‏"ملخص الأحداث والتدابير الرئيسية التي اتخذها سمو نائب الملك اللورد كرزون من كيدلستون، نائب الملك والحاكم العام للهند في إدارة الخارجية. ‏I‏. يناير ١٨٩٩-أبريل ١٩٠٤. ‏II‏. ديسمبر ١٩٠٤-نوفمبر ١٩٠٥. المجلد IV. بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي." [ظ‎‎١‎٩] (٣٨٦/٤٣)

B
Chapter III.
SEISTAN.
The
•‘And when the honr strikes, it seems to me as well
" that Seistau should be waiting to be regenerated by us,
** هذه التواريخ تقريبية instead of having already been absorbed m the regenerative
“ embraces of others *’•
Extract from a Minute ly Lord Curzon.
he inakenin" of British interest in Seistan is of recent date. In
Ifiqq ten' years before Lord Curzon’s assumption of office m India, a Consul-
1889, ten yeais oeime General had for the first time been posted
The position in Seistan prior to 1899. t j le capital of KLorasan. The appoint
ment was the reply to a corresponding measure on the part of Russia. The
r rmsts
1 8 92 Lord CuvLn had dwelt with special emphasis on British interests in
. . * . TTra laori nvcmfl fbp otipiiin 0, of ei trade route fiom Q,uettEij lie had.
mooted The question of railway extension from India to the Persian border; he
P 1 , i ^i,^ ormnintment of a British Ilepreseutatiye at hiasiatahad.
Variou^British officers had since visited the district. Colonel Yale had made
a tour thither in 1891; and had formulated proposals which closely followed
those outlined by Lord Curzon. He had urged the immediate appointment of
ji British Indian representative to balance the Russ.an Native Agent who had
already acquired considerable local influence. He had dwelt on the com
mercial potentialities of the district; and had recommended the institution of a
postal service cm Seistan to Meshed, the construction of a line of wells fiom
&ushki to the Persian border, the planting of levy posts along the route, and
fbo pnroura^ement of an overland trade from India through Baluchistan. But
the Government of India were not prepared to act. They feared that any
evidence of British interest in Seistan would merely lead to Russian movements
in the same direction, and would tempt the Russians to extend their railway
southwards. Two years later, Captain McMahon prepared a memorandum m
which he laid before the Indian Government the conclusions which had forced
themselves upon him in the course of demarcation of the Baluch-Afghan
border. He too, urged the opening of the route already negatived in 1894,
the adoption’of proper measures for its protection, and the exercise of British
authority up to the Persian border. The Government were now convinced:
the proposals were laid before the Secretary of State, and received his full
approval. In November 1893, a new political post was created at Chageh
midway from Quetta to the Persian border; and Captain Webb-Ware, the first
Political Officer, received instructions to establish levy posts and foster trade.
In January of the following year, this officer started on his first visit to
Seistan. He was closely followed by an Indian Medical Officer Major
Brazier-Crea°‘h. The plague had appeared in India; and the Russian Govern-
ment had announced its intention to adopt preventive measures in Persia.
The Government of India had, therefore, determined to take all reasonable
precautions in Seistan, and thus anticipate the extension of Russian sanitary
control in Southern Khorasan. But Major Brazier-Creagh was soon with
drawn. A year later, fresh measures were forced upon the Government or
India. Reports from Meshed announced the appointment of a _ Russian
Vice-Consul in Seistan; and Major Sykes was despatched from his post at