[18] The _Revue Bleue_, April 6, 1907, p. 429; _Syria and Palestine_, p. 126. Many of the claims that the Bagdad Railway jeopardized French prosperity were purely fantastic. It was maintained that the opening of the great Mesopotamian granary would cripple French agriculture, already seriously handicapped by the competition of the new world. To this was added the suggestion that development of cotton-growing in Turkey would stifle the infant efforts at the cultivation of cotton in the French colonies. It is incredible that Mesopotamian grain and cotton would have interfered with the flourishing prosperity of the French peasantry; in any event, any such danger was at least a generation removed. France raised high tariff barriers against foreign competition in the home market for agricultural products; she was not an exporter of grain. [19] _Journal Officiel, Débats parlementaires, Chambre des Députés_, March 25, 1902, pp. 1467 _et seq._ [20] _Cf._, M. Montbel, “Les puissances coloniales devant l’Islam,” in _Questions diplomatiques et coloniales_, Volume 37 (1914), pp. 348–362. [21] _Journal Officiel, Débats parlementaires, Chambre des Députés_, November 20, 1905, p. 2798. The italics are mine. [22] _Revue des deux mondes_, Volume 149 (1898), p. 29. [23] Sources of the treaties granting special privileges to France are sighted in Note 3, Chapter II. Regarding the origins and nature of the French protectorate over Roman Catholic missions see the article “Capitulations” in the _Encyclopedia Britannica_, previously cited; J. Brucker, “The Protectorate of Missionaries in the Near East,” in the _Catholic Encyclopedia_, Volume XII, pp. 488–492; A. Schopoff, _Les Réformes et la Protection des Chrétiens en Turquie, 1673–1904_ (Paris, 1904); _Livre de propagande de l’alliance française, 1883–1893_ (Paris, 1894), especially pp. 35 _et seq._; Viscomte Aviau de Piolant, _La défense des intérêts catholiques en Terre Sainte et en Asie Mineure_ (Paris, 1886). [24] _Syria and Palestine_, pp. 43–45, 54–55; L. Bréhier, “Turkish Empire—Missions,” in _Catholic Encyclopedia_, Volume XV, pp. 101–102; J. Atalla, “Les solutions de la question syrienne,” in _Questions diplomatiques et coloniales_, Volume 24 (1907), p. 472. [25] _Bulletin de la Chambre de Commerce française de Constantinople_, June 30, 1897, pp. 112–113, November 30, 1897, p. 149. [26] Brucker, _loc. cit._, p. 490. [27] It should be added that the Treaty also stipulated that “the acquired rights of France are explicitly reserved, and there shall be no interference with the _statu quo_ in the Holy Places.” E. Hertslet, _The Map of Europe by Treaty_, Volume IV (London, 1891), p. 2797. [28] _Revue des deux mondes_, Volume 149, (1898), pp. 24–25; Brucker, _loc. cit._, p. 491.