'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.' [‎101v] (207/386)

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changed, being mountainous and excessively cold in the winter or caravan
season. Moreover, in Quetta the Seistani found himself in totally unfamiliar
surroundings and with no grazing for his camels,. so that a railway which
enabled the Seistani traders to stop and unload their camels at N ushki would
clearly be a great convenience and encouragement to trade. Apart from these
completion of the Quetta-Nushki considerations, the railway was also
Kailway. recommended on strategic grounds in
connection with the defence of the Quetta position. The survey was completed
in May 1902, and the construction of a light line on the 5 feet 6 inches gauge
was sanctioned by the Secretary of State in the following August. Work was
at once commenced on the Nishpa tunnel and the Sheikh Whsil gorge, and the
line was completed in November 1905.
16. But political influence in Seistan could not be acquired by measures
Establishment of a British Consulate taken on Indian soil alone.. It was long
in Seistan. recognised that nowhere m Persia has
Russian influence been so unscrupulously exerted as in Seistan for the purpose
of closing the country to the legitimate exercise of our trading rights and
that British interests required the appointment of a British Agent in Seistan
as a complement to measures taken in India on behalf of the trade route. It
has already been mentioned (vide paragraph 3 of British Consular representa
tion in Persia, Chapter VIII) that when it was rumoured in 1898 that a Russian
Consulate was to be established in Seistan, the Government of India immediately
approved diverting Captain Sykes from Kerman, then on a mission to Lnristan,
to support British interests in Seistan and that when the Russian Government
did appoint a Vice-Consul in Seistan in 1900 Lord Curzon’s Government
replied by deputing Major Chenevix Trench in the same capacity. M. Miller,
the Russian Vice Consul, reached Nasratabad on the 14th Pebruary 1900
accompanied by a Persian Munshi A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf. , three attendants and an escort of 6 troopers,
his British confrere reaching the Seistan capital on the 16th April 1900 accom
panied by an escort of 1 Native Officer and 15 sabres.
37. In Pebrnary 1901, Major Trench left Seistan to take up the appoint
ment of Consul-General at Meshed, and was succeeded at Nasratabad by Major
R. A. E. Bonn as Vice-Consul. Not long afterwards a change for the worse
occurred in the attitude of the Hashmat-ul-Mulk, who at this time was being
pressed from Meshed to make good certain arrears of revenue. This pressure was
taken advantage of byM. Miller who intimidated the liasmat with the argument
that he could expect no escape, so long as he continued to further British
Opposition to the construction of the interests. The result was that, at the
Consulate building. bidding of the Russian Consul, he
began to obstruct the construction of the British Consulate buildings and
refused to grant sites to Indian traders for the erection of shops. In vain it
was pointed out to him that the grant of the land had been sanctioned from
Tehran the previous year, and that he was acting in defiance of all treaty
engagements. Bis reply was that the only orders he had received were that the
British were cot to be allowed to build, and that it was more than his position
was worth to ignore the threats held out to him by M. Miller. All carpenters
and masons were withdrawn from the Consulate premises by the Hashmat-ul-
Mulk’s orders and forbidden to work for the Consul under penalty of a public
heating and imprisonment. It was not till the middle of September 1901 that
orders reached him from the Governor-General of Khorasan, authorizing
the sale of land to traders and the resumption of building operations at the
Consulate. The area of ground finally acquired from the Persian Government
was 20*5 acres, and included new Consulate buildings, a hospital with Hospital
Assistant’s quarters, quarters for the escort and clerks, a treasury, a guest-house
with serai for Persian and other visitors, a small observatory, and godovvns, shops
and transport quarters.
18. The work of the Consulate continued to increase rapidly with the
Appointment of an Assistant to the development of trade, the establishment
Consul in Seistan. 0 f ^ ie p ers ian Customs on a European
footing, the growing traffic between India and Persia now passing through
Seistan, and the increased number of British subjects settled there. In addition