[13] H. Woodhouse, “American Oil Claims in Turkey,” in Current History (New York), Volume XV (1922), pp. 953–959.
[14] Report of the Department of Agriculture in Mesopotamia, 1920 (Bagdad, 1921); The Cultivation of Cotton in Mesopotamia (Bagdad, 1922); “Cotton Growing in Mesopotamia,” in the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, Volume 18 (1920), pp. 73–82.
[15] Rohrbach, op. cit., pp. 30–46.
[16] Quoted in The Near East, October 6, 1916, pp. 545–546. For an elaboration of the views of Sir William Willcocks see the following of his books and articles: The Recreation of Chaldea (Cairo, 1903); The Irrigation of Mesopotamia (London, 1905, and Constantinople, 1911); “Mesopotamia, Past, Present and Future,” in the Geographical Journal, January, 1910, pp. 1–18. For further works on the economic resources of Turkey-in-Asia consult, also, the following: K. H. Müller, Die wirtschaftliche Bedeutung der Bagdadbahn (Hamburg, 1917); L. Blanckenhorn, Syrien und die deutsche Arbeit (Weimar, 1916); L. Schulmann, Zur türkischen Agrarfrage (Weimar, 1916); A. Ruppin, Syrien als Wirtschaftsgebiet (Berlin, 1917).
[17] W. von Pressel, Les chemins de fer en Turquie d’Asie (Zurich, 1902), pp. 4–5, 52–59, etc. ad lib. For statements of the importance of von Pressel in the development of railways in Turkey cf. André Chéradame, La question d’Orient: la Macédoine, le chemin de fer de Bagdad (Paris, 1903), pp. 25 et seq.; C. A. Schaefer, Die Entwicklung der Bagdadbahnpolitik (Weimar, 1916), p. 13.
[18] Corps de droit ottoman, Volume IV, pp. 62–64.
[19] Sir H. P. Caillard, Article “Turkey” in the Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition, Volume 27, p. 439; Reports of the Ottoman Public Debt (London, 1884 et seq.), passim.
[20] In Turkey all Mussulmans over 20 years of age were liable to military service for a period of 20 years, 4 of which were with the colors in the regular army. Residents in the outlying territories, notably the Arabs and the Kurds, constantly avoided military service and went unpunished because of the inability of the Government to send punitive expeditions into these regions. Railways would have produced satisfactory bases of operations for such expeditions and would have shortened their lines of communication. The Statesman’s Year Book, 1903, pp. 1168–1170.
[21] The Hedjaz Railway was a great national enterprise which indicated the strength of Moslem feeling in Turkey and which proved the desire of the Ottoman Government to construct national railways as far as capital and technical skill could be obtained. So far as Abdul Hamid was concerned, the railway was an attempt to gain prestige for his claim to the Caliphate, as well as a move to strengthen his political position in Syria and the Hedjaz. In April, 1900, the Sultan announced to the Faithful his determination to construct a railway from Damascus to the holy cities of Medina and Mecca. An appeal was issued to Mohammedans the world over for funds to carry out the work. The Sultan headed the list with a subscription of about a quarter of a million dollars, and by 1904 over three and a half million dollars had been collected. The only compulsory contributions were the levies of 10% on the salary of every official in the civil and military service of the empire. It is estimated that the contributions eventually amounted to almost fifteen million dollars. The engineers in charge of the construction were Italians, although the great bulk of the work was done by the army and the peasantry. Nearly seven hundred thousand persons were employed on the construction work at one time or another, the non-Moslems being replaced as quickly as Mussulmans could be trained to take their places. On August 31, 1908, the thirty-second anniversary of the accession of Abdul Hamid, the railway was completed to Medina, where construction was halted temporarily because of the Young Turk Revolution and the international complications which followed it. Corps de droit ottoman, Volume IV, pp. 242–244; A. Hamilton, Problems of the Middle East (London, 1909), pp. 273–292; Annual Register, 1908, pp. 328–329.
[22] Quoted by Hamilton, op. cit., pp. 274–275.