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Description: | obverse design : Sir Edward Grey, bust, full face, perspiring, caricature, his hands clasped before him. A leering
skeleton head looks over Sir Edward's left shoulder and holds an hour glass above his right shoulder
obverse text : "SIR GREY ZEIG' DEINE MACHT!"
reverse design : Sphinx, behind which a caravan of camel-mounted figures moves from right to left. Above and behind the Sphinx's head a
crescent and five pointed star. At upper left edge the date "1915"
exergue : "ÄGYPTEN ERWACHT"
In this 1915 satirical piece Goetz emphasises the possibly fatal consequences for Britain of establishing a
protectorate over Egypt in the wake of the Turkish declaration of war on 23 November 1914. The Turkish decision to side with the Central
Powers was also accompanied by an appeal to Moslem subject peoples to rise up in a Holy War against their Imperial masters. The British
Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, is depicted as being discomforted by the menace of imminent doom represented by skeletal Death at his
shoulder. The obverse text is translated as 'Sir Grey show your power' and the text in the reverse (exergue) as 'Egypt wakes up'. In fact
the Egyptian population took the changes quietly, and almost the only respondents to Turkey's call for a 'jihad' were the Senussi tribesman
on the western frontiers of Egypt, who maintained a sporadic opposition to British presence in 1915 and 1916. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | Declaration of the British Protectorate & 1914 satirical Grey anti-British Activity of & 1915 commemorative Egypt & Egypt First World War Egypt & Senussi Edward | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Goetz, Karl | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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