'PRINCIPAL DESPATCHES AND CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO PERSIA CONNECTED WITH THE SUMMARY OF EVENTS AND MEASURES OF VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDDLESTON IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. JANUARY 1899 TO NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV-PART IV. PERSIA.' [‎12r] (28/136)

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and it may be necessary hereafter to appoint a special officer to
that charge, but for the present I would try the arrangement I
have suggested.
(d) It is, I think, evidently wrong that at a place like Ispahan, where
our trade and our political influence have hitherto been in full
possession, the newly-appointed Russian Consul should be better
equipped than our own. The former has £800 a year pay, a
Secretary, and a free house, with other privileges, including an
escort of Cossacks. The latter has £600 a year pay, of which he
has to give back £60 in house-rent and £150 office allowance. I
would make him a Consul-General and raise his allowances to
the level of the Russian Consul’s.
(e) A Consulate on the Ivarun is perhaps the most necessary of all the
appointments I have suggested. Ahwaz may hereafter become a
very important trade centre, and from there we should work upon
the Arabs and Bakhtiaris and Lurs, establishing our hold upon
them, and opening up the routes through their country, and
perhaps raising from among them an irregular levy. The Resident
in Bushire would prefer for the present to keep our Consul at
Mohammerah. I doubt the expediency of this, as he should get
into touch with the Lurs and Bakhtiaris quite as much as with
the Arabs of the Lower Karun. However this may be, the Consul
will probably require a native Agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. or two for commercial work.
We should, I think, for the present at least, leave the Karun
under the Consul-General for Lars. Our merchants would prefer
his being in direct communication with Tehran, and Captain
Sykes in his report on the Karun recommends this; but I do not
think we should, until the necessity is very clearly proved, take
away the district from the charge of the Consul-General. It is
better that we should have the whole of the Gulf coast in one
hand.
(/) A British Vice-Consulate at Kermanshah is, I think, very desirable.
Our trade by the Baghdad route is increasing, and the route is a
very important one in all respects. As I have shown, the British
imports and exports by this route approach a million sterling.
We must keep our hold on it if possible. Our native Agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. ,
although a man of wealth and consequence, has from the time I
have been in Persia done nothing for us, and has been a source of
unending trouble and expense to the Legation owing to his quarrels
with the Persians. It is the more important to keep our hold on
Kermanshah, because the Russians may at any time push on their
road from Kazvin to Hamadan. A Vice-Consul at Kermanshah
should be directly under the orders of the Consul-General at
Tehran.
(g) With regard to Bunder Abbas, the British trade of this port and
Lingah aggregates over a million. Hitherto the Government of
India have not been willing to establish a Vice-Consulate at
this point, but I would suggest a reconsideration of their view.
A Vice-Consul at Bunder Abbas, passing his summers at Yezd
and his winters in working up the trade of South-Eastern Persia,
ought to be able to do much good. Yezd is an important commer
cial centre with a branch bank. The Vice-Consul might also
perhaps relieve the Telegraph Department of their political duties,
but his main work should be in connection with trade. A s to
Bahrein I have nothing to say. The interest of this Legation
in Bahrein is so indirect that this seems to me to be a matter
entirely for the Government of India.
(h) As to a Vice-Consul in Urumia or the neighbourhood, I am not quite
sure. I should have thought that full information as to what