5. It was agreed, however, that the Bagdad Railway and Inchcape concessions were without prejudice to the rights of the Lynch Brothers, which were specifically reaffirmed. The Lynch Brothers, in fact, were granted the privilege of adding another steamer to their equipment, with the single restriction that it fly the Turkish flag. 6. The British Government agreed that no navigation rights of its nationals would be construed as permitting interference with the development of Mesopotamia by irrigation, and the Ottoman Government guaranteed that no irrigation works would be permitted to divert navigable streams from their course. 7. In return for these, and other, assurances and concessions, Great Britain consented to support an increase of 4% in the customs duties of the Ottoman Empire. The terms of this settlement were hailed by the English press as an admirable solution of the Mesopotamian imbroglio. _The Times_ of May 17, 1913, for example, said: “Great Britain will have no further reason for looking askance at a project which should do much for the development of Asiatic Turkey. Our interests will be safeguarded; we have always said that a terminus at Basra offered no menace to specific British interests in the Persian Gulf; and the German promoters will be free to complete their great project with the benevolent acquiescence of Great Britain. There will be no official participation in the construction of the line, but there will also be nothing to deter British capital from being associated with the scheme. We believe that if some such solution is adopted, a fertile source of international misunderstanding will disappear. It is a solution which should receive the approval of France and Russia and should give gratification to Germany. It appears to leave no room for subsequent differences of opinion, while it wipes out a whole series of obscure disputes. It will be a further demonstration of that spirit of coöperation among the Great Powers which has done so much of late to preserve the peace of Europe. It should convince Germany that Great Britain does not oppose the essential elements of the Bagdad Railway scheme provided her own special interests are protected. Above all, it will relieve the financial disabilities of Turkey and will enable her to press forward the great task of binding with bonds of steel the great Asiatic territories in which her future chiefly lies.” Other press opinion was in accord with Sir Edward Grey that the agreement “justifies us in saying that it is no longer in British interests to oppose the line.”[26]