What Persia Owes to British Capital.

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 47, 25 February 1933, Page 16

What Persia Owes to British Capital.

The name of-Sir Percy Syk6B, the writer of the following- article in the "News-Chronicle," has been identified with Persia and the Middle East ever since he. started his Persian travels in 1893. He .founded the Consulate for Kerman and Persian Baluchistan in 1894,. was Assistant-Commissioner on the Perso-Balueh.'Boundary Commission in 1896; . During,the Great War he ' was-appointed to raise the South Persia: Eifles, and made a. landing at Bandar Abbas, ana was G. 0.0. .Southern Persia until the war ended. - Eecently.the newspapers have been full of the royalties dispute which has unhappily arisen, between his Majesty Shah Eiza and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, writes Sir Percy Sykea. The British friends of Persia, among whom -I count myself,- hope that an equitable settlement may speedily be arrived at. In this article I do not propose to deal -with this delicate question. Bather a? an official who lived in Persia for some twenty-six years, I wish to showon what lines my fellow-countrymen nave worked this important concession. When drilling operations were first started in- the. foothills of the Bakhtiari Mountains, the chiefs'who were' given shares in the company, provided "guards to protect the tiny British colony from raids. At .first these guards .were most unsatisfactory, But, before long, the wayward yet virile tribesmen, to whom disinterested care and kindness ■ were a bewildering experience were tamed. ._ This; was the achievement of • Dr. Young, whose fame spread far and wide in Western Persia as a man who could give sight to the blind- and perform many other wonders. Chiefs and tribesmen alike realised his worth, ana, on this foundation, mutual esteem was established. Yet the task was a difficult one. The Bakhtiaris are an obstinate, conservative race who, when a mule track was cleared ..across their rugged mountains, complained that there were not enough stones left for their .toes to catch hold of. Moreover,, with the innate restlessness of the nomad, they hated settling down in a village, while, being accustomed to drive their flocks to the mountains ,'in the early spring, they detested the verytrying climate of the plains. . To give some idea of the heat, when I spent part of the summer of 1896 at the neighbouring town of Shuster, my thermometer registered 128deg. with hateful regularity at noon. Indeed, this terrible heat, in spite of every possible alleviation that science can supply, is a serious drawback to service tmder .the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. However, heat or no heat, the arrival of the British brought peace and

prosperity to tie province in which the concession is'-worked. Among the most important benefits may be mentioned that, for the first time in their lives, thousands of Persians are receiving regular ana liberal wages all the year round, and are learning to work regularly. "When I lived in Persia, I used to tell my Persian friends that in England "time was money," to■ which sage remark of' mine they wistfully replied that they only^ wished that this was the;case in Persia, where there was too much time to get through. Again^ mea who ha| only handled a spade have ■: been trained to be mechanics, pumpmen, or riveters. Today the company' employs some 15,000 Persians, Arabs, and Indians. Gradually the Indian staff is decreasing as their ; place is filled by Persians. .Abadan, the site of the refineries is situated «n a desert island in the Shatt'al-Axab. On this unpromising spot an. industrial town has been erected on American, rather than British, lines. Drinking water for a population estimated at 60,000. has been provided, while Abadan is -as brilliantly lighted as • London. ■But it is in the generous provision of medical and surgical aid and in its educational policy that the company deserves special credit.. Some twenty British doctors manage large hospitals at each centre. Nor are their services confined to the. employees of the company and .their families. • Far from it. The sick from all over the province are, admitted, and, as may be imagined, the burden is a heavy one in a land where operations" have never hitherto been performed. To turn to education, the Church Mission Society school at Isfahan is subsidised to receive youths. of the upper, class, who are trained on English public school lines, while selected pupils are sent to 'England to complete their studies. Moreover, schools, for primary education have been opened at every, centre, and the effect on the risong generation is already marked. To view the question from another angle, thanks to petrol, motor-cars are running all over Persia, thus helping materialy to solve the question of transport.in this of vast distances.. Again, the grandiose schemes of a Trans-Persian railway would be utterly impracticable' without the existence of. ample supplies of oil fuel. When the question of the British Government taking shares in the company was debated in Parliament Borne years ago, Mr; Winston Churchill declared that its development "would make the Persian Government strong land the tnbesmea tame"; and on this I not© I conclude my remarks.