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British Secret Service Activity in Khorassan, 1887–1908*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

L. P. Morris
L. P. Morris
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Extract

When great powers quarrel their lesser neighbours are often worst affected. Cajoled and wooed, they are drawn into conflicts they would prefer to avoid. Such involvement may exacerbate internal weaknesses and end by damaging them long after the causes of the original dispute have faded. Nineteenth-century Iran became drawn into Anglo-Russian rivalries in Central Asia as each sought to secure her assistance. Spectators of the so-called ‘Great Game’ were not allowed: the boxes were part of the field of play.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , September 1984 , pp. 657 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 Pierce, R. A., Russian Central Asia, 1867–1917 (Berkeley, 1960)Google Scholar; Wheeler, G., Modern history of Soviet Central Asia (London, 1964)Google Scholar; Terent'ev, M. A., Istoriya zavoevaniya sredney azii (3 vols. St Petersburg, 1906)Google Scholar.

2 Royal Geographical Society, The country of the Turcomans (London, 1977)Google Scholar; Morris, L. P., ‘The subjugation of the Turcomans’, Middle Eastern Studies, XV, 2 (1979), 193–210CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Capt. Hon. G. E. Napier, memoranda 1876 and 1877, India Office Records, L/P & S/18/c. 24, c. 25 and c. 27. These and other records in the India Office are crown copyright and appear by permission of the controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

3 SirGoldsmid, F. J., Eastern Persia…the Persian Boundary Commission, 1870–1–2 (2 vols., London 1876)Google Scholar.

4 Gillard, D., The struggle for Asia, 1828–1914 (London, 1977)Google Scholar; DrRouire, , La rivalié anglo-russe au xixe siècle en Asie (Paris, 1908)Google Scholar.

5 ‘Herat’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition (London, 1911)Google Scholar; for contemporary opinions see Marvin, C., The Russians at Merv and Herat (London, 1883)Google Scholar; Boulger, D. C., Central Asian questions (London, 1885)Google Scholar; Malleson, C. B., Herat, the granary and garden of Central Asia (London, 1880Google Scholar.

6 IOR L/Mil/7/7793; for a thorough appraisal of the development of the Intelligence Department in Britain see Beaver, W. C., ‘The development of intelligence Division and its role in aspects of imperial policy making 1854–1901’ (D.Phil. Oxford, 1976)Google Scholar.

7 SirCoen, T. Creagh, The Indian political service (London, 1971)Google Scholar; the argument is developed fully in Yapp, M. E., Strategies of British India (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar.

8 Gregorian, V., The emergence of modern Afghanistan (Stanford, 1969)Google Scholar; Khan, Mir Munshi Sultan Mahomed, The life of Abdur Rahman (2 vols. London, 1900)Google Scholar; SirSykes, P. M., History of Afghanistan (2 vols., London, 1940), II, 110ffGoogle Scholar.

9 For the use made by members of the Boundary Commission between 1884 and 1886 see Yate, A. C., Travels with the Afghan Boundary Commission (London, 1887Google Scholar); Yate, C. E., Northern Afghanistan, or letters from the Afghan Boundary Commission (London, 1888)Google Scholar.

10 ‘Meshed’, Encyc. Brit. 11 th edn; McGregor, Colonel C. M., Journey through Khorassan (2 vols., London, 1879), I, 277ffGoogle Scholar.

11 Lt.-Col. C. E. Stewart, ‘Report on the north-east frontier of Persia and the Tekeh Turcomans’, IOR L/P & S/18/c. 32.

12 Napier, G. E., Collection of journals and reports from Persia, 1874 (London, 1876Google Scholar). Intelligence officers in London had a poor view of Napier's worth as an intelligencer: Beaver, Development of the Intelligence Division, p. 159.

13 Lt.-Col. C. E. Stewart, ‘Report on special duty on the Perso-Afghan frontier, February 1883’, IOR L/P & S/3/242, pp. 1205ff.; and ‘The country of the Tekke Turcomans and the Tejend and Murghab rivers’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, new series, 111 (1881), 513ffGoogle Scholar.

14 IOR L/P & S/3/242, 649ff., 737ff. and 789ff.; L/P & S/8/11; see Thomson to Granville, 100, 20 June 1884, Public Record Office. FO 60/461. These and other records in the Public Record Office are crown copyright and appear by permission of the controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

15 Stewart to Sanderson, 9 Feb. 1883, IOR L/P & S/3/242/657.

16 Thomson to Granville, 25, 13 Feb. 1884 and 42, 8 Mar. 1884 and 46, 28 Mar. 1884, P.R.O. FO 60/460.

17 Delakh, Ministerstvo Innostrannykh, Afganskoye razgranicheniye: peregovory mezhdu Rossiey i Velikobritaniey 1872–1885 (St Petersburg, 1886)Google Scholar.

18 Telegraphic exchanges between Tehran and London, August to October 1884, P.R.O. FO 60/462 and Thomson to Granville, 146, 3 Oct. 1884, FO 65/1211.

19 Granville to Thomson, tel. 40, 1 Apr. 1885, P.R.O. FO 60/471.

20 P.R.O. FO 60/537; see, too, the Telegraph Department records now in the IOR L/PWD/7/431.

21 Thomson to Granville, tel. 109, 4 May 1885, P.R.O. FO 65/1242.

22 Durand, H. M., foreign secretary to the government of India, to ColonelSmith, C. S., 514F, 21 Mar. 1885, IOR L/P & S/3/262; Thomson to Rosebery, 44, 29 03 1886Google Scholar, P.R.O. FO 65/1284.

23 See the dismissive minutes attached to information supplied by him: IOR L/P & S/9/187.

24 Thomson to Granville, 25, 27 Feb. 1884, IOR L/P & S/9/187.

25 Ayub Khan, Governor of Herat in 1879, defeated British forces at Maiwand and was subsequently beaten by Roberts at Kandahar in September 1880 and later fled to Mashhad, where in January 1882 he became a pensioner of the Shah. In summer 1888 he accepted an invitation to go into exile in India: Sykes, Afghanistan, 11, 138–55; SirFraser-Tytler, W. K., Afghanistan (London, 1950), 151Google Scholar, 154 and 171.

26 Viceroy to secretary of state, 5 Aug. 1887, IOR L/P & S/3/294.

27 Government of India, tel. 24, 14 Dec. 1886, P.R.O. FO 60/537.

28 The Russian request, made in October 1888 and agreed in December, led to a formal invitation for an equivalent British institution in January 1889: IOR L/P & S/3/293.

29 They are located in the National Archives of India, New Delhi. For permission to use these and other records from the archives I am indebted to the Director of the National Archives of India, New Delhi.

30 Government of India 170 secret, 1 Dec. 1904, IOR L/P & S/10/85 and 317.

31 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 346 and 358 and April 1888, 78 and 93.

32 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 346 and October 1888, 337.

33 He may not have been as reliable as Maclean thought for he was on intimate terms with Abbas Khan, who provided him with information: memorandum by Guinness, Tehran, 31 July 1889, IOR L/P & S/3/297.

34 NAI Frontier B, Nov. 1896, 107–11.

35 Sihat Bai's tangled affairs embraced both larceny and bigamy. The money to set him up in business may have come from Maclean. NAI Secret F, Aug. 1887, 305.

36 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 364.

37 Maclean to Barnes, under secretary in the Foreign Department, 28 June 1890, NAI Frontier B, Sept. 1890, 65.

38 Thomson to Salisbury, 1, 6 Jan. 1886, P.R.O. FO 60/479.

39 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 364 and 369.

40 NAI Secret F, Aug. 1887, 305 and April 1888, 89; Frontier B, Mar. 1890, 134 and 137. Maclean acknowledged that he had aroused expectations: ‘I know that the Prince Governor of Khorassan, his prime minister [sic], and some of the Mashad Mujtahids will expect me to bring them something on my return [from leave in Britain] and I think it would be a pity to disappoint them.’ Private letter to the Political Secretary, India Office, 21 June 1889, IOR L/P & S/3/296.

41 NAI Secret F, Apr. 1888, 81.

42 NAI Frontier B, Dec. 1890, 119 and June 1893, 147 and Mar. 1894, 151.

43 NAI Frontier B, July 1902, 220.

44 Hajji Mirza Abul Qasim Khan, Mu'affak ul-Molk. His uncle Hajji Mahmud Kabuli was the former British agent. He had opened the first post office in Mashhad in 1877: ‘Notes on the leading notables of Khorassan’, NAI Secret F, 10 1903, 357Google Scholar.

45 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 365.

46 NAI Secret F, Apr. 1888, 79.

47 NAI Secret F, Apr. 1888, 83.

48 NAI Secret F, June 1894, 37.

49 Maclean to Durand, 88, 6 June 1888 and Durand to Maclean, 2452F, 27 Oct. 1888, NAI Secret F, Oct. 1888, 337 and 338.

50 Maclean's reports were often sensational and over-coloured, which led to their being heavily discounted by the Intelligence Division in London: Beaver, Development of the Intelligence Division, P. 179

51 NAI Secret F, Aug. 1887, 305 and May 1888, 283; Frontier B, July 1890, 44.

52 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 364.

53 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 368.

54 NAI Frontier B, Dec. 1890, 119.

55 NAI Secret F, July 1887, 305.

56 NAI Secret F, Apr. 1888, 77 and 78.

57 NAI Frontier B, Apr. 1891, 14 and 17 and July 1891, 5 and Aug. 1891, 43–8.

58 NAI Frontier B, Oct. 1894, 74.

59 NAI Frontier B, June 1894, 187–90 and Oct. 1894, 67.

60 NAI Frontier B, Apr. 1895, 36, 39 and 42.

61 NAI Frontier B, Mar. 1892, 74.

62 NAI Frontier B, Mar. 1892, 83.

63 A civilian explorer with life-long interests in China and Turkestan, Ney Elias had uneasy relations with other officers in the Indian Political Service who were predominantly soldiers. His time in Mashhad was dogged by illness and difficulties with colleagues: see Morgan, G., Ney Elias (London, 1971)Google Scholar.

64 NAI Frontier B, Sept. 1892, 43.

65 NAI Frontier B, June 1893, 153.

66 NAI Frontier B, June 1894, 186.

67 NAI Frontier B, Nov. 1896, 175.

68 Government of India, Secret 170, 1 December 1904, IOR L/P & S/10/185.

69 Government of India, Army 42, 12 May 1910, IOR L/P & S/10/317.

70 NAI Frontier B, Aug. 1903, 26. Hajji Ismail, Muavin us-Sanaya, shared the office with his father, Hajji Muhammad. He also build the British consulate-general in Mashhad: ‘Notes on notables’, Secret F, 10 1903, 357Google Scholar.

71 NAI Frontier B, June 1908, 88.

72 NAI Frontier B, Apr. 1908, 166–77 and June 1908, 84–9 and Aug. 1908, 419–26.

73 NAI Frontier B, Apr. 1908, 166.

74 NAI Frontier B, Apr. 1908, 166 and 170.

75 NAI Frontier B, Apr. 1908, 166ff.

76 NAI Frontier B, June 1908, 86.

77 NAI Frontier B, June 1908, 84.

78 Maclean complained of the difficulties caused by divided jurisdiction: NAI Secret F, Oct. 1888, 337.

79 NAI Frontier B, Sept. 1892, 521 and June 1893, 150. The protection given was a source of great embarrassment when Sihat Bai was first exposed in 1895 as a thief and extortionist. He abandoned his common-law wife and took refuge in the Russian consulate whence he was transferred back to Russian Turkestan where it was feared he would expose the work of British news-writers. The British consulate was left to pacify claims against its certificate holder. See Morgan, , Elias, 259ffGoogle Scholar.

80 ‘Monthly news summary, 16 March 1906’, NAI Secret E, 02 1907, 588Google Scholar.

81 NAI Frontier B, May 1906, 449.