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Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [103r] (205/442)
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.
9.
North, The fantastic shapes into whieh the hills and "bluffs of
this country are cut, are due to sane a^enoy. Traces are to he
found of hills ■ which have lonr? sinoe "been swept out of existence
by the sane destructive er?enoy and, except in a few places^tian
Kangl beinn: the most noteworthyr—the country except where
protected from the wind, is treeless. The viaduct alor^r which the
river Heir.land flows, before entering Beistan, and which lies at
riftht angles to the centre of the path traversed by the wind, is
illustrative both of the consistent opposition to wind action
which soil saturation offers as well as of the attraction the
latter possesses for dust particles.
The general direction in which this wind blows is from
North to South. Its origin is the hill country in North Western
Afghanistan and after following a well defined track, across
Seistan and British Baluchistan, it blows itself out in the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
. At either extremity, the strength is not great but,
in the centre section, it attains a velocity v/hioh our carefully
kept records show is surprising, while the whole region with which
we are dealing is swept by periodic gales, from the North, yet
what may be described, for want of a better term, as the permanent
wind stream is In itself comparatively narrow. It has a summer
width of from 50 to 70 miles but is double that distance across, in
winter. 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, on many occasions, crossed this wdnd stream
in face of what can only be described as a severe gale, to emerge
beyond its limits into a calm similar to that he had left behind
him on entering it, and has ascertained, by telegraphic enquiry that
the wind continued to sweep down its channel with unabated vigour.
The precise track followed by thin wind stream from its point of
origin, in the North, to Lash Juwain, remains to be determined,
but from there, on to the Gulf, it is fairly well known. It blows
across the centre of Lash Juwain, follows the course of the Helmand
up to Band-I-Kamal Khan, where it turns East for a distance of
about fifty miles, still conforming to the course of the river.
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