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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [233v] (473/798)
The record is made up of 1 volume (395 folios). It was created in Dec 1869-Dec 1870. 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.
458
We now desire to lay before Her Majesty’s Government certain
points which should, we think, be borne in mind in considering the
question of the boundaries of Persia on the one hand, and Belooch
istan and Seistan on the other.
We would draw special attention to the fact that the occupation
of part of Seistan up to the Helmund by Persia during the last few
years appears to have been accomplished by way of stealthy advance
and gradual encroachment during the troubles in Affghanistan, rather
than by an open assertion of her right by force of arms. In a strategic
point of view, the advance of Persia along the fertile valley of the
Helmund is a far more formidable menace to Affghanistan than her
advance upon Herat, which the British Government has spent so
much blood and money to counteract, and which was finally checked
by the Treaty of Paris of March 1857. If hostilities between Persia
and Affghanistan were to be permitted, while we do not overlook the
serious danger that would arise to Affghanistan from the machinations
of disaffected subjects and refugees, who would make common cause
with Persia, we are fully persuaded that the Ameer would strain every
nerve to recover all that he has lost in Seistan, and might probably
succeed in driving the Persians from the province. He is fully alive
to the danger which threatens him from the position which Persia
occupies on the Helmund. The Ameer has remarked to our Agent
that “troops from Seistan, via Helmund, can come to Candahar
“ without any hill or other impediments. ,,
Ihe dangers to Affghanistan are well described in the extract
* In a strategical sense, and with reference to the well- ^ rom our Proceedings
known ambition of Persia towards Affghanistan, her occu- for March 1869 which
pation of Hosseinabad is a flank movement of incalculable . ’
importance. we quote in the mar-
By it she completely turns Herat, Furrah, and Lash-
Jo wain, neutralizes them in short, without endangering her
rear communications.
Politically speaking^ she lays the axe at the root of
Affghan neutrality and independence, because in Seistan she
holds a more dominating position than her possession of country Ot great icr-
Herat and Furrah would have afforded her. ... ^
The occupation of Kheirabad, about 40 or 50 miles higher an d bearing
up theHelmund, during the present year will greatly con- trappy that
sohdate these well-laid and ably executed plans; and there
can be no doubt that such will take place, unless some
powerful preventive be immediately interposed.
gin.* Persia will ob
tain for herself, as a
base of operations, a
country of great fer-
it once
was under high cul
tivation. Not only
could a force de
spatched from thence
of
The present information dispels at once the idea so long
prevalent, that impassable deserts interpose an insuperable
barrier between Persia and Khelat. On the contrary, the
rassL U wr i re - P ° r V sh vi W tha ^ from a l)ase in 1>ersian Kho " r each any point m
rassan which is a highly productive country, a large army f P
can advance by water for nearly 200 miles to Kheirabad attack m Affghanistan
bot^routes^being^wel^watered^d'si^ppHed !^ 6 ^ With far ^ eater ^
than from any spot
that Persia now possesses, or indeed that she has hitherto menaced,
but Persia would also experience far less difficulty in organizing and
maintaining in it a force awaiting an opportunity of action. TVere
Herat now besieged again, there would be little chance of its escape,
About this item
- Content
Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the 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. from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1870. The letters are dated December 1869-December 1870. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:
- Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Muscat
- Abstracts of Letters received from Aden
- Abstracts of Letters received from Muscat
- Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire [Bushehr]
- Abstracts of Letters received from Aden and Zanzibar
- Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and Aden
- Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Aden.
Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:
- Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
- Public works, including: railways, including a proposed railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; roads; canals; irrigation; docks; and river embankments
- Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
- Land issues, including: the cultivation of cotton, cinchona, and silk; forestry; and coal mining
- Education
- Banking
- Telegraphy, including international telegraphic links to India
- Affairs concerning Princely States, including internal administration, debts, allowances, issues of succession, investment in railways, and territorial claims
- Issues around emigration from India to British and French colonies
- Legislative and judicial affairs, including the question of jurisdiction over British subjects in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- Military affairs, including the organisation and supply of military units and a proposed naval force for the Indian seas and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- Frontier affairs: relations with tribes on the Northwest and Northeast Frontiers and frontier raids
- Affairs in Persia [Iran], including: Persian claims to sovereignty over Bahrein [Bahrain] and objection to British actions in Bahrein; frontier disputes around Khelat [Kalat], Mekran [Makran], and Seistan [Sistan] and proposed arbitration of the Persian-Afghan border; anticipated food shortages and subsequent disturbances involving British subjects exporting grain from Bushire
- Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, including: the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of Syud Azan [Azzān bin Qays Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; debates around British policy towards Syud Azan; confrontation between Muscat and the Wahabees [Waḥabī movement]; the issue of the Zanzibar subsidy; and Syud Azan’s claims to Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], Gwadur [Gwadar], Charbar [Chabahar] and other territories on the Mekran Coast
- Affairs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including: the campaign of Colonel Lewis Pelly in Bahrein and the installation of Esau bin Ali [‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah] as Ruler; trade and shipping in the Gulf; the desire of the Shah of Persia for a naval presence in the Gulf; Dutch and Turkish [Ottoman] activity in the region; and tensions between Bahrein and the Wahabees, including Wahabee inroads in the Guttur peninsula [Qatar]
- Affairs in Affghanistan [Afghanistan], including relations with Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara] and Russia
- Central Asian affairs, including the Russian advance in the region, trade and communication from India to Central Asia via Cashmere [Kashmir] and Ladak [Ladakh], and affairs in Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang]
- Affairs in Zanzibar, including the slave trade, relations with Muscat, the death of Syud Majid [Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], and the accession to the throne of Syud Burgash [Barghash bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
- Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including: relations with neighbouring polities, including Lahej [Laḥij Sultanate], Houshebi [Ḥawshabī Sultanate], Fodtheli [Faḍlī Sultanate], and Kathiree [Kathīrī Sultanate]; the purchase of Little Aden; the defences of Aden; an attack on Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] from Aseer [‘Asir] and the threat to Lahej from the Zaidees [Zaidīs]
- Affairs in the Red Sea, including attempted French, Austrian, Turkish, and Egyptian inroads in the region
- Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar], Bhootan [Bhutan], and Nipal [Nepal].
The primary correspondents are:
- The Government of India
- The Viceroy and Governor-General of India
- The Resident at Aden
- The Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- 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. in Muscat
- 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. in Zanzibar.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (395 folios)
- Arrangement
The abstracts are arranged in roughly chronological order. A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 384-393.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 395; 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. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers.
Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [233v] (473/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113393.0x00004a> [accessed 20 August 2026]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/CA10
- Title
- 'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:116v, 119r:395v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence