'Report on the Development of the Baluch-Persian Caravan Route and on the Nushki, Chagai and Western Sinjerani Districts, for the year 1899-1900' [‎11r] (21/64)

ON THE NUSHKI, CHAGAI AND WESTERN SINJERANI DISTRICTS, 1899-1900.
arrival in Seistan forestalled the arrival of a firm of Russian-Armenian merchants, with whom
the Russian Consul-General, Meshed, had long been in negociation.*
34. Muhammad Ali Brothers inform me that the chief difficulty with which they have
to contend in Seistau is the one which hampers all commercial transactions between that
country and Quetta. I naturally refer to the exchange question and the difficulty of remit
ting money to India. I am assisting the firm by taking, from their representative in
Seistan, the pay of my frontier Levy posts, and I would suggest that all moneys paid by
Government either to our native agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. in Seistan or to our Consular establishment there be
paid through the same medium.
35. Muhammad Ali Brothers have opened a branch of their business at Birjand, but as
the branch has only been opened a few months I am not yet in a position to supply any
definite information regarding its prospects.f
36. Major Trench, who has recently been appointed Consul in Seistan, replacing Major
Sykes whose duties necessitated his return to his head-quarters at Kirman, has addressed!
Government advocating that small money advances should be made to approved Hindu
traders in order to encourage them to embark in trade by the Nushki-Seistan trade route.
The grounds on which Major Trench prefers a suggestion which involves a radical departure
from the principles which guide the Governmeut of India in dealing with trade appear to
me to be both sound and practical.
Briefly summed up, Major Trench’s arguments are as follows
He points out that the Hindu trader is both timid and conservative; that he is appre
hensive of incurring heavy loss if he departs from the beaten track of trade; and that to give
him the necessary courage to do so and to open up fresh markets he requires some tangible
proof that Government is interested in his venture and will support him should the necessity
to do so arise.
I endorse all the points which Major Trench makes in urging the adoption of his
scheme on Government. An advance of a few thousand rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. in itself really means
nothing to a wealthy Hindu trader : the importance which the loan possesses lies in the sense
of security which it engenders in the mind of the Hindu trader: by bringing him into close
association with Government and so giving him the necessary confidence to strike out a
new line.
The only objection to the adoption of Major Trench’s scheme which can, so far as I see,
be urced would appear to be that the Hindu, on religious grounds, is personally obnoxious to
the Shiah Muhammadan. But so long as money-lending transactions, between Hindu traders
and Persian ryots are strictly prohibited, I do not think, now that a British Consulate is
established iu Seistan, that this need bar the way. There are large numbers of Hindu
traders living in Herat, Kandahar, and Kabul, and it is a well-known fact that the Afghans
are far more fanatical than the Persians. If we turn to Persia we find that there are many
Hindus living in the town of Kirman, the capital of the province of that name; indeed, if
my information is not at fault, a small colony of Hindus is settled a few miles south of
Meshed, the town which glories in the reputation of being the most fanatical in Persia.
37. I would respectfully venture to press on Government the importance, on commercial
as well as on political grounds, of extending the Guetta-Nushki telegraph system first to
Dalbandin § and afterwards on to the Persian frontier if not to Seistan itself. In all my
previous reports I have advocated the adoption of measures which are calculated to draw
Seistan, Khorassan, and Persian Baluchistan into close political touch with India; and
elsewhere|| in this report I have pointed out that the growth of British influence in Seistan
dates from the day Seistan was linked to Quetta by dak System of postal communication used in Moghul India and later by the East India Company. .
The commercial influence which a telegraph line, running along the Nushki-Seistan
caravan-route, would exert both in attracting trade and in popularising the trade-route would be
greater than the adoption of any other measure 1 know, naturally excepting the construction
of a railway line or cart road. On the strategical reasons for extending the telegraph line to
the Persian frontier I need not dwell, as they are too obvious to need enlarging on by me.
The terminus of a telegraph line, carried to the Persian frontier, need not necessarily be
at Robat, Koh-i-Malik-Siah, for a junction could very well be formed with the Persian Tele
graph system either at Kirman or Meshed. Personally, I favour Kirman being made the
function, partially on account of the designs with which Russia is rightly credited with
having on the Gulf, and partially because the new Indo-European land line will run through
Kirman. * * * §
* This Armenian firm has not reached Seistan to date. Muhammad Ali Brothers’arrival in Seistan would appear
to have disconcerted them sadly.
\ Since writing this I have received letters from Birjand saying that the branch of Muhammad Ali Brothers*
business there is thriving.
t \/ide Major Trench’s letter, without No. and date, to the address of the Foreign Department, and my
office No. 467, dated 2ist May 1899, to the adaress of First Assistant to the Honourable the Agent to the Governor-
General.
§ 110 miles west of Nushki.
|| Vide paragraph 45, this Appendix.
17