![‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [‎262r] (531/617)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003ba/Mss Eur F111_350_0541.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [‎262r] (531/617)")
‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [262r] (531/617)
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.
To
No. 0 f 1899.
GOVERNMENT of INDIA
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.
SECRET.
External.
The Right Hon’ble LORD GEORGE E. HAMILTON,
Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for India.
:1:
My Lord,
Simla, the th September 1899.
We desire to address Your Lordship and, through Your Lordship,
Her Majesty’s Government on the subject of the relations of Great Britain
with Persia. We might find an adequate reason for so doing in the fact that
Your Lordship in your despatch of June 30th, 1899, enclosing a copy of a
recent despatch to the Eoreign Office from Sir M. Durand, Her Majesty’s
Minister at Tehran, concerning the maintenance of our influence in Persia,
has directly invited an expression of the views of the Government of India
upon this matter; and, while calling our attention to the desirability of improv
ing the Political and Consular Service in that country, has at the same time
stated your desire to he made acquainted with our opinions upon the remaining
questions discussed by Sir M. Durand. But, in any case, we should have felt
it our duty at an early date to address Your Lordship on the subject. Although
the relations of Great Britain with Persia have for a period of exactly a century
occupied a large, and perhaps at times a disproportionate, space upon the field
of international diplomacy ; although during that time Great Britain has twice
broken off diplomatic relations and has once been at war with Persia in
vindication of British interests in or upon the borders of that country; and,
although large sums of money have been throughout the present century and
are still annually expended in the maintenance of those interests, both by Her
Majesty’s Government and by the Government of India, we have not been
able to discover in our records any clear definition of the principles upon which
our policy towards the Persian kingdom is based, of the objects which it should
keep in view, or of the scope and limits of the respective shares of responsibility,
political and financial, which should be assumed by the two partners, viz.. Her
Majesty’s Government and the Government of India, who are jointly concerned
in the defence of Anglo-Indian interests in the dominions of the Shah.
2. We feel that there is at the present time the greater need for such a
discussion because of the facts, which must be patent to all, that the Persian
Government appears well nigh to have exhausted all power of recuperation or
reform • and that the country, but feebly held together by any tie either of race,
r r S or oval y! is only saved from a fate to which it must otherwise have
Ion™ succumbed, partly by a superficial vitality not infrequently seen
in foHtical oro-anisms/especially in the East, even when m an advanced stage
of d P ecay still more by tlAival ambitions of the two great
between whom its territories are placed, and who aie the real aibiters ot ts
|
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
Use and share this item
- Share this item
‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [262r] (531/617), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/350, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100072740555.0x000084> [accessed 13 August 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100072740555.0x000084
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100072740555.0x000084">‘Seistan Persia & Seistan’ [‎262r] (531/617)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100072740555.0x000084"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003ba/Mss Eur F111_350_0541.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0003ba/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
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