'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎66r] (136/386)

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the internal taxes wt^re to be paid by the Provincial Governors, and which,
after it c elf paying fixed salaries and the cost of their administration to the local
officials, was to remit the surplus to the Central or General Treasury at Tehran.
Undoubtedly, if this system had been properly carried out, a very useful
reform would have been effected ; the taxes would not have been spent locally,
or in other words misappropriated by the provincial authorities, and a consider
able sum which now never reaches Tehran, would have been available for the
extinction of the deficit, the payment of the interest on the debt, and the
reorganisation of the present worthless army.
Unfortunately the scheme never got much beyond the paper stage: the
Shah the Grand Vizier, and courtiers still sold provinces to the highest bidder
and were thus forced to allow the purchasers to recoup themselves out of local
revenues; the Princes of the Royal House, such as the Valiahd, and the Shua-
es Sul tan eh who ruled the richest and most extensive provinces, could not be
compelled to yield obedience to the new system, and such economies, as were
effected by it, were of little practical use, the money realised, by them being
lavished bv the Shah on his favourites or on the members of his tamily, instead
of beino- applied to public objects. The Customs revenue at the same time
suffered from the effect of the war with Japan on Russian trade with Persia,
and in the summer of 1904, less than a year after he had taken office, the Am-
ed-Dowleh applied to the British Legation for a further loan of £200,000,
which he professed to desire in order to restore the dam at Ahwaz on the Lpper
Karun, and thus fertilise the province of Arabistan.
His Maiestv’s Government replied that they could not advance money in
connection with the Ahwaz dam, unless they were satisfied that the undertaking
would not be prejudicial to British interests on the Karun ; but that they would
despatch an engineer from India to examine and report to them on tins quesaon.
In the meantime they were willing to make a further advance of £100,000, to
complete the £ 000,000 originally offered, repayable m twenty years and secured
on the same revenues, as those specified in the Loan Agreement of April 1000,
viz the Fisheries, Posts and Telegraphs, and the Customs ot the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. -
An arrangement on these lines was concluded, again through the Imperial Bank
as nominal lender, in September 1001, and m connection with the Kanin pro
tect Major Morton, of the Punjab Irrigation Department, accompanied by two
native surveyors, As sent from India in January 1905 to examine and report
upon the scheme put forward by the Dutch engineer, Herr van B,oSgen. 1 be
object of his mission was at the time kept secret from the local authorities, hut
Herr Van Rosaen was later instructed by the Grand Vizier to discuss the proposals
tolly and confidentially with Major Morton, After a careful surrey Major Morton
in July submitted his report. His estimate of the cost of carrying out the
C phpm/a<* nrcmosed by the Dutch engineer amounted to £2,246,000 mth an
annua’ charaeVf £lofooO for the upkeep of the works, while he calculated that
the net revenue would amount to only about £35,000 per annum or about
on the canital expenditure. He gave it as his opinion that “ there is not in any
conceivable reuVstanees the remotest possibilify of Herr van Roggen s scheme
paying’-Vnd -' that if it did pay it is to be wholly condemned for various
reasons.” ^ th*. ^ “VXSeV
to draw up an alternative
SOl ‘ e ^' The noint of the interpretation of the phrase “Pars and the Persian
Gulf ”w ? s, meanwhite^atthe^^gestmn^f4th MarclVim Sir
rZrVnVVsucVeedVVn eVtracti^g a more definite expression of opinion from
,he “^“chthe Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs then took was
that the e™ion “ Southern Persia” as a distinct term was suggested by
that the expiessoi g- r ^ Durand in a note addressed to
* ride paragraph 4 page 23 . gadr-i-Azam, embodying a message
of 7th April 1899 from Lord Salisbury about the loan then under negotiation.