Mss Eur F111/69A

This item comprises printed Foreign Office correspondence relating to Persia [Iran], covering geopolitical, political, economic, social and cultural matters. The despatches are dated 18 December 1891-30 June 1897.

The first page of each despatch includes the heading ‘ASIA. CONFIDENTIAL.’ on the top left, and the day and month of the despatch in square brackets on the top right e.g. ‘[December 18.]’. The letters in each despatch are numbered, e.g. No. 1, followed, where relevant, by numbered enclosures (spelled ‘inclosure’ in the volume), e.g. ‘Inclosure in No. 1.’ or ‘Inclosure 1 in No. 2.’.

The item notably covers and includes:

• ‘Correspondence respecting the Persian Tobacco Concession’, papers presented to the Houses of Parliament, June 1892 (Her Majesty’s Stationary Office). These papers (ff 37-88) cover: the opposition and hostility of people in Persia, notably merchants and clerics in Tehran, towards the tobacco concession (‘Régie’, or monopoly) granted in 1890 by the Shah [Shāh] of Persia to the United Kingdom, which gave the Imperial Tobacco Corporation control over the growth, sale and export of tobacco; the protests against it; and its cancellation in 1892. There is additional 1892 correspondence on the tobacco concession in the rest of the item. A number of letters and documents on the concession are in French
• ‘Memorandum by Sir M. Durand, on the Situation in Persia’, December 1895, relating to the state of the Government in Persia, followed by a summary by George Nathaniel Curzon, 12 April 1896, deprecating the ‘deplorable’ conditions in the country (ff 89-112)
• A memorandum by Captain Percy Molesworth Sykes, HM Consul in Kerman, relating to the navigation and opening up to trade and commerce of the Karun River and valley, with appendices (Appendix II is in French) (ff 121-130)
• Russia’s despatch of Russian Cossack soldiers to the Perso-Afghan frontier ostensibly to prevent the spread of plague from India into Russia via Afghanistan, including a collision between Russians and Afghans at the Perso-Afghan frontier and Russian concern about quarantine arrangements by the British Medical Officer in Seistan [Sistan]
• Russo-Persian relations
• Perso-Afghan relations
• Public construction works
• Civil disturbances in Persia
• The state of the Government in Tehran
• Russian railway projects on the South Caspian littoral
• Construction of a caravan route between Ahwaz [Ahvaz] and Ispahan [Isfahan], generally known as the ‘Bakhtiari road’ [in connection with the Bakhtiyārī people whose territory the route ran through], and the involvement of Messrs Lynch Brothers in the project. Included on folio 156 is a ‘Route map of the Tracks between Ahwaz, Shushter [Shushtar] & Ispahan’ (Mss Eur F111/69A, f 156)
• The import trade in arms at Bushire [Bushehr]
• The funeral of Shah Nasr-ed-Din [Nāṣir al-Dīn]
• Anti-Semitic riots in the Jewish quarter of Tehran and British concern to protect British subjects of Jewish birth residing there.

The primary correspondents are: the Marquess of Salisbury [also spelled ‘Marquis’ in this item], Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary; Sir Frank Cavendish Lascelles, British Ambassador to Persia; Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, Minister Plenipotentiary at Tehran; Charles Hardinge, First Secretary, Tehran; Sir Robert Burnett David Morier, Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at St Petersburg (1884-93); the India Office; and the Foreign Office. Enclosures are chiefly from British diplomatic officials in Persia, notably John Richard Preece, HM Consul General at Ispahan, and Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Philip Picot, Military Attaché, Tehran, and occasionally from Persian Government officials.