448 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



Relations with Cermany. 



The Kaiser has a great eye for the 

 spectacular. He celebrated his twenty- 

 fifth anniversary with the same pomp 

 as he maintained at his daughter's 

 wedding. King George's visit on that 

 occasion no doubt helped towards a 

 general agreement between the two 

 Governments with regard to the Bag- 

 dad Railway and Asia Minor in gene- 



firms her right to police the Gulf, and 

 maintains her predominant interest in 

 the navigation of the Shatt-el-Arab. 

 She will also have control over the 

 Arabs on the southern shore. This 

 may mean a great deal or very little, 

 but evidently the Gulf is to become 

 practically an English sea. The pros- 

 pect of British expansion in Arabia, 

 with its inevitable sequence of annexa- 



Photo.~] 



KING GEORGE AND THE KAISER IN BERLIN. 



[Topical. 



ral. Strained relations with Germany 

 date from our sudden refusal to con- 

 firm the general arrangement over the 

 Bagdad Railway ten years ago. We 

 lost our opportunity of securing inter- 

 national control of - that important 

 artery, which now remains in Ger- 

 man hands. Under the latest agree- 

 ments with Turkey, Britain establishes 

 a protectorate over Koweit, at the 

 northern end of the Persian Gulf, con- 



tion, is already being discussed. When 

 the Bagdad Railway to Bursa is com- 

 pleted, the Gulf will become one of the 

 most important channels of Eastern 

 trade. Australian mails might come 

 that way, until Turkey and India are 

 linked by rail, and a week is cut off our 

 distance from home. Germany is un- 

 doubtedly agreeable to this arrange- 

 ment between England and Turkey. 

 This points to better understanding 



