These defects are now, in the main, surmounted, and an excellent trade route is established between Nushki and Nasratabad, the marches being divided into twenty-one stages. Between Nushki and Robat a kutcha road, varying in breadth between 10 feet and 20 feet, is laid out. Dâk bungalows have also been established at regularly appointed stations and[26] telegraphic communication exists. Around the several bungalows there are now tiny settlements where itinerant traders exist on the proceeds of their business with the caravans. Marauding bands have ceased to worry, as their leaders have been made responsible for the safe custody of travellers between the different stages. At each post there is a small levy-guard and quarters for the camel-dâk, which carries the mail between India and Seistan in nine and a half days. Although it is impossible to avoid the heat, the water difficulty is no longer insuperable. Wells have been sunk and, since the abolition of all tolls and duties on the route—which wise precaution was made an essential preliminary to the inauguration of the service—an increasing stream of camels passes to and fro, between India and Khorassan.

Value of Imports and Exports by the Nushki-Seistan route for the years 1896-1905.
Year. Rupees.
March 1, 1896,  to March 1, 1897 1½ lakhs.
” 1897 ” 1898 5  ”
” 1898 ” 1899 7  ”
” 1899 ” 1900 12  ”
” 1900 ” 1901 15  ”
” 1901 ” 1902 20  ”
” 1902 ” 1903 18  ”
” 1903 ” 1904 18  ”
” 1904 ” 1905 24  ”
List of Marches between Nushki rail head and Nasratabad.
 1. [27]Nushki to Mull 25
 2. [27]Mull to Padag 30
 3. Padag to Yadgar Chah 24
 4. Yadgar Chah to Dalbandin 31
 5. [27]Dalbandin to Jujaki 30
 6. Jujaki to Meroi 21
 7. [27]Meroi to Chah Sandan 21
 8. Chah Sandan to Tratoh 24
 9. Tratoh to Kundi 22
10. Kundi to Mashki Chah 22
11. [27]Mashki Chah to Ware Chah 26
12. Ware Chah to Makak Karez 23
13. Makak Karez to Sainduk 11
14. [27]Sainduk to Kirtaka 17
15. Kirtaka to Chah Mohammed Reza 17
16. Chah Mohammed Reza to Killa Robat 28
17. [27]Killa Robat to Hormak 17
18. Hormak to Nowad Chah 24
19. Nowad Chah to Girdi Thana 7
20. Girdi Thana to Asak Chah 22
21. Asak Chah to Sayed Khan’s khel 10
22. Sayed Khan’s khel to Nasratabad 20
22. Quetta to Nushki 93
Total 565

The road follows two sides of a triangle, skirting the whole of Southern Afghanistan before entering Persia at Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah. The distance from Nushki to Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah and thence direct to Meshed is just 1000 miles. To aid traders using this route a rebate of seven-eighths of the Indian Customs duty is allowed. As the sea is free to Bunder Abbas, this concession should be increased so that the starting-points of the caravans—i.e., Nushki and Bunder Abbas—might be on a footing of equality. “Drawbacks” of 33 per cent. are granted by the North-Western railway on all goods sent by it and destined for Persia. Additional facilities have also been arranged for the trade using this new route; in order to avoid the difficulty of having to go 150 miles out of their way to Nasratabad for Customs examination, hitherto experienced by merchants proceeding by the Nushki route to Khorassan, a first-class Customs Bureau has been established at Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah. This enables kafilas to proceed direct to Kain and Khorassan viâ the Palankoh route and to avoid the detour through Seistan. Furthermore, a British Consular Agent has been deputed to Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah, one of whose principal duties it will be to watch the interests of British traders using the route and to assist them in their dealings with the Customs authorities. As regards traffic, since the opening of the Quetta-Nushki railway a considerable flow of trade has set in from the Helmund direction viâ Chageh, as caravans for Herat and Afghan traders naturally prefer to follow the Helmund to a point north-west of Chageh and then to turn southwards. A stretch of desert still has to be crossed; but it is less in extent than that between Nushki and the Persian frontier at Robat.

In order to encourage traders a revised schedule of rates for the hire of camels along the Nushki-Seistan-Meshed route has been issued by the Government of India. By these changes the hire for single camels carrying 400 pounds has been reduced from 57 rs. 8 a. for the single journey to 55 rs.; for the double journey from 100 to 95 rs., the time having been decreased from 105 to 85 days: this latter is a distinct advance. The charge per kharwar has been reduced from 370 krans to 359 krans 11 shahis, or 89 rs. 6 a. This concession does not yet equal the average rate of hire from Bunder Abbas to Meshed, which is 300 krans per kharwar. Goods must be packed in gunny bags, boxes or leather cases, no package weighing more than 2½ maunds. Special rates are quoted for wood-work and iron materials. The periods allowed for the journey are:

Quetta to Seistan45 days.
Seistan to Meshed40  ”
Nushki to Seistan38  ”

Contractors will be held responsible for all loss and damage to goods in transit obviously due to the neglect of the camel-men. They will be at liberty to refuse goods for delivery if they are not properly packed and secured. Loss through raids will be considered beyond the contractors’ responsibility. Ten days’ notice must be given for any number of camels required up to 40, 25 days for over 50 and up to 300, 50 days above 300 but not exceeding 1000. Express camels can be hired at higher rates, the journey from Quetta to Seistan being then made in 30 days.

The evident success of the new route has been the more remarkable because M. Naus, the head of the Belgian administration that conducts the Persian Customs, has devised special means to check the expansion of Indian trade, two Customs officers being appointed to Nasratabad to deal with it. To give zest to their existence these men imposed many novel regulations upon caravans.[28] The camel-men are fined for the non-observance of arbitrary rules which are purposely varied so that confusion may be created; the men are thrown into prison, the animals seized and the goods confiscated. In addition, the Customs barrier in Seistan is reinforced by a plague cordon between Seistan and Khorassan against caravans from India, in spite of the fact that the period of any possible incubation has expired long before a caravan from Quetta can reach Seistan, and that the limits of time, within which quarantine is permissible, have been laid down by the decision of the Venice Sanitary Congress. The headquarters of this latest pest are at Turbat-i-Haidari and Karez. Meanwhile the Russian and Belgian authorities encourage the circulation of alarmist rumours about the mortality from Indian plague in Seistan, the doctor at the Russian legation in Teheran recently having spread a statement that 99 per cent. of deaths from plague had occurred in the Naizar district of Seistan. While these reports are very greatly exaggerated in respect of Indian plague, an epidemic of this disease nevertheless ravaged Seistan during the spring of 1906. At Nasratabad the population was reduced through it from 2500 to rather more than 300. The efforts of Dr. Kelly, the medical officer attached to the British Consulate in Nasratabad, however, did much to arrest it, over 500 inoculations having been made and an excellent impression created by the recovery of a man who had been seized after being inoculated by him. None-the-less, its existence prepares the way for more vigorous precautions against Indian caravans, the measures of the plague officials being directed against the development of Indian commercial relations with Northern Persia and Northern Afghanistan in the hope that Persian and Afghan merchants may frequent the Meshed emporium. At the present moment these preventive measures have achieved conspicuous success, and Russian commercial activity has entirely subjugated Khorassan province. No headway appears to be possible for British trade; while the rapid growth of Russian commercial influence, under this system of pernicious assistance, threatens to reduce Seistan to the position of a commercial base from which the markets of India can be attacked by articles of Russian manufacture. A precisely similar state of things prevails at Meshed in respect of Afghanistan.