'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎628] (697/714)

628
PERSIA
considerable outlay upon a railway unremunerative, I incline to
the opinion that not yet awhile will Meshed be brought into con
nection with the Russian system, although the Sarakhs extension
may very likely be commenced, and although, when such a junction
is finally effected, the above will, in all probability, be the line pur
sued. I need hardly add that the Persians—who, in spite of their
weakness, are very sensitive about Meshed—would regard any such
project with extreme aversion.
Some writers have recommended a railway from Teheran to
Meshed, a distance of about 550 miles. Having ridden the entire
7 Te _ distance myself, I can aver that the physical obstacles to
Meshed Such a work are 80 insi g nifi cant as not to merit considera
tion. The description, however, which I gave of the road
its desolate and untilled plains, and its mouldering cities, will show
that, in my judgment, such a line could not possibly be a profitable
venture, and that it would be folly to undertake it. Some autho
rities, however, are of opinion that the grain-producing districts
between Teheran and Shahrud might sustain a line which would
certainly give them an immense impetus. The connection of Meshed
with Teheran would undoubtedly enable a larger amount of English
piece-goods to enter the bazaars of Khorasan than is at present the
case, but the principal avenue of ingress into Khorasan for English
or Anglo-Indian trade must continue to be, as it is now, from 0 the
south, rival competition from that quarter being impossible ; and
British energy will do wisely to direct itself to the improvement
ot those routes rather than to the attempted recovery of lost ascen
dency in the north.
Turning from the north to the east frontiers of Persia,' I have
already, in a chapter on the Seistan question, indicated my opinion
aseisten that the safeguarding of British, i.e. Afghan, interests
and the spread of British, i.e. Indian, trade in that
quarter can most effectively be achieved by the introduction of
railways into this part of Persia in connection with the English
frontier railway in Beluchistan. The stations of Darwaza, Quetta,
'a Abdullah, or Chaman, upon that railway are all possible points
ot departure whence an extension might be pushed either via Nushki
to the south of the Amran range, or, in a more northerly direction,
to Seistan, from which point a connection is obviously desirable with
the important industrial and agricultural centres of Kerman and
ez The Ind ian Government is reported to be opposed to the