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'Memorandum by the Political Secretary, India Office, on German press opinion regarding the Middle East' [‎15v] (2/6)

The record is made up of 1 file (3 folios). It was created in Mar 1916. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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Turkish factories, German capital must be brought into Turkish
companies, German organisations (in Germany) must arrange for
the grouping of inter-related industries. ,
The need for careful preparation is again emphasised by
Professor Dr. C. H. Becker, in an article which the Hamburger
Nachrichten (16th March) commends to the particular attention of
its readers. He points out the danger of over-rating Turkish
resources and under-rating the work necessary for exploiting them.
Language, religion, and the psychological characteristics of the
people must all he studied—“Anyone who is going to concern
himself with the East, merely from love of adventure, had better
stay at home.” “ The only superiority which the European brings
with him is not intellectual but moral.” Moreover, the German
merchant must lay aside not only his western prejudices, hut
apparently all his most characteristic qualities. “ Smartness,
impudence, loud and crude behaviour, self-exaltation, and treatment
of Orientals as though they were a kind of nigger ” !
Besides these warnings, the Constantinople correspondent of
the Kolnische Zeitung* in the third of a series of “ Constantinople
War Letters,” dated 21st Eebruary, quotes articles from the
Turkish papers Tasvir and Sabach of a somewhat discouraging
nature. The former had attacked the proceedings of the German
purchasing commission which has been trying to restock Germany
at Turkish expense. But the correspondent points out that the
Tasvir's remarks apply equally to the future. The supply of raw
materials which Turkey produces and Germany and Austria require
is the reverse of unlimited, and after the war, when she is finan
cially exhausted, they will he her only wealth. The drain must
therefore be regulated, and it must he remembered that the time
when lurkey can really benefit the Central Bovvers by purveying
raw material on a large scale lies still in a remote future. From
the same point of view the Sabach criticised the proposal made at
the Dresden economic conference that Turkey should join a
Zolh erein of Central Powers. For many years to come the absence
of communications and of internal development will make it
impossible for Turkey to distribute her surplus products. There is
no point in exporting wheat, wool and silk only to import flour,
biscuits, beer and textiles, which is w hat would happen if Turkey
w ere to play the^ role of agricultural state in a Zollverein with
highly-developed industrial states. This is a natural point of view,
says the correspondent, and w^e must give Turkey time—time
especially for the new tariff' to bear fruit.
„ r —“.7 m me uruaeuiscne Jiuqe-
meine Zeitung of 12th and 28th March, and explained (in the
light of an article by Ahmed Nessimi Bey, the Turkish Minister oi
onmiuce) )> r. L. leldmann, the Constantinople correspondent
of the Berliner Tageblatt, on the same day, under the title “ The
Economic Liberation of Turkey.” The new tariff covers 772
a V C f’ e S en ^ ra principle being that agriculture, and industries
wlnf 0 ? 11 deveioped within a reasonable time, are heavily
protected. School books and educational plant, agricultural
machinery, manures, gold, platinum are duty free • arms anc
Sugar LS lightl * teed ’ because a Turkish
sugai industry belongs to a remote future; flour on the othei
eyCT’that the^r 084 pr 1 ohi , bitivel y- lt w pointed out, how-
ev er, that the rates prescribed are maximum rates which mav bt
is to run for thiw ? v 0 e- atlOn t°t! c ” 1 T. ercial treaties. The new tarifl
it takes effect on 1 st A n ''i' 6 'i' St lns ^ ince - One report says thal
u takes ettei t on 1st April, another on the 14th September It, i-
expected to bring in an additional £ 1 ' 2 non non ; *i e . 11
and thereafter to work up to £T 5?000,000 ’ ^ ^
K.Z., 21st March.

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Content

This document outlines Germany's intentions to conduct economic dealings in Turkey, in particular through the importing and exporting of goods. The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , Sir Frederic Arthur Hirtzel, explores the opinions of the press regarding the correct way to implement such procedures in Turkey, and discusses the likely shift in international relations and the balance of power (particularly between Britain, Russia and Germany) should Germany succeed in its economic ambitions. Hirtzel also discusses the new tariff which has just been introduced to Turkey.

Extent and format
1 file (3 folios)
Arrangement

This file consists of a single document

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at f 15, and terminates at f 17, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.

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English in Latin script
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'Memorandum by the Political Secretary, India Office, on German press opinion regarding the Middle East' [‎15v] (2/6), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B223a, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100032845924.0x000003> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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