212 



The Review of Reviews. 



FRANCO-RUSSIAN RAILWAY 

 TROUBLES. 



France and Russia in the East are the sul)iect of a 

 paper in the August English Review by " Vcrax." 



THE STATUS QUO A MOVING PLATFORM. 



He declares that the Triple Entente is at present a 

 concern of " impoverished aims, inadequate means, 

 weak purpose, and incoherent motives." For, he 

 says : — 



It would not be easy to single out any aspect of the Eastern 

 problem wliicli touches all three nations deeply enough to 

 establish solidarity among them. They all profess, indeed, to 

 desire the maintenance of the stniiis quo, and therefore seem- 

 ingly they stand on common ground. Hut nliiLe for France 

 and Great Britain that ground is solid earth, Russia, it is con- 

 tended, would fain have it turned into a moving platform, so 

 thai while .she herself remained still, she might be smoothly 

 conveyed to her own particular destination. Russia strikes out 

 a line of her own. She seeks to obtain from her partners her 

 own share of the spoil in advance, as the price of her adhesion 

 to the concoin. And that once secured, she has nothing more 

 to hope from the arrangement. 



On the other hand, France has been reproached by 

 Russia with " an unqualifiable readiness to supply 

 money to the adversaries of the entente who would use 

 it against the very concern of which France herself is 

 ix prominent member." 



OBSESSION OF THE PAST ON RUSSIA. 



■"■ Vcrax " thinks that the obsession of the past is 

 over Russia : — 



Contemporary Russia, it seems to me, is committing a fatal 

 error in her attitude towards Turkey analogous to that wliicli 

 vitiated France's policy towards .Austria in the nineteenth 

 century. In lioth cases the responsible statesmen continued a 

 traditional course of action which was no longer applicable to 

 !thc new conditions. France strove to carry out the ide.is of 

 ■Ivichelieu, as Russia is adopting the views and methods of the 

 .cightecntli and early nineteenth centuries. The result in the 

 former case is that the French created for themselves first a 

 (l>owcrful Prussia and then a united Germany, while the upsliot 

 in the second case will be that Russia will h.ave laboured for 

 ■some other tcrtiiis gmidcns who will prove a more dangerous 

 neighbour than Turkey could become. 



OVER THE BAGHDAD RAILWAY. 



The results are apparent in difficulties abotit two 

 railways : — 



To-day the liaglidad Railwa) — a splendid concern— the 

 I'aris-I.yon-Meditcrranec of Asia Minor — is become a Teutonic 

 <-nterprisc, the ground-work of Germany's industrial and com- 

 mercial prospt'rity in the Near F.ast, a source of enormous 

 power and prestige. For some years it was within an ace of 

 l)econiin" — as it ought to have become— an iaternational 

 undertaking : Franco-Anglo-Russo-German. But Russia cri;d, 

 "Veto! Our special interests are in danger," and bore down 

 the opposition of France and Kngland. To-day Russia officially 

 ^-ivows that that w.as bad jiolicy and a regrettable mist.ikc. 

 I'Vancc in turn complains lliat the net result of her ally's action 

 lias been to help Germany to oust out the international element 

 ami lo make the great trunk railway an exclusively German 

 undertaking. 



THE RAILWAY TO THE BLACK SEA. 



'I'he other railway is one projected from Anatolia 

 to the Black Sea. In 1900, when 50,000 .Armenians had 

 crossed the border into the Russian Empire. Russia 

 threatened to force them back unless the Sultan would 



make terms with Russia about the railway. Accord- 

 ingly : — " The secret Arrangement of 1900 stipulates 

 that Russia shall have the construction of the railway 

 to the Black Sea, only if Turkey decides to have it 

 done by way of concession. Not otherwise. And the 

 Turks have resolved not to choose that way. They 

 will do it by contract." 



They will do it by contract let to French contractors, 

 by aid of a general loan raised in France. Russia, 

 however, insists that the Arrangement of 1900 obliges 

 Turkey either to bestow a concession or else build the 

 line herself, and the projected arrangement with 

 French contractors and moneylenders is not carrying 

 out the bargain. To settle this trouble M. Poincare and 

 M. Sazonoff are going to confer. If Russia remains 

 obstinate, she will simply scare away French investors 

 and make room for American : — 



The railway as proposed by the French syndicate would run 

 from Samsoun lo .Sivas, from .Sivas to Khurpoot viA Divrik, 

 thence to Erzinghian and Erzeroum. The Americans on their 

 side propose to connect Kh.arpoot with Diarbekir, and to con- 

 tinue the line thence to Bitlis and Van. Later on they would 

 extend it from Diarbekir to Kerkook, the centre of t'nc petro- 

 leum country, to the south-east of the city of Mossoul. 



B.VGHDAD. 



In the Moslem World Mr. Frederick Johnson writes 

 on Baghdad as a Moslem centre. He says the popula- 

 tion of the city may be estimated at from 180,000 to 

 200,000. Of this number 45,000 are Jews, 5,000 

 Christians, and the rest Mohammedans, Sunnis, and 

 Shiahs. It is the commercial spirit that is strongly 

 in evidence. The city was founded by Khalif Mansur, 

 the second of the Abbaside Khalifs, in the year 

 A.D. 754. The list of Moslem saints at Baghdad 

 comprises upwards of sixty names. It is consequently 

 the resort of a large number of pilgrims, 



ITS NEWSPAPERS. 



Modern journalism is not wanting : — 



In regard to the Press of Baghdad and its influence, a word is 

 sufficient. It cannot, of course, compare with that of Cairo and 

 JJeirul ; yet since the declaration of the Constitution 1)V Ili^ 

 Majesty the Kx-Sultan, in 1908, upwards of thirty irewspapers, 

 including two published by tlie Ulema at Nejef, have sprung 

 into existence at Baghdad. Ol these seven only arc now in 

 circulation, and the demand for these is lessening. Two of tl' 

 seven newspapers are pronouncedly anti-Christian. For authc: 

 tative news of the outside world these local papers do not rank 

 high in the opinion of tlie inhabitants. 

 ITS FUTURE. 



Of the prospects of this city Mr. Johnson says : — 

 Her geographical situation, about half-way between the 

 Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf; her accessibility fron> 

 the Persian Gulf by the river by means of small (Iraughi 

 steamers; her position relative to Persia with its pilgrim ami 

 trade carav.ans ; the railway now in process of construction ; 

 and last, but by no means least, the great agricultural re- 

 sources of the country — the development of which has been 

 planned out by Sir William Willcocks, whose irrigation 

 scheme for the Tigris-Euphrates Delta is now in process of 

 accomplishment— all combine to make the potentialities of the 

 city, on the material side, considerable. 



Mr. Johnson's own feeling is that the empire and 

 the city need moral salt. 



