was in the direst financial straits. Her participation in the struggle, at the prompting of the fatuous Young Turk party, will only make the financial confusion worse confounded. To what extent Germany is prepared to give monetary aid to her obedient cat's-paw, no one can tell; certain it is that with a bankrupt Treasury the prospects of the army are very chilly. Not very long ago, France was confiding enough to advance a loan of about 20,000,000l. in exchange for certain concessions; and the Powers at the same time agreed to a 4 per cent. increase in the Customs duties and the institution of several Government monopolies. The state of war precipitated by the Sultan has not only made any further financial assistance from the Western Powers impossible, but has seriously affected the interests of the Turkish bondholders, interest on the debt being, of course, suspended, except in the case of the loans secured on the Egyptian tribute. It is believed that French investors hold about 55 per cent. of the total debt, Germans 25 per cent., and English investors barely 20 per cent. The outstanding debt on March 1, 1914, was as under:

LOANS SPECIALLY SECURED ON THE EGYPTIAN TRIBUTE.

1891 Defence Loan

In addition, at the end of 1914 there were Treasury bills outstanding for over 20,000,000l., and there have been temporary loans since. Some of these may have been paid off out of the proceeds of the loan provided by France, but in any case the total debt of Turkey to-day is hardly less than 160,000,000l.

The T17,981,1061. secured on the Egyptian Tribute may be eliminated from calculations as to the ability

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of Turkey to meet the service of her debt, because, unless Egypt ceases to be a British Protectorate, as much of the tribute as is necessary is certain to be remitted regularly direct to London. Until the war is over the interest on the rest of the Ottoman debt will remain unpaid, so far as English and French bondholders are concerned. What the German bondholders get will depend very much upon the state of the revenue and the demands of extraordinary expenditure. The revenue for 1914-15 was estimated at T31,921,1637., and the expenditure at T34,007,6197. Both will be influenced by the war; the revenue will be much less and the expenditure much greater. The imports for 1911 amounted to 37,774,9137.; and the 11 per cent. ad valorem duties on the same basis in normal times (excluding tobacco and salt) would be between 3,000,000l. and 4,000,000l. The exports for the same year were 22,474,8187.; and in 1913 Turkey exported to the United Kingdom alone goods of the value of 5,416,6591. Her foreign trade is now in 1 the same position as that of the other enemy countries; she can neither import nor export, so that she loses the customs dues on the one hand and the growers' profit on the other. Figs, raisins, barley, fruits, tobacco, wool, mohair and opium are amongst her chief exports, which have hitherto been all to the benefit of agriculture and flock ownership. It does not seem to matter much, in the circumstances, which revenues are assigned to debt administration, because in a state of war it is improbable that any effective means of enforcing payment exist. One of the loans (the 4 per cent. of 1909) is secured on the revenues formerly applied to the war indemnity of T350,000l. annually payable to Russia from May 1882. This was paid regularly down to Dec. 31, 1908, when a new convention was signed by Russia and Turkey allowing of the free disposal of the annual instalments for forty Ir years. Where the customs receipts form the security, the Council of Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt has, speaking generally, the collection and application of the dues. During war time, however, the remittances to England and France may be looked upon as having no actual existence.

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Turkey's desperate need of money is shown by the arbitrary action of the Government in connexion with

the Imperial Ottoman Bank. The Government, it appears, brought pressure to bear upon the local bank authorities with the object of getting them to sanction an issue of 2,000,000%. of bank notes. The Directorial Committees having their seats in Paris and London refused their approval, without which the issue would presumably be invalid. The Turkish Government then adopted the high-handed policy of appointing provisionally for the duration of the war an executive committee with its seat in Constantinople, in order to make provision for indispensable financial measures.' The negotiations referring thereto are reported to have progressed so far that a definitive result is expected, if it has not already been reached. The Director-General of the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople and the Assistant DirectorGeneral declined the Government's proposals, which would have allowed them to remain at their posts under certain conditions.

The Bank in Turkey is therefore in the hands of the tools of the Government; and, although it was originally established by an imperial firman and its head office is situated in Constantinople, most of the capital is French and English, and the shareholders cannot regard without misgiving the appointment of an executive committee obliged to carry out the behests of the war party and its German task-masters. If the position demands these drastic illegalities at a comparatively early stage of Turkey's participation, what may not be expected when a few more crushing defeats, followed by public disillusionment, have made the position of the Government critical and the financial conditions disastrous?

H. J. JENNINGS.

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Art. 4.-MUSIC AND THE WAR.

THE unmistakable influence which national convulsions and international wars have had at all times in awakening the highest forces of musical art is one of the most interesting problems of the historian and the psychologist. The evidence is convincing and cumulative. At no time has a great country failed to produce great composers when its resources have been put to the supreme test of war, provided (and the exception is one of the highest importance from the point of view of human nature) that the ideals of the nation are high, that its principles of action are just, and that it possesses a sound incentive to call forth a genuinely patriotic effort. Hence it is E as common to find a great artistic movement rising at moments of gravest peril, and even of disaster, as at a period of triumphant success. The individual expressions of the greatest composers, when called upon to celebrate the concrete successes of their countries, have generally been on a level of excellence inferior, often far inferior, to that of their best work. Where Beethoven failed, others of less calibre and inventive force could scarcely hope to succeed. When their thoughts turned upon the realisation of a general conception of greatness, or of the agony of reverses, their highest nd powers did not fail them. The masterful personality of Napoleon, and his influence for good or evil upon Europe, found a musical expression in the Eroica' Dub Symphony, superior in its intensity of emotion and its grasp of the big things in life to any literary biography, however accurate or eloquent. The gathering of Emperors and Kings at Vienna in 1814 only resulted in two compositions by that greatest composer of his age -the 'Battle of Vittoria ' and the Glorreiche Augenblick -neither of which can be classed higher than pièces d'occasion. The genius, which flashes out almost in spite of itself in everything Beethoven touched, scarcely showed itself for more than an 'Augenblick' in either of them. But the Spirit which moved upon the face of the waters inspired in full measure the pages of the Mass in D. In the last movement of that mighty work, the 'Agnus Dei,' the whole tragedy of war finds Vol. 223.-No. 443.

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its most sublime expression called forth by the prayer for peace.

It is interesting to note the coincidence of the appearance of greatest composers of various countries with the time of great national danger. The conquest of the Netherlands by Spain and the worst days of the Inquisition in that country, far from stifling music, gave it a strong impetus; it is only necessary to name three composers of renown, Josquin des Près, Willaert and Roland de Lattre (Orlando di Lasso), out of a bevy of glittering talent. The same period of stress saw the rise of Palestrina and Gabrieli in Italy, and of Goudimel in France. The Spanish wars and the Armada peril resulted in an equally strong outburst of artistic life in England. Tallis, Byrd, Morley, Orlando Gibbons and the Elizabethan madrigalists gave England the right to its title of a 'Nest of singing birds'; just as in the older and less chronicled days of Henry V, the name of Dunstable, the father of modern choral music, still shines through the fog of obscure records, and a setting of the 'Song of Agincourt still lives in its original manuscript to prove its title to fame. The Civil War and the period ending in the Revolution of 1688 saw the zenith of the career of Henry Purcell. The sufferings and interminable struggles of Germany during the reign of Louis Quatorze in France and of Frederic the Great were coincident with the appearance of Sebastian Bach in Thuringia and of Handel in Saxony. The international turmoil which extended over Central Europe with little cessation down to 1815 saw a succession of musical giants, Couperin and Rameau in France, Gluck in Vienna, Haydn in Croatia, Mozart in Tirol, Beethoven (a Netherlander) in the Rhineland, Schubert in Vienna, Weber in Dresden, Cherubini (a Florentine) in Paris, Rossini in Italy. In later times the Revolutions of 1848 and the fermentations which surrounded them found their musical expression in Wagner and Brahms to the east of the Rhine, and in Berlioz and Bizet to the west; and Chopin appeared at the moment of Poland's greatest trials. The struggle for Italian unity is even symbolised in the very name of Verdi. The renaissance of Russia and its manifold successes and reverses are marked by the name of Glinka, and an ever-increasing roll of