File 1569/1913 'Trans-Persian Railway' [‎247v] (505/594)

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He describes Bandar Abbas as an open roadstead offering no natural
advantages and providing no facilities for the creation of an efficien harbour
He points out the difficulties that obtain as regards lightering and the lack of
a sufficient supplv of fresh water in its vicinity. For these reasons, Mr H ebb
urges the entire abandonment of Bandar Abbas so far as the Trans-Persian
Bailway is concerned, and suggests either Chahbar Bay or Pasm as a more
suitable spot at which the railway should strike the coast line.
We are unable to agree with Mr. Webb in his wholesale condemnation
of Bandar Abbas. Its defects as a port, which we fully recognised when
recommending the Karachi-Bandar Abbas alignment to the Government of
India, are common in a greater or less degree to all the ports on the south-
eastern Persian littoral. Its one outstanding merit, which Mr. Webb has
failed to appreciate, and which gives it an advantage cvei all the other
ports mentioned bv him, is that its roadstead, which affords anchorage to a
large number of vessels, is safer in all weathers than any other port on this
shallow and exposed coast, and is also more subject to the controlling power
of our fleet. Moreover, it is not impossible that events in Persia and the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. may make it necessary for us to strengthen our hold on the Gulf,
by the occupation of a naval base therein, and if such were the case a position
in the vicinity of Bandar Abbas would probably he selected; the Admiralty
wirwnl/l nr» rlrmlif prvnsiiltpd OH this noint.
In this connection we would call attention to a note from Mr. Johns,
dated 1st August, which is printed among the enclosures to this Report. In
a recent visit to Chahbar, Gwettar, Gwadur and Pasni on board the cable-ship
“ Patrick Stewart Major Hopkins and Mr. Varvill found that the lightering
of heavy cargo in the monsoon would be impossible at any of these four ports,
and generally that the degree of shelter afforded was unsatisfactory. It is
clear from this that during the monsoon Bandar Abbas has considerable
advantages over the other ports. At other seasons of the year it can hardly
be said that any port on this littoral can claim a pre-eminence over the others
on the score of its intrinsic merits sufficient to affect the question of alignment
in any large degree.
If the route via Bandar Abbas is not adopted, and the railway follows an
alignment via Kerman similar to that suggested by the Secretary of State in
his despatch of 18th August 1911, we consider, so far as our knowledge goes
at present, that the choice lies between Chahbar Bay and the mouth of the
Dasht river in Gw r ettar Bay. Of these two places the Dasht river mouth
appears on the whole to be the better. The water-supply at Chahbar is scanty
and the surrounding country produces little or nothing. The Dasht river site,
on the other hand, possesses a good w T ater-supply, and it has the advantage of a
large tract of culturable land in its immediate vicinity. We understand that
an irrigation project for bringing water to this area is under consideration, and,
if carried out, would give this place far greater advantage in the matter of
; supplies, Ac., than any of the other places mentioned by Mr. Webb. It also
has the advantage of lying in British territory, to wffiich we attach great
importance.
In arriving at this decision, we have been guided to a great extent by the
observations of Mr. W. A. Johns, who in the cold weather undertook a careful
examination of the Persian and Mekran coasts. He informs us that a rough
survey of the mouth of Dasht river has been attended with satisfactory results.
It has been ascertained that there is a depth of seven feet of water on the bar
at the mouth of the river, with from 12 to 8 feet of water inside at low-water
spring-tides. The channel appears easy and straight and the deep-w r ater extends
up to the banks of the river thus rendering the construction of jetties both easy
and inexpensive. The conditions for lightering are, therefore, favourable in
ordinary weather, but unless and until a ship channel is dredged through the
bar and up the river, it will be necessary for ships to lie out in the bay. In
the monsoon, as we have recorded above, the harbour appears to be virtually
impracticable, but Chahbar is very nearly, if not quite, as bad. The whole
question, however, requires further investigation which is being undertaken.
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