[10] Report of the Anatolian Railway Company, 1899, pp. 9–10; The Annual Register, 1899, p. 292. Simultaneously the Sultan granted the Deutsche Bank group a concession for the construction of port and terminal facilities at Haidar Pasha, across the Straits from Constantinople. Sweeping privileges were granted for the building of docks, stations, sidings, and quays to a subsidiary of the Anatolian Railway, the Haidar Pasha Port Company. The latter company completed a handsome station and terminal at Haidar Pasha in 1902, the year before the definitive Bagdad Railway concession. Furthermore, it entered into close coöperation with the Mahsoussie Steamship Company, a Government-owned company operating a ferry service between Constantinople and the Asiatic side of the Straits; in this manner adequate service was assured passengers and freight from European to Asiatic points. The text of the concession is to be found in Corps de droit ottoman, Volume III, pp. 342–351. Cf., also, Report of the Anatolian Railway Company, 1902, p. 8.
[11] Supra, pp. 31–34.
[12] The single exception was Mr. Rechnitzer’s plan, which provided that within five years of the award of the concession, the Sultan might require the construction of a spur from Alexandretta to Konia, on terms to be agreed upon between the Government and the concessionaire. The chief feature of Mr. Rechnitzer’s plan, however, unquestionably was the railway from Alexandretta to the Persian Gulf—i.e., the Syrian and Mesopotamian, not the Anatolian and Cilician, sections. Furthermore, there were political objectives connected with the Rechnitzer proposal which, however attractive to British imperialists, could not have been regarded with equanimity by the Sultan. The following are typical quotations from Mr. Rechnitzer’s prospectus: “It has long been the object of English statesmen to consolidate the position of England in the Persian Gulf, where British interests (both political and commercial) are now paramount. With a railway in this region controlled by British interests ... a very strong foothold would accrue to British influence” (p. 12). Among the advantages of the proposed railway are listed the following (pp. 17–18): “It will place under British control two important ports, one on the Mediterranean and the other on the Persian Gulf; it will strengthen British influence in Turkey and in the Persian Gulf, and indirectly, in Persia and Afghanistan; it will afford England powerful means of exercising her influence over the territory of Central Persia, and of establishing new commercial enterprises over an enormous area of unexploited country of exceptional wealth.”
[13] Quoted by A. D. C. Russell, “The Bagdad Railway,” in The Fortnightly Review, Volume 235 (1921), p. 312. Cf., also, Corps de droit ottoman, Volume IV, pp. 153 et seq.
[14] Pan-Islamism started as a religious and cultural revival but rapidly took on political and economic significance. Later, in connection with Turkish nationalism (see infra, Chapter IX), it became a serious international problem. A short, popular discussion of the rise of Pan-Islamism is Lothrop Stoddard’s The New World of Islam (New York, 1921), Chapters I, II, V. Cf., also, Mohammedan History, No. 57 of the Foreign Office Handbooks (London, 1920), Part I; G. Charmes, L’avenir de la Turquie: le pan-islamisme (Paris, 1883); A. J. Toynbee, Nationality and the War (London, 1915), pp. 399–411, and Turkey: a Past and a Future (New York, 1917); Tekin Alp, Türkismus und Pantürkismus (Weimar, 1915); C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Holy War, “Made in Germany” (New York, 1917). Regarding Abdul Hamid’s place in the Pan-Islamic movement cf. Mohammedan History, pp. 42–46.
[15] Great Britain, characteristically enough, took steps to protect her interests by reviving the Arabian caliphate—i.e., by supporting the claims of the Sherif of Mecca to the caliphate.
[16] Infra, pp. 127–128.
[17] Regarding British activities in Koweit, cf. infra, pp. 197–198.