EUPHRATES VALLEY RAILWAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11505, 18 August 1899, Page 5

EUPHRATES VALLEY RAILWAY.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

PARIS, August 16. M. Constans, the French Ambassador to the Porte, upholds the action of M. Dinovieff, the Russian Ambassador, in opposing the German scheme for a railway through Asia Minor to Bagdad.

About a year ago a Russian of distinction, Count Kaprust, applied to the Ottoman.Goven r.ient for the concession of a'railway start ing from Tripoli, in S,yrin>, and going through Horas and Palmyra, to hit on the Euphrates, continuing along its valley to Baesorah, and running down to Komvoit, a harbour on the north-west of the Persian liulf. He further asked for a branch line connecting Hanikin, on the Persian frontier, via Bagdad, with the main line, and going south to Berbela and Nedjef, the holy burial places of Huzzein and Ali, to which every. Mussulman of the Shia faith makes a pilgrimage once in his life. The application was set aside by the Turkish Government, owing partly to the heavy sums demanded and partly to the unwillingness of the Sultan to have a railway detached from the oxisting lines and not connected with Constantinople. Shortly aftor this refusal an EngHsh syndicate, with powerful financial backing, made overtures to the Turkish Government for the construction of the Eu-

phrates Valley railway. The line, as prop.iscd by them, is to start at Koniah, which is now the terminus of tho Anatolian railway system in Asia Minor, and to run through Adana to Aleppo (with a. branch to Alexandrette on the Mediterranean), then to follow the valley of tho Euphrates as far as Hit. where it is proposed to cross tho river and go on to Bagdad, from whence the line is to run through Bassorah to a suitable point on the Persian Gulf between Fao and Kouweit. This line would, on the one hand, connect Constantinople and Europe with the Persian Gulf, and on the other, by its branch from Aloxandretto to Aleppo, the Mediterranean with the Persian. Gulf. It would shorten the route to India by five or six days, supposing a fast service of steamers was run

from the terminus on the Persian Gulf to Kurrachee or Bombay. The journey would

then be made up as follows: — From London to Constantinople... 72 hours From Constantinople to Koniah... 20 „ From Koniah to the Persian Gulf... 35 ~ From the Persian Gulf to Kurrachee 50 „

Total 177 hours Or seven days and a-half, as against J3 days by the present Suez Canal route. There would b6 but two 'breaks between London and the terminus at tho Persian C-J\ilf—one at Dover and one at Constantinople,—where passengers would have to cross to Haidar Pacha, a distance which is now being covered by small

Turkish steamers in a quarter of an hour. The railway also offers numerous advantages to the Turkish Empire. It would open up to tho commerce of the world the lower valloys of the Euphrates and Tigris, which con-

ilute the most fertile portion of tlie Ottomn Empire, and which, with proper irriga-

lion, would yield a production of grain large enough to alter appreciably the conditions of the corn supply of the world, ami provide India with cheap corn in tiiusri of famine. Tho development of that country would also enormously increase the financial resources of the Otton.an Kmpire. Satisfactory tm-ms having been arranged after much dincussion. a successful conclusion was imminent, when a strong opposition declared itself on tho part of the Germans, who for 'yearn past have been anxiously watching the development of railway matters in Turkey, and whose aim and ohjocl clearly is the monopolising of all railways in "Asia Minor. Doctor Siemens, director of the Deutsche Bank, proposed amalgamation to the Ottoman railway, the only British interest left in Turkey. Tho recent working agreement between Die Anatolian Railway Company and the Smyrna-Cassaba railway, which is now in French hands, is also a step in this direction, and sooner or Inter amalgamation of the two lines is contemplated. In 1888 the Cooiete dv Cheinin de Per Ottoman d'Anatolic was promoted by the Deutseho Bank to take over and extend as far as Angora, tho short lino from Haidar Pacha, opposite Constantinople, on I lie Asiatic side

,o Ismid. Tliis short line of about 96 kilonolres has bean built by the Turkish Governnont by the aid of English contractors, and

its handing nro.r to the Germans marked the first step of their commercial conquest of Turkey. The Sultan personally shows a marked preference for tho proposals of the English group, whose terms are by far the more favourable to the Turkish Government.