ملف ١٩٠٤/٢٧٦٤ الجزء ٢ "سكة حديد بغداد: مفاوضات عامة ١٩٠٨-١٩١٠." [و‎‎١‎٥] (٧٩٩/٣٨)

ITbis Docnment is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
BAGDAD RAILWAY.
\
SECRET.
[ 18147 ]
No. 1.
(No 314 ) ^ j0w ^ ler Edward Grey.—(Received May 23.)
Sir
’ r qaw vu y. a tt- • Pera ’ May 16, 1910.
1 SAW the Grand Vizier to-day, and I repeated to him the argument which I had
previously urged both with his Highness and with Rifaat Pasha, to the effect that
there did not appear to be in the Convention additionnelle ” of the 20th Februarv 1903
any legal obligation for the Ottoman Government to furnish revenues for the kilometric
guarantees now for the^ prolongation of the line as far as Bagdad and the Gulf.
!& line ® s replied that he preferred postponing a discussion of the question,
as he had furnished Rifaat Pasha with full instructions to talk over the matter with
you m London, but he observed that, taking the original convention together with the
Convention additionnelle of 1908, the obligation did exist for the Government to
furnish the .required sums as guarantees. He wished to avoid any contentious
discussion with His Majesty s Government on the matter, and he felt certain that an
arrangement could be come to by which the Germans would voluntarily abandon tlie
claim to build the Gulf section, and intimated that, if necessary,*" the Ottoman
Government could always have recourse to the pretext that no funds were available
for the section beyond El Hahf. This view appeared to be somewhat of a
contradiction of his Highness s previous statement, but as he showed such
disinclination to discuss the matter in detail before Rifaat Pasha had spoken with vou
1 thought it better not to pursue the matter further.
I do not think that his Highness had at all understood that His Majestv’s
Government wished to urge him to approach the German Government, but it not
unnaturally appeared to him to be the best means of meeting the washes of His
Majesty s Government as regards the Gulf section.
I asked his Excellency whether any definite decision had been taken with regard
to the t?;a c e of the line now m course of construction, which I knew was expected
about this time, and his Highness replied that the decision had been adverse to the
line going by Alexandretta and m favour of adhering to the old trace by Tel-Habesh
Aleppo will thus not be on the main line, but on a branch.
I have, &c.
GERARD LOWTHER.