Coll 28/39 ‘Persia: Printed Correspondence 1929-1936’ [‎187r] (384/1174)

was now'll 1 1 tri t ex P^ a ^ ne( \ t ^ at railway finance and construction
Sir Henri Dote-Hin ^ P f t n g P Up had m view; tlie y were in toucil wit h
Per,H n oil D thp Pvn g Tr h f ultlmate g° al was a concession for the North
Hemiw in\pr th ^ Persian Government would land
1 1 . ° ^ in serious financial difficulties over the railway ■ at the nsvcho-
S ™? 6111 the I R ° yal Dutch W0UM lntervene with an offer^f assistance
m return for an oil concession on reasonable terms.
m } 1 ' Pate rnotte said that two things were fully realised in Belgium :
(1) I hat no purely Belgian group carried enough potential guns in the shape
of political backing; and (2) that any conflict of interest"with the Anglo-
Hersian Oil Company must be carefully avoided; the Belgian group there
fore, intended to seek British co-operation.
4. I told M. Paternotte that a Greek engineer was seeking to interest
British capital in the railway, but that I did not know what success he was
having; there seemed, frima facie, to be the possibility of co-operation.
5. With regard to the northern oil-field, I knew that relations between
the Anglo-Persian Oil Company end the Royal Dutch were very friendly
and I proposed to pass on to Mr. Jacks what M. Paternotte had said. M.
Paternotte replied that he would be very glad if I did so.
6. You will see from my despatch No. 372 of to-day’s date that Mr.
Hart, the late American Minister here, and his expert associate, Mr. Clapp,
are also in the field, but have for the moment abandoned it as the Persian
Government have asked q fantastic price for a concession in only one of
the four northern provinces. (
7. T am sending a copy of this despatch to the Department of Overseas
Trade [No. 0. T. (B) 112]',
( 110 )
Letter from His Majesty’s Minister, Tehran, to His Majesty’s
Principal. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Department
of Overseas Trade, No. Overseas Trade (B) 139, dated September
18, 1934. / !
f
1 have the honour to transmit to you herewith a call for tenders,
published in the “Messager de Teheran” of September 17th, for the paving
of 150,000 cubic metres of the streets of Tehran at the rate of 50,000 cubic
metres per annum. The necessary road-making and: stone-cutting machinery
must be provided by the contractor, the granite quarry at Ghasr Firouzeh
near Tehran being placed at the disposal of the contractor by the munici
pality without payment.
2 Submission must be accompanied by a deposit of ten thousand
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. (approximately £1,250) at the National Bank m the form of a
guarantee* Payment for work done will be effected monthly with a deduc
tion of ten per cent retained by the Municipality m case of defective work.
Tenders must be submitted to the Bureau dTntendance of the Mumcipa i y
within two months of the date of the publication of the call for tenders.
3. A similar call for tenders for the asphalting of 500,000 cubic metres
of Tehran streets within a period of five years was published m e
‘‘Mes=ager de Tdheran” of March 1st last, but as only fifteen days were
albwedbor submission of tenders there was no P^pose in reportmg tb
matter to your Department. Apparently no one could be found to undertake
the T' xher^resen^sc^eme onstreet'p^ing^isp^esumaHy^parLf^a^generd
KamalPashJ whidf b expS to T^TpiacT Jthe autumn of next year.
the
at Baghdad under No. C. 25 of to-day.
162(C) F&PD