Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-2067355-20131201033001/@comment-4656717-20131203110433

I like the Kaiser Henry idea. From my brief glance-over of his Wikipedia article, he seems a lot more like his father than Wilhelm [II] was.

With the Ukraine, remember that it had just been fought over, most of the men had probably been drafted, and, as Imp said, it was under enemy occupation. These elements mean it wasn't necessarily as productive as the Germans would have wanted at the time. I have read that there were also simple issues of communication between the occupying Germans and the Ukrainians. And I think with German troops being whisked off to fight on the still-going Western Front, it was quite a small army to occupy such a huge area. LG would be able to give more concrete reasons based on actual facts though.

Regarding an Ottoman Suez Canal, my (limited and unprofessional) understanding is that as the Ottomans had ports in both the Med and the Red, they really didn't need the canal for trade purposes. I could be entirely wrong, but I think it's a logical assumption.