resides at Beirut, going into summer quarters at Aley in the Lebanon.
Currency. On May I 1920 the standard currency of the pound Syrian (S) was introduced to supersede the pound Egyptian (E), which had been the official currency under the British occupation, and the now obsolete pound Turkish (T). The S is equivalent to the French louis of 20 frs., formerly well known in Syria, and is divided into loo piastres of 20 French centimes each.
Railways. During the decade 1910-20 the railway construction in Syria was chiefly directed towards improving and linking up the lines serving the trade routes across, and little attention was paid to the development of a purely Syrian system for the development of the country. The only line which can be classed in this category is that between Tripoli and Horns, which was opened in June 191 1, and even this was chiefly useful for importing the heavier material required for the construction of the Bagdad railway which was being built across the country in the north. During the World War it was taken up and its rails used in the extension of the Bagdad railway towards Nisibin, but after the French administration had been established the line was relaid and the railway was again opened for traffic in July 1921. In the same way the French Hauran railway between Damascus and Mezeirib was taken up and used in Palestine.
Of the Bagdad railway, destined to link the Syrian system with Haidar Pasha, and perhaps with Europe and Mesopotamia, the Adana Osmanie (92 km.) and Dorak-Yenije (23 km.) sectors in Cilicia were opened on April 27 191 1, the sector Bulgurlu-Ulu Kyshla (38 km.) in the Taurus was opened on July 7 1911, and that from Ulu Kyshla to Kara Punar (52 km.) in Dec. 1912. At the same time the Aleppo-Moslemiye (Muslimie) (15 km.), Moslemiye-Raju (77 km.), and Moslemiye-Jerablus (103 km.) fork was opened, and the branch from Toprak Kale (on the Osmanie branch) to Alexandretta (60 km.) at the foot of the Beilan Pass was opened in Nov. 1913. This branch was cut in several places by H. M. S. " Doris " in Dec. 1914, but was reopened for traffic in 1921. During the war every effort was made to complete the great tunnels in the sectors Kara Punar- Dorak and Osmanie- Raj u, and, after being used for narrow gauge traffic for some months they were opened for standard gauge use just before the Armistice, and the first through train from rlaidar Pasha reached Aleppo in Oct. 1918. Further E. the line was pushed forward to Nisibin: Jerablus-Tell el Abyadh (95 km.), Tell el Abyadh-Ras el 'Ain (87 km.), Ras el 'Ain-Nisibin (120 km.).
In Dec. 1913 in return for a French loan the Porte gave a conces- sion for the extension of the French standard gauge railway then working between Aleppo and Rayak down through the Biqua 1 and Galilee to Ludd in Palestine, but nothing came of it, and no steps were taken to start the harbour works at Jaffa, Haifa, Tripoli and Alexandretta for which permission was granted at the same time.
During the war the railways of Syria were greatly strained to meet military requirements, damaged by hostile action, and in- adequately kept up, rolling stock became worn out and many engines built for coal consumption were forced to use wood. As a result when the French took over the control of the Syrian railways in July 1920 they found them in need of wholesale reconstruction.
Agriculture. The chief Syrian industry is agriculture, and it is estimated by the French authorities that of 1 1 ,000,000 ac. available for cultivation in Aleppo, W. of the Euphrates, only about 1 ,500,000 were in 1921 under the plough. A still larger and even less developed area is known to be available for agriculture E. of the river. In the sanjaks of Hama and Horns and in the Biqua' the cultivable area is estimated at over 1,000,000 ac., while the Damascus oasis contains 1,500,000 ac. of good land.
The corn lands of the Hauran are reported to have produced 230,000 tons of wheat in 1919-20, of which 1 15,000 was exported to neighbouring districts. During the war the Haurani cultivators .were generally able to sell their wheat to the Turks for gold, and it is estimated that they obtained 2,000,000 in this way. Payments for animals and labour however were only in depreciated paper.
The tobacco district of Latakia in Alawiya used to produce some 1,000 tons of tobacco annually.
The production of silk in Syria, which fell during the war to less than one-tenth of its former volume, began to revive in 1920, and the export from Beirut nearly doubled on the 1 18 tons of silk and 82 tons of cocoons and allied materials exported in 1919.
Before the war it was estimated that there were some 5,000,000 sheep, 1,000,000 goats, 500,000 kine and 250,000 camels in Syria, but during the war it appears that the sheep and goats were reduced by at least 50%, the kine suffered more severely, and the camels, which were very wastefully used by the Turks for military purposes, were still further reduced in numbers, at least 40,000 having been lost in the Jordan valley alone in 1916-7.
Commerce. The trade of the port of Beirut since 1910, the last complete year of peace, may be summarized as follows:—
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1910 1911 1912
1913 1914 1919
Imports Tons
233,297 216,162
145,054 193,844 118,917
64,547
Exports Tons
50.934 48,078 53,072 49,248 30,588 18,547
Exports of Syrian produce from Beirut in 1911, the last normal year of peace, and in 1919, the first complete year since the Armistice, were as follows:
1911 1919 Tons Tons
Wool 5,500 1,521
Hides 400 122
Olive Oil 233 90
Apricots 4,468 1,436
Wine 161 7
Gums 40 34
During the first quarter of 1920 466 tons of wool were exported from Beirut and 248 tons from Alexandretta, which had just been reopened for commercial traffic. In that period 67 tons of hides were exported from Beirut. For 1919 the value of imports was declared at the Customs as follows:
Jan.
Feb.
March
April
May
June uly Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
E
59,597 223,111 629,614 376,117 551,737 900,370
1,213,974 534,332 848,570 781,366
1,031,477 895.248
8,045,513
It must, however, be remembered that goods have to be declared at their local value, on which an 1 1 % ad valorem duty is collected. During 1909 prices for imported goods were unreasonably high.
Archaeology. Before the war extensive excavations had been started on the site of the ancient Carchemish, near Jerablus, under the direction of D. G. Hogarth, with the aid of T. E. Lawrence and C. L. Woolley. These operations, which had yielded highly satis- factory results after the interruption due to the war, during which these three archaeologists all distinguished themselves by their widely different services against the Turks, were resumed in Jan. 1920 under Mr. Woolley, and pursued in spite of the prevalent unrest and the actual hostilities which went on in the immediate neighbour- hood. (H. P.-G.)
SZÉLL, KOLOMAN (1845-1915), Hungarian statesman, was born on June 8 1845. He studied at Pest and Vienna, and in 1867 became deputy for the district of St. Gotthard. He very quickly won the reputation of being remarkably well informed on economic and financial questions. Szell was one of Deak's intimates, whose ward, the daughter of the Hungarian poet Vorosmarty, he had married. In 1875 he was Finance Minister in the Cabinet of Koloman Tisza, and as such imposed on himself the task of restoring the shattered credit of Hungary. In 1878 he concluded with Austria the first economic Ausgleich. At that time the single Austrian bank was changed, in conformity with this arrangement, into the dualistic Austro-Hungarian bank, and Szell consolidated the Hungarian Rentes, and nearly succeeded in balancing the State finances. As he feared that this balance would again be upset by the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he resigned from the Cabinet, incurring thereby the displeasure of the Crown. He still kept his seat in Parliament, and as deputy constantly criticized the financial policy of the Tisza Cabinet. At the beginning of the eighties Szell founded the Hungarian Mortgage Credit Bank, of which he was governor until the end of his life. He opened entirely new sources of credit for Hungarian agriculture. He declined repeated offers of the portfolio of Finance. When the Banffy Ministry suffered a serious crisis at the end of 1808 and was compelled to resign in Feb. 1899, Szell was entrusted with the formation of a new Cabinet. By means of the Pact of Feb. 23 1899 he restored parliamentary peace. On the basis of the so-called Szell formula the new Ausgleich with Austria until the year 1907 was concluded after long negotiations. The most important result of this was that Hungary attained the status of an independent customs area, but, under the arrangement for reciprocity, still maintained intact the existing conditions of the Customs Union with Austria. In 1901, under Szell's Ministry, the new elections resulted in a Liberal victory. A year later began the struggle for the reform of the national defence, and Szell introduced in .1902 the law for increasing the number of recruits, in exchange for which the Independent party wanted concessions to the principle
