مذكرة عن احترام المصالح البريطانية في الخليج العربي. [و‎‎٤‎٩] (١٢٦/٦٣)

69
The opening of roads is indeed desirable in
order to feed the trade of the Gulf; but it has
been forcibly urged that no marked development
of commerce can take place until railway con
struction has been entered upon, and that a single
line joining Bunder Abbas or Bushire with the
plateau would be of incalculable service in this
connection, since it would reduce the time of the
journey from the coast to Ispahan from thirty
days to twenty-four hours, and the cost of trans
port from 10/. a ton to 1/.
Moreover, it is by no means improbable—the
German Minister for Foreign Affairs alluded to
the contingency in conversation with Sir E. Grey
— that the promoters of the Bagdad Railway
may seek to secure an extension across the
Turkish frontier, and the situation which now
causes anxiety to His Majesty’s Government in
Mesopotamia may perhaps find a counterpart in
the south of Persia. That such a consummation
would be prejudicial to our interests does not
appear to require demonstration; and a Conces
sion of this nature should assuredly be fore-
Acquisition of prior rights for stalled by the acquisition of prior rights, to
Railway Construction. which, in virtue of undertakings of the late Shah*
and his predecessor, His Majesty’s Government
are already in some degree entitled.
The most natural route for a railway would
perhaps be the prolongation of the Khanikin
branch from Bagdad via Kermanshah, Sultana-
bad and Ispahan to Yezd, with branches to
Dizful and Mohammerah and to Kerman and
Bunder Abbas. The provisions of the Anglo-
Russian Convention would occasion some devia
tion from this line, but the trunk line could be
modified to meet the exigencies of the political
situation, while a beginning would necessarily
be made with the branches which rest on the
sea.
For the present, questions of actual construc
tion are premature; it is only desirable, in order
to guard against a needless surrender to German
competition, to enter a caveat at Tehran.
The following letter, dated the 25th September,
1907, contains the views of Sir E. Grey on the
subject of railway construction :—
“ I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to
state, for the information of the Secretary o
State for India, that he has recently had under
consideration the effect which the signature of
* See Appendix (B), p. 114.