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RAILWAYS IN ASIA MINOR.

We regret to see a considerable amount of fretfulness growing up about what is considered the weak quiescence of the Government as to the railways projected in Turkish territory. That quiescence is probably wise, and, at all events, it is expedient to wait until the public mind is less exclusively devoted to occurrences in South Africa, and information has become a little more distinct. What is occurring seems in substance to be this: The German capitalists are convinced that there is a considerable field for the profitable employment of money in Asia Minor, and the German Government, which is singularly amenable to capitalist pressure, is accordingly using its considerable influence with the Sultan in order to obtain the right of constructing certain railways. So far as appears, there is no political plan in these railways, though most of them are near the Mediterranean, the idea being rather to appropriate any concession which will pay, or may pay, rather than to open communications through any carefully devised line. The concessions granted are not yet numerous, though some large plans have been more or less discussed; but they have aroused a certain jealousy in both financial and political circles in St. Petersburg. The Russians always regard Turkey as a kind of reversionary estate, and the government is at once warned against German interference with its ultimate plans, and urged if profit is going, to secure some of it for its own subjects. The Foreign Office of St. Petersburg is, therefore, availing itself of its permanent hold over the Turkish Treasury, through the unsatisfied obligation to pay an indemnity for the last Turkish war, to demand the concession of a prior right to construct any railways which the

Porte may sanction throughout the eastern side of Asia Minor. It is reported that the Sultan, though displeased at the pressure put upon him, is inclined to give way, and, as has so often happened before, Constantinople is the centre of a well-contested diplomatic battle, which in Constantinople is of the last importance. English capitalists and politicians are, therefore, asking why we should not chime in, and why Government is so indifferent to what ought to be the line of communication between Europe and Asia. The anxiety is, perhaps, natural, but not to mention that Government cannot attend to everything at once, or dispute with Europe while occupied in Africa, a little more information would seem to be required.

We have never been quite able to see the political advantage of "direct" railway communication between Great Britain and India. As we must ship troop and supplies in order to move them at all beyond the limits of the island we doubt the advantage of transshipping them before they arrive at their point of destination even if the intermediate road were clear, and it never will be clear. There is no more chance of our being allowed to send troops across France, Italy, Austria, and Turkey than of being allowed to build barracks within those states, and if we cannot send troops by it of what political advantage is a line of railway? As far as our effective strength is concerned it might as well not exist-nay, better, for it is just conceivable that with Austrian and Turkish consent German troops might pass over such a line. While we hold Cairo our military route is almost necessarily through Egypt, and even if Egypt were blocked, which is yearly becoming

more improbable, the route round the Cape is always open, and is in some respects, as Mr. Gladstone once pointed out, the most convenient of all. No enemy can reach India with troops quicker than we can, for, unless we lose command of the sea altogether, no enemy's fleet with troops on board could make its way out of the Red Sea without winning a naval victory. We may, therefore, set the political question definitely aside, and as regards the commercial one, while we see the gain to the Continent from a through railway between Calais and Calcutta, we do not exactly see the advantage to accrue to us. We repeat, being an island we should always have to transship our goods, and a gain of a few days in time would hardly compensate our merchants for the cost and trouble of trans-shipment, and the expense of a long railway journey across half a dozen countries, each with custom houses of its own which it must protect by worrying precautions. In fact, until Europe is federated, which will not be tomorrow, we fail to see that the direct railway communication about which so many volumes have been written would do us any good. The water is a much easier highway, and much cheaper, and the gain from a slightly increased speed, while most of the goods we export are imperishable, is, at least, problematical.

But we might, it is argued, strike Asia Minor at some point on the Eastern Mediterranean, and by driving a railway down the valley of the Euphrates and through Beluchistan, reach the Indus in ten days. That is barely possible, but as we can already reach Bombay in seventeen without any trans-shipment or cost for the protection of the route, we do not see any considerable gain, either political or commercial. There would be speedier communication for globe-trotters, no doubt, but nothing can communicate

information quicker than the telegraph, and for troops or heavy goods the water route will do quite sufficiently well. The great ideas of Lieutenant Waghorn and Mr. Andrew, though always fascinating to the promoter, the contractor, and the man of science, belong rather to a day when there were no deep-sea cables, when we were not masters of Egypt with entrance to it from two sides, and when the ambition of France was to be dreaded rather than that of Russia. As things are now, we should be inclined to strengthen our hold on Egypt, to tighten our grip on Mocha, and to let Russia and Germany fight their diplomatic fight over the railways of Asia Minor at their leisure. We cannot prevent Russia from winning in a region so much out of our reach as the East of Asia Minor, and if Germany succeeds in the West she must perforce, in fear of Russia, become our ally. We do not yet know that any railway in Asia Minor will pay, and may rest assured that neither German capitalists nor the German Government are prepared to expend millions over an unprofitable undertaking. At all events we can wait until our hands are more free. There is no advantage to be gained from political fidgetiness, and as to commerce, some of us can remember when traders to the East went about with hands uplifted over the Suez Canal. That ditch, it was proved to demonstration, would transfer the whole trade of Asia to France, Italy and Austria, nothing remaining to Great Britain except leavings. We all know those predictions were falsified, and we do not as yet feel satisfied that while our sea-roads are clear our Asiatic trade can be greatly endangered by any diplomatic intrigue at Constantinople. We are always going to suffer from some mysterious plot concocted in a Russian or a German Chancellerie, but somehow our trade re

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