The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-22
HONIEH- -BAGDAD RAILROAD
ITS CONSTR UCTION IN THE NEAR
 FUTURE

looked Upon as Certain Strategic
 Importance of tho Line to England
 in Warding orr Russian Aggression
 in India -- Immense Cost of the Un-
 dcrtnking.
 The new railway from Konieh on to
 Bagdad is certain to be built. A glance
 at the map of the near East together
 with little consideration of the drift
 of international policy, will convince
 any political student that the motives
 lmpelling the commercial and the politi-
 cal worlds alike insure such a consum-
 nation. Germany is bound to exact
 payment from the Sultan. There is only
 one possible way of securing compensa-
 ton. Territory cannot be annexed.
 That is obvious. Russa'S consequent
 demands would be simply enormous.
 France would instantly seize Syria. She
 cared nothing for Mytilene; but her
 heart is fixed on a more important ap-
 panage which Louis Napoleon renounc-
 ed at the request of Palemrston when
 he wanted England as an ally. Every
 body who understands the Eastern question knows that Russia is bound for Diarbekr. That is the strategic center of Greater Syria, as simple view of the map instantly shows. It is doubtful whether any Power or Powers can ever hinder the descent to that point of the slav regions from the Caucasus.
 1,r ia1, E(a crl "a absolutely blocks any further serious aggressions beyond Diarbekr, on our highway to India. So much the bet ter for Britain, as long as Germany chooses to be friendly. And as the cost of the line will be great if only on ac- count of it's immense length, and as, moreover, German capitalists do not for a moment contemplate paying anything like the total amount to be invested, English finance will ere long inevitably become entangled in the undertaking. The simple fact that the Turkish ad- ministration is guaranteeing part of the outlay is quite sufficient for any stu dent of Oriental conditions. Anything more hollow than such source of sup port could not be conceived. It is in such cases that England always comes in, and England always scores.
 The country through which this great line is to run is one of the most inter- esting in the world both on account of its historical antecedents and because of the romantic beauty of the districts between Konieh and Mosul. The rail- way will traverse the entire heart for | Asia Minor, and it will open up the | most ancient of the Bible lands, seeing | that 1t will set the locomotive rolling all | through the home countries of Abra- ham and his patriarchal predecessors. | When the shrek of the steam engine echoes past UT and the Chaldees, and | along the banks of the Euphrates, and the train traverses wastes where Nebuchadnezzar's sway fourished, it may indeed be said that modern civili- zation has annexed the cradle of the worlds earliest life.
 Lord Salisbury once pleaded that the British fleet could not be transported into Armenia across the mountains of Taurus It is those mountains that the new line will traverse a few hundred miles beyond Konieh. Konieh itself is place of past glories, which are about to be rapidly revived. It was one of the finest cities of that remarkable tribe, the Sejuk Turks, whose splendid edifices, though ruinous enough, still at- tract admiration. All around Konieh Is fruitful plain. This region is one of the most productive in the empire. It. is seat of the carpet manufacture, like Aidin, the fine old town on the line which starts from Smyrna. Im- mense supplies of wool, cotton, moroc- 60 leather, peaches figs, olives and graves, will be exported from the cen ter of Asia Minor when the Symrna- Aidin- Konieh line is extended accord- Ing to the new scheme conceded by the atest trade.
 The railway line will be carried over that gap which forms the pass be- tween the Bulgar Dagh, the range run { lng down to the coast near the town { If Tarsus, and the AntiTaurus range, hat beautiful sierra which exactly )isects Asiatic Turkey, forming the between Angora and Kur- listan. Then comes lovely valley be- , ween AntiTaurus and the Taurus z ange, in which the heights are of much ,reater altitude, though the length is much shorter Nearly all the engineer 2 ng difficulties of the line will be en- Y in the 300 miles between t <onieh and Marash, the city on the c astern side of the Taurus. It will be | cen that the railway in it's Anatolian c ecton, tor this space of 300 miles from { lonieh, keeps to the south of the great c entral plateau of Asia Minor, which o $ in many parts barren, and thus the V egion traversed is one of the most [ ruitful in the world, The character of S
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