‘Confidential. Persia’ [‎493v] (36/112)

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Mr.. R. J. Kennedy to the Marquis of Salis
bury.
lllh December 1890,
No. 286 (Very Secret).
Telegram.
“ My telegram, 285. Engagement has been
signed by the Sbah and Amin-es-Sultan.”
8 . In his despatch No. 48, dated 16th
May 1899, Sir M. Durand informed the
Marquis of Salisbury of a conyersation he
had had with the Sadr-i-Azam, in which
the latter admitted that the secret under
taking^ given by the late Shah to Prince
Dolgorouki had been renewed at intervals
of five years and was still in force, with
the net result that the Persians are practi
cally bound in perpetuity to consult the
Emperor of Eussia before granting to any
foreign company a concession for a railroad
or waterway.
But on 30th May Sir M. Durand tele
graphed that he doubted whether the
agreement existed and "was inclined to
think that the Persian Government had
simply renewed the ten years’ convention.
9. About the same time, it appears,
rumours of the proposed construction of a
Kussian railway in Northern Persia led to a
question in the House of Commons which
gave occasion to the British Ambassador
in St. Petersburg to elicft the intentions
of the Russian Government:—
Hid, Proceeding No. 382.
1899.
Secret E., September 1899, Nos. 13«17, Proceeding
No. 13.
* See page 24.
Sir C. Scott to the Marquis of Salisbury.
St. Petersburg, 17th May 1899.
(No. 144.)
“In reply to Your Lordship’s despatch No. 101
of the 6 th instant, I have the honour to report
that I drew Count Mouravieff’s attention, iu
conversation to-day, to the question asked in
Parliament by Mr. Drage respecting the report of
a proposed construction of a Russian railway in
North Persia, and to the reply given by the
Under-Secretary of State.
“ Count Mouravieff said that the report was
quite unfounded ; the Russian Government, he
assured me, had no intention of authorizing the
extension of the Russian line into Persia, or of
altering their present engagement with tho
Persian Government which precluded the grant
of any concession to Russia of railways through
Persian territory. He said that all rumours to the
contrary might safely be contradicted.”
10. In 1900 it was reported from Tehran
that a large party of Russian engineers
had arrived and were about to proceed in
detachments to Kerman, Yezd, Bunder
Abbas, Bushire, and Ispahan for the pur
pose of making railway surveys in the
south of Persia, in which work they were to
be joined by another party of engineers
and surveyors expected in the Gulf on a
Russian gunboat. The Persian Govern
ment professed to regard the party as
belonging to some scientific body and
engaged upon scientific work which it was
Secret E., September 1899, Nos. 13*17, Proceeding
No. 15.
1900.
Secret E., August 1900, No*. 27*60, Proceeding
No. 45.