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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.
4
the "Russian Government, or in making any fresh
announcement to the Shah’s Government on the
subiect of our settled and declared policy m Southern
Persia. We have, at the present moment, great trading
interests in the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, we have a frontier
conterminous with Eastern Persia, and the limits
of the protected State of Khelat extend to the sea
board. We are under treaty engagements with the
trucial chiefs in the Gulf, and they look to us to
protect their rights. If ever Persia or the Sultan
of Muscat should prove unable to maintain order
or repress disturbance on their seaboards, we
have, from the overwhelming character of our com
mercial interests, the prior claim to step in and
maintain order in the Persian vjulf. Ihe only
question is how far recent events and concessions
require that fresh action should be taken to reserve
this claim and maintain our rights, in view oi: the
gradual intrusion of other foreign interests into
fresh spheres of influence and territory.
9. Her Majesty’s Government has, as your Lord-
ship is aware, taken two steps of late which may
lead to important results, and which have impressed
upon the Persian Government a sense of the grave
issues involved in losing sight of the legitimate
interests ot Great Britain and India in the
ports of the Gulf and in Southern Persia. On the
15th of April 1S99 Lord Salisbury informed
the Persian Government that “ Her Majesty’s
“ Government felt it to he their duty to renew the
“ intimation that it would not be compatible with
“ the interests of the British Empire that any
“ European Power should exercise control or
“ jurisdiction over the ports of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
.’’
On the 20th of March last Her Majesty’s Charge
d’Affaires at Tehran was instructed to remind
the Persian Minister for Eoreign Affairs “ of the
“ written promise given by the Persian Government
“ on the 23rd of October 1897, that the Customs of
“ Southern Persia shall never be placed under
“ foreign supervision and control,” and “ Her
“ Majesty’s Government must hold the Persian
“ Government to the strict observance of this en-
“ gagement, of which they were reminded in
“ December last.”
10. In regard to concessions for railways, the
conveyance to the Persian Government of an
equally precise intimation was authorised in the
telegram from the Marquess of Salisbury to Mr.
Spring llice on the 4th of April last, when a
reference was made to “ the promise of the late
“ Shah that Great Britain shall have priority in the
“ construction of a Southern Bailway to Teheran,
“ that if concessions for railways are given to others
“ in the North a similar concession shall be granted
“ to an English Company in the South, and that no
“ Southern Railway concession shall be granted to
“ any foreign company without consultation with
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' [377v] (756/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721606.0x00009f> [accessed 11 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