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'Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick' [‎9v] (18/24)

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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. .

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that we shall be drawn on gradually from one thing to another, and that the
view will come more and more to prevail that we are bound to find the
money for whatever the Foreign Office may think it necessary to do in
connection with the parts of Persia to which I refer. It must be borne in
mind in this connection that, as a result of the system under which we work
here, the majority of the Council, by which money grants must be sanctioned,
would usually not have access to all the papers connected with matters of
this kind, and further that they would on many occasions, as on this present
occasion, not be applied to for sanction until after the Government had been
irrevocably committed to the expenditure.
15. In conclusion, I desire to explain that nothing is further from my
mind than any desire to interfere with the Foreign Office in their manage
ment of Persian business. I see plainly that even as things now stand
this Council cannot reasonably expect to have much of a voice in Persian
affairs, and year by year, as other European nations come to have more and
more to do with Persia, those affairs must pass more and more under the
exclusive management of the Foreign Office—indeed, as my colleagues may
perhaps remember, in a note I wrote some months ago, I urged that the
control of all affairs west of Baluchistan and Afghanistan should be vested
exclusively in the Foreign Office, who would seek our advice or aid only
when they thought fit. All that I insist on is that we should, without further
delay, come to some definite understanding as to the incidence of the charges
for expenditure. I will only add that, even as things now stand, we are, in
my opinion, paying a very much larger share of the expenditure than is fair
to the Indian taxpayer.
D. Fitzpatrick.
22nd November 1899.

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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.

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English in Latin script
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'Baluchistan and Persia. Note by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick' [‎9v] (18/24), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/A145, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100025595800.0x000013> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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