Two war years in Constantinople : $b sketches of German and Young Turkish ethics and politicsStürmer, Harry
History
Two war years in Constantinople : $b sketches of German and Young Turkish ethics and politics
Stürmer, Harry
World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
The attempt to "unloose" the Holy War was due primarily to the most
absurd illusions. It would seem that in Germany, the land of science,
the home of so many eminent doctors of research, even the scholars
have been attacked by that disease of being dazzled by wild political
illusions, or surely, knowing the countries of Islam outside-in as they
must, they would long ago have raised their voices against such arrant
folly. It would seem that all her inherent knowledge, all her studies,
have been of little or no avail to Germany, so that mistake after
mistake has been committed in the realm of world politics. It may be
said that Germany, even if she were doubtful of the issue, should still
not have left untried this means of crippling her opponents. To that
I can only reply by pointing to the actual position of affairs, well
known to Germany, not only in English, but also in French and Russian
Islamic colonial territory, which should have rendered the "Djihad"
entirely and absolutely out of the question.
Let us take for example Egypt, French North-West Africa, and Russian
Turkestan, not to speak of the masterly English colonial rule in
India, which has now been tested and tried for centuries. Anyone who
has ever seen Egypt with the area under culture practically doubled
under modern English rule by the help of every kind of technical
contrivance for the betterment of existing conditions, and the skilful
utilisation of all available means at an expense of millions of pounds,
with its needy population given an opportunity to earn a living wage
and even wealth through a lucrative cultivation of the land under
conditions that are a paradise compared with what they were under the
Turkish rule of extortion and despotism--anyone who has seen that
must have looked from the very beginning with a very doubtful eye on
Germany's and Turkey's illusions of stirring up these well-doing people
against their rulers.
The same thing occurs again in the extended territory of North-West
Africa from the Atlas lands to the Guinea coast and Lake Chad, where
France, as I know from personal experience, stands on a high level
of colonial excellence, developing all the resources of the country
with consummate skill, shaping her "_empire colonial_" more and more
into a shining gem in the crown of colonial endeavour, and, as I
can testify from my own observations in Morocco, Senegal, the Niger,
and the Interior of the Guinea territories of the "A.O.F." (Afrique
Occidentale Française), capturing the hearts of the whole population by
her essential culture, and, last but not least, winning the Mohammedans
by her clever Islam policy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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