"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٣‎٩] (١٧٨٢/٣٨٢)

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To deal with tlie correspondence for which carriage was thus provi-
ded ; British Indian post offices were opened at various places^ the first
of the series at Masqat and Bushehr in 1864, and the last at Basrah
and Baghdad in 1868.
Telegraphs were of slightly earlier inception, but did not become so Telegraphs,
quickly ready for use as passenger and mail services. After the comple-
tion of a telegraph line between Constantinople and Baghdad in 1861,
under British auspices, there was a pause in the operations. Land
lines and cables were carried from Karachi to Gwadur and thence to
Fao, and fiom Bushehr by Tehran to Khanaqin in 186'2-64i •, but it was not
until ISbo that a gap between Basrah and Baghdad was closed, giving
direct communication between India and Europe via Fao, Baghdad and
Constantinople. The whole of the technical and a large part of the
political arrangements, in both Turkey and Persia, devolved upon
British officers ; and in 1869 British subsidies were granted to the chief
of Persian Makran for the protection of the land line passing through
their districts.
Schemes for railway communication followed hard upon the improve
ments just described.
Mi. Andrew had not ceased to push his project for a railway betwesn
the Peisian G ulf and the Mediterranean, which the occurrence of »3he
Indian Mutiny and the construction of the Suez Canal had invested
with greater importance than before. The salvation of Persia from
Russia was still mentioned as an object recommending the scheme;
and the Porte were believed to favour it, while regarding a change of
alignment to the northward desirable. A strong Parliamentary Commit
tee, formed by the British Government in 1871, investigated the scheme
and reported in 1872 in its favour ; but they gave a cautious opinion
with reference to the desirability of aiding* its execution by means of a
financial guarantee on the part of the British Government; and in the
end no effectual action was taken.
In 1871-73 a suggestion for the construction of a railway from
Shushtar by Isfahan, or from Dizful by Khurramabad, to Tehran, under
a guarantee from the Persian Government, was made by a British
merchant at Bushehr ; but the economic conditions of the day in Southern
Persia militated against its favourable reception.
Connected with this last project was a proposal that steam naviga
tion should be instituted on the Karun River with the assistance of the
Persian Government.
Railway and
navigation
proiects.
1871-73.