'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.' [‎16v] (37/386)

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Persian Government had objected to the residence of a British Consular officer
at Bampur, and a post at Bam had, therefore, been substituted Lastly, a re-
presentative was sent to guard the interests of British trade at Koh-i-Malik-Siah.
At Meshed the Consular establishment was further supplemented by the
appointment of a Military Attache for the purpose of organising the system
of intelligence regarding movements of llussian troops m Central Asia.
Binallv. it was proposed that, as a complement to the measures taken m other
parts of Persia, an Indian officer should be deputed to work in the British
Legation at Tehran itself. The plan was one which had been advocated by the
Governments of Lord Northbrook and Lord Lytton. The proposals then made
proved abortive. Later, in 1899, an Indian officer had been appointed to
he Military Attache, and had combined with the functions of that office the
Proposal to appoint an Indian officer duties of Oriental Secretary. But in
at Tehran. 1901 this arrangement had ceased, and
though an Indian officer still held the post of Military Attache at Tehran, his
duties were in no way political. Becent rearrangements had resulted in a
lar^e preponderance of Indian officers in Persia; the Indian Government w 7 as
now required to meet the charge for half the total British expenditure in the
country ; the Indian frontier was now conterminous with that of Persia for
several hundreds of miles; and Indian interests had largely increased in every
part of the Shah’s dominions. Lord Curzon urged that the time had come to
reconsider the existing arrangements at Tehran, and he proposed that an
officer should be deputed from India to Tehran, where ho would hold
the status of a Secreiary of Legation, and, working under the orders of the
Minister, would specially advise in all matters of Indian interest.
The selection of competent officers to fill the new T posts was not always an
easy matter. The stations in Persia to which officers of the Indian Political
Department had previously been posted had been few T in number. No special
arranfiements existed for the training of junior officers for w r ork in Persia, and
but few had the requisite language qualifications, the diplomatic experience,
or the knowledge of commercial requirements. Various schemes were
suggested with a view to placing matters on a better footing. A plan
which was seriously considered and w hich
Steps to improve the personnel. wa3 , aid b( .f ore the Secretary of State
proposed that a special Consular Service should be instituted for Persia,
Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and Oman. It was held, however, that a
service as small as tins would necessarily be, would not offer sufficient induce
ments to competent officers; and it w ? ;is finally decided that appointments
in Persia should in future be divided into two classes, viz., those manned
from India, and those filled by the London Poreign Office. The distribution
finallv adopted was based on territorial considerations. The posts filled by
the London Poreign Office w T ere, generally speaking, those of North-Western
and of Central Persia, and these were to be manned from the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Consular
Service, the rules for admission to which were revised in December 1903, and
provided for the regular training of student interpreters for service in Persia.
The posts reserved fer the Indian Political Department were mainly in the
neighbourhood of the Afghan frontier, in the south of Persia, and on the shores
of the Gulf. Endeavours were made in various ways to secure a supply of
qualified candidates for the Indian posts. The regulations for examination in
Persian and Arabic were revised with a view 7 to ensuring that the prescribed
tests should be of a more practical nature than those previously in force, and
to encouraging officers to learn the language of Persia as it is spoken in the
country, and not as it is used in India. Special allowances v ere sanctioned for
officers qualified in European or Oriental languages which were likely to be of
service; and special attention was paid to linguistic proficiency in selecting
candidates for political employ. The experiment was adopted of deputing
young officers of the Indian Army to visit Persia for fixed periods. One officer
was sent under this arrangement to Seistan and another to Shiraz, where he
resided for a term of some months. But the plan was attended w ith hut small
success, and was abandoned in favour of a more satisfactory expedient. Addi
tional appointments were sanctioned—first at Nasratabad and later at Bushire—-
to be held by junior officers of the Political Department selected as likely