APPENDIX 11 

 THE AKABAH QUARREL 



Mr. Blunt to Sir Edward Grey, o/th May, 1906 



Sir, 



" The demand made on the Ottoman Government within the limit of ten 

 days to evacuate Tabah and other points in the neighbourhood of Akabah 

 is so serious a matter that, as one acquainted with the district in dispute 

 and interested for thirty years in Egyptian affairs, I feel it my duty to lay 

 before you my reasons for thinking that the demand is an excessive one 

 and due to a serious mistake as to facts. 



" I am, of course, ignorant of the secret reasons which may possibly be 

 impelling His Majesty's Government at the present moment to force on a 

 quarrel with the Sultan, and if there are such what I have to say will 

 necessarily pass unheeded. I notice that the chief organs of the Liberal 

 press seem to regard the quarrel somewhat in the light of a crusade. But 

 I am unwilling to believe that any such thought inspires the attitude taken 

 by the Government, and am inclined rather to the view that they would be 

 glad to avoid a violent issue. I therefore venture to make the following 

 observations : 



" (1) His Majesty's Government, believing their case to be a just one, 

 probably calculate that, inasmuch as the Sultan has on several occasions 

 yielded to pressure vigorously applied by European Powers, the same result 

 will now be obtained. It is possible that it may be so, but the chances, I 

 think, are otherwise. In the cases of Dulcigno, Smyrna, and Crete, to 

 take typical examples, it was the rights and interests of Christians that 

 were in question, and the Ottoman Government has always acknowledged 

 a certain moral, if not legal, right in Christendom to intervene for their 

 protection. In the present instance, however, there is no question of 

 Christians being oppressed. It is a matter purely domestic and purely 

 Mohammedan, and one in which the Sultan doubtless feels that the whole 

 moral right no less than the legal right is his. The positions occupied in 

 the neighbourhood of Akabah are closely connected with the pilgrim road 

 and the facilities of pilgrimage to Mecca, and in Mohammedan eyes it 

 is the Sultan's right and duty to guard them. If, therefore, the dispute 

 with England should lead to hostilities the Sultan knows that he will be 

 enthusiastically backed by the all but universal approbation of his co- 

 religionists. It is almost impossible, indeed, without abandoning his whole 

 religious claim to leadership, that he should yield to Christian menace 

 without fighting. 



" (2) I believe from an examination of printed documents and from 



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