'Memorandum by the Political Secretary, India Office, on German press opinion regarding the Middle East' [‎16r] (3/6)

J '''° lectures addressed to a somewhat wider public than the
above deserve notice. The Fosskche Zeitung of 11th March reports
«•', 11 ^ f ^' 0th 'i (P resl dent of the Middle East Society) on “The
.M iddle East in the World Economy.” He says that there is an
extraordinary increase in the inquiries received by the Society as to
the possibilities for German capital in Turkey, hut “it is urgently
necessary to warn Germany against exaggerated economic hopes of
i urkey; the flooding of Turkey with indigestible goods can only do
harm, economically and politically.” The immediate goal must be the
exploitation of its natural resources, and the great losses in shipping
which all the belligerents have sustained make it essential to keep
open the land line of communications with the Middle East. The
Oder-Danube canal and the connection between Rhine and
Danube must be made; and there must be one commercial
language from Berlin to Bagdad—German as far as Constantinople,
and German beside Turkish and Arabic to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Pears
had recently been expressed in Turkey (e.g., by Talaat Bey) of the
flooding of the country with German capital. This is due to the
suspicion which Turkey’s experiences with the Allies have engen
dered. Germany’s task is to dispel it. As a tangible pledge of
good faith she should guarantee Turkey the full control of the
Dardanelles and the necessary influence in the Balkans. The
speaker then went on to discuss the agricultural rehabilitation of
Turkey and especially of Mesopotamia. [The evening closed with
another lecture on the latter region by Dr. Grassmann.] Turkey
needs capital, machinery and men if she is to be maintained in her
political and economic integrity.
The other leading apostle of the same school, Dr. Rohrbach,
addressed the General Evangelical Protestant Missionary Society
on “ Germany, East Asia, and the East ” {Hamburger Nachrichten,
5th March). He began by pointing out the natural affinity between
the German and the Chinese conception of the State, which makes
Germany much more suitable than England to bring Western
kultur to China. He next showed by statistics of population that
it would be a critical matter for German kultur if the 400 million
Chinese and the 30-40 million* Oriental Moslems fell under British
instead of German influence. For the world would then be pre
dominantly Anglo-Saxon, the Slavs being the sole counterpoise,
and Germany’s 70 millions only “ an enclave An area of land belonging to one country and entirely surrounded by land of just one other country. in the world of
Anglo-Saxon kultur.” To defeat this, Germany’s policy must he
to create what he calls a “ Kulturweltvolkstum,” i.e., the German-
Austro-Hungarian-Bulgarian - Turkish combine. This combine,
working on inner lines, would hold both Russia and England in
check—the former by controlling the Dardanelles, the latter by
threatening the Suez Canal from Southern Syria, which must be
made a military base. Everything depends on securing the
participation of the East in this combine. And the final result
will be as follows : Russia is absolutely excluded from civilisation
—the world owes her nothing. The French and other Romance
kulturs are doomed to decay through failure of population. Onljr
Anglo-Saxon and German remain, and only the latter is capable of
taking the leading place in the East. “ For we may say without
pride—and the war has proved it—that German kultur has the
greater intrinsic value.” The true future of Germany is to be
a “ world-people,” and for this end German influence in the East
and in East Asia is a necessary condition.
It was, perhaps, these two lectures that moved Count Reventlow
in the Deutsche Tageszeitung of 18th March to renew the protest
of the blue-water school against the Berlin-Bagdad idea, which he
describes as mischievous and misleading. Its realisation could
never be an equivalent for the freedom of the sea, and, on the
* The Vienna Gemeinderat have passed a resolution urging this latter scheme
on the attention of the Government {Frankfurter Zeitung, 30th March).