An Observer in the Near East

by William Le Queux

2. Grasp of the reorganisation of the Turkish Army, and use it as her instrument.

3. Gain a dominant position in the Turkish finances.

4. Lay hold on the communications of the empire, and thus become the master of her economical development.

A full expansion was given to this policy after the accession to the throne of William II., who in his first visit to the Sultan in 1889 laid the foundation of mutual friendship and admiration between the two rulers.

The results are astonishing. In less than a quarter of a century the German net has been cast over the whole body of the Turkish Empire. German diplomacy is paramount to-day in Constantinople. The Turkish Army has been reorganised upon the Prussian system, and is under German control. The finances of the Turkish Empire are gradually becoming a dependency to the German banks by loans and concessions, which are constantly increasing. By the great railway from the Bosphorus to the Persian Gulf, opening up by its branches the most fertile provinces of Asiatic Turkey, Germany becomes master of the economical development of this part of the Sultan’s empire.

Thus the economical and political influence of the Germans has been so much extended and has gained such a domination, that the Turkish Empire is, in a sense, already a German protectorate. No act of importance is possible in Turkey without the knowledge and influence of Germany. Every act of Abdul Hamid is under the control and direction of German diplomacy. Allemania bisum dostour (“Germany is our friend”) is a saying which has penetrated even into the mass of the Turkish nation, and the Kaiser has a full right to boast himself as the protector and champion of the Mussulmans.

In the Balkan Peninsula, on the European side, the pioneer of the German policy is the Austro-Hungarian Empire. By tradition, by its dynasty, and by its alliance, Austria plays the rôle of vanguard to the German advance towards the Near East. The occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has made Austria a Balkan power, and her plans are ready for the march of an Austrian army southward to the Gulf of Salonica, which will bring her in touch with the Ægean Sea and make her the ruler over the whole Peninsula. In the meantime, she is strengthening her political and economical influence in Servia and Albania by the same methods as used by the Germans.

In the midst of this land activity in the Near East, the importance of the Ægean Sea, which is the necessary link, was not lost to view. A footing was sought, and the island of Thassos was chosen as the foundation-stone of the future naval power in the Eastern basin of the Mediterranean. This island was picked upon because, in the first place, it would not attract attention, and, in the second place, because it would serve admirably the German plans. Thassos has a good geographical position in the Ægean Sea. It is not far from the Dardanelles, the door to Constantinople, and is very near the Macedonian shore, being in the very entrance of the port of Kavala.

With a naval base on this island, Germany would gain a still greater influence in Turkey, and especially on the European and Asiatic shores of the Ægean Sea. According to trustworthy information which I have obtained in confidence, a vast German activity is contemplated upon these shores in the very near future.

Thus the Germans, with the aid of the Turkish régime and of the Austrian Empire, are cleverly paving their way towards the Near East, and preparing the foundation of a “Fatherland” stretching from the Baltic to the Indian Ocean.