IOR/R/15/1/610

The volume contains correspondence, memorandums, and newspaper cuttings relating to a proposed Baghdad to Basra railway, an extension of the German Berlin to Baghdad Railway. Much of the correspondence has been forwarded to the Residency by the Foreign Department of the Government of India and is between Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Francis Bertie, British Ambassador to France, Louis Mallet, Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Near and Middle Eastern Affairs, Charles Marling, British Ambassador to Persia, Arthur Nicolson, Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Henry Babington Smith, President of the National Bank of Turkey, Gerard Lowther, British Ambassador to Constantinople, Rifaat Pasha, Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Edgar Speyer, railway financier, George Buchanan, British Ambassador to Russia, Edward Goschen, British Ambassador to Berlin, Henry Cumberbatch, British Consul General in Turkey, George Barclay, British Minister to Persia, the Board of Trade, and William Graham Greene, Permanent Secretary to the Board of Admiralty. There is also correspondence between Percy Cox, Political Resident at Bushire, Rear-Admiral Edmond Slade, Stuart Knox, Political Agent at Bahrain, and William Shakespear, Political Agent at Kuwait.

The volume covers the discussions prior to formal negotiations between Britain and the Ottoman Turks brought about by the Baghdad Railway and its proposed extension to the Persian Gulf. The issues and subjects involved are:

• the proposed route of the railway
• control and ownership of the section between Baghdad and Basra
• location of the terminus, and who will control it, including Slade's report (ff 64-74) on the suitability of Basra
• a proposed increase to customs duty in the region
• irrigation of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• the contract to transport rail materials by the rivers
• the status of Kuwait, particularly regarding Turkish and British suzerainty and influence.

Throughout the volume there are newspaper cuttings from English periodicals that relate to the Baghdad Railway and negotiations around it.

Folio 47 is a rough sketch map of the peninsula Ras Tanurah. Folio 230 is a fold-out map of the proposed route of the railway and irrigation of the rivers.