File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎92v] (182/450)

the last two months, large numbers of Mohammedan prisoners of war had been
enlisted by the Germans and sent against the Tlussians ; that there had been an increase
of propaganda among the prisoners ; and that a supposed Turkish division was believed
to consist chiefly of Moroccan, Algerian, and Sudanese prisoners. D.M.I. suggests
that perhaps the 55th Division is disposed of by this. ^
The German Society Islam Kultar.
An agent reports that this society held a meeting in Berlin on the 10th September
under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of Enver: among those present were the heads of Islam
propaganda m Afghanistan, Persia, and Central Asia, the Moslem attache with the
German Emperor, and delegates of the Committee of Union and Progress, of the
Egyptian nationalists, and of the Senussi. Besolutions were passed for the despatch of
Fedei to assassinate the Mohammedan rulers and notables on the side of the Allies ;
the list of whom included the Sultans of Egypt and Morocco, several Indian princes,
the heads of the Turkish opposition in Egypt, and Sherif Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. .
Enemy Propaganda. $
Mr. Joseph King, M.P., has been fined 1001. with 25 guineas costs, for writing to
Mr. Bafiblovitch giving information forbidden by the Defence of the Bealm Act.
— 1 1 ——
APPENDIX (A).
Extract from Private Letter from His Highness the Aga Khan,
dated October 11, 1916.
******
I FEEL it my duty as a loyal subject of His Majesty and as one who has but one
political ambition namely to serve His Majesty to the best of his ability, to place before
you and on record what I feel is the shortest and safest way to victory in this war. I
am not marking this private so that you may use it in placing it before the highest
powers that be. My qualifications for holding decided opinions on questions of this
nature may well be doubted, but I have studied the war and its course and specially
enemy arms and objects with greater thoroughness than most people, and have also been
well au courant of Turkish (modern Turkish) mentality, and for years before the war,
both in France and Switzerland, made a close study of Turkish and Persians of the class
that rules and leads these unhappy lands and also how stoutly German and Austrian
influence grew on their minds. Well, I have no doubt in my own mind as to what
Germany is fighting for and what she will go on fighting for. Even if she begs
for peacj and offers and gives all we ask of her in France and Belgium,
her diplomatists will try and bring about such a situation as will give her
middle Europe and Near East supremacy. This view is represented by the class
that in Germany expects and has expected Turkey to be her colony. 1 am by no
means alone in holding this view of German ambition. The best Swiss, Norwegian,
and other neutral and pro-Ally observers and writers agree with this. Besides, though
I have no doubt that we can and will beat her in a military sense in the West, yet it
may very well last two years more, and the prospect of the United Kingdom being
crippled in men and money to put Germany out—after all only one rival amongst many
others (Japan and Russia are both potential and possible Germanys)—does not appeal
to me. And besides we must not forget the oldest dictum of human experience in
difficulties—a knot can be untied most easily at its weakest point. These considerations
moved me last year to place before His Majesty’s Ministers, through the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , a
memorandum on Turkey urging a separate peace. Paradoxical as it may appear, the
alternative of a stunning and killing blow at Turkey and peace and protection of
Turkey come to the same thing as far as results are concerned—the elimination of
Turkey in this war and her falling within the Anglo-French sphere of economic develop
ment after the war. (I do not mean Armenia, of course, which in any case is a
natural Bussian province.) .... The Dardanelles expedition failed because we went