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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.
1
No. 183 of 1901.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA,
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.
SECRET.
External.
To
The Right Hon’ble LORD GEORGE E. HAMILTON,
Rls Majesty's Secretary of State for India,
Simla, the 7th November 1901,
My Lord,
In our despatches of 21st September 1899 and 6th September 1900,
we have already fully acquainted Your Lordship and His Majesty’s Government
with the views which are entertained by us with regard to British interests and
British policy in Persia. Subsequent events have more than confirmed the fore
casts that were contained in our earlier letter, and have lent additional weight
to our appeal for a clear and emphatic enunciation of British policy in regard to
that country. The negotiations for a further Russian loan to the Persian Govern
ment, and for a new Commercial Treaty, designed in the interests of Russian
and to the detriment of British trade ; the apparently imminent construction of a
Russian railway from Ashkabad to Meshed, the capital of Khorasan; the activity
of Russian representatives and agents in Seistan and the regions contiguous to
the Baluch border ; the obstacles placed in the way of the Nushki-Seistan trade
route by Russian influence, both in respect of customs arrangements and of
quarantine; the appearance of Russian Consular agents and of a mercantile
service subsidised by the Russian Government in the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
all of
these circumstances illustrate the rapidity with which the weakness of Persia
is being turned to account by her powerful neighbour ; while they also testify
to the unswerving purpose with which the policy of the Russian Government
is directed to an obvious and unmistakable goal. We have so recently
submitted to Your Lordship our views of the imperative necessity of making
up our minds as to the point to which these ambitions may safely be pursued
without coming into direct collision with British and Indian interests, and
of shaping our future action, both diplomatic and commercial, accordingly, that
we do not propose upon the present occasion to trouble Your Lordship with any
repetition of opinions with which you are already familiar. It is sufficient to
say that the events of the past two years have but strengthened the unanimity
and force of the conviction to which we have previously given expression ; and
that, in our judgment, the question of Persia and the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
is on the
ver <r e of becoming the most critical issue of Central Asian politics. f l hat these
views are not substantially dissented from by His Majesty s Government is
apparent from the telegraphic information which has reached us from Lour
Lordship since the above paragraph was written—to the effect that the
British representative at St. Petersburg has been authorised to speak frankly to
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