‘Germany, Turkey, England and Arabia. [extracts from ‘The Fight for Arabia between Turkey and England’ by Dr Franz Stuhlmann]’ [‎1v] (2/12)

llamburgische Forsclmngen. Wirtschaftllcbe und politische Stndien
aus hanseatisclieiru Interessengebiet. Herausgegeben von K. Rath gen u.
F. Stuhlmann. Erstes Heft:—Der Karnpf ton Arabien zwischen der Tiirkei
nnd England, von Franz Stnlilmann. (Verlag von George Westermann-
Hainburg, Brannscliweig, Berlin.) No date.
E xtract from E ditors' P reface (dated March lOK)).
" Great are the political and economic problems with which this monstrous
present faces the German people. To contribute to their investigation is the
serious duty of Hamburg. Here everyone feels that the question so often
asked : ' Continental policy or overseas policy ? ' is wrongly framed. What
form the distribution of power, what form economic life across the seas, will
take, are fundamental questions for the development of the German people,
and vitally affect Hamburg and her sister cities on the sea. More than ever
the present shows how the future of our economic activity abroad depends
upon the political distribution of power. What direction will the extension
of the political power and of the economic influence of the great States take
across the sea? What are their methods and their objects? The first
volumes of our collection will describe this for Arabia and Persia.
" And further, what are the tendencies of development of the great trade
of the world in the present day? In what directions will it go? What will
be its position in a period in which there seem to be no iixed points ? What
will the great markets of raw material be like ? How will import and export
trade be organised in a period of increasing syndicates and rings, which,
owing to the necessities of the war and the consequences that are to be
expected from it, are constantly growing and ever transcending the traditional
limits and regulations of commercial and fiscal policy."
E xtract from A uthor's P reface to 1 st V olume (dated March 1916).
u It may seem strangely fantastic to busy oneself in the confusion of the
world war with so remote a country as Arabia, which is rightly called the
most unknown region of the earth. But Arabia is only spatially removed
from the war round which all thoughts centre to-day. I hope in the following
pages to show what great importance this land has for our Allies, the Turks,
and what a gigantic danger lies in it for our chief enemy, England, who is
here almost more vulnerable than in Europe. Lord Curzon says ; ' The
future of Great Britain will be decided, not in Europe, not even upon the
seas and oceans which are swept by her flag, or in the Greater Britain that
has been called into existence by her offspring, but in the Continent
whence our emigrant stock lirst came, and to which as conquerors their
descendants have returned. Without India the British Empire could not
exist. The possession of India is the inalienable badge of sovereignty in
the Eastern hemisphere.' (Persia 14.)
" For England everything centres round India, and Arabia is the glacis
for the defence of India. Evenj blow to England in Arabia icoidd have an
immediate and perceptible reaction on India. 1
" These are the considerations that have led England to aim at absolute
supremacy in Arabia, and control of the lines of approach from Europe to
the Indian ocean. The Red Sea, and even more the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , are
to-day practically closed English lakes, which can only be traversed with
England's permission. This condition is hard for us and all other nations
to bear. The liberation of the seas from English supremacy is an openlv
avowed object of the war. May these lines show how this is to be
accomplished in Arabia, and how greatly we desire then 1 a strong allied
Turkey."
1 The italics arc the author's throughout.