New-York tribune., 1902-02-12
TEUTON AND STAY N ASIA.


II is now revealed TO the Russian mind that
there is another foe in Asia besides Great Brit
! ain Germany is aield in earnest The Ger
man Emperors visit to Turkey and 70 Palestine
is bearing fruit, the taste whereof is bitter to
| the Russian Bear. For Russia long ago marked
Persia for her own, and planned to build a rail-
road southwark from her transcaspian line, in
Turkestan, across Eastern Persia. 10 Bander
Abbas, at the Strait of Ormuz That would
give her command of the Persian Gulf and an
outlet to and frontage on the Indian Ocean, and
would give her free hand TO menace at will
the more vulnerable flank OF British India.
Now, however. the aggressive Teuton appears
upon the scene with a concession from the Sui
tan for what is briefly termed the Bagdad Rail-
way, menacing the success of the whole Rus
sian scheme and arousing in the press OF St
Petersburg a furious storm OF wrath at the
astounding pretensiOns" of Germanys world
policy"
Let US see what this German project involves.
There are now three railroad systems in Ana
tolia. One is British. extending from Smyrna
10 Diner, a small affair Another is French
from Smyrna TO Afiun Karahissar also a small
affair. The third is German beginning at the
Bosporus opposite Constantinope and run
ming. one branch TO Angora and the other TO
Ahun Karahissar and thence 10 Konieh; more
considerable affair than the other two put TO-
gether. Incomparably more important still is
the new German concession. It provides for
the extension of the German line from Konieh-
ancient Iconium-to Karaman, thence between
the Taurus and Anti-Taurus to Adana, TO
Aleppo. to Harran and to Mosul on the Tigris.
Thence it is to go down the Tigris 10 Bagdad.
beyond the Euphrates TO Kerbela, to Bussora
and TO Koweit some adjacent port at the
head of the Persian Gulf One hint, most
startling of all. is that the termInus-for the
present-will be at Bushire on the Persian side
Of the gulf, with therefore promise and po-
tency' of further extension to Bander Abbas
and thence along the Persian and Beoochee
coast to Kurrachee there 10 connect with the
British Indian system. 1t is this latter prospect
which most arouses Russian wrath at the "am-
bilious designs" of Germany
The German scheme is a superb one not diff
cult Of accomplishment, and it is to be hoped it
will speedily be achieved II carried only to
Koweit or Bushire, the railroad would wonder
fully shorten the trip from Europe to India and
China, avoiding the trying voyage through the
Red Sea and across the Indian Ocean. If ex-
tended to Kurrachee it would give unbroken
railroad communication-save for the ferriage
of the Bosporus, which in time will be bridgcd
from Hamburg to Calcutta, and, when the
Burmese railroad system is completed TO the
upper reaches of the Yangste- Kiang there con-
Meeting with steam navigation for Shanghai
That is a truly imperial scheme, we'll worthy
of the cooperative efforts Of Germany and
Great Britain AS for Russia's objections they
can scarcely be deemed valid. She has no ex-
elusive rights in either Mesopotamia or Persia
And while her line from Kelat TO Bander Abbas
would be of much strategic value to herself. it
would be valueless to the rest of the world
while the road from the Bosporus to the Per-
sian Gulf would be of incalculabe value to all
trading and travelling nations.