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‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [196r] (399/617)
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
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
great value to any Power contemplating either a move against that countrv m*
an advance upon Kandahar. Nor will i? he denied thawle Kandahar-He^t
7a d ri0t b n h t ?, ld -n Wltl1 ? afety by India ’ n01 ' the valley of the Helmand
efended, were a hostile Power m possession of Seistan. Purtheianore, the grain-
producing capabilities of the district, to the bygone richness of which eloquent
testimony is borne by the immense number of ruined cities encumbering the
soil, and which could without serious difficulty be revived by a scientific employ
ment of the waters of the Helmand, render Seistan of much value, as a possible
gianary, either to a Power engaged upon a forward advance, or to a Power
interested m commercial and iudustrial expansion.
n ^ he force of , these circumstances has, it will have been observed, com-
pelled the Government of India to display a concern in Seistan, which, at the start,
they were most reluctant to acknowledge, and which, at varying intervals since
they have, with unconscious inconsistency, affected to repudiate. I have already
Pn at re t urne( t to Colonel Yate in 1894. Between 1894 and 1898
the N ushki-Seistan trade route was, with the sanction and upon the encourage
ment of the Secretary of State, deliberately opened by the Government & of
India; a Political Officer was appointed to administer the district between
JNushki and the Persian border; officers were repeatedly despatched to report
upon the country and to evince an interest in its fortunes. And yet as recently
as August 10th, 1898, the Government of India wrote to the Secretary of State
that they shared the apprehensions of Lord Dufferin’s Government in 1887
that activity in the direction of Seistan might lead to a forward move on the
pait of Bussia , and that ee premature activity was likely to prevent or post
pone the future success of the new route from Quetta to Seistan”.
14. I am quite unable to understand either the force of this logic or the
consistency of this conduct. The cautious and, in its motive, praiseworthy
abstention of the Government of India from displaying any interest in Seistan,
did not for one moment affect the designs, or retard the advance of Russia in
that direction. Russian new r s-writers were firmly established in the district
before anything more than a casual visit had been paid by a British officer.
While members of the Government of India w r ere writing notes to show that, if
even a caravan route were opened from Quetta in the direction of Seistan,
the Russians would extend their trans-Caspian Railway southwards, the
latter were already at work, laying their rails from Merv to the Kushk post,
and preparing the plant for an ultimate extension to Herat. Sir M. Durand,
in a paragraph of his recent despatch, has exposed the hollowness of this
plea; and I venture to hope that it may not figure again in our reasoning.
15. Similarly, I am unable to comprehend how—the trade route having
been deliberately opened—any activity in developing it can either be premature,
or can possibly prevent or postpone hopes which the trade route itself has
been called into existence to realise, and which, without it, would have had no
being. Either the Nushki-Seistan trade route is a bona-fide enterprise, upon
which we have designedly embarked, in the main, because of its commercial
possibilities, but also not without an eye to the extreme political importance
of Seistan; or it is a fortuitous and foolish experiment, not likely or intended
to succeed. In the latter case let us be wise and drop it. In the former let us
be honest, and make the best job of it that we can.
16. I have no hesitation in recommending the last named course : and I
do so, not because I am carried away by the gratifying, though modest, achieve
ments of the new trade route up to date, nor because I contemplate for it an
early and brilliant success. On the contrary I regard the obstacles and difficul
ties as considerable; and, knowing the traditional conservatism of the East, I
recognise that commerce will not readily be diverted into a new, and, at first
sight, somewhat unattractive channel. But I urge a strenuous continuation of
the venture, wuth an eye to a twofold contingency, political and commercial,
in the future.
17. In the first place if we do not continue to show an active interest in
Seistan, Russia will. If we do not give the impression there of preponderant
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’ [196r] (399/617), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/350, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100072740554.0x0000c8> [accessed 27 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