"مذكرة عن السكك الحديدية الفارسية" [و‎‎٩‎٧] (٨٤/٥)

*17
—
VVu.s' document is the property of the Secretary of State for India in Council.
Secret.
Memorandum on Persian Railways.
Maps :—The choice of the map appended to the Memorandum has been
determined by the fact that a large surplus stock of copies of it
were available. Reference may also be made to —
“Persia and Afghanistan,” War Office, April 1906, Scale 64 miles
to 1 inch, accompanying Foreign Office printed Memorandum of
i2th February 1908 respecting Persian Gulf. (General.j
“ Persia,” Survey of India, January 1910, Scale 40 miles to 1 inch,
accompanying Vol. XII. of Aitchisons Treaties, &c. (Detailed.)
[Note. —The paging in brackets, thus (P. 47), refers to pages in the
volumes of corresponding date of Foreign Office Prints.]
Scope of the Memorandum.
# Secret Despatch to Government of
India, No. 32, 4th November 1910.
Pol. 3990 a/10.
Report of Select Committee, 22nd July
1872.
(No. 322.)
The Reuter and other early Con
cessions.
t For an account of the Reuter Con
cession, si's Dol'd Curzon s l ersia, 1S92,
Vol. I., pp. 480-483.
1 . Hie preparation of this Memorandum was
suggested by the submission by a Russian “ Con
sortium ” of a scheme for the connection of the
European and Indian railway systems by a line
across Persia.* There are, however, other railways
in Persia of which the construction, or “ ear
marking ” has been or may shortly have to be
considered. The Memorandum, therefore, deals
with Persian railways generally. The early history
of Persian railway projects has special interest at
the present moment, since with the expiry in 1910
of the Russian prohibition of railway construction
in Persia the r position has reverted to some extent
to what it was before the end of 1890 when that
prohibition took formal and definite shape (see
paragraph 10 below).
The idea, it may be mentioned, of railway
connection with India by way of Persia is very old.
The Select Committee of the House of Commons
that reported in 1872 on the Euphrates Valley
Railway mentioned the idea only to reject it:—
“ As regards the terminus on the Persian Gulf,
“ your Committee are decidedly of opinion that it
“ would be better to carry the line to some point
“ where it might be brought into communication
“ with the steam vessels which are now under
“ Government subvention to carry the mails, and
“ which ply from the Indian ports to Basra, than
“ to continue it along the coast to Karachi by a
“ very expensive, and probably unremunerative
“ route.”
2. Although then 1 had been other concessions
for railways in Persia, the first of which mention
need be made is that embodied in the Reuter
Concession of 1872, a concession which, besides
surrendering into foreign hands the entire indus
trial resources of the country, conferred upon Baron
de Reuter for the space of 70 yearsf an absolute
S. 47. A