Page 449 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

POLITICAL RESIDENCY FO& 1909. 30

quieted his fears, and since April 1909 nothing more has been heard of the
option.
When visiting Ahwaz, Sir W. Willcocks expressed the opinion that the
Karkha River offered greater facilities
Karkha Irrigation Schorae.
for irrigation than the Katun and re­
commended investigation in this direction. Lieutenant Wilson afterwards
visited the Karkha and made a preliminary report, strongly recommending
that the scheme, which seemed easy and remunerative, should receive careful
examination at the hands of experts.
Lieutenant Wilson subsequently visited the Karkha with Mr. J. W.
Storrs, Public Works Department, during August and September, and with
the assistance of two 'surveyors the latter prepared detailed maps and plans
with levels of the environs of Sinn-ul-’Abbas, Kut Nahr Hashim, and of
the lands that would be watered by the proposed canal.
On 1st January 1910, Sir W. Willcocks visited the Karkha with Mr.
J. W. Storrs and Lieutenant Wilson and selected Sinn-ul-’Abbas as the best
situation for a dam. The site selected was a spur of rock S00' long and 100'
broad running right across the river. The estimated cost of the dam and the
main canal to Kut Nahr Hashim (from which point irrigation would begin)
was put at £75.000, and the area irrigated thereby 100,000 acres winter and
summer. Sir William Willcocks thought that the Shaikh should make 20
per cent, on the capital outlay.
The inception at the commencement of the year of this Company, with
a capital of £2,000,000 under a
Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Ld.
powerful directorate and with the close
support of the Burma Oil Company, is undoubtedly the most important and
far-reaching event affecting British interests that has happened in Arabistan
since the opening of the Karun in 1888. The Company took over Mr. W. K.
D’Arcy’s concession, and all the assets and liabilities of the Concession
Syndicate, Limited, the Company which had bored for oil in the Bakhtiari
country and found it, in 1908. Its effect on the Khans is dealt with in the
report of the Ahwaz Consulate.
Shortly after the announcement of the formation of the Company in
London, the Company’s representative approached the Shaikh with a view
to leasing land on Abadan Island, for a refinery site, and arranging for
a pipe line from the oil fields to this spot through the Shaikh’s territories,
and other facilities. A rough agreement was come to verbally, but at a
price (£2,000) which was considered unsatisfactory by the Directors. The
Political Resident was, therefore, asked to commence negotiations with
the Shaikh with a view to obtaining the land and other facilities asked for
at a cheaper rate. Simultaneously, the Company decided to entrust the
management of their affairs in Arabistan to agents, as in Burma and else­
where in the case o'f the Burma Oil Company, and Mr. J. B. Lloyd, a partner
in the firm of Shaw, Wallace & Co., arrived in June to commence
business as managing agents and general merchants under the name of Lloyd,
Scott <Sr Co. With him was Mr. C- A. Walpole, 'formerly of the
Imperial Bank of Persia, who took charge of the business from July to
December in the absence of Mr. J. B- Lloyd in England. Mr. E. B. Soane,
also formerly of the Imperial Bank of Persia, was appointed to the staff of
Messrs. Lloyd, Soott & Co. in December.
Major Cox interviewed the Shaikh on the subject of land acquisition in
May and obtained from him a declaration that he was prepared to lease the
land required on certain conditions, for an annual rental of £650 per annum,
payable in advance. The principal conditions were that, on the expiration
of the concession, all buildings, machinery, etc., should lapse to him, and
ttiat m case of renewal the lands, buildings, etc., should be leased f rom him
or from his descendants on terms satisfactory to the latter.
After much telegraphic correspondence on the subject, Major Cox pro-

conclude an agreement. Negotiations extended ora four days, and an atrreo-
ment was finally signed whereby an area of 650 jaribs on Abadan Wand