The Review of Reviews. 



September 1, 1906. 



PROFESSOR RAMSAY ON THE EASTERN 

 QUESTION. 



World- renowned as a scholar, archaeologist anil 

 historian. Professor \V. M. Ramsay this month de- 

 scends into the arena of modern international politics. 

 In the Contemporary RroicTv he supplies a suggesti\e 

 historical study of the war of Moslem and Christian 

 for the possession of Asia Minor l:)etween a.d. 641 

 and 1615. 



WHY EOME FELL. 



He makes a pregnant remark on the secret of the 

 fall cf the Roman Empire. He savs : — 



The great fault of the Roman Empire, the failure to ap- 

 preciate fclie ueoessity for public education, proved its ruin. 

 The Christian organisation suffered from the same cause. 

 Theie seems to have been in the Church less insistence on 

 the importance of education during the fifth century and 

 later than there had previously been. In 449. at the Coun- 

 cil of Constantinople, a bishop who could help to make the 

 laws of the Universal Church was unable to append his 

 own signature because he had not learned his letters. Chris- 

 tianity is the religion of a highly-educated people, and 

 when the Church lost its grasp of this fundamental prin- 

 ciple it lost its real vitality. 



He finds that Islam deteriorated through its long 

 welter of war. but that its fatal error was the low 

 estimate of women, which he suggests mav have 

 been due in part to the reaction against the cult 

 of the Mother of God. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR ASIA MIXOE. 



He concludes his study with the following passage, 

 which serves as a transition to his other article: — 



The stritggle for possession of Asia ilinor has not ended; 

 it is going on now, but in recent years the weapons with 

 which it is waged are schools and colleges and railways 

 Yet there are strong forces that tend to bring in again the 

 method of war. Pan-Islamism aims determinedly at de- 

 stroying by massacre and war the growth of civilisation in 

 Turkey, and through the quarrels of Germany and England 

 we have be?n drifting steadily towards that end. The 

 American schools and colleges are the great civilising 

 agency, because they aim at creating an educated cla.ss 

 among all nationalities, not converting their pupils to a 

 foreign and un-Oriental form of religion, but making 

 Greeks better Orthodox Greeks, Armenians better Gregorians, 

 Bulg.arians better Bulgarians, Turks better Mohammedans. 

 For my own part, I feel that a rigbt development of the 

 great ideas inherent in Mohammedanism is possible, that 

 it is making 3ome progress, that this is the only useful and 

 hopeful path, and that the necessary first step in it — the 

 creation of ideals and .aspirations among the Moslem women 

 — is being made at the present time. 



GERMAN INFLUEXCE A DELUSION. 



In the IVorld's Work and Play he writes on the 

 Bagdad Railway. He tells how he was freed from 

 a common delusion : — 



When, in 1901, I began to make the ,\natolian line the 

 basis of mj- explorations. I was full of the idea that the 

 German railway was spreading German enterprise and 

 trade and men along its course- This belief, derived from 

 reading, was soon found to be a mistake. Unless yon search 

 minutely. >-ou will not discover a German along the line. 



The B.ame on all the rolling-stock and papers is Chemin 

 de Fer Ottom.Tu d' Anatolic: and knowledge of French, not 

 German, is the requirement for station-masters. 



There is not much German trade along the line. One 

 single English firm in Constantinople makes up a tenth of 

 the entire goods traffic. I heard that a German who came 

 up the line this year to see this mightv extension of Ger- 

 man influence, departed full of wrath at the facts which he 

 discovered. The German railway is not a patriotic, but a 

 financial enterprise. 



Owing to the unfortunate terms on which the rail- 

 way is held under the Turkish Government, which 

 result in the lino t>eing starved, the Germans have 

 become the most hated nation in Turkey. The Ger- 

 mans are said to be '' locusts eating everything and 

 leaving nothing." The old affection for England has 

 revi\ed. 



THE SULTANS AMBITIONS. 

 The Sultan has a rival line in view — the Hedjaz 

 Railway — vshich is destined to link Arabia and Tur- 

 kev. Since 1882 there has been a great revival of 

 Mohammedan feeling, which the Sultan has utilised 

 bv making himself Caliph. Professor Ramsav has 

 a high opinion of the .Sultan. He says he exercised 

 greater influence on history than any other sovereign 

 of the day. But the necessarv foundation on which 

 the Caliphate must rest is the possession of the Holy 

 City of Mecca. The Hedjaz Railway, in conjunction 

 with the Bagdad Railway, is to connect Constan- 

 tinople with Arabia and enable him to send troops 

 to Arabia without using the Suez Canal. It is quite 

 understood in Tiu-kev that England is fomenting the 

 Aral) revolt with a view to bringing Arabia under 

 British rule. 



WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE BAGDAD RAILW'AY. 



Professor Ramsai s own position is thus stated: — 



The plan on which the German Anatolian Railway and 

 the first stage of the extension to Bagdad have been 

 wrought out — namely, animosity to England and support 

 of Pan-Isiamic combinations — is the path of mischief, war, 

 and incalculable harm, alike to Turkey, to England, and to 

 Gennany. Since the dangerous frontier incident at Tabah 

 has been safel.v ended, there is no reason why the new start 

 shotild not be made along the peaceful road of co-operation. 

 Each of the three P^)wers has much to gain from the rail- 

 way enterprise which has forced itself to the front, and 

 which will in some way be carried out. This railway is 

 the form under which the never-ending struggle, sometimes 

 friendly, generally hostile, between Asia and Europe, now 

 presents itself: and according to the spirit in which this 

 question is solved will be the future course of events. In 

 the electric impulse generated in the contact of .\sia and 

 Eurotje. more than in any other force or cause, the motive 

 power which drives the world onwards has resided through- 

 out the course of history. 



THE "CHRISTIAN" TEST OF PROGRESS. 



This Eastern question has of late been obscured 

 until the victories of Japan have brought it again to 

 the front. Professor Ramsay savs of the sequel : — 



.4mong us the one trustworthy criterion of civilisation 

 and influence in the world's councils is the ability to kill 

 the largest number of men in the shortest lapse of time and 

 at the greatest distance. That is the supreme European 

 test o_f civilisation. Tried by that test an .\3iatic Power 

 has justified its claim to a- place amongst the leading civi- 

 lised Powers of the world, and elevates along with it by the 

 right of sheer strength the Asiatic races in gener.al to a 

 different place in European valuation. 



The Turks, who followed the progress of the war 

 with m.ost lively interest, have drawn the inference 

 that Asiatic armies were after all superior to Euro- 

 pean. " The effect," he adds suggestively. " may be 

 seen in the recent frontier incident at Tabah, which 

 witii weak handling might ha\e had a serious issue, 

 for it was the first step in a great plan." 



