File 200/1928 Pt 6 'Anglo-Persian Treaty Negotiations' [‎37r] (67/642)

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Minute Paper.
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by Sir Robert Clive in his telegram of 15th April,No.74,
on P.Z. 2385/31, of the general question of Angl o-Persian
relations. This will cone up for consideration in due
course, either in inter-Departmental correspondence, or
perhaps more probably in the Middle East sub-Committee
of the Committee of Imperial Defence. It may be
convenient briefly to examine the position generally at
the present stage.
^ The directions in which we could bring pressure on
Persia appear to be the following -
Removal of the Duzdap Railway; adoption of an
obstructive attitude in the Shatt-al-Arab, where Persia
wants to secure a frontier rectification, the formal
declaration of a British Protectorate over Bahrein;
economic pressure, such as would be constituted by
closing the Indian frontier (action on these lines has
been used with great effect by the Soviet in North
Persia); publicity (to which the Persians have shown
themselves responsive in the past); and withdrawal of
the Minister.
It is, I fear, very doubtful v/hether much progress
could be hoped for by the use of any of these
alternatives. The Persians have never shown much interest
in the Tniy.dao Railway , and recent investigation disclosed
that its maintenance had a definite importance fran the
Indian standpoint in connection with frontier trade. We
might, therefore, hit ourselves without materially
damaging the Persians, were we to give effect to a threat
to dismantle the trans-frontier section.
( As for the Shatt-al-Arab , the Persians have shown
no particular anxiety to bring matters to a point .although
4793a 5000
they did, in the first instance, raise the question
themselves/