TH

HE war has had some unforeseen effects on the economic life of Turkey. To a certain extent that country has become the port of entry through which Central Europe seeks to escape the Entente blockade, and the AustroGerman engineers are bending all their energies to draw from it every ounce of available resources. The men in control of the Ottoman Empire allow them to do this the more willingly because they regard the present epoch as essentially one of transition. They seem to be seeking especially to develop Asia Minor with the aid of German technicians, holding themselves ready, once the difficult task of economic rehabilitation is accomplished, to get rid of all foreign control and to adopt a frankly nationalist policy. Already, under German protection, they are breaking the contracts which bound them to other European powers.

Let us glance at what has taken place in the domain of transportation. As soon as the war had demonstrated the strategic and commercial importance of the railways, the Germans applied themselves, first, to utilizing the existing lines for intensive exploitation of resources; second, to finishing the construction of railways begun before the war, and, third, to establishing entirely new lines.

With the closing of the Dardanelles the traffic between Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe became extremely active, and the new state of things was immediately reflected in the movement of freight through Haidar Pasha, the gateway to the Bagdad Railway, lying just across the Bosporus from Constantinople. The report of the Anatolian Railway, which handles the Bagdad Railway traffic at that point, showed for the year 1915 a total of 510,236 tons of merchandise transported through Haidar Pasha, as against 317,217 tons in 1914.

The increase was due especially to the provisioning of Constantinople and of the Turkish troops fighting at that time in the Peninsula of Gallipoli; in fact, out of a total of 510,236 tons, 419,920 tons were carried over the road in Asia

Minor toward Turkey in Europe, and only 90,316 tons in the opposite direction. The report for 1916 has not yet been issued at this writing, but it will show a much greater increase, as the construction of the Bagdad Railway has made extensive progress in the interval.

By virtue of the convention of March 5, 1903, the Bagdad Railway Company undertook to seek from the Ottoman Government a separate authorization for each section to be constructed. The Turkish authorities, usually very slow and negligent, in this case, under the stimulus of the war, granted the necessary authorizations with exceptional rapidity.

Konia, the southern terminus of the Anatolian Railway, is the western terminus of the Bagdad Railway proper. Between Konia and Bagdad there remain only two sections yet to be built; otherwise the whole enterprise is complete. The following table from the Paris Temps shows the progress of the work:

Sections.

Kilometers. Opened. .200 Oct. 25, 1904 38 July 1, 1911 53 Dec. 21, 1912 42 Not comp't'd 15 Apr. 27, 1912

.100

54 Feb., 1916

47 Oct. 20, 1915

and .....203

Konia to Bulgurlu..... Bulgurlu to Ulukishla. Ulukishla to Bozanti. Bozanti to Dorak.. Dorak to Adana.... Adana to Osmanie and Namurie Apr. 27, 1912 Osmanie to Alexandretta... 59 Nov. 1, 1913 Namurie to Islahie. Islahie to Radjun.... Radjun to Muslimie Jerablus Dec. 15, 1912 Muslimie to Aleppo.. 15 Dec. 15, 1912 Jerablus to Tel-el-Abiad. 101 July 11, 1914 Tel-el-Abiad to Tuem.. 62 June 1, 1915 Tuem to Raz-el-Ain. 41 July 23, 1915 Raz-el-Ain to Samara. 541 Not comp't'd Samara to Istabulat.. 30 Oct. 7, 1914 Istabulat to Sumiken....... 38 Aug. 27, 1914 Sumiken to Bagdad.... 62 June 2, 1914 Of the whole 2,435 kilometers (1,510 miles) that separate Haidar Pasha from Bagdad there remain 583 kilometers (361 miles) still to construct; but the connection between the Bosporus and the Euphrates is already made, and it should be noted that the greatest engineering difficulties of the whole en

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their belongings or provisions. Their houses were looted and pillaged even before the owners had left. A swarm of pillaging Bedouin women, Arabs with donkeys, camels, &c., came like birds of prey and proceeded to carry off valuables and furniture.

The Jewish suburbs have been totally sacked under the paternal eye of the authorities. By way of example two Jews from Yemen were hanged at the entrance of the Jewish suburb of Tel Avid in order clearly to indicate the fate in store for any Jews who might be so foolish as to oppose the looters. The roads to the Jewish colonies north of Jaffa are lined with thousands of starving Jewish refugees. The most appalling scenes of cruelty and robbery are reported by absolutely reliable eyewitnesses. Dozens of cases are reported of wealthy Jews who were found dead in the sandhills around Tel Avid. In order to drive off the bands of robbers preying on the refugees on the roads the young men of the Jewish villages organized a body of guards to watch in turn

the roads. These guards have been arrested and maltreated by the authorities.

The Mohammedan population have also left the town recently, but they are allowed to live in the orchards and country houses surrounding Jaffa and are permitted to enter the town daily to look after their property, but not a single Jew has been allowed to return to Jaffa.

The same fate awaits all Jews in Palestine. Djemal Pasha is too cunning to order cold-blooded massacres. His method is to drive the population to starvation and to death by thirst, epidemics, &c., which, according to himself, are merely calamities sent by God. Those who know his methods will not be surprised if after a short time severe punishment is dealt out to those who have looted and pillaged under his orders, or at least with his connivance. This would be in accordance with his settled policy of exciting one part of the population against the other, and exterminating all those who are not Turanians.

THE

HE reports which reach the outer world from time to time about conditions in Turkey invariably understate the facts. The vast mass of the Turkish population is now subsisting on the verge of starvation. The misery which prevails at Constantinople among the middle and working classes is heartbreaking; while conditions inland, owing to the epidemics which prevail, are even worse. There is no cholera at Constantinople, and the admirable sanitary measures imposed on the city by the Germans have succeeded in keeping typhus within close limits. The Germans tried to make the tramway company daily disinfect its . vehicles, but, as usual, they acted in the matter without tact, and, the company refusing, no European now travels in the tramcars.

Pitiful incidents, indicating the misery of the people, can be witnessed daily at any street corner. The faces you see are haggard, pinched, and worn, the eyes haunted, the frames feeble. I do not know whether people die of starvation in Constantinople, but I have frequently seen old men and women collapse-I suppose from hunger-in the streets. Poor people will pay enormous sums for wormeaten figs with which one would not attempt to poison a mad dog. In the old far-off days of peace the average humbleclass Turk would make a piece of bread and cheese, some olives, and some Turkish delight form his principal meal. Today such meal would a cost him about $1.25. Prices have risen steadily since the beginning of the war, and in American terms are something like the following: Butter, $2.50 a pound; cheese, $3.50 a pound; olives, 75 cents a pound; sugar, $2.50 a pound; rice, $1 a pound; Turkish delight, $2 a pound. The veritable famine in sugar which now prevails in Constantinople is a great blow to the sweetsloving Turk. Lumps of sugar at 5 cents each are hawked about the streets. Aus

tria recently promised to send Turkey 2,000 carloads of sugar at the rate of 200 cars a month, but owing to the great scarcity of rolling stock nobody takes the promise seriously. In spite of the hunger and abject misery everywhere prevailing, the Turk manifests no desire to revolt. Food riots are unknown at Constantinople, and the shops are never

looted.

The shortage of bread is a great cause for complaint among the women. The Turkish Government, at the instigation of the Germans, early in the present year introduced a rationing system, but the wealthy Turks declined to submit to it, and the elaborate organization set up speedily collapsed. The apathy of the Turks angers the foreign observer. Only once have they been roused from their apathy, and that was when the thousands of wounded poured into Constantionple from the Dardanelles. The sight of their dying men-folk caused several hundred women to march to the War Office to call on the Government to give them back their husbands and sons.

In Turkey, as in other belligerent countries, the war has opened up new avenues of employment to women. The Greeks and Armenians formerly employed at the post and telephone offices have been dismissed and their places taken by Turkish women and girls. The war has hastened rather than checked the emancipation of Turkish women.

All the young women

wear veils of the flimsiest description, and in the tramcars they always draw them up from their faces. An incident which illustrates the strength of the

the costumes which Mohammedan women wear. The Police Department regrets this blunder and cancels the previous order.

The 66 police subordinate" who blundered was an invention of the department, anxious to find an excuse to capitulate to the storm which the original order provoked. The wives of Turkish aristocrats, Ministers, and high Government officials threatened to hold up the Red Crescent nursing work in Turkey, the telephone girls threatened to strike, the Post Office girls to leave the Post Office, unless the offending order was canceled; and before two days had passed Turkish women, determined to be Westernized, had won. The incident provoked an outburst of indignation on the part of the women against the German authorities in Turkey, who were accused, probably wrongly, with wanting to keep Turkish women in a backward condition.

It may be mentioned that some illusions are entertained outside Turkey regarding the powers possessed by the German authorities in Turkey. The Germans are certainly the masters of the Turks in the sense that they control the Turkish Government, but the influence of the German officials over the civilian population is very small. The German police in Constantinople are strictly forbidden to interfere with the population, and even in the army Turkish soldiers are not compelled to be subservient toward their German officers. Besides holding them responsible for the misery and misfortune which

have befallen their country, the Turks dislike the Germans personally. On the other hand, the German naval and military officers make no secret of their contempt for what they regard as the laziness and slackness of their Turkish charges. Admiral von Souchon, the German Admiral at Constantinople, is never tired of declaring to other Europeans at the Constantinople Club that the Turks as fighting men are hopelessly inefficient.

The principal preoccupation of the Turkish Parliament is the deplorable financial condition of the country. Gold, nickel, and copper have long since vanished from circulation, and the country is flooded with notes and stamps-the latter worth about 5 cents each-of all kinds. At the backs of the notes in one of these categories is a design of Kut, and an inscription, rather amusing in the light of recent events, to the effect that, thanks to the bravery of the Turk- . ish troops and their German allies, the town will remain in Turkish hands until the end of time. Turkish finances are run on the simplest lines. Every time that the Turkish Government is hard up it asks Berlin for a "loan." The "loan" consists in permission by the German Government for the Turkish authorities to issue paper money for the amount required. The German Government has promised to redeem, out of the indemnities exacted from its enemies, all the paper money issued in Turkey during the war. The mark has dropped extremely low lately in value in Turkey.