تقارير ومراسلات تتعلق ببلاد فارس، بما يشمل التجارة ومساراتها في بلاد فارس [ظ‎‎١‎٠‎٢] (٢٥٢/٢٠٤)

4
13 th October. —Mr. Miller said he had received a letter from a friend
in Bokhara asking whether there was any chance of the British Consul allowing
him to travel to India by the Seistan route. ]\lr. Miller, in his question on
this point, anticipated a refusal, so I did not encourage the idea and merely said
that if any Russian officer wished to travel to India by this route he must
arrange it with his own Government. Mr. Miller said that he did not want to
do that, so I said in that case there was no chance of his travelling by this
route. < ° /
14 th October .—Two men came with sixty camels from Herat having
travelled by JFarah. They said the Amir has issued orders that no product of
Herat was to go to Russia, but that it was to go to India either through
Kandahar or by the Seistau route, the Bunder Abbas route, not being recom
mended.
The two Afghans said that four hundred more camels were coming from
Herat after them, and that many more would come, that this route would be
more popular than through Kandahar, where heavy duties were demanded. I
gave them letters to officers in Quetta, and they were each given a lungi for the
honour of being the first to travel from Herat, during my time, to Quetta.
loth October .—Received a visit from the Amir. He was, as usual, very
friendly and told me a great deal about sport in Seistan.
As I cannot hire mules here for transport when I move he very kindlv
offered to place as many of his mules as I liked at my disposal any time i
went into camp. This is a great convenience to me and is a mark of his
friendly feelings towards me.
General Remarks.
There is a very marked change in the demeanour of all the people of
Seistan towards the British Consulate from what it was when I came. I am
less watched and less talked about. Everyone has accepted the fact of a
British Consulate being here. Men who formerly only dared to visit me by
night from fear of being thought too friendly with us now come on business
openly. I also notice that any secret informants I have have now nothin<>‘ to
report when they come. All this, I think, is very satisfactory and leaves us
free now to develop trade with all the ingenuity possible and so secure as
rapidly as we can the benefits which are open to us by the closer connection
India has with Persia through the Seistan-Nushki route.
Persians of any intelligence with whom I talk fully comprehend not only
the commercial importance of this route wffiich they place very high, but also
the political value to Persia there is in having the English and India within
easy communication.
I hope it may not be long before the telegraph line now at Nushki be
extended to Kela Rabat as I have before remarked, no ground could, in my
mind, be more suited for telegraph poles than that between Nushki and Rabat.
From Birjand I receive satisfactory reports of progress, and hear that the
Seistan route is occupying the attention of all traders who even go so far as to
say that the Bunder Abbas route, as far as they are concerned, is doomed.
G. CHENEVIX-TRENCH, Major,
Her Britannic Majesty's Consul Jor Seistan.
Exd.—B. M.
0.1. C. P. 0.— No. 3x5 P. D.—23-1M90Q—31.