‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎180r] (358/949)

Railways in Peesia.
(The following is extracted in literial translation from two confidential Reports
by P. A. Rittich, Staff: Captain, published by the Scientific Committee of
the General Staff at the War Printing Office in St. Petersburg!! in 1901 .
These volumes contain Rittich’s Report on his journey to Persia and
Persian Baluchistan in 1900 , where he was sent by the Russian Govern
ment for the purpose of invesigating the proposed lines of railway, and
the general, economic, political, and military conditions of the country.)
General Considerations of the Author in the necessity and best direction for
a Railioay Route through Rersia.
Prom a consideration of the railway explorations given below, carried oat
in the autumn of 1899 and the spring of 1900 , we may draw the following
conclusion :—
The most profitable and cheapest direction is the coast line, that is the
continuation of the railway from the station of Allat of the Trans-Caspian
Railway to the town of Resht. This direction is absolutely the shortest, if it
be regarded as the first link in a world’s transit route to the Indian Ocean. In
a strategic sense it leaves nothing to he desired, as for its whole extent it is
under the protection of our fleet, to which, under existing Treaties with Persia,
belongs the exclusive right of navigating the Caspian. Chief Engineer
V. A. Sakhansky, in his Report on his explorations, estimates the net income
from the coast-line at 5| per cent., using for his calculations only the data of
the Customs Department for 1898 , not to speak of the fact that the trade of
the countries during the last two years, 1899 - 1900 , has increased in the same
progression as has been observed during the last decade. Apart from this, the
trade is far from serving as an index of our actual mutual exchange with
Persia, and according to certain symptoms our trade must be reckoned some
what greater, and consequently it may be expected that the net income of this
link will be considerably greater already in the first year. It seems, to me
that Sakhansky, in his Report quoted below, has proved with great weight the
profitableness of this coast line, and, on the other hand, the complete worth
lessness of such an enterprise as the construction of the Enzeli port, for which,
on the part of the Ministry of Pinance and Ministry for Poreign Affairs,
demands and proposals were more than once made.
Such demands were caused by the urgent necessity of helping our Russo-
Persian trade, and at the same time it was necessary to be consequent, and
having finished our construction of the Resht-Kasvin chaussee, to carry the
enterprise to a conclusion—that is, to provide goods with a convenient, free,
and permanent means of transport to Russia and back.
In this sense the construction of the Enzeli port seemed the cheapest and
simplest solution, as according to the plan of Engineer Sultanov, the construc
tion of a canal and the deepening of a port would cost about 2,000,000 roubles.
The Ministry of Poreign Affairs particularly insists on this project, as it does
not at all support the idea of a Persian Railway. By his Memorandum on the
cost of the Enzeli port, constructions and buildings of a new commercial fleet,
connected therewith, Sakhansky finally destroys any importance of the port as
regards economy compared with the railway.
There remains only the question of the political importance of the railways
on account of which the whole matter is delayed.
The fundamental thesis which is brought forward by our diplomats con
sists in this : that in their opinion, the construction by us of a railway from
the north will immediately cause the construction of a railway by the English
from the south, which will paralyse all the advantages of our trade, and cause
us detriment in both political and economical respects.
This thesis is radically wrong, and proceeded from the fact that the south
of Persia till 1900 was unexplored by us in technical and economical respects.
The exploration of Sakhansky to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and of our party to the
Indian Ocean, proved irrefutably that the English are incapable of doing