File 930/1912 'Mohammerah - Khoremabad Railway' [‎91r] (188/396)

1703
[This Document is the Property-:oi^Hig* Br;
tannic Majesty’s Governmenf;.]
[B]
PERSIA.
* CONFIDENTIAL.
[April 19.]
Section 1.
[15203] No. 1.
Foreign Office to Mr. Greenway.
(Confidential.)
Sir > T . c „ 19, 1912.
I AM directed by Secretary Sir L. Grey to address to you the following remarks
for the confidential information of the Persian Railways Syndicate :
Doubts having been expressed by experts as to whether the projected railway from
Mohammerah to Khoremabad would prove a commercial success, in the absence
of any considerable local traffic or export trade by that route, the Government of India
were requested to examine the question with their commercial and railway experts in
the light of a survey of the country recently made by Lieutenant Wilson, I.A.
Lhe Government of India, m reply, stated that no definite opinion could be gaven
as to the commercial probabilities of the line owing to the insufficiency and vagueness
of the available data, but they added that they concurred in the view that the
commercial success of the line and its ability to rival the route from Bagdad to
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. are doubtful, while considering nevertheless that, provided a
substantial portion of the Kermanshah traffic can be secured, the construction of
the Mohammerah-Dizful section holds out a fairer prospect of proving remunerative,
since, amongst other reasons, the construction of this section would apparently be easv
and cheap.
The question was then referred to the Board of Trade. The Board intimated that
they had no sufficient information to enable them to form any estimate as to the
probable cost of construction of a line from Mohammerah to Dizful, but they saw
no reason to doubt the correctness of the opinion expressed by the Government of
India that its construction would be relatively easy and cheap. Such a line, they
added, would presumably follow approximately the route of the Karun River, upon
which there is a considerable volume of traffic both to Ahwaz and to Shuster by
the steamers of Messrs. Lynch and the Nasiri Company, a traffic which has recently
increased owing to the insecurity of the Bushire-Ispahan route.
The Board of Trade further state that although the route is of importance and the
construction of a railway would be likely to facilitate trade with Ispahan via Ahwaz,
and with Khoremabad and Sultanabad via Dizful (and in the latter case the present
necessity for transhipment at Ahwaz would be obviated), yet the absence of any substantial
amount of local traffic would militate against the commercial success of the undertaking.
According to a report furnished to the Board of Trade in 1904, the regions of Dizful,
Shuster, the Bakhtiari country, and the lower plains of the Karun, in which trade
should naturally converge on the Karun, had a population of only about 300,000;
the chief products were grain and wool, but the exports were quite small; the Arab
tribes were not industrious by nature, and though the country was fertile and capable
of great improvement by means of irrigation and there were some possibilities of
trade development, the economic progress of the region could not be expected to
be otherwise than very slow. For these reasons, the Board of Trade are disposed
to doubt the likelihood of the undertaking being commercially successful, though they
recognise that the suggested Mohammerah-Dizful line would probably be less unre-
munerative than a longer line.
An extract from the report furnished to the Board of Trade in 1904 is enclosed,
also for the confidential information of your syndicate.*
I am, in conclusion, to express Sir E. Grey’s opinion that, when applying for the
concession, it would be well to apply for a concession for a line as far as Khoremabad,
and not merely up to Dizful, though possibly construction on the Dizful-Khoremabad
section would be deferred.
[2440 1]
See [12866].
3 SViAA 191 £
18
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