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‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [138r] (280/617)
The record is made up of 2 volumes (301 folios). It was created in 22 Jun 1896-3 Mar 1900. 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. .
Transcription
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No. 16, dated Tehran, the 12th February 1899.
Frcm-Sm Mother Doium, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., Her Britannic Majesty’,,
Minister at Tehran, J
To-The Marquess of Salisbury, K.G., Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs.
R 1 ! T tf> a 0 kn ?T, ledse *i' e recei P t of Tour Lordship’s despatches
J une . an( i ^°- 8 (Consular) of the 29th of September 1898,
eallmg for my opinion with regard to certain suggestions for the appointment
of additional Consular officers in Persia.
The matter has engaged my attention for several years, and I have more
than once expressed my opinion upon it. In September 1895, I wrote a
memorandum reviewing the state of affairs in Persia, and submitting proposals
for the improvement of our position. An officer had shortly before been sent
Paragraph is. ac ^ as Consul in Kerman, and I wrote
with reference to this appointment—“ It
will strengthen our influence materially if we have more men of this kind in
other parts of Persia as occasion offers, and if our representatives in Bushire
and Ispahan and Khorassan are encouraged to travel and make friends among
the Chiefs and tribesmen. We need not excite the ready alarm of the Russians
by too frequent journeys along their border, but I think we should spend some
money in encouraging travel elsewhere, and in establishing agencies at important
points. Por instance, I feel very doubtful whether the Government of India
are right in deprecating the establishment of a British officer in Seistan;
and, under certain conditions, we might find it very useful to have a man in
Shuster to help in the opening of the roads in the Lur and Bakhtiari country.”
I also advocated an improvement in the
position of the Consul-General in Tabriz.
In August 1896, I submitted a detailed proposal for the establishment of
a Consulate at Shuster on the Karun, where our traders had been brutally
ill-used ; and I suggested that, for their protection and the maintenance of
order, we might raise a tribal levy under British officers.
A year later, when in England, I followed up these, suggestions by
advocating the retention of the Kerman appointment, and again asking for the
establishment of a Consul on the Karun.
The result was that the Kerman appointment was continued provisionally,
and since that time the nomination by the Russians of a Consul for Seistan
has led to our also appointing a Consul for that district, but I believe no
further steps have been taken to carry out my suggestions.
These suggestions formed part of a general scheme of policy based upon
an examination of the state of affairs in Persia in 1895. The further suggestion
whicH now desire to submit must, I think, in in
e’en oral scheme of policy, based upon an examination of the state ot attair ^
Persia at the present time. The question of our Consular establishmen s
not be considered apart from the larger question.
Almost the whole of the memorandum of 1895 applies to the present
despatch may be considered as a /"PP 1 . 6 ™ 6 ?’ h ” ve taken place since
then confine “y sel | *° P°\f“ S g °p p iyi n g at the same time such further inform-
of affairs.
Paragraph 17.
About this item
- Content
The volumes contain papers relating to Persia [Iran], including Seistan, and the tract of land south of the Baluch-Afghan boundary between Nushki and Persia, which had become British territory following the demarcation of the Afghan-Baluch border.
The papers largely consist of printed copies of correspondence between the Governor General of India in Council (Government of India Foreign Department) and the Secretary of State for India (Lord George Francis Hamilton), and enclosed correspondence and papers.
Letters from the Governor General of India in Council to the Secretary of State for India include:
- Number 170, 16 September 1896, relating to the opening up of a trade route between Nushki and the Persian frontier, crossing the tract of British territory south of the Baluch-Afghan boundary, and the protection of the newly-demarcated frontier, with enclosed memorandum by Captain Arthur Henry McMahon, British Commissioner, Baluch-Afghan Boundary Commission, containing his proposals for the management and administration of the tract and for the protection of the trade route
- Number 58, 31 March 1898, concerning the trade route between Baluchistan and Persia, including the suggestion that Consular Agents should be appointed at central points along it between Seistan and Meshed, with enclosures including a report by Lieutenant Frank Webb-Ware, Political Assistant at Chagai, on his visit to Seistan at the beginning of 1896, and the measures introduced for the development of trade between Baluchistan and Persia (which includes a blueprint map, Mss Eur F111/350, f 33)
- Number 163, 15 September 1898, forwarding copies of papers regarding the situation in Makran and Panjgur, following recent ‘disturbances’ in Makran.
The file also includes:
- Copies of Government of India Foreign Department papers numbered 40-58 relating to the Kerman Consulate and British interests in Southern Persia, including correspondence between the Government of India Foreign Department and the Secretary of State for India
- A letter from the Secretary of State for India to the Governor General of India in Council, with enclosed despatch from Sir (Henry) Mortimer Durand, HM Minister at Tehran, to the Foreign Office, dated 12 February 1899, in which he gives his opinion on suggestions for the appointment of additional consular officers in Persia (this includes a map titled ‘Skeleton Map of Telegraph Lines in Persia.’ Mss Eur F111/350, f 187)
- A letter from Durand to the Secretary to the Foreign Department of the Government of India, 24 February 1899, enclosing a copy of his memorandum (with appendices) drawn up in 1895 on the situation in Persia, and the steps he proposed should be taken to improve the British position there
- Copies of a draft despatch from the Governor General of India in Council, 2 September 1899, regarding relations between Great Britain and Persia, including improving the British Political and Consular service in Persia, and the extent of the share of responsibility for Persia that should be devolved upon the Government of India, followed by printed comments upon the draft
- Copies of a minute by George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India, on Seistan, dated 4 September 1899, including the question of a railway connection between India and Seistan
- Handwritten pencil notes by Curzon relating to Persia and the ‘Seistan Question’.
In addition to the two maps noted above, the file also includes the following maps: map of the area south of the border between Afghanistan and Baluchistan (Mss Eur F111/350, f 300); map of the area west of the border between Persia and Afghanistan (Mss Eur F111/350, f 301); and ‘Route Plan of Robat Nala’ (Mss Eur F111/350, f 302).
- Extent and format
- 2 volumes (301 folios)
- Arrangement
Most of volume A is arranged in reverse chronological order from the front to the rear of the volume (from folios 6 to 76); volume B is arranged is rough chronological order from the front to the rear of the volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: this file consists of two physical volumes. The foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover of volume one (ff 1-150) and terminates at the inside back cover of volume two (ff 151-304); 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.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [138r] (280/617), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/350, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100072740554.0x000051> [accessed 19 July 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/350
- Title
- ‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’
- Pages
- front , back , spine, edge , head , tail, front-i, 2r:32v, 34r:62v, 64r:84r, 86r, 89r:93v, 96r:96v, 99v:100v, 101v:128v, 129v:149v, back-i, front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 152r:186v, 188r:189r, 190r:299v, 303r:304v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence