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that at least on one occasion negotiations for the cession to Russia of a Persian
port at the eastern extremity of the Gulf have taken place between the
Russian and the Persian Governments; and, if such negotiations have hitherto
either proved abortive, or have been nominally repudiated by one 01 other of
the parties concerned, it is yet, we think, in our power to show that they are
not only not inconsistent with, but are definitely corroborated by, the eMdences
of Russian activity in Central and Southern Persia to which ue now turn.
37. In 1897, a Russian Consul was appointed for the first time to Ispahan,
where Russian imports had not hitherto greatly exceeded a total of oOO bales
per annum. He was given a salary and title in excess of those enjoyed by the
British representative. During the present *year this official, Prince Dabiya,
has been heard of at Shiraz'and Bushire as the guest of the French Vice-
Consul, and subsequently at Mohammerah and Shushter on the Karun, where
he freely denounced British methods and ambitions. Sir M. Durand has
recently informed us by telegraph that the corps of so-called Persian Cossacks
at Tehran (i.e., Persian soldiers trained and commanded by Russian officers)
has been raised from 1,000 to 1,500 men, and that detachments of this corps
have for the first time been taken with them to the south by the Governors of
Shiraz and Arabistan. For the present the Russian officers have stayed behind;
but it is not difficult to imagine the circumstances in which they might claim
to rejoin their regiments. In 1897, M. Krugelow was sent from Jerusalem as
Russian Consul to Baghdad, with the special object of reporting upon the
acquisition by Russia of a coaling station in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . This gentleman
has taken much interest in Koweit, where Russian emissaries from Baghdad
have been residing continuously during the present year. In this context it
will not be forgotten that the concession recently sought for with the aid of
the Russian Embassy at Constantinople by Count Kapnist, a Russian of high
rank, for a railway from Tripoli in Syria to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. contemplated a
terminus at Koweit.
38. In Bushire and Bunder Abbas the Russians have lately developed a
marked interest. Two Russian doctors (Drs. Marc and Oust) arrived at
Bushire in 1897 for the now familiar purpose of studying the plague, which,
however, did not make its appearance until two years later, in 1899. Dr. Marc
in 1897 occupied his waiting hours in visiting Bunder Abbas, from whence he
was in the habit of despatching official reports to his Government., and where
he magnanimously treated all patients free of charge. His medical pursuits
at this place were assisted by a third Russian, named Adamoff, who appears to
have been an artillery officer, and who subsequently visited Bushire and Basrah.
In 1898 two other Russian doctors, named Rodzewitz and Kornajevski,
appeared upon the scene, and visited Basrah, Bushire and Bunder Abbas. In
December 1898 a fifth Russian doctor, named Paschkowski, arrived in the
Gulf, and did not fail to pay the regulation visit to Bunder Abbas; while he
displayed a considerable professional activity during the recent outbreak of
plague at Bushire, where he has announced that, upon his approaching return
to Russia, he is to be replaced by two compatriots. In connection with this
medical propaganda, it will be in Your Lordship’s recollection that when the
first rumours were circulated of plague at Bushire in the past summer, the
Russian Legation at Tehran at once announced their intention of sending
doctors, with Cossack escorts, to Bushire as well as Shiraz, in order to establish
a plague cordon for the protection of those places from the Indian pestilence,
and that Russian doctors took up their quarters both at Shiraz and Kerman.
These precautions midit be thought to indicate a praiseworthy desire to close
every conceivable channel of entry into Asiatic Russia against the plague,
v\ere they not, as has already been shown, in striking contrast with the laxity
of system, that is at the same time observed both on the Porso-Russian and on
the Russo-Afghan frontiers, across which alone can plague succeed in entering
the Russian dominions. In continuation of our storv it may be mentioned
that in 1895 a Russian officer visited and surveyed the island of Hormuz
opposite to Lunder Abbas, and that other and non-medical Russian emissaries