French press spoke glowingly of the prospect that the slogans "Hamburg to the Persian Gulf" and "Berlin to Bagdad" would be speedily replaced by "Calais to Cairo" and "Bordeaux to Bagdad"![35]
All German rights in the Bagdad Railway and other economic enterprises in the Near East were abrogated by the Treaty of Versailles, signed June 28, 1919. The German Government was obligated to obtain and to turn over to the Reparation Commission "any rights and interests of German nationals in any public utility undertaking or in any concession operating in . . . Turkey, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria" and agreed, as well, "to recognize and accept all arrangements which the Allied and Associated Powers may make with Turkey and Bulgaria with reference to any rights, interests and privileges whatever which might be claimed by Germany or her nationals in Turkey and Bulgaria."[36]
The Treaty of Sèvres, August 10, 1920—together with the accompanying secret Tripartite Agreement of the same date between Great Britain, France, and Italy—carried still further the liquidation of German interests in the Near East. The Turkish Government was required to dispose of all property rights in Turkey of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, or their respective nationals and to turn over the proceeds of all purchases and sales to the Reparation Commission established under the treaties of peace with those Powers. The Anatolian and Bagdad Railways were to be expropriated by Turkey and all of their rights, privileges, and properties to be assigned—at a valuation to be determined by an arbitrator appointed by the Council of the League of Nations—to a Franco-British-Italian corporation to be designated by the representatives of the Allied Powers. German stockholders were to be compensated for their holdings, but the amount of their compensation was to be turned over to
