'The Middle Eastern question or some political problems of Indian defence' [‎133r] (270/616)

DESERTS AND SWAMPS
203
Urfa and Diarbekir into the upper valley of the Tigris
and down to Mosul, is to be carried in a straight line
across the desert between the twin rivers of Meso
potamia to Mosul, and thence down the desolate right
bank of the Tigris to Baghdad. It is true that a feeder
is to be thrown out to Urfa, and others are contem
plated later on to Marash, Aintab, Birejik, Mardin,
Erbil, and to Tuzkurmatli and Salahieh in the Kerkuk
district. But the proposed route for the main line
would hardly have been adopted by the Company had
not the kilometric guarantee rendered it financially
independent of the immediate resources of the country
to be traversed between the Taurus and Baghdad.
From Baghdad a very important branch is to go off
to the Persian frontier at Khanikin, whence one of the
chief trade routes into Persia lies through Kermanshah
and Hamadan to Teheran. The annual value of the
British trade carried on with Persia by this route
is estimated at ^750,000 — a fact which serves inci
dentally to illustrate the many-sided bearings of the
Baghdad Railway upon British interests. From Bagh
dad the main line is to trend back to the Euphrates and
cross it again in order to touch at the two sacred cities
of the Shiah Mussulmans, Kerbela and Nedjef, where
the mere pilgrim traffic from Persia and from India
must prove a considerable source of revenue, on the
way down to Basrah, the chief port of the Shatt-el-
Arab, and to its appointed terminus, wherever it may
ultimately be, on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . The barest pre
liminary surveys have, however, yet been made of the
Mesopotamian sections of the railway, which will
certainly present some rather serious difficulties, owing
to the intricate network of swamps and marshes that
cover so large a portion of the great fluvial delta.