‏"برقيات ومراسلات رئيسية تتعلق ببلاد فارس، وترتبط بملخص الأحداث والتدابير التي اتخذها سمو نائب الملك اللورد كرزون من كيدلستون في إدارة الخارجية في الفترة من يناير ١٨٩٩ إلى نوفمبر ١٩٠٥، المجلد الرابع - الجزء الرابع، بلاد فارس". [ظ‎‎٢‎١] (١٣٦/٤٧)

[i6 ]
British sphere of influence in the centre and south. It is to a more critical
examination of this subject that we now turn.
14. Sir M. Durand has in his despatch drawn a line across Persia from
Khanikin on the Turkish frontier on the west, through Kermanshah, Hamadan,
Ispahan, Yezd and Kerman to Seistan and the Afghan frontier on the east,
as indicating approximately the existing line of partition between the British
and Russian spheres of influence both political and commercial in Persia.
15. Polio wing the same order from the west, we concur with what he has
written about the importance of fostering the Baghdad trade route via Kerman
shah to Tehran, British commerce by which approaches in value to £1,000,000
per annum. This is a route of peculiar value both to British and to Indian
trade, and one upon which we should on no account forfeit the supremacy.
We have no hesitation in recommending, with Sir M. Durand, the substitution
of a British Vice-Consul at Kermanshah for the present native agent: although
.we think that the cost of the proposed appointment which lies outside of what
may be called the more strictly Indian zone, and which will be subordinate to
the Consulate-General at Tehran, should be borne by Imperial and not by
Indian revenues.
16. Whatever be the prospects of opening up, either by road or by railway
(and concerning the latter we are sceptical), the country that lies northward of
the Karun River, and that is inhabited by the Lurs and other nomad tribes, it
is certain that British influence has obtained a material foothold in that corner
of the Shah’s dominions, through which the Karun flows in its middle and lower
course, and where the road now being constructed through the Bakhtiari
country, by contract between the Bakhtiari Chiefs and Messrs. Lynch, should
open an alternative and almost exclusively British door of commercial access to
Ispahan. We do not express any opinion as to the ideas which Sir M. Durand
has more than once put forward as to the desirability of raising a local irregular
force under British officers from the tribes in this part of Persia. Such a
scheme would appear to postulate a firmer and more permanent footing than
we have as yet established in South-West Persia. Nevertheless we think that
no opportunity should be lost of strengthening our influence with the Arab,
Bakhtiari and Lur tribes—an effort to challenge which from a rival quarter
appears likely before long to be made—and we concur in Sir M. Durand’s
recommendations as to the desirability of establishing a Consulate on the
Karun, reserving for a subsequent paragraph our opinion as to the proper
incidence of the cost.
17. Continuing in an easterly direction, we have noticed from the recent
Consular Report of Mr. J. R. Preece, Her Majesty’s Consul at Ispahan, that
“ British trade in Ispahan has shown during the last two years, if not an
absolute decrease, at all events no expansion whatever ”, while great strides
have been made in Russian importations, notably of glassware and hardware.
We agree with Sir M. Durand in thinking that the British Consul should be
raised in respect of title and pay to the same level as the recently arrived
Russian representative, although, as this is a matter which mainly concerns
the English Foreign Office, we are not clear that we are called upon to advise
upon the subject. We cannot, however, too strongly emphasise our opinion
that m any partition either of commercial or political spheres of influence in
Persia, Ispahan, the old (and, if Persia should ultimately break up, possibly a
future) capital, the seat of the Sefavi dynasty, the principal market of Central
Persia, and (far more than Tehran) the focus of Persian nationality must
on every ground, be included in the zone in which British interests are
supreme.
18. We also concur with Sir M. Durand in thinking that British interests
are most inadequately represented at Shiraz by the present native agent who
is a nonentity, without influence or power; and that the experiment of brinoino*
the Resident m the Persian Gulf, who is also Consul-General for Ears, to reside