102 AMERICAN 'LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



SYRIA. 



SYRIAN-AMERICAN COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 



The general question of increasing the exports of American lumber is 

 of great moment in the timber- growing States, but special attention 

 should be challenged by a country as much in need of lumber as is 

 Syria and this entire section of the Orient. 



The distance is, of course, the principal if not the controlling reason 

 why American enterprise has not been felt in the East; but the inex- 

 haustible supply, together with the cheapness of American lumber, 

 should recognize no barrier, and should create a demand and provide 

 a means of supplying that demand in any direction and in all countries. 

 No better time could be seized for this purpose than the present. 



In the old days of sailing vessels there was considerable exchange of 

 oriental stuffs for American lumber, which came direct from the United 

 States and was highly valued here, but the modern facilities afforded 

 by English steamships and the more convenient French and Austrian 

 coasting vessels have absorbed nearly all commerce with Syria and 

 have certainly cut off direct communication with the United States. 

 Syrian merchants fear to open up business relations so far away from 

 home, where they are not known and where they do not know the par- 

 ties with whom they would be dealing; but it is entirely within the 

 range of strict business expectations to foresee that the closer rela- 

 tions fostered by the recent World's Fair and also nurtured each year 

 by the extending tide of tourist travel, will call for a full and friendly 

 interchange of commercial commodities between the East and West, as 

 represented by Syria and the United States. 



There is wealth in abundance here among the well-to-do classes, as 

 represented by the Sursock Freres and by Tueni & Sons, who are leading 

 bankers, and by Moussa Freige, by Bustros & Son, and other large 

 dealers in eastern securities and goods. The largest dealers in lumber 

 jn Syria are Joseph Khasho & Fils and B. Audi & Co., of Beirut. These 

 men and their associates would readily take American products and 

 materials if brought here direct; or they would soon fall in line and 

 import for themselves if an experiment were successfully made and 

 they could feel sure of mutually beneficial and reciprocal transactions. 

 This class of merchants was not represented in Chicago, as they prefer 

 European cities for business purposes, by reason of partial residence 

 and years of custom ; but those well informed and observant Syrians, 

 of whom Khalil Sarkis, editor of the Beirut Public Opinion (Lisan el 

 Hal) is a fair representative, and who spent many months in the United 

 States in 1893, were so profoundly and enthusiastically impressed by the 

 resources and modern improvements of the country, as well as with its 

 immensity and general attractiveness, that they are and will continue 



