Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎769r] (1554/1814)

[ October 11, 1913.
3£
BIWEEKLY MAIL.
Chamber of Commerce Views.
The following letter has been addressed by
the Bombay Chamber of Commerce to the
^ , P /-I - - -C
recent events shoWj has become more honori-
K ( fie than indicative of the actual state of
^affairs.
It has been said that the late Sultan was
°j.a loyal friend of England and he had good
p reason to be, for Maskat owes its preserva-
j^ition on more than one occasion to British
c arms. The Oman empire at one time in
n the early part of the nineteenth century
t extended from Zanzibar to Gwadur and
Bandar Abbas, even threatening Bushire
and Basra, and it was only the intervention
] of. the East India Company which prevent-
j ed Maskat from becoming a dependency of
jSFejd while Seyid Sultan was looking after
gis more fertile African possessions. After
,the death of that potentate, both before and
rfter the partition of the empire of Oman,
British help was constantly asked for, and
never refused, to save Maskat from the
attacks of. its enemies. It is true that
| nothing was done to preserve for the king
dom its territory on the mainland of Persia,
and Kishm, Ormuz, and Bandar Abbas gra
dually lapsed from the control of the Sultan.
It then became a question of protecting
the Sultan against his enemies on Arabian
soil only, and in 1883, three years after the
accession of the late Sultan, disaster was
oqi suay ’{pioo jod 09 dn iuqay iCjoguipoui
-uit sooijd pun ‘puoo i 9 d 9 ^ 03 . Suiqunouiu
smm jo spiodrai oqj ui doip u sum. ojoqj
OOJOJ OJUI OIHUO SuOTJUpSOJ MOU oqj su uoos
su juqj SMoqs qonjM f q 99 M quin ui pgnssi
I ‘grodgj juinsuoa asgaur oua utoji xr99s on
[October 11, 1913.
BIWEEKLY MAIL.
Chamber of Commerce Views.
The following letter Has been addressed by
the Bombay Chamber of Commerce to the
Collector of Customs with reference to the pro
posed renewal of the Eastern Mail Service
Contract:—
Sir,—I am directed to acknowledge receipt
of your letter dated 14th July, 1913, intimating
that the terms on which the contract with the
P. & 0- S. N- Company, for the Eastern
Mail Service will be renewed, were shortly to
come under the consideration of the Govern
ment of India, and requesting the views of
this Chamber in the matter.
I am to state in reply that the subject has
been very fully discussed from the various
points of view and as a result of these delibe
rations, I am to submit for consideration the
following recommendations :—•
(a) A bi-weekly service to and from Bom
bay, i.e., two mails a week each way.
(b) Tender s should be invited for each
service separately and for the two to
gether.
(c) A more convenient port in Italy, for
the arrival and departure of mails,
would be' an advantage inasmuch as
passengers and mails could be carried
throughout in the one steamer; and the
saving effected by doing away with the
ferry service from Brindisi to Port
Said, would assist in developing a bi
weekly service.
(d) If the cost of an increased speed does
not prejudice a bi-weekly service, which
i s considered very important, the Mails,
leaving London the same time as at
present, should reach Bombay on Thurs
day morning and the second service
on Monday morning. Failing this the
arrivals should be Friday and Tues
day mornings. To the north of Eng
land it would be an advantage, how
ever, if letters could be posted up to
Friday evening to leave London on
Saturday morning or, say, twelve hours
later than at present, but this it is
understood under present conditions
would cause difficulties at the _ Post
Office in London owing to the arrival of
the Indian mail on Friday afternoon
or evening (this pressure however would
be less with a bi-weekly service).
(e) If a bi-weekly service cannot be estab
lished, the present mail service should
be accelerated by 24 hours.
(f) The days of departure from Bombay
should be Wednesday and Saturday.
(g) There can be no question that for
India a s a whole Bombay is the most
convenient and suitable port for the ar
rival and departure of the European
mail.
(h) A direct mail to Karachi would not
benefit Bombay nor a large part of
India.
(i) Two direct mails a week each way to
Bombay are urgently needed and are
strongly recommended because
(i) Postal matter to and from this
country has very largely increased,
as is indicated in the following
figures.
Letters from India.
1901 3,636,000
1911-12 12,305,000
Newspapers from India.
1901 1,221,000
1911-12 2,343,000
Parcels from India.
1901 69,000
1911-12 127,000
Letters from the United Kingdom.
1901 4,270,000
1911-12 14,447,000
Newspapers from the United Kingdom.
1901 118,000
1911-12 13,336,000
Parcels from the United Kingdom.
1901 118,000
1911- 12 332,000
(ii) There has been an enormous in
crease in the volume of trade of
the country, 'since the “oncjfe-a
week” service was arranged in 1868 ;
the figures are as follows :—-
1868 110 crores
1912- 13 435 crores
(iii) other countries have several
Mails a week with Great Britain
—Canada, 3 or 4, Australia New
Zealand, Ceylon and the Straits
Settlements have 9 or 10 opportu
nities of posting everv montn.
1
tllCJ-X J.Ct ^
THE LATE BISHOP COTTON.
Mr. Lewis has reminded us that the Bishop
Cotton School is now 50 years old. It is per
haps only natural that we should accept the
institutions we find around as part of the
natural order of things and it may not be
easy for the parents present here to-day to
realise that there was a time, and that not so
very long ago, when schools to which subordi
nate officials of English descent in this country
could send their children were non-existent oi
at any rate very few and far between and ir
this, your jubilee, year it is especially fitting
that we should dwell for a moment upon the
memory of the great and good Bishop Cqtton
who saw the danger of a large European popu
lation growing up in ignorance and degrada
tion and with unremitting labour and unflag
ging zeal collected funds in the hope, to usr
his own words, “that sound physical, intellec
tual and religious education might unde
God’s blessing not only benefit children like!
to remain permanently in the land but migl
also indirectly tend to remove th e barriers oi
prejudice and misunderstanding which separate
the races to whom India is now a common
country.” I am not going to give you an
account of his life which should be familial
to many of you but most of us here can draw
encouragement from it. When he was a little
boy, school life was rough. He was not
good at games and he had rather a bad time
and if there are any among you smaller boys
who, not having a particularly good time you
‘may take courage from his example and re
member that a rather retiring and timid little
boy grew up to be a man universally loved and
revered with a marvellous influence for good
reaching out beyond his own immediate circle.
When he became a senior boy he did not forget
his own hard times but his kindly ways made
the lot of his juniors more tolerable and the
older boys among you here may draw you]
own lessons from that.
FRIEND AND COUNSELLOR.
Later on as a master he was not at first ;
brilliant success, he had no marked charm o
manner and his boys thought him saicastic bu
his simplicity and earnestness combined wit
kindliness of heart and a quiet humour wo
its way and he became, the trusted friend an
counsellor of his pupils. Later he became
headmaster at another great school and. Mi
Lewis doubtless knows how he re-establishe
the discipline, retored the finances and raise
the tone of that school so that it now holds r
head high among the leading pubic schools i
England. It is said that under his rule ther
cricket, football and wholesome sports toe
the place of poaching, rat-huntiner and poultr
stealing and I am glad to think that you, si
are not called upon to effect so serious a tran
formation.
In later life he once seriously lectured
Governor-General and though the lecture w;
taken in very good part I am not sure that 1
had quite the proper respect for Governo
Generals as a class, for on one occasion 1
came across the Governor-GeneraTs cam
when they were both on tour and I am son
to say that he complained of this in a dial
on the ground that the Governor-General thre
everything into confusion. It is not, howeve: