258 INDO-EUROPEAN LINE. 



Prussia herself undertook to construct a double line 

 from the Polish frontier via Berlin to Emden, and 

 to allow this line to be worked by the company we 

 proposed to form. Persia, whither we sent to con- 

 clude an agreement our brother Walter and a young 

 relative, George Siemens, then assessor, now first di- 

 rector of the German Bank in Berlin, gave us a 

 concession like Russia for constructing a line of our 

 own from the Russian frontier to Teheran. The com- 

 pletion of the line, already partially constructed from 

 Teheran to India, was undertaken by the English 

 o'overnment. 



o 



We obtained permission to transfer the concessions 

 granted us to a company domiciled in England, with 

 the condition that the construction and maintenance 

 of the whole line should be entrusted to our firms, 

 and the further proviso that a fifth of the company's 

 shares should always remain in our hands. We there- 

 upon formed an Anglo -German company, with its 

 offices in London, and cannot but regard it as a 

 significant indication of the standing our firm had 

 already attained, that the considerable capital required 

 was subscribed in London and Berlin at our direct 

 invitation without the intervention of a banker. I may 

 here mention that the Indo-European line still exists 

 as originally constructed and in spite of dangerous 

 competition, caused by a new submarine line laid 

 down by English companies through the Mediterranean 

 and Red Seas, regularly pays a considerable dividend 

 to its shareholders. 



