'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.' [‎50v] (105/386)

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since Persia had been drawn into the vortex of European politics. Foreign repre
sentation at Tehran was not confined to the conterminous Powers, Great Britain,
Russia and Turkey. France and Germany, America and Austria, Belgium and
Italy and the Scandinavian Kingdoms, all maintained at the Persian capital
considerable diplomatic establishments, necessitated not by contiguity of ter
ritorial possessions, nor by the extent of their commercial stake but by the fact
that Persian affairs had secured a definite place on the stage of world politics.
Equally was Persia in its strategical aspect, not only an Indian hut an Imperial
concern since the boundaries of Afghanistan, guaranteed by Great Britain,
marched for many hundreds of miles with Persia, since Persian territory is con
terminous with Baluchistan, and the evergrowing power of the Kussmn Empire
was already pressing upon Persia. The telegraphic interests of Great Britain
in Persia were evenly divided between the mother-country and India, the line
from Tehran to the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. being in the hands of a London com
pany while from Tehran onwards to the Gulf the undertaking was conducted by
an establishment recruited and paid for by the Government of India, although
30 per cent, of the total traffic consisted of messages between Great Britain and
the colonies beyond India. 5 " The position was thus established that Persia was
emphatically an Imperial interest of Great Britain, and that the latter should be
prepared to exert her full strength for the defence of that interest, There was
no desire to add to the political or territorial responsibilities of India or to disturb
the status quo in Persia ; for the present, our object was merely to secure the
interests already built up. .
6. The despatch then proceeded to draw a picture of the present state of
British interests and to examine the dangers by which they were threatened. It
pointed out that the political destinies of a country and a Government as
weak as Persia were likely to he determined by her geographical position in
relation to her neighbours, and that while there w r as a curious correspondence,
there were also notable differences between the positions of Russia and Great
Britain vis-a-vis wiih Persia, which must give Russia in the north a power of
persuasion and menace greater than that possessed by Great Rritain in the
south. It was not surprising, therefore, that the supremacy of Russia in the
north should he increasing, and it followed that though we should try to preserve
what remained of our trade in Northern Persia and to assert British influence
in Tehran as much as possible, our energies would be best directed to the
preservation and consolidation of our interests in the centre and south. Adopt
ing a line drawn across Persia from Khanikin on the Turkish frontier on the
west, through Kermanshah, Ilamadan, Ispahan, Yezd and Kerman to Seistan
and the Afghan frontier on the east, as indicating approximately the existing
line of partition between the British and Russian spheres of influence, both poli
tical and commercial, in Persia, the despatch went on to touch on the various
sub-areas composing the British sphere. For Kermanshah the substitution of a
British Vice-Consul for the existing Native Agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. , as proposed by Sir M. Durand,
was recommended on account of the importance of fostering the Baghdad trade
route via Kermanshah to Tehran, and the suggestion of a Consulate on the
Karim was supported with the object of strengthening our influence with
the Arab, Bakhtiari and Lur tribes. Passing eastwards to Ispahan, agreement
was expressed with Sir ]M. Durand’s proposal to raise the British Consul in
rank and pay to the level of the Russian representative, and the opinion was
strongly held that in any partition of spheres of influence, Ispahan, the old
capital and focus of Persian nationality, must he included in the British zone.
The question of Consular representatives at Yezd, Kerman and Bampur and the
substitution of the Native Agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. at Shiraz by a British officer was then
touched upon, and after a passing reference to Seistan,f which was dealt
with in a separate Minute by Lord Curzon, as of great strategic importance
by reason of its geographical position in relation both to Northern Khorasan,
Western Afghanistan, British Baluchistan and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , the despatch
dealt with the tie facto and the de jure position in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and
the recent deliberate consolidation of our influence at Koweit, Bahrein and
Maskat. •
• The line from Tehran to Meshed is aUo under the manasroment of the Indo-European Telegraph Depart men ,
which iu Mav completed the alternative trunk-line from Tehran, via ITezd, Kerman and Lam, to the L.ruiu
frontier, referred to below—pages 78-bO.
fThis is dealt with in the Seistan summary - Chapter XIV, pages 89 92.