'A Précis of the Relations of the British Government with the Tribes and Shaikhs of 'Arabistan By Lieutenant A T Wilson, Acting Consul for Arabistan' [‎39r] (82/143)

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IRRIGATION SCHEMES IN ’ARABISTAN.
CHAPTER X.
PART I.
I.—The Karun Irrigation Scheme.
The Karan irrigation scheme first came within the sphere of practical
politics in July 1904, when, in connection with a loan of £300,000 to the
Persian Government, M. Naus, Administrator General of Customs at
Tehran, suggested to His Majesty’s Minister that of the total sum, £200,000
should be devoted to irrigation works which the Persian Government desired
to undertake in the Karun valley. The revenues accruing from these works,
and the domains fertilized by them might be pledged as subsidiary security
for the additional advance coupled with an undertaking that embargoes on
grain from the Karun valley should be henceforward abolished.
Sir A. Hardinge desired to encourage the Persian Government to believe
that the British Government would assist financially, and thus secure a foot
ing in current irrigation projects on the Karun, which were then being advo
cated by Ain-ud-Dauleh, and with this object in view Van Roggen, a Dutch
engineer appointed in 1903 as technical adviser to the Minister of Public
Works, consequent upon a report on Karun irrigation which had attracted
the special attention of H. I. M. the Shah, was given an introduction to His
Majesty’s Minister at the Hague by Sir A. Hardinge.
As soon as the scheme was mooted Lord Curzon, in a minute dated 1st
August 1904, recorded his opinion that any such scheme, if successfully
carried out, would practically destroy the Karun as a navigable river to the
detriment of Lynch Brothers’ interests, 1 and that we should in no way gain
by the scheme were Messrs. Lynch Brothers to be pushed out and to be replaced
by Belgian officials and Dutch engineers.
If, however, we had a preponderating voice in the control of the scheme,
we might replace one form of commercial activity and open up another route
for navigation to the plains of Arabistan via Khur Musa. He emphasized
the supreme importance of British participation and joint control in any
Karun irrigation scheme, if it was to be started, and conversely the striking
danger to British interests that would result if we were left out of sight in
any such enterprise.
Lapse of time has tended to confirm the correctness of this statement of
opinion, in which the case against the scheme is compressed into a few words.
In January 1906, the scheme began to be publicly talked of. Van
Roggen and his assistants visited Ahwaz and commenced their investigations.
The Shaikh was exercised at the rumours he had heard in connection with
it: he had fears for the date groves of the Bahmanshlr rivers—fears which
careful investigations have shown to be ill-founded. He pointed out that the
land which it was proposed to lirnigate had been cultivated for 150 years by
the Bawi tribes, and enquired whether we advised him to come to an arrange
ment on the subject with the Persian Government or not. Van Roggen’s
scheme involved the irrigation of 144 square miles at a cost of £2,000,000
and was based upon most optimistic estimates of crops, etc., which the
Shaikh thought absurd. He doubted whether the scheme would be profitable.
An officer of the Public Works (Irrigation) Department of the Government
of India, Major W. R. Morton, R.E., was despatched from India in January
to report on the probability of the scheme.
1 The same view waa taken by Messrs. Lynch Brothers in November 1904.