A VISIT TO PERSIA. 254 
the conveyance of troops as for ordinary passengers and it is most 
probable that an attempt will be made to compel the employment of 
somewhat similar carriages for the bullock train, on the road which is 
now being constructed from the Caspian to Kazvin. 
A concession has just been given to a German syndicate to con- 
struct a road from Baghdad through Kermanshah to Tehran, the road 
must according to the terms of contract be completed by June, 1898. 
This road will not possess the same military importance as will that 
from the Caspian to Tehran, it will, however, establish a direct line 
of communication between the Huphrates valley and Persia. 
English influence is without question paramount in southern Persia, 
but the difficulties of country which present themselves to a force 
advancing into Persia from the Persian Gulf are incomparably greater 
than those which would be encountered by a force operating from the 
Caspian. The distance too from Bushire to Tehran via Shiraz and 
Ispahan is 700 miles against a little over 200 miles from the Caspian 
to Tehran. Any military operations in Persia on the part of England 
can only be made with the Persian Gulf as a base, so that both, from 
a military and commercial point of view, the importance of a good road 
from the south cannot be overrated, without such a road our commerce 
and prestige must both suffer. The Persian Government will never 
undertake the work, so it remains for British private enterprise to 
carry it out on much the same principles as is the road from the 
north being constructed by Russia. 
The most direct route into the heart of Persia from the south is by 
way of the Karun river and thence northwards to Ispahan, but the 
country through which this line of road must pass is difficult and 
mountainous and the population wild and much addicted to brigandage, 
so that it is not so suitable as a commercial route as the older road 
through Shiraz, the saving of distance is, however, of very great 
importance. 
The material from which the Persian army is recruited is physically 
of the highest order. A large portion of the population is nomadic 
and such people used, from their earliest childhood, to camp life, and 
its shifts require merely training to habits of discipline to become 
genuinely good soldiers. But, as the Persian army exists at present, 
it is impossible for it to have any form of martial spirit. Corruption 
is rife, the soldiers are absolutely uncared for; under any circum- 
stances their pay is very small and they are swindled out of a consider- 
able part of this pittance; rations there are none and the clothing is 
of inferior quality. Service is practically for life, although the more 
modern school of officers, who have seen something of military 
organization in Hurope, like to state that short service is being 
eradually introduced. When a village is called on to supply two Br 
three men as recruits, the number required is generally found by the 
villagers subscribing together and paying volunteers so much ahead, 
who, after a certain amount of pressure from the head man, agree to 
represent the village in military service. ‘The soldier when he joins 
the army soon discovers that this payment which has been made him 
