Coll 28/87 ‘Persia. Railways. Mirjawa-Duzdap Section of Duzdap Railway; Zahidan Railway; Road communications between Persia & Indian Persia.’ [‎4r] (7/42)

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Mr, Rum
7
Our Embassy at Tehran have been asked by the Pakistan
Embassy there for the loan of files concerning Pakistary'
Persian relations, which include a secret pre-partition
Government of India memorandum on the Quetta-Sahidan railway.
The ;\mbassador asks us
(a) whether he may hand over this particular document and
(b) whether, as a general rule, there is any objection to his
allowing his Pakistan Colleague to have access, to such
papers in the British Embassy archives as concern
Pakistani immediate interests.
It will be seen from the above minuting that some of the
pre-partition Government of India, External Affairs Department
records have been passed to the Government of Pakistan but that
we do not know which or how many, I have spoken to Mr, Rogers,
now in the Foreign Office Eastern Department, and until recently
a Joint Secretary in the Pakistan Cabinet Office, He has no
definite information on this point but thinks that the Government
of Pakistan »©£ unlikely to have received anything like the full
set of records from the External Affairs Department because the
copying of pre-partition documents generally by the Government of
India for the use of the Government of Pakistan has been very
slow. He thinks there is no doubt but that Pakistan is
recognised as having a right to copies of pre-partition files,
at any rate those v/hich concern her territory, when the
mechanical difficulties of reproducing them can be overcame.
With respect to the minuting above, my own view would have
been that Pakistan fefcl heir to the pre-partition External
Affairs Department records to exactly the same extent as the
present Government of India,and that she therefore has as good
a title to see copies of any of them in our possession as the
present Government of India. I suggest, however, that before we
advise the Foreign Office on the reply to be sent to the
Ambassador on the general question at (b) we ought to consult
our High Commissioners at New Delhi and Karachi,
The Memorandum on the gahidan railway is almost exclusively
Pakistani concern and I suggest, therefore, that we might advise
the Foreign Office to authorise the Ambassador straight away to
make this Memorandum available to his Pakistan Colleague, The
Memorandum is flagged in the file below. It deals with the
history of the negotiations between the Government of India^and
the United Kingdom Goverrment and the Persian Government on the
extension of the railway line from Quetta to Zahidan and
particularly with the question of whether the railway should be
continued in operation and whether the section from Mirjawa
to Zahidan lying inside Persia should be handed over to the
Persian Government or dismantled by the Indian Government.
There are references to the views of our Chiefs of Staff on
the strategic implications of this railway link with South
East Persia but there is nothing in them which we should not want
the Pakistan Government to see and, in any case, as the Indian
Government have a copy there can be no objection to the Pakistan
Government having access to *
If you agree I will advise the Foreign Office accordingly
and tell them that we will let them know our views on the
general question after consulting our High Canmissioners,
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