Review of Reiiews, 1/11106. 



Leading Articles. 



581 



THE SULTAN, THE KAISER AND 

 GREAT BRITAIN. 



How TO Put Salt on the Tail of Pan-Islamism. 

 The oiif outstiinding fact in recent diplomatic his- 

 tory is that when the British Government was con- 

 fronted with the extremely unpleasant prospect of 

 having to make war on the Sultan to induce him to 

 keep his hands off Egypt, the German Government 

 .rendered us every service in its power at Constanti- 

 noi)le. The Tabah incident might have had a very 

 different ending but for the loyal and steady support 

 which the I-vaiser gave to the representations which 

 we made to the Sultan. This being the case, I 

 must confess that I read with some concern and sur- 

 prise the cle\er but mischievous article on " Pan- 

 Islamisni : Some Dangers and a Remedy," which my 

 son. Mr. Alfred Stead, has contributed to the current 

 number of the Fortnightly Review. The article 

 might have been more accurately entitled " Pan- 

 Islamism : How to Increase its Dangers Beyond all 

 Remedy." Absolutely ignoring the loyal aid and 

 support which we received from Germany in coping 

 with the Pan-Islamic agitation at Tabah, he actually 

 takes that incident as an illustration of w'hat he re- 

 gards as the pernicious influence of Germany upon 

 the security of the Empire and the peace of the 

 world. If the Kaiser had done his uttermost to 

 thwart our diplomacy at Constantinople instead of 

 doing his uttermost to support it. the article in the 

 Fortiiiglitl} would still have been injudicious. A..S 

 the facts are. it is difficult to find a word to ex- 

 press its extreme lack of political common sense. 



-According to this writer, we have to face the 

 " practical certainty of a bloody war in the spring 

 of 1907 " unless'we adopt the "eventful and pro- 

 mising line of policy ''' which he recommends. What 

 is that policy? It starts from a recognition that the. 

 Pan-Islamite movement is " an active reality, ap- 

 palling in its [iromise of causing far-reaching disin- 

 tegration and danger." Danger to France; danger 

 to all the world, but especially danger to us. In 

 Egypt, in the Soudan, in .Afghanistan, and in 

 .•\rabia, it is a peril to the British Empire. " It is 

 a grave question what would happen there were the 

 Sultan to preach a holy war against England," which 

 "at present " suffers from the fact that she is not 

 an cunphibious Power, and therefore cannot land an 

 armv in the Balkans. We are, he tells us, still fur- 

 ther aggravating this jieril by the foolish wa\ in 

 which we are treading on one of the tenderest corns 

 of the Mohammedan world in our treatment of the 

 Sultan of Zanzibar. Islamism, in short, is an 

 i-normous force in the midst of an Imperial struc 

 tare. Ill wliicli iht' controlling wires lie f)utside and 

 in dthtrs' hands. 



We are. of course, verv familiar with these 

 alarms. Thev have been the familiar stock-in-trade 

 of the Russophfibist for a hundred vears. But that 

 mischievous alarmist used them for the j)urpose of 



committing us to an alliance with the Sultan. Mr. 

 Alfred Stead recognises equally with them the 

 potential mischief-making capacity of the Sultan, 

 but uses it as a plea for a policy of direct and un- 

 compromising hostility to that potentate and his 

 friend and ally the Kaiser. This, surely, is the 

 \ery delirium of political heroics. The Sultan is 

 powerful — oh ! so powerful — we dare hardly go to 

 sleep at nights for fear he controls and wires and 

 shatters with his Pan-Islamite explosive our Imperial 

 structure. Therefore let us make war upon him. 

 partition the remains of his European Empire, and 

 control Constantinople. But behind the Sultan 

 stands the embattled might of the German Empir.- 

 — a fact which might give some persons, as it did 

 Lord Roseberv in 1895, reason to pause. Not so 

 with this impatient advocate for a spirited foreign 

 policy. Obsessed, apparently, by the success witli 

 which the Japanese alliance precipitated war witii 

 Russia, he advocates the creation of another allianc-- 

 in the Near East for the purpose of clipping th_' 

 claws and thw'arting the ambitions of the Sulta:i 

 and the Kaiser. There are three small States in th- 

 Balkan peninsula which have in recent years been 

 occasionally at w"ar and chronically at variance witli 

 each other. One of them is ruled by a Germa 1 

 prince. A second is under the thumb of Austria. 

 But out of these unpromising materials — Roumania. 

 Servia and Bulgaria — Mr. Alfred Stead dreams that 

 he can manufacture a firm fighting alliance fcr 

 Great Britain, with whose aid we can partition 

 Turkev. defeat Germany, and control Constantinop' ■ 

 — Russia, apparentlv, being an assenting partv to 

 this pretty little programme. 



.Surel)' this is the mere midsummer madness of 

 politics. 



Mr. .Alfred Stead declares that there must be a 

 very "decided change of heart in Berlin." Th - 

 change of heart seems to be much more needed 

 nearer home, where it is possible to read such sen- 

 tences as these in the Fortnightly Reviav : — 



It is. of course, unfortunate that it is still so possible fc r 

 misf^iiided enthusiasts or well-meaning: but impolitic Mini>- 

 ter.g of ^Yar to lead the Britisii i)ublic into forgetting ti.e 

 fundamentall.v inimical policy of Germany in individual 

 .\nfflo-German triendships. 



Choose, and choose wisely and quickly, must be the motto 

 for Great Britain, with tl:e G«rman profession of faitli rinz- 

 ing in her ears: "There is no God but Allah. Mahomet is 

 his prophet, and the German Emperor is the Friend of all 

 the followers of Mahomet." 



Yet the last official utterance of Sir Edward Gre\ 

 was an expression of his gratitude to the Germans 

 for having stood our friend, and not the Sultan's. .■■ 

 the critical moment of our first collision with the 

 new Pan-Islamism. 



A>s for ■' the one certain and easy method " of 

 checking Germany and controlling the Sultan, it is 

 an affair of piecrust and gingerbread. We are to 

 ha\-e licit a fighting alli.ince, but an entente, with 

 Roumani.i, .Servia and Bulgari.i, which, however, is 



