'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎124r] (252/386)

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assurance given to Mr. Grant Duff by the Mushir-ed-Dowleh in October
1904 to the effect that, if the British Government would not press tlm Hash-
mat’s case which caused them much embarassment, they would do all in their
power to further British interests in Seistan and only wanted the opportunity
to prove their sincerity.
55. This suggestion of the Government of India together with certain
unfriendly acts of the Persian Government, apparently deliberately directed
against British interests and prestige, e.g., the Urumia outrages and attack on
Captain Gough, the attack on Colonel Douglas, Military Attache, Tehran, and
Captain Lorimer, His Majesty’s Vice-Consul, Ahwaz, and the Hashmat s case,
which had formed the subject of complaint in a despatch from the Government
ot India of the 22nd December 1904, w ere all referred to the Defence Committee,
and as regards the Hashmat’s case Sir A. Hardinge was instructed on the 23rd
March 1905 that His Majesty’s Government had decided not to insist on his
retention as Governor of Seistan and that they did not wish to incur any
responsibility for the appointment of a successor, but that there would be
no objection to Sir A. Hardinge endeavouring to procure him another Gover
norship, not necessarily Kain, as Sir A. Hardinge proposed, if the Persian
Government preferred Tabas. Meanwhile the pressure exerted at iehran
had begun to tell and in April 1905, Seistan was offered to the Hashmat-
ul-Mulk and the Consul’s pledge given in 1903 was thus redeemed. But the
Hashmat refused Seistan and lingered at Tehran till the Shah’s return m hopes
of getting Kain in addition. No further information on the subject had been
received before Lord Curzon left India.
5d. Before the Hashmat, however, started for Tehran to be present at the
. meetinff of the I rovincial Governor (para -
He-norted sale of the Seistan crown meeting ui me vr
lands. graph 52) the question regarding the pur
chase of the crown lands referred to in paragraph 36 took another turn. A report
was received in July 1903 that the Russians, through the Yam in-i-Nizam or the
Customs Department, were arranging to lease from the Persian Government ail
the Khalsa lands in Seistan, as a first step for the sale of all the Seistan revenue
grain. . .
The importance of this move becomes fully apparent when it is remembered
that the lease of the Khalsa lands meant nothing less than absorbing the whole
province, because in Seistan all land is Khalsa, *>., State and ; Moreover the
land revenue administration and system m that part of Persia are such that
control over them means a complete control over the person and property ot
the whole Seistan population. No one (except the head Mulla) had proprietary
'rights, tenancy rights, or even cultivating rights in any land. The system
is°tbat over every village community Katkhudas are appointed, who purchase
their places andmle the village in all matters until they are replaced by higher
bidders. From these Katkhudas the permission to cultivate some particular
plot of land is bought annually by small groups of cultivators,. but those who
cultivated a plot in a previous year thereby acquired no prior right to hold it
• aea in. Before harvest time a fresh set of harpies arrived in the shape of
Mashrifs, *.e., crop assessors, who are appointed likewise on the payment
system by the Governor, and w r ho fattened till harvest on the unfoitunate
cultivator.
Revenue control in Seistan, therefore, carrying with it the appointment
find control of the Katkhudas and Mashrifs, means unfettered executive, finan
cial and administrative mastery of the whole country and its people, and, more
over, would bring in very large pecuniary profits if a little improvement were
made in the system of revenue collection, and if a little encouragement were
given to the extension of cultivation.
57. The rumour from Seistan that the Persian Government were arranging
to lease the Khalsa lands was reported on 8 th July 1903, to the Secretary o
State by Lord Curzon, who pointed out the danger of their al eging that they
were only discounting Crown rents as all Seistan was Khaha, and His
Excellency presumed that His Majesty’s Government, acting on the pledges of
November and December 1901, that the revenues of Seistan would never be
alienated, intended to take the strongest measures to prevent any such action.