File 3142/1903 'Hedjaz Railway' [‎186r] (380/488)

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[This Documen t is the Property of His Britaimic Majesty’s Government]
ASIATIC TURKEY.
CONFIDENTIAIj.
No. 1.
Extract from Letter of Dr. Schumacher, dated the 23rd May. [Communicated by
Mr. Hills, of Thames Ironworks Company, June 8, 1903.)
THE progress of work is considerable. In spite of the troubles in Macedonia,
and of the absolute lack of money, the Government is nevertheless, pushing the Haifa
and Heiiaz Railwav line with remarkable energy. They have now laid 15 kilom. ot
rails and have at Haifa a stock of about 30 more kilom. of rails and sleepers, a huge
mass of hydraulic cement, twenty-six large and some twenty small tip-waggons, freight
for permanent way, and for Thursday next the “ Levante Lime” has announced
to their agent here that they should prepare for the lighterage of tl " ee ne "'
(German) locomotives. The Sultan has ordered that the line must go to
before next fall Here, permanentlv, 200 men are at work; at kilom. -0, about 100,
at kilom 3! ,150; at Bdsan, some 100 ; in all, 550 men daily, which are to be raised to
2 000 after the crops. Large quantities of ballast are being prepared. icy
our line after much consideration and suggested alterations to the Jordan and from
there up the Yarmuth Valley to Mzerib. At Mzerib a party is at work towards
Haif Still 5 -reater ener^v is displayed in Moab. I met Catholic Fathers, who had just
returned ffom a seTentiL trip to Amman and Moab. They cannot sufficiently describe
the wild energy displayed there. The rails are sometimes only laid on the bare soil,
the wadies are y cros P sed by bridging them with sleepers, and now they reached a point
near Habaa near Zlat-el-Belka, east of the Bead Sea. The engineer in charge of the
section Maan—and this is the most important fact—is now studying the route from
Maan to El Lkabe Daily wires arrive from Ezzet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. that the line must be comple e
to one year to Mzerib, and'in another to “its southern destination; ” the Sultan promises
^ y rmnishes does everything he can to further this railway. I had
In'totereito- interview with a high German official last week and these people are
he^t informed He fully shares what I last wrote, and says m lurkish circles it is no
Seat secret that the Hejjaz line is merely to be built to “ cross English intentions m
Arabia ” It is to go first to Akabeh to avoid, for strategical purposes, the auez Cana ,
tut also a line is to run from Maan into the heart of Arabia “ to be to hand there.
T^t gentleman expressed his surprise that the English ever gave up the Haifa scheme
and so easily allowed the Turks to check them in Arabia.