Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-30

First of all in the British reckoning
was the German ambition to make the
Bagdad railroad the avenue OF APP
proach to India, and more Immediately
to Persia Before the war Germany
and Britain had almost reached an
agreement on the Bagdad railway
Throughout its whole extent it was to
be under Teuto-Turkish direction, save
only a short section from the delta to
the town of Korveit, upon the Persian
gulf.
British and German statesmen had
initiated an agreement as to the bag
dad railway. German-British relations
largely because of this agreement. were
reported greatly improved: Germany
was to have her place in the sun III
the near east Then came the war
With the war it became Immediately
British policy TO seize as much or the
country as possible in Mesopotamla
before Germany, having completed the
Bagdad railway, was able to use 1t TIC
send troops to Mesopotamla.
The Arabs Considered.
But there was another consideration
The Osmanli Turk is only compare
lively recent ruler in Islam. He sue
ceeded the Arab after wholly dubl-
Gus performance in Cairo, and his title
to primacy is not only shadowy, but Is
challenged by the Arabs, whose con-
tempt for the Turk himself Is very
great.
once a British army had penetrated
Mesopota mia and reached Bagdad the
whole Arabic world would stir; that
not alone Mesopotamia. but syria
where the demand for autonomy has
been great and the Arabic population
are strongly French in their sympa-
thies, would welcome the invader, de-
clare themselves free and join with the
possessors of Mesopotamia and OF
Egypt in restoring the ancient caliph-
ate.
Had this happened Turkey would Ger
tainly have been reduced by almost d
half in area and by third in Moslem
population. All chance of an invasion
of Egypt by the Hedjaj raiiroad' which
goes south from the Bagdad route
toward Mecca, would have been abol
ished Beyrut, Alexandretta, Jaffa
would have been open to allied armies
and the great German plan of an en-
pire from the Elbe to the Euphrates
from Bremen to Basra, would nave
gone glimmering.
The partition of Turkey would have
begun. had the British succeeded and
the Arab responded, long before any
German troops could have been sent by
rail to the syrian anu Aesopotaii''e'i
fields because at the earliest the tun-
mel through the Taurus cannot be nm
ished before next summer.
Once an Arab state was created IN
Mesopotamia and Syria, the remote
danger of a German attack upon india,
of the now pressing peril of a Teuto-
Turk drive to Suez, would nave peen
removed. The Turk would have lost
not alone territory, but the possession
of Mecca and the primacy in Islam.
Chief Incentive to Campaign.
AS the campaign developed the posi-
bility of cooperating with the Rus
slams who were endeavoring to drive
the Turks out of Persia was realized,
and perhaps supplied the chief incen-
tive to push the campaign as far north
as Bagdad.
From Bagdad there runs north and
east the main highway to Central Per-
STA. the route by which arms. ammuni-
ton and agents were sent to stir up
activity among the Persians. which
made itself felt in very annoying fash
ion upon the Russian frontier
Could the British take Bagdad, they
would not merely get hold upon the