"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٠‎٣‎٧] (١٢٦٢/٥٥٤)

2037
tieivr
Minister for Foreign Affairs; it was ante-dated 16tli September 1888 >
and the important portion of it ran as follows :—
Convey these commands to His Excellency, the (British) Minister Plenipotentiary,
even give him this very autograph, in order that he may keep it and ba satisfied that
Onr former promise with regard to priority of the English Government and the
Company of that bovei'nment over others in the construction of a Southern Kailway
to Tehran continues to hold good ; and certainly, whenever railway concessions in the
north are given to others, immediately a concession for a railway from Tehran to
r, or such a one, will be given to the English Company ; and, of course then the
and conditions will also be examined in order that it be to Oar advantage and
Jt, and for the benefit of the commerce of both parties; and positively no
Southern Kailway, without consultation with the English Government, will be granted
to any foreign Company. P. 8. And it is clear that in Persia nobody will be granted
permission to construct railways, except it be solely commercial ones; We say so now
that they may know it.
A copy of this letter was communicated to the Russian Minister
at Tehran in October 1890, and the assurance which it contained, was
repeated by the Shah in writing in November 1890.
In 1890 a concession for the construction and exploitation during 60
years of a road conDecting Tehran with Shushtar or Ahwaz, via Qum,
Sultanabad ; Burujird, and Khurramabad, was acquired from the original
concessionaire, a Persian, by the Imperial Bank of Persia, and work was
commenced ; but means have not up to the present been discovered of
enabling the road to pass through the disturbed Luristan districts
between Khurramabad and 'Arabistan. In the same year a Mining Rights
Corporation was formed in order to turn to account the mining privileges
of the Imperial Bank j but the operations of this body came to an unsuc
cessful end in 1894, largely in consequence of borings for oil unsuccess
fully undertaken at Daliki and on the island of Qishm, in the Persian
Gulf region. Also in 1890, a monopoly for the holding of lotteries, and
another for dealing in tobacco, were unadvisedly granted by the Shah
during the temporary absence from his side of the Persian Prime Min
ister and of the permanent British representative at Tehran. The former
concession was obtained by a Persian subject, who resold it to a British
syndicate for £40,000, and the latter by a group of British capitalists.
The lotteries concession was afterwards cancelled without compensation,
the British speculators lost their money—a circumstance which did
increase the popularity of Persian investments in the London market.
If i The tobacco
concession taken up by an Imperial Tobacco Corpora
tion in 1891, also led to trouble ; and, a riot in connection with it having
0cc urredat Tehran in January 1892, it also was withdrawn, but on pay^
^ntof an indemnity of £500,000 to the investors^
Southern
Persia,
1889-90.
Various
British un
dertakings,
1890.