‘Confidential. Persia’ [‎501v] (52/112)

50
n
*
the southern or south-eastern provinces of Persia
as security for a foreign loan would be even more
detrimental to Persian interests, and not less
objectionable from a British point of view than
that of the customs of the southern ports.’'’
9. So matters remained, we claiming
in the abstract that the term “ Pars and
the ports of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ” must, in
view of the engagement of 1897, include
Mohammerah, but without saying how
much more it included, and the Persian
Government evading an official expression
of opinion on the point, till, when in 1902,
the second loan was concluded on the same
lines as the first, Sir A. Hardinge was
authorised to place on formal record that
no pledge in either of the Russian loan
contracts could affect the earlier promise
made to us by the Persian Government
that the customs not merely of “ Pars and
the Gulf ” hut of “ Southern Persia ”
would never be placed under foreign
control.
May 1902.
cf. Sir A. Hardinge's Despatch No. 69, dated the
14th May 1903 (Enclosure 1, Fro seeding No. 180 in
Secret E,, July 1*J03, Nos. 173-187).
Sir A. Hardinge to the Atabeg-i-Azam.
Tehran, the 10th May 1902.
As the text of the new Russian Loan Contract Enclosure 2 in Secret F., August 1902, No*,
has not yet been received by the Mushir-ed- 201 - 220 , Proceeding No. 214.
Dowleh, I have requested His Excellency to com
municate it on its arrival to Mr. des Graz, who
will act, after my departure on leave next week,
as His Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires.
“In the meantime, and pending your reply to
my note of the 6th April last, I have communi
cated to His Majesty’s Government the verbal
assurances, which Your Highness was good
enough to give me before your departure, that no
conditions, direet or indirect, other than the
Azerbaijan Road Concession, which was negotiated
separately, are attached to the new Russian
Loan Contract.
“ I am, howeva*, directed by the Marquis of
Lansdowne again to remind the Persian Govern
ment of the pledge given by it to that of Her
late Majesty, that the customs of Southern
Persia would never be placed as the guarantee
for a foreign loan under foreign supervision
and control, a pledge to which His Lordship
adverted in the despatch from him of the 2nd
January, communicated by me to Your Highness,
and which gives ns a special right to assure
ourselves that nothing inconsistent with it is
contained in the new contract with the Russian
Bank.
“I am, of course, aware that the customs of a
large part of Southern Persia, viz., Pars and the
ports on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , are explicitly excluded
from the securities assigned for the second, as well
as for the first Russian loan, and that there is hap
pily no immediate prospect that this security will
prove insufficient for the service of both loans.
At the same time it must be remembered that
Ears and the Gulf ports are only a portion of
‘Southern Persia’; that the amount of Persia’s
total debt to Russia has just been increased by
£1,000,000; and that the conditions of the first,