Page:The empire and the century.djvu/777

 result if not the object, of German railway policy in Anatolia, has been effectually to strangle British railway enterprise in that region. The story of the Smyrna-Aidin and Smyrna-Cassaba Railways, which, under British auspices, first opened up the country, affords conclusive evidence on that point. Nor should we overlook the important commercial interests we have to safeguard in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, where hitherto they have encountered no hindrance save Turkish obstruction and misgovernment. Our trade with Mesopotamia is at present an entirely seaborne trade viâ the Persian Gulf, and the possible effects of railway competition are at least a factor to be carefully considered. Again, there is the larger and far more important question of the expediency of allowing a great European Power to obtain facilities of uncontrolled access to the Persian Gulf. It will be alleged, no doubt, in the first instance, that those facilities are required solely for commercial purposes, just as Russia alleged originally with regard to the Manchurian Railway, and as Germany alleges in Shantung; but we know how that sort of claim paved the way, in the former case, for political and military supremacy, and, in the latter case, is still being shaped towards economic monopoly and administrative control. Fortunately, with regard to the Baghdad Railway, Great Britain still holds the trump cards in her hand. Germany is hardly yet in a position to carry out this great undertaking without British cooperation, and there are good grounds for believing that she requires our cooperation for political as well as for financial reasons. It is much easier to paint 'Constantinople—Baghdad' in large letters on the rolling-stock of the Anatolian Railway than to raise in Germany the millions required for the completion of the line, especially now that the fat sections of the line are finished, and the lean sections have to be built, which cannot for a long time to come, if ever, pay their expenses.

But that is not all. The influence of Germany at Con-