'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎664v] (1349/1486)

4
THE KARUN RIVER AND THE COMMERCIAL
interesting personal narrative of Ihe expedition, and a separate but less
authoritative volume upon the river Karun. The ‘Journal’ of this
Society for 1883 contains among the sequels to a paper read by Sir J.
Bateman-Champain, the report of a speech by Mr. G. Mackenzie,
formerly a member of a large trading firm in Persia, upon journeys
twice made by him, in 1875 and in 1878, between Ispahan and
Mohammerah. There also is printed the account of a similar journey
made by Major Wells in 1881, as well as a chart by that officer of
the famous rapids of Ahwaz. Since the opening of the Karun river to
the commerce of the world by the Shah’s edict of October 1888, Colonel
Bell, v.c., -late head of the Indian Intelligence Department, whose
extraordinary travels over almost the whole Asian continent, though
little known to the public, entitle him to be considered the territorial
Ulysses of this age, has published in ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine ’ a con
densed but vivid account of his journeys in the region between Moham
merah and Teheran. A year ago Sir R. Murdoch Smith, late Director
of the Indo-European Telegraph Department in Persia, delivered two
addresses, before the London Chamber of Commerce and the Society of
Arts, upon the commercial aspects of the Karun river-and-inland route,
to which any student of that aspect of the question may unhesitatingly
bo referred. Finally, if a personal reference be permitted, I may mention
that in the ‘ Fortnightly Review ’ for April and May of the present
year, I have related my own experiences in a more detailed and colloquial
fashion than is here permissible ; whilst, if any too censorious critic
should suspect me, either in those articles or in my remarks to-night, of
having plagiarised from a long article on the Karun Question which
appeared in the Times last February, suffer me to reply that, so far as I
know, the ethics of literary propriety do not yet—whatever they may
come to in the future—prohibit a writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. from quoting from himself.
The Karun question may be contemplated in any of three aspects—
geographical, political, or commercial—according as an attempt is made
to describe the physical features of the river and surrounding country,
to define the relations existing between its nomad peoples and the
central government at Teheran, or to relate the steps that are being
taken, or require to be taken, in order to develop the important trade
route thus opened into the interior of Persia. In addressing a Geo
graphical Society it will be expected of me that the first of these
subjects should receive the greatest attention; although I shall not, I
am sure, be denied the permission to make such political references as
are necessary to a general understanding, or be excluded from the dis
cussion of those practical corollaries of the laws of physical configuration
which are in process of forming a new science under the title of
Commercial Geography.
As regards orthography, let me say that, although the most correct-
form of the name Karun, viewed in the light of its derivation (Kuh-i-