768 



TURKEY. 



no means would be available to provide against 

 it without severe economy and the reorganiza- 

 tion of certain departments. By an imperial 

 irade, promulgated on November 6, machinery 

 and apparatus of public utility imported into 

 Turkey were declared free of duty for ten 

 years. A commercial treaty was negotiated 

 with Germany in the autumn. 



The Navy. The Turkish naval force, at the 

 beginning of 1887, comprised 15 iron-clads, of 

 which 7 were frigates and 8 corvettes; 50 

 wooden vessels viz., 3 frigates, 8 corvettes, 18 

 gun-boats and avisos, 3 imperial yachts, and 18 

 transports; and 12 torpedo-boats, including 2 

 submarine boats of the Nordenfeldt pattern. 



Commerce. The value of the imports into 

 Turkey for the year ending March 12, 1888, 

 was 21,025,953 Turkish pounds (equal to $91,- 

 988,000), against 20,703,231 pounds for the 

 previous year. The exports were valued at 

 11,287,300 Turkish pounds, against 12,707.295 

 in 1886-'87. The trade in tobacco, which is 

 administered by the Regie, is not included in 

 these figures, nor are articles free of duty. 

 The exports of tobacco amount to about 10,- 

 000,000 kilogrammes per annum. The values 

 of the principal imports in 1886-'87 were, in 

 Turkish pounds, as follow: Sugar, 1,473,226; 

 cotton thread, 1,278,312; cotton prints, 1,171,- 

 217; linen goods, 441,177; cotton and linen 

 stuffs, 288,361; sheeting, 533,253; cashmere, 

 242,717; cloth, 463,990 ; muslin, 296,688; cof- 

 fee, 768,045; flour, 693,506; wheat, 529,538; 

 live animals, 447,961; petroleum, 429,744; 

 leather, 340,386; iron, 314,581 ; carpets, 278,- 

 458; skins, 255,932; chemicals and drugs, 

 203,266; butter, 192,346; coal, 178,574 ; glass, 

 127,895; timber, 177,408. The principal ex- 

 ports were of the following values: Raisins, 

 1,828,895; other fruits, 844,190 ; opium, 798.- 

 181; raw silk, 792,233; cocoons, 338,896; 

 wheat, 765,447; cotton, 528,911; valonia, 512,- 

 660; wool, 500,280; coffee, 490,067; skins, 

 366,913; wines, 311,509 ; chemicals and drugs, 

 274,996; sesame, 272,614; olive-oil, 266,949; 

 beans and lentils, 191,606; carpets, 145,930; 

 soap, 138,761; minerals, 121,391 ; seeds, 109,- 

 217; confectionery, 108.264; gum tragacanth, 

 49,042. 



The merchant navy in 1886 numbered 416 

 vessels of over 50 tons burden, with an aggre- 

 gate tonnage of 69,627, and 17 steamers of 100 

 tons or above, having an aggregate tonnage of 

 7,297. 



Railroads. The length of railroads open to 

 traffic in 1888 was 788 kilometres in European 

 Turkey, and in Asia Minor 660 kilometres, 

 viz., four lines in the vicinity of Smyrna of the 

 total length of 462 kilometres, the line from 

 Scutari to Ismid, 93 kilometres in length, the 

 line of 38 kilometres from Modania to Brussa, 

 and one of 67 kilometres between Mersina and 

 Tarsus. The international railroads of Euro- 

 pean Turkey, which have been in contempla- 

 tion for twenty years, were completed in 1888. 

 The line from the Servian frontier to Larissa 



was opened to traffic in the spring, and the 

 line through Servia and Bulgaria to Constanti- 

 nople by way of Adrianople, affording rail 

 communication with all the capitals of Europe, 

 was opened on August 12. A concession, 

 which English and French applicants have 

 sought, was given to a German syndicate in 

 September, 1888, to extend the Scutari-Ismid 

 line to Angora, and eventually to Bagdad. 



Posts and Telegraphs. There were 408 post- 

 offices in European Turkey in 1886 and 746 in 

 Asiatic. The state telegraph stations num- 

 bered 233 in Europe, 438 in Asia, and 12 in 

 Africa. The European governments have 

 maintained separate post-offices for their citi- 

 zens doing business in Turkey. The arrange- 

 ment was not protected by treaty, and when 

 the international railroad was completed the 

 Turkish Government determined to suppress 

 the foreign post-offices. Although prompt and 

 efficient service was promised, the governments 

 refused to part with the privilege that had 

 grown up by custom, and which yielded some 

 profit in addition to the power and prestige 

 connected with it. The Austrian Government 

 took the lead, and was able to compel the 

 Turkish authorities to abandon the system of 

 an international postal service that they had 

 carefully organized, by refusing to deliver or 

 forward official correspondence of the Ottoman 

 Government. 



Fortifications. To supply the loss of Kars, the 

 Turkish engineer, Gen. Cliahab Pasha, has 

 converted Erzerum into a fortress of the first 

 rank, by building fifteen forts on the side 

 fronting the road from the Russian frontier. 

 The Russian Government, supported by the 

 English, remonstrated with the Porte in Au- 

 gust, 1888, against the erection of fortifications 

 at El Arab, near the confluence of the Tigris 

 and the Euphrates. Adrianople has been for- 

 tified, and the Government has decided to es- 

 tablish a military port at Chinkin or St. Juan 

 de Medua on the Albanian coast, opposite Italy. 

 The defenses of the Bosporus and the Darda- 

 nelles have been strengthened since the war 

 under the superintendence of German officers. 



The Macedonian Question. Jealousies between 

 the Christian nationalities inhabiting European 

 Turkey involved Turkey, in 1888, in a dispute 

 with Greece, and created a ferment through- 

 out the peninsula. The Greeks once counted 

 all the Christians as of their nationality, and 

 confidently expected to extend the limits of 

 the Hellenic kingdom to the Danube. The 

 language of the Church, of the schools, of busi- 

 ness, and of educated society was Greek. The 

 rise of the Balkan nationalities and their de- 

 velopment as independent states has destroyed 

 this dream of a greater Greece, and now the 

 only hope the Hellenes have of advancing their 

 boundaries into Macedonia is in preserving the 

 predominance of the Greek language with the 

 help of the Phanariot in Constantinople. The 

 creation of the independent Exarchy of Bul- 

 garia made this difficult in respect to the Bui- 



