[This portion is translated from the Stockholm Politiken of
March 26.]
At the same time, while the African agreement was under discussion, I
was negotiating, with the effective co-operation of Herr von Kühlmann,
the so-called Bagdad Railway Treaty. This aimed, in fact, at the
division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the Sultan's
rights. Sir Edward Grey declared repeatedly that there was no agreement
between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.
In the presence of the Turkish representative, Hakki Pasha, all economic
questions in connection with the German treaty were settled mainly in
accordance with the wishes of the Ottoman Bank. The greatest concession
Sir Edward Grey made me personally was the continuation of the line to
Basra. We had not insisted on this terminus in order to establish
connection with Alexandretta. Hitherto Bagdad had been the terminus of
the line. The shipping on the Shatt el Arab was to be in the hands of an
international commission. We also obtained a share in the harbor works
at Basra, and even acquired shipping rights on the Tigris, hitherto the
monopoly of the firm of Lynch.
By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became our zone of
interest, whereby the whole British rights, the question of shipping on
the Tigris, and the Wilcox establishments were left untouched, as well
as all the district of Bagdad and the Anatolian railways.
The British economic territories included the coasts of the Persian Gulf
and the Smyrna-Aidin railway, the French Syria, and the Russian Armenia.
Had both treaties been concluded and published, an agreement would have
been reached with England which would have finally ended all doubt of
the possibility of an Anglo-German co-operation.