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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.
3
high tamarisk jungle and may he nearly a mile of water. The Persians took
the ponies and horses over. Sometimes swimming them and sometimes wading
and splashing through the tamarisk trees. I took several photographs of the
“ Tutins ” and horses crossing which I hope will be successful.
All the baggage and ponies were safely landed at Margon, a small Baluch
village of wattle and mud huts.
From Margon I went to Palgai and on to Deh Agha Muhammad Khan,
similar villages.
In all these villages I was received in a more than friendly spirit. As it
was very hot, I was dependent on their hospitality to allow me to occupy one
of their huts during the day when these people all came and visited me. They
were quite unaccustomed to seeing a Sahib. At Margon they had seen the
Itussian Consul, but he had not come among them. With me they were quite
free and gave me great accounts of the duck shooting in the winter.
From Deh Agha Khan I rode out and back to Takht-i-Shalq and from
there was able to understand the position of the rival claims to the Mian Kangi
district which I have described.
I found all the people well versed in these claims, and as they are easily
understood I avoided being too inquisitive about the boundary.
The people were vaguely interested in Russian and English rivalries, and
asked if I met the Russian Consul in a friendly way, whether it was true the
English were going to take Seistan. I had many opportunities of explaining
the raison d'etre of my being in Seistan at all, and how the opening of the
road to Quetta would benefit every one in Seistan. They were quite aware of
the coming change to their country, and it seemed to he the ambition of most
of them to visit Quetta one day.
In Palgai and Deh Agha Muhammad, I found dyers who had been to
Quetta to buy indigo and who were full of the benefits of the road. One man
bought
rupees
Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf.
from me as he was going to Quetta again he said.
I found the people very pleasant, offering everything they had for sale at
reasonable prices.
Having seen enough of the frontier to understand the position, I avoided
making my return journey to Milak by the actual Afghan frontier along the
old bed of the river, and marched through the centre of the Mian Kangi district
by Siadak to Deh Jehangir and to Milak.
Here I was much struck by the extraordinary quantity of grain being
at the time reaped and the general richness of the soil. I found that the
Persians were busy in making new canals from the right bank of the Pariun
or present bed of the Helmand, to water the lands which were now dry, and
which were formerly watered from the left bank of the Helmand.
The Nahr-i-Surhang and Sartip were two large canals in progress, the
Nahr-i-Surhang extending right up to Takht-i-Shah, the least rightful property
of the Persians.
This part of the country would be a grand place for duck shooting and the
people would be delighted to see any Sahib. I believe that it would be quite
the fault of some one in the Sahib’s camp if civility and supplies were not
forthcoming.
At Burj-i-Mir Gul I found Mr. Miller had a newswriter, but I was
nevertheless well received.
At Milak I found a Baluch headman decidedly inclined to be uncivil. Ho
said that the Russian Consul paid his Baluchis better than I did and gave them
more presents, &c. He also asked why if we paid the Amir of Afghanistan and
he was our servant, we did not make use of his country to run our road through,
and why our rupee did not weigh the same amount as the number of krans
which were current exchange. A lecture on the institution of gold monometalism
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' [84r] (167/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721602.0x0000aa> [accessed 24 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