'DIARY OF A TOUR IN THE PERSIAN GULF AND IN TURKISH ARABIA, DECEMBER, 1906 (WITH MAP)' [‎21r] (41/106)

35
The overland route.
The Bagdad Railway :
its financial aspect.
The deadweight of Turkish misrule.
Possible termini of the railway.
Through traffic.
fancy drinks. The firm has practically a
monopoly of the trade. Like many other
houses it has branches at Smyrna and other
Mediterranean ports, and this leads to
a fairly frequent use of the overland route
from Bagdad to Aleppo. The Damascus
route, formerly used, has been closed on
account of the raiding of the local Arabs.*
I had many conversations with business
men about the Bagdad Railway. All re
cognized its great potential political im
portance, but all were convinced that it
could never pay. I pointed out the possi
bilities of Mesopotamia as a great grain-
producing country, the prosperity this
would bring, the larger distribution of
wealth, and the greater spending power
of the people. ‘ Surely, ’ I said, ‘ all these
things will provide an ample traffic for the
railway.’ They admitted all these possi
bilities, but their reply was laconic.
‘ First get rid of the Turk.’ Until he went,
bag and baggage—to use a classical phrase
in this connection—there could be no irri
gation, no prosperity, no settled Govern
ment, no maintenance of law or order,
no inducement for the peasant to culti
vate or for the capitalist to invest. On
this they were very clear and convinced.
I spoke of the possibility of a terminus at
Basra. They did not think this, still less a
terminus on the sea itself, in the least likely.
They were convinced that a railway below
Bagdad could never compete with water-
carried traffic. It was true that a line from
Kermanshah, through Bagdad, to Kerbela
and Nejef might pay on account of the pil
grim traffic alone, and that the Kermanshah-
Bagdad section was a most promising one
from the point of view of goods traffic. But
they were not at all sure that it could ever
pay or serve any useful purpose to take such
a line on from Nejef to Basra or the sea
board. Unless freights and passenger tickets
were cut down to an almost nominal figure,
such a line could never compete with the
river boats and steamers. Moreover, its
alignments would necessarily traverse a con
siderable extent of dry and desert country
far removed from the centres of population
and cultivation. I spoke of the possibilities
of through traffic to the European side.
They did not think much of such prospects.
The steamer companies could always ship
goods through from Basra to any European
port, even taking canal dues into consid
eration, at much under what would be a
paying freight for the railway. Unless the
managers of that concern were philan
thropists, anxious to open up some of the
* A recent diary states that the Damascus route
has again been opened by the Turks.
W. M.