5. It was agreed, however, that the Bagdad Railway and Inchcape concessions were without prejudice to the rights of the Lynch Brothers, which were specifically reaffirmed. The Lynch Brothers, in fact, were granted the privilege of adding another steamer to their equipment, with the single restriction that it fly the Turkish flag.
6. The British Government agreed that no navigation rights of its nationals would be construed as permitting interference with the development of Mesopotamia by irrigation, and the Ottoman Government guaranteed that no irrigation works would be permitted to divert navigable streams from their course.
7. In return for these, and other, assurances and concessions, Great Britain consented to support an increase of 4% in the customs duties of the Ottoman Empire.
The terms of this settlement were hailed by the English press as an admirable solution of the Mesopotamian imbroglio. The Times of May 17, 1913, for example, said: “Great Britain will have no further reason for looking askance at a project which should do much for the development of Asiatic Turkey. Our interests will be safeguarded; we have always said that a terminus at Basra offered no menace to specific British interests in the Persian Gulf; and the German promoters will be free to complete their great project with the benevolent acquiescence of Great Britain. There will be no official participation in the construction of the line, but there will also be nothing to deter British capital from being associated with the scheme. We believe that if some such solution is adopted, a fertile source of international misunderstanding will disappear. It is a solution which should receive the approval of France and Russia and should give gratification to Germany. It appears to leave no room for subsequent differences of opinion, while it wipes out a whole series of obscure disputes. It will be a further demonstration of that spirit of coöperation among the Great Powers which has done so much of late to preserve the peace of Europe. It should convince Germany that Great Britain does not oppose the essential elements of the Bagdad Railway scheme provided her own special interests are protected. Above all, it will relieve the financial disabilities of Turkey and will enable her to press forward the great task of binding with bonds of steel the great Asiatic territories in which her future chiefly lies.” Other press opinion was in accord with Sir Edward Grey that the agreement “justifies us in saying that it is no longer in British interests to oppose the line.”[26]
In Germany, likewise, the Anglo-Turkish agreement was favorably received. The Berliner Tageblatt of December 29, 1913, hailed it as a triumph of German diplomacy. “For years,” it said, “this undertaking has threatened to become a bone of contention between Russia, England, and Germany. The German Government has now, through its cleverness and tenacity, succeeded in removing all differences and in bringing the line altogether into German possession.” In the Reichstag, as well, the general tenor of the comments was favorable, although Herr Bassermann and other National Liberals were somewhat vociferous about the great “sacrifices” which Germany had made to propitiate Great Britain. Among the Social Democrats and the Centrists, however, the sentiment was obviously in accord with one member who said, “We share the general satisfaction at this rapprochement, which is an aid to world peace, but we also are of the opinion that there is no occasion for over-exuberance or patriotic bombast.”[27]
As usual, the rôle of the Turks themselves was slighted. A casual observer might have remarked that whatever “benevolent acquiescence” was included in the settlement originated in Constantinople rather than in London, and that the “sacrifices” involved were much more painful to Turkey than to Germany!
British Imperial Interests Are Further Safeguarded
In the Speech from the Throne, February 10, 1914, King George V informed Parliament that the Near Eastern question was approaching a solution. “My relations with foreign Powers continue to be friendly,” he said. “I am happy to say that my negotiations, both with the German Government and the Ottoman Government as regards matters of importance to the commercial and industrial interests of this country in Mesopotamia are rapidly approaching a satisfactory issue.” Nothing was said to indicate the character of the negotiations or to identify the “commercial and industrial interests” which were the objects of royal solicitude.
Before the British Government would give its consent to a final agreement with Turkey and Germany regarding the Bagdad Railway, the King might have added, it was determined to acquire for certain worthy Britons a share in some of the choicest economic plums in the Ottoman Empire. Heading the interests which were thus to be favored was the Right Honorable James Lyle Mackay, Baron Inchcape of Strathnaver, who had been the beneficiary of the aforementioned Mesopotamian navigation concession of July, 1913. Lord Inchcape is perhaps the foremost shipping magnate in the British Empire. He is chairman and managing director of the Peninsular and Oriental and the British India Steam Navigation Companies; chairman and director of the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company and the Eastern and Australian Steamship Company; a director of the Steamship Owners’ Coal Association, the Australasia and China Telegraph Company, the Marine Insurance Company, the Central Queensland Meat Export Company, and various other commercial enterprises. He is a vice-president of the Suez Canal Company. He has extensive interests in the petroleum industry as a director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Scottish Oils, Ltd., and the D’Arcy Exploration Company.
Lord Inchcape’s interests were given ample consideration in the Anglo-German negotiations of 1914. On February 23, a contract was signed at London between the Bagdad Railway Company and Lord Inchcape, the signatures to which were witnessed by Herr von Kühlmann, of the German embassy, and Sir Eyre Crowe, of the British Foreign Office. Under the terms of this contract the Bagdad Railway Company acknowledged the monopolistic privileges in Mesopotamian river navigation conferred upon Lord Inchcape’s interests by the Ottoman Government; agreed to cancel its outstanding engagements with the Lynch Brothers for the transportation of railway materials between Basra and points along the Tigris; and guaranteed Lord Inchcape a minimum amount of 100,000 tons of freight, at a figure of 22–1/2 shillings per ton, in the transportation on the Tigris of supplies for the construction of the Bagdad Railway and its subsidiary enterprises.[28]