‘Confidential. Persia’ [‎484r] (17/112)

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Secret E., March 1902, Noa. 377-521, Proceeding
No. 41)8.
1902.
Lamsdorff liad searched in the archives fur the
agreements referred to by Your Lordship, and
though he had been unable to trace that of 1834-,
he had found that of lb 88 , and would be ready
now, or at any other time, to subscribe to it. Ho
himself w^as most anxious to maintain the integri
ty and independence of Persia. lie stated that
no such thing existed in Persia as financial
tutelage, and he adduced as proof of this the fact
that the Persian Government was able of its own
free will, when in need of money, to apply for a
loan to Russia. 1 contested the justice of this
argument, maintaining that it was compromising
to the independence of Prrsia to wring from her
Government, when under the pressure of financial
difficulties, concessions injurious to her own interests
and to those of foreign powers, and I cited as an
example in point the recent tariff negotiations.
Count Lamsdorff admitted the correctness, of my
arguments, but in spite of my emphatic state
ments, disputed the accuracy of my facts, stating
that already before he went abroad the negotia
tions for the tariff revision had been concluded.
x * * * *
11. The same opinion with regard to the
continued validity of the Anglo-Russian
understanding was shortly afterwards ex
pressed by the Russian Ambassador in
London:—
The Marquis of Lansdowne to Sir C. Scott.
Foreign Office, 3rd December 1901.
“ The Russian Ambassador, who has been in
delicate health and is about to leave England for
some time, called upon me to-day
M. de Staal then referred in a somewhat,
vague manner to the Anglo-Russian understand
ing of 1^34—renewed in 188S—as to the integrity
of Persia, which His Excellency regarded as still
in force/'
12. In 1902 the refusal of the Persian
Government to accept British financial
assistance, and the peculiar circumstances
under which that refusal took place, led
the Marquis of Lansdowne to recapitulate
the salient features of England’s policy
towards Persia, in a despatch to Sir A.
Hardinge, which the latter was to place
before the Persian Government. The
following passages relate to general policy
and the integrity of Persia:—
The Marquis of Lausdowne to Sir A. Har
dinge.
Foreign Office, 0th January 1902.
******
Z$iV, Proceeding No. 502,
“ The Persian Government must be well aware,
from the experience of 1UO years, that Great Britain
has no designs upon the sovereignty of the Shah
or the independence of his State. It has, on the
contrary, been one of our principal objects to en
courage and strengthen the States lying outside
the frontier of our Indian Empire, with the hope
that we should find in them an intervening zone
sufficient to prevent direct contact between the
dominions of Lreat Britain and those of other great
military powers. We could not, however, maintain
this policy if in any particular instance we should
find that one of these intervening States was being