File 3142/1903 'Hedjaz Railway' [‎54r] (114/488)

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[This D ocument is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.)
[August 19.]
ASIATIC TURKEY.
Section 3.
CONFIDENTIAL
i;
[27663]
No. 1.
F. Lascelles to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received August 19.)
(No. 358.)
Sir,
Berlin, August 14, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith the translation of an article in the
Cologne Gazette ” of the 5th instant on the subject of the Hedjaz Railway. The
previous article to which it refers was on much the same lines, but gave far less
interesting details.
I have, &c.
(For Sir F. Lascelles),
(Signed) J. de SALIS.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Extract from the “ Cologne Gazette,” of August 5, 1907.
The Hedjaz Railway.
(Translation.)
WITH regard to the report from Constantinople published in the “Cologne
Gazette” of the 25th July, the following details concerning the construction of the
Hedjaz line are perhaps of interest:—
The construction, which was officially commenced on the 1 st September, 1900,
and will consequently shortly finish its seventh year, will then have to show an
advance from Damascus to the south of about 850 kilom. In calculating the average
of work accomplished, the fact must not be overlooked that the difficult branch line
from Deraa to Haifa, on the Mediterranean (161 kilom.), built in 1903-6, also belongs
to this railway; there have been, therefore, 1,011 kilom. built in seven years, which
means a yearly average construction of 148 kilom., which corresponds to Geheimrat
von Kapp’s rough calculation of 150 kilom. Herr von Kapp, at the immediate
instance of the Sultan, after travelling over the first part of the line, sent in a Report
in 1901, laying down the principles for the organization and subsequent construction
of the line, and in 1905 undertook another journey and produced another Report.
Already in the first Report he referred both to the indispensableness of the
connection with Haifa, and the advisability of the extremely difficult connection of
Maan with Akaba, in the first place at least as a strategic road, and above all to the
idea of constructing a line from the south, i.e., from Jeddah via Mecca to Medina.
Only the line to Haifa was constructed. The branch line Maan-Akaba, for the
construction of which an Trade was issued in the autumn of 1904, fell through in
consequence, it is said, of the objections of an Embassy at Constantinople, and the
useful and important connection between Jeddah and Mecca (75 kilom.) also fell
through owing to the fears of certain Constantinople cliques of a possible coup de mam
against Mecca before that town was connected with the north by rail and therefore
defendable. In the meanwhile, however, measures were taken to carry out the
foundations of the line at least from Mecca to Medina, so that the materials arriving
from the north can be pushed on from Medina to Mecca in a comparatively short
time. As Medina is roughly 1,450 kilom., and Mecca 1,850 kilom. from Damascus,
there remain on the 1st September, 1907, 500 and 900 kilom. still to build, i.e., the
line has nearly reached half-way to Mecca. It can be finished as far as Medina in
1910, and as far as Mecca in 1913, and the latter date can be advanced by a year if
the loundations from Mecca to Medina are really laid in the next three or four
years.
In any case, the work accomplished up till now by Turkey is a very admirable
effort, which shows what that country is capable of doing in a given case, and proves
what sensible strategical and political interest the Sultan and the leading men in