'Report of Khan Bahadur Maula Bakhsh, Attaché to the Agent to the Governor General of India and Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for Khurasan and Sistan, on His Journey from Meshed to Quetta via Turbat-i-Haidari, Kain, Sistan, Kuh-i-Malik Siah and Nushki (7th April to 28th July 1898)' [‎25r] (54/156)

ON HIS JOURNEY FROM MESHED TO QUETTA, 1898.
27
(</) However, he was rather reserved in making any remarks against his
Chief of Kdin’s reservedness in making re- hiotlier, the Xlashmat'llhlVXulk, Ohief Of
marks against bis brother, the Chief of Sistan. Sistdn, and Said nothing about him except
that he had tried to reconcile the latter but found him impracticable and
unreasonable.
(h) During my stay at Birjand I received visits from the sub-contractor
, ^ J of Customs (Mirza Abdulla of Maku in
Some of my sources of information at Birjand. tl , e Post .Master (Haji Mirzd
Muhammad Ali), the City Darogha or Magistrate (Ghulam Husain) and the
Mustaufi or Bevenue Assistant of the Chief of Kain (Mirza Muhammad Reza
Khan). They were ali very civil to me and I obtained information from them
on various subjects.
The Mustaufi being an old acquaintance of mine came to see me secretly,
being afraid of the Chief who, he said, did not like his intercourse with
foreigners, because he was his right hand man and knew most of his secrets.
(i) Erom what the young Sartip Muhammad Ibrahim Khan said when
intrigues ot the Sh»uk.t.ui.Muik, Chief of Win, he visited me, I gather that the Shaukat-
agaiust the Hnshmttt-ui-Muik, chief of Sistan. ul-Mulk, the Chief of Kain, is trying to
get his elder brother, the Hashmat-ul-Mulk, deprived of the Government of
Sistan and to get his nephew Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan (the son of the Shaukat-
ul-Mulk) nppointed Deputy Governor under him. Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan
being discontented with his father is said to be anxious to become independent
of him. He applies to the Shaukahul-
See paragraphs go and 64. Mulk for instructions in all matters and
carries them out to the letter.
However, being young and inexperienced he is unable to see through the
tricks and is not aware that the Shaukat-ul-Mulk is not trying to oust the
Hashmat-ul-Mulk for his (Ma’sum Khan’s) sake, but that he has another object
in view.
In course of conversation Sartip Muhammad Ibrdhim Khdn made a
remark to the effect that he hoped to be the Deputy Governor of Sistan some
dav. From this I conclude that the Shaukat-ul-Mulk has given assurances to
Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan that he is working against the Hashmat-ul-Mulk for
his (Ma’sum’s) benefit, only with the object of winning him (Sartip Mir Ma’sum
Khan) to his side to help him to gain his own ends, but that his real object is
to oust both the Hashmat-ul-Mulk and his son Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan from
the Government of Sistan, and after he has succeeded in getting Sistdn
placed under him to replace Mir Ma’sum Khan by his younger and favourite
brother, Sartip Muhammad Ibrahim Khdn.
I learn that the Shaukat-ul-Mulk offered to the Khuras&n Government to
increase the revenue of Sistan, if it were added on to his own district, by
Tumans 6,000 per annum, which represented the difference in the Govern
ment valuation and the actual price of grain sold by the present Governor of
Sistan and that it is this offer that has been the cause of the extra imposition
of Tumans 6,000 per annum upon the
See paragraph 10 (J). TTashmat-lll-Mlllk.
(j) The Shaukat-ul-Mulk is all-powerful in his own district and his word
Affairs in Kain and the Chief Of Kdin’s relations islaw. His subordinates and subjects
with the Persian Government. look Upon him as a despotic ruler, wllO Can
do what he likes in his own territory ; his decisions in all cases are accepted as
final and no one ever dares appeal against them to the Governor-General of
Khurasan or the Persian Government. This was not the case at the beginning
of the Shaukat-ul-Mulk’s rule, but the people have learnt to their own cost
that whenever a person has complained against the Shaukat-ul-Mulk, the
latter has by giving presents easily bought over the Agent of the Khurasdn or
the Central Government deputed to make enquiries and thus prevented any
interference with his decisions, and that the consequence of every complaint
has been the infliction of deliberate punishment and malicious return of injury
to the complainant in revenge. The people finding that their lives and property
are at the mercy of the Shaukat-ul-Mulk, and that there is no possibility of
escape from his clutches consider it safest to accept the state of affairs as
inevitable.
d 2