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File 2626/1905 ‘Persia:- Military Attaché at Meshed’ [‎129r] (262/532)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (259 folios). It was created in 1 Dec 1904-16 Nov 1911. 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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ENCLOSURES.
Enclosure No. 1 .
War Office to Foreign Office.
War Office,
Sir, 16th September 1908.
1 am commanded by the Army Council to acknowledge the
receipt of 3 r our letter dated the 7th instant, requesting that the Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs may be informed of the grounds upon which
the Army Council base their opinion that, from the point of view of
Imperial military interests, the post of Military Attache to His Majesty’s
Consulate-General at Meshed should be maintained.
2. In reply, I am to say that the Army Council endorse the views
expressed by the Government of India in their Despatch of the 7th
November 1907, and are of opinion that the interruption of the system
of obtaining intelligence, which has been so successfully inaugurated by
the Military Attache at Meshed, would be disadvantageous to the
Imperial as well as to the Indian Army.
3. Although the conclusion of the recent Convention has, no doubt,
improved our relations with Russia and removed much cause for anxiety,
the Army Council consider that it would be imprudent, by withdrawing
our Attache from Meshed, to deprive India, and, indirectly, the General
Staff, of a source of accurate information regarding events on the
northern frontier of Afghanistan and in Central Asia.
4. It further seems desirable that the working of the new arrange
ments under which local disputes between Russian and Afghan frontier
officials are to be settled should be carefully watched, the more so as,
judging from past experience, the reports of such local disputes are
liable to produce a feeling of unrest and anxiety, due to distortion and
exaggeration, unless they pass through the censorship of a trained and
competent military intelligence officer.
5. The sphere of activity which Seistan offers to the Russian officer
who has been appointed Military Attache in that region is a limited one,
the information which he may be able to acquire can be little more than
is already at the disposal of the Russian military authorities, and the loss
entailed by the withdrawal of our Attache from Meshed would not, from
a military point of view, be counterbalanced by the removal of the
Russian officer from Seistan.
I am, &c.,
The Under Secretary of State, R- Brade.
Foreign Office.
Enclosure No. 2.
Foreign Office to Treasury.
Foreign Office,
g- r 21st September 1908.
I am directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to refer you to the
letter from this Office of the 6 th March 1905, forwarding copies of
correspondence relative to the appointment of a Military Attache to His
Majesty’s Consulate-General at Meshed, and to that of the 18th Decembei
of the same year.

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Content

The volume contains correspondence and notes by British officials about government expenditure on the Government of India post of Military Attaché at the British Consulate General at Meshed in Persia. The main correspondents are senior officials in London at the Foreign Office, 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. , War Office and Treasury. They discuss the joint funding of this post by the Government of India and the Home Government in London (also referred to as the Imperial Government), the continuance of the existing financial contribution to the salary for this post by the Foreign Office and an additional contribution by the War Department out of Army funds, 1910-1911. The correspondence includes representations in 1905 from Arthur Hardinge the Consul General at Tehran, Lieutenant Colonel C F Minchin the Consul General for the province of Khorasan at Meshed and his successor Major P Molesworth Sykes, to the Government of India and the Home Government in London, advocating the retention of Meshed as a centre of military intelligence about Russian Central Asia and the appointment there of a military intelligence officer, given the absence of a British Consular presence in Russian Turkestan and the value of such intelligence gathering to Government of India military authorities in particular.

Extent and format
1 volume (259 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume. The subject 2626 (Persia – Military Attaché at Meshed) consists of one volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 264; 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.

Written in
English in Latin script
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File 2626/1905 ‘Persia:- Military Attaché at Meshed’ [‎129r] (262/532), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/85, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100027041203.0x00003f> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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