'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.' [‎26v] (57/386)

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.till declared their inability to remove the cordon and nothin- remained hut
J l aT,r"u> !“ k :''l"'» « >' "V*» 1" objection. Sod. . lie. »o„M oootp.ooo
S.r™. “ th. >4 “;:“'E"“i™S“or sssr wifiSi
while a double quarantine n l b ^ P decided to have
recourse to other
remedies C The”re of the Russian line was at Tnrbat-i-Haidari. A British
ConsuUnd a British doctor, with an escort of Indian cavalry were posted
to tMs point and though the Russian cordon remained, the rights of British
sul iects ere safeguarded. But the Russians had not yet abandoned hopes
nf intervention in Seistan itself. In February 1905, a single case of cholera
occurred at Birjand. The doctor of the Russit n Consulate was forthwith
despatched, in company with M. Molitor, to establish quarantine at Bandan
on the northern border of Seistan. But the attempt was frustrated. A
Hospital Assistant was at once deputed from the British Consulate to watch
proceedings and report. A protest was lodged at Tehran; and under orders
from the capital, the quarantine was cancelled.
In the summer of 1904 a pilgrimage to Meshed by one of the leading
Muitahids of Karbala with a horde of followers brought cholera across the
western frontier. The Russians at once proposed that quarantine arrangements
at Kermanshah should be placed in the hands of one of their doctors. The
prompt despatch of a British Consular Surgeon, however, defeated their object,
and the quarantine administration remained in the hands ot the Customs officers
assisted by the British Consular Surgeon.
■ Nor were sanitary measures the only means adopted for the spread of
Russian influence. It has been seen how
Bussian telegraph activity. one con( Rtions of the Russian loan
of 1900 was a promise of a line of telegraph from Meshed to Seistan. lor
some time no move was made in the matter. Rut early in 1903, the work was
taken up, and the line was quickly carried through. Control was nominally
retained in Persian hands. The Mukbar-ed-Dowleh informed the British
Minister that the Russians had pressed to be placed in charge, and that, by way
of compromise, the task of construction had been entrusted to an Armenian
Russian subject in Persian employ, w r hom it was intended to transfer on the
completion of the line. But the semblance was ill-maintained. Persian funds
were placed at the disposal of the Russian Consul in Seistan for the purposes
of the line; the work was executed under Russian supervision; and before the
end of 1903, Russian signallers had been posted to four different stations
between Seistan and Meshed. The Russian employes were sufficiently counter
balanced by the presence of two British signallers, who had been despatched to
work on the line under orders of the British Consul in May 1903. Soon, how
ever, it was ascertained that an agreement had been concluded about April of the
same year, whereby the Russian Government obtained the right to employ tw r o
engineers and three signallers on the line from Meshed southward, and further
to °link up the Persian system with the Russian wires at Bajgiran. In
pursuance of this agreement, five more Russian employes arrived at Meshed
in October 1901, and it was announced that as many more would shortly follow,
and that the connection with the Russian system would soon be carried out.
Under instructions from Lord Lansdowne, a protest was at once lodged against
the transfer of the line to Russian control, and the Persian Government were
informed that, if they accepted the Russian signallers, a demand would forthwith
be made for an equal number of British operators. In reply the Musliir-ed-
Dowleh handed to Mr. Grant Duff a note, in which he declared that there was
no foundation for the report that the Meshed-Seistan line was to be transferred
to Russian control, or that a line was about to be constructed from Meshed
to the Russian frontier. The assurance was soon falsified. Within a few
months the number of Russian signallers was increased to thirteen, and the
maintenance of the line was assumed by the Russian staff. Half-hearted
protests were addressed from time to time by Persia to the Russian Govern
ment. But the staff remained, and in May 1905 the Shah finally withdrew
his objections; and, “ as a provisional measure ”, granted to the Russian