'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.' [‎63r] (130/386)

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(3) Tbe loan not to be repayable within a period of ten years unless
with the consent of His Majesty’s Government, nor the security
redeemed or atfeeted by any other transaction.
(a) The rate of interest to be 4 per cent, and a sinking fund to be
established on terms to be subsequently negotiated.
(b) The contemplated change in the Persian Tariff to be negotiated
with His Majesty’s Government as well as with Russia.
(6) The Persian Government to be reminded of the previous intima
tions of His Majesty’s Government with regard to the Gulf
ports, South Persia, and Seistan ; and to be required to undertake
that in these parts of Persia, both before and after the repay
ment of the loan, advantages shall be conceded to His Majesty’s
Government not less than any that have been, or may hereafter
be, conceded to any other foreign Power or its subjects in other
parts of the Shah’s dominions.
(7) The Secretary of State for India took note of the assurance given
by the Persian Government that the revenues of Seistan will
not be pledged to any foreign Power. It would he, therefore,
unnecessary to propose any stipulations on this important point;
hut a request was made that it may be definitely ascertained in
connection with these negotiations that the assurance extended to
the subjects of any such Power.
17. This offer was communicated by the British Minister in Tehran to
the Grand Vizier who, in November 1901, replied that he had referred the
proposals by telegraph to M. deWitte in St. Petersburg, and the latter had
answered that the advance offered was a loan by a Foreign Government, and
that Ire could not authorise the Persian Government to accept it. At this
juncture the Viceroy assuming that proposals for the Indian loan had
fallen through owing to the subservience of the Persian Government to Russia,
teleeranhed °on 30th November 1901 suggesting that the declaration he had pro-
& * posed on *lst October 1901, should be made
• Tide paragraph 16 ante, page 26 . p ers i an an( i Russian Government,
not as a condition of the proferred loan hut as a definite pronouncement of
British policy in future, otherwise the entire proceedings would prove abortive,
a triumph for Russia and seriously detrimental to British interests.
18 One result of the English offer was that M. de Witte consented to con
clude the Russian loan of one million sterling, which had been so long under
discussion Fresh delay, however, occurred owing to his demanding, as one
of the conditions of the proposed loan, a concession for laying a pipe-line for
mineral oil from Baku to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . M. de Witte’s insistence on this
proposal was doubtless due in part to resentment at the Persian Government
having wanted in May 1901 an off monopoly in Kermanshah and Arabistan to
Mr. if’Arcy, a British subject, and also to the opportunity which it would
afford for sendin" surveyors and Cossacks and establishing Russian stations and
political agencies all over South-Western Persia. That there could have been
no serious Intention to carry out the scheme is obvious when the enormous cost
is considered of constructing a pipe-line across the huge mountain ranges of
Persia This new condition, put forward as the price of Russia s financial assis
tance to the Shah, was firmly resisted by His Majesty’s Government, who
pointed out that it would contravene the concession which had been granted
to Mr D’Arcjyfor laying down pipe-lines from certain Provinces of Persia to
the coast of the Gulf under a positive engagement that the Persian Govern
ment would grant no similar right to any other person. Formal representations
on the subject were made at St. Petersburg by His Majesty’s Ambassador, and
the negotiations remained for some months at a dead lock, M. de Witte reiterat
ing his° insistence on the condition and maintaining that Mr. D Arcy had
received a monopoly as regards native oil only, while the Grand Vizier
asseverated that the Shah would rather abandon the loan than consent to the
construction of the pipe-line. Finally in March 1902, M. de Witte gave way