"مجلد I مذكرات بخصوص بلاد فارس والمنطقة الحدودية الشمالية الغربية. ١٩٠٥." [ظ‎‎١‎٤‎٤] (٣١٠/٢٩٣)

Consular officials were sent by the Persian
Customs Mirza at the town gate direct to the
British Consulate without going through the
Customs House. This unusual procedure
raised some suspicion in the mind of Captain
Battye, who sent the boxes at once to the
Customs House, and the usual formalities
were gone through. It transpired later that
the affair was a trick on the part of the
Customs authorities to see if the British
Consulate would take advantage of the oppor
tunity offered of opening the cases before they
had been examined by the Customs staff:
Mons. Castaigne had sent a Customs Jarrash
to the Consulate gate to watch what was done
with the boxes on their arrival, and the Russians
had sent their head Mirza to the Customs
House to see what treatment the consignment
received.
Notwithstanding the assurances given by
the Mushir-ed-Dowlah to Mr. Grant Duff (see
Journal for October 1905), Major Sykes
believes that the Rais-ut-Tujjar is parting
wdth his rights in the Meshed-Askabad road
to the Russians, though the arrangement may
not be immediately carried out.
At the end of October, Major Sykes left
Meshed for a tour on the Perso-Afghan
frontier.
M. Mousnikov, the Russian Consul-
General, lias returned to Meshed after a year’s
absence on leave. It is believed that M.
Mousnikov will not remain long at Meshed, as
M. Klemm, Russian Consul-General, Bombay,
has been ordered to relieve him. Several
Russian officers have recently arrived at
Meshed. M. Auguste Molitor has relieved
M. Castaigne of the Directorship of Customs
in Khorasan.
The British Chargd d’Affaires at Tehran
has not yet been able to obtain the consent of
the Persian Government to the importation
of reserve of arms and ammunition for the
British Consulates at Meshed and Seistan (see
last Journal); but in view of the present un
satisfactory state of the internal condition of
Persia, it has been decided, with the sanction
of His Majesty’s Government, to send, under a
suitable escort, a supply of arms and ammu
nition to Robat on the Perso-Baluch frontier,
to be ready for despatch for the use of those
Consulates in the case of an emergency aris
ing.
SEISTAN.
On the 7th December, Captain Macpherson
suggested that advantage should be taken of
the opportunity afforded by the grant of
permission to the Russians to repair the tele
graph line from Kain to Seistan (see last
Journal), to assert our claim to participate in