!['Seistan' [‎277r] (553/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0575.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎277r] (553/782)")
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.
5
assurance were given by the Persian Government that the status quo in
Seistan would be maintained, it would be difficult to withdraw Colonel
McMahon’s Commission. The Mushir-ed-Dowleh stated that he could not give
a message in the above sense to the Shah and Mr. Grant Duff was accord
ingly instructed to address a formal note to the Persian Government to the
effect that His Majesty’s Government had heard with great regret of the pro
posal to remove the Hashmat-ul-Mulk, that they were deeply interested in the
maintenance of peace and order in a district conterminous with British and
Afghan territory and where the interests of Great Britain preponderated, and
that they would regard with grave dissatisfaction so violent a disturbance of
the existing status quo. The Persian Government replied by a somewhat
discourteous note implying that the action which the Shah proposed to take
as regards the Hashmat-ul-Mulk was no concern of His Majesty’s Government.
A further communication was then addressed to the Persian Government to
the effect that in view of the unfriendly character of the answer returned to
the representation made by Mr. Grant Duff, His Majesty’s Government would
feel it their duty to consider carefully what steps would become necessary for
the protection of British interests in Seistan.
Throughout the spring and summer of 1903 great obstacles had been placed
in the way of the Seistan Boundary Commission by the local authorities, and
much delay was caused by the indefinite orders sent by the Central Govern
ment to the Persian Commissioner. InOctobertheYamin Nizam was instructed
by the Persian Government to accept the modification of the Goldsmid line
agreed upon between himself and the British Commissioner. This instruction
was, however, made conditional to an engagement on the part of the Afghans
to construct no dams on the upper Helmund from the Bund-i-Seistan to Bud-
bar. This reservation again prevented progress being made and it was not till
early in November that the Yamin Nizam was instructed to accept uncondi
tionally the proposed modification of the Goldsmid line. Colonel McMahon
finally gave his arbitral award on November 13th.
During the past year treaties of friendship and commerce were concluded
with Brazil (June 16th), Uruguay (May 19th), and Chile (March 30th). These
treaties are similar in character to that concluded on May lith, 1902, with
Mexico. A special Mexican Embassy under Monsieur de Mier (Mexican
Minister at Paris) visited Tehran in November and remained a week.
The negotiations which were proceeding at the Hague for the conclusion
of a treaty of friendship and commerce between Persia and Japan are suspend
ed for the present owing to the Russo-Japanese war.
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