‏"ملخص الأحداث والتدابير الرئيسية التي اتخذها سمو نائب الملك اللورد كرزون من كيدلستون، نائب الملك والحاكم العام للهند في إدارة الخارجية. ‏I‏. يناير ١٨٩٩-أبريل ١٩٠٤. ‏II‏. ديسمبر ١٩٠٤-نوفمبر ١٩٠٥. المجلد IV. بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي." [ظ‎‎٢‎٤] (٣٨٤/٥٣)

36
be
to intending travellers from Quetta. Carriers of innocent
frequently in JP 0 ^ sl . i q ^ entered. Penal regulations were enforced
arr X". “ sxi S"';— b„. ^ 7r « .u
witn a a fll n v organised. Customs were levied on the flocks
o^nomad*Afghans and Baluchis who crossed the Persian border in their search
for 'pasture. A i tempts were made to deny to traders from Afghanistan the
U Pfitl nf intervention by the British Consul. The presence of a British
Misshm on the Perso-Afghan border provided a peculiar opportun.ty for insult
and annoyance. The pafsage of Mission stores was impeded. Supplies were
seized?antfthe beasts which carried them impounded. Imputations were levied
that he Mission Camp was being made the centre of a wholesale illicit traffic;
J' \ nttpmnts were made to prove that the Mission was the cause of scarcity
and famine, while crops lay^ncut in the fields and cultivators were unable to
find a market for their produce.
Nor was the sphere of Belgian activity confined to purely Customs measures
Posts, passports, and quarantine were in their charge, anc the management Oi
each became in Belgian hards a source of annoyance and a means of
obstruction. In 1900, the Persian Government had prescribed a system
which required that every foreign traveller
The passport system. should own a passport bearing the
rwa of a Persian Consular official, or of a Passport Officer in Persia.
In 1902, the rules were revised, and the fees were enhanced. Ordinary
travellers were required to pay a charge of 12 krans 12 shahis, and labourers
and porters a fee of 4 krans 10 shahis, for the visa of their passports. In
August 1903, the Persian Government determined to apply the orders on the
Seistan border, and deputed a Passport Officer for the purpose. The introduc
tion of the system among the ignorant Baluchis and Afghans, who formed the
hulk of foreign travellers in Seistan, was obviously a matter requiring the
exercise of considerable tacti under Bussian influence the inles weie enforced
with an unreasoning severity which added a fresh impediment to British
trade. The newly-appointed official had hardly assumed his duties, when he
called upon the * Governor to assist in requiring the members of Colonel
McMahon’s Mission to take out passports. The "Governor declined his help,
and the attempt was abandoned. But no opportunity was lost of insisting on
the new procedure in the case of Afghans visiting the Mission camp. The fee
itself was burdensome; and the levy of the due was made a constant source of
hardship and annoyance to British traders in Seistan and to merchants and
carriers arriving from India. The first incumbent of the post of Passport
Officer was soon dismissed. It is a suggestive fact that he was at once taken
into Russian employ. For a time the service remained in abeyance. But it
was soon revived under the auspices of the Belgian Customs Administration.
Thenceforward the possession of passp orts was enforced with renewed vigour.
Every Afghan who crossed the border on a casual visit to the Persian side
was required to take out a passport and to pay the full fee. By an informal
arrangement, M. Molitor subsequently consented to exempt from the charge
all Afghans other than bond fide traders or travellers. But the existence of
the rule supplied the underling officials posted on the frontier with oppor
tunities of extortion, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. It is
W(rthy of note that General Schindler, Chief of the Passport Bureau at Tehran,
informed a member of His Majesty’s Legation that the accounts of the
Department for the province of Seistan showed a deficit of £1,400 in a single
year.
The attitude of the Belgian officers made the position of the British
Consul one of great difficulty. The
interests of British trade and the mainte
nance of British prestige required an
unremitting watchfulness and frequent intervention. During this period the
post of Consul was held successively by Major Benn, by Mr. Dobbs, by Captain
Ramsay, and by Captain Macpherson. Each of these officers went to Seistan
animated by a desire to remain on good terms with the Belgian and Russian