File 2764/1904 Pt 3 'Baghdad Railway: general negotiations 1910-1912.' [‎116v] (241/544)

the south, seeing that the northern ronte was closed to it by the transit dues in the
Caucasus. > ^
I then enquired what truth there was in the reports which had appeared in the press
that the two Governments were about to engage not to enter into any fresh combina,
tions respecting Asiatic affairs that could in any way be directed against the other. I
reminded his Excellency of the explanations which he had given me as to the meaning
of the German Chancellor’s statement in the Reichstag with respect to the engagements
taken at Potsdam as regarded such combinations in general (see my immediately
J preceding despatch), and asked whether it was his intention to record these engage
ments in the draft agreement. M. Sazonow replied by an emphatic negative, declaring
that if the German Government proposed such a course to him he would certainly not
consent to it. He still held to the explanations which he had given me on the occasion
of the Chancellor’s speech. They represented what he held to be the true character of
I these engagements, but there were certain details connected with the Potsdam visit
which he could not confide to me at present. He would, however, communicate them
to His Majesty’s Government when he went, as he hoped to be able to do later on, to
London, and meanwhile he would ask me to reserve my report of what he had just told
me for a despatch by messenger, as he did not trust cypher telegrams. I did not like
to .press, his Excellency further, and had therefore to be content with this somewhat
enigmatic explanation. , t i
On taking leave of M. Sazonow I mentioned that I had to preside to-morrow at the
annual dinner of the British community at St. Petersburgh, and that, in view of all
that had been said in the press of late with regard to the Triple Entente, I proposed to
say in the course of my speech that Anglo-Russian relations had never been more
cordial than at the present moment, that the two nations were bound to each other by
ties of sympathy and friendship, and that, now we had got to know and understand
each other, I was convinced that we should always remain the best of friends.
M. Sazonow replied that he entirely approved of my doing so, as he thought that such
a statement might have a very good effect at the present moment. He would only ask
me to add the word “interests” after “friendship and sympathy,” as our common
interests were the most important bond of union between us.
I have, &c.
GEORGE W. BUCHANAN.
^^•~J anuar y 12. I only noticed on looking at the map of Persia this afternoon
that the line traced in the fourth article of the draft agreement, north of which the
Germans, are not to ask.for concessions, runs for the last section considerably south of
the Russian sphere of interest, and thus comprises a triangular block of the neutral
zone. As M. Sazonow had never called my attention to this fact, I went to the Ministry
ot foreign Affairs and asked him. to be good enough to explain the reason of including
a reterence to the neutral zone in the draft agreement. His Excellency replied that
he had done so. both in our interest and his own. The Russian Government were
particularly anxious that the Germans should not obtain a concession in the portion of
territory m question, and unless it was specifically mentioned in the agreement they
would be tree to do so as in any other portion of the neutral zone. He did not
imagine that we should raise any objection to it. I said that, though we had under
stood that the neutral zone was not to be touched in the present negotiations, I did not
^ 0 na 7 + Se f any objection, but that, as the matter stood at present, I should have
thp wTd a ; dliere ^ t0 tlle paginal text of article 4 and not to have introduced
mAnt ” m 0U conill ^g previously to an understanding with the Russian Govern-
f I p a ^onow replied that he had himself introduced these words into the
cara^rrlSh th . e 1 ^ 11 ^ m § re , a fon : Count PourtaRs had objected to “ concessions de
ormositinn h 1 p 1 "!? + em f adde ^ railways, &c., and, in order to overcome his
seutenop v u ^ n ^ 1 sto P after word “ telegraphes ” and begun a new
^ . G I errnan Government declared that it would not seek for ;
He nthpr rlonlw a r| te T t + 0 i rial n natUr ^ Wltll0ut t3ie consent of the Russian Government. )
not the ed C °nnt Pourtales would accept even this text, and if he did,
not the sentence would stop at “telegraphes.”
lenxrth^_P^T n( B l irod whether he expected that the negotiations would continue for any
nlafe Hp w 6 P Exce W replied that he feared that they would, as, in the first.
that thp “ • 0V ^ nmen / wish to change the text completely so as to show)'
case T tW ve F 1 sl0n was R 16 authentic one. I observed that, in that.
article den h a ^ jXc f Eency w °uld be able to render the meaning of the first ,
a tide clear by inserting the words “jusqu’i” before “Bagdad.” The Germans,-