"الملف 73/7 I (D 19) وضع الكويت، سكة حديد بغداد، والمفاوضات الأنجلو تركية في ١٩١١" [و‎‎٣‎٤] (٦٣١/٨٥)

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ASIATIC TURKEY AND ARABIA.
[30th January.]
Section 4.
CONFIDENTIAL
biKj
I have the honour to enclose translation of an article in the Tanin by
Ismail Hakki I>ey, commenting on two recent articles in the Times concerning
the Persian Gulf.
He takes the Times to task, and perhaps with some reason, for dis
cussing matters concerning railways in Turkey without mentioning the Ottoman
Government.
As regards England's " interference " in Mesopotamia, he would ask His
Majesty's Government to declare that" England harbours no hostile thoughts
with regard to Irak (Lower Mesopotamia), Bussorah, or any other place proved
to be actually, morally, and historically part of Ottoman territory to-day, and
that she has no designs of direct or indirect encroachment,"
Ismail Hakki, while thus begging the question, calls this method one o f
'■ very simple logic. 5 ' It is a common trait in Turkish character to charge one's
opponent with some misdeed which is the creature solely one's own imagination,
and call on the adversary to disclaim it. The Tanin was lately most
anxious to have a denial from the Eussian Embassy of a statement that the
Eussian Minister of the Interior had ordered the Czar's portrait to be hung in
all mosques in Eussia. Ismail Hakki would similarly like us to deny that we
have any intention of seizing Bussorah«
His history is somewhat at fault when he imagines that England's appear
ance in the Gulf dates from the suppression of the Indian mutiny, while the
impossibility of negotiating with such a claimant is shown by his statement
that " if there is any country that has a historical, moral, and real right to the
Gulf it is Turkey." As set forth in my despatch No. 603 of the 29th August
1910, he would base a Turkish claim to Bahrein, Katr, the Trucial Coast,
Muscat, and probably Gwadur, on the fact that an Ottoman Admiral sailed up
the Persian Gulf in the first half of the sixteenth century.
It would indeed be difficult to arrive at a comprehensive settlement of
outstanding difficulties with a Young Turkey " statesman," who professes to
believe, and proclaims that " all the tribes (in Mesopotamia) are armed with
hundreds of thousands of rifles coming from English factories," while one
cannot help wondering what methods the Young Turk Committee, which
during the last twenty months has been unable to rule Constantinople without
martial law 3 would apply to the Sheikh of Koweit, and others whose allegiance
they claim in those parts.
I have also the honour to enclose translation of an article in to-day's
Tanin, from the pen of Hussein Djahid Bey, on " Turkey and England,"
commenting on the third leader in the Times. It is written on the whole in
a moderate strain. When he talks of Germany winning a position of friend
ship in Turkey by coming to the help of the latter, " when none of her friends,
not even England, stretched out a hand," he is obviously referring to the
recent loan negotiations. In this connection, a devoted adherent of the
committee recently expressed his opinion, confidentially, that France and
England had rendered Turkey an inestimable service in the matter of the loan
by checking reckless military expenditure. Hussein Djahid's reference to
martial law in Young Turkey and the "stern measures" to which she has
recourse shows that he fails to understand that Young Turkey is still in an
3029 F. D.