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File 2984/1920 'PERSIA: TRADE WITH EAST PERSIA [REPORTS & NOTES BY MAJOR TEMPLE]' [29r] (62/404)
The record is made up of 1 volume (189 folios). It was created in 25 Mar 1920-22 Sep 1921. 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.
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Memorandum No. C.-43, dated the 29th March 1920.
From—His Britannic Majesty’s Consul-General and Agent of the Government of
India m Khurasan,
To—The Comptroller-General, Department of Overseas Trade.
I have the honour to forward herewith Trade Note No. 16, which deals with
a subject ot unusual importance.
• In V !? W ° f n ^ 1 tlu ^ 1 ' as preceded this letter on the subject of the very press-
ing transport problem of East Persia, I do not think that I need now further
thereof 06 ^ argUment wlllch 18 here presented in favour of an early solution
Copies to : —•
His Britannic Majesty’s Minister at Tehran (in duplicate).
The Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political
Department.
Trade Note No. 16.
Haw Wool Exports.
A commercial development of first class importance lias to be reported. It is
considerable enough to give to our commercial problems in East Persia a new
urgency.
Retrospect.
%
For lucidity, a brief retrospect is first necessary. Since the collapse of the
Kussian Empire attention has been called from time to time to the unique
opportunity in East Persia which the Russian chaos opens to British commercial
enterprise. The new prospect, however, was at first vague ; it lacked definiteness.
Accordingly a Commercial Survey of the whole field was carefully made, and a
detailed Secret Report thereon was presented (14th December, 1919). This
Report brings the matter down from the abstract to the concrete. In cold figures
the realities of the position are now correctly displayed. The opportunity is thus
shown to be substantial, and British enterprise is adjured to seize it forthwith lest
it pass to other hands.
Of the mass of information accumulated and of the body of conclusions
reached in the Report, two matters stand out as dominating the rest. The first is
that, while a prodigious trade is trying to thrust itself upon us, it cannot reach us
without transport facilities, and the cry for carriage of any sort has become loud
and bitter in the land {vide pages 77 and 78 of the Report). The second matter
is that, imports into East Persia being mostly manufactured articles of relatively
high value, and exports from East Persia being mostly raw products of relatively
low value, imports can, at a strain, bear the heavy burden of transport
charges, whereas exports sink under it, and the balance of trade is thereby
disastrously upset (vide page 14 of the Report). Hence the paramount need
for ( 1 ) providing transport facilities and ( 2 ) encouraging exports to India and
beyond. Preliminary proposals for solving the transport problem are before
Government (vide Chapter 13 of the Report). Activities for encouraging exports
to India and beyond have already been begun here, and it is in regard to these that
the present Trade Note has a notable communication to make.
According to the Report of the Commercial Survey of East Persia, the
exports of Raw Wool to India and beyond in 1918-19 amounted in value to only
£1,568 (vide page 220 ), whereas the amount of Raw Wool awaiting exportation to
India but with no present chance of getting there may be valued at £105,000
About this item
- Content
The volume contains papers relating to Britain’s trade with east Persia [Iran], chiefly comprising reports by Major B Temple, British Vice-Consul, Meshed [Mashhad].
Major Temple’s reports cover various aspects of trade including development possibilities, trade routes, foreign competition (notably Russia), local resources, topography and economic geography, types of transport, road and rail networks, telegraph and postal communications, banking facilities, favoured merchants to trade with, merchant and trade conferences, and the political circumstances in Persia and surrounding countries.
The papers including the following:
- ‘Report of a Commercial Survey of the East Persian Trade Route between Quetta and Meshed’ by Major Temple, dated 1919, first proof (ff 166-197) and final version (ff 34-60), plus letters regarding revisions made by the Department of Overseas Trade and comments by 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. officials, and a proposal for possible confidential circulation of the report to a limited number of selected British firms
- ‘Political and Economic Report on Khorasan for the year 1919’, forwarded by HM Officiating Consul-General and Agent to the Government of India in Khorasan, to HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. , Tehran, co-authored by the Consul-General (political section) and Major Temple (economic section) (ff 148-159)
- ‘Trade Notes’ by Major Temple, January-February 1920, forwarded by HM Officiating Consul-General and Agent to the Government of India in Khorasan, to HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. , Tehran (ff 138-146)
- ‘Trade Notes’ by Major Temple, February-April 1920 and June 1920, forwarded by HM Officiating Consul-General and Agent to the Government of India in Khorasan, to the Comptroller-General, Department of Overseas Trade, with related letters and notes concerning the potential establishment of a ‘forwarding agency’ at Meshed (ff 17-32)
- ‘Commercial Survey of East Persia’ by Major Temple, forwarded in December 1919 by HM Officiating Consul-General and Agent to the Government of India in Khorasan to the Director of the Department of Overseas Trade (Development and Intelligence), London (ff 62-135)
- Quarterly Trade Returns for 1920, completed and forwarded by HM Officiating Consul-General and Agent to the Government of India in Khorasan, to the Controller General, Department of Overseas Trade (Development and Intelligence).
Papers comprise: printed reports; 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. Political Department registry dividers including notes by 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. officials on groupings of papers; internal letters and notes by 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. officials; and some letters from the Department of Overseas Trade.
The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (189 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 200; 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.
Pagination: multiple additional printed pagination sequences are present in parallel between ff 35-197.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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File 2984/1920 'PERSIA: TRADE WITH EAST PERSIA [REPORTS & NOTES BY MAJOR TEMPLE]' [29r] (62/404), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/892, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100136836337.0x00003f> [accessed 4 April 2025]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/892
- Title
- File 2984/1920 'PERSIA: TRADE WITH EAST PERSIA [REPORTS & NOTES BY MAJOR TEMPLE]'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:199v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence