‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎68v] (135/949)

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and public utility. Also it is very necessary that the Khan’s “ sepoys Term used in English to refer to an Indian infantryman. Carries some derogatory connotations as sometimes used as a means of othering and emphasising race, colour, origins, or rank. ” employed
in the niabats should be placed entirely under the Political Adviser’s control. It
is obviously undesirable that in carrying out schemes of reform he and his staff
should have in their midst an unreliable body of armed men not subject to
his authority.
40. The first thing however is that the Political Adviser should give his
whole time to the Khan and his niabats. His Highness stands greatly in need
of some one at his elbow to whom he can turn tor advice and support and whose
influence it may be hoped, would in time have the effect of raising the tone of
the Khan’s life and surroundings and awake in him a sense of the dignity and
responsibility attaching to his high position. In the rich and productive niabats
there is a very wide field for useful development and improvement. To men
tion only a single case, the newly, started silk industry should, if persevered in,
give most satisfactory results, net only in the augmentation of the Khan’s
revenues, but in finding profitable employment for the poverty-stricken, and
therefore unsettled and lawless-people of the country.
41. The above then is the existing position of affairs in the Kalat State
and I trust the views expressed as to the issues involved and the policy to
be pursued by us in relation thereto will meet with approval. My main con
tentions briefly are:—
(1) de facto, if not de jure, the tribes are independent of the
Khan’s authority.
(2) That nevertheless the Khan, as the hereditary head of the Con
federacy, is responsible for the proper administration of the country.
(3) That we, as the dominant power in the country, have by the force
of circumstances, had the obligation laid on us of administering
the tribes on the Khan’s behalf.
It is on the virtual, if not the open, acceptance of these principles that our
whole proceedings in relation to the State have been and are based and if it is
desired to_ preserve the integrity of the State the surest, if not the only means
of doing it is to continue in the same course. Government I know are averse
to interference as far as avoidable, but after all it is not so very much that we
do. We merely seek to control the tribes and support the Chiefs by means of
tribal levies under tribal thanadars ; while as to the tbana system in general
it existed in Baluchistan long before our time and is still universal in Afghanis
tan. To attempt anything less than this would be quite ineffective; while if it
did not bring us actual discredit it would probably involve us in a situation far
more difficult and complicated than that now before us. In carrying out the system
we ask the Khan for nothing of the income he derives from his niabats: merely
for the interest of the late Khan’s hoarded treasure and if necessary for a portion
of the subsidy given him by Government for the better administration of the
State. As to the Khan’s immediate affairs both domestic and niabat we
interfere not at all.. Under our advice he adopted a beneficial scheme of
reorganisation in his niabats and now the scheme is in working order we need
have nothing more to do with it beyond keeping a general eye on the proceed
ings of the Political Adviser for whom, as he is a Government official lent to the
State, we are in a way responsible. A further advantage in the employment of
the Political Adviser is that in the event of the Khan’s death—and his health is very
indifferent and—a minority ensuing’ there would be no dislocation of the admin
istrative system as presumably nothing more would be necessary than to give
the Political Adviser somewhat fuller powers under a fuller supervision by the
Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. . ]
42. In conclusion I attach to this note a statement showing some of the
work done and the improvements effected in the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in the past four years
It will give some idea of the Political Agent’s duties and show how extensive*
a field lies before us in the pacification of this promising but backward country
in the reclaiming the tribes from their present wild and unsettled lives and in
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