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British policy in Persia, 1892–1903—II1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Rose Louise Greaves
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Extract

The turn of events in Tehran completely frustrated whatever chance there might have been for a loan from Britain in 1898. On 21 July Durand reported that Muzaffar al-Dīn had complained that the loan was not big enough. Hewanted §2,000,000 and he would not increase the security. The Amīn al-Sultān was ‘practically in power’ (he was reinstated on 12 August 1898 as Sadr-iA'zam), and was working vīgorously against the loan. This is partly explainedby his being himself a farmer of customs from whīch he drew an estimated§ 70,000 annually and so was against any foreign control. The sum which the Shah named could not be raised in London on the security offered. Besides,after the return to power of the Amīn al-Sultān the loan discussions betweenthe British and the Persians took on an air of unreality.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , June 1965 , pp. 284 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1965

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References

2 Notes by Sir Thomas Gordon on his mission to Tehran in the interests of the Imperial Bank of Persia, confidential, 8 October-6 November 1898, FO 60/630.

3 Durand to Salisbury, tel. no. 18, 31 March 1899, ibid.

4 Memoranda by Sanderson for Salisbury, 30 and 31 March 1899, ibid.

5 Draft by Salisbury in his hand for Persian minister (repeated to Tehran), drafted and sent 7 April 1899, ibid.

6 Foreign Office to Treasury, confidential, 7 July 1899, ibid.

7 Treasury to Foreign Office, 14 July 1899; minute by Salisbury, 15 July 1899, ibid.

8 Salisbury to Durand, tel. no. 23, confidential, 19 July 1899, ibid.

9 See drafts to Persian minister and minutes, pte. and confidential, 9 and 13 September 1899, ibid.

10 Scott to Salisbury, no. 290, 21 September 1899, ibid.

11 Hardinge to Salisbury, no. 295, 29 September 1899, ibid.

12 Durand to Salisbury, tel. no. 18, 29 January 1900, ibid.

13 O'Conor to Salisbury, tel. no. 7, confidential, 29 January 1900, ibid. The first Russian loan to Persia (1900) amounted to 22,500,000 roubles which was equivalent to §, 380, 952.

14 For the background of the original Russian veto (November 1890) on railway construction see Greaves, Persia and the defence of India, 1884–1892, 180–1. By the later agreement of 14 December 1899 the Persian government renewed the ‘ previous engagement’ with the significant proviso that ‘for another 10 years, excepting the Russian Government, no other Government will be given a concession to build railways in Persia’.

15 On the original is a note by Tsar Nicholas II: ‘Agreed. Tsarskoye Selo. 25 December 1899’; Kraanyy Arkhiv, LVI, p. 48, n. 1.

16 ibid., 34.

17 Oriental Secretary at the British Legation, Tehran.

18 Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 238, secret, 30 December 1904, FO 60/683.

19 Salisbury to Currie, 8 June 1900, Salisbury papers, bound volume, Italy; now reproduced in Grenville, J. A. S., Lord Salisbury and foreign policy, London, 1964, 300–1.Google Scholar

20 Salisbury to Northcote, private, 8 June 1900, Salisbury papers. The extract relating to the Seistān railway is reproduced in Greaves, op. cit., 16–17; extracts from this letter are also reproduced in Grenville, op. cit., 295.

21 Reproduced in Greaves, op. cit., 204–5.

22 ibid., 18.

23 Minute by the Viceroy on Seistan, dated 4 September 1899, FO 60/615.

28 ‘Second instalment of draft conclusions on Indian defence by Balfour, Mr., dealing chiefly with Seistan’, 2005 1903, CAB 6/1.Google Scholar

29 CAB 17/53.

30 PD, Commons, 17 February 1908, CLXXXIV, 480–1; Grey to Nicolson, private, 24 February 1908, BD, IV, 616–17.

31 Draft reply to memorandum by Lord Curzon and Lord Kitchener of 7 August 1903, secret ‘A.J.B.’, 24 November 1903, CAB 6/1.

32 See, for example, report by A. L. Duke, Meshed, 24 August 1901; and Foreign Office memorandum, 22 July 1903, FO 60/732.

33 4 June 1903, ibid.

34 Minute by the Viceroy on Seistan, dated 4 September 1899, FO 60/615.

35 PD, Commons, 17 February 1908, CLXXXIV, 500–1.

36 Spring Rice to Chirol, 20 August 1900. Reproduced in Gwynn, Stephen, The letters and friendships of Sir Cecil Spring Rice, Boston, 1929, I, 324.Google Scholar

37 Salisbury to Hicks Beach, 18 October 1899, Hicks Beach papers.

38 Penson, L. M., ‘The new course in British foreign policy, 1892–1902’, Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., Fourth Ser., xxv, 1943, 135.Google Scholar

39 9 February 1900, Hamilton papers, part II, vol. V.

40 11 October 1899, Hamilton papers, part II, vol. IV.

41 6 July 1900, Hamilton papers, part II, vol. V.

42 Lord George Hamilton to the Government of India, 6 July 1900, BD, IV, 363–5.

43 Curzon to Lansdowne, private, 15 June 1901, Lansdowne papers.

44 8 November 1900, Hamilton papers, part II, vol. VII.

45 See, for example, Wolff to Salisbury, 28 June 1890, Salisbury papers.

46 A letter of introduction ensured its bearer of the kind of reception that responsible persons might expect. It did not imply Foreign Office promotion of any project: Circular Despatch, 8 March 1888, FO 248/376.

47 Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 10, commercial and confidential, 26 April 1901, FO 60/731.

48 Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 16, commercial, 30 May 1900, FO 60/731.

49 Lansdowne to Curzon, 24 April 1903, Lansdowne papers.

50 Curzon to Lansdowne, 16 March 1902, Lansdowne papers.

51 D'Arcy to Lansdowne, 27 June 1901, and draft FO reply, FO 60/731.

52 20 October 1901. Extract reproduced in Sir Sidney Lee, King Edward VII, New York, 1925–7, II, 154–5.Google Scholar

53 Enclosures in Scott to Lansdowne, no. 121,5 April 1902, FO 248/754; no. 295, 25 August 1902, FO 248/755.

54 Hardinge to Lansdowne, private decypher telegram, 9 October 1901, FO 60/676.

55 Hardinge to Lansdowne, tel. no. 61, 12 October 1901, FO 60/645.

56 Confidential memorandum respecting financial assistance to Persia (continued up to 5 February 1903), printed for the use of the Cabinet, 12 February 1903, FO 60/676.

57 Lansdowne to Salisbury, private, 15 October 1901, Salisbury papers.

58 Salisbury to Lansdowne, private, 18 October 1901, Lansdowne papers. This document was first cited by Steiner, Z. S., ‘Great Britain and the creation of the Anglo-Japanese alliance’, Journal of Modern History, XXXI, 1965, 35.Google Scholar

59 In a private letter to Sanderson (2 October 1901) Charles Hardinge wrote: ‘You will have seen from my tel. his denial of any knowledge of a new Russian loan to Persia. After reading my cousin's tels. this denial seems to me a little hard to swallow, as Lamsdorff is not like Mouravieff who was so idle that he often knew nothing of things going on under his very nose, but he knows everything that is going on down to the most minute details. It shows that no information is to be got here through him’, FO 60/645.

60 Confidential memorandum respecting financial assistance to Persia (continued up to 5 February 1903), FO 60/676.

61 Lansdowne to Scott, no. 40, confidential, 8 February 1902, endorsed ‘The King, Lord Salisbury’, FO 60/660.

62 Note to Salisbury from Lansdowne, 5 March 1902, ibid.

63 For draft of despatch and related correspondence see FO 60/649. The despatch is printed in BD, IV, 369–71.

64 Curzon to Lansdowne, 5 April 1901, endorsed ‘Sir T. Sanderson only’, Lansdowne papers.

65 Lansdowne to Curzon, 16 February 1902, Lansdowne papers.

66 Lansdowne to Salisbury, 22 October 1901, Salisbury papers; Lansdowne to Curzon, 15 August 1901, Lansdowne papers.

67 This is the first time that Persian affairs had been debated in Parliament since the tobacco concession negotiations were discussed on 26 May 1892.

68 PD, Commons, 22 January 1902, CI, 614–17.

69 23 January 1902.

70 PD, Commons, 22 January 1902, CI, 610–13.

71 For a summary of the conditions attached to this loan see confidential memorandum respecting financial assistance to Persia (continued up to 5 February 1903), FO 60/676. This loan was announced in Russian newspapers on 9 April 1902, but as early as 19 October 1901 Hardinge telegraphed that 10,000,000 silver roubles had arrived at Tehran for the Russian Bank.

72 Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 11, confidential, 29 January 1902, FO 60/660.

73 Lansdowne to Hardinge, Windsor Castle, 18 November 1902, Lansdowne papers; Hardinge, A diplomatist in the East, London, 1928, 288–91Google Scholar; Lord Newton, Lord Lansdowne, London, 1929, 233–7Google Scholar; Lee, op. eit., II, 156.

74 Hardinge to Lansdowne, Eosenau, Datchet, most secret, 27 August 1902, FO 60/657.

75 Observations by Lord Lansdowne dated 4 September 1902, ibid.

76 Balfour to Lansdowne, 6 September 1902, ibid.

77 For India Office minutes, War Office and Admiralty memoranda, and the proceedings of an inter-departmental committee see FO 60/657. These deliberations were carried forward by the Committee of Imperial Defence; see particularly CAB 6/1 and CAB 17/53. Also relevant are FO 60/665 and FO 60/673.

78 These instructions were authorized by the Foreign Office and by the India Office, but were, in fact, never sent by the Admiralty to the naval commander in the Gulf. See FO 60/733 and 734.

79 India Office to Foreign Office, 1 November 1900, FO 60/733.

80 Minute by Lansdowne on Admiralty to Foreign Office, 21 March 1902, FO 60/733.

81 PD, Lords, 5 May 1903, CXXI, 1347–8.

82 30 December 1902.

83 The Times sponsored this trip. Chirol wrote 20 articles which appeared in its columns from October 1902 to April 1903. These served as the basis for his book The Middle Eastern question, or some political problems of Indian defence. See also leading articles in the Times, 30 December 1902 and 21 April 1903.

84 Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 70, 16 April 1902, FO 60/660.

85 Confidential memorandum respecting financial assistance to Persia (continued up to 5 February 1903), FO 60/676.

86 The title of Atābeg-i A'zam had been bestowed on the Ṣadr-i A'zam by the Shah in 1900.

87 Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 38, secret, 29 March 1903, FO 60/665.

88 Foreign Office to Hardinge, tel. no. 29, 26 March 1903, FO 60/676.

89 Hardinge to Lansdowne, tel. no. 54, 8 April 1903, ibid.

90 In 1898 t h e Persian government employed three Belgians to give advice about reforming the customs. In the next year the custom-houses of Āzarbāyjan and Kirmānshāh were given over to them as an experiment. The revenues so increased that in 1900 the Belgians were given control over the entire Persian customs system.

91 Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 69, confidential, 14 May 1903, FO 60/676.

92 See, for example, Hardinge to Lansdowne, no. 106, confidential, 18 July 1903, FO 60/677.

93 Krasnyy Arkhiv, LVI, 61. It is interesting to note that loans and credits to the heir to the Persian throne accounted for 1,627,500 roubles.

84 Krasnyy Arkhiv, LVI, 61.