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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.
Ij,
fr
Overland Telegraphic Communication between India and Persia.
I believe that the Persian Government contemplate extending their line of
telegraph from Meshed to Birjand, a distance of 277 miles.
The Tehran-Meshed telegraph line, nearly 600 miles in length, is already
under British supervision and is kept in good order by the officials of the Indo-
European Telegraph Department. The Government of India paying the Persian
Government a subsidy of Rs. 20,000 a year to cover the cost of this, dhe
line is practically therefore a British line, and can be relied upon to be kept in
good order.
If the Persian Government now extend this line to Birjand, all that will be
necessary to complete through traffic will be to come to an arrangement with
the Persian Government for the continuance of the line still further south to
Seistan, and for its junction with a British line at the frontier post of Koh-i-Malik
Siah, a further distance of 277 miles.
2. The route from Quetta via Nushki to Koh-i-Malik Siah, a distance of
Nu hk . 516 miles, has already been surveyed by
the Indian Telegraph Department with a
view to the construction of a British line to that point, and the completion of the
proposed Persian line from Meshed to Seistan will give us a through land wire
to Europe, as an alternative in case of accident to the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
cable. The
saving too in the cost of telegrams between India and Meshed would be great,
as only Indian and Persian Inland rates would be levied.
3. The proposed extension to Birjand and Seistan will be just as useful
to the Persian Government as it will be to us, and I should think they will be
ready to meet our wishes in the matter half way.
4. Of course in this, as in everything else in Persia with us, it will be a
question of money.
The Persian Government will never incur any outlay themselves. Their
plan is to let the line out on contract. If we could get the contract on a promise
to the Persian Government of a certain share of the revenues, after the initial
cost of construction has been recovered, the concession would probably be
agreed to without much difficulty. A concession of this sort wmuld cost a little
money, but would be well worth it.
5. The Russians make the Persian Government keep up the Shahrud Astra-
bad and Meshed-Sarakhs lines, which join on to theirs, without any subsidy ;
but our proposal would bring in money, and ought, therefore, not to be objected
to.
6. The total distance from Koh-i-Malik Siah to Meshed is only 554 miles
and the possession of this line would add greatly to our power and influence in
Eastern Persia. It would help to open up Seistan and Birjand to our trade and
to facilitate through traffic with Meshed and Khorassan generally.
7. I would suggest, therefore, that negotiations should be opened with the
Persian Government on the subject through Her Majesty's Minister at Tehran.
12th August i8gg % C. E. YATE.
G. C. Press, Simla.—No. 622 F. D.—30-8-99—38.
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' [63r] (125/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x000080> [accessed 27 June 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