'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.' [‎109v] (223/386)

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are liable to occur in the future, and great care should, therefore, be exercised
in the opening out of new canals, or the enlargement of old canals leading
from the Belniand. Unless this is done with proper precaution, it may cause
the river to divert Uself entirely at such points and cause great loss to both
countries. This danger applies equally to Afghanistan and Persia.
A. E. JMcMAHON, Colonel,
British Commissioner, Seistan
Arbitration Commission.
05. Both Commissioners raised some objections but the general reception of
the award was satisfactory though complaints from the Persian Commissioner,
regarding some of its features, were likely. The terms of the award were carefully
explained and discussed by the arbitrator with the Persian and Afghan represen
tatives on the 11 th and 12 th April 1905. The mission’s labours were over
and it started on its return journey to India on the 15th May 1905.
66 . It will be observed that the award was based on careful observations and
surveys. As soon as the Helmand was reached by the irrigation party at Koh-i-
Khan JNishin, 160 miles above the Band-i-Seistan on the 1st February 1903,
surveys and measurements were at once begun to collect information about the
river, climate, system of cultivation, such as would be likely to be required iu
dealing with water disputes. The survey work done comprised more than 2,000
miles of level sections, each section being also traversed with a compass, so that it
Irrigation work and Railway surveys Could he plotted on the Survey of India
by the Mission. maps. The greater part of the sections
was along the banks of rivers or of reed marshes, entailing a large amount of
extra work in c’earing lines and making subsidiary observations as to water
surfaces, flood marks, and crests of banks.
The ancient, as well as the modern, irrigation systems were traced out and
sketched in by plane table A basic surveying technique using an alidade attached to a horizontally mounted drawing board.  over about 1,500 square miles of country.
During the whole time that the mission was in Seistan, daily observations
were maintained on the volume of water going down the HeJmand river and
its principal branches.
Measurements of the evaporation from some of the isolated sheets of water
were also made.
In addition, the areas under cultivation were measured, and the agricul
tural, pastoral, and revenue systems were studied in great detail.
Tn short, a complete irrigation study of the Seistan basin, from Rudbar on
the Helmand, Chakhansur on the Khash Rud, Peshawaran on the Farrab Rud,
and Bapai on the Harut Rud was made, and no detail that could he of practical
value from an irrigation point of view was left unobserved. Equal attention
was devoted to the railway surveys and reconnaissances. These included a
reconnaissance of a route for a railway—
(1) from Nushki to Seistan via the Helmand, 338 miles,
(2) from Nushki to Robat via the trade route, 360 miles,
(3) from Kundi (a point on ( 2 )) Mashkel and Panjgur to Pasni, 421
• 'll »JO *
miles, and
(4) from Kundi to Karachi, 556 miles.
67. All that now remained was to secure the assent of the Afghan and
Persian Governments. On the 25th April 1905, a kharita An important letter usually sent in an elaborate textile pouch, dispatched as part of the royal or diplomatic correspondence of rulers and elites. was addressed to the
Amir informing him that the Government of India had intended that Mr. (now Sir
Louis) Dane should explain personally the nature of Colonel McMahon’s award
on the inigation question, but as the latter had been unable to pronounce on
the question previous to the former’s departure from Kabul, a written com*
munication which went on to show the necessity of the mutual concessions bad
CAMP EOEAK;
The 10th April 1905.