"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎١‎٥] (١٢٦٢/٩٣٢)

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the supply o£ imported materials and technical assistance^ similar to
those contained in the agreement of 1863. The new wire was to be
reserved exclusively for international messages sent in European
languages^ and ; should the amount of through traffic at any time exceed
its capacity of transmission, the old wire - ordinarily to be used for the
internal service of Persia—-might be requisitioned to supplement it.
The employment of a British Telegraph Officer with a staff of not
more than 50 members, exclusive of families, was sanctioned for the pur
pose of opening communication by the new wire and of instructing
Persian signallers in telegraphy. A Persian official was to be nominal
head of the new, as well as of the older line ; but the authority of the
British officer in executive charge was carefully safeguarded in all essential
particulars.
The line was divided for purposes of protection into six sections, each
of which was to be placed in charge of a Yavar with horsemen under his
orders ; the Yavar was to comply so far as practicable with the suggestions
of the British Telegraph Officer. *
Rules were prescribed for the keeping and adjustment of the accounts ;
a tariff of rates was fixed ; and it was agreed that, should the receipts in
any year exceed the sum of 30,000 Tumans, the surplus should be handed
over to the British Government as a contribution to the cost of the
establishment paid by them. The working of the line should be governed
by the Paris Telegraph Convention of 1865, except in so far as the
regulations thereby established might conflict with the customs of Persia,
or with the terms of the Convention itself.
Finally the Convention was to remain in force for 5 years only from
the date on which a telegram was first despatched by the new wire; and
it might be terminated even earlier, on its being proved to the satisfaction
of the Persian chief of Telegraphs and the British Telegraph Officer, that
the Persian staff had become thoroughly proficient in their duties. On the
termination of the Convention the new line was to be made over in toto
to the Persian Government.
The hopes of the British Government, who had aimed at acquiring the
Persian sections of the Indo-European line by purchase, were thus dis
appointed ; but for immediate and practical purposes something had been
gained.
On the 2nd of September 1866 the " Hastings " carrying the material
for the erection of the second wire arrived at Bushehr, and operations were
started at once; but, in consequence of the physical and still more of the
administrative obstacles by which it was retarded, the work was not
finished until the summer of 1867. An instructive commentary uppn
the expressed desire of the Persian Government to keep the entire
undertaking in their own hands was furnished by the fact that, in the
end, the entire current expenses were a defrayed by Her Majesty's
Grovernment in the first instance, the amount thus eKpended being
♦ This system may have been tried under the Convention, but it no longer exists,
The wires are now (1905) looked after by mounted and unmounted Ghulams, who are
specially trained to telegraph work and are altogether under the orders of the British
staff.