The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-18

The shah o. Persia's Huropean Tour
and It's Probable Ianuences Upon
Asia.
J OF all the extraordinary movements and adj
ventures of the eventful age we live in, among
the powers and potentates Of the Old World,
| the present European tour of the Shah of Per-
sia may be pronounced the most novel and
remarkable. In STOPPING from his high estate
as skiing Of Kings to undertake this extern
sive journey for information as TO the strength.
and ways and means, and institutions and
progress of the Great Powers of Europe-in
thus breaking away from the barbaric isolation
which has hedged in his predecessors for CEN
turtles, Nasr-edin confesses to the world that
the contagion of the progressive spirit of
and that it is stirring the lately tor
pid body of Persia into active life
again. But considering the fact that
Persia is just emerging from terrible
ordeal of famine and pestilence-the
most destructive visitation Of the kind
recorded in human history, cutting of
hundreds Of thousands of people, and adding
vast districts, hitherto fruitful and populous,
to the desolation Of the surrounding deserts
this costly pleasure excursion of the Shah, for
which it is said he has drawn from his Treas
ury the sum of twenty-five millions of dol
lars, is a problem which puzzles many an
inquiring philosopher
It is conjectured that, fascinated by the
stories of the high enjoyments among the
infdels by the Sultan of Turkey and the
Khedive of Egypt in their adventures
abroad, the Shah of Persia was seized with
the desire to show himself and to test
his standing among the crowned heads
of Europe, and that for this purpose he has
seized the opportunity when his devoted sub
jects are too much absorbed in repairing their
losses from the late famine to trouble them
selves with rebellious conspiracies during his
absence. We think, however, that as the
Shah, in various reforms introduced in his
government has shown himself to be man
of progress, the explanation of this European
excursion is due to larger and broader motives
and designs than mere personal vanity,
pleasure or curiosity. He feels perhaps, that
Russia is crowding him from the North and
the East and that Turkey is but feeble and
precarious support in the West, and he wishes
to be on the right side of the Gar. Occupy
ing a vast country of mountains, fer
tile districts and sterile deserts, without
the advantages of navigable rivers, he real
izs6s1ts necessities for railways, and he has
entered into extensive contracts for railways
and telegraphs. We may safely, then, assume
that the Shah, in this European tour, is on o
| reconnaissance in reference to the political
alliances and material improvements best cal
culated to strengthen him against possible
future contingencies Nor can we doubt that
in this view he is greatly moved by the desire
to secure those railway facilities with Western
nations which, in the event of another famine
within his dominions, will enable him
promptly to relieve his suffering people.
Accepting these as the motives and objects
of this European exploring expedition by the
'.King of Kings" we are naturally led to the
conclusion that great results will follow to
Persia and the whole OF Western and Central
Asia and to the general commerce of the civil
| lied world If the reader will turn to
the map of Asia he will see
that on the southwest Persia has the
facilities of the Persian Gulf for
the exchange of her products with those of
only means of transportation are by the
caravan over desert wastes, as it was employed
thousands of years ago. 1t will also be OBJ
served that the Euphrates River, after SOUTH
easterly course through Asiatic Turkey Of
some eighteen hundred miles, is discharged
into the Persian Gulf, and next that from
Beyrout on the Mediterranean via Baalbec
and Palmyra or Tadmor (the most prosperous
Of all overland caravan routes to the sea in the
time Of King Solomon), and thence to and
down the Valley of the Euphrates, there is the
most direct route for railway, and England
proposes some such line from the Mediterra-
mean to Persia and the Persian Gulf. Allow
ing thousand miles for the length of this
road, we suppose that, including the transport
tation of the ties from the sea coast and of
the iron from England, the line, from the
generally level character of the route, and the
cheapness of labor and subsistence in
Asiatic Turkey, can be built for twenty-five
or thirty millions of dollars.
Great preparations are on foot in England
for a right royal reception and entertainment
of the Persian Shah. He is represented as
splendid Oriental, ''every inch king" and
he is to be the recipient in London and at
Windsor of extraordinary honors even to a
crowned head. England, in short, is playing
against Russia for close alliance, offensive
and defensive, with the Shah. He, however,
may find it to his interest to cement the friend
ship of both Russia and England, and Turkey,
too, in consideration of the advantages