Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/270

 *ment, heretofore unpublished, may be summarized as follows:[14]

1. Northern Anatolia was recognized as a sphere of French influence for purposes of railway development. Arrangements were concluded for linking the Anatolian and Bagdad systems with the proposed Black Sea Railways, and traffic agreements satisfactory to all of the companies were ratified and appended to the convention. It was agreed that the port and terminal facilities at Heraclea should be constructed by a Franco-German company.

2. Syria, likewise, was recognized as a French sphere of influence. In particular, the right of the Syrian Railways to construct a line from Tripoli-in-Syria to Deir es Zor, on the Euphrates, was confirmed. A traffic agreement between the Bagdad and Syrian companies was ratified and appended to the convention.

3. The regions traversed by the Anatolian and Bagdad Railways were defined as a German sphere of influence. A neutral zone was established in Northern Syria to avoid infringement upon German or French rights in that region.

4. The Deutsche Bank and the Imperial Ottoman Bank each pledged itself to respect the concessions of the other, to seek no railway concessions within the sphere of influence of the other, and to do nothing, directly or indirectly, to hinder the construction or exploitation of the railway lines of the other in Asiatic Turkey.

5. It was agreed that appropriate diplomatic and financial measures should be taken to bring about an increase in the revenues of the Ottoman Empire, sufficient, at least, to finance all of the projected railways, both French and German. Construction of the lines already authorized, or to be authorized, should be pursued, as far as possible, pari passu, each group to receive subsidies from the Ottoman Treasury in about the same proportion.

6. The Deutsche Bank agreed to repurchase from the Imperial Ottoman Bank all of the latter's shares and debentures of the Bagdad Railway and its subsidiary enterprises, amounting to Fr. 69,400,000. Payment was to be made in like value of Imperial Ottoman bonds of the Customs Loan of 1911, Second Series, which had been underwritten by a German syndicate.

Certain observations should be made regarding the character of this convention, if its full significance is to be