Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎197r] (393/442)

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The Trans'Persian Railway. [15 July
1912 ] The Trans-Persian Railway.
value of Anglo-Indian trade with Persia at
the present time is something less than
two millions sterling per annum. The
greater part of this trade consists in piece-
goods and in tea which is taken from Indian
ports, deposited at the Persian harbours,
and then put on pony-back, or camel-back
or donkey-back and sent up to the towns in
the interior. We know that that trade has
to suffer many difficulties, difficulties arising
from the severity of the passes, the insecurity
of the country, and the cost of the
caravans. But supposing this railway
to be constructed. How is it to benefit that
trade ? How are our goods to do better
when they are placed upon the railway at
Karachi, or the harbour, wherever it be,
and when they have before them the
necessarily heavy freights of the railway
before they reach the Persian towns ? If
you take that part of Persian territory con
tiguous to our border which the railway
would first touch there are only two cities
of any size, Yezd and Kerman, distributing
centres of some but ot no very consider
able importance, with a population in neither
case of more than 50,000 persons. After that
there is nothing until you get into the Russian
sphere, and when once you enter that
sphere Russia wdll be able, by her system of
rates and rebates at her end of the railway,
to destroy any advantages which British
or Indian trade may have obtained. I
remember when I w as in India I had as my
financial and commercial adviser that very
able man, the late Sir Edw r ard Law. Before
coming to India he had served as com
mercial attache both in Persia and in Russia,
and was warmly attached to both coun
tries ; and discussing as v r e did this question
of a Trans-Persian line he always stated as
his emphatic opinion that such a line, if
made, could only act as a feeder for Russian
commerce and would be a great detriment
both to British and Indian trade. The fact
is that if this railway be made w r e shall
really be doing very much the same thing
in the sphere of commerce as I have been
contending we shall do in the sphere of
strategy—that is to say, w r e shall be
reversing the whole of the traditional policy
on wffiich we have so far acted. Hitherto
our trade with Persia has been seaborne.
Now you are going to substitute landborne
traffic for seaborne. You are going to
divert the trade from the routes which we
do command to the routes which we do not.
There is one other country that has to
be considered, and that is Persia herself.
I am sure that if the construction of such
a railway as this were to be of benefit to
Persia there is no one who would be better
pleased than the members of your Lord-
ships’ House. But I wonder if this will
be the case. I have been a little struck,
in so far as I have been able to follow this
matter, with the extent to which Persia
seems to have been left out of consideration.
I have heard nothing of Persia in connection
with the Societe d’Etudes. There is no
Persian member upon it, and I have not
heard of any Persian finance in connection
with the scheme, probably for the very good
reason that there is no Persian money
forthcoming. Sir Edward Grey, I think,
said in his speech that the construction of
such a railway would be an advantage to
Persia because it would strengthen the
central authority and enable it to deal with
disturbances. It needs only the slightest
acquaintance with the history and
geography of Persia to know that the main
centres of disturbance are far away from
the projected line; and this railway
running through the heart of Persia, from
West to East, will no more enable Persia
to grapple with the particular difficulties
with which she is now confronted than
would, for instance, the London and
Brighton railway enable His Majesty’s
Government to put down a riot in Bodmin
or Penzance. Even if Persia were enabled
by this scheme to acquire a greater control
over her territories—and I am sure we
should be glad to see it—she may have to
pay a heavy price for it. We have had
some experience in recent years of inter
national railways. International railways
are apt to be followed by international
guards, and international guards involve
some form of foreign protection, and foreign
protection very easily merges into foreign
control. Therefore I doubt whether Persia
herself will really gain by this railway
any substantial addition to her authority,
her means of pacifying her own country,
or her power.
There is only one other matter to which
I will refer before I resume my seat.
Issues such as those of gauge and of
alignment—the reserved topics mentioned
by Sir Edward Grey—can very well be
postponed until the matter matures.
But ought we not to say one word on the
question of finance ? I should like to
impress upon your Lordships in my con
cluding sentences that the financial burden
will be very much greater than anybody