BERLIN TO SUEZ.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 31 December 1915, Page 7

BERLIN TO SUEZ.

The Bagdad railway, which is one of the essentials to the Kaiser’s dream of conquest in the East, is reported to have been practically completed past Aleppo. According to Constantinople statements, it has been connected, except for a gap of about ten miles, Avith the Syrian railway system, and that means that there should alnaost at once be a continuous line -of rails from Skutari, just across the Bosphorus from Constantinople, to within perhaps 100 miles of the Suez Canal. Of course this doesn’t mean that the Kaiser’s Eastern dreams are likely to come true, but it does mean that if the Turco-Ger-mans are not kept too busy in the Dardanelles and the Balkans to make another attempt on Egypt, thfe 1 through rail communication with Sku r tail will give them an enormous advantage. They must have been pushing on- with the construction of this Bagdad line at a trenmendous rate, for not very long ago, according to the latest information then available, there Avas more than one fairly considerable gap in it. The Avhole line, as proposed, may he diA’ided into tAVo ructions; one from Ekutari south-east* 1 , ■ Asia Minor to Al?i>po, ward across ■ . - V.

at the top of Syria; and the othe. from Aleppo eastAvard across the Euphrates as far as the Upper Tigris at Mosul, and cu doAvn the Tigris Valley to Bagdad. Each section is being constructed from both ends. The first, the section that matters to Egypt, has been completed between Skutari and a place called Bagtche, Avhich is about 40 miles north of Alexandretta, and from Aleppo, which is only 60 miles or so farther to the south east, to Avithin ten miles cf Bagtche again. The second section, Aleppo to B’agdad is obviously cf great importance a s regards the Mesopotamian expedition; but luckily only a small part of I it has been completed. East cf Aleppo the Turks can travel by rail as far as the Upper Euphrates and about 50 miles farther to a place called Ras el Ain; but there is still a gap of 150 miles betAveen them and Mosul, and the gap continues doAvn the Euphrates for another 100 miles to Samara, which is Avithin 50 miles of Bagdad.