Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎193v] (386/442)

453 Factory An East India Company trading post. and Workshop (No. 2) Bill. [ LORDS ] The Trans-Persian Railway. 454
I think that is a great omission. It is
true that you cannot apply to clerical work
all the conditions that you apply to other
trades in the schedule, but the Home
Office have reserved to themselves com
plete power to vary the regulations ac
cording to the difference of occupations
to which the regulations are to apply.
It would be perfectly possible for them,
therefore, when dealing with other clerical
work to apply only regulations which were
applicable to that work. When you
consider that the object of this Bill is as
far as possible to prevent underground
work, it is a serious omission to leave
untouched the great branch of clerical
work. The health* of clerks, both male
and female, is as much entitled to pro
tection by Act of Parliament as the health
of typists and those engaged in the other
trades mentioned. I therefore think the
Government would be well advised, between
now and the next stage, to consider whether
it would not be possible to add the words
“ and other clerical work.”
Lord STRACHIE: I am afraid I
cannot give the noble Marquess any hope
that the Government will do this. It seems
to me that he is opening a very large area
indeed and making a very serious addition
to the schedule. I should like to warn
him that there is great danger in adding
other clerical work. You would have to
increase, not only the number of inspectors
working under the Home Office, but you
would certainly have to increase those
under local authorities. I am sure none
of us are anxious to increase the number of
inspectors. In fact, I have been rather
shocked to-day at the light way in which
the noble Marquess 4 has been ready to
increase the number of inspectors and add
to the cost not only upon the taxes but
upon the local rates. I always thought
that the principal charge against His
Majesty s Government was that they were
setting up too many officials, but here the
Home Office is being urged to further
extend this Bill and set up additional
officials.
Schedule agreed to.
The Report of Amendments to be
received on Monday next, and Bill to be
printed as amended. (No. 118.)
The Marquess of Salisbury.
THE TRANS-PERSIAN RAILWAY.
*Earl CURZON of KEDLESTON rose
to call attention to the project of a Trans-
Persian Railway; to inquire as to the
policy of His Majesty’s Government and the
views of the Government of India in relation
to this proposal ; and to move for Papers.
The noble Earl said : My Lords, I
propose to confine myself very strictly to
the terms of the Notice on the Paper.
Though the question of Persian railways
does touch the general position in Persia, and
though the customary latitude of debate in
our House would allow me, I imagine, to raise
that question, I propose to resist the
temptation altogether this evening. Neither
shall I say anything about the cognate
question of the Baghdad Railway except
this, that it seems to me that, if we are
going in for a Trans-Persian line, such a
line must react unfavourably on the
prospects of the Baghdad Railway; for
this reason, that if by this railway you
••place your passengers or your goods at
the Indian end of the Arabian Sea, ob
viously there is less inducement either for
passengers or for goods to take advantage
of a railway which will deposit them at the
other or Turkish end of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
My first point is this. I doubt whether
your Lordships realise the extraordinary
and almost unsuspected rapidity with
which this question is moving. I wonder
whether Parliament, and, still more, the
public, has any idea what is going on and
what has already been done. This is not
a question of an ordinary line being built
in a foreign country, whether for the
development of communications, the con
nection of cities, or the advancement of
trade. This is a question of a great trunk
line running all the way through Asia
to India, necessarily altering the whole
position in India itself and the future
security of our rule in that country, and
compelling us—this will be part of my
argument—to revise the principles upon
which the defence of India has so far been
based. How many are there, even of the
public who follow the affairs of Asia, who
realise that such a line as I speak of is now
being surveyed, that a sum of nearly
£ 100,000 has been subscribed by financiers
in this country and in Russia and in France
for carrying out these preliminary pro
ceedings, and, what is more, important,
that His Majesty’s Government have
agreed “ in principle ”—these are their