'Volume I. MEMORANDA REGARDING PERSIA AND NORTH-WEST TRANS-FRONTIER. 1905.' [‎141r] (286/310)

the Governor of Afghan Turkestan at Mazar,
hut that he returned on being refused permission
by the Afghan frontier officials. His Highness
also enclosed a letter from the Governor of
Herat, complaining of the activity of the
Russians on the frontier, and reporting that, on
or about the, ^8th September, an Afghan
khassadar, while patrolling the border, was
shot dead by some Russian soldiers, who carried
off his rifle. His Highness has been thanked
for the information furnished, and told that
his letter is being sent to His Majesty’s Gov
ernment for such action as they may deem
desirable.
In a letter, dated the 26th September
(received at the end of November) the Amir
informed His Excellency the Viceroy that,
in order to avoid the delays which have
occurred in the past, he lias appointed one
Azimulla Khan as his agent in India for the
purchase of arras and ammunition, and he
expresses a hope that all facilities will be given
to him. The letter has been suitably
acknowledged.
KASHGAR.
A German, named Dieffenbach, recently
arrived at Kashgar from Tashkand, where he
had been in business in a Russo-German firm.
He intends staying in Kashgar with a view to
establishing a trade in German goods.
Mons. Kolokoloff, the Russian Consul at
Kashgar, professes to be much concerned about
the proceedings of two American travellers,
Messrs. Barrett and Huntington, in the Kheria
district, and has told the Yuen Taotai that they
are English spies, and are erecting boundary
pillars on the mountains.
Mr. Macartney reports that he has been
informed by the Taotai of Kashgar that the
Provincial Governor, yielding to pressure
brought to bear by the Russian Consul, has
agreed to construct, under Russian supervision,
a cart road from Kashgar to the Russo-
Chinese frontier, to connect with the road to
that point recently constructed by the Russians
(see last Journal); but that he (the Taotai) had
pleaded incompetence to discuss the Russian
Consul’s wish to negotiate for the extension of
the telegraph line from Irkistam to Kashgar,
and had rejected a demand for the right to
export grain to the Russian Pamirs for the use
of the troops stationed there. Mr. Macartney
proposed to demand the application of the
first and third concessions to the Yarkand-
Karakoram trade route, repairs to which would
facilitate trade; but it is the policy of the
Government of India not to improve roads on
the Kashmir frontier in such a way as to give
them a strategic value in case of an invasion,
and Mr. Macartney will be informed that it is