Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/227

 only to study the struggle for the Bagdad Railway—he will find a laboratory full of rich materials."[40] Here was the tragedy of the Bagdad Railway—it was one of a number of imperial enterprises which together constituted a principal cause of the greatest war of modern times!

There were some ardent British imperialists who were out of sympathy with the popular opposition to the Bagdad Railway and with the policy of the Entente in obstructing the building of the line. Few Englishmen were more thoroughly acquainted with the Near East than Sir William Willcocks.[41] Basing his opinions upon an intimate, scientific study of conditions in Mesopotamia, he advocated full British coöperation with the ''Deutsche Bank'' in the construction of the Bagdad Railway, which he considered was the best means of transportation for Irak. He criticized the British Government for its short-*sighted policy in the protection of the Lynch Brothers and their antiquated river service; "rivers," he said, "are for irrigation, railways for communications." Furthermore, "You cannot leave the waters of the rivers in their channels and irrigate the country with them. For navigation you may substitute railway transport; for the purpose of irrigation nothing can take the place of water."[42] He believed that adequate irrigation of the Mesopotamian Valley would result in such a wave of prosperity for the country that it would induce immigration, particularly from Egypt and British India. It was not inconceivable, under such conditions, that Britain would fall heir to ancient Mesopotamia when the Ottoman Empire should disintegrate.[43] Sir William Willcocks was neither pacifist nor visionary; he, himself, was an empire-builder.

Another British imperialist who believed that Great Britain was pursuing entirely the wrong course in obstructing German economic penetration in Turkey was Sir Harry Johnston, novelist, explorer, lecturer, former