ملف رقم ٩٤٨ لسنة ١٩٠٩ "بلاد فارس: الوضع في الجنوب؛ حالة الطرق. الهجوم على السيد بيل. برنامج حرس الطرق". [و‎‎٣‎٢‎١] (٧٤٤/٦٤٦)

Confidential.
No. 1749 ) dated Bushire, the 2 ist July (received 2 nd August) 1909 .
From— MAJOR P. Z. Cox, C.S.I., C.I.E., Political Resident in the Persian Gulf,
To—S. H. Butler, Esq., C.S.I., C.I.E., Secretary to the Government of India
in the Foreign Department, Simla.
I have the honour to forward, for the information of the Government of
India, and in continuation of the correspondence ending with my letter to you
No. 7 Commercial from Hi S Britannic Maje,- ? 2 ' 2 ' dated ^ MfX 1 909, * Copy of
ty’s Consul-General, Bushire, to His Majesty’s the OOCUment noted in the margin On the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with subject of the results to OUr commerce of
the prevailing insecurity of the trade routes
within the sphere of my post, more especially of the Bushire-Shiraz route.
No. 7 Commercial, dated Bushire, the 18 th July 1909 (Confidential).
From— MAJOR P. Z. Cox, C.S.I., C.I.E., British Resident in the Persian Gulf
and His Britannic Majesty’s Consul-General for Pars, etc.,
To—The Right Honourable Sir Edward Grey, Baronet, His Britannic
Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Office,
London.
I have the honour to place before you a Memorandum on the prevailing
condition of the trade routes within the sphere of my post—more especially of
the Bushire-Shiraz route—drawn up for me by His Majesty’s Vice-Consul.
I am well aware that His Majesty’s Government are generally cognizant of
the deplorable condition of insecurity into which all the main arteries of traffic
in Southern Persia have been thrown by the chronic state of chaos and anarchy
under which the country has been labouring for the past three years. The
subject was one of those specially commended to attention in my letter No.
1726-1727 to the address of the Government of India and His Majesty’s
Minister, dated 6th June 1908 ; since then we have taken the opportunity afford
ed by the visit of Mr. Charles Akers to the Persian Gulf to report upon commercial
matters to the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade, to urge him to represent
at Tehran, and if possible in London, how fundamentally the prospects of our
commerce in this region are bound up with and depend upon the question of
security on the main caravan routes leading from the coast of the Persian Gulf
to the chief trading centres of the interior.
The situation in the Capital has now reached a well-marked stage at which
it seems possible that an opening may at any time offer itself for some definite
action or form of co-operation on our part with the Central Government, in what
ever form it may now be, for the restoration of order or the financing of reforms.
I trust, therefore, that the present moment may not prove inopportune for the
submission of the accompanying note on the commercial outlook.
It may. I think be taken for granted from the variety of suggestions and
schemes which have been put forward by different officers of Government for
policing the trade routes, that there are several methods by which a reasonable
measure of security could be provided ; but it is difficult to offer useful comment
in regard to the details or relative advantages of individual schemes until His
Majesty’s Government feel in a position to give their representatives some idea
of the extent and general lines of co-operation of disguised intervention which
their present policy renders feasible.
Pending that time I can do little more than urge upon them the pressing
necessity which appears to me from the local point of view to exist for the
inauguration of some reasonably effective measure for rescuing the several impor
tant British firms engaged in the trade to Southern Persia via the Gulf Ports
from the veritable slough of despond into which they are slowly sinking.
Failing some early step on the part of Government in this direction one
cannot but feel convinced that they will be forced to resign themselves to retire
ment from the field, an ominous contingency which I should witness with great
regret and dismay.
A copy of this despatch is being submitted to His Majesty’s Minister.
G. C. B. P., Sim'a.-No C037F.D.—11-8 09—44—G. E. D.