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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.
2
Mr. Miller was said to ask any visitors that did come whether they were
satisfied with the present Amir’s rule. The people are much too afraid of the
Amir to answer in the negative, but the question combined with the character of
Mr. Miller’s friends points to his desire to undermine rather than uphold the exist
ing Government here That he should do so is perhaps natural, seeing how
favourable the reigning party is to our side, but his role of an intriguer cannot
at present be popular, or even profitable in Seistan.
June 30th. —At the invitation of Mulla Mehdi,
Munshi
A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf.
Ahmad Din went to
see him. The Mulla expressed his desire to be of service to us in some form.
Munshi
A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf.
Ahmad Din, while assuring him of our good will, answered that we were
in no need of any particular service at present from him, that we had only come
here to look after our traders, and were quite satisfied that those interests would
be safeguarded, and that we were quite satisfied with our reception and position
in Seistan. He expressed astonishment that we had been able to do so much
and that we seemed to know everything.
The Intizam-i-Diwan, a second emissary,from the Wali, came to call on me.
He had formerly held aloof but apologized for his neglect.
There is no importance to be attached to his visit to Seistan. His visit to
me was natural as he saw that 1 was on friendly terms with every one.
In the evening
Munshi
A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf.
Ahmad Din visited the Mustophi Khalik Khan who
expressed his pleasure at having made my acquaintance, and again said how
grateful he had been for my advice regarding the revenue settlement of Seistan
and how he had written to the VVali in my praise making use of my arguments to
leave matters in Seistan as they were.
July 1st. —Paid a private visit to the Amir. In conversation he said that
the Mustophi and he had as yet come to no arrangement about the revenue.
He made a joke of his usual answer to all demands for money, which was “ take
grain, I have no money.” Now as it is quite impossible to realize on the enormous
stocks of grain here and equally so to transport it with any profit, the answer
finally closes any arguments for enhanced revenues and even for revenue in
arrears.
In my conversation with the Amir I pointed out that owing to the water
channels of Seistan being unbridged, the caravans coming from Robat for Meshed
avoided Nusratabad and passed eight miles off, a decided disadvantage for the trade
of Nusratabad and a difficulty for the customs authorities, the traders and myself.
I suggested that a road with bridges would be a benefit. The Amir at once said
he would order bridges to be built to Nusratabad, which is tantamount to ordering
a road. Since my interview I have had the satisfaction of hearing that instant
orders were given and the road is in a fair way towards being accomplished. I
had already aligned the road from the cultivated area of Seistan proper to Robat,
and have built shelters, so now we have a completed road to Nusratabad from
Quetta. What the Russian Consul thinks of this I do not know, but any how he
is powerless to even obstruct as no one objects to canals being bridged in this
country. This action of the Amir is, I think, a sure sign of his marked friendliness
which I have often brought to notice.
In the evening I saw Mr. Miller. He was friendly as usual but despondent
and full of the want of support he received from his Government. He said
“ they want me to encourage Russian trade and how can I ? wffiat Russian
merchant would come to Seistan, a place worse than Siberia.” He said that
since he had been here he had heard nothing from his Foreign Office or even
from his Minister at Tehran. How, he said, would a Russian merchant compete
against caravan loads of goods from India? He said he had asked two Arme
nian merchants to come but had been met by a blank refusal. He only hoped,
he said, it would not be his lot to stay here very long.
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