'File 379/1906 Railways: Aden; railway construction in Aden hinterland; Aden-Lahej Railway' [‎75r] (154/308)

will now be under the control of this Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and the apportionment of cliAr^es
can entail a certain proportionate contribution by the Railway Company in
accordance with the principles observed on Indian railways.
. 18- The 16 th condition is a modification of the Sultan’s first proposal,
which it is necessary and on the whole seems harmless to insert.
19. The 17th condition is the most important of all in several
respects and upon it really hinges the whole enterprise. Under it land is
secured free of rent, the Abdali State is secured a real profit from the railway,
and Sultan Sir Ahmed Padthl can, with the sanction of Government, be secured
a personal stare of that gain for himself and his sons and lineal descendants,
as distinct from his successors in the Sultanate, of which he has openly stated
and which most certainly and apparently is the main consideration underlying
his consent to and desire for the construction of a railway through his limits.
20. It is improbable that under the 18th condition he will receive
from any other firm so extravagant an offer as that made by Messrs. Cowasjee
Uinshaw and Brothers. The Sultan has himself comparatively little capital to
invest for the purposes of partnership. And it is quite possible that a personal
grant to him of a percentage of the net profit of the railway will prove equally
tempting and seem to him more probable of actual realisation than the remark*
able terms of partnership offered by Messrs. Cowasjee Dinshaw and Brothers.
21. I therefore recommend that this condition be allowed and that
sanction should be eventually accorded to any reasonable offer made
thereunder.
22. In doing this I have the honour to invite consideration of the fact
that with a certain proportion of his tribesmen and relations the Sultan will
incur some odium over an innovation which at first may prove detrimental to
the direct interests of those who gain from the regular traffic of camels between
Aden and the interior. I would also invite consideration of the fact that
succession to the Sultanate is not in Arabia hereditary, but dependent upon a
plebiscite of the tribe.
2:1. It is therefore possible that Sir Ahmed Fadthl’s sons may suffer for
the enterprise displayed by their father by the failure of one of them to
succeed him upon his death, wide i he might otherwise have done.
24. I would at all events urge that the personal enterprise displayed by
an individual Sultan in the face of that contingency merits special considera
tion, and I would go so far as to very strongly recommend that if this
enterprise is actually now brought to a successful issue, Government should
themselves mark their appreciation thereof by the grant of a suitable personal
political pension to Sir Ahmed Fadthl and to his private heirs.
25. It is of course with some regret that I have to impress Upon Govern*
ment the fact that personal avarice is one of the strongest features in the
character of the present Sultan of the Abdali. But such is undoubtedly the
case. And I can only add now in this connection that if Government can
authorise me to assure Sir Ahmed Fadthl that upon the successful opening of
the railway under reasonable conditions he and his private heirs wiil be
granted a fairly handsome personal pension in perpetuity, I can then most
confidently assure Government that final negotiations will be brought to a
prompt and a really satisfactory conclusion.
26. Final negotiations will probably prove more difficult than those now
concluded and the result will very largely depend upon the manner in which
Sir Ahmed Fadthl’s privy purse as distinct from his State exchequer is
affected.
27. The possibility of avoiding his territory, by an initial digression of
the line in the direction of either Amriga on one side or Khanfar on the other
has suggested itself to me, but this would entail such serious general political
complications that I hesitate to invite serious consideration of the idea. The
avoidance of Abdali transit dues would be of course a vast gain to the general
trade of the district, but the violent hostility of the Abdali coupled with the
difficulties involved in the present qon-existenoe of clearly defined interstatal
boundaries would, anyhow at the outset, be pregnant with the possibility of a
greater immediate loss.