'T HE decade of the 1920's had witnessed the rise and fall of interest in a Haifa-Baghdad railway and the imminent inauguration of a rail-bus service from Europe to Iraq along the path of the former Baghdad railway. The decade of the 1930's saw a second wave of interest in a Haifa-Baghdad railway, and the virtual completion of the Baghdad railway. It is interesting to observe how the original German conception persisted in the face of British opposition and eventually won out over the pet project of British statesmen in an area they controlled-a mechanized version of the fabled race between the tortoise and the hare. There was one important difference between the Haifa railway of the 20's and that of the 30's: the original project had been supported only by the British government, whereas the revised version was also keenly desired by the semi-independent Government of Iraq. The considerations which made a railway from a British port on the Mediterranean to Iraq desirable immediately after the World War were still operative in 1930 when the plan achieved renewed prominence. The economic revival of Iraq and Persia had materialized to a certain extent and the desirability of direct access to their raw materials, food-stuffs, and markets had correspondingly increased. The chances of extending a railway to Iraq on through Persia to India were now nil, but the popularity of the desert bus route for passengers travelling to Iraq, Persia, and India proved the utility of a short route to Iraq for the world's passenger traffic. With reference to these two factors, trade and passenger traffic, the Railway Gazette observed in 1930: This new route will, it is anticipated, open up ,an alternative route from Europe not only to Iraq but to the Far East. . . . The new line will divert a considerable volume of Middle Eastern trade from the Suez Canal and will probably attract many passengers from India who would appreciate a change from the usual sea route. As regards the all-important strategic advantages of an alternative to the Suez Canal, they had been considerably increased as the development of the airplane for military purposes made the Canal more liable to destruction in time of war. The two chief obstacles to the realization of the Haifa-Baghdad railway in 1922 had by 1930 been largely removed. The return of a measure of prosperity to Great Britain put her in a position to consider more elaborate plans of imperial development; the conclusion of treaties with Ibn Saud of Nejd had defined the limits of the Iraq-TransJordan corridor and had brought a consid rable measure of peace and stability within its borders. The Haifa-Baghdad railway by 1930 promised very real advantages to the Arab Government in Iraq. The decision of the nationalist government in Persia to divert her trade with Europe from Iraq routes to a Persian port on the Gulf was resulting in a severe curtailment of Iraq's transit trade. Many Baghdad merchants engaged in the entrepot trade with Persia were eventually forced out of business. The decline in Iraq's transit business threat-