Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/246

 way at whatever cost, was essential to the defence of the empire. In spite of serious financial difficulties resulting from strikes, increased cost of materials, and general economic paralysis which followed upon the heels of the revolutions of 1908 and 1909, the Anatolian and Bagdad Railway Companies advanced large sums to the Minister of Finance toward the ordinary expenses of running the Government. In addition, the concessionaires evinced a desire to meet all Turkish financial and diplomatic objections to the provisions of the concession of 1903.[9]

It was the financial needs of the Young Turk administration which enabled German diplomacy and the Deutsche Bank to reëstablish themselves thoroughly in the good graces of the Ottoman Government. But here again the Germans were given their chance only after England and France had turned the Turks away empty handed.

During the summer of 1910, Djavid Bey, as Ottoman Minister of Finance, went to Paris to raise a loan of $30,000,000, secured by the customs receipts of the Ottoman Empire. The negotiations with the Parisian bankers were complicated by a bitter anti-Turk campaign on the part of the press and by the frequent interference of the French Government. Nevertheless, Djavid Bey succeeded in signing a satisfactory contract with a French syndicate, and his task appeared to be accomplished. At this juncture, however, M. Pichon, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, informed the bankers that official sanction for the proposed loan would be withheld unless the Ottoman Government would consent to have its budget administered by a resident French adviser. The Young Turk ministry, determined to tolerate no further foreign intervention in the administrative affairs of the empire, flatly refused to consider any such proposal, and Djavid Bey was instructed to break off all negotiations. "As a true and loyal friend of France," wrote Djavid, "I re-