!['Seistan' [‎377r] (755/782)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003bc/Mss Eur F111_352_0779.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'Seistan' [‎377r] (755/782)")
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
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3
administration of the country. The very inde
pendence which we struggle to maintain may
become the most effective instrument which Russia
can use against us. Already our influence in
Northern Persia has yielded to the pressure of
Russia, which could annex that part of Persia
without our being able to offer any effective
resistance.
7. Your Excellency is also aware of the course
of events in the Gulf, which have already modified
that theory of “unchallenged supremacy both
naval and commercial ” to which you refer in para
graph 12 of your letter under reply. Prance
has resolutely asserted her right to a joint pro
tectorate over Muscat with all the con sequences
that may flow from the guarantee of 1862.
Germany is interested in the development of rail
way enterprise, and her agents have lately proceeded
to Koweit. Russian ships have visited Bunder
Abbas and adjoining islands, as well as other ports
in the Gulf. In these and various other ways the
unquestioned position, which was formerly asserted
and exercised by us, has, even in the Gulf itself,
been encroached upon. Though we still possess a
practical monopoly of trade in the Gulf, signs are
not wanting that this advantage will be gradually
challenged, partly by the extension of railways to
the sea and partly by the greater activity of foreign
trade. It can hardly be maintained that, in view
of such a competition, civilized Powers can be
permanently denied the benefit of access to the ports
of Persia because their admission will infringe
upon a monopoly which we have hitherto enjoyed.
8. But these changes, which are the inevitable
consequence of improved facilities both of internal
communication and sea transport, render it the
more necessary that we should closely watch over
the objects and aims of our past policy in Persia, so
that under the changing circumstances of the future
we may effectively safeguard those interests and
spheres of influence in Persia which are essential to
India. Your Excellency discusses the possibility
of coming to an agreement with Prussia, as _ to the
spheres of influence to be exercised respectively m
Persia by the two countries. There is much to be
said in favour of such an understanding, if it could
be established and maintained. But the probability
is, that if anv such overtures were made by ller
Maiesty’s Government to the Russian Eoreign
Office, the Shah would be informed of the proposal
in such a manner as possibly to convey to his mind
the idea that the partition of his territories between
Great Britain and Russia was the immediate
object of the present policy of Great Britain.
Eor these and other reasons I see no advantage
at present in making any such proposals to
S. 21. A 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
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'Seistan' [377r] (755/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721606.0x00009e> [accessed 15 May 2024]
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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