ملف رقم ٩٤٨ لسنة ١٩٠٩ "بلاد فارس: الوضع في الجنوب؛ حالة الطرق. الهجوم على السيد بيل. برنامج حرس الطرق". [و‎‎٣‎٤‎١] (٧٤٤/٦٨٦)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic/ Majesty’s Government.]
PERSIA. [August 9.]
Section 11 .
(: : BSFP;3C9
No. 1
General Cox to Sir Edward Grey.—{Received August 9.)
(No. 7. Commercial.)
Sir, Bushirje.July 18, 1909.
I HAVE the honour to place before you a memorandum on theffjvailing 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 cognisant 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 to the address of the Government of India
and His Majesty’s Minister dated the 6th June, 1908 ; since then we have taken the
opportunity afforded 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 possile 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 whatever 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 present 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 or 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 important 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 retirement 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.
I have, &c.
P. Z. COX, Major,
British Resident in the Persian Gulf, and
His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for Ears, fyc.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[29933]
Consul-
Inclosure in No. 1.
Memorandum respecting the Disorders on the Trade Routes of Southern Persia.
THE state of trade in Southern Persia is at the present time most seriously
affecting British interests. This is especially true of Ears. The result of two years
fighting amongst the Kashgai, Lur, and Arab tribes in the neighbourhood of Shiraz,
and along the caravan routes leading to that trade centre ivas, in the irst p ace, to
[2377 7—111 a