ملف ٧٠٥/١٩١٦ الجزء ١ "انتفاضة عربية - تقارير" [ظ‎‎٢‎٣‎٨] (٤٩٤/٢٤)

20
Street he was wailing over the present conditions of Mount Lebanon. He
said to me that if the Allies did not come soon to the rescue there will not
be any one left in Mount Lebanon. The Turks, he said, were systematic
ally starving the population to death by cutting all food-supplies from
reaching the Lebanese.
When Enver Pasha was last in Syria, and noticed the ferment of the
Christians of Lebanon against the Turks and their sympathy for the Allies,
in order to punish them he gave orders that no food-supplies be introduced
into Lebanon. Enver thought that he could exterminate the Christians by
starvation and justify his action by claiming that the distress was due to
the Allies, who put an embargo on food-stuffs being shipped into Turkey.
Mokarzal said that Djevad Pasha, who seemed formerly to be friendly to
the Christians, had become very hostile. He is responsible for several
executions of notable Syrians that took place of late. Mokarzal concerns
himself almost exclusively in the future of Mount Lebanon, for which he
advocates independence, with the guarantee of the Allies and under French
protection. He would not make a statement regarding the future settle
ment of the Arabian Peninsula; he only said that any form of government
would be welcome to the Arabs so long as they are rid of Turkish tyranny.
I must say that this is the opinion of the majority of the Arabs I came
in contact with during my visit to the United States.
Dr. Ayoub Tabet, from Beyrout, is a very influential member of the
Syrian colony in New York. He is an implacable and sworn enemy
of the Young Turks. Owing to his political activities he had to leave
Syria some years ago and seek refuge in America, where he resumed his
battle-cry against Turkey and exposed the misdeeds of her rulers. He is
fearless. He has been sentenced to death in Turkey as a traitor.
Dr. Tabet considers the policy of England and France towards Turkey
in the course of this war as weak and vacillating. He thinks that if the
Allies had landed troops on the Syrian coast, where the population in their
majority are in their favour, a fatal blow could have been dealt to Turkey.
The Irak disaster might have been averted, the Turco-German expedition
against Egypt would have fallen through, and a large contingent of the
troops concentrated in Egypt for the defence of the Suez Canal could have
been used on other fronts. Furthermore, the population of Syria would
have been spared the great distress, starvation, persecutions, and hangings.
“ However,’’ he said, “ I do not pretend to judge the Allies as they must have
had sound strategical reasons that influenced their actions.” Dr. Tabet had
lately received information from a reliable source in Egypt that the
American Consul in Beyrout delivered to the Turkish authorities there
the archives of the French Consulate that had been left in his charge.
The information was published a few days later in American newspapers
with a scathing remark by Dr. Tabet on American breach of faith to France.
Dr. Tabet believes that autonomy, under effective control of the
interested Powers, would be the best form of government for Syria.
As for the rest of the Arabian Peninsula the Allies would have to devise
the best means of government.