File 3939/1926 Pt 5 'Revision of Aitchison's Treaties: Persia, Seistan, Kerman and Persian Baluchistan' [‎39v] (72/558)

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PERSIA—SISTAN.
i
ground of the alleged intention of Dost Muhammad Khan to require the
submission of Sistan. In 1863 Persia, again apprehensive of an inv asion
of Sistan by Dost Muhammad Khan, who was then engaged in the ex-
pedition against Herat, was anxious to obtain an assurance that the
British Government would not permit any such invasion of p ersian
territory; but the British Government declined to interfere in the matter
and left it to both parties to make good their possession by force of arms'
Towards the end of 1865 an armed advance was made into Sistan by
Persia, with the alleged object of enabling Taj Muhammad to keep i n
check Baluch raiders who had committed depredations on Persian
territory. In 1867 the dominion of Persia over the part of Sistan, south
west of the Helmand, was completed by the removal of Taj Muhammad
his brother and his uncle to Tehran. Thenceforward it was the aim of
Persia to obtain possession of the territory of Ibrahim Khan of Chakan-
sur, north of the Ilelmand; and Mir Alam Khan, the Persian Governor
of Kain, succeeded in occupying the whole of Sistan proper; i.e., the
country lying between the Hamun on the north and west, and the
Helmand, below the Kohak dam, on the east. During the civil wars
which after the death of Dost Muhammad Khan distracted Afghanistan*
the progress of the Persians met with little opposition; but on the estab
lishment of Amir Sher Ali Khan’s power the Afghans found themselves
in a position to retaliate, and raids on both sides of the border became of
constant occurrence.
ot tne British Government in placing the relations of Persia with
Afghanistan with regard to Sistan on a more satisfactory footing, the
British Minister at Tehran was, under article 6 of the Treaty of 1857,
instructed to offer British arbitration on the question of the sovereignty
an oundanes of the whole of Sistan on both sides of the river Helmand,
till 6 baS18ancient ^t and present possession. The Shah even-
Per 7 a commis sioners on the part of the British Government,
tw Tt l A1 ^ ani8tan * respectively, should meet in Sistan, where the
noint fnr +W the commissioners were to proceed to any
Brit s! coml- PU ' 1>OSe and make a ma P <> f ‘ho districts; that, when the
the iX“ i COnS,de r d ,' hat oould he done o„
would be fully discu,™/wii|, 0 " . proceed to Tehran, where the subject
Commissioner would state t,* ” '•' e - W t0 lts set tlement, and the British
either the Persian or AKdil T !' 111011 as ai 'bitrator; and that, should
reference should be made 8 to the^lTv w. n<>t aSlee t0 th ‘ S 0 P iuio11 '
should be final and bindim? on 1 Gover nment, whose decision
some delay caused by the troubles in A f 0 . Ver ““ ellt9 - Accordingly, after
mad Yakub Khan’s rebellim *1 * ghamstan consequent on Muham-
reoellion, the commissioners met on the frontier