Book [1].

[1] LONDON: PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE By SIR JOSEPH CAUSTON AND SONS, LIMITED, 9, EASTCHEAP, E.C.
To be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller. from
WYMAN AND SONS, LIMITED, 29, BREAMS BUILDINGS, FETTER LANE, E.C., and 54, ST. MARY STREET, CARDIFF; or H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE (SCOTTISH BRANCH), 23, FORTH STREET, EDINBURGH ; or E. PONSONBY, LIMITED, 116, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN: or from the Agencies in the British Colonies and Dependencies, the United States of America and other Foreign Countries of T. FISHER UNWIN, LIMITED, LONDON, W.C. 1916. Price Two Shillings