ملف ٧٠٥/١٩١٦ الجزء ١ "انتفاضة عربية - تقارير" [ظ‎‎٢‎٣‎٥] (٤٩٤/١٨)

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European Influence in Arabia.
French Influence.
France has always claimed Syria and Palestine as her zone of influence
and her share in the spoils of the Turkish Empire on its dissolution. She
was indeed admitted to be the protector of the Christians in Turkey, but
this was only a nominal privilege, as, except perhaps in Mount Lebanon,
the Turkish Government never permitted France to interfere. French
protection in practice confined itself to the Sanctuaries and to Catholic
missionaries and clergy.
At one time French influence was so supreme in Turkey that all
Europeans and even Catholic natives were indiscriminately called Franzi
French. But this supremacy has waned since the fall of Napoleon III
and the instauration of the Republic. It received a severe blow at the
time when the French Government legislated for the separation of Church
and State and renounced the Concordat with the Pope. Italy, Germany,
and Spain, who had been trying to undermine French influence, seized
their opportunity and claimed for themselves the right of protecting their
missionaries and priests; while Turkey, for her own purposes, worked
secretly to stimulate the dissension. France then woke up, but while she
was engaged in a diplomatic struggle to recover her vanishing influence in
the Near East, the present war broke out. French authority with the
Turkish Government had suffered a hard blow: but her influence with
the Christian populations is nevertheless still strong, founded as it is on
education. French institutions such as hospitals, schools, and orphanages
under the direction of French missionaries are very numerous and are
given generous assistance by the Government. France obtained most of
the railway concessions in Syria and Palestine. French missionaries and
teachers in Turkey enjoy the same privileges as Government officials and
are exempted from military service. Their principal task is to spread
French influence amongst the populations and to instil a love for France into
the young. To the J esuit university in Beyrout the French Government
extended the same privileges as to Government schools and universities in
France. There is no doubt that propaganda of this kind has had a great
influence, and accounts for the attachment of Syrians and Arab Christians
to France.
British Influence.
British influence has never had any great sway amongst the Arabs.
Although England enjoys great prestige in the Near East, and especially in
Mesopotamia and with certain Arab tribes, and has always been considered
the mightiest nation in the world, she has been looked at by the Arabs
with awe and respect rather than affection and sympathy. English diplo
matic and consular agents, with few exceptions, have kept aloof from the
natives and have made no efforts to secure their sympathy. I must own
that England’s prestige with the Arabs has been appreciably shaken during
the present war for many reasons, chiefly the failure of the Gallipoli
expedition and the fall of Kut. English influence, not being based on
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