LAX D . A X 13 W A T E R 
December ii, I9i,5- 
miikjlit exert potent inHuence on events in the Middle as 
well as the '>ar East." 
" You mean— India " ? 1 asked with dawnuig com- 
prehension. 
Herr Meissener neitlier spoke nor nodded ; but his 
5nlile was palpably conhrniative. 
" Germany, even with Turkey, could not threaten 
India across these endless miles of deserts in a hundred 
years." I protested. " Russia, incomparably better 
situated geographically and strategically and with an age- 
long thirst for warm water, has shrunk from the task for 
half a century." 
" Possibly you are correct," was the reply. " But 
our militarists probably tell each other (though they would 
hardly tell you), that with the Bagdad Railway all the way 
to the Persian Gulf, with two or three branches to the 
Persian border and beyond, and with the not invulner- 
able Russo-Perso- Indian Railway through to Baluchistan 
and Karachi, things might eventuate which would enable 
them to turn these deserts and their peoples to good 
account. Also, they doubtless tell each other that the 
Egyptian adventure would be consummated lirst, and 
that the success of this could not fail to have a great 
inHuence on India. 
.\ blue print map of Asiatic Turkey and the route of 
the Bagdad Railway was spread out across otu- knees, and 
suddenly there leapt to my mind what I felt sure was the 
correct explanation of that long detour of the latter to 
Mosul, on the Tigris, concerning which I had heard so 
much puzzled speculation in India. 
'■ Your Excellency has, I think, furnished me with a 
clue as to why the Bagdad Railway is being built three 
or four hundred miles out of its way through the sterile 
north Mesopotamian region and down the almost desert 
right bank of the ligris, when it could have followed 
the direct route along the old caravan road by the Eu- 
phrates, where it would have been in a potentially fruitful 
country all the way to the Persian Gulf," I hazarded 
holdlj-. " Was it not because this more roundabout route 
Hanks Armenia on the south and parallels the Persian 
frontier for 400 miles on the west, while Mosul, situated at 
the hub occupied by old Nineveh, is an ideal point of 
departure for the penetration — either peaceful or warlike 
— of Xorthern Persia ? " jThe significance of this argu- 
ment is demonstrated in the following map.j 
Again Herr Meissner confirmed my conjecture with 
a smile though not with words. 
Since the " Egyptian adventure " had been hinted 
to be held as a condition precedent to the threatening 
of India, I now began to grope for light in that direction. 
" But surely Your Excellency does not believe it 
possible to push a sufticeint force across the Egyptian 
frontier to create more than a temporary diversion at the 
Suez Canal," I said. " The Turks would never be equal 
to organizing an adequate army, to say nothing of the 
task of transporting it across the great stretches of desert 
between the Hedjaz Railway and the Canal." 
" True," admitted Herr Meissner ; "but the organ- 
ization would hardly be left in Turkish hands. As for 
transportation, as the builder of the Hedjaz Railway, 
the problems in that connection would doubtless be turned 
over to me. 1 should probably be called to look after the 
task in person if I was still active in Turkey, and at least 
in an advisory capacity if I had been superannuated 
home." 
" And do you think the thing could be done !•' Would 
you welcome the task ? " I asked 
" It would hardiv be proper for me to state myvw^^s 
on the transportation problems,' he replied ; but 1 
miv say that certain intluential (,erman s rategist> 
Ke eve ihat the Suez, Canal could bo cut and he d ,f 
surti.-ient strength could be ^■o'lcentrated fo the attacL 
just to what extent thev would count on favourmg 
d ver. c.n> elsewhere I cannot say. As to whether or not 
I would welcome the task, let me register a most em- 
uhatic negative Its success-let us say the cutting o 
Sif Canal' and the conquest of the Nile )elta-wouM 
bug a series of events in its train that could do no good 
nd might result in much harm to Turkey ; while it^. 
f^ilurTiould mean the end of her as a nation-perhaps 
S dismemberment. How g'-^^ a bow such an event 
would mean to me I will hardly need tell you. My thirty 
vears of work in this country have made me almost as 
inucii of a Turk as I am a German. 
ToMedina 
In reply to further questions Herr Meissner stated 
plainly that anything in the way of a " surprise " attack 
on the Canal could be nothing more than a raid, \yhich 
might or might not inflict some damage before retiring. 
A real attack would involve mainy months of preparation, 
including not only the laying of light railways across the 
desert, but the practical reconstruction — preferably a 
double-tracking — of the Hedjaz line to Damascus, of 
the French-built railway from Damascus to Aleppo via 
Rayak, and of the main trunk <A the Bagdad Railway 
from Aleppo through Asia Minor to the Bosphorus. The 
completion of the tunnels on the Bagdad Railway through 
the Taurus and Amanus mountains would be, he con- 
sidered, an absolute sine qua non to the success of such 
an expedition as that under discussion. 
" Ten years from now a force operating from the north 
and east against Suez might be fed from Mesopotamia, but it 
is certain that the reclamation of that region will not have 
gone far enough in less than a decade to make it a consider- 
able exporter of food. As it will be for the next ten years, 
then, with the enemy in front, deserts to the south and 
east, and Palestine and Syria hardly able to feed their 
own populations, an army moving on Suez would have 
to be fed from Asia Minor and munitioned from Europe. 
For that very considerable task an unbroken double track 
all the way from S(-utari, opposite Constantinople, to 
near the Palestine frontier would seem to be almost im- 
perative. As you have doubtless observed, railway 
construction in Turkey is beset with more difficulties and 
irauglit with more delays than in any other country in the 
world. The throwing down of two, or even four, tracks of 
liL;hf r;iilua)- to and across the Egyptian frontier would 
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