File 2764/1904 Pt 3 'Baghdad Railway: general negotiations 1910-1912.' [‎147r] (302/544)

No. 1015, dated Baghdad, the 17th November (received 7th December) 1910.
From J. G-. Loeimer, Esq., C.I.E., 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 Majest/s Consul-General, Baghdad,
To—The Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department.
With reference to my despatch No. 937-^57, dated 17th October 1910, to
Copies were sent to the Government of India His Britannic MaiCSty’s Ambassador at
with my letter No. 938 of the same date. . o,. -r-rT.-.-..
Constantinople, relating to Sir William
Willcocks’ project for a Baghdad-Basrah Railway, I have the honour to submit
a memorandum by Mr. J. C. Gaskin, Commercial Assistant in the Baghdad
Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. . The memorandum is an attempt to form an estimate of the volume
of goods and passenger traffic between Baghdad and Basrah at the present time.
2. Mr. Gaskin, it will be seen, arrives at the following annual totals of
goods and passengers:—
Tons.
Foreign imports, Basrah to Baghdad ..... 33 098
Foreign exports, Baghdad to Basrah . . . . . 27,052
Local trade between Baghdad and Basrah .... 20,000
Total . 80,150
Persons.
Passengers between Baghdad and Basrah in either direction . 27,000
These figures may seem unpromising; but it must be remembered that in
Mr. Gaskin’s statements, neceesarily, no account is taken of
(a) the traffic with and between points on the line intermediate to the
termini;
(S) the traffic of places off the line which could he reached by light
feeder branches;
(c) the general impulse to movement which would be given by the
existence of a railway ; and
(d) the great increase of agricultural production, and concurrently of
trade, which would result from the irrigation of this country. I
I venture to think that the first three of the omitted considerations, (a), (&)
and (c) are negligeable except so far as included in the fourth, and that it is
on the fourth, (d), that the whole question of railway construction in ’Iraq
probably depends. I shall therefore endeavour to obtain from Sir William
Willcocks an estimate of the amount of exportable produce which the country
upon his proposed line of railway would, in his opinion, he capable of raising,
supposing his irrigation projects to he carried out in their entirety.
3. In the meanwhile, I respectfully suggest the Indian railway rates might
be applied to Mr. Gaskin’s estimates upon an assumed distance by rail between
Baghdad and Basrah of 325 miles. The result would represent the initial
minimum receipts of a Baghdad-Basrah railway if steam navigation were
suspended; and I would be glad if it could be communicated to me at some
early date. I would also ask to be supplied with an Indian railway goods. and
passenger tariff, preferably that in force on the Lahore-Karachi line, with a
view to ascertaining whether carriage by rail between Baghdad and Basrah
might really be cheaper, as well as more expeditious than carriage by steamer.
I. Copies of this letter are being sent to His Britannic Majesty’s Ambas
sador at Constantinople, to whom the original despatch on the subject of this
railway was addressed, and time could be saved if the Government of India
would kindly send him copies of their reply to me direct.
1921 F. D.