In the House of Commons on Thursday the Consolidated Fund
Bill gave occasion for several debates, the most im- portant being that raised in regard to the Baghdad Railway. Sir Edward Grey explained to the House that he was not in a position to set forth the nature of the negotiations or the specific proposals made by the Turkish Government.. These must be treated for the present as confidential. He stated, however, that a document had been signed by the Turkish Government and the Baghdad Railway concessionaires which opened a field for negotiation that was not open while Turkey was bound by the terms of the original agreement. Sir Edward Grey also expressed the hope, which all sinter
friends of Turkey must feel, that the matter would be treated in a genial and sympathetic atmosphere. He believed that now an arrangement could be come to under which the rail- way joining Baghdad and the Gulf, the section in which the old concession will no longer operate, would be a purely com- mercial undertaking. He could not, however, disclose what terms would be made for our participation in the undertaking and for its control.
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