‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎147r] (292/949)

15
83 . Persia cannot reasonably grumble at any settlement which defines and
safeguards her right to a requisite supply of water, at the threatened loss of
which she evinces such alarm.
84 ). No award will necessarily much affect the actual distribution of
water in practice, at any rate, not for a considerable period of time. The
Afghans will gradually take off more water; but unless the Helmand is
properly controlled above Seistan, or unless from natural causes, or ill-advised
or malicious irrigation works, the river is diverted into a new channel, the
Persians will always be able to take more water from the Hemand than they
want to use without depriving the Afghans of the amount they require.
85 . I trust that enough has been said to explain the water problem,
and to enable the Government of India to decide which form of solution
thereof is most suitable. The details connected with the problem have,
I fear, made this memorandum a somewhat lengthy one. I have endeavoured
throughout to effect at least one result, i.e., that, whichever award may be
selected, it will obviate any future deadlock in Seistan on water questions.
Should draft A, for instance, be selected, and the opening of a new canal,
hereafter, into Tarakun raise the question of Persian right to water for
Hauzdar, the arrangement proposed in Draft C or D could be brought into
effect through the medium of the permanent arbitrator, and so on.
A. H. McMahon, Colonel,
British Commissioner, Seistan Arbitration Commission.
Arbitral Award on the Seistan water question.
Draft A.
%
Preliminary remarks.
1. General Sir Frederick Goldsmid, as Arbitrator between Persia and
Afghanistan, was called upon to settle the question of rights to land and water
of Persia and Afghanistan in Seistan. He delivered an arbitral award on
both points in 1872 , which was confirmed by His Majesty’s Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, and accepted by the Persian and Afghan Governments
in 1873 .
2. At the time of the above award, the Helmand River had one main
distributary channel in Seistan, i.e., the Rud-i-Seistan, at the mouth of which,
in order to divert sufficient water into this Rud, was a tamarisk band known
as the Band-i-Kohak or the Band-i-Seistan. The Helmand River from thence,
onwards, flowed in one channel past Nad Ali, and along what is now known as
the Sikhsar into the Naizar and Hamun. In 1896 , a large flood caused the
river to burst out for itself a new main channel which left the old one near
Shahgul, and is now known as the Rud-i-Pariun.
3. Various disputes regarding water between Persian and Afghan Seistan,
which were caused by changes in the course of canals and in the course of the
main river, have arisen since 16 / 2 . My enquiries show that these have, until
recently, always been mutually and amicably settled by the responsible officials
concerned on both sides, i e., the Governors of Seistan and Chakansur. These
officials, who thoroughly understood each other’s water requirements, have
always shown great tact and skill in settling water disputes to the mutual
satisfaction of both countries.
4 . This satisfactory state of affairs might have continued indefinitely, but
It is a* question for consideration whether tnis during the last few years OUtside influences
. « ^ . * • i • £ J a . — * _ _ A _ 1 i
clause should stand as it is, be modified, or omitted have found their Way into Seistan which
have hindered the independent settlement
a n. mcmahoh. 0 f disputes; and, by estranging the relations
A. n. MCMAHON.
A. ' ' * ~
between the peoples concerned, have rendered amicable and mutual settlement
of water difficulties no longer possible.
5. A series of small, and in themselves unimportant, water questions arose
between 1900 and 1902 which, by reason of estranged relations, caused misunder
standing and increased ill-feeling, until matters were brought to a crisis by