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'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎16v] (37/384)

The record is made up of 1 volume (188 folios). It was created in 1907. 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. .

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20
Persian Government had objected to the residence of a British Consular officer
at Bampur, and a post at Bam had, therefore, been substituted. Lastly, a re
presentative was sent to guard the interests of British trade at Koh-i-Malik-Siah.
At Meshed the Consular establishment was further supplemented by the
appointment of a Military Attache for the purpose of organising the system
of intelligence regarding movements of Russian troops in Central Asia.
Finally, it was proposed that, ns a complement to the measures taken in other
parts of Persia, an Indian officer should be deputed to work in the British
Legation at Tehran itself. The plan was one which had been advocated by the
Governments of Lord Northbrook and Lord Lytton. The proposals then made
proved abortive. Later, in 1899, an Indian officer had been appointed to
be Military Attache, and had combined with the functions of that office the
Proposal to appoint an Indian officer duties of Oriental Secretary. But in
at Tehran. igoi this arrangement had ceased, and
though an Indian officer still held the post of Military Attache at Tehran, his
duties were in no way political. Recent rearrangements had resulted in a
large preponderance of Indian officers in Persia; the Indian Government was
now required to meet the charge for half the total British expenditure in the
country ; the Indian frontier was now conterminous with that of Persia for
several hundreds of miles; and Indian interests had largely increased in every
part of the Shah’s dominions. Lord Curzon urged that the time had come to
reconsider the existing arrangements at Tehran, and he proposed that an
officer should be deputed from India to Tehran, where he would hold
the status of a Secretary of Legation, and, working under the orders of the
Minister, would specially advise in all matters of Indian interest.
The selection of competent officers to fill the new r posts was not always an
easy matter. The stations in Persia to which officers of the Indian Political
Department had previously been posted had been few' in number. No special
arrangements existed for the training of junior officers for work in Persia, and
but few had the requisite language qualifications, the diplomatic experience,
or the knowledge of commercial requirements. Various schemes were
suggested with a view to placing matters on a better footing. A plan
Steps to improve the personnel. vhicli uassciiously considered and which
was laid before the Secretary of State
pioposed that a special Consular Service should be instituted *for Persia
Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and Oman. It was held, however, that a
service as small as this would necessarily he, would not offer sufficient induce
ments to competent officers; and it was finally decided that appointments
in Persia should m future he divided into two classes, viz., those manned
from India, and those filled by the London Foreign Office. The distribution
finally adopted was based on territorial considerations. The posts filled bv
th< d ^ re] g n Office were, generally speaking, those of North-Western
and ot Central Persia, and these were to be manned from the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Consular
Service, the rules lor admission to which were revised in December 1903 and
provided lor the regular training of student interpreters for service in Persia
ihe posts reserved Ur the Indian Political Department were mainly in the
neig i bom hood ot the Afghan trontier, in the south of Persia, and on the shores
of the Gulf. Endeavours were made in various ways to secure a supply of
qualified candidates for the Indian posts. The regulations for examination in
Persian and Arabic were revised with a view to ensuring that the prescribed
tests should be of a more practical nature than those previously in force and
to encouraging officers to learn the language of Persia as it is spoken In the
‘mw" 0 / aS v 18 in lndi “- S P pcial allowances were sanctioned for
c s quahhed in Emopean or Oriental languages which were likely to he of
service; and special attention was paid to linguistic proficiency i/sdecting
candidates tor poh.ical employ. The experiment was adopt, d of deputinl
joung officers ot the Indian Army to visit Persia for fixed periods. One office?
V 6 , 1 ? , r 1 airarl genient to Seistan and another to Shiraz where he
resided for a term of some months. But the plan was attended with’hut small
success, and was abandoned in favour of a more satisfactory expedient Add!
tThl Z\TTT U "---tioned-firstat Nasratabad and Infer at Bushire—
y junior officers oi the Political Department selected as likely

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Content

Printed at the GC [Government Central] Press, Simla.

The volume is divided into three parts: Part I (folios 5-47) containing an introduction; Part II (folios 48-125) containing a detailed account; and Part III (folios 126-188) containing despatches and correspondence connected with Part I Chapter IV ('The Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ', folios 28-47).

Part I gives an overview of policy and events in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. region during Curzon's period as Viceroy [1899-1905], with sections on British policy in Persia; the maintenance and extension of British interests; Seistan [Sīstān]; and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Part II contains more detailed accounts of selected topics, including sections on British policy in Persia, customs and finance, quarantine, administration, communications, and British and Russian activity in Seistan. The despatches and correspondence in Part III include correspondence from the Government of India in the Foreign Department, the Secretary of State for India, and the Viceroy; addresses and speeches by Curzon; and notes of interviews between Curzon and local rulers.

Mss Eur F111/531-534 consist of four identical printed and bound volumes. However, the four volumes each show a small number of different manuscript annotations and corrections.

This volume is inscribed: '1907' on the title page (folio 4), and contains a manuscript correction (folio 20).

Extent and format
1 volume (188 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a list of Parts I-III on folio 4; a table of contents of Part I on folio 6; a table of contents of Part II on folio 49; and a table of contents of Part III on folios 127-129, which gives a reference to the paragraph of Part I Chapter IV that the despatch or correspondence is intended to illustrate.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 190; 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. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

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English in Latin script
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'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎16v] (37/384), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/531, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100070109007.0x000026> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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