"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٣‎٢] (١٢٦٢/٩٤٩)

2432
Anglo-Per
sian Conven
tion for con-
struction'and
working,
16th August
1901.
TurMsh dominions as to be practically useless. On the other hand
.British 13aluciiistan had been greatly developed during the preceding 20
years^ and recently a direct trade route had been brought into existence
between Quetta ancl Sistan. These circumstances^ taken together^ indi
cated the desirability of transferring telegraphic business from the sub
marine Persian Gulf route, circuitous in relation to Persia though not to
1 urkish Iraq, to some more northerly and direct land line between
India and Persia.
Mr. Ffinch s proposal was, in effect, that the land line from Karachi
to Jashk and one of the cables from Jashk to Bushehr should be
abolished on communication being established between Europe and India
by way of Central Persia; that the material of the abandoned cable
should be used for the repair of the remaining one from Karachi via
Jashk and Bushehr to Jao; and that ultimately cable communication in
the Gulf might be done away with altogether, as also the Jashk station
and the telegraph steamer, the line between Bushehr and Isfahan being
afterwards maintained and worked as a branch of the Central Persian
line. It was estimated that a line from Kashan to Karachi would be
about l,4u0 miles in length, and one from Kashan to Quetta about
1,300 miles.
Negotiations for the execution of Mr. Ffinch^s project were imme
diately opened with the Persian Government through the British
Minister at Tehran. .During 1899 and 1900 the objections of the Shah
and his ministers continued insuperable, the former laying stress rather
on the uncivilised character of the Baluchi country to be traversed, where
incidents similar to the recent murder of Mr. Graves might be expected
to ^ occur, * while the latter suggested that a telegraph concession to
Britain in the south might provoke the Russians to ask a similar favour
in the north,—-a demand which it would be impossible to refuse. In
reality the Persians seem at first to have suspected that the new tele
graph project concealed some political design on the part of Britain, and
even that it was intended to utilise the troubles to which it might give
rise as a pretex for introducing Indian troops into the country.
^ en £>^ 1 on l^th of August 1901, these apprehensions having
with difficulty been removed, a Convention for the extension of telegra
phic communication between Europe and India through Persia was
signed at Tajrish near Tehran on behalf of the British and Persian
Governments. Ratification took place in January 1902. By this new
onvention it was settled that, in addition to the present line of telegraph
rrom Tehran to Bushehr and the submarine cable thence to India, a
three-wire line of telegraph should be carried by the Persian Government
10m Kashan via Yazd and Kirman to the Baluchistan frontiei.
Construction was to take place under the supervision and direction of the
Indo-European Telegraph Department in Persia, the pay of the workmen
employed being in the first instance advanced, and the necessary stores
supplied, by the British Government as a loan repayable without
mterest. The line, which on completion should become the property
Qt the Persian G overnment, was to be leased to the Indo -European
Kapch 0f makr an, page 2195. Mr. Graves ffas killed on the
xiapcn nvei in Makran on the 2nd of December 1897.
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appear j
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