File 53/1915 Part IV 'German War: Turkey; Caliphate etc' [‎199v] (395/481)

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Telegram P , dated the 30th November (received 1st December) 1915.
From—The British High Commissioner of Egypt, Cairo,
To—His Excellency the Viceroy (Foreign and Political Department), Delhi.
Please refer to your telegram No. 887.
Pull text of Sheriff’s letter* will haye now been received by you. It is
satisfactory as showing desire for
mutual understanding on reasonable lines.
It affords opportunity also of meeting wishes of Government of India with
regard to Mesopotamia by some change of formula but personally I cannot
think of any formula on that subject more favourable to Indian interests
without raising Arab suspicions than one employed in my former letter.
Criticisms of Government of India and Secretary of State ignore, I think
very grent importance which Arabs attach to Irak and Baghdad for reasons of a
historical, religious and economic kind. To come to any general understand
ing with Arabs without some acknowledgment that Irak is in theory part of
Arabia proper is quite impossible.
M ith regard to nonentity of Sheriff or his pro-Turkish proclivity f I can find
^V- oo no corroboration of this here or in Soudan
or among (?) other Arabs with whom
we are in touch nor in attitude towards him of Ottoman Government. Every
thing would tend to prove that he is of sufficiently commanding importance
by position of personality and descent to be only possible central rallyino* point
for Arab cause and sufficiently anti-Turkish to be in great personal danger at
hands of Turks. 3
Again it must be remembered present Arab movement is based on national
rather than religious grounds and differs widely from pan-Islamism, with which
Arab party disdain sympathy. There are many Shiah Arabs in Irak but
there are also many Christian Arabs in West, but neither faction appears to me
to preclude general agreement on lines suggested. To suit its local conditions
e^ r > portion of Arab Empire will require some different form of administration
and tms alone will I think sufficiently postpone or prevent creation of united
independent Arab State which India seems to apprehend.
Even such an Arab State established and controlled under Entente
auspices will present far less danger than survival of a hostile Ottoman Empire
u herein Arabs would be under Turks, Turks under C. U. P. and latter
under German control, a contingency which cannot be regarded as impossible
if conclusion of war finds Turkey with an unbeaten army in North Mesopotamia
and Syria I think it right to warn His Majesty’s Go/ernment wiTh
Tulk C sTe d° if? b mm 1 emeilt raised in other quarters that Germans and Youn-
luiks a re doubtless endeavouring to employ certain indirect influences. French
ancial interests and Indian Mohammedanism were both brought into nlav
O *
SheriVlXrdtid^atp^ absenCe has caused in submitting proposals as
In now doing so I am faced with great difficulty which besets our treat
fr' 1 ' 0,,r ••-■.Mr.!: m %JI* lta.LJd
t Xot received. * in my telegram^ of November 16th in
this connection.)
p,,i.e-o 1A »b "pi? “ “ l "‘ “ d ■ WU.)—™. though