HC Deb 22 May 1856 vol 142 cc551-2
LORD STANLEY

said, he would beg to ask the right hon. President of the Board of Control, whether any steps were being taken by the Indian Government to facilitate the establishment of a line of telegraphic and other communication between England and India through the Euphrates Valley.

MR. VERNON SMITH

said, he need hardly assure the noble Lord that the Indian Government took the deepest interest in any scheme intended to facilitate the communication with India. Two or three schemes had been submitted for the accomplishment of that object. One was to carry a railway from Seleucia to a place on the Euphrates, and so join with the navigation of that river. The other and the larger scheme was to continue the railway from Belgrade to Constantinople to cross Asiatic Turkey, and descend the valley of the Euphrates down to Bussorah. Both those schemes had been proposed for the favourable consideration of the Indian Government, and that favourable consideration would of course be given; but until the schemes were submitted in detail, it would be impossible to enter into them minutely. When the noble Lord spoke of facilitating the communication with India, it must be supposed he (Mr. V. Smith) apprehended that he meant facilitating it by means of pecuniary assistance or by a guarantee. Of course, however, that would not be done until the plans had been submitted in detail. With reference to the electric telegraph, that was in much the same position. A proposal had been made to carry on the telegraph from Alexandria to the Red Sea, and in that way across to India. The answer given by the Indian Government to this proposition was, that they could not give any opinion respecting it until the electric telegraph had actually reached Alexandria. The other scheme was to carry the same line on from Seleucia to join the Euphrates, and descend the valley of that river to Bussorah. That scheme had been very much promoted by a gentleman of great celebrity, Dr. O'Shaughnessy, who had called the attention of the Indian Government to the advantages which this line possessed over the other he had mentioned. Both these plans, however, would receive every consideration, the object in view being, as he had previously stated, to favour as much as possible the communication with India.