Page 158 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

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The districts near Bushire were again subject to some trouble and disorder
in 1893. Khan Ali Khan of Bandar-Rig
Gulf Administration Report for 1893-94.
having farmed Angali and other villages
in Dashtistan, was resisted by the inhabitants, and Angali holding out' after the
submission of the others, was attacked in 1893 with the support of a gun from
Bushire. In Tangistan there was a still more seiious conflict, and Myder Khan
though assisted by a detachment of Persian soldiers and a gun, failed against
the Tangseri tribe, who, armed with Martini-Henri rifles, compelled the soldiers
to retreat under their steady fire.
X.—Events in 1894-97.
55. The beginning of the year 1894 saw a revival of the vexatious and
useless embargo on the export of wheat.
Gulf Ailmlnistiallon Re,ioit for 1894-95.
The action taken was sudden; it was
unexpected also in view of the fact that the previously existing embargo had
only been removed three months before; indeed, everything connected with this
mischievous measure was irregular, capricious, and uncertain. Difficulties at
once arose in regard to stocks for export already purchased or contracted for,
and were not arranged without much trouble. British merchants protested and
the newly-appointed Governor, immediately on his arrival, sought our support in
representations at Tehran against the measure on the ground of its uselessness
as regards its ostensible object—the relief of scarcity at Shiraz,—which the
miserable state of the road and the cost of transport practically barred, and the
injury to the producers in view of the abundant harvest in the coast districts.
A certain remedy for the situation after Persian methods was soon found in an
extensive evasion of the edict, considerable shipments being made with very
transparent secrecy, with the result that export to the value of over £21,000
was effected during a year over three-fourths of which the embargo rested. So
good a harvest would, however, doubtless have produced a heavier export under
normal conditions, as the uncertainty and vexatious demands to which the trade
was liable could not but operate to materially restrict it.
56. In 1S95 Bushire and the Gulf ports were placed under the adminis­
trative control of His Excellency Kowwan-
Gulf Administration Report for 1895-96.
ul-Mulk, but towards the end of the year
a very determined cabal was forced against his authority. The ostensible cause
seized upon to bring matters to an issue was an imprudent attempt to construe
as an order for peremptory deportation, and to carry out with some indignity,
instructions from the capital suggesting the desirability of the temporary absence
from the country of the titular head of the mercantile community, the Malek-
ut-Tujjar who thereupon at once took refuge in a neighbouring shrine known as
the Imam Zedeb. This aroused the greatest excitement and a very general
and vigorous popular demonstration was easily got up. Bazaars, shops, and
offices‘were closed, and business came completely to a standstill and the people
besieged the Persian Telegraph Office day and night in large crowds, after the
manner of the populace in Persia whose, first resort in times of public disturbance
or panic is to the telegraph. No haste was shown by the Central Government
to take measures to allay the excited popular feeling by the issue of clear orders,
but it gradually became apparent that the cause of the malcontents gained
ground. First, the Hamal Bashi, who had been allowed to draw in his own hand
altogether too many functions and too much power, and who had become the
object of very general resentment, suddenly fled, and this was followed early in
March by the resignation by the Kowwan-ul-Mulk of the Governorship a fort­
night before the vernal equinox from which all changes and new appointments
in Persia date. Temporary and imperfect arrangements for the divided control
of public affairs were somewhat tardily made, but these nevertheless, owing to the
fact that the popular party was in the ascendant, sufficed to maintain order.
57. In 1895 an attempt to transfer the sole charge of a tract in Dashtis­
tan to one of the chiefs who had hitherto
Gulf Administration Report for 1895-96.
shared it, was resisted by the other,
Ahmed Khan, who shot his rival dead. A punitive expedition was then organised
under instructions from the capital, a detachment with a, small naval gun being