Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/303

 combined in prophesying that the Turco-German brotherhood-in-arms would fortify the Teutonic economic position in the Near East, disturb Russian equanimity in the Caucasus, menace Britain's communications with India, and end once and for all French pretensions in Syria. Moslem sympathizers predicted that the Holy War would shake the Entente empires to their foundations. Pan-Germans frankly avowed that the war offered an opportunity to make Berlin-to-Bagdad a reality rather than a dream—some went so far as to believe that German domination could be extended from the North Cape to the Persian Gulf! Mercantilists foresaw the possibility of creating a politically unified and an economically self-sufficient Middle Europe.[7]

As a means of promoting closer relationships with Turkey numerous societies were established in Germany for the purpose of disseminating information on the Near East and its importance in the war. For example, Dr. Hugo Grothe conducted at Leipzig the work of the Deutsches Vorderasienkomitee—''Vereinigung zur Förderung deutscher Kulturarbeit im islamischen Orient''. This organization published and distributed hundreds of thousands of books, pamphlets, and maps regarding Asiatic Turkey; conducted a Near East Institute, at which lectures and courses of instruction were given; maintained an information bureau for business men interested in commercial and industrial opportunities in the Ottoman Empire; and established German libraries in Constantinople, Aleppo, Bagdad, Konia, and elsewhere along the line of the Bagdad Railway. A similar organization, the Deutsch-türkische Vereinigung, was maintained at Berlin under the honorary presidency of Dr. von Gwinner of the Deutsche Bank and the active supervision of Dr. Ernest Jäckh. The two societies numbered among their members and patrons Herr Ballin, of the