Young Turks, Free Masons and Jews

Young Turks, Freemasons and Jews Elie Kedourie

Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan., 1971), pp. 89-104

YoungTurks, Freemasonsand Jews Elie Kedourie It is relatedthat when Kamil Pashawas OttomanGrandVizierat the beginningof 1913, he complainedof lack of. support from the British ambassador,Sir GerardLowther,and exclaimedin despair:'Alas, where is White, where is Currie?" Kamil Pasha's bitternessover Lowther's attitudewascertainlyjustified,butit is mostdoubtfulwhetherhis nostalgia for Whiteand Curriehas any historicalwarrant.In fact, whetherwe look at Britishpolicy towardsthe OttomanEmpirefrom the morrowof the Congressof Berlin to the eve of the First World War, or whetherwe examinethe attitudeof successiveBritishambassadorsin Constantinople during the same period, our dominantimpressionis likely to be quite negative. On the very morrow of the CyprusConventionof 1878, by whichBritainengagedto join the Sultanin defendingOttomanpossessions in Asia 'by force of arms',mutualdisenchantmentwas alreadyapparent. The Britishgovernmenton the one hand founditself unableor unwilling to give financialor other supportto Abd al-Hamid,and on the other suspected that the Sultan was not in earnest about those 'necessary reforms' which he had bound himself by the Cyprus Conventionto introduce.By the end of 1879, British influencewas at a low ebb in Constantinople,and the pro-OttomanLayardhad, as Salisburyput it, 'lost his temperwith the Sultan,and like a Portuguesesailorin a stormis disposed to beat the idol he worshipped'.2Anglo-Ottomanrelations thereafterremainedtepid. The Britishoccupationof Egypt, on the one hand increasedAbd al-Hamid'ssuspicionof his ostensibleally, and on the otherconsiderablydecreasedBritishinterestin an Ottomanalliance.3 BritishattitudestowardAbd al-Hamidbecameoneof increasingdislikeand mistrust:he was believedto be cynicalabout reformsand to propagatea mischievous and possibly dangerous Pan-Islamism. The Armenian troublesof the 1890sservedto give him, in addition,a sinisterreputation as an unscrupulousand bloodthirstydespot. It was now thoughtpracticallyuselessandmorallywrongto haveanytruckwith'AbdultheDamned', and the 'unspeakableTurk' was undoubtedlythe wrong horse to have backedin the CrimeanWarand in 1876-78.'I believe,'Salisburywrotein 1898, 'that under the guidance of Palmerstonand Lord Stratfordde Redcliffewe made a graveblunderin desertingthe alliancesof 1805.We sacrificedthe allianceof a Powerthat was growing,for a Powerthat was evidentlydecaying.'2Fear of Germanyfinallybroughtabout an entente with Russia some nine years after the date of Salisbury'sletter. This entente was bound to, and did make, Anglo-Ottomanrelationsmore difficultand ambiguousthan ever. The outbreak,a yearlater,of the YoungTurkrevolutionseemed,however,at firstsightto heralda warmerrelationshipbetweenBritainand the OttomanEmpire.The newlyappointedambassador,Sir GerardLowther (1858-1916),was given an enthusiasticpopularwelcome on his arrival

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at Constantinople,and Sir Edward Grey describedthe revolution as 'marvellous',declaringthat: 'We were against the Turkishgovernment whenit was bad, but betweenus and the peopletherewas not, and never had been, any barrier.'5But it soon becameclear that the Young Turk revolutionhad not effectedany fundamentalchangein Anglo-Ottoman relations.Britishpolicy,afterall, was still governedbytheneedto maintain the ententewith Russia, no matterwhat the characterof the Ottoman regime.If this was the case, then to affordthe Ottomanssolid and wholeheartedsupport-whether political or financial-would have been consideredas at best unproductive,and at worst downrightharmful.In this attitudeLowtherseemsto have been at one with the ForeignOffice.One may even go furtherand say that his reportson the politicalsituationat Constantinople,and on the characterand activitiesof the Young Turks instilledwithin the ForeignOfficethe belief that the Young Turkswere much worse than Abd al-Hamid. Lowther thus reinforcedthe longstandinganti-Ottomanprejudicein the Foreign Office,and encouraged its tendencyto believethat the Ottomangovernmentwas madeup of men who wereat once sinisterand incompetent,corruptand infantile. In conveyingsuch an impressionto his colleaguesand superiorsin London,the ambassadorseems to have been wholly guidedby his chief dragoman, G. H. Fitzmaurice(1865-1939). No biography either of Lowther or Fitzmauriceexists, and it is difficultfor us to know how passiveand receptivethe formerwas by character,or how forcefuland persuasivethe latter. But this at least we do know, that Lowtherwas a newcomerat Constantinoplewhile Fitzmauricewas an old hand there, and that the ambassadoradmiredhis subordinate'sabilitiesand relied hewroteto thePermanent on him.'As to Fitzmaurice,whois indefatigable,' at the ForeignOfficein July 1909, 'I am quite satisfied Under-Secretary thathe is in touchwith all the variouselementsof the localpoliticalworld, and that no embassy, except perhaps the Russians, who have a Jew dragomanin close touchwith the Jew Committeeof Union and Progress, is betterinformedthat we are'.6When, some two yearslater,the Young Turk newspaperTanin attackedFitzmauricefor allegedlyintriguingin favourof an Arabcaliphate,and for attributingpro-Zionistpoliciesto the Ottoman government,Lowther strongly defendedhis chief dragoman, and endorsed Fitzmaurice'sexplanationof the attack by Tanin.This attack Fitzmauriceattributedto his investigationof the influence of freemasonryover the Young Turks.He believedthat it was his duty to carryout such an investigationbecausemasonryhad become'the instrumentof politicalintriguein mattersaffectingBritishinterests'.Fitzmaurice also believedthat his inquiriesinto masonry'werenot freefrom danger'.7 It is clearfrom this languagethat the chief dragomanbelievedthat in Constantinoplethingswerenot what they seemed,that politicalincidents had hiddenimplicationsand esotericexplanations.His outlook may be exemplifiedby a remarkableletter which he wrote to WilliamTyrrell, Grey's principalprivate secretaryin November 1912, when the Balkan allies appearedon the point of capturingConstantinople.Fitzmaurice's letter was dated from Tzarigradas he now called the Ottomancapital, and began:'Swan-like,let me writeyou a last letterfromPekinbeforethe Courtand Porteflee baglessand baggeless(Gladstonese)to the shoresof Asia.' He believedthat the 'dramaof 1453'was being 'undone'and that the 'TurkishArmyrottedby C.U.P. doctrinesand politicscould not fight

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in the name of Djavid Bey, instead of the Padishah and collapsed before

the avengingBalgarand the armiesof the new GreatPower-the "United Statesof the Balcans"whichare undoubtedlythe right horsebesidesthe favouritesof the GladstonianTradition.Art. 23 of the Treatyof Berlin has been set rightby revertingto San Stephanoand if bad massacres,etc., occur here within the next 36 hours, the lurid wave may sweep over Anatolia and force the 10,000Russiansat Urmia to step in and redress Art. 61 of Berlin.'His imaginationwas just as luridas the scenehe envisaged,for he wenton to say: 'If a generalmassacre,etc., etc., like Turner's picture in the National Gallery "Wind, Rain and Speed" sweeps over Anatolia and Syria in an expiringspasm of Panislamismnow for four years harnessedto the chariot of Panjudaism,the prairiefire may even reachEgypt.'8 Thereis no doubt that LowthersharedFitzmaurice'soutlook. As has beenseen,in a letterof 1909,he speaksof the'JewCommitteeof Unionand Progress'.Otherlettersmakehis views on Ottomanpoliticsfully explicit. 'Haveyou readthe NineteenthCentury?',he asks Hardinge,in a letterof April 1910. 'Freemasonryin France,mutatismutandi-this will explaina lot of what is going on here.The Jews,Socialistsand Freemasonsare all supremelattermakinggreatstrides.That will probablyproduceanother Counterrevolutionunlessit gets too strong.'A week later, he speaksof the 'combinationof self-seekingspurious freemasonsand Jews that representthe Committeeof Union and Progress'and he affirmsthat 'this Albanianbusinesshas been createdby a few SalonicaJews'.9Threeyears laterhis opinionsare quiteunchanged:'GreatBritainand her agents,'he wrote in March 1913to Sir ArthurNicolson,Hardinge'ssuccessorat the ForeignOffice,'do not appealto the recklessand the violentwho pull the stringshere,so we are not popular.I do not thinkMahmoudShefket[the GrandVizier]dreadsor need dread the Ententists[i.e. the Hurriyetve Itilaf Firkasi]Moderatesor peace men or whateveryou like to call them but ratherthe violentsectionof his own partywho carenot whathappens to the country,but who, encouragedby the Jews,merelyseek their own ends.'10

The mysteriesof the Judeo-masonicand Young Turk conspiracyuncoveredbythe ambassadorandhis dragomanfortunatelydo not haveto be piecedtogetherfrom mereobiterdicta.Theyare actuallyset out in a long and detailedletter, 'privateand confidential',dated May 29, 1910,from Lowtherto Hardinge.It is reproducedhere in an appendix.The story which Lowtherhere unfolds in all its labyrinthinecomplexityinvolves many actors in various parts of the Mediterranean-andeven perhaps beyond-all bound togetherby the occult ties of freemasonry:'Nathan, the JewishLord Mayorof Rome, is high up in Masonry,and the Jewish PremiersLuzzatiand Sonnino,and other Jewishsenatorsand deputies, are also, it appears,Masons'; 'The ItalianGovernmentappointeda Jew and Mason called Primo Levi, who was not in the consularcareer,as consul-generalat Salonica, and Oscar Strauss [sic], who togetherwith Jacob Schiff, had influencedthe American Jews in favour of Jewish immigrationinto Mesoptamiaas opposed to other Territorialistplans andas an extendedformof Sionism,wasappointedAmericanAmbassador here.'If to Nathan,Leviand the others,we addanothername,wewillhave revealeda cruciallink in this invisiblechain: 'Someyearsago Emanuele Carasso,a JewishMason of Salonica,and now deputyfor that town in

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the OttomanChamber,foundedtherea lodgecalled"MacedoniaRisorta" in connectionwith ItalianFreemasonry.He appearsto have inducedthe Young Turks,officersand civilians,to adopt Freemasonrywith a view to exertingimpalpableJewishinfluenceoverthe newdispensationin Turkey.' Thesewerethe conspirators.But Nathanand Levi, Sonninoand Luzzati, Schiffand Straussand Carasso,what was theirpurpose?'Theimmediate purposefor whichthey are workingis the practicallyexclusiveeconomic capture of Turkey and new enterprisesin that country.' Behind this immediateaim lay an ultimatepurpose'[theJew]seemsto have entangled Turk in his toils and as Turkeyhappensto the pre-economic-minded containthe places sacredto Israel,it is but naturalthat the Jew should strive to maintaina position of exclusiveinfluenceand utilize it for the furtheranceof his ideals, viz. the ultimate creation of an autonomous Jewishstate in Palestineor Babyloniaas explainedby IsraelZangwillin his articlein the "FortnightlyReview"of April.'It was throughCarasso that the Young Turkswere harnessedto these aims, and they in return havemadethe OttomanEmpirea mereinstrumentof the Jew:'TalaatBey, the Minister of the Interior, who is of Gipsy descent . . . , and Javid, the

Ministerof Finance,who is a Crypto-Jew,are the officialmanifestations of the occult powerof the Committee[of Union and Progress].They are the only membersof the Cabinetwho reallycount, and are also the apex of Freemasonry in Turkey....

Since he became Minister of the Interior

abouta yearago, TalaatBey has been spreadingthe net of the Freemason Committeeoverthe Empireby appointingto provincialpostsas governors, sub-governors, etc., menwho areMasonsor reliableCommitteeadherents, and, in most cases,both.... The invisiblegovernmentof Turkeyis thus the GrandOrientwith TalaatBey as GrandMaster.'Thesewerethe main lines of Sir Gerard'sstory, but it also had some baroque and highly significantembellishments.The Jew hates Russia, Englandis friendlyto Russia, thereforethe Jew is anti-British,'a considerationto whichthe Germansare, I think, alive'. The Jew and the Young Turk, again, have combinedto push out and estrangeArmenians,Greeks,and Arabs,and manyof the latter'secretlyturntheireyestowardsthe Khedivateas the one "Arab Government"which, they cherishthe hope, may one day, under Britishauspices,exercisea centripetalinfluenceon all OttomanArabs.' The fustianfantasiesrecordedin this documentare worthnoticingfor theirown sake,for theyexhibitthe extremesof credulityto whichsuccumbed the two men11to whomthe ForeignSecretarylookedfor the provision of reliableinformationabout an importantand sensitivearea.The document shows how tenuouswas their hold on reality.Rule by doctrinaire officerssuchas the YoungTurkswas, of course,an ominousdevelopment in the OttomanEmpire;but to representit as the outcomeof a Judeomasonicconspiracywas entirelyto missits significance.It wasto be gulled by fuddledfabulosities. If Lowtherand Fitzmauricewereso easilyled astrayon so fundamental an issue, then theirjudgmentregardingotheraspectsof Ottomanpolitics becomes suspect. How this judgmentinfluencedpolicy is, however, a differentand a more complexissue. But that it had an influencemay not be doubted. AcknowledgingLowther's report of May 29, Hardinge declaredthat it was 'most interestingreading'and that copies werebeing sent privatelyto the India Office,to Cairo and Teheran.'2This is a indicationof how seriouslyit was taken.As has been arguedabove,anti-


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Ottoman prejudice more or less pronounced is a standing feature of British policy from the 1880s onwards. Lowther's letter, encouraging the belief that the new Ottoman rulers were a band of sinister conspirators, must have confirmed this prejudice and given it a new strength. Such a prejudice,incalculable as its effects are, must be reckoned with in considering British policy toward the Ottoman Empire in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the First World War. In a recent paper, Professor Allan Cunningham has remarked that by 1914 'a British government was no longer inclined by temperamentto make any sort of major sacrifice to win over Turkey'.13It is reasonable to assume that Lowther's reports had their part to play in the making of this temperament. Two echoes of Lowther's and Fitzmaurice's views are perhaps worth mentioning, both for their intrinsic interest, and as an indication of the wide prevalence of these views. The Arab Bulletin of September 26, 1916, carried an anonymous article entitled 'Notes on Freemasonry in Turkey under the New Regime (1908-1914)', which seems to reproduce, with embellishments, the account given in Lowther's letter of May 29, 1910. Carasso, 'a low-class, and dishonest lawyer, an obsequious, venal and secretive scoundrel, with a mysterious manner' was responsible for inducting Talaat, Javid, Dr Nazim and Behaeddin Monastirli into freemasonry; he was a 'useful jackal to the lions and tigers of the C.U.P.'. The Committee of Union and Progress, freemasonry and Judaism were inextricably connected: 'Certain Turks of Constantinople who knew Salonika remarked a curious similarity between the emblems of the Committee and those of the Macedonia Risorta Lodge, and of the Jewish Beni Brith Society'; the inauguration of the Grand Orient of Turkey in June 1909 was 'graced by the presence of numerous Jewish gentlemen from Haskeui (the Whitechapel of Constantinople), Salonika, Smyrna and various cities in Hungary, and the Central Empires'. The Bulletin listed the members of the 'Supreme Council of the Grand Orient of Turkey', three or probably four of whom were Jews,'4 three Donmes and four only Muslims. Certain foreign observers, the Bulletin remarked, had begun to wonder whether 'the Young Turk might not prove to be an old Jew with German affinities'. After going through various complicated reasonings, the article concluded that 'as far as is known Turkish Freemasonry is now dormant, and will probably remain so, till the present governing group in Turkey is driven from power, and resumes its underground methods against the next Turkish regime or a foreign conqueror'.15 The other echo worth noticing occurs in a letter from G. F. Clayton, director of Intelligence at Cairo, to Wingate, the Governor-General of the Sudan. The letter is written from London where Clayton was on an official mission, and is dated August 3, 1916. Clayton describes to his correspondent his impression 'which confirmed what I have always thought' of the widespread influence of the Jews; the letter went on: 'There are English Jews, French Jews, American Jews, German Jews, Austrian Jews and Salonica Jews-but all are JEWS, and moreover practically all are anti-Russian. You hear peace talk and generally somewhere behind is the Jew. You hear pro-Turk talk and desires for a separate peace with Turkey-again the Jew (the mainspring of the C.U.P.)'.16 The letter sheds a peculiar light on the judgment of one who, during and after the First World War, was a main architect of British policy in the Middle East. But, of course, Clayton was not the only one to be impressed by the

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ubiquity and omnipotence of the Jews. If he was suspicious, others were impressed by so much power and it may well be that such fictions helped to persuade the British government to fall for and to take up Zionism: Clio is indeed an ironic muse.

APPENDIX Secret Sir G. Lowtherto Sir C. Hardinge* (Privateand Confidential.) Dear Charles Constantinople,May 29, 1910. Gorst'stelegramof the 23rd April and your telegramof the 25th Aprilabout the rumouredappointmentof MohammedFarid as delegatein Egypt of the ConstantinopleFreemasons,'saidto be intimatelyconnectedwiththe Committee of Union and Progress',promptsme to writeto you at some lengthon the strain of continentalFreemasonryrunningthroughthe Young Turk movement.I do so privatelyand confidentially,as this new Freemasonryin Turkey,unlikethat of Englandand America,is in great part secret and political,and information on the subjectis only obtainablein strict confidence,while those who betray its politicalsecretsseemto standin fear of the hand of the Mafia.Some daysago a local Mason who divulgedthe signs of the craft was actuallythreatenedwith being sent beforethe court-martial,sittingin virtueof our state of siege. As you are aware,the Young Turkeymovementin Paris was quite separate from and in great part in ignoranceof the inner workingsof that in Salonica. The latter town has a population of about 140,000, of whom 80,000 are SpanishJews, and 20,000 of the sect of SabetaiLevi [sic] or Crypto-Jews,who externallyprofess Islamism. Many of the former have in the past acquired Italian nationalityand are Freemasonsaffiliatedto Italian lodges. Nathan, the JewishLord Mayor of Rome, is high up in Masonry,and the JewishPremiers Luzzati and Sonnino, and other Jewish senators and deputies, are also, it appears, Masons. They claim to have been founded from and to follow the ritual of the 'AncientScottish'. Some years ago EmannueleCarasso,a Jewish Mason of Salonica,and now deputy for that town in the Ottoman Chamber,founded there a lodge called 'MacedoniaRisorta' in connection with Italian Freemasonry.He appearsto have induced the Young Turks, officersand civilians, to adopt Freemasonry with a view to exertingan impalpableJewishinfluenceoverthe new dispensation in Turkey,thoughostensiblyonly with a view to outwittingthe Hamidianspies, and gave them the shelter of his lodge, which, meeting in a foreign house, enjoyedextra-territorialimmunitiesfrom inquisitorialmethods.AdbulHamid's spies got cognisanceof the movement,and a certainIsmail MahirPasha, who was mysteriouslymurderedshortlyafterthe revolutionin July 1908-an accident afterdark-appears to have learntsome of theirsecretsand reportedon themto Yildiz Palace. Spies were posted outside the lodge to take down the names of officersand others who frequentedit, a move which the Freemasonscountermined by enrolling of the secret police as 'brethren'.The inspirationof the movementin Salonicawould seem to have been mainlyJewish,while the words 'Liberte','Egalite'and 'Fraternite',the motto of the Young Turks,are also the deviceof ItalianFreemasons.The colours of both, red and white, are againthe same. Shortlyafterthe revolutionin July 1908,whenthe Committeeestablished itselfin Constantinople,it soon becameknownthat manyof its leadingmembers were Freemasons.Carasso began to play a big role, includinghis successful * F.O. 800/193A(LowtherPapers).


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captureof the Balkan Committee,and it was noticed that Jews of all colours, native and foreign,were enthusiasticsupportersof the new dispensation,till, as a Turk expressedit, every Hebrew seemed to become a potential spy of the occult Committee,and people beganto remarkthat the movementwas rathera Jewishthan a Turkishrevolution.The ItalianGovernmentappointeda Jew and MasoncalledPrimoLevi, who was not in the consularcareer,as consul-general at Salonica,and OscarStrauss,who, togetherwith Jacob Schiff,had influenced the AmericanJewsin favourof Jewishimmigrationinto Mesoptamiaas opposed to other Territorialistplans and as an extendedform of Sionism,was appointed AmericanAmbassadorhere.As you probablyknow, the orthodoxMoslemhas a very strong prejudiceagainst Masonry, which he looks upon as worse than irreligious,and in the movementagainst the Committeewhich culminatedin the mutiny of the 13th April, 1909, this feature figured rather prominently. Those eventshave not so far been satisfactorilyexplained,but it did not escape notice at the time that the four battalionswhich had been speciallydispatched from Salonicato the capital,and which KiamilPashawishedto have sent back to the IlIrd ArmyCorps,startedthe mutinyor 'so-calledreactionarymovement', and werecommandedby a Crypto-Jewand Freemasonfrom Salonica,a Colonel Remzi Bey, who, insteadof being court-martialledon accountof the behaviour of the troops confided to his charge, was appointed Chief Aide-de-campto SultanMehmedV. Carassowas one of the bearersof the messageof deposition to Abdul Hamid, who was conveyedto Salonicaand confinedin the house of the ItalianJewishbankersof the Committee,while a brotherof Renzi Bey was set over him as keeper.After the depositionthe Jewishpapersof Salonicasent up a loud cry of deliverancefrom 'the oppressorof Israel'who had twiceturned a deafear to the appealsof Herzl,the Sionistleader,and who, by the imposition of the red passport,like our own Aliens Act, againstPolish Jewishimmigrants, and otherwise,had thwartedthe realisationof the idealsof Sionismin Palestine. The ninth Sionist Congressin December1909 at Hamburgannouncedthat the divisionsin the Jewishworld betweenTerritorialistsand Sionists, 'as a miracle of the Turkishrevolution',had been healed.At the sametime JavidBey, Deputy for Salonica,an exceedinglycleverand gifted Crypto-Jewand Freemason,was made Ministerof Finance,whileTalaatBey, also a Freemason,becameMinister of the Interior.Hilmi Pasha,the GrandVizier,had appliedto becomea Mason, but did not 'proceed'.Martiallaw was proclaimedfor two years, and most of the officerson the courts-martialwere Freemasons.Parliamentwas 'ordered' to pass a very stringentPress Law, and a SalonicaCrypto-Jewand Freemason was made 'Directeurdu Bureaude la Presse',a post of enormouspower, as its holder can suppressa paper for severe 'criticismof the new regime' (dubbed 'reaction'),or have the proprietoror editor court-martialled.A semi-inspired Ottomantelegraphagency,which gives the Committeeview of events external and internalconcerningthings Ottoman,was startedunder the directionof a BaghdadJew, and an all but successfulattemptwas madeto appointa Salonica Jewish lawyer and Mason as adviserto the Ministry of Justice. The Constantinoplehead branchof the Committeeof Union and Progressis also run by a SalonicaCrypto-Jewand Mason.AnotherSalonicaCrypto-JewandFreemason made determinedattemptsto be appointed'Prefet',i.e. Lord Mayor, of the capital, but has not yet succeededin his aim, though Prince Said Hamil, [sic] an EgyptianFreemason,has become Deputy Mayor. The 'Prefet'of Constantinople, like those in France,wields enormouspower in all mattersconcerning the lives and movementsof the citizens, and especiallyin matters connected with municipal elections and those for the Constantinopledeputies in the Chamber.At the same time, the old Ministryof Police was replacedby the 'Strete Publique'controllingthe police and gendarmerie,and put in chargeof a SalonicaFreemason.'Parliament'was furtherorderedto pass the 'Loi sur les Associations',whichenabledthe Committeeof Union and Progressto suppress all similar or rival associationsamong the Bulgars,Greeks, etc., after which

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muzling processit went throughthe sham of transformingitself from a secret revolutionarysociety into a 'politicalparty and social society' with published statutes. It was, however,noticed at the same time that Freemasonrylodges began to spring up like mushroomsin all the principaland small towns of Macedonia and also in the capital,wheresome twelve lodges have been startedwithin the last year, and it did not requiremuch investigationto learnthat the secrecyof the craftwas beingpartlyused to concealthe innerworkingsof the Committee, whichhad professedlyceasedto be a 'secretsociety'.A subterraneanpropaganda seemedto be carriedon, and officialsand othersholdingimportantposts seemed to be given to understandthat their position, advancement,and consequently theirlivelihooddependedon theirbecoming'brethren'.Some weretold that, by becoming Masons, Egypt, Crete, and other questions affecting the national greatnessof the countrywouldbe settledin favourof Turkey,that the innermost arcanaof the politicalworldwould be revealedto them,that they wouldbecome the brothersof the late King of England,and could shake handsand exchange signs with him when he visited Constantinople,etc. Many of these new recruits beganto visit, and some actuallysucceededin joining,the old-establishedBritish lodge, 'La Turquie',and every endeavourwas made to induce them to believe that in becoming Masons they were joining an English institution.The new lodges, like similarones in Egypt, claimedto follow the 'AncientScottish'rite, and falselygave out that they indirectlyheld a charterfrom the GrandLodgeof Scotland, of which the King of England was Protector, their idea being to inspirethe confidencewhich attachesto the Englishname among all Ottoman classes. To maintain the Committee'shold on the army, crowds of officers, especially the juniors were made Masons, and received into a lodge called 'Resna'afterthe birthplacein Macedoniaof Niazi Bey, and with MajorOsman, FehmiBey, the brotherof Niazi Bey, as Master.Most of the Committeedeputies and senatorsalso becameMasons, belongingto the lodge 'La Constitution'of whichTalaatBey,the Ministerof the InteriorandJavidBey, Ministerof Finance, were the principalofficers.Some opposition deputies,especiallyArabs, seeing that they were beingleft out in the cold and out of the currentof local political secrets and intrigues, started or joined lodges, e.g. the 'Ukhuvet Osmanie (i.e. 'OttomanFraternity')andthe'Muhiban-i-Hurriet' (i.e. 'Friendsof Freedom'.) Further the close on 1,000,000adherentsof the unorthodoxIslamic sect of Bektashis,to be found mostly in SouthAlbaniaand Macedonia,and possessing secret tenets and an organisationakin to those of Freemasonry,manifesteda desire to join the Freemasons.These, however, were animatedrather by the true spirit of Freemasonryas opposed to the politicaland atheisticform to be met with in some continentalcountries. In addition to the above-mentionedlodges, the following were founded in Constantinopleduring 1909-10: The 'Vefa Oriental'(or 'OrientalFidelity'), 'Les vrais Amis de l'Union et Progres', 'Byzantio Risorto', 'La Vritas', 'La Patrie','La Renaissance',and a branchof 'MacedoniaRisorta'and the 'Shefak' (or 'Dawn', i.e. 'L'Aurore'),a name not unknownto the studentsof Egyptian undergroundpolitics. All these lodges, like the network of Freemasonryin Salonicaand Macedonia,seem to be mainly directedor inspiredby Jews, the Greek, Armenian,and other native Christianelements being almost entirely non-represented,if not excluded.Mentionhas been made above of PrinceSaid Halim of Egypt. He, his brotherAbbas Halim, PrinceAziz Hassan, and other Egyptiansanimatedwith a violent dislike of His Highnessthe Khedive have worked in with and financiallyhelped the Committeeof Union and Progress. The process by which the Freemasonryof Young Turkey,introducedinto the capitalthroughSalonica,becamelinkedup with EgyptianMasonrywas subject to the cross-currentsthat usually characterisepolitics on the shores of the Bosphorus,and is a bit obscure.Masonsthemselvesgivingconflictingaccounts of what occurred.


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IdrisBey Raghib,the Masterof the GrandLodgeof Egypt,whichis said to be recognisedby the Grand Lodge of Scotland, was the founder of, and held supremacyover,a numberof lodgesin Egypt,Syria,Palestine,and the Lebanon, in which latter districtthe curious phenomenonof large numbersof Roman CatholicMasonsis to be met with. MahomedOrfiPashawas also the founderof some lodgesin Egypt,Jerusalem and SouthernSyria, and aspiredto bring the Constantinoplelodges into his 'system',and arrivedhere for that purposein the Springof 1909.He met with certaindifficulties,and whenthe mutinyof the 13thApriloccurred,he got scared and fled precipitatelyto Egypt.Some time beforethose eventsIdris Raghibhad delegatedPrince Aziz Hassan who had attainedthe 17th degreein the Italian lodge at Alexandria,to bringthe Constantinoplelodgesunderthe GrandLodge of Egypt,and some time afterthe entryinto the capitalof the Macedonianforces who were led and inspiredby Masons,and the dethronementof Abdul Hamid, who was bitterlyopposed to Masonry,held by him to be a dangeroussecret politicalsociety, the negotiationsbegan. The necessaryauthoritywas obtained from the Italian Grand Orient, and Prince Aziz Hassan, in virtue of special powers emanatingthrough Yusuf Bey Sakakini, from the Belgian Supreme Council of Freemasonry,was raised to the 33rd degree, and empoweredto constitutethe Grand Orientde la Turquie.This took place in July or August 1909,and MehmedTalaatBey, Ministerof the Interior,was madeGrandMaster. It wouldthusappearthatthe victoryof the Macedonianforcesin April 1909over Abdul Hamid and the conquest of Constantinoplealso meant the victory of Italian inspired Freemasonryover the British recognized Grand Lodge of Egypt. All the lodges in Constantinoplewere graduallyaffiliatedto it, as also those in Macedonia,and it was decidedto bringall the Ottomanlodgesin Syria, Egypt,etc., underthe OttomanGrandOrient.PrinceAziz Hassan,accompanied by Sakakini,returnedto Egyptfor thatpurpose,but IdrisBey Raghiband others were opposed to the idea, and maintainedthat Egypt and the Lebanon,being privilegedprovinces,ought to be independenteven in (political)Freemasonry. PrinceAziz Hassanthenfell out withIdrisRaghib,who had originallydispatched him to Constantinople,and, in virtue of instructionsfrom Talaat Bey, Grand Masterof the OttomanGrandOrient,appointedMahomedFarid,the Egyptian Nationalist leader, as delegatein Egypt of the ConstantinopleGrand Orient, the investiturebeing carriedout at a lodge at Tantah. Halil Hamade Pasha, Shahin Makariusof the 'Mukattam',and other prominentEgyptian Masons who do not sympathisewith the Nationalists,raised strong opposition to the appointment,while His Highness the Khedive also deprecateda step which linked up by the bond of politicalFreemasonrythe EgyptianNationalistsand the Committeeof Union and Progress,but the appointmentonce made could not be undone. Halil HamadaPasha suggestedas a remedythe foundingof a separateEgyptian'Grand Orient Ottoman',with the express stipulationthat MahomedFarid shouldnot become its GrandMasteror GrandVenerable.By the establishmentof an OttomanGrandOrientin Egypt, and the investitureof its Grand Master,MahomedFarid'sappointmentas delegateof the Constantinople Grand Orient will ipso facto lapse. Halil Hamada Pasha is now in Constantinopleand is endeavouringto get Carasso, the Jewish deputy and Venerableof the ItalianLodge of Salonica,to use his good officeswith Talaat Bey to bringaboutthe aboveconsummation.PrinceAziz Hassanand Mahomed Faridare also on theirway to Constantinople.WhenTalaatBey declaredit was untruethat MahomedFaridhad been appointeddelegatein Egypt and that he and his Committeefriendswould not commitsuch a gaffe it would appearthat he deliberatelylied, presumablyunder pressure of the engagementsof the Committeenot to betraytheir secrets. In the meantimeSakakinihas also arrivedin Constantinople,after passing from Egypt to Syria, and spendingsome time in the latter country linkingup its lodges with the OttomanGrandOrient. G

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Should the Committeeof Union and ProgressGrand Orientof Turkeyget control of the Egyptianlodges and fill the latter with Nationalists,there is no doubt that the tendencywill be to work secretlyand subterraneously,with a view to one day bringingabout an unexpectedexplosion like that which in July 1908 took the world by surpriseat Salonica. In this connection I may mentiona somewhatcuriousincident.Some time ago the new GrandRabbi of Turkey,a clever, energeticand accomplishedman, who was the schoolfellow of some prominentYoung Turks,and who underthe old regimemade several attemptsto be employed in Abdul Hamid's palace as librarian,solicited the good officesof the Embassyin the case of a JewishMason, namedVentura,of Italian nationality,who many years ago posed as an Ottomansubject,started businessin the Soudan,and was expelledthenceby the Sirdaron the groundthat he (Ventura)was connectedwith the smugglingof tobacco throughtwo Jews in Suakim for a certain Corporal White. The latter was also expelled and degraded.Venturabrought his case before the Mixed Tribunalat Cairo and obtaineda semi-favourablesentenceagainstthe Ministryof War,but the Court of Appealquashedthe sentence.The GrandRabbipresenteda longmemorandum of nearly200 pagesexposingthe detailsof the allegedinjusticeof whichVentura was stated to be the victim, and beggedthat I should give Venturaa letter of introductionto Sir E. Gorst, with a view to the latterexercisinghis influencein favour of Ventura'scase, which was again to come beforethe Egyptiancourts. I pointedout that any such action of mine was impossibleas it would constitute an attemptto influencejustice,and that the man was, moreover,professedlyan Italian subject.Some time after a JewishMason here, called Dr Farih, got an introduction,throughthe Masterof the local Britishlodge, to a memberof my staff, and again, in a quiet, determined,and semi-minatorytone, beggedfor the letter of introductionto Gorst on behalf of Ventura.On its being explainedto him that such a coursewas impossible,even in the case of a Britishsubject,he adopted a defianttone, and declaredthat this case of cryinginjusticemust be remedied;that the highest influencesin the world, including that of Jewish membersof the Houseof Lords,wouldbe broughtto bear;and that,if necessary, measureswould be taken to bringabout the downfallof the EgyptianGovernment, and the Britishposition in Egypt would be compromised.The man was not a lunatic,and spoke in very measuredtones. TalaatBey, the Ministerof the Interior,who is of Gipsy descent,and comes from Kirjali,in the Adrianopledistrict,and JavidBey, the Ministerof Finance, who is a Crypto-Jew,are the officialmanifestationsof the occult power of the Committee.Theyare the only membersof the Cabinetwho reallycount, and are also the apex of Freemasonryin Turkey. That they would use an agent of Sakakini'santecedentsis more than suspicious.Since he became Ministerof the Interiorabout a year ago, Talaat Bey has been spreadingthe net of the Freemason Committee over the Empire by appointingto provincialposts as governors,sub-governors,etc., men who are Masons or reliable Committee adherents,and, in most cases, both. The intentionis that, should a majorityof the presentChamber,by accident or despite the terrorsof the state of siege, carryoppositionto the point of endangeringthe Ministryof Talaatand Javid, the lattershouldinstantlyreplyby a coupd'etat,dissolvethe Chamber,and have freshelections,which would be manipulatedby the Committeeclubsand Freemasonry lodges in the provinces and return more malleable deputies. The invisible governmentof Turkey is thus the Grand Orient with Talaat Bey as Grand Master. Eugene Tavemier, in his article in the April number of the 'NineteenthCentury',describesthe French Republic as the 'daughterof the GrandOrient'.The same epithetmightperhapsbe appropriatelyappliedto the OttomanCommitteeof Union and Progress,for as Masonsseemto be adherents of the Committee,most non-Masons,i.e. the vast majorityof the population, are secretlyopposed to its rule. Like FrenchRepublicansand Freemasons,the words most frequentlyon its lips are 'reaction'and 'clerical'.Its firsttendency


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was not to modify and modernisethe Mahommedansacredlaw, but to undermineandsmashit. Mostof its leaders,whilefranklyrationalist,also paradoxically endeavourto use the Islamicfervourof the massesas a politicalweaponand to divert it into chauvinisticchannelson the lines of national, i.e. Asiatic, PanIslamism.It is intolerantof opposition, and one of its principalmethods of destroyingits adversariesis to drivethem into overt oppositionand then crush them as 'reactionaries'.Severalof the Ulema have been induced to become Masons,and theirexampleis beingused to overcomethe scruplesand prejudices of the people. A Turk describedit as a process of 'druggingthe latter with Jewishhashish'. From the foregoingor any close inspectionof the Young Turkeymovement in its present stage, it will appear to be principallyJewish and 'Turkish'as opposedto otherOttomanelements,e.g. Arabs,Greeks,Bulgarians,Armenians, etc. The Turk is mainly a soldier,and underconstitutionalforms he strivesto preservehis race predominance,which he can only do throughthe army. On the latterhe spendshalf his revenueand uses it to reducethe otherelementsto a state of terrorand mute subjection.A constitutionin a way implies economic progress,but the economic organismof the Turk is of the feeblest kind, and, unsupported,could not standalone a week. It was hoped in the beginningthat the Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and the Ottoman Jew would serve as economicprops,but the Young Turkseemsto havealliedhimselfsolelywith the Jew, Ottoman and foreign, and to have estrangedthe other races. The same resulthas been witnessedin Hungary,wherethe Hungarian,who is of Turkish stock and is similarlydevoid of real business instincts, has come under the almostexclusiveeconomicand financialdominationof the Jew.The latterseems Turk in his toils, and as Turkey to have entangledthe pre-economic-minded happensto containthe placessacredto Israel,it is but naturalthatthe Jewshould striveto maintaina positionof exclusiveinfluenceandutilizeit for the furtherance of his ideals,viz. the ultimatecreationof an autonomousJewishstatein Palestine or Babylonia,as explainedby Israel Zangwillin his articlein the 'Fortnightly Review'of April.He wouldkill two birdswith one stone if he could obtainfrom the Turkunrestrictedimmigrationof Jewsinto Turkey,an aim that he has been pursuingfor years back, and transferto Mesopotamia some millions of his co-religionistsin bondagein Russia and Roumania.In returnfor 'unrestricted immigration'of foreign Jews, he has offeredthe Young Turk to sacrificehis mother-tongueand replaceit by Turkish,and even to take over the whole of the TurkishNational Debt. Dr Nazim, one of the most influentialmembersof the SalonicaCommitteeand said to be of Jewishextraction,has, in company,with his fidus Achates,a certainFaik Bey Toledo, a Crypto-Jewof Salonica,visited Association)and has since the Paris branchof the I.C.A. (Judaeo-Colonisation openly advocated importing 200,000 Roumanian Jews into Macedonia and some millions of RussianJews into Mesopotamia.IsraelZangwill,in the article in the 'FortnightlyReview' of April alludedto above, expressesthe hope that Hakki Pasha, the present Grand Vizier, 'may be trusted to advise the Porte soundlyon the subject',i.e. in favour of a Jewishautonomousstate in Mesopotamia. Hakki Pasha has been given a Jewishprivatesecretary,and frequentsa certainJewishhouse more than any other, but the Jewishprojectshave not yet materialised.Doubtless,whenYoung Turkeywith its heavymilitaryexpenditure is in need of borrowing,furtherpressurewill be appliedby the Jewishlenders. Abdul Hamid, when in dire financialstraits,refusedsimilaroffersfrom Herzl, the Sionist leader,and the same idea seems to be in Zangwill'smind when he remarks:'For,unlessthe YoungTurkshaveevenless commonsensethanmoney, the enormousadvantagesto theirEmpireof permittingthe peacefulpenetration of an industrialand non-militantwhitepopulationmustbe bornehome to them.' Zangwillsays the four Jewishdeputiesin the OttomanParliamentare 'violently anti-Sionist'.They may pretendto be so in the Palestinesense of the word: they are certainlynot in the Mesopotamiansense.

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This feature of Young Turkeypolitics cannot be overlooked by those who would be connectedwith projectedenterprisesin Mesopotamia,Syriaand even Egypt. For the 'Aurore'('Shefak'),a Sionist organ starteda year ago in Constantinople,is nevertiredof remindingits readersthat the dominationof Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs,who forced the Jews to build the Pyramids,is part if the future heritageof Israel. This theory certainlysounds far-fetched,but it is apparentlyheld and preachedby some idealists. Mesopotamiaand Palestine are, however,only the ultimategoal of the Jews. The immediateend for which theyareworkingis the practicallyexclusiveeconomiccaptureof Turkeyand new enterprisesin that country.It has been shown above that alreadythey hold or controlall the pivotalpointsin the machineryof the YoungTurkeyGovernment, though the Ministry of Public Works, which can influence the granting of concessions,is stillheldby an Armenian,HalajianEffendi.Whenhis predecessor, anotherArmenian,was got rid of, a determinedattemptwas madeto appointa Jew or a Jewishnominee. But, especiallyafter the massacresof Armeniansat Adana, it was felt that the Armeniansshould continue to hold one portfoio in the Ministry.Two months ago Halajianseemedon the point of falling, but obtaineda new lease of life on becominga Mason in the same lodge as Talaat Bey and Javid Bey. His position is now still shaky, and the most bitter and constantattacks on him come from a Jewish-financedpaper, 'Le JeuneTurc', whilethereare rumoursthat his successorwill be a Jew, or a Turkwith a Jewat his elbow. It is obvious that the Jew, who is so vitallyinterestedin maintaininghis sole predominancein the councils of the Young Turkey, is equally interestedin keepingalive the flamesof discordbetweenthe Turkand his (theJew's)possible rivals,i.e. the Armenians,Greeks,etc., while it is to be inferredthat he would not be averse to the new regime increasingthe national indebtednessto the Hebrewfinanciers.This aspect of the TurkishRevolutionhas been dwelt on at some length,as, apartfrom its historicalinterest,it is not withoutits directand indirectbearingon side problemsof the Near East. The Jew hates Russia and its Government,and the fact that Englandis now friendlyto Russia has the effectof makingthe Jew to a certainextentanti-Britishin Turkeyand Persia-a considerationto which the Germansare, I think, alive. The Jew can help the Young Turkwith brains,businessenterprise,his enormousinfluencein the press of Europe, and money in return for economic advantagesand the eventual realisationof the ideals of Israel, while the Young Turk wants to regain and asserthis nationalindependenceand get rid of the tutelageof Europe,as part of a generalAsiaticrevival,on linesand at a pacewhichmustappearchauvinistic to the averageWestern.The Jewhas suppliedfundsto the Young Turksand has thus acquireda hold on them; but in orderto retainthis hold he has to appear at least to approveand aid the Young Turk towards the accomplishmentof 'national' dreams. Secrecy and elusive methods are essential to both. The OrientalJewis an adeptat manipulatingoccultforces,and politicalFreemasonry of the continentaltype has been chosenas the most effectivebond and cloak to concealthe innerworkingsof the movement.It has been mentionedabove that, at the outset,this new formof Masonryin Turkey'fraternised'withthe members of the British,i.e. Scottish,lodge foundedin Constantinoplefifty yearsago, but the lattersoon beganto discoverthat the ways of the nativelodges, whichwere mostly run by Jews, were but a travestyon and a prostitutionof true Freemasonry, and eventually the Grand Lodge of Scotland pronounced them 'spurious',with the resultthat the Englishlodge closed its doors to all the new Masons, includingthe all-powerfulMinistersTalaat Bey and Javid Bey. The latter, who control the armiesof Turkey,its finances,martiallaw, Parliament, and, in short, the destiniesof the Empiregenerally,naturallytook umbrageat this 'rebufffrom the English',as it was styledin the versionwhichrapidlyspread throughthe whisperinggalleries,and may have become a trifleless pro-British in consequence.They were describedas 'furiousat this insult', but there is no


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reasonto supposethat it led them to essentiallyalterthe friendlypolicy of their Cabinettowardsus. We may, perhaps,also give them the benefitof the doubt, and supposethat they have little or no positiveknowledgeof the extremeviews and policy of some membersof local lodges that are in touch and sympathy with EgyptianFreemasonsand workingin the same subterraneanway in Cairo, Alexandria,etc. For some of the ultra-chauvinistic Masonshere are workingin with the anti-Khediveand anti-Englishpartiesin Egypt, and an Arab deputy and Mason statedrecentlythat he had good reasonto supposethat one of their back-thoughtswas, by propaganda,occasionaldisplayof the Ottomanfleet at Alexandria,to fosterunrestand eventuallylead up to disorders,in the courseof whichHis Highnessthe Khedivewouldbe madeto disappearby the 'blackhand', and a memberof the Halimbranchbe appointedregentof the Khedive'sson on the lines of the recentdynasticchangein Persia.The Committeeof Union and Progressundoubtedlyencouragedand co-operatedwith the Persiansin this latterevent,and thereis now questionof startinga PersianGrandOrient,Ferrajullah Khan,the new Persiancharged'affaires,havingrecentlybecomea Mason. The type of chauvinisticYoungTurkwho holds suchviewsis an 'AsiaticNationalist', and, no matterhow gratefulhe may feel to a EuropeanGovernmentfor servicesrendered,would considerit his 'patriotic'duty to help other Orientals 'rightlystrugglingto be free' in Egypt or in India, to attaintheirfreedomfrom European 'bondage'. The Committee'spolicy is not guided by sentimental considerations,and any Power that expects gratitudefor servicesrenderedto Young Turkeywould be makingan egregiousmiscalculation. Ismail Hakki Bey, Babanzade,Deputy for Baghdad,and one of the Committee'sexpertson foreignaffairs,is saidto havea brotherHikmetBey employed under Reouf Pasha in the OttomanAgency in Cairo. Hikmet Bey appearsto have doubtful dealings, mostly through some Syrians,with Mahomed Farid and other such Nationalists, despite the correct behaviourof his chief. The 'JeuneTurc',which, like some other organsin the Ottomancapital,is subventionedby the Jews,has fromtimeto timeviolentanti-Englisharticleson Egyptian affairs.One of the writersis a young Cretan,Jelal Noury by name, who is a memberof the Committee,and son of a Committeesenatorcalled Noury Bey. Another writerin the same is a renegadePole, called SeiffeddinT. Gastowtt, who once had financialrelationswith Oppenheim,the GermanJew well known in Cairo at the time of the Akaba incident and since. SeifiddinT. Gastowtt, with an Egyptiancalled HusseinHassib,has recentlystartedin Constantinople a Pan-Islamicorganin Frenchand Turkishcalled 'La Tribunedes Peuples'(in Turkish'Kursi-i-Millel'),the avowed object of which is to awakenand arouse to a sense of their solidarity with Young Turkey Moslems the millions of 'oppressed'brethrenin India,Egypt,Russia,Tunis,Algiers,etc. It declaresthat Europe'spolicy is anti-Islamicand anti-Asiaticand that Turks should put no faith in Europeanhypocriticalprofessionsof friendship.As for England, it quotes Ahmed Riza Bey's statement: 'L'ecrasementde l'Empire ottoman augmenteraet consoliderasa force en Egypte et en Arabie.' Hussein Hassib Bey is a sort of delegatehere of the EgyptianNationalists,and has interested himselfin gettingsome young Nationaliststakeninto Turkishschools. He has a brotherworkingwith MahomedFarid. What are then the likely tendenciesof Young Turkey? Its representative civiliansare TalaatBey, who was a telegraphclerkin receiptof ?T.3 per month, JavidBey, Ministerof Finance,who was a schoolmasterearningsome ?T.10 a month, and HusseinJahid Bey, deputy and editor of the 'Tanin',who at one time translatedinto Turkishnovels at the rate of fourpencea page for Abdul Hamid.Theirnaturalinstincthas been and is to reduceothersto theirownlevel. The Turkishelementnumberssome 6,000,000in an Empireof some 30,000,000. Under a real constitutionalregime,allowing a certainfair play and free play to the other elements,it would be swamped,more especiallyas it is inferiorto the majority(Arabs, Greeks, Bulgarians,etc.), in intelligence,instructionand

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businessqualities.It can only maintainits position as the dominantrace by its fighting qualities, i.e. by the army. The capital and Parliamentit dominates throughmartiallaw. The Armenianswere cowed by the Adana massacres,the Greeks have been terrorisedinto a sullen silence, the political life of the Bulgarianswas crushedby the forcibleclosingof theirclubs and societies.So much for the potentially'obstreperous'Christianelements.The Turkisharmy is now 'levellingthe non-submissiveMoslem Albanians, and the Kurds and Arabs will probablyin turn undergothe same process.As the Turkishelementcannot shine by intellectualor commercialachievements,its instinctslead it to display its superiorityby military'activity'.If it succeeds in reducingthe Empire to mute subjectioninternally,its impulse will probably be to adopt an active chauvinisticpolicy as regardsPersia,Egypt, Greeceand perhapsBulgaria.For the moment it is withheld by prudentialconsiderationsconnected with the Cretan question, where it still requiresthe good-will of Europe to secure a favourablesolution.The attainmentof the lattermay only whet its appetitefor similarsuccessesin Egypt,etc. But all this is dependenton European,i.e. mainly Jewish,financierssupplyingit with the sumsrequiredto keep up an armywhich is disproportionateto its actual state of economicdevelopment.At presentthe Turkishconstitutionalregimeis a sham; but, looking into the future,how the Turkishelement can maintainits supremacyby force alone under a genuine constitutionalregime is almost an insolubleproblem.As it is, Young Turkey regardsitself as the vanguardof an awakenedAsia. It fancies itself bound to protectthe nascentlibertiesof Persia'now endangeredby the selfishand overbearingpolicy of Russiaand England'.Henceits policy of adventurein Western Azerbaijanand its subterraneanlinks with Young Persian anjumans, with German efforts at interventionin Persia, as in Morocco in 1906, and with Caucasianrevolutionaries.It also has affiliationswith Jewish and extreme Armenian(Tashnak)revolutionariesin Russia, which it hopes to weaken and renderinnocuous by fostering unrest and currentsof internal upheaval.It is also coquetting,assistedby the Jews, with its Hungarianbrethrenof Turanian origin, and tries to create a sympatheticcurrentin Afghanistanand among Indian Moslems. The Young Turks, partly at the inspirationof Jewish Masonry,and partly owing to the fact that Frenchis the one Europeanlanguageextensivelyspread in the Levant,have been imitatingthe French Revolution and its godless and levellingmethods.The developmentsof the FrenchRevolutionled to antagonism betweenEnglandand France,and shouldthe Turkishrevolutiondevelopon the same lines, it may find itself similarlyin antagonismwith British ideals and interests. The Young Turkishpolicy so far has almost completelyestrangedOttoman, and especiallySyrian,Arabs, who, like Greeks, Bulgarians,etc., have lost all hope of the establishmentof a reallyconstitutionalregimein Turkey,fear the heavy hand of the Turk, and are looking around for some rallyingcentre in defence of Arab interests.They hate and despisethe Turk, to whom they feel themselvesintellectuallyand culturallysuperior,will not submitto be turcised, and dreadSionismand Jewishinvasionin Syriaand Mesopotamia,but theyare separatedby deserts,differencesof dialect, and a racial inabilityof cohesion, and many of them, deputies and others, secretly turn their eyes towards the Khedivateas the one 'ArabGovernment'which,they cherishthe hope, may one day, underBritishauspices,exercisea centripetaleffect on all OttomanArabs. With manythis idea has taken definiteshape,with othersit is inchoateor semiinchoate; but all these have no sympathywith EgyptianextremeNationalists or their methods.Some of them suggestthat the GrandLodge of Egypt, which is recognisedby British Freemasonry,should try to bring under its wing the 'spurious' Egyptian lodges of political Masons. The notion, of course, is ridiculous,and only testifiesto theirfallaciousconceptionof the true principles of British Masonry,which is, of course, non-political,and presumablyBritish


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recognisedMasons in Egypt will have to follow the injunctionsof the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland to eschew all relations with the 'spurious brethren'who merelyuse Masonryas a cloak for their political scheming.All the above facts and appreciationsconcerningour local Masonry have been obtainedfrom Masonsunderthe seal of confidence,but, like all secretpolitical organisationsof the kind, it is very elusive and tends to bury itself deeperif it suspects that its secrets are being discovered,and I would thereforebeg that this document be treated as strictly secret. Most of it interests Cairo, and I supposeyou will forwardit confidentiallyto Gorst. It might also be expedient to similarlycommunicateit to Tehranand, perhaps,the Governmentof India. For if the prominentIndian Moslemswere discreetlygiven to understandthat the Young Turkey movement is seriously influencedby Jewishand atheistic political Freemasonry,the effect would be to counteractany potentiallyantiBritish national Pan-Islamicpropagandacarried on by extreme chauvinist Young Turks. I have reason to believethat my Germancolleagueis awareof the extent to which Jewish and Latin Masonry inspires the Committee,and that he has confidentiallykept his Governmentinformedas to this featureof Young Turkey politics. Yours very sincerely, GERARD LOWTHER. P.S.-It has been said above that the Grand Lodge of Scotlandrefusedto recognise the new 'Grand Orient Ottoman', whose Masonry it pronounced 'spurious';but I learn that effortsare being made to indirectlyget round this difficultyby inducingthe GrandLodgeof Englandto recognisethe new Turkish creation.In view of the curious developmentsin EgyptianMasonry,it would seem desirablethat the Grand Lodge of Englandshould follow the exampleof its Scotch sister and refuse its imprimaturto an institution so coloured by politics.

1. Quoted from the memoirs of Ali Fuad Turkgeldiby B. Lewis, in Bulletinof the School of Orientaland AfricanStudies,vol. XXIII, 1960, p. 147. 2. GwendolenCecil, Life of RobertMarquisof Salisbury,vol. II, 1921, p. 320. 3. See, for instance, Cromer'sreport of a conversationin 1896 with Baron Calice, the Austrian Internuncio at Constantinople.Discussing British policy towards the Ottoman Empire,Cromerdeclaredthat there had been a change in public opinion of late years. 'More especially,' he added, 'since we had been in occupation of Egypt, manyinfluentialnewspapershad urgedthat excludingthe RussiansfromConstantinople was a matter of less importanceto England than to Austria.' Cromer to Salisbury, Cairo, December2, 1896, Public Record OfficeF.O. 633/6 (CromerPapers),no. 267. Quotations and transcriptsfrom Crown copyright papers by kind permissionof the Controller,Her Majesty'sStationeryOffice. 4. Salisbury,to the Duke of Rutland,quoted in E. Kedourie,Englandandthe Middle East, 1956, p. 21. 5. Kedourie, op cit., p. 33. 6. F.O. 800/193B(LowtherPapers).Lowtherto Nicolson, May 5, 1911, enclosing a memorandumby Fitzmaurice;see also in F.O. 800/193Ba letter of April 26 previous, same to same, also in defence of Fitzmaurice. 7. F.O. 800/193B(LowtherPapers),Lowtherto Hardinge,July 6, 1909. 8. F.O. 800/80 (Grey Papers),Fitzmauriceto Tyrrell,November 5, 1912. 9. Hardinge Papers, vol. 20, pp. 230 and 235, Cambridge University Library, Lowther to Hardinge,April 19 and April 27, 1910. The NineteenthCenturyhad just publishedan articleon Frenchfreemasonry;see Appendix. 10. F.O. 800/193B(LowtherPapers),Lowtherto Nicolson, March 13, 1913.

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11. There is little doubt that the details in Lowther's letter were supplied by Fitzmaurice. There is great resemblance between it and Fitzmaurice's memorandum of 1911 mentioned above, in F.O. 800/193B. 12. Hardinge to Lowther, 'Private and Confidential', June 26, 1910. F.O. 800/193A. With this letter was included a printed copy of Lowther's letter of May 29. It is this copy which is reproduced in the Appendix. Lowther's original does not figure in the Hardinge Papers. Lowther copied his letters to Hardinge and Nicolson in a series of notebooks (F.O. 800/193B), but a copy of this letter does not figure in these notebooks. This may confirm the suspicion that it was not so much a genuine private letter from Lowther to Hardinge, as a report written by Fitzmaurice and couched in the form of a private letter from the ambassador, to the Permanent Under-Secretary. In his memoirs, Hardinge wrote: 'Turkey, under a Parliamentary Government, required a strong and judicious hand to control its policy, but it was the Army under the direction of a corrupt Committee of Jews and aliens that dominated the situation'. Old Diplomacy, 1947, p. 175. 13. Allan Cunningham, 'The Wrong Horse?-A Study of Anglo-Turkish Relations before the First World War' in St Antony's Papers, no. 17, 1965, p. 75. 14. The fourth, doubtful, name was that of Yusuf Sakakini, also mentioned in Lowther's letter. It is curious that an intelligence bulletin written in Cairo should be so ignorant as not to know that Sakakini in fact belonged to a Syrian Christian family long settled in Egypt. The Bulletin describes him as 'a French protected subject of most uncertain origin, but probably a Syrian Jew, resident at Alexandria, who had lived by exploiting Freemasonry, in various parts of the Levant, and, by rendering a variety of mysterious services to the then Khedive for whom he spied, to Aziz Pasha Hassan, an Egyptian Prince of Prusso-Turkish morals ... and other notables'. 15. F.O. 882/25, Arab Bulletin, no. 23; the passages cited above are at pp. 294-96 and 298. 16. Wingate Papers, Sudan Archives, School of Oriental Studies, Durham University, 139/1. It is also perhaps worth noticing that the Judeo-masonic character of the Young Turks is touched on in one of the handbooks prepared in the Historical Section of the Foreign Office for the use of the British Delegates to the Peace Conference and subsequently published. The handbook on Mohammedan History (1920), declares, p. 57; 'That the Committee of Union and Progress could be in earnest in its Pan-Islamic policy has been denied on various grounds. In the first place it has been pointed out that the leaders of that Committee are, without exception, Freemasons; and such religious fanaticism conflicts with the principles of the Masonic Society . . .'; and again on p. 80: 'The Salonika Jews are inseparable from the Committee of Union and Progress.' The author of the first assertion was Sir Thomas Arnold and of the second Arnold J. Toynbee; see list established by Professor G. W. Prothero, the editor of the handbooks, F.O. 370/245 L455 and L 959/14/405. A recent author, Professor Z. N. Zeine, seems to accept the truth of these and similar assertions. He also compounds his error by also affirming, on his own account, that 'The Arab Muslim leaders doubted the sincerity of the Committee of Union and Progress' because of these alleged Jewish and masonic connections. There is no evidence for such as affirmation; see The Emergence of Arab Nationalism (Beirut, 1966), p. 89.

Young Turks, Free Masons and Jews

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