'THE WAR WITH TURKEY. Memorandum by Political Department, India Office.' [‎51v] (2/8)

be able, ii is argued, whenever the diplomatic sitnatioji required to • 1
the necessary pressure to the " vital nerve " of the British Empire •' vd •
war her interior position would enable her to force her tn n errant ' e • ln
apart ^ er| tniies
u England's rule in the remoter parts of the world," writes Professor K
Delbriick, the eminent historian, " is mainly based ou victories won in
generations and the prestige which has grown out, of them. Through
failure in this war—in particular through the i-evcrses at the Dardaiif'/b"
and in Mesopotamia—and scarcely less through the advance of the all"^
Russian forces in Persia, England's prestige is shaken everywhere in A
and Africa. The ganglion of the Empire is Egypt with the Suez CanaT
If, as we may hope, rurkey emerges from this world-crisis a consolidated
State with a future before it; if this State provides itself .-with railways
connecting the remote provinces and making possible the rapid concentration
of all its military resources in Palestine and the Sinai peninsula; Encrl-n,,!^ 1
rule over Egypt, which she has hitherto been able to maintain with
6,000 European troops, will no longer be an impregnable fortress in the
eyes of iho fellaheen Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. and of the whole Moslem world. If the Suez Car d is
once lost, all the bonds that bind together the constituent parts of the
Empire will be loosed." (Preussische Jahrhiichcr, May ID 10, page .'583 )
4. Xot less serious would be the threat to India from Mesopotamia The
much criticised operations in that region, however defective they mav have
been in execution in their later stages, were sound in design. The event
has proved—and may prove yet more forcibly, if the importance of that
theatre is under-rated-that the occupation of the whole vilavet of Basra was
essential to prevent the spread of hostilities through Persia to Afghaniatan
and the Indian frontier; and it has yet to be shown that the vilayet of Hasra
is tena de, and that the purpose of its occupation can be secured without the
occupation of Bagdad also At the beginning of the present war Mesopo-
tamia was at our mercy. ) et even so we have had to "lock up" live or
- six divisions there, and still rely on Kussian help to save the situation in
rnn^nflv ff 6 f tS % m ? asi,r ? of lhe danger by which we should he
(onstanth threatened n lurkey, in alliance with Germany or accessible
L iT^rh r 6 ' We ii eft - ^ t0 C011S0 ^ ate her militarv position at
nagdad. 1 he next war will begin at the door of India. "
^l^ 1 ^ two considerations lead naturally to a fifth. Behind the
comn'ion Inna v I ) ( ' 1 8' 1 | )()lll "ioo(l ol Egypt and in Mesopotamia is the
dcrlarpd h 1 0 ! ;V llsI T 1S o ni - 11 Wa * not for "othing that Wilhelm 11. /
of 'Purkevfor 1, i lt { ie i'T"\ m ^^ on Moslems who own the Sultan
Of tho Mn«?lpn ( n i< 1 ^ ) ' 1 ^\ 011 1 va . vs a friend in the German Emperor,
and this fa-f 1 1,< ^' i <ltln ' 1 0 | ^'orldsome 100 millions are British subjects,
siLnihcanor.n!l eCeS v anl J inVe ^ the Turco-German alliance with a new
which it (••u'l ocrn" 110 Slir i viva ^ ^e Ottoman Empire, in any shape in
well known tliit tho a Ter . man t00 ^ a peculiar menace to us. It is
Greek war eontnhnt !']' ai ' N 1 )1P8! Islam, as demonstrated in the Turco-
in 1897 • Imi it w!" e( f 110 ri ! <0 t ! le rising on the Indian frontier
on the discovery tlv t" - i 0 ''^orientation of British policy consequent
that it becr'in 7n 1? i' 1 ' , Jeen our money on the wrong horse "
had captured Md b ( naise ^ ^hat extent the pan-Islamic propaganda
Balkan wars m TlU,ia - Duri ^ th « ^urco-Italian and last
influence the policv of iVi^*\h!eTt\ S ' by the Iri(lian Moslen ! s to
little has been publidv heard rf , . 0Vern ] nient m favour of Turke 3'.
condition of Tndii - h f+i during the present war of the internal
has been ^reat and I mq ' K Strail 1 1 the lo^-alty of the Moslem population
the faikrf of Grea! IWta"^ length of war and
The cry of lehad fiilcl !• • i V Ule an ^ In, hfary success against the lurk.
been insufficiently prepafed" BuT'e ^ ^ f emat, ' re - The ^ l0U,ld ha( J
hostilities by Turkey D hL u . m . i - ^ before the commencement of
in Persia and Afghanistan '"V'f ""tiated for inobiiising Islamic feeling
would find a mini rV , • 'eimauy had been led to believe that she
among the Hindu anarchists " ^ :u " 0;1 g Indian Moslems, but also
uu anaunists. I his belief was to u certain extent justified.