File 2764/1904 Pt 3 'Baghdad Railway: general negotiations 1910-1912.' [‎183r] (376/544)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
BAGDAD RAILWAY.
[November 18.]
SECRET.
*
* 29DEC19W
Section 2.
[41950]
No. 1.
Mr. O’Beirne to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received November 18.)
(No. 445. Secret.)
St. Petersburgh, November 9, 1910.
I HAVE the honour to state that at an interview which I had with M. Sazonow
yesterday morning he gave me the following information as to what had passed at
Potsdam between him and the German Govermnent in reference to Persia and the
Bagdad Railway.
His Excellency began by saying that on arriving in Berlin he found that the
impression existed at the Russian Embassy that Germany was on the point of coming
to terms with Great Britain on the subject of the Gulf section of the Bagdad Railway.
With this information to start with, he had opened conversation with the German
Chancellor by saying that he supposed it was a foregone conclusion that the principle
of the sectionnement of the Bagdad Railway would have to be adopted, and that the
Bagdad-Gulf section would go to England. Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg had not
protested, nor had he expressed dissent from this assumption, but he had appeared to
acquiesce in it. The Chancellor had in fact “ done everything but say ” that Germany
was ready to agree to an arrangement such as M. Sazonow had indicated, and
M. Sazonow had derived the same impression from the language of Herr von Kiderlen-
Wachter. I told his Excellency as to this point that His Majesty’s Government had no
reason whatever to think that Germany was disposed to make an arrangement
acceptable to them with regard to the Bagdad] Railway, and that nothing had passed
between them and the German Government recently on the subject.
M. Sazonow had, he proceeded to tell me, said to the German Chancellor that if
the Gulf section went to England he would readily understand that Russia could not
remain empty-handed. She would claim the branch from Sadijeh to Khanikin. In
this stipulation the German Chancellor had, M. (Sazonow said, acquiesced, and the
Germans had further agreed not to build any line in Turkish territory touching the
Persian frontier at a point north of Khanikin.
In the negotiations regarding Persia, the neutral zone was not even mentioned by
the German statesmen. In any case, M. Sazonow said to me, this was a subject which
could only be treated d trois in concert with Great Britain.
As regards the Russian sphere, the German negotiators had made no difficulties as
to Russian requirements respecting concessions. M. Sazonow had asked that Germany
should agree not to seek for railway or telegraph concessions or generally concessions
of a territorial character, and as to this demand the German negotiators had made no
objections and seemed to acquiesce. The only undertaking to which M. Sazonow on his
side bound himself was that the Bagdad Railway system, when in the future it reached
the Persian frontier, should be connected at Khanikin with the North Persian S 3 r stem.
I asked whether Russia had undertaken to commence railway construction in Persia
wdthin any specified time, and his Excellency answered in the negative. Germany, he
further said, had made no request for participation in the supply of materials for the
railways, and he had therefore kept what he had to offer in this respect “ in his pocket.”
The. Germans had, however, stipulated that no differential railway rates should be
instituted by Russia on lines which she controlled.
A detailed agreement was, M. Sazonow informed me, to be negotiated in St. Peters-
burgh with the German Ambassador. He remarked that Germany might then very
likely bring forward further demands on certain points, but that he proposed to adhere
to the position which he had taken up when at Potsdam.
I need hardly say that the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, in the conversation,-
which I had with him before his departure, gave me no indication that he intended to
make a claim for the Sadijeh-Khanikin branch. The way in which he spoke of the
junction of the two railway systems at Khanikin showed, I think, clearly that at that
time he contemplated that railway construction under Russian auspices should begin
at the Persian frontier. M. Sazonow may perhaps have had it in his mind to nut
[2991 5-2] , *