GERMAN DESIGNS ON PERSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13491, 18 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

GERMAN DESIGNS ON PERSIA.

TRADE ATTACK. I Gkk.m.vxt, in need of new fields of expansion, has marked down Persia as a favourable country for exploitation, and elaborate plans have been worked out for the promotion of German commercial interests ; and the extension of German enterprise in the Shah's dominions. These plans are, I understand, on absolutely reliable information, says the Berlin correspondent of the Express, to be carried out by German capitalists, supported | by the German Government, in .spite of the [fact that every step forward |by the Germans involves, an invasion oi I the recognised sphere of British influence and an attack on British interests in Persia, j German enterprise in Persia thus promises jto bring about a critical situation, in the Middle East, besides increasing the tension i between Great Britain and Germany al- | ready existing in Europe. Germany's schemes for exploiting Persia are so menacing to British interests that they merit serious' attention on the part iof His' Majesty's Governments j . Hitherto Great Britain and Russia have . been the only Powers with extensive influence, at Teheran. North Persia has been j recognised as the Russian sphere of influence, and South Persia as the British. The ; Anglo-Russian agreement, now practically ■concluded, provides for the. removal of future [causes of rivalry in Persia. This arrangement between Great Britain and Russia is ; extremely distasteful to Germany, who de- ; sires to. further her own ends in Persia. ilt is significant, however, that the commerjcial development now beginninag is to be ! confined* to South -'Persia, < and - carefully exi eluded ; irom North Persia. • - . ! In plain words, this means that the GerI man Government is willing to patronise |an invasion .by German merchants of the ■ British sphere of influence while carefully 'avoiding any action that could give offence !to Russia. German protestations of friendship for England cannot conceal the fact that the scheme now begun in Persia with the consent and knowledge of the German Government is an effort to gain a footing in a country adjacent to Britain's Indian ' Empire. '■. ■ ;. ' .... A MENACE TO INDIA. An eminent authority on the Middle Eastern question lias put it on record that the i presence of any military Power ; in South Persia would be a potential menace to India. Viewed in this light, the German commercial invasion appears still more menacing. . . . ' -. The German Orient Bank was founded more than a year ago to promote profitable enterprises in Eastern countries. Its own capital amounts to £800,000, and its founders and backers are three of the moat powerful institutions in Germanythe Dresdner Bank, the National Bank . of Germany, and tin Schaffhausen Banking Association. One of its directors, Herr Gutmann, jun., is now at Teheran to begin practical business operations in Persia.,'

| The plan of campaign has been carefully | worked out, and begins with the establishment of a German bank at Teheran to compete with the British and Russian banks already there. The main object of this bankwill be to secure concessions. The German Orient Bank will also try to establish a great commercial centre at the most favourable port on the Persian Gulf, obtaining a concession of territory as the site of the necessary buildings. This would be the headquarters of a new German line of coasting steamships to distribute to all the Persian ports the German exports brought to the chosen commercial centre by the Ham-burg-America, and other German lines.

The steamships of the Hamburg-America Company now plying in the Persian Gulf undercut their British competitors by charging 8s a ton of .freight, as compared with 12s a ton rate of the British ships, and it is expected that a continuation of this policy will drive the British flag out of the guif. '-■•': An audacious scheme of railway construction, seriously encroaching, on British rights, completes the project of the German Orient Bank. lb" is stated that, one of these projected German railways, running from Teheran to Bagdad, would earn profits simply by conveying the corpses of pious Persians to two holy places southward of Bagdad, where the Persian Moslems desire to be buried. Another projected railway, running from Bagdad eastward and then southward to the new German commercial centre on the Persian Gulf, would provide | the urgently-needed terminus for the Bagdad railway. The German Government recently appointed a new Minister at Teheran, Herr Stemrich, an expert in Oriental affairs, to promote German commercial interests in Persia. One of Hen* Stemrich's first acts was to recommend an immediate extension of German enterprise.