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Coll 28/12 ’Persia; Railways; Trans-Persian Railway’ [12r] (23/143)
The record is made up of 1 file (70 folios). It was created in 16 Jun 1931-18 Nov 1940. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
^ THIS DOCUMENT IS
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL. Section 1.
V
[E 3476/659/34] Copy No.
Mr. Butler to Viscount Halifax.—(Received June 13.)
(No. I96 0.)
> # My Lord, Tehran, May 19, 1938.
W 0 3 5/J'* WITH reference to Mr. Seymour's despatch No. 312 of the 14th August,
1937. I have the honour to inform you that it is reported that the Iranian
Government have definitely placed with various German firms a large order for
locomotives and rolling-stock required for the Trans-Iranian Railway. The
order is understood to provide for 1,103 goods wagons, twenty-seven passenger
coaches and postal vans, and sixty-five locomotives. It is possible that the
sixty-five locomotives include the twenty second-hand locomotives said to have
been purchased in Vienna in 1937, since these engines are not known to have
arrived. The total value of the order is probably in the neighbourhood of £2
million.
2. It is understood that there are at present twenty-five engines on each
section of the railway, so that a total of 115 will be available when the German
order is delivered. It is certain that many more engines will be required, as will
large numbers of oil-tankers for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. It is under
stood that the company are themselves arranging for the purchase of oil-tankers,
also in Germany. As you are aware, the company are now planning to base
their distribution in Central, Northern and North-Eastern Iran on the railway,
big depots being built at Azna (near Sultanabad) and Firuzkuh. It is also said
that the company will pump oil from Abadan to Ahwaz by pipe-line, for loading-
on the railway there. Unless the service on the railway shows a very great
improvement, the company may encounter serious difficulties in their new
distribution system. A recent and well-informed visitor to the southern section
of the railway stated that the engine-drivers' pay was so miserably small that
they had stripped their engines of everything detachable that they could sell.
And if another report is to be believed, conditions on the northern line are so
bad that when the Shah recently travelled by railway to Mazanderan, there was
only one single engine in working order on the whole section, so that if that
engine had broken down, no relief engine could have been sent. If a better
service cannot soon be obtained, the railway seems likely to prove an expensive
luxury.
3. I am sending copies of this despatch to the Department of Overseas
Trade and to the Secretary to the Government of India in the External Affairs
Department.
THE PROPERTY OF HIS t
BRI^NItyfyAJE!^
TY’S GOVERNMENT
1
!
688
1938 ,
une 13, 1938.
[339 n—1]
I have, &c.
NEVILE BUTLER
About this item
- Content
Reports submitted by British officials in Persia [Iran], along with newspaper cuttings from the British press, relating to construction work on the Trans-Persian Railway, intended to run from Bandar Shah [Bandar-e Torkaman] in the north of the country, to Bandar Shapur [Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni] at the head of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . The papers focus on foreign and British investments and activity in the construction of the railway:
- Completion of construction of the line between Bandar Shah [Bandar-e Torkoman] and Aliabad by a German syndicate in 1931, and its handing over to the Persian Government.
- The appointment in 1933 of a Danish-Swedish syndicate, Kampsax Aktieselskab , to undertake construction of the remaining north and south section of the Trans-Persian Railway.
- The purchase of British locomotives, manufactured by Beyer, Peacock & Co. by the Persian State Railway.
- Suspension of construction work on the southern section of the line in 1934, due to a lack of funds.
- Actions of the Persian Government to fund railway construction, including the French text of a supplementary budget law for the Iranian year 1314 (equivalent to the Gregorian year 1935) on folio 27.
- The opening of the Trans-Persian Railway (now referred to as the Trans-Iranian Railway) in 1938.
- A report from the Secretary to the Government of India, External Affairs Department (Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay), dated 29 May 1940, referring to the line’s strategic significance in wartime (ff 4-5).
The majority of the file’s correspondence is sent from the British Legation at Tehran (Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen; Nevile Montagu Butler; Horace James Seymour).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (70 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 71; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 1-70; these numbers are also written in pencil and circled, but are crossed through.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Coll 28/12 ’Persia; Railways; Trans-Persian Railway’ [12r] (23/143), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3409, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100044300084.0x00001a> [accessed 5 May 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/3409
- Title
- Coll 28/12 ’Persia; Railways; Trans-Persian Railway’
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:26v, 28r:33v, 35r:40v, 42r:43v, 45r:47v, 49r:60v, 62r:71v, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence