'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)' [‎28v] (61/156)

3i
REPORT OF KHAN BAHADUR MAULA BAKHSH
I may mention here that as far as I remember a special Agent was
deputed by the British Consulate-General at Meshed to watch the Russian
traveller who visited Kain and Sistan in 1895, but the Agent’s reports having
shown that the Russian traveller’s business was confined' to the collection of
zoological specimens, and that no suspicion could be attached to him of beino*
engaged in any political work, the man was recalled from a place between
Birjand and Neh.
42. The following is a summary of the history of the Russian Agencies
^ History of the Russian Agencies in K£in and in Rain and Sistan. It is based partly
^ 1St . a "' , ,. on knowledge acquired by me through
lairly trustworthy sources m Meshed and partlv on information obtained bv
me at Birjand from the ex-Russian Agent, the Chief of Kain, and other local
1 ersian officials who were associated with the Russian Doctor, Miladchewskv
during his stay at Birjand and were on intimate terms with the late Russian
Agents and read their correspondence :—
ihe Russian Agencies in Kain and Sistan were started in 1891.
Mirza Rahim Khan Marvi, a native of Meshed, who had formerly acted as
a secret News-Agent in Sistan for the Russian Consulate-General at Meshed
but had been flogged and turned out of Sistan for a criminal offence by order
of the Governor of Sistan was appointed to Sistan to reside at Nasirahad and
one Haji Agha, also a native of Meshed, was appointed to Kain to reside at
Birjand, where he had a shop for sale of groceries.
The duties of the Agent in Sistan were to report all news from Sistdn with
such information from British Baluchistan as'he could obtirfrom tradem
and travellers coming from the direction of Oneffn tn rif • • r . iaclers
from Farah, where he was instruSed to ^
He received pay at the rate af Tumans 25 a month with Tumans I I ^ tf y '
account of miscellaneous expenses or about R100 a month altoo'ethei 0 In
tss i&g&PzsttA&f ,"* d v
received only Tumans 15, or about R50 a month. fghamstan. Ke
messenger ^“thiTgenTatBSand whoV “tu C ,° Ver ^ a f ^t-ightl y
Consulate General at Meshed by the Persian pasfi^ ^ ° n t0 the Russian
tion at Teheran^and'tlfe' 1 eonsent^of the^Perslan^Goraa ° f ‘t® Russ,ian Le = a -
Consular Agents recognised and auunintpH i " ve . rnmen t were not regular
Russian Government! ?hey were ne ttr h aUthorlty l and sa “«tion of the
ment returns of the Russian^Governmentln^ 6 . 0 !! tle Gonsular establish-
powers like the Russian A-ents in Dara^el - any Consular status or
frontier) who are authorized to deal with Con C ] VUC iaU ^° n ^ le ^ USS0 ‘Persian
subjects and refer cases for adjudication «nl “,t f r , matte 1 rs concerning Russian
On the contrary, tlie men in Kain and SistI ement ! :o Persian officials,
appointed by the Russian Consul-General at Ma t, w™ S , lraply Ne^s-Agents
for out of his funds for secret intelligence * 6(1 de Viassow) and paid
r d , a l-ki w-j .i w Mrtll
A^ent^were^rieniRy tolhe'latter'and^worked^n^thdr^t^™ 11 '^' 1 '' ^'* 816 ^'
U "" h ° ^“P^ed to the SLnT^^^ 1110 intriKU
the a )ohtion of the Russian Agencies. Government and demandei
ment of the Agencies wereuMbleto do^nfthffig'b* 1 '''’h 8 ® 11 * t0 the estabIisl
the Russian Legation at Teheran, objective t n S R ey ° nd . sendiu S a note t
subjects as Russian Agents. The Russian Mffiisti I ap P 01 ? tme nt of Persia
1 acce pted the objection an