Mss Eur F111/65

This file consists mainly of correspondence received by George Nathaniel Curzon, mostly on matters relating to Persia.

The letters are mainly from friends, acquaintances and other correspondents known to Curzon, including a number of army officers, diplomats, writers and travellers with an interest in Persia. Notable correspondents include Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm John Meade, Captain Percy Molesworth Sykes, Albert Houtum-Schindler, Henry Mortimer Durand (British Minister at Tehran), John Richard Preece (British Consul at Ispahan), Thomas Henry Sanderson (Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), and Robert Theodore Gunther.

Many of the letters discuss the internal affairs of Persia and British policy regarding that country, mostly from the perspective of British officers and diplomats who are residing or have visited there. Some of the correspondents congratulate Curzon on his recent appointment as Viceroy of India, a post which he took up in January 1899.

Of particular note is an account by Horace Montagu Rumbold of his travels through Persia during October 1897, which records his observations and opinions of the country's government, its local rulers, and whether British rule of southern Persia would be welcomed by its inhabitants (ff 17-35).

The file also includes copies of printed correspondence received by the Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury (Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil), from British representatives in Constantinople (ff 50-52), which discuss a petition submitted by Count Kapnist, nephew of the Russian Ambassador at Vienna, to the Ottoman Minister for Public Works, in a bid for a concession for the construction of a railway line from the Mediterranean coast to the Persian Gulf (the correspondence includes a translation of the petition).

The file concludes with newspaper cuttings from the Times of India, the Daily Mail and the Morning Post, which contain articles reporting on Persia and on Curzon's selection as Viceroy.