File 1323/1916 Pt 1 ‘Baluchistan:- Disturbed conditions on the Anglo-Persian border. Future administration of Mekran, Sarhad & the Kalat States’ [‎102v] (202/896)

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financial difficulty that has hitherto delayed action vis a vis the Persian
Government, His Majesty’s Minister should be apprised of the position and
instructed to inform the Persian Government that His Majesty’s Government
have had it in contemplation to give them the Mirjawa-Huzdap line on the
terms indicated in paragraph 13 of the Government of India’s despatch No. 10
of 19th October 1922 ; that this offer is still open, but that in the meantime a
year’s experience has shown that the Mirjawa-Huzdap line is still operated at
a loss (which acceptance of the offer would transfer to Persia) and the Nushkin
Mirjawa line at so great a loss that its demolition (which would of course
deprive the Persian line of all value save that of scrap material) must be
regarded as a serious possibility, that His Majesty’s Government and the
Government of India are examining every practicable means of making the
line profitable and are prepared, pending submission of definite proposals in
this direction, to allow the existing state of affairs to continue,
4. For the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will recognise that
neither the Secretary of State for India nor the Government of India have
recommended immediate demolition of the line: the whole object of my
letter* * * § of 19th December, based on the warning note sounded in the Govern
ment of India’s telegramf of 6 th December, was to consider how best to avoid
demolition, the arguments for which must become increasingly insistent if
no way of improving the earning capacity of the line can meantime
be found.
5 . I am to enclose for the information of the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs a memorandum which presents the salient facts of the case;
and to express the hope that after perusing it the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs will agree that consideration must at once be given to the
problem of maintaining the railway on some other basis than the present
unsatisfactory one.
6 . A considerable period must be allowed for examination of the question
by any capitalist groups approached, and the sooner, therefore, that this is
done, the better.
7 . I am to add that it is understood, since the date of my previous letter,
that the Department of Overseas Trade possess some interesting and possibly
valuable information derived from the Commercial Secretary to the British
Legation as to a Parsif firm which has shown a desire to undertake the
development of Eastern Persian potentialities; if this firm is still inclined,
after the investigation which it is understood now to be making locally, to
engage in any considerable enterprise in that region, it might be best to leave
the matter in its hands, or if it should be desirous of financial support, to
encourage a fusion of interest between it apd such British groups as were
suggested in my previous letter.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(Sd.) L. D. WAKELY.
The Under Secretary of State,
Foreign Office.
Enclo. to Serial No. 9.
MEMORANDUM.
1 . Contrary to expectation, after all possible economies have been effected
and freight rates put up as high as the traffic will stand, the cost of operating
the Nushki-Mirjawa line still exceeds receipts by an annual sum of
Rs. 4,40,000.§
* Serial No. 226 in file No. 70 (IV) M.
t Serial No 154 in file No. 70 (IV) M.
t File No. 845-M.
§ Judging by 1921 figures total earnings are probably somewhere about 74 lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees , and expenses about
Rs. 12 lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees .