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will be coterminous with the territories, and confronted with the ambitions of Powers whose
interest are on the whole inimical to its own. In such a case, and it is no idle dream of
fancy, as the futurcwill show, we shall not be able to move, to strike, to advance in any
port of the world where French or Russian interests are involved, because of the menace
that will stand perpetually at our Indian doors. Of the strain upon Indian finances, Ido
not at present speak: but it would be altogether in excess of our means. In this ring
fence there arc at present three gaps: the still independent kingdom of Siam on the east,
the portion of whose territories lying nearest to the Indian frontier has been guaranteed by
a convention between Great Britain and France; on the north the upland wilds of Tibet, as
yet impervious to alien intrusion ; and on the west the dominions of the Shah. These are
the sole remaining buffers that separate the Asiatic possessions of Great Britain from her
European rivals. It rests with British statesmanship to retain all three intact. But it will
sacrifice the importance of their number if it knowingly concedes to Russia that gratification
of her ambition in Eastern Persia, the consequences of which to the British Empire it has
been the object of this Minute to expose.
(iii) Important pronouncements and declarations of policy by the Marquess of
Lansdowne, 1902-03.
154. The remarkable success which the mancauvres of Russia in Persia had
attained to in the year 1901, and which gave force to the insistent and vivifying
influence of Lord Curzon’s advice, bore fruit in some important pronouncements of
policy on the part of His Majesty’s Government. On the 6th of January 1902
the Marquess of Lansdowne addressed to
Secret E., March 190a No*. 877-531 (No*. 50a.)
Sir A. Hardinge a comprehensive pro­
nouncement to be communicated to the Persian Government explaining our
policy in regard to Persian affairs, which is quoted at length below :—
The Marquess of Lansdowne to Sir A. Hardinge,—No. a, dated the 6th January
I902.
* * # * * * *
“ The policy of His Majesty’s Government in regard to the various Persian questions
which most interest this country has from time to time been clearly indicated on the
occasions when those questions have come under discussions. It may, however, be useful
to recapitulate the salient features of that policy in statement, which you may at your
discretion place before the Grand Vizier and other Minister* ot tne Shah, or even before
His Majesty himself, if a suitable opportunity should present itself.
"The Persian Government must be well aware, from the experience of 100 years,
that Great Britain has no designs upon the sovereignty of the Shah or the indepedence
of his State It has, on the contrary, been one of our principal objects to encourage
and strengthen the States lying ouisidc the frontier of our Indian Empire, with the hope
that we should find in them an intervening zone sufficient to prevent direct contact
between the dominions of Great Rritain and those of other great military powers. We
could not, however, maintain this policy if in any particular instance we should find that
one of these intervening States was being crushed out of national existence, and falling
practically under the complete domination of another power. It would be necessary in
that case, before the intervening State had virtually disappeared, to consider what
alternative course our interests might demand now that the object to which our efforts had
hitherto been directed was no longer attainable.
“Applying these principles to Persia, we have long recognized the superior interests
of Russia in the northern portion of the Shah's dominions, which must naturally result
from the long extent of her coterminous frontier. Whatever steps we may have taken
to maintain our position in Northern Persia have therefore been taken as much in the
interests of Persia herself and of her national independence as in our own, which are not
directly threatened by Persian superiority in those regions, except in so far as it might
affect the Persian capital and seat ot Government.
** In the south, on the other hand, for fully a century our efforts have been success­
fully dovoted to building up a substantial and pre-eminent mercantile position, with the
result that we have acquired an altogether exceptional interest in that part of Persia.
" Persia herself has benefited immensely by these labours. We have cleared the
waters adjoining her coasts of pirates, and have kept them constantly policed. It may
be stated without exaggeration that the development of the whole southern trade of
Persia is due to British enterprise, and that it is by this agency that Bushire and
Bandar Abbas have been converted into flourishing ports.
11 The system of telegraphs which has been introduced by the British Indian
Telegraph Administration, with the permission and assistance of the Persian Government,
has tended, not merely to industrial and commercial progress, but also in a remarkable
degree to the consolidation of the Shah’s authority over the centre and south of tho
country.
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