File 348/1913 Pt 2 'Persia: Kerman affairs' [‎114v] (233/284)

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will be found to accept the post of Governor. I believe this to be humbug. With
properly built quarters in selected localities I question whether Baluchistan would he
found in any special degree unhealthy. The Baluchis themselves appear to be healthy
and active enough. Due attention paid to water supply, medical services, and proper
quarters would, I believe, obviate all real cause of complaint. It would also probably
be possible to draw largely on the Baluchis themselves for troops. They appear to
be sufficiently divided up among themselves to make it perfectly possible to raise a
mixed force sufficiently trustworthy for the work required of it.
13. As regards a Governor, with a salary guaranteed by the Finance Department,
and pickings which he would still make, I do not doubt that a man could be found.
If he were not one of the Tehran-bred “ruling caste,” so much the better in all
probability.
14. If the Persian Government is incapable of governing Baluchistan, I believe the
British Government could do it for it with a small force of local levies and a handful of
Indian Army officers, and could square the account from the local revenues. I speak,
however, without any personal knowledge of the country or its people, and this
question would require investigation on the spot.
15. In conclusion, I would urge that the Persian Government be pressed to take
effective steps to re-establish its authority in Baluchistan before matters reach a more
serious point, and that if they are, or express themselves, unequal to the task, they
should be required to commission the British Government to undertake it for them.
In the latter case I believe that, by a gradual introduction of British officials and
the raising of local levies, Baluchistan could in course of time be reduced to order
without any formal expedition.
16. From the point of view of international politics, I presume that when Russia
keeps thousands of Russian troops in Northern Persia we may without offence take
such mild and tentative steps as these last proposed. We may surely exert ourselves
to put a stop to anarchy existing on the frontier of India, threatening and actually
damaging our most valuable interests in our own “ sphere ” of Persia, especially when
this anarchy prevails in a remote corner of the country which is isolated in every
way from the^ general [sphere of Persian politics, and in which no European Power
save ourselves^has any interest, direct or indirect.
I have, &c.
D. LOR1MER, Captain, I.A.
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