"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٥‎٢] (٥٦٦/١٠٩)

76
OPERATIONS IN PERSIA
German there was also dissension among the Germans themselves over
& ^activities the proposal to organise the expedition on a military basis,
of their owing to the loss of individual liberty which this would involve,
emissaries; Moreover, Wassmuss, who appears to have been rather arbitrary,
19 * 14 - uncultured and eccentric* was an unpopular leader ; and the
June, 1915. superior attitude which he and Zugmayer adopted as experts
on oriental conditions did not improve matters. Eventually
some of the objecting members were dismissed for misbehaviour
and others were allowed to join the column fitting out for an
attack on the Suez Canal.
At this stage, learning of the British intention to attack
Basra, Niedermayer, who knew the locality, proposed to use
the Turkish gunboat and the German steamship Ekbatana to
form a block in the river below Abadan and to set on fire the oil
tanks and refinery at that place. The Turkish authorities agreed,
and Niedermayer was setting out for Basra to supervise the
arrangements when orders came from Berlin not to destroy
Abadan but to retain it for Turco-German use. Niedermayer
was to await the arrival of a mission with special equipment
that was being sent for the purpose. But Niedermayer declined
to have anything to do with the new proposal, which he implies
was responsible for preserving Abadan for the British.
On the 5th December, the second consignment of stores and
equipment having arrived, Niedermayer, his doctor brother,
Consten and Griesinger, with twenty-seven men left Constan
tinople, reaching Aleppo eight days later. From Aleppo they
were to go to Mosul to join the expedition which Halil Bey was
organising for an advance into Persia. Niedermayer also says
that they learnt then for the first time that the Turks some weeks
before had sent a small diplomatic missionf to Afghanistan under
Obeidulla Effendi. The suspicion thus aroused that the Turks
were not keeping faith with them was not lessened by the passive
obstruction they and several of the other members encountered
in their journeys to Aleppo and beyond. About this time the
mission under Klein destined to defend Abadan reached Aleppo,
but, as the British had already secured Abadan, Klein proposed
to proceed to Karbala and induce the Shiah mujtahids there to
start anti-Ally propaganda in Persia.
In the meantime, Wassmuss, who had failed to persuade the
Turks to agree to his own plan to move through South-West
and South Persia, had decided to go there himself and work
* He was believed by several of his companions to have turned Moslem.
f This never reached its destination.
HSHWBWBHWH