'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎85r] (174/386)

Government. The result was that Indian interests were inadequately represented
at Tehran. The position was anomalous. India supplied 9 out of 14 Consulates
with officers; half the entire charges of British representation were met from
Indian funds; Persian and Indian frontiers were now for a long distance
coterminous and political and commercial interests were daily increasing. The
presence at Tehran of an officer from the Indian Political Department
familiar with the views of the Government of India and with India’s com
mercial needs therefore rested on a stronger basis than when it was advocated
by Lords Northbrook and Lytton. The views of His Majesty’s Minister at
Tehran on this proposal were requested before addressing the Secretary of State
but no reply had been received before Lord Curzon left India.
16. The question of efficient personnel is closely connected with
Proposed special consular service for the question of extending British re-
Persia. presentation in Persia. No uniform
system existed for filling Consular appointments in Persia or for the
training of junior officers to fill such appointments. Various schemes were
suggested with a view to placing matters on a better footing. A plan
which was seriously considered and laid before the Secretary of State in Octo
ber 1902 proposed that a special Consular service should be instituted for Persia,
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. . The scheme provided for raising the Moh-
ammerah Vice-Consulate to a Consulate and the native agencies at Kerman-
shah and Shiraz to Vice Consulates and for the reduction of the Kesht
Consulate to a Vice-Consulate. The appointments of Consul-Geneml at
Bushire, Meshed and Baghdad, and Consul iu Seistan and at Kerman, it
was proposed, should continue to be reserved for officers of the Political Depart
ment of the Government of India, the rest of the posts, Ispahan and Tabriz
(Consuls-General) and Mohammerah and Basrah (Consulates) and the Vice-
Consulates at Resht, Bushire, Tehran, Bunder Abbas, Bahrein, Kermanshah
and Shiraz, being filled by recruitment from the special service.
The officers appointed to the service would be recruited partly in England
and partly in India either by examination or nomination. An alternative
plan was also proposed, viz., the formation of a Persian section of the
Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Consular Service. The Special Persian service being considered too small
to offer sufficient inducement to competent officers, the plan of filling certain posts
by officers of the Indian Government and others by officers of the Eoreign Office
was eventually adopted. The London Eoreign Office concurred as regards
raising the status of Mohammerah and pointed out that the proposed reduction
as regards Resht had already been effected. There was, however, a difference
of opinion as to the division of posts between the Foreign Office and the Indian
service. As a special case the Foreign Office agreed to appoint a Vice-Consul
from the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Service to Bushire but were not desirous of taking over any
more unhealthy posts in addition to Basrah, which went over to the Imperial
Government in 1898, and they further considered it desirable to leave Bahrein
and Bunder Abbas to be manned by Indian officers and to takeover Shiraz and
also Baghdad if the Government of India considered the transfer desirable.
Lord Curzon was not entirely iu accord with these suggestions and the follow
ing telegraphic correspondence passed on the subject: —
To Secretary of State, dated the 1st June 1903.
> The chief difficulty is in regard to Bunder Abbas and Bahrein and the Foreign Office
Kuo-o-estions do not help. We prefer retaining Baghdad for the present and consider that exist
ing arrangements had better continue, the‘Vice-Coasulahip, Shiraz, being tilled from India
and Ahwaz and Kermanshih from the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. service. We would however welcome a
trained officer from that service as Vice-Consul, Bushire and are prepared to agree to the Foreign
Office suggestions as to a considerable interchange of officers for Persian consular posts.
Koweit and Mohammerah, especially the former, being important to Indian interests,
an Indian officer should be p'aced in charge of both with head quarters at Mohammerab,
a small gunboat being retained at the latter place for his use. In this way the homogeneity of
Consular appointments at Gulf ports would be preserved. Arab Sheikhs are perhaps best
manao-ed bv Indian Officers. By offering greater inducements, we hope to obtain a larger
supply of officers fully qualified iu the modern colloquial Persian and Arabic—the tests iu which
are under revision.