{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26981/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26981","id":"gutenberg_26981","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26981","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Islam","Panislamism"],"text":"Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPAN-ISLAM\n\n\n\n\nMACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED\nLONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS\nMELBOURNE\n\nTHE MACMILLAN COMPANY\nNEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO\nDALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO\n\nTHE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.\nTORONTO\n\n\n\n\nPAN-ISLAM\n\nBY\n\nG. WYMAN BURY\n\n_Author of \"The Land of Us,\" \"Arabia Infelix.\"_\n\nMACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED\nST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON\n1919\n\n\n\n\nTO\n\nMY WIFE\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nI have written this book to present the main factors of a many-sided\nproblem--political, social and religious--in a form which the general\npublic can easily grasp.\n\nModern democratic principles tend to give the public increasing control\nof international and inter-racial affairs, and therefore any\ncontribution to public knowledge on such questions is in the interests\nof sound administration.\n\nThe book is not intended to advise those who actually handle these\naffairs: I give such advice, when required, in more detail and not\nthrough the medium of a published work.\n\n\"Pan-Islam\" is an elementary handbook, not a text-book--still less an\nexhaustive treatise, but the questions it discusses are real enough. My\nqualifications for writing it are based on a quarter of a century's\nexperience of the subject in most parts of the Moslem world, and I have\nstudied the question in areas which I have not actually visited through\nintercourse with pilgrims from those parts.\n\nI have no axe to grind or infallible panacea to advocate; I merely lay\nthe result of my researches before the public for its information, as\nfailing health has warned me to \"pass the ball when collared,\" and I\nwould like to think that the land where most of my life's work has\ncentred will not be mishandled by cranks and opportunists after I have\nleft the game.\n\nAn arm-chair is a sorry substitute for an Arab pony, and a garden plot\nfor the highlands of Arabia Felix, but the human mind is not necessarily\nconfined by such trammels, and if my environment is narrow I hope my\nbook is not.\n\n                                                      G. WYMAN BURY.\n\nHelouan, 27th July, 1919.\n\n\n\n\n            CONTENTS\n\n\n                                   PAGE\n\n            CHAPTER I\n\n    ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING          11\n\n            CHAPTER II\n\n    ITS BEARING ON THE WAR          24\n\n            CHAPTER III\n\n    ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS       83\n\n            CHAPTER IV\n\n    MOSLEM AND MISSIONARY          110\n\n            CHAPTER V\n\n    A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE           187\n\n\n\n\nPAN-ISLAM\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nITS ORIGIN AND MEANING\n\n\nMuch has been written about Christianity and Islam, so I hasten to\ninform my readers that this is not a religious treatise, nor do I class\nthem with the globe-trotter who searched Benares brass-bazar diligently\nfor \"a really nice image of Allah\" and pronounced the dread name of\nHindustan's avenging goddess like an effervescing drink.\n\nI presuppose that Christians or Moslems who read this book have got\nbeyond the stage of calling each other pagans or _kafirs_, and it will\nhave served its purpose if it brings about a friendlier feeling between\nthe two great militant creeds whose adherents have confronted together\nmany a stricken field.\n\nMost people have heard of the pan-Islamic movement, especially during\nthe War. Some of us have called it a political bogey and some a\nworld-menace, but these are extremist views--it is really the practical\nprotest of Moslems against the exploitation of their spiritual and\nmaterial resources by outsiders.\n\nPan-Islam (as its name implies) is a movement to weld together Moslems\nthroughout the world regardless of nationality. The ethics and ideals of\nIslam are more attainable to ordinary human beings than those of\nChristianity: whether it is better to aim high and score a partial\nsuccess or aim lower and achieve is a matter of personal opinion and\nneed not be discussed here, but one tangible fact stands out--that\nIslam, with its easier moral standard and frequent physical discipline\nof attitudes and observances connected with obligatory prayer, enters\nfar more into the daily life of its adherents than Christianity does\nwith us. Hence pan-Islam is more than a spiritual movement: it is a\npractical, working proposition which has to be reckoned with when\ndealing with Moslems even in secular matters.\n\nPan-Islam is no new thing--it is as old as the Hejira, and then helped\nto knit together Moslem Arabs against their pagan compatriots who were\npersecuting them. In the palmy days of the Abbaside Caliphate it was\nquiescent enough, and men of all creeds were welcomed at Baghdad for\ntheir art, learning, or handicraft when we were massacring Jews in\nLondon as part of a coronation pageant.\n\nMedieval Moslems never fanned the movement into flame as long as they\nwere let alone, and even now tribes living beyond the scope of\nmissionaries and traders prefer the Christian traveller whom they know\nto the Moslem stranger from the coast whom they usually distrust, and\nwho, to do him justice, seldom ventures among them, unless compelled by\nparamount self-interest, generally in connection with some European\nscheme or other.\n\nHitherto pan-Islam had been an instinctive and entirely natural\n_riposte_ to the menace or actual aggression of non-Moslems; it assumed\nthe character of a definite organisation under the crafty touch of that\nwily diplomat Abdul Hamid, once called by harsh critics \"the Damned,\"\nthough his efforts in that direction have been quite eclipsed by more\nrecent exponents.\n\nIn extreme evangelical circles it used to be frequently urged that\npan-Islam was a bugbear discovered, if not created, by one of India's\nmost eminent Viceroys, whose remarks thereon are said to have given\nAbdul Hamid the hint. This method of eliminating a danger by denying its\nexistence has been discredited, since 1914, as completely as the\nsomewhat similar one (attributed to Mississippi engineers) of sitting on\nthe safety-valve just too long for safety. Moreover, in view of Abdul's\nundoubted ability, he probably discovered for himself its efficacy as a\nweapon of reprisal when hard pressed by pertinacious and inquisitive\nAmbassadors, for he often found himself much embarrassed in his dealings\nwith Armenia and other domestic affairs by the intrusions of the more\nformidable Christian Powers.\n\nGreat Britain naturally felt the point of this weapon most as governing\nwide Moslem territories, and one can imagine some such interview as\nthis:\n\n\"Frontier rectifications, my dear Sir Nicholas? By all means--and,\ntalking about frontiers, I do hope affairs are quite quiet now on your\nnorth-west frontier; I take such an interest in my East Indian\ncorrespondence.\"\n\nAnd those Britons who have handled Oriental affairs for the last twenty\nyears can appreciate the extent of that interest when we remember that\neven while Yamen Arabs were fighting the Turks, their neighbours on the\nAden side of the frontier were praying in their mosques that the Sultan\nand his troops might be victorious \"by land and sea.\"\n\nAll this, however, was merely playing with intrigue as a political\ncounterpoise; it remained for a Christian nation to put pan-Islam on a\nbusiness footing. First we have polite bagmen calling at Stamboul with\nGerman guns and a German military system. Then \"our Mr. William\" of the\nwell-known Potsdam firm of Hohenzollern and Sons made his great\nadvertising campaign in the Near East; many of us remembered his\ntheatrical visit to Saladin's tomb and the tawdry wreath with its\nbombastic inscription, \"From the Emperor of the Franks to the Emperor of\nthe Saracens--Greeting.\"\n\nThat astute \"pilgrim\" made himself especially affable to the American\nProtestant missionaries in the Holy Land, preached to a small but select\ncongregation at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and posed alternately\nas a pious but militant Moslem (when Hajji Guiyaum rode in military pomp\ninto Jerusalem) and as a prince of peace. That the hospice of Kaiserin\nAugusta Victoria on the top of the Mount of Olives was loop-holed for\nmusketry and mounted a searchlight in its tower that could signal with\nHaifa was possibly due to some wayward caprice of the builder, but it\ncame in very useful later on. So did the scholarly researches of eminent\nGermans in Sinai, assisted as they were by maps which the Anglo-Egyptian\nauthorities courteously placed at their disposal, and which formed a\nbasis for a more detailed survey of wells and routes.\n\nBut the old firm at Potsdam excelled itself in its representatives on\nthe Palestine coast. There was, for example, the German Consul at Haifa\nfamed for his culture and diplomacy (the Teutonic brand), who also spoke\nArabic, Turkish, French and English fluently. This gifted official\nfrequented native cafes, where he fraternised with the local Arabs and\nconducted a vigorous verbal propaganda against the Entente. Then there\nwas the German engineer who wrecked the British railway scheme to\nconnect Haifa and Damascus and re-naturalised as a German citizen after\nbeing American Consul. The Belgian Vice-Consul too, that merry Hun, who\nwas also agent for our Khedivial mail line. When the Turks came in\nagainst us this good and faithful servant danced on the Belgian and\nBritish flags and threw himself heart and soul into pan-Islamic\npropaganda.\n\nNor must we overlook that reverend pastor and Koranic scholar who\ndistributed anti-Christian and more especially anti-British propaganda\nby means of native emissaries. Last but not least, the Herr Direktor of\nthe Hejaz Railway, who was collecting railway material for Sinai before\nwar broke out. Some time before the Turks came in he imported, for the\nalleged use of the Jewish technical school, so great a quantity of high\nexplosives that it caused a panic in Haifa. Yet it did not sufficiently\nimpress our Levantine Vice-Consul there for him to report it, though the\nGerman Consul's remarkable activity to get the stuff landed might have\ngiven him the hint.\n\nAt Jeddah our Khedivial Mail Agency, under the good old English name of\nRobinson, was a perfect nest of Germans and pro-German Dutchmen when I\ncalled there in 1912. They were very active early in the War, but had\nwisely disappeared before my last visit, when Jeddah fell to our\nblockade and bombardment.\n\nAs for Hodeidah, the chief port of Yamen, it was the happy\nhunting-ground of a great German firm, and the American Consul was\nhimself a German.\n\nDecidedly, for people who believed that they had a monopoly of Divine\nassistance, they had taken a lot of pains that their Holy War should be\na success.\n\nTo grasp the world-wide conspiracy which hatched out so many formidable\nevents during the War and to appreciate the causes which contributed to\nits final collapse we must take a comprehensive glance at the Ottoman\nCaliphate and how it came about.\n\nRemember, the Ottoman Turks are not Semitic, as is the bulk of the\nMoslem world. Tradition derives them from Turk, son of Japhet, and they\nare a Turco-Mongol blend which most people agree to call Tartar. Their\nlanguage is closely allied to Mongolian, though written in Arabic, or\nrather Persian, character, and its Arabic words are pronounced\nunintelligibly to an Arab. A true Turk learns Arabic with difficulty,\nand a far higher percentage of Britons in India speak Hindustani than\nTurks do Arabic in Turkish Arabia.\n\nThen, again, look at their early history. Their Mongol-Turkish ancestors\nwere driven westward because they made Mongolia too hot for them, and we\nhear of Turks smelting iron for their Mongol masters in what is now\nEastern Turkestan until they threw off the Mongol yoke in A.D. 552, when\nTurkish history begins.\n\nAt the dawn of Islam (A.D. 632) Turks and Mongols were harrying each\nother all over the Caspian countries like rival wolf-packs, sometimes\ncombining for a raid on their neighbours and then fighting over the\nloot. That is why you find racial Turks in such outlandish places as\nMerv, Khiva, Samarcand, Bokhara and Cabul, for the Turkish race is not\nconfined to Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe, but is scattered over parts\nof Russia and China and Afghanistan.\n\nNow to consider the Ottoman Turks, with whom we are chiefly concerned.\nThey were superior to their Mongol fellow-wolves in that they could\nsmelt iron and had some idea of constructive enterprise. They had also\nadopted Islam, which was a great advance from the Shamanistic wizardry\nand totem-worship they used to practise, and their contact with the\nArabs who raided them and afterwards accepted their military service to\nthe Caliphate had civilised them considerably. Their Seljouk cousins\nwere already ruling in Asia Minor, whither they had been driven by the\nMongols when a wandering Turkish band sought similar asylum there in the\nearlier part of the thirteenth century and intervened most opportunely\nto help the Seljouks repulse a Mongol raid; in return, the Seljouk\nEmperor gave them a grant of land in Bithynia.\n\nIn 1300 the Seljouk Empire was finally smashed by the Mongols, who\nwithdrew eastward without occupying the country, for they were merely\npredatory and destructive and had no gift or desire for permanent\ncolonisation. So it came about that the Ottoman Empire began in 1326\nunder Othman I in Bithynia and grew by absorption and lack of effective\nopposition until, in 1517, we find it spreading under Selim I (the\nMagnificent) to the gates of Vienna and extending from Germany to Persia\nand from Arabia to the Atlantic.\n\nThe benign sun of the Arabian Caliphate, under which learning and\nindustry flourished securely, had long since set in blood under\ncircumstances of treachery and murder which have hardly been surpassed\neven in the late war.\n\nUnder the later Abbasides, when the glories of the Caliphate were\nwaning, there were bitter dissensions between Sunnis and Shiahs (the\nmain orthodox and schismatic sects of Islam) which culminated in fierce\nrioting at Baghdad in 1258. The then Caliph was foolish enough to appeal\nfor assistance against the schismatic seditionists to his Mongol\nneighbours. It had been done before under similar conditions, and even\nin these days such a manoeuvre seems still to appeal to some types of\nreligious fanaticism, judging by certain passages between our sister\nisle and the modern Hun. On the above occasion, however, it was\npractised once too often. Hulaku Khan, the fierce Mongol chief, had long\nhad his eye on Baghdad as holding princely loot in all too slack a grip,\nfor the Caliphate had been relying on Tartar mercenaries for years.\n\nHe approached that queen of cities, as she then was, with a great host,\nlured the Caliph out to meet him by the promise of an alliance, and\nmurdered the whole party, the Caliph being trampled to death. Then\nBaghdad was given over to sack and massacre for more than a month, by\nwhich time 1,800,000 people are said to have perished.\n\nThe Caliphate was transplanted to Cairo, where it dragged out an anaemic\nexistence until Selim I seized it, with the person of the then Caliph,\nby right of conquest, and it has been an appanage of the Ottoman\nreigning house ever since.\n\nSelim the Magnificent may be called the Turkish top-note. After him the\nOttoman Empire gradually declined. It has generally taken advantage of\ndisaster or dissension to extend its borders--a precarious method of\nempire-building unless consolidated by benevolent and sound\nadministration, which is not a feature of Turkish rule. Add to this the\nfacts that Turks are slack Moslems, that the national party which ousted\nAbdul Hamid (himself most orthodox) is not religious at all, with all\nits barbarian, totemistic nonsense of the \"White Wolf,\" and that they\n_would_ pose as conquerors on insufficient grounds, and we begin to see\nwhy they have been kicked out of their Asiatic empire bit by bit.\n\nIf Turk and Mongol had been capable of dynastic evolution and\nco-ordinate policy they might have shared most of the Eastern Hemisphere\nbetween them. We have seen the high-water mark of the Ottoman Empire;\nMarco Polo has told us of Kubla Khan's Chinese Empire, and the Moguls\ndid much for India in their prime. But the wolf-taint was in their\nblood, and just as a pet wolf gets fat and degenerate, so it has been\nwith these Tartars. Their undoubted soldierly qualities are sapped by\nluxury, and they possess no constructive gifts which peace and\nprosperity might develop. Hence it is that every empire they have\nfounded has risen to a culminating point of conquest and then dwindled\naway in sloth and corruption.\n\nThe Turk is not fit to be put in charge of any race but his own, for he\nis at heart a bitter wolf who will turn and rend without ruth or\nwarning. I have met Turks who have shown tact, humanity, and ability\nunder trying conditions, and I have met well-mannered wolves in\ncaptivity, but would not trust the pack ranging in its native forest. I\nonce heard a member of our Ottoman Embassy who has unique experience of\nthe Turk size him up as follows: \"The Turk can be a suave and cultured\ngentleman till his time comes, and then he will tear your guts out and\n_dance_ on them.\" It was the Seljouk Turks whose persecutions caused\nthe Crusades. Before them, Arab rule in Palestine was tolerant enough,\nand the Caliph Omar was scrupulously careful when he entered Jerusalem\nas a conqueror to respect Christian prejudices and the monuments of our\ncreed.\n\nSo it came about that their empire was dropping from them piecemeal even\nbefore the War, for a race that can no longer conquer and has never\nlearned to conciliate must draw in its borders or cease to exist as a\nState.\n\nWhen war broke out Turkey was just hanging on to the last scrap of her\nempire in Europe and had lost all but the shadow of sovereignty in\nEgypt, while Arabia was seething with discontent, where not in actual\nrevolt, and regarded the belated efforts of local officials to govern\ntactfully as signs of weakness.\n\nThe colossal brigandage of Germany appealed to her freebooting\ninstincts, although it took a corrupt, self-seeking Government and a\nfinal push from the \"Goeben\" and the \"Breslau\" to plunge her into war\nagainst her best friends.\n\nTo proclaim a _jihad_ was her obvious course, if only to keep Arabia\nmoderately quiet, apart from its value as a weapon against her Christian\nfoes. We will now see how she fared in the \"Holy War.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nITS BEARING ON THE WAR\n\n\nQuite early in the War those of us who had to deal with pan-Islamic\npropaganda realised that the widespread organisation which Germany had\ngrafted on to the original Turkish movement must have existed some time\nbefore the outbreak of actual hostilities.\n\nFor example, there was a snug, smooth-running concern at San Francisco\nwhich spread its tentacles all over the Moslem world, but specialised in\na seditious newspaper called _El'-Ghadr_, which means treachery or\nmutiny. This was particularly directed at our Indian Army, but Egypt was\nnot forgotten. A gifted censor sent us an early copy, but had,\nunfortunately, lost the wrapper, so our earnest desire to make the\naddressee's closer acquaintance was thwarted.\n\nStamboul was naturally an active centre, and, before the Turks entered\nthe War, Turkish officers in full uniform, and sometimes even wearing\nswords, permeated Cairo cafes with espionage and verbal propaganda,\ntrying to fan into flame the military ardour of Egyptian students and\nmen about town. This last activity was wasted effort, as anyone who knew\nthe type could have told them; the effendis abstained from the crudities\nof personal service and confined themselves to stirring up the town\nriffraff, who wanted a safer form of villainy than open riot, and the\n_fellahin_, who wanted a safe market for their produce and easy\ntaxation, both of which they stood to lose by violence. Many a _fellah_\nstill believes that the War was a myth created by the authorities to put\nprices up. Even Teuton activity failed to stimulate these placid folk,\nand the glad tidings preached by the madder type of German missionary\nthat the Kaiser was the Messiah left them unmoved.\n\nWhen the Turks came in against us, and the ex-Khedive, safe among his\nnew-found friends, threw off the mask, the Cairene effendis became\ntremendously active. Forgetting how they had disliked Abbas II and\ncalled him a huckstering profligate, they mourned for his deposal by\nwearing black ties, especially the students. Some of these enthusiastic\nyoung heroes even went so far as to scatter chlorate of potash crackers\nabout when their school was visited by poor old Sultan Husein (who was\nworth six of his predecessor), and he got quite a shock, which was\nflagrantly and noisomely accentuated by asafoetida bomblets.\n\nThe ex-Khedive did not share their patriotic grief. He was quite\ncomfortable while awaiting the downfall of British rule, for, with\nshrewd prescience that almost seems inspired, he had taken prudent\nmeasures for his future comfort and luxury before leaving Egypt on his\nusual summer tour to Europe. He had mortgaged real estate up to the\nhilt, realised on immobile property as far as possible, and diverted his\nfluid assets through various channels beyond the reach of his sorrowing\nsubjects and the Egyptian Government. When an official inventory was\ntaken in Abdin Palace at the accession of the late Sultan Husein, it was\nascertained that the famous inlaid and begemmed coffee-service, which,\nlike our Crown jewels, was not supposed to leave the country, had been\nsent after the ex-Khedive to his new address--truly a man of parts. I\nhave often wondered whether his Hunnish friends got him to disgorge by\nmeans of a forced loan or war-bonds, or something of that sort. If so,\nthey achieved something notable, for he has left behind him, beside his\nliabilities, the name of being a difficult man to get money out of.\n\nWhen the Turco-Teuton blade was actually drawn in Holy War I was down\nwith enteric, which I had contracted while working in disguise among\nseditious circles in the slums of Old Cairo. I just convalesced in time\nto join the Intelligence Staff on the Canal the day before Jemal Pasha's\narmy attacked. His German staff had everything provided for in advance\nwith their usual thoroughness. From the documents and prisoners that\ncame through our hands we learnt that the hotel in Cairo where the\nvictors were to dine after their triumphant entry had actually been\nselected, and some enthusiasts went so far as to insist that the menu\nhad been prepared. If so, they omitted to get the Canal Army on toast,\nand for want of this indispensable item the event fell through. All the\nsame, it was a soldierly enterprise, and if the Senussis had invaded in\nforce or the population risen behind us, as they hoped would be the\ncase, the result might have been different.\n\nAs it was they put up a very good fight and their arrangements for\ngetting across the Sinaitic desert were excellent. For the last ten\nmiles they man-handled their pontoons to the edge of the Canal. These\ncraft were marvels of lightness and carrying capacity, but, of course,\nno protection whatever against even a rifle-bullet, and they had not\nfully reckoned with the Franco-British naval flotilla, which proved a\nformidable factor.\n\nThe morning after the main fight a little Syrian subaltern passed\nthrough my hands. He had been slightly wounded in the leg and still\nshowed signs of nervous shock, so I made him sit down with a cigarette\nwhile I questioned him. He had been in charge of a pontoon manned by his\nparty and said that they had got halfway across the Canal in perfect\nsilence when \"the mouth of hell opened\" and the pontoon was sinking in a\nswirl of stricken men amid a hail of projectiles. He and two others swam\nto our side of the Canal, where they surrendered to an Indian\ndetachment.\n\nOur Indian troops on the Canal were naturally a mark for pan-Islamic\npropaganda reinforced by Hindu literature of the _Bande Mataram_\ntype,--a double-barrelled enterprise to bag both the great creeds of\nIndia. The astute propagandists had a pamphlet or two aimed at Sikhism,\nwhich they seemed to consider a nation, as they spoke of their national\naspirations, though an elementary study of the subject might have taught\nthem that it was a religious and secular movement originally intended to\ncurb Moslem power in India during the sway of the later Moguls. Anyone\nbut a Moslem can be a Sikh.\n\nNaturally I was on the _qui vive_ for signs of pan-Islamic activity on\nthe enemy's side, and I questioned my little Syrian very closely to\nascertain how far the movement was used as a driving force among the\ntroops engaged against us. He, personally, had rather a grievance on the\nsubject, for the Indian Moslems who took him had reproached him bitterly\nfor fighting on the wrong side. \"I fought,\" he said, \"because it was my\nduty as an officer of the Ottoman Army. I know that men were invited to\njoin as for a _jihad_, but we officers did not deceive ourselves. _Par\nexemple_, I think myself a better Moslem than any Turk, but what would\nyou?\" I consoled the little man while concealing my satisfaction at the\nfeeling displayed against him. An extraordinarily heterogeneous\ncollection of prisoners came dribbling through my hands directly after\nthe Turks were repulsed. Most were practically deserters who had been\nforcibly enrolled, given a Mauser and a bandoleer, and told to go and\nfight for the Holy Places of Islam. As one of the more intelligent\nremarked, \"If the Holy Places are really in danger, what are we doing\ndown this way?\"\n\nThey came from all over the Moslem world. There were one or two Russian\npilgrims returning from Mecca to be snapped up by the military\nauthorities at Damascus railway station when they got out of the pilgrim\ntrain from Medina. There were cabdrivers from Jerusalem, a stranded\npilgrim from China, several Tripolitans who had been roped in on the\nPalestine seaboard while trying to get a passage home, a Moor who tried\nto embrace my feet when I spoke of the snow-crowned Atlas above Morocco\nCity (Marraksh) and told him that he would be landed at Tangier in due\ncourse--Inshallah. Of course we released, and repatriated as far as we\ncould, men who were not Ottoman subjects and had obviously been forced\ninto service against us. A few days later, when Jemal Pasha's army was\ngetting into commissariat difficulties out in the Sinaitic desert (for\nthe Staff had relied on entering Egypt), we began to get the real Turks\namong our prisoners.\n\nI was very curious to ascertain if they had been worked up with\npan-Islamic propaganda or carried any of it on them, for there was not\neven a Red Crescent Koran on any of the Arabic-speaking prisoners. A\nsearch of their effects revealed a remarkable phase of propaganda. There\nwas hardly any religious literature except a loose page or two of some\npious work like the \"Traditions of Muhammad,\" but there were quantities\nof rather crude (and very lewd) picture-cards portraying soldiers in\nTurkish uniform outraging and murdering nude or semi-nude women and\nchildren, while corpses in priestly garb, shattered crucifixes, and\nburning churches indicated the creed that was being so harried and gave\nthe scene a stimulating background. From their appearance I should say\nthese pictures were originally engraved to commemorate Balkan or\nArmenian atrocities, but their possessors, on being closely questioned,\nadmitted that the impression conveyed to them was of the joyous licence\nwhich was to be theirs among the Frankish civilians after forcing the\nCanal. One Kurdish gentleman had among his kit fancy socks, knitted\ncraftily in several vivid colours, also ornate slippers to wear in his\npromised palatial billet at Cairo. There were some odd articles among\nthe kit of these Turkish prisoners, to wit, a brand-new garden\nthermometer, which some wag insisted was for testing the temperature of\nthe Canal before immersion, and a lavatory towel looted from the Hejaz\nrailway. Still, nothing was quite so remarkable as a white flag with a\njointed staff in a neat, compact case which had been carried by a German\nofficer. Among his papers was an indecent post-card not connected, I\nthink, with propaganda of any sort, as it portrayed a bright-coloured\nfemale of ripe figure and Teutonic aspect, wearing a pair of long\nstockings and high-heeled shoes, and bore the legend \"Gruss von\nMuenchen.\"\n\nA certain coyness, or possibly an appreciation of their personal value,\nkept most of the German officers from actual contact with our line. Only\none reached the Canal bank, and he is there still. The German touch,\nhowever, was much in evidence. There were detailed written orders about\nmanning the pontoons, not to talk, cough, sneeze, etc., and for each man\nto move along the craft as far as feasible and then sit down. They seem\nto have relied entirely on surprise, and ignored the chance of its\noccurring on the wrong side of the Canal. The emergency rations too\nwhich we found on the earlier batches of prisoners had a distinctly\nTeutonic flavour--they were so scientifically nourishing in theory and\nso vilely inedible in practice. They were a species of flat gluten cake\nrather like a dog-biscuit, but much harder. An amateur explosive expert\nof ours tested one of these things by attempting detonation and ignition\nbefore he would let his batch of prisoners retain them, which, to do\ntheir intelligence justice, they were not keen on doing, but offered any\nquantity of the stuff for cigarettes. We ascertained from them that you\nwere supposed to soak it in water before tackling it in earnest, but as\nthe only supply (except the runlet they still carried on them) was in\nthe fresh-water canal behind our unshaken line, such a course was not\npracticable; the discovery of a very dead Turk some days later in that\ncanal led to the ribald suggestion that he had rashly endeavoured to eat\nhis ration. Our scientist laid great stress on its extraordinary\nnutritive properties, but desisted, after breaking a tooth off his\ndenture, in actual experiment.\n\nGerman influence, too, was apparent in the relations between officers\nand men. A Turkish _yuzbashi_ was asked to get a big batch of prisoners\nto form two groups according to the languages they spoke--Arabic or\nTurkish. It was not an easy task in the open on a pitch-black night, but\nhe did it with soldierly promptitude and flung his glowing cigarette end\nin the face of a dilatory private. As a natural corollary it may be\nmentioned here that one or two of our prisoners had deserted after\nshooting officers who had struck them.\n\nFor some days after the battles of Serapeum and Toussoum we expected\nanother attempt, but they had been more heavily mauled than we thought\nat first. The dead in the Canal were kept down by the weight of their\nammunition for some time, and the shifting sand on the Sinaitic side\nwas always revealing hastily-buried corpses on their line of retreat.\n\nJemal Pasha hurried back to Gaza and published a grandiloquent report\nfor Moslem consumption, to the effect that the Turks were already in\nCairo (as was indeed the case with many hundreds), and that, of the\n_giaour_ fleet, one ship had sunk, one had been set on fire, and the\nrest had fled. Two heavy howitzers, as a matter of fact, had managed by\nindirect fire from a concealed position to land a couple of projectiles\non the \"Hardinge,\" which was not originally built for such rough\ntreatment, being an Indian marine vessel taken over by the Navy. She\ngave more than she got when her four-point-sevens found the massed\nTurkish supports.\n\nA great deal of criticism has been flung at this first series of fights\non the Canal, mostly by Anglo-Egyptian civilians. They asked derisively\nwhether we were protecting the Canal or the Canal us. The answer is in\nthe affirmative to both questions. Ordinary steamer traffic was only\nsuspended for a day during the first onslaught, and the G.O.C. was not\nsuch a fool as to leave the Canal in his rear and forgo the defensive\nadvantage. There are some who, in their military ardour, would have had\nhim pursue the enemy into the desert, forgetting that to leave a sound\nposition and pursue a superior force on an ever-widening front in a\nbarren country which they know better than you do and have furnished\nwith their own supply-bases is just asking for trouble. Our few\naeroplanes in those days could only reconnoitre twenty miles out, and\nthere was no evidence that the enemy had not merely fallen back to his\nline of wells preparatory to another attempt. We had not then the men,\nmaterial, or resources for a triumphant advance into Sinai; it was\nenough to make sure of keeping the enemy that side of the Canal with the\nSenussi sitting on the fence and Egypt honeycombed with seditious\npropaganda.\n\nAnyone at all in touch with native life in Cairo could gauge the extent\nof propagandist activity by gossip at cafes and in the bazars. The\nSenussi was marching against us. India was in revolt and the Indian Army\non the Canal had joined the Turks. The crowning stroke of ingenuity was\na tale that received wide credence among quite intelligent Egyptians. It\nwas to the effect that the Turks had commandeered an enormous number of\ncamels and empty kerosene tins. This was quite true so far, but the yarn\nthen rose to the following flight of fancy: These empty tins were to be\nfilled with dry cement and loaded on camels, which were to be marched\nwithout water for days until they reached the Canal, when the pangs of\nthirst would compel them to rush madly into the water. The cement would\nsolidify and the Faithful would march across on a composite bridge of\ncamel and concrete. Our flotilla was to be penned in by similar means.\n\nThere must be something about a Turk that hypnotises an Egyptian. His\ncountry has suffered appallingly under Ottoman rule, and a pure-blooded\nTurk can seldom be decently civil to him and considers him almost\nbeneath contempt. This is the conquering Tartar pose that has earned the\nTurk such detestation and final ruin in Arabia, but it seems to have\nfascinated the Egyptian like a rabbit in the presence of a python. Quite\nearly in the Turkish invasion of Sinai a detachment of Egyptian camelry,\noperating in conjunction with the Bikanirs, deserted _en masse_ to the\nenemy. It was at first supposed that they had been captured, but we\nafterwards heard of their being feted somewhere in Palestine. On the\nother hand, an Egyptian battery did yeoman service on the Canal; I saw a\npontoon that looked like a carelessly opened sardine-tin as a result of\nits attentions.\n\nThe most tragic aspect of this spurious and mischievous propaganda was\nits victims from Indian regiments. The Indian Moslem as a rule has no\nillusions about the Turks, and will fight them at sight, but there will\nalways be a few misguided bigots to whom a specious and dogmatic\nargument will appeal. There is no occasion to dwell on these cases,\nwhich were sporadic only and generally soon met with the fate incurred\nby attempted desertion to the enemy.\n\nWe looked on the movement as an insidious and dangerous disease and did\nour best to trace it to its source and stop the distributing channels.\nAfter events on the Canal had simmered down, I was seconded to Cairo to\nhelp tackle the movement there: to show how little hold it had over the\nminds of thinking Moslems. I may mention that my colleague was a Pathan\nmajor who was a very strict Moslem and a first-rate fellow to boot.\n\nWe both served under an Anglo-Indian major belonging to the C.I.D., one\nof the most active little men I have ever met. There were also several\n\"ferrets,\" or Intelligence agents, who came into close contact with the\n\"suspects\" and could be trusted up to a certain point if you looked\nsharply after them. This is as much as can be said for any of these men,\nthough some are better, and some worse, than others. On the Canal we\nemployed numbers of them to keep us informed of the enemy's movements\nand used to check them with the aerial reconnaissance--they needed it.\nIt did not take us long to find out that these sophisticated Sinaites\nhad established an Intelligence bureau of their own. They used to meet\ntheir \"opposite numbers\" employed by the enemy at pre-arranged spots\nbetween the lines and swop information, thereby avoiding unnecessary\ntoil or risk (the Sinaitic Bedouin loathes both) and obtaining news of\ninterest for both sides. It was a magnificently simple scheme; its sole\nflaw was in failing to realise that some of us had played the Great Game\nbefore. We used to time our emissaries to their return and cross-check\nthem where their wanderings intersected those of others--all were\nsupposed to be trackers and one or two knew something about it. Of\ncourse they were searched and researched on crossing and returning to\nour outpost line, for they could not be trusted to refuse messages to or\nfrom the Turks. It was among this coterie that the brilliant idea\noriginated of shaving a messenger's head, writing a despatch on his\nscalp, and then letting his hair grow before he started to deliver it. I\ndoubt if any of our folk were thorough enough for this, but we tested\nfor it occasionally, and an unpleasant job it was. Generally they would\nincur suspicion by their too speedy return and the nonchalant way in\nwhich they imparted tidings which would have driven them into ecstasies\nof self-appreciation had they obtained such by legitimate methods. Then\na purposely false bit of information calculated to cause certain\ndefinite action on the other side would usually betray them. Some\npurists suggested a firing party as a fitting end for these gambits, but\nthat would have been a waste. Such men have their uses, until they know\nthey are suspected, as valuable channels of misinformation. No doubt the\nenemy knew this too, and that is how an Intelligence Officer earns his\npay, by sifting grain from chaff as it comes in and sending out empty\nhusks and mouldy news.\n\nBut to return to Cairo. We netted a good deal of small fry, but only\nlanded one big fish during the time I was attached. He was a\nMesopotamian and a very respectable old gentleman, who followed the\ncalling of astrologer and peripatetic quack--a common combination and\nadmirably adapted for distributing propaganda. He came from Stamboul\nthrough Athens with exemplary credentials, and might have got through to\nIndia, which was the landfall he proposed to make, if his propagandist\nenergy had not led him to deviate on a small side-tour in Egypt. Here\nwe got on his track, and I boarded the Port Said express at short notice\nwhile he and the \"ferret\" who had picked him up got into a third-class\ncompartment lower down. As the agent made no signal after the train had\npulled out, I knew our man had not got the bulk of his propaganda with\nhim, otherwise I had powers to hold up the express, for it was more\nimportant to get his stuff than the man himself. At Port Said he had a\nchance of seeing me, thanks to the agent's clumsiness, and I had to\nshave my beard off and buy a sun-helmet in consequence, for I was\ntravelling in the same ship along the Canal to see that he did not\ncommunicate with troops on either side of the bank, and on the slightest\nsuspicion he would have put his stuff over the side. All went smoothly\nand he was arrested in Suez roads by plain-clothes men with a sackful of\nseditious literature for printing broadcast in India. Of course they\narrested the \"ferret\" too, as is usual in these cases. I went ashore\nwith them in the police-launch as a casual traveller and was amused to\nhear the agent rating the old man for not having prophesied this mishap\nwhen telling his fortune the night before.\n\nThe propagandist was merely interned in a place of security--it was not\nour policy to make martyrs of such men, especially when they were _bona\nfide_ Ottoman subjects.\n\nI was rather out of touch with the pan-Islamic movement during the\nsummer of 1915, as my lungs had become seriously affected on the Canal,\nand the trouble became so acute that I had to spend two or three months\nin the hills of Cyprus. Before I had been there a week the G.O.C. troops\nin Egypt cabled for me to return and proceed to Aden as political\nofficer with troops.\n\nI was too ill then to move and had to cable to that effect. My chagrin\nat missing a \"show\" was much alleviated when I heard what the show was.\nAs it had a marked effect on the pan-Islamic campaign by enhancing\nTurkish prestige, it is not out of place to give some account of it\nhere.\n\nWhile I was still on the Canal in February (1915) a \"memo\" was sent for\nmy information from Headquarters at Cairo to say that the Turks had\ninvaded the Aden protectorate at Dhala, where I once served on a\nboundary commission.\n\nI noted the fact and presumed that Aden was quite able to cope with the\nsituation, as the Turks had a most difficult terrain to traverse before\nthey could get clear of the hills and reach the littoral, while the\nhinterland tribes are noted for their combatant instincts and efficiency\nin guerilla warfare, besides being anti-Turk. I had, however, in spite\nof many years' experience, failed to reckon with Aden apathy. True to\nthe policy of _laissez faire_ which was inaugurated when our Boundary\nCommission withdrew some twelve years ago, Aden had been depending for\nnews of her own protectorate on office files and native report,\nespecially on that much overrated friend and ally the Lahej sultanate.\nThe Turks knew all about this, for the leakage of Aden affairs which\ntrickles through Lahej and over the Yamen border is, and has been for\nyears, a flagrant scandal.\n\nThe invasion at Dhala was a feint just to test the soundness of official\nslumber at Aden; the obvious route for a large force was down the Tiban\nvalley, owing to the easier going and the permanent water-supply.\n\nOur border-sultan (the Haushabi) was suborned with leisurely\nthoroughness all unknown to his next-door neighbour, that purblind\nsultanate at Lahej, unless the latter refrained from breaking Aden's\nholy calm with such unpleasant news.\n\nIn May Aden stirred in her sleep and sent out the Aden troop to\nreconnoitre. This fine body of Indian cavalry and camelry reported that\naffairs seemed serious up the Tiban valley; then inertia reasserted\nitself and they were recalled. Also the Lahej sultanate, in a spasm of\neconomy, started disbanding the Arab levies collected for the emergency\nfrom the tribes of the remoter hinterland which have supplied fine\nmercenaries to many oriental sultanates for many centuries.\n\nThe watchful Turk, with his unmolested spy system, had noted every move\nof these pitiful blunders, and, at the psychological moment, came\npouring down the Tiban valley some 3,000 strong with another 5,000 Arab\nlevies. They picked up the Haushabi on the way, whose main idea was to\nget a free kick at Lahej, just as an ordinary human boy will serve some\nsneak and prig to whom a slack schoolmaster has relegated his own\nobvious duty of supervision. To do that inadequate sultanate justice, it\ntried to bar the way with its own trencher-fed troops and such levies as\nit had, but was brushed aside contemptuously by the hardier levies\nopposed to it and the overwhelming fire of the Turkish field batteries.\nThen a distraught and frantic palace emitted mounted messengers to Aden\nfor assistance like minute-guns from a sinking ship.\n\nAden behaved exactly like a startled hen. She ran about clucking and\ncollecting motor-cars, camel transport, anything. The authorities dared\nnot leave their pet sultan in the lurch--questions might be asked in the\nHouse. On the other hand they had made no adequate arrangements to\nprotect him. Just as a demented hen will leave her brood at the mercy of\na hovering kite to round up one stray chick instead of sitting tight and\ncalling it in under her wing, so Aden made a belated and insane attempt\nto save Lahej.\n\nThe Aden Movable Column, a weak brigade of Indians, young Territorials,\nand guns, marched out at 2 p.m. on July 4, _i.e._ at the hottest time of\nday, in the hottest season of the year and the hottest part of the\nworld. Motor-cars were used to convey the infantry of the advanced\nguard, but the main body had to march in full equipment with ammunition.\nThe casualties from sunstroke were appalling. The late G.O.C. troops in\nEgypt mentioned them to me in hundreds, and one of the Aden \"politicals\"\ntold me that not a dozen of the territorial battalion remained effective\nat the end of the day. Many were bowled over by the heat before they had\ngone two miles.\n\nMost of the native camel transport, carrying water, ammunition and\nsupplies,--and yet unescorted and not even attended by a responsible\nofficer--sauntered off into the desert and vanished from the ken of that\nill-fated column.\n\nMeanwhile the advanced guard of 250 men (mostly Indians) and two\n10-pounder mountain-guns pushed on with all speed to Lahej, which was\nbeing attacked by several thousand Turks and Turco-Arabs with 15-pounder\nfield batteries and machine-guns. They found the palace and part of the\ntown on fire when they arrived, and fought the Turks hand-to-hand in the\nstreets. They held on all through that sweltering night, and only\nretired when dawn showed them the hopeless nature of their task and the\nfact that they were being outflanked. They fell back on the main body,\nwhich had stuck halfway at a wayside well (Bir Nasir) marked so\nobviously by ruins that even Aden guides could not miss it. Shortage of\nwater was the natural result of sitting over a well that does not even\nsupply a settlement, but merely the ordinary needs of wayfarers.\n\nThis well is marked on the Aden protectorate survey map (which is\nprocurable by the general public) as Bir Muhammad, its full name being\nBir Muhammad Nasir. There are five wells supplying settlements within\nhalf an hour's walk of it on either side of the track, but when we\nremember that the column's field-guns got no further owing to heavy\nsand, and that the aforesaid track is frequently traversed by ordinary\n_tikkagharries_, we realise the local knowledge available.\n\nThe column straggled back to the frontier town of Sheikh Othman, which\nthey prepared to defend, but Simla, by this time thoroughly alarmed,\nordered them back for the defence of Aden, and they returned without\ndefinite achievement other than the accidental shooting of the Lahej\nsultan. This was hardly the fault of the heroic little band which\nreached Lahej; that ill-starred potentate was escaping with his mounted\nretinue before dawn and cantered on top of an Indian outpost without the\nformality of answering their challenge. He was brought away in a\nmotor-car and died at Aden a few days later--another victim to this\ndeplorable blunder. Any intelligent and timely grasp of the enemy's\nstrength and intention would have given the poor man ample time to pack\nhis inlaid hookahs, Persian carpets, and other palace treasures and\nwithdraw in safety to Aden while our troops made good the Sheikh Othman\nline along the British frontier. I am presuming that Aden was too much\ntaken by surprise to have met the Turks in a position of her own\nchoosing while they were still entangled in hilly country where levies\nof the right sort could have harried them to some purpose, backed by\ndisciplined, unspent troops and adequate guns. What I wish to impress\nis that the Intelligence Department at Aden must have been abominably\nserved and organised, for I decline to believe that _any_ G.O.C. would\nhave attempted such an enterprise with such a force and at such a time\nhad he any information as to the real nature of his task. As it was, the\nBritish town of Sheikh Othman, within easy sight of Aden across the\nharbour, was held by the Turks until a reinforcing column came down from\nthe Canal and drove them out of it, while the protectorate has been\noverrun by the Turks and the Turco-Arabs until long after the armistice,\nand the state of British prestige there can be imagined.\n\nOfficial attempts to gloze over the incident would have been amusing if\nthey were not pathetic. Needless to say they did not deceive Moslems in\nEgypt or the rest of Arabia.\n\nHere is the most accurate account they gave the public:\n\n\n    \"TURKS AND ADEN.\n\n    \"ENGAGEMENT AT LAHEJ.\n\n    \"The India Office issued the following _communique_ last night\n    through the Press Bureau:\n\n      \"'In consequence of rumours that a Turkish force from the\n      Yamen had crossed the frontier of the Aden Hinterland and\n      was advancing towards Lahej, the General Officer Commanding\n      at Aden recently dispatched the Aden Camel Troop to\n      reconnoitre.\n\n      \"'They reported the presence of a Turkish force with\n      field-guns and a large number of Arabs and fell back on\n      Lahej, where they were reinforced by the advance guard of\n      the Aden Movable Column consisting of 250 rifles and two\n      10-pounder guns.\n\n      \"'Our force at Lahej was attacked by the enemy on July 4 by\n      a force of several thousand Turks with twenty guns and\n      large numbers of Arabs, and maintained its position in face\n      of the enemy artillery's fire until night, when part of\n      Lahej was in flames. During the night some hand-to-hand\n      fighting took place, and the enemy also commenced to\n      outflank us.\n\n      \"'Meanwhile the remainder of the Aden Movable Column was\n      marching towards Lahej, but was delayed by water\n      difficulties and heavy going. It was therefore decided that\n      the small force at Lahej should fall back.\n\n      \"'The retirement was carried out successfully in the early\n      morning of July 5, and the detachment joined the rest of\n      the column at Bir Nasir. Our troops, however, were\n      suffering considerably from the great heat and the shortage\n      of water, and their difficulties were increased by the\n      desertion of Arab transport followers. It was therefore\n      decided to fall back to Aden, and this was done without the\n      enemy attempting to follow up.\n\n      \"'Our losses included three British officers wounded: names\n      will be communicated later. We took one Turkish officer (a\n      major) and thirteen men prisoners.'\"\n\nAden seems to have made no attempt to stem the tide of Turkish influence\nwhile she could. The best fighting tribe in the protectorate stretches\nalong the coast and far inland north-east of Aden, and its capital is\nonly a few hours' steam from that harbour. The Turks made every effort\nto win over this important tribal unit, which might have been a grave\nmenace on their left flank. Its sultan made frequent representations to\nAden for even a gunboat to show itself off his port, but to no purpose.\nAfter the Turks had succeeded in alienating those of his tribe they\ncould get at, or who could get at them, a tardy political visit was paid\nby sea from Aden. The indignant old sultan came aboard and spoke his\nmind. \"You throw your friends on the midden,\" he said bitterly, and\ndeparted to establish a _modus vivendi_ on his own account with the\nTurks.\n\nThe situation at Aden has had a marked effect in bolstering up the\nTurkish campaign of spurious pan-Islamism, and those of us who have been\ndealing with chiefs in other parts of Arabia have met it at every turn.\nIt is idle to blame individuals--the whole system is at fault. The\npolicy of non-interference which the Liberal Government introduced,\nafter the Boundary Commission had finished its task and withdrawn, has\nbeen over-strained by the Aden authorities to such an extent that they\nwould neither keep in direct personal touch themselves nor let anyone\nelse do so.\n\nAs an explorer and naturalist whose chief work has lain for years in\nthat country, I have made every effort to continue my researches there\nuntil my persistency has incurred official persecution. The serious\naspect of this attitude is that at a time when accurate and up-to-date\nknowledge of the hinterland would have been invaluable it was not\navailable. The pernicious policy of selecting any one chief (unchecked\nby a European) to keep her posted as to affairs in her own protectorate\nhas been followed blindly by Aden to disaster. The excuse in official\ncircles there is that the Haushabi sultan had been suborned by the Turks\nwithout their knowledge and he had prevented any information from\ngetting through Lahej to them. Can there be any more damning indictment\nof such a system?\n\nThe Aden incident is similar to the Mesopotamian medical muddle, both\nbeing due to sporadic dry-rot in high places which the test of war\nrevealed. The loyalty of its princes and the devotion of its army prove\nthat there is nothing fundamentally wrong with British rule in India to\ncommand such sentiments, but some of those mandarins who have had wide\ncontrol of human affairs and destinies have ignored a situation until it\nwas forcibly thrust upon them and have fumbled with it disastrously. It\nis difficult to bring such people to book, for they shuffle\nresponsibility from one to the other or take refuge in the truly\noriental pose of heaven-born officialdom. Such types should be obsolete\neven in India by now, but this war has proved that they are not, and\nwhen their inanities fritter away gallant lives and trail British\nprestige in the dust they need rebuke. I hope some day, if I live, to\ndeal faithfully with Aden's hinterland policy.\n\nIn the autumn of 1915 I was fit enough to join the Red Sea maritime\npatrol as political officer with the naval rank of lieutenant. Our\nduties were to harry the Turk without hurting the Arab, to blockade the\nArabian coast against the Turk while allowing dhow-traffic with\nfoodstuffs consigned to Arab merchants and steamer-cargoes of food for\nthe alleged use of pilgrims to go through. Incidentally we had to keep\nthe eastern highway free of mines and transportable submarines, prevent\nthe passage of spies between Arabia and Egypt, and fetch and carry as\nthe shore-folk required.\n\nTaking it all round, it was not an easy job, but I think the blockade\npresented the most complex features. You knew where you were with\nspies--anyone with the necessary experience could spot a doubtful\ncustomer as soon as the dhow that carried him came alongside; and\nirregular but frequent visits at the various ports soon put a stop to\nthe mine-industry and prevented any materialisation of the submarine\nmenace except in reports from Aden which caused me a good many\nadditional trips in an armed steam-cutter to \"go, look, see.\"\n\nBut the problems presented by the blockade required some solving with\nvery little time for the operation, and if your solution was not\napproved by the authorities on the beach they lost no time in letting\nyou know it--usually by wireless, which was picked up by most ships in\nthe patrol by the time it reached you.\n\nThe basic idea was that if in doubt it was better to let stuff through\nto the Turks than pinch Hejazi bellies and get ourselves disliked. In\ntheory this was perfectly sound, for we wanted the Hejaz to like us well\nenough to fight on our side, and only the Huns think you can get people\nto love you by afflicting them. In practice, however, we soon found that\nthe Hejazi merchants were selling direct to the Turks and letting their\nfellow-countrymen have what was left at the highest possible price. On\ntop of it all India started a howl that her pilgrims in the Hejaz were\nstarving, and we had to defer to this outcry. I have never had to\nlegislate for highly-civilised Moslems with a taste for agitation, but I\nhave always sympathised with those who have, and could quite appreciate\nIndia's position in the matter. Still, after comparing her relief\ncargoes with the number of her pilgrims in the country and finding that\neach had enough to feed him for the rest of his natural life, I ventured\nto ask that this wholesale charity might cease, more especially as these\nbig steamer-cargoes were dealt with much as the dhow-borne cereals and\nchiefly benefited the Turks and local profiteers.\n\nAs regards dhows, our rule was to allow coastal traffic from Jeddah and\nempties returning there, as it tended to distribute food among the Arabs\nand get it away from the Turks. Dhows bringing cargo from the African\ncoast or from Aden were permitted, provided they did not carry\ncontraband of war; this permitted native cereals, such as millet, but\nbarred wheat and particularly barred barley, which the local Arab does\nnot eat for choice, but which the Turks wanted very badly for their\ncavalry.\n\nIn this connection a typical incident may be mentioned as illustrating\nthe sort of thing we were up against.\n\nThe ship I was serving in at the time lay off Jeddah and had three boats\ndown picketing the dhow-channels leading in to that reef-girt harbour,\nfor which dhows were making like homing bees. In such cases my post was\nusually on the bridge, while the ship's interpreter and Arab-speaking\nSeedee-boys went away in the boats. The dhows were reached and their\npapers examined, then allowed to proceed if all was in order. Otherwise\nthe officer examining signalled the facts and awaited instructions.\nUsually it was some technical point which I could waive, but on this\noccasion one of the cutters made a signal to the effect that barley in\nbulk had been found in one dhow. I was puzzled, because all the dhows\nwere from Suakin or further south, quite outside the barley-belt, except\non very high ground which rarely exports cereals. However, the signal\nwas repeated, and I had to have the dhow alongside. Meanwhile the\n\"owner\" was anxious to get steerage-way, for we were not at anchor and\nin very ticklish soundings; so I slid off the bridge and had a sample of\nthe grain handed up to me: it was a species of millet, looking very like\npearl-barley as \"milled\" for culinary purposes. I shouted to the _reis_\nto go where he liked as long as he kept clear of our propellers, which\nthereupon gave a ponderous flap or two as if to emphasise my remarks,\nand he bore away from us rejoicing. In the ward-room later on I rallied\nthat cutter's officer on his error. \"Well, it was just like the barley\none sees in soup,\" was his defence.\n\nIn the southern part of the Red Sea, which was handled politically from\nAden, the problems of blockade were even more complex, for there even\narms and ammunition were allowed between certain ports to meet the\nconvenience of the Idrisi chief, who was theoretically at war with the\nTurks, but rather diffident about putting his principles into practice,\nespecially after the Turkish success outside Aden.\n\nThis meant that the sorely-tried officers responsible for the conduct\nof the blockade in those waters had frequently to decide on a cargo of\nillicit-looking rifles and cartridges, not of Government make, but\npurchased from private firms and guaranteed by a filthy scrap of paper\ninscribed with crabbed Arabic which carried no conviction. All they had\nto help them was the half-educated ship's interpreter, with no knowledge\nof the political situation, for Aden had not an officer available for\nthis work. To enhance the difficulties of the position, some of these\ncoastal chiefs were importing contraband of war to sell to the Turks for\nprivate gain. Up north there were no difficulties with illicit arms; we\nallowed a reasonable number per dhow, provided that they were the\nprivate property of the crew, and when rifles were dished out to our\nArab friends the Navy delivered the goods, which were all of Government\nmark and pattern.\n\nThe political aspect of the blockade required delicate handling anywhere\nalong the Arabian littoral of the Red Sea, but especially so on the\nHejazi coast. We were at war with the Turks but not with the Arabs, whom\nit was our business to approach as friends if they would let us. The\nTurks, however, used Arab levies freely against us whose truculence was\nmuch increased on finding they could make hostile demonstrations with\nimpunity, as the patrol only fired on the Turkish uniform, since few\npeople can distinguish between a Turco-Arab gendarme and an armed\ntribesman at long range unless they know both breeds intimately.\n\nThe general standard of honour and good faith at most places along the\nArabian littoral is not high, even from an Oriental point of view, and\nis nowhere lower than on the Hejazi coast. Frequently an unattached\ntribesman would take a shot at a reconnoitring cutter on general\nprinciples and then rush off to the nearest Turkish post with the\ninformation and a demand for bakshish, and there were several attempts\n(one successful) to lure a landing party on to a well-manned but\ncarefully hidden position. As for the actual levies, they would solemnly\nman prepared positions within easy range of even a 3-pounder when we\nvisited their tinpot ports, relying on us not to fire, and telling their\ncompatriots what they would do if we did.\n\nEven when examining dhows one had to be on one's guard, and it was best\nnot to board them to leeward and so run the risk of having their big,\nbellying mainsail let go on top of you and getting scuppered while\nentangled in its folds. African dhows could generally be trusted not to\nresist search, for when a _reis_ has got his owners or agents at a\ncivilised port like Suakin he likes to keep respectable even if he _is_\nsmuggling. Our chief difficulty with such craft, before we tightened the\nblockade, was due to the nonchalant manner in which they put to sea and\nbehaved when at sea. Their skippers had the sketchiest idea of what\nconstituted proper clearance papers and why such papers must agree with\ntheir present voyage. Their confidence too in our integrity, though\ntouching, was often embarrassing. One of our rules was that considerable\nsums in gold must be given up against a signed voucher realisable at\nPort Sudan. I was never very brisk at counting large sums of money, and\none day when hove to off Jeddah there were five dhows rubbing their\nnoses alongside, with about L800 in gold between them and very little\ntime to deal with them, as we were in shoal water with no way on the\nship. My operations were not facilitated by the biggest Croesus of the\nlot producing some L400 in five different currencies from various parts\nof his apparel and stating that he had no idea how much there was but\nwould abide by my decision. I believe he expected me to give him a\nreceipt in round hundreds and take the \"oddment,\" as we call it in\nWarwickshire, for myself. As it was, I was down half a sovereign or so\nover the transaction, having given him the benefit of the doubt over\ntwo measly little gold coins of unascertainable value.\n\nSome of them were just as happy-go-lucky in their seamanship, though\nskilful enough in handling their outlandish craft. Early one morning,\nabout fifty miles out of Jeddah, I boarded a becalmed dhow and found\nthem with the dregs of one empty water-skin between a dozen men. Not\ncontent with putting to sea with a single _mussick_ of water, they had\nhove to and slept all night, and so dropped the night breeze, which\nwould have carried them to Jeddah before it died down. We gave them\nwater and their position, but I told the _reis_ that he was putting more\nstrain on the mercy of Allah than he was, individually, entitled to.\n\nBut the craft that plied along the Hejazi coast were sinister customers\nand wanted watching. Some time before I joined the patrol one of our\nships was lying a long way out off Um-Lejj, as the water is shallow, and\nher duty-boat was working close in-shore examining coastal craft. One of\nthese had some irregularity about her and was sent out to the ship with\na marine and a bluejacket in charge while the cutter continued her task.\nThat dhow stood out to sea as if making for the ship and then proceeded\nalong the coast. The cutter, still busied with other dhows, presumed\nthat the first craft had reported alongside the ship and been allowed to\nproceed; the ship naturally regarded her as a craft that had been\nexamined and permitted to continue her journey. And that is all we ever\nknew for certain of her or the fate of our two men. Their previous\nrecord puts desertion out of the question; besides, no sane men would\ndesert to a barren, inhospitable coast among semi-hostile fanatics whose\nlanguage was unknown to them. On the other hand, the men were, of\ncourse, fully armed, and there were but five of the dhow's crew all\ntold, of whom two were not able-bodied. There must have been the\nblackest treachery--probably the unfortunate men goodnaturedly helped\nwith the running gear and were knocked on the head while so engaged.\nTheir bodies would, no doubt, have been put over the side when the dhow\nwas out of sight, and their rifles sold inland at a fancy price.\n\nWhen I first joined the patrol we were not allowed to bombard or land at\nany point between the mouth of the Gulf of Akaba and the Hejaz southern\nborder. The Turkish fort up at Akaba had been knocked about a good deal\nby various ships of the patrol, and the whole place was uninhabited; but\nwe visited it frequently, as drifting mines were put in up there,\nhaving been taken off the rail at Maan and brought down to the head of\nthe gulf, in section, by camel. I always suspected the existence of a\nTurkish observation-post, but no signs of occupation had been seen for a\nlong time till H.M.S. \"Fox\" went up one dark night without a light\nshowing. All dead-lights were shipped, and dark blue electric bulbs\nreplaced the usual ones where a light of some sort was essential and\nvisible from out-board. The padre, who had opened the \"vicarage\"\ndead-light about an inch to get a breath of air, was promptly spotted by\nan indignant Number One who said that it made the ship look like a\nfloating gin palace. This must have been a pardonable hyperbole, for the\nsignal-fires ashore which used to herald our approach from afar were not\nlit.\n\nWe were off Akaba at peep of day, and two armed cutters raced each other\nto the beach. I went with the one that made for the stone jetty in the\nmiddle front of the town; we had to jump out into four feet of water, as\nthe port has deteriorated a good deal since Solomon used it and called\nit Eziongeber. A careful search revealed no one in the town, but water\nhad been drawn recently from the well inside the fort, and a mud hut out\nin the desert behind the town seemed a likely covert to draw.\n\nThe cutter's officer accompanied me, leaving the crew ensconced in the\ncemetery, which was a wise move, for, when we were close to the hut,\nheavy fire was opened on us from a hidden trench some three hundred\nyards away. We both dropped and rolled into a shallow depression caused\nby rain-wash, where we lay as flat as we could while the flat-nosed soft\nlead bullets kicked sand and shingle down the backs of our necks. As we\nhad only revolvers--expecting resistance, if any, to be made among the\nhouses--we could not reply, but the ship handed out a few rounds of\npercussion shrapnel which shook the Turks up enough for us to withdraw.\nFortunately for us, they were using black powder, and outside four\nhundred yards one has time to avoid the bullet by dropping instantly at\nthe smoke. Otherwise they should have bagged us in spite of the support\nof our covering party in the cemetery, for the ground was quite open and\nso dusty that they could see the break of their heavy picket-bullets to\na nicety.\n\nWe landed in force an hour later and turned them out of it. On\nreturning, the men who searched the hut (which the ship's guns had\nknocked endways) brought me a budget of correspondence. It was chiefly\naddressed to the officer in charge and told me that the detachment was\nSyrian, which I had already suspected from their using the early pattern\nMauser. It gave other useful information, and the men did well to bring\nit along; but I would have given much to have found some channel through\nwhich I could return it. Most of it was private; there were several\ncongratulatory cards crudely illuminated in colours by hand for the\nfeast of Muled-en-Nebi (the birthday of the Prophet), which corresponds\nwith our Christmas. There was also a letter from the officer's wife\nenclosing a half-sheet of paper on which a baby hand had imprinted a\nsmeared outline in ink. It bore the inscription \"From your son\nAhmed--his hand and greeting.\"\n\nEarly in the spring of 1916 we managed to persuade the political folk at\nCairo to extend our sphere of action. I had particularly marked down\nUm-Lejj as containing a well-manned Turkish fort which could be knocked\nabout without damaging other buildings in the town if we were careful.\nIt was also a rallying-point for Turkish influence, and it was not\nconducive to our prestige or politically desirable that it should\nflourish unmolested.\n\nI was in the \"Fox\" again for that occasion, she being the senior ship of\nthe patrol and the only one that could land an adequate force if\nrequired.\n\nThe evening before we anchored far out on the fishing-grounds of Hasani\nIsland, and I managed to pick up a fisherman who knew where the Turkish\nhidden position was, outside the town, and, having been held a prisoner\nonce in their Customs building, could point that out too. Next morning\nwe stood slowly in for Um-Lejj with the steam-cutter groping ahead for\nthe channel, which is about as tortuous a piece of navigation as you can\nget off this coast, and that is saying a good deal.\n\nWhen we cleared for action I went to my usual post on the bridge with\nthe S.N.O. and took my fisherman-friend with me. The civil population\nwas streaming out of the town across the open plain in all directions\nlike ants from an over-turned ant-hill, probably realising that we meant\nbusiness this time. This was all to the good, as otherwise I should have\nhad to go close in with the steam-cutter, a white flag and a megaphone\nto warn Arab civilians; thus giving the Turks time to clear, besides the\nchance of a sitting-shot at us if they thought my address to the\ntownsfolk a violation of the rules of war, which, technically, it might\nbe.\n\nHowever, the fort was a fixture and our business was first of all with\nit. Standing close in, the ship turned southwards and moved slowly\nabreast of the town. The port battery of four-point-sevens loaded with\nH.E. and the two six-inchers fore and aft swung out-board and followed\nsuit. The occasion called for fine shooting, as a minaret rose just to\nthe right of the fort, and the houses were so massed about it that there\nwas only one clear shot--up the street leading from the beach past the\nmain gate.\n\n\"At the southern gate of the fort, each gun to fire as it comes to bear\nup the street from the water-side.\"\n\nAs I turned my glasses on the big portico of the southern gate, out\nstepped a Turkish officer who regarded us intently; the next instant the\nbridge shook to the crashing concussion of our forward six-inch, and\nthrough a drifting haze of gas-fume I saw him blotted out by the orange\nflash of lyddite and an up-flung pall of dust and _debris_.\n\nThere was a pause, cut short by the clap of the bursting shell\nreverberating like thunder against the foot-hills beyond the town.\n\nA little naked boy ran in an attitude of terrified dismay up the\nwater-street just as the first four-point-seven fired. I saw him through\nmy glasses duck his head between his arms, then dive panic-stricken\nthrough a doorway as the fort was smitten again in dust and thunder.\n\"Was the poor little beggar hit?\"\n\n\"No, sir, only scared.\"\n\nWhile the target was still veiled in its dust the second four-point-seven\nspoke, and the minaret disappeared from view behind a dun-coloured\nshroud.\n\n\"Cease fire\" sounded at once. \"Who fired that gun? Take him off,\" came\nin tones of stern rebuke from the bridge. Luckily the minaret showed\nintact as the dust drifted clear and firing continued.\n\nAs the fort crumbled under our guns, Turkish soldiers began to break\ncover at various points of the town and fled across the plain. The\ncutter, in-shore, opened with Maxim-fire, and so accurately that we\ncould see the sombre-clad figures lying here and there or seeking\nfrantically for cover, while an Arab in their vicinity, leading a\nleisurely camel, continued his stroll inland unperturbed. We drove the\nmain body out of their hidden position and into the hills with\nwell-timed shrapnel, and finished up by demolishing the Customs (where a\nlot of ammunition blew up), to the temporary satisfaction of my\nfisherman, who was curled up in a corner of the bridge, nearly stunned\nby the shock of modern ordnance in spite of the cotton-wool I had made\nhim put in his ears. Before we picked up our cutter the civil population\nwas already streaming back.\n\nThe incident is worth noting in view of remarks made by a popular\nfiction-monger in one of his latest works, that indiscriminate aerial\nraids on civil centres in England are on the same level of humanity as\nnaval bombardments.\n\nI visited the fishing-banks off Hasani Island a week or so after to get\nthe latest news of Um-Lejj, which came from Turkish sources. There was\none civilian casualty--a woman who was in the Turkish concealed\nposition. No casualties among Turkish officers, but one of them left in\ncharge of the fort had disappeared. There were bits of the fort left,\nbut the Commandant had moved his headquarters to the school-house within\nthe precincts of the mosque--sagacious soul. The object-lesson which we\ngave the Arabs at Um-Lejj put a check to their irresponsible sniping of\nboats and landing-parties, though one could always expect a little\ntrouble with an Arab dhow running contraband for the Turks. In these\ncases their guilty consciences usually gave them away. Returning to the\ncoast toward Jeddah unexpectedly, having played the well-worn ruse of\n\"the cat's away,\" we sighted a small dhow close in-shore, and should\nhave left her alone as she was in shoal-water, but, on standing in to\nget a nearer view of her, she headed promptly for the beach and ran\naground, disgorging more men than such a craft should carry.\n\nI went away in the duty cutter to investigate, and we had barely\nrealised that she was heavily loaded with kerosene in tins (a heinous\ncontraband) when the fact was emphasised by a sputtering rifle-fire from\nthe scrub along the beach. The ship very soon put a stop to that\ndemonstration with a round or two of shrapnel, while we busied ourselves\nwith the dhow. There was no hope of salving her, as she had almost\nripped the keel off her when she took the ground and sat on the bottom\nlike a dilapidated basket. We broached enough tins to start a\nconflagration, lit a fuse made of a strip of old turban soaked in\nkerosene, and backed hard from her vicinity, for the kerosene was\nlow-flash common stuff as marked on the cases, and to play at snapdragon\nin half an acre of blazing oil is an uninviting pastime. However, she\njust flared without exploding, and we continued our cruise up the coast\njust in time to overhaul at racing speed a perfect regatta of dhows\nheeling over to every stitch of canvas in their efforts to make Jeddah\nbefore we could get at them, for they had seen the smoke of that burning\noil-dhow and realised that the cat was about. Good money is paid at\nCowes to see no more spirited sailing--we had to put a shot across the\nbows of the leading dhow before they would abandon the race.\n\nThere was always trouble off Jeddah--the approaches to that reef-girt\nharbour lend themselves to blockade-running dhows with sound local\nknowledge on board. At night, especially, they had an advantage and\nwould play \"Puss-in-the-Corner\" until the cutter lost patience, and a\nflickering pin-point of light stabbed the velvet black of the middle\nwatch, asking permission to fire; one rifle-shot fired high would stop\nthe game, and I made them come alongside and take a wigging for annoying\nthe cutter and turning me out; there was seldom anything wrong about the\ndhow--it was sheer cussedness.\n\nAll through the early part of 1916 we were keeping in touch with the\nSharif of Mecca by means of envoys, whom we landed where they listed,\naway from the Turks, picking them up at times and places indicated by\nthem. Sharif Husein had long chafed under Turkish suzerainty, in spite\nof his subsidy and the deference which policy compelled them to accord\nhim. He knew that the Hejaz could never realise its legitimate\naspirations under Ottoman rule, which was a blight on all Arab progress\nand prosperity, as the Young Turkish party was hardly Moslem at heart,\nbeing more national (that is Tartar)--certainly not pro-Arab.\n\nHusein's difficulty was to get his own people to rise together and throw\noff the Turkish yoke, for the Hejazi tribesman, especially between the\ncoast and Mecca, has long been more of a brigand than a warrior, as any\npilgrim will tell you. Such folk are apt to jib at hammer-and-tongs\nfighting, and of course we could not land troops to assist them, as it\nwould have violated the sacred soil that cradled Islam and merely\nstiffened the bogus _jihad_ which the Turks had proclaimed against us,\nbesides compromising the Sharif with his own tribesmen.\n\nThe Hejazis' ingenuous idea was to go on taking money from us, the Turks\nand the Sharif, while--thanks to our lenient blockade--a regular\ndhow-traffic fed them. We did not approve of this Utopian policy, and\nthe fall of Kut brought matters to a climax. After certain\ncommunications had passed between the representatives of His Majesty's\nGovernment and the Sharif, it was decided to tighten the blockade and so\ninduce the gentle Hejazi to declare himself. The day was fixed, May, 15,\non and after which date no traffic whatever was to be permitted with the\nArabian coast other than that specially sanctioned by Government. In\npalaver thereon I managed to get local fishing-craft exempted. The\nfisher-folk are not combatants either on empty stomachs or full ones,\nand could be relied on to consume their own fish in that climate unless\nvery close to a market, where the pinch would be great enough to make\nthem exchange it for foodstuffs, thus helping the situation we wished to\nbring about. I knew that all _bona fide_ fishing-craft were easily\nrecognisable by their rig and comparatively small size, and hoped that\ngood will would combine with freedom of movement to make these folk\nuseful agents for Intelligence.\n\nI heard with some relief that the movements of the patrol would place\nH.M.S. \"Hardinge\" (a roomy ship of the Indian Marine) on station duty\noff Jeddah, which was to be my post while the enhanced blockade was in\nforce--there are few more trying seasons than early summer in those\nwaters. I joined her from Suez the day after the blockade was closed,\nand found her keeping guard over a perfect fleet of dhows. There were\nabout three dozen craft with over three hundred people on board, for\nmany native passengers were trying to make Jeddah before we shut down.\nThe feckless mariners in charge had made the usual oriental calculation\nthat a day more or less did not matter, but found to their horror that\nthe Navy was more precise on these points--and there they were.\n\nThe first thing to ensure was that the crew, and especially the\npassengers, among whom were a good many women and children, did not\nsuffer from privation. This had already been ably seen to by the ship's\nofficers--I merely went round the fleet to sift any genuine complaints\nfrom the discontent natural to the situation in which their own\nslackness had placed them. I insisted on hearing only one complaint at a\ntime, otherwise it would have been pandemonium afloat, for they were\nanchored close enough together to converse with each other; vociferous\nexcuses for their unpunctuality were brushed aside, legitimate requests\nfor more water or food or condensed milk for the children or more\nadequate shelter for the women from the sun were attended to at once,\nand our floating village quieted down.\n\nThe craft were all much the same type of small dhow or _sanbuk_ which\nfrequents the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, having little in common with\nthe big-bellied buggalows which ply with rice and dates between the\nPersian Gulf and Indian ports but do not come into the Red Sea. These\nwere much smaller and saucier-looking craft, some fifty to eighty feet\nlong, with a turn of speed and raking masts. All were lugger-rigged\nwith lateen sails, and only the poop and bows were decked, the bulwarks\nbeing heightened with strips of matting to prevent seas from breaking\nin-board. Sanitary arrangements were provided for by a box-like\ncubby-hole over-hanging the boat's side; inexperienced officers often\ntake it for a vantage-point to heave the lead from, and only find out\ntoo late after attempting to board there, that things are not always\nwhat they seem.\n\nThese little vessels are practically the corsair type of Saracenic\nsailing-galley which used to infest the Barbary coast in days gone by.\nThey do everything different from our occidental methods. For example,\nthey reef and furl their tall lateens from the peak, and have to send a\nman up the long tapering gaff to do it. Their masts rake forward and not\naft, which enables them to swing gaff, sail, and sheet round in front of\nthe mast when they come about, instead of keeping the sheet aft and\ndipping the butt of the gaff with the sail to the other side of the\nmast, which would be an impossibility for that rig, as the butt of their\nenormous mainyard or gaff is bowsed permanently down in the bows, while\nthe soaring peak may be nearly a hundred feet above the water. Cooking\nwas done over charcoal in a kerosene tin half full of sand, and the\n\"first-class\" passengers lived under an improvised awning on the poop,\nthe women's quarters being under that gim-crack structure. All the same,\nthey are good sea-boats and remarkably fast, especially _on_ a wind,\nquite unlike the big-decked buggalows which are built for cargo capacity\nand have real cabins aft but sail like a haystack on a barge.\n\nIt was inhuman (as well as an infernal nuisance) to keep all those\npeople sweltering indefinitely at sea; on the other hand, our orders as\nto the strict maintenance of the blockade were explicit. The \"owner\" and\nI conferred and decided that the situation could be met by transferring\ntheir cargo to the ship and letting the dhows beach. This was referred\nand approved by wireless. The job took us some days, as the weather was\nrather unfavourable and all the cargoes had to be checked by manifest\nwith a view to restitution later. Each dhow as she was cleared had to\nmake for the shore and dismast or beach so that she could not steal out\nat night and add to the difficulties of the blockade. None attempted to\nevade this order, most carried out both alternatives; perhaps a casual\nreminder that they would be within observation and gun-fire of the ship\nhad some influence on their action.\n\nHitherto the Turco-Teutonic brand of Holy War had been fairly\nsuccessful. The Allied thrust at the Dardanelles and Gallipoli had\nfailed, the Aden Protectorate was in Turkish hands, we had spent a most\nunpleasant Easter in Sinai, and Kut had fallen. Still, the Turks were\nsoon to realise that a wrongly-invoked _jihad_, like a mishandled\nmusket, can recoil heavily, and, before the end of May, signs were not\nwanting that trouble was brewing for them in the Hejaz.\n\nWe were in close touch with the shore through fishing-canoes by day and\nsecret emissaries by night, who brought us news that some German\n\"officers\" had been done to death by Hejazi tribesmen some eight hours'\njourney north of Jeddah. They had evidently been first over-powered and\nbound, then stabbed in the stomach with the huge two-handed dagger which\nthe Hejazis use, and finally decapitated, as a Turkish rescue party\nwhich hurried to the spot found their headless and practically\ndisembowelled corpses with their hands tied behind them. Their effects\ncame through our hands in due course, and we ascertained that the party\nconsisted of Lieut.-Commander von Moeller (late of a German gunboat\ninterned at Tsing-Tao) and five reservists whom he had picked up in\nJava. They had landed on the South Arabian coast in March, had visited\nSanaa, the capital of Yamen, and had come up the Arabian coast of the\nRed Sea by dhow, keeping well inside the Farsan bank, which is three\nhundred miles long and a serious obstacle to patrol work. They had landed\nat Konfida, north of the bank, and reached Jeddah by camel on May 5.\nAgainst the advice of the Turks they continued their journey by land,\nas they had no chance of eluding our northern patrol at sea. They were\nmore than a year too late to emulate the gallant (and lucky) \"Odyssey\"\nof the Emden's landing-party from Cocos Islands up the Red Sea coast in\nthe days when our blockade was more lenient and did not interfere with\ncoasting craft. They hoped to reach Maan and so get on the rail for\nStamboul and back to Germany, as the Sharif would not sanction their\ncoming to the sacred city of Medina, which is the rail-head for the\nDamascus-Hejaz railway. After so staunch a journey they deserved a\nbetter fate. Among their kit was a tattered and blood-stained copy of my\nbook on the Aden hinterland.[A]\n\nMeanwhile affairs ashore were simmering to boiling-point, and on the\nnight of June 9 we commenced a bombardment of carefully located Turkish\npositions, firing by \"director\" to co-operate with an Arab attack which\nwas due then but did not materialise till early next morning, and was\nthen but feebly delivered. We found out later that the rifles and\nammunition we had delivered on the beach some distance south of Jeddah\nto the Sharif's agents in support of this attack had been partly\ndiverted to Mecca and partly hung up by a squabble with their own\ncamel-men for more cash.\n\nWe continued the bombardment on the night of the 11th and were in action\nmost of the day on the 12th, shelling the Turkish positions north of\nJeddah, which we had located by glass and the co-operation of friendly\nfishing-craft who gave us the direction by signal. During the morning\nthe Hejazis made an abortive and aimless attack along the beach north of\nJeddah, and so masked our own supporting fire, while the Turks gave them\nmore than they wanted.\n\nBy this time the senior ship and others had joined us, and the S.N.O.\napproved of my landing with a party of Indian signallers to maintain\ncloser touch with their operations, provided that Arab headquarters\nwould guarantee our safety as regards their own people. This they were\nunable to do.\n\nThe bombardment grew more and more strenuous and searching as other\nships joined in and our knowledge of the Turkish positions became more\naccurate. On the 15th it culminated with the arrival of a seaplane\ncarrier and heavy bombing of the Ottoman trenches which our\nflat-trajectory naval guns could hardly reach. The white flag went up\nbefore sunset, and next day there were _pourparlers_ which led to an\nunconditional surrender on June 17, 1916.\n\nMecca had fallen just before, and Taif surrendered soon after, leaving\nMedina as the only important town still held by the Turks in the Hejaz.\n\nWe began pouring food and munitions into Jeddah as soon as it changed\nhands; for the rest of this cruise my ship was a sort of\nparcels-delivery van, and when the parcel happens to be an Egyptian\nmountain battery its delivery is an undertaking.\n\nMy personal contact with the Turks and their ill-omened _jihad_ ended\nsoon after, as I was invalided from service afloat, but I kept in touch\nas an Intelligence-wallah on the beach and followed the rest of it with\ninterest.\n\nThey got Holy War with a vengeance. The Sharif's sons (more especially\nthe Emirs Feisal and Abdullah, who had been trained at the Stamboul\nMilitary Academy), ably assisted by zealous and skilled British officers\nas mine-planters and aerial bombers, harried outlying posts and the\nHejaz railway line north of Medina incessantly.\n\nThe Turkish positions at Wejh fell to the Red Sea flotilla, reinforced\nby the flagship. I should like to have been there, if only to have seen\nthe Admiral sail in to the proceedings with a revolver in his fist and\nthe _elan_ of a sub-lieutenant. The Hejazis failed to synchronise, as\nusual, so the Navy dispensed with their support.\n\nOn February 24, 1917, Kut was wrested from the Turks again; on March 11\nthey lost Baghdad; on November 7 their Beersheba-Gaza front was\nshattered, and Jerusalem fell on December 9.\n\nEarly next year Jericho was captured (February 21), a British column\nfrom Baghdad reached the Caspian in August, and after a final,\nvictorious British offensive in Palestine the unholy alliance of Turkish\npan-Islamism and German _Kultur_ got its death-blow when Emir Feisal\ngalloped into Damascus.\n\nThe Turks had drawn the blade of _jihad_ from its pan-Islamic scabbard\nin vain; its German trade-mark was plainly stamped on it. There had been\nwidespread organisation against us, and the serpent's eggs of sedition\nand revolt had been hatched in centres scattered all over the eastern\nhemisphere, but their venomous progeny had been crushed before they\nbecame formidable.\n\nAs a world-force this band of pan-Islamism had failed because it had\nbeen invoked by the wrong people for a wrong purpose. Such a movement\nshould at least have as its driving power some great spiritual crisis:\nthis Turco-German manifestation of it had its origin in self-interest,\nand if successful would have immolated Arabia on the demoniac altar of\n_Weltpolitik_. Seyid Muhammed er-Rashid Ridha, a descendant of the\nProphet and one of the greatest Arab theologians living, has voiced the\nverdict of Islam on this unscrupulous and self-seeking adventure in a\ntrenchant article published in September, 1916. He showed up Enver and\nhis Unionist party as an atheist among atheists who had deprived the\nSultan of his rightful power and Islam of its religious head, and\ncontrasted their conduct with that of the British, who exempted the\nHejaz from the blockade enforced against the rest of the Ottoman Empire\nuntil it became quite clear that the Turks were benefiting chiefly by\nthat exemption, and who, out of respect for the holy places of Islam,\nrefrained from making that country a theatre of war.\n\nTrue to the Teutonic tradition, the movement had been laboriously\norganised, but lacked psychic insight, for the Turk is too much of a\nTartar and too little of a Moslem to appreciate the Arab mind, and the\nGerman ignored it, rooting with eager, guttural grunts among the\ncarefully cultivated religious prejudices of Islam like a hog hunting\ntruffles until whacked out of it by the irate cultivators.\n\nThe following incident may serve to illustrate their crude tactics. Soon\nafter the Turks came into the war the mullah of the principal mosque at\nDamascus was told to announce _jihad_ against the British from his\npulpit on the following Friday in accordance with an order from the\nGrand Mufti at Stamboul. The poor man appears to have jibbed\nconsiderably and sent his family over the Nejd border to be out of reach\nof Turkish persecution. Finally he decided to conform, but when he\nclimbed the steps of his \"minbar\" and scanned his congregation he saw a\ngroup of German officers wearing tarboushes with a look of almost\nporcine complacency. His fear fell from him in a gust of rage and he\nspoke somewhat as follows: \"I am ordered to proclaim _jihad_. A _jihad_,\nas you know, is a Holy War to protect our Holy Places against infidels.\nThis being so, what are these infidel _pigs_ doing in our mosque?\"\n\nThere was a most unseemly scuffle; the Turco-German contingent tried to\nseize the mullah; the Arab congregation defended him strenuously from\narrest. In the confusion that worthy man got clear away and joined his\nfamily in Nejd. _Jihad_ is incumbent on all Moslems if against infidel\naggression. We stood on the defensive when the Turks first attacked us\non the Canal, and when we finally overran Palestine and Syria it was in\nco-operation with the Arabs, who have more right there than the Turks.\n\nThose who forged the blade of this counterfeit _jihad_ could not temper\nit in the flame of religious fervour, and it shattered against the\nshield of religious tolerance and good faith: we make mistakes, but can\nhonestly claim those two virtues.\n\n    FOOTNOTES:\n\n    [Footnote A: \"The Land of Uz,\" Macmillan.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS\n\n\nTo gauge the strength or weakness of pan-Islam as a world-force we may\nbest compare it with its great militant rival, the Christian Church,\nchoosing common ground as the only sound basis of comparison, and\nremembering that it is pan-Islam we are examining rather than Islam\nitself--the tree, not the root; and though we cannot study the one\nwithout considering the other, Islam has already been extensively\ndiscussed by men better qualified than myself to deal with it: the\nrequirements of this work only call for comparison so far as the\ndriving-power of pan-Islam is concerned as a material force.\n\nFirst of all we must discard common factors. I set the great Shiah\nschism against the Catholic Church (omitting the word \"Roman\" as a\ncontradiction in terms) and cancel both for the purposes of comparison.\nCatholicism, is not, of course, schismatic, otherwise there are points\nof resemblance, such as observances of saints and shrines, which have\npermeated the other sects to a certain extent; also the degree of\nantagonism is about the same. Therefore we can ignore the Catholic\nChurch in this chapter, and when we are talking of pan-Islam we should\nconsider it a Sunnite (or Orthodox) movement, and count the Shiites out,\nas they do not even recognise the same centre of pilgrimage.\n\nPerhaps the strongest factor in pan-Islam as a political movement or a\nworld-wide fellowship is the Meccan pilgrimage. I have already alluded\nto its cosmopolitan nature in the previous chapter, but never realised\nit so much till after the surrender of Jeddah, when stately Bokhariots,\njabbering Javanese, Malays, Chinese, Russians, American citizens and\nSouth Africans were among those who beset me as stranded pilgrims. This\nimplies a very wide sphere of influence, against which we can only set\nthe well-known immorality and greed which pilgrims complain of at Mecca;\na huge influx of cosmopolitan visitors to _any_ centre will generally\ncause such abuses. On the feast of Arafat there are normally 100,000\npilgrims in the Meccan area who represent 100 million orthodox Moslems\nthroughout the world, while the actual population of the city is only\n50,000.\n\nThe Arabic language is another strong bond of brotherhood in Islam. I do\nnot mean to say that it is generally \"understanded of the people,\" any\nmore than Latin is throughout the Catholic world; but it is the language\nof most Sunnites and is moderately understood in Somaliland, East\nAfrica, Java and the Malay peninsula as the language of the Koran; in\nfact, it is the only written language in Somaliland, and Turkey uses the\nscript though not the tongue.\n\nThe daily observances of prayer, with their simple but obligatory\nceremonial, and the yearly fast for the month of Ramadhan unite Moslems\nwith the common ties of duty and hardship, as in the comradeship which\nsailors and soldiers have for each other throughout the world.\n\nThen, again, there is no colour-line in Islam; a negro may rise to place\nand power (he often does), and usually enjoys the intimate confidence of\nhis master as not readily amenable to local intrigue. Difference of\nnationality is not stressed except by the Young Turks, who have slighted\nSemitic Moslems to their own undoing. Contrast this attitude with our\nChurch and estimate the precise amount of Christian brotherhood between\nan Orthodox Greek, a Welsh Wesleyan, an Ethiopian priest, a Scotch\nPresbyterian, and an Anglican bishop (since the Kikuyu heresy). Even\nwithin the narrow limits of one sect there is nothing like the\nfellowship one finds in secular societies. Which is the stronger appeal,\n\"Anglican communicant\" or \"Freemason\"? Is a cross or the quadrant and\ncompasses the more potent charm?\n\nArabs credit us Christians with a much stronger bond of sympathy between\nco-religionists than is actually the case. It is true that those who\ncome into any sort of contact with us realise that there is a distinct\ndifference in form of worship and sentiment between Catholics (whom they\ncall _Christyan_) and Protestants (or _Nasara_), but I shall not readily\nforget the extraordinary conduct of a Hejazi who boarded us off Jeddah\nwith some of the effects belonging to the murdered Germans mentioned in\nthe previous chapter. He must have had the firm conviction that we\nChristians would avenge the killing of other Christians by Moslems, for\nhe merely told me that he had in his possession certain property of the\n_Allemani_, and I told him that he would be suitably rewarded on\nproducing it; I found out later that he had boasted to our ship's\ninterpreter (a Mussulman) that he was one of the slayers, and it\noccurred to me that if that were the case he might be able to give me\nfurther information, or perhaps produce papers of theirs which might\nappear valueless to him but would be of interest to us. I interviewed\nhim on deck and suggested this, reminding him of what he had told the\ninterpreter, but laying no stress on the deed he had confessed, for it\nwas outside our jurisdiction and no concern of mine.\n\n\"Papers?\" he said. \"By all means, I will go and fetch them,\" and\nbreaking from my light hold of his sleeve he flickered over the rail and\ndropped into the sea some thirty feet below. Two armed marines stepped\nto the rail with a clatter of breech-bolts and looked inquiringly at me.\nMeanwhile my bold murderer was calling on his God, for he wore a full\nbandoleer, which was weighing him down. Out darted a fishing-canoe from\nunder our quarter and made for him, but its occupants took the hint I\nconveyed through a megaphone and confined their efforts to saving him\nfor the duty-cutter to pick up.\n\nHe was brought before me dripping wet, with the fear of death in his\neyes. I thought this was due to the foolish risk he had taken, and spoke\nin gentle reproof of his conduct, pointing out that if any boat had been\nalongside where he leaped he would have met with a bad accident. To my\nsurprise he fell at my feet and scrabbled at my clean white shoes,\nimploring me to spare his life. I put him down as somewhat mad, and\nasked \"Number One\" to put a sentry over him to see that he did not\nrepeat his attempt to avoid our acquaintance. He clung to me like a\nlimpet and had to be removed by force, with despairing entreaties for\nmercy, disregarding my still puzzled assurances as to his personal\nsafety. I learned afterwards his true reason for alarm; he thought that\nafter leaving my presence he would be quietly made away with in\ntraditional Eastern style.\n\nAnother very strong feature of pan-Islam is the consistency of the creed\nfrom which it grows. I do not necessarily imply that Islam itself is\nbenefited thereby, for consistency sometimes means narrowness, and we\nare not considering creeds; but there is no doubt about the dynamic\nforce of a movement based on a religion which is sure of itself. A\nMoslem has one authorised version of the Koran, and only one; his simple\ncreed is contained in its first chapter and is as short as the Lord's\nPrayer, which it somewhat resembles in style. Praising God as the Lord\nof the worlds (not only of this world of ours), it attributes to Him\nmercy and clemency with supreme power over the Day of Judgment and is an\navowal of worship and service. Its only petition is to be led in the way\nof the righteous, avoiding errors that incur His wrath. Contrast this\nwith the many confusing aspects of Christianity. Perhaps diverse\nopinions tend to purify and invigorate a creed, but they certainly do\nnot strengthen the cohesion of any secular movement based on it.\n\nThen, again, the Moslem conception of God and the hereafter stiffens the\nbackbone of pan-Islam in adversity. They are taught to believe that He is\n_really_ omnipotent and that His actions are beyond criticism--welfare\nand affliction being alike acceptable as His will. We, on the other hand,\nseem to be developing the theory of a finite God warring against, and\noccasionally overcome by, evil, which includes (in this new thesis) human\nsuffering and sorrow as well as sin. There is a growing idea, pioneered\npartly by Mr. H. G. Wells and apparently supported by many of the clergy,\nthat the acts of God must square with human ideals of mercy or justice,\nand as many occurrences do not, the inference is that evil gets the best\nof it sometimes. Now the Moslem slogan is \"Allah Akbar\" (God is Greatest),\nand that seems to me a better battle-cry than, for example, \"Gott mit\nuns,\" as God will still be great and invincible to Moslems in their\nvictory or defeat; but the finite idea presumes, in disaster, that you\nand your God have been defeated together. It is not my business to\ncriticise either conception from a religious point of view, but in\nmundane affairs it is the former that will make for fighting force,\nespecially as we still insist that our God is a jealous God, visiting the\nsins of the fathers, etc.: surely this is not a human ideal of justice;\nthe obvious deduction is that our modern Deity is stronger to punish than\nprotect--hardly an encouraging attribute.\n\nWhether a religion is the better for an organised priesthood or not is\nirrelevant to our subject, but the absence of it in Islam certainly\nstrengthens the pan-Islamic movement, as each Moslem may consider\nhimself a standard-bearer of his faith, while we are apt to leave too\nmuch to our priests, thus engendering slackness on our part and\nmeticulous dogma on theirs; both undermine Christian brotherhood. The\nfact that priestly stipends seem to the ordinary layman as in inverse\nratio to the duties performed also widens the breach between clergy and\nlaity, besides sapping clerical _moral_. This is not the particular\nfeature of any one sect--the reader can supply cases within his own\nexperience, but here is one that is probably outside it and showing how\nwidespread the system is. The rank and file of the Greek Orthodox clergy\nare notoriously ill-paid. Yet their monastery at Jerusalem costs\nLE.15,000 per annum to maintain and pays LE.40,000 annually in clerical\nsalaries to archbishops and clergy who control the spiritual affairs of\nless than fifteen thousand people. It derives LE.30,000 from its\nproperty in Russia, LE.25,000 from the property of the Holy Sepulchre,\nand as much again from visitors and other sources; and this in a region\nwhere the Founder of our faith was content to wander with less certainty\nof shelter than the wild creatures of the countryside.\n\nIncidentally, the monastery seems to have been unable to curtail its\nexpenditure during the War, for it has accumulated debts to the amount\nof LE.600,000, most of its sources of income having ceased for the time.\nI quote from current newspapers. Blame does not necessarily attach to\nthe monastery or its administrators, who may have done their best to\nfulfill their obligations under adverse circumstances; I would merely\ndraw attention to the incongruity of the whole system as regards a\nuniversal brotherhood based on Christian teaching. There are no such\nexotic growths to impede the march of pan-Islam.\n\nSo much for the strength of the pan-Islamic movement. Now let us\nconsider its weak points.\n\nTo begin with, the gross abuse of pan-Islam by interested parties for\nnon-spiritual ends during the War has done the genuine movement harm.\nThat lying, political appeal to _jihad_ has made thinking Moslems\nmistrust the infallibility of organised pan-Islam, of which the\nculminating expression is Holy War, one of the most sacred Mussulman\nduties if justly invoked. We Christians do not make such mistakes. When\nItaly was fighting the Turks in Tripoli the Pope himself warned\nChristian soldiers against regarding the campaign as a Crusade, and when\nwe took Jerusalem we took it side by side with our Mussulman allies and\nforthwith placed an orthodox Moslem guard on Omar's mosque. In this\nconnection it may be of interest to note that the officer commanding a\nmixed Christian guard at the Holy Sepulchre was a Jew.\n\nAnother source of weakness, so far as a united Moslem world is\nconcerned, may be found in the antagonistic points of view between\ncivilised and uncivilised Moslems (I use the attribute in its modern\nsense). Uncivilised Moslems view with suspicion and, in fact, derision\nthe dress and customs of their civilised co-religionists, insisting that\nEuropean coats and trousers display the figure indecently and that their\nFrankish luxuries and amusements are snares of Eblis. The enlightened\nMoslem, on the other hand, regards the tribesman as a _jungliwala_, or\nwild man of the woods, derides his illiteracy, and is revolted by the\nharsh severity of the old Islamic penal code as practised still in\nsemi-barbaric Moslem States. Now we Christians are fairly lenient as\nregards each other's customs, and still more so with regard to dress\n(judging by the garb we tolerate), while we have quite outgrown our old\nplayful habits of boiling, burning, or torturing our fellow-men except\non the battle-fields of civilised warfare.\n\nCivilisation (as we understand it) is a two-edged weapon and tool\nsmiting or serving pan-Islam and Christendom, but on the whole it serves\nthe latter rather than the former, as the superior resources of\nChristendom can take fuller advantage of it as a tool or a weapon,\nthough both turn to scourges when used against each other in battle.\nAlso its handmaid, Education, though in itself a foe to no religion,\n_does_ tend to tone down dogma and engender tolerance, thus minimising\nthe dynamic force of bigotry in pan-Islam, though consolidating the real\nstability of religion on its own base. Moreover, some gifts of\ncivilisation can do a lot of harm if wrongly used; I refer more\nespecially to drink, drugs, and dress. Just as hereditary exposure to\nthe infection of certain diseases is said to confer, by survival of the\nfittest, a certain immunity therefrom--for example, consumption among us\nEuropeans and typhoid among Asiatics--so moral ills seem to affect\nhumanity to a greater or less extent in inverse proportion to the\ntemptation in that particular respect which the individual and his\nforebears have successfully resisted. The average European and his\nancestors have been accustomed to drink fermented liquor for many\ncenturies, and in moderation as judged by the standard of his time, but\nhe has always been taught to avoid opium and has not known the drug for\nlong. The oriental Moslem, on the other hand, has used opium as a remedy\nand prophylactic against malaria for generations, but is strictly\nordered by his creed to consider the consumption, production, gift or\nsale of alcohol a deadly sin. In consequence, the European can usually\ntake alcohol in moderation, but almost invariably slips into a pit of\nhis own digging when he tries to do the same with opium, while the\noriental Moslem can use opium in moderation (provided that he confines\nhimself to swallowing it and does not smoke it), but when he drinks,\nusually drinks to excess because he has not learned to do otherwise. It\nis a melancholy fact that hitherto in countries opened up by our Western\ncivilisation drink has got in long before education, unless\nextraordinary precautions have been taken to prevent it; that is one\nreason why Moslem States are so wary of civilised encroachment. As for\ndrugs other than opium (and far more dangerous), civilised Moslems,\nespecially in Egypt, are alarmed at the spread of hashish-smoking among\ntheir co-religionists, while the cultured classes, including women-folk,\nare taking to cocaine: the material for both vices is supplied from\nEuropean sources, mostly Greek. Dress, compared with the other two\ndemons, is merely a fantastic though mischievous sprite and can be quite\nattractive, but it breaks up many a Moslem home when carried to excess\nin the harem, as it frequently is in civilised circles, while the\nyounger men vie with each other in the more flagrant extravagances of\noccidental garb: prayers and ablutions do not harmonise with\nwell-creased trousers and stylish boots any more than a veil does with a\ndivided skirt. The native Press is always attacking the above abuses,\nbut they are firmly rooted. All three undermine the pan-Islamic\nstructure by causing cleavage in public opinion. European dress has\nalready been mentioned as widening the gap between civilised and\nuncivilised Moslems, but it also tends to disintegrate cultured Moslem\ncommunities, for the older men are apt to regard it with suspicion or\ndownright condemnation. I once asked an eminent and learned Moslem\nwhether he thought modern European dress impeded regular observance of\nprayers and ablutions. He replied, \"Perhaps so, but those Moslems who\nwear such clothes indicate by so doing that the observances of Islam\nhave little hold upon them.\"\n\nAll these defects, however, are mere cracks in the inner walls of the\npan-Islamic structure and can be repaired from within, but the Turkish\nGovernment, which represented the Caliphate, and should have considered\nthe integrity of Islam as a sacred trust, has managed to split the outer\nwall and divide the house against itself, just as the unity of\nChristendom (such as it was) has been rent asunder by one of its most\nprominent exponents. Pan-Islam has received the more serious damage\nbecause the wreckers still hold the Caliphate and the prestige attached\nthereto; it is for Moslems (and Moslems only) to decide what action to\ntake; but in any case, the breach is a serious one and has been much\nwidened by the action of Turkish troops at the Holy Places. They\nactually shelled the Caaba at Mecca (luckily without doing material\ndamage), and their action in storing high explosives close to the\nProphet's tomb at Medina may have saved them bombardment, but has\ncertainly not improved their reputation as Moslems. Even before the War\nI often heard Yamen Arabs talking of \"Turks and Moslems\"--a distinctly\ndamning discrimination--and the situation has not been improved by\nOttoman slackness in religious observances and their inconsistent\nnational movement.\n\nAt the same time, their rule in Arabia will be awkward to replace at\nfirst. I described the Turks in the final chapter of a book[B] published\nearly in the War as pre-eminently fitted to govern Moslems by\nbirthright, creed, and temperament, summing them up as individually\ngifted but collectively hopeless as administrators because they lacked a\nstable and consistent central Government. They have proved the\nindictment up to the hilt, but that does not dower any of us Christians\nwith their inherent qualifications as rulers in Islam. If any of us are\ncalled upon to face fresh responsibilities in this direction, it would\ntake us all our time to make up for these qualities by tact, sound\nadministration, and strict observance of local religious prejudice. Even\nthen there is a Mussulman proverb to this effect: \"A Moslem ruler though\nhe oppress me and not a _kafir_ though he work me weal\"--it explains\nmuch apparent ingratitude for benefits conferred.\n\nThe lesson we have to learn from pan-Islamic activities of the last\ndecade or two is that countries which are mainly Moslem should have\nMoslem rulers, and that Christian rule, however enlightened and\nbenevolent, is only permissible where Islam is outnumbered by other\ncreeds. At the same time, in countries where Christian methods of\ncivilisation and European capital have been invited we have a right to\ncontrol and advise the Moslem ruler sufficiently to ensure the fair\ntreatment of our nationals and their interests. But with purely Moslem\ncountries which have expressed no readiness to assimilate the methods of\nmodern civilisation or to invite outside capital we have no right to\ninterfere beyond the following limit: if the local authorities allow\nforeign traders to operate at their ports their interests should be\nsafeguarded, if important enough, by consular representation on the\nspot, or, if not, by occasional visits of a man-of-war to keep nationals\nin touch with their own Government, presuming that the place is too\nsmall to justify any mail-carrying vessel calling there except at very\nlong intervals.\n\nThere should always be a definite understanding as to foreigners\nproceeding or residing up-country for any purpose. If the local ruler\ndiscourages but permits such procedure, all we should expect him to do\nin case of untoward incidents is to take reasonable action to\ninvestigate and punish, but if he has guaranteed the security of foreign\nnationals concerned, he must redeem his pledge in an adequate manner or\ntake the consequences. There should seldom be occasion for an inland\npunitive expedition; in these days, when many articles of seaborne trade\nhave become, from mere luxuries, almost indispensable adjuncts of native\nlife in the remotest regions, a maritime blockade strictly enforced\nshould soon exact the necessary satisfaction.\n\nSuch rulers should bear in mind that if they accept an enterprise of\nforeign capital they must protect its legitimate operations, just as a\nschool which has accepted a Government grant has to conform to\nstipulated conditions.\n\nWhere no such penetration has occurred, all we should concern ourselves\nwith is that internal trouble in such regions shall not slop over into\nterritory protected or occupied by us, and this is where our most\nserious difficulties will occur in erstwhile Turkish Arabia.\n\nThe Turk, with all his faults, could grapple with a difficult situation\nin native affairs by drastic methods which might be indefensible in\nthemselves, but were calculated to obtain definite results. At any rate,\nwe had a responsible central Government to deal with and one that we\ncould get at. Now we shall have to handle such situations ourselves or\nrely on the local authorities doing so. The former method is costly and\ndangerous, yielding the minimum of result to the maximum of effort and\nexpense, while involving possibilities of trouble which might compromise\nour democratic yearnings considerably: the latter alternative\npresupposes that we have succeeded in evolving out of the present\nimbroglio responsible rulers who are well-disposed to us and prepared to\ntake adequate action on our representations.\n\nIn Syria and Mesopotamia, where communications are good and European\npenetration an established fact, there should not be much difficulty,\nbut in Arabia proper the problem is a very prickly one.\n\nBeginning with Arabia Felix, which includes Yamen, the Aden\nprotectorate, and the vague, sprawling province of Hadhramaut, we may be\npermitted to hope that nothing worse can happen in the Aden protectorate\nthan has happened already; the remoter Hadhramaut has always looked\nafter its own affairs and can continue to do so; but Yamen bristles with\npolitical problems which will have to be solved, and solved correctly,\nif she is going to be a safe neighbour or a reliable customer to have\nbusiness dealings with. Hitherto none of her local rulers have inspired\nany confidence in their capacity for initiative or independent action.\nDuring the War the Idrisi, who had long been in revolt against the Turks\nin northern Yamen, kept making half-hearted and abortive dabs at\nLoheia--like a nervous child playing snapdragon--but his only success\n(and temporary at that) was when he occupied the town after the Red Sea\nPatrol had shelled the Turks out of it. As for the Imam, he has been\nsitting on a very thorny fence ever since the Turks came into the War.\nWe have been in touch with him for a long time, but all he has done up\nto date is to wobble on a precarious tripod supported by the opposing\nstrains of Turks, tribesmen, and British. Now one leg of the tripod has\nbeen knocked away he has yet to show if he can maintain stability on his\nown base, and, if so, over what area. The undeniable fighting qualities\nof the Yamen Arab, which might be a useful factor in a stable\ngovernment, will merely prove a nuisance and a menace under a weak\n_regime_, and tribal trouble will always be slopping over into our Aden\nsphere of influence. Then the question will arise, What are we going to\ndo about it? We cannot bring the Yamenis to book by blockading their\ncoast and cutting off caravan traffic with Aden, because, in view of our\ntrade relations with the country by sea and land, we should only be\ncutting our nose off to spite our face. Moreover, the punishment would\nfall chiefly on the respectable community, traders, the cultured\nclasses, etc., to whom seaborne trade is essential, while it would\nhardly affect the wild tribesmen, except as regards ammunition, and to\nprevent them getting what they wanted through the Hejaz is outside the\nsphere of practical politics.\n\nIn the Hejaz itself we can at least claim that authority is suitably\nrepresented and accessible to us. Before the War we kept a British\nconsul at Jeddah with an Indian Moslem vice-consul who went up to Mecca\nin the pilgrim season. A responsible consular agent (Moslem of course)\nto reside at Medina, also another to understudy the Jeddah vice-consul\nwhen he went to Mecca and to look after the Yenbo pilgrim traffic, would\nsafeguard the interests of our nationals, who enormously outnumber the\npilgrims of any other nation. Further interference with the Hejaz,\nunless invited, would be unjustifiable.\n\nTrouble for us does not lie in the Hejaz itself, but in its possible\nexpansion beyond its powers of absorption, or, in homely metaphor, if it\nbites off more than it can chew. There is a certain tendency just now to\noverrate Hejazi prowess in war and policy; in fact, King Husein is often\nalluded to vaguely as the \"King of Arabia,\" and there is a sporadic crop\nof ill-informed articles on this and other Arabian affairs in the\nEnglish Press. One of the features of the War as regards this part of\nthe world is the extraordinary and fungus-like growth of \"Arabian\nexperts\" it has produced, most of whom have never set foot in Arabia\nitself, while the few now living who have acquired real first-hand\nknowledge of any part of the Arabian peninsula before the War may be\ncounted on the fingers of one hand. Yet the number of people who rush\ninto print with their opinions on the most complex Arabian affairs would\nastonish even the Arabs if they permitted themselves to show surprise at\nanything. These opinions differ widely, but have one attribute in\ncommon--their emphatic \"cock-sureness.\" Each one presents the one and\nonly solution of the whole Arabian problem according to the facet which\nthe writer has seen, and there are many facets. They are amusing and\neven instructive occasionally, but there is a serious side to\nthem--their crass empiricism. Each writer presents (quite honestly,\nperhaps) his point of view of one or two facets in the rough-cut,\nmany-sided and clouded crystal of Arabian politics without considering\nits possible bearing on other parts of the peninsula or even other\nfactors in the district he knows or has read about. The net result is an\nappallingly crude patchwork, no one piece harmonising with another,\nand, in view of the habit Government has formed in these cases of\naccepting empirical opinions if they are shouted loud enough or at close\nrange, there is more than a possibility that our Arabian policy may\nresemble such a crazy quilt. If it does, we shall have to harvest a\nthistle-crop of tribal and intertribal trouble throughout the Arabian\npeninsula, and the seed-down of unrest will blow all over Syria and\nMesopotamia just at the most awkward time when reconstruction and sound\nadministration are struggling to establish themselves. Weeds grow\nquicker and stronger than useful plants in any garden.\n\nEmpirical statements sound well and look well in print, but they are no\nuse whatever as sailing directions in the uncharted waters of Arabian\npolitics. Putting them aside, the following facts are worth bearing in\nmind when the future of Arabia is discussed.\n\nThe Hejazi troops were ably led by the Sharifian Emirs and Syrian\nofficers of note, and had the co-operation of the Red Sea flotilla on\nthe coast and British officers of various corps inland to cut off\nMedina, the last place of importance held by the Turks after the summer\nof 1916. Yet the town held out until long after the armistice, and its\nsurrender had eventually to be brought about by putting pressure on the\nTurkish Government at Stamboul. On the other hand, the two great\nprovinces which impinge upon the Hejaz, namely, Nejd and Yamen, have\ngiven ample proof that they can hammer the Turks without outside\nassistance. The Nejdis not only cleared their own country of Ottoman\nrule, but drove the Turks out of Hasa a year or two before the War,\nwhile the Yamenis have more than once hurled the Turks back on to the\ncoast, and the rebels of northern Yamen successfully withstood a Hejazi\nand Turkish column from the north and another Turkish column from the\nsouth. The inference is that if the limits of Hejazi rule are to be much\nextended there had better be a clear understanding with their neighbours\nand also some definite idea of the extent to which we are likely to be\ninvolved in support of our _protege_.\n\nI know that many otherwise intelligent people have been hypnotised by\nthe prophecy in \"The White Prophet\":\n\n    \"The time is near when the long drama that has been played\n    between Arabs and Turks will end in the establishment of a vast\n    Arabic empire, extending from the Tigris and the Euphrates\n    valley to the Mediterranean and from the Indian Ocean to\n    Jerusalem, with Cairo as its Capital, the Khedive as its\n    Caliph, and England as its lord and protector.\"\n\nWhile refraining from obvious and belated criticism of a prophecy which\nthe march of events has trodden out of shape, and which could never have\nbeen intended as a serious contribution to our knowledge of Arabs and\ntheir politics, we must admit that the basic idea of centralising\nArabian authority has taken strong hold of avowed statecraft in England.\nIt would, of course, simplify our relations with Arabia and the\ncollateral regions of Mesopotamia and Syria if such authority could\nestablish itself and be accepted by the other Arabian provinces to the\nextent of enforcing its enactments as regards their foreign affairs,\n_i.e._, relations with subjects (national or protected) of European\nStates.\n\nIf such authority could be maintained without assistance from us other\nthan a subsidy and the occasional supply, to responsible parties, of\narms and ammunition, it would satisfy all reasonable requirements, but\nif we had to intervene with direct force we should find ourselves\ndefending an unpopular _protege_ against the united resentment of\nArabia.\n\nI believe there is no one ruler or ruling clique in Arabia that could\nwield such authority, and my reason for saying so is that the experiment\nhas been tried repeatedly on a small scale during the twenty years or so\nthat I have been connected with the country and has failed every time.\nToward the close of last century a sultan of Lahej who had always\nclaimed suzerainty over his turbulent neighbours, the Subaihi, had to\nenter that vagabond tribeship to enforce one of his decrees, and got\nheld up with his \"army\" until extricated by Aden diplomacy at the price\nof his suzerain sway. His successor still claimed a hold over an\nadjacent clan of the Subaihi known as the Rigai, but when one of our\nmost promising political officers was murdered there, and the murderer\nsheltered by the clan, he was unable to obtain redress or even assist us\nadequately in attempting to do so. Early in this century Aden was\ninvolved in a little expedition against Turks and Arabs because one of\nher protected sultans (equipped with explosive and ammunition) could not\ndeal with a small Arab fort himself. This is the same sultanate which\nlet the Turks through against us in the summer of 1915 and whose ruler\nwas prominent in the sacking of Lahej. I have already alluded, in\nChapter II, to the inadequacy of the Lahej sultan on that occasion, yet\nAden had bolstered up his authority in every possible way and had relied\non him and his predecessor for years to act as semi-official suzerain\nand go-between for other tribes--a withered stick which snapped the\nfirst time it was leant upon. I could also point to the Imam of Yamen,\nstrong in opposition to the Turks as a rallying point of tribal revolt,\nbut weak and vacillating on the side of law and order. I might go on\ngiving instances _ad nauseam_, but here is one more to clinch the\nargument, and it is typical of Arab politics. Aden had just cause of\noffence against a certain reigning sultan of the Abd-ul-Wahid in her\neastern sphere of influence. He had intrigued with foreign States,\noppressed his subjects, persecuted native trade and played the dickens\ngenerally. Therefore Aden rebuked him (by letter) and appointed a\nrelative of his to be sultan and receive his subsidy. The erring but\nimpenitent potentate reduced his relative to such submission that he\nwould sign monthly receipts for the subsidy and meekly hand over the\ncash: these were his only official acts, as he retired into private life\nin favour of Aden's _bete noir_, who flourished exceedingly until he\nblackmailed caravans too freely and got the local tribesmen on his\ntrack.\n\nWhen we also consider how early in Islamic history the Caliphate split\nas a temporal power, and the difficulty which even the early Caliphs\n(with all their prestige) had to keep order in Arabia, it should\nengender caution in experiments toward even partial centralisation of\ncontrol: apart from the fact that they might develop along lines\ndiverging from the recognised principles of self-determination in small\nStates, they could land us into a humiliating _impasse_ or an armed\nexpedition.\n\nWe parried the Turco-German efforts to turn pan-Islam against us, thanks\nto our circumspect attitude with regard to Moslems, but a genuine\nmovement based on any apparent aggression of ours in Arabia proper might\nbe a more serious matter.\n\n    FOOTNOTES:\n\n    [Footnote B: \"_Arabia Infelix_,\" Macmillan.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nMOSLEM AND MISSIONARY\n\n\nHaving weighed the influence which pan-Islam can wield as a popular\nmovement, we will now consider the human factors which have built it up.\n\nJust as we used Christendom as a test-gauge of pan-Islam, so now we will\ncompare the activities of Moslems (who do their own proselytising) with\nthose of Christian missionaries, grouping with them our laity so far as\ntheir example may be placed in the scales for or against the influence\nof Christendom.\n\nTo do this with the breadth of view which the question demands we will\nexamine these human factors throughout the world wherever they are\ninvolved in opposition to each other. We shall thus avoid the confined\noutlook which teaches Europeans in Asia Minor to look on Turks as\ntypical Moslems to the exclusion of all others, or makes Anglo-Egyptians\ntalk of country-folk in Egypt as Arabs and their language as the\nstandard of Arabic, or engenders the Anglo-Indian tendency of regarding\na scantily-dressed paramount chief from the Aden hinterland as an\nobscure _jungliwala_ because, in civilised India, an eminent Moslem\ndresses in accordance with our conception of the part.\n\nWe can leave the western hemisphere out of this inquiry, for though the\ngreatest missionary effort against Islam is engendered in the United\nStates, it manifests itself in the eastern hemisphere, and the Moslem\npopulation in both the Americas is too small and quiescent to be\nconsidered a factor.\n\nWe will begin with England and work eastward to the edge of the Moslem\nworld.\n\nAt first glance the idea of England as an arena where two great\nreligious forces meet seems rather far-fetched, but there is more Moslem\nactivity in some of our English towns than people imagine. Turning over\nsome files of the _Kibla_ (a Meccan newspaper), one comes across\npassages like the following:--\n\n    \"The honourable Cadi Abdulla living in London reports that six\n    noted English men and women have embraced the Moslem religion\n    in the cities of Oxford, Leicester, etc. The meritorious Abdul\n    Hay Arab has established a new centre in London for calling to\n    Islam, and the Mufti Muhammad Sadik has delivered a speech in\n    English in the mosque on 'the object of human life which can\n    only be attained through Moslem guidance.' Many English men and\n    women were present and put questions which were answered in a\n    conclusive manner. At the close of the meeting a young lady of\n    good family embraced Islam and was named Maimuna.\"\n\nThen we have the scholarly and temperate addresses of Seyid Muhammad\nRauf and others before the Islamic Society in London; they are marked by\nconsiderable shrewdness and breadth of view, and though their debatable\npoints may present a few fallacies, their effective controversion\nrequires unusual knowledge of affairs in Moslem countries.\n\nIt is not, however, the activities of Moslems in England which damage\nthe prestige of Christendom; it is the behaviour of English alleged\nChristians themselves. Every missionary, political officer, tutor, or\neven the importer of a native servant--in short, anyone who has been\nresponsible for an oriental in England--knows what I mean. I do not say\nthat London (for example) is any more vicious than Delhi or Cairo or\nCabul or Constantinople or any other large Moslem centre, but vice is\ncertainly more obvious in London to the casual observer, even allowing\nfor the fact that many comparatively harmless customs of ours (such as\nwomen wearing low-necked dresses and dancing with men) are apt to shock\nMoslems until they learn that occidental habit has created an atmosphere\nof innocence in such cases which even bunny-hugging has failed to\nvitiate.\n\nThe social life of London in all its grades and phases operates more\nwidely for good or ill on Christian prestige among Moslems than\nLondoners can possibly imagine. From the young princeling of some native\nState sauntering about Clubland with his bear-leader to the lascar off a\nP. and O. boat, among East London drabs, or the middle-class Mohammedan\nstudent who compares the civic achievements that surround him with the\ndingy dining-room of a Bloomsbury boarding-house, all are apostles of\nlife in London as it seems to them. I have had the hospitality of\n\"family hotels\" in the Euston Road portrayed to me in the crude but\nvivid imagery of the East when spooring boar in Southern Morocco with a\nnative tracker who had been one of a troupe of Soosi jugglers earning\ngood pay at a West-end music-hall, and I once overheard a young\n_effendi_ explaining to his _confreres_ in a Cairo cafe exactly the sort\nof company that would board your hansom when leaving \"Jimmy's\" in days\nof yore.\n\nAs for the news of London and its ways, as conveyed by its daily Press,\neducated Egyptians were better posted therein than most Englishmen in\nCairo during the War, as their clubs and private organisations\nsubscribed largely to the London dailies, which entered Egypt free of\nlocal censorship, while Anglo-Egyptian newspapers were more strictly\ncensored than their vernacular or continental contemporaries, as they\npresented no linguistic difficulties, but could be dealt with direct and\nnot through an understrapper.\n\nMissionaries would have us judge Islam by the open improprieties and\nabuses which occur at Mecca, Kerbela, and other great Moslem centres.\nHow should we like Christianity to be judged by the public behaviour of\ncertain classes in London or other big towns? Remember, it is always the\nscum which floats on top and the superficial vice or indecorum that\nstrike a foreign observer.\n\nIt is not my mission to preach--I am merely pointing out a flaw in our\nharness which causes a lot of administrative trouble out East. It is\ndifficult to check the hashish habit in Egypt when the average educated\n_effendi_ reads of drug-scandals in London with mischievous avidity, and\nthe endeavours of a well-meaning Education Department to implant ideals\nof sturdy manhood are handicapped when the students batten on the weird\nand unsavoury incidents which are dished up _in extenso_ by London\njournalism from time to time. Such matters do no harm to a public with\na sense of proportion, but the _effendi_ is in the position of a\nschoolboy who has caught his master tripping and means to make the most\nof it. He assimilates and disseminates the idea that cocaine is as\neasily procurable as a cocktail in London clubs, and that the Black Mass\nis at least as common as the _danse de ventre_ in Cairo.\n\nWe can leave England for our Eastern tour with the conclusion that Islam\nis welcome to any proselytes it makes there, but that the gravest slur\non Christian prestige is cast by our own conduct.\n\nThere is only one bone of contention between Moslems and missionaries in\nEurope now that Turkey and Russia are knocked out of the ring of current\npolitics. Is St. Sophia to remain a mosque or revert to its original\npurpose as a Christian church? Whatever may be Turkish opinion on the\nsubject, the tradition of Islam is definite enough. When the Caliph Omar\nentered Jerusalem in triumph, after Khaled had defeated the hosts of\nHeraclius east of Jordan, he withstood the importunate entreaties of his\nfollowers to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, saying that if he\ndid so the building would _de facto_ become a mosque, and such a wrong\nto Christianity was against the ordinance and procedure of the Prophet.\nIt is worthy of note that Christians were not molested at Jerusalem\nuntil after the Seljouk Turks wrested the Holy City from the moribund\nArabian Caliphate in 1076: their persecution and the desecration of\nsacred places by the Turks brought about the first Crusade in 1096.\nAgain it was the Ottoman Turks who stormed Constantinople and turned\nSt. Sophia into a mosque. According to the orthodox tradition of Islam,\nonce a church always a church. When the ex-Khedive had the chance of\nreacquiring the site of All Saints', Cairo, owing to the increasing\nnoise of traffic in the vicinity, he contemplated building a\ncinema-theatre there (for he had a shrewd business mind), but he was\nroundly told by Moslem legalists that it was out of the question. Even\nif the Turks urge right of conquest, victorious Christendom can claim\nthat too, and if they allege length of tenure as a mosque in support of\ntheir case they put themselves out of court, as St. Sophia has been a\nchurch for more than nine centuries and a mosque for less than five.\n\nIf Turkey is allowed to remain in Europe at all it will be on\nsufferance. Even in Asia Minor signs are not wanting that Turkish rule\nwill be pruned, clipped and trained considerably, as humanity will stand\nits rampant luxuriance of blood and barbarity no longer. The Young\nTurks were given every chance to consolidate their national aspirations\nand have achieved national suicide. One may feel sorry for the patient,\nsturdy peasantry and the non-political cultured classes who have been\ncoerced or cajoled into fighting desperately in a cause that meant\ncalamity for them whether they won or lost; but a nation gets the rulers\nit deserves and must answer for their acts.\n\nAsia Minor will probably be more accessible as a mission-field in due\ncourse. The Moslem Turk is not amenable to conversion; in fact, during a\nquarter of a century's wandering in the East I have never met a Turkish\nconvert. The American Protestant Mission will probably be well to the\nfore in this area in view of its excellent work on behalf of the\nArmenians and other distressed Christians during the War. Just as it has\nconcentrated its principal energies on the Copts in Egypt, so it may\nwith advantage devote itself to the education and \"uplift\" of the\nArmenians, and if its activities are as successful as with the Copts,\neven the Armenians cannot but approve, for the more enlightened\nindividuals of that harassed and harassing little nation admit that the\nArmenian character could be considerably improved, and that, though\ntheir hideous persecution is indefensibly damnable, their covetous\ninstincts and parasitic activities are an incentive to maltreatment.\n\nOne of the most difficult minor problems of reconstruction in Eastern\nEurope and Asia Minor will be how to safeguard the interests and modify\nthe provocative activities of such subject-races as the Jews and the\nArmenians where established among ill-controlled nations and numerically\ninferior, though intellectually superior, to them. With their natural\ngift for intrigue and finance, they repay public persecution and\noppression by undermining the administration and battening on the\nresources of their unwilling foster-country until active dislike becomes\nactual violence and outbursts of brutish rage yield ghastly results.\nDeportation is not only tyrannically harsh but impracticable, for unless\nthey were dumped to die in the waste places of the earth, which is\nunthinkable, some other nation must receive them, and even the most\nphilanthropic Government would hesitate to upset its economic conditions\nby admitting unproductive hordes of sweated labour and skilled\nexploiters. There are only two logical alternatives to such an\n_impasse_. One is to treat such subject-races so well that they may be\ntrusted not to use their peculiar abilities against the interests of\ntheir adoptive country, which would then be their interests too, and\nthe other is to exterminate them, which is inhuman. There is no middle\ncourse.\n\nIt is a salutary but humiliating fact that we incur the worst human ills\nby our lack of human charity. We starved and over-crowded our poor till\nthey bred consumption, and we enslaved negroes till they degenerated our\nAnglo-Saxon sturdiness of character, then plunged a great nation into\ncivil war, and have finally become one of its most serious social\nproblems. So the Jews were debarred from liberal pursuits and privileges\nuntil they concentrated on finance and commerce, being also persecuted\nuntil they perfected their defensive organisation. The consequence is\nthat they are individually formidable in those activities and\ncollectively invincible. Similarly the Turks harried the Armenians to\ntheir own undoing with even less excuse, for those ill-used people were\ncertainly not interlopers, and so far from ameliorating their condition\nin the course of time, as we have done with the Jews, the Turks went\nfrom bad to worse till they culminated in atrocities which no\nprovocation can palliate or humanity condone.\n\nBut to return to Asia Minor; there the Armenians were first on the\nground, and yet the Moslems of Armenia outnumber them by three to one.\nAny sound form of government would have to give equal rights, but it\nwould have to be strong and farseeing to prevent the greedy exploitation\nand savage reprisals which such conditions would otherwise evolve.\n\nOn entering Asia we shall find a somewhat similar problem confronting\nthe administration in Syria and Palestine. Here we have several mixed\nraces and at least three distinct creeds--Christianity, Islam, and\nJudaism.\n\nThe Zionist movement looks promising, everyone concerned seems to be in\naccord, and a Jew millennium looms large in the offing, but----. In\nPalestine there are normally about 700,000 Moslems and Christians (the\nlatter a very small minority) to 150,000 Jews. The lure of the Promised\nLand will presumably increase the Jewish population enormously, but they\nwill still be very much in the minority unless the country is\nover-populated. The Zionist organisation will naturally try to select\nfor emigration agriculturists, mechanics, and craftsmen generally to\ndevelop the resources of the country, but that is easier said than done.\nIf Palestine, in addition to the sentimental aspect, is to be a refuge\nand asylum for the downtrodden and persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe,\nthere would be very few farmers among _that_ lot--except tax-farmers.\nEven in England, where he labours under no landowning disability, the\nJew thinks that farming for a living is a mug's game and confines his\nagricultural activities to week-ends in the autumn with a \"hammerless\nejector\" and a knickerbocker suit. As for mechanics and skilled labour\ngenerally, such Jews as take to it usually excel in such work and do\nvery well where they are. The bulk of the immigrant population--unless\nPalestine is going to be artificially colonised without regard for the\nnecessitous claims of the very people who should be drawn off\nthere--will be indigent artisans, small shopkeepers, shop assistants,\nweedy unemployables, and a sprinkling of shrewd operators on the\nlook-out for prey. If the scheme is going to be run entirely on\nphilanthropic lines (and there are ample resources and charity at the\nback of it to do so) the Zionists will be all right, and will, perhaps,\nimprove immensely in the next generation under the influence of an\nopen-air life--if they adopt it; but the resident majority of Moslems\nand Christians will not take too kindly to their new compatriots, while\nthe Palestine Jews are already carping at the idea of so many trade\nrivals and accusing them of not being orthodox. None of this ill-feeling\nneed matter in the long run with a firm but benevolent government, but\nthe authorities will have to evolve some legislation to check\nprofiteering and over-exploitation, or there will be trouble. It is not\nonly the new-comers who will want curbing, but the present population.\nDuring the War the flagrant profiteering of Jew and Christian operators\nin Palestine and Syria did much to accentuate the appalling distress and\nwas the more disgraceful compared with the magnificent efforts of the\nAmerican and Anglican Churches to relieve the situation. The Jews nearly\nincurred a pogrom by their operations, which were only checked by a\nwealthy Syrian in Egypt starting a co-operative venture of low-priced\nfoodstuffs and necessities with the support of the British authorities.\nAs for the local Syrians, some of them were even worse. French and\nBritish officers speak of wealthy Syrians (presumably Christian,\ncertainly not Moslem) giving many and sumptuous balls at Beyrout, at\nwhich they lapped Austrian champagne while their wives, blazing in\ndiamonds, whirled with Hunnish officers in the high-pressure,\ndouble-action German waltz. And this with thousands of their compatriots\nstarving in the streets and little naked children banding together to\ndrive pariah dogs with stones from the street offal they were worrying,\nif perchance it might yield a meal. Meanwhile decent Anglo-Saxon\nChristendom was battling in that very town under adverse conditions to\nsuccour human destitution which had been largely caused by the callous\noperations of these soulless parasites. The Christians of Syria have no\nmonopoly of such scandals. Yet there are otherwise intelligent people\nwho speak of modern Christianity as an automatic promoter of ethics, and\nhave the effrontery to try to thrust it on the East as a moral panacea.\nIt is human ideals which make or mar a soul when once the seed of any\nsound religion has been sown, and they depend upon environment and\nclimate more than our spiritual pastors admit; otherwise, why this\nmissionary activity among oriental Christians? If you try to grow garden\nflowers in the rich, rank irrigation soil of the Nile valley they\nflourish luxuriantly, but soon develop a marked tendency to revert to\ntheir wild type, and it is permissible to suppose that human character\nis even more sensitive to its mental and physical surroundings. Any\nobservant teacher of oriental youth will tell you that the promise of\ntheir precocious ability is seldom fulfilled by their maturity. Even the\n\"country-born\" children of British parents are considered precocious at\ntheir preparatory school in England, and, if not sent home to be\neducated, are apt to fall short of their parents' intellectual and\nmoral standard in later years. The Mamelukes knew what they were about\nwhen they kidnapped hardy Albanian youths to carry on their rule in\nEgypt and passed over their own progeny. Kingsley has shown us in\n\"Hypatia\" what the Nile valley did for the Christian Church.\n\nIt is not a question of Jew, Christian, or Moslem that the\nadministrative authorities in Syria and Palestine will have to consider\nbeyond ensuring that each shall follow his religion unmolested. They\nwill have to defend the many from the machinations of the few and the\nfew from the violent reprisals of the many. It is statecraft that is\nwanted, not politics or religious dogma.\n\nIn Mesopotamia there has not been much missionary effort hitherto, and\nthere is not a good case for exploiting it as a missionary field beyond\ncertain limits. The riparian townsfolk are respectable people of some\neducation and grasp of their own affairs, and the country-folk are a\nharum-scarum set of scallywags who used to attack Turks or British\nindifferently, whichever happened to be in difficulties for the moment.\nThey are best left to the secular arm for some time to come. Medical\nmissions, staffed by both sexes, could do good work at urban centres,\nand a few river steamers, or even launches, would extend their efforts\nconsiderably.\n\nWe now come to Arabia itself, \"the Peninsula of the Arabs,\" where\northodox Islam has its strongholds and missionary enterprise is not\nencouraged.\n\nGeographers differ somewhat as to what constitutes Arabia proper, but\nfor the purposes of modern practical politics it may be considered as\nall the peninsula south of a line from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to\nthe head of the Persian Gulf, and consisting of Nejd, the Hejaz,[C]\nAsir, Yamen, Aden protectorate, Hadhramaut and Oman. Each of these\ndivisions should be dealt with separately in considering Arabian\npolitics nowadays, and it will be well for the \"mandatories\" concerned\nif further sub-divisions do not complicate matters; I omit the\nsub-province of Hasa (once a dependency of the Turkish _pashalik_ at\nBussora) because, since the Nejdi _coup d'etat_ in 1912, the Emir ibn\nSaoud will probably control its policy _vis-a-vis_ of missionaries and\nEuropeans generally, though the Sheikh of Koweit may expect to be\nconsulted.\n\nNejd comes first as we move southward: impinging as it does on Syria,\nMesopotamia, and the Hejaz, its politics are involved in theirs to a\ncertain extent and its affairs require careful handling. It is certainly\nno field for unrestrained missionary effort, but there is no reason why\na medical mission should not be posted at Riadh if the Emir is willing.\nThere are two rival houses in Nejd--the ibn Saoud and ibn Rashid, the\nformer pro-British and the latter (hitherto) pro-Turk; Emir Saoud held\nascendancy before the War and should be able to maintain it now that\nTurco-German influence is a thing of the past. He is an enlightened,\nenergetic man and was a close friend of our gallant \"political,\" the\nlate Captain Shakespeare, who was killed there early in the War during\nan engagement between the two rival houses. The question of missionary\nenterprise in Nejd could well be put before the Emir for consideration\non its merits. Such procedure may seem weak to an out-and-out\nmissionary, but even he would hesitate to keep poultry in another man's\ngarden, even for economic purposes, without consulting him. Fowls and\nmissionaries are useful and even desirable in a suitable environment,\notherwise they can be a nuisance.\n\nNext in order as we travel is the Hejaz, where Islam started on its\nmission to harry exotic creeds and nations, until its conquering\nprogress was checked decisively by reinvigorated Christendom. In\nmissionary parlance, Arabia generally is referred to as \"a Gibraltar of\nfanaticism and pride which shuts out the messenger of Christ,\" and it\nmust be admitted that the Hejaz has hitherto justified this description\nto a certain extent. Even at Jeddah Christians were only just tolerated\nbefore the War, and I found it advisable, when exploring its tortuous\nbazars, to wear a tarboosh, which earned me the respectful salutations\nthen accorded to a Turk. The indigenous townsfolk of Jeddah are the\n\"meanest\" set of Moslems I have ever met--I use the epithet in its\nAmerican sense, as indicating a blend of currishness and crabbedness.\nThey cringed to the Turk when the braver Arabs of the south were\nhammering the oppressor in Asir and Yamen, but, like pariahs, were ready\nto fall on them and their women and children when they had surrendered\nafter a gallant struggle, overwhelmed by an intensive bombardment from\nthe sea. The alien Moslems resident in Jeddah--especially the\nIndians--are not a bad lot, but there is an atmosphere of intolerance\nbrooding over the whole place which even affects Jeddah harbour. I\nremember being shipmate in 1913 with some eight hundred pilgrims from\nAden and the southern ports of the Red Sea. As we were discharging them\noff Jeddah, a plump and respectable Aden merchant whom I knew by sight,\nbut who did not know me in the guise I then wore, was gazing in rapt\nenthusiasm at sun-scorched Jeddah, which, against the sterile country\nbeyond, looked like a stale bride-cake on a dust heap. \"A sacred land,\"\nhe crooned. \"A blessed land where pigs and Christians cannot live.\"\nIncidentally he made a very good living out of Christians and was\nactually carrying his gear in a pigskin valise.\n\nAt the same time, it is absurd for missionaries to aver of Christians at\nJeddah that \"even those who die in the city are buried on an island at\nsea.\" The Christian cemetery lies to the south of the town (we had to\ndislodge the Turks from it with shrapnel during the fighting), and the\nonly island is a small coral reef just big enough to support the ruins\nof a nondescript tenement once used for quarantine. No one could be\nburied there without the aid of dynamite and a cold chisel. Presumably\nmissionary report has confused Jeddah with the smaller pilgrim-port of\nYenbo, where there are an island and a sandy spit with a Sheikh's tomb\nand a select burial-ground for certain privileged Moslems of the holy\nman's family.\n\nThe worst indictment of Jeddah (and Mecca too, for that matter) is made\nby the pilgrims themselves, though some of it may be exaggerated by men\nsmarting under the extortions of pilgrim-brokers.\n\nA pious Moslem once averred in my presence that the pilgrim-brokers of\nJeddah were, in themselves, enough to bring a judgment on the place,\nand that trenchant opinion is not without foundation. Even to the\nunprejudiced eye of a travelled European they present themselves as a\nclass of blatant bounders battening on the earnest fervour of their\nco-religionists and squandering the proceeds on dissipation. I have more\nthan once been shipmate with a gang of them, and it is at sea that they\ncast off such restraint as the critical gaze of other Moslems might\nimpose. As sumptuous first-class passengers they lounge about the deck\nin robes of tussore, rich silks and fancy waistcoats, though out of\ndeference to their religious prejudice and Christian table-manners they\nusually mess by themselves. After dinner they play vociferous poker in\nthe saloon for cut-throat stakes, evading the captain's veto by using\ntastefully designed little fish in translucent colours to represent\nheavy cash, and these they invoke from time to time \"for luck.\" As it is\nusually sweltering weather, the occidental whiskey-and-soda and the\naromatic _mastic_ of the Levant are much in evidence, and thus three of\nIslam's gravest injunctions are set at naught. Their chief fault, to a\nbroad-minded sportsman, is that they lack self-control, whatever their\nluck may be. I have heard an ill-starred gambler bemoaning his losses\nwith the cries of a stricken animal, and they are still more offensive\nas winners.\n\nIn Mecca such open breaches of the Islamic code are not tolerated, but\nthere are other lapses which neither Moslem nor Christian can condone.\nIt is unfair and out of date to quote Burton's indictment of Meccan\nmorals, nor have we any right to judge the city by its behaviour soon\nafter its freedom from the Turkish yoke, when it may have been suffering\nfrom reaction after nervous tension; but, unless the bulk of respectable\nMoslem opinion is at fault, there is still much in the administration of\nMecca which cries for reform. Harsh measures may have been necessary at\nfirst, but to maintain a private prison like the _Kabu_ in the state it\nis can redound to no ruler's credit, and for prominent officials to\ncultivate an \"alluring walk\" and even practise it in the _tawaf_ or\ncircumambulation of the holy Caaba is beyond comment.\n\nAlso the mental standard of officialdom is low, since Syrians of\neducation and training do not seem to be attracted by the Hejaz service\nfor long, and local men of position and ability are said to have been\npassed over as likely to be formidable as intriguers.\n\nIt may be reasonably urged that it is difficult to improvise a Civil\nService on the spur of the moment, and it is permissible to anticipate a\nbetter state of affairs now that war conditions are being superseded. At\nthe same time it is no use blinking the fact that reform is indicated at\nMecca if that sacred city is to harmonise with its high mission as the\nreligious centre of the Islamic world, and this affects our numerous\nMoslem fellow-countrymen; otherwise the domestic affairs of the Hejaz\nare not our concern.\n\nThe Hejaz has been very much to the fore lately, and ill-informed or\nbiassed opinion has developed a tendency to credit it with a greater\npart in Arabian and Syrian affairs than it has played, can play, or\nshould be encouraged to play. Its intolerant tone has, presumably, been\nmodified by co-operation with the civilised forces of militant\nChristendom, but the new kingdom has got to regenerate itself a good\ndeal before it can cope with wider responsibilities. Emir Feisal is, no\ndoubt, an enlightened prince, but one swallow does not make a summer,\nand Hejazi troops have not yet evolved enough _moral_ to dominate and\ncontrol a more formidable breed or be trusted with the peace and\nwelfare of a more civilised population, especially where there are large\nnon-Moslem communities. There has been a great deal of nonsense talked\nand written about their invincible fighting prowess. They accompanied\nthe Egyptian Expeditionary Force in much the same way as the jackal is\nsaid to accompany the lion, with a reversionary interest in his kill,\nand their faint-hearted fumbling with the Turkish defences outside\nJeddah was obvious to any observer. They are what they have been since\nthe fiery self-sacrificing enthusiasm of early Islam died down and left\nthem with the half-warm embers of their racial greed to become\nhereditary spoilers of the weak, instinctively shunning a doubtful\nfight. In guerilla warfare, leavened by British officers, they have\nshown an aptitude for taking advantage of a situation, but they cannot\nstand punishment and will not face the prospect of it if they can help\nit. Their own leaders knew that well enough when they refrained from\ntaking Medina by assault, bombardment being out of the question, as\nbuildings of the utmost sanctity would have been inevitably damaged or\ndestroyed.\n\nPrince Feisal has, in a published interview with a representative of the\nPress, disclaimed all imperialistic ambitions for the Hejaz, but merely\ndemanded Arab independence in what was once the Ottoman Empire. That\nbeing assured, the new kingdom will be able to devote its energies to\ninternal affairs, and the excellent impression made by the Hejazi prince\nin Europe should be a favourable augury of the future.\n\nThe missionary question should be left to the reigning house for\ndecision; it is not fair to hamper the Hejaz with unnecessary\ncomplications, and to allow active missionary propaganda at a\npilgrim-port like Jeddah is asking for trouble, apart from the flagrant\nviolation of religious sentiment. Imagine Catholic feeling if an\nenterprising Moslem mission were established at Lourdes. Tact and\nexpediency are just as necessary in religious as in secular affairs--at\nleast so St. Paul has taught us; but the modern missionary is too apt to\nregard these qualities in Christianity as insincerity and the lack of\nthem in Islam as fanaticism.\n\nSouth of the Hejaz lies that rather vague area known as Asir. For\ngeographical purposes we may consider it as the country between two\nparallels of latitude drawn through the coastal towns of Lith and\nLoheia, with the Red Sea on the west and an ill-defined inland border\nmerging eastward into the desert plateau of Southern Nejd. Politically,\nit is that territory of Western Arabia between the Hejaz and Yamen in\nwhich the Idrisi has more control than anyone since his successful\nrevolt against the Turks a year or two before the War. In all\nprobability its northern districts with Lith will go to the Hejaz, and\nthe southern ones with Loheia to the Idrisi; but Western diplomacy will\nbe well advised to leave those two rulers to settle it between\nthemselves and the local population, especially inland, as tribal\nboundaries between semi-nomadic and pastoral people are not for\nintelligent amateurs to trifle with. Nor should the missionary be\nencouraged; Asir is not a suitable field for his activities, and the\ntrouble he would probably cause is out of all proportion to the good he\ncould possibly do. The Asiri is a frizzy-haired fanatic with a short\ntemper and a serious disposition, addicted to sword-play and the\nindiscriminate use of firearms. I doubt if he would see the humour of\nmissionary logic. As for the Idrisi himself, he is a tall, well set up\nman of negroid aspect (being of Moorish and Soudani descent), and has\nshown shrewdness as an administrator, though his operations in the War\nhave lacked \"punch.\" He is very orthodox, and from what I know of him I\nshould not say that religious tolerance was his strong point. His\ncapital is at Sabbia, in the maritime foot-hills, with a very trying\nclimate. Asir might suit the naturalist or explorer who could adapt\nhimself to his environment and respect local prejudice. No one has yet\nentered the country in either capacity, but, from what has been told me\nbefore the War by intelligent Turkish officers who campaigned there, I\nthink that the birds and smaller mammals would repay research, while the\ngreat Dawasir valley and other geographical problems inland might be\ninvestigated with advantage under the _aegis_ of local chiefs. All that\nis required, besides the necessary scientific knowledge and Arabic, is a\ncertain amount of perseverance and resolution blended with a reasonable\nregard for other people's convictions. Most Arabian expeditions fail\nthrough lack of time spent in preliminary steps. I have tripped up in\nthat way myself, but it was owing to the restrictions of a paternal\nGovernment, and not through lack of patience. Before I started serious\nexploration in the Aden hinterland I spent a year on the littoral plain\ngetting in touch with the people and mastering the dialect. Any success\nI may have had up-country was due to the foundation I laid in those\nearly days, and it was not until the Aden authorities closed their\nsphere of influence against exploration in general and myself in\nparticular that my expeditions began to miss fire, as I had to land at\nremote places along the coast and hasten up-country before their\nfostering care could set the tribes on me. He who would explore Asir\nshould take a Khedivial mail steamer from Suez to Jeddah, and there show\nhis credentials and explain his purpose to his consul and the local\nauthorities. The Idrisi has an agent there, and it should not be\ndifficult to pick up an Asiri dhow returning down the coast to Gizan,\nwhich is the port for Sabbia. He would have to stay there until he got\nthe Idrisi's permit and an escort, without which he would be held up to\na certainty. In any case, no such enterprise need be contemplated until\nAsiri affairs have settled down a good deal.\n\nIn Yamen proper it should be feasible to travel again within certain\nlimits as soon as the Imam can come to an understanding with the tribal\nchiefs. There is not much left for the explorer or naturalist to do,\nunless he goes very far inland toward the great central desert, which\nproject is not likely to be encouraged by the local authorities. There\nis, however, a possible field for the mineralogist and prospector east\nand south-east of Sanaa, which area also contains Sabaean ruins and\ninscriptions of interest to the archaeologist.\n\nThe northern boundary of Yamen may be said nowadays to trend north-east\nfrom Loheia inland through highland country to the desert borders of\nNejran (once a Christian diocese). Its eastern border is very vague,\nbut may be said to coincide approximately with the 45th parallel of\nlongitude. Southward the limit has been clearly defined by the\nAnglo-Turkish Boundary Commission of 1902-5 inland from the Bana valley,\nabout a hundred map-miles north of Aden, to the straits of\nBab-el-Mandeb.\n\nWithin these limits the two great divisions of Islam are represented in\nforce--the orthodox _Sunnis_ on the littoral plain and far inland along\nthe upland deserts, while the highlanders among the lofty fertile ranges\nseparating these two areas and forming the backbone of the country\nfollow the _Shiah_ schism, being Zeidis, which of all the schismatic\nsects approaches most nearly to orthodox Islam and regards Mecca as its\npilgrim-centre. The feeling between these two religious divisions may be\ncompared with that existing between Anglicans and Catholics. They will\noccasionally use each other's places of worship--more especially the\nupper or governing classes--and seldom come to open loggerheads; when\nthey do, it is usually about politics, and not religion. At the same\ntime, if you, as a Christian traveller among both parties, want a\nscathing opinion of a Zeidi, you will get it from an orthodox lowlander,\nand the men of the mountains reciprocate with point and weight, for the\nbalance of religious culture and position is with them among the big\nhill-centres; including Sanaa, the political capital where the Imam\nholds, or should hold, his court as hereditary ruler spiritual and\ntemporal. This ecclesiastical potentate has backed the Turk in a\nnon-committal but flamboyant manner during the War up to the turning of\nthe tide against them, when he sat on the fence until his Turkish\nsubsidy ceased. He now looks to Western diplomacy in general and the\nBritish Government in particular not only to continue but to enhance\nthis subsidy, in order that he may really govern in Yamen. His attitude\nthroughout is natural and, indeed, justifiable in the interests of\nhimself and his dynasty; at least occidental politicians cannot cavil at\nhis motives; but what they ought to ascertain is how far he can fill the\nbill as a ruler in Yamen and the extent to which he should be backed.\nWithout a considerable subsidy his administrative powers (not hitherto\nvery marked) will not carry far even in the highlands.\n\nMissionaries were allowed to enter Yamen before the War, but did not\nestablish themselves, even on the coast. Some of them went up-country\nand stayed there some time without being molested. The average Yameni is\nnot fanatical by temperament; there is more bigotry among the urban Jew\ncolonies than in the whole Moslem countryside.\n\nIn the Aden protectorate there has been long established the Falconer\nMedical Mission, which, though actually at Sheikh Othman, just inside\nthe British border, has done splendid work among natives of the\nhinterland, who visit it from all parts. Its relations with the Arabs\nhave always been excellent, though the local ruffians looted the Mission\nwhen the Turks held Sheikh Othman temporarily.\n\nThe province of Hadhramaut, politically, includes not only the vast\nvalley of that name with its tributaries, but the whole of the western\npart of Southern Arabia outside the Aden protectorate from the Yamen\nborder to the confines of Oman near longitude 55. Mokalla is the capital\nand principal port. Missionaries have been well received there by the\nenlightened ruler--a member of the Kaaiti house with the local title of\nJemadar, inherited from an ancestor who soldiered in the Arab bodyguard\nof a former Nizam at Haiderabad. The interior is not suited to\nmissionary enterprise.\n\nMuscat, the capital of Oman, has already been occupied by missionaries.\nThe Sultan (at whose court there is a British Resident) is well-disposed,\nbut has lost most of his influence inland.\n\nFurther up the Persian Gulf missionaries have long been established on\nthe islands of Bahrein, which are under British protection.\n\nContinuing our journey eastward, we can dismiss the Shiahs of Persia as\noutside our pan-Islamic calculations, for their pilgrim-centre is at\nKerbela, some twenty odd miles west of the Euphrates and the site of\nancient Babylon. This centre has been visited by missionaries.\n\nAfghanistan and Beluchistan both bar missionaries, but there are C.M.S.\nfrontier posts from Quetta, in British Beluchistan, to Peshawar, near\nthe Afghan border. They do good hospital work, otherwise their\nevangelising activities over the border are confined to native\ncolporteurs and the circulation of vernacular Scriptures. There is a\nfierce and barbarous Turcoman spirit in both countries which their\nrespective rulers (the Khan of Kelat and the Emir at Cabul) do their\nbest to keep within bounds, aided by British Residents. Missionaries\nseem to think this spirit can be exorcised by their entrance into the\narena. You might as well throw squibs into a cage full of tigers.\n\nOn entering India (that vast hunting-ground of many sects and creeds),\nMoslem and missionary are almost swamped in the flood of Hinduism. There\nis no restriction on the activities of either within the four corners\nof the King-Emperor's peace, and there is very little antagonism between\nthe two in so big a field, where both are doing good work. Although the\nMoslems outnumber the Christians by seven to one, the honours of war go\nto the missionaries. Their highly-organised medical and educational\nmissions do excellent work--the Zenana Mission is, in itself, a\njustification of Christian mission work in India to any humanitarian\nwith some knowledge of _zenana_ conditions. The Moslems, on the other\nhand, in spite of their high standard of education, in India show a\ntendency among their less educated classes toward the caste prejudices\nof Hinduism, which are dead against the teaching of Islam and a handicap\nto any social organisation.\n\nFew people realise what a huge proposition the Indian Empire is to solve\nin its entirety, with its population of 315 millions, of whom over 90\nper cent. are illiterate. Of the more or less educated residuum, not\nquite 90 per cent. are Brahmins having little in common with the huge\nuneducated bulk of the population, which is chiefly agricultural and, by\nits patient toil, supplies most of the wealth of India. Yet it is the\ncultured but unproductive Brahmin (organised by a brainy old lady) who\nwants to control the native affairs of India--and probably will.\n\nIn Farther India the Brahmin is at a discount and the Buddhist is to the\nfore, while Moslem and missionary are far too busy among the heathen to\nbother about each other; as also in Malay, where there is field enough\nand to spare for both of them.\n\nThe only other debatable field in Asia is that vast area which we call\nChina, comprising China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Eastern\nTurkestan. Moslem and missionary can hardly be said to meet face to\nface, as missionary enterprise is chiefly in China itself, where the\ngreat waterways have been of much assistance to Christian activities,\nwhile Moslem efforts are concentrated on Chinese Turkestan. Here there\nare two Christian missions, at Yarkand and Kashgar, under the protection\n(as elsewhere in China) of the Chinese Government. Moslem propaganda is\nspread by traders and others working from centres of Islamic learning\noutside Chinese territory, such as Bokhara and Samarkand in Russian\nTurkestan, and Cabul, the Afghan capital. In addition, there is a wave\nof Chinese secular culture lapping in from the East, and missionaries\nask that existing missions be reinforced with funds to take a more\neffective part in this battle for souls (as they express it). They\ncomplain bitterly that the upper classes _will_ send their sons away to\nplaces like Bokhara to be educated, and that they come back Moslems.\nThey also call for ample funds to attack Islam on its own ground in\nRussian Turkestan, as it is permeating Christian Russia. This missionary\npoint of view is natural enough; how far it is justifiable is for the\ncontributing public to decide. To the ordinary mind Christian villages\nwhich can become Moslem by the leavening influence of a few inhabitants\nwho have been to work in Moslem centres convey one of two impressions,\nor both: either Christianity is not adapted to their requirements so\nmuch as Islam, or they are too weak-kneed to be a credit to any faith,\nand the one with the most virile methods may take them and make men of\nthem if it can. Moslem and missionary activities in Chinese Asia remind\none of cheese-mites gnawing away on opposite sides of a Double\nGloucester. They are very active, and if they keep at it may get through\nsome day; but meanwhile the cheese seems much the same as ever, apart\nfrom its own internal changes which the mites cannot control or affect.\n\nWe will now turn to Africa, the main theatre of war between Moslem and\nmissionary, who battle with each other for pagan souls and each other's\nproselytes.\n\nWe will first visit Morocco, the most westerly of Moslem countries.\nHere there is not much missionary activity, either Protestant or\nCatholic, but the French have been doing some excellent secular work\nthere, and under their tutelage the country is developing on lines of\nmoderate progress.\n\nThere is little antipathy shown to missionaries here, at any rate on the\ncoast, and medical missionaries have been welcomed inland. Education\ndoes not flourish, but the country might be described by an unbiassed\nobserver as enlightened at least as far south as a line joining Mogador\nand Morocco City (Marrakesh). In this northern area you will find an\nindustrious agricultural population of small farmers scattered about the\ncountryside, which consists of wide, open tracts of arable land under\nmillet, maize, and other cereals, dotted here and there with groves of\nolive and orange and interspersed with large forests of _argan_ and\nother small trees. Desert country encroaches more and more toward the\nsouth, and in spite of several large streams draining into the Atlantic\nfrom the snowcapped Atlas range, the country becomes very wild and\nsterile the farther south you go from Mogador until it merges in the\nSahara, across which lies the great, bone-whitened highway that leads to\nTimbuctoo.\n\nWhatever the indigenous Berber of the Atlas may be, the northern Moor\nhas never been a mere barbarian, and Spain owes much to his culture and\nindustry. He certainly used to have a bizarre conception of\ninternational amenities, and got himself very much disliked in the\nMediterranean and even northern waters in consequence. That phase,\nhowever, has long since passed; the last corsair has rotted at its\nmoorings in Sallee harbour, and I am told that to put a wealthy Jew in a\nthing like a giant trouser-press and extort money under pressure is\nconsidered now an anachronism.\n\nWhen I first knew the country, a quarter of a century ago, it was just\nemerging from a revolutionary war, and local relations with foreigners\nor even neighbours were capricious. They murdered a German bagman up the\ncoast in an _argan_ forest, and the \"Gefion\" landed a flag-flaunting\narmed party to impress Mogador, which dropped water-pitchers on them\nfrom upper windows and wondered what on earth the fuss was about.\n\nOn the other hand, I was well received by one of the revolted tribes,\nwhich had chased its lawful Kaid into Mogador until checked by old\nscrap-iron and bits of bottle-glass from the ancient cannon mounted over\nthe northern gate of the town.\n\nI was treated with far more hospitality than my absurd and rather rash\nenterprise deserved. Imagine a callow youth just out of his teens\ndropping in haphazard on a rebel tribe accompanied by a mission-taught\nMoor and a large liver-coloured pointer who had far more sense than his\nmaster. My tame Moor was an excellent fellow, who, beside keeping my\ntent tidy and cooking, helped me to grapple with the derived forms of\nthe Arabic verb and the subtleties of Moorish etiquette. I learnt to\ndrink green tea, syrup-sweet and flavoured with mint, out of ornate\nlittle tumblers of a size and shape usually associated with champagne,\nand, after assiduous practice, I could tackle a dish of boiled millet,\nmeat, and olives with the fingers of my right hand without mishap.\n\nBeyond occasional brushes with adjacent sections of the neighbouring\ntribe which had declared for the Fez central Government, I had very\nlittle trouble, except that a peaceful boar-hunt would occasionally\ndegenerate into an intertribal skirmish if I and my party got too near\nthe loyalist border. As all concerned had, thanks to Western enterprise,\ndiscarded their picturesque flint-locks in favour of Winchester or\nMarlin repeaters, the proceedings required wary handling if we were to\nextricate ourselves successfully, but my long-range sporting Martini\nusually gave me the weather-gauge.\n\nI dressed as a Moor, and looked the part, but made no attempt to pass\nfor anything but a Christian, nor did any unpopularity attach thereto; I\nwas merely expected--as a natural corollary--to have a little medical\nknowledge (and it _was_ a little).\n\nI found the attitude of Moors generally towards Christians curiously\ninconsistent. In the towns there was a certain amount of formal\nfanaticism which found vent in donkey-drivers addressing their beasts as\n\"_Nasara_\" to the accompaniment of whacks and yells, but public\nbehaviour was tolerant enough, and the attitude of Moorish officialdom\nwas almost courtly.\n\nJews had rather a bad time, if local subjects, as their black slippers\nand furtive bearing outside their own quarter made them a mark for\nnaughty little boys, who flung their canary-coloured slippers at them\nwith curses and imprecations deserving a more direct and personal\napplication of their footgear. Most of the wealthier Jews had acquired\nEuropean or American protection, and were safe enough. They lived in the\nFrankish quarter and dressed in ultra-European style. They made rather a\ndepressing spectacle on Saturdays, when, garbed in black broadcloth,\nwith bowler hats, they drifted through the sunlit streets on their\nSabbath constitutional from one town gate to the next and back. They\nwere keen trade competitors, and gained or lost fortunes by gambling in\nthe almond export-market or catching a grain-famine at the psychological\nmoment. One of them had retired to a leisured affluence on the proceeds\nthat a big cargo of almonds had yielded him at a startling turn in the\nmarket. He was a hospitable soul who met me once entering the landward\ngate in a travel-stained burnoose and insisted on dragging me into his\ngorgeously-carpeted house to drink _aquardiente_ and look at his\n\"curios.\" These consisted chiefly of modern firearms, some of\nfirst-class London make, which hung on his walls as ornaments, having\nbeen bought haphazard without ammunition or sporting intent. I nearly\nhad a fit when he showed me a double .577 Express hopelessly rusted by\nthe damp sea-air and offered to lend it me if I could find \"shots\" for\nit. The reverse of the shield was illustrated by another acquaintance of\nmine who had made a large fortune by importing Russian wheat to Morocco\nin famine time and had lost it in a short but striking career in\nEngland, during which he was said to have entertained Royalty,\nastonished the racing world and married a well-known actress in light\ncomedy. He, too, was of hospitable intent, but had generally left his\npurse at home when the reckoning came. On the other hand, he always\ncarried the \"stub\" of the cheque-book which had seen him to the apogee\nof his meteoric career, and a glance at its counterfoils (by his express\ninvitation) was well worth the price of a drink or two.\n\nThe local Islamic attitude toward Moorish Jews was one of contemptuous\ntolerance. They could certainly travel, in native dress, where no\nChristian could. Once, in the _patio_ or go-down of a European merchant,\nI met a greasy, unkempt Jew in a tattered gaberdine watching my\ncommercial friend as he weighed what I took to be a double handful of\ncrude brass curtain rings such as traders used to sell by the gross\nalong the West African coast. They were solid gold and represented the\nventure of a Jewish syndicate which had collected it in pinches of\ngold-dust from the river beds of southern Soos and hit on this form of\ntransport. A troop of horse could never have brought it, as gold, a\nday's journey through the lawless tribes of the south, but that\ntatterdemalion Jew had done it at the price of a few contemptuous\nbuffets. He had, indeed, offered one truculent gang of highwaymen a few\nof the tawdry-looking rings to let him pass, but they had waved such\nobvious trash aside in their eager search for actual cash, which they\nhad taken to the last _rial_.\n\nThe only other occasion on which I have known a Moor to be hoisted with\nthe petard of his own contemptuous fanaticism was an experience of my\nown.\n\nI was moving quietly through a belt of timber just before dawn in the\nhopes of getting a shot at a boar who was in the habit of feeding till\ndaybreak among some barley that grew near a caravan route. Before the\nlight was quite strong enough to shoot by I was more than a little\nannoyed and astonished to hear cocks crowing all over the place;\npresuming an early caravan with poultry for market, I pushed on to the\ntrack, meaning to pass the time of day and ask if they had glimpsed my\nquarry or heard him. I almost ran into a town-bred Moor who was trying\nto round up some scattered poultry in the gloom and cursing volubly. He\nexplained that he was riding his donkey along the track perched between\ntwo light reed cages containing fowls when the donkey baulked as a boar\nsnorted in the thickets just off the road. He whacked the donkey and\ncursed the boar as a pig and a Christian. Thereupon came a rush like\ncavalry, the donkey was knocked from under him and he was lying amid\nthe wreckage of his flimsy crates with his poultry scattered abroad. The\nboar, already angry and suspicious, as anyone but a townsman would have\nknown by the noise he made, had charged like a thunderbolt at the sound\nof a human voice so close to him and galloped off with all the honours\nof war.\n\nThe donkey was badly hurt and the man only escaped because he was\nsitting high and just above the point of impact. I helped him secure his\npoultry and started back to my village to send him another donkey. He\nthanked me in brotherly style as one Moor to another. \"I'm a Christian\nmyself,\" I remarked at parting, and added in my best beginner's Arabic\nas I turned to go, \"It is incumbent on me to assist you after the\naggression of my co-religionist.\"\n\nThis conventional attitude of arrogance toward Christendom is perhaps\ntraceable to Moorish predominance in the Middle Ages and the importation\nof Christian slaves by the pirates of the Barbary coast. In any case, it\nhas been much toned down of late years owing to contact with capable and\nwell-intentioned Franks as administrators and technical experts.\n\nMorocco should never become a forcing-bed of religious or racial\nantipathy, and will not so long as France continues to develop the\ncountry by methods which the natives can assimilate, and is not lured\ninto over-exploitation of her mineral resources or unwarrantable\ninterference with her spiritual affairs.\n\nA perfectly justifiable missionary policy would be the inauguration of\nindustrial schools on the coast and at one or two big inland centres,\nalso medical missions (with consent of the local authorities) wherever\nfeasible. Moorish craftsmanship is worth stimulating, and doctors are\nwelcomed for their science. Both schemes would redound to the credit of\nChristendom and be in accordance with the best traditions of the Early\nChurch.\n\nIn the other Barbary states (Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli) a few Catholic\nmissions have been established, and the North African Protestant Mission\nhas an advanced post at Kairwan in Tunis. Here many routes converge, for\nKairwan is a great centre of pilgrimage and taps the religious thought\nof all the Saharan tribes. Under such conditions, Islam gets ahead every\ntime, as every caravan traveller is a potential missionary, while\nChristian missions are anchored to the spot or have to rely on native\ncolporteurs, who labour under the initial disadvantage of being\nproselytes and seldom have the combination of tact and staunchness which\nevangelists require.\n\nIt is in Egypt that we first find Moslem and missionary at close grips\narrayed against each other. Cairo is a perfect cockpit of creeds.\nChristianity is represented by Catholics, Copts, Orthodox Greeks and\nProtestants, these last being subdivided into Anglicans, Presbyterians,\nWesleyans and American Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The main\nbody of Islam--some of my more fervent missionary friends allude to it\nas \"the hosts of Midian\"--presents a fairly solid front of orthodoxy,\nthe bulk being Hanifis, Shafeis, Maliki or Hanbalis (chiefly the two\nformer); but the irregular forces of Shiah are well represented among\nnon-indigenous Moslems from Yamen, Persia and India, while scattered\ngroups of Wahabi ascetics, Sufi mystics and esoterics of Bahaism\nskirmish on debatable ground between the opposing lines, where range\nsuch free-lance companies as Theosophists, Christian Scientists,\nSalvationists, etc., all with local headquarters in Cairo and propaganda\nof their own.\n\nIt must not be supposed that all this warlike metaphor indicates actual\nstrife or even severe friction, any more than \"the hosts of Midian\"\nrepresents the attitude of missionaries to Moslems here. On the\ncontrary, relations are for the most part excellent, and the prevailing\nanimosity is political, not religious, being directed against us\nBritish much as normal schoolboys dislike their form-master until they\nget a harsher one.\n\nThe Catholic Church confines most of her energies to teaching her own\npeople, who are very numerous and well looked after; she does not do\nmuch alien mission work in this part of the world. The most formidable\nband of gladiators in the Christian ranks is the American Protestant\nMission, and next to them the Anglican C.M.S. (chiefly distinguished in\nEgypt for its medical work, which is excellent and has an\nextraordinarily wide range). The Americans are great on education and\nhave done more for the English language in Cairo than any Government\ninstitution. I use the term \"gladiators\" advisedly, for their most\ntrenchant work is done on their own side--they concentrate their chief\nefforts on the Copts, and make a fairly good bag of proselytes from\nthem, apart from the great number to whom they teach sound ideals of\nduty as well as English and the three \"R's.\" One of their leading\nmissionaries has left it on record that no one stands more in need of\nsalvation than the Copts, and as there is a Coptic Reform Society the\nCopts must think there is room for improvement too.\n\nIt has been found in practice that to convert a _bona-fide_ Moslem\ninvolves segregating him, and that means finding him a living in a new\nenvironment, otherwise he is almost bound to \"revert\" under local\npressure. Apart from the strain on mission resources which such\nprocedure would cause if extensively followed, most missionaries rightly\ncondemn such a system as encouraging conversion for material motives.\nTherefore they adopt a policy of \"peaceful penetration\" against Islam,\nencouraging young men to come to them unostentatiously (I call them the\nNicodemus-squad) in order to discuss religious questions, which is\nusually done in a temperate and intelligent manner on both sides. Even\nif they get no \"forrader,\" it tends to toleration and a better knowledge\nof each other's language and ideals. A good deal of teaching is done too\nwith no expectation of making proselytes, and solid friendships are\nformed. I have myself known a convalescing lady missionary of the C.M.S.\nto receive repeated calls of friendly inquiry from former pupils; when I\nfirst saw two veiled young girls swing past with a palpably British\nterrier and the crisp, vigorous step of occidental emancipation, it\npuzzled my ethnological faculties until I was told the object of their\nvisit.\n\nAll this is to the good, and it would be very good indeed if they let\nwell alone. Unfortunately, there is another cogent factor in the mission\nfield, and that is the sinews of war in hard cash. Most people, even\nthose who support missions to Moslem countries, are human enough to like\na fight put up for their money. It is not enough for them that a great\ndeal of quiet, patient work is being done by missionaries among Moslems\nin the name of Christianity and the service of mankind. They want to\nhear about storming citadels of sin and campaigning against the devil in\nthe dark places of the earth; especially is this so in America, where\nMoslem prejudice does not have to be considered and religious\norganisation, like most other concerns, is on a big scale.\n\nAs a natural consequence, missionaries have to play up to this combatant\ninstinct, and so we read in their books and reports remarks calculated\nto engender religious intolerance on both sides, and which do not\nconform with the shrewd and kindly work in the field of those devoted\nand often scholarly men. I shall have occasion to allude to some of\nthese statements as we proceed, so think it only fair to mention their\njustification here.\n\nCairo is described as a \"strategic centre\" in mission parlance, and so\nit is, being situated on a great waterway with rail connection far\nsouth into the heart of Africa and converging caravan routes from every\nquarter. Along these arteries of traffic many tons of tracts and\npropaganda are hurled annually by train, felucca and colporteur. Those\nwho cannot read accept such matter gladly to wrap things up in and to\nshow to their literate friends, who read what resembles a bit of the\nKoran and find it carries a sting in its tail, like a scorpion, aimed at\nIslam. A great deal of this literature consists of the Psalms of David,\nthe Talmud or the Gospel, all reverenced by Moslems if dished up without\ntrimmings. Not wishing to impose on that hard-worked word \"camouflage,\"\nI would merely ask, as a naturalist, if such protective mimicry is worth\nthe irritation it causes. In any case, the system reminds me of an old\nHighlander's opening comment on a sword dance by a rock scorpion in a\nTangier saloon. \"There is a sairtain elegance aboot yourr grace-steps,\nbut _get in between the swords_.\"\n\nNo vicarious efforts by propaganda will ever take the place of personal\nprecept and example. In hunting proselytes among the followers of Islam\nit is not advisable to rely too much on the Scriptures, as Moslems doubt\nthe authenticity of our version and point to our own divergent copies in\nproof thereof. Nor is it any use asking them to believe as an act of\nfaith; if they did they would need no proselytising: an appeal must be\nmade to their reason, and there is no better appeal than the life,\nworks, and conduct of one who professes and practises Christianity. Even\nif he makes no single convert he has leavened the population around him\nwith the dignity and prestige of his creed which has produced such a\ntype. Unfortunately such results cannot be scheduled in mission reports,\nthough they are real enough and well worth living for, whether a man be\na missionary or not; only they cannot be produced by brilliant\nwide-sweeping feats of organisation and enterprise, but by persevering,\nconsistent lives, which are not easy or spectacular.\n\nEgypt should be a great field of religious warfare by personal\ninfluence, as Christians and Moslems live side by side in daily contact\nand reasonable accord, yet few of us take advantage of the fact to\nuphold the prestige of our creed or even of our race. We Europeans are\nbusy with our multifarious interests and duties, while Egyptian Moslems\nare either entangled in the web of their environment, as are the\n_fellahin_, or eager snatchers at the gifts of civilisation, as are the\nmore or less cultured effendis, or mere hair-splitters in futile\nreligious controversy, as are too many of the _ulema_ or sages at the\ngreat collegiate mosque of al-Azhar. In each case, spiritual matters\nare apt to get crowded out. The fault lies chiefly with our cosmopolitan\ningredients, which engender feverish living, if not actual vice, and the\nover-strained effort on the one side to impart and on the other side to\nassimilate a Western system of education which has induced intellectual\ndyspepsia. So we hear of students mugging parrot-like to pass\nhalf-yearly examinations, in the hopes of getting Government\nappointments for which there are far too many applicants; these young\nmen besiege the Press with complaints of unfair treatment if they fail,\nor even go to the length of attempting suicide with carbolic acid\n(fortunately with sufficient caution to ensure it usually being but an\nattempt); this latter petulant protest at the temporary thwarting of\ntheir material hopes is dead against all the teaching and tradition of\nIslam, but it has become so frequent that a leading educational\nauthority suggests that no student who attempts suicide shall be allowed\nto sit again for a Government examination. Among their seniors up at\nal-Azhar are men of real learning and remarkably persevering scholarship\n(their theological course makes the average brain reel to contemplate),\nbut some sheikh started a controversy as to whether Adam was a prophet\nor not, which fell among those sages with the disrupting force of a\ngrenade, causing much litigation in the Islamic courts and culminating\nin the divorce of the originator by his wife for _kufr_, or heresy as\nordained by Moslem law. Beneath these troubled waters the _fellah's_\nlife flows placidly, bounded on the one hand by his crops and on the\nother by the market; his spiritual stimulus being supplied by an\noccasional religious fair or a visit to the shrine of some local saint.\nHe toils as patiently as his water-wheel buffalo, and on that toil\ndepends the wealth of Egypt which supports saints and sinners, schools\nand shops, with all our European schemes and enterprises thrown in.\n\nAs for us British, if our object is to enhance the prestige of our race\nor creed, we fall very short of achievement. We have not even that\nreputation for integrity which usually attaches to us in other parts of\nthe Moslem world. This may be partly due to our anomalous position in\nthe country, which was thrust upon us, but the pleasure-seeking tourist\nof pre-War days has a lot to answer for. Some of them seemed to think\nthat so far from home their conduct was of no account (at least, that is\nthe only charitable explanation), and British personal prestige suffered\nin consequence. Anglo-Egyptian officials, especially the subordinate\ngrades, which come into more direct contact with the people, tried to\ncounteract this by increased dignity of demeanour, but the natives now\nknew them _en deshabille_, or thought they did, and declined to keep\nthem on their pedestals. The result is, familiarity without intimacy and\ndetachment without dignity, while the pre-War official habit of going\nHome every year for some months has prevented even subordinates from\nstudying their district or department consecutively.\n\nHence it is that a widespread Nationalist movement gathered force and\nperfected its plans for a detailed campaign which blended peaceful\ndemonstration with sabotage, murder and violence, and took the\nAnglo-Egyptian Government completely by surprise, paralysing\ncommunications and intimidating the general public until the weight of\nImperial troops, luckily still quartered in the country, was allowed to\nmake itself felt and restored order.\n\nThis is not the time or the place to discuss these affairs, which are\nstill _sub judice_, but one salient feature of the movement is pertinent\nto our subject, and that is the marked _rapprochement_ between Moslems\nand Copts, who fraternised in each other's mosques and churches, carried\nflags bearing the device of Cross and Crescent and used American mission\nbuildings to further their new-found brotherhood. These relations were\nsomewhat marred by the wholesale devastation of Coptic property\nup-country, but the Copts took it very well and paraded the streets with\ntheir Moslem friends, if they could not hide away from them. The local\nJew came in too, and the climax of this religious _entente_ was reached\nwhen an Egyptian Jewess preached in the mosque of al-Azhar on the\nancient relations between Jews and Arabs.\n\nBut we must not merely consider Egypt as a sort of religious and racial\nclearing house; it is also the main gate of Africa.\n\nSouthward, up the Nile valley and across grim deserts, lies Khartoum,\nthe capital of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, only four days from Cairo by\nrail. This is a very tempting theatre for missionary enterprise, which\nis, however, held in check by the authorities, who decline to have their\nSudan spiritually exploited and materially disturbed by futile efforts\nto evangelise the country. Missionaries say that this part of the Sudan,\nas well as Egypt, was once Christian; that discrimination is being shown\nin favour of Islam even to the extent of making pagans become Moslem on\njoining the Egyptian Army; that Gordon College is being run on\nnon-Christian lines and that Islam is getting ahead of them in the race\nto convert pagans in this part of the world.\n\nThe case against them is that the fact of these regions being once\nChristian and now Moslem shows, if anything, that the latter religion is\nmore suited to local requirements and conditions; Islam is naturally\nfavoured in a Moslem country, though many Christian missions have been\ngiven facilities too, and have mostly failed owing to climatic\nconditions: the Egyptian Army is Moslem and under a Moslem Government;\nthe conversion of pagan recruits to Islam is encouraged for the sake of\ndiscipline and soldierly conduct; missionaries themselves admit that\neven in civil life a Christian convert from Islam must be segregated or\nhe will lapse under surrounding pressure--perhaps they will explain how\nthat is to be done in a barrack-room or native infantry lines, or would\nthey prefer such recruits to remain pagan? Presumably they would, as one\nof their complaints is that \"it is a thousand times harder to convert a\nMoslem to Christianity than a pagan.\" Comment is superfluous; nothing\ncould portray their attitude more clearly. As for Islam getting ahead of\nthem in the race for pagan souls, it is so and will be so always among\nthe black races unless Christian missions are bolstered up by all the\nresources of local authority; the reason is that Islam offers equal\nprivileges and no colour-line, imposes easy spiritual obligations and is\npropagated fervently by its followers without the encumbrance of an\norganised priesthood. Just as commercial travellers consider a district\nneglected where a rival firm has got ahead of them, so missionaries are\npiqued at conditions in the Sudan; but even that does not excuse such\nstatements as that women in the Sudan are free and not badly treated as\npagans, but slaves and oppressed under Islam. Every student of the\nIslamic code knows that the status of women has been enormously improved\nthereby as compared with any pagan system. Missionaries must know this,\nfor they are much better educated about Islam than they were a quarter\nof a century ago, yet they do not scruple to raise the partisan cry of a\ndebased womanhood under Islam wherever local conditions involve domestic\nhardship. Such tactics are unworthy of them; an intellectual Moslem does\nnot reproach Christianity because he has visited districts in the poorer\nquarters of our big towns and seen women lead lives of drudgery or being\nsometimes knocked about by their husbands.\n\nOutside the Sudan and Nigeria we must keep to the eastern side of Africa\nin order to maintain touch with Islam. The negroid people of Italian\nErythrea are Moslems, as are also the Somalis; but their racial cousins,\nthe Abyssinians, are Christians of the Ethiopian Church, with the Negus\nas their temporal and spiritual ruler, who claims descent from King\nSolomon and the Queen of Sheba.\n\nAbyssinia has been Christian ever since the fourth century, but the\nmissionaries are not happy about the country at all. Here nothing\nimpedes the entrance of the missionary as an individual, but the people\nwill not have him as an evangelist at any price. The \"fanatical and\ndebased\" priests of the Abyssinian Church and the drastic punishments\ninflicted by the local authorities on those suspected of favouring other\nforms of Christianity are described as grave hindrances. There is a\nlarge population of \"black Jews,\" who will have no dealings with\nChristianity in any form. Meanwhile Islam gains ground steadily,\nespecially in the south along the trade routes. A German missionary,\nwriting from Strasburg in 1910, describes the situation as alarming,\nbecause \"whole tribes of Abyssinians who still bear Christian names have\nbecome Muhammedans in the last twenty years.\" There is one Protestant\nmission up at Addis Abeba, but it confines its attentions to the\nsemi-pagan Gallas, having given up Christian Abyssinia as a bad job.\n\nSomaliland is a poor field for missionary enterprise, owing to the\nsparse, semi-nomadic population and the difficulties of getting about.\nIn the French sphere there is connection by rail between Jibuti on the\ncoast and Dera Dowa near the Abyssinian border; travelling musicians of\nthe _cafe chantant_ type used to use it a good deal before the War, but\nthere was not much doing in the missionary line. Italian Somaliland,\neast of the British sphere to Cape Guardafui, is left to look after\nitself, except for the occasional visit of an Italian man-of-war; but\nsouth of that great headland there are Italian settlements.\n\nIn British Somaliland missionary enterprise has hitherto been Catholic,\nand even that ceased some years before the War when the authorities had\nto tell the mission that it must leave, as they could no longer protect\nit from the Mullah's people. It was a pity, as the mission was doing\ngood work and was much respected in the country. There was a Brotherhood\nwhich taught and doctored, and a teaching Sisterhood. They were\nFranciscans and had their local headquarters and a tastefully designed\nlittle chapel in the native town of Berbera, but the Brothers had also\nan agricultural settlement up-country, where they tilled the soil and\ndid their best to teach the natives to do so too. The Somali is much\neasier to convert than the Arab, as his versatile and superficial\ntemperament induces him to imitate, if not to assimilate, alien forms\nand ceremonies from the correct procedure at the \"Angelus\" to the\nsinging, with appropriate gestures, of \"a bicycle made for two.\"\nUnfortunately, it is almost impossible to teach him to think, or to do a\nday's honest work; he will pull a punkah while you are awake to keep him\nat it, or row a boat if allowed to sing, and sometimes he will fish if\nhungry and quite near the sea; but agriculture involves the hard work of\ndigging, and that is too much for him. The object of the mission was to\ngive Somali boys and girls the rudiments of Catholic Christianity and\nhabits of industry. The boys were well grounded in English and the three\n\"R's\" in their simplest form, while the girls were taught chiefly sewing\nand cooking. The idea was for boys and girls to marry each other in the\nfulness of time and beget Christian children, but, as one of the good\nFathers used regretfully to say, it did not work out in practice. The\nboys learnt enough to become interpreters or obtain small clerkships in\nthe post and telegraph offices of Aden and adjacent ports, whereupon\nthey felt marriage with a \"black woman\" to be derogatory, and looked\nhigher, to the less swarthy charms of some half-caste maiden met at Mass\n(for they usually remained Catholic, at least in outward form). The\ngirls, on the other hand, with all their domestic training, were much\nsought after by local chiefs, who were prepared to give them a good\nallowance in beads, bangles and cloth, plenty of food and a fairly easy\nlife. In such surroundings they naturally readopted Islam.\n\nSomaliland is not as barren as most people suppose. Of course the\nlittoral plain is comparatively sterile, as is the case on the Arabian\nside, owing to the scanty rainfall, and the maritime scarp of the hills\nthat back it is not much better, but the country improves as you go\ninland; there is good grazing on the intra-montane plateau, and the\nwatersheds of such massifs as Wagr, Sheikh and Golis (7,000 ft. or so)\nare thickly wooded, chiefly with the gigantic cactus tree, which\naverages forty feet; timber trees are scarce, being mostly tall\n_Coniferae_ in sheltered glens at the higher altitudes. Inland of these\nranges the ground slopes gradually toward the almost waterless Haud--a\nvast plateau sparsely covered with tall mimosa bush or actual trees\nattaining some thirty feet in height and striking deep to subterranean\nmoisture, which keeps them remarkably fresh and green. Giraffe feed\neagerly on the tender upper foliage and herds of camel graze there too,\ngoing six months without water, for there is no known supply locally\nexcept in the occasional mud-pans or _ballis_ after a rainburst, which\nmay happen once a year. These camels are kept for meat and milk only,\nand are no use for transport, as they are too \"soft\" to carry a sack of\nflour. They are rounded up and brought in to wells twice a year, where\nthey water for a week or so. Herdsmen moving with them live on their\nmilk, which is most sustaining. They must be watered after a maximum\ninterval of half a year, or they get \"poor\" and will not put on flesh.\nNeedless to say, no transport camel could be treated like that. A\ncaravan camel can go five days without water, but that is about his\nlimit while working, and he should be allowed to rest and graze for some\ndays afterwards if he is to regain working condition. The giraffe, as\nalso antelope of various kinds, can support life without water at all,\nthough they trek greedily to the _ballis_ after rain. Here lion lie in\nwait for them occasionally, and it is a frequent subject of discussion\namong naturalists and sportsmen how such heavy, thirsty animals can\nsubsist in the Haud. The most probable supposition is that they only\nenter this region with the rains and trek from one _balli_ to another. I\nhave met a lioness a long way out of lion country presumably trekking\nfrom one water-hole to the next. What is still more remarkable is that\nheavy game sometimes will do so too. Heavy firing was once heard far\nsouth of Burao, and a mounted force pushed out thinking it was the\nMullah's people going for our \"friendlies\" out grazing. A rhinoceros on\ntrek for water and nearly mad with thirst had winded the waterskins in a\nSomali grazing camp and charged through the zareba to get at them. He\nwas mobbed to death by the herdsmen with the rifles which a benevolent\nGovernment had given them for protection against the dervishes.\n\nTo do them justice, the Somalis fear their fauna very little and have\nmore than once, when in attendance on a European sportsman, driven off a\nlion with spears and a resolute front after the white man had failed to\nstop the beast with both barrels.\n\nEven a woman will face a leopard with a torch of dry grass to contest\nthe ownership of a fat-tailed sheep which he has tried to filch from the\nzareba by night, fearing his snarling menace far less than the wrath of\nher lord and master if the marauder secures his prey.\n\nAs for the Midgan, that born hunter and nomadic outcast whom other\nSomalis look down upon, but who has more woodcraft in his touzled head\nthan any of them, he will deliberately hunt the king of beasts, using\nsome decrepit and almost valueless camel as a stalking-horse. He is\narmed with a bow having about as much apparent \"give\" in it as the\nbottom joint of a fishing rod, yet able to propel with surprising force\na stumpy arrow cunningly poisoned with a wizard brew of viper venom and\nthe root of the tall box tree. His procedure is to drive his camel\nslowly grazing toward some island of bush in which he has marked down a\nlion, he himself being perched a-straddle behind the hump and directing\nthe animal's movements with kicks from one or other of his bare heels.\nFrom his lofty observation point he at once spots the crouching approach\nof the lion and slips off over the camel's rump to cover, whence he\nspeeds one of his venomous little shafts at close range. The outraged\nmonarch attacks the camel and the hunter keeps well aloof from the\nsubsequent confusion until the poison works and the lion is seized with\nmuscular convulsions, like those of tetanus, when he may safely approach\nto gloat over his quarry. What is really remarkable is that the camel is\nnot invariably killed. I once met a Midgan on trek who showed me the\nunmistakable claw-marks of a lion on his camel's neck and shoulders and\nsaid he had used the animal on three such occasions; compared with\nthese desperate encounters the exploits of our white shikaris armed with\npowerful modern rifles are insignificant.\n\nOne beast of prey, however, is feared and hated by every Somali man,\nwoman or child--hunter, shepherd or townsman--and that is the great,\nspotted hyaena which slinks up by night to snap at face or breast of\nsleeping folk and bolts into the gloom at the agonised shriek of his\nmangled victim. The brute is cowardly enough to refuse encounter with an\nable-bodied man awake and on the alert unless rendered desperate by\nhunger, but his jaws are as strong as a lion's, and one snapping bite\ndoes the mischief. I once helped the P.M.O. at Berbera to tend some\nhalf-dozen poor wretches who had been frightfully mauled during the\nnight on the outskirts of the town itself and probably by the same\nhyaena. The hot weather had induced many folk to sleep outside their\nstifling huts and they _will_ not take the trouble to collect and build\nup a few thorny bushes to keep the brutes off.\n\nThe Somali is about as incapable of hard work as his \"fat\" camel, and\nthe only time he may be seen digging is among the convict gangs who\ntill, or used to till, the Government garden out at Dubar on the inland\nedge of the littoral plain, where the Berbera water supply bubbles out\nhot from under the low maritime hills and trickles through ten miles of\nsurface pipe-line to supply the \"Fort,\" which is supposed to protect the\nBritish cantonment straggling some distance outside Berbera town. He\nfeels such work dreadfully, not only as an injury to his self-respect\n(and he has all the puerile pride of the negroid races), but as an\nirksome tax on his physical powers, which are quite unaccustomed to\nsustained and strenuous exertion. On the other hand, he will make long\njourneys on short commons and keep well and happy if allowed to\npunctuate his hardships at long intervals with debauches on meat and\nmilk and fat. He excuses himself from tilling the ground on the plea\nthat others might harvest the fruit of his labours, as there is no\nindividual land-tenure or any definite divisions of land indicating\nownership, but only tribal grazing rights over ill-defined areas and the\nparcel of land enclosed by his zareba fence, of which he is but the\ntenant, as it is free to anybody as soon as he leaves it to trek to\nother pastures. Therefore, vegetables are unattainable by him, and his\ncereals (rice, millet and coarse flour) reach him by sea and caravan or\nhe does without. He appears immune from scurvy and is seldom sick or\nsorry unless he over-eats himself. He loves _ghi_ (or clarified butter)\nand animal fat, which he swallows in large gulps when he can get it,\nalso rubbing it in his frizzy hair and using it to sleek his black,\nspindly shanks and smear his spear-blades--on shikar he will \"gorm\" it\nall over your spare gun if you do not watch him. His favourite beverage\nis strong tea with lots of sugar in it (when procurable) otherwise he\nwill not touch it, and he will drink water which a thirsty camel would\nsniff at suspiciously before imbibing. He dresses in a white sheet worn\ntoga-wise and not without a certain dignity, and his head is usually\nbare except in towns or the partially civilised _entourage_ of a white\nman, where he will wear anything on his head from a tarboosh to a topi\nas a mark of distinction, but seems to avoid a turban, which he has not\nthe knack of tying properly.\n\nTo meet him and his family on trek is to glimpse an epitome of his life.\nFirst comes the able-bodied though elderly sire carrying a few light\nthrowing-spears and a knobkerry or a gim-crack stabbing-spear, and close\nbehind him are the adult males of his house similarly armed or with a\nrifle or two supplied by a benevolent Government for protection against\nthe Mullah, to whom these children of nature frequently offer them for\nsale at very reasonable prices. After these come the women-folk in\norder of precedence, carrying loads in inverse ratio thereto. The young,\nfavourite wife walks first, carrying her latest addition to the family\nin a cotton shawl at her hip; she is followed by other wives of less\nsocial standing, carrying household utensils, with the smaller children\nat foot, and at the tail of the procession stagger the old crones under\nheavy burdens of pots, pans, pitchers and unsavoury goat-hair rugs. A\ncamel or two bring up the rear with the conglomeration of sticks and\nhides and matting which makes the home and looks like an untidy bird's\nnest. On the flanks and in the rear skirmish the elder children, girls\nand boys, with flocks and herds which graze as they go. The big piebald\nsheep with their black heads and indecently fat tails are not allowed to\nrange far afield, where lynx or leopard might stalk them under covert,\nas they are valuable, succulent and very foolish. They carry no\nwool--their coat feels just like a fox-terrier's--but they have more\nmeat on them than three average goats, and the huge pendulous flap of\nfat which does duty as a tail is a delicacy to make a Somali mouth water\nor a European gorge rise.\n\nThe only serious occupation a buck Somali will permit himself is to sit\nunder a tree and watch his grazing flocks. He is fond of conversation,\nchiefly of a recriminative character, and gives vent to his _joie de\nvivre_ by prancing and singing on two or three simple notes to the\naccompaniment of his clapping hands and the thud of his horny heels. His\nchief woe is drought and lack of grazing, because he then has to get up\noff his butt-end and take long treks to pastures new. His ideas of\nearthly Paradise centre round the _cafes_ of Aden, where his countrymen\nare numerous and where wages are so high that six grown Somalis can\nbatten in well-fed ease on the earnings of a seventh, who keeps on till\nhe wants a holiday and then \"goes sick\" and sends another of the\nsyndicate to replace him. Qualifications do not matter, as they all have\nsufficient to fumble through their jobs and no more. If he lacks the\ncapital to start cab-driving and finds boat-rowing or punkah-pulling too\nstrenuous for him, he sets himself to learn a little English and gets a\njob as servant with some new-fledged British subaltern at a minimum rate\nof L2 a month, which is fixed by his union, for that is one civilised\ndevice he really _can_ handle. He is the slackest oarsman, the laziest\npunkawala and the worst whip east of Suez. His idea of driving is to sit\nwith knees drawn up toward his chin while he lugs at the reins as if\nthey were a punkah-cord, urging his staunch little screw along with\nineffectual flaps of his whip and noises like the paroxysms of sea\nsickness.\n\nHe will ruin any saddle-camel for fast work if allowed to ride one\nregularly, such animals not being raised in his country, but he breeds a\nsmall, hardy type of pony which he loves to gallop in wild dashes, with\nflapping legs and sawing hands, reining the poor little beast up short\non a bit like a rat-trap to witch beholders with his horsemanship.\n\nAs a combatant you never know how to take him. He may put up a hefty\nfight or he may outrun the antelope in his precipitate retreat. I was\nmuch impressed by the defences in barbed wire and thorn trees considered\nnecessary to ward off the onslaught of dervishes by men who knew them\nbetter than I did.\n\nHe is a cheery, irresponsible soul and has been called the Irishman of\nthe East. Missionaries rather like him, because he is very teachable up\nto a certain point, fond of learning new tricks if not too difficult,\nand without that habit of logical and consecutive thought which makes\nthe real Arab so difficult to tackle in argument.\n\nNo remarks on Somaliland would be complete without some mention of the\nMullah. That astute personage has often been alluded to as \"Mad,\" but\nhas proved himself far saner than the Government he was up against. In\nthe early 'nineties he kept the Arabi Pasha coffee-house opposite the\ncab-stand in the native town at Aden, where he dispensed tea and\nhusk-coffee in little bowls of green-glazed earthenware, also\nraspberryade and other bright-coloured \"minerals\" in bottles, with a\nsmall lump of ice thrown in. His establishment was patronised almost\nentirely by Somalis and largely by the _ghari-walas_ themselves. At the\nsame time, he was obliging enough to spare the servant of a neighbouring\nsahib like myself a pound or two of ice from his \"cold box\" on\noccasional application to meet an emergency.\n\nHe had a good deal of property in flocks and herds over in British\nSomaliland, which he visited from time to time. In the late 'nineties he\ngot involved in some suit or other and the local authorities mulcted him\nof many camels. He very much resented this decision and raised some\nfriends and sympathisers to resist its execution by the police. An\ninadequate force was sent and sustained a reverse, after which his\nfollowing grew enormously. Early in this century, when I again had news\nof him, he had craftily cut in between the Italian, Abyssinian and\nBritish converging columns and annihilated Colonel Plunkett's gallant\nlittle band at Gumburu, but sustained a severe defeat at Jidballi,\nwhere his red flannel dressing-gown was sighted in early and headlong\nretirement as his dervishes recoiled from the embattled square.\n\nAll the same, he was still going strong long after the South African War\nwas over, and we had more leisure to attend to him. When the British\nfrontier was drawn in to enable the statement to be made in Parliament\nthat \"the Mullah's troops were no longer within protectorate limits,\" he\ntook advantage of it to deal ruthlessly with those tribes which had\nrefused to join him on the solemn and definite promise that Government\nwould protect them from his vengeance. The unhappy Dolbahuntas were\nalmost wiped out as a tribal unit; their zarebas and flimsy villages\nwere surrounded by the Mullah's men and fired, leaving the\noccupants--men, women and children--the choice of a dreadful end among\nblazing thorns or red death on the spears of their fellow-countrymen and\nco-religionists. A prominent Nationalist has alluded to the Mullah and\nhis dervishes as \"brave men striving to be free.\"\n\nIn 1910 British prestige had shed its last rag in Somaliland: we had\nwithdrawn to the coast and the Mullah's horsemen actually rode through\nBerbera bazar on one of their raids and withdrew unscathed. In 1912 it\nwas found necessary to form a company of Somali police on camels to keep\nthe peace between \"friendlies\" who, to allay a certain amount of\nindignation at home, had been armed with rifles to protect themselves\nagainst the Mullah's people, but were using these weapons, in their\nlight-hearted way, to argue questions of grazing as they arose. Early in\n1913 \"a small dervish outpost\" was reported to be preventing our\nfriendlies from grazing in the Ain valley south of Burao at a time when\nno other pasturage was locally available, and the Somali camel-corps,\nabout a hundred strong with three white officers, was sent to occupy\nBurao as its base and from there to afford moral and material support\nenabling the friendlies to graze unmolested in the threatened area. This\ncheery opportunism was the Government's wobbling attempt at equilibrium\nbetween the barefaced desertion of our protected tribes and its avowed\npolicy of non-intervention unless on the cheap. It was done too much on\nthe cheap; that little force was attacked by an overwhelming force of\ndervishes while out on the grazing grounds affording moral and material\nsupport. The Maxim was put out of action by an unlucky bullet, and the\nfriendlies skedaddled with their Government rifles at the first shot,\nbut returned later to loot the dead. The half-trained Somali camelry\nsuffered severely and were most unsteady, but the two white officers\nsurviving managed to extricate the remnant with difficulty, the gallant\ncommandant having died for his trust early in the fight. He was blamed\nposthumously for having exceeded his orders; whether he ought to have\nexercised his moral and material support at a safe distance from the\nplace where it was needed or have led his command in headlong flight was\nnot made clear, and they were the only two military alternatives to the\naction he _did_ take. At all events the incident shamed the Government\ninto taking more adequate measures to protect its friendlies in spite of\nbitter Nationalist opposition.\n\nMissionaries point to our long and fruitless struggle in Somaliland as\nan illustration of the force of fanaticism. It is nothing of the sort;\nthe Mullah was a man with a grievance who was driven into outlawry by\nthe sequence of events, and the movement was entirely political. Having\nonce tasted the sweets of temporal power, he wanted to expand it, and\nused his spiritual and material influence to that end, not hesitating to\norder the wholesale massacre of other equally orthodox Moslems when it\nseemed to him politically expedient. He owed his success to his ruthless\ntreatment of his compatriots, the difficult and scantily watered\nterrain, our lack of co-ordination with the Italians and Abyssinians,\nbut above all to our parsimonious method of cadging and scraping a\nlittle money together for an expedition and stopping when the funds gave\nout, like a small boy with fireworks. Somaliland, with its insignificant\ncaravan trade, its wide, waterless tracts and its sparse population of\nshiftless, unproductive semi-nomads, is a bad business proposition, and\nno Government can be blamed for hesitating to spend money on it; but if\nhalf the expenditure had been concentrated on one scheme at one time\ninstead of being frittered away on several divergent schemes over a\nlengthy period the Mullah would have been brought to book and the\nresources of the country developed considerably.\n\nSouth of Somaliland in British, and what was once German, East Africa\nthe missionary has comparative freedom of movement, whereas in\nSomaliland no white man has ever been allowed to travel without the\nsanction of the local authorities. He, however, complains that he is not\nencouraged by the Administration in either colony, and certainly makes\nno headway against Islam, which has a very strong hold, especially in\nBritish East Africa, with the Swahilis. Still, he can point to the\ninland kingdom of Uganda as one of his successes, and it would be more\nso if the various Christian sects would refrain from wrangling among\nthemselves.\n\nWe have now reached the southern limit of Moslem activity in Africa, for\nwe are getting among native races who do not take kindly to asceticism\nin any form, and beyond them are the sturdy white Christians of South\nAfrica. Curiously enough, there is a flourishing little colony of\nMoslems at Salt River, the railway suburb of Cape Town, where imported\nEast Indian and Arab mechanics have settled. They muster about 7,000\nsouls and have founded a school to educate their children. An unbiassed\nEnglish resident states that they are far better citizens than native\nChristians of the same class, owing to their temperate habits. Drink is\nthe undoubted curse of the non-Moslem African. In South Africa no native\nin white employ can get alcoholic drink without the written authority of\nhis employer, but there are many illicit sources of supply. South\nAfrican colonists insist that the native Christians are the worst--this\nshould not be set down to Christianity, but to the civilisation which\ngoes with it, and, in place of Kaffir beer and such like home-fermented\nbrews of comparatively mild exhilarant character, introduces the\nundisciplined native mind to the furious joys of trade fire-water.\n\nAfrica is the main battle-ground between Moslem and missionary, for it\nis in that continent that the forces of Islam and Christianity are most\nnearly balanced. The American Protestant Mission, which is, as we have\nseen, one of the principal belligerents, complains loudly on behalf of\nChristendom that in Africa especially our colonial administrations do\nnot give the support to Christian missions that Christian Governments\nshould.\n\nApart from the fact that we administer these countries in trust for\ntheir indigenous population and have no right to thrust our own creed\nupon them to the exclusion of any other with a sound system of ethics,\nit can most cogently be urged that Islam is the only religion which\ninsists on total abstinence, and that seems to be the only way in which\nthe native African can avoid alcoholic excess.\n\nI have in front of me a letter written by an American of Boston, Mass.,\nto the _Spectator_ of February 15th, 1919. In it he alludes to a report\nof the Committee for preventing the demoralisation of native races by\nthe liquor traffic which is said to be \"making Africa a cesspool of\nalcohol, and statistics show that in this devil's work Holland with her\ngin and, I regret to say, the United States with its trade rum have been\nthe conspicuously worst offenders.\" The writer goes on to say that the\nnative races are morally and intellectually children, and that has been\nrecognised in the States where it is a penal offence to introduce\nalcoholic drink within the Indian reservations.\n\nThis being so, the attitude of American Protestants in attacking the\nonly teetotal creed which is working among natives in a continent where\ntotal abstinence is unanimously declared to be essential to native\nwelfare indicates loose thinking. It is still more extraordinary when we\nremember that the teetotal party in the United States have moved heaven\nand earth and every device, legitimate or otherwise, to secure national\nprohibition, about which, to put it mildly, there appear to be two\nopinions among American citizens. We are told that the South adopted\nprohibition as a measure of protection against the negro. Apart from the\nsafety of white colonists in Africa, is the welfare of African negroes\nbeneath the consideration of a free-born American? If so, why does he\n(or she) subscribe so liberally to support missions in Africa? Such an\nattitude is incongruous, even if we adopt the preposterous view that\nChristianity alone can make a sober man of a negro. Imagine a\nmunicipality which allowed a gang of hooligans to scatter incendiary\nbombs broadcast and encouraged its inadequate fire brigade to fight a\nrival organisation tooth and nail. Its avowed intention of prohibiting\nthe use of matches on its own premises would not be considered a\nsatisfactory _amende_.\n\nI lay no more stress on American Protestant activities against Islam\nthan is their due. There may be some opinions among Europeans that their\nevangelising fervour might find a mission field nearer home in South\nAmerica or even in Mexico. Such a criticism is not only ungrateful but\nunreasonable. American missions have done much for humanity in the East,\nwhile as regards their own sub-continent the Catholic Church has held\nthat field for centuries, and no reasonable being wants to see the two\ngreat divisions of Christianity sparring with each other about the\nspiritual education of greasers.\n\nThe Monroe Doctrine does not apply to missionaries, but I would point\nout to them that in wrestling against Islam they are fanning the fires\nof fanaticism and causing much material trouble, and the net spiritual\nresult is to lessen their own power for good and embitter Islam for ill\nwhile widening the breach between Christian and Moslem.\n\nThis chapter is an attempt to give an impartial glimpse at the relations\nbetween Moslem and missionary throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. With\nregard to their activities, it is neither a detailed account nor an\napology. No sincere religious effort requires an apology, and if it is\nnot sincere no apology suffices.\n\n    FOOTNOTES:\n\n    [Footnote C: The definite article precedes most Arabic place-names,\n    but is only retained in ordinary local speech as above, presumably\n    to denote respect. I hold to native pronunciation, except in cases\n    of long-established custom, and consider \"the Yamen\" as clumsy as\n    \"the Egypt\"--both take the definite article in Arabian script.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nA PLEA FOR TOLERANCE\n\n\nThe world just now appears to be awaiting a millennium resulting from a\nconcourse of more or less brilliant and assertive folk with divergent\nviews. Presuming that the necessary change in human nature will be\nwrought by enactment, we have still to acquire more religious tolerance\nif we are to live together in unity with our Moslem fellow-subjects and\nneighbours.\n\nWhat is the use of talking about a League of Nations and the\nself-decision of small States if we still seek to impose our religious\nviews on people who do not want them and encroach on the borders of\nother creeds? Are other people's spiritual affairs of no account, or do\nwe arrogate to ourselves a monopoly of such matters? Both positions are\nuntenable.\n\nThe justification of missionary enterprise is based on Christ's last\ncharge to His disciples: \"Go ye into all the world and preach the\ngospel to every creature.\" He clearly defined that gospel as \"the\ntidings of the kingdom,\" and what that kingdom was He has repeatedly\ntold us in the Sermon on the Mount, frequent conversations with His\ndisciples and others and the example of His daily life. He never sought\nto change a man's religious belief (such as it was) or his method of\nlivelihood (however questionable it might be), but to reform him within\nthe limits of his convictions and his duties. He has also left on record\nan indictment of proselytisers that will endure for all time. Of course,\nif the Gospel narrative is unreliable throughout (as the reverend and\nscholarly compiler of the \"Encyclopedia Biblica\" would appear to imply)\nthen these arguments fall to the ground, but so does any possible\njustification of missionary enterprise. On the other hand, Moslems _do_\nbelieve and reverence the _Engil_ or Gospel, though they follow the\ndoctrine and dogma of a later revelation.\n\nThe logical deduction from these facts is that moral training, education\nand charitable works among Moslems are permissible and justifiable\nfeatures of missionary endeavour, if not forced upon an unwilling\npopulation, but attacks on Islam itself are not only unmerited but\nunauthorised and impertinent.\n\nMany missionaries of undoubted scholarship and breadth of view see this\nand model their field work accordingly, with good results; in fact, most\nreal success in the mission field has been achieved by practical,\nChristian work on the above lines, and not by religious propaganda; but\nthe flag which missionary societies flaunt before a subscribing\nChristian public is quite a different banner, as can be easily\nascertained from their own published literature, which is very prolific\nand accessible to all.\n\nIn writing about Islam the authors or compilers of these works too\nfrequently allow their zeal to involve them in a web of inconsistency\nand misstatement, or else they let their religious terminology take\nliberties with their intellect and that of the public.\n\nWe will glance briefly at their indictment of Islam as presented in\ntheir quasi-geographical works, disregarding their public utterances and\ntracts as privileged, like the platform-speeches and vote-catching\npamphlets of a General Election; also we will keep to their own\nterminology and expressions as far as possible.\n\nFirst and foremost, especially in the United States, where knowledge of\nnon-Christian creeds is not so general as with us, the literature of\nforeign missions insists on grouping together all regions as yet\nunexploited by them (whether populated by heathen, Moslems, Buddhists\nor any other non-Christian race) and describing them indiscriminately as\nGibraltars of Satan's power, a challenge to Christendom and a reproach\nto Zion (whatever that may mean). Yet the four great Christian\nChurches--Greek, Russian, Catholic and Protestant--seem powerless to\ncheck the reign of hell in Bolshevist Europe, where the liberty of man\nis demonstrated by murder, rapine, torture and every fiendish orgy or\nbestial lust which mortal mind can conceive. The people among whom these\ndevilries are being enacted are Christians ruled by Christians, and have\nbeen Christian for centuries. They are still Christian so far as a\nblood-besotted clique will let them be anything. And in the face of such\nfacts there are missionaries who enunciate in cold print that without\nChristianity there could be no charitable or humane organisation of any\nsort, or good government, or security of property, and--clinching\nargument--trade would suffer. Could there be any more glaring example of\nthe cart before the horse? Does a dog wag his tail or the tail wag the\ndog? Is Japan hopelessly benighted and devoid of the activities\ndescribed as the monopoly of Christianity? Moreover: Can Christian\nteaching or preaching pacify the embittered struggle between labour and\ncapital which threatens yet to wreck civilisation? Does it even try?\n\nThere is no more ridiculous or extravagant boast among a certain class\nof self-appointed evangelists than the oft-repeated statement that all\nthe modern blessings of Western civilisation are the fruit of\nChristianity and that the backward state of oriental Moslems is due to\nthe absence of Christianity.\n\nAny thoughtful schoolboy knows that it was the exploitation of coal and\niron which lifted us Western nations out of the ruck, backed by the\nnatural hardihood due to a bracing climate, otherwise the Mediterranean\nmight still be harried by corsairs. Steam transport by land and sea was\nthe direct offspring of these two minerals. Even then Western supremacy\nwas gradual and only recently completed by the exploitation of\npetroleum, rubber and high explosives. Brown Bess, as a shooting weapon,\nwas far inferior to the long-barrelled flint-lock of Morocco, and the\nArabian match-lock could out-range any firearm in existence till sharp\ncutting tools made the rifle possible. What does modern surgery, or any\nother science of accurate manipulation, not owe to modern steel? When we\nturn from metallurgy to medicine, let us not forget that Avicenna was\nwriting his pharmacopoeia when Christian apothecaries were selling\npotions and philtres under the sign of a stuffed crocodile.\n\nSome exponents of Christianity would go further and arrogate to her the\ninception of all arts and handicrafts. Damascus blades, Cordovan\nleather, Moorish architecture, Persian carpets, Indian filagree, Chinese\ncarvings and Japanese paintings all give the lie to such claims.\n\nIf we are to measure Christianity by the material progress of her\nadherents, what conclusions are we to draw from the history of the Roman\nEmpire, the Byzantine Empire and the Copts? Fourteen hundred years after\nthe birth of Christianity in Palestine the fall of Constantinople\nshattered her last vestige of sovereignty in the East after she had gone\nthrough centuries of decadence, debauch and intrigue such as anyone can\nfind recorded by Gibbon or even in historical novels like \"Hypatia.\"\n\nIslam, to-day, is about the same age as Christianity was then, and has\ngone through similar stages, except that it has been spared the\nintrigues of an organised priesthood and its comparative frugality has\nprotected it from oriental enervation to a certain extent.\n\nCompared with Western Christianity its present epoch coincides with the\nera preceding the Reformation, when religious teaching had become\nstereotyped and lacked vitality, as is now the case with Moslem teaching\nas a rule. There is no reason why Islam should not recover as\nChristianity did, and if it does not it will not be due to any intrinsic\ndefect, but to its oriental environment, which has already debased and\nwrecked Eastern Christendom.\n\nThe respective ages of the two religions induces another comparison. We\nare now in the fourteenth century of the Hejira; glance at European\nChristendom of that period in the Christian era, or even much later, and\nreflect on the Sicilian Vespers, the Inquisition, the massacre of the\nHuguenots, the atrocious witchfinders who served that pedantic\nProtestant prig, James I, and all the burnings, hackings and slayings\nperpetrated in the name of Christendom. We must admit that no Moslems\nanywhere, even in the most barbarous regions, are any worse than the\nChristians of those days, while the vast majority are infinitely better,\nviewed by any general standard of humanity. Christendom's only possible\ndefence is that civilisation has influenced Christianity for good, and\nnot the other way about. There is one other loophole which I, for one,\nrefuse to crawl through--that Christianity is a greater moral force than\nIslam or more rapid in its action. Missionaries say that Islam is\nincapable of high ideals owing to its impersonal and inhuman conception\nof the Deity, whom it does not limit by any human standards of justice.\nThey complain that there is no fatherhood in the Moslem God;\nbut--pursuing their own metaphor--what would an earthly father think if\nhis acts of correction were criticised by his children from their own\npoint of view? He might be angry, but would probably just smile, and I\nhope the Almighty does the same. A child thinks it most unjust to be\nrebuked or perhaps chastised for playing at trains with suitable noises\nat unsuitable seasons but it is that, and similar parental correction,\nwhich makes him become a decent member of society and not a self-centred\nnuisance.\n\nMoslems shrink from applying _any_ human standards to the Deity,\nregarding Him as the Lord of the Universe and not a popularly-elected\npremier. \"Whatever good is from God, whatever ill from thyself,\" is a\nKoranic aphorism. Nor do they seek to drive bargains with Him, as do\nmany pious Christians, and their supplications are limited (as in our\nLord's Prayer) to the bare necessities of life--food and water to\nsupport existence, and clothing to cover their nakedness.\n\nThe application of human ideals to the Almighty places Him on a level\nwith Kipling's \"wise wood-pavement gods\" or the Teutonic conception of\na deity who sent the Entente bad harvests to help German submarine\nactivities. Such absurdities incur the rebuke of the staunch old\npatriarch, \"Though he slay me yet will I trust in him\"; there is no\nexcuse for seeking to inflict them on the austerities of Islam.\n\nClimate and terrain have a marked influence on the form religion takes\nin its human manifestation. Missionary literature asserts this clearly\nwith regard to Islam, describing it, aptly enough, as a religion of\ndesert and oasis thence deriving its austere and sensual features, but\nthe thesis applies with equal force to Christianity. The marked cleavage\nof hermit-like asceticism and gross sensuality which rock-bound deserts\nand the lush Nile valley wrought in Egyptian Christendom has been\ndescribed by every writer dealing with that subject, and Arabian\nChristianity drooped, and finally died, in the arid pastoral uplands of\nJauf and Nejran long before it succumbed in fertile, hard-working Yamen.\n\nIf the East became Christian next week there would be the same rank\ngrowth and final atrophy or disintegrating schism for lack of outside\nopposition. Missionaries are quick enough to remark on this process in\nArabia where Islam is practically unopposed, but will not apply it to\nChristianity. They do not seem to realise that healthy competition\nmaintains the vitality of religion no less than trade or any other form\nof human effort requiring continuous energy and application. Islam\nrevivified a decadent Christianity, and the attacks of modern\nmissionaries are strengthening Islam. They justify these attacks and\nurge further support for them on the grounds that Islam is moribund and\nnow is the time to give it the _coup de grace_, or that Islam is the\nmost dangerous foe to Christendom in the world and must be fought to a\nfinish lest it unite three hundred million Moslems against us. I have\nseen both reasons given in the same missionary book; both are absurd.\nThe latter is a mere red herring drawn across the trail of existing\nfacts, more so, indeed, than the ex-Kaiser's Yellow Peril, for that at\nleast was trailed from a vast country enclosing within a ring fence a\nhuge population of homogeneous race and creed. As for crushing Islam by\nmissionary enterprise, you cannot kill a great religion with pin-pricks,\nhowever numerous and frequent; you can only cause superficial hurts and\nirritation, as in a German student's duel. Every religion contains the\ngerms of its own destruction within itself (which it can resist\nindefinitely so long as it is healthy and vigorous), but no outside\nefforts, however overwhelming, can do aught but stiffen its adherents.\nThe early Christian Church was driven off the face of the earth into\ncatacombs, but emerged to rule supreme in the very city which had driven\nher underground; Muhammad barely escaped from Mecca with his life, but\nreturned to make it the centre of his creed, and Crusaders died in\nhopeless defeat at Hattin cursing \"Mahound\" with their last breath as\nthe enemy of their faith, yet their very presence there showed how Islam\nhad revived Christianity.\n\n_Per aspera ad astra:_ there is no easy road or short cut to collective,\nspiritual progress. I am not arguing against possible \"acts of grace\"\nworking on individuals, but the uplift of a race, a class or even a\ncongregation cannot be done by a sort of spiritual legerdemain based on\nhypnotic suggestion. Individuals may be so swayed for the time being,\nand, in a few favourable cases, the initial impetus will be carried on,\nbut most human souls are like locusts and flutter earthward when the\nwind drops. They may have advanced more or less, but are just as likely\nto be deflected or even swept back again by a change in the wind.\nRevivalist campaigns and salvation by a _coup de theatre_ do not\nencourage consecutive religious thought, which is the only stable\nfoundation of religious belief; second-hand convictions do not wear well\nin the storm and sunshine of unsheltered lives, and a creed that has to\nbe treated like an orchid is no use to anybody.\n\nIf the same amount of earnest, consecutive effort and clear thinking had\nbeen applied to religion as has gone to build up civilisation we should\nall be leading harmonious spiritual lives to-day and sin and sorrow\nwould probably have been banished from the earth, but few people think\nof applying their mental faculties to religion, and its exploitation by\nmodern mercantile methods is not the same thing at all. Civilisation is\nan accretion of countless efforts and ceaseless striving to ameliorate\nexisting conditions, whereas religion started as a perfect thesis and\nhas since got overgrown with human bigotry and fantasies while absorbing\nvery little of the vast, increasing store of human knowledge. That is\nwhy civilisation has got so much in advance of religion that the latter\ncannot lead or guide the former, but only lags behind, like a horse\nhitched to a cart-tail. Missionary writers are rather apt to confuse the\ngifts of civilisation with the thing itself. A savage can be taught to\nuse a rifle or an electric switch or even a flame-projecter, but this is\nno proof that he is really civilised. On the other hand, the scholarly\nrecluse and philosopher whose works uplift and refine humanity may\nbungle even with the \"fool-proof\" lift which takes him up to his own\neyrie in Flat-land, but he is none the less civilised.\n\nThey would have us believe that petticoats and pantaloons are the\nhall-mark of Christian civilisation, and one of their favourite sneers\nat Arabia (as a proof of its benighted condition and need of their\nministrations) is \"a land without manufacture where machinery is looked\non as a sort of marvel.\" As a matter of fact, Arabia can manufacture all\nshe really wants, and did so when we blockaded her coasts; nor is\nmachinery any more of a marvel to the average Arabian Arab than it is to\nthe average Occidental. Both use intelligently such machinery as they\nfind necessary in their pursuits and occupations, though neither can\nmake it or repair it except superficially, and both fumble more or less\nwith unfamiliar mechanical appliances. The young man from the country\nblows the gas out or tries to light his cheroot at an incandescent bulb,\nand may be considered lucky if he does not get some swift, silent form\nof vehicular traffic in the small of his back when he is gaping at an\nelectric advertisement in changing-coloured lights. It has been my\nobject, and to a certain extent my duty, on several occasions to try to\nimpress a party of chiefs and their retinue when visiting Aden from the\nwildest parts of Arabia Felix (which can be very wild indeed). On the\nsame morning I have taken them over a man-of-war, on the musketry-range\nto see a Maxim at practice and down into a twelve-inch casemate when the\nmonster was about to fire. They never turned a hair, but asked many\nintelligent questions and a few amusing ones, tried to cadge a rifle or\ntwo from the officer showing them the racks for small arms, condemned\nthe Maxim for \"eating cartridges too fast\" and were much tickled by the\ngunner-officer's joke that they could have the big cannon if they would\ntake it away with them.\n\nThese wild Arabians, when trained, make the most reliable machine-tenders\nin the East, as they have a _penchant_ for mechanism of all sorts and\nwill not neglect their charge when unsupervised.\n\nWe are all inclined to boast too personally of our enlightened\ncivilisation with its marvellous mechanical appliances, but what is it\nafter all but the specialist training of the few serving the wants of\nthe many? If the average missionary swam ashore with an Arab fireman\nfrom a shipwreck and landed on an uninhabited island of ordinary\ntropical aspect, the Arab would know the knack of scaling coco-nut palms\n(no easy task), the vegetation which would supply him with fibre for\nfishing-lines and what thorns could be used to make an effective hook,\nwhile the missionary would probably be unable to get fire by friction\nwith the aid of a bow-string and spindle.\n\nMissionary literature is very severe on Arabia as a stiff-necked country\nwhich has hitherto discouraged evangelical activities. \"Hence the low\nplane of Arabia morally. Slavery and concubinage and, nearly everywhere,\npolygamy and divorce are fearfully common and fatalism has paralysed\nenterprise.\"\n\nThis indictment is not only unjust, but it recoils on Western\ncivilisation. Arabia is on a high enough moral plane to refuse drink,\ndrugs and debauchery generally, while prostitution is unknown outside\nlarge centres overrun by foreigners, which are more cosmopolitan than\nArab. Sanaa, which is a pure Arab city with little or no foreign\nelement, is much more moral than London or New York. To adduce slavery\nand concubinage coupled with polygamy and divorce as further evidence\nagainst Arabia is crass absurdity; slaves are far better treated\nanywhere in Arabia than they were in the States or the West Indies;\nconcubinage and polygamy, as practised by the patriarchs of Holy Writ,\nare still legal in that part of the world; there is nothing sinful\nabout them in themselves--a Moslem might as well rebuke Western society\nfor being addicted to whisky and bridge. He might even remind us that\ndivorce is easier in the States than in Arabia and quote the Prophet's\nwords on the subject: \"Of all lawful acts divorce is the most hateful in\nthe sight of God.\" With us a woman can be convicted of adultery in the\neyes of the world on evidence that would not hang a cat for stealing\ncream, but in Islam the act must be proved beyond doubt by two\nwitnesses, who are soundly flogged if their evidence breaks down, and\ntheir testimony is declared invalid for the future. This places the\naccusation under a heavy disability, but it is better than putting a\nwoman's most cherished attribute at the mercy of a suborned servant or\ntwo--a far greater injustice to womanhood than bearing a fair share of a\nnaturally hard and toilsome life, which is also a missionary complaint\nagainst Arabia. As for fatalism paralysing enterprise there, perhaps it\ndoes to a certain extent, but it cannot compare with our own organised\nstrikes in that direction.\n\nAnother charge is that Arabia has no stable government and people go\narmed against each other. Tribal Arabia has the only true form of\ndemocratic government, and the Arab tribesman goes armed to make sure\nthat it continues democratic--as many a would-be despot knows to his\ncost. They use these weapons to settle other disputes occasionally, but\nChristian cowboys still do so at times unless they have acquired grace\nand the barley-water habit.\n\nThese deliberate misstatements and the distortion of known facts are\nunworthy of the many earnest workers in recognised mission fields, and\nthey become really mischievous when they culminate in an appeal to the\ngeneral public calling for resources and _personnel_ to \"win Mecca for\nChrist,\" and use it and the Arabic language to disseminate Christianity\nand so win Arabia and, eventually, the Moslem world.\n\nChristianity had a very good start in Arabia long before Muhammad's day,\nand (contrary to missionary assertion) was in existence there for\ncenturies after his death. Not long before the dawn of Islam, Christian\nand pagan Arabs fought side by side to overthrow a despotic Jew king in\nYamen who was trying to proselytise them with the crude but convincing\ncontrivance of an artificial hell which cost only the firewood and\nlabour involved and beat modern revivalist descriptions of the place to\na frazzle as a means of speedy conversion--to a Jew or a cinder.\n\nChristianity lasted in Yamen up to the tenth century A.D. It paid\ntribute as a subordinate creed, like Judaism, but had far more equable\ncharters and greater respect among Moslems. In fact, it was never driven\nout, but gradually merged into Islam, as is indicated by the\ninscriptions found on the lintel of ruined churches here and there,\n\"There is but one God.\"\n\nThe published statement of a travelled missionary that the Turks stabled\ntheir cavalry horses in the ruins of Abraha's \"cathedral\" at Sanaa is\nmisleading. The church which that Abyssinian general built when he came\nover to help the Arabs against the Jew king of proselytising tendencies\nhas nothing left of it above ground except a bare site surrounded by a\nlow circular wall which would perhaps accommodate the horses of a\nmounted patrol in bivouac. The Turks probably used it for that purpose\nwithout inquiry.\n\nWhat is the use of bolstering up a presumably sincere religious movement\nwith these puerile and mischievous statements? Apart from the rancour\nthey excite among educated Moslems (who are more familiar with this\nclass of literature than the writers perhaps imagine) they deceive the\nChristian public and place conscientious missionaries afield in a false\nposition, for most practical mission workers know and admit that the\nwholesale conversion of Moslems is not a feasible proposition and that\nsporadic proselytes are very doubtful trophies. Knowing this, they\nconcentrate their principal efforts on schools, hospitals and charitable\nrelief, all based on friendly relations with the natives which have been\npatiently built up. These relations are jeopardised by the wild-cat\nutterances which are published for home consumption. If a Christian\npublic cannot support legitimate missionary enterprise without having it\ncamouflaged by all this spiritual swashbuckling, then it is in urgent\nneed of evangelical ministrations itself.\n\nMissionaries in the field have, of course, a personal view which we must\nnot overlook, as it is entirely creditable to all parties concerned. The\nmore strenuous forms of mission work in barbarous countries demand, and\nget, the highest type of human devotion and courage. It is a healthy\nsign that the public should support such enterprise and that men and\nwomen should be readily found to undertake it gladly. There is a great\ngulf between such gallantry and the calculating spirit which works from\na \"strategic centre,\" to bring about a serious political situation which\nothers have to face.\n\nLet us now examine the Islamic attitude toward Christianity.\n\nThe thoughtful Moslem generally admits the excellence of occidental\nprinciples and methods in the practical affairs of life, but insists\nthat even earthly existence is made up of more than civilised amenities,\neconomics and appliances for luxury, comfort and locomotion. It is when\nhe comes to examine our social life that he finds us falling very short\nof our Christian ideals, and he argues to himself that if that is all\nChristianity can do for us it is not likely to do more for him, but\nrather less. He admits that his less civilised co-religionists in\nArabia, Afghanistan, etc., lack half-tones in their personalities, which\nare black and white in streaks instead of blending in various shades of\ngrey. He considers that Islam with its simple austerities is better\nsuited to such characters than Christianity with its unattainable\nideals. He himself has visited Western cities and observed their\nconditions shrewdly. He regards missionaries as zealous bagmen\ntravelling with excellent samples for a chaotic firm which does not\nstock the goods they are trying to push. The missionary may say that he\nhas no \"call\" to reform existing conditions in his own country, just as\nthe bagman may disclaim responsibility for his firm's slackness; but\nsuch excuses book no orders. The travelled Moslem will shake his head\nand say that he has seen the firm's showrooms, and their principal\nlines appeared to be Labour trouble, profiteering and diluted\nBolshevism, with a particularly tawdry fabric of party politics. He\nrespects the spiritual commercial traveller and his opinions, if sincere\n(he is a judge of sincerity, being rather a casuist himself), but\nwherever he has observed the workings of Christianity in bulk it has not\nhad the elevating and transcendental effect which it is said to have;\nthat is, he has not found the goods up to sample and will have none of\nthem.\n\nHe seldom realises (to conclude our commercial metaphor) that most\nChristian folk in countries which export missionaries are born with\nlife-members' tickets entitling them to sound, durable goods which are\nnot displayed in our spiritual shop-windows or in the missionary\nhand-bag:--the prayers of childhood and the mother's hymn, the distant\nbells of a Sabbath countryside, the bird-chorus of Spring emphasising\nthe magic hush of Communion on Easter morning, the holly-decked church\nringing with the glad carols of Christmastide and the tremendous promise\nwhich bids us hope at the graveside of our earthly love. It is such\nmemories as these, and not the stentorian eloquence of some popular\nsalvation-monger in an atmosphere of over-crowded humanity, which go to\nmake staunch Christian souls.\n\nThe possible proselyte from Islam has to rely on what the missionary has\nin his bag. Large quantities of faith are pressed upon him which do not\nquite meet his requirements, as it is his reason which should be\nsatisfied first; no one can believe without a basis of belief.\n\nThere is also a great deal of slaughter-house metaphor which does not\nappeal to him at all, as he looks on blood as a defilement and a sheep\nas the silliest animal in existence--except a lamb. These metaphors were\nused by our Lord in speaking to a people who readily understood them,\nbut for some obscure reason they have not only been retained but\namplified extensively to the exclusion of much beautiful imagery which\nis still apposite. We Christians reverence such similes for their\nassociations, but a Moslem misses the point of them, just as we miss the\nstately metre of the Koran in translation.\n\nThe would-be convert from Islam must, of course, learn to stifle any\nfond memories of the virile, vivid creed he is invited to renounce. No\nlonger must he give ear to the far-flung call proclaiming from lofty\nminarets the unity of God and the Prophet's mission or its cheery,\nswinging reiteration as the dead are carried to the _magenna_ or \"gate\nof Heaven.\" Certainly not; the less he contemplates their fate the\nbetter for his peace of mind, since (if the effort to convert him is\nanything more than an outrageous piece of impudence) their lot in the\nhereafter must be appalling and his own depends on the thoroughness with\nwhich he steels his heart against all he ever knew and loved before he\nmet that pious man and his little picture pamphlets.\n\nDo proselytising missionaries in the Islamic field ever sit down and\nthink what they are really trying to do? Does the social ostracism of a\nhuman being, the damnation of his folk and the salvation of none but a\nremnant of mankind mean anything to them? If so they ought to be\novercome with horror--unless it is their idea of humour, which I cannot\nbelieve.\n\nTo pester a man into abandoning a perfectly sound and satisfying\nreligion for one which may not suit him so well is more reprehensible\nthan badgering a man to go to your doctor when his own physician\nunderstands his case and has studied it for a long time. At least his\ndiscarded medical adviser will not make his life a burden to him--a\nburden which the proselytiser does not have to share.\n\nOn the other hand, Moslems are often glad enough to avail themselves of\nsuch Christian works as mission education, medical treatment and\norganised charity, so they should tolerate the proselytising propaganda\nwhich seems inseparable from these enterprises.\n\nMissionaries afield are usually justified by their works; it is the\naggressive policy blazoned abroad from mission headquarters which does\nso much mischief. Islam was never intended to overthrow Christianity,\nbut to bring back pagan Arabs to the true worship of God. Mission policy\nclamours for attack on it as if it were an invention of the devil and\nthen complains of Moslem fanaticism, forgetting that if it were an\nartifice of Satan they cast doubts on the omnipotence, omniscience or\nbeneficence of God for permitting it to exist and flourish. Otherwise,\nthey infer that they are in a position to correct the Almighty in this\nmatter. It is their complacent pedagogy which exasperates Moslems so. It\nis not the way to treat people who believe in the Immaculate Conception,\nwho call Christmas Day \"_the_ Birthday\" and respect us as \"People of the\nBook.\"\n\nIt is time some protest was lodged against this policy if only on behalf\nof Christian administrations in Moslem countries, which are always being\nattacked by it and urged to give more facilities of spiritual\naggression, especially just at present when Turkey's power has been\nshattered and mission strategy thinks it sees an opening.\n\nThere was never a less desirable moment for unchecked religious\nexploitation than now, when the war-worn nations of Christendom are\ntrying to reconstruct themselves, and the world is seething with unrest\nand overstocked with discarded weapons of precision.\n\nThere is no compromise in religion, nor should there be; you cannot go\nhalfway in any faith, and no one wants a mongrel strain begotten of the\ntwo great militant creeds such as our leading exponent of paradox\nwittily describes as \"Chrislam.\" Yet surely there is a reasonable basis\nfor a religious _entente_ between Islam and Christianity.\n\nThink what Islam has done to advance the knowledge of humanity long\nbefore the dawn of modern science. Moslems, too, would do well to\nremember what Christian civilisation has done for them in trade,\nagriculture and industries. If you accept gifts from others you should\ntolerate their ways; it is but an ill-conditioned cur that bolts the\nfood proffered and then snarls.\n\nA Moslem or a Christian worthy of the name will remain so. He may expand\nor (more rarely) contract his views, but will still be a Moslem or a\nChristian, as the case may be.\n\nNo human being has the right to say that his conception of the Deity is\ncorrect and all others wrong, nor is such a conclusion supported by the\nGospel or the Koran.\n\nIt is the alchemy of the human soul which can transmute the dross of a\nsordid environment to the gold of self-sacrifice, and the gold of\ninspired religion to the dross of bigotry.\n\nWhether we believe, as Christians, that Christ died on the Cross and\nrose the third day, or, as Moslems, that He escaped that fate by an\nequally stupendous miracle, we know that He faced persecution and death\nfor mankind and His ideals, and that both creeds are based on the same\ngreat doctrine--\"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship\nhim in spirit and in truth.\"\n\n\nFINIS\n\n\nPRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD. BRUNSWICK ST.,\nSTAMFORD ST., LONDON, S.E. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.","title":"Pan-Islam","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":43534}