Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎220v] (440/644)

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lines in Iran or neighbouring countries. The company’s lines might carry
petroleum from wells in Iran or Afghanistan, which might belong either to the
company itself or to the Amiranian Company, or to other companies, whether
Iranian or foreign, entitled to extract oil in Iran, such companies being known as
“ the public.” The company undertook to transport petroleum belonging to the
public or to the Iranian Government up to 40 per cent, of the total capacity of
the lines. Plans for the construction of the line were required to be put in hand
as soon as the results of exploration for oil in the areas which the line was to
serve justified the expense. The company was exempt from taxation for thirty
years, and in return would pay the Iranian Government 3d. on every metric ton
of petroleum carried. The pipe-line was expected to be carried to the sea in the
neighbourhood of Charbar.
225. These two concessions were complemented by a third concession
granted by the Afghan Government in April to Messrs. Hart and Clapp on behalf
of the Inland Exploration Company. In a great many particulars the three
concessions were copied from the revised concession of the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company.
226. Prospecting work was first carried out north-west of Meshed near the
Caspian littoral, and without much result. Further search was made elsewhere
in the northern part of the company’s area, and during the closing winter months
prospectors were expected in Seistan and near Zahidan. If oil is found in
remunerative quantities, it seems likely that Zahidan will become an important
place for the company. The results achieved by the end of the year were at any
rate sufficient to lead the company to order drilling machinery, which was
expected to arrive at Bandar Shahpur in March 1938. The transport of the
heavy machinery to remote parts of North-East Iran is likely to prove a very
difficult problem.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
227. There is little to record of Irano-Soviet relations during 1937; they
continued calm, but Iranian authorities in Tehran, Tabriz and Meshed all were
given reason to feel irritation at obstruction imposed by the Soviet authorities
in the way of the movement of certain individual consignments of goods to and
from Iran.
228. The major event was no doubt the concessions awarded by the Iranian
Government to two United States companies to prospect for pipe oil in certain
provinces, including those in North-East Iran which adjoin Soviet Russia. The
Soviet Government did, in fact, submit a protest in this connexion, based not on
article 13 of the Irano-Soviet Treaty of 1935, or because American companies
had been preferred, but on the ground that the existing good-neighbourly
relations between the two countries and the benefits conferred on Iran by the
Soviet Government entitled them at least to be informed in advance of concessions
which, if granted to certain other countries, might have been of serious concern
to them, and on the ground that they had received no advance intimation of the
Iranian Government’s intention.
229. Opinion in the Diplomatic Body at Tehran was inclined to suggest
that the Soviet Government were sore at the conclusion of the Four-Power Non-
Aggression Pact which involved three of their neighbours. The Soviet Ambas
sador, however, professed to regard the Pact as of some utility in consolidating
peace in the territories concerned.
230. Broadly speaking Soviet consulates in Iran were subject to the same
boycott as those of His Majesty’s Government, and on more than one occasion an
illiberal attitude towards requests from His Majesty’s Legation was explained
on the familiar ground that otherwise the Soviet Government would put forward
a similar request and expect it to be granted.
231. The Soviet Union continued to obtain a large share of Iran’s foreign
trade. On the 16th and 19th October a protocol and accord were signed which
are presumed to govern the volume and prices of imports and exports between the
Soviet Union and Iran during the year ending the 21st June, 1938, in accordance
with the existing Irano-Soviet Commercial Treaty, which will expire on that
date. The text of these agreements has not been published and no figures are
ava lable. It is presumed that new arrangements for the barter trade between the
two countries will be negotiated in the summer of 1938.