'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎686r] (1392/1486)

May 10 , iSJg.]
5^9
JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS
should he suggest the immediate making of a lock
at Ahwaz, because it would merely feed the trade
at Shushter. He should begin with a road from
Ahwaz and carry it up by Shushter, and from
there to Burijird direct. He would call attention to
a very interesting paper in Blackwood of April last,
by Colonel Bell, who described this road in three
sections, first from Mohammerah toDizful, 173 miles
over a flat alluvial soil; the second section from Dizful
to Khoramabad, 157 miles ; and the third from thence
to Koom, 142 miles. Of the whole distance he said
there were 355 miles good, too fair, and only £0 miles
bad; only one river had to be bridged. Looking
at the map, and seeing how the Russians were
tapping the country in the north, he quite agreed
with Professor Vambery that there would not be much
advantage to this country in opening the River Katun
to navigation unless a road were made to Koom.
He did not know who was to blame for the delay;
twenty years ago he first took up the matter, and he
had found both the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. and the Foreign
Office ready to give every assistance, but nothing
could be done until the Shah gave his permission,
which had now been granted. Immediately the river
was thrown open it was occupied by Mr. Lynch’s line
of steamers, and they were quite ready to go on and
make a road if they could get the necessary assistance
from the Shah or the English Government. Colonel
Bell said a cart road, 12 to 15 feet wide, on the hills,
and 30 feet on the level, should not cost more than
200 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. a mile. The sum seemed very small, but
Colonel Bell was an engineer officer; and that
would make the total cost of a road from Ahwaz
to Koom only ^ 10 , 000 . There would be a good
icturn on the outlay if the Persian Government
would guarantee there should be no interference with
the enterprise. He should not recommend a toll on
the road, because the muleteers would go round, but
should suggest a special tax on the grain carried.
Sir R. Murdoch Smith had laid great stress on the
importance of maintaining friendly relations wuth the
natives, but if there was any difficulty on this point it
would, according to his experience, be the fault of
the Englishmen. He travelled across from Ispahan
to Shuster as a perfect stranger, and was warned
by the Ambassador at Teheran that he might be
in danger, but travelling only with his own servants
and horses, he always met with the greatest kindness
and courtesy. The Persians were a hospitable,
enlightened, and highly civilised people. When
returning home lately from Africa he intended
making a detour through Persia, and wrote to some
of the chiefs whom he had visited before, but he was
obliged to come home direct from Aden, and by the
last mail he had received letters from some of these
men expressing their regret at not seeing him again.
He did not see why others should not be treated as
well, for he only went as a simple traveller, and spent
little or no money in the country. There were large
petroleum springs on the Kanin, which now ran to
waste into the river; the petroleum was very pure, for
he had seen it burnt in the bazaars at Ispahan, and he
did not see why a similar trade should not be done on
the Kanin in this oil to that done by the Russians at
Baku. The present cost of transport for ordinary-
goods by mule from Bushire to Ispahan was at least
^15 a ton, which showed what an opening there
was for improved means of communication.
General Schindler said he had been several
times up the Kanin, and twice up the left bank. .
In 1886 he entered the canal which joined the
Kanin and the Shat-el-Arab ^the Persepolis, then ^
drawing 16 feet. At the junction at Hafa he noticed
a sand-bank running out 40 yards, but this could
easily be removed, and vessels of large draft could
then always go into Hafa within 3° yards of the
Mohammerah quay. The Shat-el-Arab formed the
frontier between Persian and Turkish territory’, but
at a village called Fao the Turks had been building
a fort, and persisted in so doing in spite of re
monstrance. In the event of political differences^
and the Shat-el-Arab being closed, the fact that
there existed another river by which Mohammerah
could be reached from the Gulf became very im
portant. This river ran parallel to, and a few miles
east of the Kanin ; it was about 200 feet wide, and its
least depth about 6 feet, and it would make the Kanin
navigation altogether Persian, and independent of
any other power. More important would be the re
construction of the dyke, and making a dock or
locks to raise the water cf the river to the level of
the banks, so that the surrounding land could be
irrigated, for in this way a practically deserted
district could be brought back to its former pros
perity ; for before the destruction of the dyke r /-
probably in the 13 th century, the province of Ahwa?
was the richest in Khuzistan. He had not seen any
mention of the destruction of that dyke in Persian
histories, but it was ascribed in legends to a
wicked merchant who “ cornered” sugar, and after a
time, when the price had gone up and he opened his
bags, they were full, not of sugar but of scorpions,,
which were so venomous that when they dragged
their tails over a thick felt carpet they cut it in two.
These scorpions came out in such vast numbers that
the people fled for their lives, and never returned.
According to the latest British Consular reports, the
annual imports and exports of Persia were 10 , 000 , 000 ^ | i
five and a-half of which came in and out by the Gulf, | ^
and 3 , 000,000 would go by the Kanin River if the
road from Shushter to the interior were opened. In
spite of the facilities which Persia enjoyed in the
north, English cotton goods still held their own, and
in many places were sold cheaper, for it would take
a long time before Russia could compete with
Manchester. The present rates were 6 d. or yd. a
ton per mile bv mule, but with a cart road from
Shushter to Teheran they could be reduced to 2 $d.
per ton, and still leave a large margin to those who
made the road and established a regular service,
without which the road would be useless. The