RUSSIANISING PERSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12654, 7 September 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

RUSSIANISING PERSIA.

I WHERE THE! BRITISH TRADER IS! ! BEING OUSTED. ' The Russian bank, the Russian agent in the shape of the keen Armenian trader, and the Russian Government-subsidised .company, offering terms- none others can compete with, loom large in the report on British trade in Persia by Mr. H. W. Maelean, the special commissioner of the Board of Trade, which was issued as c Blue-book recently. . ~,,,, It, is not so much, he says, in actual bulK and value that Russia's superiority over die British Empire is at present manifest. The sign-: of it are seen mostly iu persistent Muscovite enterprise, the cheapening of transit, and the seizure of any and every local condition calculated to benefit # the Russian at the expense of his British rival. We are being gradually driven from the northern markets, and we have practically left Teheran to the Russians. It is only on the Persian Gulf that Britain maintains her position. Within recent years the foreign commerce of Persia has developed considerably. Russif has acquired a largo share of this increase, but we have made little or no progress. , , Russia possesses in the Armenian trador a suitable agent to press trade. He is a keen trader, living in the fashion _of the country at small expense, and speaking and writing the language of both the Russian Armenian and of the Persian with whom he deals. The Bank de Prets de Perse is connected with the Russian State Bank; its manager is a Russian Government official; it is independent of current profits, and it devotes itself to the development of Russian trade with Persia." Allowing for omissions, and inaccuracies of classification in the Customs statistics, the commissioner estimates the foreign trade of Persia as follows: — £. Russia ... 4.000,000 British Emoire 3,000,000 Other countries ... ... 2,000,000 ; - Russia, too, accords special through rates for goods to Persia, and subsidises the steamship line from Odessa to the Persian Gulf to the extent of £20,00 per annum The commissioner was informed at every place lie visited that the Russian cotton goods at equal prices were stouter and more durable, with faster colours, than the British. It is significant to note that the Persian Governinert has improved the road from Teheran to Meshed, so as to permit of regular wheel traffic. Meshed, it will be recalled, is one* of the vital points of General Kurcpatkiti's plan for the invasion of India.