Germany -- Foreign relations; World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Economic aspects
Later on Turkish officers were sent to Libya to egg on the Arabs to
harass the Italians there. The Kaiser himself despatched a letter in
Arabic to the Senussi which was intercepted on a Greek sailing vessel
near Tripoli. It is said to have been enclosed in an embossed casket,
and was found on board together with L4000 in gold and a number of
oriental gifts. The letter, if genuine, is worth recording. Wilhelm
II., the Supreme Head of the Protestant Church in Germany, gives
himself therein, among other high sounding titles, those of Allah's
Envoy and Islam's Protector, and states explicitly that it is his will
that the Senussi's doughty warriors should drive the "infidels" from
the land which is the heritage of the true believers and their chief.
This, from the "supreme Bishop" of one of the Christian Churches, is
characteristic.
In Asia Minor Germany's machinations were carried on with a much
greater measure of success. Her former opponents had withdrawn their
opposition and undertaken to lend her positive assistance to attain
ends which were directed against themselves. This chapter of Entente
diplomacy is marked by broad streaks of farcical comedy calculated to
bewilder the serious student. France was converted to political
orthodoxy on the subject of the Baghdad Railway and its cultural
significance. Some of her publicists frankly repented that she had so
long looked upon it with disfavour, and threw the blame on Russia, for
whose sake they had kept aloof. At Potsdam the Tsar's Minister
abandoned his objections to the Baghdad enterprise and undertook to
build a railway line from Persia, which would allow another stretch of
country to be tapped by the German Railway Company. Great Britain,
acknowledging the error of her ways, agreed that Koweit should not be
the terminus and made valuable concessions to the Teuton, the
realization of which was hindered by the outbreak of the war. Turkey,
through Enver, who had imported from the Fatherland a band of military
"instructors" under Liman von Sanders, became the _ame damnee_ of
Germany. In Persia every warlike and predatory tribe was courted by
the Teuton intruder, and the German mission at Teheran, as well as the
Consulates in the chief towns of the Shahdom, became centres of
agitation against Britain and Russia and branches of the German
General Staff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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