CHAPTER IX

THE YOUNG TURKS ARE WON OVER

A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY PRESENTS ITSELF TO THE ENTENTE POWERS

The Young Turk revolutions of 1908 and 1909, which ended the reign of Abdul Hamid in the Ottoman Empire, offered France and Great Britain an unprecedented opportunity to assume moral and political leadership in the Near East. Many members of the Committee of Union and Progress, the revolutionary party, had been educated in western European universities—chiefly in Paris—and had come to be staunch admirers of French and English institutions. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” the slogan of Republican France, became the watch-cry of the new era in Turkey. Parliamentary government and ministerial responsibility under a constitutional monarch, the political contribution of Britain to Western civilization, became the aim of the reformers at Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire was to be modernized politically, industrially, and socially according to the best of western European traditions.[1]

Into this scheme of things German influence fitted not at all. From the Young Turk point of view the Kaiser was an autocrat who not only had blocked democratic reform in Germany, but also had propped up the tottering regime of Abdul Hamid and thus had aided suppression of liberalism in the Ottoman Empire. As for Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, he had hobnobbed with the ex-Sultan and was considered as much a representative of the old order of things as Abdul Hamid himself. As Dr. Rohrbach described the situation, “the Young Turks, liberals of every shade, believed that Germany had been a staunch supporter of Abdul Hamid’s tyrannical government and that the German influence constituted a decided danger for the era of liberalism. That thought was zealously supported by the English and French press in Constantinople. The Young Turkish liberalism showed in the beginning a decided leaning toward a certain form of Anglomania. England, the home of liberty, of parliaments, of popular government—such were the catch phrases promulgated in the daily papers.”[2]

German prestige suffered still further because of the unseemly conduct of Germany’s allies toward the Young Turk Government. The revolution of 1908 was less than three months old when Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina. Almost simultaneously, Ferdinand of Bulgaria—presumably at the instigation and with the connivance of Austria—declared the independence of Bulgaria from the Sultan and assumed for himself the title of tsar. To cap the climax, Italy was intriguing in Tripoli and Cyrenaica with a view to the eventual seizure of those provinces. Baron Marschall found it impossible to explain away these hostile moves of the allies of Germany, and he protested vehemently against the failure of the Foreign Office at Berlin to restrain Austria-Hungary and Italy. He warned Prince von Bülow that vigorous action must be taken if Germany’s influence in the Near East were not to be totally destroyed.[3]

The decline of German prestige at Constantinople could not have been without effect upon the Bagdad Railway and the other activities of the _Deutsche Bank_. The Bagdad enterprise, in fact, was looked upon as a concrete manifestation of German hegemony at the Sublime Porte and as the crowning achievement of the friendship of those two autocrats of the autocrats, Abdul Hamid and William II. As such, it was certain to draw the fire of the reformers. The concession of 1903 had never been published in Turkey. Only fifty copies had been printed, and these had been distributed only among high officials of the Palace, the Sublime Porte, and the Ministries of War, Marine, and Public Works. It was generally supposed by the Union and Progress party, therefore, that the summaries published in the European press were limited to what the Sultan chose to make public. “The secrecy which thus enveloped the Bagdad Railway concession gave rise to the conviction that the contract contained, apart from detrimental financial and economic clauses, provisions which endangered the political independence of the State.”[4] And Young Turks were determined to tolerate no such additional limitations on the sovereignty of their country.

The opening, in the autumn of 1908, of the first parliament under the constitutional regime in Turkey gave the opponents of the Bagdad Railway their chance. A bitter attack on the project—in which hardly a single provision of the contract of 1903 escaped scathing criticism—was delivered by Ismail Hakki Bey, representative from Bagdad, editor of foreign affairs for a well-known reform journal, and a prominent member of the Union and Progress party. Hakki Bey denounced the Railway as a political and economic monstrosity which could have been possible only under an autocratic and corrupt government; in any event, he believed, it could have no place in the New Turkey. He proposed complete repudiation of the existing contracts with the _Deutsche Bank_. In this proposal he received considerable support from other members of the parliament.

An equally ringing, but more reasoned, speech was delivered by the talented Djavid Bey, subsequently to become Young Turk Minister of Finance. He agreed that the concession of 1903 infringed upon the economic and administrative independence of the Ottoman Empire; he condemned the scheme of kilometric guarantees as an unwarranted and indefensible drain upon the Treasury; he denounced the preponderance of strategic over business considerations in the construction of the line; he made it plain that he had no wish to see the extension of German influence in Turkey. He believed that the Bagdad concession should be revised in the interest of Ottoman finance and Ottoman sovereignty. But there must be no repudiation. “We must accept the Bagdad Railway contract, because there should exist a continuity and a solidarity between generations and governments. If a revolutionary government remains true to the obligations of its predecessor—even if those obligations be contracted by a government of the worst and most despotic kind—it will arouse among foreigners admiration of the moral sense of the nation and will accordingly increase public confidence. Just now, more than at any other time in our history, we Turks need the confidence of the world.” Everything should be done to effect a revision of the Bagdad Railway concession, however, and a firm resolve should be taken never again to commit the nation to such an engagement.

The anti-German and pro-Entente proclivities of the Young Turks were expressed in tangible ways. In 1909, for example, the Ottoman Navy was placed under the virtual command of a British admiral, and British officers continued to exercise comprehensive powers of administration over the ships and yards almost to the declaration of war in 1914. In 1909, also, Sir Ernest Cassel accepted an invitation to establish the National Bank of Turkey, for the purpose of promoting more generous investment of British capital in the Ottoman Empire. During the same year Sir William Willcocks was appointed consulting engineer to the Minister of Public Works, and his plans for the irrigation of Mesopotamia were put into immediate operation. Sir Richard Crawford, a British financier, was appointed adviser to the Minister of Finance; a British barrister was made inspector-general of the Ministry of Justice; a member of the British consular service became inspector-general of the Home Office. Later, serious consideration was given to a proposal to invite Lord Milner to head a commission to suggest reforms in the political and economic administration of Anatolia. A French officer was made inspector-general of the gendarmerie. In June, 1910, a French company was awarded a valuable concession for the construction of a railway from Soma to Panderma, and the following year the lucrative contract for the telephone service in Constantinople was granted to an Anglo-French syndicate.[5]

The Young Turk Government likewise was desirous of doing everything possible to remove French and British objections to the construction of railways in the Ottoman Empire. With this end in view they prevailed upon Dr. von Gwinner to reopen negotiations with Sir Ernest Cassel regarding British participation in the Bagdad Railway, and they secured the consent of the _Deutsche Bank_ to a rearrangement of the terms of the concession of 1903. The latter was to be undertaken in accordance with British wishes and with due regard to the financial situation of Turkey. This was followed up, on November 8, 1909, by a formal request of the Ottoman ambassador at London for a statement of the terms upon which the British Government would withdraw its diplomatic objections to the Bagdad enterprise. Simultaneously negotiations were initiated for “compensations” to French interests, represented by the Imperial Ottoman Bank.

Until the end of the year 1909, then, the political situation in the Ottoman Empire under the revolutionary government had been almost altogether to the advantage of the Entente Powers. During 1910, however, German prestige began to revive in the Near East, and by the spring of 1911 German influence in Turkey had won back its former preëminent position.

THE GERMANS ACHIEVE A DIPLOMATIC TRIUMPH

The Young Turk program, in its political aspects, was not only liberal, but nationalist. In the fresh enthusiasm of the early months of the revolution, emphasis was laid upon modernizing the political institutions of the empire—parliamentary government and ministerial responsibility and equality before the law were the concern of the reformers. As time went on, however, liberalism was eclipsed by nationalism and modernizing by Ottomanizing. By the autumn of 1909 Turkish nationalist activities were in full swing. Revolts in Macedonia and Armenia were suppressed with an iron hand; there were massacres in Adana and elsewhere in Anatolia and Cilicia; restrictions were imposed upon personal liberties and upon freedom of the press; martial law was declared. Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism were revived as political movements.[6]

The development of an aggressive Turkish nationalism was not viewed with equanimity by the Entente nations. The newspapers of France and England roundly denounced the Adana massacres and came to adopt a hostile attitude toward the Young Turk Revolution, which only a short time previously they had extravagantly praised. Great Britain looked with apprehension upon Ottoman support of the nationalist movements in Egypt and India, and France was disturbed at the prospect of a Pan-Islamic revival in Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco. Russia demanded “reform” in Macedonia and Armenia and encouraged anti-Turk propaganda in the Balkans. English interference in Cretan affairs and British support of the insolent Sheik of Koweit still further complicated the situation.[7]

For Germany, on the other hand, Turkish nationalism held no menace. So far from desiring a weak Turkey—as did most of the other European Powers—her policy in the Near East was based upon the strengthening of Turkey. If Turkey was to be strong, she must suppress dissentient nationalist and religious minorities; therefore Germany raised no voice of protest against the Armenian and Macedonian atrocities. If Turkey sought to recover territories which formerly had acknowledged the suzerainty of the Sultan, Germany had nothing to fear; the Kaiser ruled over no such territories. If Turkey chose to arouse the Moslem world by a Pan-Islamic revival, that was no concern of Germany; the German Empire had a comparatively insignificant number of Mohammedan subjects. If the Turkish program discomfited the Entente Powers, that was to Germany’s advantage in the great game of world politics; therefore Germany could afford to support the Young Turk Government. As in the days of Abdul Hamid, Germany appeared to be the only friend of the Ottomans.[8]

The improvement in the German political position at Constantinople was reflected in a changing Turkish attitude toward the Bagdad Railway. Among revolutionary leaders there was a growing realization of the great economic and political importance of railways and, particularly, of the Bagdad system. It became apparent upon examination, also, that others than Germans had obtained monopolistic concessions in the Ottoman Empire—in this respect the Lynch Brothers came in for a good deal of attention. The Ottoman General Staff—which had recalled General von der Goltz as chief military adviser—insisted that the early construction of a trans-Mesopotamian railway at whatever cost, was essential to the defence of the empire. In spite of serious financial difficulties resulting from strikes, increased cost of materials, and general economic paralysis which followed upon the heels of the revolutions of 1908 and 1909, the Anatolian and Bagdad Railway Companies advanced large sums to the Minister of Finance toward the ordinary expenses of running the Government. In addition, the concessionaires evinced a desire to meet all Turkish financial and diplomatic objections to the provisions of the concession of 1903.[9]

It was the financial needs of the Young Turk administration which enabled German diplomacy and the _Deutsche Bank_ to reëstablish themselves thoroughly in the good graces of the Ottoman Government. But here again the Germans were given their chance only after England and France had turned the Turks away empty handed.

During the summer of 1910, Djavid Bey, as Ottoman Minister of Finance, went to Paris to raise a loan of $30,000,000, secured by the customs receipts of the Ottoman Empire. The negotiations with the Parisian bankers were complicated by a bitter anti-Turk campaign on the part of the press and by the frequent interference of the French Government. Nevertheless, Djavid Bey succeeded in signing a satisfactory contract with a French syndicate, and his task appeared to be accomplished. At this juncture, however, M. Pichon, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, informed the bankers that official sanction for the proposed loan would be withheld unless the Ottoman Government would consent to have its budget administered by a resident French adviser. The Young Turk ministry, determined to tolerate no further foreign intervention in the administrative affairs of the empire, flatly refused to consider any such proposal, and Djavid Bey was instructed to break off all negotiations. “As a true and loyal friend of France,” wrote Djavid, “I regretted this incident as one likely to strain the future relations between the two countries.”

From Paris Djavid Bey went to London. Sir Ernest Cassel appeared to be willing to negotiate a loan to Turkey of the desired amount, but, upon representations from M. Cambon, the French ambassador at London, Sir Edward Grey persuaded Cassel not to put in a bid for the bonds. This decision was reached largely, as Djavid Bey was informed by the British Foreign Office, because the Bagdad Railway was considered to be “an enterprise which under the existing concession has not been conceived in the best interests of the Ottoman Empire, while it offers, as at present controlled, an undoubted menace to the legitimate position of British trade in Mesopotamia.” To the Turkish Government this statement was a piece of gratuitous impertinence, for, as Djavid Bey replied, “It was a prerogative only of the Ottoman Government to determine whether the conditions of construction and management of the Bagdad Railway were beneficial or detrimental to Turkey. England had no more right to object to the Bagdad Railway than Germany had to object to the British and French lines in operation in Turkey.”

The collapse of the financial negotiations in Paris and London offered the _Deutsche Bank_ an opportunity which its directors were too shrewd to overlook. Dr. Helfferich was despatched to Constantinople and within a few weeks had secured the contract for the entire issue of $30,000,000 of the Ottoman Four Per Cent Loan of 1910, upon terms almost identical with those agreed upon with the French syndicate before M. Pichon’s interference. “On this occasion,” writes Djavid Bey, “the Germans handled the business with great intelligence and tact. They brought up no points which were not related directly or indirectly to the loan, and they made no conditions which would have been inconsistent with the dignity of Turkey. This attitude of Germany met with great approval on the part of the Turkish Government, which was then in a very difficult position. The result was the greatest diplomatic victory in the history of the Ottoman Empire between the revolution of 1908 and the outbreak of the Great War.”[10]

The purchase of the loan of 1910 by the _Deutsche Bank_, however, did not solve the financial problems of the Young Turk Government. It was essential that measures be taken to increase the revenues of the Ottoman Empire. Accordingly, negotiations had been conducted during 1910, and were continued until midsummer of 1911, to secure the consent of the Powers to an increase of 4% in the customs duties. It was apparent from the outset that the British Government would block any project for an increase in Turkish taxes, unless it were granted important compensations of a political and economic character and unless it could determine, in large measure, the purposes for which the additional revenues would be expended. In this respect, also, it appeared that Entente policy was standing in the way of the success of the Revolution in Turkey!

British objections to the proposed increase in the Ottoman customs duties were founded in large part upon British opposition to the Bagdad Railway and, more particularly, to the sections of the Railway between Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. In the spring of 1910, the British Government proposed that a concession for a railway from Bagdad to Basra _via_ Kut-el-Amara should be awarded to British financiers, in order that British economic interests in Mesopotamia might be adequately safeguarded. In May of that year Sir Edward Grey wrote the British ambassador at Constantinople, “Please explain quite clearly to the Turkish Government that the British Government will not agree to any addition to the taxes until this claim for a concession is taken into favorable consideration, and also that Great Britain’s attitude towards Turkey will depend largely upon how she meets this demand of yours.” Upon the refusal of the Ottoman Government to accede to this demand, Sir Edward Grey wrote to Sir Henry Babington Smith, English representative on the Ottoman Public Debt Administration, that England must be awarded at least a 55% participation in the Bagdad-Basra section of the Bagdad Railway, as well as concessions for the construction and control of port works at Koweit. In addition, Turkey should be made to understand that Great Britain could approve no agreement without the sanction of the French and Russian Governments.

When Djavid Bey was in London in July, 1910, he submitted two counterproposals to Sir Edward Grey: first, that the portion of the Bagdad Railway from Bagdad to Basra should be internationalized upon terms agreeable to Sir Ernest Cassel and Dr. Arthur von Gwinner; or, second, that the Ottoman Government itself should undertake the construction of the line beyond Bagdad. The British Foreign Office indicated that it might consent to an increase in the Ottoman customs duties until April, 1914, upon some such terms, provided the consent of the other Powers were forthcoming, and provided Turkey would surrender her right of veto over the borrowing powers of Egypt. Because of the collapse of the loan negotiations, however, nothing further came of these proposals.

On March 7, 1911, the Ottoman ministers at London and Paris presented to the British and French Governments respectively a proposition that the Bagdad-Basra section of the Bagdad Railway should be constructed by an Ottoman company, to the capital of which the Turkish Government should subscribe 40%, and German, French, and British capitalists 20% each. The Sublime Porte expressed a willingness, furthermore, to confer with representatives of France and Great Britain for the purpose of satisfying the legitimate political demands of those two nations in Syria and Mesopotamia. The following day, nevertheless, Sir Edward Grey informed the House of Commons that His Majesty’s Government was not prepared to consent to an increase in the Turkish customs duties, because it was not clear that the Ottoman Government was ready to guarantee adequate protection to British commercial interests in Mesopotamia and the region of the Persian Gulf.[11]

This decision was received in Constantinople with undisguised animosity. Young Turks were as little disposed to tolerate British, as they were French, supervision of Ottoman finances and economic policies. The press roundly denounced the British and said that once again Turkey had been shown the wisdom of friendship for Germany.[12]

Entente actions were contrasted with the more conciliatory policy of the Germans. As early as November, 1910, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein had notified the Sublime Porte that Germany would place no obstacles in the way of an increase in the Ottoman customs duties and that, furthermore, his Government was prepared to urge that the Anatolian and Bagdad Railway Companies forego any additional assignment of Turkish revenues. During the first week of March, 1911, Dr. von Gwinner and Dr. Helfferich informed the Ottoman Government that the Bagdad Railway Company was willing to abandon its right to construct the sections of the line from Bagdad to Basra and the Persian Gulf, including the concessions for port and terminal facilities at Basra. The Turkish Government was to be given a free hand as to the disposition of the portion of the railway beyond Bagdad, with the single reservation that the _Deutsche Bank_ should be awarded a share in the enterprise equal to that granted any non-Ottoman group of financiers. The German proposals were accepted and incorporated in a formal convention of March 21, 1911, by which the Bagdad Railway Company abandoned its claims to further commitments from the Ottoman Treasury and agreed, at the pleasure of the Turkish Government, to surrender its concession for the Bagdad-Basra-Persian Gulf sections to an Ottoman company internationally owned and controlled.[13]

The outcome of the negotiations for an increase in the customs duties was a keen disappointment to the Young Turks. Desirous as they were of carrying the Bagdad enterprise to a successful conclusion, they could not help resenting its political implications. “We tried,” writes Djavid Bey, “to better our relations with the English; they talked to us of the Bagdad Railway! We tried to introduce financial and economic reforms in Turkey; we found before us the Bagdad Railway! Every time an occasion arose, the French stirred up the Bagdad Railway question. Even the Russians, notwithstanding the Potsdam Agreement,[14] constantly waved in their hands the Bagdad weapon.” This resentment was fortified by the knowledge that those who opposed the Bagdad Railway were those who believed that the Sick Man would die and were interested in the division of his inheritance. From these Powers Turkey could accept no tutelage!

THE GERMAN RAILWAYS JUSTIFY THEIR EXISTENCE

From the Turkish point of view, the best test of the wisdom of supporting the German railway concessions in Turkey was an examination of the results achieved in improving political and economic conditions in the Ottoman Empire. By 1914 the Anatolian Railways and part of the Bagdad Railway had been in existence a sufficient length of time to appraise their worth to Asia Minor, and the appraisal thus arrived at would be a fair prognostication of the value of the entire system when it should be opened to operation.

Dr. von Gwinner, in justification of the Bagdad Railway enterprise, summarized what he believed to be the chief services of the Anatolian Railways to Turkey. “More than twenty years ago,” he wrote in 1909, “my predecessor, the late George von Siemens, conceived the idea of restoring to civilization the great wastes of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, once and for long the center of the history of humanity. The only means of achieving that end was by building railways; this was undertaken, slowly but persistently, and with marvelous results. Constantinople and the Turkish army at that time were eating bread made from Russian flour; they are now eating grain of their own country’s growth. Security in Asia Minor at that time was hardly greater than it is to-day in Kurdistan. When the _Deutsche Bank’s_ engineers reached a station a little beyond Ismid (Nikomedia) on the Sea of Marmora, the neighborhood was infested by Tscherkess robbers; the chief of those robbers is now a stationmaster of the Anatolian Railway Company, drawing about £100 _per annum_, a party as respectable as the late Mr. Micawber after his conversion to thrift. The railways brought ease to the peasantry, who are obtaining for their harvest twice to four times the price formerly paid, and the railways have brought revenue to the Treasury. The Anatolian Railway’s lines are in as good condition as any line in the United Kingdom, and their transportation charge is less than half the rates of any railway in England.”[15]

Although this was the statement of an avowed protagonist of the Anatolian Railway, the testimony of other observers must lead to the conclusion that it was not an overestimate of the value of the Anatolian system. As early as 1903, for example, the British Consul General at Constantinople wrote: “There is no doubt that the agricultural production of the districts traversed by the Angora Railway has increased largely. Before the Angora Railway was opened there was no export of grain from that district; the annual export of wheat and barley is now from £1,500,000 to £2,000,000. The Railway has attracted a large number of immigrants from Bulgaria and Russia, who have settled in the most fertile parts. They form a hardworking and intelligent population, accustomed to more civilized methods of cultivation than the Anatolian peasantry. Population, improved communications and security are the essentials required for the development of Asia Minor. The Railway attracts the one and creates the others. All agree that the country along the Railway is much safer than elsewhere. It would be surprising, therefore, if the production of the country did not increase.”[16]

The improvement in economic conditions in Anatolia became more marked as time went on. The Anatolian Railway Company established a special agricultural department for the education of the peasantry in more improved methods of farming; nurseries and experimental stations were maintained; demonstrations were given of the best systems of irrigation and drainage; attention was paid to the development of markets for surplus products of various kinds. American agricultural machinery was introduced and promised to become widely adopted. As a result of these improvements, the agricultural output of the country increased by leaps and bounds, and the cultivated areas in some districts were more than doubled. Famine, formerly a common occurrence, became a thing of the past, because irrigation eliminated the danger of recurrent droughts and floods. Increased production assured a plentiful food supply, and improved transportation enabled the surplus of one district to be transferred, in case of need, to another. All in all, the peasantry were developing qualities of industry, thrift, and adaptability which seemed to forecast great things for the future of Asia Minor.[17]

Furthermore, the German railways in Turkey, the failure of which had been freely prophesied, proved to be successful business enterprises. The directors took all possible steps to build up the earning power of the lines, rather than depend upon the minimum return guaranteed by the Ottoman Government. The railways were efficiently and intelligently administered—the operating expenses of the Anatolian and Bagdad lines never exceeded 47% of the gross receipts, although the operating expenses of the chief European railways, under much more favorable conditions, varied from 54% to 62% of gross receipts during the same period. Occasional dividends of 5% or 6% were paid by the Anatolian and Bagdad Railway Companies between 1906 and 1914, but only when the disbursements were warranted by earnings. In 1911, a notable advance was made by the introduction of oil-burning locomotives on the Bagdad lines; henceforth the German railways in Turkey were operated with fuel purchased from the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey![18]

This scrupulously careful management eventually brought its reward. In 1911, the earnings of the Angora line exceeded the kilometric guarantee and, in accordance with the terms of the concession, the Ottoman Government received a share of the receipts. In 1912, the returns of the Eski Shehr-Konia line also exceeded the sum guaranteed by the Government, the Ottoman Treasury receiving a share of the earnings of the Anatolian system to an amount of more than $200,000. After 1913, no further payments to the Anatolian Railway Company were required under the kilometric guarantees.[19]

The results on the completed sections of the Bagdad Railway were equally promising, as will be indicated by the following table:[20]

_Year_ _Kilometres_ _Passengers_ _Freight_ _Gross_ _Total_ _in_ _Tons_ _Receipts per_ _Government_ _Operation_ _Kilometre_ _Subsidy_ (_Francs_) (_Francs_)

1906 200 29,629 13,693 1,368.83 624,028.21 1907 200 37,145 23,643 1,754.44 546,129.77 1908 200 52,759 15,941 1,839.86 529,443.12 1909 200 57,026 15,364 1,936.72 509,565.45 1910 200 71,665 27,756 2,571.43 381,135.58 1911 238 95,884 38,046 3,379.34 238,166.59 1912 609 288,833 57,670 5,315.67 278,785.25 1913 609 407,474 78,645 3,786.53 216,295.17 1914 887 597,675 116,194 8,177.97 2,939,983.00

Figures in italics indicate payments _to_ the Turkish Government of its share of the receipts in excess of the guarantee of 4,500 francs per kilometre.

The improvement in the economic conditions of Anatolia, and the success of the German railways as business enterprises, were sources of great satisfaction and profit to the Imperial Ottoman Government. Not only was the Treasury receiving revenue from the railway lines which had formerly been a drain upon the financial resources of the empire, but the receipts from taxes in the regions traversed by the railways were constantly increasing. As early as 1893 the Ottoman Ministry of Public Works announced that the increase in tithes and the increased value of farm lands in Asia Minor had more than justified expenditures by the Sultan’s Government in subsidies to the Anatolian Railway.[21] For those portions of Anatolia which were served by the Railway, the amount of the tithes had almost doubled in twenty years: in 1889, the year after the award of the Anatolian concession, $639,760 was collected; in 1898, $948,070; in 1908, $1,240,450. In certain districts the amount of the tithes collected in 1908 was five or six times as great as the yield before the construction of the Railway.[22]

The economic prospects of Turkey never were brighter than they were just before the outbreak of the Great War. The new régime had removed many of the vexatious restrictions on individual initiative which had characterized the rule of Abdul Hamid. The country’s losses in men in the Italian and Balkan wars had been made up by an immigration of Moslem refugees from the ceded territories. Numerous concessions had been granted for the exploitation of mines, the construction of public utilities, and the improvement of the means of communication. “There was a feeling abroad in the land that an era of exceptional commercial and industrial activity was about to dawn upon Turkey.” The Ottoman Empire was in a fair way to become modernized according to Western standards.[23]

Thus the Anatolian and Bagdad Railways achieved all that was claimed for them by their sponsors. They increased political security in Asia Minor; they brought about an economic renaissance in the homeland of the Turks; they justified the investment of public funds which was necessary to bring the system to completion. Beyond the Amanus Mountains lay the plains of Syria and the great unexploited wealth of Mesopotamia. A development of Mesopotamia, even as modest as that achieved in Anatolia, would pay the cost of the Bagdad Railway many times over. Were the Ottoman statesmen who supported this great project to be condemned for so great a service to their country? Or would they have been short-sighted had they failed to realize the great potentialities of railway construction in Asiatic Turkey? That the Bagdad Railway contributed to the causes of Turkish participation in the Great War—and to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire—was not so much the fault of the Turks themselves as it was the blight laid upon Turkey, a “backward nation,” by European imperialism.

THE YOUNG TURKS HAVE SOME MENTAL RESERVATIONS

Although the revolutionary party in Turkey had come to look with favor upon German influence in the Near East, and particularly to support the Bagdad Railway, there is little reason for accepting the too hastily drawn conclusion that the Young Turks had sold their country to the Kaiser or that they were under a definite obligation to subscribe to German diplomatic policies. They were too strongly nationalistic for that. They believed that the Ottoman Empire must eventually rid itself of foreign administrative assistance, foreign capital invested under far-reaching economic concessions, and foreign interference in Ottoman political affairs. But for a period of transition—during which Turkey could learn the secrets of Western progress and adapt them to her own purposes—it was the obvious duty of a forward-looking government to utilize European capital and European technical assistance for the welfare of the empire. Patriotism and modernism went hand in hand in the Young Turk program.[24]

The Young Turks were not unaware of the menace of the Bagdad Railway to their own best hopes. As Djavid Bey appropriately says: “The great drawback of this enterprise was its political character, which clung to it and became a source of endless toil and anxiety for the country. In a word, it poisoned the political life of Turkey. If the Bagdad concession had not been granted, the revolutionary government could have solved much more easily pending political and economic problems. But one must admire the courage of Abdul Hamid in granting the concession, no matter what the cost, because the construction of the Bagdad line was essential for the defence and the economic progress of the empire. Unfortunately for Turkey, she has always had to suffer from such politico-economic concessions.

“The Bagdad Railway did not escape the malady of politics. When one entered the meeting room of the company, one breathed the atmosphere of the ministerial chamber in _Wilhelmstrasse_ and felt in both Gwinner and Helfferich the presence of undersecretaries for foreign affairs. This state of affairs, instead of simplifying the negotiations and relations between Germany and Turkey, served only to envenom them.”

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

[1] For accounts of the Young Turk Revolutions see René Pinon, _L’Europe et la jeune Turquie_ (Paris, 1911); V. Bérard, _La révolution turque_ (Paris, 1909); C. R. Buxton, _Turkey in Revolution_ (London, 1909); Ernst Jäckh, _Der aufsteigende Halbmond_ (Berlin, 1911); A. H. Lybyer, “The Turkish Parliament,” in _Proceedings of the American Political Science Association_, Volume VII (1910), pp. 66 _et seq._; S. Panaretoff, _Near Eastern Affairs and Conditions_ (New York, 1922), Chapter V; A. Kutschbach, _Die türkische Revolution_ (Halle, 1909); Baron C. von der Goltz, _Der jungen Türkei Niederlage und die Möglichkeit ihrer Wiedererhebung_ (Berlin, 1913).

[2] Paul Rohrbach, _Germany’s Isolation_, p. 50.

[3] Karl Helfferich, _Die deutsche Türkenpolitik_, p. 21.

[4] This quotation, together with many other facts in this chapter, is from a lengthy memorandum of Djavid Bey on the Bagdad Railway, prepared especially for the use of the author in the writing of this book. It is dated January 3, 1923, and was forwarded from the Lausanne Conference for Peace in the Near East. Unless otherwise specified, quotations from Djavid Bey here given are from this memorandum. There probably is no person who knows more of the Ottoman point of view on the Bagdad Railway than Djavid, who as Young Turk Minister of Finance and, later, as Turkish delegate to the Ottoman Public Debt Administration has had perhaps an unprecedented opportunity to observe the financial and economic ramifications of European imperialism in the Near East.

[5] _Diplomatic and Consular Reports_, No. 4835 (1911), p. 16; _Mesopotamia_, p. 41; _The Annual Register_, 1911, pp. 364–365; _Armenia and Kurdistan_, p. 62; _Turkey in Europe_, pp. 72–73; _Anatolia_, pp. 51–52, 81; _infra_, pp. 244–246.

[6] Pan-Turkism, or Pan-Turanianism, started as a cultural movement among Ottoman intellectuals. It assumed political aspects as a result of three important circumstances: 1. Aggressions against Turkey by foreign powers; 2. The ardent nationalism of the Balkan states bordering on Turkey; 3. The existence within Turkey of vigorous dissident nationalities, such as the Armenians and the Arabs. Pan-Turanianism and Pan-Islamism, although separate movements, had much in common. In 1911, at any rate, the Young Turks adopted Pan-Islamism as part of their program. Pinon, _op. cit._, pp. 134 _et seq._; _Mohammedan History_, pp. 89–96; Sir Thomas Barclay, _The Turco-Italian War and Its Problems_ (London, 1912), pp. 100 _et seq._

[7] For an excellent statement of the reaction of Turkish nationalism upon European politics see _The Quarterly Review_, Volume 228 (1917), pp. 511 _et seq._

[8] Regarding the coincidence of German and Turkish interests during the reign of Abdul Hamid _cf._ _supra_, pp. 64–65, 125–130.

[9] _Report of the Anatolian Railway Company_, 1908 and 1909, pp. 8–9; _The Annual Register_, 1909, pp. 337 _et seq._; _Stenographische Berichte, XII Legislaturperiode, 1 Session_, Volume 260 (1910), pp. 2174d _et seq._

[10] From Djavid Bey’s memorandum. For scattered details of these negotiations see _The Annual Register_, 1910, pp. 336–340; _Report of the Deutsche Bank_, 1910, pp. 13 _et seq._; K. Helfferich, _Die deutsche Türkenpolitik_, pp. 23 _et seq._; Ostrorog, _op. cit._, pp. 60–61.

[11] _Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons_, fifth series, Volume 22 (1911), pp. 1284–1285. For further details of the negotiations of 1909–1911 _cf._ B. von Siebert, _Diplomatische Aktenstücke zur Geschichte der Ententepolitik der Vorkriegsjahre_ (Berlin and Leipzig, 1921), Chapters VIII and IX. Hereinafter cited as _de Siebert_ documents.

[12] _Cf._ foreign correspondence of _The Times_, March 21, 1911.

[13] _Troisième convention additionelle à la convention du 5 Mars, 1903, relative au chemin de fer de Bagdad_ (Constantinople, 1911); _supra_, pp. 111–113.

[14] _Cf._ _infra_, Chapter X.

[15] _The Nineteenth Century_, Volume 65 (1909), pp. 1083–1084.

[16] _Diplomatic and Consular Reports_, No. 3140 (1903), p. 29.

[17] _Société du chemin de fer d’Anatolie-Jahresbericht des Agrikultur-Dienstes_ (Berlin, 1899 _et seq._), _passim_.

[18] _Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen_, Volume 31 (Berlin, 1908), pp. 207–211, 1485–1491; _Commerce Reports_, No. 18d (Washington, 1915), p. 9; _Diplomatic and Consular Reports_, No. 4835 (1911), p. 17; _Report of the Anatolian Railway Company_, 1910–1913, _passim_.

[19] _Report of the Anatolian Railway_, 1911–1914, _passim_.

[20] Compiled from the _Report of the Bagdad Railway Company_, 1903–1914. Figures for the years 1904 and 1905 are incomplete and have therefore been omitted. It should be kept in mind in reading this table that the years 1912–1914 were abnormal, especially as regards passenger traffic, because of the two Balkan Wars and the Great War.

[21] _The Levant Herald_ (Constantinople), October 25, 1893.

[22] Caillard, _loc. cit._, p. 439.

[23] _Commerce Reports_, No. 18d (1915), pp. 1–2.

[24] _Cf._ _Questions diplomatiques et coloniales_, Volume 26 (1908), pp. 475–477.