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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.
/U-’
No. 173 , dated Seistan, the 14 th July 1902 (Confidential).
From— Major R. A. E. Benn, His Britannic Majesty's Vice-Consul for Seistan and
Kain,
To—The Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department.
I Have the honour to forward, for the information of the Government of
India with reference to my telegrams Nos. 159, 161 and 165, dated 6 th, 7th and
9th July, respectively, a copy of a report submitted by me to His Britannic
Majesty’s Consul-General and Agent of the Government of India for Khorasan
and Seistan, on the subject of recent events which have taken place on the
Seistan-Afghan frontier.
No. 172 , dated Seistan, the 14 th July 1902 .
From —Major R. A. E. Benn, His Britannic Majesty's Vice-Consul for Seistan and
Kain,
To— Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. Whyte, His Britannic Majesty's Consul-General
and Agent of the Government of India for Khorasan and Seistan.
In continuation of my telegrams to the Government of India, Nos. 159,
161 and 165, dated 6 th, 7th and 9th July 1902, copies of which have already
been sent to you, I have the honour to submit the following report on recent
events which have taken place on the Seistan-Afghan frontier.
2 . Colonel Chenevix-Trench’s diary, No. 6 , for the period ending 25th
May 1900, with its accompanying map, very clearly demonstrates the rival
claims to territory put forward by the Persians and Afghans, respectively. His
statement of the situation in 1900 also accurately describes the condition of
affairs existing at the present moment on the frontier.
3. It will be seen that near Milak, a village a little to the north of the
Seistan Bund or Bund-i-Kuhak, is the point of bifurcation of the old and new
bed of the Helmund river. The Goldsmid award fixed the boundary along
the old bed as far as Kurki, where the river became the Naizar or reed swamp,
and from thence in a north-west direction across the Naizar (then under
water) to the Siah Koh.
Since those days the Helmund has taken a more westerly course, the old
Naizar has become dry and has shifted to the west, and the point where the
Helmund water now penetrates the new Naizar is some 12 miles to the west at
Gola Kulah.
The Afghans maintain that the old bed has become obliterated, and that,
with its obliteration, the Goldsmid award becomes null and void. They claim
the new bed along the Bud-i-Pariun as far as the new Naizar. The Persians
assert that the old bed can still be traced, and that, whatever geographical
changes may have taken place in the locality, the Goldsmid award must still
hold good.
4. I am not in a position to state what circumstances have given rise to
the present deputation of an Afghan Boundary Commissioner for the
redelimitation of the frontier, or whether the Persian Government were
previously warned of the intention of the Afghan Government to send such a
Commission to the Seistan border.
It would seem, however, that as a result of Colonel Trench’s visit to the
frontier in March 1901 {vide Colonel Trench’s diary for 15th March 1901)
which was necessitated by the frequent disputes then taking place between
Afghan and Persian subjects on the border, His Highness the Amir of Kabul
asked the Indian Government for a copy of the map illustratino- General
Goldsmid’s arbitral opinion.
Armed with this map, an Afghan Boundary Commissioner from Herat
Muhammad Musa (or Isa) Khan, appeared with a large escort and guns on the
IrA
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