102 THE BAGHDAD RAILWAY. 



and Germany are each responsible for 40 per cent 

 of the capital sum, in order that the first section of 

 the extension from Konia may be embarked upon. 

 This section of 200 kilometres, from Konia to the 

 village of Bulgurlu, five miles beyond Eregli, is now 

 in process of construction. By the middle of March 

 the railhead had reached a point 50 kilometres beyond 

 Eregli, and was advancing at the rate of a kilometre 

 a-day ; and the whole distance is likely to see com- 

 pletion by September of the present year. According 

 to Consul Waugh, the company receives bonds from 

 the Turkish Government to the amount of 54,000,000 

 francs, bearing interest at 4 per cent, with a sinking 

 fund, which will extinguish the loan in ninety-eight 

 years, the term of the concession of the railway, in 

 guarantee of the cost of construction of this section. 

 He further adds, in his report of the trade of Con- 

 stantinople and district for 1903, that " failing sufficient 

 surplus from the receipts of the line, the service of 

 the loan, which is equivalent to a kilometric guarantee 

 of 11,000 francs, is to be met by an annual charge of 

 £106,000 on certain tithe revenues." 



So the first section will be built without any diffi- 

 culty, and, moreover, under the above-mentioned 

 arrangement, the company expect to reimburse them- 

 selves for all expenses contracted up to the present 

 time, so that with the completion of the line to the 

 edge of the Taurus Mountains, the company will be 

 in a position to start anew with a clean slate. Whether 

 any further progress will be made under existing 

 circumstances is open to doubt, for the difficult and 

 expensive section through the Taurus Mountains looms 

 large in the foreground, and I am inclined to think 

 that if further progress is made it will be in connection 

 with a section in the vicinity of Aleppo. It might 



