Lawrence In Arabia Part 25

29 "Aaron Aaronsohn watched": Florence, Lawrence and Aaronsohn, p. 119.

30 "to the delight of the street boys": Aaronsohn, Present Economic and Political Conditions in Palestine, p. 6, early 1917; PRO-FO 882/14, f. 328.

31 "were destroyed by": Aaronsohn (anonymous), "Syria: Economic and Political Conditions," Arab Bulletin no. 33 (December 4, 1916): 505.

32 Within days of Turkey joining: Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks, pp. 18788.

33 Of course, this fatwa: Djemal Pasha, Memories of a Turkish Statesman, p. 204.

34 "generously forbidding": Aaronsohn (anonymous), "The Jewish Colonies," Arab Bulletin, no. 64 (September 27, 1917): 391.

35 It wasn't until the same commander: Alex Aaronsohn, "Saifna Ahmar, Ya Sultan!" The Atlantic Monthly, July 1916, Vol. 118.

36 For many of the Jewish emigres: A number of historians have a.s.serted that Djemal Pasha ordered the 191415 expulsion of Jews from Palestine as part of a general campaign to destroy the Jewish community, and none have made this a.s.sertion more forcefully than David Fromkin. On pp. 21011 of A Peace to End All Peace, Fromkin contends that Djemal "took violent action against the Jewish settlers. Influenced by a bitterly anti-Zionist Ottoman official named Beha-ed-din, Djemal moved to destroy the Zionist settlements and ordered the expulsion of all foreign Jews-which is to say, most of Jewish Palestine." In fact, Djemal's December 1914 expulsion edict applied only to the citizens of belligerent nations, the same policy adopted by other warring nations at the outbreak of World War I, and was then soon amended to exempt British and French Jews. Furthermore, those "belligerent" Jews in Palestine slated for expulsion, chiefly Russian Jews, were given the choice of staying if they a.s.sumed Ottoman citizenship, an option unique to the Ottoman Empire. As a result of this comparatively lenient treatment and the many loopholes it provided, only a fraction of the estimated 85,000 Jews residing in prewar Palestine left or were forced from the territory, and certainly not the "most of Jewish Palestine" of Fromkin's estimation.

37 "I am always watched": Aaronsohn to Rosenwald, January 21, 1915; NARA RG84, Entry 58, Volume 378, Decimal 800.

38 "Woolley looks after": Brown, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 69.

39 "Jerusalem is a dirty town": Lawrence, "Syria: The Raw Material," written early 1915, Arab Bulletin no. 44 (March 12, 1917).

40 "to everyone on board ship": Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 3, p. 1.

41 He also confirmed: Military Censor, Statement of W. M. Yale, November 17, 1914; PRO- WO 157/688.

42 "When he secured": Yale, T. E. Lawrence: Scholar, Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat (undated but 1935); BU Box 6, Folder 1.

43 With their Hebron road: Lawrence (unsigned and undated), handwritten notes on interview of William Yale; PRO-WO 158/689.

44 "Whenever he shook your hand": Morgenthau, Amba.s.sador Morgenthau's Story, p. 120.

45 "gay, debonair, interested": Bliss, "Djemal Pasha: A Portrait," in The Nineteenth Century and After, vol. 86 (New York: Leonard Scott, JulyDecember 1919), p. 1151.

46 "He had the ambition": Ibid., p. 1153.

47 "Never shall I forget": Djemal Pasha, Memories of a Turkish Statesman, pp. 14142.

48 "And here is the only road": Ibid., p. 143.

49 "undoubtedly the carefully": Prfer to Oppenheim, December 31, 1914; PAAA, Roll 21128, Der Weltkrieg no. 11g, Band 6.

Chapter 5: A Despicable Mess.

1 "So far as Syria": Lawrence, The Home Letters, p. 303.

2 From his knowledge: Intelligence Department "Note," January 3, 1915; PRO-FO 371/2480, f. 137.

3 Understandably, the British : Details on the Doris-Alexandretta affair were related in a series of reports from U.S. consul J. B. Jackson, Aleppo, to U.S. Secretary of State Lansing, between December 22, 1914, and January 14, 1915; NARA RG84, Entry 81, Box 12, Decimal 820.

4 "We have been informed": Unt.i.tled Intelligence Department report advocating landing at Alexandretta, January 5, 1915; SADD Clayton Papers, File 694/3/7, p. 3.

5 "Our particular job": Lawrence to Hogarth, January 15, 1915, in Garnett, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 191.

6 "Everyone was absolutely": Djemal Pasha, Memories of a Turkish Statesman, p. 154.

7 "I used to talk": Ibid., pp. 15455.

8 "I confess": Prfer, Diary, January 26, 1915; HO.

9 "The enemy cruisers": Ibid., January 30, 1915.

10 As it was, the approximately: Erickson, Ordered to Die, p. 71.

11 "Despite all our agitation": Prfer to von w.a.n.genheim and Oppenheim, February 9, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 23, Frame 862.

12 "The holy war": Prfer to Oppenheim, February 9, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 23, Frame 868.

13 Instead, the war strategists: For a detailed description of the Alexandretta-Dardanelles debate in the British government, see Gottlieb, Studies in Secret Diplomacy, pp. 7787.

14 Even the most pessimistic: M.O.2 report, "Expedition to Alexandretta," January 11, 1915, p. 2; PRO-WO 106/1570.

15 "Taking the Turkish Army": P. P. Graves, "Report on Turkish Military Preparations and Political Intrigues Having an Attack on Egypt as Their Object," November 10, 1914; PRO-FO 371/1970, f. 187.

16 "So far as Syria": Lawrence to parents, February 20, 1915, in Lawrence, The Home Letters, p. 303.

17 As the Allied fleet: Gottlieb, Studies in Secret Diplomacy, p. 109.

18 "Can you get someone": Lawrence to Hogarth, March 18, 1915, in Garnett, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, pp. 19394.

19 Sure enough, at about 2 p.m.: Hickey, Gallipoli, p. 72.

20 In various geological: Manuel, Realities of American-Palestine Relations, p. 267. Also, "Mines and Quarries of Palestine in 1921 by the Geological Adviser,"; NARA M353, Roll 87, doc.u.ment 867N.63/1.

21 Just prior to Yale's return: Cole, director of Socony, to Under-Secretary of State Polk, September 18, 1919; UNH Box 2.

22 The answer: A half-million more: Cole, director of Socony, to Under-Secretary of State Polk, May 5, 1919; NARA RG59, Central Decimal File, 19201929, doc.u.ment 467.11st25/31.

23 It had no intention: Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 4, p. 3, and pp. 2425.

24 To this end: Ibid., chapter 3, p. 12, and chapter 4, p. 3.

25 "Silence!": Lewis, "An Ottoman Officer in Palestine, 19141918," in Kushner, Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period, p. 404.

26 "I now can grant": Bliss, "Djemal Pasha: A Portrait," in The Nineteenth Century and After, vol. 86 (New York: Leonard Scott, JulyDecember 1919), p. 1156.

27 "Upon peeking out": Ballobar, Jerusalem in World War I, p. 55.

28 They told of entire orchards: While perhaps an exaggeration, Alex Aaronsohm claimed to have personally witnessed "Arab babies, left by their mothers in the shade of some tree, whose faces had been devoured by the oncoming swarms of locusts before their screams had been heard." Alex Aaronsohn, With the Turks in Palestine, p. 51.

29 "Your Excellency": As quoted by Florence, Lawrence and Aaronsohn, p. 129; Engle, The Nili Spies, p. 45.

30 If any petty officials: Engle, The Nili Spies, p. 60.

31 The result had been: For details on the history of HusseinYoung Turk relations, see Antonius, The Arab Awakening, pp. 12558; Baker, King Husain and the Kingdom of Hejaz, pp. 1245; Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks, pp. 14473.

32 "English through and through": Prfer to Oppenheim, November 3, 1914; NARA T137, Roll 23, Frame 213.

33 Instead, the wily old emir: Prfer to Metternich, January 22, 1916; NARA T130, Roll 457, Turkei 65, Band 38.

34 "We had no literary": Storrs, Memoirs, p. 202.

35 "I found myself": Ibid., p. 135.

36 "Tell Storrs to send": Kitchener to Consul-General, Cairo, September 24, 1914; PRO-FO 141/460.

37 "immediate followers": Antonius, The Arab Awakening, p. 132.

38 "Great Britain will guarantee": Draft of letter from Kitchener to Sherif Abdalla, November 1914; PRO-FO 141/460.

39 "The Med-Ex came": Lawrence to Hogarth, April 20, 1915, in Garnett, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 196.

40 Most shocking of all: Ibid., p. 197.

41 Incredibly, it seems: As noted by Guinn in British Strategy and Politics, p. 70, "This drastic change in policy of what now became the Dardanelles campaign-from primarily naval to exclusively military-had been decided on the spot in a matter of moments without the strain of taking thought."

42 "Arabian affairs have": Lawrence to Hogarth, April 26, 1915, in Garnett, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 198.

43 At about 6:15: The initial Gallipoli landings of April 25, 1915, have been written about many times, most notably in the books of Alan Moorehead and Peter Hart, both ent.i.tled Gallipoli. From a standpoint of military science, perhaps the most authoritative account is to be found in Robin Prior's Gallipoli: The End of the Myth.

44 "the sea near": Weldon, Hard Lying, pp. 6869.

45 Having learned of Hussein's: For details on Faisal's 1915 journey to Damascus and Constantinople, see Dawn, From Ottomanism to Arabism, pp. 2631; Tauber, The Arab Movements in World War I, pp. 5767.

Chapter 6: The Keepers of Secrets.

1 "You know, men": Lawrence, The Home Letters, p. 304.

2 "We edit a daily": Lawrence to Bell, April 18, 1915, in Brown, The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, p. 71.

3 So a new a.s.sault: Prfer to von w.a.n.genheim, February 9, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 23, Frame 862.

4 "bitter, practical experience": Prfer to (illegible), February 24, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 24, Frame 390.

5 It had been in Jerusalem: The early connections between Prfer and Minna Weizmann are described in McKale, Curt Prfer, p. 42.

6 "my dear f.a.n.n.y": See Prfer, Diary, October 26, 1914; January 27, 1915; May 5 and June 25, 1916; HO.

7 "people who can": Prfer to Djemal Pasha, March 1, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 24, Frames 27173; PAAA, Roll 21131, Der Weltkrieg no. 11g, Band 9.

8 "will try to steal": Ibid.

9 While Rothschild made: Cohn, "Report," July 16, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 24, Frame 697.

10 "She revealed": Steinbach to Ziemke, August 3, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 24, Frame 779.

11 That lineage may: McKale, Curt Prfer, p. 203 n. 18.

12 "Curt Prfer is indispensable": Von w.a.n.genheim to Bethmann-Hollweg, in cover letter, March 3, 1915; NARA T137, Roll 23, Frame 862.

13 By most accounts, Frank: See Lawrence, The Home Letters of T. E. Lawrence and His Brothers, pp. 653720.

14 "I haven't written": Lawrence to family, June 4, 1915; Bodleian MS Eng C 6740.

15 "Poor Dear Mother": Lawrence to Sarah Lawrence, undated; Bodleian MS Eng C 6740.

16 In an emotional address: Dawn, From Ottomanism to Arabism, p. 30; Djemal Pasha, Memories of a Turkish Statesman, p. 213.

17 The most recent bout: Lewy, The Armenian Ma.s.sacres in Ottoman Turkey, p. 28. The number of Armenians killed in the so-called Hamidian Ma.s.sacres is a topic of enduring historical dispute, with estimates ranging from a low of thirteen thousand by the Turkish government to a high of three hundred thousand by some Armenian historians. Probably most reliable is Lewy's figure of between fifty and eighty thousand.

18 "revolutionary and political": As cited by Lewy, ibid., p. 151.

19 "these new crimes": US Department of State telegram to US Emba.s.sy, Constantinople, May 29, 1915; NARA M353, Roll 43, doc.u.ment 867.4016/67.

20 "authorized and compelled": As cited by Lewy, The Armenian Ma.s.sacres in Ottoman Turkey, p. 153.

21 by best estimate: The most authoritative history on the 191516 Armenian tragedy is Lewy, The Armenian Ma.s.sacres in Ottoman Turkey.

22 The consensus among: As Armenian historian Vanakh Dadrian notes in The Key Elements in the Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide, p. 54, "It should be recognized in this respect that not only IVth Army Commander Cemal [sic] in Syria and Palestine, but also IIIrd Army Commander Vehib Pasha in eastern Turkey, despite their strong ties to the Ittihad Party, refused to embrace the secret genocidal agenda of the party's top leadership and whenever they could they tried to resist and discourage the attendant ma.s.sacres."

23 Reiterating a March decree: As cited by Lewy, The Armenian Ma.s.sacres in Ottoman Turkey, p. 197. See also Metternich to Bethmann-Hollweg, December 9, 1915; NARA T139, Roll 463, Band 40.

24 By September: Lewy, The Armenian Ma.s.sacres in Ottoman Turkey, p. 192.

25 "the Arabs did not speak": Aaronsohn, Diary, April 1, 1915, ZY.

26 In a particularly outrageous case: Ibid., April 27, 1915.