In the Turkish Empire, nothing is manufactured

TCD MS 3414 folio 15 recto

TCD MS 3414 folio 15 recto

[1915]

Basra were Strick Scott & Co;  <Grey Mackenizie> & Lynch Bros, to the latter belong the back of the river steamers on the Tigris. These very excellent craft were commandeered by Government on the outbreak of war with Turkey. These firms are general traders & their caravans of English wares are sent into Persia & as far north as Mosul, whence they return with the wares of the country, carpets, dates, hides grain, and a hundred & one other things. In the Turkish Empire, as far as I could see, <next to> nothing is manufactured in the country & everything from a steam engine to a pin is imported from Europe, so these firms find it a great dumping ground for every conceivable kind of cheap article. The Germans, as is well known, have for years taken a great interest in that part of the world, the completion of the Baghdad railway being their great ambition. This line however only reached Ras-el-Ain in its northern portion; and in the Mesopotamia itself, only one section of 90 miles had been completed  between Samsara & Baghdad. German agents, under the veil of peaceful trading had for some years