Mar. 4.
The Oxford University Press sends us a valuable little pamphlet, entitled ''Asia and the War,"' by A. E. Duchesne, which at the modest price of twopence should find many readers and certainly deserves to do.so. - The: author opens with a curious historical fact, not, perhaps, generally known. All Mohammedan authorities are that the Khalif, the head of Islam, must. be an Arab, of the tribe of Kareish, the tribe of Mohammed the prophet. That, however, precisely what the Sultan of. Turkey is not, the Ottoman dynasty being of Central Asian and not of Arab descent: "very few Indian Mohammedans would now be prepared to admit that the Khalifate is vested in the Ottoman sovereign." Hence, an essentially weak point in the Prussian belief that by dragging Turkey into the war it would be possible to foment a Pan-Islamic movement in Egypt and India. As regards! the former country the author notes that "The disquiet in Egypt (of former years) was never among the fellaheen, rapidly waxing prosperous under British ments of tyranny and ion. "itn protection, but among the former instraamong this class that Prussian intrigue has been most active. When I was in attention wan not. given. by the mar prise Was expressthorities to the many German, Austrian and Levantine commercial em: ployees who were nent in the campaign of vilification of evi That is interesting as further evi-denes of what Britons have only realized since the war began, namely, the ultimate object of Germany's long and sedulous flattery of Turkey.
The real failure of this policy, of course, lay, not in the historical unfitness of the Sultan for the Khalifate, but in the, to German: minds, unaccountable loyalty. of Egypt and India to Great Britain. As regards the employment of Indian troops in Europe, over which German publicists have waxed hypocritically indignant, Mr. Duchesne has a fine passage. The difficulty of employing Indian troops outside India has always been that an army with the glorious traditions of the Indian army must not appear as a mere band of mercenaries paid Ly whatever Dominion requires its services and "it is equally obvious that we must not saddle the patient Indian taxpayer with the cost of defence of other Daminions than his own." represents. If down, farewell to liberty, al pee and ions of our Indian comrades. Hence, neither of these objections weighs now. Whoever bears the actual money cost, the battle is as mach in defence of india as Britain. As © matter of fact, it has now been salted that India had not left the country, while aes need hee magnificent contribution of £355,000 from the Mysore Sthte goes towards' the cot of the actual ex In this light, the common defence of the Empire, we know that the war has been regarded by all parties in India, white in Egypt the only discontent likely. to be found is that which is felt by Egyptian officers and regiments whose eagerly services for the war in Europe have to be declined. Japan's share in the war is dealt with, but what Mr. Duchesne has to say on this subject is so familiar to our readers as to need mo quotetion.
To have made the pamphlet quite complete there might well have been a section about China and the war. Germany's attentions to China in recent years have been not unlike the court paid to Turkey. If there is no "holy war" to be stirred up in China, the position of the cowntry is strategically one where great annoyance might be caused to Great Britain, and commercial. ly one where much wealth may be gained at the expense of Great Britain. Recent events have also ery thing suggested to Germany that northern Chinese afford magnificent material for military training—a fact which Great Britain discovered sixteen ar seventeen years ago—and it is impossible not to feel that the militarist party in Peking to-day has something more than a bowing acquaintance with Berlin instigators. China has known the blandishments of many foreign suitors and, fortified by the pride of her own antiquiry, haa remained singularly unaffected by them. But this is a time when parties have more influence in Chins than was the case under a dynasty; and there is no doubt that Germany is now, and will continue, using every. means at her command of inaking up in China what she is losing. in other parts of the world. In these circumstances, the Chinese pro-German faction may well take warning from the fate of Turkey, who, as & mere cate-paw of Prussia, hae already lost the best of her troops, and will presently lose all her Heropean: Poosessions.) And in contrast, all
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.