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File 1408/1904 Pt 2 ‘Persian Gulf: telegraphs. Henjam-Bunder Abbas-cable’ [165v] (335/478)
The record is made up of 1 volume (235 folios). It was created in 1904-1909. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
4
9
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
a-vear or a little more than half the total revenue, and in view of the
difficuUy of getting Persian employes acquainted with foreign languages to reside,
except for high pay, on an unwholesome and desert island like Henjam probably
more It is therefore worth considering whether any advantage whatever beyond he
doubtful one of causing half an-hour’s delay for each telegram, will be gained by the
throwing away of some 3,000 tonans a-year in order that two sets of men should do
wicc over the work which one set of them could do m half the time. It will he
remembered that Henjam can never he a real terminal station, as it has no traffic or
population of its own, and every message which passes into the Persian station there
from or to anv other part of Persia must also pass oyer the Indo-European line and
through the Indo-European station, since between Henjam and Buslure there is no
Persian telegraph line as there is between Bushire and Tehran, but only the English
submarine cable; further, the indirect increase of revenue which the Persian
Government will derive as time goes on owing to Bunder Abbas becoming a
telegraph station and thus an increased centre of trade, will not he helped by a second
station on Heniam, which can never be more productive _ than it is at present. To
establish such a second station would be almost like paying an expensive staff to
intercept all telegrams passing between Busbire and Tehran or lehran and Kesht at
Kushk-i-Nasrat, Chappar Kkaneh, or at Kerej or Yengi Imam. I camnot theretore
but think that your Excellency has not adequately explained to His Majesty the
object and nature of my Government’s proposal, and that it has been suspected that
it was not merely intended to secure rapidity of telegraphic^ communication, but
either to acquire for political purposes a knowledge not otherwise obtainable, by the
Indo-European Telegraph Department, of all messages which might pass to and from
Bunder Abbas, or else to deprive the Persian Government for the benefit of the Indo-
European Telegraph Department of a portion of the profits of the new line. But His
Majesty in his wisdom and sagacity will see at once, if he will deign to look more
closely into the question, that this supposed first object will not be made easier by
having one station at Henjam, since all messages must eventually come into the Indo-
European Telegraph Department’s office there, even if there is a second Persian office,
whilst the other object will anyhow not be obtained, inasmuch as under the earlier
Convention all the receipts from local traffic on the Indian lines within Persia itself
are handed over to the Persian Government. The creation of the two offices side
by side on Henjam can therefore produce no effect except to diminish the receipts of
the Persian Government, delay telegraphic communications, and perhaps furnish
occasions for disputes.
If, however, notwithstanding all these inconveniences, the Persian Government
still prefers a second station of its owm at Henjam, I am prepared, subject to
reference to His Majesty’s Government, to strike out the clause proposed by them to
which I understand that His Majesty takes exception, and to conclude the agreement
without further delay and without waiting for the information necessary in order to
alter the present estimates for the cost of the work to be done by our engineers.
When I ascertain exactly what the additional cost of such a station with the
necessary wells and water supply will be, the charges for the works might be added
to the amount guaranteed by the Persian Treasury for the construction of the entire
line. It might, for instance, be possible to reduce the expenses by uniting both
offices in a single building, or else, as has been suggested by Mr. New, by a division
between the Persian and English staffs at Henjam of the hours of the day during
which each shall have the use of the line, and the final settlement of these details
might he reserved for further discussion. You will remember that Bunder Abbas will
communicate through Henjam, not merely with Persia, but also with Europe, India,
and Muscat.
(Signed)
I have, &c.
ARTHUB H. HARDINGE.
About this item
- Content
The volume comprises notes, memoranda, copies of correspondence and other papers, relating to an agreement reached between the British and Persian Governments for the construction of a telegraph cable line between the telegraph station at Henjam [Jazīreh-ye Hengām] and Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās], and a subsequent dispute between the British and Persian Governments over the location of the telegraph office in Bunder Abbas. The volume’s principal correspondents are: the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (Major Percy Zachariah Cox); the British Ambassador (or Chargé d’Affaires) at Tehran (Sir Arthur Henry Hardinge; Sir Evelyn Mountstuart Grant Duff); the Assistant Resident and British Consul at Bandar-e ʻAbbās (Lieutenant William Henry Irvine Shakespear).
The volume’s papers include:
- proposals, set out by British officials, for a telegraph cable running between Henjam and Bunder Abbas, chiefly for the benefit of the Indian merchant community at the latter place;
- papers detailing negotiations between British and Persian officials through 1905 concerning the construction of the telegraph cable from Henjam to Bunder Abbas, and the construction and operation of a telegraph office at Bundar Abbas. Much of the discussion centres on the running and costs of the telegraph office at Bundar Abbas, in response to the Persian Government’s insistence that they run the office, and the British Government’s insistence that only Persians be employed in the office (in order to prevent the appointment of Russian telegraphists). A printed copy of the agreement for the construction of the telegraph line from Henjam to Bunder Abbas, dated 13 May 1905, is included in the volume (f 149);
- copies of telegrams and other papers dated 1906, documenting the construction of telegraph facilities at Bunder Abbas, including British intentions to run the cable via their consular buildings, Persian objection to the proposals, and the protracted dispute over the location of the telegraph office that ensued;
- correspondence dated 1909, including a letter from Sir George Head Barclay at the British Embassy in Tehran, to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Edward Grey, dated 8 March 1909, confirming that the dispute between the British and Persian authorities over the location of a telegraph office at Bunder Abbas has been resolved (ff 20-21).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (235 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 237; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 130-143; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled, and are located in the same position as the main sequence.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/39
- Title
- File 1408/1904 Pt 2 ‘Persian Gulf: telegraphs. Henjam-Bunder Abbas-cable’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:13v, 14v, 15v:27v, 29r:36v, 38v:41v, 43r:53v, 54v:84v, 87r:87v, 89r:149r, 150r:159v, 161r:164r, 165v:167r, 168r:236v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence