Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/114

 CHAPTER V

PEACEFUL PENETRATION PROGRESSES

The convention of March, 1903, marked the beginning, not the end, of the work of the promoters of the Bagdad Railway. Ahead of Dr. von Gwinner[1] and his associates lay all sorts of obstacles, some of which proved to be insurmountable. There were the financial difficulties and risks attendant upon the task of borrowing and expending the funds for the construction of the railway—estimated at about one hundred million dollars. There were the technical difficulties of constructing a line across obstinate mountain barriers and inhospitable desert plains. There were the political difficulties of retaining the friendship of notoriously fickle Ottoman ministers and of preventing diplomatic opposition on the part of foreign powers. Events proved that this was to be a thorny path indeed—a path which was to lead through political intrigue, diplomatic bargaining, a Turkish revolution, and a world war.

The concessionaires began work in a manner indicative of a determination to succeed in spite of all obstacles. The Bagdad Railway Company was incorporated in Constantinople, March, 1903, under the joint auspices of the Deutsche Bank and the Imperial Ottoman Bank, as provided by their mutual agreement of 1899. Almost immediately an invitation was extended to British capitalists to participate in the enterprise. Three-cornered negotiations were conducted by German, French, and British bankers—under the watchful eyes of their respective foreign offices—*