Page 395 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

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CHAPTER VII/

Pciso-Kliclat boundary dispute settled by a Commission.
(i) Persian agreement to demarcate the boundary line by a mixed Commission.
Wo have seen above how the Persian encroachments and pretensions on
Mokran created a stato of confusion, from which the question of telegraph
extension to Jask was extricated by a Convention with Persia winch avoided
defining the limits of the Persian sovereignty. But tiie question of defining
the limits of Persian territory in Baluchistan could not he indefinitely postponed
without allowing the Persian authorities to make further encroachments, and
wo were bound by Treaty engagements to maintain the integrity of tho Khelat
State.
64. Mr. Thomson’s despatches to Lord Clarendon of 2lth Doccmber 18G9,
8th and 15th February 1S70, shewed that on receipt of each fresh item of
intelligence from India, regarding a rumoured advanco on tho Khan’s districts
iu Mekran, he impressed on the Persian Government the necessity of restrain­
ing hostile aggression.
The Governor of Kerman had certainly gone to the frontier districts with
a force, but that force, Mr. Thomson was assured, was intended only for service
within the Persian border. He would, however, the Persian Minister promised
Mr. Thomson, receive fresh orders to be more circumspect and to avoid holding
out threats which ho was not at present authorized to enforce.
65. By the middle of February he received from Lord Clarendon a des­
patch, the draft of which had been approved by the India Office in January,
stating in more peremptory terms than had hitherto been used, that the British
Government, having Treaty engagements with Khelat, could not be indifferent
to any intentions on the part of Persia which caused apprehensions to the
Kb an.
He wrote, therefore, to Mirza Said Khan, again drawing attention to the
renewed intelligence from India, that the movement of troops to the Mekran
frontier by tho Governor of Kerman and Ibrahim Khan, had caused excitement
and disturbances in districts along the British frontier, and impressed on the
Minister the expediency of peremptorily forbidding either open aggression or
threats on the part of the Persian frontier authorities.
Mirza Said Khan replied by asking Mr. Thomson whether this demand
was based on any particular Convention, or was asked as a friendly favour, or
was an imperative demand.
Mr. Thomson rejoined by showing that, in spite of repeated protestations,
the Shah had not authorized aggression in Mekran ; that the threat of aggres­
sion did not cease to impend over tho Khan’s vassals there; that the British
Government could not look with indifference on the apprehensions of a State
with which it had Treaty engagements; that, therefore, the Persiau Govern­
ment was requested to issue stringent orders to prevent unauthorized move­
ments by the local functionaries.
68. The Shah then (14th April 1870) wrote an autograph letter to the
following effect :—
Respecting Khelat, the demarcation of boundaries between Persia, Beloocbifctan and
Khelat has not yet been clearly defined. If the British Government is desirous that the said
line of frontier bo traced, let Commissioners be sent by tho three parties to the frontier, that
is to say, by England, Persia, and Khelat, and let them settle tho boundary line, otherwise, if
the frontier is not defined, these diflioultics will be daily recurring.
• Tim chapter is taken from a precis by Mr. Wynne on tho demarca'ion of tho Persu-Khelat Boundary
in Mekran.