"مسألة الشرق الأوسط أو بعض المشكلات السياسية المتعلقة بدفاع الهند" [و‎‎١‎٠‎٩] (٦١٦/٢٢٢)

CHAPTER XV
THE KARUN TRADE ROUTE
NO one who remembers the flourish of trumpets
with which the opening of the Karun river to
navigation was announced in 1888 can well repress a
smile at the exiguous results which have hitherto
attended that effort of British diplomacy. It is not
that anything has happened to diminish the value of
the Karun, or that those who undertook to act as the
pioneers of navigation on its waters have lacked enter
prise or perseverance. The fiercer the competition to
which British trade is being subjected in Northern
Persia under the politico-economic pressure of Russia,
the more important it becomes for us to develop the
easiest and cheapest means of access to the Persian
markets of the interior from the South. The recent
formation of a new British company which is to take
over the road rights of the Imperial Bank of Persia
may be taken as an indication that we are beginning to
appreciate the fact that the Karun must be our chief
base of operations from the South. It may be hoped
that before long a carriage-road from Isfahan to Kashan
and Kum, connecting with the Kum-Teheran road
which the Imperial Bank constructed a few years ago,
will materially facilitate traffic between the Karun and
the capital. I he material difficulties to be overcome
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