this Persian force, but has not received them; on doing so, they will be duly forwarded to you.

4. From Candahar the intelligence is, that Essan Khan, the late Minister at Herat, begged from the Ameer Dost Mahomed, that he would come with a force to Herat, and he would deliver the place into his hands. The Persians, after having entrusted the Governorship of Herat to Essan Kan, on the part of the King of Persia, and after the "khootbeh" had been duly read, and coin ordered to be struck in the name of the Shah, had left, on their return to Meshed, the late Ruler, Mahomed Youssuf, accompanying them; but, hearing that Essan Khan intended treachery, they retraced their steps, and have invested the place. Essan Khan had carefully got rid of all Persians from the fort, only having his own people inside. Of these there are about 4,000 or 5,000, and he writes to Dost Mahomed that he has provisions for four months.

5. The Ameer, knowing the man's faithlessness, has replied that, unless Essan Khan sends his nephew and a lady of his family to Furrah, as an earnest of the truth of his statements, he, the Ameer, will send no troops to

Herat.

6. The above was communicated to me verbally by his Highness' Vakeel. He expects other intelligence this evening, with letters, the originals of which, with translations, shall be forwarded to you on their receipt, without delay.

(Translation.)

After Compliments.

Inclosure 2 in No. 135.

The Naib of Kohuck to the Khan of Kelat.

IT will be known to you that I have written to you regarding the proceedings of the infidel Persians. People say they are about to proceed against the Imaum of Muscat ("Mucus" is the word in the letter, which the Vakeel says means "Muscat"), and some say they are coming to Kohuck. The intelligence from Kohuck I also lay before you with the blessing of Providence and your good fortune, the infidels will meet with defeat, and their thougats be turned in another direction. If they have turned their thoughts in this direction, not a man will remain in the country. The forts in this country are merely earthworks, and we are unable to hold it: the dread of the infidels is on every one, and the people of this country say, if they (the Persians) come in the direction, they will fly. To hold the country, troops and money are necessary; the feeling of the people of the country is such that they will fly. The state of the army is known to you: they have no pay; your name is great; in your forts, however, there are no stores; and though Khewul Buniah was ordered to put stores into the forts, he has not done so, and, notwithstanding your orders to furnish supplies, &c., to the troops daily, he has not given them. I have received no pay for three months, but, from dread, I am unable to say anything. The Buniah only cares for his own business. Your orders were, that he should daily supply Hussein and Newab, Khodabadanee; he has not done so; they were ordered two rations, and, when they visit you, they receive entertainment for twenty men; but the Buniah gives them nothing, caring only for his own affairs. If it is right that I should entertain twenty or ten men, be so good as to give the order on him, that the pay may be properly disbursed. In this do favour to your soldiers. From the day when you sent me into this country, I have only received one pay, two more are due to me; be so good as to favour me with it, and your soldiers will receive it.

Sir,

Inclosure 3 in No. 135.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob to the Secretary to the Government of India.

Kurrachee, August 17, 1856.

I HAVE the honour to forward the accompanying Persian letters, with translations, containing intelligence of the proceedings of the Persians in the countries bordering on our north-west frontier, for the information of the Governor-General of India in Council.

2. The Azad Khan mentioned in them is the father-in-law of his Highness the Khan of Kelat, but has frequently been opposed to him, and more than once in open rebellion against the Khan's authority. About two years ago, he attempted to get up an insurrection at Kharan, placed himself at the head of a body of troops, and defied the Khan's authority. A force was on that occasion sent against him, when he was reduced to submission, and on his appearing before his Highness the Khan, he was pardoned and restored to favour; he now appears to have gone over to the Persians.

3. I may observe that the tone of the Kelat people and Government is satisfactory, being bold and confident; they evidently put full trust in the will and ability of the British Government to support and protect them against serious or permanent injury.

4. Copies of these letters have been transmitted to the Governor of Bombay in Council.

(Translation.)

After Compliments.

Bahar Shah to the Khan of Kelat.

27th Zilkaia, 1272. (July 30, 1856.) PREVIOUS news from this country was forwarded by me to your Highness, which you will have received. A respectable person has now come from Kharan, and reported that Meer Azad Khan* had gone to Jalk and Dijak; further, that he had abandoned you and the Candaharees, and was going to join the Persian Kaffirs, and would make his own arrangements with them. The circumstances are these, that his trust in you and the Candaharees was gone. He has taken much money with him, and the Persians have placed him in possession of Jalk, and he had said whatever money they would ask from him he would give, and he would take possession of Dijak, Jalk, Kedj, and Punjgoor, and appropriate the revenue thereof. A person of somewhat doubtful character came from Dijak and informed me that the orders of the King of Persia to the commanders of the Persian force were, that they were to bring over Meer Mahomed Shah and Meer Azad Khan, and not to return without them.

The Persians have thus spread a net, namely, Jalk, to keep Azad Khan: his province of Kharan being dry and very unproductive, he would fall into the We shall see the results; if he has practised deceit, he will be placed with Mahomed Shah (supposed to mean in confinement); if he has acted openly, then there will be enmity throughout the land.

snare.

After the death of Meer Lullah, one of the officers in Kedj, his son, who had shown enmity to the Moolalizze, was checked by me. At this time, two sowars of Meer Azad Khan came and advised Meer Lullah's son to remain quiet, and not entertain enmity, and the Sirkar would arrange all for him. He has relinquished his feeling of enmity, and is now the humble servant of the Sirkar (the Khan).

May, &c.

(Signed)

BAHAR SHAH.

Father-in-law to the Khan of Kelat.

Inclosure 5 in No. 135.

Faiz Ahmed, Balve, to Moollah Ahmed, Vakeel.

(Translation.)
After Compliments.

8th Zilhidge, 1272. (August 10, 1856.) YOUR letter arrived, and its contents have become known. You will learn everything from the letter of the Khan. (This letter has not been received, and does not appear to have been written after all.) Keep me constantly informed of the proceedings around you, and consider that while I am with the Khan, it is as if you yourself were present. Other subjects you will be acquainted with through the letter of Mahomed Khan.*

From Candahar no written communications have been recived, but letters from Shawl and a messenger from Shorawuk state that 30,000 men, in addition to those previously before Herat, had joined the army there, and surrounded Lash and Joeen. The Ameers of Cabul and Candahar were much perplexed, and in great stress for want of funds-and without money and supplies the Persian difficulty could not be met and to attempt to meet it without money would only bring defeat on their troops. Mahomed Omer Khan, son of Kohendil Khan, had fled from Candahar towards the Persian camp at Herat.

The Khan of Kelat, according to your request, has ordered that every week, four times a-month, a report of the proceedings at Herat be obtained from Candahar.

To-day it has been reported that intelligence has been received in Shorawuk of the fall of Herat; but, as no written report has been received, this news cannot be implicitly relied on, though there can be very little doubt that such has been the case, for this reason, that the Candaharees have rendered no assistance, and in Herat itself there is no one of any stamp or faith, and Essan Khan has no real influence. He, Essan Khan, is in Herat, but his proceedings are not judicious.

The intelligence with regard to the Persian force on the frontier of Mekran is as follows:-They have taken Jalk, and with them came 2,500 men. The Persians wrote a letter to the Khan, but he sent no reply, saying he was an ally of the British; wherefore what was the use of any communication with the Shah of Persia ?

The Persians then, expecting nothing from the Khan, sent for Azad Khan,† and placed him in charge of the fort of Jalk, and told him he must make war on the Khan, and they would assist him. The Khan directed Bhair Khan, the Governor of Kedj, to collect supplies, &c., and have them ready to move after the Eed (Bukri). The Khan likewise ordered the Governor of Punjgoor to be invested with a dress of honour, and that he should leave immediately after the Eed.

People have been sent to bring intelligence from the Persian camp as to the numbers, &c., of their army on the frontier of Mekran.

Those who have obtained possession of Jalk are under the command of Mahomed Ali.

No matter what the expense may be, an army must be sent this year to Kedj Mekran. Since last year, the Persian army has shown itself. If we are unprepared, the Persians will probably declare war. The Khan has also ordered

that no expense shall be spared in obtaining good intelligence.

* Mahomed Khan, son of Moollah Ahmed. The letter here quoted has only reference to a petition from one of the Khan's subjects against a person residing in Scinde.

Father-in-law of the Khan, and Governor of Kharan.

(Extract.)

No. 136.

Mr. Leach to Mr. Hammond.—(Received October 8.)

India Board, October 8, 1856.

I AM directed by the Commissioners for the Affairs of India to transmit to you, for the information of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a copy of a letter from the Commissioner in Scinde to the Secretary to the Government of India, dated August 13, suggesting that assistance should be given to the Khan of Kelat, for the purpose of enabling him to resist any aggressive movement on the part of the Shah of Persia.

Sir,

Inclosure in No. 136.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob to the Secretary to the Government of India.

Kurrachee, August 13, 1856.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd of July last.

2. With reference to the subject of the second paragraph of your letter, I have the honour to state, for the information of the Governor-General of India in Council, that the Khan of Kelat is perfectly well aware that he has no claim as of right, under the existing Treaty, to any assistance from the British Government, beyond the annual subsidy now paid to him. He puts forward no hint at any such claim, and considers it entirely at the pleasure of the British Government to give or withhold further aid, as they may deem best.

3. The Khan of Kelat has, however, earnestly begged for further aid, and I am strongly of opinion that it would be most wise on the part of the British Government immediately to grant it.

4. I have not yet been able to ascertain with any tolerable precision the real strength and nature of the Persian army now in the south-eastern part of Seistan; but there is no doubt but that a strong Persian force is operating on, and partly within, the frontier of the Kelat State, and that this force is levying contributions and carrying off cattle from the Khan's subjects.

5. The Khan of Kelat is assembling a force at Nooskey, and is also about to dispatch as large an army as he can collect without much delay, to the more western part of his dominions, Punjgoor, in the province of Kedj Mekran, in which quarter he appears to dread invasion from the Persian force near Jelluck, even more than in the north.

6. The Khan's authority is well established in Kedj Mekran, and up to his frontier line. Nooskey is about 100, and Punjgoor about 300 miles from the town of Kelat.

7. I have ascertained that the most acceptable assistance (irrespective of aid by troops) we could afford the Khan, and that most likely to be effective, would be an immediate supply of arms and money.

8. I would, therefore, advise that 2,000 percussion muskets and bayonets, with 200 rounds of ammunition for each, and a large proportion of percussion caps, and the sum of (Rs. 1,00,000) one lac of rupees, be presented to his Highness the Khan of Kelat, as soon as possible.

9. I would also recommend that four mountain field-pieces (threepounders) complete, with 200 rounds of ammunition each, be also presented to his Highness. If this suggestion be approved by his Lordship in Council, these guns can be supplied at once from the arsenal in Scinde.

10. The Vakeel of his Highness the Khan of Kelat has also introduced, in his application for assistance, the subject of military aid by the co-operation of our troops, and pointed out that however valuable assistance in arms and money might be, and grateful as his master would be for such aid, still the presence of a British force, however small, acting in co-operation with the troops of his Highness the Khan, would be invaluable, would make the Belooch soldiers irresistible, and do more than all else to command success.

11. The Vakeel, continually remarking that nothing was demanded as a right, but entirely as favour, next observed, that in the late Treaty a clause existed to the effect, that should the British Government at any time wish to establish cantonments in any part of the Kelat dominions, they were at full liberty to do so; and although the British Government might not think it advisable at present to send troops actually to co-operate with those of Kelat, still possibly it might not be thought objectionable to form a British camp at some convenient place in the Kelat territory above the Bolaun, such as Quetta. 12. The establishing of a British camp in such a position would, the Vakeel represented, be of the greatest assistance to the Khan in repelling his present assailants, and would, as the Khan was well assured, prevent the recurrence of such attacks and invasions of his country by the Persians, or any other Power, in future.

13. The Vakeel earnestly begged, in the name of his master, that this subject might be taken into the serious consideration of the Governor-General of India in Council.

14. I have requested the Kelat Government to ascertain and forward, as soon as possible, to the Political Superintendent on the frontier, for transmission to me, full particulars regarding the strength, constitution, proceedings, &c., of the Persian forces; which, on receipt, I will submit without delay for the information of his Lordship in Council.

15. A copy of this letter will be transmitted for the information of the Governor of Bombay in Council.

I TRANSMIT to you herewith, in an unsealed packet, a letter which I have addressed to the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, in reply to a letter from the Sadr Azim, of which I inclose an English translation for your information.*

I also inclose a copy of my letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs,† and I have to instruct you to cause an accurate translation of it to be made and placed in the same cover with the original, and then forwarded as soon as possible to Tehran.

Mr. Consul Stevens will probably have left Tehran before my letter could arrive there, and it will be for you to determine how you can best ensure the letter reaching Tehran in safety, and the time at which it should do so, in order that no impediment may, in consequence of its contents, be opposed to the progress of Mr. Stevens and his family on his way out of Persia.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

CLARENDON.

No. 138.

The Earl of Clarendon to the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Office, October 10, 1856.

THE Undersigned, &c., had the honour to receive, on the 25th of September, the letter which the Sadr Azim, Prime Minister of His Majesty the Shah of Persia, addressed to him on the 17th of August, having reference to the letter which the Undersigned addressed to the Sadr Azim on the 11th of July, on the subject of the proceedings of the Persian Government in regard to Herat, but containing no answer to that letter.

Her Majesty's Government had hoped that the letter of the Undersigned would have elicited from the Persian Government a distinct assurance that † No. 138.

* See page 180.