Lecturing recently before the Persian Sociiy Mr. Walpole dealt in interesting fashion with Germany in the Persian Golf prior to the war. He remarked Prior to 1900 German interests were scarcely, if at all, represented in the Persian Gulf. Karly in that year a certain Robert Wonckhaus, a Hamburg merchant of no particular status, and with little if any capital, opened up business in Lingah. He appeared to prosper exceedingly, and some five years later the nrm of Wénckhaus Ca. were represented in most of the more important Gulf ports, including Basrah, Mobammerah, Bushire and Bahrain, They traded in all -kinds of goods, both import and export, and were employed as agents of the Hamburg Amerika Line. At first, very few of this line's ships visited the Gulf only about one every five or six weeks in 1909, but these gradually increased, till, in 1913, their ships were calling on a average of once a fortnight.
That they were heavily subsidize ed by the German Government is pretty. certain, though latterly at any rate I should not think that any subsidy was necessary, as their outward freight (from Europe) was assured, in that they had obtained the contract to carry out the material required for the laying of the Bagdad Railway line
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.