Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎197v] (394/442)

469
The Trans-Persian Railway. [ LORDS 1 The Trans-Persian Railway. 470
at present apprehends. I said just now
that estimates of £15,000,000 and
£ 20 , 000,000 had been published. I have
no time to lay before your Lordships the
grounds which lead me to think that the
expenditure will probably not be less than
£30,000,000. But the question I want to
put is, whether it be £ 20 , 000,000 or
£30,000,000, where is the money coming
from ? Or, if the money is found by the
financiers of the three nations to whom
I have referred, who is to give the guaran
tee ? Because you may be quite certain
that without a guarantee the money will
not be forthcoming. Will Russia give
the guarantee ? At an early stage I saw
a statement to the effect that Russia would
not accept any obligation on the Russian
Treasury for this line, but it is now said
that out of the surplus on the Russian rail
ways she may be willing to guarantee a
loan for the northern section of the line.
But when we come to the British section
or the Indian section, who is going to give
the guarantee ? I confess I cannot
imagine the present Chancellor of the
Exchequer, or I may add his successor,
coming down to the House of Commons
and asking the consent of that House to a
guarantee for a great railway outside of
England, outside of India, in the heart of
Persia, about which a great many people
will tell him that its construction will add
very much to the future burdens of India
and of this country and will materially
impair the defensive strength of our
Indian Empire. I do not see an English
Chancellor of the Exchequer making any
such proposal, and I do not see any Indian
Finance Minister going down to the Council
Chamber at Calcutta—I ought now to say
Delhi—and explaining to the more repre
sentative body created by the noble
Viscount opposite, at a time when India .
is called upon to bear the heavy burden
of the cost of the transfer of the capital
to Delhi and of the suspension of the opium
traffic, and when railway finance is so
stinted that there is no money to build
more than 100 miles of railway in the present
year, that it is proposed to take Indian
money and spend it upon a guarantee in
respect of a continental line. I cannot
imagine an Indian Finance Minister making
any such proposal, at any rate with any
chance of success. And if neither this j
country nor India will give a guarantee, ;
then I want to know where the security for !
the money is coming from. I venture to
say that if the scheme, should it eventuate, i
Earl Curzon of Kedleston.
does not perish before that point, the rock
of finance is the one upon which it will
founder.
May I ask the noble Viscount who
will answer me to consider another
point ? May it not be said that in the
treatment of the railway question in
Persia His Majesty’s Government are
beginning at the wrong end ? Here they
are apparently contemplating presenting
to Persia, a country so poverty stricken
and so backward that it has no railways
at all—it has, I believe, not more than
ten miles of railway
Viscount MORLEY : Six miles.
*Earl CURZON of KEDLESTON:
Here they are apparently contemplating
presenting to this country a full-blown
continental system without any regard to
the commercial interests or the require
ments of the country itself, and in com
plete ignorance of the fact that in many
parts of Persia railways are waiting to be
built (the promoters are actually forth
coming), which would add to the security
of the country, diminish the burdens
resting on the Government, and add to
Persian trade. Is it not rather an absurd
thing at such a moment to force upon that
country a great continental scheme which
is only introduced in other countries after
long years of development and when the con
ditions of the country are those of peace
and prosperity advanced to a very high
degree ? I should like to hear from the
noble Viscount that His Majesty’s Govern
ment are prepared to take advantage of
the rights which we possess in respect to
Persian railways. When we had our last
debate here he will remember quoting
with some satisfaction the terms of the
Rescript of Nasr-ud-Din Shah, under which,
if a concession for a railway be given to
others in the North, the Shah—and the
promise has been confirmed by his succes
sors—undertook to give a similar con
cession to the British in the South. The
case for such a railway has, I think,
already been brought into existence. The
Russians have obtained their concession in
the North. I speak of the concession for
the railway from Teheran to Khanikin
on the Baghdad line, and there is no
reason whatever, therefore, why British
proposals should not materialise in the
South. I believe that His Majesty’s
Government have taken steps in this
matter. I have heard of a syndicate