The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-10 00:00:00

THE EUPHRATES VALLEY RAL JVA Y.

(From the Calcutta Englishman of Feb. 28.)
The Euphrates Valley Railway promises ere long
to come forth from the twilight of things visionary
into the broad sunshine of practicable facts. The
question which Lord Palmerston's Government bad
to leave unsettled eleven years ago has lately been
brought before the present Ministry, with almost
every circumstance in its favour, by that unwearied
promoter of railway enterprise, Mr. W. P. Andrew.
But for the possible protraction of this Abyssinian
war we might assume the absolute certainty of his
early success ; and even as things stand the
war need not be accepted as a fair excuse for fur-
ther shirking of an important venture. A Govern-
ment guarantee for the first cost of a railway which
shall bring England within 14 days' reach from
India involves considerations entirely apart from
the progress of an enterprise conducted on•the prin-
ciple of ready money payment. The whole estimated
charge for a railway from the Mediterranean to Bus-
sorah would not exceed ten millions sterling, a sum
easy to raise for such a purpose in a country where
money is just now unusually cheap and stagnant,
if only some reputable government will find the
needful sunray against improbable loss. Of the
gain to England from an enterprise which
would shorten the journey t'.) Bombay by a third
of the time now needed for it, and make
Kurrachee in point of time as near the old coun-
try as Canada is now, there can be little doubt the
.fairness of Mr. Andrew's reckoning once as-
sumed. Admit for argument's sake the data
brought out in his letter to Sir S. Northcote, and
his claim to a fair trial is manifest enough. Sol-
diers could be sent from England to Kurrachee in
fourteen days at any season of the year, at
a saving of nearly £47,000 a year for transport
alone, besides the indirect savings caused by the
shortened time and the healthier journey. The
yearly charges for the Indian mail service would be
largely reduced by the new route. With quickened
mails we should see new developments of Eastern
commerce, resulting in larger revenues for the Post-
office. The Euphrates Valley line, aided by the
coming extension of our railway system from Kotree
to Peshawur, would " secure for us almost a mono-
poly of the trade with Central Asia," while our great
rival Russia, thus hampered in the struggle for com-
mercial greatness, would find herself outflanked in
time of war by a power that could pour any number
of English troops into India before a Russian army
could reach Peshawur. Besides enabling us to seal
India from all chance of invasion on her north-
western frontier, such a line would free Persia from
Russian dictation, and secure a " short, cheap,
easy, and safe outlet for her trade with Europe,
in place of the long, expensive, and difficult route
by the Black Sea." The whole length of railway
from Seleucia to Bussorah, a distance of 850
miles, much less than that from Calcutta to La-
hore, would be easily defensible, with its termini
resting on seas of which England is already the
virtual mistress, especially on the Indian side. Such
a line, if fairly practicable and built within a rea-
sonable time, would insure Bombay and Central
India a long continuance of that busy cotton trade
which, born of the American civil war, bids fair to
gain a fresh impulse from the embarrassments which
have followed it up to the present time.
Advantages like these speak for themselves.
But how about Mr. Andrew's data? Are
his estimates coloured with the rose-pink • lines
of a lively fancy rather than the sober reflections of
sound experience? We think that on the whole he
has not overdrawn his bow. The estimates given
at the end of his letter seem to bespeak our trust in
the soberness of his judgment. They are based on
calculations of existing, not on dreams of future,
traffic. Of the " enormous development of com-
merce which would ensue on the opening of the great
natural highway between the East and the West"
he has the self-denial to take no reckoning,
although such a development may be taken for
granted, if only the new highway cau be got
ready soon. A net income of five and a half per
cent. on the capital needed—about £8,500,000
may therefore stand for a moderate summing up
of profit and loss, if it be true that the line
presents no sort of difficulty after the first
ninety miles, that the natives of the coun-
try are well inclined to the scheme, and
that the Grand Turk has not only granted a
concession of the whole line, but also avowed his
willingness to pay towards the expense of it. lie
might as well offer to guarantee the cost at once of
the whole line. Failing that, however, we think
that the English Government might safely guarantee
an undertaking even more profitable for England
than for India. If it will not, let Sir S. Northcote
set his colleagues the example of a wise concession
to a fair demand.

THE PRUSSIAN MILITARY MEDICAL

SERVICE.

-4.---

Our Berlin correspondent informs us that the
reorganization of the Prussian medical service has
now been realized. It will be remembered that
this service did not fulfil the expectations which
had been formed, and that it was quite unequal to
bear the sudden strain which had been put upon
it during the late campaigns in Bohemia. The
accounts which were published in this country
regarding the hospitals, field service, and medical
organization, and the condition of the wounded
immediately after the great battles which suc-
ceeded one another with such rapidity, were not
by any means flattering to the war administration
of Prussia. The fact is the Prussians were scarcely
prepared for the amount or for the rapidity of the
success which attended their arms, and they were
hampered beyond measure by the enormous
number of the enemy's wounded which fell into
their hands. The Austrian prisoners were, more-
over, composed of so many nationalists, speaking
so many different dialects, that the medical care of
their wounded was calculated to ,strain the
powers and capabilities of the best adminis-
tration to the utmost. Our German friends
are, however, anything but the unpractical
people they are sometimes represented. No
sooner were these deficiencies apparent than
they set about to overcome them, by deputing one
of their ablest medical officers to-examine into and
report upon the medical services of all the different
European armies. On the 20th of February last a
Sanitary Corps was established ; but the Royal
warrant has not been published, in consequence
of some regulations being worked out for putting
the whole act into full operation. It is ex-
pected, however, that it will be very shortly
published, by which medical officers will be made
in almost all respects, except name, combatant
officers. As regards all rights and, claims they
will be added to the combatant forces, and not
mixed with the chaplain and purveyor's depart-
ment. The arrangement is very similar, indeed,
we are told, to that proposed by the late committee
on our own medical service. As soon as, the warrant
has been published we are promised an article
thereon from Berlin, by which our military readers
will be able to realize more fully the considerations
which weighed with the Prussian military authori-
ties, and ascertain the exact organization which
they have adopted.—Lancet.

According to the Bermuda Royal Gazette, the
screw steam frigate Constance, 35, Capt. Hugh T.
Burgoyne, was appointed to leave the island on the
26th of March for Halifax, to return with a middle
month mail to Bermuda; where she would remain
until early in May, when she accompanies the Ad-
miral to North America.

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