Page:The Commercial Future of Baghdad (1917).djvu/8

Rh a seaport, an important point when one considers that goods come cheaper by water than by rail.

"With the development of river traffic, it will be cheaper to send goods to Mosul via Baghdad than from the Mediterranean.

"Then, of course, there is the enormously important factor of the Baghdad Railway. Primarily intended to be built for commerce, it has, in the hands of the Germans, become strategic, with a view to menacing India.

"Mindful of the British Fleet, they kept as far away from its influence as possible. They could not avoid going near it at Alexandretta, but beyond that place, instead of going the natural way along the Euphrates valley, they went round by Mosul.

"It is a railway which will build itself. It will be in easy communication with the Mediterranean, and we may witness a return of what was the overland route of the Middle Ages, a route which died out when Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape, a discovery almost as fatal to Middle Eastern culture as the destruction of Baghdad by the Turanian hordes.

"Railway construction across the Syrian desert will be so easy that probably Damascus will be connected with the Euphrates. There could be an open road across the flat desert for motor-cars, and there is plenty of water if only it can be stored. All over that desert you see remains of ancient dams, and there is no reason why it