IOR/L/PS/5/262, ff 385-516

Despatch from the Foreign Department, Government of India, to the Secretary of State for India, No. 85 of 1869, dated 16 March 1869, with an abstract and enclosures numbered 3-40 dated 15 December 1864-15 March 1869.

In this despatch the Secretary of State for India is addressed by the Government of India, in liaison with the Government of Bombay and other British officials, on the matter of the ‘repeated encroachments’ (f 385) of Persia [Iran] in the direction of the frontiers of Afghanistan [also spelled Affghanistan in this item], Seistan [Sistan], Khelat [Kalat, also spelled Kelat in this item] and Mekran [Makran]. The Secretary of State is urged to commence negotiations, through the Minister for Foreign Affairs, with the Persian Government, in order to: ‘place matters on a more sound and satisfactory footing’; ‘put an end to the irritating contentions which must always arise when the boundaries of various States are uncertain or ill-defined’; ‘define and fix the eastern boundaries of the Persian Empire’; and to ‘see independent and friendly powers established between its own [British] frontiers and the regions of Central Asia’ (f 386).

The papers notably include the following:

• A paper, dated 15 December 1864, by Robert Grant Watson, diplomat attached to the British Legation in Persia (and subsequently author of A History of Persia From the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century to the Year 1858, published 1866), addressed to Sir Charles Alison, HM Minister in Persia, detailing ‘the actual boundaries of the kingdom of Persia and … the most prominent circumstances that led to the adoption of the various frontiers of that country’ (ff 392-398)
• ‘Note on the relations of Seistan with Afghanistan and Persia, by the Officiating Under-Secretary [Charles Girdlestone], – Fort William, 20th December 1867’ (ff 399-403)
• Information on the claims of Persia and Afghanistan to the sovereignty of Seistan, obtained in 1867 from Taj Mahomed Khan [Tāj Muḥammad Khān, also spelled Muhummud in this item], former Governor of Seistan (ff 405-410)
• A summary, by the Political Superintendent, Frontier of Upper Sind [Sindh], of the political state of Seistan and the advance of Persian forces on the right bank of the Helmund [Helmand] River, dated 14 January 1869 (ff 434-436). This is accompanied by a sketch map, catalogued as IOR/L/PS/5/262, f 436
• Correspondence regarding the recent activities of Ibrahim Khan [Ibrāhīm Khān], Persian Governor of Bunpoor [Bampur, also spelled Banpoor in this item], notably his rumoured intentions to send an expedition into the territories of the Khan [Khān] of Khelat and alleged attempts to obstruct the extension of the British telegraph land line along the Mekran Coast (ff 411-432 and ff 438-448)
• ‘Memorandum on the Southern and Western Frontiers of Persia, By the Assistant Secretary, Foreign Department’ (ff 449-506)
• ‘Supplementary Memorandum on the Territorial Rights of Persia to the Eastward’ (ff 507-516) by James Talboys Wheeler, dated 22 March 1869.

The principal correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; the Government of India; Captain Edward Charles Ross, Assistant Political Agent, Gwadur [Gwadar], Mekran; Sir Charles Alison, HM Minister in Persia; British officials in Sind; the Ruler of Kej [Kech, also spelled Kedj and Kedge in this item]; and the Governor of Bunpoor.

The Political Despatch was received in the India Office Secret Department between 12 and 26 April 1869, and a copy was sent to the Foreign Office on 5 May 1869.