Page 133 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1903-1007. 29
28. External Affairs.—The relatione of the Bakhtiann with the Shaikh of
Muhammerah, as was to be anticipated from the Jlkhaniship of the Samsam,
have been bad.
In the spring of 1906 it had been arranged that the Shaikh and the Khans should
endeavour to obtain the Governorship of Behbahan (including the Kuhgalu tribe)
which they were to exercise jointly. In due course the Shaikh obtained the Govern­
orship, but his invitation to the Khans to participate was refused. He was there­
fore obliged to assume the whole responsibility himself.
The Khans then set to attacking him for the irregularities of the Kuhgalu
and to threaten, failing satisfaction, to attack the Kuhgalu on their own account.
This threat becoming known, an interview took place between the Vice-Consul and
the Khans in the end of October. The latter agreed to allow the Shaikh to proceed
against the Kuhgalu himself, or, to combine with him, and in any case not to take
any independent action derogatory to the Shaikh without giving information to
the Consulate.
The Shaikh, who was visited a month later, made out a much better case for
himself and laid numerous, probably not unfounded, charges of bad faith against
the Khans.
Rumours of mustering of their forces by the Khans were rife in January, and
at the same time they sent an envoy with an ultimatum to the Shaikh. The latter
scored a diplomatic success by playing off certain Bakhtiari-Kuhsalu secret affi­
nities, and. unable to make good their bluff, the Khan3 bad to profess entire satis­ !
faction with the ‘Shaikh’s answer.
29. Rumours of pending raids by the Bakhtiaris which were to include the
whole oi the northern part of the Shaikh’s territory were for some time current. H
Rut these in their extreme forms were not considered worthy of attention.
Some minor local raid occurred on the Ramuz-Jarrahi border, but the Khans
did not claim responsibility for these, and they were treated and adjusted before
the end oi March, as the actions of irresponsible local men. r
In the meantime the Shaikh of Muhammerah had telegraphed in an alarmist, i
strain to the Persian Government stating that the Khans were proposing to descend
with armed force on the Karun. and in this event be. the Shaikh, could not be re­
sponsible ior the safety of Lynch's ships, This provoked a very sharp telegram
from the Musfeir ud Daulah addressed to the Khans in which it was stated that
reference on the subject had been made by the British Legation to the Persian
Government.
This telegram the Khans showed to the Vice-Consul m March, and they want­
ed to saddle him with the responsibility for it which he repudiated.
30. The first development during the year was brought about by the visit of
the Haji Rais, as the Shaikh’s delegate, to the Khans at Ramaz in March.
Agreements were drawn up and signed in relation to Behbahan by which, with
the consent of the authorities of Shiraz and Tehran the Governorship was to be
shared, the actual administration being in the hands of the Bakhtiaria..
The Raghaiwa question, which is the marrow of all difficulties with the Ram-
sam. was discussed, but the Shaikh was not prepared to paying the heavy annual
rent of I.000 Turn a ns for it. and the Samsam would not sell it at less than 20,000
{or according to some 15,000) Tumans, and this price the Shaikh considered ex­
cessive. The only other alternative, the reversion of the land to the Samsam,
necessarily came into force.
31. The agreement relating to Behbahan had scarcely been concluded, when
a quarrel broke out between the Samsam and Shahab. Its precise nature is not
known hut. so much is known that the Shahab disapproved of the Samsam’s policy
as regards Raghaiwa.. and threatened that he would have the blood of one Ali Naqi
Khan, a chief of the Kuhgalu for whom the Samsam has a penchant^
The immediate effect was the tearing up of the agreements in Haji Rais’s
presence. ^ The probable more distant effects have already been alluded to After
Haji Rais's departure the Shahab put himself in tel ephonic communication with the
Shaikh of Muhammerah, and a private understanding was arrived at. The SlaiUt