Note 11 — Chapter VIII · GREAT BRITAIN BLOCKS THE WAY

The British banking houses interested in the Bagdad enterprise were Baring Brothers, Sir Ernest Cassel, and Morgan-Grenfell Company. Cf. The Westminster Gazette, April 24, 1903; Stenographische Berichte, XII Legislaturperiode, 2 Session, Volume 260 (1910), p. 2181d. The bankers, of course, were not bound by the decision of the Cabinet to withdraw from the negotiations; they still would have been at liberty to invest in Bagdad Railway securities, as did the French bankers. However, it has been the practice of British financiers to accept the “advice” of the Foreign Office in the case of loans which may lead to international complications. An analogous case in American experience was the decision of prominent New York financial institutions to withdraw from the Chinese consortium in 1913 because of the avowed opposition of President Wilson to the terms of the loan contract.