"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎١‎٤] (١٢٦٢/٩٣١)

2414
Colonel
Stewart
succeeded by
Colonel
Goldsmid,
1865.
was successfully despatched from the point of final junction, near
Qurnah, to England on the one side and to India on the other. In the
course of the next month a few teleorams struggled through from India
to England, one of which was sent by the Duke of Brabant, then
travelling in the East; but the line was handicapped by the inefficiency of
the staff on the Turkish and Persian sections; and the wretched state of
telegraphic communication between Constantinople and the rest of
Europe was^ an additional bar to successful working. At this time a
message ordinarily took not less than 5 days to reach London from
Calcutta. Colonel Stewart^ when overtaken by illness, was engaged in
impressing upon the Ottoman Government the necessity of a double
wire for the Indo-European service across the Turkish dominions, and
of an improvement of the stafl: employed upon the Turkish sections of the
line.
On Colonel Stewarts demise Major Champain, British Director
of Telegraphs in Persia, succeeded temporarily to the headship of the
Indo-European telegraphs; and Major Champain's place at Tehran was
taken by^ Captain Murdoch Smith. Major Champain proceeded to
Europe via Baghdad and Constantinople and reached London on the
20th of April. A month later Colonel Goldsmid was summoned to
England from Constantinople, where he had been employed on telegra
phic business for a considerable period beginning before Colon el Stewart's
death, and was permanently appointed to the ^Chief Direction of the
Government Indo-European Telegraphs ^ in succession to Colonel
Stewart, Major Champain thenceforward holding the post of Assistant
Director-in-Chief and being in charge of the current duties during
Colonel Goldsmid's frequent absences from London.
Need for a
regular Con
vention.
Conclusion
and terms of
the Conven
tion, 23rd
November
1865.
Anglo-Persian Telegraph Convention of 1865 and doubling of
the Bushehr-Tehran-Khanaqm wire.
The first incident of Colonel Goldsmid's Directorship-in-Chief was
his mission to Persia to assist in negotiating a regular Telegraph Con
vention. On the one hand, the agreements which governed the situa
tion in Persia were of a merely provisional nature, and the Persian
Government were displaying some impatience to do away with British
agency and control and to assume charge of the entire arrangements; on
the other, in view of the unsatisfactory working of the Turkish tele
graphs, there was a prospect that part at least of the through traffic might
be diverted to the Perso-Russian systems which were now connected at
Julfah; and for both of these reasons it was imperative that the
telegraphic rights of Britain in Persia should be placed on a clearer
and more permanent basis.
^Colonel Goldsmid reached Tehran on the 1st of August 1865, and,
during his stay of four months there, a satisfactory Convention was con
cluded, which was signed on the 23rd November 1865.
This Convention provided for the addition of a second wire on the
line connecting Bushehr and Khanaqin vid Tehran upon terms, as regarded