!['Seistan' [‎108r] (215/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0233.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎108r] (215/782)")
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.
Ru ssian Government, being now nearly up the Russians he considered were
poss bly busy planning some future, and similar arrangement or else they wished
to show that they had made some beginning in railway construction prior to the
expiration of the concession.
He said he did not consider Russia could find money for any really big
railway projects at present, nor did he believe Russia could find the money to
meet the loan of 40,000,000 roubles which Persia was seeking to obtain.
He was astonished to see the want of all progress in the Caucasus, and
the inability of the Russians to develope the natural resources of their country.
The rumours and reports about these Russian road and rail projects, I tele
graphed to His Britannic Majesty’s Minister, asking at the same time whether
anything was known about them in Tehran, or whether it was true that, as the
Russians stated, permission had been given to conduct water from the Persian
side of frontier for the use of the stations on the Russian railway. The Governor
here also received a telegram from Tehran asking on him to report what
these rumours are. The Governor who is very friendly with us compared
notes with my information and corroborated most of the reports, and said he
would telegraph to Tehran and report the Russian movements on the frontier,
asking us at the same time to keep him informed of what information we may
receive. It is difficult to say what he will actually report. In any case we will
do our best to turn the attentions of His Majesty the Shah to his northern
neighbours advancing intentions, and distract his thoughts from our own politi
cal position in Seistan.
I have before reported that the Dragoman of the Russian Consulate Mr.
Stroeff had been deputed to the district of Daragez.
1 have sent several men towards Daragez and towards Karez.
Although there is a paid news-
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
at Daragez, and I receive weekly letters
from him, none of the above information has been received through him. Such
is the apathetic state which news-writers reach if left too long alone in one place.
I have frequently mentioned the prevailing apathy of Persia, and the effect
it is liable to have on all I have now sent a full report to the Government of India
on this subject proposing that fresh and specially selected men should be
appointed to collect news at important places in Persia.
My native officer with two sowars leaves here to-morrow for Karez. He will
unostentatiously make a tour along the whole Perso-Russian frontier from Karez
to Daragez.
I received a letter from the Naib-ul-Hukumat at Herat, asking me to release
Ghulam Khan, the camelman, who had been caught bringing rifles into Persia.
He said the rifles were required for personal security.
In reply I pointed out to the Naib-ul-Hukumat that the importation of arms
into Persia was prohibited, that the Consul here and at Bunder Abbas would aid
in every way the Customs Department to catch importers.
I reminded him that 26 newly packed rifles were not rifles for personal pro
tection, and 1 asked that notice should be given in Herat about the prohibition of
rifles in Persia.
The seizure of rifles will have had a good effect. Indirectly it will benefit
the Seistan route, as the arms traffic by the Bunder Abbas route was an attrac
tion of that route.
Amir Abdur Rahman has sent a
firman
A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’).
here to his agent ordering him to
induce all Afghan refugees to return to their country.
Bolan Khan, horse-dealer at Quetta, arrived here from Quetta by the
Nushki route. He informed me, that he had been ordered to take to India some
Persian mules, even as few as ten His orders were to take them out of the country
3
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' [108r] (215/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721604.0x000012> [accessed 3 July 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