Page:Syria and Palestine WDL11774.pdf/90

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74
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
[No 60.

(ii) Rayak—Aleppo. The concession is for 99 years from 1893.

(iii) Tripoli—Homs. This concession (granted in 1908) runs concurrently with the last, and includes a service of lighters in the port of El-Mina. The Government has the right to half the gross receipts above 15,000 frs. per km. from the 46th to the 50th year of the concession, and subsequently to half those above 18,600 frs.

2. (b) Chemin de fer de la Palestine (Jaffa—Jerusalem). The concession is for 71 years from 1888.

2. (c) Tramways Libanais. The concession is for 99 years from 1891, with provision for prolongation of the line northwards to Tripoli and southwards to Saida.

(iv) Finance

1. Baghdad Railway.—The company has a capital of 15,000,000 frs. only, the building expenses having been met by the State, which issued 4 per cent. bonds to the company at the rate of 269,110 frs. per km.; and there is a kilometric guarantee of 4,500 frs. for working expenses. If the gross receipts exceed this latter sum, the difference up to 5,500 frs. goes to the Government, and 60 per cent. of any further excess. No separate statistics for the Syrian sections of the line have been issued. In 1915 the total gross receipts were 10,443,553 frs., and 5,900,912 frs. were paid to the Government on account of receipts above the guarantee, but no dividend was declared; from 1906-13 there was a dividend of 5 per cent. The Government has a right of purchase at any time.[1]

2. (a) Chemin de fer Damas-Hama. The capital of this company, behind which is the Paris Régie Générale des Chemins de fer, consists of 107,500,000 frs. in 4 per cent. debentures, issued since the reconstruction of 1901, on which interest has regularly been paid; 60,000,000 frs. in 3 per cent. old debentures, taken over by the Imperial

  1. See also Anatolia, No. 59 of this series, pp. 45–48.