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‘Bagdad Ry’ [‎20r] (39/129)

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The record is made up of 1 file (64 folios). It was created in 15 Apr 1899-9 Sep 1905. It was written in English and French. 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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5
, • 10. We are, therefore, confronted with a project which, if carried out
under German auspices, will undoubtedly inflict grave injury upon our com
merce, and must ultimately destroy our political influence in Southern Persia,
and in the deltas of the Tigris and the Euphrates. We have the strongest
grounds for preventing the control of a railway from Baghdad to the Gulf from
falling wholly under the control of a Power which regards its own interests
exclusively, and which well understands the manipulation of railway rates.
17. The main obstacle to the completion of the railway is financial.
Already, as pointed out in paragraph 1, diliiculties have arisen in regard to the
kilometric guarantee for the two sections beyond Eregli. If these difficulties
are now overcome, others of a similar nature will probably arise later, since the
country to be traversed is for a long distance unproductive and inhabited
by unruly tribes who would require to be controlled. The prolongation of the
line through this country could be justified on economic grounds only, if the
section from Baghdad to the Gulf is certain to be completed. It is from the
profits which this section may be expected to secure that the loss on the non
paying portions of the line must, in great measure, be recouped.
18. It would be unwise to minimise the financial difficulties with which
the German Company is confronted, or to assume that the line cannot be
completed without British assistance. There seems, however, to be a prob
ability that we shall again be approached with a view to securing our co
operation, and it appears essential, therefore, that we should consider the
conditions on which such co-operation might be practicable.
19. A railway connecting two seas must usually be an advantage to this
country, whatever may be its status and ownership. In the present case,
however, British interests require—
(a) that freight rates discriminating against British goods shall be im
possible ; and
(b) that our political influence in Southern Persia and the delta of the
Tigris and Euphrates shall not suffer at the hands of a foreign Railway Com
pany controlling communication between the Gulf and Baghdad, and conse
quently able to undertake the irrigation works, by the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of which a great
development of the region of the lower Tigris and the Euphrates can be brought
about.
20. Under Article 9 of the Convention, it is provided that the Railway
Company is to have a monopoly of the provision of the materials required for
the line, and is to be granted the privilege of transporting its agents and
workmen on the waterways of the Shatt-el-Arab, the Tigris, and the Euphrates.
This privilege is to last ‘‘only during the period of construction ”, and is to be
“ under the surveillance of the Minister of Marine It is, however, extremely
doubtful whether the use of steamers, river wharves, buildings, improvements
in navigation, &c., made at considerable expense for the purposes of railway
construction, would suddenly lapse when the line was completed.
21. The Sultan is already taking part in water transport on the Tigris,
and his steamers, the management of which has greatly improved, compete with
the limited means permitted to the British firm of Lynch Brothers. The
probability is, therefore, that water transportation, with any devlopments
arising in the process of railway construction, may tend to pass largely to the
control of the Sultan, wdiose private purse would benefit. If this view r is
correct, an attempt to develop navigation in British hands as a scheme com
peting with a German railway would probably fail.
22. The conditions of co-operation which would best satisfy British
interests appear to be—
(a) The construction of the Baghdad- Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. section of the line,
together with the contemplated branch from Baghdad to the Persian frontier,
by British capital under British direction.
(b) The retention of this section under British management.
(c) Pooling the general traffic under a working arrangement, giving Great
Britain adequate representation on the directorate.

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Content

The file contains correspondence, reports and memoranda relating to the Baghdad Railway, and papers relating to Britain’s relations with Persia [Iran], and to a lesser extent, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .

Papers relating to the Baghdad Railway include the following memoranda: ‘Memorandum on the Baghdad Railway, and possible British participation therein’; ‘Memoranda containing a Brief Account of the Negotiations relating to the Baghdad Railway, 1898-1905’; and ‘Report (with Maps) on the country adjacent to the Khor Abdullah, and places suitable as Termini of the proposed Baghdad Railway’ (which includes two maps: Mss Eur F111/360, f 32 and Mss Eur F111/360, f 33).

The file also includes:

  • Copies of printed despatches from the Marquess of Lansdowne (Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice), Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to Sir Charles Louis des Graz, Secretary of the British Legation, Tehran, dated August 1902, reporting conversations between himself and the Shah of Persia and the Atabeg-i-Azam (also spelled Atabek-i-Azam) concerning Britain’s relations with Persia, including the increase in the Persian Customs Tariff
  • Handwritten notes by George Nathaniel Curzon relating to Persia (folios 43 to 50)
  • Newspaper extracts from The Times , dated January 1902 and May 1903, relating to British interests in Persia and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and Russian relations with Persia (folios 54 to 63).

The file includes a copy of a letter from Sir Nicholas Roderick O’Conor, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, to the Marquess of Lansdowne, enclosing an extract from the Moniteur Oriental of 15 August 1905, regarding the working of the recently completed section of the Baghdad Railway from Konia to Eregli and Boulgourlou, which is in French. The file also includes a copy of a letter from Joseph Naus to Sir Arthur Hardinge, HM Minister to Persia, 3 May 1903, relating to the export of cereals, which is also in French.

Extent and format
1 file (64 folios)
Arrangement

The papers from folios 1 to 42 are arranged in no apparent order, Curzon’s handwritten notes from folios 44 to 51 are enclosed in an envelope - folio 43, and the newspaper cuttings from folios 54 to 63 are enclosed in an envelope - folio 52.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 64; 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.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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‘Bagdad Ry’ [‎20r] (39/129), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/360, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100074887171.0x000028> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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