Settlement of the Opposing Claims of Persia and Afghanistan to Seistan [‎441v] (30/54)

clearly essential to know whether the intention he arbitration or the delineation
of a map. * * * * If Government did not judge necessary to send an
officer of my rank at all on the less important duty above-noted, and arbitration
on the spot were indeed set aside, I could make no fitter suggestion than that
contained in my semi-official to your address, dated Kirman, 2nd January last.
Captain St. John, ft. E., late Acting Director of the Persian Telegraph, now in
Teheran, possesses, in my opinion, the qualifications necessary to survey and
map out the territories under discussion, as well as obtain data, political and
geographical, for examination and investigation at Teheran with a view to ulti
mate settlement.”
3. In submitting these extracts to Your Excellency, I solicit information
whether the Persian Government is likely to modify the purport of the Minis
terial memoranda above-noted to the extent of admitting arbitration on the
spot as before agreed, and, if so, whether the arbitration may be of the com
prehensive character contemplated in my instructions of last August, or
whether limited to the territory up to this period unsubdued by Persia in
Seistan.
Dated Gulahek, the 23rd July 1871.
From—C. Alison, Esq., c. b., Her Britannic Majesty^s Minister at Teheran.
To —Major-General F. J. Goldsmid, c. b., on Special Mission, Gulahek.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday,
and to state that I concur in the opinion that the circumstances which led to
the complications and misunderstandings with the Persian Commissioner res
pecting the settlement of the Perso-Khelat Boundary, should he avoided with
regard to the Seistan Question.
The views of the King on this question were clearly defined and communi
cated to this Legation in his autograph of the 10th April 1870. His Majesty
required that the Queen’s Government should arbitrate according to treaty,
that is, to exercise their good offices for the settlement of their differences with
the Afghans about Seistan; hut the Persian Government, on being pressed to
submit the question to arbitration, proposed a measure in which Her Majesty’s
Government could not in justice concur. They are either unable or unwilling
to define on a map the portion of Seistan actually in their possession, and it
is obvious that this point must he made clear before any settlement of the
general question can be possible.
. would, therefore, seem advisable that English and Persian and Afghan
engineer officers should, in the first instance, proceed to the spot furnished with
clear instructions to prepare a map specifying the actual possessions of Persia
and Afghanistan in Seistan, and report upon the date of acquisition and the
circumstances attending it. The frontier line could then he settled either by
ai bitiation on the spot, or by negotiation.
. r ^ ei, ence to the third paragraph of your letter, it is obvious that
e re ^ ian Government is adverse to the principle of comprehensive arbitra
tion. They wish the good offices of Her Majesty’s Government to be exercised
the i m m T tlle 1 P oss ession of what they profess to have acquired
them W r 6 , 7 he i n , Lo T rd Russell’s despatch of the 5th November 1863 left
under -nn-h'pp i but Ip thmk that n0 P ermanent settlement of the question
alluded to ^ ^ effected with out the preliminary information herein
No. 143, dated Gulahek, the 25th July 1871.
Fiora— Major-General F. J. Goldsmid, c. b., on Special Mission.
To Her Britannic Majesty's Minister at Teheran.
No. f Your Excellency’s reply to my letter
4 b I have the honor to solicit information whether