IOR/L/PS/10/451/1

This part contains papers, mostly correspondence and India Office minute papers, relating to British interests and Russian policy in the South of Persia [Iran]. It includes papers relating to the following:

• the condition of the Lynch road from Ahwaz to Isfahan (the Bakhtiari Road)
• the question of how far diplomatic action by HM Government in order to rehabilitate British interests in South Persia is desirable or practicable in existing circumstances
• the Foreign Office recommendation that revised assurances should be given to the Sheikh of Mohammerah, in order to strengthen the British position in Arabistan
• the Foreign Office view that the moment is not opportune for taking up the various questions of policy in South Persia
• the collection of taxes by Russian consuls in Persia
• the state of affairs in the districts of Urmia and Soujboulak
• the appointment of a Governor-General at Ispahan
• grievances of the Persian Government against the Russian Government
• Russian ‘intrigues’ with the Bakhtiari khans
• the proposed substitution of a Bakhtiari for Nizam-es-Sultaneh as Governor-General of Luristan

The correspondence is largely between the following:

• the Foreign Office (including Sir Edward Grey, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) and Sir Walter Beaupre Townley, HM Minister to Persia
• the Foreign Office and the Persian Transport Company
• the Foreign Office and Sir George William Buchanan, British Ambassador to Russia at St Petersburg
• HM Minister to Persia (Townley and Charles Murray Marling), and Captain J Ranking, HM Vice-Consulate, Ahwaz
• the India Office and the Foreign Office
• Major Stuart George Knox, Officiating Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India