'Seistan and Mekran arbitration' [‎99r] (1/10)

Seistan and Mekran Arbitration.
1700.
1723-47.
1747-1773.
1773-98.
1826-34.
Mr. Ellis to Vis
count Palmerston,
15th January 1836.
Page 7, Corre
spondence, Persia
and Affghanistan.
Sir J. Mc.Neill to
Lord Palmerston,
11th April 1838.
1851-57.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century Seistan,
Herat, and Candahar were more or less subject to
Persia. The sovereignty over these places was
strengthened by Nadir Shah, who, moreover, ruled
Cabul, Balkh, Bokhara, and, in a lesser degree,
the Punjaub.
On the assassination of Nadir Shah in 1747,
a short period of anarchy ensued, but ultimately
Ahmed Shah was, in 1752, crowned at Candahar,
as head of the Affghan nation; he wrested the
Punjab, Cabul, Seistan, and Herat from Persia, and
founded the Affghan monarchy.
Ahmed Shah died in 1773, when Seistan and
other outlying provinces asserted their claims to
independence. Seistan in particular, from not
having taken part in the dissensions of that period,
was ignored for a long period by both Persia and
Affghanistan.
Dost Mahomed, on his accession to the throne of
Affghanistan in 1826, desired to bring Seistan more
directly under his rule, but was too fully occupied
elsewhere. Meanwhile Persia bestirred herself to
extend her empire to the limits that existed under
Nadir Shah. The British Government resisted her
extended schemes of conquest, which are said to
have included Herat, Seistan, Candahar, to a limit
as far as Ghiznee.
The remonstrances of successive British Ministers
at Teheran were frequent, and in the same sense as
written in 1836, viz., “ I feel quite assured that the
“ British Government cannot permit the extension
“ of the Persian Monarchy in the direction of Aff-
“ ghanistan, with a due regard to the tranquillity of
“ India; that extension will at once bring Russian
“ influence to the threshhold of our empire.”
This policy was studiously followed, and involved
the British Government in hostile relations with
Persia, who strenuously endeavoured to unite Herat
and Candahar (to which last Seistan proper was
considered tributary) under a Chief who was to be
“ nominally subject to Persia but actually under the
“ protection of Russia.”
The failures of Persia before Herat induced her
to limit her attention to Seistan, and from 1838 to
1851 the Persian Minister lost no opportunity of
establishing an influence over that Province, a policy
which was still opposed by the British Government.
In 1857 Ali Khan, the chief ruler of Seistan, was
induced to go to Teheran, forced to marry a Persian
Princess, and to acknowledge allegiance to the Shah.
His proceedings, however, were unpopular with his
brother Chiefs and his own people, and on his re
turn the following year to his capital, he was, in
consequence, cruelly murdered.
16583. A