No. 919.
Mr. Pratt to Mr. Bayard.

[Extract.]
No. 291.]

Sir: In my No. 32, consular series of the 4th instant, I had the honor to inform the Department on the subject of two Persian railways; one, recently completed between Teheran and Shat-Abdoul-Azim, and the other in course of construction from the town of Amol to Mahmudabad, on the Caspian Sea.

I have now the honor to report that information has reached me through most trustworthy private sources that the Shah’s Government has just been asked by the syndicate which constructed the Shat-Abdoul-Azim [Page 1365] line to cede it, in addition, the exclusive right to connect by rail the cities of Koum, Teheran, and Casrine, with the intention of seeking later on the further grant to extend this system from the latter point northward to the Caspian Sea and from the former southward to the Persian Gulf.

I have, etc.,

E. Spencer Pratt.