Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/103

 the Euphrates, and the Shatt-el-Arab for the transportation of materials and supplies necessary to the building and operation of the main line and its branches.[54] These river and harbor concessions aroused the fear and the rage of the Lynch Brothers, who, as we shall see, were to be among the leaders of British opposition to the Bagdad Railway.[55]

These, then, were the outstanding economic provisions of the Bagdad Railway Convention of 1903. The Imperial Ottoman Government assumed the cost of the construction of the railway and, in addition, guaranteed a certain minimum annual return on each kilometre in operation. It pledged for these purposes the taxes of the districts through which the railway was to pass, and it deputed the Ottoman Public Debt Administration to collect these revenues and supervise payments to the concessionaires. As additional compensation to the Company it made large grants of public lands and conceded valuable privileges indirectly connected with the construction of the railway. In this manner the Sultan mortgaged his empire. But mortgages have their purposes, and Abdul Hamid hoped for big things from the Bagdad Railway.

As mortgagor the Sultan was certain to insist upon the recognition and protection of certain rights. To assure observance by the concessionaires of their obligations under the convention, supervision over construction, operation, and maintenance of the railway was vested in the Ministry of Public Works, represented by two Imperial Railway Commissioners. As a guarantee of good faith the Company was obliged to deposit with a Constantinople bank a bond of £30,000, subject to release only upon the completion of the entire line. The Ottoman Government was