'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎626] (695/714)

PERSIA
Proceeding in an easterly direction, the next railway pro
posals that we find have been mooted are those for a line along the
2. Baku- western coast of the Caspian from Baku, via Lenkoran
Lenkcmm- Astara, and Eesht, or from Resht alone, to the capital J
Teheran and further east from Meshed-i-Ser to the capital. In
connection with the first of these schemes, it is to be noted that the
Russians, in laying the Tiflis-Baku line, constructed a particularly
3. Meshed. ^ station at Adji-Kabul, seventy miles west of Baku,
Teheran with an aclmitted view to sucl1 an extension. Either of
these schemes would be executed solely in the interests of
Russia ; neither could be expected to pay. 1 Between either Caspian
port and Teheran intervenes the main chain of the Elburz moun
tains, which, except in a country giving promise of immense traffic
might anywhere be considered as a formidable barrier to railroad
aggression. Concessions for the former of these railroads i.e
Resht-Teheran have frequently been granted, but very charily
taken up. The Russians would do far better to insist upon the
improvement of the road from Resht to Kazvin, and upon the
removal of the obstacles to disembarkation and the reverse that at
present exist at Enzeli. Considering that this is their main line of
entry into Persia, and is only 200 miles in length from the Caspian
to the capital, it can only be regarded as typical of Russian supine-
ness m such matters that both the roadstead at Enzeli and the road
from Resht are left in a condition so unpropitious to the free ingress
and egress of merchandise.
Before the Russian occupation of Transcaspia, a line of railway
running from Gez, in the south-east corner of the Caspian, to Astra-
4. Gurgan bad, and thence up the Gurgan Valley on to the plateau
Valley ^ of Bujnurd and Kuchan, found some favour with Russian
strategists as an easy mode of advance upon Meshed or Herat, to
an army operating against either of which places it would bring
up supplies both from Khorasan and Mazanderan, and, also, by
means of the Caspian, from Russia itself. Such a line would have
been entirely destitute of any commercial character or value, and
would have been designed with the sole purpose of abetting Rus
sian aggression. It need not now be discussed, seeing that all
necessit} for its construction has been obviated by the later con
quests of Russia and the Transcaspian Railway of General Annen-
' S '^ ve ^ s for a lme from Adji-Kabul to Astara are reported to have been
ordered in December 1891.