'The Russians in Akhal' [‎55r] (61/68)

Parliamentary Papers, Central Asia (1873),
No. 2, p. 42.
Henvey’s Precis, 1872—75, pp. 74, 75.
Sir E. Hertslet’s Foreign Office Memo
randum, 1877.
Henvey’s Precis, 1872—75, p. 91.
Ibid, p, 92.
“ could only be of importance to us if the Russians
“ meant to feel their way along the North of the
“ Attrek, and to take possession of Mery,” but the
occupation of that place in 1870 could give no
cause of complaint to Persia, because the site
occupied was not that of the former Xomud en
campment, some few miles up the Attrek river
through Hassan Kuli Bay, but on the Caspian
coast, on the North side of the bay. What was
strange in respect to Chikishlar was* the (Russian
official) denial that a fort had been built there.
Prince Gorchakoff, however, declared to Sir
Andrew Buchanan that the Shah of Persia had
never any “better claim to the country of the
“ Turcomans than the King of Italy U the throne
“ of Jerusalem, upon which the Persian Govern-
“ ment, anxious to preserve its suzerain rights over
“ the Turcoman country between the Attrek and
“ the Gurgan, asked the Russian Government for
** assurances, which were readily given, that Russia
“ did not intend to build fortresses or establish
“ themselves on the Attrek.”
While the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs
was exchanging notes with the Russian Minister
at Teheran, and the Persian Minister at St. Peters
burg was remonstrating to Prince Gorchakoff, on
the subject of the Russian violation of the Attrek
frontier, in the spring of 1873, the Persian Minister
in London was representing to Earl Granville that
“ the Persian Government were becoming uneasy,”
. . . and inquiring “ whether the time had not
“ come for recognizing the integrity of Persia.”
The Persian Government was seriously agitated by
the proceedings of the Russians, and efforts were
made in all directions to enlist the interest of the
British Government. The first attempt to sound
the British Government on the question was made
by Malcolm Khan, who mooted it to the British
Ambassador at Vienna in February 1873.
On the 26th February, Mr. Thomson wrote from
Teheran that the Persian Government had received
a telegram from London to the effect that in the
correspondence which had recently taken place
between the British and Russian Governments
respecting Central Asia, Russia had declared that
she recognized the integrity of Persia.
Until the year 1873, the Government of the Shah
were not aware of the fact of the existence of the
understanding of 1834, and of the renewal of that
agreement in the year 1865.
The Sadr-Azem inquired whether Mr. Thomson
had received any intelligence to that effect.
“ He observed that the Shah and his Ministers
would feel grateful to Her Majesty’s Government
if they had succeeded in obtaining an assurance of
this nature from the Russian Government, It
required very little reflection, he said, to enable
any Persian to understand that Russia was the
natural enemy of Persia, and that England on the
contrary, in her own interests, must desire to