can be prevented, and I inquire of the Chamber whether, when such an enterprise has been arranged and decided upon, it is not preferable that French interests, so considerable in the East, should be represented therein." He promised that every possible precaution would be taken to assure French capitalists a share in the enterprise equal to that of any other power. The Minister was upheld, the motion being defeated by a vote of 398 to 72.[16]
Less than two years later, in October, 1903, the Paris Bourse, at the instigation of the French Government, excluded all Bagdad Railway securities from the privileges of the Exchange. This change in policy was not so much the result of a volte face on the part of M. Rouvier and M. Delcassé as it was a consequence of a persistent clamor on the part of the French press that the construction of the Bagdad Railway, which was popularly considered a serious menace to French interests, should be obstructed by every effective method at the disposal of the Government.[17]
French Interests are Believed to be Menaced
The commercial interests of southern France were opposed to participation in the Bagdad Railway by the French Government or by French capitalists. Business men were fearful, for example, lest "the new route to India" should divert traffic between England and the East from the existing route across Europe via Calais to Marseilles and thence by steamer to Suez, to a new express service from Calais to Constantinople via Ostend, Cologne, Munich, and Vienna. Thus the importance of the port of Marseilles would be materially decreased, and French railways would lose traffic to the lines of Central Europe. Also, there was some feeling among the manufacturers of Lyons that the rise of German economic power in Turkey
