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File 2626/1905 ‘Persia:- Military Attaché at Meshed’ [236r] (476/532)
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. .
Transcription
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[Secret]
r/'
No. 135 of 1905 .
Military Department.
THE RIGHT HON’BLE ST. JOHN BRODRICK,
HIS MAJESTY’S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA.
Simla, the igth October 1905 .
'Sir,
We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No
23-Political, dated the 10th March 1905, on the subject of the proposed aDDoint.’
ment of a military attache at Meshed. ^
2. In recommending the creation of this appointment we expressed the hope
that His Majesty’s Government would agree to an equal division of the cost
between the Imperial and Indian Exchequers. With your despatch under reply
is forwarded correspondence on this subject with the Foreign Office, in which it
is stated that half the cost of maintaining the three Indian officers ' already sta
tioned at Tehran and Meshed is borne by His Majesty’s Government although
their reports and diaries deal mainly, and in the case pf Meshed, almost exclu
sively, with matters primarily affecting India. The appointment of an additional
officer at Meshed is considered to be one of purely ..Indian interest, and in view of
this fact and of the considerable increase in expenditure in regard to Persia lately
incurred by His Majesty’s Government, Lord Lansdowne does not’, it is stated,
feel justified in approaching the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in the
matter.
In these circumstances you have remitted the question for our further
consideration.
3. After carefully reconsidering the matter we are of opinion that even if it
be eventually decided that Indian revenues should bear the whole cost, the
creation of the appointment of an Intelligence Officer as a military attache at
Meshed is very necessary so long as Russia occupies her present position in
Central Asia. The marked improvement in the extent and value of the informa
tion we have received through Meshed since the military attache was provision
ally sent there, fully justifies the additional expenditure. So long as we are en
tirely without any consular or other representative in Russian Central Asia, we
must depend for our information regarding Russian military movements in that
region very largely on our Meshed
Agency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
, and Lord Kitchener strongly urges
that we should do everything in our power to develop and extend our intelligence
system there. In this opinion we entirely concur and recommend that the ap
pointment of military attache should be created on the conditions as to salary,
etc., stated in our despatch No. 170 of the 1st December 1904.
4. With reference to the refusal of His Majesty’s Government to participate
in the increased expenditure, we would invite attention to paragraph 242 of the
report of Lord Welby’s Commission where it is stated that the charges of the
Mission and consulates in Persia should be evenly divided between the Home and
Indian Governments, neither Government creating or adding to the establishments
and services under its control without the consent of the other. This broad
principle was laid down with the express object of preventing discussions similar
About this item
- 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 View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/85
- Title
- File 2626/1905 ‘Persia:- Military Attaché at Meshed’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:263v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence