'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎235] (270/714)

THE SEISTAN QUESTION
235
Chakhansur, and heard a true account of the tragedy. Ibrahim
Khan was, it appeared, a savage, semi-lunatic kind of barbarian,
much given to charras and hhanj (intoxicating drinks), and he
had shot Di. loibes while hunting wild fowl on the lake, in a freak
of spoitive inebriation. 1 About the same time another young officer,
Lieutenant Pattinson, approaching the Helmund from the Afghan
side, explored its course from Zamindawer to the Seistan Lake. He
too was killed a year or two later in an outbreak at Kandahar, fol
lowing upon the Kabul tragedy. A few years later—viz. in 1845
the French officer Ferrier was in Seistan, of which he has left a
description in his interesting book. 2 KhanikofF, the Russian, whose
services to science are not enhanced by his jealous depreciation of
the labours of any English predecessor in the same field, was here
in 1859, 3 and crossed the Desert of Lut to Kerman. This was the
sum total ot European travellers who had left any record of Seistan
prior to the despatch of General Goldsmid and his colleagues. 4
I now approach the subject to which I have hitherto been
leading up, and whose existence I have indicated by the title
Political whicl11 have ^ iveu to this chapter. The Seistan Question,
value Of however, is not the old question of the boundary, or of
the rival claims of Persia and Afghanistan. It is the
future question of the part, if any, that Seistan is likely to play or
is capable of playing in the politics of Central Asia, and in the
diplomatic or military strategy of Russia and Great Britain. 5
Inspection of the map with the aid of a pair of compasses will show
that the province of Seistan lies about midway between Meshed
and the sea. Its situation, therefore, constitutes it a sort of
advanced outpost of Khorasan, as well as a terra media through
which any power desirous of moving southwards from Meshed,
particularly any power that is covetous of an outlet upon the
Indian Ocean, must pass; and through which must equally pass
any power desirous of reaching Khorasan and Meshed from a south-
1 From the Indus to the Tigris, pp. 217-219. Compare Eastern Persia, p. 317.
Caravan Juurneys, caps, xxvii., xxviii.
3 Memoire de la Par tie meridionale de VAsie Cent rale, pp. 153-164.
i 1 or a modern account of Seistan, other than that contained in the Reports
of the Goldsmid Commission, vide Globus, vol. xxxii. pp. 170, 186,200(1877) ; and
Petermanris Mittheilungen (1873), pp. 149-150 ; (1874), pp. 59-63 ; (1877), pp. 66-
72 ; (1878), pp. 25-29,
1 have already published a brief but very condensed statement of the case
in Russia in Central Asia, pp. 379-381.