The Bagdad Railway.

Manawatu Herald, 23 April 1903, Page 3

The Bagdad Railway.

The Time* says it is almost inconceivable how Great Britain should hare entertained the Bagdad scheme. There would bo no single gain in return for sinking British capital, besides gratitously irritating Russia, and it is harder to believe that any British statesman mastering the papers could for a moment hesitate in his action, toward* the project. The concession was signed on March sth; also the Company 5 * statues prove that the promoters rely, not on the earnings, but on a kalometric guarantee of the cost of the increased duty on British -sea-borne trade. The Anatolian Railway, owning the concession, invites indispensable foreign capital, but ensures the real control in German bauds, and obtains an extension of it* own concession and the security and control for nearly a century of the Constantinople end of Bagdad railway, besides prospective contracts and privileges secured to the detriment of Great Britain, and the utilisation of the steamers on the Shat-tel-arab, Euphrates and Tigris, and the right to establish ports at Bagdad, Basta and Zubeir. The branch terminus, Which Britain was invited to assist in constructing to Roweyt, where Groat Britain does not admit such rights, is at the Sultan’s disposal. The completion of the Konia-Bag-dad railway must precede the working of any Basra-Bagdad section. This prohibition prevent* the natural development o! British trade from the Persian Gulf inland.