Page 363 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

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10. In tho following month the Government of India write9 fully to
the Secretary of State :
No. 30 of 11th March 1802.
I
"Wohavo received a despatch from Her Majesty's Envoy at tho Court of Persiai
containing copies of despatches addressed to Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs upon the subjoct of the negotiations for the establishment of a lino of Tolcgraph
through Persia.
o « * 0
“ The second of these additional provisos is as follows ‘ That tho English Government
shall engage that whatever power, and authority, and proprietary right the Persian Govern­
ment, from former times to tho present day, possessed and possesses, from Bundar Abbas to
tho frontier of Sind, shall remain in statu quo without augmentation or diminution.’
“ To this stipulation, provided it bo understood to mean that no such augmentation and
diminution shall tako placo by any action or interference of the British Government, we sec no
objection.
“ But if it is to mean that the British Government is to step in and protect the authority
or right oF Persia, between the limits named, in the event of ’ that authority or right being
threatened or attacked by a third party, the proviso would be a most imprudent one. We trust
that Her Majesty’s Government will not mako any engagement that can be so interpreted ;
or that can be held as giving sanction to indefinite pretensions on the part of Persia
whenever it may suit the Government of that country to seek to extend its frontiers
eastward.
“ The third proviso begins as follows:—’That whenever tho Persian Government shall,
from any cause whatever, desire to increase its power in those territories, the English Govern­
ment shall, in no way whatever, cither overtly or secretly, oppose the same.’
“ These words arc objectionable. They are not in accordance with tho spirit of our
engagement with Dost Mahomed. They are inconsistent with the support and friendship
winch we extend to the Khan of Kelat: and they would probably render hopeless the success
of the negotiations which we shall have to enter into with the petty Chiefs between the
actually existing boundary of the authority of Persia and the frontiers of Sind. We could
not expect those Chiefs to look without suspicion at such an engagement between our Gov­
ernment and that of the Shah, although it does not in terms prevent us from observing
neutrality between themselves and Persia.
u We trust, therefore, that Her Majesty’s Government will not assent to this third
proviso in regard to which Ferukh Khan has admitted that it is very uulikely that action
should ever have to be taken upon it; and we recommend that the second proviso be not
accepted unless the words * so far as any interference by the British Government is concerned,’
or words to that effect, be added to it.
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f* Whatever addition is made to this second proviso the object should be to avoid com­
mitting the British Government to anything that can be construed into an admission of the I
soundness of the pretensions of Persia. (This will appear the more necessary when it is
observed that in the fourth proviso the Persian Government designates the countries between
the Persian and Sind Frontiers * those, its territories,’ thus incidentally asserting its claim to
sovereignty over all the countries between the existing frontier posts of Persia, and those of
the British Government in Sind.) We are of opinion that the British Government should
not commit itself to any such admission as is implied from tho above words quoted from the
fourth proviso.
" From these remarks it will be seen that in our opinion the Persian Government, in
these additional provisos, aims by the second to commit tho British Government to sweeping
admissions in favour of the pretensions of Persia over countries which have long shaken off
a yoke which was never more than very temporarily established, if it can be considered ever
to have been really established at all. By the third proviso the Persian Government, taking
advantage of the admissions prescribed in the second proviso, would paralyze all opposition
on the part of the British Government to any attempts that the Shah may make to advance
his frontier to the Indus. Whilst in the fourth proviso words are used which distinctly claim
all the expanse of territory between the frontiers of Sind and Persia as the Shah’s dominions.
As we think it probable that Her Majesty’s Government will decline to accede to these pro­
visos, and therefore that no satisfactory arrangements with tho Persian Government may be
concluded, we have decided on recommending a careful examination of an alternative line from
any point in the Turkish territoiy on the Euphrates, along the Arabian Coast, by the southern
shore of the Persian Gulf, to a point opposite to, and clear of the Persian frontier, and thence
by Submarine Cable to Gwadur or Kurrachee.”
17. The correspondonoe between the Governments of India and Bombay
Paraeraph 4, No. 82, dated 24th April 1862, above noted resulted in the appointment
,
from the Government of Bombay, to tho Socro* 01 a mission to survey and report Upon
tary of stato. the coast of Mekran, with a view to the
establishment of a land line of Telegraph. A full Report of this Mission was
placed before Government. Arrangements were concluded with the Khan of