initial commit of ebook 26981HEADmain

219 files changed, 14387 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/26981-8.txt b/26981-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c567fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4740 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pan-Islam, by George Wyman Bury
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pan-Islam
+
+Author: George Wyman Bury
+
+Release Date: October 20, 2008 [EBook #26981]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-ISLAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PAN-ISLAM
+
+
+
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS
+MELBOURNE
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
+DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO
+
+THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
+TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+PAN-ISLAM
+
+BY
+
+G. WYMAN BURY
+
+_Author of "The Land of Us," "Arabia Infelix."_
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
+1919
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MY WIFE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+I have written this book to present the main factors of a many-sided
+problem--political, social and religious--in a form which the general
+public can easily grasp.
+
+Modern democratic principles tend to give the public increasing control
+of international and inter-racial affairs, and therefore any
+contribution to public knowledge on such questions is in the interests
+of sound administration.
+
+The book is not intended to advise those who actually handle these
+affairs: I give such advice, when required, in more detail and not
+through the medium of a published work.
+
+"Pan-Islam" is an elementary handbook, not a text-book--still less an
+exhaustive treatise, but the questions it discusses are real enough. My
+qualifications for writing it are based on a quarter of a century's
+experience of the subject in most parts of the Moslem world, and I have
+studied the question in areas which I have not actually visited through
+intercourse with pilgrims from those parts.
+
+I have no axe to grind or infallible panacea to advocate; I merely lay
+the result of my researches before the public for its information, as
+failing health has warned me to "pass the ball when collared," and I
+would like to think that the land where most of my life's work has
+centred will not be mishandled by cranks and opportunists after I have
+left the game.
+
+An arm-chair is a sorry substitute for an Arab pony, and a garden plot
+for the highlands of Arabia Felix, but the human mind is not necessarily
+confined by such trammels, and if my environment is narrow I hope my
+book is not.
+
+                                                      G. WYMAN BURY.
+
+Helouan, 27th July, 1919.
+
+
+
+
+            CONTENTS
+
+
+                                   PAGE
+
+            CHAPTER I
+
+    ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING          11
+
+            CHAPTER II
+
+    ITS BEARING ON THE WAR          24
+
+            CHAPTER III
+
+    ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS       83
+
+            CHAPTER IV
+
+    MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY          110
+
+            CHAPTER V
+
+    A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE           187
+
+
+
+
+PAN-ISLAM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING
+
+
+Much has been written about Christianity and Islam, so I hasten to
+inform my readers that this is not a religious treatise, nor do I class
+them with the globe-trotter who searched Benares brass-bazar diligently
+for "a really nice image of Allah" and pronounced the dread name of
+Hindustan's avenging goddess like an effervescing drink.
+
+I presuppose that Christians or Moslems who read this book have got
+beyond the stage of calling each other pagans or _kafirs_, and it will
+have served its purpose if it brings about a friendlier feeling between
+the two great militant creeds whose adherents have confronted together
+many a stricken field.
+
+Most people have heard of the pan-Islamic movement, especially during
+the War. Some of us have called it a political bogey and some a
+world-menace, but these are extremist views--it is really the practical
+protest of Moslems against the exploitation of their spiritual and
+material resources by outsiders.
+
+Pan-Islam (as its name implies) is a movement to weld together Moslems
+throughout the world regardless of nationality. The ethics and ideals of
+Islam are more attainable to ordinary human beings than those of
+Christianity: whether it is better to aim high and score a partial
+success or aim lower and achieve is a matter of personal opinion and
+need not be discussed here, but one tangible fact stands out--that
+Islam, with its easier moral standard and frequent physical discipline
+of attitudes and observances connected with obligatory prayer, enters
+far more into the daily life of its adherents than Christianity does
+with us. Hence pan-Islam is more than a spiritual movement: it is a
+practical, working proposition which has to be reckoned with when
+dealing with Moslems even in secular matters.
+
+Pan-Islam is no new thing--it is as old as the Hejira, and then helped
+to knit together Moslem Arabs against their pagan compatriots who were
+persecuting them. In the palmy days of the Abbaside Caliphate it was
+quiescent enough, and men of all creeds were welcomed at Baghdad for
+their art, learning, or handicraft when we were massacring Jews in
+London as part of a coronation pageant.
+
+Medieval Moslems never fanned the movement into flame as long as they
+were let alone, and even now tribes living beyond the scope of
+missionaries and traders prefer the Christian traveller whom they know
+to the Moslem stranger from the coast whom they usually distrust, and
+who, to do him justice, seldom ventures among them, unless compelled by
+paramount self-interest, generally in connection with some European
+scheme or other.
+
+Hitherto pan-Islam had been an instinctive and entirely natural
+_riposte_ to the menace or actual aggression of non-Moslems; it assumed
+the character of a definite organisation under the crafty touch of that
+wily diplomat Abdul Hamid, once called by harsh critics "the Damned,"
+though his efforts in that direction have been quite eclipsed by more
+recent exponents.
+
+In extreme evangelical circles it used to be frequently urged that
+pan-Islam was a bugbear discovered, if not created, by one of India's
+most eminent Viceroys, whose remarks thereon are said to have given
+Abdul Hamid the hint. This method of eliminating a danger by denying its
+existence has been discredited, since 1914, as completely as the
+somewhat similar one (attributed to Mississippi engineers) of sitting on
+the safety-valve just too long for safety. Moreover, in view of Abdul's
+undoubted ability, he probably discovered for himself its efficacy as a
+weapon of reprisal when hard pressed by pertinacious and inquisitive
+Ambassadors, for he often found himself much embarrassed in his dealings
+with Armenia and other domestic affairs by the intrusions of the more
+formidable Christian Powers.
+
+Great Britain naturally felt the point of this weapon most as governing
+wide Moslem territories, and one can imagine some such interview as
+this:
+
+"Frontier rectifications, my dear Sir Nicholas? By all means--and,
+talking about frontiers, I do hope affairs are quite quiet now on your
+north-west frontier; I take such an interest in my East Indian
+correspondence."
+
+And those Britons who have handled Oriental affairs for the last twenty
+years can appreciate the extent of that interest when we remember that
+even while Yamen Arabs were fighting the Turks, their neighbours on the
+Aden side of the frontier were praying in their mosques that the Sultan
+and his troops might be victorious "by land and sea."
+
+All this, however, was merely playing with intrigue as a political
+counterpoise; it remained for a Christian nation to put pan-Islam on a
+business footing. First we have polite bagmen calling at Stamboul with
+German guns and a German military system. Then "our Mr. William" of the
+well-known Potsdam firm of Hohenzollern and Sons made his great
+advertising campaign in the Near East; many of us remembered his
+theatrical visit to Saladin's tomb and the tawdry wreath with its
+bombastic inscription, "From the Emperor of the Franks to the Emperor of
+the Saracens--Greeting."
+
+That astute "pilgrim" made himself especially affable to the American
+Protestant missionaries in the Holy Land, preached to a small but select
+congregation at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and posed alternately
+as a pious but militant Moslem (when Hajji Guiyaum rode in military pomp
+into Jerusalem) and as a prince of peace. That the hospice of Kaiserin
+Augusta Victoria on the top of the Mount of Olives was loop-holed for
+musketry and mounted a searchlight in its tower that could signal with
+Haifa was possibly due to some wayward caprice of the builder, but it
+came in very useful later on. So did the scholarly researches of eminent
+Germans in Sinai, assisted as they were by maps which the Anglo-Egyptian
+authorities courteously placed at their disposal, and which formed a
+basis for a more detailed survey of wells and routes.
+
+But the old firm at Potsdam excelled itself in its representatives on
+the Palestine coast. There was, for example, the German Consul at Haifa
+famed for his culture and diplomacy (the Teutonic brand), who also spoke
+Arabic, Turkish, French and English fluently. This gifted official
+frequented native cafés, where he fraternised with the local Arabs and
+conducted a vigorous verbal propaganda against the Entente. Then there
+was the German engineer who wrecked the British railway scheme to
+connect Haifa and Damascus and re-naturalised as a German citizen after
+being American Consul. The Belgian Vice-Consul too, that merry Hun, who
+was also agent for our Khedivial mail line. When the Turks came in
+against us this good and faithful servant danced on the Belgian and
+British flags and threw himself heart and soul into pan-Islamic
+propaganda.
+
+Nor must we overlook that reverend pastor and Koranic scholar who
+distributed anti-Christian and more especially anti-British propaganda
+by means of native emissaries. Last but not least, the Herr Direktor of
+the Hejaz Railway, who was collecting railway material for Sinai before
+war broke out. Some time before the Turks came in he imported, for the
+alleged use of the Jewish technical school, so great a quantity of high
+explosives that it caused a panic in Haifa. Yet it did not sufficiently
+impress our Levantine Vice-Consul there for him to report it, though the
+German Consul's remarkable activity to get the stuff landed might have
+given him the hint.
+
+At Jeddah our Khedivial Mail Agency, under the good old English name of
+Robinson, was a perfect nest of Germans and pro-German Dutchmen when I
+called there in 1912. They were very active early in the War, but had
+wisely disappeared before my last visit, when Jeddah fell to our
+blockade and bombardment.
+
+As for Hodeidah, the chief port of Yamen, it was the happy
+hunting-ground of a great German firm, and the American Consul was
+himself a German.
+
+Decidedly, for people who believed that they had a monopoly of Divine
+assistance, they had taken a lot of pains that their Holy War should be
+a success.
+
+To grasp the world-wide conspiracy which hatched out so many formidable
+events during the War and to appreciate the causes which contributed to
+its final collapse we must take a comprehensive glance at the Ottoman
+Caliphate and how it came about.
+
+Remember, the Ottoman Turks are not Semitic, as is the bulk of the
+Moslem world. Tradition derives them from Turk, son of Japhet, and they
+are a Turco-Mongol blend which most people agree to call Tartar. Their
+language is closely allied to Mongolian, though written in Arabic, or
+rather Persian, character, and its Arabic words are pronounced
+unintelligibly to an Arab. A true Turk learns Arabic with difficulty,
+and a far higher percentage of Britons in India speak Hindustani than
+Turks do Arabic in Turkish Arabia.
+
+Then, again, look at their early history. Their Mongol-Turkish ancestors
+were driven westward because they made Mongolia too hot for them, and we
+hear of Turks smelting iron for their Mongol masters in what is now
+Eastern Turkestan until they threw off the Mongol yoke in A.D. 552, when
+Turkish history begins.
+
+At the dawn of Islam (A.D. 632) Turks and Mongols were harrying each
+other all over the Caspian countries like rival wolf-packs, sometimes
+combining for a raid on their neighbours and then fighting over the
+loot. That is why you find racial Turks in such outlandish places as
+Merv, Khiva, Samarcand, Bokhara and Cabul, for the Turkish race is not
+confined to Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe, but is scattered over parts
+of Russia and China and Afghanistan.
+
+Now to consider the Ottoman Turks, with whom we are chiefly concerned.
+They were superior to their Mongol fellow-wolves in that they could
+smelt iron and had some idea of constructive enterprise. They had also
+adopted Islam, which was a great advance from the Shamanistic wizardry
+and totem-worship they used to practise, and their contact with the
+Arabs who raided them and afterwards accepted their military service to
+the Caliphate had civilised them considerably. Their Seljouk cousins
+were already ruling in Asia Minor, whither they had been driven by the
+Mongols when a wandering Turkish band sought similar asylum there in the
+earlier part of the thirteenth century and intervened most opportunely
+to help the Seljouks repulse a Mongol raid; in return, the Seljouk
+Emperor gave them a grant of land in Bithynia.
+
+In 1300 the Seljouk Empire was finally smashed by the Mongols, who
+withdrew eastward without occupying the country, for they were merely
+predatory and destructive and had no gift or desire for permanent
+colonisation. So it came about that the Ottoman Empire began in 1326
+under Othman I in Bithynia and grew by absorption and lack of effective
+opposition until, in 1517, we find it spreading under Selim I (the
+Magnificent) to the gates of Vienna and extending from Germany to Persia
+and from Arabia to the Atlantic.
+
+The benign sun of the Arabian Caliphate, under which learning and
+industry flourished securely, had long since set in blood under
+circumstances of treachery and murder which have hardly been surpassed
+even in the late war.
+
+Under the later Abbasides, when the glories of the Caliphate were
+waning, there were bitter dissensions between Sunnis and Shiahs (the
+main orthodox and schismatic sects of Islam) which culminated in fierce
+rioting at Baghdad in 1258. The then Caliph was foolish enough to appeal
+for assistance against the schismatic seditionists to his Mongol
+neighbours. It had been done before under similar conditions, and even
+in these days such a manoeuvre seems still to appeal to some types of
+religious fanaticism, judging by certain passages between our sister
+isle and the modern Hun. On the above occasion, however, it was
+practised once too often. Hulaku Khan, the fierce Mongol chief, had long
+had his eye on Baghdad as holding princely loot in all too slack a grip,
+for the Caliphate had been relying on Tartar mercenaries for years.
+
+He approached that queen of cities, as she then was, with a great host,
+lured the Caliph out to meet him by the promise of an alliance, and
+murdered the whole party, the Caliph being trampled to death. Then
+Baghdad was given over to sack and massacre for more than a month, by
+which time 1,800,000 people are said to have perished.
+
+The Caliphate was transplanted to Cairo, where it dragged out an anæmic
+existence until Selim I seized it, with the person of the then Caliph,
+by right of conquest, and it has been an appanage of the Ottoman
+reigning house ever since.
+
+Selim the Magnificent may be called the Turkish top-note. After him the
+Ottoman Empire gradually declined. It has generally taken advantage of
+disaster or dissension to extend its borders--a precarious method of
+empire-building unless consolidated by benevolent and sound
+administration, which is not a feature of Turkish rule. Add to this the
+facts that Turks are slack Moslems, that the national party which ousted
+Abdul Hamid (himself most orthodox) is not religious at all, with all
+its barbarian, totemistic nonsense of the "White Wolf," and that they
+_would_ pose as conquerors on insufficient grounds, and we begin to see
+why they have been kicked out of their Asiatic empire bit by bit.
+
+If Turk and Mongol had been capable of dynastic evolution and
+co-ordinate policy they might have shared most of the Eastern Hemisphere
+between them. We have seen the high-water mark of the Ottoman Empire;
+Marco Polo has told us of Kubla Khan's Chinese Empire, and the Moguls
+did much for India in their prime. But the wolf-taint was in their
+blood, and just as a pet wolf gets fat and degenerate, so it has been
+with these Tartars. Their undoubted soldierly qualities are sapped by
+luxury, and they possess no constructive gifts which peace and
+prosperity might develop. Hence it is that every empire they have
+founded has risen to a culminating point of conquest and then dwindled
+away in sloth and corruption.
+
+The Turk is not fit to be put in charge of any race but his own, for he
+is at heart a bitter wolf who will turn and rend without ruth or
+warning. I have met Turks who have shown tact, humanity, and ability
+under trying conditions, and I have met well-mannered wolves in
+captivity, but would not trust the pack ranging in its native forest. I
+once heard a member of our Ottoman Embassy who has unique experience of
+the Turk size him up as follows: "The Turk can be a suave and cultured
+gentleman till his time comes, and then he will tear your guts out and
+_dance_ on them." It was the Seljouk Turks whose persecutions caused
+the Crusades. Before them, Arab rule in Palestine was tolerant enough,
+and the Caliph Omar was scrupulously careful when he entered Jerusalem
+as a conqueror to respect Christian prejudices and the monuments of our
+creed.
+
+So it came about that their empire was dropping from them piecemeal even
+before the War, for a race that can no longer conquer and has never
+learned to conciliate must draw in its borders or cease to exist as a
+State.
+
+When war broke out Turkey was just hanging on to the last scrap of her
+empire in Europe and had lost all but the shadow of sovereignty in
+Egypt, while Arabia was seething with discontent, where not in actual
+revolt, and regarded the belated efforts of local officials to govern
+tactfully as signs of weakness.
+
+The colossal brigandage of Germany appealed to her freebooting
+instincts, although it took a corrupt, self-seeking Government and a
+final push from the "Goeben" and the "Breslau" to plunge her into war
+against her best friends.
+
+To proclaim a _jihad_ was her obvious course, if only to keep Arabia
+moderately quiet, apart from its value as a weapon against her Christian
+foes. We will now see how she fared in the "Holy War."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ITS BEARING ON THE WAR
+
+
+Quite early in the War those of us who had to deal with pan-Islamic
+propaganda realised that the widespread organisation which Germany had
+grafted on to the original Turkish movement must have existed some time
+before the outbreak of actual hostilities.
+
+For example, there was a snug, smooth-running concern at San Francisco
+which spread its tentacles all over the Moslem world, but specialised in
+a seditious newspaper called _El'-Ghadr_, which means treachery or
+mutiny. This was particularly directed at our Indian Army, but Egypt was
+not forgotten. A gifted censor sent us an early copy, but had,
+unfortunately, lost the wrapper, so our earnest desire to make the
+addressee's closer acquaintance was thwarted.
+
+Stamboul was naturally an active centre, and, before the Turks entered
+the War, Turkish officers in full uniform, and sometimes even wearing
+swords, permeated Cairo cafés with espionage and verbal propaganda,
+trying to fan into flame the military ardour of Egyptian students and
+men about town. This last activity was wasted effort, as anyone who knew
+the type could have told them; the effendis abstained from the crudities
+of personal service and confined themselves to stirring up the town
+riffraff, who wanted a safer form of villainy than open riot, and the
+_fellahin_, who wanted a safe market for their produce and easy
+taxation, both of which they stood to lose by violence. Many a _fellah_
+still believes that the War was a myth created by the authorities to put
+prices up. Even Teuton activity failed to stimulate these placid folk,
+and the glad tidings preached by the madder type of German missionary
+that the Kaiser was the Messiah left them unmoved.
+
+When the Turks came in against us, and the ex-Khedive, safe among his
+new-found friends, threw off the mask, the Cairene effendis became
+tremendously active. Forgetting how they had disliked Abbas II and
+called him a huckstering profligate, they mourned for his deposal by
+wearing black ties, especially the students. Some of these enthusiastic
+young heroes even went so far as to scatter chlorate of potash crackers
+about when their school was visited by poor old Sultan Husein (who was
+worth six of his predecessor), and he got quite a shock, which was
+flagrantly and noisomely accentuated by asafoetida bomblets.
+
+The ex-Khedive did not share their patriotic grief. He was quite
+comfortable while awaiting the downfall of British rule, for, with
+shrewd prescience that almost seems inspired, he had taken prudent
+measures for his future comfort and luxury before leaving Egypt on his
+usual summer tour to Europe. He had mortgaged real estate up to the
+hilt, realised on immobile property as far as possible, and diverted his
+fluid assets through various channels beyond the reach of his sorrowing
+subjects and the Egyptian Government. When an official inventory was
+taken in Abdin Palace at the accession of the late Sultan Husein, it was
+ascertained that the famous inlaid and begemmed coffee-service, which,
+like our Crown jewels, was not supposed to leave the country, had been
+sent after the ex-Khedive to his new address--truly a man of parts. I
+have often wondered whether his Hunnish friends got him to disgorge by
+means of a forced loan or war-bonds, or something of that sort. If so,
+they achieved something notable, for he has left behind him, beside his
+liabilities, the name of being a difficult man to get money out of.
+
+When the Turco-Teuton blade was actually drawn in Holy War I was down
+with enteric, which I had contracted while working in disguise among
+seditious circles in the slums of Old Cairo. I just convalesced in time
+to join the Intelligence Staff on the Canal the day before Jemal Pasha's
+army attacked. His German staff had everything provided for in advance
+with their usual thoroughness. From the documents and prisoners that
+came through our hands we learnt that the hotel in Cairo where the
+victors were to dine after their triumphant entry had actually been
+selected, and some enthusiasts went so far as to insist that the menu
+had been prepared. If so, they omitted to get the Canal Army on toast,
+and for want of this indispensable item the event fell through. All the
+same, it was a soldierly enterprise, and if the Senussis had invaded in
+force or the population risen behind us, as they hoped would be the
+case, the result might have been different.
+
+As it was they put up a very good fight and their arrangements for
+getting across the Sinaitic desert were excellent. For the last ten
+miles they man-handled their pontoons to the edge of the Canal. These
+craft were marvels of lightness and carrying capacity, but, of course,
+no protection whatever against even a rifle-bullet, and they had not
+fully reckoned with the Franco-British naval flotilla, which proved a
+formidable factor.
+
+The morning after the main fight a little Syrian subaltern passed
+through my hands. He had been slightly wounded in the leg and still
+showed signs of nervous shock, so I made him sit down with a cigarette
+while I questioned him. He had been in charge of a pontoon manned by his
+party and said that they had got halfway across the Canal in perfect
+silence when "the mouth of hell opened" and the pontoon was sinking in a
+swirl of stricken men amid a hail of projectiles. He and two others swam
+to our side of the Canal, where they surrendered to an Indian
+detachment.
+
+Our Indian troops on the Canal were naturally a mark for pan-Islamic
+propaganda reinforced by Hindu literature of the _Bande Mataram_
+type,--a double-barrelled enterprise to bag both the great creeds of
+India. The astute propagandists had a pamphlet or two aimed at Sikhism,
+which they seemed to consider a nation, as they spoke of their national
+aspirations, though an elementary study of the subject might have taught
+them that it was a religious and secular movement originally intended to
+curb Moslem power in India during the sway of the later Moguls. Anyone
+but a Moslem can be a Sikh.
+
+Naturally I was on the _qui vive_ for signs of pan-Islamic activity on
+the enemy's side, and I questioned my little Syrian very closely to
+ascertain how far the movement was used as a driving force among the
+troops engaged against us. He, personally, had rather a grievance on the
+subject, for the Indian Moslems who took him had reproached him bitterly
+for fighting on the wrong side. "I fought," he said, "because it was my
+duty as an officer of the Ottoman Army. I know that men were invited to
+join as for a _jihad_, but we officers did not deceive ourselves. _Par
+exemple_, I think myself a better Moslem than any Turk, but what would
+you?" I consoled the little man while concealing my satisfaction at the
+feeling displayed against him. An extraordinarily heterogeneous
+collection of prisoners came dribbling through my hands directly after
+the Turks were repulsed. Most were practically deserters who had been
+forcibly enrolled, given a Mauser and a bandoleer, and told to go and
+fight for the Holy Places of Islam. As one of the more intelligent
+remarked, "If the Holy Places are really in danger, what are we doing
+down this way?"
+
+They came from all over the Moslem world. There were one or two Russian
+pilgrims returning from Mecca to be snapped up by the military
+authorities at Damascus railway station when they got out of the pilgrim
+train from Medina. There were cabdrivers from Jerusalem, a stranded
+pilgrim from China, several Tripolitans who had been roped in on the
+Palestine seaboard while trying to get a passage home, a Moor who tried
+to embrace my feet when I spoke of the snow-crowned Atlas above Morocco
+City (Marraksh) and told him that he would be landed at Tangier in due
+course--Inshallah. Of course we released, and repatriated as far as we
+could, men who were not Ottoman subjects and had obviously been forced
+into service against us. A few days later, when Jemal Pasha's army was
+getting into commissariat difficulties out in the Sinaitic desert (for
+the Staff had relied on entering Egypt), we began to get the real Turks
+among our prisoners.
+
+I was very curious to ascertain if they had been worked up with
+pan-Islamic propaganda or carried any of it on them, for there was not
+even a Red Crescent Koran on any of the Arabic-speaking prisoners. A
+search of their effects revealed a remarkable phase of propaganda. There
+was hardly any religious literature except a loose page or two of some
+pious work like the "Traditions of Muhammad," but there were quantities
+of rather crude (and very lewd) picture-cards portraying soldiers in
+Turkish uniform outraging and murdering nude or semi-nude women and
+children, while corpses in priestly garb, shattered crucifixes, and
+burning churches indicated the creed that was being so harried and gave
+the scene a stimulating background. From their appearance I should say
+these pictures were originally engraved to commemorate Balkan or
+Armenian atrocities, but their possessors, on being closely questioned,
+admitted that the impression conveyed to them was of the joyous licence
+which was to be theirs among the Frankish civilians after forcing the
+Canal. One Kurdish gentleman had among his kit fancy socks, knitted
+craftily in several vivid colours, also ornate slippers to wear in his
+promised palatial billet at Cairo. There were some odd articles among
+the kit of these Turkish prisoners, to wit, a brand-new garden
+thermometer, which some wag insisted was for testing the temperature of
+the Canal before immersion, and a lavatory towel looted from the Hejaz
+railway. Still, nothing was quite so remarkable as a white flag with a
+jointed staff in a neat, compact case which had been carried by a German
+officer. Among his papers was an indecent post-card not connected, I
+think, with propaganda of any sort, as it portrayed a bright-coloured
+female of ripe figure and Teutonic aspect, wearing a pair of long
+stockings and high-heeled shoes, and bore the legend "Gruss von
+München."
+
+A certain coyness, or possibly an appreciation of their personal value,
+kept most of the German officers from actual contact with our line. Only
+one reached the Canal bank, and he is there still. The German touch,
+however, was much in evidence. There were detailed written orders about
+manning the pontoons, not to talk, cough, sneeze, etc., and for each man
+to move along the craft as far as feasible and then sit down. They seem
+to have relied entirely on surprise, and ignored the chance of its
+occurring on the wrong side of the Canal. The emergency rations too
+which we found on the earlier batches of prisoners had a distinctly
+Teutonic flavour--they were so scientifically nourishing in theory and
+so vilely inedible in practice. They were a species of flat gluten cake
+rather like a dog-biscuit, but much harder. An amateur explosive expert
+of ours tested one of these things by attempting detonation and ignition
+before he would let his batch of prisoners retain them, which, to do
+their intelligence justice, they were not keen on doing, but offered any
+quantity of the stuff for cigarettes. We ascertained from them that you
+were supposed to soak it in water before tackling it in earnest, but as
+the only supply (except the runlet they still carried on them) was in
+the fresh-water canal behind our unshaken line, such a course was not
+practicable; the discovery of a very dead Turk some days later in that
+canal led to the ribald suggestion that he had rashly endeavoured to eat
+his ration. Our scientist laid great stress on its extraordinary
+nutritive properties, but desisted, after breaking a tooth off his
+denture, in actual experiment.
+
+German influence, too, was apparent in the relations between officers
+and men. A Turkish _yuzbashi_ was asked to get a big batch of prisoners
+to form two groups according to the languages they spoke--Arabic or
+Turkish. It was not an easy task in the open on a pitch-black night, but
+he did it with soldierly promptitude and flung his glowing cigarette end
+in the face of a dilatory private. As a natural corollary it may be
+mentioned here that one or two of our prisoners had deserted after
+shooting officers who had struck them.
+
+For some days after the battles of Serapeum and Toussoum we expected
+another attempt, but they had been more heavily mauled than we thought
+at first. The dead in the Canal were kept down by the weight of their
+ammunition for some time, and the shifting sand on the Sinaitic side
+was always revealing hastily-buried corpses on their line of retreat.
+
+Jemal Pasha hurried back to Gaza and published a grandiloquent report
+for Moslem consumption, to the effect that the Turks were already in
+Cairo (as was indeed the case with many hundreds), and that, of the
+_giaour_ fleet, one ship had sunk, one had been set on fire, and the
+rest had fled. Two heavy howitzers, as a matter of fact, had managed by
+indirect fire from a concealed position to land a couple of projectiles
+on the "Hardinge," which was not originally built for such rough
+treatment, being an Indian marine vessel taken over by the Navy. She
+gave more than she got when her four-point-sevens found the massed
+Turkish supports.
+
+A great deal of criticism has been flung at this first series of fights
+on the Canal, mostly by Anglo-Egyptian civilians. They asked derisively
+whether we were protecting the Canal or the Canal us. The answer is in
+the affirmative to both questions. Ordinary steamer traffic was only
+suspended for a day during the first onslaught, and the G.O.C. was not
+such a fool as to leave the Canal in his rear and forgo the defensive
+advantage. There are some who, in their military ardour, would have had
+him pursue the enemy into the desert, forgetting that to leave a sound
+position and pursue a superior force on an ever-widening front in a
+barren country which they know better than you do and have furnished
+with their own supply-bases is just asking for trouble. Our few
+aeroplanes in those days could only reconnoitre twenty miles out, and
+there was no evidence that the enemy had not merely fallen back to his
+line of wells preparatory to another attempt. We had not then the men,
+material, or resources for a triumphant advance into Sinai; it was
+enough to make sure of keeping the enemy that side of the Canal with the
+Senussi sitting on the fence and Egypt honeycombed with seditious
+propaganda.
+
+Anyone at all in touch with native life in Cairo could gauge the extent
+of propagandist activity by gossip at cafés and in the bazars. The
+Senussi was marching against us. India was in revolt and the Indian Army
+on the Canal had joined the Turks. The crowning stroke of ingenuity was
+a tale that received wide credence among quite intelligent Egyptians. It
+was to the effect that the Turks had commandeered an enormous number of
+camels and empty kerosene tins. This was quite true so far, but the yarn
+then rose to the following flight of fancy: These empty tins were to be
+filled with dry cement and loaded on camels, which were to be marched
+without water for days until they reached the Canal, when the pangs of
+thirst would compel them to rush madly into the water. The cement would
+solidify and the Faithful would march across on a composite bridge of
+camel and concrete. Our flotilla was to be penned in by similar means.
+
+There must be something about a Turk that hypnotises an Egyptian. His
+country has suffered appallingly under Ottoman rule, and a pure-blooded
+Turk can seldom be decently civil to him and considers him almost
+beneath contempt. This is the conquering Tartar pose that has earned the
+Turk such detestation and final ruin in Arabia, but it seems to have
+fascinated the Egyptian like a rabbit in the presence of a python. Quite
+early in the Turkish invasion of Sinai a detachment of Egyptian camelry,
+operating in conjunction with the Bikanirs, deserted _en masse_ to the
+enemy. It was at first supposed that they had been captured, but we
+afterwards heard of their being fêted somewhere in Palestine. On the
+other hand, an Egyptian battery did yeoman service on the Canal; I saw a
+pontoon that looked like a carelessly opened sardine-tin as a result of
+its attentions.
+
+The most tragic aspect of this spurious and mischievous propaganda was
+its victims from Indian regiments. The Indian Moslem as a rule has no
+illusions about the Turks, and will fight them at sight, but there will
+always be a few misguided bigots to whom a specious and dogmatic
+argument will appeal. There is no occasion to dwell on these cases,
+which were sporadic only and generally soon met with the fate incurred
+by attempted desertion to the enemy.
+
+We looked on the movement as an insidious and dangerous disease and did
+our best to trace it to its source and stop the distributing channels.
+After events on the Canal had simmered down, I was seconded to Cairo to
+help tackle the movement there: to show how little hold it had over the
+minds of thinking Moslems. I may mention that my colleague was a Pathan
+major who was a very strict Moslem and a first-rate fellow to boot.
+
+We both served under an Anglo-Indian major belonging to the C.I.D., one
+of the most active little men I have ever met. There were also several
+"ferrets," or Intelligence agents, who came into close contact with the
+"suspects" and could be trusted up to a certain point if you looked
+sharply after them. This is as much as can be said for any of these men,
+though some are better, and some worse, than others. On the Canal we
+employed numbers of them to keep us informed of the enemy's movements
+and used to check them with the aerial reconnaissance--they needed it.
+It did not take us long to find out that these sophisticated Sinaites
+had established an Intelligence bureau of their own. They used to meet
+their "opposite numbers" employed by the enemy at pre-arranged spots
+between the lines and swop information, thereby avoiding unnecessary
+toil or risk (the Sinaitic Bedouin loathes both) and obtaining news of
+interest for both sides. It was a magnificently simple scheme; its sole
+flaw was in failing to realise that some of us had played the Great Game
+before. We used to time our emissaries to their return and cross-check
+them where their wanderings intersected those of others--all were
+supposed to be trackers and one or two knew something about it. Of
+course they were searched and researched on crossing and returning to
+our outpost line, for they could not be trusted to refuse messages to or
+from the Turks. It was among this coterie that the brilliant idea
+originated of shaving a messenger's head, writing a despatch on his
+scalp, and then letting his hair grow before he started to deliver it. I
+doubt if any of our folk were thorough enough for this, but we tested
+for it occasionally, and an unpleasant job it was. Generally they would
+incur suspicion by their too speedy return and the nonchalant way in
+which they imparted tidings which would have driven them into ecstasies
+of self-appreciation had they obtained such by legitimate methods. Then
+a purposely false bit of information calculated to cause certain
+definite action on the other side would usually betray them. Some
+purists suggested a firing party as a fitting end for these gambits, but
+that would have been a waste. Such men have their uses, until they know
+they are suspected, as valuable channels of misinformation. No doubt the
+enemy knew this too, and that is how an Intelligence Officer earns his
+pay, by sifting grain from chaff as it comes in and sending out empty
+husks and mouldy news.
+
+But to return to Cairo. We netted a good deal of small fry, but only
+landed one big fish during the time I was attached. He was a
+Mesopotamian and a very respectable old gentleman, who followed the
+calling of astrologer and peripatetic quack--a common combination and
+admirably adapted for distributing propaganda. He came from Stamboul
+through Athens with exemplary credentials, and might have got through to
+India, which was the landfall he proposed to make, if his propagandist
+energy had not led him to deviate on a small side-tour in Egypt. Here
+we got on his track, and I boarded the Port Said express at short notice
+while he and the "ferret" who had picked him up got into a third-class
+compartment lower down. As the agent made no signal after the train had
+pulled out, I knew our man had not got the bulk of his propaganda with
+him, otherwise I had powers to hold up the express, for it was more
+important to get his stuff than the man himself. At Port Said he had a
+chance of seeing me, thanks to the agent's clumsiness, and I had to
+shave my beard off and buy a sun-helmet in consequence, for I was
+travelling in the same ship along the Canal to see that he did not
+communicate with troops on either side of the bank, and on the slightest
+suspicion he would have put his stuff over the side. All went smoothly
+and he was arrested in Suez roads by plain-clothes men with a sackful of
+seditious literature for printing broadcast in India. Of course they
+arrested the "ferret" too, as is usual in these cases. I went ashore
+with them in the police-launch as a casual traveller and was amused to
+hear the agent rating the old man for not having prophesied this mishap
+when telling his fortune the night before.
+
+The propagandist was merely interned in a place of security--it was not
+our policy to make martyrs of such men, especially when they were _bona
+fide_ Ottoman subjects.
+
+I was rather out of touch with the pan-Islamic movement during the
+summer of 1915, as my lungs had become seriously affected on the Canal,
+and the trouble became so acute that I had to spend two or three months
+in the hills of Cyprus. Before I had been there a week the G.O.C. troops
+in Egypt cabled for me to return and proceed to Aden as political
+officer with troops.
+
+I was too ill then to move and had to cable to that effect. My chagrin
+at missing a "show" was much alleviated when I heard what the show was.
+As it had a marked effect on the pan-Islamic campaign by enhancing
+Turkish prestige, it is not out of place to give some account of it
+here.
+
+While I was still on the Canal in February (1915) a "memo" was sent for
+my information from Headquarters at Cairo to say that the Turks had
+invaded the Aden protectorate at Dhala, where I once served on a
+boundary commission.
+
+I noted the fact and presumed that Aden was quite able to cope with the
+situation, as the Turks had a most difficult terrain to traverse before
+they could get clear of the hills and reach the littoral, while the
+hinterland tribes are noted for their combatant instincts and efficiency
+in guerilla warfare, besides being anti-Turk. I had, however, in spite
+of many years' experience, failed to reckon with Aden apathy. True to
+the policy of _laissez faire_ which was inaugurated when our Boundary
+Commission withdrew some twelve years ago, Aden had been depending for
+news of her own protectorate on office files and native report,
+especially on that much overrated friend and ally the Lahej sultanate.
+The Turks knew all about this, for the leakage of Aden affairs which
+trickles through Lahej and over the Yamen border is, and has been for
+years, a flagrant scandal.
+
+The invasion at Dhala was a feint just to test the soundness of official
+slumber at Aden; the obvious route for a large force was down the Tiban
+valley, owing to the easier going and the permanent water-supply.
+
+Our border-sultan (the Haushabi) was suborned with leisurely
+thoroughness all unknown to his next-door neighbour, that purblind
+sultanate at Lahej, unless the latter refrained from breaking Aden's
+holy calm with such unpleasant news.
+
+In May Aden stirred in her sleep and sent out the Aden troop to
+reconnoitre. This fine body of Indian cavalry and camelry reported that
+affairs seemed serious up the Tiban valley; then inertia reasserted
+itself and they were recalled. Also the Lahej sultanate, in a spasm of
+economy, started disbanding the Arab levies collected for the emergency
+from the tribes of the remoter hinterland which have supplied fine
+mercenaries to many oriental sultanates for many centuries.
+
+The watchful Turk, with his unmolested spy system, had noted every move
+of these pitiful blunders, and, at the psychological moment, came
+pouring down the Tiban valley some 3,000 strong with another 5,000 Arab
+levies. They picked up the Haushabi on the way, whose main idea was to
+get a free kick at Lahej, just as an ordinary human boy will serve some
+sneak and prig to whom a slack schoolmaster has relegated his own
+obvious duty of supervision. To do that inadequate sultanate justice, it
+tried to bar the way with its own trencher-fed troops and such levies as
+it had, but was brushed aside contemptuously by the hardier levies
+opposed to it and the overwhelming fire of the Turkish field batteries.
+Then a distraught and frantic palace emitted mounted messengers to Aden
+for assistance like minute-guns from a sinking ship.
+
+Aden behaved exactly like a startled hen. She ran about clucking and
+collecting motor-cars, camel transport, anything. The authorities dared
+not leave their pet sultan in the lurch--questions might be asked in the
+House. On the other hand they had made no adequate arrangements to
+protect him. Just as a demented hen will leave her brood at the mercy of
+a hovering kite to round up one stray chick instead of sitting tight and
+calling it in under her wing, so Aden made a belated and insane attempt
+to save Lahej.
+
+The Aden Movable Column, a weak brigade of Indians, young Territorials,
+and guns, marched out at 2 p.m. on July 4, _i.e._ at the hottest time of
+day, in the hottest season of the year and the hottest part of the
+world. Motor-cars were used to convey the infantry of the advanced
+guard, but the main body had to march in full equipment with ammunition.
+The casualties from sunstroke were appalling. The late G.O.C. troops in
+Egypt mentioned them to me in hundreds, and one of the Aden "politicals"
+told me that not a dozen of the territorial battalion remained effective
+at the end of the day. Many were bowled over by the heat before they had
+gone two miles.
+
+Most of the native camel transport, carrying water, ammunition and
+supplies,--and yet unescorted and not even attended by a responsible
+officer--sauntered off into the desert and vanished from the ken of that
+ill-fated column.
+
+Meanwhile the advanced guard of 250 men (mostly Indians) and two
+10-pounder mountain-guns pushed on with all speed to Lahej, which was
+being attacked by several thousand Turks and Turco-Arabs with 15-pounder
+field batteries and machine-guns. They found the palace and part of the
+town on fire when they arrived, and fought the Turks hand-to-hand in the
+streets. They held on all through that sweltering night, and only
+retired when dawn showed them the hopeless nature of their task and the
+fact that they were being outflanked. They fell back on the main body,
+which had stuck halfway at a wayside well (Bir Nasir) marked so
+obviously by ruins that even Aden guides could not miss it. Shortage of
+water was the natural result of sitting over a well that does not even
+supply a settlement, but merely the ordinary needs of wayfarers.
+
+This well is marked on the Aden protectorate survey map (which is
+procurable by the general public) as Bir Muhammad, its full name being
+Bir Muhammad Nasir. There are five wells supplying settlements within
+half an hour's walk of it on either side of the track, but when we
+remember that the column's field-guns got no further owing to heavy
+sand, and that the aforesaid track is frequently traversed by ordinary
+_tikkagharries_, we realise the local knowledge available.
+
+The column straggled back to the frontier town of Sheikh Othman, which
+they prepared to defend, but Simla, by this time thoroughly alarmed,
+ordered them back for the defence of Aden, and they returned without
+definite achievement other than the accidental shooting of the Lahej
+sultan. This was hardly the fault of the heroic little band which
+reached Lahej; that ill-starred potentate was escaping with his mounted
+retinue before dawn and cantered on top of an Indian outpost without the
+formality of answering their challenge. He was brought away in a
+motor-car and died at Aden a few days later--another victim to this
+deplorable blunder. Any intelligent and timely grasp of the enemy's
+strength and intention would have given the poor man ample time to pack
+his inlaid hookahs, Persian carpets, and other palace treasures and
+withdraw in safety to Aden while our troops made good the Sheikh Othman
+line along the British frontier. I am presuming that Aden was too much
+taken by surprise to have met the Turks in a position of her own
+choosing while they were still entangled in hilly country where levies
+of the right sort could have harried them to some purpose, backed by
+disciplined, unspent troops and adequate guns. What I wish to impress
+is that the Intelligence Department at Aden must have been abominably
+served and organised, for I decline to believe that _any_ G.O.C. would
+have attempted such an enterprise with such a force and at such a time
+had he any information as to the real nature of his task. As it was, the
+British town of Sheikh Othman, within easy sight of Aden across the
+harbour, was held by the Turks until a reinforcing column came down from
+the Canal and drove them out of it, while the protectorate has been
+overrun by the Turks and the Turco-Arabs until long after the armistice,
+and the state of British prestige there can be imagined.
+
+Official attempts to gloze over the incident would have been amusing if
+they were not pathetic. Needless to say they did not deceive Moslems in
+Egypt or the rest of Arabia.
+
+Here is the most accurate account they gave the public:
+
+
+    "TURKS AND ADEN.
+
+    "ENGAGEMENT AT LAHEJ.
+
+    "The India Office issued the following _communiqué_ last night
+    through the Press Bureau:
+
+      "'In consequence of rumours that a Turkish force from the
+      Yamen had crossed the frontier of the Aden Hinterland and
+      was advancing towards Lahej, the General Officer Commanding
+      at Aden recently dispatched the Aden Camel Troop to
+      reconnoitre.
+
+      "'They reported the presence of a Turkish force with
+      field-guns and a large number of Arabs and fell back on
+      Lahej, where they were reinforced by the advance guard of
+      the Aden Movable Column consisting of 250 rifles and two
+      10-pounder guns.
+
+      "'Our force at Lahej was attacked by the enemy on July 4 by
+      a force of several thousand Turks with twenty guns and
+      large numbers of Arabs, and maintained its position in face
+      of the enemy artillery's fire until night, when part of
+      Lahej was in flames. During the night some hand-to-hand
+      fighting took place, and the enemy also commenced to
+      outflank us.
+
+      "'Meanwhile the remainder of the Aden Movable Column was
+      marching towards Lahej, but was delayed by water
+      difficulties and heavy going. It was therefore decided that
+      the small force at Lahej should fall back.
+
+      "'The retirement was carried out successfully in the early
+      morning of July 5, and the detachment joined the rest of
+      the column at Bir Nasir. Our troops, however, were
+      suffering considerably from the great heat and the shortage
+      of water, and their difficulties were increased by the
+      desertion of Arab transport followers. It was therefore
+      decided to fall back to Aden, and this was done without the
+      enemy attempting to follow up.
+
+      "'Our losses included three British officers wounded: names
+      will be communicated later. We took one Turkish officer (a
+      major) and thirteen men prisoners.'"
+
+Aden seems to have made no attempt to stem the tide of Turkish influence
+while she could. The best fighting tribe in the protectorate stretches
+along the coast and far inland north-east of Aden, and its capital is
+only a few hours' steam from that harbour. The Turks made every effort
+to win over this important tribal unit, which might have been a grave
+menace on their left flank. Its sultan made frequent representations to
+Aden for even a gunboat to show itself off his port, but to no purpose.
+After the Turks had succeeded in alienating those of his tribe they
+could get at, or who could get at them, a tardy political visit was paid
+by sea from Aden. The indignant old sultan came aboard and spoke his
+mind. "You throw your friends on the midden," he said bitterly, and
+departed to establish a _modus vivendi_ on his own account with the
+Turks.
+
+The situation at Aden has had a marked effect in bolstering up the
+Turkish campaign of spurious pan-Islamism, and those of us who have been
+dealing with chiefs in other parts of Arabia have met it at every turn.
+It is idle to blame individuals--the whole system is at fault. The
+policy of non-interference which the Liberal Government introduced,
+after the Boundary Commission had finished its task and withdrawn, has
+been over-strained by the Aden authorities to such an extent that they
+would neither keep in direct personal touch themselves nor let anyone
+else do so.
+
+As an explorer and naturalist whose chief work has lain for years in
+that country, I have made every effort to continue my researches there
+until my persistency has incurred official persecution. The serious
+aspect of this attitude is that at a time when accurate and up-to-date
+knowledge of the hinterland would have been invaluable it was not
+available. The pernicious policy of selecting any one chief (unchecked
+by a European) to keep her posted as to affairs in her own protectorate
+has been followed blindly by Aden to disaster. The excuse in official
+circles there is that the Haushabi sultan had been suborned by the Turks
+without their knowledge and he had prevented any information from
+getting through Lahej to them. Can there be any more damning indictment
+of such a system?
+
+The Aden incident is similar to the Mesopotamian medical muddle, both
+being due to sporadic dry-rot in high places which the test of war
+revealed. The loyalty of its princes and the devotion of its army prove
+that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with British rule in India to
+command such sentiments, but some of those mandarins who have had wide
+control of human affairs and destinies have ignored a situation until it
+was forcibly thrust upon them and have fumbled with it disastrously. It
+is difficult to bring such people to book, for they shuffle
+responsibility from one to the other or take refuge in the truly
+oriental pose of heaven-born officialdom. Such types should be obsolete
+even in India by now, but this war has proved that they are not, and
+when their inanities fritter away gallant lives and trail British
+prestige in the dust they need rebuke. I hope some day, if I live, to
+deal faithfully with Aden's hinterland policy.
+
+In the autumn of 1915 I was fit enough to join the Red Sea maritime
+patrol as political officer with the naval rank of lieutenant. Our
+duties were to harry the Turk without hurting the Arab, to blockade the
+Arabian coast against the Turk while allowing dhow-traffic with
+foodstuffs consigned to Arab merchants and steamer-cargoes of food for
+the alleged use of pilgrims to go through. Incidentally we had to keep
+the eastern highway free of mines and transportable submarines, prevent
+the passage of spies between Arabia and Egypt, and fetch and carry as
+the shore-folk required.
+
+Taking it all round, it was not an easy job, but I think the blockade
+presented the most complex features. You knew where you were with
+spies--anyone with the necessary experience could spot a doubtful
+customer as soon as the dhow that carried him came alongside; and
+irregular but frequent visits at the various ports soon put a stop to
+the mine-industry and prevented any materialisation of the submarine
+menace except in reports from Aden which caused me a good many
+additional trips in an armed steam-cutter to "go, look, see."
+
+But the problems presented by the blockade required some solving with
+very little time for the operation, and if your solution was not
+approved by the authorities on the beach they lost no time in letting
+you know it--usually by wireless, which was picked up by most ships in
+the patrol by the time it reached you.
+
+The basic idea was that if in doubt it was better to let stuff through
+to the Turks than pinch Hejazi bellies and get ourselves disliked. In
+theory this was perfectly sound, for we wanted the Hejaz to like us well
+enough to fight on our side, and only the Huns think you can get people
+to love you by afflicting them. In practice, however, we soon found that
+the Hejazi merchants were selling direct to the Turks and letting their
+fellow-countrymen have what was left at the highest possible price. On
+top of it all India started a howl that her pilgrims in the Hejaz were
+starving, and we had to defer to this outcry. I have never had to
+legislate for highly-civilised Moslems with a taste for agitation, but I
+have always sympathised with those who have, and could quite appreciate
+India's position in the matter. Still, after comparing her relief
+cargoes with the number of her pilgrims in the country and finding that
+each had enough to feed him for the rest of his natural life, I ventured
+to ask that this wholesale charity might cease, more especially as these
+big steamer-cargoes were dealt with much as the dhow-borne cereals and
+chiefly benefited the Turks and local profiteers.
+
+As regards dhows, our rule was to allow coastal traffic from Jeddah and
+empties returning there, as it tended to distribute food among the Arabs
+and get it away from the Turks. Dhows bringing cargo from the African
+coast or from Aden were permitted, provided they did not carry
+contraband of war; this permitted native cereals, such as millet, but
+barred wheat and particularly barred barley, which the local Arab does
+not eat for choice, but which the Turks wanted very badly for their
+cavalry.
+
+In this connection a typical incident may be mentioned as illustrating
+the sort of thing we were up against.
+
+The ship I was serving in at the time lay off Jeddah and had three boats
+down picketing the dhow-channels leading in to that reef-girt harbour,
+for which dhows were making like homing bees. In such cases my post was
+usually on the bridge, while the ship's interpreter and Arab-speaking
+Seedee-boys went away in the boats. The dhows were reached and their
+papers examined, then allowed to proceed if all was in order. Otherwise
+the officer examining signalled the facts and awaited instructions.
+Usually it was some technical point which I could waive, but on this
+occasion one of the cutters made a signal to the effect that barley in
+bulk had been found in one dhow. I was puzzled, because all the dhows
+were from Suakin or further south, quite outside the barley-belt, except
+on very high ground which rarely exports cereals. However, the signal
+was repeated, and I had to have the dhow alongside. Meanwhile the
+"owner" was anxious to get steerage-way, for we were not at anchor and
+in very ticklish soundings; so I slid off the bridge and had a sample of
+the grain handed up to me: it was a species of millet, looking very like
+pearl-barley as "milled" for culinary purposes. I shouted to the _reis_
+to go where he liked as long as he kept clear of our propellers, which
+thereupon gave a ponderous flap or two as if to emphasise my remarks,
+and he bore away from us rejoicing. In the ward-room later on I rallied
+that cutter's officer on his error. "Well, it was just like the barley
+one sees in soup," was his defence.
+
+In the southern part of the Red Sea, which was handled politically from
+Aden, the problems of blockade were even more complex, for there even
+arms and ammunition were allowed between certain ports to meet the
+convenience of the Idrisi chief, who was theoretically at war with the
+Turks, but rather diffident about putting his principles into practice,
+especially after the Turkish success outside Aden.
+
+This meant that the sorely-tried officers responsible for the conduct
+of the blockade in those waters had frequently to decide on a cargo of
+illicit-looking rifles and cartridges, not of Government make, but
+purchased from private firms and guaranteed by a filthy scrap of paper
+inscribed with crabbed Arabic which carried no conviction. All they had
+to help them was the half-educated ship's interpreter, with no knowledge
+of the political situation, for Aden had not an officer available for
+this work. To enhance the difficulties of the position, some of these
+coastal chiefs were importing contraband of war to sell to the Turks for
+private gain. Up north there were no difficulties with illicit arms; we
+allowed a reasonable number per dhow, provided that they were the
+private property of the crew, and when rifles were dished out to our
+Arab friends the Navy delivered the goods, which were all of Government
+mark and pattern.
+
+The political aspect of the blockade required delicate handling anywhere
+along the Arabian littoral of the Red Sea, but especially so on the
+Hejazi coast. We were at war with the Turks but not with the Arabs, whom
+it was our business to approach as friends if they would let us. The
+Turks, however, used Arab levies freely against us whose truculence was
+much increased on finding they could make hostile demonstrations with
+impunity, as the patrol only fired on the Turkish uniform, since few
+people can distinguish between a Turco-Arab gendarme and an armed
+tribesman at long range unless they know both breeds intimately.
+
+The general standard of honour and good faith at most places along the
+Arabian littoral is not high, even from an Oriental point of view, and
+is nowhere lower than on the Hejazi coast. Frequently an unattached
+tribesman would take a shot at a reconnoitring cutter on general
+principles and then rush off to the nearest Turkish post with the
+information and a demand for bakshish, and there were several attempts
+(one successful) to lure a landing party on to a well-manned but
+carefully hidden position. As for the actual levies, they would solemnly
+man prepared positions within easy range of even a 3-pounder when we
+visited their tinpot ports, relying on us not to fire, and telling their
+compatriots what they would do if we did.
+
+Even when examining dhows one had to be on one's guard, and it was best
+not to board them to leeward and so run the risk of having their big,
+bellying mainsail let go on top of you and getting scuppered while
+entangled in its folds. African dhows could generally be trusted not to
+resist search, for when a _reis_ has got his owners or agents at a
+civilised port like Suakin he likes to keep respectable even if he _is_
+smuggling. Our chief difficulty with such craft, before we tightened the
+blockade, was due to the nonchalant manner in which they put to sea and
+behaved when at sea. Their skippers had the sketchiest idea of what
+constituted proper clearance papers and why such papers must agree with
+their present voyage. Their confidence too in our integrity, though
+touching, was often embarrassing. One of our rules was that considerable
+sums in gold must be given up against a signed voucher realisable at
+Port Sudan. I was never very brisk at counting large sums of money, and
+one day when hove to off Jeddah there were five dhows rubbing their
+noses alongside, with about £800 in gold between them and very little
+time to deal with them, as we were in shoal water with no way on the
+ship. My operations were not facilitated by the biggest Croesus of the
+lot producing some £400 in five different currencies from various parts
+of his apparel and stating that he had no idea how much there was but
+would abide by my decision. I believe he expected me to give him a
+receipt in round hundreds and take the "oddment," as we call it in
+Warwickshire, for myself. As it was, I was down half a sovereign or so
+over the transaction, having given him the benefit of the doubt over
+two measly little gold coins of unascertainable value.
+
+Some of them were just as happy-go-lucky in their seamanship, though
+skilful enough in handling their outlandish craft. Early one morning,
+about fifty miles out of Jeddah, I boarded a becalmed dhow and found
+them with the dregs of one empty water-skin between a dozen men. Not
+content with putting to sea with a single _mussick_ of water, they had
+hove to and slept all night, and so dropped the night breeze, which
+would have carried them to Jeddah before it died down. We gave them
+water and their position, but I told the _reis_ that he was putting more
+strain on the mercy of Allah than he was, individually, entitled to.
+
+But the craft that plied along the Hejazi coast were sinister customers
+and wanted watching. Some time before I joined the patrol one of our
+ships was lying a long way out off Um-Lejj, as the water is shallow, and
+her duty-boat was working close in-shore examining coastal craft. One of
+these had some irregularity about her and was sent out to the ship with
+a marine and a bluejacket in charge while the cutter continued her task.
+That dhow stood out to sea as if making for the ship and then proceeded
+along the coast. The cutter, still busied with other dhows, presumed
+that the first craft had reported alongside the ship and been allowed to
+proceed; the ship naturally regarded her as a craft that had been
+examined and permitted to continue her journey. And that is all we ever
+knew for certain of her or the fate of our two men. Their previous
+record puts desertion out of the question; besides, no sane men would
+desert to a barren, inhospitable coast among semi-hostile fanatics whose
+language was unknown to them. On the other hand, the men were, of
+course, fully armed, and there were but five of the dhow's crew all
+told, of whom two were not able-bodied. There must have been the
+blackest treachery--probably the unfortunate men goodnaturedly helped
+with the running gear and were knocked on the head while so engaged.
+Their bodies would, no doubt, have been put over the side when the dhow
+was out of sight, and their rifles sold inland at a fancy price.
+
+When I first joined the patrol we were not allowed to bombard or land at
+any point between the mouth of the Gulf of Akaba and the Hejaz southern
+border. The Turkish fort up at Akaba had been knocked about a good deal
+by various ships of the patrol, and the whole place was uninhabited; but
+we visited it frequently, as drifting mines were put in up there,
+having been taken off the rail at Maan and brought down to the head of
+the gulf, in section, by camel. I always suspected the existence of a
+Turkish observation-post, but no signs of occupation had been seen for a
+long time till H.M.S. "Fox" went up one dark night without a light
+showing. All dead-lights were shipped, and dark blue electric bulbs
+replaced the usual ones where a light of some sort was essential and
+visible from out-board. The padre, who had opened the "vicarage"
+dead-light about an inch to get a breath of air, was promptly spotted by
+an indignant Number One who said that it made the ship look like a
+floating gin palace. This must have been a pardonable hyperbole, for the
+signal-fires ashore which used to herald our approach from afar were not
+lit.
+
+We were off Akaba at peep of day, and two armed cutters raced each other
+to the beach. I went with the one that made for the stone jetty in the
+middle front of the town; we had to jump out into four feet of water, as
+the port has deteriorated a good deal since Solomon used it and called
+it Eziongeber. A careful search revealed no one in the town, but water
+had been drawn recently from the well inside the fort, and a mud hut out
+in the desert behind the town seemed a likely covert to draw.
+
+The cutter's officer accompanied me, leaving the crew ensconced in the
+cemetery, which was a wise move, for, when we were close to the hut,
+heavy fire was opened on us from a hidden trench some three hundred
+yards away. We both dropped and rolled into a shallow depression caused
+by rain-wash, where we lay as flat as we could while the flat-nosed soft
+lead bullets kicked sand and shingle down the backs of our necks. As we
+had only revolvers--expecting resistance, if any, to be made among the
+houses--we could not reply, but the ship handed out a few rounds of
+percussion shrapnel which shook the Turks up enough for us to withdraw.
+Fortunately for us, they were using black powder, and outside four
+hundred yards one has time to avoid the bullet by dropping instantly at
+the smoke. Otherwise they should have bagged us in spite of the support
+of our covering party in the cemetery, for the ground was quite open and
+so dusty that they could see the break of their heavy picket-bullets to
+a nicety.
+
+We landed in force an hour later and turned them out of it. On
+returning, the men who searched the hut (which the ship's guns had
+knocked endways) brought me a budget of correspondence. It was chiefly
+addressed to the officer in charge and told me that the detachment was
+Syrian, which I had already suspected from their using the early pattern
+Mauser. It gave other useful information, and the men did well to bring
+it along; but I would have given much to have found some channel through
+which I could return it. Most of it was private; there were several
+congratulatory cards crudely illuminated in colours by hand for the
+feast of Muled-en-Nebi (the birthday of the Prophet), which corresponds
+with our Christmas. There was also a letter from the officer's wife
+enclosing a half-sheet of paper on which a baby hand had imprinted a
+smeared outline in ink. It bore the inscription "From your son
+Ahmed--his hand and greeting."
+
+Early in the spring of 1916 we managed to persuade the political folk at
+Cairo to extend our sphere of action. I had particularly marked down
+Um-Lejj as containing a well-manned Turkish fort which could be knocked
+about without damaging other buildings in the town if we were careful.
+It was also a rallying-point for Turkish influence, and it was not
+conducive to our prestige or politically desirable that it should
+flourish unmolested.
+
+I was in the "Fox" again for that occasion, she being the senior ship of
+the patrol and the only one that could land an adequate force if
+required.
+
+The evening before we anchored far out on the fishing-grounds of Hasani
+Island, and I managed to pick up a fisherman who knew where the Turkish
+hidden position was, outside the town, and, having been held a prisoner
+once in their Customs building, could point that out too. Next morning
+we stood slowly in for Um-Lejj with the steam-cutter groping ahead for
+the channel, which is about as tortuous a piece of navigation as you can
+get off this coast, and that is saying a good deal.
+
+When we cleared for action I went to my usual post on the bridge with
+the S.N.O. and took my fisherman-friend with me. The civil population
+was streaming out of the town across the open plain in all directions
+like ants from an over-turned ant-hill, probably realising that we meant
+business this time. This was all to the good, as otherwise I should have
+had to go close in with the steam-cutter, a white flag and a megaphone
+to warn Arab civilians; thus giving the Turks time to clear, besides the
+chance of a sitting-shot at us if they thought my address to the
+townsfolk a violation of the rules of war, which, technically, it might
+be.
+
+However, the fort was a fixture and our business was first of all with
+it. Standing close in, the ship turned southwards and moved slowly
+abreast of the town. The port battery of four-point-sevens loaded with
+H.E. and the two six-inchers fore and aft swung out-board and followed
+suit. The occasion called for fine shooting, as a minaret rose just to
+the right of the fort, and the houses were so massed about it that there
+was only one clear shot--up the street leading from the beach past the
+main gate.
+
+"At the southern gate of the fort, each gun to fire as it comes to bear
+up the street from the water-side."
+
+As I turned my glasses on the big portico of the southern gate, out
+stepped a Turkish officer who regarded us intently; the next instant the
+bridge shook to the crashing concussion of our forward six-inch, and
+through a drifting haze of gas-fume I saw him blotted out by the orange
+flash of lyddite and an up-flung pall of dust and _débris_.
+
+There was a pause, cut short by the clap of the bursting shell
+reverberating like thunder against the foot-hills beyond the town.
+
+A little naked boy ran in an attitude of terrified dismay up the
+water-street just as the first four-point-seven fired. I saw him through
+my glasses duck his head between his arms, then dive panic-stricken
+through a doorway as the fort was smitten again in dust and thunder.
+"Was the poor little beggar hit?"
+
+"No, sir, only scared."
+
+While the target was still veiled in its dust the second four-point-seven
+spoke, and the minaret disappeared from view behind a dun-coloured
+shroud.
+
+"Cease fire" sounded at once. "Who fired that gun? Take him off," came
+in tones of stern rebuke from the bridge. Luckily the minaret showed
+intact as the dust drifted clear and firing continued.
+
+As the fort crumbled under our guns, Turkish soldiers began to break
+cover at various points of the town and fled across the plain. The
+cutter, in-shore, opened with Maxim-fire, and so accurately that we
+could see the sombre-clad figures lying here and there or seeking
+frantically for cover, while an Arab in their vicinity, leading a
+leisurely camel, continued his stroll inland unperturbed. We drove the
+main body out of their hidden position and into the hills with
+well-timed shrapnel, and finished up by demolishing the Customs (where a
+lot of ammunition blew up), to the temporary satisfaction of my
+fisherman, who was curled up in a corner of the bridge, nearly stunned
+by the shock of modern ordnance in spite of the cotton-wool I had made
+him put in his ears. Before we picked up our cutter the civil population
+was already streaming back.
+
+The incident is worth noting in view of remarks made by a popular
+fiction-monger in one of his latest works, that indiscriminate aerial
+raids on civil centres in England are on the same level of humanity as
+naval bombardments.
+
+I visited the fishing-banks off Hasani Island a week or so after to get
+the latest news of Um-Lejj, which came from Turkish sources. There was
+one civilian casualty--a woman who was in the Turkish concealed
+position. No casualties among Turkish officers, but one of them left in
+charge of the fort had disappeared. There were bits of the fort left,
+but the Commandant had moved his headquarters to the school-house within
+the precincts of the mosque--sagacious soul. The object-lesson which we
+gave the Arabs at Um-Lejj put a check to their irresponsible sniping of
+boats and landing-parties, though one could always expect a little
+trouble with an Arab dhow running contraband for the Turks. In these
+cases their guilty consciences usually gave them away. Returning to the
+coast toward Jeddah unexpectedly, having played the well-worn ruse of
+"the cat's away," we sighted a small dhow close in-shore, and should
+have left her alone as she was in shoal-water, but, on standing in to
+get a nearer view of her, she headed promptly for the beach and ran
+aground, disgorging more men than such a craft should carry.
+
+I went away in the duty cutter to investigate, and we had barely
+realised that she was heavily loaded with kerosene in tins (a heinous
+contraband) when the fact was emphasised by a sputtering rifle-fire from
+the scrub along the beach. The ship very soon put a stop to that
+demonstration with a round or two of shrapnel, while we busied ourselves
+with the dhow. There was no hope of salving her, as she had almost
+ripped the keel off her when she took the ground and sat on the bottom
+like a dilapidated basket. We broached enough tins to start a
+conflagration, lit a fuse made of a strip of old turban soaked in
+kerosene, and backed hard from her vicinity, for the kerosene was
+low-flash common stuff as marked on the cases, and to play at snapdragon
+in half an acre of blazing oil is an uninviting pastime. However, she
+just flared without exploding, and we continued our cruise up the coast
+just in time to overhaul at racing speed a perfect regatta of dhows
+heeling over to every stitch of canvas in their efforts to make Jeddah
+before we could get at them, for they had seen the smoke of that burning
+oil-dhow and realised that the cat was about. Good money is paid at
+Cowes to see no more spirited sailing--we had to put a shot across the
+bows of the leading dhow before they would abandon the race.
+
+There was always trouble off Jeddah--the approaches to that reef-girt
+harbour lend themselves to blockade-running dhows with sound local
+knowledge on board. At night, especially, they had an advantage and
+would play "Puss-in-the-Corner" until the cutter lost patience, and a
+flickering pin-point of light stabbed the velvet black of the middle
+watch, asking permission to fire; one rifle-shot fired high would stop
+the game, and I made them come alongside and take a wigging for annoying
+the cutter and turning me out; there was seldom anything wrong about the
+dhow--it was sheer cussedness.
+
+All through the early part of 1916 we were keeping in touch with the
+Sharif of Mecca by means of envoys, whom we landed where they listed,
+away from the Turks, picking them up at times and places indicated by
+them. Sharif Husein had long chafed under Turkish suzerainty, in spite
+of his subsidy and the deference which policy compelled them to accord
+him. He knew that the Hejaz could never realise its legitimate
+aspirations under Ottoman rule, which was a blight on all Arab progress
+and prosperity, as the Young Turkish party was hardly Moslem at heart,
+being more national (that is Tartar)--certainly not pro-Arab.
+
+Husein's difficulty was to get his own people to rise together and throw
+off the Turkish yoke, for the Hejazi tribesman, especially between the
+coast and Mecca, has long been more of a brigand than a warrior, as any
+pilgrim will tell you. Such folk are apt to jib at hammer-and-tongs
+fighting, and of course we could not land troops to assist them, as it
+would have violated the sacred soil that cradled Islam and merely
+stiffened the bogus _jihad_ which the Turks had proclaimed against us,
+besides compromising the Sharif with his own tribesmen.
+
+The Hejazis' ingenuous idea was to go on taking money from us, the Turks
+and the Sharif, while--thanks to our lenient blockade--a regular
+dhow-traffic fed them. We did not approve of this Utopian policy, and
+the fall of Kut brought matters to a climax. After certain
+communications had passed between the representatives of His Majesty's
+Government and the Sharif, it was decided to tighten the blockade and so
+induce the gentle Hejazi to declare himself. The day was fixed, May, 15,
+on and after which date no traffic whatever was to be permitted with the
+Arabian coast other than that specially sanctioned by Government. In
+palaver thereon I managed to get local fishing-craft exempted. The
+fisher-folk are not combatants either on empty stomachs or full ones,
+and could be relied on to consume their own fish in that climate unless
+very close to a market, where the pinch would be great enough to make
+them exchange it for foodstuffs, thus helping the situation we wished to
+bring about. I knew that all _bona fide_ fishing-craft were easily
+recognisable by their rig and comparatively small size, and hoped that
+good will would combine with freedom of movement to make these folk
+useful agents for Intelligence.
+
+I heard with some relief that the movements of the patrol would place
+H.M.S. "Hardinge" (a roomy ship of the Indian Marine) on station duty
+off Jeddah, which was to be my post while the enhanced blockade was in
+force--there are few more trying seasons than early summer in those
+waters. I joined her from Suez the day after the blockade was closed,
+and found her keeping guard over a perfect fleet of dhows. There were
+about three dozen craft with over three hundred people on board, for
+many native passengers were trying to make Jeddah before we shut down.
+The feckless mariners in charge had made the usual oriental calculation
+that a day more or less did not matter, but found to their horror that
+the Navy was more precise on these points--and there they were.
+
+The first thing to ensure was that the crew, and especially the
+passengers, among whom were a good many women and children, did not
+suffer from privation. This had already been ably seen to by the ship's
+officers--I merely went round the fleet to sift any genuine complaints
+from the discontent natural to the situation in which their own
+slackness had placed them. I insisted on hearing only one complaint at a
+time, otherwise it would have been pandemonium afloat, for they were
+anchored close enough together to converse with each other; vociferous
+excuses for their unpunctuality were brushed aside, legitimate requests
+for more water or food or condensed milk for the children or more
+adequate shelter for the women from the sun were attended to at once,
+and our floating village quieted down.
+
+The craft were all much the same type of small dhow or _sanbuk_ which
+frequents the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, having little in common with
+the big-bellied buggalows which ply with rice and dates between the
+Persian Gulf and Indian ports but do not come into the Red Sea. These
+were much smaller and saucier-looking craft, some fifty to eighty feet
+long, with a turn of speed and raking masts. All were lugger-rigged
+with lateen sails, and only the poop and bows were decked, the bulwarks
+being heightened with strips of matting to prevent seas from breaking
+in-board. Sanitary arrangements were provided for by a box-like
+cubby-hole over-hanging the boat's side; inexperienced officers often
+take it for a vantage-point to heave the lead from, and only find out
+too late after attempting to board there, that things are not always
+what they seem.
+
+These little vessels are practically the corsair type of Saracenic
+sailing-galley which used to infest the Barbary coast in days gone by.
+They do everything different from our occidental methods. For example,
+they reef and furl their tall lateens from the peak, and have to send a
+man up the long tapering gaff to do it. Their masts rake forward and not
+aft, which enables them to swing gaff, sail, and sheet round in front of
+the mast when they come about, instead of keeping the sheet aft and
+dipping the butt of the gaff with the sail to the other side of the
+mast, which would be an impossibility for that rig, as the butt of their
+enormous mainyard or gaff is bowsed permanently down in the bows, while
+the soaring peak may be nearly a hundred feet above the water. Cooking
+was done over charcoal in a kerosene tin half full of sand, and the
+"first-class" passengers lived under an improvised awning on the poop,
+the women's quarters being under that gim-crack structure. All the same,
+they are good sea-boats and remarkably fast, especially _on_ a wind,
+quite unlike the big-decked buggalows which are built for cargo capacity
+and have real cabins aft but sail like a haystack on a barge.
+
+It was inhuman (as well as an infernal nuisance) to keep all those
+people sweltering indefinitely at sea; on the other hand, our orders as
+to the strict maintenance of the blockade were explicit. The "owner" and
+I conferred and decided that the situation could be met by transferring
+their cargo to the ship and letting the dhows beach. This was referred
+and approved by wireless. The job took us some days, as the weather was
+rather unfavourable and all the cargoes had to be checked by manifest
+with a view to restitution later. Each dhow as she was cleared had to
+make for the shore and dismast or beach so that she could not steal out
+at night and add to the difficulties of the blockade. None attempted to
+evade this order, most carried out both alternatives; perhaps a casual
+reminder that they would be within observation and gun-fire of the ship
+had some influence on their action.
+
+Hitherto the Turco-Teutonic brand of Holy War had been fairly
+successful. The Allied thrust at the Dardanelles and Gallipoli had
+failed, the Aden Protectorate was in Turkish hands, we had spent a most
+unpleasant Easter in Sinai, and Kut had fallen. Still, the Turks were
+soon to realise that a wrongly-invoked _jihad_, like a mishandled
+musket, can recoil heavily, and, before the end of May, signs were not
+wanting that trouble was brewing for them in the Hejaz.
+
+We were in close touch with the shore through fishing-canoes by day and
+secret emissaries by night, who brought us news that some German
+"officers" had been done to death by Hejazi tribesmen some eight hours'
+journey north of Jeddah. They had evidently been first over-powered and
+bound, then stabbed in the stomach with the huge two-handed dagger which
+the Hejazis use, and finally decapitated, as a Turkish rescue party
+which hurried to the spot found their headless and practically
+disembowelled corpses with their hands tied behind them. Their effects
+came through our hands in due course, and we ascertained that the party
+consisted of Lieut.-Commander von Moeller (late of a German gunboat
+interned at Tsing-Tao) and five reservists whom he had picked up in
+Java. They had landed on the South Arabian coast in March, had visited
+Sanaa, the capital of Yamen, and had come up the Arabian coast of the
+Red Sea by dhow, keeping well inside the Farsan bank, which is three
+hundred miles long and a serious obstacle to patrol work. They had landed
+at Konfida, north of the bank, and reached Jeddah by camel on May 5.
+Against the advice of the Turks they continued their journey by land,
+as they had no chance of eluding our northern patrol at sea. They were
+more than a year too late to emulate the gallant (and lucky) "Odyssey"
+of the Emden's landing-party from Cocos Islands up the Red Sea coast in
+the days when our blockade was more lenient and did not interfere with
+coasting craft. They hoped to reach Maan and so get on the rail for
+Stamboul and back to Germany, as the Sharif would not sanction their
+coming to the sacred city of Medina, which is the rail-head for the
+Damascus-Hejaz railway. After so staunch a journey they deserved a
+better fate. Among their kit was a tattered and blood-stained copy of my
+book on the Aden hinterland.[A]
+
+Meanwhile affairs ashore were simmering to boiling-point, and on the
+night of June 9 we commenced a bombardment of carefully located Turkish
+positions, firing by "director" to co-operate with an Arab attack which
+was due then but did not materialise till early next morning, and was
+then but feebly delivered. We found out later that the rifles and
+ammunition we had delivered on the beach some distance south of Jeddah
+to the Sharif's agents in support of this attack had been partly
+diverted to Mecca and partly hung up by a squabble with their own
+camel-men for more cash.
+
+We continued the bombardment on the night of the 11th and were in action
+most of the day on the 12th, shelling the Turkish positions north of
+Jeddah, which we had located by glass and the co-operation of friendly
+fishing-craft who gave us the direction by signal. During the morning
+the Hejazis made an abortive and aimless attack along the beach north of
+Jeddah, and so masked our own supporting fire, while the Turks gave them
+more than they wanted.
+
+By this time the senior ship and others had joined us, and the S.N.O.
+approved of my landing with a party of Indian signallers to maintain
+closer touch with their operations, provided that Arab headquarters
+would guarantee our safety as regards their own people. This they were
+unable to do.
+
+The bombardment grew more and more strenuous and searching as other
+ships joined in and our knowledge of the Turkish positions became more
+accurate. On the 15th it culminated with the arrival of a seaplane
+carrier and heavy bombing of the Ottoman trenches which our
+flat-trajectory naval guns could hardly reach. The white flag went up
+before sunset, and next day there were _pourparlers_ which led to an
+unconditional surrender on June 17, 1916.
+
+Mecca had fallen just before, and Taif surrendered soon after, leaving
+Medina as the only important town still held by the Turks in the Hejaz.
+
+We began pouring food and munitions into Jeddah as soon as it changed
+hands; for the rest of this cruise my ship was a sort of
+parcels-delivery van, and when the parcel happens to be an Egyptian
+mountain battery its delivery is an undertaking.
+
+My personal contact with the Turks and their ill-omened _jihad_ ended
+soon after, as I was invalided from service afloat, but I kept in touch
+as an Intelligence-wallah on the beach and followed the rest of it with
+interest.
+
+They got Holy War with a vengeance. The Sharif's sons (more especially
+the Emirs Feisal and Abdullah, who had been trained at the Stamboul
+Military Academy), ably assisted by zealous and skilled British officers
+as mine-planters and aerial bombers, harried outlying posts and the
+Hejaz railway line north of Medina incessantly.
+
+The Turkish positions at Wejh fell to the Red Sea flotilla, reinforced
+by the flagship. I should like to have been there, if only to have seen
+the Admiral sail in to the proceedings with a revolver in his fist and
+the _élan_ of a sub-lieutenant. The Hejazis failed to synchronise, as
+usual, so the Navy dispensed with their support.
+
+On February 24, 1917, Kut was wrested from the Turks again; on March 11
+they lost Baghdad; on November 7 their Beersheba-Gaza front was
+shattered, and Jerusalem fell on December 9.
+
+Early next year Jericho was captured (February 21), a British column
+from Baghdad reached the Caspian in August, and after a final,
+victorious British offensive in Palestine the unholy alliance of Turkish
+pan-Islamism and German _Kultur_ got its death-blow when Emir Feisal
+galloped into Damascus.
+
+The Turks had drawn the blade of _jihad_ from its pan-Islamic scabbard
+in vain; its German trade-mark was plainly stamped on it. There had been
+widespread organisation against us, and the serpent's eggs of sedition
+and revolt had been hatched in centres scattered all over the eastern
+hemisphere, but their venomous progeny had been crushed before they
+became formidable.
+
+As a world-force this band of pan-Islamism had failed because it had
+been invoked by the wrong people for a wrong purpose. Such a movement
+should at least have as its driving power some great spiritual crisis:
+this Turco-German manifestation of it had its origin in self-interest,
+and if successful would have immolated Arabia on the demoniac altar of
+_Weltpolitik_. Seyid Muhammed er-Rashid Ridha, a descendant of the
+Prophet and one of the greatest Arab theologians living, has voiced the
+verdict of Islam on this unscrupulous and self-seeking adventure in a
+trenchant article published in September, 1916. He showed up Enver and
+his Unionist party as an atheist among atheists who had deprived the
+Sultan of his rightful power and Islam of its religious head, and
+contrasted their conduct with that of the British, who exempted the
+Hejaz from the blockade enforced against the rest of the Ottoman Empire
+until it became quite clear that the Turks were benefiting chiefly by
+that exemption, and who, out of respect for the holy places of Islam,
+refrained from making that country a theatre of war.
+
+True to the Teutonic tradition, the movement had been laboriously
+organised, but lacked psychic insight, for the Turk is too much of a
+Tartar and too little of a Moslem to appreciate the Arab mind, and the
+German ignored it, rooting with eager, guttural grunts among the
+carefully cultivated religious prejudices of Islam like a hog hunting
+truffles until whacked out of it by the irate cultivators.
+
+The following incident may serve to illustrate their crude tactics. Soon
+after the Turks came into the war the mullah of the principal mosque at
+Damascus was told to announce _jihad_ against the British from his
+pulpit on the following Friday in accordance with an order from the
+Grand Mufti at Stamboul. The poor man appears to have jibbed
+considerably and sent his family over the Nejd border to be out of reach
+of Turkish persecution. Finally he decided to conform, but when he
+climbed the steps of his "minbar" and scanned his congregation he saw a
+group of German officers wearing tarboushes with a look of almost
+porcine complacency. His fear fell from him in a gust of rage and he
+spoke somewhat as follows: "I am ordered to proclaim _jihad_. A _jihad_,
+as you know, is a Holy War to protect our Holy Places against infidels.
+This being so, what are these infidel _pigs_ doing in our mosque?"
+
+There was a most unseemly scuffle; the Turco-German contingent tried to
+seize the mullah; the Arab congregation defended him strenuously from
+arrest. In the confusion that worthy man got clear away and joined his
+family in Nejd. _Jihad_ is incumbent on all Moslems if against infidel
+aggression. We stood on the defensive when the Turks first attacked us
+on the Canal, and when we finally overran Palestine and Syria it was in
+co-operation with the Arabs, who have more right there than the Turks.
+
+Those who forged the blade of this counterfeit _jihad_ could not temper
+it in the flame of religious fervour, and it shattered against the
+shield of religious tolerance and good faith: we make mistakes, but can
+honestly claim those two virtues.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote A: "The Land of Uz," Macmillan.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
+
+
+To gauge the strength or weakness of pan-Islam as a world-force we may
+best compare it with its great militant rival, the Christian Church,
+choosing common ground as the only sound basis of comparison, and
+remembering that it is pan-Islam we are examining rather than Islam
+itself--the tree, not the root; and though we cannot study the one
+without considering the other, Islam has already been extensively
+discussed by men better qualified than myself to deal with it: the
+requirements of this work only call for comparison so far as the
+driving-power of pan-Islam is concerned as a material force.
+
+First of all we must discard common factors. I set the great Shiah
+schism against the Catholic Church (omitting the word "Roman" as a
+contradiction in terms) and cancel both for the purposes of comparison.
+Catholicism, is not, of course, schismatic, otherwise there are points
+of resemblance, such as observances of saints and shrines, which have
+permeated the other sects to a certain extent; also the degree of
+antagonism is about the same. Therefore we can ignore the Catholic
+Church in this chapter, and when we are talking of pan-Islam we should
+consider it a Sunnite (or Orthodox) movement, and count the Shiites out,
+as they do not even recognise the same centre of pilgrimage.
+
+Perhaps the strongest factor in pan-Islam as a political movement or a
+world-wide fellowship is the Meccan pilgrimage. I have already alluded
+to its cosmopolitan nature in the previous chapter, but never realised
+it so much till after the surrender of Jeddah, when stately Bokhariots,
+jabbering Javanese, Malays, Chinese, Russians, American citizens and
+South Africans were among those who beset me as stranded pilgrims. This
+implies a very wide sphere of influence, against which we can only set
+the well-known immorality and greed which pilgrims complain of at Mecca;
+a huge influx of cosmopolitan visitors to _any_ centre will generally
+cause such abuses. On the feast of Arafat there are normally 100,000
+pilgrims in the Meccan area who represent 100 million orthodox Moslems
+throughout the world, while the actual population of the city is only
+50,000.
+
+The Arabic language is another strong bond of brotherhood in Islam. I do
+not mean to say that it is generally "understanded of the people," any
+more than Latin is throughout the Catholic world; but it is the language
+of most Sunnites and is moderately understood in Somaliland, East
+Africa, Java and the Malay peninsula as the language of the Koran; in
+fact, it is the only written language in Somaliland, and Turkey uses the
+script though not the tongue.
+
+The daily observances of prayer, with their simple but obligatory
+ceremonial, and the yearly fast for the month of Ramadhan unite Moslems
+with the common ties of duty and hardship, as in the comradeship which
+sailors and soldiers have for each other throughout the world.
+
+Then, again, there is no colour-line in Islam; a negro may rise to place
+and power (he often does), and usually enjoys the intimate confidence of
+his master as not readily amenable to local intrigue. Difference of
+nationality is not stressed except by the Young Turks, who have slighted
+Semitic Moslems to their own undoing. Contrast this attitude with our
+Church and estimate the precise amount of Christian brotherhood between
+an Orthodox Greek, a Welsh Wesleyan, an Ethiopian priest, a Scotch
+Presbyterian, and an Anglican bishop (since the Kikuyu heresy). Even
+within the narrow limits of one sect there is nothing like the
+fellowship one finds in secular societies. Which is the stronger appeal,
+"Anglican communicant" or "Freemason"? Is a cross or the quadrant and
+compasses the more potent charm?
+
+Arabs credit us Christians with a much stronger bond of sympathy between
+co-religionists than is actually the case. It is true that those who
+come into any sort of contact with us realise that there is a distinct
+difference in form of worship and sentiment between Catholics (whom they
+call _Christyân_) and Protestants (or _Nasâra_), but I shall not readily
+forget the extraordinary conduct of a Hejazi who boarded us off Jeddah
+with some of the effects belonging to the murdered Germans mentioned in
+the previous chapter. He must have had the firm conviction that we
+Christians would avenge the killing of other Christians by Moslems, for
+he merely told me that he had in his possession certain property of the
+_Allemani_, and I told him that he would be suitably rewarded on
+producing it; I found out later that he had boasted to our ship's
+interpreter (a Mussulman) that he was one of the slayers, and it
+occurred to me that if that were the case he might be able to give me
+further information, or perhaps produce papers of theirs which might
+appear valueless to him but would be of interest to us. I interviewed
+him on deck and suggested this, reminding him of what he had told the
+interpreter, but laying no stress on the deed he had confessed, for it
+was outside our jurisdiction and no concern of mine.
+
+"Papers?" he said. "By all means, I will go and fetch them," and
+breaking from my light hold of his sleeve he flickered over the rail and
+dropped into the sea some thirty feet below. Two armed marines stepped
+to the rail with a clatter of breech-bolts and looked inquiringly at me.
+Meanwhile my bold murderer was calling on his God, for he wore a full
+bandoleer, which was weighing him down. Out darted a fishing-canoe from
+under our quarter and made for him, but its occupants took the hint I
+conveyed through a megaphone and confined their efforts to saving him
+for the duty-cutter to pick up.
+
+He was brought before me dripping wet, with the fear of death in his
+eyes. I thought this was due to the foolish risk he had taken, and spoke
+in gentle reproof of his conduct, pointing out that if any boat had been
+alongside where he leaped he would have met with a bad accident. To my
+surprise he fell at my feet and scrabbled at my clean white shoes,
+imploring me to spare his life. I put him down as somewhat mad, and
+asked "Number One" to put a sentry over him to see that he did not
+repeat his attempt to avoid our acquaintance. He clung to me like a
+limpet and had to be removed by force, with despairing entreaties for
+mercy, disregarding my still puzzled assurances as to his personal
+safety. I learned afterwards his true reason for alarm; he thought that
+after leaving my presence he would be quietly made away with in
+traditional Eastern style.
+
+Another very strong feature of pan-Islam is the consistency of the creed
+from which it grows. I do not necessarily imply that Islam itself is
+benefited thereby, for consistency sometimes means narrowness, and we
+are not considering creeds; but there is no doubt about the dynamic
+force of a movement based on a religion which is sure of itself. A
+Moslem has one authorised version of the Koran, and only one; his simple
+creed is contained in its first chapter and is as short as the Lord's
+Prayer, which it somewhat resembles in style. Praising God as the Lord
+of the worlds (not only of this world of ours), it attributes to Him
+mercy and clemency with supreme power over the Day of Judgment and is an
+avowal of worship and service. Its only petition is to be led in the way
+of the righteous, avoiding errors that incur His wrath. Contrast this
+with the many confusing aspects of Christianity. Perhaps diverse
+opinions tend to purify and invigorate a creed, but they certainly do
+not strengthen the cohesion of any secular movement based on it.
+
+Then, again, the Moslem conception of God and the hereafter stiffens the
+backbone of pan-Islam in adversity. They are taught to believe that He is
+_really_ omnipotent and that His actions are beyond criticism--welfare
+and affliction being alike acceptable as His will. We, on the other hand,
+seem to be developing the theory of a finite God warring against, and
+occasionally overcome by, evil, which includes (in this new thesis) human
+suffering and sorrow as well as sin. There is a growing idea, pioneered
+partly by Mr. H. G. Wells and apparently supported by many of the clergy,
+that the acts of God must square with human ideals of mercy or justice,
+and as many occurrences do not, the inference is that evil gets the best
+of it sometimes. Now the Moslem slogan is "Allah Akbar" (God is Greatest),
+and that seems to me a better battle-cry than, for example, "Gott mit
+uns," as God will still be great and invincible to Moslems in their
+victory or defeat; but the finite idea presumes, in disaster, that you
+and your God have been defeated together. It is not my business to
+criticise either conception from a religious point of view, but in
+mundane affairs it is the former that will make for fighting force,
+especially as we still insist that our God is a jealous God, visiting the
+sins of the fathers, etc.: surely this is not a human ideal of justice;
+the obvious deduction is that our modern Deity is stronger to punish than
+protect--hardly an encouraging attribute.
+
+Whether a religion is the better for an organised priesthood or not is
+irrelevant to our subject, but the absence of it in Islam certainly
+strengthens the pan-Islamic movement, as each Moslem may consider
+himself a standard-bearer of his faith, while we are apt to leave too
+much to our priests, thus engendering slackness on our part and
+meticulous dogma on theirs; both undermine Christian brotherhood. The
+fact that priestly stipends seem to the ordinary layman as in inverse
+ratio to the duties performed also widens the breach between clergy and
+laity, besides sapping clerical _moral_. This is not the particular
+feature of any one sect--the reader can supply cases within his own
+experience, but here is one that is probably outside it and showing how
+widespread the system is. The rank and file of the Greek Orthodox clergy
+are notoriously ill-paid. Yet their monastery at Jerusalem costs
+£E.15,000 per annum to maintain and pays £E.40,000 annually in clerical
+salaries to archbishops and clergy who control the spiritual affairs of
+less than fifteen thousand people. It derives £E.30,000 from its
+property in Russia, £E.25,000 from the property of the Holy Sepulchre,
+and as much again from visitors and other sources; and this in a region
+where the Founder of our faith was content to wander with less certainty
+of shelter than the wild creatures of the countryside.
+
+Incidentally, the monastery seems to have been unable to curtail its
+expenditure during the War, for it has accumulated debts to the amount
+of £E.600,000, most of its sources of income having ceased for the time.
+I quote from current newspapers. Blame does not necessarily attach to
+the monastery or its administrators, who may have done their best to
+fulfill their obligations under adverse circumstances; I would merely
+draw attention to the incongruity of the whole system as regards a
+universal brotherhood based on Christian teaching. There are no such
+exotic growths to impede the march of pan-Islam.
+
+So much for the strength of the pan-Islamic movement. Now let us
+consider its weak points.
+
+To begin with, the gross abuse of pan-Islam by interested parties for
+non-spiritual ends during the War has done the genuine movement harm.
+That lying, political appeal to _jihad_ has made thinking Moslems
+mistrust the infallibility of organised pan-Islam, of which the
+culminating expression is Holy War, one of the most sacred Mussulman
+duties if justly invoked. We Christians do not make such mistakes. When
+Italy was fighting the Turks in Tripoli the Pope himself warned
+Christian soldiers against regarding the campaign as a Crusade, and when
+we took Jerusalem we took it side by side with our Mussulman allies and
+forthwith placed an orthodox Moslem guard on Omar's mosque. In this
+connection it may be of interest to note that the officer commanding a
+mixed Christian guard at the Holy Sepulchre was a Jew.
+
+Another source of weakness, so far as a united Moslem world is
+concerned, may be found in the antagonistic points of view between
+civilised and uncivilised Moslems (I use the attribute in its modern
+sense). Uncivilised Moslems view with suspicion and, in fact, derision
+the dress and customs of their civilised co-religionists, insisting that
+European coats and trousers display the figure indecently and that their
+Frankish luxuries and amusements are snares of Eblis. The enlightened
+Moslem, on the other hand, regards the tribesman as a _jungliwala_, or
+wild man of the woods, derides his illiteracy, and is revolted by the
+harsh severity of the old Islamic penal code as practised still in
+semi-barbaric Moslem States. Now we Christians are fairly lenient as
+regards each other's customs, and still more so with regard to dress
+(judging by the garb we tolerate), while we have quite outgrown our old
+playful habits of boiling, burning, or torturing our fellow-men except
+on the battle-fields of civilised warfare.
+
+Civilisation (as we understand it) is a two-edged weapon and tool
+smiting or serving pan-Islam and Christendom, but on the whole it serves
+the latter rather than the former, as the superior resources of
+Christendom can take fuller advantage of it as a tool or a weapon,
+though both turn to scourges when used against each other in battle.
+Also its handmaid, Education, though in itself a foe to no religion,
+_does_ tend to tone down dogma and engender tolerance, thus minimising
+the dynamic force of bigotry in pan-Islam, though consolidating the real
+stability of religion on its own base. Moreover, some gifts of
+civilisation can do a lot of harm if wrongly used; I refer more
+especially to drink, drugs, and dress. Just as hereditary exposure to
+the infection of certain diseases is said to confer, by survival of the
+fittest, a certain immunity therefrom--for example, consumption among us
+Europeans and typhoid among Asiatics--so moral ills seem to affect
+humanity to a greater or less extent in inverse proportion to the
+temptation in that particular respect which the individual and his
+forebears have successfully resisted. The average European and his
+ancestors have been accustomed to drink fermented liquor for many
+centuries, and in moderation as judged by the standard of his time, but
+he has always been taught to avoid opium and has not known the drug for
+long. The oriental Moslem, on the other hand, has used opium as a remedy
+and prophylactic against malaria for generations, but is strictly
+ordered by his creed to consider the consumption, production, gift or
+sale of alcohol a deadly sin. In consequence, the European can usually
+take alcohol in moderation, but almost invariably slips into a pit of
+his own digging when he tries to do the same with opium, while the
+oriental Moslem can use opium in moderation (provided that he confines
+himself to swallowing it and does not smoke it), but when he drinks,
+usually drinks to excess because he has not learned to do otherwise. It
+is a melancholy fact that hitherto in countries opened up by our Western
+civilisation drink has got in long before education, unless
+extraordinary precautions have been taken to prevent it; that is one
+reason why Moslem States are so wary of civilised encroachment. As for
+drugs other than opium (and far more dangerous), civilised Moslems,
+especially in Egypt, are alarmed at the spread of hashish-smoking among
+their co-religionists, while the cultured classes, including women-folk,
+are taking to cocaine: the material for both vices is supplied from
+European sources, mostly Greek. Dress, compared with the other two
+demons, is merely a fantastic though mischievous sprite and can be quite
+attractive, but it breaks up many a Moslem home when carried to excess
+in the harem, as it frequently is in civilised circles, while the
+younger men vie with each other in the more flagrant extravagances of
+occidental garb: prayers and ablutions do not harmonise with
+well-creased trousers and stylish boots any more than a veil does with a
+divided skirt. The native Press is always attacking the above abuses,
+but they are firmly rooted. All three undermine the pan-Islamic
+structure by causing cleavage in public opinion. European dress has
+already been mentioned as widening the gap between civilised and
+uncivilised Moslems, but it also tends to disintegrate cultured Moslem
+communities, for the older men are apt to regard it with suspicion or
+downright condemnation. I once asked an eminent and learned Moslem
+whether he thought modern European dress impeded regular observance of
+prayers and ablutions. He replied, "Perhaps so, but those Moslems who
+wear such clothes indicate by so doing that the observances of Islam
+have little hold upon them."
+
+All these defects, however, are mere cracks in the inner walls of the
+pan-Islamic structure and can be repaired from within, but the Turkish
+Government, which represented the Caliphate, and should have considered
+the integrity of Islam as a sacred trust, has managed to split the outer
+wall and divide the house against itself, just as the unity of
+Christendom (such as it was) has been rent asunder by one of its most
+prominent exponents. Pan-Islam has received the more serious damage
+because the wreckers still hold the Caliphate and the prestige attached
+thereto; it is for Moslems (and Moslems only) to decide what action to
+take; but in any case, the breach is a serious one and has been much
+widened by the action of Turkish troops at the Holy Places. They
+actually shelled the Caaba at Mecca (luckily without doing material
+damage), and their action in storing high explosives close to the
+Prophet's tomb at Medina may have saved them bombardment, but has
+certainly not improved their reputation as Moslems. Even before the War
+I often heard Yamen Arabs talking of "Turks and Moslems"--a distinctly
+damning discrimination--and the situation has not been improved by
+Ottoman slackness in religious observances and their inconsistent
+national movement.
+
+At the same time, their rule in Arabia will be awkward to replace at
+first. I described the Turks in the final chapter of a book[B] published
+early in the War as pre-eminently fitted to govern Moslems by
+birthright, creed, and temperament, summing them up as individually
+gifted but collectively hopeless as administrators because they lacked a
+stable and consistent central Government. They have proved the
+indictment up to the hilt, but that does not dower any of us Christians
+with their inherent qualifications as rulers in Islam. If any of us are
+called upon to face fresh responsibilities in this direction, it would
+take us all our time to make up for these qualities by tact, sound
+administration, and strict observance of local religious prejudice. Even
+then there is a Mussulman proverb to this effect: "A Moslem ruler though
+he oppress me and not a _kafir_ though he work me weal"--it explains
+much apparent ingratitude for benefits conferred.
+
+The lesson we have to learn from pan-Islamic activities of the last
+decade or two is that countries which are mainly Moslem should have
+Moslem rulers, and that Christian rule, however enlightened and
+benevolent, is only permissible where Islam is outnumbered by other
+creeds. At the same time, in countries where Christian methods of
+civilisation and European capital have been invited we have a right to
+control and advise the Moslem ruler sufficiently to ensure the fair
+treatment of our nationals and their interests. But with purely Moslem
+countries which have expressed no readiness to assimilate the methods of
+modern civilisation or to invite outside capital we have no right to
+interfere beyond the following limit: if the local authorities allow
+foreign traders to operate at their ports their interests should be
+safeguarded, if important enough, by consular representation on the
+spot, or, if not, by occasional visits of a man-of-war to keep nationals
+in touch with their own Government, presuming that the place is too
+small to justify any mail-carrying vessel calling there except at very
+long intervals.
+
+There should always be a definite understanding as to foreigners
+proceeding or residing up-country for any purpose. If the local ruler
+discourages but permits such procedure, all we should expect him to do
+in case of untoward incidents is to take reasonable action to
+investigate and punish, but if he has guaranteed the security of foreign
+nationals concerned, he must redeem his pledge in an adequate manner or
+take the consequences. There should seldom be occasion for an inland
+punitive expedition; in these days, when many articles of seaborne trade
+have become, from mere luxuries, almost indispensable adjuncts of native
+life in the remotest regions, a maritime blockade strictly enforced
+should soon exact the necessary satisfaction.
+
+Such rulers should bear in mind that if they accept an enterprise of
+foreign capital they must protect its legitimate operations, just as a
+school which has accepted a Government grant has to conform to
+stipulated conditions.
+
+Where no such penetration has occurred, all we should concern ourselves
+with is that internal trouble in such regions shall not slop over into
+territory protected or occupied by us, and this is where our most
+serious difficulties will occur in erstwhile Turkish Arabia.
+
+The Turk, with all his faults, could grapple with a difficult situation
+in native affairs by drastic methods which might be indefensible in
+themselves, but were calculated to obtain definite results. At any rate,
+we had a responsible central Government to deal with and one that we
+could get at. Now we shall have to handle such situations ourselves or
+rely on the local authorities doing so. The former method is costly and
+dangerous, yielding the minimum of result to the maximum of effort and
+expense, while involving possibilities of trouble which might compromise
+our democratic yearnings considerably: the latter alternative
+presupposes that we have succeeded in evolving out of the present
+imbroglio responsible rulers who are well-disposed to us and prepared to
+take adequate action on our representations.
+
+In Syria and Mesopotamia, where communications are good and European
+penetration an established fact, there should not be much difficulty,
+but in Arabia proper the problem is a very prickly one.
+
+Beginning with Arabia Felix, which includes Yamen, the Aden
+protectorate, and the vague, sprawling province of Hadhramaut, we may be
+permitted to hope that nothing worse can happen in the Aden protectorate
+than has happened already; the remoter Hadhramaut has always looked
+after its own affairs and can continue to do so; but Yamen bristles with
+political problems which will have to be solved, and solved correctly,
+if she is going to be a safe neighbour or a reliable customer to have
+business dealings with. Hitherto none of her local rulers have inspired
+any confidence in their capacity for initiative or independent action.
+During the War the Idrisi, who had long been in revolt against the Turks
+in northern Yamen, kept making half-hearted and abortive dabs at
+Loheia--like a nervous child playing snapdragon--but his only success
+(and temporary at that) was when he occupied the town after the Red Sea
+Patrol had shelled the Turks out of it. As for the Imam, he has been
+sitting on a very thorny fence ever since the Turks came into the War.
+We have been in touch with him for a long time, but all he has done up
+to date is to wobble on a precarious tripod supported by the opposing
+strains of Turks, tribesmen, and British. Now one leg of the tripod has
+been knocked away he has yet to show if he can maintain stability on his
+own base, and, if so, over what area. The undeniable fighting qualities
+of the Yamen Arab, which might be a useful factor in a stable
+government, will merely prove a nuisance and a menace under a weak
+_régime_, and tribal trouble will always be slopping over into our Aden
+sphere of influence. Then the question will arise, What are we going to
+do about it? We cannot bring the Yamenis to book by blockading their
+coast and cutting off caravan traffic with Aden, because, in view of our
+trade relations with the country by sea and land, we should only be
+cutting our nose off to spite our face. Moreover, the punishment would
+fall chiefly on the respectable community, traders, the cultured
+classes, etc., to whom seaborne trade is essential, while it would
+hardly affect the wild tribesmen, except as regards ammunition, and to
+prevent them getting what they wanted through the Hejaz is outside the
+sphere of practical politics.
+
+In the Hejaz itself we can at least claim that authority is suitably
+represented and accessible to us. Before the War we kept a British
+consul at Jeddah with an Indian Moslem vice-consul who went up to Mecca
+in the pilgrim season. A responsible consular agent (Moslem of course)
+to reside at Medina, also another to understudy the Jeddah vice-consul
+when he went to Mecca and to look after the Yenbo pilgrim traffic, would
+safeguard the interests of our nationals, who enormously outnumber the
+pilgrims of any other nation. Further interference with the Hejaz,
+unless invited, would be unjustifiable.
+
+Trouble for us does not lie in the Hejaz itself, but in its possible
+expansion beyond its powers of absorption, or, in homely metaphor, if it
+bites off more than it can chew. There is a certain tendency just now to
+overrate Hejazi prowess in war and policy; in fact, King Husein is often
+alluded to vaguely as the "King of Arabia," and there is a sporadic crop
+of ill-informed articles on this and other Arabian affairs in the
+English Press. One of the features of the War as regards this part of
+the world is the extraordinary and fungus-like growth of "Arabian
+experts" it has produced, most of whom have never set foot in Arabia
+itself, while the few now living who have acquired real first-hand
+knowledge of any part of the Arabian peninsula before the War may be
+counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet the number of people who rush
+into print with their opinions on the most complex Arabian affairs would
+astonish even the Arabs if they permitted themselves to show surprise at
+anything. These opinions differ widely, but have one attribute in
+common--their emphatic "cock-sureness." Each one presents the one and
+only solution of the whole Arabian problem according to the facet which
+the writer has seen, and there are many facets. They are amusing and
+even instructive occasionally, but there is a serious side to
+them--their crass empiricism. Each writer presents (quite honestly,
+perhaps) his point of view of one or two facets in the rough-cut,
+many-sided and clouded crystal of Arabian politics without considering
+its possible bearing on other parts of the peninsula or even other
+factors in the district he knows or has read about. The net result is an
+appallingly crude patchwork, no one piece harmonising with another,
+and, in view of the habit Government has formed in these cases of
+accepting empirical opinions if they are shouted loud enough or at close
+range, there is more than a possibility that our Arabian policy may
+resemble such a crazy quilt. If it does, we shall have to harvest a
+thistle-crop of tribal and intertribal trouble throughout the Arabian
+peninsula, and the seed-down of unrest will blow all over Syria and
+Mesopotamia just at the most awkward time when reconstruction and sound
+administration are struggling to establish themselves. Weeds grow
+quicker and stronger than useful plants in any garden.
+
+Empirical statements sound well and look well in print, but they are no
+use whatever as sailing directions in the uncharted waters of Arabian
+politics. Putting them aside, the following facts are worth bearing in
+mind when the future of Arabia is discussed.
+
+The Hejazi troops were ably led by the Sharifian Emirs and Syrian
+officers of note, and had the co-operation of the Red Sea flotilla on
+the coast and British officers of various corps inland to cut off
+Medina, the last place of importance held by the Turks after the summer
+of 1916. Yet the town held out until long after the armistice, and its
+surrender had eventually to be brought about by putting pressure on the
+Turkish Government at Stamboul. On the other hand, the two great
+provinces which impinge upon the Hejaz, namely, Nejd and Yamen, have
+given ample proof that they can hammer the Turks without outside
+assistance. The Nejdis not only cleared their own country of Ottoman
+rule, but drove the Turks out of Hasa a year or two before the War,
+while the Yamenis have more than once hurled the Turks back on to the
+coast, and the rebels of northern Yamen successfully withstood a Hejazi
+and Turkish column from the north and another Turkish column from the
+south. The inference is that if the limits of Hejazi rule are to be much
+extended there had better be a clear understanding with their neighbours
+and also some definite idea of the extent to which we are likely to be
+involved in support of our _protégé_.
+
+I know that many otherwise intelligent people have been hypnotised by
+the prophecy in "The White Prophet":
+
+    "The time is near when the long drama that has been played
+    between Arabs and Turks will end in the establishment of a vast
+    Arabic empire, extending from the Tigris and the Euphrates
+    valley to the Mediterranean and from the Indian Ocean to
+    Jerusalem, with Cairo as its Capital, the Khedive as its
+    Caliph, and England as its lord and protector."
+
+While refraining from obvious and belated criticism of a prophecy which
+the march of events has trodden out of shape, and which could never have
+been intended as a serious contribution to our knowledge of Arabs and
+their politics, we must admit that the basic idea of centralising
+Arabian authority has taken strong hold of avowed statecraft in England.
+It would, of course, simplify our relations with Arabia and the
+collateral regions of Mesopotamia and Syria if such authority could
+establish itself and be accepted by the other Arabian provinces to the
+extent of enforcing its enactments as regards their foreign affairs,
+_i.e._, relations with subjects (national or protected) of European
+States.
+
+If such authority could be maintained without assistance from us other
+than a subsidy and the occasional supply, to responsible parties, of
+arms and ammunition, it would satisfy all reasonable requirements, but
+if we had to intervene with direct force we should find ourselves
+defending an unpopular _protégé_ against the united resentment of
+Arabia.
+
+I believe there is no one ruler or ruling clique in Arabia that could
+wield such authority, and my reason for saying so is that the experiment
+has been tried repeatedly on a small scale during the twenty years or so
+that I have been connected with the country and has failed every time.
+Toward the close of last century a sultan of Lahej who had always
+claimed suzerainty over his turbulent neighbours, the Subaihi, had to
+enter that vagabond tribeship to enforce one of his decrees, and got
+held up with his "army" until extricated by Aden diplomacy at the price
+of his suzerain sway. His successor still claimed a hold over an
+adjacent clan of the Subaihi known as the Rigai, but when one of our
+most promising political officers was murdered there, and the murderer
+sheltered by the clan, he was unable to obtain redress or even assist us
+adequately in attempting to do so. Early in this century Aden was
+involved in a little expedition against Turks and Arabs because one of
+her protected sultans (equipped with explosive and ammunition) could not
+deal with a small Arab fort himself. This is the same sultanate which
+let the Turks through against us in the summer of 1915 and whose ruler
+was prominent in the sacking of Lahej. I have already alluded, in
+Chapter II, to the inadequacy of the Lahej sultan on that occasion, yet
+Aden had bolstered up his authority in every possible way and had relied
+on him and his predecessor for years to act as semi-official suzerain
+and go-between for other tribes--a withered stick which snapped the
+first time it was leant upon. I could also point to the Imam of Yamen,
+strong in opposition to the Turks as a rallying point of tribal revolt,
+but weak and vacillating on the side of law and order. I might go on
+giving instances _ad nauseam_, but here is one more to clinch the
+argument, and it is typical of Arab politics. Aden had just cause of
+offence against a certain reigning sultan of the Abd-ul-Wahid in her
+eastern sphere of influence. He had intrigued with foreign States,
+oppressed his subjects, persecuted native trade and played the dickens
+generally. Therefore Aden rebuked him (by letter) and appointed a
+relative of his to be sultan and receive his subsidy. The erring but
+impenitent potentate reduced his relative to such submission that he
+would sign monthly receipts for the subsidy and meekly hand over the
+cash: these were his only official acts, as he retired into private life
+in favour of Aden's _bête noir_, who flourished exceedingly until he
+blackmailed caravans too freely and got the local tribesmen on his
+track.
+
+When we also consider how early in Islamic history the Caliphate split
+as a temporal power, and the difficulty which even the early Caliphs
+(with all their prestige) had to keep order in Arabia, it should
+engender caution in experiments toward even partial centralisation of
+control: apart from the fact that they might develop along lines
+diverging from the recognised principles of self-determination in small
+States, they could land us into a humiliating _impasse_ or an armed
+expedition.
+
+We parried the Turco-German efforts to turn pan-Islam against us, thanks
+to our circumspect attitude with regard to Moslems, but a genuine
+movement based on any apparent aggression of ours in Arabia proper might
+be a more serious matter.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote B: "_Arabia Infelix_," Macmillan.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY
+
+
+Having weighed the influence which pan-Islam can wield as a popular
+movement, we will now consider the human factors which have built it up.
+
+Just as we used Christendom as a test-gauge of pan-Islam, so now we will
+compare the activities of Moslems (who do their own proselytising) with
+those of Christian missionaries, grouping with them our laity so far as
+their example may be placed in the scales for or against the influence
+of Christendom.
+
+To do this with the breadth of view which the question demands we will
+examine these human factors throughout the world wherever they are
+involved in opposition to each other. We shall thus avoid the confined
+outlook which teaches Europeans in Asia Minor to look on Turks as
+typical Moslems to the exclusion of all others, or makes Anglo-Egyptians
+talk of country-folk in Egypt as Arabs and their language as the
+standard of Arabic, or engenders the Anglo-Indian tendency of regarding
+a scantily-dressed paramount chief from the Aden hinterland as an
+obscure _jungliwala_ because, in civilised India, an eminent Moslem
+dresses in accordance with our conception of the part.
+
+We can leave the western hemisphere out of this inquiry, for though the
+greatest missionary effort against Islam is engendered in the United
+States, it manifests itself in the eastern hemisphere, and the Moslem
+population in both the Americas is too small and quiescent to be
+considered a factor.
+
+We will begin with England and work eastward to the edge of the Moslem
+world.
+
+At first glance the idea of England as an arena where two great
+religious forces meet seems rather far-fetched, but there is more Moslem
+activity in some of our English towns than people imagine. Turning over
+some files of the _Kibla_ (a Meccan newspaper), one comes across
+passages like the following:--
+
+    "The honourable Cadi Abdulla living in London reports that six
+    noted English men and women have embraced the Moslem religion
+    in the cities of Oxford, Leicester, etc. The meritorious Abdul
+    Hay Arab has established a new centre in London for calling to
+    Islam, and the Mufti Muhammad Sadik has delivered a speech in
+    English in the mosque on 'the object of human life which can
+    only be attained through Moslem guidance.' Many English men and
+    women were present and put questions which were answered in a
+    conclusive manner. At the close of the meeting a young lady of
+    good family embraced Islam and was named Maimuna."
+
+Then we have the scholarly and temperate addresses of Seyid Muhammad
+Rauf and others before the Islamic Society in London; they are marked by
+considerable shrewdness and breadth of view, and though their debatable
+points may present a few fallacies, their effective controversion
+requires unusual knowledge of affairs in Moslem countries.
+
+It is not, however, the activities of Moslems in England which damage
+the prestige of Christendom; it is the behaviour of English alleged
+Christians themselves. Every missionary, political officer, tutor, or
+even the importer of a native servant--in short, anyone who has been
+responsible for an oriental in England--knows what I mean. I do not say
+that London (for example) is any more vicious than Delhi or Cairo or
+Cabul or Constantinople or any other large Moslem centre, but vice is
+certainly more obvious in London to the casual observer, even allowing
+for the fact that many comparatively harmless customs of ours (such as
+women wearing low-necked dresses and dancing with men) are apt to shock
+Moslems until they learn that occidental habit has created an atmosphere
+of innocence in such cases which even bunny-hugging has failed to
+vitiate.
+
+The social life of London in all its grades and phases operates more
+widely for good or ill on Christian prestige among Moslems than
+Londoners can possibly imagine. From the young princeling of some native
+State sauntering about Clubland with his bear-leader to the lascar off a
+P. and O. boat, among East London drabs, or the middle-class Mohammedan
+student who compares the civic achievements that surround him with the
+dingy dining-room of a Bloomsbury boarding-house, all are apostles of
+life in London as it seems to them. I have had the hospitality of
+"family hotels" in the Euston Road portrayed to me in the crude but
+vivid imagery of the East when spooring boar in Southern Morocco with a
+native tracker who had been one of a troupe of Soosi jugglers earning
+good pay at a West-end music-hall, and I once overheard a young
+_effendi_ explaining to his _confrères_ in a Cairo café exactly the sort
+of company that would board your hansom when leaving "Jimmy's" in days
+of yore.
+
+As for the news of London and its ways, as conveyed by its daily Press,
+educated Egyptians were better posted therein than most Englishmen in
+Cairo during the War, as their clubs and private organisations
+subscribed largely to the London dailies, which entered Egypt free of
+local censorship, while Anglo-Egyptian newspapers were more strictly
+censored than their vernacular or continental contemporaries, as they
+presented no linguistic difficulties, but could be dealt with direct and
+not through an understrapper.
+
+Missionaries would have us judge Islam by the open improprieties and
+abuses which occur at Mecca, Kerbela, and other great Moslem centres.
+How should we like Christianity to be judged by the public behaviour of
+certain classes in London or other big towns? Remember, it is always the
+scum which floats on top and the superficial vice or indecorum that
+strike a foreign observer.
+
+It is not my mission to preach--I am merely pointing out a flaw in our
+harness which causes a lot of administrative trouble out East. It is
+difficult to check the hashish habit in Egypt when the average educated
+_effendi_ reads of drug-scandals in London with mischievous avidity, and
+the endeavours of a well-meaning Education Department to implant ideals
+of sturdy manhood are handicapped when the students batten on the weird
+and unsavoury incidents which are dished up _in extenso_ by London
+journalism from time to time. Such matters do no harm to a public with
+a sense of proportion, but the _effendi_ is in the position of a
+schoolboy who has caught his master tripping and means to make the most
+of it. He assimilates and disseminates the idea that cocaine is as
+easily procurable as a cocktail in London clubs, and that the Black Mass
+is at least as common as the _danse de ventre_ in Cairo.
+
+We can leave England for our Eastern tour with the conclusion that Islam
+is welcome to any proselytes it makes there, but that the gravest slur
+on Christian prestige is cast by our own conduct.
+
+There is only one bone of contention between Moslems and missionaries in
+Europe now that Turkey and Russia are knocked out of the ring of current
+politics. Is St. Sophia to remain a mosque or revert to its original
+purpose as a Christian church? Whatever may be Turkish opinion on the
+subject, the tradition of Islam is definite enough. When the Caliph Omar
+entered Jerusalem in triumph, after Khaled had defeated the hosts of
+Heraclius east of Jordan, he withstood the importunate entreaties of his
+followers to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, saying that if he
+did so the building would _de facto_ become a mosque, and such a wrong
+to Christianity was against the ordinance and procedure of the Prophet.
+It is worthy of note that Christians were not molested at Jerusalem
+until after the Seljouk Turks wrested the Holy City from the moribund
+Arabian Caliphate in 1076: their persecution and the desecration of
+sacred places by the Turks brought about the first Crusade in 1096.
+Again it was the Ottoman Turks who stormed Constantinople and turned
+St. Sophia into a mosque. According to the orthodox tradition of Islam,
+once a church always a church. When the ex-Khedive had the chance of
+reacquiring the site of All Saints', Cairo, owing to the increasing
+noise of traffic in the vicinity, he contemplated building a
+cinema-theatre there (for he had a shrewd business mind), but he was
+roundly told by Moslem legalists that it was out of the question. Even
+if the Turks urge right of conquest, victorious Christendom can claim
+that too, and if they allege length of tenure as a mosque in support of
+their case they put themselves out of court, as St. Sophia has been a
+church for more than nine centuries and a mosque for less than five.
+
+If Turkey is allowed to remain in Europe at all it will be on
+sufferance. Even in Asia Minor signs are not wanting that Turkish rule
+will be pruned, clipped and trained considerably, as humanity will stand
+its rampant luxuriance of blood and barbarity no longer. The Young
+Turks were given every chance to consolidate their national aspirations
+and have achieved national suicide. One may feel sorry for the patient,
+sturdy peasantry and the non-political cultured classes who have been
+coerced or cajoled into fighting desperately in a cause that meant
+calamity for them whether they won or lost; but a nation gets the rulers
+it deserves and must answer for their acts.
+
+Asia Minor will probably be more accessible as a mission-field in due
+course. The Moslem Turk is not amenable to conversion; in fact, during a
+quarter of a century's wandering in the East I have never met a Turkish
+convert. The American Protestant Mission will probably be well to the
+fore in this area in view of its excellent work on behalf of the
+Armenians and other distressed Christians during the War. Just as it has
+concentrated its principal energies on the Copts in Egypt, so it may
+with advantage devote itself to the education and "uplift" of the
+Armenians, and if its activities are as successful as with the Copts,
+even the Armenians cannot but approve, for the more enlightened
+individuals of that harassed and harassing little nation admit that the
+Armenian character could be considerably improved, and that, though
+their hideous persecution is indefensibly damnable, their covetous
+instincts and parasitic activities are an incentive to maltreatment.
+
+One of the most difficult minor problems of reconstruction in Eastern
+Europe and Asia Minor will be how to safeguard the interests and modify
+the provocative activities of such subject-races as the Jews and the
+Armenians where established among ill-controlled nations and numerically
+inferior, though intellectually superior, to them. With their natural
+gift for intrigue and finance, they repay public persecution and
+oppression by undermining the administration and battening on the
+resources of their unwilling foster-country until active dislike becomes
+actual violence and outbursts of brutish rage yield ghastly results.
+Deportation is not only tyrannically harsh but impracticable, for unless
+they were dumped to die in the waste places of the earth, which is
+unthinkable, some other nation must receive them, and even the most
+philanthropic Government would hesitate to upset its economic conditions
+by admitting unproductive hordes of sweated labour and skilled
+exploiters. There are only two logical alternatives to such an
+_impasse_. One is to treat such subject-races so well that they may be
+trusted not to use their peculiar abilities against the interests of
+their adoptive country, which would then be their interests too, and
+the other is to exterminate them, which is inhuman. There is no middle
+course.
+
+It is a salutary but humiliating fact that we incur the worst human ills
+by our lack of human charity. We starved and over-crowded our poor till
+they bred consumption, and we enslaved negroes till they degenerated our
+Anglo-Saxon sturdiness of character, then plunged a great nation into
+civil war, and have finally become one of its most serious social
+problems. So the Jews were debarred from liberal pursuits and privileges
+until they concentrated on finance and commerce, being also persecuted
+until they perfected their defensive organisation. The consequence is
+that they are individually formidable in those activities and
+collectively invincible. Similarly the Turks harried the Armenians to
+their own undoing with even less excuse, for those ill-used people were
+certainly not interlopers, and so far from ameliorating their condition
+in the course of time, as we have done with the Jews, the Turks went
+from bad to worse till they culminated in atrocities which no
+provocation can palliate or humanity condone.
+
+But to return to Asia Minor; there the Armenians were first on the
+ground, and yet the Moslems of Armenia outnumber them by three to one.
+Any sound form of government would have to give equal rights, but it
+would have to be strong and farseeing to prevent the greedy exploitation
+and savage reprisals which such conditions would otherwise evolve.
+
+On entering Asia we shall find a somewhat similar problem confronting
+the administration in Syria and Palestine. Here we have several mixed
+races and at least three distinct creeds--Christianity, Islam, and
+Judaism.
+
+The Zionist movement looks promising, everyone concerned seems to be in
+accord, and a Jew millennium looms large in the offing, but----. In
+Palestine there are normally about 700,000 Moslems and Christians (the
+latter a very small minority) to 150,000 Jews. The lure of the Promised
+Land will presumably increase the Jewish population enormously, but they
+will still be very much in the minority unless the country is
+over-populated. The Zionist organisation will naturally try to select
+for emigration agriculturists, mechanics, and craftsmen generally to
+develop the resources of the country, but that is easier said than done.
+If Palestine, in addition to the sentimental aspect, is to be a refuge
+and asylum for the downtrodden and persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe,
+there would be very few farmers among _that_ lot--except tax-farmers.
+Even in England, where he labours under no landowning disability, the
+Jew thinks that farming for a living is a mug's game and confines his
+agricultural activities to week-ends in the autumn with a "hammerless
+ejector" and a knickerbocker suit. As for mechanics and skilled labour
+generally, such Jews as take to it usually excel in such work and do
+very well where they are. The bulk of the immigrant population--unless
+Palestine is going to be artificially colonised without regard for the
+necessitous claims of the very people who should be drawn off
+there--will be indigent artisans, small shopkeepers, shop assistants,
+weedy unemployables, and a sprinkling of shrewd operators on the
+look-out for prey. If the scheme is going to be run entirely on
+philanthropic lines (and there are ample resources and charity at the
+back of it to do so) the Zionists will be all right, and will, perhaps,
+improve immensely in the next generation under the influence of an
+open-air life--if they adopt it; but the resident majority of Moslems
+and Christians will not take too kindly to their new compatriots, while
+the Palestine Jews are already carping at the idea of so many trade
+rivals and accusing them of not being orthodox. None of this ill-feeling
+need matter in the long run with a firm but benevolent government, but
+the authorities will have to evolve some legislation to check
+profiteering and over-exploitation, or there will be trouble. It is not
+only the new-comers who will want curbing, but the present population.
+During the War the flagrant profiteering of Jew and Christian operators
+in Palestine and Syria did much to accentuate the appalling distress and
+was the more disgraceful compared with the magnificent efforts of the
+American and Anglican Churches to relieve the situation. The Jews nearly
+incurred a pogrom by their operations, which were only checked by a
+wealthy Syrian in Egypt starting a co-operative venture of low-priced
+foodstuffs and necessities with the support of the British authorities.
+As for the local Syrians, some of them were even worse. French and
+British officers speak of wealthy Syrians (presumably Christian,
+certainly not Moslem) giving many and sumptuous balls at Beyrout, at
+which they lapped Austrian champagne while their wives, blazing in
+diamonds, whirled with Hunnish officers in the high-pressure,
+double-action German waltz. And this with thousands of their compatriots
+starving in the streets and little naked children banding together to
+drive pariah dogs with stones from the street offal they were worrying,
+if perchance it might yield a meal. Meanwhile decent Anglo-Saxon
+Christendom was battling in that very town under adverse conditions to
+succour human destitution which had been largely caused by the callous
+operations of these soulless parasites. The Christians of Syria have no
+monopoly of such scandals. Yet there are otherwise intelligent people
+who speak of modern Christianity as an automatic promoter of ethics, and
+have the effrontery to try to thrust it on the East as a moral panacea.
+It is human ideals which make or mar a soul when once the seed of any
+sound religion has been sown, and they depend upon environment and
+climate more than our spiritual pastors admit; otherwise, why this
+missionary activity among oriental Christians? If you try to grow garden
+flowers in the rich, rank irrigation soil of the Nile valley they
+flourish luxuriantly, but soon develop a marked tendency to revert to
+their wild type, and it is permissible to suppose that human character
+is even more sensitive to its mental and physical surroundings. Any
+observant teacher of oriental youth will tell you that the promise of
+their precocious ability is seldom fulfilled by their maturity. Even the
+"country-born" children of British parents are considered precocious at
+their preparatory school in England, and, if not sent home to be
+educated, are apt to fall short of their parents' intellectual and
+moral standard in later years. The Mamelukes knew what they were about
+when they kidnapped hardy Albanian youths to carry on their rule in
+Egypt and passed over their own progeny. Kingsley has shown us in
+"Hypatia" what the Nile valley did for the Christian Church.
+
+It is not a question of Jew, Christian, or Moslem that the
+administrative authorities in Syria and Palestine will have to consider
+beyond ensuring that each shall follow his religion unmolested. They
+will have to defend the many from the machinations of the few and the
+few from the violent reprisals of the many. It is statecraft that is
+wanted, not politics or religious dogma.
+
+In Mesopotamia there has not been much missionary effort hitherto, and
+there is not a good case for exploiting it as a missionary field beyond
+certain limits. The riparian townsfolk are respectable people of some
+education and grasp of their own affairs, and the country-folk are a
+harum-scarum set of scallywags who used to attack Turks or British
+indifferently, whichever happened to be in difficulties for the moment.
+They are best left to the secular arm for some time to come. Medical
+missions, staffed by both sexes, could do good work at urban centres,
+and a few river steamers, or even launches, would extend their efforts
+considerably.
+
+We now come to Arabia itself, "the Peninsula of the Arabs," where
+orthodox Islam has its strongholds and missionary enterprise is not
+encouraged.
+
+Geographers differ somewhat as to what constitutes Arabia proper, but
+for the purposes of modern practical politics it may be considered as
+all the peninsula south of a line from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to
+the head of the Persian Gulf, and consisting of Nejd, the Hejaz,[C]
+Asir, Yamen, Aden protectorate, Hadhramaut and Oman. Each of these
+divisions should be dealt with separately in considering Arabian
+politics nowadays, and it will be well for the "mandatories" concerned
+if further sub-divisions do not complicate matters; I omit the
+sub-province of Hasa (once a dependency of the Turkish _pashalik_ at
+Bussora) because, since the Nejdi _coup d'état_ in 1912, the Emir ibn
+Saoud will probably control its policy _vis-à-vis_ of missionaries and
+Europeans generally, though the Sheikh of Koweit may expect to be
+consulted.
+
+Nejd comes first as we move southward: impinging as it does on Syria,
+Mesopotamia, and the Hejaz, its politics are involved in theirs to a
+certain extent and its affairs require careful handling. It is certainly
+no field for unrestrained missionary effort, but there is no reason why
+a medical mission should not be posted at Riadh if the Emir is willing.
+There are two rival houses in Nejd--the ibn Saoud and ibn Rashid, the
+former pro-British and the latter (hitherto) pro-Turk; Emir Saoud held
+ascendancy before the War and should be able to maintain it now that
+Turco-German influence is a thing of the past. He is an enlightened,
+energetic man and was a close friend of our gallant "political," the
+late Captain Shakespeare, who was killed there early in the War during
+an engagement between the two rival houses. The question of missionary
+enterprise in Nejd could well be put before the Emir for consideration
+on its merits. Such procedure may seem weak to an out-and-out
+missionary, but even he would hesitate to keep poultry in another man's
+garden, even for economic purposes, without consulting him. Fowls and
+missionaries are useful and even desirable in a suitable environment,
+otherwise they can be a nuisance.
+
+Next in order as we travel is the Hejaz, where Islam started on its
+mission to harry exotic creeds and nations, until its conquering
+progress was checked decisively by reinvigorated Christendom. In
+missionary parlance, Arabia generally is referred to as "a Gibraltar of
+fanaticism and pride which shuts out the messenger of Christ," and it
+must be admitted that the Hejaz has hitherto justified this description
+to a certain extent. Even at Jeddah Christians were only just tolerated
+before the War, and I found it advisable, when exploring its tortuous
+bazars, to wear a tarboosh, which earned me the respectful salutations
+then accorded to a Turk. The indigenous townsfolk of Jeddah are the
+"meanest" set of Moslems I have ever met--I use the epithet in its
+American sense, as indicating a blend of currishness and crabbedness.
+They cringed to the Turk when the braver Arabs of the south were
+hammering the oppressor in Asir and Yamen, but, like pariahs, were ready
+to fall on them and their women and children when they had surrendered
+after a gallant struggle, overwhelmed by an intensive bombardment from
+the sea. The alien Moslems resident in Jeddah--especially the
+Indians--are not a bad lot, but there is an atmosphere of intolerance
+brooding over the whole place which even affects Jeddah harbour. I
+remember being shipmate in 1913 with some eight hundred pilgrims from
+Aden and the southern ports of the Red Sea. As we were discharging them
+off Jeddah, a plump and respectable Aden merchant whom I knew by sight,
+but who did not know me in the guise I then wore, was gazing in rapt
+enthusiasm at sun-scorched Jeddah, which, against the sterile country
+beyond, looked like a stale bride-cake on a dust heap. "A sacred land,"
+he crooned. "A blessed land where pigs and Christians cannot live."
+Incidentally he made a very good living out of Christians and was
+actually carrying his gear in a pigskin valise.
+
+At the same time, it is absurd for missionaries to aver of Christians at
+Jeddah that "even those who die in the city are buried on an island at
+sea." The Christian cemetery lies to the south of the town (we had to
+dislodge the Turks from it with shrapnel during the fighting), and the
+only island is a small coral reef just big enough to support the ruins
+of a nondescript tenement once used for quarantine. No one could be
+buried there without the aid of dynamite and a cold chisel. Presumably
+missionary report has confused Jeddah with the smaller pilgrim-port of
+Yenbo, where there are an island and a sandy spit with a Sheikh's tomb
+and a select burial-ground for certain privileged Moslems of the holy
+man's family.
+
+The worst indictment of Jeddah (and Mecca too, for that matter) is made
+by the pilgrims themselves, though some of it may be exaggerated by men
+smarting under the extortions of pilgrim-brokers.
+
+A pious Moslem once averred in my presence that the pilgrim-brokers of
+Jeddah were, in themselves, enough to bring a judgment on the place,
+and that trenchant opinion is not without foundation. Even to the
+unprejudiced eye of a travelled European they present themselves as a
+class of blatant bounders battening on the earnest fervour of their
+co-religionists and squandering the proceeds on dissipation. I have more
+than once been shipmate with a gang of them, and it is at sea that they
+cast off such restraint as the critical gaze of other Moslems might
+impose. As sumptuous first-class passengers they lounge about the deck
+in robes of tussore, rich silks and fancy waistcoats, though out of
+deference to their religious prejudice and Christian table-manners they
+usually mess by themselves. After dinner they play vociferous poker in
+the saloon for cut-throat stakes, evading the captain's veto by using
+tastefully designed little fish in translucent colours to represent
+heavy cash, and these they invoke from time to time "for luck." As it is
+usually sweltering weather, the occidental whiskey-and-soda and the
+aromatic _mastic_ of the Levant are much in evidence, and thus three of
+Islam's gravest injunctions are set at naught. Their chief fault, to a
+broad-minded sportsman, is that they lack self-control, whatever their
+luck may be. I have heard an ill-starred gambler bemoaning his losses
+with the cries of a stricken animal, and they are still more offensive
+as winners.
+
+In Mecca such open breaches of the Islamic code are not tolerated, but
+there are other lapses which neither Moslem nor Christian can condone.
+It is unfair and out of date to quote Burton's indictment of Meccan
+morals, nor have we any right to judge the city by its behaviour soon
+after its freedom from the Turkish yoke, when it may have been suffering
+from reaction after nervous tension; but, unless the bulk of respectable
+Moslem opinion is at fault, there is still much in the administration of
+Mecca which cries for reform. Harsh measures may have been necessary at
+first, but to maintain a private prison like the _Kabu_ in the state it
+is can redound to no ruler's credit, and for prominent officials to
+cultivate an "alluring walk" and even practise it in the _tawâf_ or
+circumambulation of the holy Caaba is beyond comment.
+
+Also the mental standard of officialdom is low, since Syrians of
+education and training do not seem to be attracted by the Hejaz service
+for long, and local men of position and ability are said to have been
+passed over as likely to be formidable as intriguers.
+
+It may be reasonably urged that it is difficult to improvise a Civil
+Service on the spur of the moment, and it is permissible to anticipate a
+better state of affairs now that war conditions are being superseded. At
+the same time it is no use blinking the fact that reform is indicated at
+Mecca if that sacred city is to harmonise with its high mission as the
+religious centre of the Islamic world, and this affects our numerous
+Moslem fellow-countrymen; otherwise the domestic affairs of the Hejaz
+are not our concern.
+
+The Hejaz has been very much to the fore lately, and ill-informed or
+biassed opinion has developed a tendency to credit it with a greater
+part in Arabian and Syrian affairs than it has played, can play, or
+should be encouraged to play. Its intolerant tone has, presumably, been
+modified by co-operation with the civilised forces of militant
+Christendom, but the new kingdom has got to regenerate itself a good
+deal before it can cope with wider responsibilities. Emir Feisal is, no
+doubt, an enlightened prince, but one swallow does not make a summer,
+and Hejazi troops have not yet evolved enough _moral_ to dominate and
+control a more formidable breed or be trusted with the peace and
+welfare of a more civilised population, especially where there are large
+non-Moslem communities. There has been a great deal of nonsense talked
+and written about their invincible fighting prowess. They accompanied
+the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in much the same way as the jackal is
+said to accompany the lion, with a reversionary interest in his kill,
+and their faint-hearted fumbling with the Turkish defences outside
+Jeddah was obvious to any observer. They are what they have been since
+the fiery self-sacrificing enthusiasm of early Islam died down and left
+them with the half-warm embers of their racial greed to become
+hereditary spoilers of the weak, instinctively shunning a doubtful
+fight. In guerilla warfare, leavened by British officers, they have
+shown an aptitude for taking advantage of a situation, but they cannot
+stand punishment and will not face the prospect of it if they can help
+it. Their own leaders knew that well enough when they refrained from
+taking Medina by assault, bombardment being out of the question, as
+buildings of the utmost sanctity would have been inevitably damaged or
+destroyed.
+
+Prince Feisal has, in a published interview with a representative of the
+Press, disclaimed all imperialistic ambitions for the Hejaz, but merely
+demanded Arab independence in what was once the Ottoman Empire. That
+being assured, the new kingdom will be able to devote its energies to
+internal affairs, and the excellent impression made by the Hejazi prince
+in Europe should be a favourable augury of the future.
+
+The missionary question should be left to the reigning house for
+decision; it is not fair to hamper the Hejaz with unnecessary
+complications, and to allow active missionary propaganda at a
+pilgrim-port like Jeddah is asking for trouble, apart from the flagrant
+violation of religious sentiment. Imagine Catholic feeling if an
+enterprising Moslem mission were established at Lourdes. Tact and
+expediency are just as necessary in religious as in secular affairs--at
+least so St. Paul has taught us; but the modern missionary is too apt to
+regard these qualities in Christianity as insincerity and the lack of
+them in Islam as fanaticism.
+
+South of the Hejaz lies that rather vague area known as Asir. For
+geographical purposes we may consider it as the country between two
+parallels of latitude drawn through the coastal towns of Lith and
+Loheia, with the Red Sea on the west and an ill-defined inland border
+merging eastward into the desert plateau of Southern Nejd. Politically,
+it is that territory of Western Arabia between the Hejaz and Yamen in
+which the Idrisi has more control than anyone since his successful
+revolt against the Turks a year or two before the War. In all
+probability its northern districts with Lith will go to the Hejaz, and
+the southern ones with Loheia to the Idrisi; but Western diplomacy will
+be well advised to leave those two rulers to settle it between
+themselves and the local population, especially inland, as tribal
+boundaries between semi-nomadic and pastoral people are not for
+intelligent amateurs to trifle with. Nor should the missionary be
+encouraged; Asir is not a suitable field for his activities, and the
+trouble he would probably cause is out of all proportion to the good he
+could possibly do. The Asiri is a frizzy-haired fanatic with a short
+temper and a serious disposition, addicted to sword-play and the
+indiscriminate use of firearms. I doubt if he would see the humour of
+missionary logic. As for the Idrisi himself, he is a tall, well set up
+man of negroid aspect (being of Moorish and Soudani descent), and has
+shown shrewdness as an administrator, though his operations in the War
+have lacked "punch." He is very orthodox, and from what I know of him I
+should not say that religious tolerance was his strong point. His
+capital is at Sabbia, in the maritime foot-hills, with a very trying
+climate. Asir might suit the naturalist or explorer who could adapt
+himself to his environment and respect local prejudice. No one has yet
+entered the country in either capacity, but, from what has been told me
+before the War by intelligent Turkish officers who campaigned there, I
+think that the birds and smaller mammals would repay research, while the
+great Dawasir valley and other geographical problems inland might be
+investigated with advantage under the _ægis_ of local chiefs. All that
+is required, besides the necessary scientific knowledge and Arabic, is a
+certain amount of perseverance and resolution blended with a reasonable
+regard for other people's convictions. Most Arabian expeditions fail
+through lack of time spent in preliminary steps. I have tripped up in
+that way myself, but it was owing to the restrictions of a paternal
+Government, and not through lack of patience. Before I started serious
+exploration in the Aden hinterland I spent a year on the littoral plain
+getting in touch with the people and mastering the dialect. Any success
+I may have had up-country was due to the foundation I laid in those
+early days, and it was not until the Aden authorities closed their
+sphere of influence against exploration in general and myself in
+particular that my expeditions began to miss fire, as I had to land at
+remote places along the coast and hasten up-country before their
+fostering care could set the tribes on me. He who would explore Asir
+should take a Khedivial mail steamer from Suez to Jeddah, and there show
+his credentials and explain his purpose to his consul and the local
+authorities. The Idrisi has an agent there, and it should not be
+difficult to pick up an Asiri dhow returning down the coast to Gîzân,
+which is the port for Sabbia. He would have to stay there until he got
+the Idrisi's permit and an escort, without which he would be held up to
+a certainty. In any case, no such enterprise need be contemplated until
+Asiri affairs have settled down a good deal.
+
+In Yamen proper it should be feasible to travel again within certain
+limits as soon as the Imam can come to an understanding with the tribal
+chiefs. There is not much left for the explorer or naturalist to do,
+unless he goes very far inland toward the great central desert, which
+project is not likely to be encouraged by the local authorities. There
+is, however, a possible field for the mineralogist and prospector east
+and south-east of Sanaa, which area also contains Sabæan ruins and
+inscriptions of interest to the archæologist.
+
+The northern boundary of Yamen may be said nowadays to trend north-east
+from Loheia inland through highland country to the desert borders of
+Nejran (once a Christian diocese). Its eastern border is very vague,
+but may be said to coincide approximately with the 45th parallel of
+longitude. Southward the limit has been clearly defined by the
+Anglo-Turkish Boundary Commission of 1902-5 inland from the Bana valley,
+about a hundred map-miles north of Aden, to the straits of
+Bab-el-Mandeb.
+
+Within these limits the two great divisions of Islam are represented in
+force--the orthodox _Sunnis_ on the littoral plain and far inland along
+the upland deserts, while the highlanders among the lofty fertile ranges
+separating these two areas and forming the backbone of the country
+follow the _Shiah_ schism, being Zeidis, which of all the schismatic
+sects approaches most nearly to orthodox Islam and regards Mecca as its
+pilgrim-centre. The feeling between these two religious divisions may be
+compared with that existing between Anglicans and Catholics. They will
+occasionally use each other's places of worship--more especially the
+upper or governing classes--and seldom come to open loggerheads; when
+they do, it is usually about politics, and not religion. At the same
+time, if you, as a Christian traveller among both parties, want a
+scathing opinion of a Zeidi, you will get it from an orthodox lowlander,
+and the men of the mountains reciprocate with point and weight, for the
+balance of religious culture and position is with them among the big
+hill-centres; including Sanaa, the political capital where the Imam
+holds, or should hold, his court as hereditary ruler spiritual and
+temporal. This ecclesiastical potentate has backed the Turk in a
+non-committal but flamboyant manner during the War up to the turning of
+the tide against them, when he sat on the fence until his Turkish
+subsidy ceased. He now looks to Western diplomacy in general and the
+British Government in particular not only to continue but to enhance
+this subsidy, in order that he may really govern in Yamen. His attitude
+throughout is natural and, indeed, justifiable in the interests of
+himself and his dynasty; at least occidental politicians cannot cavil at
+his motives; but what they ought to ascertain is how far he can fill the
+bill as a ruler in Yamen and the extent to which he should be backed.
+Without a considerable subsidy his administrative powers (not hitherto
+very marked) will not carry far even in the highlands.
+
+Missionaries were allowed to enter Yamen before the War, but did not
+establish themselves, even on the coast. Some of them went up-country
+and stayed there some time without being molested. The average Yameni is
+not fanatical by temperament; there is more bigotry among the urban Jew
+colonies than in the whole Moslem countryside.
+
+In the Aden protectorate there has been long established the Falconer
+Medical Mission, which, though actually at Sheikh Othman, just inside
+the British border, has done splendid work among natives of the
+hinterland, who visit it from all parts. Its relations with the Arabs
+have always been excellent, though the local ruffians looted the Mission
+when the Turks held Sheikh Othman temporarily.
+
+The province of Hadhramaut, politically, includes not only the vast
+valley of that name with its tributaries, but the whole of the western
+part of Southern Arabia outside the Aden protectorate from the Yamen
+border to the confines of Oman near longitude 55. Mokalla is the capital
+and principal port. Missionaries have been well received there by the
+enlightened ruler--a member of the Kaaiti house with the local title of
+Jemadar, inherited from an ancestor who soldiered in the Arab bodyguard
+of a former Nizam at Haiderabad. The interior is not suited to
+missionary enterprise.
+
+Muscat, the capital of Oman, has already been occupied by missionaries.
+The Sultan (at whose court there is a British Resident) is well-disposed,
+but has lost most of his influence inland.
+
+Further up the Persian Gulf missionaries have long been established on
+the islands of Bahrein, which are under British protection.
+
+Continuing our journey eastward, we can dismiss the Shiahs of Persia as
+outside our pan-Islamic calculations, for their pilgrim-centre is at
+Kerbela, some twenty odd miles west of the Euphrates and the site of
+ancient Babylon. This centre has been visited by missionaries.
+
+Afghanistan and Beluchistan both bar missionaries, but there are C.M.S.
+frontier posts from Quetta, in British Beluchistan, to Peshawar, near
+the Afghan border. They do good hospital work, otherwise their
+evangelising activities over the border are confined to native
+colporteurs and the circulation of vernacular Scriptures. There is a
+fierce and barbarous Turcoman spirit in both countries which their
+respective rulers (the Khan of Kelat and the Emir at Cabul) do their
+best to keep within bounds, aided by British Residents. Missionaries
+seem to think this spirit can be exorcised by their entrance into the
+arena. You might as well throw squibs into a cage full of tigers.
+
+On entering India (that vast hunting-ground of many sects and creeds),
+Moslem and missionary are almost swamped in the flood of Hinduism. There
+is no restriction on the activities of either within the four corners
+of the King-Emperor's peace, and there is very little antagonism between
+the two in so big a field, where both are doing good work. Although the
+Moslems outnumber the Christians by seven to one, the honours of war go
+to the missionaries. Their highly-organised medical and educational
+missions do excellent work--the Zenana Mission is, in itself, a
+justification of Christian mission work in India to any humanitarian
+with some knowledge of _zenana_ conditions. The Moslems, on the other
+hand, in spite of their high standard of education, in India show a
+tendency among their less educated classes toward the caste prejudices
+of Hinduism, which are dead against the teaching of Islam and a handicap
+to any social organisation.
+
+Few people realise what a huge proposition the Indian Empire is to solve
+in its entirety, with its population of 315 millions, of whom over 90
+per cent. are illiterate. Of the more or less educated residuum, not
+quite 90 per cent. are Brahmins having little in common with the huge
+uneducated bulk of the population, which is chiefly agricultural and, by
+its patient toil, supplies most of the wealth of India. Yet it is the
+cultured but unproductive Brahmin (organised by a brainy old lady) who
+wants to control the native affairs of India--and probably will.
+
+In Farther India the Brahmin is at a discount and the Buddhist is to the
+fore, while Moslem and missionary are far too busy among the heathen to
+bother about each other; as also in Malay, where there is field enough
+and to spare for both of them.
+
+The only other debatable field in Asia is that vast area which we call
+China, comprising China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Eastern
+Turkestan. Moslem and missionary can hardly be said to meet face to
+face, as missionary enterprise is chiefly in China itself, where the
+great waterways have been of much assistance to Christian activities,
+while Moslem efforts are concentrated on Chinese Turkestan. Here there
+are two Christian missions, at Yarkand and Kashgar, under the protection
+(as elsewhere in China) of the Chinese Government. Moslem propaganda is
+spread by traders and others working from centres of Islamic learning
+outside Chinese territory, such as Bokhara and Samarkand in Russian
+Turkestan, and Cabul, the Afghan capital. In addition, there is a wave
+of Chinese secular culture lapping in from the East, and missionaries
+ask that existing missions be reinforced with funds to take a more
+effective part in this battle for souls (as they express it). They
+complain bitterly that the upper classes _will_ send their sons away to
+places like Bokhara to be educated, and that they come back Moslems.
+They also call for ample funds to attack Islam on its own ground in
+Russian Turkestan, as it is permeating Christian Russia. This missionary
+point of view is natural enough; how far it is justifiable is for the
+contributing public to decide. To the ordinary mind Christian villages
+which can become Moslem by the leavening influence of a few inhabitants
+who have been to work in Moslem centres convey one of two impressions,
+or both: either Christianity is not adapted to their requirements so
+much as Islam, or they are too weak-kneed to be a credit to any faith,
+and the one with the most virile methods may take them and make men of
+them if it can. Moslem and missionary activities in Chinese Asia remind
+one of cheese-mites gnawing away on opposite sides of a Double
+Gloucester. They are very active, and if they keep at it may get through
+some day; but meanwhile the cheese seems much the same as ever, apart
+from its own internal changes which the mites cannot control or affect.
+
+We will now turn to Africa, the main theatre of war between Moslem and
+missionary, who battle with each other for pagan souls and each other's
+proselytes.
+
+We will first visit Morocco, the most westerly of Moslem countries.
+Here there is not much missionary activity, either Protestant or
+Catholic, but the French have been doing some excellent secular work
+there, and under their tutelage the country is developing on lines of
+moderate progress.
+
+There is little antipathy shown to missionaries here, at any rate on the
+coast, and medical missionaries have been welcomed inland. Education
+does not flourish, but the country might be described by an unbiassed
+observer as enlightened at least as far south as a line joining Mogador
+and Morocco City (Marrakesh). In this northern area you will find an
+industrious agricultural population of small farmers scattered about the
+countryside, which consists of wide, open tracts of arable land under
+millet, maize, and other cereals, dotted here and there with groves of
+olive and orange and interspersed with large forests of _argan_ and
+other small trees. Desert country encroaches more and more toward the
+south, and in spite of several large streams draining into the Atlantic
+from the snowcapped Atlas range, the country becomes very wild and
+sterile the farther south you go from Mogador until it merges in the
+Sahara, across which lies the great, bone-whitened highway that leads to
+Timbuctoo.
+
+Whatever the indigenous Berber of the Atlas may be, the northern Moor
+has never been a mere barbarian, and Spain owes much to his culture and
+industry. He certainly used to have a bizarre conception of
+international amenities, and got himself very much disliked in the
+Mediterranean and even northern waters in consequence. That phase,
+however, has long since passed; the last corsair has rotted at its
+moorings in Sallee harbour, and I am told that to put a wealthy Jew in a
+thing like a giant trouser-press and extort money under pressure is
+considered now an anachronism.
+
+When I first knew the country, a quarter of a century ago, it was just
+emerging from a revolutionary war, and local relations with foreigners
+or even neighbours were capricious. They murdered a German bagman up the
+coast in an _argan_ forest, and the "Gefion" landed a flag-flaunting
+armed party to impress Mogador, which dropped water-pitchers on them
+from upper windows and wondered what on earth the fuss was about.
+
+On the other hand, I was well received by one of the revolted tribes,
+which had chased its lawful Kaid into Mogador until checked by old
+scrap-iron and bits of bottle-glass from the ancient cannon mounted over
+the northern gate of the town.
+
+I was treated with far more hospitality than my absurd and rather rash
+enterprise deserved. Imagine a callow youth just out of his teens
+dropping in haphazard on a rebel tribe accompanied by a mission-taught
+Moor and a large liver-coloured pointer who had far more sense than his
+master. My tame Moor was an excellent fellow, who, beside keeping my
+tent tidy and cooking, helped me to grapple with the derived forms of
+the Arabic verb and the subtleties of Moorish etiquette. I learnt to
+drink green tea, syrup-sweet and flavoured with mint, out of ornate
+little tumblers of a size and shape usually associated with champagne,
+and, after assiduous practice, I could tackle a dish of boiled millet,
+meat, and olives with the fingers of my right hand without mishap.
+
+Beyond occasional brushes with adjacent sections of the neighbouring
+tribe which had declared for the Fez central Government, I had very
+little trouble, except that a peaceful boar-hunt would occasionally
+degenerate into an intertribal skirmish if I and my party got too near
+the loyalist border. As all concerned had, thanks to Western enterprise,
+discarded their picturesque flint-locks in favour of Winchester or
+Marlin repeaters, the proceedings required wary handling if we were to
+extricate ourselves successfully, but my long-range sporting Martini
+usually gave me the weather-gauge.
+
+I dressed as a Moor, and looked the part, but made no attempt to pass
+for anything but a Christian, nor did any unpopularity attach thereto; I
+was merely expected--as a natural corollary--to have a little medical
+knowledge (and it _was_ a little).
+
+I found the attitude of Moors generally towards Christians curiously
+inconsistent. In the towns there was a certain amount of formal
+fanaticism which found vent in donkey-drivers addressing their beasts as
+"_Nasara_" to the accompaniment of whacks and yells, but public
+behaviour was tolerant enough, and the attitude of Moorish officialdom
+was almost courtly.
+
+Jews had rather a bad time, if local subjects, as their black slippers
+and furtive bearing outside their own quarter made them a mark for
+naughty little boys, who flung their canary-coloured slippers at them
+with curses and imprecations deserving a more direct and personal
+application of their footgear. Most of the wealthier Jews had acquired
+European or American protection, and were safe enough. They lived in the
+Frankish quarter and dressed in ultra-European style. They made rather a
+depressing spectacle on Saturdays, when, garbed in black broadcloth,
+with bowler hats, they drifted through the sunlit streets on their
+Sabbath constitutional from one town gate to the next and back. They
+were keen trade competitors, and gained or lost fortunes by gambling in
+the almond export-market or catching a grain-famine at the psychological
+moment. One of them had retired to a leisured affluence on the proceeds
+that a big cargo of almonds had yielded him at a startling turn in the
+market. He was a hospitable soul who met me once entering the landward
+gate in a travel-stained burnoose and insisted on dragging me into his
+gorgeously-carpeted house to drink _aquardiente_ and look at his
+"curios." These consisted chiefly of modern firearms, some of
+first-class London make, which hung on his walls as ornaments, having
+been bought haphazard without ammunition or sporting intent. I nearly
+had a fit when he showed me a double .577 Express hopelessly rusted by
+the damp sea-air and offered to lend it me if I could find "shots" for
+it. The reverse of the shield was illustrated by another acquaintance of
+mine who had made a large fortune by importing Russian wheat to Morocco
+in famine time and had lost it in a short but striking career in
+England, during which he was said to have entertained Royalty,
+astonished the racing world and married a well-known actress in light
+comedy. He, too, was of hospitable intent, but had generally left his
+purse at home when the reckoning came. On the other hand, he always
+carried the "stub" of the cheque-book which had seen him to the apogee
+of his meteoric career, and a glance at its counterfoils (by his express
+invitation) was well worth the price of a drink or two.
+
+The local Islamic attitude toward Moorish Jews was one of contemptuous
+tolerance. They could certainly travel, in native dress, where no
+Christian could. Once, in the _patio_ or go-down of a European merchant,
+I met a greasy, unkempt Jew in a tattered gaberdine watching my
+commercial friend as he weighed what I took to be a double handful of
+crude brass curtain rings such as traders used to sell by the gross
+along the West African coast. They were solid gold and represented the
+venture of a Jewish syndicate which had collected it in pinches of
+gold-dust from the river beds of southern Soos and hit on this form of
+transport. A troop of horse could never have brought it, as gold, a
+day's journey through the lawless tribes of the south, but that
+tatterdemalion Jew had done it at the price of a few contemptuous
+buffets. He had, indeed, offered one truculent gang of highwaymen a few
+of the tawdry-looking rings to let him pass, but they had waved such
+obvious trash aside in their eager search for actual cash, which they
+had taken to the last _rial_.
+
+The only other occasion on which I have known a Moor to be hoisted with
+the petard of his own contemptuous fanaticism was an experience of my
+own.
+
+I was moving quietly through a belt of timber just before dawn in the
+hopes of getting a shot at a boar who was in the habit of feeding till
+daybreak among some barley that grew near a caravan route. Before the
+light was quite strong enough to shoot by I was more than a little
+annoyed and astonished to hear cocks crowing all over the place;
+presuming an early caravan with poultry for market, I pushed on to the
+track, meaning to pass the time of day and ask if they had glimpsed my
+quarry or heard him. I almost ran into a town-bred Moor who was trying
+to round up some scattered poultry in the gloom and cursing volubly. He
+explained that he was riding his donkey along the track perched between
+two light reed cages containing fowls when the donkey baulked as a boar
+snorted in the thickets just off the road. He whacked the donkey and
+cursed the boar as a pig and a Christian. Thereupon came a rush like
+cavalry, the donkey was knocked from under him and he was lying amid
+the wreckage of his flimsy crates with his poultry scattered abroad. The
+boar, already angry and suspicious, as anyone but a townsman would have
+known by the noise he made, had charged like a thunderbolt at the sound
+of a human voice so close to him and galloped off with all the honours
+of war.
+
+The donkey was badly hurt and the man only escaped because he was
+sitting high and just above the point of impact. I helped him secure his
+poultry and started back to my village to send him another donkey. He
+thanked me in brotherly style as one Moor to another. "I'm a Christian
+myself," I remarked at parting, and added in my best beginner's Arabic
+as I turned to go, "It is incumbent on me to assist you after the
+aggression of my co-religionist."
+
+This conventional attitude of arrogance toward Christendom is perhaps
+traceable to Moorish predominance in the Middle Ages and the importation
+of Christian slaves by the pirates of the Barbary coast. In any case, it
+has been much toned down of late years owing to contact with capable and
+well-intentioned Franks as administrators and technical experts.
+
+Morocco should never become a forcing-bed of religious or racial
+antipathy, and will not so long as France continues to develop the
+country by methods which the natives can assimilate, and is not lured
+into over-exploitation of her mineral resources or unwarrantable
+interference with her spiritual affairs.
+
+A perfectly justifiable missionary policy would be the inauguration of
+industrial schools on the coast and at one or two big inland centres,
+also medical missions (with consent of the local authorities) wherever
+feasible. Moorish craftsmanship is worth stimulating, and doctors are
+welcomed for their science. Both schemes would redound to the credit of
+Christendom and be in accordance with the best traditions of the Early
+Church.
+
+In the other Barbary states (Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli) a few Catholic
+missions have been established, and the North African Protestant Mission
+has an advanced post at Kairwan in Tunis. Here many routes converge, for
+Kairwan is a great centre of pilgrimage and taps the religious thought
+of all the Saharan tribes. Under such conditions, Islam gets ahead every
+time, as every caravan traveller is a potential missionary, while
+Christian missions are anchored to the spot or have to rely on native
+colporteurs, who labour under the initial disadvantage of being
+proselytes and seldom have the combination of tact and staunchness which
+evangelists require.
+
+It is in Egypt that we first find Moslem and missionary at close grips
+arrayed against each other. Cairo is a perfect cockpit of creeds.
+Christianity is represented by Catholics, Copts, Orthodox Greeks and
+Protestants, these last being subdivided into Anglicans, Presbyterians,
+Wesleyans and American Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The main
+body of Islam--some of my more fervent missionary friends allude to it
+as "the hosts of Midian"--presents a fairly solid front of orthodoxy,
+the bulk being Hanifis, Shafeis, Maliki or Hanbalis (chiefly the two
+former); but the irregular forces of Shiah are well represented among
+non-indigenous Moslems from Yamen, Persia and India, while scattered
+groups of Wahabi ascetics, Sufi mystics and esoterics of Bahaism
+skirmish on debatable ground between the opposing lines, where range
+such free-lance companies as Theosophists, Christian Scientists,
+Salvationists, etc., all with local headquarters in Cairo and propaganda
+of their own.
+
+It must not be supposed that all this warlike metaphor indicates actual
+strife or even severe friction, any more than "the hosts of Midian"
+represents the attitude of missionaries to Moslems here. On the
+contrary, relations are for the most part excellent, and the prevailing
+animosity is political, not religious, being directed against us
+British much as normal schoolboys dislike their form-master until they
+get a harsher one.
+
+The Catholic Church confines most of her energies to teaching her own
+people, who are very numerous and well looked after; she does not do
+much alien mission work in this part of the world. The most formidable
+band of gladiators in the Christian ranks is the American Protestant
+Mission, and next to them the Anglican C.M.S. (chiefly distinguished in
+Egypt for its medical work, which is excellent and has an
+extraordinarily wide range). The Americans are great on education and
+have done more for the English language in Cairo than any Government
+institution. I use the term "gladiators" advisedly, for their most
+trenchant work is done on their own side--they concentrate their chief
+efforts on the Copts, and make a fairly good bag of proselytes from
+them, apart from the great number to whom they teach sound ideals of
+duty as well as English and the three "R's." One of their leading
+missionaries has left it on record that no one stands more in need of
+salvation than the Copts, and as there is a Coptic Reform Society the
+Copts must think there is room for improvement too.
+
+It has been found in practice that to convert a _bonâ-fide_ Moslem
+involves segregating him, and that means finding him a living in a new
+environment, otherwise he is almost bound to "revert" under local
+pressure. Apart from the strain on mission resources which such
+procedure would cause if extensively followed, most missionaries rightly
+condemn such a system as encouraging conversion for material motives.
+Therefore they adopt a policy of "peaceful penetration" against Islam,
+encouraging young men to come to them unostentatiously (I call them the
+Nicodemus-squad) in order to discuss religious questions, which is
+usually done in a temperate and intelligent manner on both sides. Even
+if they get no "forrader," it tends to toleration and a better knowledge
+of each other's language and ideals. A good deal of teaching is done too
+with no expectation of making proselytes, and solid friendships are
+formed. I have myself known a convalescing lady missionary of the C.M.S.
+to receive repeated calls of friendly inquiry from former pupils; when I
+first saw two veiled young girls swing past with a palpably British
+terrier and the crisp, vigorous step of occidental emancipation, it
+puzzled my ethnological faculties until I was told the object of their
+visit.
+
+All this is to the good, and it would be very good indeed if they let
+well alone. Unfortunately, there is another cogent factor in the mission
+field, and that is the sinews of war in hard cash. Most people, even
+those who support missions to Moslem countries, are human enough to like
+a fight put up for their money. It is not enough for them that a great
+deal of quiet, patient work is being done by missionaries among Moslems
+in the name of Christianity and the service of mankind. They want to
+hear about storming citadels of sin and campaigning against the devil in
+the dark places of the earth; especially is this so in America, where
+Moslem prejudice does not have to be considered and religious
+organisation, like most other concerns, is on a big scale.
+
+As a natural consequence, missionaries have to play up to this combatant
+instinct, and so we read in their books and reports remarks calculated
+to engender religious intolerance on both sides, and which do not
+conform with the shrewd and kindly work in the field of those devoted
+and often scholarly men. I shall have occasion to allude to some of
+these statements as we proceed, so think it only fair to mention their
+justification here.
+
+Cairo is described as a "strategic centre" in mission parlance, and so
+it is, being situated on a great waterway with rail connection far
+south into the heart of Africa and converging caravan routes from every
+quarter. Along these arteries of traffic many tons of tracts and
+propaganda are hurled annually by train, felucca and colporteur. Those
+who cannot read accept such matter gladly to wrap things up in and to
+show to their literate friends, who read what resembles a bit of the
+Koran and find it carries a sting in its tail, like a scorpion, aimed at
+Islam. A great deal of this literature consists of the Psalms of David,
+the Talmud or the Gospel, all reverenced by Moslems if dished up without
+trimmings. Not wishing to impose on that hard-worked word "camouflage,"
+I would merely ask, as a naturalist, if such protective mimicry is worth
+the irritation it causes. In any case, the system reminds me of an old
+Highlander's opening comment on a sword dance by a rock scorpion in a
+Tangier saloon. "There is a sairtain elegance aboot yourr grace-steps,
+but _get in between the swords_."
+
+No vicarious efforts by propaganda will ever take the place of personal
+precept and example. In hunting proselytes among the followers of Islam
+it is not advisable to rely too much on the Scriptures, as Moslems doubt
+the authenticity of our version and point to our own divergent copies in
+proof thereof. Nor is it any use asking them to believe as an act of
+faith; if they did they would need no proselytising: an appeal must be
+made to their reason, and there is no better appeal than the life,
+works, and conduct of one who professes and practises Christianity. Even
+if he makes no single convert he has leavened the population around him
+with the dignity and prestige of his creed which has produced such a
+type. Unfortunately such results cannot be scheduled in mission reports,
+though they are real enough and well worth living for, whether a man be
+a missionary or not; only they cannot be produced by brilliant
+wide-sweeping feats of organisation and enterprise, but by persevering,
+consistent lives, which are not easy or spectacular.
+
+Egypt should be a great field of religious warfare by personal
+influence, as Christians and Moslems live side by side in daily contact
+and reasonable accord, yet few of us take advantage of the fact to
+uphold the prestige of our creed or even of our race. We Europeans are
+busy with our multifarious interests and duties, while Egyptian Moslems
+are either entangled in the web of their environment, as are the
+_fellahin_, or eager snatchers at the gifts of civilisation, as are the
+more or less cultured effendis, or mere hair-splitters in futile
+religious controversy, as are too many of the _ulema_ or sages at the
+great collegiate mosque of al-Azhar. In each case, spiritual matters
+are apt to get crowded out. The fault lies chiefly with our cosmopolitan
+ingredients, which engender feverish living, if not actual vice, and the
+over-strained effort on the one side to impart and on the other side to
+assimilate a Western system of education which has induced intellectual
+dyspepsia. So we hear of students mugging parrot-like to pass
+half-yearly examinations, in the hopes of getting Government
+appointments for which there are far too many applicants; these young
+men besiege the Press with complaints of unfair treatment if they fail,
+or even go to the length of attempting suicide with carbolic acid
+(fortunately with sufficient caution to ensure it usually being but an
+attempt); this latter petulant protest at the temporary thwarting of
+their material hopes is dead against all the teaching and tradition of
+Islam, but it has become so frequent that a leading educational
+authority suggests that no student who attempts suicide shall be allowed
+to sit again for a Government examination. Among their seniors up at
+al-Azhar are men of real learning and remarkably persevering scholarship
+(their theological course makes the average brain reel to contemplate),
+but some sheikh started a controversy as to whether Adam was a prophet
+or not, which fell among those sages with the disrupting force of a
+grenade, causing much litigation in the Islamic courts and culminating
+in the divorce of the originator by his wife for _kufr_, or heresy as
+ordained by Moslem law. Beneath these troubled waters the _fellah's_
+life flows placidly, bounded on the one hand by his crops and on the
+other by the market; his spiritual stimulus being supplied by an
+occasional religious fair or a visit to the shrine of some local saint.
+He toils as patiently as his water-wheel buffalo, and on that toil
+depends the wealth of Egypt which supports saints and sinners, schools
+and shops, with all our European schemes and enterprises thrown in.
+
+As for us British, if our object is to enhance the prestige of our race
+or creed, we fall very short of achievement. We have not even that
+reputation for integrity which usually attaches to us in other parts of
+the Moslem world. This may be partly due to our anomalous position in
+the country, which was thrust upon us, but the pleasure-seeking tourist
+of pre-War days has a lot to answer for. Some of them seemed to think
+that so far from home their conduct was of no account (at least, that is
+the only charitable explanation), and British personal prestige suffered
+in consequence. Anglo-Egyptian officials, especially the subordinate
+grades, which come into more direct contact with the people, tried to
+counteract this by increased dignity of demeanour, but the natives now
+knew them _en déshabillé_, or thought they did, and declined to keep
+them on their pedestals. The result is, familiarity without intimacy and
+detachment without dignity, while the pre-War official habit of going
+Home every year for some months has prevented even subordinates from
+studying their district or department consecutively.
+
+Hence it is that a widespread Nationalist movement gathered force and
+perfected its plans for a detailed campaign which blended peaceful
+demonstration with sabotage, murder and violence, and took the
+Anglo-Egyptian Government completely by surprise, paralysing
+communications and intimidating the general public until the weight of
+Imperial troops, luckily still quartered in the country, was allowed to
+make itself felt and restored order.
+
+This is not the time or the place to discuss these affairs, which are
+still _sub judice_, but one salient feature of the movement is pertinent
+to our subject, and that is the marked _rapprochement_ between Moslems
+and Copts, who fraternised in each other's mosques and churches, carried
+flags bearing the device of Cross and Crescent and used American mission
+buildings to further their new-found brotherhood. These relations were
+somewhat marred by the wholesale devastation of Coptic property
+up-country, but the Copts took it very well and paraded the streets with
+their Moslem friends, if they could not hide away from them. The local
+Jew came in too, and the climax of this religious _entente_ was reached
+when an Egyptian Jewess preached in the mosque of al-Azhar on the
+ancient relations between Jews and Arabs.
+
+But we must not merely consider Egypt as a sort of religious and racial
+clearing house; it is also the main gate of Africa.
+
+Southward, up the Nile valley and across grim deserts, lies Khartoum,
+the capital of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, only four days from Cairo by
+rail. This is a very tempting theatre for missionary enterprise, which
+is, however, held in check by the authorities, who decline to have their
+Sudan spiritually exploited and materially disturbed by futile efforts
+to evangelise the country. Missionaries say that this part of the Sudan,
+as well as Egypt, was once Christian; that discrimination is being shown
+in favour of Islam even to the extent of making pagans become Moslem on
+joining the Egyptian Army; that Gordon College is being run on
+non-Christian lines and that Islam is getting ahead of them in the race
+to convert pagans in this part of the world.
+
+The case against them is that the fact of these regions being once
+Christian and now Moslem shows, if anything, that the latter religion is
+more suited to local requirements and conditions; Islam is naturally
+favoured in a Moslem country, though many Christian missions have been
+given facilities too, and have mostly failed owing to climatic
+conditions: the Egyptian Army is Moslem and under a Moslem Government;
+the conversion of pagan recruits to Islam is encouraged for the sake of
+discipline and soldierly conduct; missionaries themselves admit that
+even in civil life a Christian convert from Islam must be segregated or
+he will lapse under surrounding pressure--perhaps they will explain how
+that is to be done in a barrack-room or native infantry lines, or would
+they prefer such recruits to remain pagan? Presumably they would, as one
+of their complaints is that "it is a thousand times harder to convert a
+Moslem to Christianity than a pagan." Comment is superfluous; nothing
+could portray their attitude more clearly. As for Islam getting ahead of
+them in the race for pagan souls, it is so and will be so always among
+the black races unless Christian missions are bolstered up by all the
+resources of local authority; the reason is that Islam offers equal
+privileges and no colour-line, imposes easy spiritual obligations and is
+propagated fervently by its followers without the encumbrance of an
+organised priesthood. Just as commercial travellers consider a district
+neglected where a rival firm has got ahead of them, so missionaries are
+piqued at conditions in the Sudan; but even that does not excuse such
+statements as that women in the Sudan are free and not badly treated as
+pagans, but slaves and oppressed under Islam. Every student of the
+Islamic code knows that the status of women has been enormously improved
+thereby as compared with any pagan system. Missionaries must know this,
+for they are much better educated about Islam than they were a quarter
+of a century ago, yet they do not scruple to raise the partisan cry of a
+debased womanhood under Islam wherever local conditions involve domestic
+hardship. Such tactics are unworthy of them; an intellectual Moslem does
+not reproach Christianity because he has visited districts in the poorer
+quarters of our big towns and seen women lead lives of drudgery or being
+sometimes knocked about by their husbands.
+
+Outside the Sudan and Nigeria we must keep to the eastern side of Africa
+in order to maintain touch with Islam. The negroid people of Italian
+Erythrea are Moslems, as are also the Somalis; but their racial cousins,
+the Abyssinians, are Christians of the Ethiopian Church, with the Negus
+as their temporal and spiritual ruler, who claims descent from King
+Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
+
+Abyssinia has been Christian ever since the fourth century, but the
+missionaries are not happy about the country at all. Here nothing
+impedes the entrance of the missionary as an individual, but the people
+will not have him as an evangelist at any price. The "fanatical and
+debased" priests of the Abyssinian Church and the drastic punishments
+inflicted by the local authorities on those suspected of favouring other
+forms of Christianity are described as grave hindrances. There is a
+large population of "black Jews," who will have no dealings with
+Christianity in any form. Meanwhile Islam gains ground steadily,
+especially in the south along the trade routes. A German missionary,
+writing from Strasburg in 1910, describes the situation as alarming,
+because "whole tribes of Abyssinians who still bear Christian names have
+become Muhammedans in the last twenty years." There is one Protestant
+mission up at Addis Abeba, but it confines its attentions to the
+semi-pagan Gallas, having given up Christian Abyssinia as a bad job.
+
+Somaliland is a poor field for missionary enterprise, owing to the
+sparse, semi-nomadic population and the difficulties of getting about.
+In the French sphere there is connection by rail between Jibuti on the
+coast and Dera Dowa near the Abyssinian border; travelling musicians of
+the _café chantant_ type used to use it a good deal before the War, but
+there was not much doing in the missionary line. Italian Somaliland,
+east of the British sphere to Cape Guardafui, is left to look after
+itself, except for the occasional visit of an Italian man-of-war; but
+south of that great headland there are Italian settlements.
+
+In British Somaliland missionary enterprise has hitherto been Catholic,
+and even that ceased some years before the War when the authorities had
+to tell the mission that it must leave, as they could no longer protect
+it from the Mullah's people. It was a pity, as the mission was doing
+good work and was much respected in the country. There was a Brotherhood
+which taught and doctored, and a teaching Sisterhood. They were
+Franciscans and had their local headquarters and a tastefully designed
+little chapel in the native town of Berbera, but the Brothers had also
+an agricultural settlement up-country, where they tilled the soil and
+did their best to teach the natives to do so too. The Somali is much
+easier to convert than the Arab, as his versatile and superficial
+temperament induces him to imitate, if not to assimilate, alien forms
+and ceremonies from the correct procedure at the "Angelus" to the
+singing, with appropriate gestures, of "a bicycle made for two."
+Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to teach him to think, or to do a
+day's honest work; he will pull a punkah while you are awake to keep him
+at it, or row a boat if allowed to sing, and sometimes he will fish if
+hungry and quite near the sea; but agriculture involves the hard work of
+digging, and that is too much for him. The object of the mission was to
+give Somali boys and girls the rudiments of Catholic Christianity and
+habits of industry. The boys were well grounded in English and the three
+"R's" in their simplest form, while the girls were taught chiefly sewing
+and cooking. The idea was for boys and girls to marry each other in the
+fulness of time and beget Christian children, but, as one of the good
+Fathers used regretfully to say, it did not work out in practice. The
+boys learnt enough to become interpreters or obtain small clerkships in
+the post and telegraph offices of Aden and adjacent ports, whereupon
+they felt marriage with a "black woman" to be derogatory, and looked
+higher, to the less swarthy charms of some half-caste maiden met at Mass
+(for they usually remained Catholic, at least in outward form). The
+girls, on the other hand, with all their domestic training, were much
+sought after by local chiefs, who were prepared to give them a good
+allowance in beads, bangles and cloth, plenty of food and a fairly easy
+life. In such surroundings they naturally readopted Islam.
+
+Somaliland is not as barren as most people suppose. Of course the
+littoral plain is comparatively sterile, as is the case on the Arabian
+side, owing to the scanty rainfall, and the maritime scarp of the hills
+that back it is not much better, but the country improves as you go
+inland; there is good grazing on the intra-montane plateau, and the
+watersheds of such massifs as Wagr, Sheikh and Golis (7,000 ft. or so)
+are thickly wooded, chiefly with the gigantic cactus tree, which
+averages forty feet; timber trees are scarce, being mostly tall
+_Coniferæ_ in sheltered glens at the higher altitudes. Inland of these
+ranges the ground slopes gradually toward the almost waterless Haud--a
+vast plateau sparsely covered with tall mimosa bush or actual trees
+attaining some thirty feet in height and striking deep to subterranean
+moisture, which keeps them remarkably fresh and green. Giraffe feed
+eagerly on the tender upper foliage and herds of camel graze there too,
+going six months without water, for there is no known supply locally
+except in the occasional mud-pans or _ballis_ after a rainburst, which
+may happen once a year. These camels are kept for meat and milk only,
+and are no use for transport, as they are too "soft" to carry a sack of
+flour. They are rounded up and brought in to wells twice a year, where
+they water for a week or so. Herdsmen moving with them live on their
+milk, which is most sustaining. They must be watered after a maximum
+interval of half a year, or they get "poor" and will not put on flesh.
+Needless to say, no transport camel could be treated like that. A
+caravan camel can go five days without water, but that is about his
+limit while working, and he should be allowed to rest and graze for some
+days afterwards if he is to regain working condition. The giraffe, as
+also antelope of various kinds, can support life without water at all,
+though they trek greedily to the _ballis_ after rain. Here lion lie in
+wait for them occasionally, and it is a frequent subject of discussion
+among naturalists and sportsmen how such heavy, thirsty animals can
+subsist in the Haud. The most probable supposition is that they only
+enter this region with the rains and trek from one _balli_ to another. I
+have met a lioness a long way out of lion country presumably trekking
+from one water-hole to the next. What is still more remarkable is that
+heavy game sometimes will do so too. Heavy firing was once heard far
+south of Burao, and a mounted force pushed out thinking it was the
+Mullah's people going for our "friendlies" out grazing. A rhinoceros on
+trek for water and nearly mad with thirst had winded the waterskins in a
+Somali grazing camp and charged through the zareba to get at them. He
+was mobbed to death by the herdsmen with the rifles which a benevolent
+Government had given them for protection against the dervishes.
+
+To do them justice, the Somalis fear their fauna very little and have
+more than once, when in attendance on a European sportsman, driven off a
+lion with spears and a resolute front after the white man had failed to
+stop the beast with both barrels.
+
+Even a woman will face a leopard with a torch of dry grass to contest
+the ownership of a fat-tailed sheep which he has tried to filch from the
+zareba by night, fearing his snarling menace far less than the wrath of
+her lord and master if the marauder secures his prey.
+
+As for the Midgan, that born hunter and nomadic outcast whom other
+Somalis look down upon, but who has more woodcraft in his touzled head
+than any of them, he will deliberately hunt the king of beasts, using
+some decrepit and almost valueless camel as a stalking-horse. He is
+armed with a bow having about as much apparent "give" in it as the
+bottom joint of a fishing rod, yet able to propel with surprising force
+a stumpy arrow cunningly poisoned with a wizard brew of viper venom and
+the root of the tall box tree. His procedure is to drive his camel
+slowly grazing toward some island of bush in which he has marked down a
+lion, he himself being perched a-straddle behind the hump and directing
+the animal's movements with kicks from one or other of his bare heels.
+From his lofty observation point he at once spots the crouching approach
+of the lion and slips off over the camel's rump to cover, whence he
+speeds one of his venomous little shafts at close range. The outraged
+monarch attacks the camel and the hunter keeps well aloof from the
+subsequent confusion until the poison works and the lion is seized with
+muscular convulsions, like those of tetanus, when he may safely approach
+to gloat over his quarry. What is really remarkable is that the camel is
+not invariably killed. I once met a Midgan on trek who showed me the
+unmistakable claw-marks of a lion on his camel's neck and shoulders and
+said he had used the animal on three such occasions; compared with
+these desperate encounters the exploits of our white shikaris armed with
+powerful modern rifles are insignificant.
+
+One beast of prey, however, is feared and hated by every Somali man,
+woman or child--hunter, shepherd or townsman--and that is the great,
+spotted hyæna which slinks up by night to snap at face or breast of
+sleeping folk and bolts into the gloom at the agonised shriek of his
+mangled victim. The brute is cowardly enough to refuse encounter with an
+able-bodied man awake and on the alert unless rendered desperate by
+hunger, but his jaws are as strong as a lion's, and one snapping bite
+does the mischief. I once helped the P.M.O. at Berbera to tend some
+half-dozen poor wretches who had been frightfully mauled during the
+night on the outskirts of the town itself and probably by the same
+hyæna. The hot weather had induced many folk to sleep outside their
+stifling huts and they _will_ not take the trouble to collect and build
+up a few thorny bushes to keep the brutes off.
+
+The Somali is about as incapable of hard work as his "fat" camel, and
+the only time he may be seen digging is among the convict gangs who
+till, or used to till, the Government garden out at Dubar on the inland
+edge of the littoral plain, where the Berbera water supply bubbles out
+hot from under the low maritime hills and trickles through ten miles of
+surface pipe-line to supply the "Fort," which is supposed to protect the
+British cantonment straggling some distance outside Berbera town. He
+feels such work dreadfully, not only as an injury to his self-respect
+(and he has all the puerile pride of the negroid races), but as an
+irksome tax on his physical powers, which are quite unaccustomed to
+sustained and strenuous exertion. On the other hand, he will make long
+journeys on short commons and keep well and happy if allowed to
+punctuate his hardships at long intervals with debauches on meat and
+milk and fat. He excuses himself from tilling the ground on the plea
+that others might harvest the fruit of his labours, as there is no
+individual land-tenure or any definite divisions of land indicating
+ownership, but only tribal grazing rights over ill-defined areas and the
+parcel of land enclosed by his zareba fence, of which he is but the
+tenant, as it is free to anybody as soon as he leaves it to trek to
+other pastures. Therefore, vegetables are unattainable by him, and his
+cereals (rice, millet and coarse flour) reach him by sea and caravan or
+he does without. He appears immune from scurvy and is seldom sick or
+sorry unless he over-eats himself. He loves _ghi_ (or clarified butter)
+and animal fat, which he swallows in large gulps when he can get it,
+also rubbing it in his frizzy hair and using it to sleek his black,
+spindly shanks and smear his spear-blades--on shikar he will "gorm" it
+all over your spare gun if you do not watch him. His favourite beverage
+is strong tea with lots of sugar in it (when procurable) otherwise he
+will not touch it, and he will drink water which a thirsty camel would
+sniff at suspiciously before imbibing. He dresses in a white sheet worn
+toga-wise and not without a certain dignity, and his head is usually
+bare except in towns or the partially civilised _entourage_ of a white
+man, where he will wear anything on his head from a tarboosh to a topi
+as a mark of distinction, but seems to avoid a turban, which he has not
+the knack of tying properly.
+
+To meet him and his family on trek is to glimpse an epitome of his life.
+First comes the able-bodied though elderly sire carrying a few light
+throwing-spears and a knobkerry or a gim-crack stabbing-spear, and close
+behind him are the adult males of his house similarly armed or with a
+rifle or two supplied by a benevolent Government for protection against
+the Mullah, to whom these children of nature frequently offer them for
+sale at very reasonable prices. After these come the women-folk in
+order of precedence, carrying loads in inverse ratio thereto. The young,
+favourite wife walks first, carrying her latest addition to the family
+in a cotton shawl at her hip; she is followed by other wives of less
+social standing, carrying household utensils, with the smaller children
+at foot, and at the tail of the procession stagger the old crones under
+heavy burdens of pots, pans, pitchers and unsavoury goat-hair rugs. A
+camel or two bring up the rear with the conglomeration of sticks and
+hides and matting which makes the home and looks like an untidy bird's
+nest. On the flanks and in the rear skirmish the elder children, girls
+and boys, with flocks and herds which graze as they go. The big piebald
+sheep with their black heads and indecently fat tails are not allowed to
+range far afield, where lynx or leopard might stalk them under covert,
+as they are valuable, succulent and very foolish. They carry no
+wool--their coat feels just like a fox-terrier's--but they have more
+meat on them than three average goats, and the huge pendulous flap of
+fat which does duty as a tail is a delicacy to make a Somali mouth water
+or a European gorge rise.
+
+The only serious occupation a buck Somali will permit himself is to sit
+under a tree and watch his grazing flocks. He is fond of conversation,
+chiefly of a recriminative character, and gives vent to his _joie de
+vivre_ by prancing and singing on two or three simple notes to the
+accompaniment of his clapping hands and the thud of his horny heels. His
+chief woe is drought and lack of grazing, because he then has to get up
+off his butt-end and take long treks to pastures new. His ideas of
+earthly Paradise centre round the _cafés_ of Aden, where his countrymen
+are numerous and where wages are so high that six grown Somalis can
+batten in well-fed ease on the earnings of a seventh, who keeps on till
+he wants a holiday and then "goes sick" and sends another of the
+syndicate to replace him. Qualifications do not matter, as they all have
+sufficient to fumble through their jobs and no more. If he lacks the
+capital to start cab-driving and finds boat-rowing or punkah-pulling too
+strenuous for him, he sets himself to learn a little English and gets a
+job as servant with some new-fledged British subaltern at a minimum rate
+of £2 a month, which is fixed by his union, for that is one civilised
+device he really _can_ handle. He is the slackest oarsman, the laziest
+punkawala and the worst whip east of Suez. His idea of driving is to sit
+with knees drawn up toward his chin while he lugs at the reins as if
+they were a punkah-cord, urging his staunch little screw along with
+ineffectual flaps of his whip and noises like the paroxysms of sea
+sickness.
+
+He will ruin any saddle-camel for fast work if allowed to ride one
+regularly, such animals not being raised in his country, but he breeds a
+small, hardy type of pony which he loves to gallop in wild dashes, with
+flapping legs and sawing hands, reining the poor little beast up short
+on a bit like a rat-trap to witch beholders with his horsemanship.
+
+As a combatant you never know how to take him. He may put up a hefty
+fight or he may outrun the antelope in his precipitate retreat. I was
+much impressed by the defences in barbed wire and thorn trees considered
+necessary to ward off the onslaught of dervishes by men who knew them
+better than I did.
+
+He is a cheery, irresponsible soul and has been called the Irishman of
+the East. Missionaries rather like him, because he is very teachable up
+to a certain point, fond of learning new tricks if not too difficult,
+and without that habit of logical and consecutive thought which makes
+the real Arab so difficult to tackle in argument.
+
+No remarks on Somaliland would be complete without some mention of the
+Mullah. That astute personage has often been alluded to as "Mad," but
+has proved himself far saner than the Government he was up against. In
+the early 'nineties he kept the Arabi Pasha coffee-house opposite the
+cab-stand in the native town at Aden, where he dispensed tea and
+husk-coffee in little bowls of green-glazed earthenware, also
+raspberryade and other bright-coloured "minerals" in bottles, with a
+small lump of ice thrown in. His establishment was patronised almost
+entirely by Somalis and largely by the _ghari-walas_ themselves. At the
+same time, he was obliging enough to spare the servant of a neighbouring
+sahib like myself a pound or two of ice from his "cold box" on
+occasional application to meet an emergency.
+
+He had a good deal of property in flocks and herds over in British
+Somaliland, which he visited from time to time. In the late 'nineties he
+got involved in some suit or other and the local authorities mulcted him
+of many camels. He very much resented this decision and raised some
+friends and sympathisers to resist its execution by the police. An
+inadequate force was sent and sustained a reverse, after which his
+following grew enormously. Early in this century, when I again had news
+of him, he had craftily cut in between the Italian, Abyssinian and
+British converging columns and annihilated Colonel Plunkett's gallant
+little band at Gumburu, but sustained a severe defeat at Jidballi,
+where his red flannel dressing-gown was sighted in early and headlong
+retirement as his dervishes recoiled from the embattled square.
+
+All the same, he was still going strong long after the South African War
+was over, and we had more leisure to attend to him. When the British
+frontier was drawn in to enable the statement to be made in Parliament
+that "the Mullah's troops were no longer within protectorate limits," he
+took advantage of it to deal ruthlessly with those tribes which had
+refused to join him on the solemn and definite promise that Government
+would protect them from his vengeance. The unhappy Dolbahuntas were
+almost wiped out as a tribal unit; their zarebas and flimsy villages
+were surrounded by the Mullah's men and fired, leaving the
+occupants--men, women and children--the choice of a dreadful end among
+blazing thorns or red death on the spears of their fellow-countrymen and
+co-religionists. A prominent Nationalist has alluded to the Mullah and
+his dervishes as "brave men striving to be free."
+
+In 1910 British prestige had shed its last rag in Somaliland: we had
+withdrawn to the coast and the Mullah's horsemen actually rode through
+Berbera bazar on one of their raids and withdrew unscathed. In 1912 it
+was found necessary to form a company of Somali police on camels to keep
+the peace between "friendlies" who, to allay a certain amount of
+indignation at home, had been armed with rifles to protect themselves
+against the Mullah's people, but were using these weapons, in their
+light-hearted way, to argue questions of grazing as they arose. Early in
+1913 "a small dervish outpost" was reported to be preventing our
+friendlies from grazing in the Ain valley south of Burao at a time when
+no other pasturage was locally available, and the Somali camel-corps,
+about a hundred strong with three white officers, was sent to occupy
+Burao as its base and from there to afford moral and material support
+enabling the friendlies to graze unmolested in the threatened area. This
+cheery opportunism was the Government's wobbling attempt at equilibrium
+between the barefaced desertion of our protected tribes and its avowed
+policy of non-intervention unless on the cheap. It was done too much on
+the cheap; that little force was attacked by an overwhelming force of
+dervishes while out on the grazing grounds affording moral and material
+support. The Maxim was put out of action by an unlucky bullet, and the
+friendlies skedaddled with their Government rifles at the first shot,
+but returned later to loot the dead. The half-trained Somali camelry
+suffered severely and were most unsteady, but the two white officers
+surviving managed to extricate the remnant with difficulty, the gallant
+commandant having died for his trust early in the fight. He was blamed
+posthumously for having exceeded his orders; whether he ought to have
+exercised his moral and material support at a safe distance from the
+place where it was needed or have led his command in headlong flight was
+not made clear, and they were the only two military alternatives to the
+action he _did_ take. At all events the incident shamed the Government
+into taking more adequate measures to protect its friendlies in spite of
+bitter Nationalist opposition.
+
+Missionaries point to our long and fruitless struggle in Somaliland as
+an illustration of the force of fanaticism. It is nothing of the sort;
+the Mullah was a man with a grievance who was driven into outlawry by
+the sequence of events, and the movement was entirely political. Having
+once tasted the sweets of temporal power, he wanted to expand it, and
+used his spiritual and material influence to that end, not hesitating to
+order the wholesale massacre of other equally orthodox Moslems when it
+seemed to him politically expedient. He owed his success to his ruthless
+treatment of his compatriots, the difficult and scantily watered
+terrain, our lack of co-ordination with the Italians and Abyssinians,
+but above all to our parsimonious method of cadging and scraping a
+little money together for an expedition and stopping when the funds gave
+out, like a small boy with fireworks. Somaliland, with its insignificant
+caravan trade, its wide, waterless tracts and its sparse population of
+shiftless, unproductive semi-nomads, is a bad business proposition, and
+no Government can be blamed for hesitating to spend money on it; but if
+half the expenditure had been concentrated on one scheme at one time
+instead of being frittered away on several divergent schemes over a
+lengthy period the Mullah would have been brought to book and the
+resources of the country developed considerably.
+
+South of Somaliland in British, and what was once German, East Africa
+the missionary has comparative freedom of movement, whereas in
+Somaliland no white man has ever been allowed to travel without the
+sanction of the local authorities. He, however, complains that he is not
+encouraged by the Administration in either colony, and certainly makes
+no headway against Islam, which has a very strong hold, especially in
+British East Africa, with the Swahilis. Still, he can point to the
+inland kingdom of Uganda as one of his successes, and it would be more
+so if the various Christian sects would refrain from wrangling among
+themselves.
+
+We have now reached the southern limit of Moslem activity in Africa, for
+we are getting among native races who do not take kindly to asceticism
+in any form, and beyond them are the sturdy white Christians of South
+Africa. Curiously enough, there is a flourishing little colony of
+Moslems at Salt River, the railway suburb of Cape Town, where imported
+East Indian and Arab mechanics have settled. They muster about 7,000
+souls and have founded a school to educate their children. An unbiassed
+English resident states that they are far better citizens than native
+Christians of the same class, owing to their temperate habits. Drink is
+the undoubted curse of the non-Moslem African. In South Africa no native
+in white employ can get alcoholic drink without the written authority of
+his employer, but there are many illicit sources of supply. South
+African colonists insist that the native Christians are the worst--this
+should not be set down to Christianity, but to the civilisation which
+goes with it, and, in place of Kaffir beer and such like home-fermented
+brews of comparatively mild exhilarant character, introduces the
+undisciplined native mind to the furious joys of trade fire-water.
+
+Africa is the main battle-ground between Moslem and missionary, for it
+is in that continent that the forces of Islam and Christianity are most
+nearly balanced. The American Protestant Mission, which is, as we have
+seen, one of the principal belligerents, complains loudly on behalf of
+Christendom that in Africa especially our colonial administrations do
+not give the support to Christian missions that Christian Governments
+should.
+
+Apart from the fact that we administer these countries in trust for
+their indigenous population and have no right to thrust our own creed
+upon them to the exclusion of any other with a sound system of ethics,
+it can most cogently be urged that Islam is the only religion which
+insists on total abstinence, and that seems to be the only way in which
+the native African can avoid alcoholic excess.
+
+I have in front of me a letter written by an American of Boston, Mass.,
+to the _Spectator_ of February 15th, 1919. In it he alludes to a report
+of the Committee for preventing the demoralisation of native races by
+the liquor traffic which is said to be "making Africa a cesspool of
+alcohol, and statistics show that in this devil's work Holland with her
+gin and, I regret to say, the United States with its trade rum have been
+the conspicuously worst offenders." The writer goes on to say that the
+native races are morally and intellectually children, and that has been
+recognised in the States where it is a penal offence to introduce
+alcoholic drink within the Indian reservations.
+
+This being so, the attitude of American Protestants in attacking the
+only teetotal creed which is working among natives in a continent where
+total abstinence is unanimously declared to be essential to native
+welfare indicates loose thinking. It is still more extraordinary when we
+remember that the teetotal party in the United States have moved heaven
+and earth and every device, legitimate or otherwise, to secure national
+prohibition, about which, to put it mildly, there appear to be two
+opinions among American citizens. We are told that the South adopted
+prohibition as a measure of protection against the negro. Apart from the
+safety of white colonists in Africa, is the welfare of African negroes
+beneath the consideration of a free-born American? If so, why does he
+(or she) subscribe so liberally to support missions in Africa? Such an
+attitude is incongruous, even if we adopt the preposterous view that
+Christianity alone can make a sober man of a negro. Imagine a
+municipality which allowed a gang of hooligans to scatter incendiary
+bombs broadcast and encouraged its inadequate fire brigade to fight a
+rival organisation tooth and nail. Its avowed intention of prohibiting
+the use of matches on its own premises would not be considered a
+satisfactory _amende_.
+
+I lay no more stress on American Protestant activities against Islam
+than is their due. There may be some opinions among Europeans that their
+evangelising fervour might find a mission field nearer home in South
+America or even in Mexico. Such a criticism is not only ungrateful but
+unreasonable. American missions have done much for humanity in the East,
+while as regards their own sub-continent the Catholic Church has held
+that field for centuries, and no reasonable being wants to see the two
+great divisions of Christianity sparring with each other about the
+spiritual education of greasers.
+
+The Monroe Doctrine does not apply to missionaries, but I would point
+out to them that in wrestling against Islam they are fanning the fires
+of fanaticism and causing much material trouble, and the net spiritual
+result is to lessen their own power for good and embitter Islam for ill
+while widening the breach between Christian and Moslem.
+
+This chapter is an attempt to give an impartial glimpse at the relations
+between Moslem and missionary throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. With
+regard to their activities, it is neither a detailed account nor an
+apology. No sincere religious effort requires an apology, and if it is
+not sincere no apology suffices.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote C: The definite article precedes most Arabic place-names,
+    but is only retained in ordinary local speech as above, presumably
+    to denote respect. I hold to native pronunciation, except in cases
+    of long-established custom, and consider "the Yamen" as clumsy as
+    "the Egypt"--both take the definite article in Arabian script.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE
+
+
+The world just now appears to be awaiting a millennium resulting from a
+concourse of more or less brilliant and assertive folk with divergent
+views. Presuming that the necessary change in human nature will be
+wrought by enactment, we have still to acquire more religious tolerance
+if we are to live together in unity with our Moslem fellow-subjects and
+neighbours.
+
+What is the use of talking about a League of Nations and the
+self-decision of small States if we still seek to impose our religious
+views on people who do not want them and encroach on the borders of
+other creeds? Are other people's spiritual affairs of no account, or do
+we arrogate to ourselves a monopoly of such matters? Both positions are
+untenable.
+
+The justification of missionary enterprise is based on Christ's last
+charge to His disciples: "Go ye into all the world and preach the
+gospel to every creature." He clearly defined that gospel as "the
+tidings of the kingdom," and what that kingdom was He has repeatedly
+told us in the Sermon on the Mount, frequent conversations with His
+disciples and others and the example of His daily life. He never sought
+to change a man's religious belief (such as it was) or his method of
+livelihood (however questionable it might be), but to reform him within
+the limits of his convictions and his duties. He has also left on record
+an indictment of proselytisers that will endure for all time. Of course,
+if the Gospel narrative is unreliable throughout (as the reverend and
+scholarly compiler of the "Encyclopedia Biblica" would appear to imply)
+then these arguments fall to the ground, but so does any possible
+justification of missionary enterprise. On the other hand, Moslems _do_
+believe and reverence the _Engîl_ or Gospel, though they follow the
+doctrine and dogma of a later revelation.
+
+The logical deduction from these facts is that moral training, education
+and charitable works among Moslems are permissible and justifiable
+features of missionary endeavour, if not forced upon an unwilling
+population, but attacks on Islam itself are not only unmerited but
+unauthorised and impertinent.
+
+Many missionaries of undoubted scholarship and breadth of view see this
+and model their field work accordingly, with good results; in fact, most
+real success in the mission field has been achieved by practical,
+Christian work on the above lines, and not by religious propaganda; but
+the flag which missionary societies flaunt before a subscribing
+Christian public is quite a different banner, as can be easily
+ascertained from their own published literature, which is very prolific
+and accessible to all.
+
+In writing about Islam the authors or compilers of these works too
+frequently allow their zeal to involve them in a web of inconsistency
+and misstatement, or else they let their religious terminology take
+liberties with their intellect and that of the public.
+
+We will glance briefly at their indictment of Islam as presented in
+their quasi-geographical works, disregarding their public utterances and
+tracts as privileged, like the platform-speeches and vote-catching
+pamphlets of a General Election; also we will keep to their own
+terminology and expressions as far as possible.
+
+First and foremost, especially in the United States, where knowledge of
+non-Christian creeds is not so general as with us, the literature of
+foreign missions insists on grouping together all regions as yet
+unexploited by them (whether populated by heathen, Moslems, Buddhists
+or any other non-Christian race) and describing them indiscriminately as
+Gibraltars of Satan's power, a challenge to Christendom and a reproach
+to Zion (whatever that may mean). Yet the four great Christian
+Churches--Greek, Russian, Catholic and Protestant--seem powerless to
+check the reign of hell in Bolshevist Europe, where the liberty of man
+is demonstrated by murder, rapine, torture and every fiendish orgy or
+bestial lust which mortal mind can conceive. The people among whom these
+devilries are being enacted are Christians ruled by Christians, and have
+been Christian for centuries. They are still Christian so far as a
+blood-besotted clique will let them be anything. And in the face of such
+facts there are missionaries who enunciate in cold print that without
+Christianity there could be no charitable or humane organisation of any
+sort, or good government, or security of property, and--clinching
+argument--trade would suffer. Could there be any more glaring example of
+the cart before the horse? Does a dog wag his tail or the tail wag the
+dog? Is Japan hopelessly benighted and devoid of the activities
+described as the monopoly of Christianity? Moreover: Can Christian
+teaching or preaching pacify the embittered struggle between labour and
+capital which threatens yet to wreck civilisation? Does it even try?
+
+There is no more ridiculous or extravagant boast among a certain class
+of self-appointed evangelists than the oft-repeated statement that all
+the modern blessings of Western civilisation are the fruit of
+Christianity and that the backward state of oriental Moslems is due to
+the absence of Christianity.
+
+Any thoughtful schoolboy knows that it was the exploitation of coal and
+iron which lifted us Western nations out of the ruck, backed by the
+natural hardihood due to a bracing climate, otherwise the Mediterranean
+might still be harried by corsairs. Steam transport by land and sea was
+the direct offspring of these two minerals. Even then Western supremacy
+was gradual and only recently completed by the exploitation of
+petroleum, rubber and high explosives. Brown Bess, as a shooting weapon,
+was far inferior to the long-barrelled flint-lock of Morocco, and the
+Arabian match-lock could out-range any firearm in existence till sharp
+cutting tools made the rifle possible. What does modern surgery, or any
+other science of accurate manipulation, not owe to modern steel? When we
+turn from metallurgy to medicine, let us not forget that Avicenna was
+writing his pharmacopoeia when Christian apothecaries were selling
+potions and philtres under the sign of a stuffed crocodile.
+
+Some exponents of Christianity would go further and arrogate to her the
+inception of all arts and handicrafts. Damascus blades, Cordovan
+leather, Moorish architecture, Persian carpets, Indian filagree, Chinese
+carvings and Japanese paintings all give the lie to such claims.
+
+If we are to measure Christianity by the material progress of her
+adherents, what conclusions are we to draw from the history of the Roman
+Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Copts? Fourteen hundred years after
+the birth of Christianity in Palestine the fall of Constantinople
+shattered her last vestige of sovereignty in the East after she had gone
+through centuries of decadence, debauch and intrigue such as anyone can
+find recorded by Gibbon or even in historical novels like "Hypatia."
+
+Islam, to-day, is about the same age as Christianity was then, and has
+gone through similar stages, except that it has been spared the
+intrigues of an organised priesthood and its comparative frugality has
+protected it from oriental enervation to a certain extent.
+
+Compared with Western Christianity its present epoch coincides with the
+era preceding the Reformation, when religious teaching had become
+stereotyped and lacked vitality, as is now the case with Moslem teaching
+as a rule. There is no reason why Islam should not recover as
+Christianity did, and if it does not it will not be due to any intrinsic
+defect, but to its oriental environment, which has already debased and
+wrecked Eastern Christendom.
+
+The respective ages of the two religions induces another comparison. We
+are now in the fourteenth century of the Hejira; glance at European
+Christendom of that period in the Christian era, or even much later, and
+reflect on the Sicilian Vespers, the Inquisition, the massacre of the
+Huguenots, the atrocious witchfinders who served that pedantic
+Protestant prig, James I, and all the burnings, hackings and slayings
+perpetrated in the name of Christendom. We must admit that no Moslems
+anywhere, even in the most barbarous regions, are any worse than the
+Christians of those days, while the vast majority are infinitely better,
+viewed by any general standard of humanity. Christendom's only possible
+defence is that civilisation has influenced Christianity for good, and
+not the other way about. There is one other loophole which I, for one,
+refuse to crawl through--that Christianity is a greater moral force than
+Islam or more rapid in its action. Missionaries say that Islam is
+incapable of high ideals owing to its impersonal and inhuman conception
+of the Deity, whom it does not limit by any human standards of justice.
+They complain that there is no fatherhood in the Moslem God;
+but--pursuing their own metaphor--what would an earthly father think if
+his acts of correction were criticised by his children from their own
+point of view? He might be angry, but would probably just smile, and I
+hope the Almighty does the same. A child thinks it most unjust to be
+rebuked or perhaps chastised for playing at trains with suitable noises
+at unsuitable seasons but it is that, and similar parental correction,
+which makes him become a decent member of society and not a self-centred
+nuisance.
+
+Moslems shrink from applying _any_ human standards to the Deity,
+regarding Him as the Lord of the Universe and not a popularly-elected
+premier. "Whatever good is from God, whatever ill from thyself," is a
+Koranic aphorism. Nor do they seek to drive bargains with Him, as do
+many pious Christians, and their supplications are limited (as in our
+Lord's Prayer) to the bare necessities of life--food and water to
+support existence, and clothing to cover their nakedness.
+
+The application of human ideals to the Almighty places Him on a level
+with Kipling's "wise wood-pavement gods" or the Teutonic conception of
+a deity who sent the Entente bad harvests to help German submarine
+activities. Such absurdities incur the rebuke of the staunch old
+patriarch, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him"; there is no
+excuse for seeking to inflict them on the austerities of Islam.
+
+Climate and terrain have a marked influence on the form religion takes
+in its human manifestation. Missionary literature asserts this clearly
+with regard to Islam, describing it, aptly enough, as a religion of
+desert and oasis thence deriving its austere and sensual features, but
+the thesis applies with equal force to Christianity. The marked cleavage
+of hermit-like asceticism and gross sensuality which rock-bound deserts
+and the lush Nile valley wrought in Egyptian Christendom has been
+described by every writer dealing with that subject, and Arabian
+Christianity drooped, and finally died, in the arid pastoral uplands of
+Jauf and Nejran long before it succumbed in fertile, hard-working Yamen.
+
+If the East became Christian next week there would be the same rank
+growth and final atrophy or disintegrating schism for lack of outside
+opposition. Missionaries are quick enough to remark on this process in
+Arabia where Islam is practically unopposed, but will not apply it to
+Christianity. They do not seem to realise that healthy competition
+maintains the vitality of religion no less than trade or any other form
+of human effort requiring continuous energy and application. Islam
+revivified a decadent Christianity, and the attacks of modern
+missionaries are strengthening Islam. They justify these attacks and
+urge further support for them on the grounds that Islam is moribund and
+now is the time to give it the _coup de grâce_, or that Islam is the
+most dangerous foe to Christendom in the world and must be fought to a
+finish lest it unite three hundred million Moslems against us. I have
+seen both reasons given in the same missionary book; both are absurd.
+The latter is a mere red herring drawn across the trail of existing
+facts, more so, indeed, than the ex-Kaiser's Yellow Peril, for that at
+least was trailed from a vast country enclosing within a ring fence a
+huge population of homogeneous race and creed. As for crushing Islam by
+missionary enterprise, you cannot kill a great religion with pin-pricks,
+however numerous and frequent; you can only cause superficial hurts and
+irritation, as in a German student's duel. Every religion contains the
+germs of its own destruction within itself (which it can resist
+indefinitely so long as it is healthy and vigorous), but no outside
+efforts, however overwhelming, can do aught but stiffen its adherents.
+The early Christian Church was driven off the face of the earth into
+catacombs, but emerged to rule supreme in the very city which had driven
+her underground; Muhammad barely escaped from Mecca with his life, but
+returned to make it the centre of his creed, and Crusaders died in
+hopeless defeat at Hattin cursing "Mahound" with their last breath as
+the enemy of their faith, yet their very presence there showed how Islam
+had revived Christianity.
+
+_Per aspera ad astra:_ there is no easy road or short cut to collective,
+spiritual progress. I am not arguing against possible "acts of grace"
+working on individuals, but the uplift of a race, a class or even a
+congregation cannot be done by a sort of spiritual legerdemain based on
+hypnotic suggestion. Individuals may be so swayed for the time being,
+and, in a few favourable cases, the initial impetus will be carried on,
+but most human souls are like locusts and flutter earthward when the
+wind drops. They may have advanced more or less, but are just as likely
+to be deflected or even swept back again by a change in the wind.
+Revivalist campaigns and salvation by a _coup de théâtre_ do not
+encourage consecutive religious thought, which is the only stable
+foundation of religious belief; second-hand convictions do not wear well
+in the storm and sunshine of unsheltered lives, and a creed that has to
+be treated like an orchid is no use to anybody.
+
+If the same amount of earnest, consecutive effort and clear thinking had
+been applied to religion as has gone to build up civilisation we should
+all be leading harmonious spiritual lives to-day and sin and sorrow
+would probably have been banished from the earth, but few people think
+of applying their mental faculties to religion, and its exploitation by
+modern mercantile methods is not the same thing at all. Civilisation is
+an accretion of countless efforts and ceaseless striving to ameliorate
+existing conditions, whereas religion started as a perfect thesis and
+has since got overgrown with human bigotry and fantasies while absorbing
+very little of the vast, increasing store of human knowledge. That is
+why civilisation has got so much in advance of religion that the latter
+cannot lead or guide the former, but only lags behind, like a horse
+hitched to a cart-tail. Missionary writers are rather apt to confuse the
+gifts of civilisation with the thing itself. A savage can be taught to
+use a rifle or an electric switch or even a flame-projecter, but this is
+no proof that he is really civilised. On the other hand, the scholarly
+recluse and philosopher whose works uplift and refine humanity may
+bungle even with the "fool-proof" lift which takes him up to his own
+eyrie in Flat-land, but he is none the less civilised.
+
+They would have us believe that petticoats and pantaloons are the
+hall-mark of Christian civilisation, and one of their favourite sneers
+at Arabia (as a proof of its benighted condition and need of their
+ministrations) is "a land without manufacture where machinery is looked
+on as a sort of marvel." As a matter of fact, Arabia can manufacture all
+she really wants, and did so when we blockaded her coasts; nor is
+machinery any more of a marvel to the average Arabian Arab than it is to
+the average Occidental. Both use intelligently such machinery as they
+find necessary in their pursuits and occupations, though neither can
+make it or repair it except superficially, and both fumble more or less
+with unfamiliar mechanical appliances. The young man from the country
+blows the gas out or tries to light his cheroot at an incandescent bulb,
+and may be considered lucky if he does not get some swift, silent form
+of vehicular traffic in the small of his back when he is gaping at an
+electric advertisement in changing-coloured lights. It has been my
+object, and to a certain extent my duty, on several occasions to try to
+impress a party of chiefs and their retinue when visiting Aden from the
+wildest parts of Arabia Felix (which can be very wild indeed). On the
+same morning I have taken them over a man-of-war, on the musketry-range
+to see a Maxim at practice and down into a twelve-inch casemate when the
+monster was about to fire. They never turned a hair, but asked many
+intelligent questions and a few amusing ones, tried to cadge a rifle or
+two from the officer showing them the racks for small arms, condemned
+the Maxim for "eating cartridges too fast" and were much tickled by the
+gunner-officer's joke that they could have the big cannon if they would
+take it away with them.
+
+These wild Arabians, when trained, make the most reliable machine-tenders
+in the East, as they have a _penchant_ for mechanism of all sorts and
+will not neglect their charge when unsupervised.
+
+We are all inclined to boast too personally of our enlightened
+civilisation with its marvellous mechanical appliances, but what is it
+after all but the specialist training of the few serving the wants of
+the many? If the average missionary swam ashore with an Arab fireman
+from a shipwreck and landed on an uninhabited island of ordinary
+tropical aspect, the Arab would know the knack of scaling coco-nut palms
+(no easy task), the vegetation which would supply him with fibre for
+fishing-lines and what thorns could be used to make an effective hook,
+while the missionary would probably be unable to get fire by friction
+with the aid of a bow-string and spindle.
+
+Missionary literature is very severe on Arabia as a stiff-necked country
+which has hitherto discouraged evangelical activities. "Hence the low
+plane of Arabia morally. Slavery and concubinage and, nearly everywhere,
+polygamy and divorce are fearfully common and fatalism has paralysed
+enterprise."
+
+This indictment is not only unjust, but it recoils on Western
+civilisation. Arabia is on a high enough moral plane to refuse drink,
+drugs and debauchery generally, while prostitution is unknown outside
+large centres overrun by foreigners, which are more cosmopolitan than
+Arab. Sanaa, which is a pure Arab city with little or no foreign
+element, is much more moral than London or New York. To adduce slavery
+and concubinage coupled with polygamy and divorce as further evidence
+against Arabia is crass absurdity; slaves are far better treated
+anywhere in Arabia than they were in the States or the West Indies;
+concubinage and polygamy, as practised by the patriarchs of Holy Writ,
+are still legal in that part of the world; there is nothing sinful
+about them in themselves--a Moslem might as well rebuke Western society
+for being addicted to whisky and bridge. He might even remind us that
+divorce is easier in the States than in Arabia and quote the Prophet's
+words on the subject: "Of all lawful acts divorce is the most hateful in
+the sight of God." With us a woman can be convicted of adultery in the
+eyes of the world on evidence that would not hang a cat for stealing
+cream, but in Islam the act must be proved beyond doubt by two
+witnesses, who are soundly flogged if their evidence breaks down, and
+their testimony is declared invalid for the future. This places the
+accusation under a heavy disability, but it is better than putting a
+woman's most cherished attribute at the mercy of a suborned servant or
+two--a far greater injustice to womanhood than bearing a fair share of a
+naturally hard and toilsome life, which is also a missionary complaint
+against Arabia. As for fatalism paralysing enterprise there, perhaps it
+does to a certain extent, but it cannot compare with our own organised
+strikes in that direction.
+
+Another charge is that Arabia has no stable government and people go
+armed against each other. Tribal Arabia has the only true form of
+democratic government, and the Arab tribesman goes armed to make sure
+that it continues democratic--as many a would-be despot knows to his
+cost. They use these weapons to settle other disputes occasionally, but
+Christian cowboys still do so at times unless they have acquired grace
+and the barley-water habit.
+
+These deliberate misstatements and the distortion of known facts are
+unworthy of the many earnest workers in recognised mission fields, and
+they become really mischievous when they culminate in an appeal to the
+general public calling for resources and _personnel_ to "win Mecca for
+Christ," and use it and the Arabic language to disseminate Christianity
+and so win Arabia and, eventually, the Moslem world.
+
+Christianity had a very good start in Arabia long before Muhammad's day,
+and (contrary to missionary assertion) was in existence there for
+centuries after his death. Not long before the dawn of Islam, Christian
+and pagan Arabs fought side by side to overthrow a despotic Jew king in
+Yamen who was trying to proselytise them with the crude but convincing
+contrivance of an artificial hell which cost only the firewood and
+labour involved and beat modern revivalist descriptions of the place to
+a frazzle as a means of speedy conversion--to a Jew or a cinder.
+
+Christianity lasted in Yamen up to the tenth century A.D. It paid
+tribute as a subordinate creed, like Judaism, but had far more equable
+charters and greater respect among Moslems. In fact, it was never driven
+out, but gradually merged into Islam, as is indicated by the
+inscriptions found on the lintel of ruined churches here and there,
+"There is but one God."
+
+The published statement of a travelled missionary that the Turks stabled
+their cavalry horses in the ruins of Abraha's "cathedral" at Sanaa is
+misleading. The church which that Abyssinian general built when he came
+over to help the Arabs against the Jew king of proselytising tendencies
+has nothing left of it above ground except a bare site surrounded by a
+low circular wall which would perhaps accommodate the horses of a
+mounted patrol in bivouac. The Turks probably used it for that purpose
+without inquiry.
+
+What is the use of bolstering up a presumably sincere religious movement
+with these puerile and mischievous statements? Apart from the rancour
+they excite among educated Moslems (who are more familiar with this
+class of literature than the writers perhaps imagine) they deceive the
+Christian public and place conscientious missionaries afield in a false
+position, for most practical mission workers know and admit that the
+wholesale conversion of Moslems is not a feasible proposition and that
+sporadic proselytes are very doubtful trophies. Knowing this, they
+concentrate their principal efforts on schools, hospitals and charitable
+relief, all based on friendly relations with the natives which have been
+patiently built up. These relations are jeopardised by the wild-cat
+utterances which are published for home consumption. If a Christian
+public cannot support legitimate missionary enterprise without having it
+camouflaged by all this spiritual swashbuckling, then it is in urgent
+need of evangelical ministrations itself.
+
+Missionaries in the field have, of course, a personal view which we must
+not overlook, as it is entirely creditable to all parties concerned. The
+more strenuous forms of mission work in barbarous countries demand, and
+get, the highest type of human devotion and courage. It is a healthy
+sign that the public should support such enterprise and that men and
+women should be readily found to undertake it gladly. There is a great
+gulf between such gallantry and the calculating spirit which works from
+a "strategic centre," to bring about a serious political situation which
+others have to face.
+
+Let us now examine the Islamic attitude toward Christianity.
+
+The thoughtful Moslem generally admits the excellence of occidental
+principles and methods in the practical affairs of life, but insists
+that even earthly existence is made up of more than civilised amenities,
+economics and appliances for luxury, comfort and locomotion. It is when
+he comes to examine our social life that he finds us falling very short
+of our Christian ideals, and he argues to himself that if that is all
+Christianity can do for us it is not likely to do more for him, but
+rather less. He admits that his less civilised co-religionists in
+Arabia, Afghanistan, etc., lack half-tones in their personalities, which
+are black and white in streaks instead of blending in various shades of
+grey. He considers that Islam with its simple austerities is better
+suited to such characters than Christianity with its unattainable
+ideals. He himself has visited Western cities and observed their
+conditions shrewdly. He regards missionaries as zealous bagmen
+travelling with excellent samples for a chaotic firm which does not
+stock the goods they are trying to push. The missionary may say that he
+has no "call" to reform existing conditions in his own country, just as
+the bagman may disclaim responsibility for his firm's slackness; but
+such excuses book no orders. The travelled Moslem will shake his head
+and say that he has seen the firm's showrooms, and their principal
+lines appeared to be Labour trouble, profiteering and diluted
+Bolshevism, with a particularly tawdry fabric of party politics. He
+respects the spiritual commercial traveller and his opinions, if sincere
+(he is a judge of sincerity, being rather a casuist himself), but
+wherever he has observed the workings of Christianity in bulk it has not
+had the elevating and transcendental effect which it is said to have;
+that is, he has not found the goods up to sample and will have none of
+them.
+
+He seldom realises (to conclude our commercial metaphor) that most
+Christian folk in countries which export missionaries are born with
+life-members' tickets entitling them to sound, durable goods which are
+not displayed in our spiritual shop-windows or in the missionary
+hand-bag:--the prayers of childhood and the mother's hymn, the distant
+bells of a Sabbath countryside, the bird-chorus of Spring emphasising
+the magic hush of Communion on Easter morning, the holly-decked church
+ringing with the glad carols of Christmastide and the tremendous promise
+which bids us hope at the graveside of our earthly love. It is such
+memories as these, and not the stentorian eloquence of some popular
+salvation-monger in an atmosphere of over-crowded humanity, which go to
+make staunch Christian souls.
+
+The possible proselyte from Islam has to rely on what the missionary has
+in his bag. Large quantities of faith are pressed upon him which do not
+quite meet his requirements, as it is his reason which should be
+satisfied first; no one can believe without a basis of belief.
+
+There is also a great deal of slaughter-house metaphor which does not
+appeal to him at all, as he looks on blood as a defilement and a sheep
+as the silliest animal in existence--except a lamb. These metaphors were
+used by our Lord in speaking to a people who readily understood them,
+but for some obscure reason they have not only been retained but
+amplified extensively to the exclusion of much beautiful imagery which
+is still apposite. We Christians reverence such similes for their
+associations, but a Moslem misses the point of them, just as we miss the
+stately metre of the Koran in translation.
+
+The would-be convert from Islam must, of course, learn to stifle any
+fond memories of the virile, vivid creed he is invited to renounce. No
+longer must he give ear to the far-flung call proclaiming from lofty
+minarets the unity of God and the Prophet's mission or its cheery,
+swinging reiteration as the dead are carried to the _magenna_ or "gate
+of Heaven." Certainly not; the less he contemplates their fate the
+better for his peace of mind, since (if the effort to convert him is
+anything more than an outrageous piece of impudence) their lot in the
+hereafter must be appalling and his own depends on the thoroughness with
+which he steels his heart against all he ever knew and loved before he
+met that pious man and his little picture pamphlets.
+
+Do proselytising missionaries in the Islamic field ever sit down and
+think what they are really trying to do? Does the social ostracism of a
+human being, the damnation of his folk and the salvation of none but a
+remnant of mankind mean anything to them? If so they ought to be
+overcome with horror--unless it is their idea of humour, which I cannot
+believe.
+
+To pester a man into abandoning a perfectly sound and satisfying
+religion for one which may not suit him so well is more reprehensible
+than badgering a man to go to your doctor when his own physician
+understands his case and has studied it for a long time. At least his
+discarded medical adviser will not make his life a burden to him--a
+burden which the proselytiser does not have to share.
+
+On the other hand, Moslems are often glad enough to avail themselves of
+such Christian works as mission education, medical treatment and
+organised charity, so they should tolerate the proselytising propaganda
+which seems inseparable from these enterprises.
+
+Missionaries afield are usually justified by their works; it is the
+aggressive policy blazoned abroad from mission headquarters which does
+so much mischief. Islam was never intended to overthrow Christianity,
+but to bring back pagan Arabs to the true worship of God. Mission policy
+clamours for attack on it as if it were an invention of the devil and
+then complains of Moslem fanaticism, forgetting that if it were an
+artifice of Satan they cast doubts on the omnipotence, omniscience or
+beneficence of God for permitting it to exist and flourish. Otherwise,
+they infer that they are in a position to correct the Almighty in this
+matter. It is their complacent pedagogy which exasperates Moslems so. It
+is not the way to treat people who believe in the Immaculate Conception,
+who call Christmas Day "_the_ Birthday" and respect us as "People of the
+Book."
+
+It is time some protest was lodged against this policy if only on behalf
+of Christian administrations in Moslem countries, which are always being
+attacked by it and urged to give more facilities of spiritual
+aggression, especially just at present when Turkey's power has been
+shattered and mission strategy thinks it sees an opening.
+
+There was never a less desirable moment for unchecked religious
+exploitation than now, when the war-worn nations of Christendom are
+trying to reconstruct themselves, and the world is seething with unrest
+and overstocked with discarded weapons of precision.
+
+There is no compromise in religion, nor should there be; you cannot go
+halfway in any faith, and no one wants a mongrel strain begotten of the
+two great militant creeds such as our leading exponent of paradox
+wittily describes as "Chrislam." Yet surely there is a reasonable basis
+for a religious _entente_ between Islam and Christianity.
+
+Think what Islam has done to advance the knowledge of humanity long
+before the dawn of modern science. Moslems, too, would do well to
+remember what Christian civilisation has done for them in trade,
+agriculture and industries. If you accept gifts from others you should
+tolerate their ways; it is but an ill-conditioned cur that bolts the
+food proffered and then snarls.
+
+A Moslem or a Christian worthy of the name will remain so. He may expand
+or (more rarely) contract his views, but will still be a Moslem or a
+Christian, as the case may be.
+
+No human being has the right to say that his conception of the Deity is
+correct and all others wrong, nor is such a conclusion supported by the
+Gospel or the Koran.
+
+It is the alchemy of the human soul which can transmute the dross of a
+sordid environment to the gold of self-sacrifice, and the gold of
+inspired religion to the dross of bigotry.
+
+Whether we believe, as Christians, that Christ died on the Cross and
+rose the third day, or, as Moslems, that He escaped that fate by an
+equally stupendous miracle, we know that He faced persecution and death
+for mankind and His ideals, and that both creeds are based on the same
+great doctrine--"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
+him in spirit and in truth."
+
+
+FINIS
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD. BRUNSWICK ST.,
+STAMFORD ST., LONDON, S.E. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pan-Islam, by George Wyman Bury
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-ISLAM ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26981-8.txt or 26981-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/9/8/26981/
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/26981-8.zip b/26981-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b491cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-8.zip
diff --git a/26981-h.zip b/26981-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc3568d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-h.zip
diff --git a/26981-h/26981-h.htm b/26981-h/26981-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36627dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-h/26981-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,4891 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pan-Islam, by G. Wyman Bury.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {margin-top: .75em;
+       text-align: justify;
+       margin-bottom: .75em;}
+
+    h1,h2 {text-align: center;
+           clear: both;}
+
+    h1 {margin-top: 3em;
+        margin-bottom: 3em;}
+
+    h2 {margin-top: 3em;}
+
+    .centerpadded {text-align: center;
+                   margin-top: 3em;}
+
+    .centersmall {text-align: center;
+                  font-size: 80%;}
+
+    .smaller {font-size: 80%;}
+
+    .byline1 {font-size: 130%;
+              font-weight: bold;}
+
+    .sig {font-variant: small-caps;
+          margin-left: 60%;}
+
+    .rightsc {text-align: right;
+              font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    div.toc {width: 50%;
+             margin-left: auto;
+             margin-right: auto;}
+
+    .ad {font-size: 80%;}
+
+    hr {width: 100%;
+        margin-top: 3em;
+        color: #000000;}
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body {margin-left: 10%;
+          margin-right: 10%;}
+
+    .tocpage {position: absolute;
+              right: 30%;}
+
+    .pagenum {position: absolute;
+              right: 2%;
+              font-size: 80%;
+              text-align: right;
+              color: #5a5a5a;}
+
+    .blockquote {margin-left: 10%;
+                 margin-right: 10%;}
+
+    .blockquote2 {margin-left: 5%;
+                  margin-right: 5%;}
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    .ft {margin-left: 2em;}
+
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pan-Islam, by George Wyman Bury
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pan-Islam
+
+Author: George Wyman Bury
+
+Release Date: October 20, 2008 [EBook #26981]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-ISLAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>PAN-ISLAM</h1>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<img src="images/dec.png" alt="" width="200" height="72" /><br />
+MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span><br />
+<span class="smaller">LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS<br />
+MELBOURNE</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
+<span class="smaller">NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO<br />
+DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class="smcap">Ltd</span>.<br />
+<span class="smaller">TORONTO</span></p>
+
+<h1>PAN-ISLAM</h1>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<b>BY</b><br />
+<span class="byline1">G. WYMAN BURY</span><br />
+<i>Author of "The Land of Us," "Arabia Infelix."</i></p>
+
+<p class="centerpadded">
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED<br />
+ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON<br />
+1919<br /></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="centerpadded">
+TO<br />
+MY WIFE</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I have</span> written this book to present the main factors of a many-sided
+problem&mdash;political, social and religious&mdash;in a form which the general
+public can easily grasp.</p>
+
+<p>Modern democratic principles tend to give the public increasing control
+of international and inter-racial affairs, and therefore any
+contribution to public knowledge on such questions is in the interests
+of sound administration.</p>
+
+<p>The book is not intended to advise those who actually handle these
+affairs: I give such advice, when required, in more detail and not
+through the medium of a published work.</p>
+
+<p>"Pan-Islam" is an elementary handbook, not a text-book&mdash;still less an
+exhaustive treatise, but the questions it discusses are real enough. My
+qualifications for writing it are based on a quarter of a century's
+experience of the subject in most parts of the Moslem world, and I have
+studied the question in areas which I have not actually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> visited through
+intercourse with pilgrims from those parts.</p>
+
+<p>I have no axe to grind or infallible panacea to advocate; I merely lay
+the result of my researches before the public for its information, as
+failing health has warned me to "pass the ball when collared," and I
+would like to think that the land where most of my life's work has
+centred will not be mishandled by cranks and opportunists after I have
+left the game.</p>
+
+<p>An arm-chair is a sorry substitute for an Arab pony, and a garden plot
+for the highlands of Arabia Felix, but the human mind is not necessarily
+confined by such trammels, and if my environment is narrow I hope my
+book is not.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sig">G. Wyman Bury</span>.<br />
+<br />
+Helouan, 27th July, 1919.</p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="toc">
+
+<p class="rightsc">PAGE</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER I</p>
+
+<p>ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING <span class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER II</p>
+
+<p>ITS BEARING ON THE WAR <span class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER III</p>
+
+<p>ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS <span class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER IV</p>
+
+<p>MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY <span class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER V</p>
+
+<p>A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE <span class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></span></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>PAN-ISLAM</h1>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I<br /><br />
+<span class="smaller">ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Much</span> has been written about Christianity and Islam, so I hasten to
+inform my readers that this is not a religious treatise, nor do I class
+them with the globe-trotter who searched Benares brass-bazar diligently
+for "a really nice image of Allah" and pronounced the dread name of
+Hindustan's avenging goddess like an effervescing drink.</p>
+
+<p>I presuppose that Christians or Moslems who read this book have got
+beyond the stage of calling each other pagans or <i>kafirs</i>, and it will
+have served its purpose if it brings about a friendlier feeling between
+the two great militant creeds whose adherents have confronted together
+many a stricken field.</p>
+
+<p>Most people have heard of the pan-Islamic movement, especially during
+the War. Some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> of us have called it a political bogey and some a
+world-menace, but these are extremist views&mdash;it is really the practical
+protest of Moslems against the exploitation of their spiritual and
+material resources by outsiders.</p>
+
+<p>Pan-Islam (as its name implies) is a movement to weld together Moslems
+throughout the world regardless of nationality. The ethics and ideals of
+Islam are more attainable to ordinary human beings than those of
+Christianity: whether it is better to aim high and score a partial
+success or aim lower and achieve is a matter of personal opinion and
+need not be discussed here, but one tangible fact stands out&mdash;that
+Islam, with its easier moral standard and frequent physical discipline
+of attitudes and observances connected with obligatory prayer, enters
+far more into the daily life of its adherents than Christianity does
+with us. Hence pan-Islam is more than a spiritual movement: it is a
+practical, working proposition which has to be reckoned with when
+dealing with Moslems even in secular matters.</p>
+
+<p>Pan-Islam is no new thing&mdash;it is as old as the Hejira, and then helped
+to knit together Moslem Arabs against their pagan compatriots who were
+persecuting them. In the palmy days of the Abbaside Caliphate it was
+quiescent enough, and men of all creeds were welcomed at Baghdad <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> for
+their art, learning, or handicraft when we were massacring Jews in
+London as part of a coronation pageant.</p>
+
+<p>Medieval Moslems never fanned the movement into flame as long as they
+were let alone, and even now tribes living beyond the scope of
+missionaries and traders prefer the Christian traveller whom they know
+to the Moslem stranger from the coast whom they usually distrust, and
+who, to do him justice, seldom ventures among them, unless compelled by
+paramount self-interest, generally in connection with some European
+scheme or other.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto pan-Islam had been an instinctive and entirely natural
+<i>riposte</i> to the menace or actual aggression of non-Moslems; it assumed
+the character of a definite organisation under the crafty touch of that
+wily diplomat Abdul Hamid, once called by harsh critics "the Damned,"
+though his efforts in that direction have been quite eclipsed by more
+recent exponents.</p>
+
+<p>In extreme evangelical circles it used to be frequently urged that
+pan-Islam was a bugbear discovered, if not created, by one of India's
+most eminent Viceroys, whose remarks thereon are said to have given
+Abdul Hamid the hint. This method of eliminating a danger by denying its
+existence has been discredited, since 1914, as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> completely as the
+somewhat similar one (attributed to Mississippi engineers) of sitting on
+the safety-valve just too long for safety. Moreover, in view of Abdul's
+undoubted ability, he probably discovered for himself its efficacy as a
+weapon of reprisal when hard pressed by pertinacious and inquisitive
+Ambassadors, for he often found himself much embarrassed in his dealings
+with Armenia and other domestic affairs by the intrusions of the more
+formidable Christian Powers.</p>
+
+<p>Great Britain naturally felt the point of this weapon most as governing
+wide Moslem territories, and one can imagine some such interview as
+this:</p>
+
+<p>"Frontier rectifications, my dear Sir Nicholas? By all means&mdash;and,
+talking about frontiers, I do hope affairs are quite quiet now on your
+north-west frontier; I take such an interest in my East Indian
+correspondence."</p>
+
+<p>And those Britons who have handled Oriental affairs for the last twenty
+years can appreciate the extent of that interest when we remember that
+even while Yamen Arabs were fighting the Turks, their neighbours on the
+Aden side of the frontier were praying in their mosques that the Sultan
+and his troops might be victorious "by land and sea."</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, was merely playing with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> intrigue as a political
+counterpoise; it remained for a Christian nation to put pan-Islam on a
+business footing. First we have polite bagmen calling at Stamboul with
+German guns and a German military system. Then "our Mr. William" of the
+well-known Potsdam firm of Hohenzollern and Sons made his great
+advertising campaign in the Near East; many of us remembered his
+theatrical visit to Saladin's tomb and the tawdry wreath with its
+bombastic inscription, "From the Emperor of the Franks to the Emperor of
+the Saracens&mdash;Greeting."</p>
+
+<p>That astute "pilgrim" made himself especially affable to the American
+Protestant missionaries in the Holy Land, preached to a small but select
+congregation at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and posed alternately
+as a pious but militant Moslem (when Hajji Guiyaum rode in military pomp
+into Jerusalem) and as a prince of peace. That the hospice of Kaiserin
+Augusta Victoria on the top of the Mount of Olives was loop-holed for
+musketry and mounted a searchlight in its tower that could signal with
+Haifa was possibly due to some wayward caprice of the builder, but it
+came in very useful later on. So did the scholarly researches of eminent
+Germans in Sinai, assisted as they were by maps which the Anglo-Egyptian
+authorities courteously placed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> at their disposal, and which formed a
+basis for a more detailed survey of wells and routes.</p>
+
+<p>But the old firm at Potsdam excelled itself in its representatives on
+the Palestine coast. There was, for example, the German Consul at Haifa
+famed for his culture and diplomacy (the Teutonic brand), who also spoke
+Arabic, Turkish, French and English fluently. This gifted official
+frequented native caf&eacute;s, where he fraternised with the local Arabs and
+conducted a vigorous verbal propaganda against the Entente. Then there
+was the German engineer who wrecked the British railway scheme to
+connect Haifa and Damascus and re-naturalised as a German citizen after
+being American Consul. The Belgian Vice-Consul too, that merry Hun, who
+was also agent for our Khedivial mail line. When the Turks came in
+against us this good and faithful servant danced on the Belgian and
+British flags and threw himself heart and soul into pan-Islamic
+propaganda.</p>
+
+<p>Nor must we overlook that reverend pastor and Koranic scholar who
+distributed anti-Christian and more especially anti-British propaganda
+by means of native emissaries. Last but not least, the Herr Direktor of
+the Hejaz Railway, who was collecting railway material for Sinai before
+war broke out. Some time before the Turks came in he imported, for the
+alleged <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> use of the Jewish technical school, so great a quantity of high
+explosives that it caused a panic in Haifa. Yet it did not sufficiently
+impress our Levantine Vice-Consul there for him to report it, though the
+German Consul's remarkable activity to get the stuff landed might have
+given him the hint.</p>
+
+<p>At Jeddah our Khedivial Mail Agency, under the good old English name of
+Robinson, was a perfect nest of Germans and pro-German Dutchmen when I
+called there in 1912. They were very active early in the War, but had
+wisely disappeared before my last visit, when Jeddah fell to our
+blockade and bombardment.</p>
+
+<p>As for Hodeidah, the chief port of Yamen, it was the happy
+hunting-ground of a great German firm, and the American Consul was
+himself a German.</p>
+
+<p>Decidedly, for people who believed that they had a monopoly of Divine
+assistance, they had taken a lot of pains that their Holy War should be
+a success.</p>
+
+<p>To grasp the world-wide conspiracy which hatched out so many formidable
+events during the War and to appreciate the causes which contributed to
+its final collapse we must take a comprehensive glance at the Ottoman
+Caliphate and how it came about.</p>
+
+<p>Remember, the Ottoman Turks are not Semitic, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> as is the bulk of the
+Moslem world. Tradition derives them from Turk, son of Japhet, and they
+are a Turco-Mongol blend which most people agree to call Tartar. Their
+language is closely allied to Mongolian, though written in Arabic, or
+rather Persian, character, and its Arabic words are pronounced
+unintelligibly to an Arab. A true Turk learns Arabic with difficulty,
+and a far higher percentage of Britons in India speak Hindustani than
+Turks do Arabic in Turkish Arabia.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, look at their early history. Their Mongol-Turkish ancestors
+were driven westward because they made Mongolia too hot for them, and we
+hear of Turks smelting iron for their Mongol masters in what is now
+Eastern Turkestan until they threw off the Mongol yoke in <span class="ad">A.D.</span> 552, when
+Turkish history begins.</p>
+
+<p>At the dawn of Islam (<span class="ad">A.D.</span> 632) Turks and Mongols were harrying each
+other all over the Caspian countries like rival wolf-packs, sometimes
+combining for a raid on their neighbours and then fighting over the
+loot. That is why you find racial Turks in such outlandish places as
+Merv, Khiva, Samarcand, Bokhara and Cabul, for the Turkish race is not
+confined to Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe, but is scattered over parts
+of Russia and China and Afghanistan.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now to consider the Ottoman Turks, with whom we are chiefly concerned.
+They were superior to their Mongol fellow-wolves in that they could
+smelt iron and had some idea of constructive enterprise. They had also
+adopted Islam, which was a great advance from the Shamanistic wizardry
+and totem-worship they used to practise, and their contact with the
+Arabs who raided them and afterwards accepted their military service to
+the Caliphate had civilised them considerably. Their Seljouk cousins
+were already ruling in Asia Minor, whither they had been driven by the
+Mongols when a wandering Turkish band sought similar asylum there in the
+earlier part of the thirteenth century and intervened most opportunely
+to help the Seljouks repulse a Mongol raid; in return, the Seljouk
+Emperor gave them a grant of land in Bithynia.</p>
+
+<p>In 1300 the Seljouk Empire was finally smashed by the Mongols, who
+withdrew eastward without occupying the country, for they were merely
+predatory and destructive and had no gift or desire for permanent
+colonisation. So it came about that the Ottoman Empire began in 1326
+under Othman I in Bithynia and grew by absorption and lack of effective
+opposition until, in 1517, we find it spreading under Selim I (the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+Magnificent) to the gates of Vienna and extending from Germany to Persia
+and from Arabia to the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>The benign sun of the Arabian Caliphate, under which learning and
+industry flourished securely, had long since set in blood under
+circumstances of treachery and murder which have hardly been surpassed
+even in the late war.</p>
+
+<p>Under the later Abbasides, when the glories of the Caliphate were
+waning, there were bitter dissensions between Sunnis and Shiahs (the
+main orthodox and schismatic sects of Islam) which culminated in fierce
+rioting at Baghdad in 1258. The then Caliph was foolish enough to appeal
+for assistance against the schismatic seditionists to his Mongol
+neighbours. It had been done before under similar conditions, and even
+in these days such a man&#339;uvre seems still to appeal to some types of
+religious fanaticism, judging by certain passages between our sister
+isle and the modern Hun. On the above occasion, however, it was
+practised once too often. Hulaku Khan, the fierce Mongol chief, had long
+had his eye on Baghdad as holding princely loot in all too slack a grip,
+for the Caliphate had been relying on Tartar mercenaries for years.</p>
+
+<p>He approached that queen of cities, as she then was, with a great host,
+lured the Caliph out <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> to meet him by the promise of an alliance, and
+murdered the whole party, the Caliph being trampled to death. Then
+Baghdad was given over to sack and massacre for more than a month, by
+which time 1,800,000 people are said to have perished.</p>
+
+<p>The Caliphate was transplanted to Cairo, where it dragged out an an&aelig;mic
+existence until Selim I seized it, with the person of the then Caliph,
+by right of conquest, and it has been an appanage of the Ottoman
+reigning house ever since.</p>
+
+<p>Selim the Magnificent may be called the Turkish top-note. After him the
+Ottoman Empire gradually declined. It has generally taken advantage of
+disaster or dissension to extend its borders&mdash;a precarious method of
+empire-building unless consolidated by benevolent and sound
+administration, which is not a feature of Turkish rule. Add to this the
+facts that Turks are slack Moslems, that the national party which ousted
+Abdul Hamid (himself most orthodox) is not religious at all, with all
+its barbarian, totemistic nonsense of the "White Wolf," and that they
+<i>would</i> pose as conquerors on insufficient grounds, and we begin to see
+why they have been kicked out of their Asiatic empire bit by bit.</p>
+
+<p>If Turk and Mongol had been capable of dynastic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> evolution and
+co-ordinate policy they might have shared most of the Eastern Hemisphere
+between them. We have seen the high-water mark of the Ottoman Empire;
+Marco Polo has told us of Kubla Khan's Chinese Empire, and the Moguls
+did much for India in their prime. But the wolf-taint was in their
+blood, and just as a pet wolf gets fat and degenerate, so it has been
+with these Tartars. Their undoubted soldierly qualities are sapped by
+luxury, and they possess no constructive gifts which peace and
+prosperity might develop. Hence it is that every empire they have
+founded has risen to a culminating point of conquest and then dwindled
+away in sloth and corruption.</p>
+
+<p>The Turk is not fit to be put in charge of any race but his own, for he
+is at heart a bitter wolf who will turn and rend without ruth or
+warning. I have met Turks who have shown tact, humanity, and ability
+under trying conditions, and I have met well-mannered wolves in
+captivity, but would not trust the pack ranging in its native forest. I
+once heard a member of our Ottoman Embassy who has unique experience of
+the Turk size him up as follows: "The Turk can be a suave and cultured
+gentleman till his time comes, and then he will tear your guts out and
+<i>dance</i> on them." It was the Seljouk Turks whose <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> persecutions caused
+the Crusades. Before them, Arab rule in Palestine was tolerant enough,
+and the Caliph Omar was scrupulously careful when he entered Jerusalem
+as a conqueror to respect Christian prejudices and the monuments of our
+creed.</p>
+
+<p>So it came about that their empire was dropping from them piecemeal even
+before the War, for a race that can no longer conquer and has never
+learned to conciliate must draw in its borders or cease to exist as a
+State.</p>
+
+<p>When war broke out Turkey was just hanging on to the last scrap of her
+empire in Europe and had lost all but the shadow of sovereignty in
+Egypt, while Arabia was seething with discontent, where not in actual
+revolt, and regarded the belated efforts of local officials to govern
+tactfully as signs of weakness.</p>
+
+<p>The colossal brigandage of Germany appealed to her freebooting
+instincts, although it took a corrupt, self-seeking Government and a
+final push from the "Goeben" and the "Breslau" to plunge her into war
+against her best friends.</p>
+
+<p>To proclaim a <i>jihad</i> was her obvious course, if only to keep Arabia
+moderately quiet, apart from its value as a weapon against her Christian
+foes. We will now see how she fared in the "Holy War."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER II<br /><br />
+<span class="smaller">ITS BEARING ON THE WAR</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Quite</span> early in the War those of us who had to deal with pan-Islamic
+propaganda realised that the widespread organisation which Germany had
+grafted on to the original Turkish movement must have existed some time
+before the outbreak of actual hostilities.</p>
+
+<p>For example, there was a snug, smooth-running concern at San Francisco
+which spread its tentacles all over the Moslem world, but specialised in
+a seditious newspaper called <i>El'-Ghadr</i>, which means treachery or
+mutiny. This was particularly directed at our Indian Army, but Egypt was
+not forgotten. A gifted censor sent us an early copy, but had,
+unfortunately, lost the wrapper, so our earnest desire to make the
+addressee's closer acquaintance was thwarted.</p>
+
+<p>Stamboul was naturally an active centre, and, before the Turks entered
+the War, Turkish officers in full uniform, and sometimes even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> wearing
+swords, permeated Cairo caf&eacute;s with espionage and verbal propaganda,
+trying to fan into flame the military ardour of Egyptian students and
+men about town. This last activity was wasted effort, as anyone who knew
+the type could have told them; the effendis abstained from the crudities
+of personal service and confined themselves to stirring up the town
+riffraff, who wanted a safer form of villainy than open riot, and the
+<i>fellahin</i>, who wanted a safe market for their produce and easy
+taxation, both of which they stood to lose by violence. Many a <i>fellah</i>
+still believes that the War was a myth created by the authorities to put
+prices up. Even Teuton activity failed to stimulate these placid folk,
+and the glad tidings preached by the madder type of German missionary
+that the Kaiser was the Messiah left them unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>When the Turks came in against us, and the ex-Khedive, safe among his
+new-found friends, threw off the mask, the Cairene effendis became
+tremendously active. Forgetting how they had disliked Abbas II and
+called him a huckstering profligate, they mourned for his deposal by
+wearing black ties, especially the students. Some of these enthusiastic
+young heroes even went so far as to scatter chlorate of potash crackers
+about when their school was visited by poor old Sultan <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> Husein (who was
+worth six of his predecessor), and he got quite a shock, which was
+flagrantly and noisomely accentuated by asaf&#339;tida bomblets.</p>
+
+<p>The ex-Khedive did not share their patriotic grief. He was quite
+comfortable while awaiting the downfall of British rule, for, with
+shrewd prescience that almost seems inspired, he had taken prudent
+measures for his future comfort and luxury before leaving Egypt on his
+usual summer tour to Europe. He had mortgaged real estate up to the
+hilt, realised on immobile property as far as possible, and diverted his
+fluid assets through various channels beyond the reach of his sorrowing
+subjects and the Egyptian Government. When an official inventory was
+taken in Abdin Palace at the accession of the late Sultan Husein, it was
+ascertained that the famous inlaid and begemmed coffee-service, which,
+like our Crown jewels, was not supposed to leave the country, had been
+sent after the ex-Khedive to his new address&mdash;truly a man of parts. I
+have often wondered whether his Hunnish friends got him to disgorge by
+means of a forced loan or war-bonds, or something of that sort. If so,
+they achieved something notable, for he has left behind him, beside his
+liabilities, the name of being a difficult man to get money out of.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When the Turco-Teuton blade was actually drawn in Holy War I was down
+with enteric, which I had contracted while working in disguise among
+seditious circles in the slums of Old Cairo. I just convalesced in time
+to join the Intelligence Staff on the Canal the day before Jemal Pasha's
+army attacked. His German staff had everything provided for in advance
+with their usual thoroughness. From the documents and prisoners that
+came through our hands we learnt that the hotel in Cairo where the
+victors were to dine after their triumphant entry had actually been
+selected, and some enthusiasts went so far as to insist that the menu
+had been prepared. If so, they omitted to get the Canal Army on toast,
+and for want of this indispensable item the event fell through. All the
+same, it was a soldierly enterprise, and if the Senussis had invaded in
+force or the population risen behind us, as they hoped would be the
+case, the result might have been different.</p>
+
+<p>As it was they put up a very good fight and their arrangements for
+getting across the Sinaitic desert were excellent. For the last ten
+miles they man-handled their pontoons to the edge of the Canal. These
+craft were marvels of lightness and carrying capacity, but, of course,
+no protection whatever against even a rifle-bullet, and they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> had not
+fully reckoned with the Franco-British naval flotilla, which proved a
+formidable factor.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after the main fight a little Syrian subaltern passed
+through my hands. He had been slightly wounded in the leg and still
+showed signs of nervous shock, so I made him sit down with a cigarette
+while I questioned him. He had been in charge of a pontoon manned by his
+party and said that they had got halfway across the Canal in perfect
+silence when "the mouth of hell opened" and the pontoon was sinking in a
+swirl of stricken men amid a hail of projectiles. He and two others swam
+to our side of the Canal, where they surrendered to an Indian
+detachment.</p>
+
+<p>Our Indian troops on the Canal were naturally a mark for pan-Islamic
+propaganda reinforced by Hindu literature of the <i>Bande Mataram</i>
+type,&mdash;a double-barrelled enterprise to bag both the great creeds of
+India. The astute propagandists had a pamphlet or two aimed at Sikhism,
+which they seemed to consider a nation, as they spoke of their national
+aspirations, though an elementary study of the subject might have taught
+them that it was a religious and secular movement originally intended to
+curb Moslem power in India during the sway of the later Moguls. Anyone
+but a Moslem can be a Sikh.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Naturally I was on the <i>qui vive</i> for signs of pan-Islamic activity on
+the enemy's side, and I questioned my little Syrian very closely to
+ascertain how far the movement was used as a driving force among the
+troops engaged against us. He, personally, had rather a grievance on the
+subject, for the Indian Moslems who took him had reproached him bitterly
+for fighting on the wrong side. "I fought," he said, "because it was my
+duty as an officer of the Ottoman Army. I know that men were invited to
+join as for a <i>jihad</i>, but we officers did not deceive ourselves. <i>Par
+exemple</i>, I think myself a better Moslem than any Turk, but what would
+you?" I consoled the little man while concealing my satisfaction at the
+feeling displayed against him. An extraordinarily heterogeneous
+collection of prisoners came dribbling through my hands directly after
+the Turks were repulsed. Most were practically deserters who had been
+forcibly enrolled, given a Mauser and a bandoleer, and told to go and
+fight for the Holy Places of Islam. As one of the more intelligent
+remarked, "If the Holy Places are really in danger, what are we doing
+down this way?"</p>
+
+<p>They came from all over the Moslem world. There were one or two Russian
+pilgrims returning from Mecca to be snapped up by the military <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+authorities at Damascus railway station when they got out of the pilgrim
+train from Medina. There were cabdrivers from Jerusalem, a stranded
+pilgrim from China, several Tripolitans who had been roped in on the
+Palestine seaboard while trying to get a passage home, a Moor who tried
+to embrace my feet when I spoke of the snow-crowned Atlas above Morocco
+City (Marraksh) and told him that he would be landed at Tangier in due
+course&mdash;Inshallah. Of course we released, and repatriated as far as we
+could, men who were not Ottoman subjects and had obviously been forced
+into service against us. A few days later, when Jemal Pasha's army was
+getting into commissariat difficulties out in the Sinaitic desert (for
+the Staff had relied on entering Egypt), we began to get the real Turks
+among our prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>I was very curious to ascertain if they had been worked up with
+pan-Islamic propaganda or carried any of it on them, for there was not
+even a Red Crescent Koran on any of the Arabic-speaking prisoners. A
+search of their effects revealed a remarkable phase of propaganda. There
+was hardly any religious literature except a loose page or two of some
+pious work like the "Traditions of Muhammad," but there were quantities
+of rather crude (and very lewd) picture-cards <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> portraying soldiers in
+Turkish uniform outraging and murdering nude or semi-nude women and
+children, while corpses in priestly garb, shattered crucifixes, and
+burning churches indicated the creed that was being so harried and gave
+the scene a stimulating background. From their appearance I should say
+these pictures were originally engraved to commemorate Balkan or
+Armenian atrocities, but their possessors, on being closely questioned,
+admitted that the impression conveyed to them was of the joyous licence
+which was to be theirs among the Frankish civilians after forcing the
+Canal. One Kurdish gentleman had among his kit fancy socks, knitted
+craftily in several vivid colours, also ornate slippers to wear in his
+promised palatial billet at Cairo. There were some odd articles among
+the kit of these Turkish prisoners, to wit, a brand-new garden
+thermometer, which some wag insisted was for testing the temperature of
+the Canal before immersion, and a lavatory towel looted from the Hejaz
+railway. Still, nothing was quite so remarkable as a white flag with a
+jointed staff in a neat, compact case which had been carried by a German
+officer. Among his papers was an indecent post-card not connected, I
+think, with propaganda of any sort, as it portrayed a bright-coloured
+female of ripe figure and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> Teutonic aspect, wearing a pair of long
+stockings and high-heeled shoes, and bore the legend "Gruss von
+M&uuml;nchen."</p>
+
+<p>A certain coyness, or possibly an appreciation of their personal value,
+kept most of the German officers from actual contact with our line. Only
+one reached the Canal bank, and he is there still. The German touch,
+however, was much in evidence. There were detailed written orders about
+manning the pontoons, not to talk, cough, sneeze, etc., and for each man
+to move along the craft as far as feasible and then sit down. They seem
+to have relied entirely on surprise, and ignored the chance of its
+occurring on the wrong side of the Canal. The emergency rations too
+which we found on the earlier batches of prisoners had a distinctly
+Teutonic flavour&mdash;they were so scientifically nourishing in theory and
+so vilely inedible in practice. They were a species of flat gluten cake
+rather like a dog-biscuit, but much harder. An amateur explosive expert
+of ours tested one of these things by attempting detonation and ignition
+before he would let his batch of prisoners retain them, which, to do
+their intelligence justice, they were not keen on doing, but offered any
+quantity of the stuff for cigarettes. We ascertained from them that you
+were supposed to soak it in water before tackling it in earnest, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> but as
+the only supply (except the runlet they still carried on them) was in
+the fresh-water canal behind our unshaken line, such a course was not
+practicable; the discovery of a very dead Turk some days later in that
+canal led to the ribald suggestion that he had rashly endeavoured to eat
+his ration. Our scientist laid great stress on its extraordinary
+nutritive properties, but desisted, after breaking a tooth off his
+denture, in actual experiment.</p>
+
+<p>German influence, too, was apparent in the relations between officers
+and men. A Turkish <i>yuzbashi</i> was asked to get a big batch of prisoners
+to form two groups according to the languages they spoke&mdash;Arabic or
+Turkish. It was not an easy task in the open on a pitch-black night, but
+he did it with soldierly promptitude and flung his glowing cigarette end
+in the face of a dilatory private. As a natural corollary it may be
+mentioned here that one or two of our prisoners had deserted after
+shooting officers who had struck them.</p>
+
+<p>For some days after the battles of Serapeum and Toussoum we expected
+another attempt, but they had been more heavily mauled than we thought
+at first. The dead in the Canal were kept down by the weight of their
+ammunition for some time, and the shifting sand on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> Sinaitic side
+was always revealing hastily-buried corpses on their line of retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Jemal Pasha hurried back to Gaza and published a grandiloquent report
+for Moslem consumption, to the effect that the Turks were already in
+Cairo (as was indeed the case with many hundreds), and that, of the
+<i>giaour</i> fleet, one ship had sunk, one had been set on fire, and the
+rest had fled. Two heavy howitzers, as a matter of fact, had managed by
+indirect fire from a concealed position to land a couple of projectiles
+on the "Hardinge," which was not originally built for such rough
+treatment, being an Indian marine vessel taken over by the Navy. She
+gave more than she got when her four-point-sevens found the massed
+Turkish supports.</p>
+
+<p>A great deal of criticism has been flung at this first series of fights
+on the Canal, mostly by Anglo-Egyptian civilians. They asked derisively
+whether we were protecting the Canal or the Canal us. The answer is in
+the affirmative to both questions. Ordinary steamer traffic was only
+suspended for a day during the first onslaught, and the G.O.C. was not
+such a fool as to leave the Canal in his rear and forgo the defensive
+advantage. There are some who, in their military ardour, would have had
+him pursue the enemy into the desert, forgetting that to leave a sound <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+position and pursue a superior force on an ever-widening front in a
+barren country which they know better than you do and have furnished
+with their own supply-bases is just asking for trouble. Our few
+aeroplanes in those days could only reconnoitre twenty miles out, and
+there was no evidence that the enemy had not merely fallen back to his
+line of wells preparatory to another attempt. We had not then the men,
+material, or resources for a triumphant advance into Sinai; it was
+enough to make sure of keeping the enemy that side of the Canal with the
+Senussi sitting on the fence and Egypt honeycombed with seditious
+propaganda.</p>
+
+<p>Anyone at all in touch with native life in Cairo could gauge the extent
+of propagandist activity by gossip at caf&eacute;s and in the bazars. The
+Senussi was marching against us. India was in revolt and the Indian Army
+on the Canal had joined the Turks. The crowning stroke of ingenuity was
+a tale that received wide credence among quite intelligent Egyptians. It
+was to the effect that the Turks had commandeered an enormous number of
+camels and empty kerosene tins. This was quite true so far, but the yarn
+then rose to the following flight of fancy: These empty tins were to be
+filled with dry cement and loaded on camels, which were to be marched <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+without water for days until they reached the Canal, when the pangs of
+thirst would compel them to rush madly into the water. The cement would
+solidify and the Faithful would march across on a composite bridge of
+camel and concrete. Our flotilla was to be penned in by similar means.</p>
+
+<p>There must be something about a Turk that hypnotises an Egyptian. His
+country has suffered appallingly under Ottoman rule, and a pure-blooded
+Turk can seldom be decently civil to him and considers him almost
+beneath contempt. This is the conquering Tartar pose that has earned the
+Turk such detestation and final ruin in Arabia, but it seems to have
+fascinated the Egyptian like a rabbit in the presence of a python. Quite
+early in the Turkish invasion of Sinai a detachment of Egyptian camelry,
+operating in conjunction with the Bikanirs, deserted <i>en masse</i> to the
+enemy. It was at first supposed that they had been captured, but we
+afterwards heard of their being f&ecirc;ted somewhere in Palestine. On the
+other hand, an Egyptian battery did yeoman service on the Canal; I saw a
+pontoon that looked like a carelessly opened sardine-tin as a result of
+its attentions.</p>
+
+<p>The most tragic aspect of this spurious and mischievous propaganda was
+its victims from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> Indian regiments. The Indian Moslem as a rule has no
+illusions about the Turks, and will fight them at sight, but there will
+always be a few misguided bigots to whom a specious and dogmatic
+argument will appeal. There is no occasion to dwell on these cases,
+which were sporadic only and generally soon met with the fate incurred
+by attempted desertion to the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>We looked on the movement as an insidious and dangerous disease and did
+our best to trace it to its source and stop the distributing channels.
+After events on the Canal had simmered down, I was seconded to Cairo to
+help tackle the movement there: to show how little hold it had over the
+minds of thinking Moslems. I may mention that my colleague was a Pathan
+major who was a very strict Moslem and a first-rate fellow to boot.</p>
+
+<p>We both served under an Anglo-Indian major belonging to the C.I.D., one
+of the most active little men I have ever met. There were also several
+"ferrets," or Intelligence agents, who came into close contact with the
+"suspects" and could be trusted up to a certain point if you looked
+sharply after them. This is as much as can be said for any of these men,
+though some are better, and some worse, than others. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> On the Canal we
+employed numbers of them to keep us informed of the enemy's movements
+and used to check them with the aerial reconnaissance&mdash;they needed it.
+It did not take us long to find out that these sophisticated Sinaites
+had established an Intelligence bureau of their own. They used to meet
+their "opposite numbers" employed by the enemy at pre-arranged spots
+between the lines and swop information, thereby avoiding unnecessary
+toil or risk (the Sinaitic Bedouin loathes both) and obtaining news of
+interest for both sides. It was a magnificently simple scheme; its sole
+flaw was in failing to realise that some of us had played the Great Game
+before. We used to time our emissaries to their return and cross-check
+them where their wanderings intersected those of others&mdash;all were
+supposed to be trackers and one or two knew something about it. Of
+course they were searched and researched on crossing and returning to
+our outpost line, for they could not be trusted to refuse messages to or
+from the Turks. It was among this coterie that the brilliant idea
+originated of shaving a messenger's head, writing a despatch on his
+scalp, and then letting his hair grow before he started to deliver it. I
+doubt if any of our folk were thorough enough for this, but we tested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+for it occasionally, and an unpleasant job it was. Generally they would
+incur suspicion by their too speedy return and the nonchalant way in
+which they imparted tidings which would have driven them into ecstasies
+of self-appreciation had they obtained such by legitimate methods. Then
+a purposely false bit of information calculated to cause certain
+definite action on the other side would usually betray them. Some
+purists suggested a firing party as a fitting end for these gambits, but
+that would have been a waste. Such men have their uses, until they know
+they are suspected, as valuable channels of misinformation. No doubt the
+enemy knew this too, and that is how an Intelligence Officer earns his
+pay, by sifting grain from chaff as it comes in and sending out empty
+husks and mouldy news.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to Cairo. We netted a good deal of small fry, but only
+landed one big fish during the time I was attached. He was a
+Mesopotamian and a very respectable old gentleman, who followed the
+calling of astrologer and peripatetic quack&mdash;a common combination and
+admirably adapted for distributing propaganda. He came from Stamboul
+through Athens with exemplary credentials, and might have got through to
+India, which was the landfall he proposed to make, if his propagandist
+energy had not led him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> to deviate on a small side-tour in Egypt. Here
+we got on his track, and I boarded the Port Said express at short notice
+while he and the "ferret" who had picked him up got into a third-class
+compartment lower down. As the agent made no signal after the train had
+pulled out, I knew our man had not got the bulk of his propaganda with
+him, otherwise I had powers to hold up the express, for it was more
+important to get his stuff than the man himself. At Port Said he had a
+chance of seeing me, thanks to the agent's clumsiness, and I had to
+shave my beard off and buy a sun-helmet in consequence, for I was
+travelling in the same ship along the Canal to see that he did not
+communicate with troops on either side of the bank, and on the slightest
+suspicion he would have put his stuff over the side. All went smoothly
+and he was arrested in Suez roads by plain-clothes men with a sackful of
+seditious literature for printing broadcast in India. Of course they
+arrested the "ferret" too, as is usual in these cases. I went ashore
+with them in the police-launch as a casual traveller and was amused to
+hear the agent rating the old man for not having prophesied this mishap
+when telling his fortune the night before.</p>
+
+<p>The propagandist was merely interned in a place of security&mdash;it was not
+our policy to make <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> martyrs of such men, especially when they were <i>bona
+fide</i> Ottoman subjects.</p>
+
+<p>I was rather out of touch with the pan-Islamic movement during the
+summer of 1915, as my lungs had become seriously affected on the Canal,
+and the trouble became so acute that I had to spend two or three months
+in the hills of Cyprus. Before I had been there a week the G.O.C. troops
+in Egypt cabled for me to return and proceed to Aden as political
+officer with troops.</p>
+
+<p>I was too ill then to move and had to cable to that effect. My chagrin
+at missing a "show" was much alleviated when I heard what the show was.
+As it had a marked effect on the pan-Islamic campaign by enhancing
+Turkish prestige, it is not out of place to give some account of it
+here.</p>
+
+<p>While I was still on the Canal in February (1915) a "memo" was sent for
+my information from Headquarters at Cairo to say that the Turks had
+invaded the Aden protectorate at Dhala, where I once served on a
+boundary commission.</p>
+
+<p>I noted the fact and presumed that Aden was quite able to cope with the
+situation, as the Turks had a most difficult terrain to traverse before
+they could get clear of the hills and reach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> the littoral, while the
+hinterland tribes are noted for their combatant instincts and efficiency
+in guerilla warfare, besides being anti-Turk. I had, however, in spite
+of many years' experience, failed to reckon with Aden apathy. True to
+the policy of <i>laissez faire</i> which was inaugurated when our Boundary
+Commission withdrew some twelve years ago, Aden had been depending for
+news of her own protectorate on office files and native report,
+especially on that much overrated friend and ally the Lahej sultanate.
+The Turks knew all about this, for the leakage of Aden affairs which
+trickles through Lahej and over the Yamen border is, and has been for
+years, a flagrant scandal.</p>
+
+<p>The invasion at Dhala was a feint just to test the soundness of official
+slumber at Aden; the obvious route for a large force was down the Tiban
+valley, owing to the easier going and the permanent water-supply.</p>
+
+<p>Our border-sultan (the Haushabi) was suborned with leisurely
+thoroughness all unknown to his next-door neighbour, that purblind
+sultanate at Lahej, unless the latter refrained from breaking Aden's
+holy calm with such unpleasant news.</p>
+
+<p>In May Aden stirred in her sleep and sent out the Aden troop to
+reconnoitre. This fine body of Indian cavalry and camelry reported that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+affairs seemed serious up the Tiban valley; then inertia reasserted
+itself and they were recalled. Also the Lahej sultanate, in a spasm of
+economy, started disbanding the Arab levies collected for the emergency
+from the tribes of the remoter hinterland which have supplied fine
+mercenaries to many oriental sultanates for many centuries.</p>
+
+<p>The watchful Turk, with his unmolested spy system, had noted every move
+of these pitiful blunders, and, at the psychological moment, came
+pouring down the Tiban valley some 3,000 strong with another 5,000 Arab
+levies. They picked up the Haushabi on the way, whose main idea was to
+get a free kick at Lahej, just as an ordinary human boy will serve some
+sneak and prig to whom a slack schoolmaster has relegated his own
+obvious duty of supervision. To do that inadequate sultanate justice, it
+tried to bar the way with its own trencher-fed troops and such levies as
+it had, but was brushed aside contemptuously by the hardier levies
+opposed to it and the overwhelming fire of the Turkish field batteries.
+Then a distraught and frantic palace emitted mounted messengers to Aden
+for assistance like minute-guns from a sinking ship.</p>
+
+<p>Aden behaved exactly like a startled hen. She ran about clucking and
+collecting motor-cars, camel transport, anything. The authorities <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> dared
+not leave their pet sultan in the lurch&mdash;questions might be asked in the
+House. On the other hand they had made no adequate arrangements to
+protect him. Just as a demented hen will leave her brood at the mercy of
+a hovering kite to round up one stray chick instead of sitting tight and
+calling it in under her wing, so Aden made a belated and insane attempt
+to save Lahej.</p>
+
+<p>The Aden Movable Column, a weak brigade of Indians, young Territorials,
+and guns, marched out at 2 p.m. on July 4, <i>i.e.</i> at the hottest time of
+day, in the hottest season of the year and the hottest part of the
+world. Motor-cars were used to convey the infantry of the advanced
+guard, but the main body had to march in full equipment with ammunition.
+The casualties from sunstroke were appalling. The late G.O.C. troops in
+Egypt mentioned them to me in hundreds, and one of the Aden "politicals"
+told me that not a dozen of the territorial battalion remained effective
+at the end of the day. Many were bowled over by the heat before they had
+gone two miles.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the native camel transport, carrying water, ammunition and
+supplies,&mdash;and yet unescorted and not even attended by a responsible
+officer&mdash;sauntered off into the desert and vanished from the ken of that
+ill-fated column.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the advanced guard of 250 men (mostly Indians) and two
+10-pounder mountain-guns pushed on with all speed to Lahej, which was
+being attacked by several thousand Turks and Turco-Arabs with 15-pounder
+field batteries and machine-guns. They found the palace and part of the
+town on fire when they arrived, and fought the Turks hand-to-hand in the
+streets. They held on all through that sweltering night, and only
+retired when dawn showed them the hopeless nature of their task and the
+fact that they were being outflanked. They fell back on the main body,
+which had stuck halfway at a wayside well (Bir Nasir) marked so
+obviously by ruins that even Aden guides could not miss it. Shortage of
+water was the natural result of sitting over a well that does not even
+supply a settlement, but merely the ordinary needs of wayfarers.</p>
+
+<p>This well is marked on the Aden protectorate survey map (which is
+procurable by the general public) as Bir Muhammad, its full name being
+Bir Muhammad Nasir. There are five wells supplying settlements within
+half an hour's walk of it on either side of the track, but when we
+remember that the column's field-guns got no further owing to heavy
+sand, and that the aforesaid track is frequently traversed by ordinary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+<i>tikkagharries</i>, we realise the local knowledge available.</p>
+
+<p>The column straggled back to the frontier town of Sheikh Othman, which
+they prepared to defend, but Simla, by this time thoroughly alarmed,
+ordered them back for the defence of Aden, and they returned without
+definite achievement other than the accidental shooting of the Lahej
+sultan. This was hardly the fault of the heroic little band which
+reached Lahej; that ill-starred potentate was escaping with his mounted
+retinue before dawn and cantered on top of an Indian outpost without the
+formality of answering their challenge. He was brought away in a
+motor-car and died at Aden a few days later&mdash;another victim to this
+deplorable blunder. Any intelligent and timely grasp of the enemy's
+strength and intention would have given the poor man ample time to pack
+his inlaid hookahs, Persian carpets, and other palace treasures and
+withdraw in safety to Aden while our troops made good the Sheikh Othman
+line along the British frontier. I am presuming that Aden was too much
+taken by surprise to have met the Turks in a position of her own
+choosing while they were still entangled in hilly country where levies
+of the right sort could have harried them to some purpose, backed by
+disciplined, unspent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> troops and adequate guns. What I wish to impress
+is that the Intelligence Department at Aden must have been abominably
+served and organised, for I decline to believe that <i>any</i> G.O.C. would
+have attempted such an enterprise with such a force and at such a time
+had he any information as to the real nature of his task. As it was, the
+British town of Sheikh Othman, within easy sight of Aden across the
+harbour, was held by the Turks until a reinforcing column came down from
+the Canal and drove them out of it, while the protectorate has been
+overrun by the Turks and the Turco-Arabs until long after the armistice,
+and the state of British prestige there can be imagined.</p>
+
+<p>Official attempts to gloze over the incident would have been amusing if
+they were not pathetic. Needless to say they did not deceive Moslems in
+Egypt or the rest of Arabia.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the most accurate account they gave the public:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p>"TURKS AND ADEN.</p>
+
+<p>"ENGAGEMENT AT LAHEJ.</p>
+
+<p>"The India Office issued the following <i>communiqu&eacute;</i> last night
+through the Press Bureau:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote2">
+<p>"'In consequence of rumours that a Turkish force from the
+Yamen had crossed the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> frontier of the Aden Hinterland and
+was advancing towards Lahej, the General Officer Commanding
+at Aden recently dispatched the Aden Camel Troop to
+reconnoitre.</p>
+
+<p>"'They reported the presence of a Turkish force with
+field-guns and a large number of Arabs and fell back on
+Lahej, where they were reinforced by the advance guard of
+the Aden Movable Column consisting of 250 rifles and two
+10-pounder guns.</p>
+
+<p>"'Our force at Lahej was attacked by the enemy on July 4 by
+a force of several thousand Turks with twenty guns and
+large numbers of Arabs, and maintained its position in face
+of the enemy artillery's fire until night, when part of
+Lahej was in flames. During the night some hand-to-hand
+fighting took place, and the enemy also commenced to
+outflank us.</p>
+
+<p>"'Meanwhile the remainder of the Aden Movable Column was
+marching towards Lahej, but was delayed by water
+difficulties and heavy going. It was therefore decided that
+the small force at Lahej should fall back.</p>
+
+<p>"'The retirement was carried out successfully in the early
+morning of July 5, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> the detachment joined the rest of
+the column at Bir Nasir. Our troops, however, were
+suffering considerably from the great heat and the shortage
+of water, and their difficulties were increased by the
+desertion of Arab transport followers. It was therefore
+decided to fall back to Aden, and this was done without the
+enemy attempting to follow up.</p>
+
+<p>"'Our losses included three British officers wounded: names
+will be communicated later. We took one Turkish officer (a
+major) and thirteen men prisoners.'"</p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Aden seems to have made no attempt to stem the tide of Turkish influence
+while she could. The best fighting tribe in the protectorate stretches
+along the coast and far inland north-east of Aden, and its capital is
+only a few hours' steam from that harbour. The Turks made every effort
+to win over this important tribal unit, which might have been a grave
+menace on their left flank. Its sultan made frequent representations to
+Aden for even a gunboat to show itself off his port, but to no purpose.
+After the Turks had succeeded in alienating those of his tribe they
+could get at, or who could get at them, a tardy political visit was paid
+by sea from Aden. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> indignant old sultan came aboard and spoke his
+mind. "You throw your friends on the midden," he said bitterly, and
+departed to establish a <i>modus vivendi</i> on his own account with the
+Turks.</p>
+
+<p>The situation at Aden has had a marked effect in bolstering up the
+Turkish campaign of spurious pan-Islamism, and those of us who have been
+dealing with chiefs in other parts of Arabia have met it at every turn.
+It is idle to blame individuals&mdash;the whole system is at fault. The
+policy of non-interference which the Liberal Government introduced,
+after the Boundary Commission had finished its task and withdrawn, has
+been over-strained by the Aden authorities to such an extent that they
+would neither keep in direct personal touch themselves nor let anyone
+else do so.</p>
+
+<p>As an explorer and naturalist whose chief work has lain for years in
+that country, I have made every effort to continue my researches there
+until my persistency has incurred official persecution. The serious
+aspect of this attitude is that at a time when accurate and up-to-date
+knowledge of the hinterland would have been invaluable it was not
+available. The pernicious policy of selecting any one chief (unchecked
+by a European) to keep her posted as to affairs in her own protectorate
+has been followed blindly by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> Aden to disaster. The excuse in official
+circles there is that the Haushabi sultan had been suborned by the Turks
+without their knowledge and he had prevented any information from
+getting through Lahej to them. Can there be any more damning indictment
+of such a system?</p>
+
+<p>The Aden incident is similar to the Mesopotamian medical muddle, both
+being due to sporadic dry-rot in high places which the test of war
+revealed. The loyalty of its princes and the devotion of its army prove
+that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with British rule in India to
+command such sentiments, but some of those mandarins who have had wide
+control of human affairs and destinies have ignored a situation until it
+was forcibly thrust upon them and have fumbled with it disastrously. It
+is difficult to bring such people to book, for they shuffle
+responsibility from one to the other or take refuge in the truly
+oriental pose of heaven-born officialdom. Such types should be obsolete
+even in India by now, but this war has proved that they are not, and
+when their inanities fritter away gallant lives and trail British
+prestige in the dust they need rebuke. I hope some day, if I live, to
+deal faithfully with Aden's hinterland policy.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1915 I was fit enough to join the Red Sea maritime
+patrol as political officer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> with the naval rank of lieutenant. Our
+duties were to harry the Turk without hurting the Arab, to blockade the
+Arabian coast against the Turk while allowing dhow-traffic with
+foodstuffs consigned to Arab merchants and steamer-cargoes of food for
+the alleged use of pilgrims to go through. Incidentally we had to keep
+the eastern highway free of mines and transportable submarines, prevent
+the passage of spies between Arabia and Egypt, and fetch and carry as
+the shore-folk required.</p>
+
+<p>Taking it all round, it was not an easy job, but I think the blockade
+presented the most complex features. You knew where you were with
+spies&mdash;anyone with the necessary experience could spot a doubtful
+customer as soon as the dhow that carried him came alongside; and
+irregular but frequent visits at the various ports soon put a stop to
+the mine-industry and prevented any materialisation of the submarine
+menace except in reports from Aden which caused me a good many
+additional trips in an armed steam-cutter to "go, look, see."</p>
+
+<p>But the problems presented by the blockade required some solving with
+very little time for the operation, and if your solution was not
+approved by the authorities on the beach they lost no time in letting
+you know it&mdash;usually <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> by wireless, which was picked up by most ships in
+the patrol by the time it reached you.</p>
+
+<p>The basic idea was that if in doubt it was better to let stuff through
+to the Turks than pinch Hejazi bellies and get ourselves disliked. In
+theory this was perfectly sound, for we wanted the Hejaz to like us well
+enough to fight on our side, and only the Huns think you can get people
+to love you by afflicting them. In practice, however, we soon found that
+the Hejazi merchants were selling direct to the Turks and letting their
+fellow-countrymen have what was left at the highest possible price. On
+top of it all India started a howl that her pilgrims in the Hejaz were
+starving, and we had to defer to this outcry. I have never had to
+legislate for highly-civilised Moslems with a taste for agitation, but I
+have always sympathised with those who have, and could quite appreciate
+India's position in the matter. Still, after comparing her relief
+cargoes with the number of her pilgrims in the country and finding that
+each had enough to feed him for the rest of his natural life, I ventured
+to ask that this wholesale charity might cease, more especially as these
+big steamer-cargoes were dealt with much as the dhow-borne cereals and
+chiefly benefited the Turks and local profiteers.</p>
+
+<p>As regards dhows, our rule was to allow coastal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> traffic from Jeddah and
+empties returning there, as it tended to distribute food among the Arabs
+and get it away from the Turks. Dhows bringing cargo from the African
+coast or from Aden were permitted, provided they did not carry
+contraband of war; this permitted native cereals, such as millet, but
+barred wheat and particularly barred barley, which the local Arab does
+not eat for choice, but which the Turks wanted very badly for their
+cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>In this connection a typical incident may be mentioned as illustrating
+the sort of thing we were up against.</p>
+
+<p>The ship I was serving in at the time lay off Jeddah and had three boats
+down picketing the dhow-channels leading in to that reef-girt harbour,
+for which dhows were making like homing bees. In such cases my post was
+usually on the bridge, while the ship's interpreter and Arab-speaking
+Seedee-boys went away in the boats. The dhows were reached and their
+papers examined, then allowed to proceed if all was in order. Otherwise
+the officer examining signalled the facts and awaited instructions.
+Usually it was some technical point which I could waive, but on this
+occasion one of the cutters made a signal to the effect that barley in
+bulk had been found in one dhow. I was puzzled, because all the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> dhows
+were from Suakin or further south, quite outside the barley-belt, except
+on very high ground which rarely exports cereals. However, the signal
+was repeated, and I had to have the dhow alongside. Meanwhile the
+"owner" was anxious to get steerage-way, for we were not at anchor and
+in very ticklish soundings; so I slid off the bridge and had a sample of
+the grain handed up to me: it was a species of millet, looking very like
+pearl-barley as "milled" for culinary purposes. I shouted to the <i>reis</i>
+to go where he liked as long as he kept clear of our propellers, which
+thereupon gave a ponderous flap or two as if to emphasise my remarks,
+and he bore away from us rejoicing. In the ward-room later on I rallied
+that cutter's officer on his error. "Well, it was just like the barley
+one sees in soup," was his defence.</p>
+
+<p>In the southern part of the Red Sea, which was handled politically from
+Aden, the problems of blockade were even more complex, for there even
+arms and ammunition were allowed between certain ports to meet the
+convenience of the Idrisi chief, who was theoretically at war with the
+Turks, but rather diffident about putting his principles into practice,
+especially after the Turkish success outside Aden.</p>
+
+<p>This meant that the sorely-tried officers responsible <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> for the conduct
+of the blockade in those waters had frequently to decide on a cargo of
+illicit-looking rifles and cartridges, not of Government make, but
+purchased from private firms and guaranteed by a filthy scrap of paper
+inscribed with crabbed Arabic which carried no conviction. All they had
+to help them was the half-educated ship's interpreter, with no knowledge
+of the political situation, for Aden had not an officer available for
+this work. To enhance the difficulties of the position, some of these
+coastal chiefs were importing contraband of war to sell to the Turks for
+private gain. Up north there were no difficulties with illicit arms; we
+allowed a reasonable number per dhow, provided that they were the
+private property of the crew, and when rifles were dished out to our
+Arab friends the Navy delivered the goods, which were all of Government
+mark and pattern.</p>
+
+<p>The political aspect of the blockade required delicate handling anywhere
+along the Arabian littoral of the Red Sea, but especially so on the
+Hejazi coast. We were at war with the Turks but not with the Arabs, whom
+it was our business to approach as friends if they would let us. The
+Turks, however, used Arab levies freely against us whose truculence was
+much increased on finding they could make hostile demonstrations <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> with
+impunity, as the patrol only fired on the Turkish uniform, since few
+people can distinguish between a Turco-Arab gendarme and an armed
+tribesman at long range unless they know both breeds intimately.</p>
+
+<p>The general standard of honour and good faith at most places along the
+Arabian littoral is not high, even from an Oriental point of view, and
+is nowhere lower than on the Hejazi coast. Frequently an unattached
+tribesman would take a shot at a reconnoitring cutter on general
+principles and then rush off to the nearest Turkish post with the
+information and a demand for bakshish, and there were several attempts
+(one successful) to lure a landing party on to a well-manned but
+carefully hidden position. As for the actual levies, they would solemnly
+man prepared positions within easy range of even a 3-pounder when we
+visited their tinpot ports, relying on us not to fire, and telling their
+compatriots what they would do if we did.</p>
+
+<p>Even when examining dhows one had to be on one's guard, and it was best
+not to board them to leeward and so run the risk of having their big,
+bellying mainsail let go on top of you and getting scuppered while
+entangled in its folds. African dhows could generally be trusted not to
+resist search, for when a <i>reis</i> has got his owners or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> agents at a
+civilised port like Suakin he likes to keep respectable even if he <i>is</i>
+smuggling. Our chief difficulty with such craft, before we tightened the
+blockade, was due to the nonchalant manner in which they put to sea and
+behaved when at sea. Their skippers had the sketchiest idea of what
+constituted proper clearance papers and why such papers must agree with
+their present voyage. Their confidence too in our integrity, though
+touching, was often embarrassing. One of our rules was that considerable
+sums in gold must be given up against a signed voucher realisable at
+Port Sudan. I was never very brisk at counting large sums of money, and
+one day when hove to off Jeddah there were five dhows rubbing their
+noses alongside, with about &pound;800 in gold between them and very little
+time to deal with them, as we were in shoal water with no way on the
+ship. My operations were not facilitated by the biggest Cr&#339;sus of the
+lot producing some &pound;400 in five different currencies from various parts
+of his apparel and stating that he had no idea how much there was but
+would abide by my decision. I believe he expected me to give him a
+receipt in round hundreds and take the "oddment," as we call it in
+Warwickshire, for myself. As it was, I was down half a sovereign or so
+over the transaction, having given him the benefit of the doubt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> over
+two measly little gold coins of unascertainable value.</p>
+
+<p>Some of them were just as happy-go-lucky in their seamanship, though
+skilful enough in handling their outlandish craft. Early one morning,
+about fifty miles out of Jeddah, I boarded a becalmed dhow and found
+them with the dregs of one empty water-skin between a dozen men. Not
+content with putting to sea with a single <i>mussick</i> of water, they had
+hove to and slept all night, and so dropped the night breeze, which
+would have carried them to Jeddah before it died down. We gave them
+water and their position, but I told the <i>reis</i> that he was putting more
+strain on the mercy of Allah than he was, individually, entitled to.</p>
+
+<p>But the craft that plied along the Hejazi coast were sinister customers
+and wanted watching. Some time before I joined the patrol one of our
+ships was lying a long way out off Um-Lejj, as the water is shallow, and
+her duty-boat was working close in-shore examining coastal craft. One of
+these had some irregularity about her and was sent out to the ship with
+a marine and a bluejacket in charge while the cutter continued her task.
+That dhow stood out to sea as if making for the ship and then proceeded
+along the coast. The cutter, still busied with other dhows, presumed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+that the first craft had reported alongside the ship and been allowed to
+proceed; the ship naturally regarded her as a craft that had been
+examined and permitted to continue her journey. And that is all we ever
+knew for certain of her or the fate of our two men. Their previous
+record puts desertion out of the question; besides, no sane men would
+desert to a barren, inhospitable coast among semi-hostile fanatics whose
+language was unknown to them. On the other hand, the men were, of
+course, fully armed, and there were but five of the dhow's crew all
+told, of whom two were not able-bodied. There must have been the
+blackest treachery&mdash;probably the unfortunate men goodnaturedly helped
+with the running gear and were knocked on the head while so engaged.
+Their bodies would, no doubt, have been put over the side when the dhow
+was out of sight, and their rifles sold inland at a fancy price.</p>
+
+<p>When I first joined the patrol we were not allowed to bombard or land at
+any point between the mouth of the Gulf of Akaba and the Hejaz southern
+border. The Turkish fort up at Akaba had been knocked about a good deal
+by various ships of the patrol, and the whole place was uninhabited; but
+we visited it frequently, as drifting mines were put in up there,
+having <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> been taken off the rail at Maan and brought down to the head of
+the gulf, in section, by camel. I always suspected the existence of a
+Turkish observation-post, but no signs of occupation had been seen for a
+long time till H.M.S. "Fox" went up one dark night without a light
+showing. All dead-lights were shipped, and dark blue electric bulbs
+replaced the usual ones where a light of some sort was essential and
+visible from out-board. The padre, who had opened the "vicarage"
+dead-light about an inch to get a breath of air, was promptly spotted by
+an indignant Number One who said that it made the ship look like a
+floating gin palace. This must have been a pardonable hyperbole, for the
+signal-fires ashore which used to herald our approach from afar were not
+lit.</p>
+
+<p>We were off Akaba at peep of day, and two armed cutters raced each other
+to the beach. I went with the one that made for the stone jetty in the
+middle front of the town; we had to jump out into four feet of water, as
+the port has deteriorated a good deal since Solomon used it and called
+it Eziongeber. A careful search revealed no one in the town, but water
+had been drawn recently from the well inside the fort, and a mud hut out
+in the desert behind the town seemed a likely covert to draw.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The cutter's officer accompanied me, leaving the crew ensconced in the
+cemetery, which was a wise move, for, when we were close to the hut,
+heavy fire was opened on us from a hidden trench some three hundred
+yards away. We both dropped and rolled into a shallow depression caused
+by rain-wash, where we lay as flat as we could while the flat-nosed soft
+lead bullets kicked sand and shingle down the backs of our necks. As we
+had only revolvers&mdash;expecting resistance, if any, to be made among the
+houses&mdash;we could not reply, but the ship handed out a few rounds of
+percussion shrapnel which shook the Turks up enough for us to withdraw.
+Fortunately for us, they were using black powder, and outside four
+hundred yards one has time to avoid the bullet by dropping instantly at
+the smoke. Otherwise they should have bagged us in spite of the support
+of our covering party in the cemetery, for the ground was quite open and
+so dusty that they could see the break of their heavy picket-bullets to
+a nicety.</p>
+
+<p>We landed in force an hour later and turned them out of it. On
+returning, the men who searched the hut (which the ship's guns had
+knocked endways) brought me a budget of correspondence. It was chiefly
+addressed to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> officer in charge and told me that the detachment was
+Syrian, which I had already suspected from their using the early pattern
+Mauser. It gave other useful information, and the men did well to bring
+it along; but I would have given much to have found some channel through
+which I could return it. Most of it was private; there were several
+congratulatory cards crudely illuminated in colours by hand for the
+feast of Muled-en-Nebi (the birthday of the Prophet), which corresponds
+with our Christmas. There was also a letter from the officer's wife
+enclosing a half-sheet of paper on which a baby hand had imprinted a
+smeared outline in ink. It bore the inscription "From your son
+Ahmed&mdash;his hand and greeting."</p>
+
+<p>Early in the spring of 1916 we managed to persuade the political folk at
+Cairo to extend our sphere of action. I had particularly marked down
+Um-Lejj as containing a well-manned Turkish fort which could be knocked
+about without damaging other buildings in the town if we were careful.
+It was also a rallying-point for Turkish influence, and it was not
+conducive to our prestige or politically desirable that it should
+flourish unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>I was in the "Fox" again for that occasion, she being the senior ship of
+the patrol and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> only one that could land an adequate force if
+required.</p>
+
+<p>The evening before we anchored far out on the fishing-grounds of Hasani
+Island, and I managed to pick up a fisherman who knew where the Turkish
+hidden position was, outside the town, and, having been held a prisoner
+once in their Customs building, could point that out too. Next morning
+we stood slowly in for Um-Lejj with the steam-cutter groping ahead for
+the channel, which is about as tortuous a piece of navigation as you can
+get off this coast, and that is saying a good deal.</p>
+
+<p>When we cleared for action I went to my usual post on the bridge with
+the S.N.O. and took my fisherman-friend with me. The civil population
+was streaming out of the town across the open plain in all directions
+like ants from an over-turned ant-hill, probably realising that we meant
+business this time. This was all to the good, as otherwise I should have
+had to go close in with the steam-cutter, a white flag and a megaphone
+to warn Arab civilians; thus giving the Turks time to clear, besides the
+chance of a sitting-shot at us if they thought my address to the
+townsfolk a violation of the rules of war, which, technically, it might
+be.</p>
+
+<p>However, the fort was a fixture and our business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> was first of all with
+it. Standing close in, the ship turned southwards and moved slowly
+abreast of the town. The port battery of four-point-sevens loaded with
+H.E. and the two six-inchers fore and aft swung out-board and followed
+suit. The occasion called for fine shooting, as a minaret rose just to
+the right of the fort, and the houses were so massed about it that there
+was only one clear shot&mdash;up the street leading from the beach past the
+main gate.</p>
+
+<p>"At the southern gate of the fort, each gun to fire as it comes to bear
+up the street from the water-side."</p>
+
+<p>As I turned my glasses on the big portico of the southern gate, out
+stepped a Turkish officer who regarded us intently; the next instant the
+bridge shook to the crashing concussion of our forward six-inch, and
+through a drifting haze of gas-fume I saw him blotted out by the orange
+flash of lyddite and an up-flung pall of dust and <i>d&eacute;bris</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, cut short by the clap of the bursting shell
+reverberating like thunder against the foot-hills beyond the town.</p>
+
+<p>A little naked boy ran in an attitude of terrified dismay up the
+water-street just as the first four-point-seven fired. I saw him through
+my glasses duck his head between his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> arms, then dive panic-stricken
+through a doorway as the fort was smitten again in dust and thunder.
+"Was the poor little beggar hit?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, only scared."</p>
+
+<p>While the target was still veiled in its dust the second four-point-seven
+spoke, and the minaret disappeared from view behind a dun-coloured
+shroud.</p>
+
+<p>"Cease fire" sounded at once. "Who fired that gun? Take him off," came
+in tones of stern rebuke from the bridge. Luckily the minaret showed
+intact as the dust drifted clear and firing continued.</p>
+
+<p>As the fort crumbled under our guns, Turkish soldiers began to break
+cover at various points of the town and fled across the plain. The
+cutter, in-shore, opened with Maxim-fire, and so accurately that we
+could see the sombre-clad figures lying here and there or seeking
+frantically for cover, while an Arab in their vicinity, leading a
+leisurely camel, continued his stroll inland unperturbed. We drove the
+main body out of their hidden position and into the hills with
+well-timed shrapnel, and finished up by demolishing the Customs (where a
+lot of ammunition blew up), to the temporary satisfaction of my
+fisherman, who was curled up in a corner of the bridge, nearly stunned
+by the shock of modern ordnance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> in spite of the cotton-wool I had made
+him put in his ears. Before we picked up our cutter the civil population
+was already streaming back.</p>
+
+<p>The incident is worth noting in view of remarks made by a popular
+fiction-monger in one of his latest works, that indiscriminate aerial
+raids on civil centres in England are on the same level of humanity as
+naval bombardments.</p>
+
+<p>I visited the fishing-banks off Hasani Island a week or so after to get
+the latest news of Um-Lejj, which came from Turkish sources. There was
+one civilian casualty&mdash;a woman who was in the Turkish concealed
+position. No casualties among Turkish officers, but one of them left in
+charge of the fort had disappeared. There were bits of the fort left,
+but the Commandant had moved his headquarters to the school-house within
+the precincts of the mosque&mdash;sagacious soul. The object-lesson which we
+gave the Arabs at Um-Lejj put a check to their irresponsible sniping of
+boats and landing-parties, though one could always expect a little
+trouble with an Arab dhow running contraband for the Turks. In these
+cases their guilty consciences usually gave them away. Returning to the
+coast toward Jeddah unexpectedly, having played the well-worn ruse of
+"the cat's away," we sighted a small dhow close in-shore, and should
+have left <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> her alone as she was in shoal-water, but, on standing in to
+get a nearer view of her, she headed promptly for the beach and ran
+aground, disgorging more men than such a craft should carry.</p>
+
+<p>I went away in the duty cutter to investigate, and we had barely
+realised that she was heavily loaded with kerosene in tins (a heinous
+contraband) when the fact was emphasised by a sputtering rifle-fire from
+the scrub along the beach. The ship very soon put a stop to that
+demonstration with a round or two of shrapnel, while we busied ourselves
+with the dhow. There was no hope of salving her, as she had almost
+ripped the keel off her when she took the ground and sat on the bottom
+like a dilapidated basket. We broached enough tins to start a
+conflagration, lit a fuse made of a strip of old turban soaked in
+kerosene, and backed hard from her vicinity, for the kerosene was
+low-flash common stuff as marked on the cases, and to play at snapdragon
+in half an acre of blazing oil is an uninviting pastime. However, she
+just flared without exploding, and we continued our cruise up the coast
+just in time to overhaul at racing speed a perfect regatta of dhows
+heeling over to every stitch of canvas in their efforts to make Jeddah
+before we could get at them, for they had seen the smoke of that burning
+oil-dhow and realised that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> cat was about. Good money is paid at
+Cowes to see no more spirited sailing&mdash;we had to put a shot across the
+bows of the leading dhow before they would abandon the race.</p>
+
+<p>There was always trouble off Jeddah&mdash;the approaches to that reef-girt
+harbour lend themselves to blockade-running dhows with sound local
+knowledge on board. At night, especially, they had an advantage and
+would play "Puss-in-the-Corner" until the cutter lost patience, and a
+flickering pin-point of light stabbed the velvet black of the middle
+watch, asking permission to fire; one rifle-shot fired high would stop
+the game, and I made them come alongside and take a wigging for annoying
+the cutter and turning me out; there was seldom anything wrong about the
+dhow&mdash;it was sheer cussedness.</p>
+
+<p>All through the early part of 1916 we were keeping in touch with the
+Sharif of Mecca by means of envoys, whom we landed where they listed,
+away from the Turks, picking them up at times and places indicated by
+them. Sharif Husein had long chafed under Turkish suzerainty, in spite
+of his subsidy and the deference which policy compelled them to accord
+him. He knew that the Hejaz could never realise its legitimate
+aspirations under Ottoman rule, which was a blight on all Arab progress
+and prosperity, as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> Young Turkish party was hardly Moslem at heart,
+being more national (that is Tartar)&mdash;certainly not pro-Arab.</p>
+
+<p>Husein's difficulty was to get his own people to rise together and throw
+off the Turkish yoke, for the Hejazi tribesman, especially between the
+coast and Mecca, has long been more of a brigand than a warrior, as any
+pilgrim will tell you. Such folk are apt to jib at hammer-and-tongs
+fighting, and of course we could not land troops to assist them, as it
+would have violated the sacred soil that cradled Islam and merely
+stiffened the bogus <i>jihad</i> which the Turks had proclaimed against us,
+besides compromising the Sharif with his own tribesmen.</p>
+
+<p>The Hejazis' ingenuous idea was to go on taking money from us, the Turks
+and the Sharif, while&mdash;thanks to our lenient blockade&mdash;a regular
+dhow-traffic fed them. We did not approve of this Utopian policy, and
+the fall of Kut brought matters to a climax. After certain
+communications had passed between the representatives of His Majesty's
+Government and the Sharif, it was decided to tighten the blockade and so
+induce the gentle Hejazi to declare himself. The day was fixed, May, 15,
+on and after which date no traffic whatever was to be permitted with the
+Arabian coast other than that specially sanctioned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> by Government. In
+palaver thereon I managed to get local fishing-craft exempted. The
+fisher-folk are not combatants either on empty stomachs or full ones,
+and could be relied on to consume their own fish in that climate unless
+very close to a market, where the pinch would be great enough to make
+them exchange it for foodstuffs, thus helping the situation we wished to
+bring about. I knew that all <i>bona fide</i> fishing-craft were easily
+recognisable by their rig and comparatively small size, and hoped that
+good will would combine with freedom of movement to make these folk
+useful agents for Intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>I heard with some relief that the movements of the patrol would place
+H.M.S. "Hardinge" (a roomy ship of the Indian Marine) on station duty
+off Jeddah, which was to be my post while the enhanced blockade was in
+force&mdash;there are few more trying seasons than early summer in those
+waters. I joined her from Suez the day after the blockade was closed,
+and found her keeping guard over a perfect fleet of dhows. There were
+about three dozen craft with over three hundred people on board, for
+many native passengers were trying to make Jeddah before we shut down.
+The feckless mariners in charge had made the usual oriental calculation
+that a day more or less did not matter, but found to their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> horror that
+the Navy was more precise on these points&mdash;and there they were.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing to ensure was that the crew, and especially the
+passengers, among whom were a good many women and children, did not
+suffer from privation. This had already been ably seen to by the ship's
+officers&mdash;I merely went round the fleet to sift any genuine complaints
+from the discontent natural to the situation in which their own
+slackness had placed them. I insisted on hearing only one complaint at a
+time, otherwise it would have been pandemonium afloat, for they were
+anchored close enough together to converse with each other; vociferous
+excuses for their unpunctuality were brushed aside, legitimate requests
+for more water or food or condensed milk for the children or more
+adequate shelter for the women from the sun were attended to at once,
+and our floating village quieted down.</p>
+
+<p>The craft were all much the same type of small dhow or <i>sanbuk</i> which
+frequents the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, having little in common with
+the big-bellied buggalows which ply with rice and dates between the
+Persian Gulf and Indian ports but do not come into the Red Sea. These
+were much smaller and saucier-looking craft, some fifty to eighty feet
+long, with a turn of speed and raking masts. All were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> lugger-rigged
+with lateen sails, and only the poop and bows were decked, the bulwarks
+being heightened with strips of matting to prevent seas from breaking
+in-board. Sanitary arrangements were provided for by a box-like
+cubby-hole over-hanging the boat's side; inexperienced officers often
+take it for a vantage-point to heave the lead from, and only find out
+too late after attempting to board there, that things are not always
+what they seem.</p>
+
+<p>These little vessels are practically the corsair type of Saracenic
+sailing-galley which used to infest the Barbary coast in days gone by.
+They do everything different from our occidental methods. For example,
+they reef and furl their tall lateens from the peak, and have to send a
+man up the long tapering gaff to do it. Their masts rake forward and not
+aft, which enables them to swing gaff, sail, and sheet round in front of
+the mast when they come about, instead of keeping the sheet aft and
+dipping the butt of the gaff with the sail to the other side of the
+mast, which would be an impossibility for that rig, as the butt of their
+enormous mainyard or gaff is bowsed permanently down in the bows, while
+the soaring peak may be nearly a hundred feet above the water. Cooking
+was done over charcoal in a kerosene tin half full of sand, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> the
+"first-class" passengers lived under an improvised awning on the poop,
+the women's quarters being under that gim-crack structure. All the same,
+they are good sea-boats and remarkably fast, especially <i>on</i> a wind,
+quite unlike the big-decked buggalows which are built for cargo capacity
+and have real cabins aft but sail like a haystack on a barge.</p>
+
+<p>It was inhuman (as well as an infernal nuisance) to keep all those
+people sweltering indefinitely at sea; on the other hand, our orders as
+to the strict maintenance of the blockade were explicit. The "owner" and
+I conferred and decided that the situation could be met by transferring
+their cargo to the ship and letting the dhows beach. This was referred
+and approved by wireless. The job took us some days, as the weather was
+rather unfavourable and all the cargoes had to be checked by manifest
+with a view to restitution later. Each dhow as she was cleared had to
+make for the shore and dismast or beach so that she could not steal out
+at night and add to the difficulties of the blockade. None attempted to
+evade this order, most carried out both alternatives; perhaps a casual
+reminder that they would be within observation and gun-fire of the ship
+had some influence on their action.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hitherto the Turco-Teutonic brand of Holy War had been fairly
+successful. The Allied thrust at the Dardanelles and Gallipoli had
+failed, the Aden Protectorate was in Turkish hands, we had spent a most
+unpleasant Easter in Sinai, and Kut had fallen. Still, the Turks were
+soon to realise that a wrongly-invoked <i>jihad</i>, like a mishandled
+musket, can recoil heavily, and, before the end of May, signs were not
+wanting that trouble was brewing for them in the Hejaz.</p>
+
+<p>We were in close touch with the shore through fishing-canoes by day and
+secret emissaries by night, who brought us news that some German
+"officers" had been done to death by Hejazi tribesmen some eight hours'
+journey north of Jeddah. They had evidently been first over-powered and
+bound, then stabbed in the stomach with the huge two-handed dagger which
+the Hejazis use, and finally decapitated, as a Turkish rescue party
+which hurried to the spot found their headless and practically
+disembowelled corpses with their hands tied behind them. Their effects
+came through our hands in due course, and we ascertained that the party
+consisted of Lieut.-Commander von Moeller (late of a German gunboat
+interned at Tsing-Tao) and five reservists whom he had picked up in
+Java. They had landed on the South Arabian coast in March, had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> visited
+Sanaa, the capital of Yamen, and had come up the Arabian coast of the
+Red Sea by dhow, keeping well inside the Farsan bank, which is three
+hundred miles long and a serious obstacle to patrol work. They had landed
+at Konfida, north of the bank, and reached Jeddah by camel on May 5.
+Against the advice of the Turks they continued their journey by land,
+as they had no chance of eluding our northern patrol at sea. They were
+more than a year too late to emulate the gallant (and lucky) "Odyssey"
+of the Emden's landing-party from Cocos Islands up the Red Sea coast in
+the days when our blockade was more lenient and did not interfere with
+coasting craft. They hoped to reach Maan and so get on the rail for
+Stamboul and back to Germany, as the Sharif would not sanction their
+coming to the sacred city of Medina, which is the rail-head for the
+Damascus-Hejaz railway. After so staunch a journey they deserved a
+better fate. Among their kit was a tattered and blood-stained copy of my
+book on the Aden hinterland.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile affairs ashore were simmering to boiling-point, and on the
+night of June 9 we commenced a bombardment of carefully located Turkish
+positions, firing by "director" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> to co-operate with an Arab attack which
+was due then but did not materialise till early next morning, and was
+then but feebly delivered. We found out later that the rifles and
+ammunition we had delivered on the beach some distance south of Jeddah
+to the Sharif's agents in support of this attack had been partly
+diverted to Mecca and partly hung up by a squabble with their own
+camel-men for more cash.</p>
+
+<p>We continued the bombardment on the night of the 11th and were in action
+most of the day on the 12th, shelling the Turkish positions north of
+Jeddah, which we had located by glass and the co-operation of friendly
+fishing-craft who gave us the direction by signal. During the morning
+the Hejazis made an abortive and aimless attack along the beach north of
+Jeddah, and so masked our own supporting fire, while the Turks gave them
+more than they wanted.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the senior ship and others had joined us, and the S.N.O.
+approved of my landing with a party of Indian signallers to maintain
+closer touch with their operations, provided that Arab headquarters
+would guarantee our safety as regards their own people. This they were
+unable to do.</p>
+
+<p>The bombardment grew more and more strenuous and searching as other
+ships joined <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> in and our knowledge of the Turkish positions became more
+accurate. On the 15th it culminated with the arrival of a seaplane
+carrier and heavy bombing of the Ottoman trenches which our
+flat-trajectory naval guns could hardly reach. The white flag went up
+before sunset, and next day there were <i>pourparlers</i> which led to an
+unconditional surrender on June 17, 1916.</p>
+
+<p>Mecca had fallen just before, and Taif surrendered soon after, leaving
+Medina as the only important town still held by the Turks in the Hejaz.</p>
+
+<p>We began pouring food and munitions into Jeddah as soon as it changed
+hands; for the rest of this cruise my ship was a sort of
+parcels-delivery van, and when the parcel happens to be an Egyptian
+mountain battery its delivery is an undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>My personal contact with the Turks and their ill-omened <i>jihad</i> ended
+soon after, as I was invalided from service afloat, but I kept in touch
+as an Intelligence-wallah on the beach and followed the rest of it with
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>They got Holy War with a vengeance. The Sharif's sons (more especially
+the Emirs Feisal and Abdullah, who had been trained at the Stamboul
+Military Academy), ably assisted by zealous and skilled British officers
+as mine-planters <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> and aerial bombers, harried outlying posts and the
+Hejaz railway line north of Medina incessantly.</p>
+
+<p>The Turkish positions at Wejh fell to the Red Sea flotilla, reinforced
+by the flagship. I should like to have been there, if only to have seen
+the Admiral sail in to the proceedings with a revolver in his fist and
+the <i>&eacute;lan</i> of a sub-lieutenant. The Hejazis failed to synchronise, as
+usual, so the Navy dispensed with their support.</p>
+
+<p>On February 24, 1917, Kut was wrested from the Turks again; on March 11
+they lost Baghdad; on November 7 their Beersheba-Gaza front was
+shattered, and Jerusalem fell on December 9.</p>
+
+<p>Early next year Jericho was captured (February 21), a British column
+from Baghdad reached the Caspian in August, and after a final,
+victorious British offensive in Palestine the unholy alliance of Turkish
+pan-Islamism and German <i>Kultur</i> got its death-blow when Emir Feisal
+galloped into Damascus.</p>
+
+<p>The Turks had drawn the blade of <i>jihad</i> from its pan-Islamic scabbard
+in vain; its German trade-mark was plainly stamped on it. There had been
+widespread organisation against us, and the serpent's eggs of sedition
+and revolt had been hatched in centres scattered all over the eastern
+hemisphere, but their venomous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> progeny had been crushed before they
+became formidable.</p>
+
+<p>As a world-force this band of pan-Islamism had failed because it had
+been invoked by the wrong people for a wrong purpose. Such a movement
+should at least have as its driving power some great spiritual crisis:
+this Turco-German manifestation of it had its origin in self-interest,
+and if successful would have immolated Arabia on the demoniac altar of
+<i>Weltpolitik</i>. Seyid Muhammed er-Rashid Ridha, a descendant of the
+Prophet and one of the greatest Arab theologians living, has voiced the
+verdict of Islam on this unscrupulous and self-seeking adventure in a
+trenchant article published in September, 1916. He showed up Enver and
+his Unionist party as an atheist among atheists who had deprived the
+Sultan of his rightful power and Islam of its religious head, and
+contrasted their conduct with that of the British, who exempted the
+Hejaz from the blockade enforced against the rest of the Ottoman Empire
+until it became quite clear that the Turks were benefiting chiefly by
+that exemption, and who, out of respect for the holy places of Islam,
+refrained from making that country a theatre of war.</p>
+
+<p>True to the Teutonic tradition, the movement had been laboriously
+organised, but lacked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> psychic insight, for the Turk is too much of a
+Tartar and too little of a Moslem to appreciate the Arab mind, and the
+German ignored it, rooting with eager, guttural grunts among the
+carefully cultivated religious prejudices of Islam like a hog hunting
+truffles until whacked out of it by the irate cultivators.</p>
+
+<p>The following incident may serve to illustrate their crude tactics. Soon
+after the Turks came into the war the mullah of the principal mosque at
+Damascus was told to announce <i>jihad</i> against the British from his
+pulpit on the following Friday in accordance with an order from the
+Grand Mufti at Stamboul. The poor man appears to have jibbed
+considerably and sent his family over the Nejd border to be out of reach
+of Turkish persecution. Finally he decided to conform, but when he
+climbed the steps of his "minbar" and scanned his congregation he saw a
+group of German officers wearing tarboushes with a look of almost
+porcine complacency. His fear fell from him in a gust of rage and he
+spoke somewhat as follows: "I am ordered to proclaim <i>jihad</i>. A <i>jihad</i>,
+as you know, is a Holy War to protect our Holy Places against infidels.
+This being so, what are these infidel <i>pigs</i> doing in our mosque?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a most unseemly scuffle; the Turco-German <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> contingent tried to
+seize the mullah; the Arab congregation defended him strenuously from
+arrest. In the confusion that worthy man got clear away and joined his
+family in Nejd. <i>Jihad</i> is incumbent on all Moslems if against infidel
+aggression. We stood on the defensive when the Turks first attacked us
+on the Canal, and when we finally overran Palestine and Syria it was in
+co-operation with the Arabs, who have more right there than the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>Those who forged the blade of this counterfeit <i>jihad</i> could not temper
+it in the flame of religious fervour, and it shattered against the
+shield of religious tolerance and good faith: we make mistakes, but can
+honestly claim those two virtues.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="ft">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1">
+<span class="label">[A]</span></a> "The Land of Uz," Macmillan.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER III<br /><br />
+<span class="smaller">ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To</span> gauge the strength or weakness of pan-Islam as a world-force we may
+best compare it with its great militant rival, the Christian Church,
+choosing common ground as the only sound basis of comparison, and
+remembering that it is pan-Islam we are examining rather than Islam
+itself&mdash;the tree, not the root; and though we cannot study the one
+without considering the other, Islam has already been extensively
+discussed by men better qualified than myself to deal with it: the
+requirements of this work only call for comparison so far as the
+driving-power of pan-Islam is concerned as a material force.</p>
+
+<p>First of all we must discard common factors. I set the great Shiah
+schism against the Catholic Church (omitting the word "Roman" as a
+contradiction in terms) and cancel both for the purposes of comparison.
+Catholicism, is not, of course, schismatic, otherwise there are points
+of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> resemblance, such as observances of saints and shrines, which have
+permeated the other sects to a certain extent; also the degree of
+antagonism is about the same. Therefore we can ignore the Catholic
+Church in this chapter, and when we are talking of pan-Islam we should
+consider it a Sunnite (or Orthodox) movement, and count the Shiites out,
+as they do not even recognise the same centre of pilgrimage.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the strongest factor in pan-Islam as a political movement or a
+world-wide fellowship is the Meccan pilgrimage. I have already alluded
+to its cosmopolitan nature in the previous chapter, but never realised
+it so much till after the surrender of Jeddah, when stately Bokhariots,
+jabbering Javanese, Malays, Chinese, Russians, American citizens and
+South Africans were among those who beset me as stranded pilgrims. This
+implies a very wide sphere of influence, against which we can only set
+the well-known immorality and greed which pilgrims complain of at Mecca;
+a huge influx of cosmopolitan visitors to <i>any</i> centre will generally
+cause such abuses. On the feast of Arafat there are normally 100,000
+pilgrims in the Meccan area who represent 100 million orthodox Moslems
+throughout the world, while the actual population of the city is only
+50,000.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Arabic language is another strong bond of brotherhood in Islam. I do
+not mean to say that it is generally "understanded of the people," any
+more than Latin is throughout the Catholic world; but it is the language
+of most Sunnites and is moderately understood in Somaliland, East
+Africa, Java and the Malay peninsula as the language of the Koran; in
+fact, it is the only written language in Somaliland, and Turkey uses the
+script though not the tongue.</p>
+
+<p>The daily observances of prayer, with their simple but obligatory
+ceremonial, and the yearly fast for the month of Ramadhan unite Moslems
+with the common ties of duty and hardship, as in the comradeship which
+sailors and soldiers have for each other throughout the world.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, there is no colour-line in Islam; a negro may rise to place
+and power (he often does), and usually enjoys the intimate confidence of
+his master as not readily amenable to local intrigue. Difference of
+nationality is not stressed except by the Young Turks, who have slighted
+Semitic Moslems to their own undoing. Contrast this attitude with our
+Church and estimate the precise amount of Christian brotherhood between
+an Orthodox Greek, a Welsh Wesleyan, an Ethiopian priest, a Scotch
+Presbyterian, and an Anglican bishop (since the Kikuyu heresy). Even
+within <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> the narrow limits of one sect there is nothing like the
+fellowship one finds in secular societies. Which is the stronger appeal,
+"Anglican communicant" or "Freemason"? Is a cross or the quadrant and
+compasses the more potent charm?</p>
+
+<p>Arabs credit us Christians with a much stronger bond of sympathy between
+co-religionists than is actually the case. It is true that those who
+come into any sort of contact with us realise that there is a distinct
+difference in form of worship and sentiment between Catholics (whom they
+call <i>Christy&acirc;n</i>) and Protestants (or <i>Nas&acirc;ra</i>), but I shall not readily
+forget the extraordinary conduct of a Hejazi who boarded us off Jeddah
+with some of the effects belonging to the murdered Germans mentioned in
+the previous chapter. He must have had the firm conviction that we
+Christians would avenge the killing of other Christians by Moslems, for
+he merely told me that he had in his possession certain property of the
+<i>Allemani</i>, and I told him that he would be suitably rewarded on
+producing it; I found out later that he had boasted to our ship's
+interpreter (a Mussulman) that he was one of the slayers, and it
+occurred to me that if that were the case he might be able to give me
+further information, or perhaps produce papers of theirs which might
+appear valueless to him but would be of interest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> to us. I interviewed
+him on deck and suggested this, reminding him of what he had told the
+interpreter, but laying no stress on the deed he had confessed, for it
+was outside our jurisdiction and no concern of mine.</p>
+
+<p>"Papers?" he said. "By all means, I will go and fetch them," and
+breaking from my light hold of his sleeve he flickered over the rail and
+dropped into the sea some thirty feet below. Two armed marines stepped
+to the rail with a clatter of breech-bolts and looked inquiringly at me.
+Meanwhile my bold murderer was calling on his God, for he wore a full
+bandoleer, which was weighing him down. Out darted a fishing-canoe from
+under our quarter and made for him, but its occupants took the hint I
+conveyed through a megaphone and confined their efforts to saving him
+for the duty-cutter to pick up.</p>
+
+<p>He was brought before me dripping wet, with the fear of death in his
+eyes. I thought this was due to the foolish risk he had taken, and spoke
+in gentle reproof of his conduct, pointing out that if any boat had been
+alongside where he leaped he would have met with a bad accident. To my
+surprise he fell at my feet and scrabbled at my clean white shoes,
+imploring me to spare his life. I put him down as somewhat mad, and
+asked "Number One" to put a sentry over him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> to see that he did not
+repeat his attempt to avoid our acquaintance. He clung to me like a
+limpet and had to be removed by force, with despairing entreaties for
+mercy, disregarding my still puzzled assurances as to his personal
+safety. I learned afterwards his true reason for alarm; he thought that
+after leaving my presence he would be quietly made away with in
+traditional Eastern style.</p>
+
+<p>Another very strong feature of pan-Islam is the consistency of the creed
+from which it grows. I do not necessarily imply that Islam itself is
+benefited thereby, for consistency sometimes means narrowness, and we
+are not considering creeds; but there is no doubt about the dynamic
+force of a movement based on a religion which is sure of itself. A
+Moslem has one authorised version of the Koran, and only one; his simple
+creed is contained in its first chapter and is as short as the Lord's
+Prayer, which it somewhat resembles in style. Praising God as the Lord
+of the worlds (not only of this world of ours), it attributes to Him
+mercy and clemency with supreme power over the Day of Judgment and is an
+avowal of worship and service. Its only petition is to be led in the way
+of the righteous, avoiding errors that incur His wrath. Contrast this
+with the many confusing aspects of Christianity. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> Perhaps diverse
+opinions tend to purify and invigorate a creed, but they certainly do
+not strengthen the cohesion of any secular movement based on it.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, the Moslem conception of God and the hereafter stiffens the
+backbone of pan-Islam in adversity. They are taught to believe that He is
+<i>really</i> omnipotent and that His actions are beyond criticism&mdash;welfare
+and affliction being alike acceptable as His will. We, on the other hand,
+seem to be developing the theory of a finite God warring against, and
+occasionally overcome by, evil, which includes (in this new thesis) human
+suffering and sorrow as well as sin. There is a growing idea, pioneered
+partly by Mr. H. G. Wells and apparently supported by many of the clergy,
+that the acts of God must square with human ideals of mercy or justice,
+and as many occurrences do not, the inference is that evil gets the best
+of it sometimes. Now the Moslem slogan is "Allah Akbar" (God is Greatest),
+and that seems to me a better battle-cry than, for example, "Gott mit
+uns," as God will still be great and invincible to Moslems in their
+victory or defeat; but the finite idea presumes, in disaster, that you
+and your God have been defeated together. It is not my business to
+criticise either conception from a religious point of view, but in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+mundane affairs it is the former that will make for fighting force,
+especially as we still insist that our God is a jealous God, visiting the
+sins of the fathers, etc.: surely this is not a human ideal of justice;
+the obvious deduction is that our modern Deity is stronger to punish than
+protect&mdash;hardly an encouraging attribute.</p>
+
+<p>Whether a religion is the better for an organised priesthood or not is
+irrelevant to our subject, but the absence of it in Islam certainly
+strengthens the pan-Islamic movement, as each Moslem may consider
+himself a standard-bearer of his faith, while we are apt to leave too
+much to our priests, thus engendering slackness on our part and
+meticulous dogma on theirs; both undermine Christian brotherhood. The
+fact that priestly stipends seem to the ordinary layman as in inverse
+ratio to the duties performed also widens the breach between clergy and
+laity, besides sapping clerical <i>moral</i>. This is not the particular
+feature of any one sect&mdash;the reader can supply cases within his own
+experience, but here is one that is probably outside it and showing how
+widespread the system is. The rank and file of the Greek Orthodox clergy
+are notoriously ill-paid. Yet their monastery at Jerusalem costs
+&pound;E.15,000 per annum to maintain and pays &pound;E.40,000 annually in clerical
+salaries to archbishops and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> clergy who control the spiritual affairs of
+less than fifteen thousand people. It derives &pound;E.30,000 from its
+property in Russia, &pound;E.25,000 from the property of the Holy Sepulchre,
+and as much again from visitors and other sources; and this in a region
+where the Founder of our faith was content to wander with less certainty
+of shelter than the wild creatures of the countryside.</p>
+
+<p>Incidentally, the monastery seems to have been unable to curtail its
+expenditure during the War, for it has accumulated debts to the amount
+of &pound;E.600,000, most of its sources of income having ceased for the time.
+I quote from current newspapers. Blame does not necessarily attach to
+the monastery or its administrators, who may have done their best to
+fulfill their obligations under adverse circumstances; I would merely
+draw attention to the incongruity of the whole system as regards a
+universal brotherhood based on Christian teaching. There are no such
+exotic growths to impede the march of pan-Islam.</p>
+
+<p>So much for the strength of the pan-Islamic movement. Now let us
+consider its weak points.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with, the gross abuse of pan-Islam by interested parties for
+non-spiritual ends during the War has done the genuine movement harm.
+That lying, political appeal to <i>jihad</i> has made thinking Moslems
+mistrust the infallibility of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> organised pan-Islam, of which the
+culminating expression is Holy War, one of the most sacred Mussulman
+duties if justly invoked. We Christians do not make such mistakes. When
+Italy was fighting the Turks in Tripoli the Pope himself warned
+Christian soldiers against regarding the campaign as a Crusade, and when
+we took Jerusalem we took it side by side with our Mussulman allies and
+forthwith placed an orthodox Moslem guard on Omar's mosque. In this
+connection it may be of interest to note that the officer commanding a
+mixed Christian guard at the Holy Sepulchre was a Jew.</p>
+
+<p>Another source of weakness, so far as a united Moslem world is
+concerned, may be found in the antagonistic points of view between
+civilised and uncivilised Moslems (I use the attribute in its modern
+sense). Uncivilised Moslems view with suspicion and, in fact, derision
+the dress and customs of their civilised co-religionists, insisting that
+European coats and trousers display the figure indecently and that their
+Frankish luxuries and amusements are snares of Eblis. The enlightened
+Moslem, on the other hand, regards the tribesman as a <i>jungliwala</i>, or
+wild man of the woods, derides his illiteracy, and is revolted by the
+harsh severity of the old Islamic penal code as practised still in
+semi-barbaric Moslem States. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> Now we Christians are fairly lenient as
+regards each other's customs, and still more so with regard to dress
+(judging by the garb we tolerate), while we have quite outgrown our old
+playful habits of boiling, burning, or torturing our fellow-men except
+on the battle-fields of civilised warfare.</p>
+
+<p>Civilisation (as we understand it) is a two-edged weapon and tool
+smiting or serving pan-Islam and Christendom, but on the whole it serves
+the latter rather than the former, as the superior resources of
+Christendom can take fuller advantage of it as a tool or a weapon,
+though both turn to scourges when used against each other in battle.
+Also its handmaid, Education, though in itself a foe to no religion,
+<i>does</i> tend to tone down dogma and engender tolerance, thus minimising
+the dynamic force of bigotry in pan-Islam, though consolidating the real
+stability of religion on its own base. Moreover, some gifts of
+civilisation can do a lot of harm if wrongly used; I refer more
+especially to drink, drugs, and dress. Just as hereditary exposure to
+the infection of certain diseases is said to confer, by survival of the
+fittest, a certain immunity therefrom&mdash;for example, consumption among us
+Europeans and typhoid among Asiatics&mdash;so moral ills seem to affect
+humanity to a greater or less extent in inverse proportion to the
+temptation in that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> particular respect which the individual and his
+forebears have successfully resisted. The average European and his
+ancestors have been accustomed to drink fermented liquor for many
+centuries, and in moderation as judged by the standard of his time, but
+he has always been taught to avoid opium and has not known the drug for
+long. The oriental Moslem, on the other hand, has used opium as a remedy
+and prophylactic against malaria for generations, but is strictly
+ordered by his creed to consider the consumption, production, gift or
+sale of alcohol a deadly sin. In consequence, the European can usually
+take alcohol in moderation, but almost invariably slips into a pit of
+his own digging when he tries to do the same with opium, while the
+oriental Moslem can use opium in moderation (provided that he confines
+himself to swallowing it and does not smoke it), but when he drinks,
+usually drinks to excess because he has not learned to do otherwise. It
+is a melancholy fact that hitherto in countries opened up by our Western
+civilisation drink has got in long before education, unless
+extraordinary precautions have been taken to prevent it; that is one
+reason why Moslem States are so wary of civilised encroachment. As for
+drugs other than opium (and far more dangerous), civilised Moslems, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+especially in Egypt, are alarmed at the spread of hashish-smoking among
+their co-religionists, while the cultured classes, including women-folk,
+are taking to cocaine: the material for both vices is supplied from
+European sources, mostly Greek. Dress, compared with the other two
+demons, is merely a fantastic though mischievous sprite and can be quite
+attractive, but it breaks up many a Moslem home when carried to excess
+in the harem, as it frequently is in civilised circles, while the
+younger men vie with each other in the more flagrant extravagances of
+occidental garb: prayers and ablutions do not harmonise with
+well-creased trousers and stylish boots any more than a veil does with a
+divided skirt. The native Press is always attacking the above abuses,
+but they are firmly rooted. All three undermine the pan-Islamic
+structure by causing cleavage in public opinion. European dress has
+already been mentioned as widening the gap between civilised and
+uncivilised Moslems, but it also tends to disintegrate cultured Moslem
+communities, for the older men are apt to regard it with suspicion or
+downright condemnation. I once asked an eminent and learned Moslem
+whether he thought modern European dress impeded regular observance of
+prayers and ablutions. He replied, "Perhaps so, but those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> Moslems who
+wear such clothes indicate by so doing that the observances of Islam
+have little hold upon them."</p>
+
+<p>All these defects, however, are mere cracks in the inner walls of the
+pan-Islamic structure and can be repaired from within, but the Turkish
+Government, which represented the Caliphate, and should have considered
+the integrity of Islam as a sacred trust, has managed to split the outer
+wall and divide the house against itself, just as the unity of
+Christendom (such as it was) has been rent asunder by one of its most
+prominent exponents. Pan-Islam has received the more serious damage
+because the wreckers still hold the Caliphate and the prestige attached
+thereto; it is for Moslems (and Moslems only) to decide what action to
+take; but in any case, the breach is a serious one and has been much
+widened by the action of Turkish troops at the Holy Places. They
+actually shelled the Caaba at Mecca (luckily without doing material
+damage), and their action in storing high explosives close to the
+Prophet's tomb at Medina may have saved them bombardment, but has
+certainly not improved their reputation as Moslems. Even before the War
+I often heard Yamen Arabs talking of "Turks and Moslems"&mdash;a distinctly
+damning discrimination&mdash;and the situation has not been improved <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> by
+Ottoman slackness in religious observances and their inconsistent
+national movement.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, their rule in Arabia will be awkward to replace at
+first. I described the Turks in the final chapter of a book<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> published
+early in the War as pre-eminently fitted to govern Moslems by
+birthright, creed, and temperament, summing them up as individually
+gifted but collectively hopeless as administrators because they lacked a
+stable and consistent central Government. They have proved the
+indictment up to the hilt, but that does not dower any of us Christians
+with their inherent qualifications as rulers in Islam. If any of us are
+called upon to face fresh responsibilities in this direction, it would
+take us all our time to make up for these qualities by tact, sound
+administration, and strict observance of local religious prejudice. Even
+then there is a Mussulman proverb to this effect: "A Moslem ruler though
+he oppress me and not a <i>kafir</i> though he work me weal"&mdash;it explains
+much apparent ingratitude for benefits conferred.</p>
+
+<p>The lesson we have to learn from pan-Islamic activities of the last
+decade or two is that countries which are mainly Moslem should have
+Moslem rulers, and that Christian rule, however enlightened and
+benevolent, is only permissible where Islam <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> is outnumbered by other
+creeds. At the same time, in countries where Christian methods of
+civilisation and European capital have been invited we have a right to
+control and advise the Moslem ruler sufficiently to ensure the fair
+treatment of our nationals and their interests. But with purely Moslem
+countries which have expressed no readiness to assimilate the methods of
+modern civilisation or to invite outside capital we have no right to
+interfere beyond the following limit: if the local authorities allow
+foreign traders to operate at their ports their interests should be
+safeguarded, if important enough, by consular representation on the
+spot, or, if not, by occasional visits of a man-of-war to keep nationals
+in touch with their own Government, presuming that the place is too
+small to justify any mail-carrying vessel calling there except at very
+long intervals.</p>
+
+<p>There should always be a definite understanding as to foreigners
+proceeding or residing up-country for any purpose. If the local ruler
+discourages but permits such procedure, all we should expect him to do
+in case of untoward incidents is to take reasonable action to
+investigate and punish, but if he has guaranteed the security of foreign
+nationals concerned, he must redeem his pledge in an adequate manner or
+take the consequences. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> There should seldom be occasion for an inland
+punitive expedition; in these days, when many articles of seaborne trade
+have become, from mere luxuries, almost indispensable adjuncts of native
+life in the remotest regions, a maritime blockade strictly enforced
+should soon exact the necessary satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Such rulers should bear in mind that if they accept an enterprise of
+foreign capital they must protect its legitimate operations, just as a
+school which has accepted a Government grant has to conform to
+stipulated conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Where no such penetration has occurred, all we should concern ourselves
+with is that internal trouble in such regions shall not slop over into
+territory protected or occupied by us, and this is where our most
+serious difficulties will occur in erstwhile Turkish Arabia.</p>
+
+<p>The Turk, with all his faults, could grapple with a difficult situation
+in native affairs by drastic methods which might be indefensible in
+themselves, but were calculated to obtain definite results. At any rate,
+we had a responsible central Government to deal with and one that we
+could get at. Now we shall have to handle such situations ourselves or
+rely on the local authorities doing so. The former method is costly and
+dangerous, yielding the minimum of result to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> maximum of effort and
+expense, while involving possibilities of trouble which might compromise
+our democratic yearnings considerably: the latter alternative
+presupposes that we have succeeded in evolving out of the present
+imbroglio responsible rulers who are well-disposed to us and prepared to
+take adequate action on our representations.</p>
+
+<p>In Syria and Mesopotamia, where communications are good and European
+penetration an established fact, there should not be much difficulty,
+but in Arabia proper the problem is a very prickly one.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning with Arabia Felix, which includes Yamen, the Aden
+protectorate, and the vague, sprawling province of Hadhramaut, we may be
+permitted to hope that nothing worse can happen in the Aden protectorate
+than has happened already; the remoter Hadhramaut has always looked
+after its own affairs and can continue to do so; but Yamen bristles with
+political problems which will have to be solved, and solved correctly,
+if she is going to be a safe neighbour or a reliable customer to have
+business dealings with. Hitherto none of her local rulers have inspired
+any confidence in their capacity for initiative or independent action.
+During the War the Idrisi, who had long been in revolt against the Turks
+in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> northern Yamen, kept making half-hearted and abortive dabs at
+Loheia&mdash;like a nervous child playing snapdragon&mdash;but his only success
+(and temporary at that) was when he occupied the town after the Red Sea
+Patrol had shelled the Turks out of it. As for the Imam, he has been
+sitting on a very thorny fence ever since the Turks came into the War.
+We have been in touch with him for a long time, but all he has done up
+to date is to wobble on a precarious tripod supported by the opposing
+strains of Turks, tribesmen, and British. Now one leg of the tripod has
+been knocked away he has yet to show if he can maintain stability on his
+own base, and, if so, over what area. The undeniable fighting qualities
+of the Yamen Arab, which might be a useful factor in a stable
+government, will merely prove a nuisance and a menace under a weak
+<i>r&eacute;gime</i>, and tribal trouble will always be slopping over into our Aden
+sphere of influence. Then the question will arise, What are we going to
+do about it? We cannot bring the Yamenis to book by blockading their
+coast and cutting off caravan traffic with Aden, because, in view of our
+trade relations with the country by sea and land, we should only be
+cutting our nose off to spite our face. Moreover, the punishment would
+fall chiefly on the respectable community, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> traders, the cultured
+classes, etc., to whom seaborne trade is essential, while it would
+hardly affect the wild tribesmen, except as regards ammunition, and to
+prevent them getting what they wanted through the Hejaz is outside the
+sphere of practical politics.</p>
+
+<p>In the Hejaz itself we can at least claim that authority is suitably
+represented and accessible to us. Before the War we kept a British
+consul at Jeddah with an Indian Moslem vice-consul who went up to Mecca
+in the pilgrim season. A responsible consular agent (Moslem of course)
+to reside at Medina, also another to understudy the Jeddah vice-consul
+when he went to Mecca and to look after the Yenbo pilgrim traffic, would
+safeguard the interests of our nationals, who enormously outnumber the
+pilgrims of any other nation. Further interference with the Hejaz,
+unless invited, would be unjustifiable.</p>
+
+<p>Trouble for us does not lie in the Hejaz itself, but in its possible
+expansion beyond its powers of absorption, or, in homely metaphor, if it
+bites off more than it can chew. There is a certain tendency just now to
+overrate Hejazi prowess in war and policy; in fact, King Husein is often
+alluded to vaguely as the "King of Arabia," and there is a sporadic crop
+of ill-informed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> articles on this and other Arabian affairs in the
+English Press. One of the features of the War as regards this part of
+the world is the extraordinary and fungus-like growth of "Arabian
+experts" it has produced, most of whom have never set foot in Arabia
+itself, while the few now living who have acquired real first-hand
+knowledge of any part of the Arabian peninsula before the War may be
+counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet the number of people who rush
+into print with their opinions on the most complex Arabian affairs would
+astonish even the Arabs if they permitted themselves to show surprise at
+anything. These opinions differ widely, but have one attribute in
+common&mdash;their emphatic "cock-sureness." Each one presents the one and
+only solution of the whole Arabian problem according to the facet which
+the writer has seen, and there are many facets. They are amusing and
+even instructive occasionally, but there is a serious side to
+them&mdash;their crass empiricism. Each writer presents (quite honestly,
+perhaps) his point of view of one or two facets in the rough-cut,
+many-sided and clouded crystal of Arabian politics without considering
+its possible bearing on other parts of the peninsula or even other
+factors in the district he knows or has read about. The net result is an
+appallingly crude patchwork, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> no one piece harmonising with another,
+and, in view of the habit Government has formed in these cases of
+accepting empirical opinions if they are shouted loud enough or at close
+range, there is more than a possibility that our Arabian policy may
+resemble such a crazy quilt. If it does, we shall have to harvest a
+thistle-crop of tribal and intertribal trouble throughout the Arabian
+peninsula, and the seed-down of unrest will blow all over Syria and
+Mesopotamia just at the most awkward time when reconstruction and sound
+administration are struggling to establish themselves. Weeds grow
+quicker and stronger than useful plants in any garden.</p>
+
+<p>Empirical statements sound well and look well in print, but they are no
+use whatever as sailing directions in the uncharted waters of Arabian
+politics. Putting them aside, the following facts are worth bearing in
+mind when the future of Arabia is discussed.</p>
+
+<p>The Hejazi troops were ably led by the Sharifian Emirs and Syrian
+officers of note, and had the co-operation of the Red Sea flotilla on
+the coast and British officers of various corps inland to cut off
+Medina, the last place of importance held by the Turks after the summer
+of 1916. Yet the town held out until long after the armistice, and its
+surrender had eventually to be brought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> about by putting pressure on the
+Turkish Government at Stamboul. On the other hand, the two great
+provinces which impinge upon the Hejaz, namely, Nejd and Yamen, have
+given ample proof that they can hammer the Turks without outside
+assistance. The Nejdis not only cleared their own country of Ottoman
+rule, but drove the Turks out of Hasa a year or two before the War,
+while the Yamenis have more than once hurled the Turks back on to the
+coast, and the rebels of northern Yamen successfully withstood a Hejazi
+and Turkish column from the north and another Turkish column from the
+south. The inference is that if the limits of Hejazi rule are to be much
+extended there had better be a clear understanding with their neighbours
+and also some definite idea of the extent to which we are likely to be
+involved in support of our <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I know that many otherwise intelligent people have been hypnotised by
+the prophecy in "The White Prophet":</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p>"The time is near when the long drama that has been played
+between Arabs and Turks will end in the establishment of a vast
+Arabic empire, extending from the Tigris and the Euphrates
+valley to the Mediterranean and from the Indian Ocean to
+Jerusalem, with Cairo as its Capital, the Khedive as its
+Caliph, and England as its lord and protector."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>While refraining from obvious and belated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> criticism of a prophecy which
+the march of events has trodden out of shape, and which could never have
+been intended as a serious contribution to our knowledge of Arabs and
+their politics, we must admit that the basic idea of centralising
+Arabian authority has taken strong hold of avowed statecraft in England.
+It would, of course, simplify our relations with Arabia and the
+collateral regions of Mesopotamia and Syria if such authority could
+establish itself and be accepted by the other Arabian provinces to the
+extent of enforcing its enactments as regards their foreign affairs,
+<i>i.e.</i>, relations with subjects (national or protected) of European
+States.</p>
+
+<p>If such authority could be maintained without assistance from us other
+than a subsidy and the occasional supply, to responsible parties, of
+arms and ammunition, it would satisfy all reasonable requirements, but
+if we had to intervene with direct force we should find ourselves
+defending an unpopular <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i> against the united resentment of
+Arabia.</p>
+
+<p>I believe there is no one ruler or ruling clique in Arabia that could
+wield such authority, and my reason for saying so is that the experiment
+has been tried repeatedly on a small scale during the twenty years or so
+that I have been connected with the country and has failed every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> time.
+Toward the close of last century a sultan of Lahej who had always
+claimed suzerainty over his turbulent neighbours, the Subaihi, had to
+enter that vagabond tribeship to enforce one of his decrees, and got
+held up with his "army" until extricated by Aden diplomacy at the price
+of his suzerain sway. His successor still claimed a hold over an
+adjacent clan of the Subaihi known as the Rigai, but when one of our
+most promising political officers was murdered there, and the murderer
+sheltered by the clan, he was unable to obtain redress or even assist us
+adequately in attempting to do so. Early in this century Aden was
+involved in a little expedition against Turks and Arabs because one of
+her protected sultans (equipped with explosive and ammunition) could not
+deal with a small Arab fort himself. This is the same sultanate which
+let the Turks through against us in the summer of 1915 and whose ruler
+was prominent in the sacking of Lahej. I have already alluded, in
+Chapter II, to the inadequacy of the Lahej sultan on that occasion, yet
+Aden had bolstered up his authority in every possible way and had relied
+on him and his predecessor for years to act as semi-official suzerain
+and go-between for other tribes&mdash;a withered stick which snapped the
+first time it was leant upon. I could also point <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> to the Imam of Yamen,
+strong in opposition to the Turks as a rallying point of tribal revolt,
+but weak and vacillating on the side of law and order. I might go on
+giving instances <i>ad nauseam</i>, but here is one more to clinch the
+argument, and it is typical of Arab politics. Aden had just cause of
+offence against a certain reigning sultan of the Abd-ul-Wahid in her
+eastern sphere of influence. He had intrigued with foreign States,
+oppressed his subjects, persecuted native trade and played the dickens
+generally. Therefore Aden rebuked him (by letter) and appointed a
+relative of his to be sultan and receive his subsidy. The erring but
+impenitent potentate reduced his relative to such submission that he
+would sign monthly receipts for the subsidy and meekly hand over the
+cash: these were his only official acts, as he retired into private life
+in favour of Aden's <i>b&ecirc;te noir</i>, who flourished exceedingly until he
+blackmailed caravans too freely and got the local tribesmen on his
+track.</p>
+
+<p>When we also consider how early in Islamic history the Caliphate split
+as a temporal power, and the difficulty which even the early Caliphs
+(with all their prestige) had to keep order in Arabia, it should
+engender caution in experiments toward even partial centralisation of
+control: apart from the fact that they might develop <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> along lines
+diverging from the recognised principles of self-determination in small
+States, they could land us into a humiliating <i>impasse</i> or an armed
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>We parried the Turco-German efforts to turn pan-Islam against us, thanks
+to our circumspect attitude with regard to Moslems, but a genuine
+movement based on any apparent aggression of ours in Arabia proper might
+be a more serious matter.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="ft">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> "<i>Arabia Infelix</i>," Macmillan.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IV<br /><br />
+<span class="smaller">MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Having</span> weighed the influence which pan-Islam can wield as a popular
+movement, we will now consider the human factors which have built it up.</p>
+
+<p>Just as we used Christendom as a test-gauge of pan-Islam, so now we will
+compare the activities of Moslems (who do their own proselytising) with
+those of Christian missionaries, grouping with them our laity so far as
+their example may be placed in the scales for or against the influence
+of Christendom.</p>
+
+<p>To do this with the breadth of view which the question demands we will
+examine these human factors throughout the world wherever they are
+involved in opposition to each other. We shall thus avoid the confined
+outlook which teaches Europeans in Asia Minor to look on Turks as
+typical Moslems to the exclusion of all others, or makes Anglo-Egyptians
+talk of country-folk in Egypt as Arabs and their language as the
+standard <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> of Arabic, or engenders the Anglo-Indian tendency of regarding
+a scantily-dressed paramount chief from the Aden hinterland as an
+obscure <i>jungliwala</i> because, in civilised India, an eminent Moslem
+dresses in accordance with our conception of the part.</p>
+
+<p>We can leave the western hemisphere out of this inquiry, for though the
+greatest missionary effort against Islam is engendered in the United
+States, it manifests itself in the eastern hemisphere, and the Moslem
+population in both the Americas is too small and quiescent to be
+considered a factor.</p>
+
+<p>We will begin with England and work eastward to the edge of the Moslem
+world.</p>
+
+<p>At first glance the idea of England as an arena where two great
+religious forces meet seems rather far-fetched, but there is more Moslem
+activity in some of our English towns than people imagine. Turning over
+some files of the <i>Kibla</i> (a Meccan newspaper), one comes across
+passages like the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p>"The honourable Cadi Abdulla living in London reports that six
+noted English men and women have embraced the Moslem religion
+in the cities of Oxford, Leicester, etc. The meritorious Abdul
+Hay Arab has established a new centre in London for calling to
+Islam, and the Mufti Muhammad Sadik has delivered a speech in
+English in the mosque on 'the object of human life <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>which can
+only be attained through Moslem guidance.' Many English men and
+women were present and put questions which were answered in a
+conclusive manner. At the close of the meeting a young lady of
+good family embraced Islam and was named Maimuna."</p></div>
+
+<p>Then we have the scholarly and temperate addresses of Seyid Muhammad
+Rauf and others before the Islamic Society in London; they are marked by
+considerable shrewdness and breadth of view, and though their debatable
+points may present a few fallacies, their effective controversion
+requires unusual knowledge of affairs in Moslem countries.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, however, the activities of Moslems in England which damage
+the prestige of Christendom; it is the behaviour of English alleged
+Christians themselves. Every missionary, political officer, tutor, or
+even the importer of a native servant&mdash;in short, anyone who has been
+responsible for an oriental in England&mdash;knows what I mean. I do not say
+that London (for example) is any more vicious than Delhi or Cairo or
+Cabul or Constantinople or any other large Moslem centre, but vice is
+certainly more obvious in London to the casual observer, even allowing
+for the fact that many comparatively harmless customs of ours (such as
+women wearing low-necked dresses and dancing with men) are apt to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> shock
+Moslems until they learn that occidental habit has created an atmosphere
+of innocence in such cases which even bunny-hugging has failed to
+vitiate.</p>
+
+<p>The social life of London in all its grades and phases operates more
+widely for good or ill on Christian prestige among Moslems than
+Londoners can possibly imagine. From the young princeling of some native
+State sauntering about Clubland with his bear-leader to the lascar off a
+P. and O. boat, among East London drabs, or the middle-class Mohammedan
+student who compares the civic achievements that surround him with the
+dingy dining-room of a Bloomsbury boarding-house, all are apostles of
+life in London as it seems to them. I have had the hospitality of
+"family hotels" in the Euston Road portrayed to me in the crude but
+vivid imagery of the East when spooring boar in Southern Morocco with a
+native tracker who had been one of a troupe of Soosi jugglers earning
+good pay at a West-end music-hall, and I once overheard a young
+<i>effendi</i> explaining to his <i>confr&egrave;res</i> in a Cairo caf&eacute; exactly the sort
+of company that would board your hansom when leaving "Jimmy's" in days
+of yore.</p>
+
+<p>As for the news of London and its ways, as conveyed by its daily Press,
+educated Egyptians were better posted therein than most Englishmen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> in
+Cairo during the War, as their clubs and private organisations
+subscribed largely to the London dailies, which entered Egypt free of
+local censorship, while Anglo-Egyptian newspapers were more strictly
+censored than their vernacular or continental contemporaries, as they
+presented no linguistic difficulties, but could be dealt with direct and
+not through an understrapper.</p>
+
+<p>Missionaries would have us judge Islam by the open improprieties and
+abuses which occur at Mecca, Kerbela, and other great Moslem centres.
+How should we like Christianity to be judged by the public behaviour of
+certain classes in London or other big towns? Remember, it is always the
+scum which floats on top and the superficial vice or indecorum that
+strike a foreign observer.</p>
+
+<p>It is not my mission to preach&mdash;I am merely pointing out a flaw in our
+harness which causes a lot of administrative trouble out East. It is
+difficult to check the hashish habit in Egypt when the average educated
+<i>effendi</i> reads of drug-scandals in London with mischievous avidity, and
+the endeavours of a well-meaning Education Department to implant ideals
+of sturdy manhood are handicapped when the students batten on the weird
+and unsavoury incidents which are dished up <i>in extenso</i> by London
+journalism from time to time. Such matters do no harm to a public <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> with
+a sense of proportion, but the <i>effendi</i> is in the position of a
+schoolboy who has caught his master tripping and means to make the most
+of it. He assimilates and disseminates the idea that cocaine is as
+easily procurable as a cocktail in London clubs, and that the Black Mass
+is at least as common as the <i>danse de ventre</i> in Cairo.</p>
+
+<p>We can leave England for our Eastern tour with the conclusion that Islam
+is welcome to any proselytes it makes there, but that the gravest slur
+on Christian prestige is cast by our own conduct.</p>
+
+<p>There is only one bone of contention between Moslems and missionaries in
+Europe now that Turkey and Russia are knocked out of the ring of current
+politics. Is St. Sophia to remain a mosque or revert to its original
+purpose as a Christian church? Whatever may be Turkish opinion on the
+subject, the tradition of Islam is definite enough. When the Caliph Omar
+entered Jerusalem in triumph, after Khaled had defeated the hosts of
+Heraclius east of Jordan, he withstood the importunate entreaties of his
+followers to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, saying that if he
+did so the building would <i>de facto</i> become a mosque, and such a wrong
+to Christianity was against the ordinance and procedure of the Prophet.
+It is worthy of note that Christians <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> were not molested at Jerusalem
+until after the Seljouk Turks wrested the Holy City from the moribund
+Arabian Caliphate in 1076: their persecution and the desecration of
+sacred places by the Turks brought about the first Crusade in 1096.
+Again it was the Ottoman Turks who stormed Constantinople and turned
+St. Sophia into a mosque. According to the orthodox tradition of Islam,
+once a church always a church. When the ex-Khedive had the chance of
+reacquiring the site of All Saints', Cairo, owing to the increasing
+noise of traffic in the vicinity, he contemplated building a
+cinema-theatre there (for he had a shrewd business mind), but he was
+roundly told by Moslem legalists that it was out of the question. Even
+if the Turks urge right of conquest, victorious Christendom can claim
+that too, and if they allege length of tenure as a mosque in support of
+their case they put themselves out of court, as St. Sophia has been a
+church for more than nine centuries and a mosque for less than five.</p>
+
+<p>If Turkey is allowed to remain in Europe at all it will be on
+sufferance. Even in Asia Minor signs are not wanting that Turkish rule
+will be pruned, clipped and trained considerably, as humanity will stand
+its rampant luxuriance of blood and barbarity no longer. The Young <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+Turks were given every chance to consolidate their national aspirations
+and have achieved national suicide. One may feel sorry for the patient,
+sturdy peasantry and the non-political cultured classes who have been
+coerced or cajoled into fighting desperately in a cause that meant
+calamity for them whether they won or lost; but a nation gets the rulers
+it deserves and must answer for their acts.</p>
+
+<p>Asia Minor will probably be more accessible as a mission-field in due
+course. The Moslem Turk is not amenable to conversion; in fact, during a
+quarter of a century's wandering in the East I have never met a Turkish
+convert. The American Protestant Mission will probably be well to the
+fore in this area in view of its excellent work on behalf of the
+Armenians and other distressed Christians during the War. Just as it has
+concentrated its principal energies on the Copts in Egypt, so it may
+with advantage devote itself to the education and "uplift" of the
+Armenians, and if its activities are as successful as with the Copts,
+even the Armenians cannot but approve, for the more enlightened
+individuals of that harassed and harassing little nation admit that the
+Armenian character could be considerably improved, and that, though
+their hideous persecution is indefensibly damnable, their covetous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+instincts and parasitic activities are an incentive to maltreatment.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most difficult minor problems of reconstruction in Eastern
+Europe and Asia Minor will be how to safeguard the interests and modify
+the provocative activities of such subject-races as the Jews and the
+Armenians where established among ill-controlled nations and numerically
+inferior, though intellectually superior, to them. With their natural
+gift for intrigue and finance, they repay public persecution and
+oppression by undermining the administration and battening on the
+resources of their unwilling foster-country until active dislike becomes
+actual violence and outbursts of brutish rage yield ghastly results.
+Deportation is not only tyrannically harsh but impracticable, for unless
+they were dumped to die in the waste places of the earth, which is
+unthinkable, some other nation must receive them, and even the most
+philanthropic Government would hesitate to upset its economic conditions
+by admitting unproductive hordes of sweated labour and skilled
+exploiters. There are only two logical alternatives to such an
+<i>impasse</i>. One is to treat such subject-races so well that they may be
+trusted not to use their peculiar abilities against the interests of
+their adoptive country, which would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> then be their interests too, and
+the other is to exterminate them, which is inhuman. There is no middle
+course.</p>
+
+<p>It is a salutary but humiliating fact that we incur the worst human ills
+by our lack of human charity. We starved and over-crowded our poor till
+they bred consumption, and we enslaved negroes till they degenerated our
+Anglo-Saxon sturdiness of character, then plunged a great nation into
+civil war, and have finally become one of its most serious social
+problems. So the Jews were debarred from liberal pursuits and privileges
+until they concentrated on finance and commerce, being also persecuted
+until they perfected their defensive organisation. The consequence is
+that they are individually formidable in those activities and
+collectively invincible. Similarly the Turks harried the Armenians to
+their own undoing with even less excuse, for those ill-used people were
+certainly not interlopers, and so far from ameliorating their condition
+in the course of time, as we have done with the Jews, the Turks went
+from bad to worse till they culminated in atrocities which no
+provocation can palliate or humanity condone.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to Asia Minor; there the Armenians were first on the
+ground, and yet the Moslems of Armenia outnumber them by three to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> one.
+Any sound form of government would have to give equal rights, but it
+would have to be strong and farseeing to prevent the greedy exploitation
+and savage reprisals which such conditions would otherwise evolve.</p>
+
+<p>On entering Asia we shall find a somewhat similar problem confronting
+the administration in Syria and Palestine. Here we have several mixed
+races and at least three distinct creeds&mdash;Christianity, Islam, and
+Judaism.</p>
+
+<p>The Zionist movement looks promising, everyone concerned seems to be in
+accord, and a Jew millennium looms large in the offing, but&mdash;&mdash;. In
+Palestine there are normally about 700,000 Moslems and Christians (the
+latter a very small minority) to 150,000 Jews. The lure of the Promised
+Land will presumably increase the Jewish population enormously, but they
+will still be very much in the minority unless the country is
+over-populated. The Zionist organisation will naturally try to select
+for emigration agriculturists, mechanics, and craftsmen generally to
+develop the resources of the country, but that is easier said than done.
+If Palestine, in addition to the sentimental aspect, is to be a refuge
+and asylum for the downtrodden and persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe,
+there would be very few farmers among <i>that</i> lot&mdash;except <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> tax-farmers.
+Even in England, where he labours under no landowning disability, the
+Jew thinks that farming for a living is a mug's game and confines his
+agricultural activities to week-ends in the autumn with a "hammerless
+ejector" and a knickerbocker suit. As for mechanics and skilled labour
+generally, such Jews as take to it usually excel in such work and do
+very well where they are. The bulk of the immigrant population&mdash;unless
+Palestine is going to be artificially colonised without regard for the
+necessitous claims of the very people who should be drawn off
+there&mdash;will be indigent artisans, small shopkeepers, shop assistants,
+weedy unemployables, and a sprinkling of shrewd operators on the
+look-out for prey. If the scheme is going to be run entirely on
+philanthropic lines (and there are ample resources and charity at the
+back of it to do so) the Zionists will be all right, and will, perhaps,
+improve immensely in the next generation under the influence of an
+open-air life&mdash;if they adopt it; but the resident majority of Moslems
+and Christians will not take too kindly to their new compatriots, while
+the Palestine Jews are already carping at the idea of so many trade
+rivals and accusing them of not being orthodox. None of this ill-feeling
+need matter in the long run with a firm but benevolent government, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+the authorities will have to evolve some legislation to check
+profiteering and over-exploitation, or there will be trouble. It is not
+only the new-comers who will want curbing, but the present population.
+During the War the flagrant profiteering of Jew and Christian operators
+in Palestine and Syria did much to accentuate the appalling distress and
+was the more disgraceful compared with the magnificent efforts of the
+American and Anglican Churches to relieve the situation. The Jews nearly
+incurred a pogrom by their operations, which were only checked by a
+wealthy Syrian in Egypt starting a co-operative venture of low-priced
+foodstuffs and necessities with the support of the British authorities.
+As for the local Syrians, some of them were even worse. French and
+British officers speak of wealthy Syrians (presumably Christian,
+certainly not Moslem) giving many and sumptuous balls at Beyrout, at
+which they lapped Austrian champagne while their wives, blazing in
+diamonds, whirled with Hunnish officers in the high-pressure,
+double-action German waltz. And this with thousands of their compatriots
+starving in the streets and little naked children banding together to
+drive pariah dogs with stones from the street offal they were worrying,
+if perchance it might yield a meal. Meanwhile decent Anglo-Saxon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+Christendom was battling in that very town under adverse conditions to
+succour human destitution which had been largely caused by the callous
+operations of these soulless parasites. The Christians of Syria have no
+monopoly of such scandals. Yet there are otherwise intelligent people
+who speak of modern Christianity as an automatic promoter of ethics, and
+have the effrontery to try to thrust it on the East as a moral panacea.
+It is human ideals which make or mar a soul when once the seed of any
+sound religion has been sown, and they depend upon environment and
+climate more than our spiritual pastors admit; otherwise, why this
+missionary activity among oriental Christians? If you try to grow garden
+flowers in the rich, rank irrigation soil of the Nile valley they
+flourish luxuriantly, but soon develop a marked tendency to revert to
+their wild type, and it is permissible to suppose that human character
+is even more sensitive to its mental and physical surroundings. Any
+observant teacher of oriental youth will tell you that the promise of
+their precocious ability is seldom fulfilled by their maturity. Even the
+"country-born" children of British parents are considered precocious at
+their preparatory school in England, and, if not sent home to be
+educated, are apt to fall short of their parents' <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> intellectual and
+moral standard in later years. The Mamelukes knew what they were about
+when they kidnapped hardy Albanian youths to carry on their rule in
+Egypt and passed over their own progeny. Kingsley has shown us in
+"Hypatia" what the Nile valley did for the Christian Church.</p>
+
+<p>It is not a question of Jew, Christian, or Moslem that the
+administrative authorities in Syria and Palestine will have to consider
+beyond ensuring that each shall follow his religion unmolested. They
+will have to defend the many from the machinations of the few and the
+few from the violent reprisals of the many. It is statecraft that is
+wanted, not politics or religious dogma.</p>
+
+<p>In Mesopotamia there has not been much missionary effort hitherto, and
+there is not a good case for exploiting it as a missionary field beyond
+certain limits. The riparian townsfolk are respectable people of some
+education and grasp of their own affairs, and the country-folk are a
+harum-scarum set of scallywags who used to attack Turks or British
+indifferently, whichever happened to be in difficulties for the moment.
+They are best left to the secular arm for some time to come. Medical
+missions, staffed by both sexes, could do good work at urban centres,
+and a few river steamers, or even launches, would extend their efforts
+considerably.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We now come to Arabia itself, "the Peninsula of the Arabs," where
+orthodox Islam has its strongholds and missionary enterprise is not
+encouraged.</p>
+
+<p>Geographers differ somewhat as to what constitutes Arabia proper, but
+for the purposes of modern practical politics it may be considered as
+all the peninsula south of a line from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to
+the head of the Persian Gulf, and consisting of Nejd, the Hejaz,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a>
+Asir, Yamen, Aden protectorate, Hadhramaut and Oman. Each of these
+divisions should be dealt with separately in considering Arabian
+politics nowadays, and it will be well for the "mandatories" concerned
+if further sub-divisions do not complicate matters; I omit the
+sub-province of Hasa (once a dependency of the Turkish <i>pashalik</i> at
+Bussora) because, since the Nejdi <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i> in 1912, the Emir ibn
+Saoud will probably control its policy <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i> of missionaries and
+Europeans generally, though the Sheikh of Koweit may expect to be
+consulted.</p>
+
+<p>Nejd comes first as we move southward: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> impinging as it does on Syria,
+Mesopotamia, and the Hejaz, its politics are involved in theirs to a
+certain extent and its affairs require careful handling. It is certainly
+no field for unrestrained missionary effort, but there is no reason why
+a medical mission should not be posted at Riadh if the Emir is willing.
+There are two rival houses in Nejd&mdash;the ibn Saoud and ibn Rashid, the
+former pro-British and the latter (hitherto) pro-Turk; Emir Saoud held
+ascendancy before the War and should be able to maintain it now that
+Turco-German influence is a thing of the past. He is an enlightened,
+energetic man and was a close friend of our gallant "political," the
+late Captain Shakespeare, who was killed there early in the War during
+an engagement between the two rival houses. The question of missionary
+enterprise in Nejd could well be put before the Emir for consideration
+on its merits. Such procedure may seem weak to an out-and-out
+missionary, but even he would hesitate to keep poultry in another man's
+garden, even for economic purposes, without consulting him. Fowls and
+missionaries are useful and even desirable in a suitable environment,
+otherwise they can be a nuisance.</p>
+
+<p>Next in order as we travel is the Hejaz, where Islam started on its
+mission to harry exotic creeds and nations, until its conquering
+progress was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> checked decisively by reinvigorated Christendom. In
+missionary parlance, Arabia generally is referred to as "a Gibraltar of
+fanaticism and pride which shuts out the messenger of Christ," and it
+must be admitted that the Hejaz has hitherto justified this description
+to a certain extent. Even at Jeddah Christians were only just tolerated
+before the War, and I found it advisable, when exploring its tortuous
+bazars, to wear a tarboosh, which earned me the respectful salutations
+then accorded to a Turk. The indigenous townsfolk of Jeddah are the
+"meanest" set of Moslems I have ever met&mdash;I use the epithet in its
+American sense, as indicating a blend of currishness and crabbedness.
+They cringed to the Turk when the braver Arabs of the south were
+hammering the oppressor in Asir and Yamen, but, like pariahs, were ready
+to fall on them and their women and children when they had surrendered
+after a gallant struggle, overwhelmed by an intensive bombardment from
+the sea. The alien Moslems resident in Jeddah&mdash;especially the
+Indians&mdash;are not a bad lot, but there is an atmosphere of intolerance
+brooding over the whole place which even affects Jeddah harbour. I
+remember being shipmate in 1913 with some eight hundred pilgrims from
+Aden and the southern ports of the Red Sea. As we were discharging <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> them
+off Jeddah, a plump and respectable Aden merchant whom I knew by sight,
+but who did not know me in the guise I then wore, was gazing in rapt
+enthusiasm at sun-scorched Jeddah, which, against the sterile country
+beyond, looked like a stale bride-cake on a dust heap. "A sacred land,"
+he crooned. "A blessed land where pigs and Christians cannot live."
+Incidentally he made a very good living out of Christians and was
+actually carrying his gear in a pigskin valise.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, it is absurd for missionaries to aver of Christians at
+Jeddah that "even those who die in the city are buried on an island at
+sea." The Christian cemetery lies to the south of the town (we had to
+dislodge the Turks from it with shrapnel during the fighting), and the
+only island is a small coral reef just big enough to support the ruins
+of a nondescript tenement once used for quarantine. No one could be
+buried there without the aid of dynamite and a cold chisel. Presumably
+missionary report has confused Jeddah with the smaller pilgrim-port of
+Yenbo, where there are an island and a sandy spit with a Sheikh's tomb
+and a select burial-ground for certain privileged Moslems of the holy
+man's family.</p>
+
+<p>The worst indictment of Jeddah (and Mecca <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> too, for that matter) is made
+by the pilgrims themselves, though some of it may be exaggerated by men
+smarting under the extortions of pilgrim-brokers.</p>
+
+<p>A pious Moslem once averred in my presence that the pilgrim-brokers of
+Jeddah were, in themselves, enough to bring a judgment on the place,
+and that trenchant opinion is not without foundation. Even to the
+unprejudiced eye of a travelled European they present themselves as a
+class of blatant bounders battening on the earnest fervour of their
+co-religionists and squandering the proceeds on dissipation. I have more
+than once been shipmate with a gang of them, and it is at sea that they
+cast off such restraint as the critical gaze of other Moslems might
+impose. As sumptuous first-class passengers they lounge about the deck
+in robes of tussore, rich silks and fancy waistcoats, though out of
+deference to their religious prejudice and Christian table-manners they
+usually mess by themselves. After dinner they play vociferous poker in
+the saloon for cut-throat stakes, evading the captain's veto by using
+tastefully designed little fish in translucent colours to represent
+heavy cash, and these they invoke from time to time "for luck." As it is
+usually sweltering weather, the occidental whiskey-and-soda and the
+aromatic <i>mastic</i> of the Levant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> are much in evidence, and thus three of
+Islam's gravest injunctions are set at naught. Their chief fault, to a
+broad-minded sportsman, is that they lack self-control, whatever their
+luck may be. I have heard an ill-starred gambler bemoaning his losses
+with the cries of a stricken animal, and they are still more offensive
+as winners.</p>
+
+<p>In Mecca such open breaches of the Islamic code are not tolerated, but
+there are other lapses which neither Moslem nor Christian can condone.
+It is unfair and out of date to quote Burton's indictment of Meccan
+morals, nor have we any right to judge the city by its behaviour soon
+after its freedom from the Turkish yoke, when it may have been suffering
+from reaction after nervous tension; but, unless the bulk of respectable
+Moslem opinion is at fault, there is still much in the administration of
+Mecca which cries for reform. Harsh measures may have been necessary at
+first, but to maintain a private prison like the <i>Kabu</i> in the state it
+is can redound to no ruler's credit, and for prominent officials to
+cultivate an "alluring walk" and even practise it in the <i>taw&acirc;f</i> or
+circumambulation of the holy Caaba is beyond comment.</p>
+
+<p>Also the mental standard of officialdom is low, since Syrians of
+education and training do not seem to be attracted by the Hejaz service
+for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> long, and local men of position and ability are said to have been
+passed over as likely to be formidable as intriguers.</p>
+
+<p>It may be reasonably urged that it is difficult to improvise a Civil
+Service on the spur of the moment, and it is permissible to anticipate a
+better state of affairs now that war conditions are being superseded. At
+the same time it is no use blinking the fact that reform is indicated at
+Mecca if that sacred city is to harmonise with its high mission as the
+religious centre of the Islamic world, and this affects our numerous
+Moslem fellow-countrymen; otherwise the domestic affairs of the Hejaz
+are not our concern.</p>
+
+<p>The Hejaz has been very much to the fore lately, and ill-informed or
+biassed opinion has developed a tendency to credit it with a greater
+part in Arabian and Syrian affairs than it has played, can play, or
+should be encouraged to play. Its intolerant tone has, presumably, been
+modified by co-operation with the civilised forces of militant
+Christendom, but the new kingdom has got to regenerate itself a good
+deal before it can cope with wider responsibilities. Emir Feisal is, no
+doubt, an enlightened prince, but one swallow does not make a summer,
+and Hejazi troops have not yet evolved enough <i>moral</i> to dominate and
+control a more formidable breed or be trusted with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> peace and
+welfare of a more civilised population, especially where there are large
+non-Moslem communities. There has been a great deal of nonsense talked
+and written about their invincible fighting prowess. They accompanied
+the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in much the same way as the jackal is
+said to accompany the lion, with a reversionary interest in his kill,
+and their faint-hearted fumbling with the Turkish defences outside
+Jeddah was obvious to any observer. They are what they have been since
+the fiery self-sacrificing enthusiasm of early Islam died down and left
+them with the half-warm embers of their racial greed to become
+hereditary spoilers of the weak, instinctively shunning a doubtful
+fight. In guerilla warfare, leavened by British officers, they have
+shown an aptitude for taking advantage of a situation, but they cannot
+stand punishment and will not face the prospect of it if they can help
+it. Their own leaders knew that well enough when they refrained from
+taking Medina by assault, bombardment being out of the question, as
+buildings of the utmost sanctity would have been inevitably damaged or
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Feisal has, in a published interview with a representative of the
+Press, disclaimed all imperialistic ambitions for the Hejaz, but merely
+demanded Arab independence in what was once <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> the Ottoman Empire. That
+being assured, the new kingdom will be able to devote its energies to
+internal affairs, and the excellent impression made by the Hejazi prince
+in Europe should be a favourable augury of the future.</p>
+
+<p>The missionary question should be left to the reigning house for
+decision; it is not fair to hamper the Hejaz with unnecessary
+complications, and to allow active missionary propaganda at a
+pilgrim-port like Jeddah is asking for trouble, apart from the flagrant
+violation of religious sentiment. Imagine Catholic feeling if an
+enterprising Moslem mission were established at Lourdes. Tact and
+expediency are just as necessary in religious as in secular affairs&mdash;at
+least so St. Paul has taught us; but the modern missionary is too apt to
+regard these qualities in Christianity as insincerity and the lack of
+them in Islam as fanaticism.</p>
+
+<p>South of the Hejaz lies that rather vague area known as Asir. For
+geographical purposes we may consider it as the country between two
+parallels of latitude drawn through the coastal towns of Lith and
+Loheia, with the Red Sea on the west and an ill-defined inland border
+merging eastward into the desert plateau of Southern Nejd. Politically,
+it is that territory of Western Arabia between the Hejaz and Yamen in
+which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> the Idrisi has more control than anyone since his successful
+revolt against the Turks a year or two before the War. In all
+probability its northern districts with Lith will go to the Hejaz, and
+the southern ones with Loheia to the Idrisi; but Western diplomacy will
+be well advised to leave those two rulers to settle it between
+themselves and the local population, especially inland, as tribal
+boundaries between semi-nomadic and pastoral people are not for
+intelligent amateurs to trifle with. Nor should the missionary be
+encouraged; Asir is not a suitable field for his activities, and the
+trouble he would probably cause is out of all proportion to the good he
+could possibly do. The Asiri is a frizzy-haired fanatic with a short
+temper and a serious disposition, addicted to sword-play and the
+indiscriminate use of firearms. I doubt if he would see the humour of
+missionary logic. As for the Idrisi himself, he is a tall, well set up
+man of negroid aspect (being of Moorish and Soudani descent), and has
+shown shrewdness as an administrator, though his operations in the War
+have lacked "punch." He is very orthodox, and from what I know of him I
+should not say that religious tolerance was his strong point. His
+capital is at Sabbia, in the maritime foot-hills, with a very trying
+climate. Asir might suit the naturalist or explorer who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> could adapt
+himself to his environment and respect local prejudice. No one has yet
+entered the country in either capacity, but, from what has been told me
+before the War by intelligent Turkish officers who campaigned there, I
+think that the birds and smaller mammals would repay research, while the
+great Dawasir valley and other geographical problems inland might be
+investigated with advantage under the <i>&aelig;gis</i> of local chiefs. All that
+is required, besides the necessary scientific knowledge and Arabic, is a
+certain amount of perseverance and resolution blended with a reasonable
+regard for other people's convictions. Most Arabian expeditions fail
+through lack of time spent in preliminary steps. I have tripped up in
+that way myself, but it was owing to the restrictions of a paternal
+Government, and not through lack of patience. Before I started serious
+exploration in the Aden hinterland I spent a year on the littoral plain
+getting in touch with the people and mastering the dialect. Any success
+I may have had up-country was due to the foundation I laid in those
+early days, and it was not until the Aden authorities closed their
+sphere of influence against exploration in general and myself in
+particular that my expeditions began to miss fire, as I had to land at
+remote places along the coast and hasten up-country before their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+fostering care could set the tribes on me. He who would explore Asir
+should take a Khedivial mail steamer from Suez to Jeddah, and there show
+his credentials and explain his purpose to his consul and the local
+authorities. The Idrisi has an agent there, and it should not be
+difficult to pick up an Asiri dhow returning down the coast to G&icirc;z&acirc;n,
+which is the port for Sabbia. He would have to stay there until he got
+the Idrisi's permit and an escort, without which he would be held up to
+a certainty. In any case, no such enterprise need be contemplated until
+Asiri affairs have settled down a good deal.</p>
+
+<p>In Yamen proper it should be feasible to travel again within certain
+limits as soon as the Imam can come to an understanding with the tribal
+chiefs. There is not much left for the explorer or naturalist to do,
+unless he goes very far inland toward the great central desert, which
+project is not likely to be encouraged by the local authorities. There
+is, however, a possible field for the mineralogist and prospector east
+and south-east of Sanaa, which area also contains Sab&aelig;an ruins and
+inscriptions of interest to the arch&aelig;ologist.</p>
+
+<p>The northern boundary of Yamen may be said nowadays to trend north-east
+from Loheia inland through highland country to the desert borders of
+Nejran (once a Christian diocese). Its eastern <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> border is very vague,
+but may be said to coincide approximately with the 45th parallel of
+longitude. Southward the limit has been clearly defined by the
+Anglo-Turkish Boundary Commission of 1902-5 inland from the Bana valley,
+about a hundred map-miles north of Aden, to the straits of
+Bab-el-Mandeb.</p>
+
+<p>Within these limits the two great divisions of Islam are represented in
+force&mdash;the orthodox <i>Sunnis</i> on the littoral plain and far inland along
+the upland deserts, while the highlanders among the lofty fertile ranges
+separating these two areas and forming the backbone of the country
+follow the <i>Shiah</i> schism, being Zeidis, which of all the schismatic
+sects approaches most nearly to orthodox Islam and regards Mecca as its
+pilgrim-centre. The feeling between these two religious divisions may be
+compared with that existing between Anglicans and Catholics. They will
+occasionally use each other's places of worship&mdash;more especially the
+upper or governing classes&mdash;and seldom come to open loggerheads; when
+they do, it is usually about politics, and not religion. At the same
+time, if you, as a Christian traveller among both parties, want a
+scathing opinion of a Zeidi, you will get it from an orthodox lowlander,
+and the men of the mountains reciprocate with point and weight, for the
+balance of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> religious culture and position is with them among the big
+hill-centres; including Sanaa, the political capital where the Imam
+holds, or should hold, his court as hereditary ruler spiritual and
+temporal. This ecclesiastical potentate has backed the Turk in a
+non-committal but flamboyant manner during the War up to the turning of
+the tide against them, when he sat on the fence until his Turkish
+subsidy ceased. He now looks to Western diplomacy in general and the
+British Government in particular not only to continue but to enhance
+this subsidy, in order that he may really govern in Yamen. His attitude
+throughout is natural and, indeed, justifiable in the interests of
+himself and his dynasty; at least occidental politicians cannot cavil at
+his motives; but what they ought to ascertain is how far he can fill the
+bill as a ruler in Yamen and the extent to which he should be backed.
+Without a considerable subsidy his administrative powers (not hitherto
+very marked) will not carry far even in the highlands.</p>
+
+<p>Missionaries were allowed to enter Yamen before the War, but did not
+establish themselves, even on the coast. Some of them went up-country
+and stayed there some time without being molested. The average Yameni is
+not fanatical by temperament; there is more bigotry among <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> the urban Jew
+colonies than in the whole Moslem countryside.</p>
+
+<p>In the Aden protectorate there has been long established the Falconer
+Medical Mission, which, though actually at Sheikh Othman, just inside
+the British border, has done splendid work among natives of the
+hinterland, who visit it from all parts. Its relations with the Arabs
+have always been excellent, though the local ruffians looted the Mission
+when the Turks held Sheikh Othman temporarily.</p>
+
+<p>The province of Hadhramaut, politically, includes not only the vast
+valley of that name with its tributaries, but the whole of the western
+part of Southern Arabia outside the Aden protectorate from the Yamen
+border to the confines of Oman near longitude 55. Mokalla is the capital
+and principal port. Missionaries have been well received there by the
+enlightened ruler&mdash;a member of the Kaaiti house with the local title of
+Jemadar, inherited from an ancestor who soldiered in the Arab bodyguard
+of a former Nizam at Haiderabad. The interior is not suited to
+missionary enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Muscat, the capital of Oman, has already been occupied by missionaries.
+The Sultan (at whose court there is a British Resident) is well-disposed,
+but has lost most of his influence inland.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Further up the Persian Gulf missionaries have long been established on
+the islands of Bahrein, which are under British protection.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing our journey eastward, we can dismiss the Shiahs of Persia as
+outside our pan-Islamic calculations, for their pilgrim-centre is at
+Kerbela, some twenty odd miles west of the Euphrates and the site of
+ancient Babylon. This centre has been visited by missionaries.</p>
+
+<p>Afghanistan and Beluchistan both bar missionaries, but there are C.M.S.
+frontier posts from Quetta, in British Beluchistan, to Peshawar, near
+the Afghan border. They do good hospital work, otherwise their
+evangelising activities over the border are confined to native
+colporteurs and the circulation of vernacular Scriptures. There is a
+fierce and barbarous Turcoman spirit in both countries which their
+respective rulers (the Khan of Kelat and the Emir at Cabul) do their
+best to keep within bounds, aided by British Residents. Missionaries
+seem to think this spirit can be exorcised by their entrance into the
+arena. You might as well throw squibs into a cage full of tigers.</p>
+
+<p>On entering India (that vast hunting-ground of many sects and creeds),
+Moslem and missionary are almost swamped in the flood of Hinduism. There
+is no restriction on the activities of either <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> within the four corners
+of the King-Emperor's peace, and there is very little antagonism between
+the two in so big a field, where both are doing good work. Although the
+Moslems outnumber the Christians by seven to one, the honours of war go
+to the missionaries. Their highly-organised medical and educational
+missions do excellent work&mdash;the Zenana Mission is, in itself, a
+justification of Christian mission work in India to any humanitarian
+with some knowledge of <i>zenana</i> conditions. The Moslems, on the other
+hand, in spite of their high standard of education, in India show a
+tendency among their less educated classes toward the caste prejudices
+of Hinduism, which are dead against the teaching of Islam and a handicap
+to any social organisation.</p>
+
+<p>Few people realise what a huge proposition the Indian Empire is to solve
+in its entirety, with its population of 315 millions, of whom over 90
+per cent. are illiterate. Of the more or less educated residuum, not
+quite 90 per cent. are Brahmins having little in common with the huge
+uneducated bulk of the population, which is chiefly agricultural and, by
+its patient toil, supplies most of the wealth of India. Yet it is the
+cultured but unproductive Brahmin (organised by a brainy old lady) who
+wants to control the native affairs of India&mdash;and probably will.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In Farther India the Brahmin is at a discount and the Buddhist is to the
+fore, while Moslem and missionary are far too busy among the heathen to
+bother about each other; as also in Malay, where there is field enough
+and to spare for both of them.</p>
+
+<p>The only other debatable field in Asia is that vast area which we call
+China, comprising China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Eastern
+Turkestan. Moslem and missionary can hardly be said to meet face to
+face, as missionary enterprise is chiefly in China itself, where the
+great waterways have been of much assistance to Christian activities,
+while Moslem efforts are concentrated on Chinese Turkestan. Here there
+are two Christian missions, at Yarkand and Kashgar, under the protection
+(as elsewhere in China) of the Chinese Government. Moslem propaganda is
+spread by traders and others working from centres of Islamic learning
+outside Chinese territory, such as Bokhara and Samarkand in Russian
+Turkestan, and Cabul, the Afghan capital. In addition, there is a wave
+of Chinese secular culture lapping in from the East, and missionaries
+ask that existing missions be reinforced with funds to take a more
+effective part in this battle for souls (as they express it). They
+complain bitterly that the upper classes <i>will</i> send their sons away to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+places like Bokhara to be educated, and that they come back Moslems.
+They also call for ample funds to attack Islam on its own ground in
+Russian Turkestan, as it is permeating Christian Russia. This missionary
+point of view is natural enough; how far it is justifiable is for the
+contributing public to decide. To the ordinary mind Christian villages
+which can become Moslem by the leavening influence of a few inhabitants
+who have been to work in Moslem centres convey one of two impressions,
+or both: either Christianity is not adapted to their requirements so
+much as Islam, or they are too weak-kneed to be a credit to any faith,
+and the one with the most virile methods may take them and make men of
+them if it can. Moslem and missionary activities in Chinese Asia remind
+one of cheese-mites gnawing away on opposite sides of a Double
+Gloucester. They are very active, and if they keep at it may get through
+some day; but meanwhile the cheese seems much the same as ever, apart
+from its own internal changes which the mites cannot control or affect.</p>
+
+<p>We will now turn to Africa, the main theatre of war between Moslem and
+missionary, who battle with each other for pagan souls and each other's
+proselytes.</p>
+
+<p>We will first visit Morocco, the most westerly of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> Moslem countries.
+Here there is not much missionary activity, either Protestant or
+Catholic, but the French have been doing some excellent secular work
+there, and under their tutelage the country is developing on lines of
+moderate progress.</p>
+
+<p>There is little antipathy shown to missionaries here, at any rate on the
+coast, and medical missionaries have been welcomed inland. Education
+does not flourish, but the country might be described by an unbiassed
+observer as enlightened at least as far south as a line joining Mogador
+and Morocco City (Marrakesh). In this northern area you will find an
+industrious agricultural population of small farmers scattered about the
+countryside, which consists of wide, open tracts of arable land under
+millet, maize, and other cereals, dotted here and there with groves of
+olive and orange and interspersed with large forests of <i>argan</i> and
+other small trees. Desert country encroaches more and more toward the
+south, and in spite of several large streams draining into the Atlantic
+from the snowcapped Atlas range, the country becomes very wild and
+sterile the farther south you go from Mogador until it merges in the
+Sahara, across which lies the great, bone-whitened highway that leads to
+Timbuctoo.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever the indigenous Berber of the Atlas <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> may be, the northern Moor
+has never been a mere barbarian, and Spain owes much to his culture and
+industry. He certainly used to have a bizarre conception of
+international amenities, and got himself very much disliked in the
+Mediterranean and even northern waters in consequence. That phase,
+however, has long since passed; the last corsair has rotted at its
+moorings in Sallee harbour, and I am told that to put a wealthy Jew in a
+thing like a giant trouser-press and extort money under pressure is
+considered now an anachronism.</p>
+
+<p>When I first knew the country, a quarter of a century ago, it was just
+emerging from a revolutionary war, and local relations with foreigners
+or even neighbours were capricious. They murdered a German bagman up the
+coast in an <i>argan</i> forest, and the "Gefion" landed a flag-flaunting
+armed party to impress Mogador, which dropped water-pitchers on them
+from upper windows and wondered what on earth the fuss was about.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, I was well received by one of the revolted tribes,
+which had chased its lawful Kaid into Mogador until checked by old
+scrap-iron and bits of bottle-glass from the ancient cannon mounted over
+the northern gate of the town.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I was treated with far more hospitality than my absurd and rather rash
+enterprise deserved. Imagine a callow youth just out of his teens
+dropping in haphazard on a rebel tribe accompanied by a mission-taught
+Moor and a large liver-coloured pointer who had far more sense than his
+master. My tame Moor was an excellent fellow, who, beside keeping my
+tent tidy and cooking, helped me to grapple with the derived forms of
+the Arabic verb and the subtleties of Moorish etiquette. I learnt to
+drink green tea, syrup-sweet and flavoured with mint, out of ornate
+little tumblers of a size and shape usually associated with champagne,
+and, after assiduous practice, I could tackle a dish of boiled millet,
+meat, and olives with the fingers of my right hand without mishap.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond occasional brushes with adjacent sections of the neighbouring
+tribe which had declared for the Fez central Government, I had very
+little trouble, except that a peaceful boar-hunt would occasionally
+degenerate into an intertribal skirmish if I and my party got too near
+the loyalist border. As all concerned had, thanks to Western enterprise,
+discarded their picturesque flint-locks in favour of Winchester or
+Marlin repeaters, the proceedings required wary handling if we were to
+extricate ourselves successfully, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> but my long-range sporting Martini
+usually gave me the weather-gauge.</p>
+
+<p>I dressed as a Moor, and looked the part, but made no attempt to pass
+for anything but a Christian, nor did any unpopularity attach thereto; I
+was merely expected&mdash;as a natural corollary&mdash;to have a little medical
+knowledge (and it <i>was</i> a little).</p>
+
+<p>I found the attitude of Moors generally towards Christians curiously
+inconsistent. In the towns there was a certain amount of formal
+fanaticism which found vent in donkey-drivers addressing their beasts as
+"<i>Nasara</i>" to the accompaniment of whacks and yells, but public
+behaviour was tolerant enough, and the attitude of Moorish officialdom
+was almost courtly.</p>
+
+<p>Jews had rather a bad time, if local subjects, as their black slippers
+and furtive bearing outside their own quarter made them a mark for
+naughty little boys, who flung their canary-coloured slippers at them
+with curses and imprecations deserving a more direct and personal
+application of their footgear. Most of the wealthier Jews had acquired
+European or American protection, and were safe enough. They lived in the
+Frankish quarter and dressed in ultra-European style. They made rather a
+depressing spectacle on Saturdays, when, garbed in black broadcloth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+with bowler hats, they drifted through the sunlit streets on their
+Sabbath constitutional from one town gate to the next and back. They
+were keen trade competitors, and gained or lost fortunes by gambling in
+the almond export-market or catching a grain-famine at the psychological
+moment. One of them had retired to a leisured affluence on the proceeds
+that a big cargo of almonds had yielded him at a startling turn in the
+market. He was a hospitable soul who met me once entering the landward
+gate in a travel-stained burnoose and insisted on dragging me into his
+gorgeously-carpeted house to drink <i>aquardiente</i> and look at his
+"curios." These consisted chiefly of modern firearms, some of
+first-class London make, which hung on his walls as ornaments, having
+been bought haphazard without ammunition or sporting intent. I nearly
+had a fit when he showed me a double .577 Express hopelessly rusted by
+the damp sea-air and offered to lend it me if I could find "shots" for
+it. The reverse of the shield was illustrated by another acquaintance of
+mine who had made a large fortune by importing Russian wheat to Morocco
+in famine time and had lost it in a short but striking career in
+England, during which he was said to have entertained Royalty,
+astonished the racing world and married a well-known <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> actress in light
+comedy. He, too, was of hospitable intent, but had generally left his
+purse at home when the reckoning came. On the other hand, he always
+carried the "stub" of the cheque-book which had seen him to the apogee
+of his meteoric career, and a glance at its counterfoils (by his express
+invitation) was well worth the price of a drink or two.</p>
+
+<p>The local Islamic attitude toward Moorish Jews was one of contemptuous
+tolerance. They could certainly travel, in native dress, where no
+Christian could. Once, in the <i>patio</i> or go-down of a European merchant,
+I met a greasy, unkempt Jew in a tattered gaberdine watching my
+commercial friend as he weighed what I took to be a double handful of
+crude brass curtain rings such as traders used to sell by the gross
+along the West African coast. They were solid gold and represented the
+venture of a Jewish syndicate which had collected it in pinches of
+gold-dust from the river beds of southern Soos and hit on this form of
+transport. A troop of horse could never have brought it, as gold, a
+day's journey through the lawless tribes of the south, but that
+tatterdemalion Jew had done it at the price of a few contemptuous
+buffets. He had, indeed, offered one truculent gang of highwaymen a few
+of the tawdry-looking rings to let him pass, but they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> had waved such
+obvious trash aside in their eager search for actual cash, which they
+had taken to the last <i>rial</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The only other occasion on which I have known a Moor to be hoisted with
+the petard of his own contemptuous fanaticism was an experience of my
+own.</p>
+
+<p>I was moving quietly through a belt of timber just before dawn in the
+hopes of getting a shot at a boar who was in the habit of feeding till
+daybreak among some barley that grew near a caravan route. Before the
+light was quite strong enough to shoot by I was more than a little
+annoyed and astonished to hear cocks crowing all over the place;
+presuming an early caravan with poultry for market, I pushed on to the
+track, meaning to pass the time of day and ask if they had glimpsed my
+quarry or heard him. I almost ran into a town-bred Moor who was trying
+to round up some scattered poultry in the gloom and cursing volubly. He
+explained that he was riding his donkey along the track perched between
+two light reed cages containing fowls when the donkey baulked as a boar
+snorted in the thickets just off the road. He whacked the donkey and
+cursed the boar as a pig and a Christian. Thereupon came a rush like
+cavalry, the donkey was knocked from under him and he was lying amid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+the wreckage of his flimsy crates with his poultry scattered abroad. The
+boar, already angry and suspicious, as anyone but a townsman would have
+known by the noise he made, had charged like a thunderbolt at the sound
+of a human voice so close to him and galloped off with all the honours
+of war.</p>
+
+<p>The donkey was badly hurt and the man only escaped because he was
+sitting high and just above the point of impact. I helped him secure his
+poultry and started back to my village to send him another donkey. He
+thanked me in brotherly style as one Moor to another. "I'm a Christian
+myself," I remarked at parting, and added in my best beginner's Arabic
+as I turned to go, "It is incumbent on me to assist you after the
+aggression of my co-religionist."</p>
+
+<p>This conventional attitude of arrogance toward Christendom is perhaps
+traceable to Moorish predominance in the Middle Ages and the importation
+of Christian slaves by the pirates of the Barbary coast. In any case, it
+has been much toned down of late years owing to contact with capable and
+well-intentioned Franks as administrators and technical experts.</p>
+
+<p>Morocco should never become a forcing-bed of religious or racial
+antipathy, and will not so long as France continues to develop the
+country <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> by methods which the natives can assimilate, and is not lured
+into over-exploitation of her mineral resources or unwarrantable
+interference with her spiritual affairs.</p>
+
+<p>A perfectly justifiable missionary policy would be the inauguration of
+industrial schools on the coast and at one or two big inland centres,
+also medical missions (with consent of the local authorities) wherever
+feasible. Moorish craftsmanship is worth stimulating, and doctors are
+welcomed for their science. Both schemes would redound to the credit of
+Christendom and be in accordance with the best traditions of the Early
+Church.</p>
+
+<p>In the other Barbary states (Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli) a few Catholic
+missions have been established, and the North African Protestant Mission
+has an advanced post at Kairwan in Tunis. Here many routes converge, for
+Kairwan is a great centre of pilgrimage and taps the religious thought
+of all the Saharan tribes. Under such conditions, Islam gets ahead every
+time, as every caravan traveller is a potential missionary, while
+Christian missions are anchored to the spot or have to rely on native
+colporteurs, who labour under the initial disadvantage of being
+proselytes and seldom have the combination of tact and staunchness which
+evangelists require.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is in Egypt that we first find Moslem and missionary at close grips
+arrayed against each other. Cairo is a perfect cockpit of creeds.
+Christianity is represented by Catholics, Copts, Orthodox Greeks and
+Protestants, these last being subdivided into Anglicans, Presbyterians,
+Wesleyans and American Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The main
+body of Islam&mdash;some of my more fervent missionary friends allude to it
+as "the hosts of Midian"&mdash;presents a fairly solid front of orthodoxy,
+the bulk being Hanifis, Shafeis, Maliki or Hanbalis (chiefly the two
+former); but the irregular forces of Shiah are well represented among
+non-indigenous Moslems from Yamen, Persia and India, while scattered
+groups of Wahabi ascetics, Sufi mystics and esoterics of Bahaism
+skirmish on debatable ground between the opposing lines, where range
+such free-lance companies as Theosophists, Christian Scientists,
+Salvationists, etc., all with local headquarters in Cairo and propaganda
+of their own.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be supposed that all this warlike metaphor indicates actual
+strife or even severe friction, any more than "the hosts of Midian"
+represents the attitude of missionaries to Moslems here. On the
+contrary, relations are for the most part excellent, and the prevailing
+animosity is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> political, not religious, being directed against us
+British much as normal schoolboys dislike their form-master until they
+get a harsher one.</p>
+
+<p>The Catholic Church confines most of her energies to teaching her own
+people, who are very numerous and well looked after; she does not do
+much alien mission work in this part of the world. The most formidable
+band of gladiators in the Christian ranks is the American Protestant
+Mission, and next to them the Anglican C.M.S. (chiefly distinguished in
+Egypt for its medical work, which is excellent and has an
+extraordinarily wide range). The Americans are great on education and
+have done more for the English language in Cairo than any Government
+institution. I use the term "gladiators" advisedly, for their most
+trenchant work is done on their own side&mdash;they concentrate their chief
+efforts on the Copts, and make a fairly good bag of proselytes from
+them, apart from the great number to whom they teach sound ideals of
+duty as well as English and the three "R's." One of their leading
+missionaries has left it on record that no one stands more in need of
+salvation than the Copts, and as there is a Coptic Reform Society the
+Copts must think there is room for improvement too.</p>
+
+<p>It has been found in practice that to convert <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> a <i>bon&acirc;-fide</i> Moslem
+involves segregating him, and that means finding him a living in a new
+environment, otherwise he is almost bound to "revert" under local
+pressure. Apart from the strain on mission resources which such
+procedure would cause if extensively followed, most missionaries rightly
+condemn such a system as encouraging conversion for material motives.
+Therefore they adopt a policy of "peaceful penetration" against Islam,
+encouraging young men to come to them unostentatiously (I call them the
+Nicodemus-squad) in order to discuss religious questions, which is
+usually done in a temperate and intelligent manner on both sides. Even
+if they get no "forrader," it tends to toleration and a better knowledge
+of each other's language and ideals. A good deal of teaching is done too
+with no expectation of making proselytes, and solid friendships are
+formed. I have myself known a convalescing lady missionary of the C.M.S.
+to receive repeated calls of friendly inquiry from former pupils; when I
+first saw two veiled young girls swing past with a palpably British
+terrier and the crisp, vigorous step of occidental emancipation, it
+puzzled my ethnological faculties until I was told the object of their
+visit.</p>
+
+<p>All this is to the good, and it would be very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> good indeed if they let
+well alone. Unfortunately, there is another cogent factor in the mission
+field, and that is the sinews of war in hard cash. Most people, even
+those who support missions to Moslem countries, are human enough to like
+a fight put up for their money. It is not enough for them that a great
+deal of quiet, patient work is being done by missionaries among Moslems
+in the name of Christianity and the service of mankind. They want to
+hear about storming citadels of sin and campaigning against the devil in
+the dark places of the earth; especially is this so in America, where
+Moslem prejudice does not have to be considered and religious
+organisation, like most other concerns, is on a big scale.</p>
+
+<p>As a natural consequence, missionaries have to play up to this combatant
+instinct, and so we read in their books and reports remarks calculated
+to engender religious intolerance on both sides, and which do not
+conform with the shrewd and kindly work in the field of those devoted
+and often scholarly men. I shall have occasion to allude to some of
+these statements as we proceed, so think it only fair to mention their
+justification here.</p>
+
+<p>Cairo is described as a "strategic centre" in mission parlance, and so
+it is, being situated on a great waterway with rail connection far
+south <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> into the heart of Africa and converging caravan routes from every
+quarter. Along these arteries of traffic many tons of tracts and
+propaganda are hurled annually by train, felucca and colporteur. Those
+who cannot read accept such matter gladly to wrap things up in and to
+show to their literate friends, who read what resembles a bit of the
+Koran and find it carries a sting in its tail, like a scorpion, aimed at
+Islam. A great deal of this literature consists of the Psalms of David,
+the Talmud or the Gospel, all reverenced by Moslems if dished up without
+trimmings. Not wishing to impose on that hard-worked word "camouflage,"
+I would merely ask, as a naturalist, if such protective mimicry is worth
+the irritation it causes. In any case, the system reminds me of an old
+Highlander's opening comment on a sword dance by a rock scorpion in a
+Tangier saloon. "There is a sairtain elegance aboot yourr grace-steps,
+but <i>get in between the swords</i>."</p>
+
+<p>No vicarious efforts by propaganda will ever take the place of personal
+precept and example. In hunting proselytes among the followers of Islam
+it is not advisable to rely too much on the Scriptures, as Moslems doubt
+the authenticity of our version and point to our own divergent copies in
+proof thereof. Nor is it any use asking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> them to believe as an act of
+faith; if they did they would need no proselytising: an appeal must be
+made to their reason, and there is no better appeal than the life,
+works, and conduct of one who professes and practises Christianity. Even
+if he makes no single convert he has leavened the population around him
+with the dignity and prestige of his creed which has produced such a
+type. Unfortunately such results cannot be scheduled in mission reports,
+though they are real enough and well worth living for, whether a man be
+a missionary or not; only they cannot be produced by brilliant
+wide-sweeping feats of organisation and enterprise, but by persevering,
+consistent lives, which are not easy or spectacular.</p>
+
+<p>Egypt should be a great field of religious warfare by personal
+influence, as Christians and Moslems live side by side in daily contact
+and reasonable accord, yet few of us take advantage of the fact to
+uphold the prestige of our creed or even of our race. We Europeans are
+busy with our multifarious interests and duties, while Egyptian Moslems
+are either entangled in the web of their environment, as are the
+<i>fellahin</i>, or eager snatchers at the gifts of civilisation, as are the
+more or less cultured effendis, or mere hair-splitters in futile
+religious controversy, as are too many of the <i>ulema</i> or sages at the
+great collegiate mosque of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> al-Azhar. In each case, spiritual matters
+are apt to get crowded out. The fault lies chiefly with our cosmopolitan
+ingredients, which engender feverish living, if not actual vice, and the
+over-strained effort on the one side to impart and on the other side to
+assimilate a Western system of education which has induced intellectual
+dyspepsia. So we hear of students mugging parrot-like to pass
+half-yearly examinations, in the hopes of getting Government
+appointments for which there are far too many applicants; these young
+men besiege the Press with complaints of unfair treatment if they fail,
+or even go to the length of attempting suicide with carbolic acid
+(fortunately with sufficient caution to ensure it usually being but an
+attempt); this latter petulant protest at the temporary thwarting of
+their material hopes is dead against all the teaching and tradition of
+Islam, but it has become so frequent that a leading educational
+authority suggests that no student who attempts suicide shall be allowed
+to sit again for a Government examination. Among their seniors up at
+al-Azhar are men of real learning and remarkably persevering scholarship
+(their theological course makes the average brain reel to contemplate),
+but some sheikh started a controversy as to whether Adam was a prophet
+or not, which fell among those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> sages with the disrupting force of a
+grenade, causing much litigation in the Islamic courts and culminating
+in the divorce of the originator by his wife for <i>kufr</i>, or heresy as
+ordained by Moslem law. Beneath these troubled waters the <i>fellah's</i>
+life flows placidly, bounded on the one hand by his crops and on the
+other by the market; his spiritual stimulus being supplied by an
+occasional religious fair or a visit to the shrine of some local saint.
+He toils as patiently as his water-wheel buffalo, and on that toil
+depends the wealth of Egypt which supports saints and sinners, schools
+and shops, with all our European schemes and enterprises thrown in.</p>
+
+<p>As for us British, if our object is to enhance the prestige of our race
+or creed, we fall very short of achievement. We have not even that
+reputation for integrity which usually attaches to us in other parts of
+the Moslem world. This may be partly due to our anomalous position in
+the country, which was thrust upon us, but the pleasure-seeking tourist
+of pre-War days has a lot to answer for. Some of them seemed to think
+that so far from home their conduct was of no account (at least, that is
+the only charitable explanation), and British personal prestige suffered
+in consequence. Anglo-Egyptian officials, especially the subordinate
+grades, which come into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> more direct contact with the people, tried to
+counteract this by increased dignity of demeanour, but the natives now
+knew them <i>en d&eacute;shabill&eacute;</i>, or thought they did, and declined to keep
+them on their pedestals. The result is, familiarity without intimacy and
+detachment without dignity, while the pre-War official habit of going
+Home every year for some months has prevented even subordinates from
+studying their district or department consecutively.</p>
+
+<p>Hence it is that a widespread Nationalist movement gathered force and
+perfected its plans for a detailed campaign which blended peaceful
+demonstration with sabotage, murder and violence, and took the
+Anglo-Egyptian Government completely by surprise, paralysing
+communications and intimidating the general public until the weight of
+Imperial troops, luckily still quartered in the country, was allowed to
+make itself felt and restored order.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the time or the place to discuss these affairs, which are
+still <i>sub judice</i>, but one salient feature of the movement is pertinent
+to our subject, and that is the marked <i>rapprochement</i> between Moslems
+and Copts, who fraternised in each other's mosques and churches, carried
+flags bearing the device of Cross and Crescent and used American mission
+buildings to further <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> their new-found brotherhood. These relations were
+somewhat marred by the wholesale devastation of Coptic property
+up-country, but the Copts took it very well and paraded the streets with
+their Moslem friends, if they could not hide away from them. The local
+Jew came in too, and the climax of this religious <i>entente</i> was reached
+when an Egyptian Jewess preached in the mosque of al-Azhar on the
+ancient relations between Jews and Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>But we must not merely consider Egypt as a sort of religious and racial
+clearing house; it is also the main gate of Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Southward, up the Nile valley and across grim deserts, lies Khartoum,
+the capital of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, only four days from Cairo by
+rail. This is a very tempting theatre for missionary enterprise, which
+is, however, held in check by the authorities, who decline to have their
+Sudan spiritually exploited and materially disturbed by futile efforts
+to evangelise the country. Missionaries say that this part of the Sudan,
+as well as Egypt, was once Christian; that discrimination is being shown
+in favour of Islam even to the extent of making pagans become Moslem on
+joining the Egyptian Army; that Gordon College is being run on
+non-Christian lines and that Islam is getting ahead of them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> in the race
+to convert pagans in this part of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The case against them is that the fact of these regions being once
+Christian and now Moslem shows, if anything, that the latter religion is
+more suited to local requirements and conditions; Islam is naturally
+favoured in a Moslem country, though many Christian missions have been
+given facilities too, and have mostly failed owing to climatic
+conditions: the Egyptian Army is Moslem and under a Moslem Government;
+the conversion of pagan recruits to Islam is encouraged for the sake of
+discipline and soldierly conduct; missionaries themselves admit that
+even in civil life a Christian convert from Islam must be segregated or
+he will lapse under surrounding pressure&mdash;perhaps they will explain how
+that is to be done in a barrack-room or native infantry lines, or would
+they prefer such recruits to remain pagan? Presumably they would, as one
+of their complaints is that "it is a thousand times harder to convert a
+Moslem to Christianity than a pagan." Comment is superfluous; nothing
+could portray their attitude more clearly. As for Islam getting ahead of
+them in the race for pagan souls, it is so and will be so always among
+the black races unless Christian missions are bolstered up by all the
+resources of local <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> authority; the reason is that Islam offers equal
+privileges and no colour-line, imposes easy spiritual obligations and is
+propagated fervently by its followers without the encumbrance of an
+organised priesthood. Just as commercial travellers consider a district
+neglected where a rival firm has got ahead of them, so missionaries are
+piqued at conditions in the Sudan; but even that does not excuse such
+statements as that women in the Sudan are free and not badly treated as
+pagans, but slaves and oppressed under Islam. Every student of the
+Islamic code knows that the status of women has been enormously improved
+thereby as compared with any pagan system. Missionaries must know this,
+for they are much better educated about Islam than they were a quarter
+of a century ago, yet they do not scruple to raise the partisan cry of a
+debased womanhood under Islam wherever local conditions involve domestic
+hardship. Such tactics are unworthy of them; an intellectual Moslem does
+not reproach Christianity because he has visited districts in the poorer
+quarters of our big towns and seen women lead lives of drudgery or being
+sometimes knocked about by their husbands.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the Sudan and Nigeria we must keep to the eastern side of Africa
+in order to maintain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> touch with Islam. The negroid people of Italian
+Erythrea are Moslems, as are also the Somalis; but their racial cousins,
+the Abyssinians, are Christians of the Ethiopian Church, with the Negus
+as their temporal and spiritual ruler, who claims descent from King
+Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.</p>
+
+<p>Abyssinia has been Christian ever since the fourth century, but the
+missionaries are not happy about the country at all. Here nothing
+impedes the entrance of the missionary as an individual, but the people
+will not have him as an evangelist at any price. The "fanatical and
+debased" priests of the Abyssinian Church and the drastic punishments
+inflicted by the local authorities on those suspected of favouring other
+forms of Christianity are described as grave hindrances. There is a
+large population of "black Jews," who will have no dealings with
+Christianity in any form. Meanwhile Islam gains ground steadily,
+especially in the south along the trade routes. A German missionary,
+writing from Strasburg in 1910, describes the situation as alarming,
+because "whole tribes of Abyssinians who still bear Christian names have
+become Muhammedans in the last twenty years." There is one Protestant
+mission up at Addis Abeba, but it confines its attentions to the
+semi-pagan <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> Gallas, having given up Christian Abyssinia as a bad job.</p>
+
+<p>Somaliland is a poor field for missionary enterprise, owing to the
+sparse, semi-nomadic population and the difficulties of getting about.
+In the French sphere there is connection by rail between Jibuti on the
+coast and Dera Dowa near the Abyssinian border; travelling musicians of
+the <i>caf&eacute; chantant</i> type used to use it a good deal before the War, but
+there was not much doing in the missionary line. Italian Somaliland,
+east of the British sphere to Cape Guardafui, is left to look after
+itself, except for the occasional visit of an Italian man-of-war; but
+south of that great headland there are Italian settlements.</p>
+
+<p>In British Somaliland missionary enterprise has hitherto been Catholic,
+and even that ceased some years before the War when the authorities had
+to tell the mission that it must leave, as they could no longer protect
+it from the Mullah's people. It was a pity, as the mission was doing
+good work and was much respected in the country. There was a Brotherhood
+which taught and doctored, and a teaching Sisterhood. They were
+Franciscans and had their local headquarters and a tastefully designed
+little chapel in the native town of Berbera, but the Brothers had also
+an agricultural settlement up-country, where <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> they tilled the soil and
+did their best to teach the natives to do so too. The Somali is much
+easier to convert than the Arab, as his versatile and superficial
+temperament induces him to imitate, if not to assimilate, alien forms
+and ceremonies from the correct procedure at the "Angelus" to the
+singing, with appropriate gestures, of "a bicycle made for two."
+Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to teach him to think, or to do a
+day's honest work; he will pull a punkah while you are awake to keep him
+at it, or row a boat if allowed to sing, and sometimes he will fish if
+hungry and quite near the sea; but agriculture involves the hard work of
+digging, and that is too much for him. The object of the mission was to
+give Somali boys and girls the rudiments of Catholic Christianity and
+habits of industry. The boys were well grounded in English and the three
+"R's" in their simplest form, while the girls were taught chiefly sewing
+and cooking. The idea was for boys and girls to marry each other in the
+fulness of time and beget Christian children, but, as one of the good
+Fathers used regretfully to say, it did not work out in practice. The
+boys learnt enough to become interpreters or obtain small clerkships in
+the post and telegraph offices of Aden and adjacent ports, whereupon
+they felt marriage with a "black woman" to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> derogatory, and looked
+higher, to the less swarthy charms of some half-caste maiden met at Mass
+(for they usually remained Catholic, at least in outward form). The
+girls, on the other hand, with all their domestic training, were much
+sought after by local chiefs, who were prepared to give them a good
+allowance in beads, bangles and cloth, plenty of food and a fairly easy
+life. In such surroundings they naturally readopted Islam.</p>
+
+<p>Somaliland is not as barren as most people suppose. Of course the
+littoral plain is comparatively sterile, as is the case on the Arabian
+side, owing to the scanty rainfall, and the maritime scarp of the hills
+that back it is not much better, but the country improves as you go
+inland; there is good grazing on the intra-montane plateau, and the
+watersheds of such massifs as Wagr, Sheikh and Golis (7,000 ft. or so)
+are thickly wooded, chiefly with the gigantic cactus tree, which
+averages forty feet; timber trees are scarce, being mostly tall
+<i>Conifer&aelig;</i> in sheltered glens at the higher altitudes. Inland of these
+ranges the ground slopes gradually toward the almost waterless Haud&mdash;a
+vast plateau sparsely covered with tall mimosa bush or actual trees
+attaining some thirty feet in height and striking deep to subterranean
+moisture, which keeps them remarkably fresh and green. Giraffe feed
+eagerly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> on the tender upper foliage and herds of camel graze there too,
+going six months without water, for there is no known supply locally
+except in the occasional mud-pans or <i>ballis</i> after a rainburst, which
+may happen once a year. These camels are kept for meat and milk only,
+and are no use for transport, as they are too "soft" to carry a sack of
+flour. They are rounded up and brought in to wells twice a year, where
+they water for a week or so. Herdsmen moving with them live on their
+milk, which is most sustaining. They must be watered after a maximum
+interval of half a year, or they get "poor" and will not put on flesh.
+Needless to say, no transport camel could be treated like that. A
+caravan camel can go five days without water, but that is about his
+limit while working, and he should be allowed to rest and graze for some
+days afterwards if he is to regain working condition. The giraffe, as
+also antelope of various kinds, can support life without water at all,
+though they trek greedily to the <i>ballis</i> after rain. Here lion lie in
+wait for them occasionally, and it is a frequent subject of discussion
+among naturalists and sportsmen how such heavy, thirsty animals can
+subsist in the Haud. The most probable supposition is that they only
+enter this region with the rains and trek from one <i>balli</i> to another. I
+have met a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> lioness a long way out of lion country presumably trekking
+from one water-hole to the next. What is still more remarkable is that
+heavy game sometimes will do so too. Heavy firing was once heard far
+south of Burao, and a mounted force pushed out thinking it was the
+Mullah's people going for our "friendlies" out grazing. A rhinoceros on
+trek for water and nearly mad with thirst had winded the waterskins in a
+Somali grazing camp and charged through the zareba to get at them. He
+was mobbed to death by the herdsmen with the rifles which a benevolent
+Government had given them for protection against the dervishes.</p>
+
+<p>To do them justice, the Somalis fear their fauna very little and have
+more than once, when in attendance on a European sportsman, driven off a
+lion with spears and a resolute front after the white man had failed to
+stop the beast with both barrels.</p>
+
+<p>Even a woman will face a leopard with a torch of dry grass to contest
+the ownership of a fat-tailed sheep which he has tried to filch from the
+zareba by night, fearing his snarling menace far less than the wrath of
+her lord and master if the marauder secures his prey.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Midgan, that born hunter and nomadic outcast whom other
+Somalis look down upon, but who has more woodcraft in his touzled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> head
+than any of them, he will deliberately hunt the king of beasts, using
+some decrepit and almost valueless camel as a stalking-horse. He is
+armed with a bow having about as much apparent "give" in it as the
+bottom joint of a fishing rod, yet able to propel with surprising force
+a stumpy arrow cunningly poisoned with a wizard brew of viper venom and
+the root of the tall box tree. His procedure is to drive his camel
+slowly grazing toward some island of bush in which he has marked down a
+lion, he himself being perched a-straddle behind the hump and directing
+the animal's movements with kicks from one or other of his bare heels.
+From his lofty observation point he at once spots the crouching approach
+of the lion and slips off over the camel's rump to cover, whence he
+speeds one of his venomous little shafts at close range. The outraged
+monarch attacks the camel and the hunter keeps well aloof from the
+subsequent confusion until the poison works and the lion is seized with
+muscular convulsions, like those of tetanus, when he may safely approach
+to gloat over his quarry. What is really remarkable is that the camel is
+not invariably killed. I once met a Midgan on trek who showed me the
+unmistakable claw-marks of a lion on his camel's neck and shoulders and
+said he had used the animal on three such occasions; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> compared with
+these desperate encounters the exploits of our white shikaris armed with
+powerful modern rifles are insignificant.</p>
+
+<p>One beast of prey, however, is feared and hated by every Somali man,
+woman or child&mdash;hunter, shepherd or townsman&mdash;and that is the great,
+spotted hy&aelig;na which slinks up by night to snap at face or breast of
+sleeping folk and bolts into the gloom at the agonised shriek of his
+mangled victim. The brute is cowardly enough to refuse encounter with an
+able-bodied man awake and on the alert unless rendered desperate by
+hunger, but his jaws are as strong as a lion's, and one snapping bite
+does the mischief. I once helped the P.M.O. at Berbera to tend some
+half-dozen poor wretches who had been frightfully mauled during the
+night on the outskirts of the town itself and probably by the same
+hy&aelig;na. The hot weather had induced many folk to sleep outside their
+stifling huts and they <i>will</i> not take the trouble to collect and build
+up a few thorny bushes to keep the brutes off.</p>
+
+<p>The Somali is about as incapable of hard work as his "fat" camel, and
+the only time he may be seen digging is among the convict gangs who
+till, or used to till, the Government garden out at Dubar on the inland
+edge of the littoral plain, where the Berbera water supply bubbles out
+hot <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> from under the low maritime hills and trickles through ten miles of
+surface pipe-line to supply the "Fort," which is supposed to protect the
+British cantonment straggling some distance outside Berbera town. He
+feels such work dreadfully, not only as an injury to his self-respect
+(and he has all the puerile pride of the negroid races), but as an
+irksome tax on his physical powers, which are quite unaccustomed to
+sustained and strenuous exertion. On the other hand, he will make long
+journeys on short commons and keep well and happy if allowed to
+punctuate his hardships at long intervals with debauches on meat and
+milk and fat. He excuses himself from tilling the ground on the plea
+that others might harvest the fruit of his labours, as there is no
+individual land-tenure or any definite divisions of land indicating
+ownership, but only tribal grazing rights over ill-defined areas and the
+parcel of land enclosed by his zareba fence, of which he is but the
+tenant, as it is free to anybody as soon as he leaves it to trek to
+other pastures. Therefore, vegetables are unattainable by him, and his
+cereals (rice, millet and coarse flour) reach him by sea and caravan or
+he does without. He appears immune from scurvy and is seldom sick or
+sorry unless he over-eats himself. He loves <i>ghi</i> (or clarified <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> butter)
+and animal fat, which he swallows in large gulps when he can get it,
+also rubbing it in his frizzy hair and using it to sleek his black,
+spindly shanks and smear his spear-blades&mdash;on shikar he will "gorm" it
+all over your spare gun if you do not watch him. His favourite beverage
+is strong tea with lots of sugar in it (when procurable) otherwise he
+will not touch it, and he will drink water which a thirsty camel would
+sniff at suspiciously before imbibing. He dresses in a white sheet worn
+toga-wise and not without a certain dignity, and his head is usually
+bare except in towns or the partially civilised <i>entourage</i> of a white
+man, where he will wear anything on his head from a tarboosh to a topi
+as a mark of distinction, but seems to avoid a turban, which he has not
+the knack of tying properly.</p>
+
+<p>To meet him and his family on trek is to glimpse an epitome of his life.
+First comes the able-bodied though elderly sire carrying a few light
+throwing-spears and a knobkerry or a gim-crack stabbing-spear, and close
+behind him are the adult males of his house similarly armed or with a
+rifle or two supplied by a benevolent Government for protection against
+the Mullah, to whom these children of nature frequently offer them for
+sale at very reasonable prices. After these come the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> women-folk in
+order of precedence, carrying loads in inverse ratio thereto. The young,
+favourite wife walks first, carrying her latest addition to the family
+in a cotton shawl at her hip; she is followed by other wives of less
+social standing, carrying household utensils, with the smaller children
+at foot, and at the tail of the procession stagger the old crones under
+heavy burdens of pots, pans, pitchers and unsavoury goat-hair rugs. A
+camel or two bring up the rear with the conglomeration of sticks and
+hides and matting which makes the home and looks like an untidy bird's
+nest. On the flanks and in the rear skirmish the elder children, girls
+and boys, with flocks and herds which graze as they go. The big piebald
+sheep with their black heads and indecently fat tails are not allowed to
+range far afield, where lynx or leopard might stalk them under covert,
+as they are valuable, succulent and very foolish. They carry no
+wool&mdash;their coat feels just like a fox-terrier's&mdash;but they have more
+meat on them than three average goats, and the huge pendulous flap of
+fat which does duty as a tail is a delicacy to make a Somali mouth water
+or a European gorge rise.</p>
+
+<p>The only serious occupation a buck Somali will permit himself is to sit
+under a tree and watch his grazing flocks. He is fond of conversation, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+chiefly of a recriminative character, and gives vent to his <i>joie de
+vivre</i> by prancing and singing on two or three simple notes to the
+accompaniment of his clapping hands and the thud of his horny heels. His
+chief woe is drought and lack of grazing, because he then has to get up
+off his butt-end and take long treks to pastures new. His ideas of
+earthly Paradise centre round the <i>caf&eacute;s</i> of Aden, where his countrymen
+are numerous and where wages are so high that six grown Somalis can
+batten in well-fed ease on the earnings of a seventh, who keeps on till
+he wants a holiday and then "goes sick" and sends another of the
+syndicate to replace him. Qualifications do not matter, as they all have
+sufficient to fumble through their jobs and no more. If he lacks the
+capital to start cab-driving and finds boat-rowing or punkah-pulling too
+strenuous for him, he sets himself to learn a little English and gets a
+job as servant with some new-fledged British subaltern at a minimum rate
+of &pound;2 a month, which is fixed by his union, for that is one civilised
+device he really <i>can</i> handle. He is the slackest oarsman, the laziest
+punkawala and the worst whip east of Suez. His idea of driving is to sit
+with knees drawn up toward his chin while he lugs at the reins as if
+they were a punkah-cord, urging his staunch little screw along with
+in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>effectual flaps of his whip and noises like the paroxysms of sea
+sickness.</p>
+
+<p>He will ruin any saddle-camel for fast work if allowed to ride one
+regularly, such animals not being raised in his country, but he breeds a
+small, hardy type of pony which he loves to gallop in wild dashes, with
+flapping legs and sawing hands, reining the poor little beast up short
+on a bit like a rat-trap to witch beholders with his horsemanship.</p>
+
+<p>As a combatant you never know how to take him. He may put up a hefty
+fight or he may outrun the antelope in his precipitate retreat. I was
+much impressed by the defences in barbed wire and thorn trees considered
+necessary to ward off the onslaught of dervishes by men who knew them
+better than I did.</p>
+
+<p>He is a cheery, irresponsible soul and has been called the Irishman of
+the East. Missionaries rather like him, because he is very teachable up
+to a certain point, fond of learning new tricks if not too difficult,
+and without that habit of logical and consecutive thought which makes
+the real Arab so difficult to tackle in argument.</p>
+
+<p>No remarks on Somaliland would be complete without some mention of the
+Mullah. That astute personage has often been alluded to as "Mad," but
+has proved himself far saner than the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> Government he was up against. In
+the early 'nineties he kept the Arabi Pasha coffee-house opposite the
+cab-stand in the native town at Aden, where he dispensed tea and
+husk-coffee in little bowls of green-glazed earthenware, also
+raspberryade and other bright-coloured "minerals" in bottles, with a
+small lump of ice thrown in. His establishment was patronised almost
+entirely by Somalis and largely by the <i>ghari-walas</i> themselves. At the
+same time, he was obliging enough to spare the servant of a neighbouring
+sahib like myself a pound or two of ice from his "cold box" on
+occasional application to meet an emergency.</p>
+
+<p>He had a good deal of property in flocks and herds over in British
+Somaliland, which he visited from time to time. In the late 'nineties he
+got involved in some suit or other and the local authorities mulcted him
+of many camels. He very much resented this decision and raised some
+friends and sympathisers to resist its execution by the police. An
+inadequate force was sent and sustained a reverse, after which his
+following grew enormously. Early in this century, when I again had news
+of him, he had craftily cut in between the Italian, Abyssinian and
+British converging columns and annihilated Colonel Plunkett's gallant
+little band at Gumburu, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> sustained a severe defeat at Jidballi,
+where his red flannel dressing-gown was sighted in early and headlong
+retirement as his dervishes recoiled from the embattled square.</p>
+
+<p>All the same, he was still going strong long after the South African War
+was over, and we had more leisure to attend to him. When the British
+frontier was drawn in to enable the statement to be made in Parliament
+that "the Mullah's troops were no longer within protectorate limits," he
+took advantage of it to deal ruthlessly with those tribes which had
+refused to join him on the solemn and definite promise that Government
+would protect them from his vengeance. The unhappy Dolbahuntas were
+almost wiped out as a tribal unit; their zarebas and flimsy villages
+were surrounded by the Mullah's men and fired, leaving the
+occupants&mdash;men, women and children&mdash;the choice of a dreadful end among
+blazing thorns or red death on the spears of their fellow-countrymen and
+co-religionists. A prominent Nationalist has alluded to the Mullah and
+his dervishes as "brave men striving to be free."</p>
+
+<p>In 1910 British prestige had shed its last rag in Somaliland: we had
+withdrawn to the coast and the Mullah's horsemen actually rode through
+Berbera bazar on one of their raids and withdrew <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> unscathed. In 1912 it
+was found necessary to form a company of Somali police on camels to keep
+the peace between "friendlies" who, to allay a certain amount of
+indignation at home, had been armed with rifles to protect themselves
+against the Mullah's people, but were using these weapons, in their
+light-hearted way, to argue questions of grazing as they arose. Early in
+1913 "a small dervish outpost" was reported to be preventing our
+friendlies from grazing in the Ain valley south of Burao at a time when
+no other pasturage was locally available, and the Somali camel-corps,
+about a hundred strong with three white officers, was sent to occupy
+Burao as its base and from there to afford moral and material support
+enabling the friendlies to graze unmolested in the threatened area. This
+cheery opportunism was the Government's wobbling attempt at equilibrium
+between the barefaced desertion of our protected tribes and its avowed
+policy of non-intervention unless on the cheap. It was done too much on
+the cheap; that little force was attacked by an overwhelming force of
+dervishes while out on the grazing grounds affording moral and material
+support. The Maxim was put out of action by an unlucky bullet, and the
+friendlies skedaddled with their Government rifles at the first shot,
+but returned later to loot the dead. The half-trained Somali camelry
+suffered severely and were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> most unsteady, but the two white officers
+surviving managed to extricate the remnant with difficulty, the gallant
+commandant having died for his trust early in the fight. He was blamed
+posthumously for having exceeded his orders; whether he ought to have
+exercised his moral and material support at a safe distance from the
+place where it was needed or have led his command in headlong flight was
+not made clear, and they were the only two military alternatives to the
+action he <i>did</i> take. At all events the incident shamed the Government
+into taking more adequate measures to protect its friendlies in spite of
+bitter Nationalist opposition.</p>
+
+<p>Missionaries point to our long and fruitless struggle in Somaliland as
+an illustration of the force of fanaticism. It is nothing of the sort;
+the Mullah was a man with a grievance who was driven into outlawry by
+the sequence of events, and the movement was entirely political. Having
+once tasted the sweets of temporal power, he wanted to expand it, and
+used his spiritual and material influence to that end, not hesitating to
+order the wholesale massacre of other equally orthodox Moslems when it
+seemed to him politically expedient. He owed his success to his ruthless
+treatment of his compatriots, the difficult and scantily watered
+terrain, our lack of co-ordination with the Italians and Abyssinians, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+but above all to our parsimonious method of cadging and scraping a
+little money together for an expedition and stopping when the funds gave
+out, like a small boy with fireworks. Somaliland, with its insignificant
+caravan trade, its wide, waterless tracts and its sparse population of
+shiftless, unproductive semi-nomads, is a bad business proposition, and
+no Government can be blamed for hesitating to spend money on it; but if
+half the expenditure had been concentrated on one scheme at one time
+instead of being frittered away on several divergent schemes over a
+lengthy period the Mullah would have been brought to book and the
+resources of the country developed considerably.</p>
+
+<p>South of Somaliland in British, and what was once German, East Africa
+the missionary has comparative freedom of movement, whereas in
+Somaliland no white man has ever been allowed to travel without the
+sanction of the local authorities. He, however, complains that he is not
+encouraged by the Administration in either colony, and certainly makes
+no headway against Islam, which has a very strong hold, especially in
+British East Africa, with the Swahilis. Still, he can point to the
+inland kingdom of Uganda as one of his successes, and it would be more
+so if the various Christian sects would refrain from wrangling among
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We have now reached the southern limit of Moslem activity in Africa, for
+we are getting among native races who do not take kindly to asceticism
+in any form, and beyond them are the sturdy white Christians of South
+Africa. Curiously enough, there is a flourishing little colony of
+Moslems at Salt River, the railway suburb of Cape Town, where imported
+East Indian and Arab mechanics have settled. They muster about 7,000
+souls and have founded a school to educate their children. An unbiassed
+English resident states that they are far better citizens than native
+Christians of the same class, owing to their temperate habits. Drink is
+the undoubted curse of the non-Moslem African. In South Africa no native
+in white employ can get alcoholic drink without the written authority of
+his employer, but there are many illicit sources of supply. South
+African colonists insist that the native Christians are the worst&mdash;this
+should not be set down to Christianity, but to the civilisation which
+goes with it, and, in place of Kaffir beer and such like home-fermented
+brews of comparatively mild exhilarant character, introduces the
+undisciplined native mind to the furious joys of trade fire-water.</p>
+
+<p>Africa is the main battle-ground between Moslem and missionary, for it
+is in that continent that the forces of Islam and Christianity are most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+nearly balanced. The American Protestant Mission, which is, as we have
+seen, one of the principal belligerents, complains loudly on behalf of
+Christendom that in Africa especially our colonial administrations do
+not give the support to Christian missions that Christian Governments
+should.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from the fact that we administer these countries in trust for
+their indigenous population and have no right to thrust our own creed
+upon them to the exclusion of any other with a sound system of ethics,
+it can most cogently be urged that Islam is the only religion which
+insists on total abstinence, and that seems to be the only way in which
+the native African can avoid alcoholic excess.</p>
+
+<p>I have in front of me a letter written by an American of Boston, Mass.,
+to the <i>Spectator</i> of February 15th, 1919. In it he alludes to a report
+of the Committee for preventing the demoralisation of native races by
+the liquor traffic which is said to be "making Africa a cesspool of
+alcohol, and statistics show that in this devil's work Holland with her
+gin and, I regret to say, the United States with its trade rum have been
+the conspicuously worst offenders." The writer goes on to say that the
+native races are morally and intellectually children, and that has been
+recognised in the States where it is a penal offence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> to introduce
+alcoholic drink within the Indian reservations.</p>
+
+<p>This being so, the attitude of American Protestants in attacking the
+only teetotal creed which is working among natives in a continent where
+total abstinence is unanimously declared to be essential to native
+welfare indicates loose thinking. It is still more extraordinary when we
+remember that the teetotal party in the United States have moved heaven
+and earth and every device, legitimate or otherwise, to secure national
+prohibition, about which, to put it mildly, there appear to be two
+opinions among American citizens. We are told that the South adopted
+prohibition as a measure of protection against the negro. Apart from the
+safety of white colonists in Africa, is the welfare of African negroes
+beneath the consideration of a free-born American? If so, why does he
+(or she) subscribe so liberally to support missions in Africa? Such an
+attitude is incongruous, even if we adopt the preposterous view that
+Christianity alone can make a sober man of a negro. Imagine a
+municipality which allowed a gang of hooligans to scatter incendiary
+bombs broadcast and encouraged its inadequate fire brigade to fight a
+rival organisation tooth and nail. Its avowed intention of prohibiting
+the use of matches on its own premises would not be considered a
+satisfactory <i>amende</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I lay no more stress on American Protestant activities against Islam
+than is their due. There may be some opinions among Europeans that their
+evangelising fervour might find a mission field nearer home in South
+America or even in Mexico. Such a criticism is not only ungrateful but
+unreasonable. American missions have done much for humanity in the East,
+while as regards their own sub-continent the Catholic Church has held
+that field for centuries, and no reasonable being wants to see the two
+great divisions of Christianity sparring with each other about the
+spiritual education of greasers.</p>
+
+<p>The Monroe Doctrine does not apply to missionaries, but I would point
+out to them that in wrestling against Islam they are fanning the fires
+of fanaticism and causing much material trouble, and the net spiritual
+result is to lessen their own power for good and embitter Islam for ill
+while widening the breach between Christian and Moslem.</p>
+
+<p>This chapter is an attempt to give an impartial glimpse at the relations
+between Moslem and missionary throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. With
+regard to their activities, it is neither a detailed account nor an
+apology. No sincere religious effort requires an apology, and if it is
+not sincere no apology suffices.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="ft">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> The definite article precedes most Arabic place-names,
+but is only retained in ordinary local speech as above, presumably
+to denote respect. I hold to native pronunciation, except in cases
+of long-established custom, and consider "the Yamen" as clumsy as
+"the Egypt"&mdash;both take the definite article in Arabian script.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER V<br /><br />
+<span class="smaller">A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE</span></h2>
+
+<p>The world just now appears to be awaiting a millennium resulting from a
+concourse of more or less brilliant and assertive folk with divergent
+views. Presuming that the necessary change in human nature will be
+wrought by enactment, we have still to acquire more religious tolerance
+if we are to live together in unity with our Moslem fellow-subjects and
+neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>What is the use of talking about a League of Nations and the
+self-decision of small States if we still seek to impose our religious
+views on people who do not want them and encroach on the borders of
+other creeds? Are other people's spiritual affairs of no account, or do
+we arrogate to ourselves a monopoly of such matters? Both positions are
+untenable.</p>
+
+<p>The justification of missionary enterprise is based on Christ's last
+charge to His disciples: "Go ye into all the world and preach the
+gospel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> to every creature." He clearly defined that gospel as "the
+tidings of the kingdom," and what that kingdom was He has repeatedly
+told us in the Sermon on the Mount, frequent conversations with His
+disciples and others and the example of His daily life. He never sought
+to change a man's religious belief (such as it was) or his method of
+livelihood (however questionable it might be), but to reform him within
+the limits of his convictions and his duties. He has also left on record
+an indictment of proselytisers that will endure for all time. Of course,
+if the Gospel narrative is unreliable throughout (as the reverend and
+scholarly compiler of the "Encyclopedia Biblica" would appear to imply)
+then these arguments fall to the ground, but so does any possible
+justification of missionary enterprise. On the other hand, Moslems <i>do</i>
+believe and reverence the <i>Eng&icirc;l</i> or Gospel, though they follow the
+doctrine and dogma of a later revelation.</p>
+
+<p>The logical deduction from these facts is that moral training, education
+and charitable works among Moslems are permissible and justifiable
+features of missionary endeavour, if not forced upon an unwilling
+population, but attacks on Islam itself are not only unmerited but
+unauthorised and impertinent.</p>
+
+<p>Many missionaries of undoubted scholarship <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> and breadth of view see this
+and model their field work accordingly, with good results; in fact, most
+real success in the mission field has been achieved by practical,
+Christian work on the above lines, and not by religious propaganda; but
+the flag which missionary societies flaunt before a subscribing
+Christian public is quite a different banner, as can be easily
+ascertained from their own published literature, which is very prolific
+and accessible to all.</p>
+
+<p>In writing about Islam the authors or compilers of these works too
+frequently allow their zeal to involve them in a web of inconsistency
+and misstatement, or else they let their religious terminology take
+liberties with their intellect and that of the public.</p>
+
+<p>We will glance briefly at their indictment of Islam as presented in
+their quasi-geographical works, disregarding their public utterances and
+tracts as privileged, like the platform-speeches and vote-catching
+pamphlets of a General Election; also we will keep to their own
+terminology and expressions as far as possible.</p>
+
+<p>First and foremost, especially in the United States, where knowledge of
+non-Christian creeds is not so general as with us, the literature of
+foreign missions insists on grouping together all regions as yet
+unexploited by them (whether <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> populated by heathen, Moslems, Buddhists
+or any other non-Christian race) and describing them indiscriminately as
+Gibraltars of Satan's power, a challenge to Christendom and a reproach
+to Zion (whatever that may mean). Yet the four great Christian
+Churches&mdash;Greek, Russian, Catholic and Protestant&mdash;seem powerless to
+check the reign of hell in Bolshevist Europe, where the liberty of man
+is demonstrated by murder, rapine, torture and every fiendish orgy or
+bestial lust which mortal mind can conceive. The people among whom these
+devilries are being enacted are Christians ruled by Christians, and have
+been Christian for centuries. They are still Christian so far as a
+blood-besotted clique will let them be anything. And in the face of such
+facts there are missionaries who enunciate in cold print that without
+Christianity there could be no charitable or humane organisation of any
+sort, or good government, or security of property, and&mdash;clinching
+argument&mdash;trade would suffer. Could there be any more glaring example of
+the cart before the horse? Does a dog wag his tail or the tail wag the
+dog? Is Japan hopelessly benighted and devoid of the activities
+described as the monopoly of Christianity? Moreover: Can Christian
+teaching or preaching pacify the embittered struggle between labour and
+capital <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> which threatens yet to wreck civilisation? Does it even try?</p>
+
+<p>There is no more ridiculous or extravagant boast among a certain class
+of self-appointed evangelists than the oft-repeated statement that all
+the modern blessings of Western civilisation are the fruit of
+Christianity and that the backward state of oriental Moslems is due to
+the absence of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>Any thoughtful schoolboy knows that it was the exploitation of coal and
+iron which lifted us Western nations out of the ruck, backed by the
+natural hardihood due to a bracing climate, otherwise the Mediterranean
+might still be harried by corsairs. Steam transport by land and sea was
+the direct offspring of these two minerals. Even then Western supremacy
+was gradual and only recently completed by the exploitation of
+petroleum, rubber and high explosives. Brown Bess, as a shooting weapon,
+was far inferior to the long-barrelled flint-lock of Morocco, and the
+Arabian match-lock could out-range any firearm in existence till sharp
+cutting tools made the rifle possible. What does modern surgery, or any
+other science of accurate manipulation, not owe to modern steel? When we
+turn from metallurgy to medicine, let us not forget that Avicenna was
+writing his pharmacop&#339;ia when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> Christian apothecaries were selling
+potions and philtres under the sign of a stuffed crocodile.</p>
+
+<p>Some exponents of Christianity would go further and arrogate to her the
+inception of all arts and handicrafts. Damascus blades, Cordovan
+leather, Moorish architecture, Persian carpets, Indian filagree, Chinese
+carvings and Japanese paintings all give the lie to such claims.</p>
+
+<p>If we are to measure Christianity by the material progress of her
+adherents, what conclusions are we to draw from the history of the Roman
+Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Copts? Fourteen hundred years after
+the birth of Christianity in Palestine the fall of Constantinople
+shattered her last vestige of sovereignty in the East after she had gone
+through centuries of decadence, debauch and intrigue such as anyone can
+find recorded by Gibbon or even in historical novels like "Hypatia."</p>
+
+<p>Islam, to-day, is about the same age as Christianity was then, and has
+gone through similar stages, except that it has been spared the
+intrigues of an organised priesthood and its comparative frugality has
+protected it from oriental enervation to a certain extent.</p>
+
+<p>Compared with Western Christianity its present epoch coincides with the
+era preceding the Reformation, when religious teaching had become <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+stereotyped and lacked vitality, as is now the case with Moslem teaching
+as a rule. There is no reason why Islam should not recover as
+Christianity did, and if it does not it will not be due to any intrinsic
+defect, but to its oriental environment, which has already debased and
+wrecked Eastern Christendom.</p>
+
+<p>The respective ages of the two religions induces another comparison. We
+are now in the fourteenth century of the Hejira; glance at European
+Christendom of that period in the Christian era, or even much later, and
+reflect on the Sicilian Vespers, the Inquisition, the massacre of the
+Huguenots, the atrocious witchfinders who served that pedantic
+Protestant prig, James I, and all the burnings, hackings and slayings
+perpetrated in the name of Christendom. We must admit that no Moslems
+anywhere, even in the most barbarous regions, are any worse than the
+Christians of those days, while the vast majority are infinitely better,
+viewed by any general standard of humanity. Christendom's only possible
+defence is that civilisation has influenced Christianity for good, and
+not the other way about. There is one other loophole which I, for one,
+refuse to crawl through&mdash;that Christianity is a greater moral force than
+Islam or more rapid in its action. Missionaries say that Islam is
+incapable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> of high ideals owing to its impersonal and inhuman conception
+of the Deity, whom it does not limit by any human standards of justice.
+They complain that there is no fatherhood in the Moslem God;
+but&mdash;pursuing their own metaphor&mdash;what would an earthly father think if
+his acts of correction were criticised by his children from their own
+point of view? He might be angry, but would probably just smile, and I
+hope the Almighty does the same. A child thinks it most unjust to be
+rebuked or perhaps chastised for playing at trains with suitable noises
+at unsuitable seasons but it is that, and similar parental correction,
+which makes him become a decent member of society and not a self-centred
+nuisance.</p>
+
+<p>Moslems shrink from applying <i>any</i> human standards to the Deity,
+regarding Him as the Lord of the Universe and not a popularly-elected
+premier. "Whatever good is from God, whatever ill from thyself," is a
+Koranic aphorism. Nor do they seek to drive bargains with Him, as do
+many pious Christians, and their supplications are limited (as in our
+Lord's Prayer) to the bare necessities of life&mdash;food and water to
+support existence, and clothing to cover their nakedness.</p>
+
+<p>The application of human ideals to the Almighty places Him on a level
+with Kipling's "wise wood-pavement gods" or the Teutonic conception <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> of
+a deity who sent the Entente bad harvests to help German submarine
+activities. Such absurdities incur the rebuke of the staunch old
+patriarch, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him"; there is no
+excuse for seeking to inflict them on the austerities of Islam.</p>
+
+<p>Climate and terrain have a marked influence on the form religion takes
+in its human manifestation. Missionary literature asserts this clearly
+with regard to Islam, describing it, aptly enough, as a religion of
+desert and oasis thence deriving its austere and sensual features, but
+the thesis applies with equal force to Christianity. The marked cleavage
+of hermit-like asceticism and gross sensuality which rock-bound deserts
+and the lush Nile valley wrought in Egyptian Christendom has been
+described by every writer dealing with that subject, and Arabian
+Christianity drooped, and finally died, in the arid pastoral uplands of
+Jauf and Nejran long before it succumbed in fertile, hard-working Yamen.</p>
+
+<p>If the East became Christian next week there would be the same rank
+growth and final atrophy or disintegrating schism for lack of outside
+opposition. Missionaries are quick enough to remark on this process in
+Arabia where Islam is practically unopposed, but will not apply it to
+Christianity. They do not seem to realise that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> healthy competition
+maintains the vitality of religion no less than trade or any other form
+of human effort requiring continuous energy and application. Islam
+revivified a decadent Christianity, and the attacks of modern
+missionaries are strengthening Islam. They justify these attacks and
+urge further support for them on the grounds that Islam is moribund and
+now is the time to give it the <i>coup de gr&acirc;ce</i>, or that Islam is the
+most dangerous foe to Christendom in the world and must be fought to a
+finish lest it unite three hundred million Moslems against us. I have
+seen both reasons given in the same missionary book; both are absurd.
+The latter is a mere red herring drawn across the trail of existing
+facts, more so, indeed, than the ex-Kaiser's Yellow Peril, for that at
+least was trailed from a vast country enclosing within a ring fence a
+huge population of homogeneous race and creed. As for crushing Islam by
+missionary enterprise, you cannot kill a great religion with pin-pricks,
+however numerous and frequent; you can only cause superficial hurts and
+irritation, as in a German student's duel. Every religion contains the
+germs of its own destruction within itself (which it can resist
+indefinitely so long as it is healthy and vigorous), but no outside
+efforts, however overwhelming, can do aught but stiffen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> its adherents.
+The early Christian Church was driven off the face of the earth into
+catacombs, but emerged to rule supreme in the very city which had driven
+her underground; Muhammad barely escaped from Mecca with his life, but
+returned to make it the centre of his creed, and Crusaders died in
+hopeless defeat at Hattin cursing "Mahound" with their last breath as
+the enemy of their faith, yet their very presence there showed how Islam
+had revived Christianity.</p>
+
+<p><i>Per aspera ad astra:</i> there is no easy road or short cut to collective,
+spiritual progress. I am not arguing against possible "acts of grace"
+working on individuals, but the uplift of a race, a class or even a
+congregation cannot be done by a sort of spiritual legerdemain based on
+hypnotic suggestion. Individuals may be so swayed for the time being,
+and, in a few favourable cases, the initial impetus will be carried on,
+but most human souls are like locusts and flutter earthward when the
+wind drops. They may have advanced more or less, but are just as likely
+to be deflected or even swept back again by a change in the wind.
+Revivalist campaigns and salvation by a <i>coup de th&eacute;&acirc;tre</i> do not
+encourage consecutive religious thought, which is the only stable
+foundation of religious belief; second-hand convictions do not wear well
+in the storm and sunshine of unsheltered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> lives, and a creed that has to
+be treated like an orchid is no use to anybody.</p>
+
+<p>If the same amount of earnest, consecutive effort and clear thinking had
+been applied to religion as has gone to build up civilisation we should
+all be leading harmonious spiritual lives to-day and sin and sorrow
+would probably have been banished from the earth, but few people think
+of applying their mental faculties to religion, and its exploitation by
+modern mercantile methods is not the same thing at all. Civilisation is
+an accretion of countless efforts and ceaseless striving to ameliorate
+existing conditions, whereas religion started as a perfect thesis and
+has since got overgrown with human bigotry and fantasies while absorbing
+very little of the vast, increasing store of human knowledge. That is
+why civilisation has got so much in advance of religion that the latter
+cannot lead or guide the former, but only lags behind, like a horse
+hitched to a cart-tail. Missionary writers are rather apt to confuse the
+gifts of civilisation with the thing itself. A savage can be taught to
+use a rifle or an electric switch or even a flame-projecter, but this is
+no proof that he is really civilised. On the other hand, the scholarly
+recluse and philosopher whose works uplift and refine humanity may
+bungle even with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> "fool-proof" lift which takes him up to his own
+eyrie in Flat-land, but he is none the less civilised.</p>
+
+<p>They would have us believe that petticoats and pantaloons are the
+hall-mark of Christian civilisation, and one of their favourite sneers
+at Arabia (as a proof of its benighted condition and need of their
+ministrations) is "a land without manufacture where machinery is looked
+on as a sort of marvel." As a matter of fact, Arabia can manufacture all
+she really wants, and did so when we blockaded her coasts; nor is
+machinery any more of a marvel to the average Arabian Arab than it is to
+the average Occidental. Both use intelligently such machinery as they
+find necessary in their pursuits and occupations, though neither can
+make it or repair it except superficially, and both fumble more or less
+with unfamiliar mechanical appliances. The young man from the country
+blows the gas out or tries to light his cheroot at an incandescent bulb,
+and may be considered lucky if he does not get some swift, silent form
+of vehicular traffic in the small of his back when he is gaping at an
+electric advertisement in changing-coloured lights. It has been my
+object, and to a certain extent my duty, on several occasions to try to
+impress a party of chiefs and their retinue when visiting Aden from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> the
+wildest parts of Arabia Felix (which can be very wild indeed). On the
+same morning I have taken them over a man-of-war, on the musketry-range
+to see a Maxim at practice and down into a twelve-inch casemate when the
+monster was about to fire. They never turned a hair, but asked many
+intelligent questions and a few amusing ones, tried to cadge a rifle or
+two from the officer showing them the racks for small arms, condemned
+the Maxim for "eating cartridges too fast" and were much tickled by the
+gunner-officer's joke that they could have the big cannon if they would
+take it away with them.</p>
+
+<p>These wild Arabians, when trained, make the most reliable machine-tenders
+in the East, as they have a <i>penchant</i> for mechanism of all sorts and
+will not neglect their charge when unsupervised.</p>
+
+<p>We are all inclined to boast too personally of our enlightened
+civilisation with its marvellous mechanical appliances, but what is it
+after all but the specialist training of the few serving the wants of
+the many? If the average missionary swam ashore with an Arab fireman
+from a shipwreck and landed on an uninhabited island of ordinary
+tropical aspect, the Arab would know the knack of scaling coco-nut palms
+(no easy task), the vegetation which would supply him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> with fibre for
+fishing-lines and what thorns could be used to make an effective hook,
+while the missionary would probably be unable to get fire by friction
+with the aid of a bow-string and spindle.</p>
+
+<p>Missionary literature is very severe on Arabia as a stiff-necked country
+which has hitherto discouraged evangelical activities. "Hence the low
+plane of Arabia morally. Slavery and concubinage and, nearly everywhere,
+polygamy and divorce are fearfully common and fatalism has paralysed
+enterprise."</p>
+
+<p>This indictment is not only unjust, but it recoils on Western
+civilisation. Arabia is on a high enough moral plane to refuse drink,
+drugs and debauchery generally, while prostitution is unknown outside
+large centres overrun by foreigners, which are more cosmopolitan than
+Arab. Sanaa, which is a pure Arab city with little or no foreign
+element, is much more moral than London or New York. To adduce slavery
+and concubinage coupled with polygamy and divorce as further evidence
+against Arabia is crass absurdity; slaves are far better treated
+anywhere in Arabia than they were in the States or the West Indies;
+concubinage and polygamy, as practised by the patriarchs of Holy Writ,
+are still legal in that part of the world; there is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> nothing sinful
+about them in themselves&mdash;a Moslem might as well rebuke Western society
+for being addicted to whisky and bridge. He might even remind us that
+divorce is easier in the States than in Arabia and quote the Prophet's
+words on the subject: "Of all lawful acts divorce is the most hateful in
+the sight of God." With us a woman can be convicted of adultery in the
+eyes of the world on evidence that would not hang a cat for stealing
+cream, but in Islam the act must be proved beyond doubt by two
+witnesses, who are soundly flogged if their evidence breaks down, and
+their testimony is declared invalid for the future. This places the
+accusation under a heavy disability, but it is better than putting a
+woman's most cherished attribute at the mercy of a suborned servant or
+two&mdash;a far greater injustice to womanhood than bearing a fair share of a
+naturally hard and toilsome life, which is also a missionary complaint
+against Arabia. As for fatalism paralysing enterprise there, perhaps it
+does to a certain extent, but it cannot compare with our own organised
+strikes in that direction.</p>
+
+<p>Another charge is that Arabia has no stable government and people go
+armed against each other. Tribal Arabia has the only true form of
+democratic government, and the Arab tribesman <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> goes armed to make sure
+that it continues democratic&mdash;as many a would-be despot knows to his
+cost. They use these weapons to settle other disputes occasionally, but
+Christian cowboys still do so at times unless they have acquired grace
+and the barley-water habit.</p>
+
+<p>These deliberate misstatements and the distortion of known facts are
+unworthy of the many earnest workers in recognised mission fields, and
+they become really mischievous when they culminate in an appeal to the
+general public calling for resources and <i>personnel</i> to "win Mecca for
+Christ," and use it and the Arabic language to disseminate Christianity
+and so win Arabia and, eventually, the Moslem world.</p>
+
+<p>Christianity had a very good start in Arabia long before Muhammad's day,
+and (contrary to missionary assertion) was in existence there for
+centuries after his death. Not long before the dawn of Islam, Christian
+and pagan Arabs fought side by side to overthrow a despotic Jew king in
+Yamen who was trying to proselytise them with the crude but convincing
+contrivance of an artificial hell which cost only the firewood and
+labour involved and beat modern revivalist descriptions of the place to
+a frazzle as a means of speedy conversion&mdash;to a Jew or a cinder.</p>
+
+<p>Christianity lasted in Yamen up to the tenth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> century <span class="ad">A.D.</span> It paid
+tribute as a subordinate creed, like Judaism, but had far more equable
+charters and greater respect among Moslems. In fact, it was never driven
+out, but gradually merged into Islam, as is indicated by the
+inscriptions found on the lintel of ruined churches here and there,
+"There is but one God."</p>
+
+<p>The published statement of a travelled missionary that the Turks stabled
+their cavalry horses in the ruins of Abraha's "cathedral" at Sanaa is
+misleading. The church which that Abyssinian general built when he came
+over to help the Arabs against the Jew king of proselytising tendencies
+has nothing left of it above ground except a bare site surrounded by a
+low circular wall which would perhaps accommodate the horses of a
+mounted patrol in bivouac. The Turks probably used it for that purpose
+without inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>What is the use of bolstering up a presumably sincere religious movement
+with these puerile and mischievous statements? Apart from the rancour
+they excite among educated Moslems (who are more familiar with this
+class of literature than the writers perhaps imagine) they deceive the
+Christian public and place conscientious missionaries afield in a false
+position, for most practical mission workers know and admit that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> the
+wholesale conversion of Moslems is not a feasible proposition and that
+sporadic proselytes are very doubtful trophies. Knowing this, they
+concentrate their principal efforts on schools, hospitals and charitable
+relief, all based on friendly relations with the natives which have been
+patiently built up. These relations are jeopardised by the wild-cat
+utterances which are published for home consumption. If a Christian
+public cannot support legitimate missionary enterprise without having it
+camouflaged by all this spiritual swashbuckling, then it is in urgent
+need of evangelical ministrations itself.</p>
+
+<p>Missionaries in the field have, of course, a personal view which we must
+not overlook, as it is entirely creditable to all parties concerned. The
+more strenuous forms of mission work in barbarous countries demand, and
+get, the highest type of human devotion and courage. It is a healthy
+sign that the public should support such enterprise and that men and
+women should be readily found to undertake it gladly. There is a great
+gulf between such gallantry and the calculating spirit which works from
+a "strategic centre," to bring about a serious political situation which
+others have to face.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now examine the Islamic attitude toward Christianity.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The thoughtful Moslem generally admits the excellence of occidental
+principles and methods in the practical affairs of life, but insists
+that even earthly existence is made up of more than civilised amenities,
+economics and appliances for luxury, comfort and locomotion. It is when
+he comes to examine our social life that he finds us falling very short
+of our Christian ideals, and he argues to himself that if that is all
+Christianity can do for us it is not likely to do more for him, but
+rather less. He admits that his less civilised co-religionists in
+Arabia, Afghanistan, etc., lack half-tones in their personalities, which
+are black and white in streaks instead of blending in various shades of
+grey. He considers that Islam with its simple austerities is better
+suited to such characters than Christianity with its unattainable
+ideals. He himself has visited Western cities and observed their
+conditions shrewdly. He regards missionaries as zealous bagmen
+travelling with excellent samples for a chaotic firm which does not
+stock the goods they are trying to push. The missionary may say that he
+has no "call" to reform existing conditions in his own country, just as
+the bagman may disclaim responsibility for his firm's slackness; but
+such excuses book no orders. The travelled Moslem will shake his head
+and say that he has seen the firm's showrooms, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> and their principal
+lines appeared to be Labour trouble, profiteering and diluted
+Bolshevism, with a particularly tawdry fabric of party politics. He
+respects the spiritual commercial traveller and his opinions, if sincere
+(he is a judge of sincerity, being rather a casuist himself), but
+wherever he has observed the workings of Christianity in bulk it has not
+had the elevating and transcendental effect which it is said to have;
+that is, he has not found the goods up to sample and will have none of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>He seldom realises (to conclude our commercial metaphor) that most
+Christian folk in countries which export missionaries are born with
+life-members' tickets entitling them to sound, durable goods which are
+not displayed in our spiritual shop-windows or in the missionary
+hand-bag:&mdash;the prayers of childhood and the mother's hymn, the distant
+bells of a Sabbath countryside, the bird-chorus of Spring emphasising
+the magic hush of Communion on Easter morning, the holly-decked church
+ringing with the glad carols of Christmastide and the tremendous promise
+which bids us hope at the graveside of our earthly love. It is such
+memories as these, and not the stentorian eloquence of some popular
+salvation-monger in an atmosphere of over-crowded humanity, which go to
+make staunch Christian souls.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The possible proselyte from Islam has to rely on what the missionary has
+in his bag. Large quantities of faith are pressed upon him which do not
+quite meet his requirements, as it is his reason which should be
+satisfied first; no one can believe without a basis of belief.</p>
+
+<p>There is also a great deal of slaughter-house metaphor which does not
+appeal to him at all, as he looks on blood as a defilement and a sheep
+as the silliest animal in existence&mdash;except a lamb. These metaphors were
+used by our Lord in speaking to a people who readily understood them,
+but for some obscure reason they have not only been retained but
+amplified extensively to the exclusion of much beautiful imagery which
+is still apposite. We Christians reverence such similes for their
+associations, but a Moslem misses the point of them, just as we miss the
+stately metre of the Koran in translation.</p>
+
+<p>The would-be convert from Islam must, of course, learn to stifle any
+fond memories of the virile, vivid creed he is invited to renounce. No
+longer must he give ear to the far-flung call proclaiming from lofty
+minarets the unity of God and the Prophet's mission or its cheery,
+swinging reiteration as the dead are carried to the <i>magenna</i> or "gate
+of Heaven." Certainly not; the less he contemplates their fate the
+better for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> his peace of mind, since (if the effort to convert him is
+anything more than an outrageous piece of impudence) their lot in the
+hereafter must be appalling and his own depends on the thoroughness with
+which he steels his heart against all he ever knew and loved before he
+met that pious man and his little picture pamphlets.</p>
+
+<p>Do proselytising missionaries in the Islamic field ever sit down and
+think what they are really trying to do? Does the social ostracism of a
+human being, the damnation of his folk and the salvation of none but a
+remnant of mankind mean anything to them? If so they ought to be
+overcome with horror&mdash;unless it is their idea of humour, which I cannot
+believe.</p>
+
+<p>To pester a man into abandoning a perfectly sound and satisfying
+religion for one which may not suit him so well is more reprehensible
+than badgering a man to go to your doctor when his own physician
+understands his case and has studied it for a long time. At least his
+discarded medical adviser will not make his life a burden to him&mdash;a
+burden which the proselytiser does not have to share.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, Moslems are often glad enough to avail themselves of
+such Christian works as mission education, medical treatment and
+organised charity, so they should tolerate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> the proselytising propaganda
+which seems inseparable from these enterprises.</p>
+
+<p>Missionaries afield are usually justified by their works; it is the
+aggressive policy blazoned abroad from mission headquarters which does
+so much mischief. Islam was never intended to overthrow Christianity,
+but to bring back pagan Arabs to the true worship of God. Mission policy
+clamours for attack on it as if it were an invention of the devil and
+then complains of Moslem fanaticism, forgetting that if it were an
+artifice of Satan they cast doubts on the omnipotence, omniscience or
+beneficence of God for permitting it to exist and flourish. Otherwise,
+they infer that they are in a position to correct the Almighty in this
+matter. It is their complacent pedagogy which exasperates Moslems so. It
+is not the way to treat people who believe in the Immaculate Conception,
+who call Christmas Day "<i>the</i> Birthday" and respect us as "People of the
+Book."</p>
+
+<p>It is time some protest was lodged against this policy if only on behalf
+of Christian administrations in Moslem countries, which are always being
+attacked by it and urged to give more facilities of spiritual
+aggression, especially just at present when Turkey's power has been
+shattered and mission strategy thinks it sees an opening.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was never a less desirable moment for unchecked religious
+exploitation than now, when the war-worn nations of Christendom are
+trying to reconstruct themselves, and the world is seething with unrest
+and overstocked with discarded weapons of precision.</p>
+
+<p>There is no compromise in religion, nor should there be; you cannot go
+halfway in any faith, and no one wants a mongrel strain begotten of the
+two great militant creeds such as our leading exponent of paradox
+wittily describes as "Chrislam." Yet surely there is a reasonable basis
+for a religious <i>entente</i> between Islam and Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>Think what Islam has done to advance the knowledge of humanity long
+before the dawn of modern science. Moslems, too, would do well to
+remember what Christian civilisation has done for them in trade,
+agriculture and industries. If you accept gifts from others you should
+tolerate their ways; it is but an ill-conditioned cur that bolts the
+food proffered and then snarls.</p>
+
+<p>A Moslem or a Christian worthy of the name will remain so. He may expand
+or (more rarely) contract his views, but will still be a Moslem or a
+Christian, as the case may be.</p>
+
+<p>No human being has the right to say that his conception of the Deity is
+correct and all others <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> wrong, nor is such a conclusion supported by the
+Gospel or the Koran.</p>
+
+<p>It is the alchemy of the human soul which can transmute the dross of a
+sordid environment to the gold of self-sacrifice, and the gold of
+inspired religion to the dross of bigotry.</p>
+
+<p>Whether we believe, as Christians, that Christ died on the Cross and
+rose the third day, or, as Moslems, that He escaped that fate by an
+equally stupendous miracle, we know that He faced persecution and death
+for mankind and His ideals, and that both creeds are based on the same
+great doctrine&mdash;"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
+him in spirit and in truth."</p>
+
+<p class="centerpadded">FINIS</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="centersmall">PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD. BRUNSWICK ST.,
+STAMFORD ST., LONDON, S.E. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pan-Islam, by George Wyman Bury
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-ISLAM ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26981-h.htm or 26981-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/9/8/26981/
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/26981-h/images/dec.png b/26981-h/images/dec.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11fb9f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-h/images/dec.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/f0001.png b/26981-page-images/f0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..70c2662
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/f0001.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/f0002.png b/26981-page-images/f0002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7eef04a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/f0002.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/f0003.png b/26981-page-images/f0003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b282fb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/f0003.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/f0005.png b/26981-page-images/f0005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..83c543c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/f0005.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/f0007.png b/26981-page-images/f0007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95fbcec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/f0007.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/f0008.png b/26981-page-images/f0008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a85e4a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/f0008.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/f0009.png b/26981-page-images/f0009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5459df3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/f0009.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0011.png b/26981-page-images/p0011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..40fce29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0011.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0012.png b/26981-page-images/p0012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..020b6fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0012.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0013.png b/26981-page-images/p0013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..edce244
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0013.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0014.png b/26981-page-images/p0014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..278cb85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0014.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0015.png b/26981-page-images/p0015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14d8b94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0015.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0016.png b/26981-page-images/p0016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ebe4603
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0016.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0017.png b/26981-page-images/p0017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2135a58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0017.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0018.png b/26981-page-images/p0018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e66f462
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0018.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0019.png b/26981-page-images/p0019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..93c26dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0019.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0020.png b/26981-page-images/p0020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4aa7d1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0020.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0021.png b/26981-page-images/p0021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c5dcf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0021.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0022.png b/26981-page-images/p0022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3023b92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0022.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0023.png b/26981-page-images/p0023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb15bd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0023.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0024.png b/26981-page-images/p0024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0202bc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0024.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0025.png b/26981-page-images/p0025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f7951b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0025.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0026.png b/26981-page-images/p0026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e0893ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0026.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0027.png b/26981-page-images/p0027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4bdddd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0027.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0028.png b/26981-page-images/p0028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5dcf473
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0028.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0029.png b/26981-page-images/p0029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c35b6d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0029.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0030.png b/26981-page-images/p0030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6229ede
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0030.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0031.png b/26981-page-images/p0031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a804a74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0031.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0032.png b/26981-page-images/p0032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..34554d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0032.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0033.png b/26981-page-images/p0033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb1c3f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0033.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0034.png b/26981-page-images/p0034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b900cb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0034.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0035.png b/26981-page-images/p0035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2447ce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0035.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0036.png b/26981-page-images/p0036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e89c57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0036.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0037.png b/26981-page-images/p0037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a37ed7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0037.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0038.png b/26981-page-images/p0038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..882c345
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0038.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0039.png b/26981-page-images/p0039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f21aeff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0039.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0040.png b/26981-page-images/p0040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b10ff81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0040.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0041.png b/26981-page-images/p0041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd82690
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0041.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0042.png b/26981-page-images/p0042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3ff4ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0042.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0043.png b/26981-page-images/p0043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1aae5c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0043.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0044.png b/26981-page-images/p0044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6cd00ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0044.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0045.png b/26981-page-images/p0045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbad55f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0045.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0046.png b/26981-page-images/p0046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..01cd0e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0046.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0047.png b/26981-page-images/p0047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c257253
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0047.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0048.png b/26981-page-images/p0048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b27f42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0048.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0049.png b/26981-page-images/p0049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..129388f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0049.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0050.png b/26981-page-images/p0050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eeb8faf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0050.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0051.png b/26981-page-images/p0051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0fb548d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0051.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0052.png b/26981-page-images/p0052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dcaee2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0052.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0053.png b/26981-page-images/p0053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6320126
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0053.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0054.png b/26981-page-images/p0054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e54b166
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0054.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0055.png b/26981-page-images/p0055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e06aab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0055.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0056.png b/26981-page-images/p0056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ffe77c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0056.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0057.png b/26981-page-images/p0057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6462160
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0057.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0058.png b/26981-page-images/p0058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a93a2cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0058.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0059.png b/26981-page-images/p0059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c752305
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0059.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0060.png b/26981-page-images/p0060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fbb6d42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0060.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0061.png b/26981-page-images/p0061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d7cda1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0061.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0062.png b/26981-page-images/p0062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b3cf1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0062.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0063.png b/26981-page-images/p0063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a0c1ca0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0063.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0064.png b/26981-page-images/p0064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7edec4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0064.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0065.png b/26981-page-images/p0065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0fc8365
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0065.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0066.png b/26981-page-images/p0066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..714411e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0066.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0067.png b/26981-page-images/p0067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc4edf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0067.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0068.png b/26981-page-images/p0068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..665878c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0068.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0069.png b/26981-page-images/p0069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..338cea4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0069.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0070.png b/26981-page-images/p0070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..afcb899
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0070.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0071.png b/26981-page-images/p0071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b34b1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0071.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0072.png b/26981-page-images/p0072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd9fb05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0072.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0073.png b/26981-page-images/p0073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6dffa88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0073.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0074.png b/26981-page-images/p0074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f483b00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0074.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0075.png b/26981-page-images/p0075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a74345
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0075.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0076.png b/26981-page-images/p0076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e70d70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0076.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0077.png b/26981-page-images/p0077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d24c155
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0077.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0078.png b/26981-page-images/p0078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3182cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0078.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0079.png b/26981-page-images/p0079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa7c104
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0079.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0080.png b/26981-page-images/p0080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4328af7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0080.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0081.png b/26981-page-images/p0081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db0a6cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0081.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0082.png b/26981-page-images/p0082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..800db56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0082.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0083.png b/26981-page-images/p0083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e177eb9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0083.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0084.png b/26981-page-images/p0084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..28c4215
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0084.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0085.png b/26981-page-images/p0085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f505e81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0085.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0086.png b/26981-page-images/p0086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d9468f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0086.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0087.png b/26981-page-images/p0087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9385a04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0087.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0088.png b/26981-page-images/p0088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d334ef0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0088.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0089.png b/26981-page-images/p0089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a4c75d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0089.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0090.png b/26981-page-images/p0090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b88157
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0090.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0091.png b/26981-page-images/p0091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a5b717
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0091.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0092.png b/26981-page-images/p0092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1913141
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0092.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0093.png b/26981-page-images/p0093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d6ee45
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0093.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0094.png b/26981-page-images/p0094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8a7c89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0094.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0095.png b/26981-page-images/p0095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74e9027
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0095.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0096.png b/26981-page-images/p0096.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a97334
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0096.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0097.png b/26981-page-images/p0097.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec8ef4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0097.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0098.png b/26981-page-images/p0098.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8981a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0098.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0099.png b/26981-page-images/p0099.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4a1fa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0099.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0100.png b/26981-page-images/p0100.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..582ac9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0100.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0101.png b/26981-page-images/p0101.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e19517a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0101.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0102.png b/26981-page-images/p0102.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..430a0cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0102.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0103.png b/26981-page-images/p0103.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd5257c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0103.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0104.png b/26981-page-images/p0104.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..874e987
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0104.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0105.png b/26981-page-images/p0105.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14c479c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0105.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0106.png b/26981-page-images/p0106.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ff4d7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0106.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0107.png b/26981-page-images/p0107.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..34e0bbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0107.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0108.png b/26981-page-images/p0108.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fd6b6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0108.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0109.png b/26981-page-images/p0109.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d571cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0109.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0110.png b/26981-page-images/p0110.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a9b6d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0110.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0111.png b/26981-page-images/p0111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8b96c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0111.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0112.png b/26981-page-images/p0112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4aa04e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0112.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0113.png b/26981-page-images/p0113.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a855a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0113.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0114.png b/26981-page-images/p0114.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..558a6d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0114.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0115.png b/26981-page-images/p0115.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b7e44f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0115.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0116.png b/26981-page-images/p0116.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..604b590
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0116.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0117.png b/26981-page-images/p0117.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f34183
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0117.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0118.png b/26981-page-images/p0118.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37cc6c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0118.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0119.png b/26981-page-images/p0119.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fa59a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0119.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0120.png b/26981-page-images/p0120.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d7a1c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0120.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0121.png b/26981-page-images/p0121.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06e97d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0121.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0122.png b/26981-page-images/p0122.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..18e817b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0122.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0123.png b/26981-page-images/p0123.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..954140f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0123.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0124.png b/26981-page-images/p0124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b75c8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0124.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0125.png b/26981-page-images/p0125.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b5dfb0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0125.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0126.png b/26981-page-images/p0126.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9352305
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0126.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0127.png b/26981-page-images/p0127.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5136a91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0127.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0128.png b/26981-page-images/p0128.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..676c94f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0128.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0129.png b/26981-page-images/p0129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee56eb1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0129.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0130.png b/26981-page-images/p0130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eede539
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0130.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0131.png b/26981-page-images/p0131.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23d1c94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0131.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0132.png b/26981-page-images/p0132.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..536cbbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0132.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0133.png b/26981-page-images/p0133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0eaf51b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0133.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0134.png b/26981-page-images/p0134.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6fdaedf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0134.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0135.png b/26981-page-images/p0135.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b161e15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0135.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0136.png b/26981-page-images/p0136.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..75bb9b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0136.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0137.png b/26981-page-images/p0137.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..127679c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0137.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0138.png b/26981-page-images/p0138.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c0cde5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0138.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0139.png b/26981-page-images/p0139.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95f6773
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0139.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0140.png b/26981-page-images/p0140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b4d3516
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0140.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0141.png b/26981-page-images/p0141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b631da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0141.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0142.png b/26981-page-images/p0142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e81068
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0142.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0143.png b/26981-page-images/p0143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7739fbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0143.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0144.png b/26981-page-images/p0144.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b845e49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0144.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0145.png b/26981-page-images/p0145.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d0af97a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0145.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0146.png b/26981-page-images/p0146.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cabefc9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0146.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0147.png b/26981-page-images/p0147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddd1cbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0147.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0148.png b/26981-page-images/p0148.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..317f57e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0148.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0149.png b/26981-page-images/p0149.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04dd88b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0149.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0150.png b/26981-page-images/p0150.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b362ff3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0150.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0151.png b/26981-page-images/p0151.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe08032
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0151.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0152.png b/26981-page-images/p0152.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe6f82d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0152.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0153.png b/26981-page-images/p0153.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03ea149
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0153.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0154.png b/26981-page-images/p0154.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89b819a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0154.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0155.png b/26981-page-images/p0155.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b7448f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0155.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0156.png b/26981-page-images/p0156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d9d80d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0156.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0157.png b/26981-page-images/p0157.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08abdef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0157.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0158.png b/26981-page-images/p0158.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a83812e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0158.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0159.png b/26981-page-images/p0159.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17982e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0159.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0160.png b/26981-page-images/p0160.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b591a34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0160.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0161.png b/26981-page-images/p0161.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ca7a57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0161.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0162.png b/26981-page-images/p0162.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cecbd2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0162.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0163.png b/26981-page-images/p0163.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16435a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0163.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0164.png b/26981-page-images/p0164.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd88d8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0164.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0165.png b/26981-page-images/p0165.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11c6b25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0165.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0166.png b/26981-page-images/p0166.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5973ea6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0166.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0167.png b/26981-page-images/p0167.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d88461
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0167.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0168.png b/26981-page-images/p0168.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69d8bdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0168.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0169.png b/26981-page-images/p0169.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..904c4fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0169.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0170.png b/26981-page-images/p0170.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..222893d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0170.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0171.png b/26981-page-images/p0171.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af74fd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0171.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0172.png b/26981-page-images/p0172.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d99e2ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0172.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0173.png b/26981-page-images/p0173.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2d3ff63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0173.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0174.png b/26981-page-images/p0174.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f021a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0174.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0175.png b/26981-page-images/p0175.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e74d0b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0175.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0176.png b/26981-page-images/p0176.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efa0438
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0176.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0177.png b/26981-page-images/p0177.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e61cc56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0177.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0178.png b/26981-page-images/p0178.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bbe3c36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0178.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0179.png b/26981-page-images/p0179.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..02445f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0179.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0180.png b/26981-page-images/p0180.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8693d87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0180.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0181.png b/26981-page-images/p0181.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e61d0b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0181.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0182.png b/26981-page-images/p0182.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6f7df9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0182.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0183.png b/26981-page-images/p0183.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eca15e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0183.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0184.png b/26981-page-images/p0184.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..226a3e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0184.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0185.png b/26981-page-images/p0185.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2eecc9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0185.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0186.png b/26981-page-images/p0186.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..28322d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0186.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0187.png b/26981-page-images/p0187.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0c23aa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0187.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0188.png b/26981-page-images/p0188.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ec444e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0188.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0189.png b/26981-page-images/p0189.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..77cffae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0189.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0190.png b/26981-page-images/p0190.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bcdf724
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0190.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0191.png b/26981-page-images/p0191.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9dab054
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0191.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0192.png b/26981-page-images/p0192.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..633ea09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0192.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0193.png b/26981-page-images/p0193.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec9315b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0193.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0194.png b/26981-page-images/p0194.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af0943e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0194.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0195.png b/26981-page-images/p0195.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f087a70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0195.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0196.png b/26981-page-images/p0196.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39505a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0196.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0197.png b/26981-page-images/p0197.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ebbded
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0197.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0198.png b/26981-page-images/p0198.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3b7e2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0198.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0199.png b/26981-page-images/p0199.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9bdee72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0199.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0200.png b/26981-page-images/p0200.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ad2255
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0200.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0201.png b/26981-page-images/p0201.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae660a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0201.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0202.png b/26981-page-images/p0202.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e138c1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0202.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0203.png b/26981-page-images/p0203.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4bfe7ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0203.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0204.png b/26981-page-images/p0204.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e7803f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0204.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0205.png b/26981-page-images/p0205.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60546c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0205.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0206.png b/26981-page-images/p0206.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6e21f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0206.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0207.png b/26981-page-images/p0207.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..262c487
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0207.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0208.png b/26981-page-images/p0208.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7607d98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0208.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0209.png b/26981-page-images/p0209.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..591725a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0209.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0210.png b/26981-page-images/p0210.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8358742
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0210.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0211.png b/26981-page-images/p0211.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb548cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0211.png
diff --git a/26981-page-images/p0212.png b/26981-page-images/p0212.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9609384
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981-page-images/p0212.png
diff --git a/26981.txt b/26981.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ff88b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4740 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pan-Islam, by George Wyman Bury
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Pan-Islam
+
+Author: George Wyman Bury
+
+Release Date: October 20, 2008 [EBook #26981]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-ISLAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PAN-ISLAM
+
+
+
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS
+MELBOURNE
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
+DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO
+
+THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
+TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+PAN-ISLAM
+
+BY
+
+G. WYMAN BURY
+
+_Author of "The Land of Us," "Arabia Infelix."_
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
+1919
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MY WIFE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+I have written this book to present the main factors of a many-sided
+problem--political, social and religious--in a form which the general
+public can easily grasp.
+
+Modern democratic principles tend to give the public increasing control
+of international and inter-racial affairs, and therefore any
+contribution to public knowledge on such questions is in the interests
+of sound administration.
+
+The book is not intended to advise those who actually handle these
+affairs: I give such advice, when required, in more detail and not
+through the medium of a published work.
+
+"Pan-Islam" is an elementary handbook, not a text-book--still less an
+exhaustive treatise, but the questions it discusses are real enough. My
+qualifications for writing it are based on a quarter of a century's
+experience of the subject in most parts of the Moslem world, and I have
+studied the question in areas which I have not actually visited through
+intercourse with pilgrims from those parts.
+
+I have no axe to grind or infallible panacea to advocate; I merely lay
+the result of my researches before the public for its information, as
+failing health has warned me to "pass the ball when collared," and I
+would like to think that the land where most of my life's work has
+centred will not be mishandled by cranks and opportunists after I have
+left the game.
+
+An arm-chair is a sorry substitute for an Arab pony, and a garden plot
+for the highlands of Arabia Felix, but the human mind is not necessarily
+confined by such trammels, and if my environment is narrow I hope my
+book is not.
+
+                                                      G. WYMAN BURY.
+
+Helouan, 27th July, 1919.
+
+
+
+
+            CONTENTS
+
+
+                                   PAGE
+
+            CHAPTER I
+
+    ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING          11
+
+            CHAPTER II
+
+    ITS BEARING ON THE WAR          24
+
+            CHAPTER III
+
+    ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS       83
+
+            CHAPTER IV
+
+    MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY          110
+
+            CHAPTER V
+
+    A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE           187
+
+
+
+
+PAN-ISLAM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING
+
+
+Much has been written about Christianity and Islam, so I hasten to
+inform my readers that this is not a religious treatise, nor do I class
+them with the globe-trotter who searched Benares brass-bazar diligently
+for "a really nice image of Allah" and pronounced the dread name of
+Hindustan's avenging goddess like an effervescing drink.
+
+I presuppose that Christians or Moslems who read this book have got
+beyond the stage of calling each other pagans or _kafirs_, and it will
+have served its purpose if it brings about a friendlier feeling between
+the two great militant creeds whose adherents have confronted together
+many a stricken field.
+
+Most people have heard of the pan-Islamic movement, especially during
+the War. Some of us have called it a political bogey and some a
+world-menace, but these are extremist views--it is really the practical
+protest of Moslems against the exploitation of their spiritual and
+material resources by outsiders.
+
+Pan-Islam (as its name implies) is a movement to weld together Moslems
+throughout the world regardless of nationality. The ethics and ideals of
+Islam are more attainable to ordinary human beings than those of
+Christianity: whether it is better to aim high and score a partial
+success or aim lower and achieve is a matter of personal opinion and
+need not be discussed here, but one tangible fact stands out--that
+Islam, with its easier moral standard and frequent physical discipline
+of attitudes and observances connected with obligatory prayer, enters
+far more into the daily life of its adherents than Christianity does
+with us. Hence pan-Islam is more than a spiritual movement: it is a
+practical, working proposition which has to be reckoned with when
+dealing with Moslems even in secular matters.
+
+Pan-Islam is no new thing--it is as old as the Hejira, and then helped
+to knit together Moslem Arabs against their pagan compatriots who were
+persecuting them. In the palmy days of the Abbaside Caliphate it was
+quiescent enough, and men of all creeds were welcomed at Baghdad for
+their art, learning, or handicraft when we were massacring Jews in
+London as part of a coronation pageant.
+
+Medieval Moslems never fanned the movement into flame as long as they
+were let alone, and even now tribes living beyond the scope of
+missionaries and traders prefer the Christian traveller whom they know
+to the Moslem stranger from the coast whom they usually distrust, and
+who, to do him justice, seldom ventures among them, unless compelled by
+paramount self-interest, generally in connection with some European
+scheme or other.
+
+Hitherto pan-Islam had been an instinctive and entirely natural
+_riposte_ to the menace or actual aggression of non-Moslems; it assumed
+the character of a definite organisation under the crafty touch of that
+wily diplomat Abdul Hamid, once called by harsh critics "the Damned,"
+though his efforts in that direction have been quite eclipsed by more
+recent exponents.
+
+In extreme evangelical circles it used to be frequently urged that
+pan-Islam was a bugbear discovered, if not created, by one of India's
+most eminent Viceroys, whose remarks thereon are said to have given
+Abdul Hamid the hint. This method of eliminating a danger by denying its
+existence has been discredited, since 1914, as completely as the
+somewhat similar one (attributed to Mississippi engineers) of sitting on
+the safety-valve just too long for safety. Moreover, in view of Abdul's
+undoubted ability, he probably discovered for himself its efficacy as a
+weapon of reprisal when hard pressed by pertinacious and inquisitive
+Ambassadors, for he often found himself much embarrassed in his dealings
+with Armenia and other domestic affairs by the intrusions of the more
+formidable Christian Powers.
+
+Great Britain naturally felt the point of this weapon most as governing
+wide Moslem territories, and one can imagine some such interview as
+this:
+
+"Frontier rectifications, my dear Sir Nicholas? By all means--and,
+talking about frontiers, I do hope affairs are quite quiet now on your
+north-west frontier; I take such an interest in my East Indian
+correspondence."
+
+And those Britons who have handled Oriental affairs for the last twenty
+years can appreciate the extent of that interest when we remember that
+even while Yamen Arabs were fighting the Turks, their neighbours on the
+Aden side of the frontier were praying in their mosques that the Sultan
+and his troops might be victorious "by land and sea."
+
+All this, however, was merely playing with intrigue as a political
+counterpoise; it remained for a Christian nation to put pan-Islam on a
+business footing. First we have polite bagmen calling at Stamboul with
+German guns and a German military system. Then "our Mr. William" of the
+well-known Potsdam firm of Hohenzollern and Sons made his great
+advertising campaign in the Near East; many of us remembered his
+theatrical visit to Saladin's tomb and the tawdry wreath with its
+bombastic inscription, "From the Emperor of the Franks to the Emperor of
+the Saracens--Greeting."
+
+That astute "pilgrim" made himself especially affable to the American
+Protestant missionaries in the Holy Land, preached to a small but select
+congregation at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and posed alternately
+as a pious but militant Moslem (when Hajji Guiyaum rode in military pomp
+into Jerusalem) and as a prince of peace. That the hospice of Kaiserin
+Augusta Victoria on the top of the Mount of Olives was loop-holed for
+musketry and mounted a searchlight in its tower that could signal with
+Haifa was possibly due to some wayward caprice of the builder, but it
+came in very useful later on. So did the scholarly researches of eminent
+Germans in Sinai, assisted as they were by maps which the Anglo-Egyptian
+authorities courteously placed at their disposal, and which formed a
+basis for a more detailed survey of wells and routes.
+
+But the old firm at Potsdam excelled itself in its representatives on
+the Palestine coast. There was, for example, the German Consul at Haifa
+famed for his culture and diplomacy (the Teutonic brand), who also spoke
+Arabic, Turkish, French and English fluently. This gifted official
+frequented native cafes, where he fraternised with the local Arabs and
+conducted a vigorous verbal propaganda against the Entente. Then there
+was the German engineer who wrecked the British railway scheme to
+connect Haifa and Damascus and re-naturalised as a German citizen after
+being American Consul. The Belgian Vice-Consul too, that merry Hun, who
+was also agent for our Khedivial mail line. When the Turks came in
+against us this good and faithful servant danced on the Belgian and
+British flags and threw himself heart and soul into pan-Islamic
+propaganda.
+
+Nor must we overlook that reverend pastor and Koranic scholar who
+distributed anti-Christian and more especially anti-British propaganda
+by means of native emissaries. Last but not least, the Herr Direktor of
+the Hejaz Railway, who was collecting railway material for Sinai before
+war broke out. Some time before the Turks came in he imported, for the
+alleged use of the Jewish technical school, so great a quantity of high
+explosives that it caused a panic in Haifa. Yet it did not sufficiently
+impress our Levantine Vice-Consul there for him to report it, though the
+German Consul's remarkable activity to get the stuff landed might have
+given him the hint.
+
+At Jeddah our Khedivial Mail Agency, under the good old English name of
+Robinson, was a perfect nest of Germans and pro-German Dutchmen when I
+called there in 1912. They were very active early in the War, but had
+wisely disappeared before my last visit, when Jeddah fell to our
+blockade and bombardment.
+
+As for Hodeidah, the chief port of Yamen, it was the happy
+hunting-ground of a great German firm, and the American Consul was
+himself a German.
+
+Decidedly, for people who believed that they had a monopoly of Divine
+assistance, they had taken a lot of pains that their Holy War should be
+a success.
+
+To grasp the world-wide conspiracy which hatched out so many formidable
+events during the War and to appreciate the causes which contributed to
+its final collapse we must take a comprehensive glance at the Ottoman
+Caliphate and how it came about.
+
+Remember, the Ottoman Turks are not Semitic, as is the bulk of the
+Moslem world. Tradition derives them from Turk, son of Japhet, and they
+are a Turco-Mongol blend which most people agree to call Tartar. Their
+language is closely allied to Mongolian, though written in Arabic, or
+rather Persian, character, and its Arabic words are pronounced
+unintelligibly to an Arab. A true Turk learns Arabic with difficulty,
+and a far higher percentage of Britons in India speak Hindustani than
+Turks do Arabic in Turkish Arabia.
+
+Then, again, look at their early history. Their Mongol-Turkish ancestors
+were driven westward because they made Mongolia too hot for them, and we
+hear of Turks smelting iron for their Mongol masters in what is now
+Eastern Turkestan until they threw off the Mongol yoke in A.D. 552, when
+Turkish history begins.
+
+At the dawn of Islam (A.D. 632) Turks and Mongols were harrying each
+other all over the Caspian countries like rival wolf-packs, sometimes
+combining for a raid on their neighbours and then fighting over the
+loot. That is why you find racial Turks in such outlandish places as
+Merv, Khiva, Samarcand, Bokhara and Cabul, for the Turkish race is not
+confined to Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe, but is scattered over parts
+of Russia and China and Afghanistan.
+
+Now to consider the Ottoman Turks, with whom we are chiefly concerned.
+They were superior to their Mongol fellow-wolves in that they could
+smelt iron and had some idea of constructive enterprise. They had also
+adopted Islam, which was a great advance from the Shamanistic wizardry
+and totem-worship they used to practise, and their contact with the
+Arabs who raided them and afterwards accepted their military service to
+the Caliphate had civilised them considerably. Their Seljouk cousins
+were already ruling in Asia Minor, whither they had been driven by the
+Mongols when a wandering Turkish band sought similar asylum there in the
+earlier part of the thirteenth century and intervened most opportunely
+to help the Seljouks repulse a Mongol raid; in return, the Seljouk
+Emperor gave them a grant of land in Bithynia.
+
+In 1300 the Seljouk Empire was finally smashed by the Mongols, who
+withdrew eastward without occupying the country, for they were merely
+predatory and destructive and had no gift or desire for permanent
+colonisation. So it came about that the Ottoman Empire began in 1326
+under Othman I in Bithynia and grew by absorption and lack of effective
+opposition until, in 1517, we find it spreading under Selim I (the
+Magnificent) to the gates of Vienna and extending from Germany to Persia
+and from Arabia to the Atlantic.
+
+The benign sun of the Arabian Caliphate, under which learning and
+industry flourished securely, had long since set in blood under
+circumstances of treachery and murder which have hardly been surpassed
+even in the late war.
+
+Under the later Abbasides, when the glories of the Caliphate were
+waning, there were bitter dissensions between Sunnis and Shiahs (the
+main orthodox and schismatic sects of Islam) which culminated in fierce
+rioting at Baghdad in 1258. The then Caliph was foolish enough to appeal
+for assistance against the schismatic seditionists to his Mongol
+neighbours. It had been done before under similar conditions, and even
+in these days such a manoeuvre seems still to appeal to some types of
+religious fanaticism, judging by certain passages between our sister
+isle and the modern Hun. On the above occasion, however, it was
+practised once too often. Hulaku Khan, the fierce Mongol chief, had long
+had his eye on Baghdad as holding princely loot in all too slack a grip,
+for the Caliphate had been relying on Tartar mercenaries for years.
+
+He approached that queen of cities, as she then was, with a great host,
+lured the Caliph out to meet him by the promise of an alliance, and
+murdered the whole party, the Caliph being trampled to death. Then
+Baghdad was given over to sack and massacre for more than a month, by
+which time 1,800,000 people are said to have perished.
+
+The Caliphate was transplanted to Cairo, where it dragged out an anaemic
+existence until Selim I seized it, with the person of the then Caliph,
+by right of conquest, and it has been an appanage of the Ottoman
+reigning house ever since.
+
+Selim the Magnificent may be called the Turkish top-note. After him the
+Ottoman Empire gradually declined. It has generally taken advantage of
+disaster or dissension to extend its borders--a precarious method of
+empire-building unless consolidated by benevolent and sound
+administration, which is not a feature of Turkish rule. Add to this the
+facts that Turks are slack Moslems, that the national party which ousted
+Abdul Hamid (himself most orthodox) is not religious at all, with all
+its barbarian, totemistic nonsense of the "White Wolf," and that they
+_would_ pose as conquerors on insufficient grounds, and we begin to see
+why they have been kicked out of their Asiatic empire bit by bit.
+
+If Turk and Mongol had been capable of dynastic evolution and
+co-ordinate policy they might have shared most of the Eastern Hemisphere
+between them. We have seen the high-water mark of the Ottoman Empire;
+Marco Polo has told us of Kubla Khan's Chinese Empire, and the Moguls
+did much for India in their prime. But the wolf-taint was in their
+blood, and just as a pet wolf gets fat and degenerate, so it has been
+with these Tartars. Their undoubted soldierly qualities are sapped by
+luxury, and they possess no constructive gifts which peace and
+prosperity might develop. Hence it is that every empire they have
+founded has risen to a culminating point of conquest and then dwindled
+away in sloth and corruption.
+
+The Turk is not fit to be put in charge of any race but his own, for he
+is at heart a bitter wolf who will turn and rend without ruth or
+warning. I have met Turks who have shown tact, humanity, and ability
+under trying conditions, and I have met well-mannered wolves in
+captivity, but would not trust the pack ranging in its native forest. I
+once heard a member of our Ottoman Embassy who has unique experience of
+the Turk size him up as follows: "The Turk can be a suave and cultured
+gentleman till his time comes, and then he will tear your guts out and
+_dance_ on them." It was the Seljouk Turks whose persecutions caused
+the Crusades. Before them, Arab rule in Palestine was tolerant enough,
+and the Caliph Omar was scrupulously careful when he entered Jerusalem
+as a conqueror to respect Christian prejudices and the monuments of our
+creed.
+
+So it came about that their empire was dropping from them piecemeal even
+before the War, for a race that can no longer conquer and has never
+learned to conciliate must draw in its borders or cease to exist as a
+State.
+
+When war broke out Turkey was just hanging on to the last scrap of her
+empire in Europe and had lost all but the shadow of sovereignty in
+Egypt, while Arabia was seething with discontent, where not in actual
+revolt, and regarded the belated efforts of local officials to govern
+tactfully as signs of weakness.
+
+The colossal brigandage of Germany appealed to her freebooting
+instincts, although it took a corrupt, self-seeking Government and a
+final push from the "Goeben" and the "Breslau" to plunge her into war
+against her best friends.
+
+To proclaim a _jihad_ was her obvious course, if only to keep Arabia
+moderately quiet, apart from its value as a weapon against her Christian
+foes. We will now see how she fared in the "Holy War."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ITS BEARING ON THE WAR
+
+
+Quite early in the War those of us who had to deal with pan-Islamic
+propaganda realised that the widespread organisation which Germany had
+grafted on to the original Turkish movement must have existed some time
+before the outbreak of actual hostilities.
+
+For example, there was a snug, smooth-running concern at San Francisco
+which spread its tentacles all over the Moslem world, but specialised in
+a seditious newspaper called _El'-Ghadr_, which means treachery or
+mutiny. This was particularly directed at our Indian Army, but Egypt was
+not forgotten. A gifted censor sent us an early copy, but had,
+unfortunately, lost the wrapper, so our earnest desire to make the
+addressee's closer acquaintance was thwarted.
+
+Stamboul was naturally an active centre, and, before the Turks entered
+the War, Turkish officers in full uniform, and sometimes even wearing
+swords, permeated Cairo cafes with espionage and verbal propaganda,
+trying to fan into flame the military ardour of Egyptian students and
+men about town. This last activity was wasted effort, as anyone who knew
+the type could have told them; the effendis abstained from the crudities
+of personal service and confined themselves to stirring up the town
+riffraff, who wanted a safer form of villainy than open riot, and the
+_fellahin_, who wanted a safe market for their produce and easy
+taxation, both of which they stood to lose by violence. Many a _fellah_
+still believes that the War was a myth created by the authorities to put
+prices up. Even Teuton activity failed to stimulate these placid folk,
+and the glad tidings preached by the madder type of German missionary
+that the Kaiser was the Messiah left them unmoved.
+
+When the Turks came in against us, and the ex-Khedive, safe among his
+new-found friends, threw off the mask, the Cairene effendis became
+tremendously active. Forgetting how they had disliked Abbas II and
+called him a huckstering profligate, they mourned for his deposal by
+wearing black ties, especially the students. Some of these enthusiastic
+young heroes even went so far as to scatter chlorate of potash crackers
+about when their school was visited by poor old Sultan Husein (who was
+worth six of his predecessor), and he got quite a shock, which was
+flagrantly and noisomely accentuated by asafoetida bomblets.
+
+The ex-Khedive did not share their patriotic grief. He was quite
+comfortable while awaiting the downfall of British rule, for, with
+shrewd prescience that almost seems inspired, he had taken prudent
+measures for his future comfort and luxury before leaving Egypt on his
+usual summer tour to Europe. He had mortgaged real estate up to the
+hilt, realised on immobile property as far as possible, and diverted his
+fluid assets through various channels beyond the reach of his sorrowing
+subjects and the Egyptian Government. When an official inventory was
+taken in Abdin Palace at the accession of the late Sultan Husein, it was
+ascertained that the famous inlaid and begemmed coffee-service, which,
+like our Crown jewels, was not supposed to leave the country, had been
+sent after the ex-Khedive to his new address--truly a man of parts. I
+have often wondered whether his Hunnish friends got him to disgorge by
+means of a forced loan or war-bonds, or something of that sort. If so,
+they achieved something notable, for he has left behind him, beside his
+liabilities, the name of being a difficult man to get money out of.
+
+When the Turco-Teuton blade was actually drawn in Holy War I was down
+with enteric, which I had contracted while working in disguise among
+seditious circles in the slums of Old Cairo. I just convalesced in time
+to join the Intelligence Staff on the Canal the day before Jemal Pasha's
+army attacked. His German staff had everything provided for in advance
+with their usual thoroughness. From the documents and prisoners that
+came through our hands we learnt that the hotel in Cairo where the
+victors were to dine after their triumphant entry had actually been
+selected, and some enthusiasts went so far as to insist that the menu
+had been prepared. If so, they omitted to get the Canal Army on toast,
+and for want of this indispensable item the event fell through. All the
+same, it was a soldierly enterprise, and if the Senussis had invaded in
+force or the population risen behind us, as they hoped would be the
+case, the result might have been different.
+
+As it was they put up a very good fight and their arrangements for
+getting across the Sinaitic desert were excellent. For the last ten
+miles they man-handled their pontoons to the edge of the Canal. These
+craft were marvels of lightness and carrying capacity, but, of course,
+no protection whatever against even a rifle-bullet, and they had not
+fully reckoned with the Franco-British naval flotilla, which proved a
+formidable factor.
+
+The morning after the main fight a little Syrian subaltern passed
+through my hands. He had been slightly wounded in the leg and still
+showed signs of nervous shock, so I made him sit down with a cigarette
+while I questioned him. He had been in charge of a pontoon manned by his
+party and said that they had got halfway across the Canal in perfect
+silence when "the mouth of hell opened" and the pontoon was sinking in a
+swirl of stricken men amid a hail of projectiles. He and two others swam
+to our side of the Canal, where they surrendered to an Indian
+detachment.
+
+Our Indian troops on the Canal were naturally a mark for pan-Islamic
+propaganda reinforced by Hindu literature of the _Bande Mataram_
+type,--a double-barrelled enterprise to bag both the great creeds of
+India. The astute propagandists had a pamphlet or two aimed at Sikhism,
+which they seemed to consider a nation, as they spoke of their national
+aspirations, though an elementary study of the subject might have taught
+them that it was a religious and secular movement originally intended to
+curb Moslem power in India during the sway of the later Moguls. Anyone
+but a Moslem can be a Sikh.
+
+Naturally I was on the _qui vive_ for signs of pan-Islamic activity on
+the enemy's side, and I questioned my little Syrian very closely to
+ascertain how far the movement was used as a driving force among the
+troops engaged against us. He, personally, had rather a grievance on the
+subject, for the Indian Moslems who took him had reproached him bitterly
+for fighting on the wrong side. "I fought," he said, "because it was my
+duty as an officer of the Ottoman Army. I know that men were invited to
+join as for a _jihad_, but we officers did not deceive ourselves. _Par
+exemple_, I think myself a better Moslem than any Turk, but what would
+you?" I consoled the little man while concealing my satisfaction at the
+feeling displayed against him. An extraordinarily heterogeneous
+collection of prisoners came dribbling through my hands directly after
+the Turks were repulsed. Most were practically deserters who had been
+forcibly enrolled, given a Mauser and a bandoleer, and told to go and
+fight for the Holy Places of Islam. As one of the more intelligent
+remarked, "If the Holy Places are really in danger, what are we doing
+down this way?"
+
+They came from all over the Moslem world. There were one or two Russian
+pilgrims returning from Mecca to be snapped up by the military
+authorities at Damascus railway station when they got out of the pilgrim
+train from Medina. There were cabdrivers from Jerusalem, a stranded
+pilgrim from China, several Tripolitans who had been roped in on the
+Palestine seaboard while trying to get a passage home, a Moor who tried
+to embrace my feet when I spoke of the snow-crowned Atlas above Morocco
+City (Marraksh) and told him that he would be landed at Tangier in due
+course--Inshallah. Of course we released, and repatriated as far as we
+could, men who were not Ottoman subjects and had obviously been forced
+into service against us. A few days later, when Jemal Pasha's army was
+getting into commissariat difficulties out in the Sinaitic desert (for
+the Staff had relied on entering Egypt), we began to get the real Turks
+among our prisoners.
+
+I was very curious to ascertain if they had been worked up with
+pan-Islamic propaganda or carried any of it on them, for there was not
+even a Red Crescent Koran on any of the Arabic-speaking prisoners. A
+search of their effects revealed a remarkable phase of propaganda. There
+was hardly any religious literature except a loose page or two of some
+pious work like the "Traditions of Muhammad," but there were quantities
+of rather crude (and very lewd) picture-cards portraying soldiers in
+Turkish uniform outraging and murdering nude or semi-nude women and
+children, while corpses in priestly garb, shattered crucifixes, and
+burning churches indicated the creed that was being so harried and gave
+the scene a stimulating background. From their appearance I should say
+these pictures were originally engraved to commemorate Balkan or
+Armenian atrocities, but their possessors, on being closely questioned,
+admitted that the impression conveyed to them was of the joyous licence
+which was to be theirs among the Frankish civilians after forcing the
+Canal. One Kurdish gentleman had among his kit fancy socks, knitted
+craftily in several vivid colours, also ornate slippers to wear in his
+promised palatial billet at Cairo. There were some odd articles among
+the kit of these Turkish prisoners, to wit, a brand-new garden
+thermometer, which some wag insisted was for testing the temperature of
+the Canal before immersion, and a lavatory towel looted from the Hejaz
+railway. Still, nothing was quite so remarkable as a white flag with a
+jointed staff in a neat, compact case which had been carried by a German
+officer. Among his papers was an indecent post-card not connected, I
+think, with propaganda of any sort, as it portrayed a bright-coloured
+female of ripe figure and Teutonic aspect, wearing a pair of long
+stockings and high-heeled shoes, and bore the legend "Gruss von
+Muenchen."
+
+A certain coyness, or possibly an appreciation of their personal value,
+kept most of the German officers from actual contact with our line. Only
+one reached the Canal bank, and he is there still. The German touch,
+however, was much in evidence. There were detailed written orders about
+manning the pontoons, not to talk, cough, sneeze, etc., and for each man
+to move along the craft as far as feasible and then sit down. They seem
+to have relied entirely on surprise, and ignored the chance of its
+occurring on the wrong side of the Canal. The emergency rations too
+which we found on the earlier batches of prisoners had a distinctly
+Teutonic flavour--they were so scientifically nourishing in theory and
+so vilely inedible in practice. They were a species of flat gluten cake
+rather like a dog-biscuit, but much harder. An amateur explosive expert
+of ours tested one of these things by attempting detonation and ignition
+before he would let his batch of prisoners retain them, which, to do
+their intelligence justice, they were not keen on doing, but offered any
+quantity of the stuff for cigarettes. We ascertained from them that you
+were supposed to soak it in water before tackling it in earnest, but as
+the only supply (except the runlet they still carried on them) was in
+the fresh-water canal behind our unshaken line, such a course was not
+practicable; the discovery of a very dead Turk some days later in that
+canal led to the ribald suggestion that he had rashly endeavoured to eat
+his ration. Our scientist laid great stress on its extraordinary
+nutritive properties, but desisted, after breaking a tooth off his
+denture, in actual experiment.
+
+German influence, too, was apparent in the relations between officers
+and men. A Turkish _yuzbashi_ was asked to get a big batch of prisoners
+to form two groups according to the languages they spoke--Arabic or
+Turkish. It was not an easy task in the open on a pitch-black night, but
+he did it with soldierly promptitude and flung his glowing cigarette end
+in the face of a dilatory private. As a natural corollary it may be
+mentioned here that one or two of our prisoners had deserted after
+shooting officers who had struck them.
+
+For some days after the battles of Serapeum and Toussoum we expected
+another attempt, but they had been more heavily mauled than we thought
+at first. The dead in the Canal were kept down by the weight of their
+ammunition for some time, and the shifting sand on the Sinaitic side
+was always revealing hastily-buried corpses on their line of retreat.
+
+Jemal Pasha hurried back to Gaza and published a grandiloquent report
+for Moslem consumption, to the effect that the Turks were already in
+Cairo (as was indeed the case with many hundreds), and that, of the
+_giaour_ fleet, one ship had sunk, one had been set on fire, and the
+rest had fled. Two heavy howitzers, as a matter of fact, had managed by
+indirect fire from a concealed position to land a couple of projectiles
+on the "Hardinge," which was not originally built for such rough
+treatment, being an Indian marine vessel taken over by the Navy. She
+gave more than she got when her four-point-sevens found the massed
+Turkish supports.
+
+A great deal of criticism has been flung at this first series of fights
+on the Canal, mostly by Anglo-Egyptian civilians. They asked derisively
+whether we were protecting the Canal or the Canal us. The answer is in
+the affirmative to both questions. Ordinary steamer traffic was only
+suspended for a day during the first onslaught, and the G.O.C. was not
+such a fool as to leave the Canal in his rear and forgo the defensive
+advantage. There are some who, in their military ardour, would have had
+him pursue the enemy into the desert, forgetting that to leave a sound
+position and pursue a superior force on an ever-widening front in a
+barren country which they know better than you do and have furnished
+with their own supply-bases is just asking for trouble. Our few
+aeroplanes in those days could only reconnoitre twenty miles out, and
+there was no evidence that the enemy had not merely fallen back to his
+line of wells preparatory to another attempt. We had not then the men,
+material, or resources for a triumphant advance into Sinai; it was
+enough to make sure of keeping the enemy that side of the Canal with the
+Senussi sitting on the fence and Egypt honeycombed with seditious
+propaganda.
+
+Anyone at all in touch with native life in Cairo could gauge the extent
+of propagandist activity by gossip at cafes and in the bazars. The
+Senussi was marching against us. India was in revolt and the Indian Army
+on the Canal had joined the Turks. The crowning stroke of ingenuity was
+a tale that received wide credence among quite intelligent Egyptians. It
+was to the effect that the Turks had commandeered an enormous number of
+camels and empty kerosene tins. This was quite true so far, but the yarn
+then rose to the following flight of fancy: These empty tins were to be
+filled with dry cement and loaded on camels, which were to be marched
+without water for days until they reached the Canal, when the pangs of
+thirst would compel them to rush madly into the water. The cement would
+solidify and the Faithful would march across on a composite bridge of
+camel and concrete. Our flotilla was to be penned in by similar means.
+
+There must be something about a Turk that hypnotises an Egyptian. His
+country has suffered appallingly under Ottoman rule, and a pure-blooded
+Turk can seldom be decently civil to him and considers him almost
+beneath contempt. This is the conquering Tartar pose that has earned the
+Turk such detestation and final ruin in Arabia, but it seems to have
+fascinated the Egyptian like a rabbit in the presence of a python. Quite
+early in the Turkish invasion of Sinai a detachment of Egyptian camelry,
+operating in conjunction with the Bikanirs, deserted _en masse_ to the
+enemy. It was at first supposed that they had been captured, but we
+afterwards heard of their being feted somewhere in Palestine. On the
+other hand, an Egyptian battery did yeoman service on the Canal; I saw a
+pontoon that looked like a carelessly opened sardine-tin as a result of
+its attentions.
+
+The most tragic aspect of this spurious and mischievous propaganda was
+its victims from Indian regiments. The Indian Moslem as a rule has no
+illusions about the Turks, and will fight them at sight, but there will
+always be a few misguided bigots to whom a specious and dogmatic
+argument will appeal. There is no occasion to dwell on these cases,
+which were sporadic only and generally soon met with the fate incurred
+by attempted desertion to the enemy.
+
+We looked on the movement as an insidious and dangerous disease and did
+our best to trace it to its source and stop the distributing channels.
+After events on the Canal had simmered down, I was seconded to Cairo to
+help tackle the movement there: to show how little hold it had over the
+minds of thinking Moslems. I may mention that my colleague was a Pathan
+major who was a very strict Moslem and a first-rate fellow to boot.
+
+We both served under an Anglo-Indian major belonging to the C.I.D., one
+of the most active little men I have ever met. There were also several
+"ferrets," or Intelligence agents, who came into close contact with the
+"suspects" and could be trusted up to a certain point if you looked
+sharply after them. This is as much as can be said for any of these men,
+though some are better, and some worse, than others. On the Canal we
+employed numbers of them to keep us informed of the enemy's movements
+and used to check them with the aerial reconnaissance--they needed it.
+It did not take us long to find out that these sophisticated Sinaites
+had established an Intelligence bureau of their own. They used to meet
+their "opposite numbers" employed by the enemy at pre-arranged spots
+between the lines and swop information, thereby avoiding unnecessary
+toil or risk (the Sinaitic Bedouin loathes both) and obtaining news of
+interest for both sides. It was a magnificently simple scheme; its sole
+flaw was in failing to realise that some of us had played the Great Game
+before. We used to time our emissaries to their return and cross-check
+them where their wanderings intersected those of others--all were
+supposed to be trackers and one or two knew something about it. Of
+course they were searched and researched on crossing and returning to
+our outpost line, for they could not be trusted to refuse messages to or
+from the Turks. It was among this coterie that the brilliant idea
+originated of shaving a messenger's head, writing a despatch on his
+scalp, and then letting his hair grow before he started to deliver it. I
+doubt if any of our folk were thorough enough for this, but we tested
+for it occasionally, and an unpleasant job it was. Generally they would
+incur suspicion by their too speedy return and the nonchalant way in
+which they imparted tidings which would have driven them into ecstasies
+of self-appreciation had they obtained such by legitimate methods. Then
+a purposely false bit of information calculated to cause certain
+definite action on the other side would usually betray them. Some
+purists suggested a firing party as a fitting end for these gambits, but
+that would have been a waste. Such men have their uses, until they know
+they are suspected, as valuable channels of misinformation. No doubt the
+enemy knew this too, and that is how an Intelligence Officer earns his
+pay, by sifting grain from chaff as it comes in and sending out empty
+husks and mouldy news.
+
+But to return to Cairo. We netted a good deal of small fry, but only
+landed one big fish during the time I was attached. He was a
+Mesopotamian and a very respectable old gentleman, who followed the
+calling of astrologer and peripatetic quack--a common combination and
+admirably adapted for distributing propaganda. He came from Stamboul
+through Athens with exemplary credentials, and might have got through to
+India, which was the landfall he proposed to make, if his propagandist
+energy had not led him to deviate on a small side-tour in Egypt. Here
+we got on his track, and I boarded the Port Said express at short notice
+while he and the "ferret" who had picked him up got into a third-class
+compartment lower down. As the agent made no signal after the train had
+pulled out, I knew our man had not got the bulk of his propaganda with
+him, otherwise I had powers to hold up the express, for it was more
+important to get his stuff than the man himself. At Port Said he had a
+chance of seeing me, thanks to the agent's clumsiness, and I had to
+shave my beard off and buy a sun-helmet in consequence, for I was
+travelling in the same ship along the Canal to see that he did not
+communicate with troops on either side of the bank, and on the slightest
+suspicion he would have put his stuff over the side. All went smoothly
+and he was arrested in Suez roads by plain-clothes men with a sackful of
+seditious literature for printing broadcast in India. Of course they
+arrested the "ferret" too, as is usual in these cases. I went ashore
+with them in the police-launch as a casual traveller and was amused to
+hear the agent rating the old man for not having prophesied this mishap
+when telling his fortune the night before.
+
+The propagandist was merely interned in a place of security--it was not
+our policy to make martyrs of such men, especially when they were _bona
+fide_ Ottoman subjects.
+
+I was rather out of touch with the pan-Islamic movement during the
+summer of 1915, as my lungs had become seriously affected on the Canal,
+and the trouble became so acute that I had to spend two or three months
+in the hills of Cyprus. Before I had been there a week the G.O.C. troops
+in Egypt cabled for me to return and proceed to Aden as political
+officer with troops.
+
+I was too ill then to move and had to cable to that effect. My chagrin
+at missing a "show" was much alleviated when I heard what the show was.
+As it had a marked effect on the pan-Islamic campaign by enhancing
+Turkish prestige, it is not out of place to give some account of it
+here.
+
+While I was still on the Canal in February (1915) a "memo" was sent for
+my information from Headquarters at Cairo to say that the Turks had
+invaded the Aden protectorate at Dhala, where I once served on a
+boundary commission.
+
+I noted the fact and presumed that Aden was quite able to cope with the
+situation, as the Turks had a most difficult terrain to traverse before
+they could get clear of the hills and reach the littoral, while the
+hinterland tribes are noted for their combatant instincts and efficiency
+in guerilla warfare, besides being anti-Turk. I had, however, in spite
+of many years' experience, failed to reckon with Aden apathy. True to
+the policy of _laissez faire_ which was inaugurated when our Boundary
+Commission withdrew some twelve years ago, Aden had been depending for
+news of her own protectorate on office files and native report,
+especially on that much overrated friend and ally the Lahej sultanate.
+The Turks knew all about this, for the leakage of Aden affairs which
+trickles through Lahej and over the Yamen border is, and has been for
+years, a flagrant scandal.
+
+The invasion at Dhala was a feint just to test the soundness of official
+slumber at Aden; the obvious route for a large force was down the Tiban
+valley, owing to the easier going and the permanent water-supply.
+
+Our border-sultan (the Haushabi) was suborned with leisurely
+thoroughness all unknown to his next-door neighbour, that purblind
+sultanate at Lahej, unless the latter refrained from breaking Aden's
+holy calm with such unpleasant news.
+
+In May Aden stirred in her sleep and sent out the Aden troop to
+reconnoitre. This fine body of Indian cavalry and camelry reported that
+affairs seemed serious up the Tiban valley; then inertia reasserted
+itself and they were recalled. Also the Lahej sultanate, in a spasm of
+economy, started disbanding the Arab levies collected for the emergency
+from the tribes of the remoter hinterland which have supplied fine
+mercenaries to many oriental sultanates for many centuries.
+
+The watchful Turk, with his unmolested spy system, had noted every move
+of these pitiful blunders, and, at the psychological moment, came
+pouring down the Tiban valley some 3,000 strong with another 5,000 Arab
+levies. They picked up the Haushabi on the way, whose main idea was to
+get a free kick at Lahej, just as an ordinary human boy will serve some
+sneak and prig to whom a slack schoolmaster has relegated his own
+obvious duty of supervision. To do that inadequate sultanate justice, it
+tried to bar the way with its own trencher-fed troops and such levies as
+it had, but was brushed aside contemptuously by the hardier levies
+opposed to it and the overwhelming fire of the Turkish field batteries.
+Then a distraught and frantic palace emitted mounted messengers to Aden
+for assistance like minute-guns from a sinking ship.
+
+Aden behaved exactly like a startled hen. She ran about clucking and
+collecting motor-cars, camel transport, anything. The authorities dared
+not leave their pet sultan in the lurch--questions might be asked in the
+House. On the other hand they had made no adequate arrangements to
+protect him. Just as a demented hen will leave her brood at the mercy of
+a hovering kite to round up one stray chick instead of sitting tight and
+calling it in under her wing, so Aden made a belated and insane attempt
+to save Lahej.
+
+The Aden Movable Column, a weak brigade of Indians, young Territorials,
+and guns, marched out at 2 p.m. on July 4, _i.e._ at the hottest time of
+day, in the hottest season of the year and the hottest part of the
+world. Motor-cars were used to convey the infantry of the advanced
+guard, but the main body had to march in full equipment with ammunition.
+The casualties from sunstroke were appalling. The late G.O.C. troops in
+Egypt mentioned them to me in hundreds, and one of the Aden "politicals"
+told me that not a dozen of the territorial battalion remained effective
+at the end of the day. Many were bowled over by the heat before they had
+gone two miles.
+
+Most of the native camel transport, carrying water, ammunition and
+supplies,--and yet unescorted and not even attended by a responsible
+officer--sauntered off into the desert and vanished from the ken of that
+ill-fated column.
+
+Meanwhile the advanced guard of 250 men (mostly Indians) and two
+10-pounder mountain-guns pushed on with all speed to Lahej, which was
+being attacked by several thousand Turks and Turco-Arabs with 15-pounder
+field batteries and machine-guns. They found the palace and part of the
+town on fire when they arrived, and fought the Turks hand-to-hand in the
+streets. They held on all through that sweltering night, and only
+retired when dawn showed them the hopeless nature of their task and the
+fact that they were being outflanked. They fell back on the main body,
+which had stuck halfway at a wayside well (Bir Nasir) marked so
+obviously by ruins that even Aden guides could not miss it. Shortage of
+water was the natural result of sitting over a well that does not even
+supply a settlement, but merely the ordinary needs of wayfarers.
+
+This well is marked on the Aden protectorate survey map (which is
+procurable by the general public) as Bir Muhammad, its full name being
+Bir Muhammad Nasir. There are five wells supplying settlements within
+half an hour's walk of it on either side of the track, but when we
+remember that the column's field-guns got no further owing to heavy
+sand, and that the aforesaid track is frequently traversed by ordinary
+_tikkagharries_, we realise the local knowledge available.
+
+The column straggled back to the frontier town of Sheikh Othman, which
+they prepared to defend, but Simla, by this time thoroughly alarmed,
+ordered them back for the defence of Aden, and they returned without
+definite achievement other than the accidental shooting of the Lahej
+sultan. This was hardly the fault of the heroic little band which
+reached Lahej; that ill-starred potentate was escaping with his mounted
+retinue before dawn and cantered on top of an Indian outpost without the
+formality of answering their challenge. He was brought away in a
+motor-car and died at Aden a few days later--another victim to this
+deplorable blunder. Any intelligent and timely grasp of the enemy's
+strength and intention would have given the poor man ample time to pack
+his inlaid hookahs, Persian carpets, and other palace treasures and
+withdraw in safety to Aden while our troops made good the Sheikh Othman
+line along the British frontier. I am presuming that Aden was too much
+taken by surprise to have met the Turks in a position of her own
+choosing while they were still entangled in hilly country where levies
+of the right sort could have harried them to some purpose, backed by
+disciplined, unspent troops and adequate guns. What I wish to impress
+is that the Intelligence Department at Aden must have been abominably
+served and organised, for I decline to believe that _any_ G.O.C. would
+have attempted such an enterprise with such a force and at such a time
+had he any information as to the real nature of his task. As it was, the
+British town of Sheikh Othman, within easy sight of Aden across the
+harbour, was held by the Turks until a reinforcing column came down from
+the Canal and drove them out of it, while the protectorate has been
+overrun by the Turks and the Turco-Arabs until long after the armistice,
+and the state of British prestige there can be imagined.
+
+Official attempts to gloze over the incident would have been amusing if
+they were not pathetic. Needless to say they did not deceive Moslems in
+Egypt or the rest of Arabia.
+
+Here is the most accurate account they gave the public:
+
+
+    "TURKS AND ADEN.
+
+    "ENGAGEMENT AT LAHEJ.
+
+    "The India Office issued the following _communique_ last night
+    through the Press Bureau:
+
+      "'In consequence of rumours that a Turkish force from the
+      Yamen had crossed the frontier of the Aden Hinterland and
+      was advancing towards Lahej, the General Officer Commanding
+      at Aden recently dispatched the Aden Camel Troop to
+      reconnoitre.
+
+      "'They reported the presence of a Turkish force with
+      field-guns and a large number of Arabs and fell back on
+      Lahej, where they were reinforced by the advance guard of
+      the Aden Movable Column consisting of 250 rifles and two
+      10-pounder guns.
+
+      "'Our force at Lahej was attacked by the enemy on July 4 by
+      a force of several thousand Turks with twenty guns and
+      large numbers of Arabs, and maintained its position in face
+      of the enemy artillery's fire until night, when part of
+      Lahej was in flames. During the night some hand-to-hand
+      fighting took place, and the enemy also commenced to
+      outflank us.
+
+      "'Meanwhile the remainder of the Aden Movable Column was
+      marching towards Lahej, but was delayed by water
+      difficulties and heavy going. It was therefore decided that
+      the small force at Lahej should fall back.
+
+      "'The retirement was carried out successfully in the early
+      morning of July 5, and the detachment joined the rest of
+      the column at Bir Nasir. Our troops, however, were
+      suffering considerably from the great heat and the shortage
+      of water, and their difficulties were increased by the
+      desertion of Arab transport followers. It was therefore
+      decided to fall back to Aden, and this was done without the
+      enemy attempting to follow up.
+
+      "'Our losses included three British officers wounded: names
+      will be communicated later. We took one Turkish officer (a
+      major) and thirteen men prisoners.'"
+
+Aden seems to have made no attempt to stem the tide of Turkish influence
+while she could. The best fighting tribe in the protectorate stretches
+along the coast and far inland north-east of Aden, and its capital is
+only a few hours' steam from that harbour. The Turks made every effort
+to win over this important tribal unit, which might have been a grave
+menace on their left flank. Its sultan made frequent representations to
+Aden for even a gunboat to show itself off his port, but to no purpose.
+After the Turks had succeeded in alienating those of his tribe they
+could get at, or who could get at them, a tardy political visit was paid
+by sea from Aden. The indignant old sultan came aboard and spoke his
+mind. "You throw your friends on the midden," he said bitterly, and
+departed to establish a _modus vivendi_ on his own account with the
+Turks.
+
+The situation at Aden has had a marked effect in bolstering up the
+Turkish campaign of spurious pan-Islamism, and those of us who have been
+dealing with chiefs in other parts of Arabia have met it at every turn.
+It is idle to blame individuals--the whole system is at fault. The
+policy of non-interference which the Liberal Government introduced,
+after the Boundary Commission had finished its task and withdrawn, has
+been over-strained by the Aden authorities to such an extent that they
+would neither keep in direct personal touch themselves nor let anyone
+else do so.
+
+As an explorer and naturalist whose chief work has lain for years in
+that country, I have made every effort to continue my researches there
+until my persistency has incurred official persecution. The serious
+aspect of this attitude is that at a time when accurate and up-to-date
+knowledge of the hinterland would have been invaluable it was not
+available. The pernicious policy of selecting any one chief (unchecked
+by a European) to keep her posted as to affairs in her own protectorate
+has been followed blindly by Aden to disaster. The excuse in official
+circles there is that the Haushabi sultan had been suborned by the Turks
+without their knowledge and he had prevented any information from
+getting through Lahej to them. Can there be any more damning indictment
+of such a system?
+
+The Aden incident is similar to the Mesopotamian medical muddle, both
+being due to sporadic dry-rot in high places which the test of war
+revealed. The loyalty of its princes and the devotion of its army prove
+that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with British rule in India to
+command such sentiments, but some of those mandarins who have had wide
+control of human affairs and destinies have ignored a situation until it
+was forcibly thrust upon them and have fumbled with it disastrously. It
+is difficult to bring such people to book, for they shuffle
+responsibility from one to the other or take refuge in the truly
+oriental pose of heaven-born officialdom. Such types should be obsolete
+even in India by now, but this war has proved that they are not, and
+when their inanities fritter away gallant lives and trail British
+prestige in the dust they need rebuke. I hope some day, if I live, to
+deal faithfully with Aden's hinterland policy.
+
+In the autumn of 1915 I was fit enough to join the Red Sea maritime
+patrol as political officer with the naval rank of lieutenant. Our
+duties were to harry the Turk without hurting the Arab, to blockade the
+Arabian coast against the Turk while allowing dhow-traffic with
+foodstuffs consigned to Arab merchants and steamer-cargoes of food for
+the alleged use of pilgrims to go through. Incidentally we had to keep
+the eastern highway free of mines and transportable submarines, prevent
+the passage of spies between Arabia and Egypt, and fetch and carry as
+the shore-folk required.
+
+Taking it all round, it was not an easy job, but I think the blockade
+presented the most complex features. You knew where you were with
+spies--anyone with the necessary experience could spot a doubtful
+customer as soon as the dhow that carried him came alongside; and
+irregular but frequent visits at the various ports soon put a stop to
+the mine-industry and prevented any materialisation of the submarine
+menace except in reports from Aden which caused me a good many
+additional trips in an armed steam-cutter to "go, look, see."
+
+But the problems presented by the blockade required some solving with
+very little time for the operation, and if your solution was not
+approved by the authorities on the beach they lost no time in letting
+you know it--usually by wireless, which was picked up by most ships in
+the patrol by the time it reached you.
+
+The basic idea was that if in doubt it was better to let stuff through
+to the Turks than pinch Hejazi bellies and get ourselves disliked. In
+theory this was perfectly sound, for we wanted the Hejaz to like us well
+enough to fight on our side, and only the Huns think you can get people
+to love you by afflicting them. In practice, however, we soon found that
+the Hejazi merchants were selling direct to the Turks and letting their
+fellow-countrymen have what was left at the highest possible price. On
+top of it all India started a howl that her pilgrims in the Hejaz were
+starving, and we had to defer to this outcry. I have never had to
+legislate for highly-civilised Moslems with a taste for agitation, but I
+have always sympathised with those who have, and could quite appreciate
+India's position in the matter. Still, after comparing her relief
+cargoes with the number of her pilgrims in the country and finding that
+each had enough to feed him for the rest of his natural life, I ventured
+to ask that this wholesale charity might cease, more especially as these
+big steamer-cargoes were dealt with much as the dhow-borne cereals and
+chiefly benefited the Turks and local profiteers.
+
+As regards dhows, our rule was to allow coastal traffic from Jeddah and
+empties returning there, as it tended to distribute food among the Arabs
+and get it away from the Turks. Dhows bringing cargo from the African
+coast or from Aden were permitted, provided they did not carry
+contraband of war; this permitted native cereals, such as millet, but
+barred wheat and particularly barred barley, which the local Arab does
+not eat for choice, but which the Turks wanted very badly for their
+cavalry.
+
+In this connection a typical incident may be mentioned as illustrating
+the sort of thing we were up against.
+
+The ship I was serving in at the time lay off Jeddah and had three boats
+down picketing the dhow-channels leading in to that reef-girt harbour,
+for which dhows were making like homing bees. In such cases my post was
+usually on the bridge, while the ship's interpreter and Arab-speaking
+Seedee-boys went away in the boats. The dhows were reached and their
+papers examined, then allowed to proceed if all was in order. Otherwise
+the officer examining signalled the facts and awaited instructions.
+Usually it was some technical point which I could waive, but on this
+occasion one of the cutters made a signal to the effect that barley in
+bulk had been found in one dhow. I was puzzled, because all the dhows
+were from Suakin or further south, quite outside the barley-belt, except
+on very high ground which rarely exports cereals. However, the signal
+was repeated, and I had to have the dhow alongside. Meanwhile the
+"owner" was anxious to get steerage-way, for we were not at anchor and
+in very ticklish soundings; so I slid off the bridge and had a sample of
+the grain handed up to me: it was a species of millet, looking very like
+pearl-barley as "milled" for culinary purposes. I shouted to the _reis_
+to go where he liked as long as he kept clear of our propellers, which
+thereupon gave a ponderous flap or two as if to emphasise my remarks,
+and he bore away from us rejoicing. In the ward-room later on I rallied
+that cutter's officer on his error. "Well, it was just like the barley
+one sees in soup," was his defence.
+
+In the southern part of the Red Sea, which was handled politically from
+Aden, the problems of blockade were even more complex, for there even
+arms and ammunition were allowed between certain ports to meet the
+convenience of the Idrisi chief, who was theoretically at war with the
+Turks, but rather diffident about putting his principles into practice,
+especially after the Turkish success outside Aden.
+
+This meant that the sorely-tried officers responsible for the conduct
+of the blockade in those waters had frequently to decide on a cargo of
+illicit-looking rifles and cartridges, not of Government make, but
+purchased from private firms and guaranteed by a filthy scrap of paper
+inscribed with crabbed Arabic which carried no conviction. All they had
+to help them was the half-educated ship's interpreter, with no knowledge
+of the political situation, for Aden had not an officer available for
+this work. To enhance the difficulties of the position, some of these
+coastal chiefs were importing contraband of war to sell to the Turks for
+private gain. Up north there were no difficulties with illicit arms; we
+allowed a reasonable number per dhow, provided that they were the
+private property of the crew, and when rifles were dished out to our
+Arab friends the Navy delivered the goods, which were all of Government
+mark and pattern.
+
+The political aspect of the blockade required delicate handling anywhere
+along the Arabian littoral of the Red Sea, but especially so on the
+Hejazi coast. We were at war with the Turks but not with the Arabs, whom
+it was our business to approach as friends if they would let us. The
+Turks, however, used Arab levies freely against us whose truculence was
+much increased on finding they could make hostile demonstrations with
+impunity, as the patrol only fired on the Turkish uniform, since few
+people can distinguish between a Turco-Arab gendarme and an armed
+tribesman at long range unless they know both breeds intimately.
+
+The general standard of honour and good faith at most places along the
+Arabian littoral is not high, even from an Oriental point of view, and
+is nowhere lower than on the Hejazi coast. Frequently an unattached
+tribesman would take a shot at a reconnoitring cutter on general
+principles and then rush off to the nearest Turkish post with the
+information and a demand for bakshish, and there were several attempts
+(one successful) to lure a landing party on to a well-manned but
+carefully hidden position. As for the actual levies, they would solemnly
+man prepared positions within easy range of even a 3-pounder when we
+visited their tinpot ports, relying on us not to fire, and telling their
+compatriots what they would do if we did.
+
+Even when examining dhows one had to be on one's guard, and it was best
+not to board them to leeward and so run the risk of having their big,
+bellying mainsail let go on top of you and getting scuppered while
+entangled in its folds. African dhows could generally be trusted not to
+resist search, for when a _reis_ has got his owners or agents at a
+civilised port like Suakin he likes to keep respectable even if he _is_
+smuggling. Our chief difficulty with such craft, before we tightened the
+blockade, was due to the nonchalant manner in which they put to sea and
+behaved when at sea. Their skippers had the sketchiest idea of what
+constituted proper clearance papers and why such papers must agree with
+their present voyage. Their confidence too in our integrity, though
+touching, was often embarrassing. One of our rules was that considerable
+sums in gold must be given up against a signed voucher realisable at
+Port Sudan. I was never very brisk at counting large sums of money, and
+one day when hove to off Jeddah there were five dhows rubbing their
+noses alongside, with about L800 in gold between them and very little
+time to deal with them, as we were in shoal water with no way on the
+ship. My operations were not facilitated by the biggest Croesus of the
+lot producing some L400 in five different currencies from various parts
+of his apparel and stating that he had no idea how much there was but
+would abide by my decision. I believe he expected me to give him a
+receipt in round hundreds and take the "oddment," as we call it in
+Warwickshire, for myself. As it was, I was down half a sovereign or so
+over the transaction, having given him the benefit of the doubt over
+two measly little gold coins of unascertainable value.
+
+Some of them were just as happy-go-lucky in their seamanship, though
+skilful enough in handling their outlandish craft. Early one morning,
+about fifty miles out of Jeddah, I boarded a becalmed dhow and found
+them with the dregs of one empty water-skin between a dozen men. Not
+content with putting to sea with a single _mussick_ of water, they had
+hove to and slept all night, and so dropped the night breeze, which
+would have carried them to Jeddah before it died down. We gave them
+water and their position, but I told the _reis_ that he was putting more
+strain on the mercy of Allah than he was, individually, entitled to.
+
+But the craft that plied along the Hejazi coast were sinister customers
+and wanted watching. Some time before I joined the patrol one of our
+ships was lying a long way out off Um-Lejj, as the water is shallow, and
+her duty-boat was working close in-shore examining coastal craft. One of
+these had some irregularity about her and was sent out to the ship with
+a marine and a bluejacket in charge while the cutter continued her task.
+That dhow stood out to sea as if making for the ship and then proceeded
+along the coast. The cutter, still busied with other dhows, presumed
+that the first craft had reported alongside the ship and been allowed to
+proceed; the ship naturally regarded her as a craft that had been
+examined and permitted to continue her journey. And that is all we ever
+knew for certain of her or the fate of our two men. Their previous
+record puts desertion out of the question; besides, no sane men would
+desert to a barren, inhospitable coast among semi-hostile fanatics whose
+language was unknown to them. On the other hand, the men were, of
+course, fully armed, and there were but five of the dhow's crew all
+told, of whom two were not able-bodied. There must have been the
+blackest treachery--probably the unfortunate men goodnaturedly helped
+with the running gear and were knocked on the head while so engaged.
+Their bodies would, no doubt, have been put over the side when the dhow
+was out of sight, and their rifles sold inland at a fancy price.
+
+When I first joined the patrol we were not allowed to bombard or land at
+any point between the mouth of the Gulf of Akaba and the Hejaz southern
+border. The Turkish fort up at Akaba had been knocked about a good deal
+by various ships of the patrol, and the whole place was uninhabited; but
+we visited it frequently, as drifting mines were put in up there,
+having been taken off the rail at Maan and brought down to the head of
+the gulf, in section, by camel. I always suspected the existence of a
+Turkish observation-post, but no signs of occupation had been seen for a
+long time till H.M.S. "Fox" went up one dark night without a light
+showing. All dead-lights were shipped, and dark blue electric bulbs
+replaced the usual ones where a light of some sort was essential and
+visible from out-board. The padre, who had opened the "vicarage"
+dead-light about an inch to get a breath of air, was promptly spotted by
+an indignant Number One who said that it made the ship look like a
+floating gin palace. This must have been a pardonable hyperbole, for the
+signal-fires ashore which used to herald our approach from afar were not
+lit.
+
+We were off Akaba at peep of day, and two armed cutters raced each other
+to the beach. I went with the one that made for the stone jetty in the
+middle front of the town; we had to jump out into four feet of water, as
+the port has deteriorated a good deal since Solomon used it and called
+it Eziongeber. A careful search revealed no one in the town, but water
+had been drawn recently from the well inside the fort, and a mud hut out
+in the desert behind the town seemed a likely covert to draw.
+
+The cutter's officer accompanied me, leaving the crew ensconced in the
+cemetery, which was a wise move, for, when we were close to the hut,
+heavy fire was opened on us from a hidden trench some three hundred
+yards away. We both dropped and rolled into a shallow depression caused
+by rain-wash, where we lay as flat as we could while the flat-nosed soft
+lead bullets kicked sand and shingle down the backs of our necks. As we
+had only revolvers--expecting resistance, if any, to be made among the
+houses--we could not reply, but the ship handed out a few rounds of
+percussion shrapnel which shook the Turks up enough for us to withdraw.
+Fortunately for us, they were using black powder, and outside four
+hundred yards one has time to avoid the bullet by dropping instantly at
+the smoke. Otherwise they should have bagged us in spite of the support
+of our covering party in the cemetery, for the ground was quite open and
+so dusty that they could see the break of their heavy picket-bullets to
+a nicety.
+
+We landed in force an hour later and turned them out of it. On
+returning, the men who searched the hut (which the ship's guns had
+knocked endways) brought me a budget of correspondence. It was chiefly
+addressed to the officer in charge and told me that the detachment was
+Syrian, which I had already suspected from their using the early pattern
+Mauser. It gave other useful information, and the men did well to bring
+it along; but I would have given much to have found some channel through
+which I could return it. Most of it was private; there were several
+congratulatory cards crudely illuminated in colours by hand for the
+feast of Muled-en-Nebi (the birthday of the Prophet), which corresponds
+with our Christmas. There was also a letter from the officer's wife
+enclosing a half-sheet of paper on which a baby hand had imprinted a
+smeared outline in ink. It bore the inscription "From your son
+Ahmed--his hand and greeting."
+
+Early in the spring of 1916 we managed to persuade the political folk at
+Cairo to extend our sphere of action. I had particularly marked down
+Um-Lejj as containing a well-manned Turkish fort which could be knocked
+about without damaging other buildings in the town if we were careful.
+It was also a rallying-point for Turkish influence, and it was not
+conducive to our prestige or politically desirable that it should
+flourish unmolested.
+
+I was in the "Fox" again for that occasion, she being the senior ship of
+the patrol and the only one that could land an adequate force if
+required.
+
+The evening before we anchored far out on the fishing-grounds of Hasani
+Island, and I managed to pick up a fisherman who knew where the Turkish
+hidden position was, outside the town, and, having been held a prisoner
+once in their Customs building, could point that out too. Next morning
+we stood slowly in for Um-Lejj with the steam-cutter groping ahead for
+the channel, which is about as tortuous a piece of navigation as you can
+get off this coast, and that is saying a good deal.
+
+When we cleared for action I went to my usual post on the bridge with
+the S.N.O. and took my fisherman-friend with me. The civil population
+was streaming out of the town across the open plain in all directions
+like ants from an over-turned ant-hill, probably realising that we meant
+business this time. This was all to the good, as otherwise I should have
+had to go close in with the steam-cutter, a white flag and a megaphone
+to warn Arab civilians; thus giving the Turks time to clear, besides the
+chance of a sitting-shot at us if they thought my address to the
+townsfolk a violation of the rules of war, which, technically, it might
+be.
+
+However, the fort was a fixture and our business was first of all with
+it. Standing close in, the ship turned southwards and moved slowly
+abreast of the town. The port battery of four-point-sevens loaded with
+H.E. and the two six-inchers fore and aft swung out-board and followed
+suit. The occasion called for fine shooting, as a minaret rose just to
+the right of the fort, and the houses were so massed about it that there
+was only one clear shot--up the street leading from the beach past the
+main gate.
+
+"At the southern gate of the fort, each gun to fire as it comes to bear
+up the street from the water-side."
+
+As I turned my glasses on the big portico of the southern gate, out
+stepped a Turkish officer who regarded us intently; the next instant the
+bridge shook to the crashing concussion of our forward six-inch, and
+through a drifting haze of gas-fume I saw him blotted out by the orange
+flash of lyddite and an up-flung pall of dust and _debris_.
+
+There was a pause, cut short by the clap of the bursting shell
+reverberating like thunder against the foot-hills beyond the town.
+
+A little naked boy ran in an attitude of terrified dismay up the
+water-street just as the first four-point-seven fired. I saw him through
+my glasses duck his head between his arms, then dive panic-stricken
+through a doorway as the fort was smitten again in dust and thunder.
+"Was the poor little beggar hit?"
+
+"No, sir, only scared."
+
+While the target was still veiled in its dust the second four-point-seven
+spoke, and the minaret disappeared from view behind a dun-coloured
+shroud.
+
+"Cease fire" sounded at once. "Who fired that gun? Take him off," came
+in tones of stern rebuke from the bridge. Luckily the minaret showed
+intact as the dust drifted clear and firing continued.
+
+As the fort crumbled under our guns, Turkish soldiers began to break
+cover at various points of the town and fled across the plain. The
+cutter, in-shore, opened with Maxim-fire, and so accurately that we
+could see the sombre-clad figures lying here and there or seeking
+frantically for cover, while an Arab in their vicinity, leading a
+leisurely camel, continued his stroll inland unperturbed. We drove the
+main body out of their hidden position and into the hills with
+well-timed shrapnel, and finished up by demolishing the Customs (where a
+lot of ammunition blew up), to the temporary satisfaction of my
+fisherman, who was curled up in a corner of the bridge, nearly stunned
+by the shock of modern ordnance in spite of the cotton-wool I had made
+him put in his ears. Before we picked up our cutter the civil population
+was already streaming back.
+
+The incident is worth noting in view of remarks made by a popular
+fiction-monger in one of his latest works, that indiscriminate aerial
+raids on civil centres in England are on the same level of humanity as
+naval bombardments.
+
+I visited the fishing-banks off Hasani Island a week or so after to get
+the latest news of Um-Lejj, which came from Turkish sources. There was
+one civilian casualty--a woman who was in the Turkish concealed
+position. No casualties among Turkish officers, but one of them left in
+charge of the fort had disappeared. There were bits of the fort left,
+but the Commandant had moved his headquarters to the school-house within
+the precincts of the mosque--sagacious soul. The object-lesson which we
+gave the Arabs at Um-Lejj put a check to their irresponsible sniping of
+boats and landing-parties, though one could always expect a little
+trouble with an Arab dhow running contraband for the Turks. In these
+cases their guilty consciences usually gave them away. Returning to the
+coast toward Jeddah unexpectedly, having played the well-worn ruse of
+"the cat's away," we sighted a small dhow close in-shore, and should
+have left her alone as she was in shoal-water, but, on standing in to
+get a nearer view of her, she headed promptly for the beach and ran
+aground, disgorging more men than such a craft should carry.
+
+I went away in the duty cutter to investigate, and we had barely
+realised that she was heavily loaded with kerosene in tins (a heinous
+contraband) when the fact was emphasised by a sputtering rifle-fire from
+the scrub along the beach. The ship very soon put a stop to that
+demonstration with a round or two of shrapnel, while we busied ourselves
+with the dhow. There was no hope of salving her, as she had almost
+ripped the keel off her when she took the ground and sat on the bottom
+like a dilapidated basket. We broached enough tins to start a
+conflagration, lit a fuse made of a strip of old turban soaked in
+kerosene, and backed hard from her vicinity, for the kerosene was
+low-flash common stuff as marked on the cases, and to play at snapdragon
+in half an acre of blazing oil is an uninviting pastime. However, she
+just flared without exploding, and we continued our cruise up the coast
+just in time to overhaul at racing speed a perfect regatta of dhows
+heeling over to every stitch of canvas in their efforts to make Jeddah
+before we could get at them, for they had seen the smoke of that burning
+oil-dhow and realised that the cat was about. Good money is paid at
+Cowes to see no more spirited sailing--we had to put a shot across the
+bows of the leading dhow before they would abandon the race.
+
+There was always trouble off Jeddah--the approaches to that reef-girt
+harbour lend themselves to blockade-running dhows with sound local
+knowledge on board. At night, especially, they had an advantage and
+would play "Puss-in-the-Corner" until the cutter lost patience, and a
+flickering pin-point of light stabbed the velvet black of the middle
+watch, asking permission to fire; one rifle-shot fired high would stop
+the game, and I made them come alongside and take a wigging for annoying
+the cutter and turning me out; there was seldom anything wrong about the
+dhow--it was sheer cussedness.
+
+All through the early part of 1916 we were keeping in touch with the
+Sharif of Mecca by means of envoys, whom we landed where they listed,
+away from the Turks, picking them up at times and places indicated by
+them. Sharif Husein had long chafed under Turkish suzerainty, in spite
+of his subsidy and the deference which policy compelled them to accord
+him. He knew that the Hejaz could never realise its legitimate
+aspirations under Ottoman rule, which was a blight on all Arab progress
+and prosperity, as the Young Turkish party was hardly Moslem at heart,
+being more national (that is Tartar)--certainly not pro-Arab.
+
+Husein's difficulty was to get his own people to rise together and throw
+off the Turkish yoke, for the Hejazi tribesman, especially between the
+coast and Mecca, has long been more of a brigand than a warrior, as any
+pilgrim will tell you. Such folk are apt to jib at hammer-and-tongs
+fighting, and of course we could not land troops to assist them, as it
+would have violated the sacred soil that cradled Islam and merely
+stiffened the bogus _jihad_ which the Turks had proclaimed against us,
+besides compromising the Sharif with his own tribesmen.
+
+The Hejazis' ingenuous idea was to go on taking money from us, the Turks
+and the Sharif, while--thanks to our lenient blockade--a regular
+dhow-traffic fed them. We did not approve of this Utopian policy, and
+the fall of Kut brought matters to a climax. After certain
+communications had passed between the representatives of His Majesty's
+Government and the Sharif, it was decided to tighten the blockade and so
+induce the gentle Hejazi to declare himself. The day was fixed, May, 15,
+on and after which date no traffic whatever was to be permitted with the
+Arabian coast other than that specially sanctioned by Government. In
+palaver thereon I managed to get local fishing-craft exempted. The
+fisher-folk are not combatants either on empty stomachs or full ones,
+and could be relied on to consume their own fish in that climate unless
+very close to a market, where the pinch would be great enough to make
+them exchange it for foodstuffs, thus helping the situation we wished to
+bring about. I knew that all _bona fide_ fishing-craft were easily
+recognisable by their rig and comparatively small size, and hoped that
+good will would combine with freedom of movement to make these folk
+useful agents for Intelligence.
+
+I heard with some relief that the movements of the patrol would place
+H.M.S. "Hardinge" (a roomy ship of the Indian Marine) on station duty
+off Jeddah, which was to be my post while the enhanced blockade was in
+force--there are few more trying seasons than early summer in those
+waters. I joined her from Suez the day after the blockade was closed,
+and found her keeping guard over a perfect fleet of dhows. There were
+about three dozen craft with over three hundred people on board, for
+many native passengers were trying to make Jeddah before we shut down.
+The feckless mariners in charge had made the usual oriental calculation
+that a day more or less did not matter, but found to their horror that
+the Navy was more precise on these points--and there they were.
+
+The first thing to ensure was that the crew, and especially the
+passengers, among whom were a good many women and children, did not
+suffer from privation. This had already been ably seen to by the ship's
+officers--I merely went round the fleet to sift any genuine complaints
+from the discontent natural to the situation in which their own
+slackness had placed them. I insisted on hearing only one complaint at a
+time, otherwise it would have been pandemonium afloat, for they were
+anchored close enough together to converse with each other; vociferous
+excuses for their unpunctuality were brushed aside, legitimate requests
+for more water or food or condensed milk for the children or more
+adequate shelter for the women from the sun were attended to at once,
+and our floating village quieted down.
+
+The craft were all much the same type of small dhow or _sanbuk_ which
+frequents the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, having little in common with
+the big-bellied buggalows which ply with rice and dates between the
+Persian Gulf and Indian ports but do not come into the Red Sea. These
+were much smaller and saucier-looking craft, some fifty to eighty feet
+long, with a turn of speed and raking masts. All were lugger-rigged
+with lateen sails, and only the poop and bows were decked, the bulwarks
+being heightened with strips of matting to prevent seas from breaking
+in-board. Sanitary arrangements were provided for by a box-like
+cubby-hole over-hanging the boat's side; inexperienced officers often
+take it for a vantage-point to heave the lead from, and only find out
+too late after attempting to board there, that things are not always
+what they seem.
+
+These little vessels are practically the corsair type of Saracenic
+sailing-galley which used to infest the Barbary coast in days gone by.
+They do everything different from our occidental methods. For example,
+they reef and furl their tall lateens from the peak, and have to send a
+man up the long tapering gaff to do it. Their masts rake forward and not
+aft, which enables them to swing gaff, sail, and sheet round in front of
+the mast when they come about, instead of keeping the sheet aft and
+dipping the butt of the gaff with the sail to the other side of the
+mast, which would be an impossibility for that rig, as the butt of their
+enormous mainyard or gaff is bowsed permanently down in the bows, while
+the soaring peak may be nearly a hundred feet above the water. Cooking
+was done over charcoal in a kerosene tin half full of sand, and the
+"first-class" passengers lived under an improvised awning on the poop,
+the women's quarters being under that gim-crack structure. All the same,
+they are good sea-boats and remarkably fast, especially _on_ a wind,
+quite unlike the big-decked buggalows which are built for cargo capacity
+and have real cabins aft but sail like a haystack on a barge.
+
+It was inhuman (as well as an infernal nuisance) to keep all those
+people sweltering indefinitely at sea; on the other hand, our orders as
+to the strict maintenance of the blockade were explicit. The "owner" and
+I conferred and decided that the situation could be met by transferring
+their cargo to the ship and letting the dhows beach. This was referred
+and approved by wireless. The job took us some days, as the weather was
+rather unfavourable and all the cargoes had to be checked by manifest
+with a view to restitution later. Each dhow as she was cleared had to
+make for the shore and dismast or beach so that she could not steal out
+at night and add to the difficulties of the blockade. None attempted to
+evade this order, most carried out both alternatives; perhaps a casual
+reminder that they would be within observation and gun-fire of the ship
+had some influence on their action.
+
+Hitherto the Turco-Teutonic brand of Holy War had been fairly
+successful. The Allied thrust at the Dardanelles and Gallipoli had
+failed, the Aden Protectorate was in Turkish hands, we had spent a most
+unpleasant Easter in Sinai, and Kut had fallen. Still, the Turks were
+soon to realise that a wrongly-invoked _jihad_, like a mishandled
+musket, can recoil heavily, and, before the end of May, signs were not
+wanting that trouble was brewing for them in the Hejaz.
+
+We were in close touch with the shore through fishing-canoes by day and
+secret emissaries by night, who brought us news that some German
+"officers" had been done to death by Hejazi tribesmen some eight hours'
+journey north of Jeddah. They had evidently been first over-powered and
+bound, then stabbed in the stomach with the huge two-handed dagger which
+the Hejazis use, and finally decapitated, as a Turkish rescue party
+which hurried to the spot found their headless and practically
+disembowelled corpses with their hands tied behind them. Their effects
+came through our hands in due course, and we ascertained that the party
+consisted of Lieut.-Commander von Moeller (late of a German gunboat
+interned at Tsing-Tao) and five reservists whom he had picked up in
+Java. They had landed on the South Arabian coast in March, had visited
+Sanaa, the capital of Yamen, and had come up the Arabian coast of the
+Red Sea by dhow, keeping well inside the Farsan bank, which is three
+hundred miles long and a serious obstacle to patrol work. They had landed
+at Konfida, north of the bank, and reached Jeddah by camel on May 5.
+Against the advice of the Turks they continued their journey by land,
+as they had no chance of eluding our northern patrol at sea. They were
+more than a year too late to emulate the gallant (and lucky) "Odyssey"
+of the Emden's landing-party from Cocos Islands up the Red Sea coast in
+the days when our blockade was more lenient and did not interfere with
+coasting craft. They hoped to reach Maan and so get on the rail for
+Stamboul and back to Germany, as the Sharif would not sanction their
+coming to the sacred city of Medina, which is the rail-head for the
+Damascus-Hejaz railway. After so staunch a journey they deserved a
+better fate. Among their kit was a tattered and blood-stained copy of my
+book on the Aden hinterland.[A]
+
+Meanwhile affairs ashore were simmering to boiling-point, and on the
+night of June 9 we commenced a bombardment of carefully located Turkish
+positions, firing by "director" to co-operate with an Arab attack which
+was due then but did not materialise till early next morning, and was
+then but feebly delivered. We found out later that the rifles and
+ammunition we had delivered on the beach some distance south of Jeddah
+to the Sharif's agents in support of this attack had been partly
+diverted to Mecca and partly hung up by a squabble with their own
+camel-men for more cash.
+
+We continued the bombardment on the night of the 11th and were in action
+most of the day on the 12th, shelling the Turkish positions north of
+Jeddah, which we had located by glass and the co-operation of friendly
+fishing-craft who gave us the direction by signal. During the morning
+the Hejazis made an abortive and aimless attack along the beach north of
+Jeddah, and so masked our own supporting fire, while the Turks gave them
+more than they wanted.
+
+By this time the senior ship and others had joined us, and the S.N.O.
+approved of my landing with a party of Indian signallers to maintain
+closer touch with their operations, provided that Arab headquarters
+would guarantee our safety as regards their own people. This they were
+unable to do.
+
+The bombardment grew more and more strenuous and searching as other
+ships joined in and our knowledge of the Turkish positions became more
+accurate. On the 15th it culminated with the arrival of a seaplane
+carrier and heavy bombing of the Ottoman trenches which our
+flat-trajectory naval guns could hardly reach. The white flag went up
+before sunset, and next day there were _pourparlers_ which led to an
+unconditional surrender on June 17, 1916.
+
+Mecca had fallen just before, and Taif surrendered soon after, leaving
+Medina as the only important town still held by the Turks in the Hejaz.
+
+We began pouring food and munitions into Jeddah as soon as it changed
+hands; for the rest of this cruise my ship was a sort of
+parcels-delivery van, and when the parcel happens to be an Egyptian
+mountain battery its delivery is an undertaking.
+
+My personal contact with the Turks and their ill-omened _jihad_ ended
+soon after, as I was invalided from service afloat, but I kept in touch
+as an Intelligence-wallah on the beach and followed the rest of it with
+interest.
+
+They got Holy War with a vengeance. The Sharif's sons (more especially
+the Emirs Feisal and Abdullah, who had been trained at the Stamboul
+Military Academy), ably assisted by zealous and skilled British officers
+as mine-planters and aerial bombers, harried outlying posts and the
+Hejaz railway line north of Medina incessantly.
+
+The Turkish positions at Wejh fell to the Red Sea flotilla, reinforced
+by the flagship. I should like to have been there, if only to have seen
+the Admiral sail in to the proceedings with a revolver in his fist and
+the _elan_ of a sub-lieutenant. The Hejazis failed to synchronise, as
+usual, so the Navy dispensed with their support.
+
+On February 24, 1917, Kut was wrested from the Turks again; on March 11
+they lost Baghdad; on November 7 their Beersheba-Gaza front was
+shattered, and Jerusalem fell on December 9.
+
+Early next year Jericho was captured (February 21), a British column
+from Baghdad reached the Caspian in August, and after a final,
+victorious British offensive in Palestine the unholy alliance of Turkish
+pan-Islamism and German _Kultur_ got its death-blow when Emir Feisal
+galloped into Damascus.
+
+The Turks had drawn the blade of _jihad_ from its pan-Islamic scabbard
+in vain; its German trade-mark was plainly stamped on it. There had been
+widespread organisation against us, and the serpent's eggs of sedition
+and revolt had been hatched in centres scattered all over the eastern
+hemisphere, but their venomous progeny had been crushed before they
+became formidable.
+
+As a world-force this band of pan-Islamism had failed because it had
+been invoked by the wrong people for a wrong purpose. Such a movement
+should at least have as its driving power some great spiritual crisis:
+this Turco-German manifestation of it had its origin in self-interest,
+and if successful would have immolated Arabia on the demoniac altar of
+_Weltpolitik_. Seyid Muhammed er-Rashid Ridha, a descendant of the
+Prophet and one of the greatest Arab theologians living, has voiced the
+verdict of Islam on this unscrupulous and self-seeking adventure in a
+trenchant article published in September, 1916. He showed up Enver and
+his Unionist party as an atheist among atheists who had deprived the
+Sultan of his rightful power and Islam of its religious head, and
+contrasted their conduct with that of the British, who exempted the
+Hejaz from the blockade enforced against the rest of the Ottoman Empire
+until it became quite clear that the Turks were benefiting chiefly by
+that exemption, and who, out of respect for the holy places of Islam,
+refrained from making that country a theatre of war.
+
+True to the Teutonic tradition, the movement had been laboriously
+organised, but lacked psychic insight, for the Turk is too much of a
+Tartar and too little of a Moslem to appreciate the Arab mind, and the
+German ignored it, rooting with eager, guttural grunts among the
+carefully cultivated religious prejudices of Islam like a hog hunting
+truffles until whacked out of it by the irate cultivators.
+
+The following incident may serve to illustrate their crude tactics. Soon
+after the Turks came into the war the mullah of the principal mosque at
+Damascus was told to announce _jihad_ against the British from his
+pulpit on the following Friday in accordance with an order from the
+Grand Mufti at Stamboul. The poor man appears to have jibbed
+considerably and sent his family over the Nejd border to be out of reach
+of Turkish persecution. Finally he decided to conform, but when he
+climbed the steps of his "minbar" and scanned his congregation he saw a
+group of German officers wearing tarboushes with a look of almost
+porcine complacency. His fear fell from him in a gust of rage and he
+spoke somewhat as follows: "I am ordered to proclaim _jihad_. A _jihad_,
+as you know, is a Holy War to protect our Holy Places against infidels.
+This being so, what are these infidel _pigs_ doing in our mosque?"
+
+There was a most unseemly scuffle; the Turco-German contingent tried to
+seize the mullah; the Arab congregation defended him strenuously from
+arrest. In the confusion that worthy man got clear away and joined his
+family in Nejd. _Jihad_ is incumbent on all Moslems if against infidel
+aggression. We stood on the defensive when the Turks first attacked us
+on the Canal, and when we finally overran Palestine and Syria it was in
+co-operation with the Arabs, who have more right there than the Turks.
+
+Those who forged the blade of this counterfeit _jihad_ could not temper
+it in the flame of religious fervour, and it shattered against the
+shield of religious tolerance and good faith: we make mistakes, but can
+honestly claim those two virtues.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote A: "The Land of Uz," Macmillan.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
+
+
+To gauge the strength or weakness of pan-Islam as a world-force we may
+best compare it with its great militant rival, the Christian Church,
+choosing common ground as the only sound basis of comparison, and
+remembering that it is pan-Islam we are examining rather than Islam
+itself--the tree, not the root; and though we cannot study the one
+without considering the other, Islam has already been extensively
+discussed by men better qualified than myself to deal with it: the
+requirements of this work only call for comparison so far as the
+driving-power of pan-Islam is concerned as a material force.
+
+First of all we must discard common factors. I set the great Shiah
+schism against the Catholic Church (omitting the word "Roman" as a
+contradiction in terms) and cancel both for the purposes of comparison.
+Catholicism, is not, of course, schismatic, otherwise there are points
+of resemblance, such as observances of saints and shrines, which have
+permeated the other sects to a certain extent; also the degree of
+antagonism is about the same. Therefore we can ignore the Catholic
+Church in this chapter, and when we are talking of pan-Islam we should
+consider it a Sunnite (or Orthodox) movement, and count the Shiites out,
+as they do not even recognise the same centre of pilgrimage.
+
+Perhaps the strongest factor in pan-Islam as a political movement or a
+world-wide fellowship is the Meccan pilgrimage. I have already alluded
+to its cosmopolitan nature in the previous chapter, but never realised
+it so much till after the surrender of Jeddah, when stately Bokhariots,
+jabbering Javanese, Malays, Chinese, Russians, American citizens and
+South Africans were among those who beset me as stranded pilgrims. This
+implies a very wide sphere of influence, against which we can only set
+the well-known immorality and greed which pilgrims complain of at Mecca;
+a huge influx of cosmopolitan visitors to _any_ centre will generally
+cause such abuses. On the feast of Arafat there are normally 100,000
+pilgrims in the Meccan area who represent 100 million orthodox Moslems
+throughout the world, while the actual population of the city is only
+50,000.
+
+The Arabic language is another strong bond of brotherhood in Islam. I do
+not mean to say that it is generally "understanded of the people," any
+more than Latin is throughout the Catholic world; but it is the language
+of most Sunnites and is moderately understood in Somaliland, East
+Africa, Java and the Malay peninsula as the language of the Koran; in
+fact, it is the only written language in Somaliland, and Turkey uses the
+script though not the tongue.
+
+The daily observances of prayer, with their simple but obligatory
+ceremonial, and the yearly fast for the month of Ramadhan unite Moslems
+with the common ties of duty and hardship, as in the comradeship which
+sailors and soldiers have for each other throughout the world.
+
+Then, again, there is no colour-line in Islam; a negro may rise to place
+and power (he often does), and usually enjoys the intimate confidence of
+his master as not readily amenable to local intrigue. Difference of
+nationality is not stressed except by the Young Turks, who have slighted
+Semitic Moslems to their own undoing. Contrast this attitude with our
+Church and estimate the precise amount of Christian brotherhood between
+an Orthodox Greek, a Welsh Wesleyan, an Ethiopian priest, a Scotch
+Presbyterian, and an Anglican bishop (since the Kikuyu heresy). Even
+within the narrow limits of one sect there is nothing like the
+fellowship one finds in secular societies. Which is the stronger appeal,
+"Anglican communicant" or "Freemason"? Is a cross or the quadrant and
+compasses the more potent charm?
+
+Arabs credit us Christians with a much stronger bond of sympathy between
+co-religionists than is actually the case. It is true that those who
+come into any sort of contact with us realise that there is a distinct
+difference in form of worship and sentiment between Catholics (whom they
+call _Christyan_) and Protestants (or _Nasara_), but I shall not readily
+forget the extraordinary conduct of a Hejazi who boarded us off Jeddah
+with some of the effects belonging to the murdered Germans mentioned in
+the previous chapter. He must have had the firm conviction that we
+Christians would avenge the killing of other Christians by Moslems, for
+he merely told me that he had in his possession certain property of the
+_Allemani_, and I told him that he would be suitably rewarded on
+producing it; I found out later that he had boasted to our ship's
+interpreter (a Mussulman) that he was one of the slayers, and it
+occurred to me that if that were the case he might be able to give me
+further information, or perhaps produce papers of theirs which might
+appear valueless to him but would be of interest to us. I interviewed
+him on deck and suggested this, reminding him of what he had told the
+interpreter, but laying no stress on the deed he had confessed, for it
+was outside our jurisdiction and no concern of mine.
+
+"Papers?" he said. "By all means, I will go and fetch them," and
+breaking from my light hold of his sleeve he flickered over the rail and
+dropped into the sea some thirty feet below. Two armed marines stepped
+to the rail with a clatter of breech-bolts and looked inquiringly at me.
+Meanwhile my bold murderer was calling on his God, for he wore a full
+bandoleer, which was weighing him down. Out darted a fishing-canoe from
+under our quarter and made for him, but its occupants took the hint I
+conveyed through a megaphone and confined their efforts to saving him
+for the duty-cutter to pick up.
+
+He was brought before me dripping wet, with the fear of death in his
+eyes. I thought this was due to the foolish risk he had taken, and spoke
+in gentle reproof of his conduct, pointing out that if any boat had been
+alongside where he leaped he would have met with a bad accident. To my
+surprise he fell at my feet and scrabbled at my clean white shoes,
+imploring me to spare his life. I put him down as somewhat mad, and
+asked "Number One" to put a sentry over him to see that he did not
+repeat his attempt to avoid our acquaintance. He clung to me like a
+limpet and had to be removed by force, with despairing entreaties for
+mercy, disregarding my still puzzled assurances as to his personal
+safety. I learned afterwards his true reason for alarm; he thought that
+after leaving my presence he would be quietly made away with in
+traditional Eastern style.
+
+Another very strong feature of pan-Islam is the consistency of the creed
+from which it grows. I do not necessarily imply that Islam itself is
+benefited thereby, for consistency sometimes means narrowness, and we
+are not considering creeds; but there is no doubt about the dynamic
+force of a movement based on a religion which is sure of itself. A
+Moslem has one authorised version of the Koran, and only one; his simple
+creed is contained in its first chapter and is as short as the Lord's
+Prayer, which it somewhat resembles in style. Praising God as the Lord
+of the worlds (not only of this world of ours), it attributes to Him
+mercy and clemency with supreme power over the Day of Judgment and is an
+avowal of worship and service. Its only petition is to be led in the way
+of the righteous, avoiding errors that incur His wrath. Contrast this
+with the many confusing aspects of Christianity. Perhaps diverse
+opinions tend to purify and invigorate a creed, but they certainly do
+not strengthen the cohesion of any secular movement based on it.
+
+Then, again, the Moslem conception of God and the hereafter stiffens the
+backbone of pan-Islam in adversity. They are taught to believe that He is
+_really_ omnipotent and that His actions are beyond criticism--welfare
+and affliction being alike acceptable as His will. We, on the other hand,
+seem to be developing the theory of a finite God warring against, and
+occasionally overcome by, evil, which includes (in this new thesis) human
+suffering and sorrow as well as sin. There is a growing idea, pioneered
+partly by Mr. H. G. Wells and apparently supported by many of the clergy,
+that the acts of God must square with human ideals of mercy or justice,
+and as many occurrences do not, the inference is that evil gets the best
+of it sometimes. Now the Moslem slogan is "Allah Akbar" (God is Greatest),
+and that seems to me a better battle-cry than, for example, "Gott mit
+uns," as God will still be great and invincible to Moslems in their
+victory or defeat; but the finite idea presumes, in disaster, that you
+and your God have been defeated together. It is not my business to
+criticise either conception from a religious point of view, but in
+mundane affairs it is the former that will make for fighting force,
+especially as we still insist that our God is a jealous God, visiting the
+sins of the fathers, etc.: surely this is not a human ideal of justice;
+the obvious deduction is that our modern Deity is stronger to punish than
+protect--hardly an encouraging attribute.
+
+Whether a religion is the better for an organised priesthood or not is
+irrelevant to our subject, but the absence of it in Islam certainly
+strengthens the pan-Islamic movement, as each Moslem may consider
+himself a standard-bearer of his faith, while we are apt to leave too
+much to our priests, thus engendering slackness on our part and
+meticulous dogma on theirs; both undermine Christian brotherhood. The
+fact that priestly stipends seem to the ordinary layman as in inverse
+ratio to the duties performed also widens the breach between clergy and
+laity, besides sapping clerical _moral_. This is not the particular
+feature of any one sect--the reader can supply cases within his own
+experience, but here is one that is probably outside it and showing how
+widespread the system is. The rank and file of the Greek Orthodox clergy
+are notoriously ill-paid. Yet their monastery at Jerusalem costs
+LE.15,000 per annum to maintain and pays LE.40,000 annually in clerical
+salaries to archbishops and clergy who control the spiritual affairs of
+less than fifteen thousand people. It derives LE.30,000 from its
+property in Russia, LE.25,000 from the property of the Holy Sepulchre,
+and as much again from visitors and other sources; and this in a region
+where the Founder of our faith was content to wander with less certainty
+of shelter than the wild creatures of the countryside.
+
+Incidentally, the monastery seems to have been unable to curtail its
+expenditure during the War, for it has accumulated debts to the amount
+of LE.600,000, most of its sources of income having ceased for the time.
+I quote from current newspapers. Blame does not necessarily attach to
+the monastery or its administrators, who may have done their best to
+fulfill their obligations under adverse circumstances; I would merely
+draw attention to the incongruity of the whole system as regards a
+universal brotherhood based on Christian teaching. There are no such
+exotic growths to impede the march of pan-Islam.
+
+So much for the strength of the pan-Islamic movement. Now let us
+consider its weak points.
+
+To begin with, the gross abuse of pan-Islam by interested parties for
+non-spiritual ends during the War has done the genuine movement harm.
+That lying, political appeal to _jihad_ has made thinking Moslems
+mistrust the infallibility of organised pan-Islam, of which the
+culminating expression is Holy War, one of the most sacred Mussulman
+duties if justly invoked. We Christians do not make such mistakes. When
+Italy was fighting the Turks in Tripoli the Pope himself warned
+Christian soldiers against regarding the campaign as a Crusade, and when
+we took Jerusalem we took it side by side with our Mussulman allies and
+forthwith placed an orthodox Moslem guard on Omar's mosque. In this
+connection it may be of interest to note that the officer commanding a
+mixed Christian guard at the Holy Sepulchre was a Jew.
+
+Another source of weakness, so far as a united Moslem world is
+concerned, may be found in the antagonistic points of view between
+civilised and uncivilised Moslems (I use the attribute in its modern
+sense). Uncivilised Moslems view with suspicion and, in fact, derision
+the dress and customs of their civilised co-religionists, insisting that
+European coats and trousers display the figure indecently and that their
+Frankish luxuries and amusements are snares of Eblis. The enlightened
+Moslem, on the other hand, regards the tribesman as a _jungliwala_, or
+wild man of the woods, derides his illiteracy, and is revolted by the
+harsh severity of the old Islamic penal code as practised still in
+semi-barbaric Moslem States. Now we Christians are fairly lenient as
+regards each other's customs, and still more so with regard to dress
+(judging by the garb we tolerate), while we have quite outgrown our old
+playful habits of boiling, burning, or torturing our fellow-men except
+on the battle-fields of civilised warfare.
+
+Civilisation (as we understand it) is a two-edged weapon and tool
+smiting or serving pan-Islam and Christendom, but on the whole it serves
+the latter rather than the former, as the superior resources of
+Christendom can take fuller advantage of it as a tool or a weapon,
+though both turn to scourges when used against each other in battle.
+Also its handmaid, Education, though in itself a foe to no religion,
+_does_ tend to tone down dogma and engender tolerance, thus minimising
+the dynamic force of bigotry in pan-Islam, though consolidating the real
+stability of religion on its own base. Moreover, some gifts of
+civilisation can do a lot of harm if wrongly used; I refer more
+especially to drink, drugs, and dress. Just as hereditary exposure to
+the infection of certain diseases is said to confer, by survival of the
+fittest, a certain immunity therefrom--for example, consumption among us
+Europeans and typhoid among Asiatics--so moral ills seem to affect
+humanity to a greater or less extent in inverse proportion to the
+temptation in that particular respect which the individual and his
+forebears have successfully resisted. The average European and his
+ancestors have been accustomed to drink fermented liquor for many
+centuries, and in moderation as judged by the standard of his time, but
+he has always been taught to avoid opium and has not known the drug for
+long. The oriental Moslem, on the other hand, has used opium as a remedy
+and prophylactic against malaria for generations, but is strictly
+ordered by his creed to consider the consumption, production, gift or
+sale of alcohol a deadly sin. In consequence, the European can usually
+take alcohol in moderation, but almost invariably slips into a pit of
+his own digging when he tries to do the same with opium, while the
+oriental Moslem can use opium in moderation (provided that he confines
+himself to swallowing it and does not smoke it), but when he drinks,
+usually drinks to excess because he has not learned to do otherwise. It
+is a melancholy fact that hitherto in countries opened up by our Western
+civilisation drink has got in long before education, unless
+extraordinary precautions have been taken to prevent it; that is one
+reason why Moslem States are so wary of civilised encroachment. As for
+drugs other than opium (and far more dangerous), civilised Moslems,
+especially in Egypt, are alarmed at the spread of hashish-smoking among
+their co-religionists, while the cultured classes, including women-folk,
+are taking to cocaine: the material for both vices is supplied from
+European sources, mostly Greek. Dress, compared with the other two
+demons, is merely a fantastic though mischievous sprite and can be quite
+attractive, but it breaks up many a Moslem home when carried to excess
+in the harem, as it frequently is in civilised circles, while the
+younger men vie with each other in the more flagrant extravagances of
+occidental garb: prayers and ablutions do not harmonise with
+well-creased trousers and stylish boots any more than a veil does with a
+divided skirt. The native Press is always attacking the above abuses,
+but they are firmly rooted. All three undermine the pan-Islamic
+structure by causing cleavage in public opinion. European dress has
+already been mentioned as widening the gap between civilised and
+uncivilised Moslems, but it also tends to disintegrate cultured Moslem
+communities, for the older men are apt to regard it with suspicion or
+downright condemnation. I once asked an eminent and learned Moslem
+whether he thought modern European dress impeded regular observance of
+prayers and ablutions. He replied, "Perhaps so, but those Moslems who
+wear such clothes indicate by so doing that the observances of Islam
+have little hold upon them."
+
+All these defects, however, are mere cracks in the inner walls of the
+pan-Islamic structure and can be repaired from within, but the Turkish
+Government, which represented the Caliphate, and should have considered
+the integrity of Islam as a sacred trust, has managed to split the outer
+wall and divide the house against itself, just as the unity of
+Christendom (such as it was) has been rent asunder by one of its most
+prominent exponents. Pan-Islam has received the more serious damage
+because the wreckers still hold the Caliphate and the prestige attached
+thereto; it is for Moslems (and Moslems only) to decide what action to
+take; but in any case, the breach is a serious one and has been much
+widened by the action of Turkish troops at the Holy Places. They
+actually shelled the Caaba at Mecca (luckily without doing material
+damage), and their action in storing high explosives close to the
+Prophet's tomb at Medina may have saved them bombardment, but has
+certainly not improved their reputation as Moslems. Even before the War
+I often heard Yamen Arabs talking of "Turks and Moslems"--a distinctly
+damning discrimination--and the situation has not been improved by
+Ottoman slackness in religious observances and their inconsistent
+national movement.
+
+At the same time, their rule in Arabia will be awkward to replace at
+first. I described the Turks in the final chapter of a book[B] published
+early in the War as pre-eminently fitted to govern Moslems by
+birthright, creed, and temperament, summing them up as individually
+gifted but collectively hopeless as administrators because they lacked a
+stable and consistent central Government. They have proved the
+indictment up to the hilt, but that does not dower any of us Christians
+with their inherent qualifications as rulers in Islam. If any of us are
+called upon to face fresh responsibilities in this direction, it would
+take us all our time to make up for these qualities by tact, sound
+administration, and strict observance of local religious prejudice. Even
+then there is a Mussulman proverb to this effect: "A Moslem ruler though
+he oppress me and not a _kafir_ though he work me weal"--it explains
+much apparent ingratitude for benefits conferred.
+
+The lesson we have to learn from pan-Islamic activities of the last
+decade or two is that countries which are mainly Moslem should have
+Moslem rulers, and that Christian rule, however enlightened and
+benevolent, is only permissible where Islam is outnumbered by other
+creeds. At the same time, in countries where Christian methods of
+civilisation and European capital have been invited we have a right to
+control and advise the Moslem ruler sufficiently to ensure the fair
+treatment of our nationals and their interests. But with purely Moslem
+countries which have expressed no readiness to assimilate the methods of
+modern civilisation or to invite outside capital we have no right to
+interfere beyond the following limit: if the local authorities allow
+foreign traders to operate at their ports their interests should be
+safeguarded, if important enough, by consular representation on the
+spot, or, if not, by occasional visits of a man-of-war to keep nationals
+in touch with their own Government, presuming that the place is too
+small to justify any mail-carrying vessel calling there except at very
+long intervals.
+
+There should always be a definite understanding as to foreigners
+proceeding or residing up-country for any purpose. If the local ruler
+discourages but permits such procedure, all we should expect him to do
+in case of untoward incidents is to take reasonable action to
+investigate and punish, but if he has guaranteed the security of foreign
+nationals concerned, he must redeem his pledge in an adequate manner or
+take the consequences. There should seldom be occasion for an inland
+punitive expedition; in these days, when many articles of seaborne trade
+have become, from mere luxuries, almost indispensable adjuncts of native
+life in the remotest regions, a maritime blockade strictly enforced
+should soon exact the necessary satisfaction.
+
+Such rulers should bear in mind that if they accept an enterprise of
+foreign capital they must protect its legitimate operations, just as a
+school which has accepted a Government grant has to conform to
+stipulated conditions.
+
+Where no such penetration has occurred, all we should concern ourselves
+with is that internal trouble in such regions shall not slop over into
+territory protected or occupied by us, and this is where our most
+serious difficulties will occur in erstwhile Turkish Arabia.
+
+The Turk, with all his faults, could grapple with a difficult situation
+in native affairs by drastic methods which might be indefensible in
+themselves, but were calculated to obtain definite results. At any rate,
+we had a responsible central Government to deal with and one that we
+could get at. Now we shall have to handle such situations ourselves or
+rely on the local authorities doing so. The former method is costly and
+dangerous, yielding the minimum of result to the maximum of effort and
+expense, while involving possibilities of trouble which might compromise
+our democratic yearnings considerably: the latter alternative
+presupposes that we have succeeded in evolving out of the present
+imbroglio responsible rulers who are well-disposed to us and prepared to
+take adequate action on our representations.
+
+In Syria and Mesopotamia, where communications are good and European
+penetration an established fact, there should not be much difficulty,
+but in Arabia proper the problem is a very prickly one.
+
+Beginning with Arabia Felix, which includes Yamen, the Aden
+protectorate, and the vague, sprawling province of Hadhramaut, we may be
+permitted to hope that nothing worse can happen in the Aden protectorate
+than has happened already; the remoter Hadhramaut has always looked
+after its own affairs and can continue to do so; but Yamen bristles with
+political problems which will have to be solved, and solved correctly,
+if she is going to be a safe neighbour or a reliable customer to have
+business dealings with. Hitherto none of her local rulers have inspired
+any confidence in their capacity for initiative or independent action.
+During the War the Idrisi, who had long been in revolt against the Turks
+in northern Yamen, kept making half-hearted and abortive dabs at
+Loheia--like a nervous child playing snapdragon--but his only success
+(and temporary at that) was when he occupied the town after the Red Sea
+Patrol had shelled the Turks out of it. As for the Imam, he has been
+sitting on a very thorny fence ever since the Turks came into the War.
+We have been in touch with him for a long time, but all he has done up
+to date is to wobble on a precarious tripod supported by the opposing
+strains of Turks, tribesmen, and British. Now one leg of the tripod has
+been knocked away he has yet to show if he can maintain stability on his
+own base, and, if so, over what area. The undeniable fighting qualities
+of the Yamen Arab, which might be a useful factor in a stable
+government, will merely prove a nuisance and a menace under a weak
+_regime_, and tribal trouble will always be slopping over into our Aden
+sphere of influence. Then the question will arise, What are we going to
+do about it? We cannot bring the Yamenis to book by blockading their
+coast and cutting off caravan traffic with Aden, because, in view of our
+trade relations with the country by sea and land, we should only be
+cutting our nose off to spite our face. Moreover, the punishment would
+fall chiefly on the respectable community, traders, the cultured
+classes, etc., to whom seaborne trade is essential, while it would
+hardly affect the wild tribesmen, except as regards ammunition, and to
+prevent them getting what they wanted through the Hejaz is outside the
+sphere of practical politics.
+
+In the Hejaz itself we can at least claim that authority is suitably
+represented and accessible to us. Before the War we kept a British
+consul at Jeddah with an Indian Moslem vice-consul who went up to Mecca
+in the pilgrim season. A responsible consular agent (Moslem of course)
+to reside at Medina, also another to understudy the Jeddah vice-consul
+when he went to Mecca and to look after the Yenbo pilgrim traffic, would
+safeguard the interests of our nationals, who enormously outnumber the
+pilgrims of any other nation. Further interference with the Hejaz,
+unless invited, would be unjustifiable.
+
+Trouble for us does not lie in the Hejaz itself, but in its possible
+expansion beyond its powers of absorption, or, in homely metaphor, if it
+bites off more than it can chew. There is a certain tendency just now to
+overrate Hejazi prowess in war and policy; in fact, King Husein is often
+alluded to vaguely as the "King of Arabia," and there is a sporadic crop
+of ill-informed articles on this and other Arabian affairs in the
+English Press. One of the features of the War as regards this part of
+the world is the extraordinary and fungus-like growth of "Arabian
+experts" it has produced, most of whom have never set foot in Arabia
+itself, while the few now living who have acquired real first-hand
+knowledge of any part of the Arabian peninsula before the War may be
+counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet the number of people who rush
+into print with their opinions on the most complex Arabian affairs would
+astonish even the Arabs if they permitted themselves to show surprise at
+anything. These opinions differ widely, but have one attribute in
+common--their emphatic "cock-sureness." Each one presents the one and
+only solution of the whole Arabian problem according to the facet which
+the writer has seen, and there are many facets. They are amusing and
+even instructive occasionally, but there is a serious side to
+them--their crass empiricism. Each writer presents (quite honestly,
+perhaps) his point of view of one or two facets in the rough-cut,
+many-sided and clouded crystal of Arabian politics without considering
+its possible bearing on other parts of the peninsula or even other
+factors in the district he knows or has read about. The net result is an
+appallingly crude patchwork, no one piece harmonising with another,
+and, in view of the habit Government has formed in these cases of
+accepting empirical opinions if they are shouted loud enough or at close
+range, there is more than a possibility that our Arabian policy may
+resemble such a crazy quilt. If it does, we shall have to harvest a
+thistle-crop of tribal and intertribal trouble throughout the Arabian
+peninsula, and the seed-down of unrest will blow all over Syria and
+Mesopotamia just at the most awkward time when reconstruction and sound
+administration are struggling to establish themselves. Weeds grow
+quicker and stronger than useful plants in any garden.
+
+Empirical statements sound well and look well in print, but they are no
+use whatever as sailing directions in the uncharted waters of Arabian
+politics. Putting them aside, the following facts are worth bearing in
+mind when the future of Arabia is discussed.
+
+The Hejazi troops were ably led by the Sharifian Emirs and Syrian
+officers of note, and had the co-operation of the Red Sea flotilla on
+the coast and British officers of various corps inland to cut off
+Medina, the last place of importance held by the Turks after the summer
+of 1916. Yet the town held out until long after the armistice, and its
+surrender had eventually to be brought about by putting pressure on the
+Turkish Government at Stamboul. On the other hand, the two great
+provinces which impinge upon the Hejaz, namely, Nejd and Yamen, have
+given ample proof that they can hammer the Turks without outside
+assistance. The Nejdis not only cleared their own country of Ottoman
+rule, but drove the Turks out of Hasa a year or two before the War,
+while the Yamenis have more than once hurled the Turks back on to the
+coast, and the rebels of northern Yamen successfully withstood a Hejazi
+and Turkish column from the north and another Turkish column from the
+south. The inference is that if the limits of Hejazi rule are to be much
+extended there had better be a clear understanding with their neighbours
+and also some definite idea of the extent to which we are likely to be
+involved in support of our _protege_.
+
+I know that many otherwise intelligent people have been hypnotised by
+the prophecy in "The White Prophet":
+
+    "The time is near when the long drama that has been played
+    between Arabs and Turks will end in the establishment of a vast
+    Arabic empire, extending from the Tigris and the Euphrates
+    valley to the Mediterranean and from the Indian Ocean to
+    Jerusalem, with Cairo as its Capital, the Khedive as its
+    Caliph, and England as its lord and protector."
+
+While refraining from obvious and belated criticism of a prophecy which
+the march of events has trodden out of shape, and which could never have
+been intended as a serious contribution to our knowledge of Arabs and
+their politics, we must admit that the basic idea of centralising
+Arabian authority has taken strong hold of avowed statecraft in England.
+It would, of course, simplify our relations with Arabia and the
+collateral regions of Mesopotamia and Syria if such authority could
+establish itself and be accepted by the other Arabian provinces to the
+extent of enforcing its enactments as regards their foreign affairs,
+_i.e._, relations with subjects (national or protected) of European
+States.
+
+If such authority could be maintained without assistance from us other
+than a subsidy and the occasional supply, to responsible parties, of
+arms and ammunition, it would satisfy all reasonable requirements, but
+if we had to intervene with direct force we should find ourselves
+defending an unpopular _protege_ against the united resentment of
+Arabia.
+
+I believe there is no one ruler or ruling clique in Arabia that could
+wield such authority, and my reason for saying so is that the experiment
+has been tried repeatedly on a small scale during the twenty years or so
+that I have been connected with the country and has failed every time.
+Toward the close of last century a sultan of Lahej who had always
+claimed suzerainty over his turbulent neighbours, the Subaihi, had to
+enter that vagabond tribeship to enforce one of his decrees, and got
+held up with his "army" until extricated by Aden diplomacy at the price
+of his suzerain sway. His successor still claimed a hold over an
+adjacent clan of the Subaihi known as the Rigai, but when one of our
+most promising political officers was murdered there, and the murderer
+sheltered by the clan, he was unable to obtain redress or even assist us
+adequately in attempting to do so. Early in this century Aden was
+involved in a little expedition against Turks and Arabs because one of
+her protected sultans (equipped with explosive and ammunition) could not
+deal with a small Arab fort himself. This is the same sultanate which
+let the Turks through against us in the summer of 1915 and whose ruler
+was prominent in the sacking of Lahej. I have already alluded, in
+Chapter II, to the inadequacy of the Lahej sultan on that occasion, yet
+Aden had bolstered up his authority in every possible way and had relied
+on him and his predecessor for years to act as semi-official suzerain
+and go-between for other tribes--a withered stick which snapped the
+first time it was leant upon. I could also point to the Imam of Yamen,
+strong in opposition to the Turks as a rallying point of tribal revolt,
+but weak and vacillating on the side of law and order. I might go on
+giving instances _ad nauseam_, but here is one more to clinch the
+argument, and it is typical of Arab politics. Aden had just cause of
+offence against a certain reigning sultan of the Abd-ul-Wahid in her
+eastern sphere of influence. He had intrigued with foreign States,
+oppressed his subjects, persecuted native trade and played the dickens
+generally. Therefore Aden rebuked him (by letter) and appointed a
+relative of his to be sultan and receive his subsidy. The erring but
+impenitent potentate reduced his relative to such submission that he
+would sign monthly receipts for the subsidy and meekly hand over the
+cash: these were his only official acts, as he retired into private life
+in favour of Aden's _bete noir_, who flourished exceedingly until he
+blackmailed caravans too freely and got the local tribesmen on his
+track.
+
+When we also consider how early in Islamic history the Caliphate split
+as a temporal power, and the difficulty which even the early Caliphs
+(with all their prestige) had to keep order in Arabia, it should
+engender caution in experiments toward even partial centralisation of
+control: apart from the fact that they might develop along lines
+diverging from the recognised principles of self-determination in small
+States, they could land us into a humiliating _impasse_ or an armed
+expedition.
+
+We parried the Turco-German efforts to turn pan-Islam against us, thanks
+to our circumspect attitude with regard to Moslems, but a genuine
+movement based on any apparent aggression of ours in Arabia proper might
+be a more serious matter.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote B: "_Arabia Infelix_," Macmillan.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY
+
+
+Having weighed the influence which pan-Islam can wield as a popular
+movement, we will now consider the human factors which have built it up.
+
+Just as we used Christendom as a test-gauge of pan-Islam, so now we will
+compare the activities of Moslems (who do their own proselytising) with
+those of Christian missionaries, grouping with them our laity so far as
+their example may be placed in the scales for or against the influence
+of Christendom.
+
+To do this with the breadth of view which the question demands we will
+examine these human factors throughout the world wherever they are
+involved in opposition to each other. We shall thus avoid the confined
+outlook which teaches Europeans in Asia Minor to look on Turks as
+typical Moslems to the exclusion of all others, or makes Anglo-Egyptians
+talk of country-folk in Egypt as Arabs and their language as the
+standard of Arabic, or engenders the Anglo-Indian tendency of regarding
+a scantily-dressed paramount chief from the Aden hinterland as an
+obscure _jungliwala_ because, in civilised India, an eminent Moslem
+dresses in accordance with our conception of the part.
+
+We can leave the western hemisphere out of this inquiry, for though the
+greatest missionary effort against Islam is engendered in the United
+States, it manifests itself in the eastern hemisphere, and the Moslem
+population in both the Americas is too small and quiescent to be
+considered a factor.
+
+We will begin with England and work eastward to the edge of the Moslem
+world.
+
+At first glance the idea of England as an arena where two great
+religious forces meet seems rather far-fetched, but there is more Moslem
+activity in some of our English towns than people imagine. Turning over
+some files of the _Kibla_ (a Meccan newspaper), one comes across
+passages like the following:--
+
+    "The honourable Cadi Abdulla living in London reports that six
+    noted English men and women have embraced the Moslem religion
+    in the cities of Oxford, Leicester, etc. The meritorious Abdul
+    Hay Arab has established a new centre in London for calling to
+    Islam, and the Mufti Muhammad Sadik has delivered a speech in
+    English in the mosque on 'the object of human life which can
+    only be attained through Moslem guidance.' Many English men and
+    women were present and put questions which were answered in a
+    conclusive manner. At the close of the meeting a young lady of
+    good family embraced Islam and was named Maimuna."
+
+Then we have the scholarly and temperate addresses of Seyid Muhammad
+Rauf and others before the Islamic Society in London; they are marked by
+considerable shrewdness and breadth of view, and though their debatable
+points may present a few fallacies, their effective controversion
+requires unusual knowledge of affairs in Moslem countries.
+
+It is not, however, the activities of Moslems in England which damage
+the prestige of Christendom; it is the behaviour of English alleged
+Christians themselves. Every missionary, political officer, tutor, or
+even the importer of a native servant--in short, anyone who has been
+responsible for an oriental in England--knows what I mean. I do not say
+that London (for example) is any more vicious than Delhi or Cairo or
+Cabul or Constantinople or any other large Moslem centre, but vice is
+certainly more obvious in London to the casual observer, even allowing
+for the fact that many comparatively harmless customs of ours (such as
+women wearing low-necked dresses and dancing with men) are apt to shock
+Moslems until they learn that occidental habit has created an atmosphere
+of innocence in such cases which even bunny-hugging has failed to
+vitiate.
+
+The social life of London in all its grades and phases operates more
+widely for good or ill on Christian prestige among Moslems than
+Londoners can possibly imagine. From the young princeling of some native
+State sauntering about Clubland with his bear-leader to the lascar off a
+P. and O. boat, among East London drabs, or the middle-class Mohammedan
+student who compares the civic achievements that surround him with the
+dingy dining-room of a Bloomsbury boarding-house, all are apostles of
+life in London as it seems to them. I have had the hospitality of
+"family hotels" in the Euston Road portrayed to me in the crude but
+vivid imagery of the East when spooring boar in Southern Morocco with a
+native tracker who had been one of a troupe of Soosi jugglers earning
+good pay at a West-end music-hall, and I once overheard a young
+_effendi_ explaining to his _confreres_ in a Cairo cafe exactly the sort
+of company that would board your hansom when leaving "Jimmy's" in days
+of yore.
+
+As for the news of London and its ways, as conveyed by its daily Press,
+educated Egyptians were better posted therein than most Englishmen in
+Cairo during the War, as their clubs and private organisations
+subscribed largely to the London dailies, which entered Egypt free of
+local censorship, while Anglo-Egyptian newspapers were more strictly
+censored than their vernacular or continental contemporaries, as they
+presented no linguistic difficulties, but could be dealt with direct and
+not through an understrapper.
+
+Missionaries would have us judge Islam by the open improprieties and
+abuses which occur at Mecca, Kerbela, and other great Moslem centres.
+How should we like Christianity to be judged by the public behaviour of
+certain classes in London or other big towns? Remember, it is always the
+scum which floats on top and the superficial vice or indecorum that
+strike a foreign observer.
+
+It is not my mission to preach--I am merely pointing out a flaw in our
+harness which causes a lot of administrative trouble out East. It is
+difficult to check the hashish habit in Egypt when the average educated
+_effendi_ reads of drug-scandals in London with mischievous avidity, and
+the endeavours of a well-meaning Education Department to implant ideals
+of sturdy manhood are handicapped when the students batten on the weird
+and unsavoury incidents which are dished up _in extenso_ by London
+journalism from time to time. Such matters do no harm to a public with
+a sense of proportion, but the _effendi_ is in the position of a
+schoolboy who has caught his master tripping and means to make the most
+of it. He assimilates and disseminates the idea that cocaine is as
+easily procurable as a cocktail in London clubs, and that the Black Mass
+is at least as common as the _danse de ventre_ in Cairo.
+
+We can leave England for our Eastern tour with the conclusion that Islam
+is welcome to any proselytes it makes there, but that the gravest slur
+on Christian prestige is cast by our own conduct.
+
+There is only one bone of contention between Moslems and missionaries in
+Europe now that Turkey and Russia are knocked out of the ring of current
+politics. Is St. Sophia to remain a mosque or revert to its original
+purpose as a Christian church? Whatever may be Turkish opinion on the
+subject, the tradition of Islam is definite enough. When the Caliph Omar
+entered Jerusalem in triumph, after Khaled had defeated the hosts of
+Heraclius east of Jordan, he withstood the importunate entreaties of his
+followers to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, saying that if he
+did so the building would _de facto_ become a mosque, and such a wrong
+to Christianity was against the ordinance and procedure of the Prophet.
+It is worthy of note that Christians were not molested at Jerusalem
+until after the Seljouk Turks wrested the Holy City from the moribund
+Arabian Caliphate in 1076: their persecution and the desecration of
+sacred places by the Turks brought about the first Crusade in 1096.
+Again it was the Ottoman Turks who stormed Constantinople and turned
+St. Sophia into a mosque. According to the orthodox tradition of Islam,
+once a church always a church. When the ex-Khedive had the chance of
+reacquiring the site of All Saints', Cairo, owing to the increasing
+noise of traffic in the vicinity, he contemplated building a
+cinema-theatre there (for he had a shrewd business mind), but he was
+roundly told by Moslem legalists that it was out of the question. Even
+if the Turks urge right of conquest, victorious Christendom can claim
+that too, and if they allege length of tenure as a mosque in support of
+their case they put themselves out of court, as St. Sophia has been a
+church for more than nine centuries and a mosque for less than five.
+
+If Turkey is allowed to remain in Europe at all it will be on
+sufferance. Even in Asia Minor signs are not wanting that Turkish rule
+will be pruned, clipped and trained considerably, as humanity will stand
+its rampant luxuriance of blood and barbarity no longer. The Young
+Turks were given every chance to consolidate their national aspirations
+and have achieved national suicide. One may feel sorry for the patient,
+sturdy peasantry and the non-political cultured classes who have been
+coerced or cajoled into fighting desperately in a cause that meant
+calamity for them whether they won or lost; but a nation gets the rulers
+it deserves and must answer for their acts.
+
+Asia Minor will probably be more accessible as a mission-field in due
+course. The Moslem Turk is not amenable to conversion; in fact, during a
+quarter of a century's wandering in the East I have never met a Turkish
+convert. The American Protestant Mission will probably be well to the
+fore in this area in view of its excellent work on behalf of the
+Armenians and other distressed Christians during the War. Just as it has
+concentrated its principal energies on the Copts in Egypt, so it may
+with advantage devote itself to the education and "uplift" of the
+Armenians, and if its activities are as successful as with the Copts,
+even the Armenians cannot but approve, for the more enlightened
+individuals of that harassed and harassing little nation admit that the
+Armenian character could be considerably improved, and that, though
+their hideous persecution is indefensibly damnable, their covetous
+instincts and parasitic activities are an incentive to maltreatment.
+
+One of the most difficult minor problems of reconstruction in Eastern
+Europe and Asia Minor will be how to safeguard the interests and modify
+the provocative activities of such subject-races as the Jews and the
+Armenians where established among ill-controlled nations and numerically
+inferior, though intellectually superior, to them. With their natural
+gift for intrigue and finance, they repay public persecution and
+oppression by undermining the administration and battening on the
+resources of their unwilling foster-country until active dislike becomes
+actual violence and outbursts of brutish rage yield ghastly results.
+Deportation is not only tyrannically harsh but impracticable, for unless
+they were dumped to die in the waste places of the earth, which is
+unthinkable, some other nation must receive them, and even the most
+philanthropic Government would hesitate to upset its economic conditions
+by admitting unproductive hordes of sweated labour and skilled
+exploiters. There are only two logical alternatives to such an
+_impasse_. One is to treat such subject-races so well that they may be
+trusted not to use their peculiar abilities against the interests of
+their adoptive country, which would then be their interests too, and
+the other is to exterminate them, which is inhuman. There is no middle
+course.
+
+It is a salutary but humiliating fact that we incur the worst human ills
+by our lack of human charity. We starved and over-crowded our poor till
+they bred consumption, and we enslaved negroes till they degenerated our
+Anglo-Saxon sturdiness of character, then plunged a great nation into
+civil war, and have finally become one of its most serious social
+problems. So the Jews were debarred from liberal pursuits and privileges
+until they concentrated on finance and commerce, being also persecuted
+until they perfected their defensive organisation. The consequence is
+that they are individually formidable in those activities and
+collectively invincible. Similarly the Turks harried the Armenians to
+their own undoing with even less excuse, for those ill-used people were
+certainly not interlopers, and so far from ameliorating their condition
+in the course of time, as we have done with the Jews, the Turks went
+from bad to worse till they culminated in atrocities which no
+provocation can palliate or humanity condone.
+
+But to return to Asia Minor; there the Armenians were first on the
+ground, and yet the Moslems of Armenia outnumber them by three to one.
+Any sound form of government would have to give equal rights, but it
+would have to be strong and farseeing to prevent the greedy exploitation
+and savage reprisals which such conditions would otherwise evolve.
+
+On entering Asia we shall find a somewhat similar problem confronting
+the administration in Syria and Palestine. Here we have several mixed
+races and at least three distinct creeds--Christianity, Islam, and
+Judaism.
+
+The Zionist movement looks promising, everyone concerned seems to be in
+accord, and a Jew millennium looms large in the offing, but----. In
+Palestine there are normally about 700,000 Moslems and Christians (the
+latter a very small minority) to 150,000 Jews. The lure of the Promised
+Land will presumably increase the Jewish population enormously, but they
+will still be very much in the minority unless the country is
+over-populated. The Zionist organisation will naturally try to select
+for emigration agriculturists, mechanics, and craftsmen generally to
+develop the resources of the country, but that is easier said than done.
+If Palestine, in addition to the sentimental aspect, is to be a refuge
+and asylum for the downtrodden and persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe,
+there would be very few farmers among _that_ lot--except tax-farmers.
+Even in England, where he labours under no landowning disability, the
+Jew thinks that farming for a living is a mug's game and confines his
+agricultural activities to week-ends in the autumn with a "hammerless
+ejector" and a knickerbocker suit. As for mechanics and skilled labour
+generally, such Jews as take to it usually excel in such work and do
+very well where they are. The bulk of the immigrant population--unless
+Palestine is going to be artificially colonised without regard for the
+necessitous claims of the very people who should be drawn off
+there--will be indigent artisans, small shopkeepers, shop assistants,
+weedy unemployables, and a sprinkling of shrewd operators on the
+look-out for prey. If the scheme is going to be run entirely on
+philanthropic lines (and there are ample resources and charity at the
+back of it to do so) the Zionists will be all right, and will, perhaps,
+improve immensely in the next generation under the influence of an
+open-air life--if they adopt it; but the resident majority of Moslems
+and Christians will not take too kindly to their new compatriots, while
+the Palestine Jews are already carping at the idea of so many trade
+rivals and accusing them of not being orthodox. None of this ill-feeling
+need matter in the long run with a firm but benevolent government, but
+the authorities will have to evolve some legislation to check
+profiteering and over-exploitation, or there will be trouble. It is not
+only the new-comers who will want curbing, but the present population.
+During the War the flagrant profiteering of Jew and Christian operators
+in Palestine and Syria did much to accentuate the appalling distress and
+was the more disgraceful compared with the magnificent efforts of the
+American and Anglican Churches to relieve the situation. The Jews nearly
+incurred a pogrom by their operations, which were only checked by a
+wealthy Syrian in Egypt starting a co-operative venture of low-priced
+foodstuffs and necessities with the support of the British authorities.
+As for the local Syrians, some of them were even worse. French and
+British officers speak of wealthy Syrians (presumably Christian,
+certainly not Moslem) giving many and sumptuous balls at Beyrout, at
+which they lapped Austrian champagne while their wives, blazing in
+diamonds, whirled with Hunnish officers in the high-pressure,
+double-action German waltz. And this with thousands of their compatriots
+starving in the streets and little naked children banding together to
+drive pariah dogs with stones from the street offal they were worrying,
+if perchance it might yield a meal. Meanwhile decent Anglo-Saxon
+Christendom was battling in that very town under adverse conditions to
+succour human destitution which had been largely caused by the callous
+operations of these soulless parasites. The Christians of Syria have no
+monopoly of such scandals. Yet there are otherwise intelligent people
+who speak of modern Christianity as an automatic promoter of ethics, and
+have the effrontery to try to thrust it on the East as a moral panacea.
+It is human ideals which make or mar a soul when once the seed of any
+sound religion has been sown, and they depend upon environment and
+climate more than our spiritual pastors admit; otherwise, why this
+missionary activity among oriental Christians? If you try to grow garden
+flowers in the rich, rank irrigation soil of the Nile valley they
+flourish luxuriantly, but soon develop a marked tendency to revert to
+their wild type, and it is permissible to suppose that human character
+is even more sensitive to its mental and physical surroundings. Any
+observant teacher of oriental youth will tell you that the promise of
+their precocious ability is seldom fulfilled by their maturity. Even the
+"country-born" children of British parents are considered precocious at
+their preparatory school in England, and, if not sent home to be
+educated, are apt to fall short of their parents' intellectual and
+moral standard in later years. The Mamelukes knew what they were about
+when they kidnapped hardy Albanian youths to carry on their rule in
+Egypt and passed over their own progeny. Kingsley has shown us in
+"Hypatia" what the Nile valley did for the Christian Church.
+
+It is not a question of Jew, Christian, or Moslem that the
+administrative authorities in Syria and Palestine will have to consider
+beyond ensuring that each shall follow his religion unmolested. They
+will have to defend the many from the machinations of the few and the
+few from the violent reprisals of the many. It is statecraft that is
+wanted, not politics or religious dogma.
+
+In Mesopotamia there has not been much missionary effort hitherto, and
+there is not a good case for exploiting it as a missionary field beyond
+certain limits. The riparian townsfolk are respectable people of some
+education and grasp of their own affairs, and the country-folk are a
+harum-scarum set of scallywags who used to attack Turks or British
+indifferently, whichever happened to be in difficulties for the moment.
+They are best left to the secular arm for some time to come. Medical
+missions, staffed by both sexes, could do good work at urban centres,
+and a few river steamers, or even launches, would extend their efforts
+considerably.
+
+We now come to Arabia itself, "the Peninsula of the Arabs," where
+orthodox Islam has its strongholds and missionary enterprise is not
+encouraged.
+
+Geographers differ somewhat as to what constitutes Arabia proper, but
+for the purposes of modern practical politics it may be considered as
+all the peninsula south of a line from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to
+the head of the Persian Gulf, and consisting of Nejd, the Hejaz,[C]
+Asir, Yamen, Aden protectorate, Hadhramaut and Oman. Each of these
+divisions should be dealt with separately in considering Arabian
+politics nowadays, and it will be well for the "mandatories" concerned
+if further sub-divisions do not complicate matters; I omit the
+sub-province of Hasa (once a dependency of the Turkish _pashalik_ at
+Bussora) because, since the Nejdi _coup d'etat_ in 1912, the Emir ibn
+Saoud will probably control its policy _vis-a-vis_ of missionaries and
+Europeans generally, though the Sheikh of Koweit may expect to be
+consulted.
+
+Nejd comes first as we move southward: impinging as it does on Syria,
+Mesopotamia, and the Hejaz, its politics are involved in theirs to a
+certain extent and its affairs require careful handling. It is certainly
+no field for unrestrained missionary effort, but there is no reason why
+a medical mission should not be posted at Riadh if the Emir is willing.
+There are two rival houses in Nejd--the ibn Saoud and ibn Rashid, the
+former pro-British and the latter (hitherto) pro-Turk; Emir Saoud held
+ascendancy before the War and should be able to maintain it now that
+Turco-German influence is a thing of the past. He is an enlightened,
+energetic man and was a close friend of our gallant "political," the
+late Captain Shakespeare, who was killed there early in the War during
+an engagement between the two rival houses. The question of missionary
+enterprise in Nejd could well be put before the Emir for consideration
+on its merits. Such procedure may seem weak to an out-and-out
+missionary, but even he would hesitate to keep poultry in another man's
+garden, even for economic purposes, without consulting him. Fowls and
+missionaries are useful and even desirable in a suitable environment,
+otherwise they can be a nuisance.
+
+Next in order as we travel is the Hejaz, where Islam started on its
+mission to harry exotic creeds and nations, until its conquering
+progress was checked decisively by reinvigorated Christendom. In
+missionary parlance, Arabia generally is referred to as "a Gibraltar of
+fanaticism and pride which shuts out the messenger of Christ," and it
+must be admitted that the Hejaz has hitherto justified this description
+to a certain extent. Even at Jeddah Christians were only just tolerated
+before the War, and I found it advisable, when exploring its tortuous
+bazars, to wear a tarboosh, which earned me the respectful salutations
+then accorded to a Turk. The indigenous townsfolk of Jeddah are the
+"meanest" set of Moslems I have ever met--I use the epithet in its
+American sense, as indicating a blend of currishness and crabbedness.
+They cringed to the Turk when the braver Arabs of the south were
+hammering the oppressor in Asir and Yamen, but, like pariahs, were ready
+to fall on them and their women and children when they had surrendered
+after a gallant struggle, overwhelmed by an intensive bombardment from
+the sea. The alien Moslems resident in Jeddah--especially the
+Indians--are not a bad lot, but there is an atmosphere of intolerance
+brooding over the whole place which even affects Jeddah harbour. I
+remember being shipmate in 1913 with some eight hundred pilgrims from
+Aden and the southern ports of the Red Sea. As we were discharging them
+off Jeddah, a plump and respectable Aden merchant whom I knew by sight,
+but who did not know me in the guise I then wore, was gazing in rapt
+enthusiasm at sun-scorched Jeddah, which, against the sterile country
+beyond, looked like a stale bride-cake on a dust heap. "A sacred land,"
+he crooned. "A blessed land where pigs and Christians cannot live."
+Incidentally he made a very good living out of Christians and was
+actually carrying his gear in a pigskin valise.
+
+At the same time, it is absurd for missionaries to aver of Christians at
+Jeddah that "even those who die in the city are buried on an island at
+sea." The Christian cemetery lies to the south of the town (we had to
+dislodge the Turks from it with shrapnel during the fighting), and the
+only island is a small coral reef just big enough to support the ruins
+of a nondescript tenement once used for quarantine. No one could be
+buried there without the aid of dynamite and a cold chisel. Presumably
+missionary report has confused Jeddah with the smaller pilgrim-port of
+Yenbo, where there are an island and a sandy spit with a Sheikh's tomb
+and a select burial-ground for certain privileged Moslems of the holy
+man's family.
+
+The worst indictment of Jeddah (and Mecca too, for that matter) is made
+by the pilgrims themselves, though some of it may be exaggerated by men
+smarting under the extortions of pilgrim-brokers.
+
+A pious Moslem once averred in my presence that the pilgrim-brokers of
+Jeddah were, in themselves, enough to bring a judgment on the place,
+and that trenchant opinion is not without foundation. Even to the
+unprejudiced eye of a travelled European they present themselves as a
+class of blatant bounders battening on the earnest fervour of their
+co-religionists and squandering the proceeds on dissipation. I have more
+than once been shipmate with a gang of them, and it is at sea that they
+cast off such restraint as the critical gaze of other Moslems might
+impose. As sumptuous first-class passengers they lounge about the deck
+in robes of tussore, rich silks and fancy waistcoats, though out of
+deference to their religious prejudice and Christian table-manners they
+usually mess by themselves. After dinner they play vociferous poker in
+the saloon for cut-throat stakes, evading the captain's veto by using
+tastefully designed little fish in translucent colours to represent
+heavy cash, and these they invoke from time to time "for luck." As it is
+usually sweltering weather, the occidental whiskey-and-soda and the
+aromatic _mastic_ of the Levant are much in evidence, and thus three of
+Islam's gravest injunctions are set at naught. Their chief fault, to a
+broad-minded sportsman, is that they lack self-control, whatever their
+luck may be. I have heard an ill-starred gambler bemoaning his losses
+with the cries of a stricken animal, and they are still more offensive
+as winners.
+
+In Mecca such open breaches of the Islamic code are not tolerated, but
+there are other lapses which neither Moslem nor Christian can condone.
+It is unfair and out of date to quote Burton's indictment of Meccan
+morals, nor have we any right to judge the city by its behaviour soon
+after its freedom from the Turkish yoke, when it may have been suffering
+from reaction after nervous tension; but, unless the bulk of respectable
+Moslem opinion is at fault, there is still much in the administration of
+Mecca which cries for reform. Harsh measures may have been necessary at
+first, but to maintain a private prison like the _Kabu_ in the state it
+is can redound to no ruler's credit, and for prominent officials to
+cultivate an "alluring walk" and even practise it in the _tawaf_ or
+circumambulation of the holy Caaba is beyond comment.
+
+Also the mental standard of officialdom is low, since Syrians of
+education and training do not seem to be attracted by the Hejaz service
+for long, and local men of position and ability are said to have been
+passed over as likely to be formidable as intriguers.
+
+It may be reasonably urged that it is difficult to improvise a Civil
+Service on the spur of the moment, and it is permissible to anticipate a
+better state of affairs now that war conditions are being superseded. At
+the same time it is no use blinking the fact that reform is indicated at
+Mecca if that sacred city is to harmonise with its high mission as the
+religious centre of the Islamic world, and this affects our numerous
+Moslem fellow-countrymen; otherwise the domestic affairs of the Hejaz
+are not our concern.
+
+The Hejaz has been very much to the fore lately, and ill-informed or
+biassed opinion has developed a tendency to credit it with a greater
+part in Arabian and Syrian affairs than it has played, can play, or
+should be encouraged to play. Its intolerant tone has, presumably, been
+modified by co-operation with the civilised forces of militant
+Christendom, but the new kingdom has got to regenerate itself a good
+deal before it can cope with wider responsibilities. Emir Feisal is, no
+doubt, an enlightened prince, but one swallow does not make a summer,
+and Hejazi troops have not yet evolved enough _moral_ to dominate and
+control a more formidable breed or be trusted with the peace and
+welfare of a more civilised population, especially where there are large
+non-Moslem communities. There has been a great deal of nonsense talked
+and written about their invincible fighting prowess. They accompanied
+the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in much the same way as the jackal is
+said to accompany the lion, with a reversionary interest in his kill,
+and their faint-hearted fumbling with the Turkish defences outside
+Jeddah was obvious to any observer. They are what they have been since
+the fiery self-sacrificing enthusiasm of early Islam died down and left
+them with the half-warm embers of their racial greed to become
+hereditary spoilers of the weak, instinctively shunning a doubtful
+fight. In guerilla warfare, leavened by British officers, they have
+shown an aptitude for taking advantage of a situation, but they cannot
+stand punishment and will not face the prospect of it if they can help
+it. Their own leaders knew that well enough when they refrained from
+taking Medina by assault, bombardment being out of the question, as
+buildings of the utmost sanctity would have been inevitably damaged or
+destroyed.
+
+Prince Feisal has, in a published interview with a representative of the
+Press, disclaimed all imperialistic ambitions for the Hejaz, but merely
+demanded Arab independence in what was once the Ottoman Empire. That
+being assured, the new kingdom will be able to devote its energies to
+internal affairs, and the excellent impression made by the Hejazi prince
+in Europe should be a favourable augury of the future.
+
+The missionary question should be left to the reigning house for
+decision; it is not fair to hamper the Hejaz with unnecessary
+complications, and to allow active missionary propaganda at a
+pilgrim-port like Jeddah is asking for trouble, apart from the flagrant
+violation of religious sentiment. Imagine Catholic feeling if an
+enterprising Moslem mission were established at Lourdes. Tact and
+expediency are just as necessary in religious as in secular affairs--at
+least so St. Paul has taught us; but the modern missionary is too apt to
+regard these qualities in Christianity as insincerity and the lack of
+them in Islam as fanaticism.
+
+South of the Hejaz lies that rather vague area known as Asir. For
+geographical purposes we may consider it as the country between two
+parallels of latitude drawn through the coastal towns of Lith and
+Loheia, with the Red Sea on the west and an ill-defined inland border
+merging eastward into the desert plateau of Southern Nejd. Politically,
+it is that territory of Western Arabia between the Hejaz and Yamen in
+which the Idrisi has more control than anyone since his successful
+revolt against the Turks a year or two before the War. In all
+probability its northern districts with Lith will go to the Hejaz, and
+the southern ones with Loheia to the Idrisi; but Western diplomacy will
+be well advised to leave those two rulers to settle it between
+themselves and the local population, especially inland, as tribal
+boundaries between semi-nomadic and pastoral people are not for
+intelligent amateurs to trifle with. Nor should the missionary be
+encouraged; Asir is not a suitable field for his activities, and the
+trouble he would probably cause is out of all proportion to the good he
+could possibly do. The Asiri is a frizzy-haired fanatic with a short
+temper and a serious disposition, addicted to sword-play and the
+indiscriminate use of firearms. I doubt if he would see the humour of
+missionary logic. As for the Idrisi himself, he is a tall, well set up
+man of negroid aspect (being of Moorish and Soudani descent), and has
+shown shrewdness as an administrator, though his operations in the War
+have lacked "punch." He is very orthodox, and from what I know of him I
+should not say that religious tolerance was his strong point. His
+capital is at Sabbia, in the maritime foot-hills, with a very trying
+climate. Asir might suit the naturalist or explorer who could adapt
+himself to his environment and respect local prejudice. No one has yet
+entered the country in either capacity, but, from what has been told me
+before the War by intelligent Turkish officers who campaigned there, I
+think that the birds and smaller mammals would repay research, while the
+great Dawasir valley and other geographical problems inland might be
+investigated with advantage under the _aegis_ of local chiefs. All that
+is required, besides the necessary scientific knowledge and Arabic, is a
+certain amount of perseverance and resolution blended with a reasonable
+regard for other people's convictions. Most Arabian expeditions fail
+through lack of time spent in preliminary steps. I have tripped up in
+that way myself, but it was owing to the restrictions of a paternal
+Government, and not through lack of patience. Before I started serious
+exploration in the Aden hinterland I spent a year on the littoral plain
+getting in touch with the people and mastering the dialect. Any success
+I may have had up-country was due to the foundation I laid in those
+early days, and it was not until the Aden authorities closed their
+sphere of influence against exploration in general and myself in
+particular that my expeditions began to miss fire, as I had to land at
+remote places along the coast and hasten up-country before their
+fostering care could set the tribes on me. He who would explore Asir
+should take a Khedivial mail steamer from Suez to Jeddah, and there show
+his credentials and explain his purpose to his consul and the local
+authorities. The Idrisi has an agent there, and it should not be
+difficult to pick up an Asiri dhow returning down the coast to Gizan,
+which is the port for Sabbia. He would have to stay there until he got
+the Idrisi's permit and an escort, without which he would be held up to
+a certainty. In any case, no such enterprise need be contemplated until
+Asiri affairs have settled down a good deal.
+
+In Yamen proper it should be feasible to travel again within certain
+limits as soon as the Imam can come to an understanding with the tribal
+chiefs. There is not much left for the explorer or naturalist to do,
+unless he goes very far inland toward the great central desert, which
+project is not likely to be encouraged by the local authorities. There
+is, however, a possible field for the mineralogist and prospector east
+and south-east of Sanaa, which area also contains Sabaean ruins and
+inscriptions of interest to the archaeologist.
+
+The northern boundary of Yamen may be said nowadays to trend north-east
+from Loheia inland through highland country to the desert borders of
+Nejran (once a Christian diocese). Its eastern border is very vague,
+but may be said to coincide approximately with the 45th parallel of
+longitude. Southward the limit has been clearly defined by the
+Anglo-Turkish Boundary Commission of 1902-5 inland from the Bana valley,
+about a hundred map-miles north of Aden, to the straits of
+Bab-el-Mandeb.
+
+Within these limits the two great divisions of Islam are represented in
+force--the orthodox _Sunnis_ on the littoral plain and far inland along
+the upland deserts, while the highlanders among the lofty fertile ranges
+separating these two areas and forming the backbone of the country
+follow the _Shiah_ schism, being Zeidis, which of all the schismatic
+sects approaches most nearly to orthodox Islam and regards Mecca as its
+pilgrim-centre. The feeling between these two religious divisions may be
+compared with that existing between Anglicans and Catholics. They will
+occasionally use each other's places of worship--more especially the
+upper or governing classes--and seldom come to open loggerheads; when
+they do, it is usually about politics, and not religion. At the same
+time, if you, as a Christian traveller among both parties, want a
+scathing opinion of a Zeidi, you will get it from an orthodox lowlander,
+and the men of the mountains reciprocate with point and weight, for the
+balance of religious culture and position is with them among the big
+hill-centres; including Sanaa, the political capital where the Imam
+holds, or should hold, his court as hereditary ruler spiritual and
+temporal. This ecclesiastical potentate has backed the Turk in a
+non-committal but flamboyant manner during the War up to the turning of
+the tide against them, when he sat on the fence until his Turkish
+subsidy ceased. He now looks to Western diplomacy in general and the
+British Government in particular not only to continue but to enhance
+this subsidy, in order that he may really govern in Yamen. His attitude
+throughout is natural and, indeed, justifiable in the interests of
+himself and his dynasty; at least occidental politicians cannot cavil at
+his motives; but what they ought to ascertain is how far he can fill the
+bill as a ruler in Yamen and the extent to which he should be backed.
+Without a considerable subsidy his administrative powers (not hitherto
+very marked) will not carry far even in the highlands.
+
+Missionaries were allowed to enter Yamen before the War, but did not
+establish themselves, even on the coast. Some of them went up-country
+and stayed there some time without being molested. The average Yameni is
+not fanatical by temperament; there is more bigotry among the urban Jew
+colonies than in the whole Moslem countryside.
+
+In the Aden protectorate there has been long established the Falconer
+Medical Mission, which, though actually at Sheikh Othman, just inside
+the British border, has done splendid work among natives of the
+hinterland, who visit it from all parts. Its relations with the Arabs
+have always been excellent, though the local ruffians looted the Mission
+when the Turks held Sheikh Othman temporarily.
+
+The province of Hadhramaut, politically, includes not only the vast
+valley of that name with its tributaries, but the whole of the western
+part of Southern Arabia outside the Aden protectorate from the Yamen
+border to the confines of Oman near longitude 55. Mokalla is the capital
+and principal port. Missionaries have been well received there by the
+enlightened ruler--a member of the Kaaiti house with the local title of
+Jemadar, inherited from an ancestor who soldiered in the Arab bodyguard
+of a former Nizam at Haiderabad. The interior is not suited to
+missionary enterprise.
+
+Muscat, the capital of Oman, has already been occupied by missionaries.
+The Sultan (at whose court there is a British Resident) is well-disposed,
+but has lost most of his influence inland.
+
+Further up the Persian Gulf missionaries have long been established on
+the islands of Bahrein, which are under British protection.
+
+Continuing our journey eastward, we can dismiss the Shiahs of Persia as
+outside our pan-Islamic calculations, for their pilgrim-centre is at
+Kerbela, some twenty odd miles west of the Euphrates and the site of
+ancient Babylon. This centre has been visited by missionaries.
+
+Afghanistan and Beluchistan both bar missionaries, but there are C.M.S.
+frontier posts from Quetta, in British Beluchistan, to Peshawar, near
+the Afghan border. They do good hospital work, otherwise their
+evangelising activities over the border are confined to native
+colporteurs and the circulation of vernacular Scriptures. There is a
+fierce and barbarous Turcoman spirit in both countries which their
+respective rulers (the Khan of Kelat and the Emir at Cabul) do their
+best to keep within bounds, aided by British Residents. Missionaries
+seem to think this spirit can be exorcised by their entrance into the
+arena. You might as well throw squibs into a cage full of tigers.
+
+On entering India (that vast hunting-ground of many sects and creeds),
+Moslem and missionary are almost swamped in the flood of Hinduism. There
+is no restriction on the activities of either within the four corners
+of the King-Emperor's peace, and there is very little antagonism between
+the two in so big a field, where both are doing good work. Although the
+Moslems outnumber the Christians by seven to one, the honours of war go
+to the missionaries. Their highly-organised medical and educational
+missions do excellent work--the Zenana Mission is, in itself, a
+justification of Christian mission work in India to any humanitarian
+with some knowledge of _zenana_ conditions. The Moslems, on the other
+hand, in spite of their high standard of education, in India show a
+tendency among their less educated classes toward the caste prejudices
+of Hinduism, which are dead against the teaching of Islam and a handicap
+to any social organisation.
+
+Few people realise what a huge proposition the Indian Empire is to solve
+in its entirety, with its population of 315 millions, of whom over 90
+per cent. are illiterate. Of the more or less educated residuum, not
+quite 90 per cent. are Brahmins having little in common with the huge
+uneducated bulk of the population, which is chiefly agricultural and, by
+its patient toil, supplies most of the wealth of India. Yet it is the
+cultured but unproductive Brahmin (organised by a brainy old lady) who
+wants to control the native affairs of India--and probably will.
+
+In Farther India the Brahmin is at a discount and the Buddhist is to the
+fore, while Moslem and missionary are far too busy among the heathen to
+bother about each other; as also in Malay, where there is field enough
+and to spare for both of them.
+
+The only other debatable field in Asia is that vast area which we call
+China, comprising China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Eastern
+Turkestan. Moslem and missionary can hardly be said to meet face to
+face, as missionary enterprise is chiefly in China itself, where the
+great waterways have been of much assistance to Christian activities,
+while Moslem efforts are concentrated on Chinese Turkestan. Here there
+are two Christian missions, at Yarkand and Kashgar, under the protection
+(as elsewhere in China) of the Chinese Government. Moslem propaganda is
+spread by traders and others working from centres of Islamic learning
+outside Chinese territory, such as Bokhara and Samarkand in Russian
+Turkestan, and Cabul, the Afghan capital. In addition, there is a wave
+of Chinese secular culture lapping in from the East, and missionaries
+ask that existing missions be reinforced with funds to take a more
+effective part in this battle for souls (as they express it). They
+complain bitterly that the upper classes _will_ send their sons away to
+places like Bokhara to be educated, and that they come back Moslems.
+They also call for ample funds to attack Islam on its own ground in
+Russian Turkestan, as it is permeating Christian Russia. This missionary
+point of view is natural enough; how far it is justifiable is for the
+contributing public to decide. To the ordinary mind Christian villages
+which can become Moslem by the leavening influence of a few inhabitants
+who have been to work in Moslem centres convey one of two impressions,
+or both: either Christianity is not adapted to their requirements so
+much as Islam, or they are too weak-kneed to be a credit to any faith,
+and the one with the most virile methods may take them and make men of
+them if it can. Moslem and missionary activities in Chinese Asia remind
+one of cheese-mites gnawing away on opposite sides of a Double
+Gloucester. They are very active, and if they keep at it may get through
+some day; but meanwhile the cheese seems much the same as ever, apart
+from its own internal changes which the mites cannot control or affect.
+
+We will now turn to Africa, the main theatre of war between Moslem and
+missionary, who battle with each other for pagan souls and each other's
+proselytes.
+
+We will first visit Morocco, the most westerly of Moslem countries.
+Here there is not much missionary activity, either Protestant or
+Catholic, but the French have been doing some excellent secular work
+there, and under their tutelage the country is developing on lines of
+moderate progress.
+
+There is little antipathy shown to missionaries here, at any rate on the
+coast, and medical missionaries have been welcomed inland. Education
+does not flourish, but the country might be described by an unbiassed
+observer as enlightened at least as far south as a line joining Mogador
+and Morocco City (Marrakesh). In this northern area you will find an
+industrious agricultural population of small farmers scattered about the
+countryside, which consists of wide, open tracts of arable land under
+millet, maize, and other cereals, dotted here and there with groves of
+olive and orange and interspersed with large forests of _argan_ and
+other small trees. Desert country encroaches more and more toward the
+south, and in spite of several large streams draining into the Atlantic
+from the snowcapped Atlas range, the country becomes very wild and
+sterile the farther south you go from Mogador until it merges in the
+Sahara, across which lies the great, bone-whitened highway that leads to
+Timbuctoo.
+
+Whatever the indigenous Berber of the Atlas may be, the northern Moor
+has never been a mere barbarian, and Spain owes much to his culture and
+industry. He certainly used to have a bizarre conception of
+international amenities, and got himself very much disliked in the
+Mediterranean and even northern waters in consequence. That phase,
+however, has long since passed; the last corsair has rotted at its
+moorings in Sallee harbour, and I am told that to put a wealthy Jew in a
+thing like a giant trouser-press and extort money under pressure is
+considered now an anachronism.
+
+When I first knew the country, a quarter of a century ago, it was just
+emerging from a revolutionary war, and local relations with foreigners
+or even neighbours were capricious. They murdered a German bagman up the
+coast in an _argan_ forest, and the "Gefion" landed a flag-flaunting
+armed party to impress Mogador, which dropped water-pitchers on them
+from upper windows and wondered what on earth the fuss was about.
+
+On the other hand, I was well received by one of the revolted tribes,
+which had chased its lawful Kaid into Mogador until checked by old
+scrap-iron and bits of bottle-glass from the ancient cannon mounted over
+the northern gate of the town.
+
+I was treated with far more hospitality than my absurd and rather rash
+enterprise deserved. Imagine a callow youth just out of his teens
+dropping in haphazard on a rebel tribe accompanied by a mission-taught
+Moor and a large liver-coloured pointer who had far more sense than his
+master. My tame Moor was an excellent fellow, who, beside keeping my
+tent tidy and cooking, helped me to grapple with the derived forms of
+the Arabic verb and the subtleties of Moorish etiquette. I learnt to
+drink green tea, syrup-sweet and flavoured with mint, out of ornate
+little tumblers of a size and shape usually associated with champagne,
+and, after assiduous practice, I could tackle a dish of boiled millet,
+meat, and olives with the fingers of my right hand without mishap.
+
+Beyond occasional brushes with adjacent sections of the neighbouring
+tribe which had declared for the Fez central Government, I had very
+little trouble, except that a peaceful boar-hunt would occasionally
+degenerate into an intertribal skirmish if I and my party got too near
+the loyalist border. As all concerned had, thanks to Western enterprise,
+discarded their picturesque flint-locks in favour of Winchester or
+Marlin repeaters, the proceedings required wary handling if we were to
+extricate ourselves successfully, but my long-range sporting Martini
+usually gave me the weather-gauge.
+
+I dressed as a Moor, and looked the part, but made no attempt to pass
+for anything but a Christian, nor did any unpopularity attach thereto; I
+was merely expected--as a natural corollary--to have a little medical
+knowledge (and it _was_ a little).
+
+I found the attitude of Moors generally towards Christians curiously
+inconsistent. In the towns there was a certain amount of formal
+fanaticism which found vent in donkey-drivers addressing their beasts as
+"_Nasara_" to the accompaniment of whacks and yells, but public
+behaviour was tolerant enough, and the attitude of Moorish officialdom
+was almost courtly.
+
+Jews had rather a bad time, if local subjects, as their black slippers
+and furtive bearing outside their own quarter made them a mark for
+naughty little boys, who flung their canary-coloured slippers at them
+with curses and imprecations deserving a more direct and personal
+application of their footgear. Most of the wealthier Jews had acquired
+European or American protection, and were safe enough. They lived in the
+Frankish quarter and dressed in ultra-European style. They made rather a
+depressing spectacle on Saturdays, when, garbed in black broadcloth,
+with bowler hats, they drifted through the sunlit streets on their
+Sabbath constitutional from one town gate to the next and back. They
+were keen trade competitors, and gained or lost fortunes by gambling in
+the almond export-market or catching a grain-famine at the psychological
+moment. One of them had retired to a leisured affluence on the proceeds
+that a big cargo of almonds had yielded him at a startling turn in the
+market. He was a hospitable soul who met me once entering the landward
+gate in a travel-stained burnoose and insisted on dragging me into his
+gorgeously-carpeted house to drink _aquardiente_ and look at his
+"curios." These consisted chiefly of modern firearms, some of
+first-class London make, which hung on his walls as ornaments, having
+been bought haphazard without ammunition or sporting intent. I nearly
+had a fit when he showed me a double .577 Express hopelessly rusted by
+the damp sea-air and offered to lend it me if I could find "shots" for
+it. The reverse of the shield was illustrated by another acquaintance of
+mine who had made a large fortune by importing Russian wheat to Morocco
+in famine time and had lost it in a short but striking career in
+England, during which he was said to have entertained Royalty,
+astonished the racing world and married a well-known actress in light
+comedy. He, too, was of hospitable intent, but had generally left his
+purse at home when the reckoning came. On the other hand, he always
+carried the "stub" of the cheque-book which had seen him to the apogee
+of his meteoric career, and a glance at its counterfoils (by his express
+invitation) was well worth the price of a drink or two.
+
+The local Islamic attitude toward Moorish Jews was one of contemptuous
+tolerance. They could certainly travel, in native dress, where no
+Christian could. Once, in the _patio_ or go-down of a European merchant,
+I met a greasy, unkempt Jew in a tattered gaberdine watching my
+commercial friend as he weighed what I took to be a double handful of
+crude brass curtain rings such as traders used to sell by the gross
+along the West African coast. They were solid gold and represented the
+venture of a Jewish syndicate which had collected it in pinches of
+gold-dust from the river beds of southern Soos and hit on this form of
+transport. A troop of horse could never have brought it, as gold, a
+day's journey through the lawless tribes of the south, but that
+tatterdemalion Jew had done it at the price of a few contemptuous
+buffets. He had, indeed, offered one truculent gang of highwaymen a few
+of the tawdry-looking rings to let him pass, but they had waved such
+obvious trash aside in their eager search for actual cash, which they
+had taken to the last _rial_.
+
+The only other occasion on which I have known a Moor to be hoisted with
+the petard of his own contemptuous fanaticism was an experience of my
+own.
+
+I was moving quietly through a belt of timber just before dawn in the
+hopes of getting a shot at a boar who was in the habit of feeding till
+daybreak among some barley that grew near a caravan route. Before the
+light was quite strong enough to shoot by I was more than a little
+annoyed and astonished to hear cocks crowing all over the place;
+presuming an early caravan with poultry for market, I pushed on to the
+track, meaning to pass the time of day and ask if they had glimpsed my
+quarry or heard him. I almost ran into a town-bred Moor who was trying
+to round up some scattered poultry in the gloom and cursing volubly. He
+explained that he was riding his donkey along the track perched between
+two light reed cages containing fowls when the donkey baulked as a boar
+snorted in the thickets just off the road. He whacked the donkey and
+cursed the boar as a pig and a Christian. Thereupon came a rush like
+cavalry, the donkey was knocked from under him and he was lying amid
+the wreckage of his flimsy crates with his poultry scattered abroad. The
+boar, already angry and suspicious, as anyone but a townsman would have
+known by the noise he made, had charged like a thunderbolt at the sound
+of a human voice so close to him and galloped off with all the honours
+of war.
+
+The donkey was badly hurt and the man only escaped because he was
+sitting high and just above the point of impact. I helped him secure his
+poultry and started back to my village to send him another donkey. He
+thanked me in brotherly style as one Moor to another. "I'm a Christian
+myself," I remarked at parting, and added in my best beginner's Arabic
+as I turned to go, "It is incumbent on me to assist you after the
+aggression of my co-religionist."
+
+This conventional attitude of arrogance toward Christendom is perhaps
+traceable to Moorish predominance in the Middle Ages and the importation
+of Christian slaves by the pirates of the Barbary coast. In any case, it
+has been much toned down of late years owing to contact with capable and
+well-intentioned Franks as administrators and technical experts.
+
+Morocco should never become a forcing-bed of religious or racial
+antipathy, and will not so long as France continues to develop the
+country by methods which the natives can assimilate, and is not lured
+into over-exploitation of her mineral resources or unwarrantable
+interference with her spiritual affairs.
+
+A perfectly justifiable missionary policy would be the inauguration of
+industrial schools on the coast and at one or two big inland centres,
+also medical missions (with consent of the local authorities) wherever
+feasible. Moorish craftsmanship is worth stimulating, and doctors are
+welcomed for their science. Both schemes would redound to the credit of
+Christendom and be in accordance with the best traditions of the Early
+Church.
+
+In the other Barbary states (Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli) a few Catholic
+missions have been established, and the North African Protestant Mission
+has an advanced post at Kairwan in Tunis. Here many routes converge, for
+Kairwan is a great centre of pilgrimage and taps the religious thought
+of all the Saharan tribes. Under such conditions, Islam gets ahead every
+time, as every caravan traveller is a potential missionary, while
+Christian missions are anchored to the spot or have to rely on native
+colporteurs, who labour under the initial disadvantage of being
+proselytes and seldom have the combination of tact and staunchness which
+evangelists require.
+
+It is in Egypt that we first find Moslem and missionary at close grips
+arrayed against each other. Cairo is a perfect cockpit of creeds.
+Christianity is represented by Catholics, Copts, Orthodox Greeks and
+Protestants, these last being subdivided into Anglicans, Presbyterians,
+Wesleyans and American Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The main
+body of Islam--some of my more fervent missionary friends allude to it
+as "the hosts of Midian"--presents a fairly solid front of orthodoxy,
+the bulk being Hanifis, Shafeis, Maliki or Hanbalis (chiefly the two
+former); but the irregular forces of Shiah are well represented among
+non-indigenous Moslems from Yamen, Persia and India, while scattered
+groups of Wahabi ascetics, Sufi mystics and esoterics of Bahaism
+skirmish on debatable ground between the opposing lines, where range
+such free-lance companies as Theosophists, Christian Scientists,
+Salvationists, etc., all with local headquarters in Cairo and propaganda
+of their own.
+
+It must not be supposed that all this warlike metaphor indicates actual
+strife or even severe friction, any more than "the hosts of Midian"
+represents the attitude of missionaries to Moslems here. On the
+contrary, relations are for the most part excellent, and the prevailing
+animosity is political, not religious, being directed against us
+British much as normal schoolboys dislike their form-master until they
+get a harsher one.
+
+The Catholic Church confines most of her energies to teaching her own
+people, who are very numerous and well looked after; she does not do
+much alien mission work in this part of the world. The most formidable
+band of gladiators in the Christian ranks is the American Protestant
+Mission, and next to them the Anglican C.M.S. (chiefly distinguished in
+Egypt for its medical work, which is excellent and has an
+extraordinarily wide range). The Americans are great on education and
+have done more for the English language in Cairo than any Government
+institution. I use the term "gladiators" advisedly, for their most
+trenchant work is done on their own side--they concentrate their chief
+efforts on the Copts, and make a fairly good bag of proselytes from
+them, apart from the great number to whom they teach sound ideals of
+duty as well as English and the three "R's." One of their leading
+missionaries has left it on record that no one stands more in need of
+salvation than the Copts, and as there is a Coptic Reform Society the
+Copts must think there is room for improvement too.
+
+It has been found in practice that to convert a _bona-fide_ Moslem
+involves segregating him, and that means finding him a living in a new
+environment, otherwise he is almost bound to "revert" under local
+pressure. Apart from the strain on mission resources which such
+procedure would cause if extensively followed, most missionaries rightly
+condemn such a system as encouraging conversion for material motives.
+Therefore they adopt a policy of "peaceful penetration" against Islam,
+encouraging young men to come to them unostentatiously (I call them the
+Nicodemus-squad) in order to discuss religious questions, which is
+usually done in a temperate and intelligent manner on both sides. Even
+if they get no "forrader," it tends to toleration and a better knowledge
+of each other's language and ideals. A good deal of teaching is done too
+with no expectation of making proselytes, and solid friendships are
+formed. I have myself known a convalescing lady missionary of the C.M.S.
+to receive repeated calls of friendly inquiry from former pupils; when I
+first saw two veiled young girls swing past with a palpably British
+terrier and the crisp, vigorous step of occidental emancipation, it
+puzzled my ethnological faculties until I was told the object of their
+visit.
+
+All this is to the good, and it would be very good indeed if they let
+well alone. Unfortunately, there is another cogent factor in the mission
+field, and that is the sinews of war in hard cash. Most people, even
+those who support missions to Moslem countries, are human enough to like
+a fight put up for their money. It is not enough for them that a great
+deal of quiet, patient work is being done by missionaries among Moslems
+in the name of Christianity and the service of mankind. They want to
+hear about storming citadels of sin and campaigning against the devil in
+the dark places of the earth; especially is this so in America, where
+Moslem prejudice does not have to be considered and religious
+organisation, like most other concerns, is on a big scale.
+
+As a natural consequence, missionaries have to play up to this combatant
+instinct, and so we read in their books and reports remarks calculated
+to engender religious intolerance on both sides, and which do not
+conform with the shrewd and kindly work in the field of those devoted
+and often scholarly men. I shall have occasion to allude to some of
+these statements as we proceed, so think it only fair to mention their
+justification here.
+
+Cairo is described as a "strategic centre" in mission parlance, and so
+it is, being situated on a great waterway with rail connection far
+south into the heart of Africa and converging caravan routes from every
+quarter. Along these arteries of traffic many tons of tracts and
+propaganda are hurled annually by train, felucca and colporteur. Those
+who cannot read accept such matter gladly to wrap things up in and to
+show to their literate friends, who read what resembles a bit of the
+Koran and find it carries a sting in its tail, like a scorpion, aimed at
+Islam. A great deal of this literature consists of the Psalms of David,
+the Talmud or the Gospel, all reverenced by Moslems if dished up without
+trimmings. Not wishing to impose on that hard-worked word "camouflage,"
+I would merely ask, as a naturalist, if such protective mimicry is worth
+the irritation it causes. In any case, the system reminds me of an old
+Highlander's opening comment on a sword dance by a rock scorpion in a
+Tangier saloon. "There is a sairtain elegance aboot yourr grace-steps,
+but _get in between the swords_."
+
+No vicarious efforts by propaganda will ever take the place of personal
+precept and example. In hunting proselytes among the followers of Islam
+it is not advisable to rely too much on the Scriptures, as Moslems doubt
+the authenticity of our version and point to our own divergent copies in
+proof thereof. Nor is it any use asking them to believe as an act of
+faith; if they did they would need no proselytising: an appeal must be
+made to their reason, and there is no better appeal than the life,
+works, and conduct of one who professes and practises Christianity. Even
+if he makes no single convert he has leavened the population around him
+with the dignity and prestige of his creed which has produced such a
+type. Unfortunately such results cannot be scheduled in mission reports,
+though they are real enough and well worth living for, whether a man be
+a missionary or not; only they cannot be produced by brilliant
+wide-sweeping feats of organisation and enterprise, but by persevering,
+consistent lives, which are not easy or spectacular.
+
+Egypt should be a great field of religious warfare by personal
+influence, as Christians and Moslems live side by side in daily contact
+and reasonable accord, yet few of us take advantage of the fact to
+uphold the prestige of our creed or even of our race. We Europeans are
+busy with our multifarious interests and duties, while Egyptian Moslems
+are either entangled in the web of their environment, as are the
+_fellahin_, or eager snatchers at the gifts of civilisation, as are the
+more or less cultured effendis, or mere hair-splitters in futile
+religious controversy, as are too many of the _ulema_ or sages at the
+great collegiate mosque of al-Azhar. In each case, spiritual matters
+are apt to get crowded out. The fault lies chiefly with our cosmopolitan
+ingredients, which engender feverish living, if not actual vice, and the
+over-strained effort on the one side to impart and on the other side to
+assimilate a Western system of education which has induced intellectual
+dyspepsia. So we hear of students mugging parrot-like to pass
+half-yearly examinations, in the hopes of getting Government
+appointments for which there are far too many applicants; these young
+men besiege the Press with complaints of unfair treatment if they fail,
+or even go to the length of attempting suicide with carbolic acid
+(fortunately with sufficient caution to ensure it usually being but an
+attempt); this latter petulant protest at the temporary thwarting of
+their material hopes is dead against all the teaching and tradition of
+Islam, but it has become so frequent that a leading educational
+authority suggests that no student who attempts suicide shall be allowed
+to sit again for a Government examination. Among their seniors up at
+al-Azhar are men of real learning and remarkably persevering scholarship
+(their theological course makes the average brain reel to contemplate),
+but some sheikh started a controversy as to whether Adam was a prophet
+or not, which fell among those sages with the disrupting force of a
+grenade, causing much litigation in the Islamic courts and culminating
+in the divorce of the originator by his wife for _kufr_, or heresy as
+ordained by Moslem law. Beneath these troubled waters the _fellah's_
+life flows placidly, bounded on the one hand by his crops and on the
+other by the market; his spiritual stimulus being supplied by an
+occasional religious fair or a visit to the shrine of some local saint.
+He toils as patiently as his water-wheel buffalo, and on that toil
+depends the wealth of Egypt which supports saints and sinners, schools
+and shops, with all our European schemes and enterprises thrown in.
+
+As for us British, if our object is to enhance the prestige of our race
+or creed, we fall very short of achievement. We have not even that
+reputation for integrity which usually attaches to us in other parts of
+the Moslem world. This may be partly due to our anomalous position in
+the country, which was thrust upon us, but the pleasure-seeking tourist
+of pre-War days has a lot to answer for. Some of them seemed to think
+that so far from home their conduct was of no account (at least, that is
+the only charitable explanation), and British personal prestige suffered
+in consequence. Anglo-Egyptian officials, especially the subordinate
+grades, which come into more direct contact with the people, tried to
+counteract this by increased dignity of demeanour, but the natives now
+knew them _en deshabille_, or thought they did, and declined to keep
+them on their pedestals. The result is, familiarity without intimacy and
+detachment without dignity, while the pre-War official habit of going
+Home every year for some months has prevented even subordinates from
+studying their district or department consecutively.
+
+Hence it is that a widespread Nationalist movement gathered force and
+perfected its plans for a detailed campaign which blended peaceful
+demonstration with sabotage, murder and violence, and took the
+Anglo-Egyptian Government completely by surprise, paralysing
+communications and intimidating the general public until the weight of
+Imperial troops, luckily still quartered in the country, was allowed to
+make itself felt and restored order.
+
+This is not the time or the place to discuss these affairs, which are
+still _sub judice_, but one salient feature of the movement is pertinent
+to our subject, and that is the marked _rapprochement_ between Moslems
+and Copts, who fraternised in each other's mosques and churches, carried
+flags bearing the device of Cross and Crescent and used American mission
+buildings to further their new-found brotherhood. These relations were
+somewhat marred by the wholesale devastation of Coptic property
+up-country, but the Copts took it very well and paraded the streets with
+their Moslem friends, if they could not hide away from them. The local
+Jew came in too, and the climax of this religious _entente_ was reached
+when an Egyptian Jewess preached in the mosque of al-Azhar on the
+ancient relations between Jews and Arabs.
+
+But we must not merely consider Egypt as a sort of religious and racial
+clearing house; it is also the main gate of Africa.
+
+Southward, up the Nile valley and across grim deserts, lies Khartoum,
+the capital of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, only four days from Cairo by
+rail. This is a very tempting theatre for missionary enterprise, which
+is, however, held in check by the authorities, who decline to have their
+Sudan spiritually exploited and materially disturbed by futile efforts
+to evangelise the country. Missionaries say that this part of the Sudan,
+as well as Egypt, was once Christian; that discrimination is being shown
+in favour of Islam even to the extent of making pagans become Moslem on
+joining the Egyptian Army; that Gordon College is being run on
+non-Christian lines and that Islam is getting ahead of them in the race
+to convert pagans in this part of the world.
+
+The case against them is that the fact of these regions being once
+Christian and now Moslem shows, if anything, that the latter religion is
+more suited to local requirements and conditions; Islam is naturally
+favoured in a Moslem country, though many Christian missions have been
+given facilities too, and have mostly failed owing to climatic
+conditions: the Egyptian Army is Moslem and under a Moslem Government;
+the conversion of pagan recruits to Islam is encouraged for the sake of
+discipline and soldierly conduct; missionaries themselves admit that
+even in civil life a Christian convert from Islam must be segregated or
+he will lapse under surrounding pressure--perhaps they will explain how
+that is to be done in a barrack-room or native infantry lines, or would
+they prefer such recruits to remain pagan? Presumably they would, as one
+of their complaints is that "it is a thousand times harder to convert a
+Moslem to Christianity than a pagan." Comment is superfluous; nothing
+could portray their attitude more clearly. As for Islam getting ahead of
+them in the race for pagan souls, it is so and will be so always among
+the black races unless Christian missions are bolstered up by all the
+resources of local authority; the reason is that Islam offers equal
+privileges and no colour-line, imposes easy spiritual obligations and is
+propagated fervently by its followers without the encumbrance of an
+organised priesthood. Just as commercial travellers consider a district
+neglected where a rival firm has got ahead of them, so missionaries are
+piqued at conditions in the Sudan; but even that does not excuse such
+statements as that women in the Sudan are free and not badly treated as
+pagans, but slaves and oppressed under Islam. Every student of the
+Islamic code knows that the status of women has been enormously improved
+thereby as compared with any pagan system. Missionaries must know this,
+for they are much better educated about Islam than they were a quarter
+of a century ago, yet they do not scruple to raise the partisan cry of a
+debased womanhood under Islam wherever local conditions involve domestic
+hardship. Such tactics are unworthy of them; an intellectual Moslem does
+not reproach Christianity because he has visited districts in the poorer
+quarters of our big towns and seen women lead lives of drudgery or being
+sometimes knocked about by their husbands.
+
+Outside the Sudan and Nigeria we must keep to the eastern side of Africa
+in order to maintain touch with Islam. The negroid people of Italian
+Erythrea are Moslems, as are also the Somalis; but their racial cousins,
+the Abyssinians, are Christians of the Ethiopian Church, with the Negus
+as their temporal and spiritual ruler, who claims descent from King
+Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
+
+Abyssinia has been Christian ever since the fourth century, but the
+missionaries are not happy about the country at all. Here nothing
+impedes the entrance of the missionary as an individual, but the people
+will not have him as an evangelist at any price. The "fanatical and
+debased" priests of the Abyssinian Church and the drastic punishments
+inflicted by the local authorities on those suspected of favouring other
+forms of Christianity are described as grave hindrances. There is a
+large population of "black Jews," who will have no dealings with
+Christianity in any form. Meanwhile Islam gains ground steadily,
+especially in the south along the trade routes. A German missionary,
+writing from Strasburg in 1910, describes the situation as alarming,
+because "whole tribes of Abyssinians who still bear Christian names have
+become Muhammedans in the last twenty years." There is one Protestant
+mission up at Addis Abeba, but it confines its attentions to the
+semi-pagan Gallas, having given up Christian Abyssinia as a bad job.
+
+Somaliland is a poor field for missionary enterprise, owing to the
+sparse, semi-nomadic population and the difficulties of getting about.
+In the French sphere there is connection by rail between Jibuti on the
+coast and Dera Dowa near the Abyssinian border; travelling musicians of
+the _cafe chantant_ type used to use it a good deal before the War, but
+there was not much doing in the missionary line. Italian Somaliland,
+east of the British sphere to Cape Guardafui, is left to look after
+itself, except for the occasional visit of an Italian man-of-war; but
+south of that great headland there are Italian settlements.
+
+In British Somaliland missionary enterprise has hitherto been Catholic,
+and even that ceased some years before the War when the authorities had
+to tell the mission that it must leave, as they could no longer protect
+it from the Mullah's people. It was a pity, as the mission was doing
+good work and was much respected in the country. There was a Brotherhood
+which taught and doctored, and a teaching Sisterhood. They were
+Franciscans and had their local headquarters and a tastefully designed
+little chapel in the native town of Berbera, but the Brothers had also
+an agricultural settlement up-country, where they tilled the soil and
+did their best to teach the natives to do so too. The Somali is much
+easier to convert than the Arab, as his versatile and superficial
+temperament induces him to imitate, if not to assimilate, alien forms
+and ceremonies from the correct procedure at the "Angelus" to the
+singing, with appropriate gestures, of "a bicycle made for two."
+Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to teach him to think, or to do a
+day's honest work; he will pull a punkah while you are awake to keep him
+at it, or row a boat if allowed to sing, and sometimes he will fish if
+hungry and quite near the sea; but agriculture involves the hard work of
+digging, and that is too much for him. The object of the mission was to
+give Somali boys and girls the rudiments of Catholic Christianity and
+habits of industry. The boys were well grounded in English and the three
+"R's" in their simplest form, while the girls were taught chiefly sewing
+and cooking. The idea was for boys and girls to marry each other in the
+fulness of time and beget Christian children, but, as one of the good
+Fathers used regretfully to say, it did not work out in practice. The
+boys learnt enough to become interpreters or obtain small clerkships in
+the post and telegraph offices of Aden and adjacent ports, whereupon
+they felt marriage with a "black woman" to be derogatory, and looked
+higher, to the less swarthy charms of some half-caste maiden met at Mass
+(for they usually remained Catholic, at least in outward form). The
+girls, on the other hand, with all their domestic training, were much
+sought after by local chiefs, who were prepared to give them a good
+allowance in beads, bangles and cloth, plenty of food and a fairly easy
+life. In such surroundings they naturally readopted Islam.
+
+Somaliland is not as barren as most people suppose. Of course the
+littoral plain is comparatively sterile, as is the case on the Arabian
+side, owing to the scanty rainfall, and the maritime scarp of the hills
+that back it is not much better, but the country improves as you go
+inland; there is good grazing on the intra-montane plateau, and the
+watersheds of such massifs as Wagr, Sheikh and Golis (7,000 ft. or so)
+are thickly wooded, chiefly with the gigantic cactus tree, which
+averages forty feet; timber trees are scarce, being mostly tall
+_Coniferae_ in sheltered glens at the higher altitudes. Inland of these
+ranges the ground slopes gradually toward the almost waterless Haud--a
+vast plateau sparsely covered with tall mimosa bush or actual trees
+attaining some thirty feet in height and striking deep to subterranean
+moisture, which keeps them remarkably fresh and green. Giraffe feed
+eagerly on the tender upper foliage and herds of camel graze there too,
+going six months without water, for there is no known supply locally
+except in the occasional mud-pans or _ballis_ after a rainburst, which
+may happen once a year. These camels are kept for meat and milk only,
+and are no use for transport, as they are too "soft" to carry a sack of
+flour. They are rounded up and brought in to wells twice a year, where
+they water for a week or so. Herdsmen moving with them live on their
+milk, which is most sustaining. They must be watered after a maximum
+interval of half a year, or they get "poor" and will not put on flesh.
+Needless to say, no transport camel could be treated like that. A
+caravan camel can go five days without water, but that is about his
+limit while working, and he should be allowed to rest and graze for some
+days afterwards if he is to regain working condition. The giraffe, as
+also antelope of various kinds, can support life without water at all,
+though they trek greedily to the _ballis_ after rain. Here lion lie in
+wait for them occasionally, and it is a frequent subject of discussion
+among naturalists and sportsmen how such heavy, thirsty animals can
+subsist in the Haud. The most probable supposition is that they only
+enter this region with the rains and trek from one _balli_ to another. I
+have met a lioness a long way out of lion country presumably trekking
+from one water-hole to the next. What is still more remarkable is that
+heavy game sometimes will do so too. Heavy firing was once heard far
+south of Burao, and a mounted force pushed out thinking it was the
+Mullah's people going for our "friendlies" out grazing. A rhinoceros on
+trek for water and nearly mad with thirst had winded the waterskins in a
+Somali grazing camp and charged through the zareba to get at them. He
+was mobbed to death by the herdsmen with the rifles which a benevolent
+Government had given them for protection against the dervishes.
+
+To do them justice, the Somalis fear their fauna very little and have
+more than once, when in attendance on a European sportsman, driven off a
+lion with spears and a resolute front after the white man had failed to
+stop the beast with both barrels.
+
+Even a woman will face a leopard with a torch of dry grass to contest
+the ownership of a fat-tailed sheep which he has tried to filch from the
+zareba by night, fearing his snarling menace far less than the wrath of
+her lord and master if the marauder secures his prey.
+
+As for the Midgan, that born hunter and nomadic outcast whom other
+Somalis look down upon, but who has more woodcraft in his touzled head
+than any of them, he will deliberately hunt the king of beasts, using
+some decrepit and almost valueless camel as a stalking-horse. He is
+armed with a bow having about as much apparent "give" in it as the
+bottom joint of a fishing rod, yet able to propel with surprising force
+a stumpy arrow cunningly poisoned with a wizard brew of viper venom and
+the root of the tall box tree. His procedure is to drive his camel
+slowly grazing toward some island of bush in which he has marked down a
+lion, he himself being perched a-straddle behind the hump and directing
+the animal's movements with kicks from one or other of his bare heels.
+From his lofty observation point he at once spots the crouching approach
+of the lion and slips off over the camel's rump to cover, whence he
+speeds one of his venomous little shafts at close range. The outraged
+monarch attacks the camel and the hunter keeps well aloof from the
+subsequent confusion until the poison works and the lion is seized with
+muscular convulsions, like those of tetanus, when he may safely approach
+to gloat over his quarry. What is really remarkable is that the camel is
+not invariably killed. I once met a Midgan on trek who showed me the
+unmistakable claw-marks of a lion on his camel's neck and shoulders and
+said he had used the animal on three such occasions; compared with
+these desperate encounters the exploits of our white shikaris armed with
+powerful modern rifles are insignificant.
+
+One beast of prey, however, is feared and hated by every Somali man,
+woman or child--hunter, shepherd or townsman--and that is the great,
+spotted hyaena which slinks up by night to snap at face or breast of
+sleeping folk and bolts into the gloom at the agonised shriek of his
+mangled victim. The brute is cowardly enough to refuse encounter with an
+able-bodied man awake and on the alert unless rendered desperate by
+hunger, but his jaws are as strong as a lion's, and one snapping bite
+does the mischief. I once helped the P.M.O. at Berbera to tend some
+half-dozen poor wretches who had been frightfully mauled during the
+night on the outskirts of the town itself and probably by the same
+hyaena. The hot weather had induced many folk to sleep outside their
+stifling huts and they _will_ not take the trouble to collect and build
+up a few thorny bushes to keep the brutes off.
+
+The Somali is about as incapable of hard work as his "fat" camel, and
+the only time he may be seen digging is among the convict gangs who
+till, or used to till, the Government garden out at Dubar on the inland
+edge of the littoral plain, where the Berbera water supply bubbles out
+hot from under the low maritime hills and trickles through ten miles of
+surface pipe-line to supply the "Fort," which is supposed to protect the
+British cantonment straggling some distance outside Berbera town. He
+feels such work dreadfully, not only as an injury to his self-respect
+(and he has all the puerile pride of the negroid races), but as an
+irksome tax on his physical powers, which are quite unaccustomed to
+sustained and strenuous exertion. On the other hand, he will make long
+journeys on short commons and keep well and happy if allowed to
+punctuate his hardships at long intervals with debauches on meat and
+milk and fat. He excuses himself from tilling the ground on the plea
+that others might harvest the fruit of his labours, as there is no
+individual land-tenure or any definite divisions of land indicating
+ownership, but only tribal grazing rights over ill-defined areas and the
+parcel of land enclosed by his zareba fence, of which he is but the
+tenant, as it is free to anybody as soon as he leaves it to trek to
+other pastures. Therefore, vegetables are unattainable by him, and his
+cereals (rice, millet and coarse flour) reach him by sea and caravan or
+he does without. He appears immune from scurvy and is seldom sick or
+sorry unless he over-eats himself. He loves _ghi_ (or clarified butter)
+and animal fat, which he swallows in large gulps when he can get it,
+also rubbing it in his frizzy hair and using it to sleek his black,
+spindly shanks and smear his spear-blades--on shikar he will "gorm" it
+all over your spare gun if you do not watch him. His favourite beverage
+is strong tea with lots of sugar in it (when procurable) otherwise he
+will not touch it, and he will drink water which a thirsty camel would
+sniff at suspiciously before imbibing. He dresses in a white sheet worn
+toga-wise and not without a certain dignity, and his head is usually
+bare except in towns or the partially civilised _entourage_ of a white
+man, where he will wear anything on his head from a tarboosh to a topi
+as a mark of distinction, but seems to avoid a turban, which he has not
+the knack of tying properly.
+
+To meet him and his family on trek is to glimpse an epitome of his life.
+First comes the able-bodied though elderly sire carrying a few light
+throwing-spears and a knobkerry or a gim-crack stabbing-spear, and close
+behind him are the adult males of his house similarly armed or with a
+rifle or two supplied by a benevolent Government for protection against
+the Mullah, to whom these children of nature frequently offer them for
+sale at very reasonable prices. After these come the women-folk in
+order of precedence, carrying loads in inverse ratio thereto. The young,
+favourite wife walks first, carrying her latest addition to the family
+in a cotton shawl at her hip; she is followed by other wives of less
+social standing, carrying household utensils, with the smaller children
+at foot, and at the tail of the procession stagger the old crones under
+heavy burdens of pots, pans, pitchers and unsavoury goat-hair rugs. A
+camel or two bring up the rear with the conglomeration of sticks and
+hides and matting which makes the home and looks like an untidy bird's
+nest. On the flanks and in the rear skirmish the elder children, girls
+and boys, with flocks and herds which graze as they go. The big piebald
+sheep with their black heads and indecently fat tails are not allowed to
+range far afield, where lynx or leopard might stalk them under covert,
+as they are valuable, succulent and very foolish. They carry no
+wool--their coat feels just like a fox-terrier's--but they have more
+meat on them than three average goats, and the huge pendulous flap of
+fat which does duty as a tail is a delicacy to make a Somali mouth water
+or a European gorge rise.
+
+The only serious occupation a buck Somali will permit himself is to sit
+under a tree and watch his grazing flocks. He is fond of conversation,
+chiefly of a recriminative character, and gives vent to his _joie de
+vivre_ by prancing and singing on two or three simple notes to the
+accompaniment of his clapping hands and the thud of his horny heels. His
+chief woe is drought and lack of grazing, because he then has to get up
+off his butt-end and take long treks to pastures new. His ideas of
+earthly Paradise centre round the _cafes_ of Aden, where his countrymen
+are numerous and where wages are so high that six grown Somalis can
+batten in well-fed ease on the earnings of a seventh, who keeps on till
+he wants a holiday and then "goes sick" and sends another of the
+syndicate to replace him. Qualifications do not matter, as they all have
+sufficient to fumble through their jobs and no more. If he lacks the
+capital to start cab-driving and finds boat-rowing or punkah-pulling too
+strenuous for him, he sets himself to learn a little English and gets a
+job as servant with some new-fledged British subaltern at a minimum rate
+of L2 a month, which is fixed by his union, for that is one civilised
+device he really _can_ handle. He is the slackest oarsman, the laziest
+punkawala and the worst whip east of Suez. His idea of driving is to sit
+with knees drawn up toward his chin while he lugs at the reins as if
+they were a punkah-cord, urging his staunch little screw along with
+ineffectual flaps of his whip and noises like the paroxysms of sea
+sickness.
+
+He will ruin any saddle-camel for fast work if allowed to ride one
+regularly, such animals not being raised in his country, but he breeds a
+small, hardy type of pony which he loves to gallop in wild dashes, with
+flapping legs and sawing hands, reining the poor little beast up short
+on a bit like a rat-trap to witch beholders with his horsemanship.
+
+As a combatant you never know how to take him. He may put up a hefty
+fight or he may outrun the antelope in his precipitate retreat. I was
+much impressed by the defences in barbed wire and thorn trees considered
+necessary to ward off the onslaught of dervishes by men who knew them
+better than I did.
+
+He is a cheery, irresponsible soul and has been called the Irishman of
+the East. Missionaries rather like him, because he is very teachable up
+to a certain point, fond of learning new tricks if not too difficult,
+and without that habit of logical and consecutive thought which makes
+the real Arab so difficult to tackle in argument.
+
+No remarks on Somaliland would be complete without some mention of the
+Mullah. That astute personage has often been alluded to as "Mad," but
+has proved himself far saner than the Government he was up against. In
+the early 'nineties he kept the Arabi Pasha coffee-house opposite the
+cab-stand in the native town at Aden, where he dispensed tea and
+husk-coffee in little bowls of green-glazed earthenware, also
+raspberryade and other bright-coloured "minerals" in bottles, with a
+small lump of ice thrown in. His establishment was patronised almost
+entirely by Somalis and largely by the _ghari-walas_ themselves. At the
+same time, he was obliging enough to spare the servant of a neighbouring
+sahib like myself a pound or two of ice from his "cold box" on
+occasional application to meet an emergency.
+
+He had a good deal of property in flocks and herds over in British
+Somaliland, which he visited from time to time. In the late 'nineties he
+got involved in some suit or other and the local authorities mulcted him
+of many camels. He very much resented this decision and raised some
+friends and sympathisers to resist its execution by the police. An
+inadequate force was sent and sustained a reverse, after which his
+following grew enormously. Early in this century, when I again had news
+of him, he had craftily cut in between the Italian, Abyssinian and
+British converging columns and annihilated Colonel Plunkett's gallant
+little band at Gumburu, but sustained a severe defeat at Jidballi,
+where his red flannel dressing-gown was sighted in early and headlong
+retirement as his dervishes recoiled from the embattled square.
+
+All the same, he was still going strong long after the South African War
+was over, and we had more leisure to attend to him. When the British
+frontier was drawn in to enable the statement to be made in Parliament
+that "the Mullah's troops were no longer within protectorate limits," he
+took advantage of it to deal ruthlessly with those tribes which had
+refused to join him on the solemn and definite promise that Government
+would protect them from his vengeance. The unhappy Dolbahuntas were
+almost wiped out as a tribal unit; their zarebas and flimsy villages
+were surrounded by the Mullah's men and fired, leaving the
+occupants--men, women and children--the choice of a dreadful end among
+blazing thorns or red death on the spears of their fellow-countrymen and
+co-religionists. A prominent Nationalist has alluded to the Mullah and
+his dervishes as "brave men striving to be free."
+
+In 1910 British prestige had shed its last rag in Somaliland: we had
+withdrawn to the coast and the Mullah's horsemen actually rode through
+Berbera bazar on one of their raids and withdrew unscathed. In 1912 it
+was found necessary to form a company of Somali police on camels to keep
+the peace between "friendlies" who, to allay a certain amount of
+indignation at home, had been armed with rifles to protect themselves
+against the Mullah's people, but were using these weapons, in their
+light-hearted way, to argue questions of grazing as they arose. Early in
+1913 "a small dervish outpost" was reported to be preventing our
+friendlies from grazing in the Ain valley south of Burao at a time when
+no other pasturage was locally available, and the Somali camel-corps,
+about a hundred strong with three white officers, was sent to occupy
+Burao as its base and from there to afford moral and material support
+enabling the friendlies to graze unmolested in the threatened area. This
+cheery opportunism was the Government's wobbling attempt at equilibrium
+between the barefaced desertion of our protected tribes and its avowed
+policy of non-intervention unless on the cheap. It was done too much on
+the cheap; that little force was attacked by an overwhelming force of
+dervishes while out on the grazing grounds affording moral and material
+support. The Maxim was put out of action by an unlucky bullet, and the
+friendlies skedaddled with their Government rifles at the first shot,
+but returned later to loot the dead. The half-trained Somali camelry
+suffered severely and were most unsteady, but the two white officers
+surviving managed to extricate the remnant with difficulty, the gallant
+commandant having died for his trust early in the fight. He was blamed
+posthumously for having exceeded his orders; whether he ought to have
+exercised his moral and material support at a safe distance from the
+place where it was needed or have led his command in headlong flight was
+not made clear, and they were the only two military alternatives to the
+action he _did_ take. At all events the incident shamed the Government
+into taking more adequate measures to protect its friendlies in spite of
+bitter Nationalist opposition.
+
+Missionaries point to our long and fruitless struggle in Somaliland as
+an illustration of the force of fanaticism. It is nothing of the sort;
+the Mullah was a man with a grievance who was driven into outlawry by
+the sequence of events, and the movement was entirely political. Having
+once tasted the sweets of temporal power, he wanted to expand it, and
+used his spiritual and material influence to that end, not hesitating to
+order the wholesale massacre of other equally orthodox Moslems when it
+seemed to him politically expedient. He owed his success to his ruthless
+treatment of his compatriots, the difficult and scantily watered
+terrain, our lack of co-ordination with the Italians and Abyssinians,
+but above all to our parsimonious method of cadging and scraping a
+little money together for an expedition and stopping when the funds gave
+out, like a small boy with fireworks. Somaliland, with its insignificant
+caravan trade, its wide, waterless tracts and its sparse population of
+shiftless, unproductive semi-nomads, is a bad business proposition, and
+no Government can be blamed for hesitating to spend money on it; but if
+half the expenditure had been concentrated on one scheme at one time
+instead of being frittered away on several divergent schemes over a
+lengthy period the Mullah would have been brought to book and the
+resources of the country developed considerably.
+
+South of Somaliland in British, and what was once German, East Africa
+the missionary has comparative freedom of movement, whereas in
+Somaliland no white man has ever been allowed to travel without the
+sanction of the local authorities. He, however, complains that he is not
+encouraged by the Administration in either colony, and certainly makes
+no headway against Islam, which has a very strong hold, especially in
+British East Africa, with the Swahilis. Still, he can point to the
+inland kingdom of Uganda as one of his successes, and it would be more
+so if the various Christian sects would refrain from wrangling among
+themselves.
+
+We have now reached the southern limit of Moslem activity in Africa, for
+we are getting among native races who do not take kindly to asceticism
+in any form, and beyond them are the sturdy white Christians of South
+Africa. Curiously enough, there is a flourishing little colony of
+Moslems at Salt River, the railway suburb of Cape Town, where imported
+East Indian and Arab mechanics have settled. They muster about 7,000
+souls and have founded a school to educate their children. An unbiassed
+English resident states that they are far better citizens than native
+Christians of the same class, owing to their temperate habits. Drink is
+the undoubted curse of the non-Moslem African. In South Africa no native
+in white employ can get alcoholic drink without the written authority of
+his employer, but there are many illicit sources of supply. South
+African colonists insist that the native Christians are the worst--this
+should not be set down to Christianity, but to the civilisation which
+goes with it, and, in place of Kaffir beer and such like home-fermented
+brews of comparatively mild exhilarant character, introduces the
+undisciplined native mind to the furious joys of trade fire-water.
+
+Africa is the main battle-ground between Moslem and missionary, for it
+is in that continent that the forces of Islam and Christianity are most
+nearly balanced. The American Protestant Mission, which is, as we have
+seen, one of the principal belligerents, complains loudly on behalf of
+Christendom that in Africa especially our colonial administrations do
+not give the support to Christian missions that Christian Governments
+should.
+
+Apart from the fact that we administer these countries in trust for
+their indigenous population and have no right to thrust our own creed
+upon them to the exclusion of any other with a sound system of ethics,
+it can most cogently be urged that Islam is the only religion which
+insists on total abstinence, and that seems to be the only way in which
+the native African can avoid alcoholic excess.
+
+I have in front of me a letter written by an American of Boston, Mass.,
+to the _Spectator_ of February 15th, 1919. In it he alludes to a report
+of the Committee for preventing the demoralisation of native races by
+the liquor traffic which is said to be "making Africa a cesspool of
+alcohol, and statistics show that in this devil's work Holland with her
+gin and, I regret to say, the United States with its trade rum have been
+the conspicuously worst offenders." The writer goes on to say that the
+native races are morally and intellectually children, and that has been
+recognised in the States where it is a penal offence to introduce
+alcoholic drink within the Indian reservations.
+
+This being so, the attitude of American Protestants in attacking the
+only teetotal creed which is working among natives in a continent where
+total abstinence is unanimously declared to be essential to native
+welfare indicates loose thinking. It is still more extraordinary when we
+remember that the teetotal party in the United States have moved heaven
+and earth and every device, legitimate or otherwise, to secure national
+prohibition, about which, to put it mildly, there appear to be two
+opinions among American citizens. We are told that the South adopted
+prohibition as a measure of protection against the negro. Apart from the
+safety of white colonists in Africa, is the welfare of African negroes
+beneath the consideration of a free-born American? If so, why does he
+(or she) subscribe so liberally to support missions in Africa? Such an
+attitude is incongruous, even if we adopt the preposterous view that
+Christianity alone can make a sober man of a negro. Imagine a
+municipality which allowed a gang of hooligans to scatter incendiary
+bombs broadcast and encouraged its inadequate fire brigade to fight a
+rival organisation tooth and nail. Its avowed intention of prohibiting
+the use of matches on its own premises would not be considered a
+satisfactory _amende_.
+
+I lay no more stress on American Protestant activities against Islam
+than is their due. There may be some opinions among Europeans that their
+evangelising fervour might find a mission field nearer home in South
+America or even in Mexico. Such a criticism is not only ungrateful but
+unreasonable. American missions have done much for humanity in the East,
+while as regards their own sub-continent the Catholic Church has held
+that field for centuries, and no reasonable being wants to see the two
+great divisions of Christianity sparring with each other about the
+spiritual education of greasers.
+
+The Monroe Doctrine does not apply to missionaries, but I would point
+out to them that in wrestling against Islam they are fanning the fires
+of fanaticism and causing much material trouble, and the net spiritual
+result is to lessen their own power for good and embitter Islam for ill
+while widening the breach between Christian and Moslem.
+
+This chapter is an attempt to give an impartial glimpse at the relations
+between Moslem and missionary throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. With
+regard to their activities, it is neither a detailed account nor an
+apology. No sincere religious effort requires an apology, and if it is
+not sincere no apology suffices.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote C: The definite article precedes most Arabic place-names,
+    but is only retained in ordinary local speech as above, presumably
+    to denote respect. I hold to native pronunciation, except in cases
+    of long-established custom, and consider "the Yamen" as clumsy as
+    "the Egypt"--both take the definite article in Arabian script.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE
+
+
+The world just now appears to be awaiting a millennium resulting from a
+concourse of more or less brilliant and assertive folk with divergent
+views. Presuming that the necessary change in human nature will be
+wrought by enactment, we have still to acquire more religious tolerance
+if we are to live together in unity with our Moslem fellow-subjects and
+neighbours.
+
+What is the use of talking about a League of Nations and the
+self-decision of small States if we still seek to impose our religious
+views on people who do not want them and encroach on the borders of
+other creeds? Are other people's spiritual affairs of no account, or do
+we arrogate to ourselves a monopoly of such matters? Both positions are
+untenable.
+
+The justification of missionary enterprise is based on Christ's last
+charge to His disciples: "Go ye into all the world and preach the
+gospel to every creature." He clearly defined that gospel as "the
+tidings of the kingdom," and what that kingdom was He has repeatedly
+told us in the Sermon on the Mount, frequent conversations with His
+disciples and others and the example of His daily life. He never sought
+to change a man's religious belief (such as it was) or his method of
+livelihood (however questionable it might be), but to reform him within
+the limits of his convictions and his duties. He has also left on record
+an indictment of proselytisers that will endure for all time. Of course,
+if the Gospel narrative is unreliable throughout (as the reverend and
+scholarly compiler of the "Encyclopedia Biblica" would appear to imply)
+then these arguments fall to the ground, but so does any possible
+justification of missionary enterprise. On the other hand, Moslems _do_
+believe and reverence the _Engil_ or Gospel, though they follow the
+doctrine and dogma of a later revelation.
+
+The logical deduction from these facts is that moral training, education
+and charitable works among Moslems are permissible and justifiable
+features of missionary endeavour, if not forced upon an unwilling
+population, but attacks on Islam itself are not only unmerited but
+unauthorised and impertinent.
+
+Many missionaries of undoubted scholarship and breadth of view see this
+and model their field work accordingly, with good results; in fact, most
+real success in the mission field has been achieved by practical,
+Christian work on the above lines, and not by religious propaganda; but
+the flag which missionary societies flaunt before a subscribing
+Christian public is quite a different banner, as can be easily
+ascertained from their own published literature, which is very prolific
+and accessible to all.
+
+In writing about Islam the authors or compilers of these works too
+frequently allow their zeal to involve them in a web of inconsistency
+and misstatement, or else they let their religious terminology take
+liberties with their intellect and that of the public.
+
+We will glance briefly at their indictment of Islam as presented in
+their quasi-geographical works, disregarding their public utterances and
+tracts as privileged, like the platform-speeches and vote-catching
+pamphlets of a General Election; also we will keep to their own
+terminology and expressions as far as possible.
+
+First and foremost, especially in the United States, where knowledge of
+non-Christian creeds is not so general as with us, the literature of
+foreign missions insists on grouping together all regions as yet
+unexploited by them (whether populated by heathen, Moslems, Buddhists
+or any other non-Christian race) and describing them indiscriminately as
+Gibraltars of Satan's power, a challenge to Christendom and a reproach
+to Zion (whatever that may mean). Yet the four great Christian
+Churches--Greek, Russian, Catholic and Protestant--seem powerless to
+check the reign of hell in Bolshevist Europe, where the liberty of man
+is demonstrated by murder, rapine, torture and every fiendish orgy or
+bestial lust which mortal mind can conceive. The people among whom these
+devilries are being enacted are Christians ruled by Christians, and have
+been Christian for centuries. They are still Christian so far as a
+blood-besotted clique will let them be anything. And in the face of such
+facts there are missionaries who enunciate in cold print that without
+Christianity there could be no charitable or humane organisation of any
+sort, or good government, or security of property, and--clinching
+argument--trade would suffer. Could there be any more glaring example of
+the cart before the horse? Does a dog wag his tail or the tail wag the
+dog? Is Japan hopelessly benighted and devoid of the activities
+described as the monopoly of Christianity? Moreover: Can Christian
+teaching or preaching pacify the embittered struggle between labour and
+capital which threatens yet to wreck civilisation? Does it even try?
+
+There is no more ridiculous or extravagant boast among a certain class
+of self-appointed evangelists than the oft-repeated statement that all
+the modern blessings of Western civilisation are the fruit of
+Christianity and that the backward state of oriental Moslems is due to
+the absence of Christianity.
+
+Any thoughtful schoolboy knows that it was the exploitation of coal and
+iron which lifted us Western nations out of the ruck, backed by the
+natural hardihood due to a bracing climate, otherwise the Mediterranean
+might still be harried by corsairs. Steam transport by land and sea was
+the direct offspring of these two minerals. Even then Western supremacy
+was gradual and only recently completed by the exploitation of
+petroleum, rubber and high explosives. Brown Bess, as a shooting weapon,
+was far inferior to the long-barrelled flint-lock of Morocco, and the
+Arabian match-lock could out-range any firearm in existence till sharp
+cutting tools made the rifle possible. What does modern surgery, or any
+other science of accurate manipulation, not owe to modern steel? When we
+turn from metallurgy to medicine, let us not forget that Avicenna was
+writing his pharmacopoeia when Christian apothecaries were selling
+potions and philtres under the sign of a stuffed crocodile.
+
+Some exponents of Christianity would go further and arrogate to her the
+inception of all arts and handicrafts. Damascus blades, Cordovan
+leather, Moorish architecture, Persian carpets, Indian filagree, Chinese
+carvings and Japanese paintings all give the lie to such claims.
+
+If we are to measure Christianity by the material progress of her
+adherents, what conclusions are we to draw from the history of the Roman
+Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Copts? Fourteen hundred years after
+the birth of Christianity in Palestine the fall of Constantinople
+shattered her last vestige of sovereignty in the East after she had gone
+through centuries of decadence, debauch and intrigue such as anyone can
+find recorded by Gibbon or even in historical novels like "Hypatia."
+
+Islam, to-day, is about the same age as Christianity was then, and has
+gone through similar stages, except that it has been spared the
+intrigues of an organised priesthood and its comparative frugality has
+protected it from oriental enervation to a certain extent.
+
+Compared with Western Christianity its present epoch coincides with the
+era preceding the Reformation, when religious teaching had become
+stereotyped and lacked vitality, as is now the case with Moslem teaching
+as a rule. There is no reason why Islam should not recover as
+Christianity did, and if it does not it will not be due to any intrinsic
+defect, but to its oriental environment, which has already debased and
+wrecked Eastern Christendom.
+
+The respective ages of the two religions induces another comparison. We
+are now in the fourteenth century of the Hejira; glance at European
+Christendom of that period in the Christian era, or even much later, and
+reflect on the Sicilian Vespers, the Inquisition, the massacre of the
+Huguenots, the atrocious witchfinders who served that pedantic
+Protestant prig, James I, and all the burnings, hackings and slayings
+perpetrated in the name of Christendom. We must admit that no Moslems
+anywhere, even in the most barbarous regions, are any worse than the
+Christians of those days, while the vast majority are infinitely better,
+viewed by any general standard of humanity. Christendom's only possible
+defence is that civilisation has influenced Christianity for good, and
+not the other way about. There is one other loophole which I, for one,
+refuse to crawl through--that Christianity is a greater moral force than
+Islam or more rapid in its action. Missionaries say that Islam is
+incapable of high ideals owing to its impersonal and inhuman conception
+of the Deity, whom it does not limit by any human standards of justice.
+They complain that there is no fatherhood in the Moslem God;
+but--pursuing their own metaphor--what would an earthly father think if
+his acts of correction were criticised by his children from their own
+point of view? He might be angry, but would probably just smile, and I
+hope the Almighty does the same. A child thinks it most unjust to be
+rebuked or perhaps chastised for playing at trains with suitable noises
+at unsuitable seasons but it is that, and similar parental correction,
+which makes him become a decent member of society and not a self-centred
+nuisance.
+
+Moslems shrink from applying _any_ human standards to the Deity,
+regarding Him as the Lord of the Universe and not a popularly-elected
+premier. "Whatever good is from God, whatever ill from thyself," is a
+Koranic aphorism. Nor do they seek to drive bargains with Him, as do
+many pious Christians, and their supplications are limited (as in our
+Lord's Prayer) to the bare necessities of life--food and water to
+support existence, and clothing to cover their nakedness.
+
+The application of human ideals to the Almighty places Him on a level
+with Kipling's "wise wood-pavement gods" or the Teutonic conception of
+a deity who sent the Entente bad harvests to help German submarine
+activities. Such absurdities incur the rebuke of the staunch old
+patriarch, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him"; there is no
+excuse for seeking to inflict them on the austerities of Islam.
+
+Climate and terrain have a marked influence on the form religion takes
+in its human manifestation. Missionary literature asserts this clearly
+with regard to Islam, describing it, aptly enough, as a religion of
+desert and oasis thence deriving its austere and sensual features, but
+the thesis applies with equal force to Christianity. The marked cleavage
+of hermit-like asceticism and gross sensuality which rock-bound deserts
+and the lush Nile valley wrought in Egyptian Christendom has been
+described by every writer dealing with that subject, and Arabian
+Christianity drooped, and finally died, in the arid pastoral uplands of
+Jauf and Nejran long before it succumbed in fertile, hard-working Yamen.
+
+If the East became Christian next week there would be the same rank
+growth and final atrophy or disintegrating schism for lack of outside
+opposition. Missionaries are quick enough to remark on this process in
+Arabia where Islam is practically unopposed, but will not apply it to
+Christianity. They do not seem to realise that healthy competition
+maintains the vitality of religion no less than trade or any other form
+of human effort requiring continuous energy and application. Islam
+revivified a decadent Christianity, and the attacks of modern
+missionaries are strengthening Islam. They justify these attacks and
+urge further support for them on the grounds that Islam is moribund and
+now is the time to give it the _coup de grace_, or that Islam is the
+most dangerous foe to Christendom in the world and must be fought to a
+finish lest it unite three hundred million Moslems against us. I have
+seen both reasons given in the same missionary book; both are absurd.
+The latter is a mere red herring drawn across the trail of existing
+facts, more so, indeed, than the ex-Kaiser's Yellow Peril, for that at
+least was trailed from a vast country enclosing within a ring fence a
+huge population of homogeneous race and creed. As for crushing Islam by
+missionary enterprise, you cannot kill a great religion with pin-pricks,
+however numerous and frequent; you can only cause superficial hurts and
+irritation, as in a German student's duel. Every religion contains the
+germs of its own destruction within itself (which it can resist
+indefinitely so long as it is healthy and vigorous), but no outside
+efforts, however overwhelming, can do aught but stiffen its adherents.
+The early Christian Church was driven off the face of the earth into
+catacombs, but emerged to rule supreme in the very city which had driven
+her underground; Muhammad barely escaped from Mecca with his life, but
+returned to make it the centre of his creed, and Crusaders died in
+hopeless defeat at Hattin cursing "Mahound" with their last breath as
+the enemy of their faith, yet their very presence there showed how Islam
+had revived Christianity.
+
+_Per aspera ad astra:_ there is no easy road or short cut to collective,
+spiritual progress. I am not arguing against possible "acts of grace"
+working on individuals, but the uplift of a race, a class or even a
+congregation cannot be done by a sort of spiritual legerdemain based on
+hypnotic suggestion. Individuals may be so swayed for the time being,
+and, in a few favourable cases, the initial impetus will be carried on,
+but most human souls are like locusts and flutter earthward when the
+wind drops. They may have advanced more or less, but are just as likely
+to be deflected or even swept back again by a change in the wind.
+Revivalist campaigns and salvation by a _coup de theatre_ do not
+encourage consecutive religious thought, which is the only stable
+foundation of religious belief; second-hand convictions do not wear well
+in the storm and sunshine of unsheltered lives, and a creed that has to
+be treated like an orchid is no use to anybody.
+
+If the same amount of earnest, consecutive effort and clear thinking had
+been applied to religion as has gone to build up civilisation we should
+all be leading harmonious spiritual lives to-day and sin and sorrow
+would probably have been banished from the earth, but few people think
+of applying their mental faculties to religion, and its exploitation by
+modern mercantile methods is not the same thing at all. Civilisation is
+an accretion of countless efforts and ceaseless striving to ameliorate
+existing conditions, whereas religion started as a perfect thesis and
+has since got overgrown with human bigotry and fantasies while absorbing
+very little of the vast, increasing store of human knowledge. That is
+why civilisation has got so much in advance of religion that the latter
+cannot lead or guide the former, but only lags behind, like a horse
+hitched to a cart-tail. Missionary writers are rather apt to confuse the
+gifts of civilisation with the thing itself. A savage can be taught to
+use a rifle or an electric switch or even a flame-projecter, but this is
+no proof that he is really civilised. On the other hand, the scholarly
+recluse and philosopher whose works uplift and refine humanity may
+bungle even with the "fool-proof" lift which takes him up to his own
+eyrie in Flat-land, but he is none the less civilised.
+
+They would have us believe that petticoats and pantaloons are the
+hall-mark of Christian civilisation, and one of their favourite sneers
+at Arabia (as a proof of its benighted condition and need of their
+ministrations) is "a land without manufacture where machinery is looked
+on as a sort of marvel." As a matter of fact, Arabia can manufacture all
+she really wants, and did so when we blockaded her coasts; nor is
+machinery any more of a marvel to the average Arabian Arab than it is to
+the average Occidental. Both use intelligently such machinery as they
+find necessary in their pursuits and occupations, though neither can
+make it or repair it except superficially, and both fumble more or less
+with unfamiliar mechanical appliances. The young man from the country
+blows the gas out or tries to light his cheroot at an incandescent bulb,
+and may be considered lucky if he does not get some swift, silent form
+of vehicular traffic in the small of his back when he is gaping at an
+electric advertisement in changing-coloured lights. It has been my
+object, and to a certain extent my duty, on several occasions to try to
+impress a party of chiefs and their retinue when visiting Aden from the
+wildest parts of Arabia Felix (which can be very wild indeed). On the
+same morning I have taken them over a man-of-war, on the musketry-range
+to see a Maxim at practice and down into a twelve-inch casemate when the
+monster was about to fire. They never turned a hair, but asked many
+intelligent questions and a few amusing ones, tried to cadge a rifle or
+two from the officer showing them the racks for small arms, condemned
+the Maxim for "eating cartridges too fast" and were much tickled by the
+gunner-officer's joke that they could have the big cannon if they would
+take it away with them.
+
+These wild Arabians, when trained, make the most reliable machine-tenders
+in the East, as they have a _penchant_ for mechanism of all sorts and
+will not neglect their charge when unsupervised.
+
+We are all inclined to boast too personally of our enlightened
+civilisation with its marvellous mechanical appliances, but what is it
+after all but the specialist training of the few serving the wants of
+the many? If the average missionary swam ashore with an Arab fireman
+from a shipwreck and landed on an uninhabited island of ordinary
+tropical aspect, the Arab would know the knack of scaling coco-nut palms
+(no easy task), the vegetation which would supply him with fibre for
+fishing-lines and what thorns could be used to make an effective hook,
+while the missionary would probably be unable to get fire by friction
+with the aid of a bow-string and spindle.
+
+Missionary literature is very severe on Arabia as a stiff-necked country
+which has hitherto discouraged evangelical activities. "Hence the low
+plane of Arabia morally. Slavery and concubinage and, nearly everywhere,
+polygamy and divorce are fearfully common and fatalism has paralysed
+enterprise."
+
+This indictment is not only unjust, but it recoils on Western
+civilisation. Arabia is on a high enough moral plane to refuse drink,
+drugs and debauchery generally, while prostitution is unknown outside
+large centres overrun by foreigners, which are more cosmopolitan than
+Arab. Sanaa, which is a pure Arab city with little or no foreign
+element, is much more moral than London or New York. To adduce slavery
+and concubinage coupled with polygamy and divorce as further evidence
+against Arabia is crass absurdity; slaves are far better treated
+anywhere in Arabia than they were in the States or the West Indies;
+concubinage and polygamy, as practised by the patriarchs of Holy Writ,
+are still legal in that part of the world; there is nothing sinful
+about them in themselves--a Moslem might as well rebuke Western society
+for being addicted to whisky and bridge. He might even remind us that
+divorce is easier in the States than in Arabia and quote the Prophet's
+words on the subject: "Of all lawful acts divorce is the most hateful in
+the sight of God." With us a woman can be convicted of adultery in the
+eyes of the world on evidence that would not hang a cat for stealing
+cream, but in Islam the act must be proved beyond doubt by two
+witnesses, who are soundly flogged if their evidence breaks down, and
+their testimony is declared invalid for the future. This places the
+accusation under a heavy disability, but it is better than putting a
+woman's most cherished attribute at the mercy of a suborned servant or
+two--a far greater injustice to womanhood than bearing a fair share of a
+naturally hard and toilsome life, which is also a missionary complaint
+against Arabia. As for fatalism paralysing enterprise there, perhaps it
+does to a certain extent, but it cannot compare with our own organised
+strikes in that direction.
+
+Another charge is that Arabia has no stable government and people go
+armed against each other. Tribal Arabia has the only true form of
+democratic government, and the Arab tribesman goes armed to make sure
+that it continues democratic--as many a would-be despot knows to his
+cost. They use these weapons to settle other disputes occasionally, but
+Christian cowboys still do so at times unless they have acquired grace
+and the barley-water habit.
+
+These deliberate misstatements and the distortion of known facts are
+unworthy of the many earnest workers in recognised mission fields, and
+they become really mischievous when they culminate in an appeal to the
+general public calling for resources and _personnel_ to "win Mecca for
+Christ," and use it and the Arabic language to disseminate Christianity
+and so win Arabia and, eventually, the Moslem world.
+
+Christianity had a very good start in Arabia long before Muhammad's day,
+and (contrary to missionary assertion) was in existence there for
+centuries after his death. Not long before the dawn of Islam, Christian
+and pagan Arabs fought side by side to overthrow a despotic Jew king in
+Yamen who was trying to proselytise them with the crude but convincing
+contrivance of an artificial hell which cost only the firewood and
+labour involved and beat modern revivalist descriptions of the place to
+a frazzle as a means of speedy conversion--to a Jew or a cinder.
+
+Christianity lasted in Yamen up to the tenth century A.D. It paid
+tribute as a subordinate creed, like Judaism, but had far more equable
+charters and greater respect among Moslems. In fact, it was never driven
+out, but gradually merged into Islam, as is indicated by the
+inscriptions found on the lintel of ruined churches here and there,
+"There is but one God."
+
+The published statement of a travelled missionary that the Turks stabled
+their cavalry horses in the ruins of Abraha's "cathedral" at Sanaa is
+misleading. The church which that Abyssinian general built when he came
+over to help the Arabs against the Jew king of proselytising tendencies
+has nothing left of it above ground except a bare site surrounded by a
+low circular wall which would perhaps accommodate the horses of a
+mounted patrol in bivouac. The Turks probably used it for that purpose
+without inquiry.
+
+What is the use of bolstering up a presumably sincere religious movement
+with these puerile and mischievous statements? Apart from the rancour
+they excite among educated Moslems (who are more familiar with this
+class of literature than the writers perhaps imagine) they deceive the
+Christian public and place conscientious missionaries afield in a false
+position, for most practical mission workers know and admit that the
+wholesale conversion of Moslems is not a feasible proposition and that
+sporadic proselytes are very doubtful trophies. Knowing this, they
+concentrate their principal efforts on schools, hospitals and charitable
+relief, all based on friendly relations with the natives which have been
+patiently built up. These relations are jeopardised by the wild-cat
+utterances which are published for home consumption. If a Christian
+public cannot support legitimate missionary enterprise without having it
+camouflaged by all this spiritual swashbuckling, then it is in urgent
+need of evangelical ministrations itself.
+
+Missionaries in the field have, of course, a personal view which we must
+not overlook, as it is entirely creditable to all parties concerned. The
+more strenuous forms of mission work in barbarous countries demand, and
+get, the highest type of human devotion and courage. It is a healthy
+sign that the public should support such enterprise and that men and
+women should be readily found to undertake it gladly. There is a great
+gulf between such gallantry and the calculating spirit which works from
+a "strategic centre," to bring about a serious political situation which
+others have to face.
+
+Let us now examine the Islamic attitude toward Christianity.
+
+The thoughtful Moslem generally admits the excellence of occidental
+principles and methods in the practical affairs of life, but insists
+that even earthly existence is made up of more than civilised amenities,
+economics and appliances for luxury, comfort and locomotion. It is when
+he comes to examine our social life that he finds us falling very short
+of our Christian ideals, and he argues to himself that if that is all
+Christianity can do for us it is not likely to do more for him, but
+rather less. He admits that his less civilised co-religionists in
+Arabia, Afghanistan, etc., lack half-tones in their personalities, which
+are black and white in streaks instead of blending in various shades of
+grey. He considers that Islam with its simple austerities is better
+suited to such characters than Christianity with its unattainable
+ideals. He himself has visited Western cities and observed their
+conditions shrewdly. He regards missionaries as zealous bagmen
+travelling with excellent samples for a chaotic firm which does not
+stock the goods they are trying to push. The missionary may say that he
+has no "call" to reform existing conditions in his own country, just as
+the bagman may disclaim responsibility for his firm's slackness; but
+such excuses book no orders. The travelled Moslem will shake his head
+and say that he has seen the firm's showrooms, and their principal
+lines appeared to be Labour trouble, profiteering and diluted
+Bolshevism, with a particularly tawdry fabric of party politics. He
+respects the spiritual commercial traveller and his opinions, if sincere
+(he is a judge of sincerity, being rather a casuist himself), but
+wherever he has observed the workings of Christianity in bulk it has not
+had the elevating and transcendental effect which it is said to have;
+that is, he has not found the goods up to sample and will have none of
+them.
+
+He seldom realises (to conclude our commercial metaphor) that most
+Christian folk in countries which export missionaries are born with
+life-members' tickets entitling them to sound, durable goods which are
+not displayed in our spiritual shop-windows or in the missionary
+hand-bag:--the prayers of childhood and the mother's hymn, the distant
+bells of a Sabbath countryside, the bird-chorus of Spring emphasising
+the magic hush of Communion on Easter morning, the holly-decked church
+ringing with the glad carols of Christmastide and the tremendous promise
+which bids us hope at the graveside of our earthly love. It is such
+memories as these, and not the stentorian eloquence of some popular
+salvation-monger in an atmosphere of over-crowded humanity, which go to
+make staunch Christian souls.
+
+The possible proselyte from Islam has to rely on what the missionary has
+in his bag. Large quantities of faith are pressed upon him which do not
+quite meet his requirements, as it is his reason which should be
+satisfied first; no one can believe without a basis of belief.
+
+There is also a great deal of slaughter-house metaphor which does not
+appeal to him at all, as he looks on blood as a defilement and a sheep
+as the silliest animal in existence--except a lamb. These metaphors were
+used by our Lord in speaking to a people who readily understood them,
+but for some obscure reason they have not only been retained but
+amplified extensively to the exclusion of much beautiful imagery which
+is still apposite. We Christians reverence such similes for their
+associations, but a Moslem misses the point of them, just as we miss the
+stately metre of the Koran in translation.
+
+The would-be convert from Islam must, of course, learn to stifle any
+fond memories of the virile, vivid creed he is invited to renounce. No
+longer must he give ear to the far-flung call proclaiming from lofty
+minarets the unity of God and the Prophet's mission or its cheery,
+swinging reiteration as the dead are carried to the _magenna_ or "gate
+of Heaven." Certainly not; the less he contemplates their fate the
+better for his peace of mind, since (if the effort to convert him is
+anything more than an outrageous piece of impudence) their lot in the
+hereafter must be appalling and his own depends on the thoroughness with
+which he steels his heart against all he ever knew and loved before he
+met that pious man and his little picture pamphlets.
+
+Do proselytising missionaries in the Islamic field ever sit down and
+think what they are really trying to do? Does the social ostracism of a
+human being, the damnation of his folk and the salvation of none but a
+remnant of mankind mean anything to them? If so they ought to be
+overcome with horror--unless it is their idea of humour, which I cannot
+believe.
+
+To pester a man into abandoning a perfectly sound and satisfying
+religion for one which may not suit him so well is more reprehensible
+than badgering a man to go to your doctor when his own physician
+understands his case and has studied it for a long time. At least his
+discarded medical adviser will not make his life a burden to him--a
+burden which the proselytiser does not have to share.
+
+On the other hand, Moslems are often glad enough to avail themselves of
+such Christian works as mission education, medical treatment and
+organised charity, so they should tolerate the proselytising propaganda
+which seems inseparable from these enterprises.
+
+Missionaries afield are usually justified by their works; it is the
+aggressive policy blazoned abroad from mission headquarters which does
+so much mischief. Islam was never intended to overthrow Christianity,
+but to bring back pagan Arabs to the true worship of God. Mission policy
+clamours for attack on it as if it were an invention of the devil and
+then complains of Moslem fanaticism, forgetting that if it were an
+artifice of Satan they cast doubts on the omnipotence, omniscience or
+beneficence of God for permitting it to exist and flourish. Otherwise,
+they infer that they are in a position to correct the Almighty in this
+matter. It is their complacent pedagogy which exasperates Moslems so. It
+is not the way to treat people who believe in the Immaculate Conception,
+who call Christmas Day "_the_ Birthday" and respect us as "People of the
+Book."
+
+It is time some protest was lodged against this policy if only on behalf
+of Christian administrations in Moslem countries, which are always being
+attacked by it and urged to give more facilities of spiritual
+aggression, especially just at present when Turkey's power has been
+shattered and mission strategy thinks it sees an opening.
+
+There was never a less desirable moment for unchecked religious
+exploitation than now, when the war-worn nations of Christendom are
+trying to reconstruct themselves, and the world is seething with unrest
+and overstocked with discarded weapons of precision.
+
+There is no compromise in religion, nor should there be; you cannot go
+halfway in any faith, and no one wants a mongrel strain begotten of the
+two great militant creeds such as our leading exponent of paradox
+wittily describes as "Chrislam." Yet surely there is a reasonable basis
+for a religious _entente_ between Islam and Christianity.
+
+Think what Islam has done to advance the knowledge of humanity long
+before the dawn of modern science. Moslems, too, would do well to
+remember what Christian civilisation has done for them in trade,
+agriculture and industries. If you accept gifts from others you should
+tolerate their ways; it is but an ill-conditioned cur that bolts the
+food proffered and then snarls.
+
+A Moslem or a Christian worthy of the name will remain so. He may expand
+or (more rarely) contract his views, but will still be a Moslem or a
+Christian, as the case may be.
+
+No human being has the right to say that his conception of the Deity is
+correct and all others wrong, nor is such a conclusion supported by the
+Gospel or the Koran.
+
+It is the alchemy of the human soul which can transmute the dross of a
+sordid environment to the gold of self-sacrifice, and the gold of
+inspired religion to the dross of bigotry.
+
+Whether we believe, as Christians, that Christ died on the Cross and
+rose the third day, or, as Moslems, that He escaped that fate by an
+equally stupendous miracle, we know that He faced persecution and death
+for mankind and His ideals, and that both creeds are based on the same
+great doctrine--"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
+him in spirit and in truth."
+
+
+FINIS
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD. BRUNSWICK ST.,
+STAMFORD ST., LONDON, S.E. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pan-Islam, by George Wyman Bury
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAN-ISLAM ***
+
+***** This file should be named 26981.txt or 26981.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/9/8/26981/
+
+Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/26981.zip b/26981.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..75fe948
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26981.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..80d673b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #26981 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26981)