Reports and Correspondence Relating to Persia, Including Trade and Trade Routes in Persia [‎97r] (193/252)

25- Paragraph 61. The question of extending our telegraph to the Persian
• Letter No. 86 gQ, dated 14th October 1901 , to Frontier with as little delay as possible
theGovernment of India, Foreign Department. is one of great importance, and I have
asked* that at any rate a postal telegraph line may be extended from Nushki to
Dalbandin, a distance of 110 miles, during the present winter.
26. In paragraph 62 Captain Webb Ware recommends the grant of levy
service to the amount of Rs. 250 (two hundred and fifty) per mensem to
the Lamani Chief and his men who it appears own date groves on the British
side of the Mashkhel Frontier. This policy has much to recommend it and
I am m favour of enlisting some of these men in our service, but this can not
be done till the Damani Chief has been called to account for the raid committed
by his men last April, and the question must therefore be deferred till the result
of the action to be taken by the Persian authorities is known.
27. Paragraph 63. The number of horses brought down by the trade
route is very satisfactory. When at Mashad I reported how seriously the
stock of horses had declined in Khorasan since the stoppage of Turkoman
raids, but that the dealers do find horses and moreover make a profit on them
is clear, and a supply is apparently springing up to meet the demand. The
horses that came down were collected I believe from Daragez, Bujnurd, Bakharz
and Merv. Had the present demand sprung up fifteen or twenty years ago, the ,
supply would have been much larger than it is now.
28. Paragraph 69. Captain Webb Ware has too many duties in his own
district to permit of his taking the proposed tour in Northern India this year.
The Manager of the North-Western Railway has, however, kindly come to our
aid by offering to create the appointment of a trade Canvasser who will now
perform the work Captain VY ebb Ware had proposed to undertake himself.
A man with sufficient knowledge of the requirements of Persian Trade w r as not
to be obtained in India, and I have therefore adddressed His Majesty’s Minister
at Tehran asking if any duly qualified Englishman from the Imperial Bank of
Persia would be willing to take the post and to travel down Mashad and
Seistan, and impart the required information to Indian traders. I hope to
receive a reply regarding this very shortly now.
29. In conclusion I have to bring to the notice of the Government of India
the continued zeal and energy shown by Captain Webb Ware in the opening
up of the trade route, and the care with which he is administering the district
under his charge. 1 he area of the Nushki, Chagai and Western Sinjerani
territory amounts to a total of 23,000 square miles and is every day becoming
of more and more importance.
The time has now come, I think, when this district may well be formally
incorporated in the Baluchistan Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. territories and the officer in charge
given the rank and status of a Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. .
G. C. Pren, Simla.—No. I 015 F. D,— 19 - 11 * 1901 .— 65 .
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