The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-06-29

produce more grain than the whole
of Russia. To this has been added
the vast possibilities of the cotton
supply in western Asia Minor 1t is
any wonder that the frock coated
gentlemen in the foreign Offices in
London and Paris and st. Petersburg
reading the terms of the grant, threw
| up their hands In horror?
! But British diplomacy is not of the
kind that gives itself up to vain re-
grets. No sooner had the terms of
this great concession become known
in Downing street than the danger to
India was appreciated; for there, too,
| it was clear that railway which can
throw German goods across the In
dian frontier can throw helmeted in
| fantrymen and Krupp field guns as
we'll The instant, therefore, that the
| true import of this Turko-German
treaty-for it was nothing less than
treaty-was appreciated, every re-
source of the British foreign office
was put forth TO Illustrate it.
Now, owing to the physical con-
figuration Of the shores of the Per-
sian gulf, and to certain existing po-
litical conditions, the only port at
which it would be at all possible for
railway to end is Koweit, an insig-
nificant cluster of Arab huts, situat-
ed in a strategic position at the head
of the gulf, and the capital of a small
and semi-independent territory of the
same name 1t was here, then, that
the German engineers had planned to
end their railway, the construction
of which, at the time of the incident
am about to relate, had been push
ed forward to Eregli, town in the
Taurus mountains. at cots of TWEEN
ty-five millions of dollars. Now let
us lift. for a moment, the curtain
which has concealed one of the great
diplomatic mysteries of our time, and
we shall see how a British political
agent, playing a lone hand against
the masters of Germany and Turkey,
checkmated them.
The British waited until the rail-
way so far completed and the invest
ment so enormous that it was impos-
sibla for Germany TO back out. Then,
one day, a British gunboat dropped
anchor off the low-lying sand dunes
of Koweit, a gentleman immaculate
in white linen and a white helmet
was rOwed ashore in the ships gig
and made his way to the mudwalled
residence of the sheik, and after him
came sailors bearing various bulky
packages. Just what arguments this
secret agent brought to bear on the
crafty old ruler of Koweit are of
small consequence here. Perhaps it
was the case of repeating rifles and
the embroidered sadjlecloth and GER
tain canvas bags with clinking con-
tents that turned the trick. Suffice
it to say that an obscure Arab chief
tain, as the ruler Of a spot determin
edupOn for the terminus of an epoch
making railway system, and a secret
agent of the Indian intelligence de-
.,s,ty mt ~ mi n n
His Britannia Majesty, then and there
concluded treaty-a trifle informal,
it is true. but treaty just the same
Whereby the sheik of Koweit dis
avowed his allegiance to the sultan
and accepted the protection of Great
Britain as represented by one small
gunboat in the harbor.
Twenty-four hours later the Off
Gals of the foreign Office in Berlin
were astounded to receive a note
from Bowling street informing them
that the completion of the Bagdai
railway to KOweit could not be coun-
tenanced by His Majesty's govern
ment unless the line was interna-
tionalized and a half share handed
out to England, for. as the secretary
of state for foreign affairs explained
in his very polite note, Koweit was
now British soil. So the workmen
were laid off and the international
wrangling as to terms began. And
today a certain political agent, who
is noted among his fellows for being
particularly close-mouthed. hangs
around his neck on occasions of cere-
mony the cross and ribbon of the
Order of the Indian Empire, bestow-
ed 'for services rendered"
And there. for the moment, the
matter rests. The kaiser. in his