‏"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." [و‎‎٥‎١] (٣٨٦/١٠٦)

3
7. The despatch next went on to show how the commanding position acquired
by Russia in Khorasan, owing to the proximity of the Trans-Caspian railway
and of her Central Asian garrisons, the construction of the Ashkabad-Kuchan*
Meshed cart-road and the annual expenditure of large sums of money, were being
utilized for a further and more southerly advance which threatened the British
position in Southern Persia generally. The Russification of Khorasan began in
1889 with the appointment of a Consul-General at Meshed, which was followed
by the employment of Native Agents at Birjand, Tabbas, Neh, Khaf, Turbat-i-
Haidari and Seistan and of Russian Armenians to survey the country as far as the
borders of Persia and Baluchistan. In 1895 a direct blow at the large Anglo-Indian
trade which at that time still made its way through Khorasan into the Russian
possessions in Central Asia, was struck by the inti oluction of a customs tariff in
Trans-Caspia, absolutely prohibiting the entry of all British or Indian pro
ducts except indigo, tea and muslin, and these only under a heavy duty. In
the same year M. Zaroudny, a Russian politico-geologist (Anglice, surveyor),
paid his first visit to Kain and Seistan.
8. In the meantime, in the latter part of 1896, the Government of India
decided to open up the trading route from Quetta to Seistan. This intention
indicative of prospective British interests in Seistan excited the alarm of Russia,
who welcomed the opportunity afforded by the outbreak of plague in the follow
ing year in India to strangle the new enterprise in its birth and to increase her
own influence in Seistan by establishing a protective cordon. On the pretext
of safeguarding the Perso-Afghan frontier from a disease, which existed
neither in Afghanistan nor Baluchistan, but in reality with the object of
diverting Afghan trade from Meshed to Panjdeh andMerv in Russian territory,
Russian Cossacks under Russian officers were stationed at various points
in Persia, where they turned back every caravan, and for a time closed the
Herat-Meshed road, in spite of orders to the contrary from the Persian Gov
ernment who, after a feeble protest, acquiesced in these proceedings, with the
result that for a time Southern Khorasan almost passed under Russian control.
9. In order to anticipate similar Russian intervention in Seistan, the
Government of India despatched Surgeon-Major Brazier Creagh in the spring
of 1897 to superintend any preventive measures that might be required in that
district, and he, like Lieutenant Webb Ware, who had visited Seistan in March,
reported on the ascendancy gained by Russia throughout Seistan and all along
the Perso-Afghan frontier up to Meshed.
10. The recommendations made by the British medical officer were ignored by
the Persian authorities. He had not been long in Seistan when a Russian doctor
with an escort ot eight Cossacks appeared upon the scene, a detachment of ten
Cossacks under a Russian officer being also posted at Turbat-i-Haidari, 80 miles
south of Meshed, a point of junction of several caravan roads, so as effectually
to stop any traffic to or from Seistan. It was then given out that a Russian
was to be appointed Consul in Seistan, an announcement which was immi'diately
followed by the despatch of Captain Sykes, hitherto British Consul at Kerman,
to Seistan in a similar capacity.
11. Meanwhile, in 1898, M. Zaroudny* reappeared and pushed his politico-
scientific studies as far south as Persian Baluchistan and Bampur.
12. The recrudescence of plague in India provided in 1899 an excuse for
the continuance of a ^wnsi-Russian protectorate in Southern Khorasan, and
two Russian officers, one doctor and ten Cossacks were still at Turbat-i-Haidari,
and one Russian officer, two medical assistants and ten Cossacks at Karez, while
58 Persian sowars, paid by, and taking orders from, Russian officers, were scat
tered about between Meshed and Seistan. A Russian agent with presents
valued at £1,400 was sent to the Persian Governor of Kain, who was brother to
the Governor of Seistan and was believed to covet the succession to that post.
The sanitary plea was also advanced in the course of 1899 to explain the
despatch of Russian doctors to Kerman and even to Shiraz.
13. Two propositions were established by these facts : firstly, that Russia
regarded with unconcealed aversion the opening of the British commercial route
•This gentleman with throe other Russians spent two months in 1901 on the Tfarun river, pursuing similar
Scientific researches, which included the careful survey, with soundings, of the Bahmeshir channel.