§ MR. MACLEANI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the concessions granted to German capitalists for the construction of a railway through Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to Bagdad, Her Majesty's Government will notify the Porte that English interests in the trade of the Persian Gulf make it necessary for any line that may be hereafter constructed from Bagdad to Bussora and the Gulf to be entrusted to English capitalists.
§ *MR. BRODRICKI am afraid I cannot make any statement as to the intentions of Her Majesty's Government in this matter, but we are fully alive to the necessity of maintaining British interests in the Persian Gulf.