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1. ‘Military report on Persia. Vol IV, part I. Persian Baluchistan, Kerman and Bandar Abbas.’
- Description:
- Abstract: Military report on Persia (volume IV, part I, covering Persian Baluchistan, Kermān and Bandar Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās]), dated 1922, and published by the Central Government Press at Simla in 1923. The report’s chapters cover:History, including: Persia’s recent political history; a recent history of Persian Baluchistan, and military operations in Persia Baluchistan, notably the operations at Dizak in 1901-02, operations against maritime arms trafficking in 1909, an expedition against Makrān in 1911 to check arms trafficking, and operations against the Dāmānīs in East Persia in 1916, to protect British interests in Persia; b) a brief history of Kermān; and c) a brief history of Bandar-e ʻAbbās.Geographyfor Persian Baluchistan; Kermān; and Bandar-e ʻAbbās, with headings for boundaries, administrative districts, and the principal villages for each region, as well as sections on rivers, lakes, mountains, harbours and deserts as appropriate. The section on Bandar-e ʻAbbās includes a description of buildings, water supply, camping grounds, roads and local industry. There are also descriptions of the principal islands off the Persian Baluchistan coast: Qishm [Qeshm], Henjam [Hengam] and Hormuz.Ethnography, including: general characteristics; notes for intelligence officers; sections on the population and tribes of Persian Baluchistan, Kermān Bandar-e ʻAbbās.Climate and Health, including details of medical facilities.Resources, including: transport (camels, mules, donkeys, horse and oxen); and supplies, chiefly of agricultural crops, by region and village.Military, including: British garrisons and South Persia Rifles; the Persian Army; the fighting strength of the Persian tribes, organised by region and village; military notes on Persian Baluchistan, including the arms traffic in the Persian Gulf.Communications, including: the railway line between Mirjāwā [Mīrjāveh] and Duzdāp, its facilities (water, rolling stock, telegraph), and risks of damage to the line; other proposed lines between Bandar-e ʻAbbās and Kermān, and Gwadar and Kermān; cable, wireless, telephone lines, and visual signalling stations.Political, including an outline of administration in Persian Baluchistan, Kermān and Bandar-e ʻAbbās, and information on currency, weights and measures.Appendix A is a list of the nomadic tribes of the Kermān province, listed by district and the number of families in each tribe. Appendix B is a list of the annual subsidies paid to chiefs in Persian Baluchistan by the Indo-European Telegraph Department, for the protection of lines passing through their district. Appendix C is a table of resources (livestock, agricultural produce), with figures indicating the requirements for local consumption in each district. Appendix D is a distribution statement of the Sarhad Levy Corps as of 1 July 1922.The maps and plans include: a map of Persian Baluchistan (folio 78); a map of Kerman and its environs (folio 77); a diagram of the Mīrjāveh station yard (folio 74); a diagram of Duzdāp station yard (folio 76); a sketch map showing signalling and heliograph posts between Chahbar and Geh (folio 75); and a sketch map showing communications between Kerman and Saidabad (folio 79).Physical description: Pagination: The report has a printed pagination sequence. Page numbers appear at the top and centre of each page.Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top-right corner of the recto of each folio. It begins on the first folio with text, on number 1, and ends on the last of the various maps and plans that are inserted at the back of the volume, on number 79. Total number of folios: 79. Total including covers and flysheets: 81. Note that the foliation sequence on the maps and plans does not follow the order that the maps and plans are listed on the volume’s contents page (f.2). The plan of Bandar Abbās, listed on the report contents page, is missing from the volume.
2. 'Quetta-Seistan Railway'
- Description:
- Abstract: This file consists of a report by the Secretary of State for India [Joseph Austen Chamberlain], which is addressed to the Prime Minister [Herbert Henry Asquith]. The report concerns a proposal, made by the Commander-in-Chief in India [Sir Beauchamp Duff], to extend the Quetta–Nushki railway to Seistan, on the grounds that it is a 'cogent military necessity'.The report includes extracts from a telegram and a minute from the former Viceroy and Governor-General of India in Council, Lord Curzon, dated 4 September 1899 and 28 October 1901, which summarise the history of the proposed scheme and the various political, strategic and commercial arguments and counter-arguments relating to it.This summary is followed by two telegrams from the current Viceroy [Frederic John Napier Thesiger], dated 26 July and 29 July 1916 respectively. The first of these summarises the current military case for an extension to the line (which was put forward by the Commander-in-Chief in India) as follows: any continuation of the recent Turkish advance into Western Persia may result in the Government of India having to increase its military presence in Eastern Persia, which would require improved communications between Nushki and Seistan; it is further argued that a broad-gauge railway – running from Nushki to at least as far Dalbandin – although more expensive than mechanical transport, would be a preferred solution to the current reliance on camel transport.The first telegram provides the Government of India's response to these proposals. It argues that the scheme can only be justified on 'cogent military grounds', before adding that the limitation of the extension to Dalbandin would be a half measure which would not provide adequate relief to the current situation, nor aid wider strategic contingencies.The second telegram details the Railway Board's rough estimate of the cost of extending the line (2,000,000 l).Also included in the report are the following three minutes:a minute from the India Office's Political Department, dated 27 July 1916, which refrains from expressing an opinion on the strategic implications of extending the line, but concludes that the commercial prospects would be sufficient to warrant constructing a line. The minute opines that an extension as far as Dalbandin would be the more practical of Duff's two proposals;a minute, dated 28 July 1916, in which the Military Secretary to the India Office, General Sir Edmund Barrow GCB, makes the argument that the entire line would take one and a half years to build, and that therefore it is not likely to be of use during the present war. Barrow supports the Commander-in-Chief's suggestion of extending the line as far as Dalbandin, in the hope that it may be of some use in the war effort (the implication being that motor and camel transport could be relied upon from Dalbandin to Seistan);a minute from the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India, Sir Thomas William Holderness, dated 29 July 1916. The minute argues that a decision on whether to extend the line should be made based on the actual or possible necessities of the present war, and that future political, commercial or strategic requirements should not come into consideration.The Secretary of State for India begins the report with an extract from a private telegram, dated 25 July 1916, from the Viceroy to the Secretary of State for India, in which the Viceroy suggests that the matter requires the advice of the Chief of Imperial General Staff (Sir William Robert Robertson).The Secretary of State for India informs the Prime Minister that an immediate decision is required on the following:whether an extension of the line is a 'cogent military necessity', which should be undertaken at once;whether the extension can be carried out in time to be of use for the purposes stated by the Commander-in-Chief;whether an extension to Dalbandin would be sufficient.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at f 8, and terminates at f 13, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.