Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎164v] (328/442)

2017
Supply (.Committee). HOUSE OF COMMONS Foreign Office. 2018
[Mr. Hoare.]
tary would use his influence with Portu
gal, Portugal would not lose in the long
run. I believe a system of labour of this
kind is uneconomic in the extreme. That
can easily be tested by the success that
has attended the results of a totally dif
ferent system in our West African depend
encies. There also you have cocoa grown.
You have it being worked by voluntary
labour and you have the prosperity of the
Gold Coast going forward by leaps and
bounds. I cannot help thinking that if
Portugal adopted some such system with
her contract labour in West Africa no less
fortunate results would attend her. There
are two practical suggestions I should like
to make. In the first place, I should sug
gest that some kind of inquiry might be
made into the present conditions of labour
in the island of San Thome and on the
mainland. I do not know whether it
should take the form of an International
Commission. That is for the right hon.
Gentleman and others, whose knowledge
is far greater than mine, to decide. In
the second place, I would suggest
that the Consular Reports from our
representatives on the island and
on the mainland should be published
without delay. If I might make a further
suggestion it would be that we should have
not only a Consul upon the mainland, but
that our Vice-Consul on the island of San
Thome should become a Consul, and
should be able to devote his whole time to
the investigation of questions such as I
have brought to the attention of the Com
mittee this evening. I have no wish in
any way to embroil our relations with
Portugal, nor do I desire that the opinions
that I have expressed should be regarded
as being expressed otherwise than with
the best intentions.
Sir JOSEPH WALTON : No more im
portant Debate could take place in this
House than on foreign affairs, and it is
somewhat to be regretted that when we
only have practically one night in the
whole Session in which to discuss foreign
affairs the attendance of Members should
be so limited. Perhaps we may regard it,
however, as an expression of the feeling of
all parties in this House of entire con
fidence in the Foreign Secretary. In dis
cussing foreign affairs we cannot lose sight
of the fact of our enormous world-wide
responsibilities, and in the conduct of our
foreign affairs the main object of our
policy ought to be to limit rather than
increase the burden of those great respon
sibilities. The discussion to-night has
ranged over a wide field. Some of us
have had opportunities of seeing some
thing of a country such as Persia, and
might perhaps have given information
from observation on the spot which might
be of some value. Time, however, does not
admit of my going into details in regard to
these questions. Our historical policy on
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. has been “hands off” to
all other nations, and not many years ago
when I returned from Persia, having
travelled through it from North to South,
I raised a Debate in this House when we
had emphatically declared again that
policy that, in order to protect our great
Indian Empire, and in order to prevent
any risk of the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. being
turned, Russia must not be allowed to con
struct a railway down through Persia
to a port in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
A great deal has happened since then.
Though there are many things in the
Anglo-Russian Convention that affect the
interests of this country, especially com
mercially, one is bound to take the broad
view that the effects of that Convention on
international relations have been a great
boon and that they outweigh probably
altogether the loss of commercial facilities
we have sustained under that Convention
in Persia. With regard to the Trans-Per
sian Railway, I think the House may have
confidence that the Foreign Secretary will
take care that the line, so far as the
Southern portion of it is concerned, is made
so far international that any danger to
India which we contemplated years ago
will not arise. I believe we can rely on the
same being done in regard to the Baghdad
Railway. As to the Mohamerah-Khorama-
bad Railway, I may say that I have tra
versed the country between these places.
The line will pass through a fertile region,
and I do hope that we can rely on the
Foreign Secretary to secure that it shall
be a British railway. We have opened
the Karun River to trade, and we have a
preponderating trade up that river. I hope
the Foreign Secretary will secure British
interests in connection with the Quetta-
Nushki line, and that promulgation of the
fact in that fertile region will not be long
delayed. That would be a paying scheme,
and would help largely to develop the
trade of India with Persia.
I was glad to hear the Foreign Secretary
speak in the terms he did of the result of
the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, as that had
my support in the initial stages. I cannot
but feel, after what he stated to-night as to