IOR/L/PS/10/690

The volume contains papers relating to the South Persia Rifles, including its organisation, costs, control, role and status.

The principal correspondents are: the India Office; the Foreign Office; the Viceroy (Government of India), Foreign Department, Finance Department, and Army Department; the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign and Political Department; Brigadier-General Sir Percy Sykes, Inspector-General (later General Officer Commanding), South Persia Rifles; Sir Charles Murray Marling, HM Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Persia [Iran], Tehran [also spelled Teheran in this file]; the War Office; and Treasury Chambers.

The papers notably cover and include (roughly in the order they appear in the volume):

• The provision of barrack accommodation in Shiraz and Kerman
• Apportionment of the costs of the South Persia Rifles between the Government of India and HM (Imperial) Government
• Estimated expenditure on the force 1916-17, 1917-18 and 1918-19
• The frustration of government departments in London with the high level of Sykes’s expenditure and his lack of detailed estimates (ff 336-338)
• Arrangements for a proposed School for Persian Officers
• The appointment of a financial adviser from the Indian Finance Department to Persia to assist Sykes (ff 330-334)
• Discussions regarding options for the control and supervision of the force with regard to organisation, distribution and handling, and the role of the Government of India Army Department, HM Government and HM Minister in Tehran
• The position and function of the Inspector-General (Sykes) regarding political matters, including Marling’s letter to Sykes, June 1917, cautioning him not to interfere in the work of HM Consul at Shiraz and ‘impressing on [Sykes] the necessity of abstaining from overtly assuming a political role’ (ff 253-256)
• Printed copy of Sir Percy Sykes’s provisional scheme of organisation for the South Persia Rifles, forwarded to Marling, dated 26 May 1917 (ff 234-249)
• The future role of the South Persia Rifles in British policy in Persia, particularly in the context of the current Persian Government and Persian public opinion in October 1917 (ff 221-222, 226-227)
• Printed copy of Sir Percy Sykes ‘final scheme’ of organisation for the South Persia Rifles, forwarded to Marling, dated 17 August 1917, (ff 156-204)
• The supply of guns and equipment for the unit and the question of the method of payment
• Printed copy of Sir Percy Sykes’s budget estimate for the South Persia Rifles for 1917-18, forwarded to the Chief of the General Staff, Delhi, dated 17 October 1917 (ff 30-99).

The papers comprise a mixture of printed, typescript and manuscript documents and mostly consist of: India Office minute papers with manuscript notes; India Office draft letters and draft telegrams; India Office Secret and Political Department registry covering papers including the subject and notes by department officials; covering letters of the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India, with related enclosures; and copies of letters and telegrams.

At the front of the volume is a Political and Secret Department divider which gives the subject number and part number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references contained in that part by year.