uare miles are--in a way--strategically the
most important portion to us of Beluchistan. I am referring to that zone
of flat territory, north of the Mirjawa, Saindak and Sultan Mountains,
which forms a southern barrier to the Afghan desert, and along a portion
of which we have now built the Nushki-Robat route.

Strategically, more particularly if a railway is to be constructed, the
advantages in gaining that strip of land on the north side of the
mountainous region cannot be over-estimated, and only a fearless, but
extremely tactful, well-informed and, above all, able officer like
MacMahon could have scored such an unexpected success against the very
shrewd Afghan Commissioners. The latter well knew the political value of
the concession, and so did the Amir at Cabul--who, angered at hearing of
the advantages gained by the British Commissioners for their own country,
is said to have treated his representatives in a summary way on their
return to the Afghan capital.

But the line of boundary was laid in an unmistakable manner. The final
agreements and really _accurately_ drawn maps were signed on May 14th,
1896, by both the Afghan and British Commissioners, and there was no
going back on what had been done.

One of the important results of this Boundary Commission was that we
definitely drove the Afghans out of Chagai, north of which place the
frontier now extends eastwards to the Sarlat Mountains. The first thing
that directed attention to these remote regions was Nushki, a little
district some 90 miles from Quetta--a place most conveniently situated
for strategical and trade purposes. This was an outlying portion of the
Khan of Kelat's territory.

As a matter of fact these people were always fighting among themselves;
they had a bitter enmity with one another, and their feuds had
accumulated on an ever increasing scale for centuries. They merely
acknowledged the Khan's authority when it suited their ends.

The Government first requested the Khan or Kelat to keep the district in
order, being a frontier district, not far from the Afghan boundary, and
notified him that trouble there might involve trouble with the British
Government. The Khan, however, was helpless, and the ultimate result was
that the Government came to terms with the Khan and agreed to give him a
quit rent of 9,000 rupees a year--a sum much larger than he ever got out
of it for himself--and took over Nushki from him.

One question frequently asked i