نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [ظ‎‎١‎٨‎٦] (١٨١٤/٣٧٥)

194
PERSIA
pOLlT
formally offered to give to Persia, in exchange for Ivelat, her share
of the famous and fertile plain of Moghan on the western shore
of the Caspian. The offer was declined. The value of Ivelat to
Russia consists, as I have before argued, in its command of the
head waters of the streams that run down to the Atek; and still
more in its position as a central point for controlling the border
tribes, and in its prodigious prestige. Persia is far from willing
to cede this remarkable point of vantage, and guards it with a
jealousy that is in curious contrast to her general apathy and
weakness. No stranger is permitted to enter except with a special
permit from the Shah, and several Russians, as well as myself,
have been baffled in the attempt to penetrate into the interior.
Russian policy in these parts is at present directed to claiming
more and more of the streams that irrigate her possessions on the
plain, and to extending her influence over the border tribes.
Little by little she has crept up the mountain skirts from the
Atek at the bottom, while disputes about the water supply which,
though it fertilises Russian villages, yet flows from Persian sources
and through Persian territory, can always be aggravated into an
excuse for encroachment. Kelat would provide her with a centre
of particular value for either object, and she will remain discon
tented until she possesses it.
In the published treaty between Russia and Persia, which was
concluded in December 1881, and which defined the new bonndaiy
between Transcaspia and Khorasan, necessitated by the
Russian conquests of that year, the delineation of the
border which commenced at the mouth of the Atrek,
stops abruptly before it reaches the village of Lutfabad, situate
in the Atek below the Persian district of Deregez. Lutfabad was
left to the Persians; but what is the exact frontier eastwaids h om
this point to Sarakhs on the Tejend is not ascertainable hom a 11 }
published document. It is believed to have been settled b\
secret treaty in 1881 or in 1883 between Russia and Peisia.
which I shall later on have occasion to refer; and commissione ^
reported to have passed over the ground and traced it out- ^
popular uncertainty, or rather ignorance, upon the point is, ^
an excuse for just such acts of encroachment on the paR 0
stronger power as I have sketched in the preceding paragiap ^
At Sarakhs we once again touch a definite boundaiy ia
shape of the Tejend River, which, though known in ih
Russo-
Persian
frontier
the
The
way
course as th®®
Iveshef K uc '
from t
Tejend tllGTe
desert, where it
at Tejend <
There are tv*
confusion has 1
The two ^y an
Sarakhs fgatu]
the river, and i
Salor tribe of r J
that race of w.
historians aslo
in this centu
missionary W(
i/
first journey t
was a small c
1844, on his
Conolly at Bol
in disguise at
journey, and h
the place as a
with
hillock,
and said that
dubious allegii
tbn Hank;
from
pour,
hush,
Nisha
of
is
some
mills.
exc essiv (
as larj
PP- Spy
tr Well er ,
y to be
'otelt
early
Sarakhs was
:a l), in tl
ia pur, an
sltaa tedon;
len § (which
' e hat i
£e as li e:
bhabit
Orien
Lis
Phen;
^omi
" * Hi
Hslam
the
■The
- 221 .