‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎155v] (309/949)

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Tejend to Spistan, but also the routes between Nushfei and Seistan and between Seistan and
Karachi and Pasni, which Mr. Johns examined in the summer of 1903, and the line from
* c i the head of the Gulf via Shiraz and Kerman to
•SecetF., December 1903, No. 37. Seistan which Lieutenant Hopkins,* R.E.,
reconnoitred in the same year. I also attach an abstract giving the length, cost of construc
tion, maximum gradients and curves for all of the lines shown, so far as these can be
ascertained from the statistics and reports available.
The Russian lines from Allat to Resht and from Kivraj, Julfa and Evlak to Tabriz have
been fully surveyed and estimated. The first is a very promising line, but fortunately the
Russian Government do not propose to take it up because they know that, if they do
commence constructing railways in Northern Persia, we are entitled to make lines in Southern
Persia up to Tehran under a pledge from the late Shah.
The Russians under the aegis of the Banque d'Escompte and the Road Company are,
however, completing the railway to their frontier at Julfa and are making a Chaussee suitable
. _ ™ for a railway from that to Tabriz and Kazvin.t
f Proceedings Secret E., May 1903, No. 38. A nu 'c
° > j > all( j are j us t starting on a similar Chaussee rrom
Kazvin 4o Hamadan on the Kermanshah-Khanekin-Baghdad route.
They have also secured the concession for a similar Chaussee from Kasvin to Tehran
(cf. Sir A. Hardinge^ Despatch No. 2 of 6th
P^nTs! 11 * 8 SeCret E " August 1903 ’ N ° S ’ 8 ' 27, Jannar .v 1903, in which he discusses the possibi-
lity of our asking a quid pro quo in the South).
They have also the Chaussees from Resht to Tehran and from Askabad to Kucban and
: Secret F., FebrMry 1902, Nc. 4.18, No. 6 . Meshed. The latter is in part suitable t for
§ Secret F., Ma, 1903, Noe. 2 - 1 . f'i®’ thoush L.eutenant Haslam § R.E., m
1902 thought that the existing works on it were
not likely to be of much use for a railway.
A sum of £5,20,000 has been entered in the Budget for 1904 for the Alexandropol
Erivan Railway to the Persian Frontier.
The Road Company has been allowed to raise a loan of 5,000,000 roubles for the Enzeli
harbour and Kazvin Hamadan road.
It may be said therefore that they have actually started on the preliminary work of
railway construction in North-Western Persia, and are showing signs of a desire to work
down through Western Persia possibly with an idea of making a line via Burujird and
Khorremabad or via Kermanshah and Dizful to the head of the Gulf as well as towards
Baghdad. Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas attaches great importance to the possibility of the last
route.
The lines from Kazvin and Tehran to Baghdad are shown as British surveys on the map,
but we have no details about them, and from Hamadan to Khanikin the route presents
considerable difficulties, while at the Baghdad end a good deal of bridging will be necessary.
Intelligence Branch may have particulars.
As far as can be judged from the reports of Rittich and Sakhansky, there are no insu
perable difficulties in the way of a line from Tehran to Bunder Abbas via Ispahan and
Shiraz, though the gorge of the Kara Agach, South of Shiraz, may give trouble. The line
from Tehran to Chahbar via Kashan-Yezd-Kerman, Bam, and Bampur is even easier. The
cost of these lines is put at about Rs. 1,60,000
J1 This would be even loss to Barnpnr only as the and Es p 54 0 00 || per mile for a line on the
section from that to Chahbar is very difficult. A j j A ■ f ^ p
J standard Russian gauge, The total cost is of
course very heavy and the lines would take long to make, but if Russia is checked in
Manchuria, she may turn her energies to Persia, where she has only to deal with us, whom
they affect to despise in these reports. The possibility of constructing such aline as the latter is
explained in Curzon's Persia, Volume I, page 629.
Colonel Rittich is strongly in favour of Chahbar as a terminal port in preference to
Bunder Abbas, first because it is a better port, and secondly, because it is on the open sea,
whereas any port in the Gulf is rendered useless by the control which Britain possesses over
the entrance to the Gulf—a control which we hope to perfect shortly. The report of Com
manders Kemp and Somerville on Chahbar as a naval base andlharbour is put up. It is one
of the best of the possible harbours along the Persian coast, though not at all an ideal naval
base.
The Russians, however, in addition to the wish to secure a port on the Southern Coast
of Persia, have in view the strategical advantages of a line to the south-east from Tehran with
a branch to Seistan as a means of facilitating an advance on India. Lieutenant-Colonel
Napier's note appended to Mr. Spring Rice’s Despatch shows how great these are.
Lieutenant Hopkins, it is true, found the Rud-i-Mahi rather a serious obstacle to a railway
•H Secret F., December 1903, No. 37. fr0m , Bam to Quetta > but there is necessity
to take that route, as the surveys of Gopal
Singh and Mr. Moore for a telegraph line and the report of Mr. Dobbs show that a line can
perhaps be found direct from Koh-i»Malik Siah via Baluchab, Nasratabad Ispe, and Gurg,
to Bam whh only one stretch of 26 miles between Shurgez and Gurg without water. From
Robat (Koh-i-Maiik Siab) to Nushki Mr. Johns’ survey proves that a line can be made in