CO129-438 - Public Offices - 1916 — Page 313

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Germana most likely desire, is to create trouble in Northern

India and not in Southern India, merely that Great Britain's

victories in Mesopotamia might be negatived. Rumours are

afloat that Persia has joined up with Germany;; and those

rumours are denied, Whether they are confirmed or denied, it

is quite true that Germans have been carrying on intrigues

there, and that had they been successful, the British Forces

in Mesopotamia would have been in a sorry plight.

It was

merely to open a high road to India that Germans were anxious

to create trouble in Persis, und it was to help to the

clearance of that road, that Germans in Shanghai are trying

to stir up strife in India. That to us seems the more

probable reason, for had the Germans been able to do this,

Great oritain's attention would have been so divided that the

German thrust through the Balkans to Constantinople and into

Asia, would have been made easier of accomplishment, It is

quite in keeping with German ambitions, and the progress of

the war shows it clearly, especially at the present time.

The Bagdad railway helps us to a better realization of this,

especially as it was to a very large extent under Garman

influence. Germans in Shanghai are playing their part in

this supreme attempt. That they have failed they now well

know, but for all that we are of the same opinion as a few

weeks ago

the German in Shanghai is well worth watching.

-

His latest plot cannot be held to be his last or his greatest.