Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/277

 extraordinary of the Ottoman Government, arrived in London with instructions to leave no stone unturned to settle outstanding differences with Great Britain. For almost four months Hakki Pasha and Sir Edward Grey discussed the problems of the Near East and conferred with Herr von Kühlmann and Prince Lichnowsky, of the German embassy at London, regarding the general terms of a tripartite settlement of the economic and political questions at issue. In May, 1913, a full agreement was reached upon the following wide range of subjects: regularization of the legal position in Turkey of British religious, educational, and medical institutions; pecuniary claims of Great Britain against the Ottoman Empire; the Turkish veto on the borrowing powers of Egypt; Turco-Persian boundary disputes, particularly in so far as they affected oil lands; navigation of the Tigris, Euphrates, and Shatt-el-Arab; irrigation of the Mesopotamian valley; the status of Koweit. The settlements agreed upon were ratified by a series of treaties between Great Britain and Turkey, notably those of July 29, and October 21, 1913, and of June, 1914. Reconciliation of British and German interests was reserved for discussion between London and Berlin.[25]

In so far as concerned the Bagdad Railway, the substance of the Anglo-Turkish agreements of 1913 is as follows:

1. Turkey recognized the special position of Great Britain in the region of the Persian Gulf. Therefore, although Great Britain acknowledged the suzerainty of the Sultan over Koweit, the Ottoman Government pledged a policy of non-interference in the affairs of the principality. The existing treaties between the Sheik and Great Britain were confirmed.

2. The terminus of the Bagdad Railway was to be Basra, unless and until Great Britain should give consent to an extension of the line to the Persian Gulf.

3. In order to assure equality of treatment for all, regardless of nationality or other considerations, the Ottoman Government