Page:Turkey, the great powers, and the Bagdad Railway.djvu/90

 decree was issued. During the interval the German technical commission was completing its survey of the line; details of the concession were being arranged between Zihni Pasha, Minister of Public Works, and Dr. Kurt Zander, General Manager of the Anatolian Railway Company; Dr. von Siemens was working out plans for the financing of the enterprise. Finally, on March 18, 1902, an imperial iradé of Abdul Hamid II definitely awarded the Bagdad Railway concession to the Anatolian Railway Company.[23]

The Constantinople despatches announcing the Sultan's award met with a varied reception. In Germany, of course, there was general satisfaction and, in some quarters, jubilation. The Kaiser telegraphed his personal thanks to the Sultan. In Vienna, the semi-official Fremdenblatt expressed the opinion that "the construction of the railway would be an event of the greatest economic and political importance and would materially strengthen Turkey's power of resistance."[24] M. Delcassé, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, interpolated in the Chamber, informed the Deputies that, whether one liked it or not, the convention was a fait accompli which France must accept, particularly because French capitalists were associated with the German concessionaires in the enterprise.[25] The Russian Government was silent at the time, although two months before M. Witte had informed the press that he saw no reason for granting financial assistance or diplomatic acquiescence to a possible competitor of Russian trans-Asiatic railways.[26]

In England there was very little opposition, but much friendly comment, on the German plans. Earl Percy expressed the hope that Great Britain would do nothing to interfere with the construction of the Bagdad Railway. "Germany," he told the House of Commons, "is doing for Turkey what we have been doing for Persia, for the