Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-08-01
CONDITIONS IN
PALESTINE BEING
MUCH IMP R0VED
German Correspondent Inter-
views Turk Official Who
Declares War Has Been a
Good Thing for Country

pNrlin Julv l5.-Palestine is under
..-,g great transformation IN the
matter 81 railway communication, inn
RIVED highways and better sanitary
andi,ions. This is evident from a
- IN the Frankfurter Zeitung from
correspondent in Jaffa, the sea
~ af Jerusalem, who has been m
ip,ruiay,ing Diemal Pasha, the military
,,oyernor Of SYRIA This work has all
5.or undertaken since Turkey went 10
and is largely in preparation Tor
syrensive military operations against
rgvnt Already according TO DJemal
pasha the Suez canal has been mined
and one ship sunk.
Immediately after my arrival m
c,.ria said Djemal, who is one Of the
lradars OF the dominant Young
Tnrko party, my first work was to
tota measures to improve and eNtenu
IKE roads. Many battalions of work
men were organized for the purpose
If bulding important new roads ana
nnttfpg into repair ella ones that had
become useless. Formerly you could
nj on further south in carriage
nam Hebron, but already ] can ride IN
M, automobile through Hebron and
peersheba out into the desert
Here the correspondent remarks
anal he spent whole day last year
riding horseback from Hebron to
Beersheba. where the distance can
now be covered by automobile in one
hour @s,sf
"Within a short time, Djemal went
an I'VE have built over one hundred
kiIometers Of railway and have con
nected Jerusalem with the HeJaz ran
Way (the road that runs south trom
NenDo and Damascus, over the pla-
Team 10 the east of the Jordan and on
gouthward to Mecca. You DOUBT
less know how anxious the English
we're TO prevent the building of TINS
connection. They refused to give the
French their own allies, the right 70
carry this road through Ramleh be-
cause they were determined under any
and an circumstances to prevent
land connection from Syria and Ana
tolia to Egypt. Now we want to carry
these roads stll further, and ! nope
that we shall soon be able to transport
our troops by rail to the Suez canal.
After our troops enter Egypt an
event which / confidently expect
these railways will be connected with
the Egyptian system of roads,
The correspondent thinks that this
railway building will prove OF epoch
making Importance for the develop
ment Of Palestine
Diemal went ON to show what the
Turkish troops have already accom-
plished in preparing for the conquest
of Hgypt. I'VE have pushed forward
our frontier, which formerly ran in a
straight line from Tel-el-Rafta ON the
Mediterranean to Akaba ton the gulf
Of that uame) up close to the Suez
canal. and we are trying by all posi-
Bile means to open up this con-
quered territory We have dug nuner-
Gus wells there which Will supply
our troops with water and we nave
taken an steps necessary TO enaple
our troops TO stay there and also To
go forward. This means also that we
have opened up this wilderness Tor
settlement by a fixed population. AS
the English in disregard of all exist
ing treaties that guarantee the neu-
trality of the SueZ canal, nave pullI
Notifications to the east of it and
have thus drawn the canal INTO inc
sphere of hostilities, we are no longer
able to regard the canal as neutral
territory We therefore put mines at
various places in it, and these have
already caused the sinking of one
ship
Sanitary conditions, said Djemal
We're satisfactory, in spite of the mo-
bization of troops. The fight against
epidemic diseases had been facilitated
he said by the International health Of
flee established at Jerusalem some
years ago by Nathan Straus of New
York and a number of German phil
anthropsts.