File 2764/1904 Pt 1 'Baghdad Railway: general negotiations 1904-07.' [‎201r] (410/818)

of accommodating steamers fully equal to the demands of trade for many
years to come. He further points out that from a commercial point of view
Basrah offers advantages over all possible termini. His opinion as to the
feasibility of dredging the bar of the Shatt-el-Arab is supported by His Excel
lency the Naval Commander-in-Chief and by the officers of the British India
Steam Navigation Company who ply in those waters. Mr. Grant Duff’s recent
* Telegram to His Majesty’s Secretary of State for rCpOl’t ' of Gdinan attempts to pilT-
Foreign Affairs, dated the 9 th May 1906. chase from Persia a concession for a
port and a coaling station at the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab is not without
significance. We are still disposed to think that the best terminus is to be
found in the neighbourhood of the Khor Abdulla or of Kathama Bay. But
we recognise that a suitable port may, if necessary, be secured at some point
less directly subject to British influence.
7. In these circumstances, though our opinion on the subject has not
been invited by His Majesty’s Government, we think it desirable that we
should place you in possession of our views as to the advantages to be secured
by participation in the scheme and as to the dangers to be feared, in the
event of the project being completed without reference to British claims.
The authoritative statements in regard to the detrimental effects likely to
be produced upon British interests by a railway on the alignment proposed,
if under the exclusive control of a great military and industrial nation, have
been summarised in Part Y of Mr. Alwyn Parker’s ^Memorandum, dated the
10th of March 1906. His Majesty’s Government have no doubt considered
these statements and the conclusions arrived at in them, but even at the risk
of recapitulating arguments, with which His Majesty’s Government are already
familiar, we think it as well on the present occasion to lay stress on some
considerations of both local and general importance, with which the Govern
ment of India regard themselves as intimately concerned.
8. At Baghdad we have had a Resident since 1766. Kerbala and Nejef
are annually visited by large numbers of Indian pilgrims. At Basrah there is
a British Consul, who is charged with the care of British trade which is
represented by 81*05 per cent of the shipping coming into the port,^ and by the
Tigris and Euphrates Steam Navigation Company who are the principal carriers
of merchandise between Basrah and Baghdad, and who are subsidised by the
Indian Government. At Koweit for some years past we have been steadily
endeavouring to consolidate our influence in anticipation of the day when the
port of a trans-continental railway system should be located in this neighbour
hood. Lately we have, with the approval of His Majesty’s Government, sent
a British Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. to reside at this port and have authorised the
Sheikh to adopt a distinctive flag. The Baghdad-Khanikin route is the line
by which a very substantial share of British trade with Persia passes.
9. The Germans have already clearly shown that they have no intention
of confining their energies to the mere construction of a through line of rail.
The Convention itself gives them the
right to construct a branchf from
Sadijeh to Khanikin, to establish^
various industries, to construct^ quays
at the terminal port, to utilise || such
natural water power as may be avail
able, and during construction to run^[
steamers on the Tigris. Schemes have also been started by German com
mercial associations for the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country
traversed by the railway. Nor do they intend to restrict their activity to Meso
potamia only. In 1897, they appointed, for the first time, a Consul to reside
at Bushire, where their commercial interests are still of the most slender
*• Sir n. O’Conor to sir Edward Grey, No. 246, description ; while in Mesopotamia they
dated the utir April 1906. recently posted** a Vice-Consul at Mosut
ostensibly for the purpose of looking after the affairs of the German Scientific
Mission to Kela Shergat and Babylon. His Majesty’s Consul-General at
Baghdad has expressed the opinion that the real object of the so-cale
Scientific Mission is the collection of information and the dissemination or
German influence in connection with the construction ol the Baghdad Railway.
f Article I.
£ Article XXII.
§ Article XXIII,
l| Article XXV.
Article IX.