'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎85] (94/568)

HISTORY 85
practically independent Sheikhs of Koweit and Mohammareh, and
British prestige in Irak remained very great. There was, however,
much latent jealousy on the Turkish side, and this was stirred to
activity about the beginning of the present century, as the result of
German influence, by this time predominant in Turkey.
In the original German plan of a railway to Baghdad a line by
Angora, Sivas, Diarbekr, Mosul, and Kirkuk had been chosen. This
route was given up owing to Bussian opposition, which was grounded
on strategical considerations. When the project took definite shape in
the Convention of 1903 a line was chosen more remote from the
sphere of Bussian interests, namely, by Konia, Baghcheh, Jerablus,
Nisibin, Mosul, and Samarra. Further, there was to be an extension
of the line from Baghdad to some point on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and
north of Baghdad there were to be a number of branches, of which
the most important within our area was that from Sa'diyeh to
Khanikin (see further pp. 264-5). The proposal to carry the Baghdad
Bailway to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. was an obvious menace not only to Great
Britain's commercial interests in Irak and the Gulf coasts but also to
her political position in southern Asia. Moreover Russia still viewed
with dislike the prospect of a line to Baghdad as threatening her
interests in Persia.
About the same time the Turks were beginning to show signs of
wishing to increase their power in north-eastern Arabia and the Persian
Gulf at the expense of Great Britain. The Germans thought of making
Koweit the terminus of their railway, and when the Sheikh of
Koweit refused to sell them land the Turks tried to seize the
town, but were warned off by the British. Turkish intrigues
became more persistent after the Revolution of 1908 and the
rise to power of the German-controlled and chauvinistic Com
mittee of Union and Progress. An unsuccessful attempt was made
to induce the Sheikh of Koweit to renounce his connexion with the
British Government, and an encroachment was made on the terri
tory of our other ally in this region, the Sheikh of Mohammareh,
Arabistan had recently become exceedingly important to Great
Britain from a military as well as from a commercial point of
view, owing to the discovery of the oil-wells in the Shushtar region ;
these are now worked by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, in
which the British Government has acquired a predominant interest.
The Turkish intrigues failed, and the troubles of the Turkish ad-
closed the Mesopotamian waterways above Basra to foreign mercantile shipping
with the exception of a limited number of vessels owned by the British
4 Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company' (Messrs. Lynch). (See
further on the commercial navigation of the Tigris p, 200.)