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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.
Diary No. 4 of Major G. Chenevix-Trench, Her Britannic Majesty’s
Consul, Seistan.
. 22nd April. In my last diary I mentioned the reception which I received
in usratabad fiom the officials and people. There is no doubt that the brilliance
o this reception (for Seistan) the decoration of the camp the fla^s. etc., have
had a great effect in this country.
It was very well done, and I am indebted to Abbas All for having succeeded
cleverly in advertising it beforehand.
t u r^cption and entry has proved disconcerting to the Russian Vice-Consul.
believe him to be quite annoyed that he had had such a mean one, and the fact
that the Sarhang, the son of Amir Hashmat-ul-Mulk, ruler of Seistan, rode out
vuth a large following so far to meet me has increased his displeaure.
So far as such outward show goes, and in Persia such show counts for
much there is no doubt I have scored a point, and a point which should bear
fruit later in Meshed when I arrive there.
. British influence and prestige has received a great impetus here owing to the
flying of the flag, our trade, mainly represented by Seth Sulaiman, the Quetta
Merchant, and the various visits of British officers. But owing to our having up
to now no very definite policy of either aggression or of the preservation of the
rights of Persians in this country, our position is one of mere onlookers. Friendly
in spirit undoubtedly, but as real aiders in any time of difficulty 1 fear not.
The Persians generally are fully alive to this, and w'ell they may be by the
past attitude of the British Government towards them, with its lack of anything
more than moral support against the constant demands of the northern power
of Russia.
What has been written in all books about Persia holds good in Seistan.
The Persians like the English, but fear the Russian. The Persian in his present
state bends to the fear, easier than he will to his natural inclination.
Before the shadow of Russia fell on Seistan. and the Seistani knew no
foreigner, he w T as in a mood to be intolerant to all foreigners, and this w r as his
mood when Captain Brazier Creagh visited Seistan in 1897. This intolerance
gave place to the division of feeling adopted by the rest of Persia, w'hen Seistan
became the ground for rivalry between Russia and England.
. That feeling of fear of Russia and inclination towards England is now the
feeling in Seistan.
All intolerance here has vanished. Whatever steps we chose to take to
increase our influence here now would not meet with opposition from the Persians
perse, but would be opposed either directly by the Russians or else by the
Persians acting under the orders of their superiors at Meshed and Tehran at the
dictation of Russia.
This clearly defines the position in Seistan.
From this it follows that, were we in a position to remove this fear from the
Persian minds by any means, the Persian here, as elsewhere, would himself be as
mailable in our hands and more so than he now is in the hands of the Russians.
To show the present state of tolerance. I can live in comfort a peaceable
life. I can buy everything I want. I am salaamed to by every man I meet.
I can walk alone through any part of the town, and I am welcomed in the small shops!
My servants can wander everywhere, and obtain anything they want, even though
some are Christians and the rest of the Sunni Branch.
Visits of ceremony are friendly, and as many as I like, even visits to the
rulers in private, but all these privileges can be and are equally given to the
Russian representative.
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