The Young Turk Government likewise was desirous of doing everything possible to remove French and British objections to the construction of railways in the Ottoman Empire. With this end in view they prevailed upon Dr. von Gwinner to reopen negotiations with Sir Ernest Cassel regarding British participation in the Bagdad Railway, and they secured the consent of the _Deutsche Bank_ to a rearrangement of the terms of the concession of 1903. The latter was to be undertaken in accordance with British wishes and with due regard to the financial situation of Turkey. This was followed up, on November 8, 1909, by a formal request of the Ottoman ambassador at London for a statement of the terms upon which the British Government would withdraw its diplomatic objections to the Bagdad enterprise. Simultaneously negotiations were initiated for “compensations” to French interests, represented by the Imperial Ottoman Bank. Until the end of the year 1909, then, the political situation in the Ottoman Empire under the revolutionary government had been almost altogether to the advantage of the Entente Powers. During 1910, however, German prestige began to revive in the Near East, and by the spring of 1911 German influence in Turkey had won back its former preëminent position. THE GERMANS ACHIEVE A DIPLOMATIC TRIUMPH The Young Turk program, in its political aspects, was not only liberal, but nationalist. In the fresh enthusiasm of the early months of the revolution, emphasis was laid upon modernizing the political institutions of the empire—parliamentary government and ministerial responsibility and equality before the law were the concern of the reformers. As time went on, however, liberalism was eclipsed by nationalism and modernizing by Ottomanizing. By the autumn of 1909 Turkish nationalist activities were in full swing. Revolts in Macedonia and Armenia were suppressed with an iron hand; there were massacres in Adana and elsewhere in Anatolia and Cilicia; restrictions were imposed upon personal liberties and upon freedom of the press; martial law was declared. Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism were revived as political movements.[6] The development of an aggressive Turkish nationalism was not viewed with equanimity by the Entente nations. The newspapers of France and England roundly denounced the Adana massacres and came to adopt a hostile attitude toward the Young Turk Revolution, which only a short time previously they had extravagantly praised. Great Britain looked with apprehension upon Ottoman support of the nationalist movements in Egypt and India, and France was disturbed at the prospect of a Pan-Islamic revival in Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco. Russia demanded “reform” in Macedonia and Armenia and encouraged anti-Turk propaganda in the Balkans. English interference in Cretan affairs and British support of the insolent Sheik of Koweit still further complicated the situation.[7]