Page 603 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1911. 8
provide against anything of the sort, and eventually the opposition was
limited to an attempted boycott which soon broke down. The attack on
Mr. Smart and party just before the end of the year was no doubt due partly
to this general feeling of hostility, but more immediately to the alarmed
cupidity of the nomad Chief in whose sphere it took place.
After a good many years of stagnation and hope deferred, the present
twelve months has witnessed encourag-
“ lb” ing developments in several directions,
both political and economic. Among
the former category I may mention the framing of an Order in Council for
Bahrain, and the opening of negotiations with the Porte for a give-and-take
settlement of our conflicting interests in Turkish Arabia and the Gulf, while
the economic category includes the serious discussion of railway projects
both in Turkey and Persia; the improvement under our auspices of the light­
ing and buoying of the Persian Gulf, and the installation by us of a system
of wireless telegraphy.
I will touch briefly on each of these topics.
The Baghdad Railway.—This project has undergone consideration,
development, and some modification.
Railways.
On the one hand, as the result of the
B Potsdam Interview,” Russia came to an agreement with Germany whereby
the former undertook to construct a line from Tehran to Khanikin, while the
latter agreed to join this system with the Baghdad one by making the branch
connection with Khanikin or conceivably by bringing the main line through
Khanikin. Russia undertook to obtain a concession and start work on her
line within two years, failing which Germany would have the right to take
her own steps to obtain a transfer of the concession.
Almost simultaneously the German Company notified the surrender of
its rights under its general concession to construct the section south of Bagh­
dad, stipulating only that its share in the new Company formed to construct
this portion should not be less than that of the group representing any other
nationality. The questions of the formation of the new Company and the
respective shares to be held by the several elements interested were still under
discussion and negotiation at the end of the year. Meanwhile the general
trend of British and foreign opinion is towards the ultimate selection of
Basrah as the main terminus rather than Kuwait.
The Trans-Persia Railway.—This scheme, which was actively boomed
in Russia early in 1911, may be said to have come within the region of prac­
tical politics.
In the past the attitude of British opinion towards such a project has
been one of suspicion and disfavour mainly on strategic grounas. But it
was held that the progress of the Baghdad Railway and its aspect from the
Indian point of view, combined with the readiness of Russia to accept a
strategically innocuous alignment, precluded our longer maintaining an
attitude of active disfavour towards the project.
His Majesty’s Government has, therefore, consented to co-operate with
Russia for the systematic investigation of the project from an economic and
engineering point of view, while reserving to itself full liberty to regulate its
final attitude towards the project by the light of the results of those investiga­
tions. Meanwhile, it may be mentioned that the alignment favoured by the
Russian group is via Kerman to Karachi, while the British view inclines
towards a more southerly alignment from Yezd, touching the coast at Bandar
Abbas or Charbar, and following the coast thence to Karachi.
Luristan Railway.—This project, which contemplates a line from
Mohammerah to Khurramabad with ultimate extension northwards into the
Russian sphere, was definitely pursued during the year, and the Persian
Government actually approached with a request for a concession. The
request was not, however, pressed at the time as the Central Government
could not be induced to contemplate the spheres of influence created by the
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