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‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [179r] (366/617)
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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\ [This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government,!
Printed for the use of the Foreign Office. April 1S99.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(7101.)
Despatch from Sir M. Durand respecting appointment of
Additional Consular Officers in Persia.
[With a Map ]
Sir M. Durand to the Marquess of Salisbury.—{Received March 20.)
(No. 16.)
Mj Lord, Tehran, February 12, 1899.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship’s despatches
Nos. 61 of the 27th June and No. 8, Consular, of the 29th September, 1898, calling
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 to act 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,
hut I think we should spend some money in encouraging travel elsewhere, and
in establishing Agencies at important points. Eor 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 ot the Consul-General m
T?£ll3I*00 Z
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. ;1 n ,. ,,
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 beistan 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.
Those suggestions formed part of a general scheme of policy, based upon an
examination of the state of affairs in Persia in 1895. The further suggestions which
I now desire to submit must, I think, in like manner, form part of a general sc erne
of policy, based upon an examination of the state of affairs m Persia at the present
time. The question of our Consular establishments cannot be consideied apart from
^ ^fmkuhe^Aole of the Memorandum of 1895 applies to the present position^
and the paper contains a general statement of the views which I held then, and hold
stiU regarding the manner in which we should deal with Persia, I would therefore
ask that the Memorandum may be read, and that this despatch may be considered as
a supplement bringing it up to date. I can then confine myself to pointing out the
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’ [179r] (366/617), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/350, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100072740554.0x0000a7> [accessed 14 August 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