'The Baghdad Railway Negotiations' [‎60v] (10/32)

T he Bagdad R ailway.
8
. i, . 4 Fno-lish feelin^ lias developed in Germany, and lias
Eussiaare allied and unfnend y to us. Au « 11 ' 8 Af ica ® Republic is aiming and legislating
to some extent been echoed in Austria The Souti^Ati.can ^ State and Franc e arc
against us. and at - 'i-ivneli and Russian influence is predominant in Abyssinia ; and
thT^nLtotetw^nE^pt'and Uganda may at any moment be menaced.
11 L t ^ foVo nflvinti^e of Ensland's embarrassments. Bismarck
™ SCRWC .oembarkupOQ apolig
commercial interests m the Ottoman ' His Ma,jest\' paid his first vi.it
toronsUrn^ir^'lSSa 06 So B.'.'ccessful ^vere the personal' relations thus formed
tLt ffew S later in 1893, the Saltan was induced to make a direct appeal to
;£ top.;.; ;r«L i,:.»*** •.
railway communication between Angora and ]3agdad ; and in IcSJN two} eaih a
Armenian massacres, William II, as the friend and adml ^ r ^ ^
visited Constantinople and, proceeding to the Holy Land, pioclaimc
Drotector of Turkey and the Moslem world. -.000 1 1 1 *
Looking back at authoritatiye British opinion about the year IbSS il was iel1 ^
be an essentially British interest that railway communication slloul( ^p
throughout Asia Minor ; that such communication should so far as possible be pioin 3te
by British enterprise ; that any railway undertaking to be encouraged should be sound
financially and not require any material support whatever from the British Cxovei 11-
ment • and that, generally speaking, reliance should rather be placed upon the prospect ot
normal and gradual development of traffic than upon precarious financial assistance
from the Ottoman Goyernment. As to railway connection with the 1 ersian Lrult, there
was a division of expert opinion. It appears to have been generally held that soonei 01
later it would be established ; b-it one section of opinion, including Sir \\ . \\ hite, held,
that our main interest lay in a railway built under British auspices, joining the port or
Alexandretta with some port on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and taking in the intervening points
of most importance ; while another intluential section of opinion deprecated the
construction of any such line, on the three-fold ground that it would teud to create
rival interests in Mesopotamia; that there appeared to be no early likelihood of alien
concessionnaires constructing the line—a view which was indeed clung to by many
authorities till a very much later period ; and that British interests in those regions
would in any case be adequately protected by a firm policy on the shores of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
Early in 1889 M. Kaulla constituted the Anatolian Railway Company to carry out
the concessions in Asia Minor which he had obtained in the preceding year, and the
work of construction to Angora was completed in 1892. The thoroughness and rapidity
of construction soon led, but not without the added inducement of another much-
needed loan, to a further German success ; in February 1S93 M. Kaulla received
concessions for a twofold extension, the first from the railhead at Augora to the town
of Caesarea, the second from Eski-Shehr—a point about midway on the existing line
connecting Ilaidar Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. with Angora—to Konia, the ancient Iconium. The con-
y