!['Seistan' [‎18v] (36/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0046.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎18v] (36/782)")
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.
the Amir, who escorted us to a garden touching the town, which the. Governor
had very kindly placed at our disposal and, after the customary tea drinking, we
were left free to examine the garden-house, which consists of four or five rooms
in two storeys. The garden is full of barberry bushes, the fruit of which makes
a subacid preserve, much resembling red-currant jam.
The morning subsequent to our arrival, the flag was run up, which brought
down the Amir’s Vizier, to inquire as to the legality of our action, it being the
first occasion on which any flag, except the Persian, had been hoisted in
Kain territory. '
However, our explanations were readily accepted and I think that there will
be no further question on this, to them, all-important subject.
As agreed, the Shaukat-ul-Mulk called, upon the third day after our arrival,
driving down with a large following from his garden, some two miles to the south.
He is of medium height, about forty seven years of age, almost toothless,
and wears spectacles: I understand, too, that he is addicted to opium smoking,
which is terribly prevalent in this part of Persia. His manner was distinctly
friendly, and he gave me an interesting account of Baluchi, Afghan and Turko
man raids. The Soudan campaign and the Cape to Cairo line were fully discussed,
the Amir being anxious to keep informed as to our victories, which have had an
effect, even in Eastern Persia ; he considers us a distinctly aggessive power.
Returning the visit, on the following day, we were saluted by a small guard-
of-honour—the Amir preferring to keep the pay of the Birjand regiment, which
exists mainly on paper—and ushered into a fair-sized garden-house, with a tawdry
carpet and chandelier, while the view was quite spoiled by a ruined mud hovel in
front.
The Governor, wdio, as the result of opium smoking, is a very late riser,
joined us in a few minutes, when he dilated on the scarcity of water in the Kain
province. He next enquired about the plague, and appeared to be well up in the
measures taken by the British Government, while he mentioned that the Russian
Government had sent a doctor to Birjand in 1897 .
I explained the position of the Quetta road and said that I had been amused
at hearing that the small posts along it had been magnified into large forts.
In this question the Amir show r ed considerable knowledge, while he has
thoroughly grasped the iron policy of his neighbour, Abdur Rahman, the ruler of
Afghanistan.
As well as I can judge, so far, the Shaukat-ul-Mulk is anxious that I should
form a favourable impression of him and, in every w T ay, he has been most cour
teous.
He is prematurely aged and has no children, so that his attitude may be
that of contentment with his present position, coupled with the hope that neither
Great Britain nor Russia will trouble Kain during his life time.
He is shrewd and fairly well informed, having both visited Mecca and Tehran,
while the readiness with which he has accepted the hoisting of the flag and also
his agreeing to pay the first call tends to prove that he is, by no means, an
Anglophobe.
In conclusion, I think that I may claim to have been fortunate, both in prevent
ing the possibility of higher honours being paid to a Russian Consul, by secur
ing that I should receive the first call, and also in forestalling an official of that
nation.
To turn to the question of trade interests, so far, I do not see any reason to
alter my opinion that merely an occasional visit by a Political Officer, with experi
ence of Persia, is necessary, unless Russia founds a consular post in these dis
tricts.
#
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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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'Seistan' [18v] (36/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x000027> [accessed 21 July 2026]
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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