ملف ١١٨٧/ ١٩١٤ الجزء ٣ "بلاد فارس: المصالح البريطانية في الجنوب. طريق بختياري [لينش] من الأهواز إلى أصفهان" [و‎‎٤‎٧] (٢٤٩/٩٠)

35
APPENDIX L.
Concessions for roads and railways in South-West Persia.
The Peisian Transport Company whose shares are held privately in the
names of the shareholders of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Com
pany and the Imperial Bank of Persia own the concession for the Tehran to
Ahwaz and Mohammerah ehaussee with a branch to Bumjird and Ispahan.
The chaussee has been completed from Tehran to Kum and Suitanabad.
The more important provisions of the concession are—
(a) The Persian Government is entitled to 20 per cent, of the net
profits.
{b) The Company is said to have the monopoly of the transport service
on the road.
(c) Uncultivated land is granted gratis.
A good deal of misconception exists in regard to the interests of the
Persian Transport Company in the existing Ahwaz-Ispahan Caravan road.
Ihis is chiefly due to the road being known as the “ Lynch road ” which has
given rise to the impression that Messrs. Lynch Brothers own the concession,
and that they transferred it to the Persian Transport Company along with
other rights. This is,, however, not the case. The concession was obtained
direct from the Persian Government by the Bakhtiari Khans, and the only
interests in the undertaking, which Messrs. Lynch Brothers were in a position
to dispose of, are limited to—•
(a) The option to find any further capital required by the Bakhtiari
Khans for the improvement or conversion of the present caravan
road.
(b) The right to collect the tolls on the present road as a collateral
security for the repayment of the money advanced to the Khans
for the construction of the road.
The sum outstanding on the road construction account is one which the
Khans could easily afiord to pay at any time and the Persian Transport Com
pany’s interests in the present Ahwaz-Ispahan road consist only in their right
to advance the capital required and carry out the construction of any
conversion or adaptations of the present track from a caravan into a cart road.
As however the present concession is not one that would cover the cons
truction of a motor road or railway and even if in consequence the Khans
applied for a tresh concession it is an open question whether the Persian
Transport Company’s right to advance cajntal and carry out construction
would still remain valid. ,
On the other hand the Persian Transport Company as the inheritors of
Messrs. Lynch Brothers interests, may be said to jiossess certain moral claims
and a vested interest, in that they were the pioneers of this route, have always
been closely associated with its development, and this year displayed some
initiative in sending their engineer to examine the new alignment.
The only other stake that the Persian Transport Company jiossess in South-
M est Persia is a half share in the Persian railway syndicate. Shortly after the
latter was formed and obtained the option for the construction of the
Khorremabad line, the Persian Transport Company pointed out that the
proposed activities of the railway syndicate would lie an infringement of their
rights. As a result of their representation the Foreign Office suggested to the
Persian Bailway Syndicate, who agreed, that they should admit the Persian
Transport Company to a half share, viz., to subscribe £15,000 of the £30,000
capital of the syndicate.
Turning now to the rights and interests of the Bailway Company
syndicate. As already stated they have obtained the option for the Khorrema
bad line, which however requires renewal, and in 1913 they incurred con
siderable expenditure in connection with the preliminary surveys. Further