BAGDAD RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 98, 23 April 1903, Page 3

BAGDAD RAILWAY.

j PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. ! Received 22, 11.24 p.m. London, April 22. Mr Bilfour stated that do change had tiken place m the Bigdad question. Received 23, lam. London, April 22. The limes says it is almost incon- j ceivable ho* B: it=iin should have mter- ; tained the Bagdad echamn, as there is : no Aingla gain in re' us n for sinking ' British capital, besides gratuitously irritating Russia, and that it is harder to believe any British statesman ma&tei ing the papers could for a moment hesitate io his action towards the project, tha conces-ion for which was signed on March sb. Also that the Company's statutes prove the promoters rely, not on the earnings, but on ths kilome'ric guarantee, at the cost of increased du'y on British seaborne trade. Hk. A i._i: :i : j.i__

The Anatolian railway owning the concession invi f es the indispensable foreign capital, but ensures the real control bsing in Garmm hands and obtains an pxtsrsion of it* own concession as security for control for nearly j a century of the Constantinople end of j the Bagdad Railway, besides prcgpec- j tive contracts and privileges secured to! the detriment of Britain, the utilisation of th=) steamers on the Shatt-el-arab, Euphrates, and Tigris, and the right to estab'ish ports ac Bagdad, Bas'.f, aod Zubeir, A branch terminus, which, Britain is invited to assist in constructing at Kowayt, whira Britain does not , admit such rights are at the HulUn's disposal, and the compaction of the Kooia-Bigdad Railway must precede | the working of any Basra-Bigdad sec-' tion. The prohibition prevents the natural developm-nt of British trade from the Persian Gulf inland. j ,- ■ ■