مراسلات وملاحظات وقصاصات صحفية متنوعة تتعلق ببلاد فارس [و‎‎١‎٠] (٢٥٥/١٩)

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SECRET.
COMMITTEE OE IMPERIAL DEFENCE.
Minutes of 67th Meeting, March 22, 1905.
Present:
The Prime Minister (in the Chair).
The Marquess of Lansdowne, K.Gr.,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The Earl of Selborne, First Lord of the
Admiralty.
Earl Cawdor.
Admiral Sir John Fisher, G.C.B., First
Sea Lord.
Captain C. L. Ottley, M.Y.O., R.N.,
Director of Naval Intelligence.
Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, K.G., K.P.,
Y.C.
The Right Hon. St. John Brodrick,
M.P., Secretary of State for India.
Lieutenant-General the Hon. Sir N. G.
Lyttelton, K.C.B., Chief of the
General Staff.
Major-General J. M. Grierson, C.V.O.,
C.B., C.M.G., Director of Military
Operations.
The Right Hon. Austen Chamberlain,
M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Sir G. S. Clarke, Secretary .
PERSIA.
THE Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed, with some
amendments.
2. Mr. Balfour pointed out that the Persian question was necessarily very
difficult, on account of the semi-barbarous condition of the country, and of the fact
that for more than twenty years Russia and ourselves have been engaged in a constant
diplomatic contest at Tehran, which lias ranged over minor questions of many kinds.
These questions, which he briefly reviewed, involved considerations both com
mercial and strategic, frequently intermixed. The Government of India appeared to
desire a forward policy, and to believe that the recent disasters in the Far East would
have the effect of directing Russian activities towards Persia and Afghanistan. From
the strategic point of view, the restriction of Russian railway construction in Persia
was of special importance. A naval station on the Persian coast without railway
communication behind it would be of little value to Russia, although the establishment
of such a station might have the effect of causing an increase of our naval expendi
ture.
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