AN EMPIRE TO LET

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 84, 3 January 1919, Page 5

AN EMPIRE TO LET

THE FUTURE OF ASIA MINOR, Asia Minor is the "empire to let," the oldest and most historic empire in the, world (writes Mr. W. R. Lawson in the 'Daily Mail"). It is now lying derelict under our eyes, waiting to be rejuvenated and restored to the Garden of Eden it once was. The Germans have kindly spent' hundreds of millions of marks on it in railway building and other public works. After tho Crimean War wo had Asia Minor in our hands, and a. railway was actually planned and surveyed to cross from the Aegean Sea to the Persian Gulf, but the parochial Ministers of a cheeseparing age would not give a trumpery guarantee of 3 or i per cent. 011 the required capital. The railway could have been built then for a third of what it will, cost to-day. It would in tlio past fifty years havo repaid itself a dozen times over. 'Best of all it would have prevented tho Germans from getting control of Asiatic Turkey and relegating us to a back seat at Constantinople. Now, thank Heaven, all that can be altered if only wo bestir oursclvQj and seize time by tho forelock. The empire which we let slip through our fingers half a century ago is again to be had for the taking. But not this time for oursolves only. - Now vro aro called upon to act for the Allies and in the interest of the local population. Never in our long history havo wo ever had such a glorious opportunity for beneficent empire-build-ing. It embraces: • ■ First, a. much-needed clearing out of the Doutscho Bank and all its tentacles from Asia Minor. Sccond, tho acquisition of the Anatolian and Bagdad Railways as going concerns. Third, splendid openings' l for our contractors and liuanciors, not only 011 the railway but also 011 the many enterprises that will grow out of it. FoUrth. ail ideal career for demobilised young officers and men as soldici.'S, engineers, traders, settlers, and Civil Servants.

Haymaking is in full swing in_ all parts of the district, says the Pahiatua "Herald," and a great many farmers worked on through the Christmas holidays and managed to get their "mow" slacked.