THE “Literary Digest” of March 15 has an article entitled “German Designs on Asiatic Turkey.” First of all is Russia, who has long had an eye on Armenia, and seemed to be only waiting an opportune moment. We are told:
“The number of troops in the Trans-Caucasus has been gradually increased, and rumors were heard that Russia was preparing to take a decisive step when there came a warning from the direction of Germany. Baron von Wagenheim, the German ambassador at Constantinople, made a speech in the course of which he said that Germany is very firm on the principle of the integrity of Asia Minor. The Russian press, which had apparently been preparing the public for eventualities by publishing articles about Armenia, telling how the poor Armenians were being oppressed and persecuted by the Turks, and intimating that Russia might have to ‘liberate’ them from under the Turkish yoke, are painfully disappointed.”
The “Novoye Vremya” of St. Petersburg says editorially:
“Asia Minor, maybe, really needs the recognition of the principle proclaimed by the German diplomat. At the time when Austria-Hungary was preparing to take the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and Italy to take her African colonies, Germany quietly established herself in Anatolia [Asia Minor] and Mesopotamia. She has taken possession of the Anatolian ports, has traversed all of Asia Minor by a through line of railroad, has obtained concessions for the development of the mineral resources of the country, and has taken into her hands the Turkish commerce, finances, and credit. The sovereign authority over Anatolia belongs to the Turkish government, but the material bases of that authority are gradually passing into the hands of the subjects of the German emperor.”
The “Literary Digest” remarks that the wisdom of the kaiser is well shown in his bloodless conquest. His bankers, engineers, and merchants are gaining control of the market, communications, and finance of that favored region, and however disinterested Germany appears to be in crying “Hands off Asiatic Turkey,” the Russian writer intimates that he merely means others’ hands. Thus we read:
“Anatolia will soon differ little from, let us say, Posen. The railroads, lands, industrial concerns, the large import and export trade, lastly, the most profitable branches of agriculture, will be under the supreme control of German financiers, back of whom, like a solid stone wall, stands German diplomacy. To the natives is left the respectable but not very profitable position of common laborers. In German mines, on the railroads, in factories, and especially on cotton plantations in Mesopotamia, the ‘sovereign’ nationality will find its daily subsistence. All the rest will go as compensation to the new masters for their cultured guidance of the development of the natural resources of the country of which its ancient inhabitants could not take advantage.”
The Turks themselves seem to be thoroly in harmony with Germany, and their national pride seems to be gratified; but the Russian editor still feels that all this is for Germany and not Turkey. He continues:
“The integrity of Asia Minor! That sounds noble! The Turks can not but welcome this generous call, and will hasten to grant to those who voiced it a dozen more concessions by which Anatolia will become enslaved to them for many years.”
“Baron Wagenheim does not conceal the motives that lead him to advocate the principle of the integrity of Asia Minor. With the clumsy bluntness of strong people he says: The integrity of Anatolia must not be violated because there are concentrated there numberless interests of the German people. In the partition of the Ottoman Empire, Germany must not be left out. All the members of the Triple Alliance must have their share. Austria received Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will yet receive Albania; Italy received Tripolitania and Cyrenaica and will also receive, maybe, a few islands; Germany must get Anatolia at her exclusive disposal. Sacred justice demands that.”
More than this, the “Novoye Vremya” believes that the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) is leading Turkey by the nose, and leading her to exhaustion and ruin, in order that the spoil may be more easily divided, and intimates that it is like the bull in the Spanish corrida. He is given the final stab between the shoulder-blades after he has been incited to wear himself out. The Russian newspaper declares that all this encouragement to Turkey to fight on to retain possession of her European territory is not with the expectation that it will be retained, but that Turkey may the more certainly exhaust herself, and so leave her Asiatic possessions as the easier prey. It further says:
“The new Turkish government tries by all available means to retain a large part of her former European possessions. The Triple Alliance renders it all possible assistance in that direction, encouraging it to further resistance, i.e., to the final exhaustion of the Turkish strength. . . . The longer the Balkan war, or even the uncertain state of affairs, lasts, the more of the natural riches of the falling empire will be acquired by the Austro-German financiers at a low price. . . .”
“The Reichspost (Vienna) goes further than Baron Wagenheim. This Austrian newspaper asserts that the German government has informed Russia that it will regard as a cause for war any Russian advance, be it in Armenia or on the Black Sea. . . . To make such a statement, Germany ought to base it on some real facts of Russian policy, but such facts do not exist.”
But of the outcome we are certain. Turkey, long ago the prey of the nations, has been sliced down until but little is left in Europe, and she is thoroly honey-combed in Asia.
