This, in any event, is the diagnosis of the situation furnished by Sir Clinton Dawkins, of the Morgan group, one of the British financiers interested in the project. In a letter to Dr. von Gwinner written on April 23, 1903, but not made public until six years later, he said, “As you originally introduced the Bagdad business to us, I feel that I cannot, upon its unfortunate termination, omit to express to you personally my great regret at what has occurred. After all you have done to meet the various points raised, you will naturally feel very disappointed and legitimately aggrieved. But I am glad to think, and I feel you will be convinced, that your grievance lies not against the British group but against the British Foreign Office. The fact is that the business has become involved in politics here and has been sacrificed to the very violent and bitter feeling against Germany exhibited by the majority of our newspapers, and shared in by a large number of people. This is a feeling which, as the history of recent events will show you, is not shared by the Government or reflected in official circles. But of its intensity outside these circles, for the moment, there can be no doubt; at the present moment coöperation in any enterprise which can be represented, or I might more justly say _mis_represented, as German will meet with a violent hostility which our Government has to consider.” Sir Clinton thereupon asserted that the effort of Mr. Balfour to quiet the uproar in Parliament was due to the Prime Minister’s complete satisfaction with the agreement reached by the financiers. Just as success seemed assured, a bitter attack was launched on the Government “by a magazine and a newspaper [The _National Review_ and _The Times_] which had made themselves conspicuous by their criticisms of the British Foreign Office on the Venezuela affair. Who instigated these papers, from whence they derived their information, is a matter upon which I cannot speak with certainty. My own impression is that the instigation proceeded from Russian sources. The clamour raised by these two organs was immediately taken up by practically the whole of the English press, London having really gone into a frenzy on the matter owing to the newspaper campaign, which it would have been quite impossible to counteract or influence. It is, I think, due to you that you should know the _histoire intime_ of what has passed.”[12]