er facilities on an improved
road the traffic is certain to increase.

It is said that the alignment of the Russian road from Resht is to be
made in view of a railway in the future. The same will probably be done
in the Hamadan extension, and it is believed that the German road will
be similarly planned. All this would mean that behind the concessions
are further promises for the time when railway construction comes.
Looking into the dim distance, the eye of faith and hope may see the
fulfilment of railway communication from India to Europe by a connection
between the Quetta or Indus Valley line and Kermanshah.

This brings us to the agreement of 1890 between Persia and Russia to
shut out railways till the end of the century. This agreement, when made
known, was regarded as proof of a somewhat barbarian policy on the part
of Russia, unwilling or unable herself to assist in opening up Persia
and improving the condition of the country. But there is some reason for
the idea that the Shah himself was ready to meet the Russian request, so
as to keep back the railway which he feared would soon connect his
capital with the Caucasus. There was much railway talk in Persia in
1890, and Russia knew that it would take quite ten years to complete her
railway system up to the Northern frontiers of Persia and Afghanistan.
The railway now being made from Tiflis to Alexandropol and Kars will
probably send out a line down the fertile valley of the Aras to Julfa,
ready for extension across the Persian frontier to Tabriz, and a branch
may be pushed forward from Doshakh, or Keribent, on the Trans-Caspian
railway, to Sarakhs, where Russia, Persia, and Afghanistan meet, to
facilitate trade with Herat as well as Meshed. In the meanwhile also the
cart-roads, ready for railway purposes if wanted, from the Caspian Sea
base to Kasvin, Tehran, and Hamadan, will be completed.

Russia insisted on regarding the opening of the Karun to the navigation
of the world as a diplomatic victory for England, and a distinct
concession to British commerce, which is predominant in the South. She
therefore thought out well what to get from the Shah in return, to
favour her commercial policy in the North, and the ten years'
prohibition of railways was the result. Russia desires commercial
predominance in Persia just as England does, and she will use all the
influence which her dominating close neighbourhood gives to obtain the
utmost favour and facilities for her