Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎202v] (404/442)

489 The Trans-Persian Railway. [ LORDS ] Tlte Trans-Persian Railway. 490
from the defence point of view and express
ing a preference for certain alignments
and their conviction of the necessity for
certain safeguards ; because they recognised
that it was impossible not to realise, bearing
in mind what the noble Earl and other noble
Lords have said, the possible destructibility
of any existing arrangement as between
European Powers, and that it was impos
sible to shut your eyes to the possibility of
certain other combinations through which
or by means of which, the line might be
made in spite of our declared intention to
have nothing to do with it so far as the
Indian frontier part of it was concerned.
My noble friend behind me drew attention
to the fact that some of those who ordinarily
support His Majesty’s Government in
domestic politics and to some extent also in
foreign politics have uttered somewhat
severe strictures on the assumed action of
His Majesty’s Government in this matter of
a Trans-Persian railway. One might ask
them, as my noble friend asked the noble
Earl. What is the precise step which in the
circumstances they would have taken ?
What do they consider to be the error that
we have so far committed—I will not say in
not vetoing the institution of this Societe
d'Etudes, because I do not see how we
could have prevented its inception although
we might possibly have prevented certain
persons from joining it—but in somehow
not placing a veto on the project in a
manner the precise form of which I confess
I am unable to conceive ? It is one of the
curious ironies of history that brings some
of those pacific friends of ours into the
precise position which thirty and more
years ago those very different people
enjoyed who delighted in the doggerel song
of which the word “ Jingo ” is, I suppose,
the only survival at this moment. I hope
they will see that we have not committed
His Majesty’s Government, not merely to
any participation in this proposed line "if it
be made, but to any definite approval of the
line. We are not prepared on principle— I
as the npble Earl reminded us my right hon.
friend used the words “ the principle of the
undertaking ” in another place—we are not |
prepared on principle to say that this line
shall not be made. But that is a very
different story from the kind of participa
tion in the project of which in some quarters
we are accused.
And on that I should like so far as
possible to reassure my noble friend
behind me. Lord Inchcape, as to the
The Marquess of Crewe.
attitude of the Government of India and
the policy of His Majesty’s Government
in the matter of finance. He said with great
truth that all the money that is available for
Indian railways is required for those rail
ways. It is required to a very large
extent for the improvement of rolling-
stock and for the improvement of lines in
all manner of ways by widening and the
provision of marshalling sidings and a
number of other improvements. If money
were forthcoming there are also new branch
lines in many directions which we should
be glad to make. We are entirely alive
I to the importance of not squandering
Indian money which might be devoted to
our own railways upon a project of this
kind. I certainly have no desire to
expend a single rupee of Indian money on
such a project as this. And as to the
question of guaranteeing a return for the
lines, if and when they are opened, alto
gether apart from the question of assisting
in any way in the construction, we have
entered into no engagement of the kind.
We are under no engagement to the pro
moters of this line to assist this railway
should it be made.
To continue the question of the con
struction of the main line, there is this
other point of view which arises out of what
fell from the noble Earl when he drew
attention to the possible advantage to
Persia in the construction of various rail
ways through districts which, as he stated,
needed the service of a railway more than
| those districts through which a perfectly
direct Trans-Persian line would pass. It
is certainly not for me to prophesy, but
it is, of course, quite possible that the
immediate future of Persian railway con
struction may be brought about in that
form. I, for one, certainly should not
complain if it were, but would welcome it.
It may come about that railways may be
made in Persia piecemeal, and that one
day we may wake up and find that a Trans-
Persian railway thereby exists just as the
London and North Western Railway, to
; name only one instance, was composed of
four or five different lines before you were
able to travel by it through to Manchester
or through to Carlisle. That is, of course,
a possible outcome. But I hope that if
the noble Earl proposes to say anything
more in replying on the debate he will
absolve us from having unduly com
plicated our position in Persia or of having
implicated His Majesty’s Government in