'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎621] (690/714)

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Persian hostility be dormant or appeased, there is not that secu
rity which, in the absence of a Government guarantee, will tempt
capitalists or even speculators to embark upon so dubious a
venture. They have no surety that a change of sovereign, a
political convulsion, or a foreign war might not be the signal for
confiscation. How many of the abortive schemes of the past have
been ruined because of the refusal of the Persian Government to
grant a fixed guarantee, these pages will have made clear. Fur
thermore, the long list of unsuccessful appeals to foreign capital
will have shown that, in the eyes of Europe, railways along the
majority of the lines projected are not likely to be of a commer
cially profitable nature.
This, it must be said, arises not so much from a disbelief in
the remunerative capacity of the country itself through which
Dearth Of ^ ^ Iie as f 1 ' 0111 tlie enormous cost of
native plant and rolling stock, all of which, at any rate in so far
matenai ag ^ cons i s t ec [ 0 f metal, would have to be imported into
the country (if from the north, through the gauntlet of the
Russian Custom-house), and when required in the interior would
have to be conveyed by mule or camel back, unless, indeed, the
American plan were adopted of making the railway carry forward
its own material as it advanced from the coast. I confess I have
been amazed at reading in a recent publication by a writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. signing
himself' Persicus" and claiming an eighteen years' acquaintance
with the country, the following sentence :—
There are other circumstances which would facilitate the construction
of railways in Iran, namely, the existence of any quantity of good
stone for metalling up the permanent way, of wood for sleepers, and of
metals, the mines of which, when opened up, will suffice for the require
ments of the country without having recourse to importation. 1
The calm assertion of the concluding lines, which I have
italicised, should render the unique knowledge of the author of
exceptional value to the Mining Corporation, now T engaged in
exploiting the mineral resources of Persia. It is, however, to such
rash misstatements that much of the foreign ignorance and con
fusion about the country are due. In this particular case Persia
1 Vide an article on ' Roads and Railways in Persia,' in the Asiatic Quarterly
Review for January 1891, the second of a series on the Regeneration of Persia.
Their too sanguine author makes the mistake of habitually confusing the future
with the present tense.
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