Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-03-30
How Future VSyria
Affects Civilized World

Once more the spot light swings to
Syria. According to a recent press
dispatch, the Syrians have declared
their country independent and have
chosen Prince Feisal as king.
This move may have a wide reach
ing effect, for Syria is coming back
into its own as a result of new rail-
ways which make 1t once more a link
land in history's chain. Explaining
the significance of these events the
National Geographic Society has issu-
ed the following bulletin, based on q
Communication to the Society by May
nard owen Williams:
Syria closes the east end of the
Mediterranean and Is bounded on the
north by the Taurus Mountains. The
Syrian and Arabian deserts limit fur
Their settlement to the east and south
But In connection with world COM
lmerce has always been closely related
to the fertile valleys of the Nile n
the twin Mesopotamian rivers. and its
commercial life of tomorrow cannot
be divorced from thai of Mesopo-
itamia.
/ The future Of Syria depends upon
the development of two ports and up
ION who controls these strategic centers
of politics and Alexan-
dretta and Haifa will attain new i'm
lportance as soon as the Dardaneles
are internationalized and free passage,
open to all nations, cuts across what
lGermany was forging as a Berlin-to-
iBagdad route, all but soc miles OF
(which, between Nisifn and Tekrit, a
few miles above Samarra. is now COM
lplete.
This new line of traffic from Alex
Iandretta past Aleppo to the E~uphrates
River at Jerablus, connecting the old
est routes of international commerce,
| olC0 cnnaratno txryn I'm nnrfanf inpIJal
groups. for Turkish is generally spok-
en- to the north Of the railway and
ARABIC to the south.
Whatever political adjustment Is
made between England and France,
Italy and Greece, Arabia and Syria,
conservative Mecca and liberal Beirut,
Zionist and Greek Orthodox, Christian
and Moslem. Maronite and Druse, the
line of division between the Turkish
land Arabic tongues will be significant,
for language differences as well as
those of race exert a profound effect
on political life in the Levant
1.-The Haifa Railway separates
northern Syria from the southern part,
(which has long been called Palestine.
lHaifa Is of Importance because it is
the southernmost Syrian harbor
Icapable of large development and is
1.-THE terminus of tho railway which is
becoming the key to Jerusalem as well
las the important line to Damascus and
lMesopotamia. 1t is the real prize OF
1.-THE Near East, for once more 1t is
Ito become the greatest port of the
feastern Mediterranean ltttoral. as II
Twas when 1t served as the chief land
ing place of the Crusaders and the
ltransshipment point of the Venetian
IPisan, and Genoese trade from argosy
Ito caravan
SLOWLY but surely the iron rails are
reaching out to i Cape Town tc
lCairo and Suez to Shanghai by way
of Persia, India, Burma, and the Yang
ltse Valley. The path of empire In the
future will not alone be traced by the
wakes of passing steamers. but also by
bold bands of shining steel. The
lpreme strategy of a railway that will
lconnect the valleys of the Nile, the
ITigris and the Euphrates, the Indus
1.-THE Ganges. the Irriwaddy. n the
lYangtse lies in the fact that 1t viii
be fanked by the most thickly settled
Iportions of the worlds surface ano
lean, from the first. have commercial
las well as strategic value.
Syria is the hub of the Afro-Euras-
ian continents, n with every rail.
way that reaches out to Bremen, Baku
lBokhara, Burma, or Bloemfontein the
. central region of the worlds Creates
land-mass achieve new significance.
aside from its importance as
j.. TRADE route. Syria will find its great
est future as an agricultural nation
land has extensive regions which car
lbe made to produce large crops"