ENVER PASHA’S SPY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1366, 25 February 1915, Page 4

ENVER PASHA’S SPY

News comes from Cairo of the capture of Enver Pasha’s chief emissary in the Sudan. The emissary was Almaz Abdullah, a Sudanese, once in the 9th Sudanese Regiment, who joined the Egyptian coastguard service in 1900. He was convicted of smuggling in 1905, and was discharged. Then he attached himself to Enver Pasha, who seems at once to have perceived in him a useful man, and made him commandant of the Arab camp at Solium.

Before the war he was in Cairo, On November 12th he arrived at Port Sudan, dressed as an ordinary native. He obtained lodgings, and craftily began to accost the orderlies outside the officers’ quarters of the 3rd Sudanese Regiment. He then asked for the Bimbasbi. At seven o’clock in the evening he saw Bimbasbi Mohammed Kffendi, and said he came on behalf of Hover Pasba. He spoke of the war, and began endeavouring to seduce the officers from their duty. Other officers came in and joined the Bimbasbi, and Almaz pressed his case. The Bimbasbi made an excuse, left the room, and communicated with Wilson Pasha, the Governor. Almaz was next taken into the officers’ mess, and then suddenly arrested and searched. A Turkish cipher notebook was found on him, and at his lodgings a Turkish uniform and many documents were in bis baggage. He was brought to trial before a court-martial on the double charge of spying,and endeavouring to seduce soldiers from their allegiance. At bis trial the above facts were elicited, and there were also produced a notebook and a copy of a letter from the Minister tor War in Constantinople, addressed to the Vali of Jeddah. In Ibis letter Almaz was given instructions to cross to the Sudan and incite the. army and people to revolt, Thence he had to go to Kordofan, Solium, and other places to see the Senussi.

Almaz said he wore multi because the key of the trunk containing his uniform was missing. He was condemned to death by a Court presided over by Colonel Drake, but the sentence has been commuted to one of penal servitude lor life.

Cabling on January Bth, from Cairo, Mr J, M. N. Jeffries, of the London Daily Mail says :—"I have just returned from a visit, by permission of the military authorities, to various places along the defence line of the Suez Canal. Everywhere our troops, British and Indian, are well prepared. Entrenched and fortified, and accustomed to local conditions, they are thoroughly ready for the enemy, who is undoubtedly massed iu Syria with outposts somewhere at the back of El Arish, The recent bombardment of the Turkish post at Rafah, between Guyyeh and El Arish, by a Russian cruiser, points to the possibility of troops gathering thereabouts. On several occasions small landing parties have been put ashore on the Syrian coast without encountering a hostile reception, the Lebanese being favourable to the Allies and talking with the marines, who are able to tell the people the truth of the situation.”