December 12.
'A Few years ago any proposal emanating from Russian sources for linking up India and Europe by railway, would have been regarded with unequivocal hostility and suspicion in Great Britain. Whether the project came from private promoters, or had the' supportiof the Russian Government, it would have been stigmatized as yet another of Russia's schemes for aggrandizement in Asia, and asa very grave menace to our Indian Empire. Happily the relations of Britain and Russia have undergone a complete change recently. The settled the conflicting interests of Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907
the two Powers in Central and Western Asia in such a manner that both nations are now able to prosecute legitimate schemes for the development of Persia, freely and openly, without fostering those jealousies which for so many Years constituted a grave danger to European peace. The initial reception accorded to a provisional scheme for a railway from Baku, in the Caucasus, to Nusbki, in Baluchistan, indicates that statesmen and financiers in both countries ure prepared to consider the proposal, impartially, in all its bearings, without being swayed by any of the prejudices that doomed a similar project to failure twenty-five years ago. There is now every reason to that the Russo-Indian railway scheme will be decided purely upon its own merits, ile tactics? and strategic cannot entirely be overlooked, we may expect the project to be carried out or rejected upon such considerations as whether the line would pay, whether the necessary capital could be raised, its value from a strictly utilitarian standpoint, and whether the time is yet ripe for undertaking a scheme of such magnitude.
The Russian financiers and public men who are promoting the enterprise propose to obtain the necessary capital in Russia, Britain France and other countries. It is hoped that German and Persian ce-operation may be obtained, and as a first step it is intended to create a Societe d' Etudes, which will apply for a concession from the Persian Government, undertake a preliminary survey, and prepare for the formation of an international company. Starting from Baku, the proposed railway would skirt the western shore of the Caspian, and then take a south-ousterly route
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.