Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎28r] (55/690)

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■ Afl-i havo nTiimrlinrn nhowu, [he Turks in these parts are disposed
to be very nasty towards the^ Persians, against whom they have
cherished a particular grudge" ever since the cession of the poJ|t of W
Mohammerah to the latter by the joint Anglo-Pussian commission /
more than forty years ago. They are jealous of the intrusion of
any other power upon the Shat-el-Arab; and they are still more
jealous of the rising fortunes of Mohammerah itself, which, in the
event of any considerable development of the Karun trade route,
will divert much of the traffic that now finds its way to Busrah and
Bagdad, and^ through their customhouses^ to and from the Persian
interior. Accordingly they adopt every means in their power of
hampering, irritating, and menacing their rivals’ interests; the most
conspicuous illustration of this attitude being the erection of a large
fort upon a shelving sandspit at Fao, absolutely commanding the
entrance to the Shat-el-Arab on the south. By a clause in the
Treaty of Erzerum (1847) Turkey and Persia, the two contracting
powers, bound themselves by a reciprocal engagement not to erect
fortifications on either bank of the estuary, Great Britain and Russia
being the two witnessing parties; and the action of the Turks is
consequently an initial violation of this agreement, which is not
atoned for by their complacent invitation to the Persians to go and do
likewise. In 1886 they commenced the construction of the fort, and
an spite 6 f frequent protests since, both from the English and Per
sian Governments, met by the traditional diplomatic disclaimer from
Constantinople, they have now completed it to a point at which the guns
•only are wanting to render it a serious and intolerable menace both
to their Persian neighbours and to the interests of the British trade
and shipping engaged upon the Mesopotamian rivers. Some time
ugo an English telegraph clerk from the neighbouring telegraph
station at Fao landed from a boat at the fort, meeting with no inter
ruption, and succeeding in making drawings and plans of the fortifi
cations. When this vagary was discovered the Turks were furious,
and have since fanatically excluded every prying eye. But from
the deck of each passing steamer enough can be seen to show the
actual progress of affairs, and to reduce to their proper proportions
■the glib denials from Stamboul; and should the armament of this
fort be proceeded with, in direct infringement of treaty stipulations [i+ut
which England is pledged to safeguard, and .to -the obviuuo pwil erf- s ^
British shipping whose presence and safefy on the Tigris are guaran- ^
teed by firmans fifty years old, I can conceive that no other alterna-
tive will present itself to the British Government but to knock the
fort to pieces, and teach the Ottoman Government that there is a
limit to the endurance even of Ottoman impertinence. When I add
that'llthwt-tlio last few months the Turks karv also commenced to
build two other forts in the immediate neighbourhood of Mohamme-
<rah higher up the river* mnd that daily and weekly they place every
obstacle that a perverse''ingenuity can suggest in the way of the
'(English) Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company, who
own the right to ply with two vessels between Busrah and Bagdad,
it will be seen that to represent their action as dictated by any
•other spirit than one of provocation both to Persia and this country is
impossible. Why a power which only only stands upon its legs in
Europe because England is supposed to be propping it up from
behind should be allowed to kick the shins of its supporter in Asia,
passes my ability to determine.
A little beyond the new fort is the joint British and Turkish Tele
graph Station at Fao, where the cable of the Gulf section of the
Indo-European Telegraph Department comes up from the sea, and is
prolonged by an overland wire to Constantinople. Two buildings or
sheds accommodate the respective officials of the two nationalities,
and recently provided a further illustration of the suspicious hostility
of the Turks. For when the English superintendent began to build
a low wall round his shed to keep off the encroachments of the river,,
the Sublime Porte, which is ready to detect a menace in any pro
ceedings but its own, formally protested against the fortification on
its territory of a hostile place of arms l