The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1923-04-12

Prepared by the National Geographic So
clety, Washington, d. CO
Though France Is chiefly occupied
with the Ruhr at present, occasional
dispatches mentioning friction in Syria
recall that that country, too, is paoving
something of problem in French ad-
ministration. France was given
mandate over the country following
the World war. But besides indicat-
Ing the French mandate. Syria" has
a wider historic and geographic sig
nificance. In this larger sense 1t In
cludes neutrality-suspicious., In short,
the whole Mediterranean front Of the
Arabian peninsula.
The future of greater Syria depends
largely upon the development of Its
ports and upon who controls these
strategic centers of politics and COM
merce. Alexandretta and Haifa will
attain new importance If the Darda-
nelles are internationalized and free
passage, open to all nations, cuts
across what Germany was forging as
archaeological route. All but 800
miles of this road, between Nisifin and
Tekrit, few miles above Samarra, Is
now complete.
The new line of traffic from Alex
andretta past Aleppo to the Euphrates
river at Jerablus, connecting the Oldest
routes of international commerce, also
separates two important llngual
groups, for Turkish is generally spoken
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
and Arabic tongues will be significant,
for language differences as well as
those of race exert profound effect
on political life In the Levant.
The Haifa railway separates the
northern part of Greater Syria, or
French Syria" from the southern
part, Palestine. Haifa is of impor-
lance because 1t is the southennmost
Syrian harbor capable of large devel-
opment and is the terminus Of the rail-
way which is becoming the key to Je-
rusalem as well as the more impOr-
tant line to Damascus and Mesopo-
tamia. 1t is the real prize of the Near
East, for once 1t is to become the
greatest port of the eastern Med
iterranean littoral, as 1t was when 1t
served as the chief landing place of
the Crusaders and transshipment
point of the Venetian, Pisan, and
Genoese trade from argosy to caravan.
Syria Is the hub of the Afro-Eu-
rasian continents, and with every rail-
way that reaches out to Bremen,
Baku, Bokhara, Burma, or Bloemfon-
tein the central region of the worlds
greatest land-mass achieves new sig
nificance.
Aside from It's importance as a trade
route, Syria will find its greatest fu-
ture as an agricultural nation, and has
extensive regions which can be made
to produce large crops.
Many Races intermlngied.
The population of Syria numbers
about three and half millions, of Sc
mite origin, speaking the Arabic Ian
guage, and yet with so many races in
termingled through the centuries of
the various conquests and occupations
that the people cannot claim any one
race as their own.
Greek, Roman and European cru
sader have all blended with the an
cient Semitic stock to produce the
Syrians of today, whom Lord Cromer,
in his memoirs, termed "the cream
of the East"
In Syria was the one green spot of
prewar Turkey-the Lebanon noun
tains. In ancient times the mountains
were everywhere covered with forests.
The cedars of Lebanon not only fur
nished timber for the building of Solo
mons temple In Jerusalem. but the
kings of Egypt annually floated large
RATS of logs from the Syrian coast to
supply the demands Of the cities of
the Nile. This constant demand from
foreign lands, together with the lack