Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1391

 DEFENCE 1339

1914-15 1816-16 1916-17 1917-18

£T £T £T £T £T

Revenue. ' 31,921.163 96,8S6.4t8 572 23.584. 16'. 34.016.698

Exptnditure. 34,007,619 35,657,545 I 39,744,720 53,304,511

The main items of expenditure in the budget for 1918-19 were : — Public Del.t, £117,427,425 ; Ministry of Finance. £T10,755.219 : Telegraphs and Telephones, £11,218,981 ; Ministry of I

'Tribes' and Refugee Department, £T2,057,004 : 'Gendarn:- 757:

i 1,073,031; Public Instruction, £11, 051, 287 ; Ministry of Com- and Agriculture, £11.582,839; Ministry of War. tl6,04; Ministry of Marine, £11,704.057.

The Public Debt Administration functions independently of the Mil. of Finance, though the Turkish Government has made it a practice to include the Debt figures in the State Budget. No regular budget has been voted since that for 1918-19. The budget for that financial year has been adapted to current requirements. Since the Armistice the whole financial system of the Central Government has fallen into the utmost disorder, and ou October 1, 1920, the Allied Powers entitled to representation on the future Financial Commission instituted a provisional system of control which is exercised by their Delegates on the Public Debt Administration. The budget for 1921 of the de facto Government of Angora estimates revenue at £T79,333,440 and expenditure at £T86, 519,650.

The Ottoman Government, when unable to meet its liabilities, made an arrangement with its creditors, confirmed by the Irade of December 8/20, 1881, supplemented and modified by that of September 1, 1903. A Council of Administration at Constantinople was appointed, and to it were handed over for distribution among the bondholders -the funds derived from the excise duties, and certain other funds. Of the total foreign debt, 60 per cent, is due to France, 14 per cent, to England and 21 per cent, to Germany

The total debt of Turkey on AugustSl, 1919, was placed at £T465,673,333, of which £T155,713,029 is'external debtand £T234, 155,138 war issues.

Defence.

According to the records of the Ministry of War at Constantinople, the Turkish army in August, 1914, consisted of 39 divisions. Few of these divisions were up to strength, and the total combatant strength of the Turkish army did not exceed 150,000 men. During the war the armv was expanded to a maximum strength of 70 divisions, and up to the time of the armistice nearly 2,700,000 men had been recruited for military service. The maximum combatant strength of the army during the war was approximately 650,000, and this figure was reached in the middle of 1916. Throughout the war desertion was rife and the army rarely approached its full strength It is estimated by the Turkish authorities that their casualties from all causes, including sickness and desertion, amounted to more than two millions.

After the collapse of the Turkish army in consequence of its defeats in Palestine and Mesopotamia, no systematic reorganisation was attempted until the rise of the National Movement in the interior. At the present time (April, 1921), the position is that the armed forces of the Central Government are negligible, but the de facto Government at Angora possesses an efficient though widely distributed army, the numbers of which are variouslv estimated. Every effort has been made to organise this army on a proper military footing, under officers of the old Turkish army, and" to substitute