Page 75 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953

|W

09
The opening of roads is indeed desirable in
order to feed the trade of the Gulf; but it lias
been forcibly urged that no marked development
of commerce can take place until railway con­
struction lias been entered upon, and that a single
line joining Bunder Abbas or Busliire with the
plateau would be of incalculable service in this
connection, since it would reduce the time of the
journey from the coast to Ispahan from thirty
days to twenty-four hours, and the cost of trans­
port from 10/. a ton to 1/.
Moreover, it is by no means improbable—the
German Minister for Foreign Affairs alluded to
the contingency in conversation with Sir E. Grey
—•that the promoters of the Bagdad Railway
may seek to secure an extension across the
Turkish frontier, and the situation which now
causes anxiety to His Majesty’s Government in
Mesopotamia may perhaps find a counterpart in
the south of Persia. That such a consummation
would be prejudicial to our interests does not
appear to require demonstration; and a Conces­
sion of this nature should assuredly be fore-
Acquisition of prior rights for stalled by ike acquisition of prior rights, to
Railway Construction. which, in virtue of undertakings of the late Shah*
and his predecessor, His Majesty’s Government
arc already in some degree entitled.
The most natural route for a railway would
perhaps bo the prolongation of the Khanikin
branch from Bagdad vifi Kcrmanshah, Sultana-
bad and Ispahan to Yezd, with branches to
Dizful and Mohammerah und to Kerman and
Bunder Abbas; The provisions of the Anglo-
Russian Convention would occasion some devia­
tion from this line, but the trunk line could be
modified to meet the exigencies of the political
situation, while a beginning would necessarily
be made with the branches which rest on the
sea.
For the prcscut, questions of actual construc­
tion are premature; it is only desirable, in order
to guard against a needless surrender to German
competition, to enter a :aveat at Tehran.
The following letter, dated the 26th September,
1907, contains the views of Sir E. Grey on the
subject of railway construction:—
“ I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to
state, for the information of the Secretary o
State for India, that he has recently had under
consideration the efiect which the signature of
* So© Appendix (B), p. 114.