Coll 28/8 ‘Persia; Diaries; Sistan & Kain, April 1927 – 1933’ [‎177r] (364/434)

CONFIDENTIAL
v O 7
»' .*
9 - MAY
Diary of His Majesty’s Consul, Sistan and Kain, for the month of February 1928
Movements of His Majesty’s Consular
Officers.
14. His Majesty’s Consul lel't Sistan
on 12th February for Delhi, but owing to
severe breaching of the line between
Nok Kundi and Ahmedwal on llth
February was unable to leave Duzdap
until the ISth. Of the next l7i days, 6
were spent on duty at Delhi, 1 at Sibi
with the Hon’ble the Agent to the
Governor-General in Baluchistan, 3 at
Quetta and 7J in the train. On the
return journey His Majesty’s Consul
spent two days at Duzdap and arrived
back in Sistan on 9th March.
15. Captain L. K. Ledger, I.M.S.,
Medical Officer and Vice-Consul, left
Sistan on the 16th February 1928 en route
for England on leave. He has been
relieved by Major R. M. Kharegat,
I.M.S.
Russian Affairs.
16. Reference paragraphs 7, 8.
The Soviet Consul and his staff are
finding time hanging very heavily on
their hands. There are no Russian sub
jects in this district and the only persons
who visit the Soviet Consulate are the
members of the “ Ittihadia Company”,
two or three of the minor Persian officials
and certain Indian residents whom the
Soviet Consul fondly supposes to be dis
loyal to the British Raj. The long-
exp- cted consignments of Russian goods
with which the shops of the Company are
to be stocked show no signs of material
izing ; they are now promised by the
middle of May, but the Sistanis are
becoming more and more sceptical. The
doctor, too, has not yet arrived.
M. Platte and his staff are thus
obliged to while away the hours listening
in on their wireless set, jolting slowly
backwards and forwards along the 3J
miles of unmetalled “ road ” which con
stitutes Sistan’s only motor promenade,
or studying the voluminous archives of
the former Russian Consulate which they
brought wuth them from Tehran. His
Majesty’s Consul understands that.what
M. Platte does not now know about con
ditions in Sistan towards the end of the
nineteenth century is not worth knowing.
17. The Consul’s efforts to acquire
more up-to-date information, on the other
hand, have not so far been very success
ful. Difficulties are placed by the local
authorities in the way of his touring
among the villages, which he is very
anxious to do, and the elaborate ques
tionnaires addressed by him to the Finan
cial Agent and the Governor have as yet
produced no result. He gives out—
possibly with truth—that he is writing a
book on Sistan wit’ll the epigrammatic
title of “ Sun and Water ”, and if he does
not collect sufficient material it will not
be for w^ant of trying. The following
persons are actively engaged in commercial
and political intelligence work for the
Soviet Consul :—
(1) Seth Taiyib Ali {vide paragraph
7 above).
(2) Haji Ghulam Husain Sarbeshagi
{vide diary for October 1927,
paragraph 83)-.
(3) (Duzdap) Khan Mohd. Samar-
qandi and his relations at the
Garage Hussain Aii.
(4) (Safidaw r a) Hussain Agha, en
gineer in charge of road
repairs.
(5) (Shusp) Lineman Kerbelai,
Mohd. Hussan.
18. No. (2) w r as sent in. the middle of
February to Duzdap wuth the following
instructions -
(i) To arrange for the collection of
statistics of the import and
export trade, particularly wdth
regard to the trade in wool,
cot! on, skins, carpets, almonds
and dried fruits.
(ii) To arrange for the submission of
lists of arrivals and departures,
with particulars of the busi
ness of each traveller.
(iii) To open up safe channels of
communication wdth Dost
Muhammad Khan of Bampur
and other chiefs of Persian
Baluchistan.
To obtain particulars of the
smuggling of magazine riff s
into the Sarhad, especially
anything that could be twisted
into evidence that the rifles
(iv)
ENCLOSURE IN
INDIA FOREIGN SECRETARY’S
Letter
Mo.
M.
Dated 19 APR 1928
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