Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1256

 1134 PERSIA

Persian Gulf has been opened to foreign navigation as far as Aliwaz, and Messrs. Lynch Brothers are running a steamer on it once a fortnight, with a subsidy from the British Government.

Until 1903 the only carriageable roads in Persia were Teheran-Kom and Teheran-Resht, the former 91 miles, the latter about 220 miles, and on both mails and travellers were conveyed by carts. Since then good roads have been made from Tabriz to Julfa (Russian frontier), Kazvin to Hamadan, Meshed to Askabad, Kom to Sultanabad, and others. Mails and passengers are now conveyed by carts on them and some other roads, but the latter, only slightly improved and being practically as nature made them, are somewhat difficult for wheeled traffic. A concession for the construction of a cart road with the option of changing it later for a '* chaass^e," or macadamized road, from Kazvin to Enzeli on the Caspian was granted to a Russian firm in 1893, and the Russian Government having aided with capital and guarantee, construction was begun in 1897 and the road opened for traffic in August, 1899. The concession includes the road from Kazvin to Teheran, which has been open for wheeled traffic since 1880, and a branch from Kazvin to Hamadan. All these are in good working order now.

In 1898 Messrs. Lynch took over a concession granted to a Persian subject for a caravan road between Aliwaz and Ispahan, with rights of levying tolls, and opened the road for traffic in the autumn of 1900. In 1903 Messrs. Lynch acquired the concessionary rights of the Imperial Bank of Persia for the roads Teheran-Kom-Isfahan, Kom-Muhamrah, and formed the "Persian Road and Transport Company," which started construction on the Kom- Isfahan section in the summer of 1904.

In virtue of another concession a Russian company has constructed a carriageable road from Julfa (Perso -Russian frontier) to Tabriz, with a view of extending it to Kazvin.

Persia has a system of telegraphs consisting of 6,312 miles of line, with 10,754 miles of wire, and 131 stations.

{a) 1,706 miles of line with 5,318 miles of wire are worked by an English staff, and form the 'Indo-European Telegraph Department in Persia,' a British Government department, established in virtue of a number of con- ventions from 1863 to 1901 between the British and Persian Governments. The last convention was for the construction and working by the British Government of a three-wire line from Kashan to British Beluchistan via Yezd, Kerman, and Bam. Telegraphic communication with India was effected in May, 1904. {b) 457 miles of line with three wires, 1,371 miles of wire between Teheran and Julfa on the Russo-Persian frontier, are worked by the Indo-European Telegraph Company, Limited, according to its concession of 1868. (c) About 3,600 miles of single wire lines belong to the Persian Government, and are worked by a Persian staff.

The first regular postal service, established by an Austrian official in Persian employ, was opened January, 1877. Under it mails are regularly conveyed to and from the principal cities in Persia. There is a service twice a week to and from Europe via Resht or Tabriz and Tiflis (letters to be marked ' via Russiae ' and a weekly service to India via Bushire. There are 218 post offices. In 1902 the post office was joined to the Customs Department worked by Belgian officials. In August, 1909, posts and telegraphs were placed in charge of a Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, who is a member of the Cabinet, but as to the number of letters, postcards, parcels, &c., conveyed, and telegrams transmitted, very few statistics are obtainable. During the year 1911-12, 284,804,000 letters, post- cards and newspapers, of which 3,992,300 were registered, were delivered in Persia, and there were 320,000 parcels delivered from Europe via Russia.