Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎271r] (542/879)

and rrincess of wy ares inspected the plans, which i
were displayed upon an easel close to the stone.
A few minutes later their Royal Highnesses left
the building amid loud cheers, being followed
immediately afterwards by the other members of
the Royal Family. From first to last the cere
mony was most admirably carried through, and
the complete success which crowned the efforts of
those to whom its organization was due may be
taken as a happy augury for the future of the
great institution which will date a new epoch in
its history from the proceedings of Saturday.
COUNTRY HOLIDAYS.
We have received the following appeals :—
COUNTRY CLEEGY HOLIDAY FUND.— Canon Benham,
writing from the office of the Poor Clergy Relief
Corporation, asks for help on behalf of the con
valescent and holiday fund for the poor country
clergy. He says :—“ Poor indeed many of them are,
and some sorely need rest and change from their daily
round of labour. There are two distinct classes—first,
the workers in our vast provincial towns, and, secondly,
those working in retired villages. The first class may
be said to speak for themselves, but of the second
it is impossible for those who have not experienced
the need to imagine the comfort and blessing which a
fortnight’s holiday by the sea, or among the hills,
onfers on a man who has been going to and fro,
appily, indeed, but with labour and weariness, week
ifter week in a large parish. My own last country
parish was nine miles from end to end. Here in London
>ur populations are packed close together ; in the
ountry the cottages are hardly visible one from the
>ther. But the parson has to visit them, and indeed
le is weary-footed at the day’s end. Of course a pony
n the greater number of cases is out of the question.
Even a run up to London is often as good a holiday as
ie can have after a long round of turnip fields ; it is an
ntellectual and even bodily stimulant. Sometimes his
hroat or his sight gets out of order, and a little holi-
lay helps him to obtain invaluable advice. I write
ifter long experience, and know that I am pleading a
rood cause for worthy and deserving men. Contri-
butions to this fund will be thankfully received by our
secretary, Mr. Mandeville B. Phillips, 38, Tavistock-
place, Tavistock-square, W.C., to whom all com-
munications should be addressed.”
Sr. AUGUSTINE’S, Bermondsey.—The Rev. W. J.
Stobart, writing from St. Augustine's Vicarage,
Bermondsey, asks for help to take the poor little
children of the Sunday school for a day in the country.
HOLIDAY Homes FUND, 37, NoRFOLK-STREET,
STRAND.— Mr. John Kirk writes :—'' Many thousands
of poor children are at this moment looking forward
Tune ugszexpectantly to a brief stay in the country or by the sea
r 3 • .shore. On our books is a large number of crippled
>qq SpIMO. 'BisSnA IO eUrAI Aq JU9e"I— 4 " children, for whom special provision has to be made.
-OAOUI Kus on jqdei QAtqoo.qe qsot H 00 AIEqO'As satisfactory evidence that any amounts sent will be
pno, ore (IA peqeporqy JO dn JulUwell distributed, I might add that the Ragged School
11 " aar TintiT io Lens Union workers are in close contact with all the chil-
Ou astoo AeQUod O% WO S. "'PUL. ono foiren sent away, so that the needs of every individual
AEMIIBI OLSeqeJs OH+ Ul deo snores, eto et are well considered.”
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RIVER PLATE FRESH MEAT COMPANY (LIMITED).—
‘te report for the year ended April 30 shows, after
providing for depreciation, a profit on trading of
:49,320, and the balance brought forward was £1,184,
r a total of £50,504. The sum of £20,000 has been
mt to reserve, bringing it up to £45,000, and a divi-
end of 7 per cent, on the ordinary shares is proposed,
saving £1,847 to be carried forward.
.1812 an otales AATEI uerpur MO1 GREENWOOD AND BATLEY (Limited).—The report for
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ssoulpeoas ouos UMous 'paaput 'seq quouru 102,750 for doubtful accounts, and allowances, the net
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a position of extravagant prominence, anon one
of unmerited obscurity. At one time she has
been the occasion or the recipient of lavish and
almost wanton prodigality ; at another she has been
treated with penurious meanness.” Such a policy,
of alternate “ white heat ” and " inert stupor ”
has no chance against the fixed resolve of Russia.
It is needless to follow the wayward fortunes of
the Karun road from the south. The Indian
Government has, indeed, shown some steadiness
of purpose by a subsidy of £1,000 a year in
aid of a steamship service on the Karun river, and
by digging wells along a central route to connect
the eastern frontier of Persia with the terminus
of the Indian railway service at Quetta. The
contention of Russia now is, or soon will be, that,
having opened up North Persia from the Caspian
to the capital, she has acquired a claim to
continue her operations by opening up
South Persia from the capital to the Persian
Gulf. It is not surprising that, with this contin
gency in view, the Indian Press should urge the
strengthening of our political staff on the Persian
Gulf, including the permanent residence of a
British officer at Bunder Abbas, with permission
to travel into the interior. Nor is it possible
any longer to shut our eyes to the fact that
the one serious gap in the strategic railway
system of India is on the Bombay coast. The
linking up of Ahmedabad with Karachi would
probably be the most effective reply to any move
ment, whether by France or Russia, towards the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
INDIAN AFFAIRS.
THE PERSIAN LINE OF APPROACH TO
INDIA.
Mr. Brodrick again assured the House on
Friday that her Majesty’s Government had
no information confirming the reiterated state
ments of the Times of India with regard
to Russian schemes at Bandar Abbas. Yet,
exaggerated or at least premature as we must
assume these statements to be, they supply
a striking comment on the information which
has come from many sources during the
past month regarding the designs of Russia
on Persia. The able series of reports by
Acting Consul-General Mackie at Odessa and
Consul Stevens at Batum record year by year the
measures by which the Tsar’s agents are assuring
their south-eastern advance. The Russianizing of
the Caspian is now an accomplished fact
and the main entrance from it to Persia has
passed definitely within the sphere of Russian
influence. But the news from India at the end
of April, that Russia had secured by secret
greement a port on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. took
tudents of the question by surprise. The
Bombay paper which made the announcement
leclared that its information was derived direct
rom Teheran and from an unimpeachable
ource. It believed that the port referred to is
Bandar Abbas. But it warned the public that,
is Russia is not yet prepared to take open action
upon the agreement, “ the inevitable period of
wholesale denial has to be passed through.” As
a matter of fact, the Indian Government at once
intimated that it had no knowledge of any such
private arrangement between the Tsar and the
Shah. The Persian Minister in London com
municated to the Press an explicit disclaimer of
any such arrangement. But almost at the same
time the Frankfurter Zeitu/ng gave, on the
authority of information from Baghdad, a detailed
account of a Russian survey party, consisting
of seven general staff officers and 14 engineers,
then on its way through Persian territory to the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Mr. Brodrick, when questioned
as to the rumoured Russian line via Tabriz,
Teheran, and Ispahan to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , had
previously replied that her Majesty s Government
was not cognisant of the projected railway, nor
had it any knowledge of the “ completion of
railway surveys by Russian officers ” such as
those described. Since then the semi-official
St. Petersburg Press has been allowed to dwell
with growing insistence on the interests of
Russia in southern Persia, and the German
organs unfriendly to England have also laboured
the subject. A fortnight ago the Novoe Vremya,
in dealing with the conflict of British and
Russian interests in Asia, thus summed up the
situation :—
In order to assure our political influence, full liberty
of action in South Persia must be striven for.
To secure for ourselves the means of offering
real resistance to British influence in that country
(Persia) is an object of no less importance than that
pursued by the Russo-Chinese Bank. Moreover, this
object lies nearer at hand,the ground for its accomplish
ment having been well prepared for a considerable time
past.
On Monday last the Times of India returned to
the charge, stating that the Governor of Bandar
Abbas had received an intimation from Teheran
of the cession of that post to Russia and
of its impending transfer to its new owners.
Were it not that events have hardly yet reached
the stage when it would be politic or even possible
for Russia to enter into effectual occupation of
any point on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , it would
be difficult to reconcile the express state-
merits made from indopondont sources in the
Indian and the German Press, and the tone which
has been deliberately adopted by the semi-
official Russian newspapers, with the Under
secretary of State’s answers and the categorical
denial of the Persian Minister. Russian projects
in regard to South Persia have probably not yet
passed beyond the stage of preliminary explora
tion. It must,therefore,suffice to note that alike in
India, Russia, and Germany it is now recognized
that the Persian approach to India may become
an important factor in Anglo-Russian relations
in the East and that it may be played off against
our claims in China. A Berlin journal goes so
far as to say that the old Russian line
of march to the Indian frontier, via the
Caspian and Oxus Valley, must be re
garded as in abeyance. Its time may come
when the trans-Siberian railway is completed
and linked up with the Central Asian
line. But there is a somewhat ostentatious
admission that the direct route to India is
not necessarily the best one, and that the
traditional policy bequeathed by Peter the
Great must be reconsidered by the light of a
southern line of approach. It would be pleasant
if we could assume that the strengthening of our
Indian frontier has had something to do with
this change of view. There can, however, be no
question that the heavy burden of frontier defences
borne during the past 15 years by India has
enormously increased the difficulty of an attack
by the direct Central Asian route.
In all this we look at the subject, as we are
bound primarily to look at it, from the military
and political point of view. But the ablest
of the Russian advocates insist strongly on
another aspect. They point out that Persia
blocks the Russian trade-path to the sea.
The Caspian and the Volga afford a mag
nificent water-way from the heart of Russia
to the north coast of Persia. The chief harbour
on that coast is, from the mercantile point of
view, almost a Russian port, and the right
of constructing railways and roads into the
interior of Persia has been secured by Russia.
The natural and legitimate object of Russia,
it is urged, must be to continue her great trade
route to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . In trying to reach the
Asiatic seas through Persia, says the St. Peters
burg correspondent of a German paper, Russia is
taking not only the shortest line, but also the
line of least resistance.
It may be well to realize the amount of truth
in this trade-route argument. As regards com
mercial and industrial enterprise Russia is unques-
tionably the dominant foreign Power in North
Persia. Russian sugar has beaten all other
sugars out of the field, Moscow prints monopolize
the whole markets of the north-west, St. Peters
burg engineers designed the great road which will
connect the Caspian with Teheran, foremen from
Odessa and the Volga provinces are constructing
it. In every chief article of import, from cotton
goods, glass, and earthenware to petroleum
and candles, Russia has no rival in North
Persia. She has won this supremacy by a large
outlay of money. An elaborate system of boun
ties, direct and indirect, has nursed the Persian
trade into a great branch of Russian commerce.
She has provided funds, partly State and
partly private, for road-making with a liberality
which neither the English investor nor the
British Government would care to imitate.
Russia found the Persian trade routes mere mule
tracks, and almost in the same condition they
were described by Herodotus. In the single road
from Resht on the Caspian towards Teheran the
merchants of Moscow formed a company with a
capital of £100,000, to which the Russian
Government added another £100,000, and has
since arranged for an additional £140,000 ; or
£340,000 for the first sections alone. Russia
has in fact established her commercial and
industrial supremacy in North Persia, not only
by virtue of her geographical position, but also
by bounties, financial encouragements, and a
heavy expenditure of workmen’s lives and of
hard cash.
If, however, we turn to the south of Persia we
find England even more decisively predominant
than Russia is in the north. Of the total of Persian
imports, estimated at under four millions sterling,
one million entered in 1897 by Bushire. To these
Great Britain and India contributed £974,386 and
Russia only £750. It seemed on the opening
of the Karun river to international trade in 1888
that the next ten years would see a race between
Russia and England to reach Teheran from the
Caspian and from the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Such a race
was indeed started ; but, while Russia has been
steadily pouring money and merchandise into
North Persia, neither the British capitalist nor
the British Government felt inclined to press
forward the trade route from the south.
“ Persia,” wrote Lord Curzon of Kedleston,
“ has alternately advanced and receded in the
estimation of British statesmen, occunving now