§ MR. REESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether an agreement has been signed between the Deutsche Bank and the National Bank of Berlin for common financial action in Turkey; whether a German bank is to be established in Baghdad with the assistance of various German financial institutions; whether it is proposed to 325 construct with German capital a railway from Baghdad to the Persian frontier; and, if so, whether he will press for permission to build railways with British capital in those portions of Asia Minor where the communications are at present in German hands.
§ MR. RUNCIMANMy right hon. friend is not aware of the conclusion of any such agreement, nor has he information that a German bank is to be established in Baghdad, and these are not matters in which a foreign government could interfere. Provision is made for the construction of a railway from a point near Baghdad to Khanikin in the Baghdad Railway Convention of 1903. My right hon. friend would always be ready to support applications for railway concessions in Turkey, provided he were satisfied that they were put forward in good faith and commanded the requisite capital.
§ MR. REESWas there not an unexpressed understanding that while Asia Minor was the sphere of German railway influence, Mesopotamia should be retained in the sphere of British influence?
§ MR. RUNCIMANwas understood to reply that that was possibly so.