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‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [247v] (502/617)
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.
British sphere of influence in the centre and south. It is to a more critical
examination of this subject that we now turn.
14 Sir M. Durand has in his despatch drawn a line across Persia from
Khanikin on the Turkish frontier on the west, through Kermanshah, Hamadan,
Ispahan, Yezd and Kerman to Seistan and the Afghan frontier on the east,
as indicating approximately the existing line of partition between the British
and Russian spheres of influence both political and commercial in Persia.
15. Polio wing the same order from the west, we concur with what he has
written about tbe importance of fostering the Baghdad trade route via Kerman
shah to Tehran, British commerce by which approaches in value to £1,000,000
per annum. This is a route of peculiar value both to British and to Indian
trade, and one upon which we should on no account forfeit the supremacy.
We have no hesitation in recommending, with Sir M. Durand, the substitution
of a British Vice-Consul at Kermanshah for the present
native agent
Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government.
: although
we think that the cost of the proposed appointment which lies outside of what
may be called the more strictly Indian zone, and which will be subordinate to
the Consulate-General at Tehran, should be borne by Imperial and not by
Indian revenues.
16. Whatever be the prospects of opening up, either by road or by railway
(and concerning the latter we are sceptical), the country that lies northward of
the Karun River, and that is inhabited by the Lurs and other nomad tribes, it
is certain that British influence has obtained a material foothold in that corner
of the Shah’s dominions, through which the Karun flows in its middle and lower
course, and where the road now being constructed through the Bakhtiari
country, by contract between the Bakhtiari Chiefs and Messrs. Lynch, should
open an alternative and almost exclusively British door of commercial access to
Ispahan. We do not express any opinion as to the ideas which Sir M. Durand
has more than once put forward as to the desirability of raising a local irregular
force under British officers from the tribes in this part of Persia. Such a
scheme would appear to postulate a firmer and more permanent footing than
we have as yet established in South-West Persia. Nevertheless we think that
no opportunity should be lost of strengthening our influence with the Arab,
Bakhtiari and Lur tribes—an effort to challenge which from a rival quarter
appears likely before long to be made—and we concur in Sir M. Durand’s
recommendations as to tbe desirability of establishing a Consulate on the
Karun, reserving for a subsequent paragraph our opinion as to the proper
incidence of the cost.
n , o ^ O wo liclVtJ UUbllA/U IIULLL tilt? ICCGILl
? e ? 0r t.°f D. Preece, Her Majesty’s Consul at Ispahan, that
-DiTtisii trade in Ispahan has shown dniMno* -flio loof -rmow. n'r n-n
17. Continuing in an easterly direction, we have noticed from the recent
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’ [247v] (502/617), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/350, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100072740555.0x000067> [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