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Baghdad Railway

Volume 106: debated on Thursday 16 May 1918

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2.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the official circulation of Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum, which contains a statement of public interest with regard to the support to be accorded by the British Government to German enterprises associated with the Baghdad Railway, he will now publish the terms of the agreement relating to this matter which was on the point of being signed by the British Foreign Secretary when the crisis of 1914 arose?

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply returned on the 15th March, 1915, to the hon. Member for Roxburghshire, and would add that the considerations on which that reply was based still retain their force.

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the fact of the circulation of this Memorandum might be taken by the Government to signify that the statements made as regards the concessions to be made to Germany in connection with the Baghdad Treaty were correct?

I do not know, and the hon. Gentleman had better ask another Department as to the circulation of this document, to which I had nothing to add. But I am quite sure that no Government Department pledges itself as to the literal accuracy of every statement made in that document.

Arising out of that answer, inasmuch as this memorandum in pamphlet form of Prince Lichnowsky has been widely disseminated at the public expense, cannot it possibly be assumed that it did not contain radically false interpretations of our policy?

It is not suggested that it contains radical interpretations of policy. I do not know what the hon. Gentleman means.

If this is a question of the Memorandum containing concessions to Germany, is not that a radical matter as regards our foreign policy, and are not the public very possibly being misinformed?