IOR/L/PS/10/353

The volume comprises copies of correspondence, minutes and other papers relating to the advance of loans to Persia. Two different loans are discussed:

• a loan of £100,000, made by the British Government in May 1913 to the Governor-General of Fars (half of which was to be payable by the Government of India), to be utilised towards the maintenance of law and order in southern Persia (specifically in the form of subsidies to be paid to the Fars gendarmerie), and proposed in response to a number of recent attacks on British forces, including the murder of Captain Eckford of the 39^th Central India Horse, near Shiraz in December 1912;
• a joint Anglo-Russian loan to the Persian Government, to the value of £400,000, divided equally between Britain and Russia, with the Government of India paying £100,000 towards the British Government’s share of £200,000.

The correspondence deals with arrangements for the payment of the loans, conditions attached to them, the agreement of terms between the British and Russian Governments, the date of commencement of interest repayments.

Amongst the conditions discussed are:

• protection of and provision for British interests in the Persian Gulf, namely Persia’s responsibility for the supply of lighting and buoying in the waters surrounding Persian islands, and protection for Bahrainis and Trucial Coast subjects in Persia;
• loan interest rates;
• security against the loans, and repayment of loans, in the form of Persian customs receipts, and opium receipts;
• mining and railway concessions in Persia, pursued by British and Russian interests.

The volume’s principal correspondents are: Sir Walter Beaupre Townley, British Minister at Tehran; Sir Arthur Hirtzel of the India Office; Sir Louis Du Pan Mallet of the Foreign Office; Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

The volume’s core correspondence covers the period January 1913 to February 1914. The earlier start date given for the volume is a result of correspondence included in a secret memorandum on Persian Government loans (ff 13-38), itself dated 17 October 1910, which is an historical précis of loans given to Persia by the British Government and Government of India since 1903.