IOR/L/PS/10/455/2

Part 2 relates to discussion between the Government of India, the India Office, and the Foreign Office regarding the possible revision of the Anglo-Russian Agreement [the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907].

Included is a memorandum, dated August 1915 and produced by the India Office's Political Department, which is entitled 'Revision of Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907'. The memorandum discusses in great detail British interests regarding Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, the Russo-Afghan frontier, and the Hunza boundary. On the subject of Persia, the memorandum discusses possible rearrangements of the Russian and neutral spheres of Persia in favour of British strategic interests. Regarding Tibet and Afghanistan, the memorandum recounts meetings between the British and Russian Governments, following the completion of the Tibet Convention [between Britain, China and Tibet, completed on 27 April 1914, but not signed by China], in which Britain sought Russia's acceptance of the Convention, and in return agreed not to support any demand made by British subjects for irrigations works, railways, or any commercial or industrial enterprises in Northern Afghanistan.

Appended to the memorandum are copies of telegrams between the Viceroy of India [Charles Hardinge] and the Secretary of State for India [Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes], a draft formula between Britain and Russia regarding Afghanistan, and extracts from Anglo-Russian protocols relating to irrigation rights on the Russo-Afghan frontier (dated 1885, 1887 and 1893 respectively).

In addition to the memorandum, this part of the volume includes the following:

• remarks from General Edmund George Barrow (Military Secretary, India Office) regarding rearrangements of the spheres in Persia;
• two sketch maps of Persia showing suggested lines of demarcation;
• copies of telegrams from Sir George William Buchanan, Ambassador to Petrograd [Saint Petersburg], to the Foreign Office, recounting meetings in Petrograd with the Russian Minister at Tehran, on the subject of a new agreement regarding Persia;
• copies of telegrams from the British Minister at Tehran, Charles Murray Marling, to the Foreign Office, reporting on a press campaign in Persia in favour of abrogation of the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907.

The French material in this part of the volume consists of a short quotation from a memorandum from the Russian Ambassador, which appears in the Political and Secret Department memorandum mentioned above.