"مذكرة أعدّها القس ج. ب. بادجر بشأن مطالبات بلاد فارس في بلوشستان ومكران، والتي تضمنت إشارة خاصة إلى مطالبها بجوادر وتشابهار" [و‎‎٨] (٢٠/١٥)

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10. If possession for a period of years must necessarily imply “acknowledg
ment by the local rulers,” it is the acknowledgment of helplessness. I do not for & a
moment believe that the Persian yoke is acceptable to the Sirdars of Mekran, west
of Khelat. A petition was presented to me, when at Gwadur in February last
y y ear > ^ 0I P one ^h 0 neighbouring Chiefs, and others had been forwarded to the
Commissioner at Kurrachee before my departure from that place, praying generally
for British interference against the tyranny of the “ Gujjurs” collecting the revenue.
None of these could be noticed at the time, and that addressed to myself was, if
I rightly remember, returned to the bearer unread so soon as its purport was
ascertained.
11. And yet, if we acknowledge the right of prior conquest, in the wide
sense of the word, whether for Nadir Shah on behalf of Persia, Ahmed Shah of
Candahar, or Nussir Khan of Beloochistan, it is not clear how exception can be
taken to any description of past territorial aggression and encroachment by the
same, or any of the same powers involving no stronger claim upon our interference
than direct and open warfare. ^ Moreover, the results with which we have to do
are those of a state of things in which we could not legitimately have exercised
interference at any time. At the present moment the case is different. Khelat is
our close ally. Though not bound by existing treaty to protect her frontier by
* tv tv r™ , , force, we have treated* with her, as an independent
aren“^“r£K State - t° P™tect our Telegraph up to a certain
the British Government. point within her limits, and there is now a legitimate
opening for taking exception at anv unauthorized
aggression from without, upon such boundary line. Our case, it is deferentially
submitted, wants but a ratified agreement between the powers concerned, to make
remonstrance not only legal but compulsory.
* This is not very clear, but the
conclusion is that the line included
all Mekran.
f Appendix D.
12. In an interesting paper on Khelat affairs, prepared by the son of the late
Submitted to Government. ^ i ; 0 . gha G " 1 Mahomed, and translated by Captain
Dickinson about two years ago, I find it mentioned
that a special Envoy from the Shah of Persia had come to Nussir Khan of Khelat
to settle a question of the western boundary of that province. It was then repre
sented that Persia had no claims to Kedje and Mekran, but to Minab, which
having been captured by the Khan would have to be abandoned. The boundary
was then defined to be from Kedje to Chidar* on
the sea coast. It is also asserted that there is a
well at Chidar Mullik with the inscription recording
the limits. From other evidencef on this point,
I fear that the inscription, if found at all, will only
mark the boundary of Mekran, without reference to the rights of this or that
Sovereign. At the same time it is just possible there may be some record on the
subject in the Khelat Dufter. Of treaties I am not sanguine that any exist, nor
do I feel warranted in delaying this report to communicate with those Officers
who are either already acquainted, or could readily become acquainted with the
subject.
13. Though not called upon to pass any opinions on the disposal of the
Durbars were held in my tent, the most fervent assurances of assistance ■ -
to the Telegraph Officers were made, and all that occurred to me as wanting
to secure a satisfactory arrangement was a well-defined western boundary of
the Ivhelat State, such as now acknowledged to be under the independent
control of His Highness Khoda Dad Khan ; the boundary, in fact, of western
Mekran.
This boundary, so far as the question has become intelligible to me in its
detail, is very nearly defined by the tract of country called the Dusht, and the
river known as Dusht Khor, which may be said now to mark the south
westerly independent possessions of the Khan of Khelat in Kedge. A line
drawn from the northern frontier, east of Jalk, Sibb, Kussarkundi, and such
districts as have, to all intents and purposes, fairly thrown off the Khan’s
authority to the seaboard, east of Gwadur, would not only secure to our ally
the hitherto unknown advantages of a recognized frontier, but it would more
over give that security to our own telegraphic scheme, which the existing
status does not promise. In a general political sense the matter is one of the
greatest moment.
question, I would
most respectfully
submit to the notice
of His Excellency
the Governor in
Council that the
occurrences of the
two last years have
greatly strengthen
ed the arguments
used in paragraphs
101 and 102 of mv
printed Report on
the route from Kur
rachee to Gwadur, dated 22d February 1862, and not the least forcible of all the
arguments adducible in pressing this point would be the expressed wish of the
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