File 4045/1913 'Pt 1 Trans-Persian Railway' [‎93v] (30/349)

As regards mention of access to the sea in the petition for an option which is to be
presented to the Government of the Shah, the Society d’Etudes has already proposed to
restrict itself in this matter to an absolutely general formula fully m accord with that
which was put forward in the note of Sir E. Grey. But the Societe d Etudes, however,
is desirous that the Bussian and British Governments should give to it due assuiances^-
that the interests of the company in the question of free outlets to the sea will be
properly guarded, the text of such assurance, from information m the hands of the
Imperial Government, has already been communicated from Paris to the British group
of the Societe d’Etudes in London, with y view to their considering it m conjunction
with the British Ministry for Foreign Affairs. _ , -
3. With reference to the commission which is to survey the southern routes of the
Trans-Persian Railway, the Imperial Government can only repeat that, for considera
tions of a financial and other character, it is unable to charge the liussian treasury
with expenditure on the equipment of an expedition to the south of Persia, and that
the participation of a Russian and a French delegate in the said commission can take
place only at the expense of the Societe d’Btudes, the representatives of which can at
the most be given official character. As, under these circumstances, the French member
of the commission will be in fact a Russian delegate, and the Trench Govern me nt will
be taking no part whatever in this matter, there will be no grounds of any kind for
fearing that any undesirable results will ensue therefrom.
4. The Imperial Government have already had the honour to inform the London
Cabinet that the route of the Trans-Persian Railway—Ispahan, Shiraz, and Bunder
Abbas—is to them and to the Societe d’Etudes absolutely inacceptable. It would
seem, therefore, that any surveys of this route are superfluous, the more so that, with
the restricted means of the Societe d Etudes, the labours of the commission must be
completed as speedily as possible and all unnecessary expenditure avoided.
Nevertheless, should the British Government still insist on a survey of ibis route,
and if the Societe d’Etudes will agree to take upon itself tne expenditure incurred, the
Imperial Government are prepared to include this route in the list of those meriting
investigation—on the condition, however, that the commission shall be placed under the
obligation of investigating also every other route, and that the results of such investiga
tions shall be afterwards submitted to consideration.
For due negotiations with the Societe d’Btudes on this matter it would be desirable
to receive, as early as possible, from the British Government their proposals respecting
the cost of the impending expedition to Southern Persia, as also the time requisite
for the commission to travel along the different possible variants of the future direction
of the railway.
The Imperial Government would raise no objections to a representative of the
British group of the Societe d’Etudes being appointed by the Societe d’Etudes itself on
the staff of the party which is to verify the detailed surveys, already completed, of the
northern section of the railway, believing that in due course, on the principle of
reciprocity, a representative of the Russian group will take part in similar investiga
tions of the route in the south.
5. Referring to the extract in Sir E. Grey’s despatch taken from his despatch
of the 5th February, 1913 (No. 64), it must be noted that the views of the Imperial
Government on the questions touched in it have been already communicated to the
British Embassy in the aide-memoire of the 1st May, 1913, and these views have not
up to the present undergone any change. The Imperial Government, however, deem it
necessary to explain that the question of parity of tariff rates can only be decided
after the whole length of the Trans-Persian route has been constructed, and not when
only its northern section, within the limits of the Russian and neutral zones, is m
existence.
Having put forward its views on the questions touched by the Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, the Imperial Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in accordance with a
request of the Russian group of the Societe d’Etudes, considers it necessary to draw the
serious attention of the London Cabinet to the considerable delays which the enterprise
for a Trans-Persian Railway is experiencing which are very sensibly affecting the
interest of the Societe d’Etudes. The fundamental aim of this company is the creation
of a great transit route between India and Europe via Russia, an aim which, at the
very commencement sympathetically met by the British Government, is being ever
increasingly relegated to an indefinite future, due apparently to fears of a political and
strategical character, which it would appear should not exist in view of the friendly
relations which have been established between the two Powers. In connexion with this