"تقارير إدارية ١٩٠٥-١٩١٠" [و‎‎٢‎٣‎٢] (٦١٦/٤٦٨)

POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1909. ^
authorisation to accept liquidation of the claim without the interest super
added, in case the Khans on seeing details refused payment of interest. The
matter was referred to the Foreign Office and Messrs. Lynch Brothers, London
Office, and authority as desired was granted, but information only arrived
when His Majesty's Consul had started on tour for the Kuhgelu country and
was unable to see the Bakhtiari Khans.
Caftain Lorimer's robbery claim.—This claim had been outstanding since
(» Misceilaneou,. the s ™ r of 1908 and, as in above
cases, Knans had refused payment.
Their objections were overcome however and the claim paid in toto in August.
During the month of January the Engineering expert, Mr. Howard
Godar Bridge. Humphreys report in connection with
the Godar Bridge was received. In
his opinion the defects, which have appeared in the structure of the bridge,
are due to two causes, both of which appear to be subsequent on structural
defects.
His Majesty's Consul, while on tour, inspected the bridge and reported
on its present state, at the same time requesting that the incidence for the res
ponsibility of payment for the remedying of the defects might be finally estab
lished prior to repairs. No answer had been received up to the end of the
year under review.
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company's operations in Arabistan are dealt
Anglo-Persian oil Company. w ^ h . in t] } Q Mohammerah Consulate Ad
ministration Report, 1909.
In April a subsidiary agreement was arrived at with the Bakhtiari Khans
Relations With Bakhtiaris. witl1 re gard to the guarding arrange-
ments for the oil fields, which up to then
had been most unsatisfactory. By this agreement a specified number of
guards, both mounted and unmounted, were to be maintained at each oil field,
the payment of whom was to be in the hands of the Company and in consider-
ation of which a sum of £600 per annum was to be deducted from the annual
subsidy of £2,000 paid by the Company to the Bakhtiari Khans.
As a whole the Bakhtiari Khans' attitude has been friendly towards the
Oil Company during the past year, and they appear to have recognised the
tact that their interests lie in the smooth and uninterrupted progress of the
Oil Company's affairs.
During the year under report relations between His Britannic Majesty's
Consulate and that of the Netherlands
Foreign Interests and Activities. Political. and the Russian Consular Agency have
been of the friendliest.
In the month of February Mr. ter Meulen, the Russian Consular Agent,
Anwaz, commenced to talk openly of a " concession " which the Dutch had
obtained for irrigation works from the Karun river. This, however, on refer
ence by His Britannic Majesty's Minister, Tehran, to the Persian Minister
or Foreign Affairs was denied and was stated to be merely a two years' option
granted to the late Dutch Minister M. de Sturler. The Persian Minister for
, orei £ n Affairs also asserted that the Netherlands Minister had complained
flat the option granted was valueless.
D ? S ■^ r ^ ann i c Majesty's Government at the same time informed the
utch Government that any concession, which did not meet with the approval
0 tne Shaikh of Mohammerah or was in any way prejudicial to British in
vests, would not receive our support.
The principal points of this concession will be found in the appendix.
tli TT^ r ^ er . Meulen was asked by Graff van Roggen, in a letter dated from
® Hague in February, to go and see the Shaikh of Mohammerah and find
1 his views on the subject. Graff van Roggen also stated that his name had
ee n mentioned as Public Works Adviser to the Persian Government.