IOR/L/PS/18/A145

This file consists of a note, written by Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick, member of the Council of India, on the subject of the northernmost portion of land in the province of Baluchistan [Balochistān], south of the Durand line, which is described as being situated between British India and Kelat [Kalat] on the east side, and Persia on the west side.

The note begins by referring directly to the following letter of correspondence: 'Letter from India, No. 189, Secret,' dated 19 October 1899. The note is principally concerned with the costs and benefits of a proposed railway line, which would run from Nushki (recently taken over by the British from the Khan of Kelat) to Koh-i-Malik-Siah [Malek Sīāh Kūh], in Seistan [Sīstān].

The file questions the argument that such a railway line would counteract Russian influence in Seistan. Also discussed is the extent to which the Government of India should be expected to finance such a scheme. Fitzpatrick makes the argument that it is wider Imperial interests, rather than those of the Government of India, which are most at stake, and that therefore a distribution of the cost should be made by fixed shares, rather than by relying solely on Indian revenues. He concludes by referring to a note that he wrote some months earlier, in which he advised that the control of all British affairs west of Baluchistan and Afghanistan should be vested exclusively in the Foreign Office.