George Walter Prothero

“ The Lebanese had yet to develop acute antagonism of creed; and, so long as but one European Power, whether France before 1800 or Great Britain afterwards, was concerning itself with them at one time, they lacked the external temptation to dissension which was to offer itself presently. British influence, therefore, was doing as yet no more harm in middle and south Syria than French interest had done before it; but the fact that two European Powers, with growing and antagonistic interests in the Levant, [3] had gained a footing, where one alone used to be, foreshadowed danger. ”

“ As regards home produce, internal trade is most actively occupied in supplying the demand of cities and localities which are not self-supporting, and in concentrating any surplus, as well as articles which have a better market abroad, in the hands of exporters. For example, cereals go in large quantities from Homs and Hama to Aleppo, Tripoli, Beirut and the Lebanon, from the Hauran to Damascus and Haifa, from Gaza and Bir es-Seba to Jerusalem and Jaffa. Among native manufactures, oil, soap, textiles, and leather are the most important articles of distribution ”

“ The Moslems of Damascus and Safed, for example, had to be compelled by force of arms to admit Christians and Jews to any rights at all, and to forgo the gratification of seeing them walk the gutters or dismount at sight of the faithful. ”

“ These Yemenite Jews, who speak a pure Hebrew and very pure Arabic, have been cut off from the rest of the world since the rise of Islam in the seventh century of our era. They are the remnant of those large Jewish communities, many autonomous, which existed in all the cities of Arabia in the time of Mohammed. They have maintained themselves absolutely distinct and orthodox in religion for many centuries in Yemen, and have acted as metal-workers, craftsmen, and carpenters for their Arab rulers. ”

“ The Jewish religion in Palestine and Syria is in no way distinguished from orthodox Judaism elsewhere. Their ritual is Sephardic or Ashkenazic, according as they originate from Spain and Portugal or the rest of Europe. The newcomers, especially the colonists, are inclined to be somewhat lax in their observance of rites and ceremonies. Of special interest among the Jews of Jerusalem are the colonies of Yemenite and Bokhariot Jews who immigrated because of the oppression they suffered in Arabia and Central Asia. There is no great cathedral synagogue even in Jerusalem. ”

“ On the coast about Alexandretta and between Jaffa and Gaza, as well as inland north of Antioch and about the Lakes of Hule and Tiberias, large tracts of land might be reclaimed. Cultivation is also capable of appreciable extension and improvement by irrigation, either by pumping, in which the use of water-power would play a prominent part, or by means of the ancient system of reservoirs. Acquisition of land by private companies is restricted by the existing law, and anything tending to the expropriation of the peasantry is to be deprecated. ”

“ Artificial manures, which have been proved by experiment to be beneficial and remunerative, are beyond the reach of the fellah, whose tenure, moreover, is not commonly such as to encourage him to sink any savings in the improvement of his land. The result is progressive impoverishment of the soil. No great importance is attached to the removal of stones, which do not hamper the native plough and sickle. On the hill-slopes, especially in the Lebanon and in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, terraces are often built to prevent the erosion of the thin layer of soil in the rainy season. ”

“ Apart from agriculture, only silk-spinning in the Lebanon, the textile industry in the same district and at Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, and the production of olive oil and soap at Antioch, Tripoli, Jaffa, &c., can be said to have attained any real significance. Mining is negligible, and the absence of a home supply of both coal and petroleum has been a serious hindrance to the development of manufactures. The country therefore depends greatly upon foreign imports, and its purchasing power is much affected by the quality of the harvest and similar natural factors. ”

“ The amount of country east of the Jordan that may be reckoned to Palestine depends chiefly on the political situation of Damascus. If Damascus itself be associated with southern Syria the difficulty disappears, as all that portion of the centre of Syria that lies to the east of Jebel esh-Sharki may easily be separated from northern Syria and associated with time. If, on the other hand, only a portion of the country along the Hejaz railway line, south of Damascus, is to be united to Palestine a satisfactory solution is not easily found. ”

“ Reaping with the sickle suits the stony soil, which in Syria is only too common. There is less to be said for the ox-drawn threshing sledge, which is wasteful. But it has the merit of cheapness, and is said to break up the hard straw well, while the time and labour involved in its use are of no great consequence to the native after his crops have been reaped. European machines and implements, which have been introduced by the Jewish and German colonists, can be employed advantageously in certain conditions, which, however, are by no means always present. ”

“ The countryside has been drained of men of military age, some of whom will, of course, not return; and the population has been further thinned by famine and disease. The Lebanon especially has suffered severely, being reported to have lost from half to three-quarters of its inhabitants. On the other hand, there has been some accession in northern Syria of Armenian refugees, of whom some 40,000 are stated to have been drafted into the Aleppo vilayet. These may relieve the scarcity of labour which has hampered the textile industry of Aleppo. ”

“ A stagnating agriculture, affecting the prosperity of the whole country, has received some stimülus in Palestine from the Jewish and German colonies, and such advances as have been witnessed in the last decade or two are in no small degree the effect of their example. The spread of the colonies has also led to a substantial advance in the market value of agricultural land in their neighbourhood. ”

“ A satisfactory solution of the West Syrian problem, which involves the territory north of the Litani river and west of the Rayak-Homs railway, is a matter for arrangement, now that Syria is definitely cleared of the Turks. As one goes eastward from the watershed which divides the Mediterranean from the Jordan valley, there is an increasing proportion of Arabs; and Trans-Jordania is an Arab country. The Arab movement is becoming increasingly national; its goal is Arab independence, free from British or French protection. ”

“ Jewish national development, cultural, agricultural, and economic, is inevitable and natural in Palestine after the war. There is so much unoccupied and uncultivated land in Palestine that there is plenty of room for Zionist development without ousting the existing Moslem population. The Jews have already shown that land, hitherto regarded as barren, can be converted in a very short space of time into rich vineyards, or into fruit and almond plantations. With the Arab movement centred at Damascus, Zionism in Palestine would be a help rather than a hindrance to it ”

“ Haifa, which in 1906 became the Mediterranean port of the Hejaz Railway, is likely to rise rapidly in importance when once supplied with an adequate harbour. It has a fertile hinterland in the plain of Esdraelon, the upper Jordan valley, and the Hauran, which the railway has now opened up, and considerable quantities of grain and sesame go this way, especially to Marseilles. Haifa has begun to attract imports for Damascus as well as for Arabia, and may well play the part in southern Syria that seems destined for Alexandretta in the north. ”

“ Even if Burton's gibe, that the Lebanese hide their weapons at the call of patriotism, be too bitter, it may be owned that they have turned their arms ninety-nine times in a hundred on one another, and have allowed Arabs, Turks, and Egyptians to ride roughshod over them, unopposed by any local patriotism worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with that of the Armenians, the Greeks, and the Balkan races, or even that of their own Druse cousins in the Hauran. ”

“ The use of electricity, which has not long been permitted, has so far made little progress. A power station outside Damascus supplies that city with light, drives street trams and irrigation pumps, and serves the workshops of the Hejaz railway at Kadem Sherif. Beirut, where also there are electric tramways, is partly lit by electricity, and some hotels in Jerusalem and Aleppo have private installations. Electric light is in use at Bir es-Seba, and electric works are reported to be under construction in the Lebanon. A small power station has been set up at the Jewish colony at Mesha. ”

“ In the vilayet of Damascus and the Lebanon, where fodder is plentiful, milk and its products are obtained chiefly from cows, elsewhere from sheep and goats, which are the source of the large quantities of native butter (ghi orsemn) brought by the nomadic tribes of the desert to Aleppo, Hama, and Homs. An extension of cow-keeping is hindered by the lack of fodder, the poverty of the fellahin, and their inability to co-operate or arrange for the disposal of their milk. Of sheep's wool there is a large production and a considerable export, to which the desert tribes make important contributions. ”

“ In 1835 a British Commission was studying a line for an overland route to the Euphrates; and the little opposition it encountered, in its extraordinary task of hauling steamers in sections overland from the Orontes to the Euphrates, is a testimony to Ibrahim's power, all the more significant because the British held their permission, not from him, hut from the Sultan with whom he was at war. During those ten years Europe progressed from mediæval ignorance of Syria to almost as much knowledge of it as she has had up to the present war. ”

“ A certain amount of the traffic with the Aleppo district has already been diverted to Tripoli by the railway thence to Homs, which reduced the distance by rail to the sea by over 100 miles, besides obviating the reloading necessitated by the change of gauge at Rayak. The new branch from Alexandretta to Toprak Kale will make Alexandretta a still more attractive alternative for trade with Aleppo. The competition of Haifa with Beirut for the Damascus market is already felt.
Alexandretta is clearly marked out by nature as the harbour par excellence of northern Syria. ”

“ Attempts at Ottoman Nationalisation.—The Committee of Union and Progress, however, lost no time in showing that it would have none of these ideals— not any nationalism but Ottoman Turk, not any official language but Turkish, not any home rule within the Empire, not any of the higher power in other hands than those that subscribed to its programme of one race, one language, one administration. One Constantinople club, the Akha el-Arab, founded by Shefik el-Muayad and Nadra Mutran, was snuffed out ”

“ The most important foreign elements in the population of Syria are the Turks (and Turcomans) , who are mainly officials, Circassians, Kurds, Armenians, Persians, immigrant Jews, and a certain number of Europeans. The Jews have recently increased rapidly, owing to immigration from Russia and Rumania, and are most numerous in Palestine (about 90,000) [1] The Europeans are settled chiefly in the coast towns, and in Jerusalem, Aleppo, and Damascus. ”

“ The Jewish agricultural colonies, which have grown up during the past twenty-five years, show level of agricultural and scientific development far ahead of anything else in Palestine. The Jews have in many cases flung themselves upon barren and uncultivated land and transformed it into rich intensively cultivated plantations. The colonies are inhabited by strong and healthy agriculturists living in clean, well-built houses, and possessing a high degree of commercial and political organization, as well as a distinctive social life. The schools are progressive and excellent in every way. ”

“ There are no statistics by which the birth- and death-rates, with the rate of increase of the population, may be determined, but the death-rate is known to be high. Emigration has seriously drained the country for many years, although, on the contrary, some of the towns of western Palestine have lately increased rapidly (e.g., Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth) . Since 1880 the population of the coast towns generally has consistently increased (e.g., Beirut, Tripoli, and Latakia) ; but many districts are quite stationary, and others have largely decreased in population. ”