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Notes and correspondence on the situation in East Persia and the Malleson Mission [8v] (16/71)
The record is made up of 1 file (35 folios). It was created in Apr 1918-Jan 1921. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
10
the above principles, fall on the Imperial Government for the years 1919-20 and
1920-21.
A copy of this letter is being sent to the Foreign Office and W ar Office.
Yours, Ac., w'
The Secretary, Treasury. A. Hirtzel.
15— Telegram from Secretary of State to Viceroy, Army Department,
dated 3rd December 1920.
3814. My telegram of 4th November, No, 3054. Cost of Malleson LIission. Please
telegraph as early as possible rough estimate of total cost from beginning until com
pletion of withdrawal, also substance of your proposals for division of cost and estimates
asked for in last paragraph. Do your estimates of recoverable war expenditure in
your telegram in the Finance Department of 13th November, 60200 O.W .C., make any
allowance for contribution by India towards cost of Mission ? Matter is very urgent.
16. —Telegram from Secretary of State to Viceroy, Army Department,
dated 3rd December 1920.
The London newspapers to-day are full of what appears to be a telegraphed
version of an account from the Timex of India of the Meshed Expedition. Please
telegraph at once your answer. It will do 3 T ou a tremendous amount of harm in the
present economy feeling, and it will be pointed out that you were spending without
control the British taxpayers’ money. The
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
estimates the cost of the Expedition
at 100,000,000?., the word “ economy ” being absolutely ruled out; talks of 600 miles
of derelict barracks, ice-houses, temples and swimming baths ; of miles of road
which were never used. If this not true, have any steps been taken to contradict it
in India ?
17 .—Telegra m from Viceroy to Secretary of State, Arm]/ Department,
dated 13th December 1920.
526. Your telegram dated 3rd December, No. 3814, and 3982, dated 11th
December. Following are approximate figures of cost of Malleson Mission proper in
thousands of £ sterling; 1918-19, 500; 1919-20, 100; and 1920-21, 50. Figures
are only approximate, as no separate accounts of Mission proper are available at
headquarters. Total cost of troops in South and East Persia is 11,304 in 1919-20 and.
5,100 in 1920-21. These figures include approximately for cost of troops in East
Persia, inclusive of Malleson Mission proper, 8,000 in 1919-20 and 4,500 in 1920-21.
Here, too, actual figures cannot be given as accounts received at headquarters are for
East and South Persia together. It is not possible to give readily similar figures
before 1919-20, as separate accounts by theatres were not compiled before that year.
2. Our estimates of recoverable war expenditure, as telegraphed to you on 13th
November last, make no allowance for contribution of India towards cost of Malleson
Mission proper.
3. We hope to telegraph to you our views on question of incidence, shortly.
18—Teleg ram from Secretary of State to Viceroy, Army Department,
dated 14:1 h December 1920.
4038. Y'our telegram of 13th December, 526. Question in Parliament. W’hathas
been total cost, including works, of troops in East Persia since establishment of East
Persian cordon ? Please give separately expenditure on the road from railhead in
Baluchistan to Meshed. Were estimates prepared and sanctioned before work was
undertaken ?
19. —Telegram from Viceroy, Army Department, to Secretary of State,
dated 19th December 1920.
568. 18th December. Your telegrams 1539 (sic) (? 3814) dated 3rd December,
and that of 9th December. Meshed Expedition.
1. We characterise the article as a malicious exaggeration. Though described
as a wild venture and a gigantic piece of bluff, force in North-East Persia acquitted
itself successfully, and proved adequate for the purpose for which it was intended.
About this item
- Content
This file relates to the situation in East Persia and the Malleson Mission (1918-21). It includes papers on the following subjects:
A collection of papers titled 'Expenditure on [the] Malleson Mission and Troops in East Persia', including: a memorandum from the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Political Department on planned politico-military missions to Kashgar [Qashqar] and Meshed [Mashhad] to 'work in allied interests [,] and combat German and Turkish propaganda' on the model of General Lionel Dunsterville's organisation Dunsterforce, previously deployed to the North Caucasus; a memorandum by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on which government department should bear the expenses for Malleson's Mission in countering 'German-Bolshevik developments in Central Asia', with reflections on the German promotion of Pan-Turanism and Pan-Islamism which, together with Bolshevism were perceived as posing a 'direct menace' to the security of India, since they could conceivably 'enlist the forces of religion in the armies of political and social discontent'; correspondence to date between the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , HM Treasury and the War Office (including from Secretary of State for War, Winston S Churchill) concerning the Chancellor's memorandum, together with thirty-two appendices on expenditures preceding the Chancellor's memorandum and the military and political telegrams referred to in the collection on 'Expenditures' (January 1921); the lack of financial resources to continue the Malleson Mission in Trans-Caspia (December 1918); the criticism by Lovat Fraser of expenditures on the Mission in the Daily Mail (July 1920); the assumption of the Mission's current roles to 'encourage resistance in Persia to Pan-Islamic and Bolshevik influences' and offer 'moral support to Transcaspians by threatening [the] flank and rear of [the] Bolshevik advance towards Krasnovodsk [Turkmenbashi]' by a 'Persian Force to be raised under the terms of the recent agreement', together with the existing Seistan Levy Corps and Khorasan Levy Corps, and the 'intelligence work' to be carried out by a 'small organisation' based at Meshed (September 1919).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (35 folios)
- Arrangement
The entries are recorded in chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.
- Physical characteristics
The foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 35; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Notes and correspondence on the situation in East Persia and the Malleson Mission [8v] (16/71), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/5/807, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100091141926.0x000011> [accessed 12 March 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/5/807
- Title
- Notes and correspondence on the situation in East Persia and the Malleson Mission
- Pages
- 1r:15v, 16ar:16av, 16v:34v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence