LONDON TO BOMBAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3090, 22 May 1917, Page 5

LONDON TO BOMBAY

BY RAIL IN 253 HOUKS.

Mr. H. Charles Woods, at of the Koyal Geographical Society. g«« a lecture on "The Bagdad Railway and possible futureof the railways, Mr. "Woodaeaid that we line be a weekly express 1"* «*£s**£ point, and subsequently a fortnightly_exnres9 to the Persian Gulf.. The JO"™ 67 Easfa*? shifts ■and from the Turkish capital to Basra about Sy hours. Thus, tabnj? all at their most favourable it conveyed from London to Bombay by that Toute in about nine .days seventeen hours, instead of a's before the war m thirteen or fourteen days by way of the Suez Canal. Sooner or later the line would be. completed, and its ownership tmd control would depend, not bo much on any agreement already made as upon the results of the war, and particularly upon the. fate of Turkey. ' For years, Mr. Woods declared, the Germane had turned their attention towards development of an influence whicli, so to speak, pivoted upon the Hamburi:-Berlin-Bagdad line. It was for thiß reason that whatever concessions should be offered" to them near at, home, the Allies must leave no stone unturned to prevent the. conclusion of a peace which would leave the enemy still possessed ofa predominating control in an_undertakW which, once it was robbed of it 3 political significance, could easily be established upon an international basis. Arrangements would have to be made guaranteeing to Great Britain, France, Russia, and Italy the safety of their respective positions in areas in which eaoh of these countries was possessed of special interest.