File 2764/1904 Pt 2 'Baghdad Railway: General negotiations 1908-10.' [‎276r] (562/799)

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APPENDIX No. III.
Babylonia.
I have been very carefully examining the country between Samarra and Babylon (Hilla)
past Baghdad and Ctesiphon and have had a special opportunity owing to the fact that I am
spending £30,000 on the repairs of the Hindiya Barrage, and the first thing that strikes one is
the fact that all possibility of the real development of this country depends as much on a railway
direct from Baghdad to the nearest port on the Mediterranean as on irrigation. The best route
is Baghdad, Hit, Ana, Der, Aleppo, Alexandretta : and the next best is Baghdad, Hit, Ana,
Der, Palmyra, Damascus, Beyrout. These are the two real trade routes of this country. Both
are under 600 miles. Nearly everything we produce goes to Europe and very much of it to the
Eastern Mediterranean countries, and what we chiefly want are European goods and cheap
coal. This is a country strangely devoid of fuel and we pay for coal in Baghdad £3-15-0 per ton
by the time it has gone through the Suez Canal to Basrah and come up the 520 miles of the
Tigris. Now if we had a railway from the Mediterranean we should have coal here as cheap at any
rate as at Assuan which is considerably more than 600 miles from Alexandria. The railway,
moreover, which ran from Beyrout or Alexandretta here would have cheap coal bought on the
Mediterranean and not dear stuff bought in Basrah and Baghdad. The Euphrates valley is
very rich and can be irrigated and is irrigated very cheaply by water-power the whole way, and
the current is strong enough to turn wheels and lift water. It is too strong for navigation.
We here are a great grain-producing country with unlimited capabilities for extension and
the whole goes to the Eastern Mediterranean or Europe. What, however, has struck me more
than anything, and I am forming my projects accordingly, is the fact that this country is even
more a sheep and cattle and horse breeding country than a granary. We can irrigate with the
supply of the river 6,000,000 acres, but we can irrigate in addition as pastures 10,000,000
acres on which millions of sheep and cattle could feed. All these would go west. In a year of
drought like this sheep are worth a song because they cannot be got out of the country (and
droughts are common here). If we had a railway to the Mediterranean direct, the transport
for sheep and cattle alone would occupy a line the whole winter, and then would come the har
vest of wheat, barley and winter cereals, and then the summer harvest of rice and Indian-corn
all going west.
Turnips for sheep-feeding are grown over large areas and could be grown over tens of thou
sands by irrigation, the day we have weirs. The turnips are very fine indeed, the best I have
seen, and, as they are a winter crop here, swedes and mangoes would do well. The 12 per cent,
lime in the soil and water are excellent for all animals, and the animals of this country are
in consequence very fine. All this needs an outlet on the Mediterranean.
A railway from Baghdad to the Mediterranean would fill the country with visitors who
would see for themselves, bring money into the country and open it. If the Nile opened into
that hole and corner place the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and not into the Mediterranean, and there was no
railway connecting it with the Mediterranean, the value of the produce and the land of Egypt
would fall over 100% if not 200%. The more I think, study, consult local merchants, and
understand the country, the more I am convinced that in a Euphrates Valley Railway lies the
development of the country. The Euphrates Valley can produce and does produce every kind
of fruit to perfection, and the valley, compared with what it was 50 year agos, is already another
world.
To transport wheat from Baghdad to Basrah costs £1-8-0 per ton and from Basrah to
'London (including transhipping) £1-2-0 or £2-10 0 per ton. Put that on Argentine or Cana
dian wheat and you would strangle the trade.
Mesopotamia could produce some 4,000,000 tons of wheat, and barley for export, and, with
out exaggerating, many millions of sheep ; all for the west. English trade would benefit im
mensely, for English goods would come direct here instead of going round by Aden and Kara
chi and Basrah, while the trains would take back all the things England needs.
I say nothing of oil seeds, excellent beetroot for sugar and cotton, which we can produce
They would be an additional asset. And all that is needed is under 600 miles of railway, the
whole length of which very nearly is capable of being cultivated and in ancient days was culti
vated and thickly populated. The population to-day is increasing by leaps and bounds in spite
of every discouragement to transport.
Baghdad ;
14$ February 1909