Coll 28/12 ’Persia; Railways; Trans-Persian Railway’ [‎69v] (138/143)

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, towards the capital, where there was a good chance of their escaping detection),
there seemed to be a very strong but latent feeling of discontent. In fact, the
manager of the Imperial Bank of Persia in Barfurush went so far as to say that,
in his opinion, a match would set the province alight.
8. Regarding the syndicate of merchants that had been formed to trade
with the Russians on a basis of equality,” I was told that the chief merchant
of the town had flatly refused to contribute towards the share capital. He had
consequently been clapped into gaol for forty-eight hours, at the end of which
he promised 20,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. . The smaller merchants followed suit with more
modest sums, which they apparently never expect to see again. The whole
proceedings are looked upon as a novel form of extortion and nothing else.
9. Other signs of His Majesty's rapacity were not lacking : In Sari, the
garden near the station, with its lovely cypresses, which he forced the owner to
sell for a song; in Aliabad, the hotel which he is building as a speculative venture,
and the spinning mill in course of erection, which Persians say will be His
Majesty's if it is a success and the National Bank's if it proves a failure.
10. Colonel Dodd wrote a very comprehensive report on the technical aspect
of the railway in October last, which he forwarded to the War Office at the time.
I need, therefore, do no more than record my personal impressions of what I saw.
11. The line is obviously very well laid, no expense having been spared in
its construction. Even the Belgian engineers—there are two and a Frenchman —
admitted this. Although it took us something like five hours to travel 128 kilom.
in a very comfortable carriage, at an average speed, therefore, of sixteen miles
an hour, they said there was no reason why the train should not be driven at
100 kilom. an hour. The absence of freight and the slowness of the journey
were explained by the fact that the trains were essentially “ trains de service,”
which took building materials from one point to another; but it is difficult to
imagine what freight there could possibly be, except for cotton and rice, from
one station to another nearer a port of shipment.
12. It is curious to see the very German, but not unattractive, and solidly
built stations dotting the Persian country-side. They remind one that the
German contractors are far from being entirely to blame for the comparatively
high cost of construction, taking the line as a whole. They are the first to admit,
for instance, that the station at Sari, with its 10,000 or so inhabitants, would
normally suffice for a town ten times as large. They also say that they built in
the end only half the number of stations, complete with waiting rooms and
concrete lavatories for the two sexes, which the Persians asked for.
13. One is naturally inclined to look upon this railway as a mere toy—an
inclination which is heightened by the excitement of the populace at the stations,
where the lavatories of the first-class carriage seem to offer an irresistible form of
attraction for the bolder spirits—but I at least found myself a little carried away
by the grandeur of the scenery. The terminal at Bandar Shah also seemed quite
impressive in the twilight and most business-like, particularly the engine-shed,
with its studio-like windows, its five gigantic locomotives and luxuriously fitted
workshop. One feels quite at the end of the world in this corner of the Turkoman
plain, and the battle being waged against swamp and sea seems born of quite a
noble conception until one remembers with a start how useless it all is, and how
very pathetic.
14. There were already enough mosquitoes about—great, big, black brutes
—to make one realise how malaria-ridden and intolerable the whole place must
be in the summer. Yet plans are being gaily laid for the construction of a large
town at Bandar Shah! As the Persian engineers who took us round remarked,
millions of tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. would first have to be spent on the reclaiming of the swamps
that stretch right up to the station in winter.
15. To travel to the end of the jetty in a slow-moving trolley is quite an
excursion, there being 1,050 metres of mud embankment and 1,440 metres of
wooden structure. There was not a single ship in sight.
16. The Belgian engineers are apparently being entrusted with the
extension of the line to Surkh Kulah (marked Sorkala in some maps), 30 kilom.
south of Aliabad, along the river bed. Two small tunnels will probably have
to be built. They hope to be allowed to continue the line as far as Tehran, their
policy being obviously to make out that they can build it much cheaper than the
Germans, and flatter Persian sentiment by making use of as many Persian