mply repay their cost, would every year add a new prestige to English
influence. This might be still further enhanced by the very simple
measure of collecting and transmitting officially the revenue of the
Wakaf property, entailed on the sherifs, in India. This is said to
amount to half a million sterling, and might, as in Turkey, take the
form of a government subsidy. At present it is collected privately, and
reaches the sherifs reduced, as I have been told, by two-thirds in the
process of collection, so that the mere assumption of this perfectly
legitimate duty by the Indian authorities would put a large sum into the
hands of those in office at Mecca, and a proportionate degree of power
into the hands of its collectors. This, indeed, would be no more than is
being already done by our Government for the Shia Shrines of Kerbela and
Meshed Ali, with results entirely beneficial to English popularity and
influence.

With regard to the pilgrimage, I will venture to quote the opinion of
one of the most distinguished and loyal Mohammedans in India, who has
lately been advocating the claims of his co-religionists on the Indian
Government for protection in this and other matters. Speaking of Sultan
Abd el Hamid's Pan-islamic schemes, which he asserts have not as yet
found much favour in India, he continues, "I may, however, add that by
far the most formidable means which can be adopted for propagating such
ideas, or for rousing a desire for Islamic union, would be the
distribution of pamphlets to the pilgrims at Mecca. The annual Haj at
Mecca draws the more religious from all parts of India, and the Hajjis
on their return are treated with exceptional respect and visited by
their friends and neighbours, who naturally inquire about the latest
news and doctrines propounded in the Holy Cities; so that for the
dissemination of their views the most effective way would be for the
propagandists to bring the Hajjis under their influence. I call it
_effective_, because the influence of what the Hajjis say goes to the
remotest villages of the Mofussil." He then advocates as a
counter-acting influence the undertaking by Government of the transport
of the Haj to Jeddah, and the appointment of an agent, a native of
India, to look after their interests while in the Holy Land. "By
making," he concludes, "the arrangements I have suggested, the English
Government will gain, not only the good-will of the whole Mohammedan
population of India, but