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Notes and correspondence on the situation in East Persia and the Malleson Mission [16ar] (31/71)
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.
lo &K.
IS
This Document is the property of the Secretary of State for India.
SECRET.
NOTE ON THE MALLESON MISSION.
TT,*
■»
o i i n
11
l circulate to the Eastern Committee a note on the Malleson ^Mission
prepared in this Oflice.
I confess to feeling grave uneasiness about this matter. It does not
seem to me that it is likely from Treasury accounts of the situation that we
shall at any time be able to give more money to Trans-Caspia. I am
appalled already at the extent of our commitments in Persia and I do not
want either to increase them or to be crippled in discharging them by
expenditure across the Caspian. Nor do I think this country is prepared to
continue fighting unknown enemies when the enemies against which they
were prepared to fight have collapsed.
It may be true that there are reasons, as is so forcibly argued by my
Military Secretary, for keeping Malleson and his men there for the present,
but I think the Eastern Committee should watch the situation with a view to
withdrawing him at the earliest possible moment.
20th December 1918.
E. S. M.
Telegram from Commander-in-Chief,
India, No. 29076, dated 13th April 1918.
Telegram from Commander-in-Chief,
India, No. 47347, dated 18th June 1918.
\ Telegrams from Connnander-in-Chief>
India, No. 60543, dated 2nd August 1918>
and No. 60489, dated 3rd August 1918.
Telegram from Commander-in-Chief,
India, No. 63117, dated 10th August 1918.
serving with the llolslievik forces there.
Intelligence was also received that the Germans
and Turks were contemplating the despatch of
troops from the Caucasus across the Caspian to
operate along the Central Asia Railway. In
consequence of this, the British Mission at
Meshed was strengthened, and Major-General
Malleson was sent from India to take charge.
4. By duly 1918 what is now known as
the Askabad Government began to obtain some
influence in Trans-Caspia, and appealed for
British aid against the Bolsheviks. Financial
assistance was promised, and a detachment of
Indian troops from the Eastern Persia cordon
moved to the Perso-Russian frontier as a moral
support.”
5. At the beginning of August 1918 the
Bolshevik forces took the offensive, and by the
middle of the month had advanced across the
Oxus through Merv to Tejend. The Askabad
Government made urgent appeals for a small
British force to assist them. Half a battalion of
Indian Infantry moved into Trans-Caspia from
the Persian frontier, and, with a small British
IO MS 29 GO 12/18
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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Copyright: How to use this content
- 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