IOR/L/PS/7/47 ff.43-66

Description

Scope and content : Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department (Secret) to the Secretary of State for India, dated Simla, 3 May 1886, in continuation of Despatch No. 66 of 26 April 1886, forwarding copies of further correspondence relating to Afghanistan. The subject matter principally relates to the operations of the Afghan Boundary Commission.Enclosure no. 3 comprises a detailed 'report on the roads and country of the Band-i-Turkistan and Firozkuhi country, compiled by Captain Maitland, Assistant Quarter-Master-General, Intelligernce Branch, from information furnished by Sub-Surveyor Hira Singh.'Enclosure no. 4 'mentions that various terms in the protocol of 10th September 1885, seem to support the contention that Kham-i-ab should be left to the Afghans.'Enclosure No. 5 'points out to His Lordship the dangerous position in which the Mission will be placed if Kham-i-ab is surrendered to the Russians.'Enclosure no. 6 'gives His Excellency the Viceroy's opinion on the position of Khoja Saleh, and on the principle on which the Kham-i-ab district should be demarcated.Enclosure no. 7 'asks his Lordship if there is any objection to Sir West Ridgeway exploring and surveying the country along the North-Eastern Frontier of Afghanistan, in the event of the Kham-i-ab question being satisfactorily settled.'