THE BAGDAD RAILWAY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13332, 22 March 1911, Page 5

THE BAGDAD RAILWAY.

CONVENTIONS SIGNED. Press Association.—Telegraph.—Copyright. Received March 22, 9.20 a.m. CONSTANTINOPLE, March 21. Conventions between the Porte and the Bagdad Railway Company have been signed. The fact that a settlement has at length been arrived at over the Bagdad railway question is very gratifying, as it is considered that providing the settlement is satisfactory alike to Great Britain, Germany, and Turkey the only remaining obstacle to the entente, described' by the German Chancellor in his great apecch in December last as the essential preliminaryto any understanding to linjit armaments will have disappeared. The chief obstacle to a settlement has been declared to be Great Britain’s insistence upon the line from Bagdad to the Gulf being under British control. Turkey is suspicious of some possible ulterior design being behind this demand. It was cabled a couple of days ago that the company has agreed to the Porte arranging the construction of the BagdadPersian Gulf section of the line on the basis of Germany having an equal participation with any foreign Power. The Bagdad railway, when complete, will run from Konia, in Asia Minor, where it joins the railways to Smyrna and Haidar Pasha (opposite Constantinople), through Bagdad to the Persian Gulf, giving a short route from Eastern Europe to Persia. The reconoession for it was granted in 1903- by Turkey to the Anatolian Railway Company, and by that corporation was made over to the Bagdad Railway Company, which is in German hands. The length of the lino will be 1400 miles, of which only some 150 miles are as yet complete. The nominal capital of the Bagdad Railway Company is only .£600,000, and is largely in the hands of the Deutsche Bank, which thus controls the policy. The cost of the line will be about .£12,000,000, and the interest is to be provided by the Turkish Government, which guarantees a certain annual payment for each mile completed.