With the Turks in Palestine - The German Propaganda

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three of With the Turks in Palestine by Alexander Aronson.
This livery box recording is in the public domain. Recording
by Setu. The German propaganda so passed the days of
our training swiftly, monotonously, until the fateful December morning, when

(00:20):
the news came like a thunderbolt that Turkey was about
to join hands with Germany. We had had reports of
the war of a kind. Copies of telegrams from Constantinople,
printed in Arabic were circulated among us, giving accounts of
endless German victories. These, however, we had laughed at as
fabrications of a Prusophile press agency, and in our skepticism,

(00:43):
we had failed to give the Teutons credit for the
successes they had actually won. To us, born and bred
in the East as we were, the success of German
propaganda in a Turkish empire could not come as an
overwhelming surprise, but its fullness amazed us. It may be
of timely interest to say a few words here regarding

(01:05):
this propaganda as I've seen it in Palestine, spreading under
strong and efficient organization for twenty years in order to
realize her imperialistic dreams. Germany absolutely needed Palestine. It was
the key to the whole Oriental situation. No mere coincidence
brought the Kaser to Damascus in November eighteen ninety eight,

(01:29):
the same month that Kitchener in London was hailed as
Gordon's avenger when he uttered his famous phrase at the
tom of Saladin, tell the three hundred million Muslims of
the world that I am their friend. We have all
seen photographs of the imperial figure draped in an amazing
burdness of his own designing, above which the Prussian pickleharb

(01:53):
rises supreme. As we move from point to point in
this portentious visit, we may also have seen karrent darks
celebrated cartoon, a subject of diplomatic correspondence, representing this same
imperial figure in its Oriental toggery, riding into Jerusalem on
an ass The nations of Europe laughed at this visit

(02:18):
and its transparent purpose, but it was all part of
the scheme which won for the Germans the concessions for
the Konya Baghdad railway and made them owners of the
double valley of Euphrates and Tigris. Through branch lines projected
through the Firman They are practically in control of both
the Syrian routes towards the Cypriotic Mediterranean and the Lebanon Valleys.

(02:44):
They also controlled the three Armenian routes of Cappadocia, the
Black Sea and the Transcaucasian branch of Urfa, Marakh and
Mardin the fall of Urzerum has altered conditions respecting this last.
They dominate the Persian routes towards Touris and Tehran as well,

(03:05):
and last but not least, the Gulf branch of Zobeir.
These railways delivered into German hands the control of Persia,
whence the road to India may be made easy through
Syria lies the road to the Swiss Canal in Egypt,
which was used in February nineteen fifteen and will probably
be used again this year. To make this Oriental dream

(03:30):
a reality, the Germans have not relied on their railway
concessions alone. Their government has done everything in its power
to encourage German colonization in Palestine. Scattered all over the
country are German mills that half the time have nothing
to grind. German hotels have been opened in places seldom

(03:51):
frequented by Taurists. German engineers appeared in force, surveying sounding
noting all these colon illanists held gatherings in Arab villages
when the ignorant natives were told of the greatness of Germany,
of her good intentions, and of the evil machinations of
other powers. What I state here can be corroborated by

(04:14):
anyone who knows Palestine and has lived in it. About
the time when we first knew that Turkey would join
the Germanic powers, came the news that capitulations have been revoked.
As is generally known, foreigners formally enjoyed the protection of
their respective consuls. The Turkish government, under the terms of

(04:35):
the so called capitulations or agreements, had no jurisdiction over
an American, for instance, or a Frenchman who could not
be arrested without the consent of his council. In the
Ottoman Empire, where law and justice are not at a premium,
such protection was a wholesome and necessary policy. The revoking

(04:56):
of the capitulations was a terrible blow to all the Europeans,
meaning as it did the practical abolition of all their
rites upon the Arabs. It acted like an Intoxican. Every
bootblack or boatman felt that he was the equal of
the accursed Frank, who now had no consul to protect him,

(05:17):
and abuses began immediately. Moreover, as if by magic, the
whole country became Germanized. In all the mass Friday prayers
were ended with an invocation for the welfare of the
Sultan and Hudji Wilhelm. The significance of this lies in
the fact that the title Hujji can be properly applied

(05:39):
only to a Muslim who has made the pilgrimage to
Mecca and kissed the sacred stone of the Kaba. Instant
death is the penalty paid by any Christian who is
found within the enclosure. Yet Wilhelm, too, head of the
Lutheran faith, stepped forward as Hudji Wilhelm his pitch were sold.

(06:00):
Everywhere German officers appeared, and it seemed as if a
wind of brutal mastery were blowing. The dominant figure of
this movement in Palestine was, without doubt, the German consul
at Haifa, Leutweld van Hardeg. He traveled about the country,

(06:21):
making speeches and distributing pamphlets in Arabic in which it
was elaborately proved that Germans are not Christians like the
French or English, but they are descendants of the prophet Muhammad.
Passages from the Quran were quoted, prophesying the coming of
the Kaiser as the savior of Islam. End of Chapter

(06:42):
three recording by Setu