Page 457 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1000. 47
authorisation to accept liquidation of the claim without the interat snpei-
added, in ease the Khans on seeing details refused payment erf^ inter The
matter was referred to the Foreign Office and Messrs. Lynch ,
Office and authority as desired was granted, but information only ar
when His Majesty's'Consul had started on tour for the Kuhgelu country and
was unable to see the Bakhtiari Khans.
Captain Larimer's robbery claim.—This claim had been outstanding since
v the summer of 1908 and, as in above
(b) Miscellaneous. Khans had refused payment.
eases, . .
Their objections were overcome however and the claim paid in toto in August.
During the month of January the Engineering expert, Mr Howard
Humphrey's report in connection witn
Godar Bridge. the Godar Bridge was received. In
his opinion the defects, which have appeared in the structure of the bridge,
are due to two causes, both of which appear to be subsequent on structural
defects.
His Majesty’s Consul, while on tour, inspected the bridge and reported
on its present state, at the same time requesting that the incidence for the res­
ponsibility of payment for the remedying of the defects might be finally estab­
lished prior to repairs. No answer had been received up to the end of the
year under review.
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s operations in Arabistan are dealt
with in thc Mohammerah Consulate Ad­
Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
ministration Report, 1909.
In April a subsidiary agreement was arrived at with the Bakhtiari Khans
with regard to the guarding arrange­
Relations with Bakhtiaris.
ments for the oil fields, which up to then
had been most unsatisfacton’. By this agreement a specified number of
guards, both mounted and unmounted, were to be maintained at each oil field,
the payment of whom was to be in the hands of thc Company and in consider­
ation of which a sum of £600 per annum was to be deducted from the annual
subsidy of £2,000 paid by thc Company to the Bakhtiari Khans.
As a whole the Bakhtiari Khans’ attitude has been friendly towards the
Oil Company during the past year, and they appear to have recognised the
fact that their interests lie in the smooth and uninterrupted progress of the
Oil Company’s affairs.
DuriDg the year under report relations between His Britannic Majesty’s
Consulate and that of the Netherlands
Foreign interest* and Activities. Political, and the Russian Consular Agency have
been of the friendliest.
In the month of February Mr. ter Meulen, the Russian Consular Agent
Ahwaz commenced to talk openly of a “concession” which the Dutch had
obtained for irrigation works from the Kamn river.’ This, however, on refer­
ence by His Britannic Majesty’s Minister, Tehran, to the Persian Minister
for foreign Affairs was denied and was stated to be merely a two years’ option
granted to the late Dutch Minister M. de Sturler. The Persian Minister for
A^airs also asserted that the Netherlands Minister had complained
tnat tne option granted was valueless.

The principal points of this concession will be found in the appendix.