File 930/1912 'Mohammerah - Khoremabad Railway' [‎72r] (150/396)

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[TMs Document is the Property of ffis Britannic Majesty’s ^
* PERSIA
CONFIDENTIAL.
[24510]
1 C.
i w'
O
J
No. 1.
L June 8.1
Section 1,
Persian Railways Syndicate to Foreign Office.—(Received June 8.)
Winchester Bouse, Old Broad Street,
^ r ’ „ 1 ^ London, June l, 1912.
REI ERKINCx to our letter of the 3rd instant, we are requested by the chairman
to hand you the enclosed copy of a letter from Mr. H. F. B. Lynch.
We are, &c.
(For the Persian Railways Syndicate (Limited)),
A. B. STODART,
Secretary.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Mr. Lynch to Persian Railways Syndicate.
YOUR letter of the 29th, enclosing a draft of a letter to the Foreign Office, only
reached me on Monday night upon my return from a short visit to the continent. I
had not time to answer it before your second letter arrived, advising me that the draft
had been despatched. There is a passage in the letter wdiich I should have wished to
see altered, namely, the passage in the concluding paragraph of p. 1 : “A line from
Mohammerah to Khoremabad, Burujird or Hamadan would unquestionably, by reason
of its much shorter lead to the coast, draw a great portion of the traffic from the
proposed Bagdad-Khanikin line, and also much of the traffic which now goes north to
the Caspian.” The passage conveys to me the impression that the line would affect
unfavourably both Russian and German commercial interests in Persia. Both Russia
and Germany are interested in the Bagdad-Khanikin line, and Russia is, of course,
interested in keeping up the traffic with the Caspian. As regards the traffic with the
Caspian, when the Russians build their part of the railway they will get all their
share of this traffic, and the Bagdad-Khanikin-Tehran Railway will only be so far
affected that the produce of regions already in communication with the head of the
Gulf will not be drawn off to that railway. Our railway will, therefore, not tread upon |
anybody’s toes. It is a railway at right angles with the Bagdad-Tehran Railway, and
it develops the trade of Persia in its two natural directions—towards the north and
towards the south.
I should like to add that the route we adopted, namely, that up the Karun valley,
via Dizful and Khoremabad, is the route which has received the vast preponderance of
approval by experts, including, I think, experts wffio have reported to the Board of
Trade or to the Foreign Office, as the best one for a railway to follow from the head
of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. to the Persian tableland. It has been considered in discussion
after discussion for many years past. That is, I understand, why this route was
adopted with the full approva] of the Foreign Office.
fi. F. B. LYNCH.
28 JUN1912
-TIXY’S N'T 2(?
[2506 A—1]