The years 1904 to 1909 were lean years, judged by actual progress in the laying of rails from Bulgurlu to Bagdad and Basra. Nevertheless, they were years characterized, on the part of the investors interested in the consummation of the great enterprise, by every possible activity to prepare the way for eventual success on a grand scale. In the spring of 1906, for example, Dr. Karl Helfferich was appointed assistant general manager of the Anatolian Railways, and one year later was elected a managing director of the _Deutsche Bank_ with general supervision over all of the Bank’s railway enterprises in the Near East. The appointment of Dr. Helfferich—who, although he was only thirty-four years of age, had achieved an international reputation—aroused widespread comment and turned out to be an event of first-rate importance in the history of the Bagdad Railway. As a young professor of political science in the University of Berlin, Dr. Helfferich won general recognition as an unusually able economist. He was persuaded to enter the Government service in 1901 and became assistant secretary in the Colonial Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was known to be in the good graces of the Emperor and of Prince von Bülow, and it was said that he became their chief adviser on Near Eastern affairs.[14] The choice of such a distinguished person as directing genius of the Anatolian and Bagdad Railways gave renewed confidence in Germany that the Bagdad plan would succeed. In Great Britain the appointment was considered an ominous sign that a very real connection existed between the economic enterprises of the _Deutsche Bank_ and the Near Eastern activities of the German Foreign Office.[15] In 1907 the Anatolian Railway Company, under a contract with the Turkish Government, completed arrangements for the irrigation of the desert plain southeast of Konia. It was planned to water artificially about one hundred and fifty thousand acres of arid land, thus rendering the region independent of weather conditions. The effects of such an improvement would be far-reaching. Much idle land would be made available for profitable farming, and the yield of soil already under cultivation would be developed materially. Increased production might lead to a surplus of agricultural products for export, and the greater purchasing power of a prosperous Anatolian farming class would stimulate import trade. Agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing alike, therefore, could be served. The Anatolian Railway Company issued some 135,000 new shares of stock to defray its part of the expenses, hoping to be richly compensated by increased traffic on the railway. The Imperial Ottoman Treasury issued £800,000 of Konia Irrigation Bonds, an outlay which it hoped to offset by increased taxes from the Konia district, by rentals and sales of irrigated lands, and by decreased guarantees to this section of the railway.[16]