Anglo-German negotiations concerning the Berlin-Bagdad Railway and
German naval and commercial jealousy of Great Britain are touched upon
in further sections of the personal memorandum.
Prince Lichnowsky says that the Bagdad Railway treaty aimed in fact at a
division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the rights of the
Sultan of Turkey. Sir Edward Grey asserted repeatedly that there was no
agreement between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.
The greatest concession that Sir Edward made to Prince Lichnowsky
personally was for the continuation of the railway line to Basra.
By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became a German zone
of interest by which all British rights and the question of shipping on
the Tigris were left untouched. The British economic territories, the
Prince adds, included the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Smyrna-Aden
Railway, the French territory was Syria, and the Russian Armenia. Had
the treaty been concluded and published, he continues, an agreement
would have been reached with Great Britain which would have finally
ended all doubt of the possibility of Anglo-German co-operation.