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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.
MINUTE by the VICEROY on SEISTAN, dated September 4th, 1899.
I propose, in this Minute, to examine the present aspect of the Seistan
question in relation to our general policy towards Persia, and to the attitude of
Russia in Persia. In my book on Persia, I wrote a chapter on Seistan (Vol. I,
Chap. IX) which contained as full an account of that district, its history,
inhabitants, features, and commercial and political significance, as was then
(1892) procurable. I also discussed the political ambitions of Russia in con
nection with Seistan (Vol. I, pages 201, 216-218, 235-244; Vol. II, pages 597-
598,605), and the question of a possible Seistan Railway from India in the
future (Vol. I, pages 237-24-4, 628-629). I ventured further to make certain
recommendations, namely, that we should establish Consular or other represent
ation {a) at Yezrt, [b) at Kerman, (<?) in Seistan, (d) at Bunder Abbas; (e) that
the Kerman-Meshed trade route should be improved; (/) that a British trade
route should be opened from Quetta to Seistan; (g) that the question of
railway extension in the direction of Seistan should be considered. Of these
recommendations, I am glad to say that, during the interval that has since
elapsed, (a), (5), (<?), (<?) and (/) have already been carried into execution.
In the despatch with which this Minute is enclosed, {d) is recommended by the
Government of India. I propose shortly to discuss the j>resent aspect of (p).
The references which have been given will dispense me from recajfitulating
the elementary facts about Seistan; and I may commence with an account of
what has happened during the past 7 years, leading up to a description of
the status quo.
2. Seistan was in 1892 a beluh or sub-division of the district of Kain
(capital Birjand) which is a part of the province of Khorasan (capital Meshed).
The Government of Kain has for long been in the hereditary possession of a
powerful family of Arab origin, whose head bears the title of Amir of Kain,
and who, until the centralising tendencies of recent years, exercised an
authority almost independent of that of the Shah. Mir Alam Khan, who had
filled the post for over a quarter of a century, died in 1891. For reasons
into which it is not necessary to enter, the younger of his two sons, Ismail Khan,
known as the Shaukat-ul-Mulk (now about 50 years of age), succeeded him as
Governor of Kain at Birjand. The elder son, Ali Akbar Khan, known as the
Hashmat-ul-Mulk, became Governor of Tabbas and Seistan,—posts which he only
retains by the process, familiar in Persia, of the annual payment of a large
sum in cash to the Shah. The third son, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, now just
grown up, was made Sartip or Commandant of the Kain forces. The Shaukat-
ul-Mulk and he have generally, but perhaps erroneously, been believed to incline
towards Russia, whose aim has been to get Seistan, now to some extent separated
from Kain, re-incorporated in it, and absorbed as an ordinary administrative
district in the province of Khorasan. Such an amalgamation would emphasize
the dependence of Seistan upon Meshed, from which it is now in some measure
separate.
3. Meanwhile the elder brother, or Hashmat-ul-Mulk, has not himself
resided in Seistan, but has deputed one of his sons, Mir Masum Khan, a fat
and lethargic youth of about 18, to act as Deputy Governor at Nasirabad, under
the tutelage of his mother, a lady with considerable powers of intrigue. This
son is supposed to intrigue with the uncle at Birjand and is not on the best of
terms with his father, who in 1898 sent an elder son, named Muhammad Reza
Khan, to supersede him as Deputy Governor. Upon Mir Masum Khan declin
ing to go, the quarrel was patched up; and he still acts for his father in Seistan.
Thus the local situation is that of Russia endeavouring to increase her hold upon
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
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- 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