"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٠‎١] (١٢٦٢/٩١٨)

161
immm
2401
Company for a financial guarantee on account of an ordinary land line of
telegraph which they proposed to construct at a cost of about £200,000
from Suwaidiyah, already mentioned, to Qurnah. Some negotiations
with the Turkish Government ensued, but the Porte were averse from
granting a concession to a commercial company; instead they gave assur
ances,—-which they had neither the means nor the intention of fulfilling—
that a line of the sort in question would be constructed by Turkey out
of her own resources.
Meanwhile work was in progress upon a rival route between Europe
and India. In 1859, Egypt being already in telegraphic communication
with Europe via Tripoli, Malta and Italy, a cable to India was laid by
way of the Ked Sea, which, starting from Suez, touched at Sawakin,
Aden, Hallamyah (an island of the KuriaMuria group) and Masqat, and
finally reached India at Cape Monze (Has Munazi) near Karachi. This
enterprise was undertaken by the Red Sea and India Telegraph Company
on a guarantee of 4^ per cent, from the British Government. The cable
was opened on the 1st of November 1859; but the Sawakin-Aden section
failed in February, and the Aden-Karachi section in May 1860 ; and the
whole enterprise was abandoned. The failure of the cable was due to the
insufficiency of the marine surveys by which its course was determined,
to its having been too tightly laid, and to technical faults in construction,
for the art of manufacturing and laying submarine cables was then still in
its infancy. One consequence of this fiasco was to deter investors from
the support of projects that involved sea cables of any considerable length;
and a further result was to concentrate general attention, for a time,
on land routes towards the Persian Gulf which might contribute towards
establishing reliable communication with India. Extensive enquiries and
surveys followed with a view to the establishment of a Persian Gulf line.
iigui
and failure
of the first
lied Sea
cable,
1859-60,
Establishment of telegraphic communication between
Europe and Baghdad, 1857-1861.
In 1857 the Turkish Government, while maintaining their objections
to the construction of telegraphs in Turkish Arabia by a foreign company,
consented that the work should be carried out by officers of the British
Government on the behalf and at the expense of the Porte; but only
upon a distinct understanding that the whole line in Turkish territory
should, when completed, be placed under the management of the Ottoman
Department of Telegraphs. In pursuance of this arrangement the servi
ces of Lieutenant-Colonel Biddulph, R.A., were lent to the Turkish Gov-
crnment; in August 1858 work between Baghdad and Scutari was com
menced under his orders, and by October 1859 some 325 miles of the line
Jad been completed. About this time ill-health and Turkish obstruction
brought about Colonel Biddulph-'s resignation ; but work on the line was
^ntinued by the remainder of the party, of whom a proportion were
retired non-commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery.
Anglo n
Turkish
Agreement,
1857.