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File 2764/1904 Pt 2 'Baghdad Railway: General negotiations 1908-10.' [‎231r] (470/799)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (391 folios). It was created in 1908-1910. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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For the development of the comitry on natural lines, and the execution of works
which wou c e profitable alike to the concessionaire and the country (for there can be
no really true difference between them m honest undertakings) the true solution iS in
A construction of a railway from.Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, via Akppo Jo
Ito Hai’brancL 6 establlshment of rlver transport between Bagdad and Bussorah along
The Kut Bairage project which I have proposed will cost 600 0001 and the
mmi m STOWof'nlll 6 a** 68 ‘r - Stab l ish its chaunel wil>1 Prabably cos?
200,0001., or^ 800,0001. m all. As payment for the execution of such works the
concessionnaire might be given all the abandoned and swamped lands between Ur!
Zobeir, Bussorah, and Fao, which could be converted at a reasonable cost into a
S^^disef 686 kndS Wer6 kn ° Wn “ early M ° slem ‘he four
_ The railway from Bagdad to the Mediterranean, following the shortest route to
Europe, which is the natural market for the products of Mesopotamia, and also the
source from which its outside wants are supplied, would, I think, be of itself a profit-
able undertaking. But to make the project complete, I think a concession should be
asked for a railway from Alexandretta to Bagdad via Aleppo, a steamer service on the
Euphrates and Tigris the construction of the Kut Barrage, with half the double tithe
which the btate would take from land irrigated by free flow on the Hai Canal, and all
the Government waste lands between Ur, Bussorah, Zobeir, and Fao. The development
of these lands will be hurried up by a cut from the Euphrates to the Khor Abdulla,
where the mean sea level is two feet lower than it is at Bussorah, and by which a
navigable connection will probably be soon established with the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. through
the Khor (see the 3-fathom line on the map). s
I inclose a map.
W. W.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Consul-General Ramsay to Sir G. Lowther.
(No. 738/80.)
Bagdad, July 10, 1909.
WITH reference to your Excellency’s despatch No. 375, dated the 25th May, 1909,
to the Foreign Office, I have the honour to submit for your Excellency’s consideration
a memorandum dealing with the question of direct railway communication between
Bagdad and the Mediterranean Sea.
I have, &c.
J. RAMSAY, Lieutenant-Colonel, Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency.
in Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. and His Britannic Majesty's
Consul-General, Bagdad.
Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Memorandum by Consul-General Ramsay.
I HAVE received a copy of his Excellency the Ambassador’s despatch No. 375,
dated the 25th May, 1909.
There are one or two points on which I am afraid that I did not make myself
sufficiently clear in my original despatch No. 251/25, dated the 10th March, 1909, and
as the matter is a very important one I venture to offer some further explanations and
remarks for his Excellency’s consideration :—
(«•) I did not mean so much that the Germans would be able to manipulate rates
to such an extent as to make the all German route the cheaper, but that they could by
charging high rates on the Aleppo-Alexandretta section unreasonably increase the
freight, and consequently reduce the price of produce in Mesopotamia, and with it the
return on irrigation works. To make the all German route actually the cheaper would
probably not suit them, but it would be delightfully simple for them to levy a heavy
toll on all goods passing to the sea.
(b.) Sir Gerard Lowther has assumed that if the French and German railways
come to terms about the Aleppo-Alexandretta Railway the former will certainly
stipulate for favourable tariff treatment. If the matter was not of great public

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Content

The volume comprises telegrams, despatches, correspondence, memoranda, newspaper cuttings, maps and notes, relating to negotiations over the proposed Berlin to Baghdad Railway in the period 1903-1907.

The discussion in the volume relates to the economic, commercial, political and military considerations impinging on British strategy for the international negotiations over the development of a railway to Baghdad in particular.

Further discussion surrounds the motivations and strategies of British competitors in the area; included in the volume are four maps.

The principal correspondents in the volume include the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Lord Lansdowne, Sir Edward Grey), His Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople (Sir Nicholas O'Connor), the Under Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Charles Hardinge, Sir Thomas Henry Sanderson), and for India (Earl Percy, Sir Arthur Godley), the Viceroy of India (Lord Curzon of Keddleston), the Secretary to the Political and Secret Department of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. (Sir Richmond Richie) and the London Manager of the Imperial Bank of Persia (George Newell).

Extent and format
1 volume (391 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

The subject 2764 (Bagdad Railway) consists of five volumes, IOR/L/PS/10/56-60. The volumes are divided into five parts with each part comprising one volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 392; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in parallel between ff 329-358; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled, and are located in the same position as the main sequence. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out. The foliation sequence does not include the front cover.

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English in Latin script
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File 2764/1904 Pt 2 'Baghdad Railway: General negotiations 1908-10.' [‎231r] (470/799), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/57, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100026492733.0x000047> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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