Note 293 — Chapter IX

Various plans for reaching India by means of railway communication throughout have been proposed. So early as 1850, Sir R. Macdonald Stephenson brought this matter fully under the notice of the Government. In the Calcutta Review for March 1856 his views are given at length; and his article therein, “The World’s Highway,” was republished in the same year by Weale. In 1859, the same publisher brought out a pamphlet by Sir Macdonald, entitled “Railways in Turkey, &c.,” with beautifully executed plans (the most complete yet in existence) showing the course of these lines from Constantinople to Aleppo, Baghdad and Bussorah, thence along the shores of the Persian Gulf to Bunder Abbas, and thence to Kurachi, Hydrabad, in Scinde and Bombay. Sir R. Stephenson estimated the distance from London to Bombay viâ Paris, Vienna, and Constantinople at somewhere about 5200 miles. He bestowed many years’ labour on this important subject; and had hoped to make it a great international highway, constructed under the supervision of the different states interested. Though unable to overcome the difficulties such a combination would entail, the works he proposed, or others somewhat similar, are being rapidly carried into execution by different persons who have obtained concessions from the respective Governments; more than 2000 miles of the World’s Highway is already made, and when complete the journey from London to Bombay by rail would, at the rate of 30 miles an hour, be accomplished in less than seven and a half days. See also plan of route by Mr. R. H. Galloway, published by Wyld, 1875, in which the distances are given.