It is with the utmost satisfaction that we record the
decision of the Government to refuse their assent to the overtures made to them in regard to participation in the Baghdad Railway scheme. On Thursday, in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister, replying to Mr. Bowles, stated that the Conven- tion between the Turkish Government and the Anatolian Railway Company left the whole scheme of railway develop. ment through Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf entirely in the hands of a company under German control. To such a Conven- tion England would not in any case be a party. As to the alternative arrangements suggested, Mr. Balfour said that his Majesty's Government had decided that they did not give this country adequate security for an international con trol of the railway, and his Majesty's Government had, there- fore, intimated that they were unable to give the suggested assurances with regard to the policy which they might here- after adopt.
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