File 4345/1912 'Trans-Persian Railway' [‎55r] (114/330)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
IA]
PERSIA.
[February 5.]
J 'S
- CONFIDENTIAL.
[54973/12]
Section H.
No 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir G. Buchanan.
(No. 64.)
Sir, Foreign Office, February 5, 1913.
AS your Excellency is aware, during the visit of the Russian Minister for Foreign
Affairs to this country in the autumn of 1912 various memoranda, on the subject of
railways in Persia, were exchanged by his Excellency and myself.
In one of these papers M. Sazonoff intimated, with regard to the Trans-Persian
project, that the Societe d’Etudes wished to obtain from the Persian Government not
merely, as previously, permission to make surveys, but an option for the project
in question, and, he urged that His Majesty’s Government should lend their support
to the Societe d’Etudes in this negotiation.
Your Excellency will recollect that His Majesty’s Government had, up to that
time, stipulated in their correspondence with the Societe d’Etudes that they should
reserve complete freedom of action pending consideration of the report to be submitted
to them after the survey had been made; but, in deference to the representations of
M. Sazonoff, I undertook to support the Societe d’Etudes in the proposed negotiation
at Tehran subject to all reservations previously made, and, inter alia, on condition
that construction should not proceed outside the Russian sphere without the agreement
of His Majesty’s Government.
In November last, however, the Societe d’Etudes communicated to me the draft
of a letter to the Persian Government applying not merely for a main line, but for
extensive branch lines and maritime facilities.
These proposals His Majesty’s Government could not fail to regard as more far-
reaching and comprehensive than any they had yet contemplated : moreover they
were not altogether compatible with certain of the conditions laid before the Russian
Government by your Excellency in pursuance of the instructions contained in my
despatch No. 129 of the 10th May, 1911. I refer to point 4, where it is requested that
the Russian Government should support demands to be made by Great Britain to the
Persian Government for certain branch lines. , / *
1 accordingly informed the Societe d’Etudes that the application which they
proposed to make to the Persian Government was of a more extensive character than
His Majesty’s Government wore in a position to support.
In consequence of this decision, the British group of the Societe addressed to
His Majesty’s Government two further letters (copies of which are already in your
possession): in the first of these letters, dated the 9th December, the British group
requested His Majesty’s Government to define their attitude more fully on various
points, and intimated their reluctance to send a delegate to Tehran in the absence of
fuller information as to that attitude; in the second letter, dated the 20th December,
they submitted the draft of a fresh application to the Persian Government, in the
hope that His Majesty’s Government might approve the modified text.
This request of the Societe for more comprehensive support placed His Majesty’s
Government in a somewhat difficult position, for, as the Russian Government are
aware, another British Syndicate are interested in certain branch lines in Southern
Persia; and, inasmuch as that Syndicate was in existence before the formation of
the Societe d’Etudes, His Majesty’s Government would not feel justified in
supporting the latter in opposition to the former.
Moreover, the request of the British group of the Societe for definite information
on some points necessitated the consideration of many aspects of the question by
His Majesty’s Government forthwith, instead of, as hitherto intended, on the submission
of the projected survey.
His Majesty’s Government have, however, welcomed an opportunity for cordial
co-operation with Russia in the development of Persia by the construction of railways ;
they are persuaded that such co-operation is a natural and very desirable result
of the AnMo-Russian Convention of 1907, and that it affords the surest guarantee for
the re-establishment of order in Persia. They have accordingly been happy to address
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