File 1377/1905 Pt 1 'Perso-Baluch Frontier: Frontier Demarcation' [‎142v] (56/188)

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31. This request would, of course, be based on the same arguments as those
suggested for the red boundary line, paragraphs 23 and 24 above. There is
one slight disadvantage in urging this request prematurely, as there is a chance,
although a very poor one, of my being able to prove that our Padaha post is
outside the Persian line. The procedure I have suggested in paragraph 34
meets this difficulty. r
32. The concession, by sale or lease, of a small plot (say 1 square mile) of
culturable land with water on the right bank of the Dar-i-Ghiaban—Talab
river, for growing fodder and vegetables for the adjacent posts on our trade route
has been stated to be very desirable.
33 . The procedure which I venture to urge should be adopted, is that the
Persian Government should be pressed, forthwith, to agree to the slight recti
fication of frontier required for the adoption of the red boundary line, and to
send the Yamin-i-Nizam necessary authority to demarcate accordingly. In
the meantime this Mission should remain in Seistan.
34 . If the above request does not include the necessary rectification of
boundary at Padaha also, it should be so worded as not to preclude a further
subsequent representation regarding the latter place, when I have, as I feel
sure I will have, to refer the matter on arrival there. So little would then
remain to finish up a long and weary business that not only would the Persian
Commissioner be likely directly or indirectly to support my representations,
but the Persian Government would, after giving in on the first point, be less
likely to make a stand on the second and final one.
35. What appears to me to be a strong argument for tackling the Perso-
Baluch boundary question with the Persian Government direct, at Tehran,
forthwith, without waiting for this Mission to leave Seistan and arrive at an
impasse in Mirjawa, is that, when the Seistan question is settled up and we are
known to have embarked on that of the Perso-Baluch boundary, Hessian
diplomacy at Tehran will doubtless be more wideawake and more actively
directed than at' present towards thwarting our wishes in that direction. Sir
Arthur Hardinge will know whether this argument carries weight, or not, and
consequently whether it is better to include both the red line and Padaha in
one representation, or take up the red line first, and await further reference
before tackling Padaha.
36. A copy of this memorandum and of North-West Trans-Frontier map, •
4 inch=l mile, sheet No. 14 N.-W., dated 1902, with the red and blue
boundary lines shown thereon, is being sent direct to His Britannic Majesty’s
Minister at Tehran.
Camp Kohak;
A. H. McMAHON, Colonel,
British Commissi oner %
Tie 5ti November 1904.
G. I. C. P. 0.—No. 2499 P. D.—5.12*1904.—64.—W. D’C,