PEACE PROPOSALS
The Bagdad Railroad--The English Oil Concession--The German Alliance
with Turkey--Austria the Hand of Germany--The Decay of Turkey--The New
Map.
How ridiculous are American peace proposals concerning the Audacious
War of 1914 may be judged from this announcement which I am able to
make:--
The return of the French government from Bordeaux to Paris was
determined upon from two points of view: safety and political
necessity. The French people were angered that Paris should have been
deserted, but notwithstanding the political reasons, which were more
forceful than the public will be permitted to know, the return would
not have been undertaken had not the military authorities considered
the move a safe one. How safe will be evidenced by this--that at both
Bordeaux and Paris this problem was before the authorities: "Events
have now progressed so far that it is time for the Allies to consider
what will be their terms of peace. These terms must be divided into
many classes, ranging from those in which only one of the Allies has an
interest to those in which all have an interest. Of course, the latter
will be the most complex, and it is time now to begin with the
complexities of the most far-reaching situation. This is Mesopotamia
and the Bagdad railroad."
Now who in Washington knows anything about Mesopotamia or the Bagdad
railroad? Yet here is the key of the most far-reaching problem in any
peace proposals. It is because this matter can now be settled that the
plunging of Turkey into the war by Enver Bey has made all Europe
rejoice. The Germans think Turkey is another 16 1/2-inch howitzer or
"Jack Johnson" putting black smoke over the British empire. The rest
of Europe now knows the whole of Turkey is on the table, and the
carving, it is believed, will be had with no plates extended from
either Austria or Germany. For the first time the Turkish problem can
be really settled instead of patched.
Some years ago I was astonished to learn in Europe that American
banking interests, and American contracting and engineering firms in
alliance therewith, had their eyes upon Asia Minor and the possibility
of its development by American railroad enterprise. I was astonished
to learn that some people at Constantinople had authority for the use
of the name of J. P. Morgan & Co. Indeed, a railroad concession in
Asia Minor, the details of which it is not now necessary to go into,
had been arranged, I was told, and lacked only signatures. The
American people felt that the Germans were the little devils under the
table who stayed the hand of the Sultan, and kept his pen off the
parchment. Never would the signature come down on that paper, although
declared to have been many times promised.
The English were, of course, vitally interested in any railroad
concessions in Asia Minor as opening the route to the Persian Gulf and
India. Money talks with Turkey as nowhere else. The Germans had made
a great impression upon the Bosphorus. Nobody at that point in the
geography of the world could fail to see the wonderful commercial
progress of the Germans and the military power that stood behind ready
to back it up.
A concession for a railroad from the Bosphorus to Bagdad and through
Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf finally went to Germany, and the
signature of the Sultan was at the bottom of the paper. There was, of
course, the usual Oriental compromise, and the concession for the oil
fields of Mesopotamia went to the English; but the signature of the
Sultan is still lacking to that piece of paper.
English statesmen announced that the Bagdad railroad was a purely
private enterprise, financed in Germany by people associated with the
Deutsche Bank. They had later to confess that error. Germany laughed
and later openly announced that the Bagdad railroad was a Prussian
enterprise of state. In fact, this concession, which is likely to be
famous in history when the Allies win, was handed over to the German
Emperor personally by the Sultan.
Already a thousand miles of this road have been constructed through
Asia Minor to Mosul. The concession carries the mineral rights for ten
miles on either side of the railroad, except through the oil fields of
Mesopotamia, said to be among the greatest of the oil fields of the
world. They are really part of the famous Russian oil territory
between Batum and Baku, or the Black and Caspian seas, which extends
not only south into Mesopotamia but is now being developed far to the
north in the Ural Mountains of Great Russia.
Steadily the influence of Germany progressed with Turkey, now through
one channel, now through another. When the Bulgarian war broke out, it
was German guns and German officers and German money that upheld the
Turks. The French put their money on Bulgaria by bank loans to her
treasury. The Russians backed Servia. The French laughed and so did
all Europe when the Turkish troops manned by German officers were
beaten back to Constantinople and the Bosphorus.
Austria extended the hand of friendship to Bulgaria and induced her to
attack her allies, Servia and Greece, thus making the second Balkan
war. The result was the loss by Bulgaria of part of the territory she
had acquired and a further augmentation in the importance of Servia.
Bulgaria has never forgiven either Servia or Austria for this defeat.
The Servians are the pure-blooded Slavs, while the Bulgarians have a
Turkish admixture, whence their great fighting qualities. The
Roumanians just north of Bulgaria are Italians, and the defeat of
Turkey in Africa by Italy did not lessen the importance of this
enterprising nation on the Danube, fronting Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Both Austria and Germany were losers in all three wars; while the
treaty ending the second Balkan war magnified Servia of the Slav race
of Russia. This is the important and crucial point in race and
geography.
Austria, as the hand of Germany, still demanded a union of all these
Balkan states with Turkey and under the aegis of Austria,--which meant,
of course, Germany.
The aim of Germany in alliance with Turkey was, through Austria in
_quasi_-sovereignty over the Balkan states, to carry German influence
by the Bagdad railroad right through Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf.
Germany would thus be, when the work was finished, a mighty military
empire with rail communications cleaving the center of Europe and
extending through Asia Minor to Eastern waters. With her growing
steamship lines she would touch her colonies in the Pacific and her
mighty naval base at Kiao-Chau in the Far East.
Now, while Germany is besieged on all sides and Italy and Roumania are
preparing to go into the war with the Allies that they may have their
part and parcel in the settlements, it is recognized that it is none
too early for the Allies to consider the map of the entire eastern
hemisphere and tackle that most difficult problem, the Bagdad railroad,
from which Turkey, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, the great
historic countries of the world, must be parcelled out or dominated and
developed.
The followers of Mohammed are no longer a unit. They number
175,000,000 people in the aggregate, but India and Egypt have gradually
receded in sentiment from decadent Turkey, now numbering only about
20,000,000 people, and defended by an army of about 1,000,000. But
this is no longer an army of united, fighting Mohammedan Turks; only a
mixed army lacking in unity, discipline, efficiency and financial base.
Indeed, such are the financial straits of Turkey that a ten per cent
tax has been levied upon the property of the people. If you hold
property in Turkey and cannot pay ten per cent of the value the
authorities have assessed against it, it may be sold or confiscated for
the tax.
Where the money goes, nobody knows. German influence with Turkey has a
financial base; 6,000,000 pounds sterling or 100,000,000 marks went
from Germany to Constantinople just before the war, according to
reports I have from people in the international exchange markets. From
diplomatic sources I learn that this was just one half of the payment
made by Germany to Turkey. The other 100,000,000 marks was probably
paid in war supplies, including the two famous German warships that the
English allowed to escape from the Mediterranean into Turkish waters.
The little English boy was right who returned from school the other day
and said, "Hurray! I don't have to study any more geography; the old
maps are to be torn up and the new map has not yet been made."
It is because of the making of this new map that European diplomacy is
rolling on underneath the surface faster than ever before. Bulgaria
has demanded as the price of her neutrality that she shall have what
she lost in the second Balkan war. The Allies have responded: "What
you get must depend upon what Servia gets from Austria and in the
carving up of Albania." Austria-Hungary may lose Bosnia, Herzegovina,
Dalmatia, and some more. So far as Servia acquires territory here
Bulgaria may push farther south, recovering Adrianople and more sea
coast on the Aegean.
Roumania wants Transylvania just north in Hungary, occupied by
2,500,000 people, the majority Roumanians--this will make her
10,000,000 people--and Italy wants territory from Austria and naval
ports on the Adriatic sea.
Neither Italy nor Roumania has its full war supplies and equipments.
Servia, however, has been terribly pounded by Austria and but for her
good fortune in pushing Austria back out of Servia in December, the
Roumanians with their 450,000 well-organized troops might have had to
come to her assistance earlier than was prepared for. Indeed, it is
now expected that Italy and Roumania will move against Austria within a
few weeks. Russia and the Allies are making their agreements for this
intervention.
And what does America know about these movements on the European
chessboard, and upon what basis should she aspire to be arbiter or
peace adviser?