"سيستان، بلاد فارس وسيستان" [و‎‎٢‎٦‎٥] (٦١٧/٥٣٧)

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area of jurisdietTon, loulVbrgten^^fUherM^ctlon^^^^^ h! - ° ffioial
compeUeTtohirehou^eaccomStio^at” 6 '’ m ° nthS ^ were
are made recurrent, we are incHned tn tblv A ? WU eSpen . se - If th <*e visits
to be open either to purchase or to rent a site should 3 l' 1 " su '* a .^ e house appears
erected thereon. To this suggestion also we wiU reverf 6 and a ho ®o
considerable importance; and were it not for+i,VA f • n 18 a P lace °f
long been exercised there by the officials of tho tV^’ 1161106 that has fol ‘
Department, British interests^ must have suffe Indo-European Telegraph
they have hitherto been exposer ° m the “oglect to which
important cities and trad^centres^ of 6 Yezd* ari< ' Shiraz c °ntain the
the principal postal and 0^^ tracks of Persia Ch’ by ° Ue ° f
districts lie south of the natural line of rh'vi*oin i l °? 1 tllese towns an d
Persia; and in both British commercial and nolith.Tf 6 ' 11 i sortle ™ and Southern
years, been actively vindicated In September^^ M?' >?’ “ re ° ent
CoMufaVyezd ^Sir^i 11 !) 1 ° f t ] he Im P erialBank ’ was appointed unpairVffie!
to Bund..Abb^
cally desu able that British commercial interests should he represented by some
one not engaged m business or trade. We will for the mo^en “
comments upon this suggestion. At Kerman, which is the capital of an
important province, and the seat of a Governor-General, the appointment of
a British Consul which was first sanctioned under exceptional P cLumstances
m the case of Captain Sykes m 1894, has at frequent intervals since, the
atest being our despatch of August 10th, 1898, been the subject of discussion
between Her Majesty s Government and the Government of India. The
present position is this, that for 5 years the Government of India have expressed
their willingness to contribute one-half of the cost of the Kerman Consulate up
to. a limit of Bs.. 6,000 per annum. The views of the Foreign Office upon
this proposal, which was communicated to it by Your Lordship on September
21st, 1898, have not yet been received by us. Sir M. Durand now proposes
that this Consulate should be made permanent, and that possibly a native
agent under its orders should he sent to Bampur. Before discussing these pro
posals, u e think it advisable to analyse the larger issues raised by the questions
of Seistan and the Persian Gulf.
20. Concerning Seistan, its importance and the present position there, we
refer Your Lordship to a Minute which has been written by the Viceroy, who
has made a special study of the question, and which is enclosed with this
despatch. The facts enumerated by him are, we think, sufficient to show that
Seistan is, by reason of its geographical position in relation both to North
Khorasan, to Western Afghanistan, to British Baluchistan, and to the Persian
Gulf, a position of no small strategical importance. Seistan is the present
meeting point of the advanced pioneers of British and Bussian influence.
Perhaps on the whole, owing to recent activity on our part, the British position
and chances are the more hopeful. It is essential in the future, for reasons
which have been argued in the Viceroy’s Minute, that Seistan should be retained
in the British zone. It is fortunately not too late to secure that consummation.
The steps wdiich should be taken with that object will be examined when we
formulate our final recommendations at the close of this despatch.
21. South of Seistan lies the still imperfectly known district of Persian
Baluchistan. Every year this province is being brought into closer contact
with British associations, partly from the visits of British officers, partly from
the wide-spreading influence exercised by the Nushki-Seistan Trade route,
still more from the close connections, political and racial, prevailing between
the inhabitants of the two sides of the Perso-Baluch border—a condition of
affairs which is likely to be confirmed by the inevitable increase of British
influence in the dominions of the Khan of Kalat.
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