The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-27 00:00:00

COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA.

The following relates to the opening up of com-
munication with India by the Tigris or Euphrates
—a project which possesses an inherent vitality
that causes it to survive all the occasional discou-
ragements of foreign intrigue:—

" London, Sept. 24.

" Sir,—When regard is had to what our friends the French
are accomplishing in Egypt in connection with the Suez
Canal, and when we see French vessels of war, with no com-
merce to protect, gradually outnumbering our own in East-
ern latitudes (e.g., last month there were at Aden five
French to our two), it would appear that our communica-
tions with India have become somewhat precarious.
" Several years ago I ventured to recommend the esta-
blishment of railway and telegraphic communication with
India by the route which the configuration of the globe ap-
pears to point out as the naturalhighway of nations between
the East and the West, viz., by the Euphrates and the
Persian Gulf.

" The obstacles to the realisation of this great but simple
and inexpensive design are political, not physical,
" In i 857, through the support of the British Government
and after considerable trouble and expense, a concession
was obtained from the Porte for the Euphrates Railway.

" In June of the same year one of the largest and most
influential deputations that ever waited upon a Minister
were assured by Lord Palmerston that the Government were
fully alive to the great importance of the Euphrates route;.
that they had supported it and would continue to support it'
but he could not give an opinion as to giving the guarantee
on the capital without consulting his colleagues, and re •
quested Mr. Andrew to put his proposition in writing, and
that it should have a proper amount of consideration, and
that Government would be happy to aid it if in their power.
" Immediately after the above gratifying and patriotic
assurances were given, and just as the necessity for the
Euphrates route was more clear!y demonstrated than at
any previous period in our annals by the breaking out of
the mutiny in India, our very good friend the Emperor of
the French, for reasons best known to himself, appears to
have put his veto upon it; but being, as we are constantly
-assured, a magnanimous ally, no doubt the British Govern-
ment will be able some of those days to induce him to tole-
rate our making a road to our own dominions.
" However apathetic we may be at home, I know that
some of the most eminent political and scientific officers in
India are now urging, as essential to the safety and well-
being of that country, the immediate prosecution of the
Euphrates Railway and Telegraph, and there is reason to
believe that the Government of India regard with favour
both those designs.
" The Euphrates route is also now, or about to be,
brought under the consideration of the various chambers of
commerce and other public associations in this country in
order to tress the subject on the attention of Government
and the country. As misapprehension exists as to the cost
and nature of the undertaking, the end in view would be
greatly promoted if you would allow me to recapitulate as
briefly as possible the substance of the proposition which in
1857 I had, by desire of Lord Palmerston, the honour of
submitting for the consideration of her Majesty's Govern-
ment.

" I have no personal interest in the success or failure of
of the Euphrates route, except in my capacity as the chair-
man of the various enterprises in the valley of the Indus,
the political importance of which must be powerfully pro-
moted by bringing Kurrachee, the port of the Indus on the
Arabian Sea, into steam and telegraphic communication
with the shores of the. Mediterranean; neither was the pe-
cuniary support of Government sought on mere industrial
or commercial considerations, but on the political value of
the railway to the empire at large.
" The establishment of a railway from the Mediterranean
to the Perusian Gulf would have the effect of reducing the
distance between this country and India by upwards of 1,000
miles, and the time to about 14 day y, or about half the
period now occupied.
"The resources of England being made promptly available
on any emergency in the East, Chatham and Southampton
wou'd become the basis of operations, instead of Kurrachee
or Bombay, and would enable this country to anticipate or
repel, whether in Europe or Asia, any attack with the
rapidity and advantages of an irresistible force.
" On an emergency in India troops from England could
be landed at Kurrachee in three weeks, and in another
week at Lahore by steam transit.

"By means of this railway, taken in conjunction with
the system of steam transit now being established along the
valley of the Indus from Lahore to the sea at Kurrachee,
the large force stationed in the Punjab would he rendered
of incal, ulable importance by steamers uniting the line of
the Indus with that of the Euphrates, for in that case any
hostile force advancing towards the Indus would not only
be met on the line of that river, but would be threatened
along the seaboard of the Persian Gulf and the line of the
Euphrates in flank and rear.
" The Indus and the Euphrates thus united, the danger-
ous isolation of Persia would be at an end, and Russian en-
croachment in that direction would cease even to be specu-
lated upon.

" It would be the means of consolidating the power of the
Sultan in his Asiatic dominions.
" The first section of the line from Seleucia to the Eu-
phrates has been surveyed by Major-General Chesney and
Sir John Macneill, with an engineering staff, and has been
reported as of easy construction. Copies of the reports of
these able and scientific gentlemen were forwarded for the
information of Government.

" The whole length of the valley of the Euphrates is so
free from impediment that it would seem as if Providence
ha, i specially ordained it to be the great highway of nations
between the East and the West.

" The Turkish Government agreed to commence simul-
taneously with the railway the construction of a harbour at
the mouth of the Orontes, at the proposed terminus of the
railway.

" The harbour has been surveyed by Sir John Macneill,
with the assistance of the officers of her Majesty's ship
Stromboli. Plans of the proposed works were submitted to
the First lacrcl of the Admiralty.
" There being no harbour on the coast of Syria better
than the or en roadsteads of Beyrout, Jaffa, Tripoli, and
Acre, or the pestilential harbour of Alexandretta, the im-
portance of having a safe and commodious harbour will be
apparent for political as well as commercial purposes.
"This. harbour, connected by means of the railway with
Bu:sorala at the head of the Persian Gulf, would give to
England the first strategical position in the world.
" The Eughrates Valley Railway, in addition to its poli-
tical advantages, would powerfully promote the commerce
and civilisation of the world at large, and that the commer-
cial and manufacturing communities c ncur in these sen-
timents was shown by the addresses submitted to Go-
verment. They are quite alive to the importance of ob-
taining cotton, wool, silk, sugar, wheat, indigo, and other
products from India and Mesopotamia, and the production,
being effected by free labour, would of necessity tend to the
extinction of slavery.
" The navigation of the Euphrates and Tigris may be
made available pending the completion of the railway from
sea to sea.

"From Selucia to Taber Castle on the Euphrates is 150
miles in length, and would cost fora single line £1,500,00c)
All the physical difficulties on the route are between Selucia
and Aleppo, but the navigation of the Euphrates is very in-
ferior to that of the Tigris below Bagdad. From Selucia to
Bagdad is 600 miles, and would cost £1,000,000 ; from Se.
lucia to Bussorah, at the head of the Persian Gulf, is 600
miles, and would cost £6,000,000. This would be a complete
railway, and with both its termini on open seas, would be
easily defensible by England, so that under no circumstances
could our communications with India be seriously disturbed
so long as England retained her naval supreuaacy.—l am,
W, P. ANDREW."