!['Seistan' [‎107v] (214/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0232.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎107v] (214/782)")
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.
At Durbadam they report having seen Russian soldiers with the engineers -
It was said that it had not yet been decided by the Russian engineers which
line their road should follow to Kuchan. It was said, however, that the road
w r ould emerge at Mulla Mahmud.
It was said that Iksam-ul-Mulk, the Karguzar of Mahomedabad had tried to
prevent the Russians from making this new route, but instructions had been sent
to him from Tehran not to obstruct the Russians.
It was reported that the Russians were making these surveys, and construct
ing these roads, in virtue of an old concession which had been granted them
some years previously, and that there was nothing new in the matter.
Khusso Khan, Governor of Durbadam, had also received orders not to
obstruct the Russians.
An official at Bajgira, on the Perso-Russian frontier informed the architect
that the Russians were in the habit of exercising their troops in the mountains
near the Russian border.
Every one said that the new works in the direction of Kuchan w r ere to be a
railway which was to pass Meshed, go through Seistan, and reach Bunder Abbas.
In connection with the above reports, the following is a copy of a telegram,
sent by the Karguzar of Mahomedabad to Meshed * * * t
“ It is now a month th^t the Russians have been engaged in surveying
taking heights of mountains and making plans. Thet have pegged out from
Darrahka, Darungar to Kaltechenar, and west of Darungar, where they reached
and then divided into various parties and then worked east. Daragez to Kaleh
Sang Zulagh to south of river Darungar route finished and busy on Sabz Darrah
Datanar for some days and afterwards from Zhoo to Durbadam Kuchan where
they came out, that he accompanied them. In a few days will reach Kuchan,
and then w-ill return to Mahomedabad. M
The Reis-ul-Tajar paid me a private visit, and informed me personally of
the above new's.
He said that while in the Caucasus he saw many Russian troops on the
move and asked me whether from my Reuter’s telegrams there w ? as anything,
to warrant this moving of troops. He asked me whether if the Russians made
a raihvay to Meshed through Kuchan by the route which I have mentioned
above, thev w r ould have the right to run it on the Persian portion of the
Askhabad road, a portion for which he has the concession for 90. years.
He impressed upon me the general activity and talk of coming events
which was going on in Russia, and in the Caucasus and Transcaspia owing to
the advance we had made towards Seistan. His view of the situation was that
it was somewhat critical. He endeavoured to persuade me to pay a visit to
Tehran, where he said the actual struggle for supremacy in Persia was actually
now going on. He impressed on me as others have done how entirely the Sadr
Azim had sold his country to the Russians, how the Minister for Foreign Affairs
in Tehran, a mere pupil of the Sadr Azim had also entirely gone over to the
Russian side.
When in the Caucasus he told me that he had met the Persian Minister
on his way from Petersburgh, and had had long talks with him. The Persian
Minister seemed to have received great attentions from the Czar, and the Rus
sian Government, he said that the Russian concess : ons, such as the road from
Resht to Tehran and the Russian Bank, had been of no benefit to the Russian
Government. This the Reis-ul-Tajar said was untrue, and the Persian Minister
knew it to be untrue when he said it. The Persian Minister abused me very
much and said my actions in Persia had been very high handed, etc.
The Minister said that at present the Russians had had no immediate con
cessions granted them, but he predicted that very shortly they would obtain a
concession to make a railway to Bunder Abbas The Reis-ul-Tajar s^id that the
original 10 years’ agreement that no one should make railways in Persia, but the
2
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
Use and share this item
- Share this item
'Seistan' [107v] (214/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721604.0x000011> [accessed 24 June 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100069721604.0x000011
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100069721604.0x000011">'Seistan' [‎107v] (214/782)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100069721604.0x000011"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0232.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
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