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Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [99r] (197/442)
The record is made up of 1 file (221 folios). It was created in Nov 1911-Mar 1917. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
5.
Curzons Govermient, in tho year 1P02. The prooese of "building up
a delta is a slov one yet the a^nciee at work are never ceasing
and are a factor which needs always to he borne in mind. For a
complete arc of a circle, the centre of which would be near
Band-I-Kaxmil Khan, the country North of that place, and on either
side of the present river channel, is nothin# but a series of these
old deltas. The Kaiz&r depression is shallow and when it fills
its water overflows into the Hamn Seistan, a Ion# narrow
depression which extends South to the foot of the Pal an# Koh slope
and cuts off access to Seictan from the ’est. Then the llamun
Soistsn is, in turn, full which has occurred frequently, of late
years, it discharges, through the Shelag, a channel In its south
extremity, into yet another depression, called the God-I-Zirreh, the
Eastern branch of which reaches to with a few thousand yards of
the Helmand, near Rudbar. Into this branch also finds its way, from
the East, such drainage, from the Northern slopes of the Chagai
Sarlat range as is not absorbed by the desert. From this it will
be perceived that the Helmand, between Pudber and Band-I-Kamal Khan,
flows alon-c a viaduct and that if the side of this viaduct were
ever breached or pierced by artificial means - a natter which the
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.
has satisfied himself* by personal examination, would prove
a by no means difficult engineering feat - the Helmand would
discharge direct into the God-I-Zirreh, Seistan would become a
desert, and many complex problems would arise.
North of Central Garmsel, lies the forbidding desert known
as the Dasht-I-Margo which prevents approach to the Helimnd (Gamsel)
from the North. The
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.
has never penetrated into this desert
any great distance but personal enquiry made in 1902, when passing
down the Helmand valley, satisfied him that it is impossible to
cro/ss this desert in sumer and that even in winter it is an
enterprise on which the residents of the Helm&nd valley never
willingly embark unless rain has fallen and collected in scattered
pools.
For the general purposes we have in view, the country lying
About this item
- Content
The file contains correspondence, memoranda, and other papers relating to railway projects in Persia [Iran] and the surrounding region. The papers deal with the proposals for, planning, and progress of, several railway lines, including one from the Mediterranean to India, the Trans-Persian Railway, the Baghdad Railway, and the Nushki and Dalbandin extension from Quetta. The documents discuss the merits and flaws of the proposals, technical issues such as gauge sizes, and the impact of such projects on Britain's relations with Russia, Germany, France, and Turkey.
At the back of the file are a number of official reports on Parliamentary debates within the House of Commons, dating from 10 July 1912 to 25 May 1914, all of which feature railways (folios 128-218). Also at the rear of the file are three maps:
- General Map of Asia with proposed British, German, and Russian rail lines added by hand
- War Office map of the Middle East, showing railways and railway projects
- As above with further rail lines added and details of gauges given.
Correspondents include: Arthur Campbell Yate, army Officer; Henry McNiel; Francis Richard Maunsell, army officer; George Lloyd, politician; Lieutenant-Colonel Charles à Court Repington, army officer and war correspondent; Lord Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, Leader of the House of Lords; Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice (Lord Lansdowne), statesman; Lucien Wolf, journalist and historian; Charles Staniforth, businessman and railway investor; Charles Prestwich Scott, Editor of the Manchester Guardian; Hugh Shakespear Barnes, Director, Imperial Bank of Persia; and Colonel Frank Cooke Webb Ware, former Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Chagai.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (221 folios)
- Arrangement
The file is arranged in chronological order from the front to the rear.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 221; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F112/252
- Title
- Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia
- Pages
- 87r:90v, 95r:221v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence