er the Smyrniotes. It is no
wonder that the blockade of Germany does not produce the desired result
a little quicker, for food is already pouring in from Turkey, and when
the artificial manures have produced their early harvest the stream will
become a torrent.[1]

[Footnote 1: The harvest has now come in, and is most abundant.]

But during all these busy and tremendous months of war Germany has not
only been denuding Turkey of her food supplies, for the sake of the
Pan-Turkish ideal; in the same altruistic spirit she has been vastly
increasing the productiveness of her new and most important colony. The
great irrigation works at Konia, begun several years ago, are in
operation, and the revenues of the irrigated villages have been doubled.
In fact, as the report lately issued says, 'a new and fertile province
has been formed by the aid of German energy and knowledge.' At Adana are
similar irrigation works, financed by the Deutsche Bank. Ernst Marre
gives us a most hopeful survey of them, for Adana was already linked up
with the Bagdad Railway in October 1916, which was to be the great
artery connecting Germany with the East. There is some considerable
shortage of labour there (owing in part to the Armenian massacres, to
which we shall revert presently), but the financial arrangements are in
excellent shape. The whole of the irrigation works are in German hands,
and have been paid for by German paper; and to get the reservoirs, etc.,
back into her own control, it has been agreed that Turkey, already
completely bankrupt, will have to pay not only what has been spent, but
a handsome sum in compensation; while, as regards shortage of labour,
prisoners have been released in large numbers to work without pay. This
irrigation scheme at Adana will increase the cotton yield by four times
the present crop, so we learn from the weekly Arab magazine, _El Alem el
Ismali_, which tells us also of the electric-power stations erected
there.

The same paper (October 1916) announces to the Anatolian merchants that
transport is now easy, owing to the arrival of engines and trucks from
Germany, while _Die Zeit_ (February 1917) prophesies a prosperous future
for this Germano-Turkish cotton combine. Hitherto Turkey has largely
imported cotton from England; now Turkey--thanks to German capital on
terms above stated--will, in the process of internal development so
unselfishly devised for her by Germany, grow cotton for herself, and be
kind e