!['Seistan' [‎6r] (11/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0013.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎6r] (11/782)")
The record is made up of 1 file (388 folios). It was created in 17 Jan 1899-4 Apr 1904. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
f-
I
mud hovels constituting the town, and passed through a second gateway into
the fort.
Dismounting at a narrow door, we traversed the shabbiest of courtyards
with a dirty duck-pond in the centre and, entering the meanest of chambers,
which was not even whitewashed, were greeted by the Sartip.
Without his sun-glasses Mir Masum Khan appeared to be a young man
of perhaps twenty-five. His father, the Hashmat-ul-Mulk, is, I understand,
the official ruler of Seistan and Tabas, but preferring the latter place, Mir
Masum Khan is ef de facto ” Governor.
What particularly struck me was the utter ignorance shown of even
other parts of Persia, while I myself brought the first news of my own ap
pointment, and it is unknown as yet that a Russian Yice-Cousul has also been
appointed.
I am informed that the Governor and his entourage are at a loss as to the
object of my appointment.
As they say, there is but little British trade and no British subjects
in Seistan.
Although it would be premature to give a final opinion on this subject,
so fas as I can judge, what with a Consulate-General at Meshed and a stall
of intelligent men at Robat, one of whom is frequently in Seistan, our interest
do not at present require more than the occasional prresence of a Political
Officer as during the summer all trade ceases and there would be little or
nothing to do.
To make a fair comparison, when appointed to Kirman, I found perhaps
fifty cases awaiting disposal, while fresh ones were constantly occurring in
Makran alone, forming no inconsiderable total.
Upon reaching Seistan, on the other hand, I find six British Indian sub
jects begging their way to Meshed and a solitary case of little importance.
There is also no house in which a European could live, and during most
of the summer, according to Dr. Bellew, the heat is excessive, while the whole
district reeks with malaria.
If the Russian Vice-Consul reaches Seistan this spring and attempts to
remain, it would appear to be my duty not to move far away, so, given that
contingency, I would venture to propose that I should spend the summer in
the adjacent hills, while Birjand might be added to my district, if it be con
sidered advisable to take advantage of my presence to influence the Kain
district of which Birjand is the capital. Until quite recently, both districts
were under the same ruler.
Given, however, that the Russian Vice-Consul fails to put in an appear
ance, I venture to think that it would be better for me to return to Kirman
for the summer. The length of this latter journey would be considerably
under four hundred miles, while arrangements could easily be made for a news-
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
, by borrowing one of the Robat staff.
This is not the time to fully compare the Quetta route with its rival from
Bandar Abbas, but I am ready to state, that, in my humble opinion, the
Quetta route is hopelessly handicapped by its natural disadvantages. Caravans
require large quantities of supplies, which can be procured at short intervals
on the route from Bandar Abbas, while the camel-grazing is, as a rule, rich and
abundant.
To take the Indian route, absolutely nothing is procurable west of Nushki.
Add to this the route is very stony in parts and the elevation generally high,
which results in strivelled up camel-grazing during the winter months.
It may perhaps be considered that I am giving a premature opinion, but
I have been carefully studying the question for some years and am perhaps
the only official competent to compare both the natural and artificial ad
vantages of the routes,
o
I understand that Captain Webb-Ware is bringing four months’ supplies
from India, the significance of which fact requires no commentary.
Of course, all this may be changed by means of bounties or by bringing
areas under cultivation, which are now desert, but I venture to think that it
About this item
- Content
The file contains papers relating to Seistan [Sistan] and Persia [Iran].
The file includes printed copies of despatches from the Agent to the Governor-General of India and HM Consul-General for Khorasan and Seistan (Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Martindale Temple), to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, with enclosed despatches from Captain Percy Molesworth Sykes to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (the Marquis of Salisbury). Skyes’s despatches regard matters including: Seistan; trade routes into South-East Persia; the boundary between Persia and Afghanistan, in relation to the River Helmund [Helmand] changing its course (in despatch No. 5, which includes four sketch maps, folios 12, 13, 14 and 15); Sykes’s journey to Birjand (in despatch No. 7, which includes a sketch map on folio 20); the ruling family of Kain, which also governed Seistan, Tabbas and Tun; Sykes’s journey from Seistan to Kerman [Kirman] (in despatch No. 11, which includes a sketch map); and the direct Kerman-Quetta caravan trade that Sykes was trying to establish.
The file also includes copies of the following papers:
- A despatch from Temple to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing a letter from Temple to Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (HM Minister, Tehran), with copies of enclosures, regarding the establishment of a Seistan and Kain consulate
- A letter from Charles Edward Pitman, Director General of Telegraphs, to the Secretary to the Government of India Public Works Department, enclosing a copy of a ‘Report on the Preliminary Survey of the Route for a Telegraph Line from Quetta to the Persian Frontier’ by H A Armstrong, Assistant Superintendent, Indian Telegraph Department, which includes six photographs of views along the route [Mss Eur F111/352, f 52; Mss Eur F111/352, f 53; Mss Eur F111/352, f 54; Mss Eur F111/352, f 55; Mss Eur F111/352, f 56; and Mss Eur F111/352, f 57], and a map showing the proposed route of the telegraph line [Mss Eur F111/352, f 59]
- Letters from Hugh Shakespear Barnes, Agent to the Governor-General in Baluchistan, to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, enclosing copies of the diary of the Political Assistant, Chagai, for the weeks ending 16 February, 28 February, and 8 March 1900
- Diary No. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 of Major-General George Frederick Chenevix-Trench, HM Consul for Seistan (Diary No. 6 includes a sketch map, folio 86)
- A copy of a ‘Report on Reconnaissances Made while Attached to the Seistan Arbitration Commission’ by W A Johns, Deputy Consulting Engineer for Railways, Bombay
- A copy of the report ‘Notes on Persian Seistan’, compiled by Captain Edward Abadie Plunkett, and issued by the Government of India Intelligence Branch, Quarter-Master General’s Department
- Two copies of map signed by Plunkett titled ‘Persian Seistan-Cultivated Area’ [Mss Eur F111/352, f 270]
- A booklet entitled ‘Notes on the Leading Notables, Officials, Merchants, and Clergy of Khorasan, Seistan, Kain, and Kerman.’
- Printed copies of letters from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India (Lord George Francis Hamilton), relating to the maintenance of British interests in Persia, dated 4 September 1899 and 7 November 1901 (the former with an enclosure of a minute by the Viceroy on Seistan).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (388 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 390; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The file contains one foliation anomaly, f 301A
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/352
- Title
- 'Seistan'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:51v, 58r:58v, 60r:112r, 113r:125v, 147r:218r, 218r, 219r:269v, 271r:301v, 301Ar, 301Av, 302r:388v, 389v:390r, 389r, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence