§ 1. Sir JOHN LONSDALEasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if the value of British trade with Persia for the year 1910–11 was £4,541,560, or 26.4 per cent. of Persia's total trade with foreign countries, and that this represents over a period of ten years between £40,000,000 and £50,000,000; is he aware that, in order to preserve this trade, a properly organised gendarmerie under British Indian officers is required to patrol the roads in Southern Persia, and that, no proposal has been made of an armed occupation of the country; is he aware that British traders have already expressed their willingness to pay extra duties, if necessary, to defray the cost of the gendarmerie; and if ho will state the nature of the obstacles which prevent the restoration of order and security for British trade?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E. Grey)I am aware of the fact quoted by the hon. Baronet at the beginning of his question, but a reference to the trade reports will show that the total value for the years 1901 to 1911, inclusive, is £33,721,589 and not between forty and fifty million. The question of the best means of protecting and extending British trade in Persia, has constantly occupied my attention in communication with the Government of India and the Board of Trade. Various schemes have been considered and a creation of a gendarmerie under Swedish officers was finally adopted. I am aware that, early in 1910, certain British firms, engaged in Persian trade, expressed their willingness to submit to the imposition of a surtax of 10 per cent. at Bushire to defray the cost of policing the Bushire-Isfahan road, but it soon became clear that the sum thus obtained would prove insufficient for the purpose and moreover, so far as my information goes, the opinion of the firms interested was not unanimously in favour of the measure, and still less of the extension of the surtax to all the Persian ports of the gulf which was subsequently sug- 738 gested. The obstacles to the restoration of order are the importance and the financial embarrassment of the Persian Government. With regard to the proposal of armed occupation, the proposal made by the hon. Baronet on the 19th for the disarmament of the tribes could not have been carried out except by the occupation of Southern Persia and appeared to be tantamount to a suggestion of that nature.
§ Sir J. LONSDALEHas the right hon. Gentleman received particulars of the latest raids by tribes near Shiraz in which a British officer has been killed and an entire caravan of English merchants has been carried off?
§ Sir E. GREYI very much regret to say I have had information, the same as has appeared in the Press, of the death of a British officer. I have not, of course, got full details, but His Majesty's Government will have to take the full circumstances into account.
§ Sir C. KINLOCH-COOKEHas the Swedish gendarmerie been the success anticipated for it by His Majesty's Government?
§ Sir E. GREYI should have said, previous to the receipt of this grave news, the Swedish gendarmerie had not yet realised all the hopes formed of it, but it has not yet had sufficient experience to say it has proved a failure. In view of the grave news we have received, the whole question will have to be taken into consideration.
§ Sir J. LONSDALEIn view of the serious situation, can the right hon. Gentleman not devise some means by which British merchants trading in Southern Persia will at least receive the same protection as Russian merchants trading in Northern Persia?
§ Sir E. GREYIf British merchants trading in Southern Persia were to receive the same protection as Russian merchants trading in Northern Persia, it would, of course, mean sending a large force of British troops for practically an armed occupation of the trade routes.