The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-04
DEVELOPMENT OF MACEDONIA

The Next Question in World Politics.
 To get some idea of the complexity of European politics one could not do bet ter than study the Bagdad Railway question There is perhaps no enter prise that focuses so many and such divergent ambitions. There is certain ly that none so well deserves the best thought England can give 1t. It touches Macedonia and all that Mace d3ni3 implies on the one hand and the vast possibilities of the near East on the other It directly affects British trade in a region where British trade has hitherto predominated, and 1t must, as time goes on, exercise profound influence on the relations between Ger many, Russia and England. The great diplomatic struggle of the future now
 that the far Eastern crisis has been temporarily settled, will centre round the T1gris and Euphrates. Those lands have still an enormous part to play in the worlds history. Mesopotamia may become again the granary of the East, and cities more magnificent than they may yet cover the sites of Babylon and Nineveh. A quarter of a century hence Anatolia and Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia, may be as insistent in their problems and as familiar to the stu dents of international politics as Man churia and Korea are to-day. Before very long the Bosphorous will be linked by rail to the Persian Gulf and branch lines will be ramifying to the Caucasus and the Caspian in one direction, and toward Mecca and the Suez Canal in another In this network of railways, commanding the crossroads of three continents, Russia long ago secured in dependent rights of construction for the northern region Who is to control the southern sections? Who is to own and operate the Nine from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf It has been built by German money and under German auspices so far as the foot of the Taurus To swing 1t across that for mddable mountain-barrier and carry 1t a thousand miles onward to it's objec- tive, more money Is needed. The Ger mans require from Turkey a State guarantee of $6000, 900 year. This is a sum which the Porte Is unable to raise without the consent of the powers to an increase in the customs dues. The present tariff is per cent, The sultan wishes it to be raised to II per cent, and all the efforts of German diplo- macy are being, and for the past four or five years have been, directed toward inducing the powers ito agree to the in-
 crease Negotiations, said Sir. Edward Grey few days ago, are now in an advanced stage. One way or the other the question will soon be settled.
 Let us see roughly how the powers stand in the matter. Germany so far has had little success with her trans marine colonies. If she is ever to found vertiable Greater Germany, one that will spread German thought and the German tongue, receive the sur plus of the Fatherland and become
 an integral part of the Empire, it can only be in Asia Minor. Her influence Is already predominant in Constanti- nople. With a German line thence to the Persian Gulf, with through rates arranged for her traffic from the heart of Germany to the Middle East, and with her subjects proiting by conces- sions and preferences all along the
 route, Asia Minor would become in time a vast German colony. The Will helmstrasse wishes, therefore either to construct the line by German money eked out by Turkish guarantee or, if English, French and Russian capital is found necessary to retain a dominant interest, commercial and strategical in the undertaking When efforts were made a few years ago to raise the re- quired funds in St. Peterburg, Count Witte took the unique course of pub licity requesting Russian capitalists to leave the matter alone. His reasons are worth summarizing, Russia objects to the railway because 1t will open up the wheat fields. of Mesopotanlia and so increase the agricultural distress in Russia; because 1t will compete with the Siberian and Tashkend railways; and because the claim for the state guarantee will interfere with the al- ready irregular and backward pay ments of the Russian war indemnity. These of course are not the only grounds of Russian hostility to the scheme, but they are the only ones that can be publicly and officially avowed. Behing them all lies that in tense suspicion of the growing in- fiuence of Germany in Asia Minor, which is likely at some time or other