[8] Actes de la concession du chemin de fer Eski Shehr-Konia (Constantinople, 1893); Report of the Anatolian Railway Company, 1896, pp. 4, 9.
[9] Corps de droit ottoman, Volume IV, pp. 191–197. The junction of the two systems at Afiun Karahissar did not immediately materialize. The distance from that town to Constantinople is longer by sixty-six kilometres than the distance to Smyrna; the latter port, therefore, is the better natural outlet for the products of Anatolia. This diversion of traffic to Smyrna the Anatolia Railway sought to avoid, it is said, by granting discriminatory rates in favor of through freight to Constantinople over its own lines. A rate war ensued between the Anatolian and Smyrna-Cassaba systems, and neither was willing to permit an actual joining of the tracks at Afiun Karahissar, with the result that for years the rails of the two roads lay a comparatively few yards apart. This absurd situation, so obviously detrimental to the interests of the two roads, was remedied by an agreement of 1899. Infra, pp. 59–60. Cf., also R. LeCoq, Un chemin de fer en Asie Mineure (Paris, 1907), pp. 23–24; Report of the Anatolian Railway Company, 1899, p. 3.
[10] A summary of the report of the Commission is to be found in Diplomatic and Consular Reports, No. 3140 (London, 1903), pp. 26 et seq. A statement of its membership and purposes is given in the Report of the Anatolian Railway Company, 1899, p. 9.
[11] Report of the Anatolian Railway Company, 1897, p. 3.
[12] Alldeutsche Blätter, December 17, 1899. It should be borne in mind, however, that until the Bagdad Railway concession was granted French financiers held the lead in the number of kilometres of railway in operation or contracted for. The situation in 1898 was as follows:
| British | |
| Kiloms. | |
| Smyrna-Aidin | 373 |
| Mersina-Adana | 67 |
| —- | |
| Total | 440 |
| French | |
| Kiloms. | |
| Smyrna-Cassaba | 512 |
| Jaffa-Jerusalem | 87 |
| Beirut-Damascus | 247 |
| Damascus-Aleppo | 429 |
| —- | |
| Total | 1,266 |
| German | |
| Kiloms. | |
| Haidar Pasha-Ismid | 91 |
| Ismid-Ankara | 485 |
| Eski Shehr-Konia | 444 |
| —- | |
| Total | 1,020 |
All of the British and German lines were in operation in 1898, whereas the French Syrian Railways were only partially completed.