THE PROBLEM OF TURKEY 209 



try to understand why "treachery, fratricide, and wholesale 

 cruelty are characteristic'* of the lands that the Turks invaded. 



Let me begin by telling a few stories of things that I have heard 

 or seen in Turkey. Before the war I was talking with a certain 

 Herr Winter, an engineer in charge of the extensive irrigation 

 works which now bring water from Lake Bey Shehir to the dry 

 plain of Konia in the center of Asia Minor. As we talked, an 

 assistant engineer entered the room, and was introduced as a 

 Greek. Soon came another, a Bulgarian ; then a third, a Belgian. 

 When a fourth was introduced as an Italian, Herr Winter laughed, 

 and said : "This is not all. I could introduce you to an Armenian 

 engineer and to those of still other races. This irrigation com- 

 pany is German; but I'm the only German here, and I'm an 

 Austrian. Our laborers are just as mixed — Turks, Armenians, 

 some Kurds, a few Greeks, and I don't know what else. Of course 

 we don't understand each other. We don't try to." 



In saying that they did not understand one another Herr 

 Winter referred to language. His words have a deeper signifi- 

 cance, for in Turkey one race rarely or never understands 

 another's purposes. They do not wish to understand. Hence 

 comes vast misery. It arises I believe from lack of mental activity. 

 Hence differences in religion, or in speech, dress, arid manners, 

 form insurmountable obstacles. We shall come back to this, but 

 first let us look further into Turkish character. 



From Lake Bey Shehir, thirty miles long, a clear river flows 

 southeastward to a smaller lake, Kara A'^iren. At most times this 

 second sheet has no visible outlet, for" the water escapes under- 

 ground through several exits whose location is evident from swirl- 

 ing eddies. During flood seasons, however, a little water over- 

 flows and passes down a mountain valley to the Konia plain. For 

 a thousand years the Turks and their predecessors have longed 

 to prevent the loss of water through the underground outlets and 

 to carry the whole supply to the thirsty plain. They have dumped 

 rocks into the swirls, and at low water have tried to place covers 



