Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎143r] (285/442)

1931
Supply (Committee). 10 July 1912
Foreign Office. 1932
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a dispatch, not to the Secretary of State
for India, but to the British Minister at
leheran, two months after the proposal
\\ as first submitted by the Indian Govern-
jnent. These are the only words touching
that proposal, and they are to be found in
a telegram dispatched by the right hon.
Gentleman on the 2nd April, 1912:—
“In view of improved situation, I am inclined to
postpone making any proposal to tbe Persian Govern
ment for making use of the tribal chiefs. . . It does
not seem advisable to make any public announcement
Govemmenf ” bey ° nd ^ P ° int ° f informin S the Persian
Surely some answer must have been given
to the Secretary of State for India, and it
would have been very interesting to know
why the reply of the right hon. Gentleman
has not been included with the other corre
spondence published in the Blue Book.
There is one positive action taken by the
right hon. Gentleman which I think must
be put to his credit. In conjunction with
the Russian Government he has quite re
cently advanced a sum of £200,000 sterling
to the Persian Government, and he has
given us to understand that that is only
to be the forerunner of a very much larger
loan which is to follow in the near future.
I wish to ask information on three points
hich I will put in the form of questions.
First, is this further loan, which seems to
be foreshadowed, likely to be made to Per
sia in the near future, and, if so, can the
right hon. Gentleman state approxi
mately what the amount is likely to be 1 ?
Secondly, is the right hon. Gentleman of
opinion that when the Persian Govern
ment are supplied with funds they will
prove capable of dealing with disorder in
the south of their country'? Thirdly, is
the right hon. Gentleman’s policy for pro
tecting British interests confined to financ
ing the Persian Government, or has he
any other steps in contemplation l I
apologise for occupying the time of the
House so long on this particular matter,
but, as everybody knows, the situation in
Persia during the past six months or year
has been a very delicate one. I believe
at the present time there are signs of im
provement, and we should be grateful to
the right hon. Gentleman—indeed we are
grateful to him for the very large amount
of official correspondence which he has
already laid before us—but we should be
still more grateful if he will give us some
further information on the points which I
have ventured to raise.
There is one other matter on which I
wish to say a few words. I want to ask
the right hon. Gentleman what is his
policy with regard to the construction of
railways in that part of the world. I only
want to say a few words about the negotia
tions which are going on, and which have
been going on for more than a year past,
between this country and Turkey with re
gard to the Southern section of what used
to be known as the Baghdad Railway, the
section from Baghdad to Basra. In March
.of last year, more than a year ago, the
German company which possessed the
concession for constructing the railway
gave up its right for the construction of
the section between Baghdad and Basra.
For the past year negotiations have been
going on between the right hon. Gentle
man and the Turkish Government with re
gard to that section of the line. I presume
that our co-operation in dealing with that
section of the line has been asked for. Will
the right hon. Gentleman tell us how the
negotiations have gone, and whether it is
his intention or not to take any part as a
member of some international syndicate in
the construction of that line? If it has
been made a condition of our joining that
we should facilitate the construction of the
line beyond Basra to any point on the Per
sian Gulf, I would say, have nothing to do
with this proposal. The right hon. Gentle
man must be aware that Basra has an ade
quate port to meet all the commercial
necessities of the case. If it is desired by
anybody to prolong the line beyond Basra
then we must attribute it to political and
not commercial motives. If that is the
case, the right hon. Gentleman will do far
better to press for the improving of the
waterway from the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. to Bagh
dad, and increasing the number of
steamers which at present British com
panies are allowed to ply upon its waters.
So much for the Baghdad Railway.
I have only a word to say about the
newer scheme of the Trans-Persian Rail
way. I have no time to deal with that
question at length ; I am only going to deal
with a very few considerations in connec
tion with it. I understand the British Gov
ernment have informed the Russian Gov
ernment, in the exchange of views which
has taken place with regard to this ques
tion, that they are prepared to co-operate
with the Russian Government in promoting
the scheme upon certain conditions. I am
only going'to refer to two of the conditions
which, it is understood, have been laid
down by the British Government as neces
sary before that co-operation can be
secured. Those two conditions are condi
tions to which I personally most strongly
object. The first of the conditions
is that the railway shall be carried
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