File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎166r] (340/834)

— 165 —
ARAB COMMITTEES BEFORE THE WAR.
The following notes have been contributed on this subject:—
The Committee of Arab Brotherhood.
The despotism of the Committee of Union and Progress and
its disparagement of the Arabs in its press and clubs at Salonika
and other places at the beginning of the Revolution produced
in the minds of many enlightened Arabs a desire to establish a
Committee to protect the rights of their nationality. This
project was strengthened by the refusal of the Unionists to accept
Yusuf Bey Shetwan as member for Benghazi, and Shafiq Bey
Moayyad as member for Damascus, in the first session of the
Ottoman Parliament. The Arabs, accordingly, resolved to form
the Committee known as “The Arab Brotherhood,” and appointed
a Central Organization in Constantinople and branches throughout
Arabia.
It was at the end of August, 1908, that pourparlers began
between the founders to establish this society ; in September
they completed its programme, a printed copy of which came
to Syria in the beginning of November. Its members included
Shukri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. el-Ayyubi, the late Shafiq Bey Moayyid and Arif
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. Mardinli.
It onlv lasted until April, 1909, when the Groveinment
suppressed the Committees which had been founded by non-
Turkish elements.
Its programme was to guard the rights of the Arabs w ithin
the Turkish community.
The Kahtaniah Committee.
Some of the Arab officers who were in Constantinople at the
first announcement of the Constitution kneuq from the state
ments of Turkish Unionists and from the official l> a peis w hic
thev read in the head office of the Committee of Union an
Progress in Salonika, that Javi.l Bey, Drs. Nazim and Nm and
many of their Unionist friends had placed £400 000, collected by
subscription, with several Jews at Salonika. Lins was done with
the obiect of working for a Unionist Turkish administration to
which 111 the nationalities of the Empire should be subjected by
fc " <e '[-’ 0 r this reason the officers in question agreed with their
fellow-countrymen whose patriotism was beyond suspicion to
form a Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. which they called The kahtania .
This was formed in 1909 with branches m all Arabia. The most
influential member of the Committee was Sekm el-Gezain,
Lieut.-Colonel on the Staff. . . , i ij
The principles of the Committee were that the Arabs shou d
depend on their own efforts and instruction; that they should
have the same rights as the Turks m the Ottoman Empire , that
the injustice from which the Arabs were suffering only existed