IOR/R/15/1/610-615

These files and volumes contain correspondence, maps, newspaper cuttings, and other documents relating to the planning and building of the Baghdad Railway and its extension to Basra. Questions addressed within the files are those of ownership and control (contested between Germany, Britain, the Ottoman Turks, France, and Russia), funding, the route of the railway, the location of its terminus, and the rights to transport material along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

With its proximity to the Persian Gulf and India, one effect of the railway proposal was to call into question the status of Kuwait and its relations with Britain and the Ottoman Empire. Much of the files covers negotiations between the two powers over these matters with the intention of more clearly defining the status of Kuwait, and to a lesser extent Bahrain and Qatar.

The correspondence is mostly between the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Government of India, the Political Resident in Bushire, the Political Agent in Kuwait, British Ambassadors in Turkey, Russia, Germany, and France, and the governments of these nations, as well as numerous companies involved in the financing and construction of the railway.