File 2626/1905 ‘Persia:- Military Attaché at Meshed’ [‎22r] (48/532)

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Office, the post cannot fail to be of considerable diploma
Annex 3.
Treasury to Foreign Office.
o-. °' Treasury Chambers,
n ’ w .,i „ _ 10th January 1911.
W ith reference to your letter No. 38,002, of the • 2nd November
last relative to the post of Intelligence Officer at Meshed, I am directed
by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury to transmit here
with, to be laid before the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, copy of
a letter dated the 4th instant addressed to this Department by the War
Office, and I am to enquire whether the post in question is regarded by
the Secretary of State_ as of sufficient diplomatic, apart from military,
value to justify a continued charge in respect of it on Foreign Office
Votes on other than military grounds.
I am to add that if any Imperial contribution is made in excess of
half the officer’s pay, my Lords are disposed to think that, considering
the nature of the expenditure and the absence of any control over it
here, it should be subject to a maximum limit.
I am directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to acknowledge the
receipt of your communication of the 10th instant, forwarding copy of
a letter from the War Office relative to the permanent appointment of an
intelligence officer at His Majesty’s Consulate-General at Meshed, and to
state that Sir E. Grey is willing, if the Lords Commissioners of His
Majesty’s Treasury so decide, that half the salary attached to this post
should continue to be a charge on Foreign Office votes, though he
considers that it would be preferable that the share of all expenses
incurred under this head which is defrayed from Imperial sources should
fall on the War Office alone.
The view originally adopted by Sir E. Grey on this question was
that the maintenance of the post was a matter in no sense of Imperial
but purely of Indian interest, and though he was led partially to recede
from this principle in deference to the representations made by the
Secretary of State for India and to the opinion expressed by the Army
Council that the continued existence of such an officer was of importance
from an Imperial standpoint, he still considers that the Imperial interest
served thereby is of a purely military as distinct from a diplomatic
character.
The Under Secretary of State,
Foreign Office.
I am, &c.,
G. H. Murray.
Annex 4.
Foreign Office to Treasury.
No. 1223.
Foreign Office,
19th January 1911.
Sir,