Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1411

 RELIGION — FINANCE — DEFENCE — PRODUCTION, ETC. 1359

at 60,000 square miles. The total population of this area is probably under 3,000,000. The population of the Lebanon is about 400,000. The bulk of the population of Syria is of Arabic origin, and Arabic is the prevailing language, with many dialectical varieties. But there is a large influx of foreign elements, including Turks, Turkomans. Kurds, Circassians, Armenians, Persians, Jews, and a certain number of Europeans. The principal towns are Aleppo and Damascus, population 250,000: Beirut, ISO. 000 ; Hems, Hama, and Aintab. between 60,000 and 80,000; Tripoli, Latakia, and Antioch on or near the Northern Coast, 20,000 to 40,000 ; Zahlah in Lebanon 14,000. There are no statistics of births and deaths.

Religion and Education. — The population of Syria is mainly Sunni Moslems, with a certain number of Shia sects. The Druses number about 150,000. There have beeu Christians in Syria since the earliest times. There are now three Uniat Patriarchs and one Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.

There are about 500 French schools with 50,000 pupils. The Greek Catholics have a seminary at Ain Traz, near Beirut, and a Patriarchal College in Beirut. The Maronites also maintain their own schools. British Missionary Societies supported 19 educational institutions with close on 1,000 pupils, and about 120 elementary schools with about 9,000 pupils, over two-thirds being girls- There is a girls' training college at Beirut and high grade schools at Aleppo, Damascus, and Brumara, in the Lebanon. American Missions have a number of educational institutions throughout Syria, including a college at Beirut, which includes schools of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, commerce, and arts and sciences. Roman Catholic agencies have numerous schools, with over 20,000 pupils. The Jesuit Univer- sity in Beirut is empowered to grant degrees to various faculties. The German Protestant Missions have also Mission Schools.

Finance. — In 1914 the revenue was £T3,878,S41, and the expenditure £Tl,953,855.

Defence. — A French army is in occupation of the whole country.

Production and Industry.— Syria is essentially an agricultural country, the bulk of the population being engaged in the cultivation of the soil and in cattle breeding ; the total area normally under crops is roughly 6,000 square miles, or about 10 per cent, of the whole area, but might be considerably extended. Cereals, vegetables, and fruit trees are produced in profusion ; tobacco, cotton, and hemp are successfully cultivated, and there are some wild plants of value. Wheat is the chief cereal, the average crop being up- wards of a million tons. The normal crop of barley is about 500,000 tons ; durra (Indian millet), 200 ; 000 tons ; maize, oats and rye are of minor import- ance. Sesame, from which oil is produced, is one of the most valued crops, but is very uncertain, the annual crop being about 30,000 tons, a third being exported. Chickpeas, lentils, beana, vetches, and lupins are largely culti- vated, the annual crop of chickpeas being estimated at 500,000 tons. About 4,700 acres in Latakia, Aleppo, Beirut, and Damascus produce about 3,000,000 lb. of tobacco, valued at 200,000/. There is a limited amount of cultivation of cotton, hemp, and sugar-cane. The most important fruit trees are the olive, vine, mulberry, and orange. Olives are widely cultivated and the annual output before the war was estimated at 158,000 tons, value 2,200,000/. Vines are also widely distributed, yielding before the war about 345,000 tons. Only a small proportion of this is converted into wine. The white mulberry is largely cultivated in Xorthern Syria for feeding silk- worms. The cultivation of oranges and lemons has greatly increased in recent years, and the fruit of these and other trees is largely exported.