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File 2764/1904 Pt 3 'Baghdad Railway: general negotiations 1910-1912.' [‎141r] (290/544)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (268 folios). It was created in 1910-1912. It was written in English. 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. .

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[This Bocmnent is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government!
EASTERN DEPARTMENT.
t SECRET SERIES.
V-' 1 V
" ^ [January g.]
1^- vi ’ ‘ —-— ———
,-•<
Sectioi? 3,
[50] No. 1.
Sir G. Buchanan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received January 2.)
(No. 498.)
Sir, _ St. Petersburgh, December 26, 1910.
ON my entering M. Sazonow’s reception-room this afternoon M. Timiriazeff was
just leaving it, and his Excellency informed me that he had come to report to
him the results of his visit to London with regard to the trans-Persian railway
scheme.
M. Timiriazeff had, M. Sazonow said, been very well satisfied with the conversa
tions which he had with various leading politicians and financiers. He had gathered,
however, that it was desired in England that the company should be a purely Anglo-
Russian one, and that the projected railway should not pass through Tehran, for fear
lest the Bagdad Railway should eventually be linked with it when the Sadijeh-
Khanikin and the Khanikin-Tehran lines had been built. As regarded the first of
these two points, M. Sazonow remarked that it would, he thought, be almost impossible
to prevent the participation of the French in the enterprise, and that it would be very
difficult to obtain the necessary concession from the Persian Government were a
proposal to be put forward that the British and Russian Governments should have the
control of the railway in their respective spheres of influence in Persia. The Persian
Government would at once suspect that the two Governments were planning a sort of
condominium in Persia, and would cite the case of Manchuria, where the railway was
controlled by Russia in the north and by Japan in the south.
I told his Excellency that I had no official information as to the views of His
Majesty’s Government wdth regard to the details of the scheme, but I repeated to him
the language which you had held to Count Benckendorff, as reported in your despatch
No. 314, Secret, of the 15th instant, respecting its strategical bearings and the
possible danger of its serving as a means of transport for Turkish troops to the Indian
frontier.
M. Sazonow replied that he quite understood the reasons which might lead public
opinion in India to view the project with an unfavourable eye, but that he could not
see that there w r ere any possible grounds for fearing the second contingency to which
you had drawn attention. Even when the Sadijeh-Khanikin and the Khanikin-Tehran
railways were built, it would be impossible for the Turks to use the latter line for such
a purpose, as it would be virtually under Russian control, while an international
railway like the trans-Persian one would be equally closed to them. If, however, His
Majesty’s Government desired, for either strategical or economical reasons, that the
railway should not touch Tehran, it would be always possible to arrange that it should
run to the north of that town, though this, again, might lead to difficulties with the
Persian Government, who would naturally wish that the railway should pass through
the capital. But in whatever way this question might be settled, it was, in his opinion,
essential that the railway should be built with the least possible delay, as, were it once
in working order, it was quite possible that the Sadijeh-Khanikin-Tehran lines might
never be constructed.
On my observing that there seemed to be considerable opposition to the project
in certain quarters in Russia, M. Sazonow said that this was quite true. The Moscow
merchants wished to keep the trade in North Persia in their own hands, and were
afraid of German competition, but, owing to the dues imposed on goods passing in
transit through the Caucasus, German trade with Persia by this route would always be
heavily handicapped. Germany had made repeated representations on the subject of
these dues, but the Russian Government had no intention of making any concessions
with regard to them. They would therefore continue to be enforced on all goods
destined for the Persian market, but not on those passing in transit to India. His
Excellency admitted, however, that owing to the existence of these dues the Germans
would naturally endeavour to introduce their goods into Persia by way of Bagdad;
•and this fact somewhat weakens his argument that, were the trans-Persian railway to
[1852 6—3]

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Content

The volume comprises telegrams, despatches, correspondence, memoranda, newspaper cuttings, maps and notes, relating to negotiations over the proposed Berlin to Baghdad Railway in the period 1910-1912.

The discussion in the volume relates to the economic, commercial, political and military considerations impinging on British strategy for the international negotiations over the development of a railway to Baghdad.

Further discussion surrounds the motivations and strategies of British competitors in the area; included in the volume is a copy of the Russo-German agreement.

The principal correspondents in the volume include Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Sir Gerard Augustus Lowther, Ambassador to Constantinople.

Extent and format
1 volume (268 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

The subject 2764 (Bagdad Railway) consists of five volumes, IOR/L/PS/10/56-60. The volumes are divided into five parts with each part comprising one volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 269; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out. Pagination: a pagination sequence in red crayon is present between ff 244-252.

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English in Latin script
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File 2764/1904 Pt 3 'Baghdad Railway: general negotiations 1910-1912.' [‎141r] (290/544), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/58, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100064831519.0x00005b> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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