THE BAGDAD RAILWAY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1626, 29 April 1903, Page 20

THE BAGDAD RAILWAY

kritisb interests involved. PROTECTION DECLARED NECESSARY. LONDON, April 21. Tb« newspapers declare that the Bagdad railway is only possible if Biiitam consents to a large increase of the Turkish Customs, grants a railway and postal subsidy of £245,000 now paid to British mail ships, and insists upon the Turkish Government completely 7 protecting British political and commercial interests. LONDON, April 22. “The Times” says:—“lt is almost inconceivable how Britain should have entertained the Bagdad railway scheme, which gives no single gain in return for sinking British capital, besides gratuitously irritating Russia, and it is still harder to believe that any British statesman mastering the papers could for a moment hesitate in bis action towards the project. The concession signed on |*rove that the promoters rely not on the earnings of the railway, but on a kilometric guarantee at the Cost of increased duty on British seaborne trade. “Tho Anatolian Railway Company owning the concession, invites the indispensable foreign capital, but. ensures that the real control shall be in German hands, and obtains an extension of its own concession and security of control for nearly a century at the. Constantinople end of the Bagdad railway, besides prospective contracts and privileges secured to the detriment of Britam and the utilisation of steamers on the Shatt-el-A rah, Euphrates and Tigris and the right to establish ports at the end of the Bagdad. Bast a and Zube-ir branch termini, while Britain is invited to assist in construction at Kowevt where Britain does not admit that such rights are at the Sultan’s disposal. The completion of the Konia-Bagdad railway must precede the working of any part of the Bussorah Bagdad section, a prohibition which prevents the natural development of British trade from the Persian Gulf inland.” Mr Balfour, Prime Minister, stated in the House of Commons that no change had taken place in the position of affairs in regard to the Bagdad railway. Sir Thomas Sutherland, chairman of the P. and O. Company and of the London Board of the Suez Canal Company, states that the Bagdad railway will never beat the P. and O. Company's thirteen-day service to Bombay. LONDON, April 24. Mr Balfour, Prime Minister, announced in the House of Commons that the Government had lately considered an alternative proposal designed to secure international control throughout of the Anatolian-Bagdad railway, and to prevent differential treatment in favour of Germany. The proposal, said the Premier, did not afford Great Britain adequate security for the realisation of such principles, and the Government was, therefore, unable to give suggested assurances regarding its future policy. A Reuter message states that the refusal of the British Government to support the Bagdad railway and the consequent decision of British not to participate have caused consternation in Berlin. The promoters confess that they are considerably depressed.

The Bagdad Railway Convention was signed at Constantinople between Zihni jPaslia, Minister of Commerce and of Public Works, on behalf of the Turkish Gov eminent, and Dr Kurt Zander, DirectorGeneral, and M. E. Huguenin, Assistant Director-General of the Turkish Anatolian Railway, on behalf of that company. Under the convention the Turkish Government undertakes to hand the concessionaire bonds of a loan which w'll roughly amount to 54,000,000 f per section, and ten sections will make 540,000,OOOf, or £21,600,000. The price paid per kilometre is 2G9,110.65f for construction, and even allowing that the bonds are worth only 80 per cent., that gives 215,288 f, whereas the maximum cost of building the line would be from 140,000 f fco 180,OOOf for the most 'difficult parts. Besides this the concessionaire will receive 4500 f per kilometre for working expenses which will amply cover all their outlay. Article 1 of the convention says: The Imperial Ottoman Government grants the concession for the construction and working of the extension of the line from Konia, as far a>s Bagdad and Bussorah. passing as close as possible to the towns of Karaman, Eregli. Kardach-Beli, Adana, Hamidie, Osmanie, Bagtsclie, Kazanali, Killis, Tell-Habescli, Marian Resulam, Nussibein, Avniat, Mossoul, Tekrit, Sadije, Bagdad, Kerbela, Nedjef. Zubeir, and Bussorah, with branches. Article 2 fixes the duration of the concession at ninety-nine years, dating from the date of the Firman and of the ratification of the present convention. Article 35 is the most important of the convention, dealing as it does with the guarantees given by the Ottoman Government. Part of it is as follows: Tlio Imperial Government guarantees to the concessionaire an annuity of ll,ooof per kilometre constructed and worked, as wed as an annual sum for working expenses of 45000 f per kilometre worked. This annuity of 11,OOOf will do rep: c-somed by an Ottoman Government loan bear-

ing interest at 4 per cent., and redeemable during the run of the concession. The concessionaire will then be entitled to a nominal amount ot 269,110.65 f of this 4 per cent. State loon for each kilometre constructed and worked.