'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎62] (93/714)

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at Baku, can pass it on here to similar cars waiting to transport
it to Batum, thereby escaping the extra mileage, the wear and
tear of rolling stock, and the consumption of time on the extra
ordinarily steep gradients between.
Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, in the few lines which
it devotes to Batum, says that ' no custom duties are levied here.'
I should like the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of that paragraph to make the
sea-journey to Batum, and to repeat this confident
assurance to the polite but inexorable Russian official
who will board his vessel before he is permitted to land. The only
way by which the severity of that individual can be in any degree
relaxed is by taking, as far as possible, an old or second-hand
instead of a new travelling equipment.
The extent of the foreign trade which is now conducted with
Batum may be judged by the fact that, in 1889, 417 foreign, i.e.
Trade and non -Russian, steamers entered the port, of which 214
harbour were British, representing a registered tonnage of 208,781
out of 480,213 tons. The total of petroleum exported in 1889
was 649,085 tons, with a value of 3,023.300L, as compared with
450,320 tons, with a value of 1,724,440/., in the preceding year.
In 1889 the export to India, China, and Japan, of which I have
spoken, and the figures of which were infinitesimal in 1887, rose
to 935,822L, a total which suggests to England the urgent necessity
of developing, if possible, her own sources of supply in Beluchi-
stan, India, and Burmah. In Russian hands the port of Batum,
hitherto not a particularly good one, except for the great depth
of water close up to the" shore, is being rapidly improved. A mole
had been built on the inner side of the north breakwater during
the past year, and is to be fortified by a turret at the end; piles
were being sunk all round the shore-line, which will be fitted with
a stone quay, and it is ultimately intended to carry forward an
additional breakwater from the lighthouse on the south till it over
laps the pier on the north. The entire cost of these harbour
improvements is estimated at about half a million sterling, which
will be borne by the Imperial Government. Lately (October, 1891)
it has been stated in the press that the trading port is to be trans
ferred to Poti, where great docks will be constructed, while Batum
will remain a military and naval establishment, and an arsenal.
But I doubt this.
Strategical requirements are, indeed, far from being neglected