Evening star., 1935-03-31

by the British, which means that she
gets very tiny portion of what she
thinks she should have in its en-
tirety.
The disturbances due to the up
roofing of the Kurds, the violent
changes in the Moslem scheme of life
panying these events have resulted in
the execution of considerable numbers
of the people. The prison population,
according to the last published fig
ures, totaled 120,569. Of these al
most half were awaiting trial. This
is ratio of almost one person in
prison to every hundred of the popu-
lation.
In Istanbul (Constantinople) the
effects of moving the capital to An
kara are being felt in many ways.
Nevertheless, it is believed that in a
short time the tremendous stimulus
being given to Turkish life by the new
regime in nearly every line will bene-
fit Istanbul, the great outlet for the
entire country.
University Grows Rapidly.
One very striking development is
the growth Of the University of IStan-
bul, which now numbers some 5000
students. About three-fourths of its
students are devoting themselves to
medicine, dentistry and science.
Formerly the university. which is
very old one, was almost entirely
theological in its teaching.
Fully half of the professors are for
eigners. One of them told me that
the Turks are the most eager students
he has ever had. and he has taught
in Switzerland, France and Germany.
There is. however, a serious lack of
text books, with the result that lee
lures are being taken down by stu
dents in their own shorthand, trans
lated into Turkish (for many of the
lectures are in French and some in
EngliSh) and then distributed in
mimeographed form. All professors
will be required to teach in Turkish
in three years.
Robert College, founded and sus-
tanned by Americans, looks out on
the Bosporus from the most magnifi-
cent setting that a college could
have. In addition to the so years of
its service, Turkey has had the bene-
fit of numerous other American in
stitutions of advancement or relief,
involving immense monetary outlays.
Germany Gets Most Trade.
It Is interesting, therefore, to see
the extent to which these senti-
mental and cultural contacts have in
fluenced the advancement of Amer
ican business here. If latest figures
mean anything, they have influenced
it very little Germany sells to Tur-
key six times as much as does the
United States. Even France, which
has a tremendous cultural influence
through the use of her language in
this area, trails far behind Germany
and so does England. Indeed, the
German barter system is working
splendidly in this instance.
It is reported here on rather good
authority that Ford is moving his as
sembling plant from Istanbul to
Bucharest, and that he has entered
into an arrangement with the Ru-
manian government whereby he vir-
tually will conduct in an individual
capacity barter transactions with
Rumania in exchange for the money
received for his automobiles. In this
way he will, by the eventual sale of
goods bought in Rumania with his
sales receipts, get his profits back
into American money. His withdrawal
from Turkey, if the report is correct,
as it seems to be. will be due not so
much to competition with other man
ufacturers as to the fact that Turkey
is not yet car-minded.
The general business indications In
Turkey are, however, increasingly
favorable, so that the transfer of the
Ford plant must be taken as due to
special causes. The Turks are the
most optimistic people I have yet
visited,