'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎673v] (1367/1486)

22
THE KARUN RIVER AND THE COMMERCIAL
little party consisted of two, with a guide and a few muleteers, and yet they had
felt themselves as safe as in Switzerland or the Cevennes. The Prince of the
Bakhtiari,.Isfendiar Khan, their friend and afterwards their kind host, during a
pleasant sojourn in his mountains, was, with his uncle the Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. , supreme and
respected throughout the country he had traversed. To indulge the thought of a
cart road through those mountains might perhaps be luxurious, but he might
mention that on portions of the journey he had enjoyed the well-paved ancient road
which led from Elymais to the Persian plateau. A little removal of the boulders,
and a few boats at the first passage of the Karun river, would render those routes
passable for a more extended commerce. In winter the people returned from their
summer pastures to the villages along it, and in summer there were always a few
left to supply provisions. He crossed one pass 7420 feet high, and on the high
uplands before Dopulun his aneroid registered 6070 feet.
Mr. George de Reuter said that unfortunately he had had no personal pre
sentation to the Karun. He had only been within 400 miles of it; but he had
known the river more or less for the last eighteen years, and it was a subject of very
great interest to him. With regard to the trade route from Ispahan to Mohammerah,
the shortest route would be straight to Shushter, but the engineering difficulties were
very great. With regard to the new road from Teheran to Mohammerah, it was
proposed to have a branch at Burujird, joining that city with Ispahan. Of course
that was a long way, but by avoiding the almost impassable mountains between
Shiraz and Bushire, although the distance was greater, there would be actually a gain
in point of time. The Shah was quite alive to the importance of having roads
through his dominions, and he had granted a concession for making one which
should join Teheran with Tabriz, the great north-western capital of Persia. Tabriz
was at present the second if not the first commercial centre of Persia. That road,
from a commercial point of view, would be a great advantage, but not so good as
the one from Tabriz to Bushire. When that was made one might go straight from
England to the interior of Persia, and British trade would go to the furthest removed
parts of that country. He also hoped that roads would be extended stil 1 further to
the Russian and Turkish frontiers, because what Englishmen desired was not what
they were now and then accused of, namely, everything for themselves. Of course,
like most people, they wished to benefit themselves, but they also wanted to see
Persia a flourishing country. They did not want to do anything with a rotten,
decayed, or corrupt State. The greater the advantage to Persia, the greater would
be the reward to Englishmen, and by extending roads in all directions in Persia,
England would get enormous advantage to her commerce, and before very long he
hoped to see Cook’s excursions to Teheran, along roads not infested with brigands,
and where it was not necessary to go all the way on horseback.
Mr. Wilfrid Blunt congratulated Mr. Curzon on his very lucid and admirable
paper. He wished to ask him a question about the Kerkhah river, which he
believed was an affluent of the Karun. Mr. Lynch thought it went into the Shat-
el-Arab, but ten years ago he (Mr. Blunt) was informed that it went into the
Karuu. No doubt it fell into a series of marshes. He also wished to ask a question
about the state of the country in the neighbourhood of Shushter. When he travelled
through it about ten years ago there was really no safety at all except just in that
part which was under the protection of the Bakhtiari chief. He travelled from
Baghdad to Shushter, and thence to Behbahan and Bushire. That included pretty
nearly the whole of the country the commerce of which would be affected by
the new enterprise, and certainly at that time the communications were very little
safe, and the villages were so devastated by robbers, that unless something were
done to improve the state of affairs, it would be very difficult indeed to open up