NETWORK OF ROADS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 20

NETWORK OF ROADS

A FIFTEEN-YEAR PROJECT

Mustapha \Keihai,. whq'has /carried Ills' people to-dizzy heights:of roligipugy po-. litieal, social, and' cultural revolutions with ono of his famous sleights-of-hand, is bringing.them dow ; n to earth, and Ms : Ridding' theinl, work -thd earth for a solid fifteen, years to coirie, writes a' correspondent in- the- San Erancisco "Chronicle.", „' EverybodyMn''-' Turkey, including Americans and' other; , foreignors, vrho have ■resided: iff the country : for..six!'. jnp.ijihs,; mus't,.do:their bit on! tiie"building of a "great network'of roads, tho. project... ior which has just emerged :£ull-bloom from, the waves of Kernalist reform. •■•' -. : .-. ■■,;• ■•;.'.'. Tho new road law provides for 5000 miles' of: highways in.'' Asiatic Turkey; and for tlie~ renovation of -the"existing 800.0 ...uiiles'pf -"state" roads,; moat' of which .are "little "aipre'": than-: miserable dirt trails',.'. /'Withiii' ,'tlie' whole' ■'• land there are at present scarcely a dozen milos.-of,.,asphalt or .concrete. '.■■ ■But the. besA of roada are" to spread over Auatolia-t.o the time of :6O,opO,oq'Cf dollars^ (£12,000,000) within tho next fifteen, years, v •■ •>•. --. .■• ■-•:•■■ -.■• .; " ''■Under tho;-new. law everybody .in. Turkey between'the ages-of 18 and CO, except embassy and consular officials, invalids, students, soldiers, and fathers of., five living children, will be drafted for road service. ' Yearly for ten'c'on-secutiv6;-.days,.,the. Turkish equivalent of: the .Co.ip.nel?s lady and Judy O?Grady and,their respective husbands" must break stories and'shovel.dirt or pay an exemption -tax of 4 dollars (16s)-. The-4ie"w 5000.miles of highways will link Angora .to1 Constantinople by a fast speedway;" Angora to Sivas, Brzeroum and Kara on" thei Eussian frontier by. a branch road from Erzeroum; Angora to tho frontier of Iraq by a branch road, from Sivas, and Angora to the Syrian frontier via Smyrna, Konia, and •Adaiia."'-" ' ."■'■, The ■■60,000,000 dollars : required for construction will be met by. revenues from the .State, monopolies, on alcohol, matches, and" tobacco, which aggregate some 16,000,000 .dollars (£3,200,000) annually. Any surpluses from, the general .budget of the State also go' to the.road fund.' . : *''..'