342 THE NEAR EAST. 



that we should be securely placed on the flank of any 

 attack directed against Kandahar from the North. 



Space forbids that I should enlarge further upon 

 the question of Persia. There is, however, one more 

 suggestion to be made, though I have no very great 

 confidence in its being entertained, and that is, that 

 the British Government should become the share- 

 holders of the Imperial Bank of Persia. The bank 

 is the one influential British institution still extant 

 in Persia, the one weapon which it is still in her 

 power, if she will, to wield with some eflect ; and 

 Russia, well aware that this is so, is doing all she can 

 through the Banque d'Escompte to cut the ground 

 from under it. There was a provision in the 

 negotiations connected with the Russian loan by 

 which Persia was deprived of the power of borrowing 

 from any other nation until Russia had been paid off. 

 But this could not possibly be held to prevent her 

 from borrowing from her own bank. Indeed there 

 is every reason to believe that the Persian treasury, 

 the contents of whose coffers are scattered abroad with 

 such reckless levity, has been to some extent thus 

 replenished since the Russian loan ; and I need hardly 

 point out the possibilities that would follow upon such 

 an arrangement as I have suggested, of rectifying, as 

 far as rectification is now possible, the financial blun- 

 der of 1900. 



I have painted a brighter picture of the Persian 

 problem than is usually done, and I have laid 

 stress upon those points — the things that Great 

 Britain is doing — which are usually ignored. I do 

 not for a moment wish it to be inferred that I am 

 unaware of the gloomy side. If Great Britain is 

 up and doing, Russia is doing too. No one who 

 travels in the country can fail to be aware of that. 



