Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/202

 view of those who desired some form of coöperation between England and Germany in the successful prosecution of the plan.

The Bagdad Railway came up for discussion in Parliament on April 7, 1903. Mr. Balfour then informed the House of Commons that negotiations were being carried on between British and German capitalists, and between British capitalists and the Foreign Office, for the purpose of determining the conditions upon which British financiers might participate in the enterprise. If a satisfactory agreement could be reached by the bankers, His Majesty's Government would be asked to give its consent to a reasonable increase in the customs duties of the Ottoman Empire, to consider the utilization of the new railway for the transportation of the Indian mails, and to adopt a friendly attitude toward the establishment of the eastern terminus of the Bagdad Railway at or near Koweit.

Coöperation with the German concessionaires on any such basis was attacked vigorously from the floor of the House. One member declared it a menace to the existing British-owned Smyrna-Aidin Railway lines in Turkey, a potential competitor of British maritime supremacy, and a threat at British imperial interests in Egypt and in the region of the Persian Gulf. Another member of the House believed that "it was impossible to divorce the commercial from the political aspect of the question. What made the House take a real, live interest in it was the feeling that bound up with the future of this railway there was probably the future political control of large regions in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and the Persian Gulf." Another member was certain the House "knew Mesopo