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

32 WARBYREVOLUTION

heprophesiedthattheArabsoftheOttomanEmpirewouldsoon
seekindependence.vMoreover,KitchenerconsideredtheArablands
intheMiddleEastvitaltoBritain'spositioninEgyptandIndia,and
thushe wasattractedtotheideaofprovidingsupporttotheArab
movement.Specifically,herecommendedthatBritainseize apartof
southernSyriafromtheTurksandencouragetheArabprovincesof
theempiretoformthemselvesintooneormoreautonomousand
pro-Britishstates."
From19IIto 1914 theinfluenceKitchenerexertedfromCairoin-
creasinglyreplacedthatoftheConstantinopleembassyinshaping
Britain'srelationswithTurkeyandtheArabs. InSeptember 1913 he
senttosouthernPalestineasmallmilitarymission,disguisedas an
expeditionofthePalestineExplorationFund(whosemembersin-
cludedthearchaeologistsLeonardWoolleyandT.E.Lawrence),to
surveytheregion.SixmonthslaterKitchenerhelpedpersuadethe
YoungTurksto freefromprisonMajorAziz Beyal-Masri,aformer
EgyptianofficerintheOttomanarmywhomtheOttomanshadar-
restedfortreasonandhadbecomeaheroofArabnationalistsfor his
participationinOttomannegotiationsinYemenandintheLibyan
waragainsttheItalians.Furthermore,since hisappointmentatCairo
KitchenerhadtakenakeeninterestintheHijazandin its Arabprince,
theguardianofIslam'sholyplaces,theSharifofMecca,"
MuchofKitchener'sconcernfor Arabnationalismresultedfrom
thecontinuedanti-BritishactivityoftheGermansinEgypt.Despite
Oppenheim'sdeparturefromCairoatthebeginningof19IO,hiswork
therecontinuedthroughhisprotege,Prufer,andthenewGerman
consulgeneral,HermannCountvonHatzfeldt.Prufer,withHatz-
feldt'sassistance,publishedarticlesintheGermanpresshostileto
BritishpolicyinEgypt,andheincreasedties tothemostradicalanti-
BritishEgyptiannationalists,Faridandal-jawish."
TheGermanintriguewiththeEgyptiannationalistsconcernedthe
ForeignOffice inLondonespeciallybecauseofanti-Britishoutbursts
ofthenationalistsin19IOand1911.Kitchener,almostfromthemo-
mentofhisappointmentasresident,hadreinstatedtheharshpoli-
ciesofCromertowardthekhedive,decreasingthelatter'sauthority
overevenceremonialmattersandthreateningtodeposehim.
Kitcheneralsotriedtoweakenthenationalistmovementbyplaying