Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-06

TURK FOOTPRINT
IS BEING ERASED
AIIenby's Victories Bring In
teresting Bulletin From
Geographic Society.

The magnificent victories of the
British forces under Gen. Allenby in
the Holy Land give timely interest
to war geography bulletin just is
sued by the National Geographic So
ciety. The bulletin, which is based
on a communication to the society
from William H. Hall. says:
where Turkey joins to Egypt is
Palestine. No spot of earth in all the
world bears such memories for so
many and such variety of peoples as
the rugged mountain slopes, narrow
valleys and half desert wastes of
Judea and Galilee. Beersheba, Hebron,
Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem-the
more mention of these names tells the
story of Abraham and Moses and
David, of the prophets of Israel and
of the Son of Man
, Kings and priests and people come
from the north and the south, from
the east and the west, and bring the
glory of the nations to. do homage to
the memories that cluster about these
sacred shrines
In Syria was the one green spot of
Turkey-the Lebanon mountains. In
LOW, hcSduSe Ol ndSSdcTeS, the EURO
pean powers insisted that these noun
tains be made autonomous. And since
that date this little district has been
living demonstration of what good
government will produce and of what
She people of the land are capable of
becoming.
Mountain Sides Terraced.
The steep mountain sides have been
terraced to height of 1000 feet and
planted to olives, figs and vines
son and property secured, good roads
bullt and kept in repair. The people
have constructed more comfortable
homes and have sent their sons to
schools and college
The story of the achievements of
the Lebanon and it's sons during these
sixty years of autonomy would be
thrilling narrative in itself Now
that autonomy has been taken away,
the Lebanon is PROSTATE in famine
practically the whole Turkish en-
pre- is OF the same surface configura
tlon-high mountain ranges along the
sea coast, with elevated plain and
plateau in the interior. These inner
plains are generally fertile. being
constantly renewed by soil washed
from the surrounding mountains.
Where rain is sufficient. or where wa
lCi SoH We opldiHeQ lOT lTTlSdC1On
they produce fine crops of grain.
No More "Cedars of Lebanon"
I'm ancient times the mountains
were everywhere covered with for
ests. The cedars of Lebanon not only
furnished timber for the building of
Solomon'S Temple in Jerusalem, but
the kings of Egypt annually f1oated
large RATS of logs from the Syrian
coast to supply the demands of the
cities of the Nile. This constant de-
mand from foreign lands, together
with the lack of any system of re-
forestation. has practically denuded
the mountains of the whole land.
"Once more to cover the mountains
and hills with pine and cedar and
oak would be a simple task if car
enemy today of reforestation by ma
ture is the herds of goats, which
every spring roam over the whole
country and deEour every green thing.
The little seeding trees suffer espe-
cially.
1.-The population of the Ottoman
empire not including Arabia. is about
100000. or YVES before the war.
In giving statistics on any subject
regarding Turkey one speaks in APP
proximate terms, for only estimates
can be given, as no thorough census
| is taken or other statistics systemat-
! ically gathered. Among the various
races this total was distributed as
| follows: Turks. 100000; Syrians
and Arabs, 100000: Kurds. 100000;
Armenians. 100000: Greeks, 1900.
900; Jews, 100000; other races, $780,