'Report on the Development of the Baluch-Persian Caravan Route and on the Nushki, Chagai and Western Sinjerani Districts, for the year 1899-1900' [‎6r] (11/64)

ON THE NUSHKI, CHAGAI AND WESTERN SINJERANI DISTRICTS, 1899-1900.
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strug-gling shops which I found in Nushki on my arrival there in 1897 and the present well
built, neatly la'd out, thriving bazar. I noticed on my return from Seistan that several
shops in the Nushki bazar were closed, and I enquired the reason of this. The bazar
ohowdhari explained that the shops which were shut up belonged to traders dealing with
Shorawak, Registan and Garmsel, whom increased competition and the stringency of His
Highness the Amir's preventive measures had compelled, temporarily, to close their business.
It is alleged that His Highness the Amir has issued instructions to the Governors o£
Kandahar and b'arah to discourage trade with Nushki as much as possible, on the ground that
the development of the Nushki-Seistan trade route is calculated to have an injurious effect
on his customs receipts. If this information proves correct, and I have reason to believe that
it is so, then I am afraid that the growth of that portion of the Nushki bazar which depends
on Afghan trade will receive a severe check.
11. It not unfrequently happens that members of caravans coming from Meshed and
Herat are armed with breech-loading rifles.* To minimize the risk of arms of precision
finding their way to India through Nushki, I have instructed the Deputy Inspector of Police
to search all inward-bound caravans on their arrival at Nushki, and to place any rifles and
cartridges he may find in the Police magazine, giving the owners receipts which entitle them
to claim their arms when they pass through Nushki on the return journey to Persia.
12. For nearly two years no case has come to my notice of any slave-dealing transactions
having occurred in the district. This proves that the trade in slaves, for which Nushki once
bore so questionable a reputation, has quite died out.
13. I would venture to urge strongly the importance of making' the district a takavi
grant sufficiently great to meet the cost of digging a series of new karezes between Nushki and
Lagar Koh, a small hill 13 miles south-west of Mall. A skilled karez digger, who examined
the alluvial plain around Mall, has expressed himself favourably impressed with the feasibility
of bringing the larger portion of it under cultivation, and he further gave it as his opinion
that between Nushki and Ahmad Wal there is a sufficiency of water to supply the require
ments of upwards of 120 good karezes. This estimate is no doubt exaggerated, yet every
thing tends to show that cultivation, by means of karezes, could be largely extended
provided the necessary funds to do so are forthcoming. It may not be out of place to say
here that Mr. Vredenbuig, of the Geological Survey of India, informed me last year that the
geological formation of the country immediately south of Nushki was such as to lead him
to suppose the existence of large subterranean reservoirs of water, which only need tapping
to yield a plentiful supply of irrigation water.
14. I have noted elsewhere in this report that the preventive posts which have been
established by His Highness the Amir’s orders at intervals along tne Nashki-Shorawak Frontier
have had an injurious effect on trade with the trans-frontier Afghan districts of Shorawak,
Registan and Garmsel, and that this trade is likely to suffer still more. There is yet a doubt
whether these preventive posts were established to put a stop to the export of grain from
Afghanistan or with the end in view of injuring the Nushki-8eistan trade route. The Baluch
of the Helmand Valley grow wheat for export to Sarhad, Mashkel, Paujgur, and Kharan, and
they also sell large quantities of grain to the Nomad Balueh who inhabit the Nushki and
Chagai districts. I have been careful to husband the grain reserve of the district throughout
the winter, fearing that if the rates for grain in Nushki passed a certain figure the Nomad
population of the district, possessing as they do no tie to bind them to the soil, would move
across the frontier into Afghanistan.!
15. The Baluch and Brahui inhabitants of Nushki alike are fond of horses and are good
riders. The indigenous horse of the country is a small compact, sturdy animal standing
about 14 hands. 1 think that if the inhabitants of the district were given a little direct
encouragement, they would begin to breed a better stamp of horse than they do at present. I
would suggest that a Government stallion J he sent to Nushki in September, and that it be
kept there until the winter. In the anticipation that my proposal will meet with a favourable
reception, I have had a good stable, with quarters for a syce, built near the Nushki tahsil.
16. I regret to say that the experiment I tried last year of introducing trees into Nushki
has only been attended with moderate success. While the poverty of the soil in which the
experiment was tried bad no doubt a great deal to do with its partial failure, yet the reports I
received show that it was the fiery winds, which blow in the summer from the north across
the Registan desert, which were responsible for the death of the larger number of the trees
which succumbed. The willow trees which were planted along the banks of the Kaiser
stream have done well where not injured by cattle. It has been calculated that leakage and
evaporation are answerable for the loss of nearly two-thirds of the water in the Kaiser stream
between the head waters of the stream and Sardar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. Mahomed Ali's village. Eveiy open
karez in Nushki suffers from the same causes. To minimize, as far as possible, the loss from
leakage and evaporation it is essential to plant trees along the banks of every karez in
Nushki.
* The rifles are in most cases of Russian manufacture.
t Since writing this I have received a letter from the Thanndar Dalbandin, in which he reports that the Nomads
of the Chagai district are streaming across the frontier into Afghanistan consequent on the difficulty they experience
in procuring wheat from Garmsel and the high prices which grain now commands in the Nushki bazar.
J An Arab stallion would be most appreciated.