ملف رقم ٨٩٧ لسنة ١٩١٢، جزء ٢، "الخليج الفارسي:- مكاتب البريد البريطانية" [و‎‎١‎٣‎٠] (٤٥٦/٢٦٤)

CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1943, dated Bushire, the 2!st (received 29th) June 1914.
From— Major S. G. Knox, C.I.E, Officiating Political Resident in the Persian
Gulf, 1 •’ • n • ■ - I v * I* , 1. .
To— The Foreign Secretary to the Government of India in tl.e Foreign and
Political Department.
I have the honour to forward, for the information of the Government of India,
No. T £j T , dated 21 st June 1914 . a copy of the despatch, noted in the mar-
. ... . _ , . g ,n » which I have addressed to His Majes-
S “ er at , ‘ lran > in regard to the proposed establishment of a British
Post Office at Ahwaz.
Enclosure.
xlfsi dated Bushire, the 21st June 19*4.
From— Major S. G. Knox, C.I.E, Officiating Political Resident in the Persian
Gulf,
To-His Excellency Sir Walter B. Townley, K.C.M.G., His Majesty’s Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Persia
Tehran. 1
I have the honour to forward certain comments on the Persian propositions
detailed in Your Excellency’s despatch No. »i 3 , dated 15 th April 1914 to His
Majesty s Principal Secretary of State for Foreia n Affairs, and with regard to the
question of the establishment of a British Post Office at Ahwaz.
. Chef de Cabinet of the Foreign Ministei commences his attack with a
series of sweeping charges of a general character against the Indian Government
presumably the Indian Postal Administration. So far as can be judged from the
rather voluminous records on the subject in this Consulate-General, and it would
appear that copies of all correspondence between the two Postal Administrations
is always furnished to this office, the objections of the Persian Government have
invariably met with courteous and prompt attention; any real abuses and incon
sistencies with the Postal Convention have been promptly removed and it is only
where plausible expression of the desire for compliance with the strict letter of
the law of the Postal Convention has thinly veiled a concerted design to para
lyse or abolish the only efficient postal institutions in these regions that the
Indian Postal authorities have declined to be drawn into useless and dangerous
correspondence and have referred their critics to the diplomatic channel. & I do
not propose to content myself with this general denial of the allegations of the
Chef de Cabinet, but have taken from the records specific instances in which the
complaints of the Persian authorities have received full attention and their
reasonable grievances immediate redress. They will be found detailed in Appen
dix I to this desaatch.
The Chef de Cabinet states that Persia has been denied the most elemen-
tary rights in her own territories.
The latest indictment of Persian postal arrangements—I refer to despatch
No. 10 , dated lath May 19 . 4 , from His Majesty’s Consul, Kerman, on the postal
mce between Bandar Abbas and Kerman—would certainly justify the retort
mat Persia, in this particular connection, is either unable or unwilling to fulfill the
most elementary duties in her own territories.
■< '„T a /rt PS be P , e T, t . ted a,S ° \° refer t0 Your Excellency’s remarks as to
ln ^ " d ' fficu ‘ ie3 °n the Shiraz road ’in despatch No. a 18 , dated aoth October
I 9 '-' t0 H ,' s Majesty s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and
A " ln despatch No. 34 dated 30 th January 1914 , to the same address as to
unsatisfactory nature of the existing postal arrangements in Arabistan ”.
1 J. ha y e .been unable to trace in my records the explicit understanding given
by H,S Majesty’s Charge d'Affaires, Tehran, in September , 908 , and in lhe
sence of that document (?) it is only possible to guess at the contents. But
as contended by the Chef de Cabinet what is required by the Persian Postal
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