Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/158

 of anti-Semitic feeling there—carried with them their German patriotism. The Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, the German section of L'Alliance Israélite Universelle, not only taught German in its own schools, but made a strenuous effort to have German adopted as the official language of all Zionist schools in the Near East.[31]

It should be pointed out that this injection of nationalism into religious education was an obvious imitation of the French method of spreading imperial influence in Syria and Palestine. And it was frankly admitted to be an imitation. "A policy of German-Turkish culture," wrote Dr. Rohrbach, "deserves to be pressed with renewed ardor. We must endeavor to make the German language, and German science, and all the great positive values of our energetic civilization, duties faithfully fulfilled—active forces for the regeneration of Turkey by transplanting them into Turkey. To do this we need above everything else a system of German schools, which need not rival the French in magnitude, but which must be planned on a larger scale than that of the now existing schools. No lasting and secure cultural influences are possible without the connecting link of language. The intelligent and progressive young men of Turkey should have an abundant opportunity to learn German We can give the Turks an impression of our civilization and a desire to become familiar with it only when we teach them our language and thus open the door for them to all of our spiritual possessions. In doing this we are not aiming to Germanize Turkey politically or economically or to colonize it, but to introduce the German spirit into the great national process of development through which that nation, which has a great future, happens to be passing."[32] French methods were to be paid the compliment of imitation.

The sentimental appeal of the Bagdad Railway was more than a religious and cultural appeal alone. The