(Confidential.)
26
Inclosure 40 in No. 1.
Mr. Colvin to Government of India.
Srinagar, December 3, 1904. I HAVE the honour to invite a reference to the correspondence ending with my letter dated the 12th November, under cover of which I forwarded a copy of a letter of the 2nd October, 1904, from my Special Assistant in Kashgar, expressing his views in connection with the alignment of the frontier between Kashmir and the Chinese New Dominion. The Political Agent, Gilgit, who has recently been touring in Hunza and Nagar, has been able to consult the Mir of the former place, and has, in consequence, very much modified the views which he held before, and which were quoted in para- graph 7 of my letter dated the 12th October, 1904, in regard to the portion of the line affecting Darwaza. The Mir explains that there is no grazing on the Hunza side of the pass, and that the people of Shimsbal (more correctly Shingshal) always resort in summer to the valley, or Pamirs as he calls it, between the pass and Darwaza. He also says that they sometimes go 20 miles beyond Darwaza for grazing, and that there is a place about 5 miles beyond Darwaza from which they fetch salt. Major Gurdon further states that the inclusion of the Ghorzerab Valley within the limits of Hunza is a matter of considerable importance to the Shingstalis, who mainly depend on their flocks for their livelihood, and to whom it is therefore a matter of extreme importance that the grazing rights, which they have hitherto enjoyed, should be secured to them. These people keep their flocks and herds in the Ghorzerab Valley in the late autumn for a period of three months because less snow falls there than in the valley between the Shingshal Pass and Darwaza. The Mir of Hunza states that the grazing in the Ghor- zerab has been enjoyed since time immemorial by the Shingshalis, and he doubts whether the Kirghiz or Sarikolis even know of the existence of the valley. It appears clear that the right of the Shingshalis to the Ghorzerah has never yet been challenged by any one. In this connection, and in order to ascertain the position the Ghorzerab Valley, which is not marked on map No. 52, S. 94, I would invite a reference to the notes recorded by Major Manners-Smith, in connection with the Shimshal Pass and routes thence into Hunza, which were forwarded to you under cover of this office letter of the 1st August, 1901. The valley lies 8 miles below the junction of the Shingshal Stream with the Mustagh River (on the map wrongly marked as Oprang, vide No. 13 of the notes referred to above) and 4 miles above the point where the Oprang joins the Mustagh.
2. Major Gurdon now proposes the following alignment: Starting from the Khun- jerab Pass, the boundary should run south along the main watershed as far as a point about 4 miles south-west of the Oprang Pass. At this point it should leave the main watershed and continue down the spur which forms the watershed between the Oprang and Ghorzerab Valleys until it reaches the Mustagh River. The Mustagh River would then form the boundary up to a point about 4 miles above the junction of the streami from the Shingshal Pass, so that the salt deposits referred to by the Mir of Hunza may be included. From this last point it would ascend the nearest high spur to the west and regain the main crest, which it should then again follow on the lines indicated by Sir Clande MacDonald in his letter to the Tsung-li Yamên, dated the 14th March, 1899.
3. I regret that the importance of the Darwaza post and of the grazing grounds between it and the Shimshal Pass and in the Ghorzerab Valley was previously over- looked. In view, now, of the Mir's assertion and Captain Manners-Smith's report, which I had not previously seen, I think that the Ghorzerab Valley should be included within our proposed border as well as the valley between Darwaza and the Shimshal Pass. If we depart at all from the main mountain crests in order to include Darwaza, there is less objection to aligning this division so as to include the Ghorzerab Valley. It is a pity to leave the main watershed at all, but the position of Darwaza seems to compel us to do this, and, that being so, it is only reasonable to include the Ghorzerab Valley as well as Darwaza, as the Mir's rights there seem to be equally strong and well substantiated. I would therefore support Major Gurdon's proposed line.
(Telegraphic.)
27
Inclosure 41 in No. 1.
Government of India to Mr. Brodrick.
395
Calcutta, January 12, 1905. HUNZA-CHINA frontier: Lord Ampthill's telegram of 16th August.
We shall shortly send you despatch, suggesting composite arrangement for settlement with Chinese Government of all our difficulties in Chinese Turkestan.
Inclosure 42 in No. 1.
Mr. Brodrick to Government of India.
India Office, February 24, 1905.
(Telegraphic.) P.
HUNZA-CHINA frontier. Please refer to Government of India letter of the 20th January last.
I request that 1 may be furnished with a map on which precise boundary you now wish to claim, from longitude 74° 55′ to 80° cast, should be clearly marked. As regards boundary in neighbourhood of Shingshal Pass, is the line now proposed identical with that which you recommended in 1899 ?
(Secret.)
Inclosure 43 in No. 1.
Government of India to Mr. Brodrick.
Sir,
Simla, August 10, 1905. WITH reference to his Excellency the Viceroy's telegram, dated the 10th March, 1905, we have the honour to forward, for the information of His Majesty's Govern- ment, a map indicating the boundary between Hunza and Chinese Turkestan, as claimed by Sir Claude MacDonald in his despatch, dated the 14th March, 1899, and that which it is now recommended the Chinese Government should be invited to accept as part of the general settlement of all outstanding difficulties in Chinese Turkestan.
2. The boundary which was claimed in 1899 is indicated by a blue line; the variations now proposed are marked in red. The proposals of 1899 contemplated that the line, after leaving the crest of the Mustagh Range in the vicinity of the Shingshal Pass, should run in an casterly direction, and then turn southward so as just to include the part of Darwaza within the Hunza frontier. Thereafter it was to continue its southward trend until it regained the main crests. We now recommend that the boundary should run from the Kunjerab Pass south along the main watershed, as far as a point about 6 miles south-west of the Oprang Pass. At this point the line should leave the main watershed, run due cast for about 5 miles, and then continue in a south-easterly direction until it strikes the Mustagh River (incorrectly shown on the map as the Oprang) at Kuram-jilga. The Mustagh River would then form the boundary up to a point about 4 miles above the junction of the stream from the Shingshal Pass; from this point it would ascend the nearest high spur to the west and regain the main crest, which it would then follow on the lines indicated in Sir Claude MacDonald's despatch to the Tsung-li Yamên of the 14th March, 1899.
We have, &c. (Signed)
CURZON. KITCHENER.
E. R. ELLES.
A. T. ARUNDEL.
HI. ERLE RICHARDS.
E. N. BAKER.
C. L. TUPPER,
0
E
* Map to illustrate the explorations of Captain F. E. Younghusband, King's Dragoon Guards, on the northern frontier of Kashmir. Seale 1 inch 16 miles.-Not printed.
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