!['Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick' [‎1r] (1/24)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000788.0x000302/IOR_L_PS_18_A145_0001.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick' [‎1r] (1/24)")
'Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick' [1r] (1/24)
The record is made up of 1 file (3 folios). It was created in 22 Nov 1899. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
A. 145.
This document is the property of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India.
Confidential.
1899
Baluchistan and Persia.
Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick.
(Letter from India, No. 189, Secret, 19th October 1899.— Pol. 992/99.)
1. The letteT on which orders are at this moment required refers to the
northernmost portion of the ^reat tract, nearJy 850 miles wide, and for the
most part desert, which lies between British India and Jvelat proper on
the east and Persia on the west, and which extends from the Arabian Sea
up to the Southern boundary of the Ameer’s dominions. The whole of that
vast tract, with the exception of a small portion adjoining the Afghan
border, and (as I understand) Lus Bey la, is included in the dominions of the
Khan of Kelat, but his authority over most of it is extremely limited.
2. We are, so far as I can make out, under no obligation to provide a
system of administration for any portion of that tract. I see it has been
suggested that the circumstance that it has, by arrangements with the
Ameer and Persia, been marked off as a British sphere of influence gives
rise to some such obligation, and that is an argument which has been often
used in similar cases, not only in India but elsewhere; but there is really
little foundation for it. It was for the very purpose of preventing any such
embarrassing result arising in such cases, on the coasts of Africa, that
Sir E. Mnlfit insisted on having the 35th article of the Act of Berlin altered
to the shape in which it now stands. With similar foresight Lord Lans-
downe’s Government, in making their first proposals to the Secretary of
State for a demarcation with the Ameer, took particular care to explain that
the demarcation should not be understood to impose on us any such
obligation, and the Durand Convention was so drawn as to avoid doing
anything of the kind. The demarcation agreements with Persia I have
never seen, but unless they are widely different from that with the Ameer,
it could hardly be contended that they impose any such obligation on us.
It is, no doubt, possible that if those dwelling in one of our demarcated
spheres of influence were to persist in raiding across the boundary demar
cated, and the other party to the demarcation were to appeal to us to restrain
them, we might ultimately be driven to establish some system of control,
and that threatened to become the position on the north of the Tochi Valley
before I left India ; but, as a rule, unless our officers are fussy, such difficulties
do not arise in an acute form in out-of-the-way places, and if they do not we
are under no obligation to establish any system of administration or control
up to the demarcated border. So much for our responsibilities towards
the other parties to the demarcations. Next, as to our obligations to the
Khan of Kelat, which also are referred to, the most we have undertaken to
do for him, as I understand, is, “ to respect the independence of Kelat and
“ to aid the Khan in case of need in the maintenance of a just authority
“ and the protection of his territories from external attack by such means as
“ the British Government may at the moment deem expedient ” (Vol. 9,
Aitchison’s treaties, p. 397), and there is certainly nothing in this to require
us to go in, and set up, either in his name or our own, a state of things
which has hitherto never existed and which it would never occur to him
to set about establishing. As regards any obligations to the people of the
country, no doubt the role of apostles of civilization is a tempting one,
but it is one which we have no right to take up, at the expense of the
Indian taxpayer, in all the wild and out-of-the-way tracts which have fallen
on our side of the Durand line. I may add that, as justly observed by the
Government of India in a correspondence to which I shall presently have
S. 62 . A
About this item
- Content
This file consists of a note, written by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick, member of the Council of India, on the subject of the northernmost portion of land in the province of Baluchistan [Balochistān], south of the Durand line, which is described as being situated between British India and Kelat [Kalat] on the east side, and Persia on the west side.
The note begins by referring directly to the following letter of correspondence: 'Letter from India, No. 189, Secret,' dated 19 October 1899. The note is principally concerned with the costs and benefits of a proposed railway line, which would run from Nushki (recently taken over by the British from the Khan of Kelat) to Koh-i-Malik-Siah [Malek Sīāh Kūh], in Seistan [Sīstān].
The file questions the argument that such a railway line would counteract Russian influence in Seistan. Also discussed is the extent to which the Government of India should be expected to finance such a scheme. Fitzpatrick makes the argument that it is wider Imperial interests, rather than those of the Government of India, which are most at stake, and that therefore a distribution of the cost should be made by fixed shares, rather than by relying solely on Indian revenues. He concludes by referring to a note that he wrote some months earlier, in which he advised that the control of all British affairs west of Baluchistan and Afghanistan should be vested exclusively in the Foreign Office.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (3 folios)
- Arrangement
This file consists of one note which is divided into a series of numbered paragraphs, which proceed from 1 to 15.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the first folio, and terminates at the last folio; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
Use and share this item
- Share this item
'Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick' [1r] (1/24), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/A145, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100025595800.0x000002> [accessed 19 April 2024]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100025595800.0x000002
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100025595800.0x000002">'Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick' [‎1r] (1/24)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100025595800.0x000002"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000788.0x000302/IOR_L_PS_18_A145_0001.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000000788.0x000302/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/18/A145
- Title
- 'Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick'
- Pages
- 1r:12v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence