ملف رقم ١٣٧٧ لسنة ١٩٠٥، جزء ٣، "الحدود الفارسية البلوشستانية: مسألة بيران وكاشا" [و‎‎١‎٧‎٦] (٢٠٩/٣١)

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Enclosure No. 1.
India Office to Foreign Office.
Sir,
P. 38^
* No. 6 (Secret), dated 18tli January
1912 (with enclosures).
Sir,
India Office,
w . -. 7th March 1912.
With reierence to correspondence ending with my letter dated
the 6th December 1911, No. P. 4712, as to the alleged violation by the
utisn authorities in Baluchistan of the Perso-Baluch frontier near
Piran, I am directed to enclose,
to be laid before the Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs, copy
of a report " on the subject from the Government of India.
r Ihe Marquess of Grewe is not aware what authority the Government
of India have for describing the red line on the map as roughly repre
senting the limits of our occupation in 1905. Colonel MacMahon’s
memorandum of 5th November 1905 (in which the red line is advocated
on grounds of convenience and the district between the two lines is
said to be “ absolutely barren and uninhabited ”) does not appear to
support this description, while Mr. Tuckers letter of 15th March 1907
(enclosed in this Office letter of 22nd June 1907) states that there were
no British levies west of the blue line in the spring of 1905 and that
“ the status was one of intermittent Zarezai occupation.” The Zarezais
are neither Persian nor British subjects, and since they divide their
time between British and Afghan territory, Sir F. Grey may be disposed
to regard their intermittent occupation in 1905 as justifying the con
tention that the Persian Government has no right to the territory east
of the red line, which is the true watershed. On the other hand, it may
be admitted that we have made no formal claim to the territory, and
difficulties may arise in carrying out the instructions given by the
Government of India to the local authorities in their letter of 14th
October 1911, that “ any trespass between the red and blue lines . . .
should not be permitted.”
I have, Ac.,
The Under Secretary of State, P. Ritchie.
Foreign Office.
Enclosure No. 2.
Foreign Office to India Office
No. 10,197.
Foreign Office,
25th March 1912.
I am directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter P. 382 of the 7th instant, regarding an alleged
violation by the British authorities in Baluchistan of the Perso-Baluch
frontier near Piran.
Sir E. Grey is unable, from the material at present in his possession,
to form an opinion as regards the true position of the boundary and the
status of the Zarezais, and would suggest, for the consideration of the
Marquess of Crewe, that the Government of India should be asked to
state their authority, of which his Lordship is unaware, for describing
the red line on the map as roughly representing the limits of British
occupation in 19l)5.
I am, &c.,
The Under Secretary of State Louis Mallet.
for India.
S. 148.