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'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)

The record is made up of 1 volume (189 folios). It was created in 1907. 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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tie 'internnl taxes w. re to be paid by the Provincial Governors, and which,
after itself 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 ou 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-Sultaneh, 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 liy the Shah on his favourites or on the members of his family, instead
of bein" 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 be bad taken office, the Ain-
cd-Dowleh applied to the British Legation for a further loan of £200,000,
which he professed todedre in order to restore the dam at Ahwaz on the t pper
Karun, and thus fertilise the province of Arabistan.
His Majesty’s Government replied that they could not advance money in
connection with the Ahwaz dam, unless they were satisfied that the undertaking
would Dot be prejudicial to British interests on the Karun ; but that they would
despatch an engineer from India to examine and report to them on this question.
In the meantime they were willing to make a further advance o< £100,000, to
complete the £^ 00,000 originally offered, repayable in twenty years, and secured
on the same revenues, as those specified in the Loan Agreement of April 1903,
viz the Fisheries, Posts and Telegraphs, and the Customs of 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 1904, and in connection with the Karun pro-
iect Major Morton, of the Punjab Irrigation Department, accompanied by two
native surveyors, was sent from India in January 1905 to examine and report
upon the scheme put forward by the Dutch engineer, Herr van Roggen. 1 he
obiect of his mission was at the time kept secret from the local authorities, but
Herr van Ro tr geii was later instructed by the Grand \ izier to discuss the proposals
fullv and confidentially with Major Morton. After a careful survey Major Morton
in July submitted his report. His estimate of the cost of carrying out the
scheme as proposed by the Dutch engineer amounted to £2,246,000 with an
annual charge of £ 10,000 for the upkeep of the works, while he calculated that
the net revenue would amount to only about £35,000 per annum or about 1^ %
on the capital expenditure. He gave it as his opinion that “ there is not m any
conceivable circumstances the remotest possibility of Herr van Roggen s scheme
paying” and “ that if it did pay it is to be wholly condemned for various
reasons.” .
In view of this report, the question of making a loan to the Persian Gov
ernment to enable them to carry out Herr van Roggen’s scheme was dropped
and Major Morton was instructed in September 1905, to draw up an alternative
scheme. t -n •
33. The point of the interpretation of the phrase “ Pars and the lersian
Gulf ” was, meanwhile, at the suggestion of the Government of Hicha, separately
pursued in connection with the Rhglement Douamerand on 4th March U04 bn
A. Hardinge succeeded in extracting a more definite expression ot opinion irom
the Persian Government.
34. The line which the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs then took was
that the expression “ Southern Persia ” as a distinct term was suggested >\
Sir M. Durand in a note addressed to
• Firfe paragraph 4 page 23 . ^ xe Sadr-BAzam, embodying a message*
of 7th April 1899 from Lord Salisbury about the loan then uuder negotiation.

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Content

Printed at the GC [Government Central] Press, Simla.

The volume is divided into three parts: Part I (folios 5-47) containing an introduction; Part II (folios 48-125) containing a detailed account; and Part III (folios 126-188) containing despatches and correspondence connected with Part I Chapter IV ('The Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ', folios 28-47).

Part I gives an overview of policy and events in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. region during Curzon's period as Viceroy [1899-1905], with sections on British policy in Persia; the maintenance and extension of British interests; Seistan [Sīstān]; and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Part II contains more detailed accounts of selected topics, including sections on British policy in Persia, customs and finance, quarantine, administration, communications, and British and Russian activity in Seistan. The despatches and correspondence in Part III include correspondence from the Government of India in the Foreign Department, the Secretary of State for India, and the Viceroy; addresses and speeches by Curzon; and notes of interviews between Curzon and local rulers.

Mss Eur F111/531-534 consist of four identical printed and bound volumes. However, the four volumes each show a small number of different manuscript annotations and corrections.

This volume contains manuscript additions on folios 8, 11-12, 14, 42 (a sixteen word note concerning the use by the Shaikh of Koweit [Kuwait] of a distinctive colour [flag] for Kuwait shipping), and 62-66.

Extent and format
1 volume (189 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a list of Parts I-III on folio 4; a table of contents of Part I on folio 6; a table of contents of Part II on folio 49; and a table of contents of Part III on folios 127-129, which gives a reference to the paragraph of Part I Chapter IV that the despatch or correspondence is intended to illustrate.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 191; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'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), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/534, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100070118029.0x000089> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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