File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎157v] (323/834)

Public Debt Administration would present this paper money to
the German Government, which would exchange it for gold, to
be paid over to the holders of the Internal Loan Bonds. This
would offer a double advantage : (1) by convincing the population
that Turkish Notes were as good as gold ; and (2) by withdraw
ing so much paper money from circulation. Javid Bey thought
that the Internal Loan ought to bring in L.T. 50,000,000 to
L.T. 40,000,000, but, at a moderate estimate, as there were very
iTT/-»r.fo in r l 1 n»"l7-£jvT no’ ■ nor’ ppninfp.ppsf, m nnln
few investments in Turkey offering five per cent interest in gold,
there ought to be no difficulty in finding at least L.T. 20,000,000.
If the Internal Loan failed, they would apply to Germany for a
further loan and only if that resource failed them would they
resort to a further issue of paper money.
Javid Bey then made an elaborate statement showing that
the cost of the war to Turkey, up to the time of speaking, was
from L.T. 220,000,000 to L.T. 230,000,000. Coming to the
question of Turldsh indebtedness he stated that the new debts,
including what was due for military requisitions and loans from
Austro-Hungarian Banks, amounted to L.T. 233,000,000, to be
added to the old debt of L.T. 155,000,000, making the total public
debt of Turkey L. T. 388,000,000.
He insisted on the point that, financially speaking, Turkey
had only been a very light burden on Germany, from whom she
had received in marks, in L.T., in gold, and in silver, not more
than L.T. 70,000,000, equivalent to the expenditure of the
German Army for a period of twenty-five days. Germany had
thus made less sacrifices in money for Turkey than she had done
for Bulgaria.
Javid Bey took credit for the fact that, during the war, the
lurkish Government has collected and lodged in the Ottoman
Bank L.T. 8,700,000 for interest due on the old debt to the
Enemy Creditors of Turkey.
He dealt at some length with the question of paper money,
the total of which is L.T. 138,000,000, and the real amount in
circulation is, according to his reckoning, L.T. 90,000,000 to
L.T. 95,000,000. He then drew attention to what he considered
the most serious danger to the country, namely the enormous
increase in prices of almost all commodities, independently of the
fictitious rise caused by the unfavourable rate of exchange of
paper money. He gave the following instances :—at Beyrout
before the war the price of wheat was P.T. 1^- the oke, to-day,
it is P. T. (^ in coin, or an increase of 500%. At Konia before
the war, petroleum cost P.T. 2 the oke, it now costs P.T. 40 in
^in, or an increase of 2,000%, and if paid for in paper, it costs
Javid Bey’s speech, which ended with a flowery
patnotic peroration, is said to have been loudly applauded by the
Lhamber of Deputies, which is quite incapable of criticizing the
fallacious and misleading statements of which it is made up.
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