File 2626/1905 ‘Persia:- Military Attaché at Meshed’ [‎241r] (486/532)

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of peace with Japan is to render Russia more aggressive in the Middle East, as the
line of least resistance to hei Asiatic amhitions. As to whether this is likely to
happen I am, of course, not able to express an opinion.
I have the honour to transmit herewith, for your Lordship’s information, in case
it should not have reached you through the 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. , a copy of a despatch
addressed on this subject by Colonel Minchin to the Government of India, which will
give you a fair idea of the cost and working of the present Military Intelligence
Branch at Meshed. Colonel Minchin was, I believe, in favour of Making this
Intelligence Branch entirely separate from the Consulate-General, so as to "’allow
Captain Smjth to communicate directly and independently with the Intellmence
Department at Calcutta, without the Consul-General’s being in any way responsible
for his work.
1 do not myself think this idea a good one. It appears to me that the Secret Service
work, both Persian and Central Asian, is so closely interdependent that both should
centre in the Consul-General, and that the reports of the Military Attache, whether
dealing within or beyond the frontiers of Khorassan, should be "supervised by the
political chief of the Meshed Mission in the same way as are those of a Military
Attache at an Embassy or Legation by the Ambassador or Minister in charge of it.
Major Sykes, with whom I have discussed this whole question at some length, who
concurs in the views expressed by me in my despatch No. 113 of the 22nd"May, as(
well as in this despatch, and to whom I am indebted for several suggestions, notably
the one which I have put before your Lordship about the training of some of our
best informants in India, is addressing the Government of India in much the same
sense. 1 understand, however, from him, and I inferred as much from your Lordship’s
despatch Not 63, of the 25th April, that the question is not one for the decision of the
Government of India alone, but will form the subject of an exchange of views
with the Imperial Government which will be called upon to consider what share,
if any, should be borne by His Majesty’s Treasury in the maintenance of the
Intelligence Branch at Meshed. It is for this reason that I have ventured, in
anticipation of your Lordship’s instructions, to enlarge at some length on this
subject.
I have, &c.
(Signed) ARTHUR H. HARDINGE.
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P.S.—I have the honour to inclose a copy which Major Sykes has just sent me of
his report on the above subject to the Government of India.
A. H. H.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1 .
Consul-General Minchin to Government of India.
Sir, Meshed, February 9, 1905.
I HAVE the honour to address you regarding the provision of a separate office
establishment and separate Secret Service funds for the Military Attache recently
added to the staff of this Consulate-General.
The ordinary establishment of news-agents for this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. is three, viz., at
Krasnovodsk, Sarakhs, and Merv. Since the outbreak of the present Russo-Japanese
war and the appointment of Captain Smyth as Military Attache of this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , the
number has now increased to nine news-writers constantly employed, besides occasional
travelling agents in addition.
Captain Smyth also employs a man to read the Russian newspapers to him and
causes to be translated any portion of them likely to he of interest.
The result has been that the greater part of my Political Attache’s time is taken
up with arranging the dispatch of news-writers to Trans-Caspia and Russian
Turkestan, their transfer from place to place to insure their safety, transmission of
money to them, settlement of their accounts, and more especially with the enormous
amount of translation work which has now to be done.
My Political Attache, who is my right hand man and by far the most important
to me of all my office establishment, is gradually being absorbed from his work by the
Military Attache, and the political work of the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. not only suffers considerably
in consequence, but my own work, already sufficiently heavy, is thereby much