IOR/L/MIL/5/806

The file chiefly comprises typescript and some manuscript copies of letters, memoranda, notes and minutes by General Herbert Vaughan Cox. There are three letters to Cox from external correspondents, some printed memoranda and one cutting from the Morning Post.

Folios 1-2 comprise a list of the file documents, numbered 1-55, including type of document, addressee, date, and normally an indication of the subject. The fifty-five documents are numbered in blue pencil in the top right hand corner of the first page. Note that the contents list is not exhaustive and there are sometimes related documents between those marked with blue pencil. (There is duplication of some memoranda in the file; duplicates contain very minor differences).

The content comprises information, advice and opinions of General Cox to the War Cabinet, War Office and other government and military officers, mainly relating to British military strategy in Afghanistan, Persia [Iran], Trans-Caspia [Central Asia], the Caucasus, Mesopotamia [Iraq] and India, including:

• Securing British interests in Persia, Afghanistan, the Caspian Sea and British India, against Turco-German threats, prior to the November 1918 Armistice
• Fall of Baku (in modern Azerbaijan) to Turkish forces in September 1918 and the role of commanding officer Major General Lionel Charles Dunsterville
• Strategic importance of the Siestan [Sistan] railway (part of the Trans-Baluchistan railway)
• British policy regarding interests in ‘the East’ at the Paris Peace Conference 1919, notably North West Persia, Mesopotamia, the new republics west of the Caspian Sea, new Armenia, Syria and Palestine
• The Malleson Mission, led by Major General Sir Wilfrid Malleson, whose role after the Armistice was to protect North East Persia (or Trans-Caspia, modern Turkmenistan), from Bolshevik incursions and influence
• British military and diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, notably frontiers after the Armistice and following the assassination of Habibullah Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, in February 1919
• Turbulent situation in Waziristan, October 1919 and impact on Indian Army
• Indian Army organization, command, military requirements, training and instruction, and composition
• Command structure of the British Imperial Army in the East, senior appointments, organization and military requirements.