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

54 WARBYREVOLUTION

whichrecruitedexiledEgyptiannationalists.TheGermanconsulate-
generalinGenevaprovidedFaridwithfundstotraveltoConstan-
tinopletoassistintheattackonBritaininEgypt.In Bern,theGer-
manminister,BaronGisbertvonRomberg,attractedtoGermany's
causeanotherEgyptian,Dr.MansurRifat,thepublisherofananti-
BritishnewspaperinGeneva,LaPatrieEgyptienne.ButRifatfeuded
withotherEgyptiannationalistsandthekhedive;inNovember 1914
theSwissauthorities,who haduncoveredaplotinvolvingRifatto
assassinateBritishofficials in Egypt,expelledhimfromthecountry."
BythebeginningofSeptembertheGermanshadreceivedconflict-
inginformationfromvariousquartersregardingthepoliticaland
militarysituationin Egypt.Ontheonehand,theReich'slegationin
Athensfirstclaimedthat"seriousunrest"againstBritishruleexisted
inEgyptandthenretracteditsassertion,reportinginsteadthear-
rivalthereofsomefortythousandIndiantroopstoguardthecoun-
try.Ontheotherhand,Germansforcedto leaveEgyptgaveinforma-
tiontotheforeignministrythatsuggestedinitialEgyptiansympathy
fortheCentralPowersandTurks.Moreover,EnverPashaclaimedto
WangenheimthatthePortehadagentsinIndia,Persia,Morocco,
southernTunisia,andAlgeriapromotingnativerebellionsagainst
theBritishandFrench.ThewarministeralsotoldWangenheimthat
fourimportanttribalchieftainsfromArabia-IbnSaudandIbn
RashidofNajd,theImamYahyaofYemen,andSayyidal-Idrisiof
Asir-hadpersonallydeliveredgiftstothePorteandvolunteeredto
assisttheTurksin a waragainstBritain."
TheoptimismoftheTurkishwarminister,theinitialreportsof
Britain'sbuildupofitstroopsinEgypt,andtheadvanceofGerman
armiesinFrancecombinedtoencourageBethmannHollwegtopush
evenmoretheplansagainstEgyptandIndia.By 4Septemberthe
chancellorhadreceivedunmistakableindicationsofBritishresolve
toremaininthewar."Oneofourchieftasks,therefore,"hestressed
totheforeignministry,"is tosoftenupBritaingraduallybyharass-
mentinIndiaandEgypt,whichcanonlybepossiblefromthere."He
orderedtheministryto do itsutmosttomakeithappen.v
ThreedayslaterheapprovedtheTurkish-Germanmilitaryexpe-
ditionagainstEgypt,directingtheembassyto win EnverPasha'sagree-
mentfor araidontheSuezCanalofabouttwentyorthirtythousand