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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.
Although the Bakhtiari are under engagement to maintain the roaa
the chiefs display little interest in regard to it, and it becomes
increasingly evident that we shall have to appoint and pay an engineer
to see this is done.
In the selection of this engineer special care will be taken to get a
man who may be counted upon to maintain friendly relations with the
Bakhtiari, and it is needful that this should be done as soon as possible.
There are other items of a similar nature which it may not be necessary
to give in detail, but of which the burden is likely to fall at least in
part upon ourselves.
An indemnity of 2,000/. per annum would only defray a small portion
of the excess of expenditure over revenue for which provision will have
to be made if the enterprise is to be continued and promoted in a proper
manner. But my Board consider that this indemnity should be made
a fixed subsidy, owing to the large payments which we are continually
called upon to make on capital account, or as advances to the Persian
Government. The annexed statement will explain what we mean. Up
to date we have expended about 31,500/. from our own funds, of which
about 7,300/. may be regarded as spent on capital account, being
represented by the Ispahan road, and 1,600/. as advances to the Persian
Government, being our out-of-pocket expenses incurred in running the
“ Shushan.” Expenditure of this nature is not included in the accounts
which we render to our own Government; nor can it be properly so
included. Yet the risk incurred is great.
We have heard it said that our agents, Messrs. Lynch Brothers, are
making large profits out of the enterprise. This is not the case. The
only profits which it is possible for them to make in connection with
this undertaking are derived from their business as merchants ; and we
have ascertained that the figures under this head during the last few
years are as follows :—In 1896 they made a profit of about 900/. ; in
1897 a loss of 100/.; in 1898 a profit of 100/.; in 1899 a profit of about
350/. On the other hand, Messrs. Lynch, have now for ten years given
the entire services of their principal manager abroad to the interests of
the Karun undertaking; and his salary, which would absorb all these
profits, does not represent the measure of the sacrifice which they have
found it necessary to make by detaching him from the established
business of their firm.
2. Arrangements require to be made so long beforehand that five
years is the shortest term which should be fixed by Government as the
period of their contribution. We may mention in this connection that
five years is the usual term of the agreements -with all the European
employes.
In conclusion my Board desire to point out that the Karun Service
not only supplies commercial but also postal facilities, for which no
payment is made. Were we to refuse to care for and carrv letters and
documents commerce would suffer; yet we can get nothing out of the
Persian Government in return for our services in this respect. Neither
the Persian Government nor the Bakhtiari are prepared to spend even
the smallest sum in return for prospective advantages.
We trust that Her Majesty’s Government and the Government of
India, taking all these facts into consideration, will agree to grant this
Company a fixed subvention of 2,000/. per annum for a further five
years; and we should be greatly obliged if the decision of Government
could be communicated to us at an early date, in order that, should
Government not desire to assist us further in the enterprise, we may be
enabled to take steps as soon as possible for the recoverv of at least a
portion of our large outlay.
I have, &c.,
The Under Secretary of State, Edw. Mills, Secretary.
Eoreign Ofiice.
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' [379v] (760/782), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/352, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069721606.0x0000a3> [accessed 30 April 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