THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8205, 8 August 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1906.

There bag teen some considerable discussion in Germany and by antiGerman periodicals in Loudon of the German project for carrying a railroad across Asia Minor to the PerA section of the lino has already been built, as a branch of the Anatolian system, but this branch taps no paying district, and must be carried over the Taurus into the Mesopotamian Plains before it can be commercially profitable, and oven then the prospects of the line will be doubtful. The most interesting point raised in the discussion is mentioned by Mr H.'F. B. Lynch, in a let'er to the London Times. Turkish Customs duties are fixed by treaty at 8 per cent., and about 60 per cent of the trade affected is British. The British Foreign Offiae was recently asked formally to consent increase of 3 per oent., to be devoted to ireeting the deficit in the Budget of Macedonia. The proposed increase would bring in £750,000 per annum, of which £200,000 would have to be used in reduction of the national debt. The remaining £550,000 would be earmarked for Macedonian purposes, and would, says Mr Lynch, replace that amount now paid out of the Turkish Treasury. The Porte would thus have £550,000 per annum free, and Mr Lynch declares that the whole scheme has been suggested so that Turkey will be able \o borrow the £6,000,000 estimated to be necessary to carry on the Bagdad line. With so much

money available the Forte could borrow up to £10,000,000 if it deaired. 'lhe proposed scheme is that the German syndicate which has the concession should raise the capital, but that the Forte should gut»rautee the interest on the oapital loan at per 4 cent., the syndicate finding the money. 'lhe Germans have endeavoured to convert the line into an international undertaking, hut no British capitalists seem to have become enamoured of the project. Mr Lynch adds that the whole purnose of the railway is "to place under German control, not only a great railway from the tiosphorus to the Persian Gulf, but also the railway system of Syria, wh'oh is being extended along tho Egyptian frontier to Mecca and Medina."