'The Middle Eastern question or some political problems of Indian defence' [‎115v] (235/616)

THE KARUN TRADE ROUTE
of England was visible in Southern Persia, the adminis
tration which most directly affects even our commercial
interests has been delivered up to be controlled by a
foreign influence which not only is not English, but
is practically, if not avowedly, anti-English. That
England should have tolerated such an innovation if
she were able to prevent it is inconceivable to the
native mind. That the reorganisation of the Customs
is an internal reform within the rights of the Persian
Government, and that the choice of Belgian officials to
carry it out has been prompted by the desire to avoid
provoking international jealousies, are official arguments
which equally fail to impress the native. He takes
stock only of what are to him the bed-rock facts, that
Persia has pledged her Customs revenues to Russia
and that the Belgians are merely acting as revenue
collectors on behalf of Russia. If he is told that the
Customs revenues of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. have been
specially excluded from the bond he is apt to smile, or
to inquire pointedly why Russia insisted that Persia
should at once repay out of the Russian loans the debt
which a few years ago assigned the customs of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. as security to England {i.e. to the Imperial
Bank of Persia). He knows, too, that such a vigorous
measure of centralisation as the reorganisation of the
Customs under the direct control of Teheran is one
from which the nerveless hands of his rulers would
have flinched had they not been braced up to it by
strong pressure from outside. Fecit cuiprodest; so the
establishment of a new administration as antagonistic
as the Belgian Customs have shown themselves to be,
at least in the South, to the interests of British trade is,
not perhaps unreasonably, looked upon as one of the
many signs of the times ; like the creation of Russian