GERMANY’S CATSPAW.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1360, 13 February 1915, Page 4

GERMANY’S CATSPAW.

TURKEY’S DREAM. Among the mass of Arabic and Turkish correspondence which has recently fallen into other hands than those to which it was destinep is a letter addressed by an Arab employed as an intermediary between the Porte and one of the chiefs of Arabia to a friend. The letter was written at Constantinople a few days before the final rupture between Turkey and the Allies, and contain passages which deserve some attention.

The great interest (says our Arab) that is now’ taken in mili tary matters is a token that war is inevitable. Some Ottoman stalesmen are for immediate war with Greece, counting on Bulgarian aid and Roumanian neutrality. They aie of opinion that the morals of tne army will thus be raised, while they fear that 3 war with Russia will threaten the very existence of

the Empire. . . . But Germany, desiring a war with Russia

. . , cares little whether we succeed or fail, her only object being to trouble her foes in every quarter. . . .

On receipt of your reply I spoke with Enver Pasha, and told him you were of opinion that Turkey should observe a strict neutrality, to which he replied : “We are now neutral; still, this opportunity—" Most of them (i.e., of the committee leaders) desire war with Russia, being most anxious to humble her. ... I believe

that we should wait to see her fall by the sword of another Power, . . . But the Turkish press and public opinion are pro-German. The newspapers ot Stamboul are more German than the Germans themselves, and all Turks, old and young, learned and ignorant, are bitter against Great Britain on account especially of the seizure of the two Dreadnoughts. In short, Germany wishes to harass Britain in her colonies. This she cannot do without persuading Turkey to take the step.

. . . The arrogance of the clique knows nc bounds now that no pressure is exerted upon them by the Great Powers, which are engaged in crushing one another. The mission on account of which I came to Constantinople interests them, but little now that they dream of regaining the Crimea, Batum, Turan, (Turkestan), Rumelia, and especially Salonika, of driving the British from Egypt, and of “colonising” India. . . Reading the press cuttings I am sending my brother, you will see the rashness and light-mindedness of the campaign they have waged against the Triple Entente. My brothers ! Rnow that the life and death of the Empire are in the hands of two men, Talaat and Enver. They confer together they decide what measures to take and one of them submits these measures to the Cabinet. Their word is all but law. They hold the reins of the Sultanate ; power is in their hands ; the rest of the Ministers are but men of straw,

and most of all Djavid, whose one funct is to find the necessary money. Not his to ask where and how it is to be expended. He is most like a “simsar” (broker). The Grand Vizier is head in name only.

One of the principal French newspapers published in Cairo has received a letter, which from Isnguistic and other evidence, would seem to have been composed by a broker ot the Alexandria Bourse.

After warning the editor of this newspaper that his blasphemies against "Our Kaiser Wilhelm" will be sirr>dy punished on the day when the Turkish armies enter Cairo. Prance, continues the anonymous writer, has already disappeared from the map. Dunkirk has fallen with Calais. Sheds for Zeppelins are being built the--, and German airships are already hovering over England, “saying a pleasant ‘Good morning’ to the English.” Five of the forts of Verdun have fallen, and the main German army is within 40 kilometers of Paris. Of 23 warships that lay outside the Dardanelles 20 have been sunk or disabled by the Turkish lorts. There can be no doubt that for some time past German and Austrian agents, for the most part business men, cotton brokers, shopkeepers, and commercial travellers, have lost no opportunity of furnishing their Arab clientele with mendacious accounts of prodigious German and AustroHungarian successes.