ملف ١٩١٦/١٣٢٣ الجزء ١ "بلوشستان: الأوضاع المضطربة على الحدود الأنجلو فارسية. الإدارة المستقبلية لولايات مكران وسرهد وقلات" [و‎‎١‎٩‎٢] (٨٩٦/٣٨١)

dated 24th October and No. B.-10787-207-34, dated 8th November, regardins
the disposal of the Mirjawa-Duzdap section of the Nushki extension railway,
and the political situation on the Anglo-Persian frontier.
Viscount Peel recognises the force of the suggestion contained in the
telegram of November 5th, No. 361 (Serial No. 115) from His Majesty’s
Minister at lehran that advantage should be taken of the favourable opportu
nity afforded by Reza Khan’s accession to power to endeavour to negotiate a
settlement of these questions, and while he has urged the Government of India
to expedite replies to the points on which their further views are awaited he
would venture to suggest for the consideration of the Marquess Curzon of
Kedleston that His Majesty’s Minister might be instructed at once, without
any actual piejudice to the interests of the Imperial Government, to open
negotiations without further delay.
As legards the question of the railway, it is common ground that the pre
sent anomalous position whereby a British line is maintained in Persian territory
cannot permitted to continue indefinitely. There remain two alternatives, to
tear the line up and remove it with its appurtenances for sale at a mice
(which would accrue to the Imperial Pxchequer) of probably not more "than
Bs. 2 75 lakhs ; or to cede it to Persia. The latter alternative is qualified
by the fact that Persia cannot be expected to afford to purchase it, and it is
understood that Lord Curzon agrees in principle that the cession should be as a
free gift in return for a satisfactory quid pro quo of a political nature.
Prom the remarks in your letter of 24th October (Serial No. 130) as to the
deleterious effects of a temporary cessation of service over the line Viscount Peel
appiehends that the Secretary of State for Poreign Affairs is utterly opposed
to the idea of permanently destroying the line in order to secure its break
up value. There therefore remains the course of giving it to Persia, on condi
tions. Progress in this direction has been blocked for several months by the
failure to find a financial basis of settlement acceptable to The Lords Com
missioners of the Treasury. This issue is a narrow one, in every sense. Lord
Peel does not propose to discuss it further now, and I am to express the hope
that Lord Curzon will use his influence with Their Lordships to induce
them to agree that the offer of the line to Persia need not further be delayed
by discussion of a matter of domestic financial concern.
The political conditions upon which the line should be offered to Persia
have still to be approved by His Majesty’s Government. As will be seen from
the enclosed precis of the previous correspondence it has from the outset been
contemplated by the Government of India, His Majesty’s Minister and the
Secretary of State for India that the cession of the railway should he subject to
the adoption by the Persian Government of measures satisfactory to the British
and Indian Governments for the proper control of the Sarhad ; and His Lcrdship
does not therefore understand the intention of the passages in your letter of 24th
October which appear to deprecate the linking of the question of the disposal
of the railway with that of the restoration of order in the Persian provinces
marching with British Baluchistan. His Lordship had assumed that the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs agreed with him as with His Majesty’s
Minister and the Government of India in regarding the two questions as
inseparably connected, and, on this assumption believed that the proposals
made in my letter of 12th October P.-383t, would be recognised as new onlv
in extent, not in principle.
In his despatch (Enclo. to Serial No. 13) of December 30th, 1922
(No. 758), Sir P. Loraine sketched the measures which he proposed to urge the
Persian Government to take for the maintenance of control of the Sarhad
after the withdrawal of the present British control. In the interval since the
date of that despatch actual events have shown that control of the Sarhad is
not effective if the districts to the south of it are not also under control: and
the object of my letter of 12th October was to urge that the conditions which
it was originally proposed to attach to the gift of the railway to Persia should
be. amplified to require from the Persian Government the adoption of
satisfactory measures for the control of the whole of Persian Baluchistan.
Lord Peel hopes that Lord Curzon will agree to this general proposition and
’will instruct His Majesty’s Minister accordingly.