'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.' [‎118r] (240/386)

each particular case. The Additional Declaration, the Government of India
. Fide Chapter VII, paragraph 22, page 63. ° U > WaS , framed *. with the object
ot mitigating the severity of Article 97
of the RAglement Douanier and this intention would be frustrated if fines
might he imposed on each individual which would on the aggregate prove more
severe than the original penalty of confiscation of the means of transport.
The Government of India were of opinion that the 3 camelmen were merely
the servants of the conductor and could not reasonably be regarded as
participes criminis. M. Nans was so far satisfied that the evidence produced
was strongly in favour of the accused that he ordered M. Castaigne to conduct
a further enquiry locally into the case. This was done, Captain Smyth,
Military Attache, Meshed, being associated with M. Spinella for the purpose.
The evidence proved that the charges could not be sustained and Sir
A. Hardinge claimed pecuniary indemnification for the actual losses suffered
by the eamelmen and owner of the assafoetida. On the 27th October 1905, His
Majesty’s Acting Consul-General, Meshed, reported that M. Naus had given
way in the case, but that it would be difficult to obtain adequate compensation.
The case bad not been settled before Lord Curzon left India. At the close
of 1904 another important case occurred. On the plea that grain was scarce
in Seistan the customs officials contended that the exemption granted to
Colonel McMahon’s mission from the prohibition of export of cereals did not
extend to the return journey. The Government of India requested Sir
A. Hardinge to protest strongly in favour of Colonel McMahon remarking
that it surely could not be the desire of the Persian Government to extract
profit from the exigencies of the mission which had been so long employed
at enormous expense to the Government of India in the interests of Persia.
The Persian Government yielded as a matter of courtesy and permitted fixed
quantities of barley and flour to be exported for the requirements of the
mission on its return journey in May 1905. The relations of British officials
with the Belgian customs during 1905 were for the most part satisfactory.
The Belgians showed a more conciliatory spirit and carried out their duties
in a less vexatious manner than formerly.
12. Another valuable weapon for extending their political influence in
Southern Khorasan and for hindering
Sanitary cordon. British trade was found by Russia in
the maintenance of a sanitary cordon for the professed object of safeguarding
Persia and the Russian dominions from plague. Measures were first taken
in 1897 when the Russian Consul-General gave out that plague had appeared
at Herat and Kandahar, with the result that, besides the numerous customs
and military posts which Russia had established along the eastern and north
eastern frontier of Khorasan, a line of quarantine stations was organised from
Tarshiz, on the edge of the desert south-west of Meshed, to Karez on the
Afghan frontier. The quarantine was enforced by Russian officers and doctors
and by Russian and Persian Cossacks, the latter
officers.
paid through their Russian
13. In April 1899, the Russians again evinced a lively interest in regard to
the progress of plague in India, and professed to believe that it had broken out in
Afghanistan. No cases of plague occurred anywhere near the eastern frontier of
Persia, but the quarantine cordon established in 1897 continued to be maintained,
and in 1900 was used to enforce quarantine against cholera, which it suited the
Russians to assert had appeared at Herat. And, under orders from Tehran, where
pressure had been brought to bear by the Russian Legation, a Persian doctor was
deputed to visit Herat and make inquiries as to the progress of the disease.
The Amir, however, declined to consent to the Persian doctor’s visit. Early in
1901 it became evident that it was the object of the Russian authorities to
extend the line from Karez to Seistan, thus closing the eastern frontier of Persia
to Afghan and Indian trade. A pretext for further pressing this measure was
afforded to the Russians by one or two deaths having occurred among the
followers of two Muhammadan gentlemen from India who were proceeding on
pilgrimage to Meshed by the Seistan route. Captain Duke, I M S., was deputed
to Turbat-i-Haidari to make inquiries, and succeeded in getting the party per
mission to proceed to Meshed. . , >