War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

106 WARBYREVOLUTION

SanussistointensitytheirguerrillawaragainsttheItaliancolonies
alongtheLibyancoast.On 23 MayItalyjoinedtheAllied sideinthe
war, aneventthatangeredBethmannHollwegandpromptedhimto
makepublichisgovernment'sextensivelistofwaraimsinbothEu-
ropeandAfrica."
StillothereventssignifiednotonlythenearimpossibilityofGer-
manyreachingAfricathroughArabiaandtheRed Seabutalsothe
ineffectivenessoftheholywar.DuringAprilmostofthesurviving
crewmenoftheGermancruiserEmden(sunkbytheAustraliansin
theIndianOcean),makingtheirwaynorthalongtheArabianRed Sea
coasttowardEurope,onlynarrowlyescapedBedouinattackers."Per-
hapsthemostsignificantaspectoftheharrowingexperienceofthe
sailorswasthatitillustratedagaintheunfriendlinessoftheSharifof
Mecca, thedominantrulingforceamongtheHijaziBedouinandalong
theArabianRed Seacoast,towardboththeTurksandGermans.
Theimportanceofthesharifandofhis tie totheBritishparticu-
larlycaughttheattentionoftheactingGermanconsulinDamascus,
WilhelmPadel.On 20 FebruaryhedenouncedtheTurksto the
Constantinopleembassyforfailingto do moreto recruitthesup-
portofthesharifandotherArableaders.Padelespeciallyurgedthat
GermanyintensifyitseffortstounitebehindtheOttomansthetwo
powerfulfeudingchieftainsinnorthernandcentralArabia,thepro-
TurkishIbnRashidandpro-BritishIbnSaud.Thatthesharifand
IbnSaudwerefriends,saidPadel,hademergedfromlettersthathad
beenseizedbyIbnRashid,whoseemissaryhadvisitedDamascusand
hadshownthedocumentstotheconsul.ThePorte,hewarned,erred
innottakingthesharifmoreseriouslyandinhavingremovedthe
hard-line,anti-sharifTurkishgovernoroftheHijaz,WahibBey,from
hispost."
Padel'salert,coupledwithpreviousconcernsaboutthesharifraised
byotherGermanagentsinTurkeyandwiththefailureoftheArabs
tojointheassaultontheSuezCanal,alarmedboththeembassyand
Berlin. Several weekslaterZimmermann,theunder-secretaryinthe
foreignministry-whohadnointentionofalienatingtheTurksby
seekingtobefriendtheArabs-reactedtoPadelandapparentlyalso
totheurgingofNadolny,theheadoftheReserveGeneralStaff's
politicalsection."ZimmermanndirectedtheConstantinopleembassy