THE BAGDAD RAILWAY

Otago Witness, Issue 3610, 22 May 1923, Page 21

THE BAGDAD RAILWAY

ITS PURCHASE REPORTED. BOUGHT BY ROTHSCHILDS. CONSTANTINOPLE, May 16. It is reported that the Bagdad railway has been bought by a group of English and Swiss bankers headed by Rothschilds. M. Huguenin, the managing director of the railway, stated definitely that the Rothschild group had bought the railway, but he refused to give any details. Asked what becomes of the German and French interests M. Huguenin said that that would depend upon the Allies. BERLIN, May 13. The advances in Bagdad railway loans due to the reported acquisition of the railway by an Aiiglo-Swiss syndicate, headed by Rothschild’s, equalled 100,000 per cent. The Bagdad railway was intended to extend the Anatolian line from Konia to Adana Mosul, Bagdad and Basra with many branch lines—a total length of 1550 miles with a single track of 4ft B.j,in gauge. As the construction scheme was under German control the British Government on account of its interests in the Persian Gulf declined to become a party to it and a new financial scheme was substituted in which 40 per cent ok the capital was to be German and 20 per cent. French, while the Basra section of the line was to be under British control. At the outbreak of the war about 1200 miles were in operation with gaps in important sections. In 1919 the British military* authorities took over the administration >f the railway, while the French took over the control of the Turkish Oriental railways.