'The Middle Eastern question or some political problems of Indian defence' [‎56r] (116/616)

MOST-FAVOURED-NATION TREATMENT 77
appended to the Treaty of Turkman Chai of February
21 st, 1828. Under that article imports and exports
were to be subjected to a single duty of 5 per cent.
ad valorem. This was an eminently moderate rate,
and so long as British trade was assured of its per
manency there was nothing to complain of. But it
never seems to have occurred to anyone that its
maintenance depended not upon Persia and ourselves,
but upon Persia and Russia, and that there could
not therefore be any assurance of its permanency.
In 1841, when we at last concluded a commercial
treaty with Persia which had been foreshadowed in
the preamble to the political treaty of 1814, and in
i 857, when the Treaty of Peace was concluded at
Paris after the Anglo-Persian war, it would have
been easy enough to have procured the insertion of
a clause specifying the same tariff rates for Anglo-
Persian trade which had been specifically granted to
Russia. But this was not done, and so we continued
to allow our interests to remain practically dependent
upon the maintenance of treaty provisions to which we
were no party, and over which we could have no direct
control. This would have been an unsound position
even if we could have relied upon Persia continuing to
be a free agent. But, from the moment when the
Persian Government passed under the complete as
cendency of Russia and succumbed into financial
bondage to her, the position became one of obvious
peril, and the end was clearly to be foreseen.
The new Russo-Persian agreement imposes upon
Persia a tariff of which the details have been elaborated
in the sole interests of Russia. It is, as far as Persia
is concerned, merely a revenue tariff, and as such, it is
designed to increase just those revenues which she has