Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/276

 Turkish attention from domestic reform to defence of the Empire, unfortunately led to a suspension of the Anglo-Turkish conversations. They were not resumed until 1913, when Turkey found a breathing spell between the first and second phases of the First Balkan War.

During the interim, however, steps were taken to remove the obstacles which stood in the way of an Anglo-German understanding. In February, 1912, Lord Haldane visited Berlin as the guest of the Kaiser to discuss curtailment of the naval programs of the two Powers and to agree upon other measures which would effect a rapprochement between Wilhelmstrasse and Downing Street. As regards the Bagdad Railway, Lord Haldane informed the German Government that he stood upon the position he had taken in 1907—that Great Britain was prepared to grant its consent to the enterprise if British political interests in Mesopotamia were adequately safeguarded.[22] A few months later, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein—who for fifteen years had guided Germany's destiny in the Near East—was transferred from Constantinople to the embassy at London, as the first step in an attempt to reconcile British imperial interests with German diplomatic hegemony in Turkey. Almost simultaneously, Sir Harry Johnston, whose enthusiasm for German ventures in Asia Minor has already been mentioned,[23] began a quasi-official lecture tour in Germany to urge a sane settlement of the Near Eastern tangle. Another important development was the appointment as German Minister of Foreign Affairs, in January, 1913, of Herr von Jagow, who believed that a great European war was inevitable unless England and Germany could come to terms on the Turkish question.[24]

In this manner the stage was set for a resumption of Anglo-Turkish conversations on the Bagdad Railway. In February, 1913, Hakki Pasha, minister plenipotentiary and