File 2764/1904 Pt 2 'Baghdad Railway: General negotiations 1908-10.' [‎81r] (170/799)

ilLfeL 00 ^ 6 ^ is Property of His Britannic Majesty ’s Government.]
BAGDAD RAILWAY.
SECRET.
[46697]
Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Bertie.
(No. 743.) Secret.
(Telegraphic.) P. _ Foreign Office, December 30, 1909.
BRITISH participation in the Bagdad Railway.
I referred in conversation with the French charge d’affaires to-day to M. Pichon’s
statement, and expressed my satisfaction. The construction and control of the
Bagdad-Gulf section of the railway may be offered to the British group as the outcome
of the present negotiations between Cassel and Gwinner, arising out of the latter’s
overtures, but this is as yet uncertain. The position of His Majesty’s Government is
therefore as follows :—-
They will have first to form an opinion as to whether they can consent
unconditionally to the 4 per cent, increase on the strength of the terms of any given
agreement wdiich may be arrived at by the financiers. That opinion having been
formed, we shall communicate it, together with the agreement in question, to the
Governments at St. Petersburgh and Paris, with a view to joint action by the three
Governments in the matter as soon as France and Russia have signified to us what
stipulations with regard to the railway they will feel called upon to make before
consenting to the 4 per cent, surtax.
His Majesty’s Government would, at any rate, require to know how the French
and Russian Governments desire to arrange the question of the line north of Bagdad
before considering any proposals for concessions of any section of that line or for its
inter-nationalisation, since, although the British group have pressed us to interest
ourselves in the Khanikin branch, our chief object will be gained if we avert foreign
control of the line south of Bagdad. The question of the line north of that point has
not been touched on in present negotiations.
Gwinner’s proposals have, as yet, led to no negotiations between the British and
German Governments, although we conclude that the latter know of them. Please
inform M. Pichon of the above in substance, and point out that, in view of what
immediately precedes, it still remains to gain the assent of the Turkish Government
and of the German Government to any arrangement by the financiers, even supposing
that arrangement to be satisfactory to His Majesty’s Government.
' V F 0
4,11G APR 1910 G
No. i.
[December 30.]
Section 1.
[2536 gg—l]