Page 151 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

47
POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1906.1907.
involves months of delay before a settlement can be arrived at, while too often the
defendant seizes the opportunity thus offered to him and decamps, rendering ft
settlement impossible. Cases of fraudulent bankruptcy and flight have been.inofsas-
ingly frequent, during the pnst year, the absconding debtore invariably betaking
themselves to Lar, whence all attempts to dislodge them and secure their return to
Bunder Abbas have hitherto proved fruitless.
The majority of these fraudulent debtors are Laris, who after taking substan­
tial loanR from the Hindus, place themselves under the prelection of the Deputy
Governor of Lar, who in return for a portion of their ill-gotten gains, is always
ready to deny that the debtors arc within his jurisdiction. Secure in their retreat at
Lar, debtors either ignore the claims of their creditors, or from their advantageous
position, are able to dictate such terms of settlement as arc beneficial to themselves
after which they are free to return to the town and to re-engage in trade as honest
merchants until such time as they find it convenient to repeat their former coup.
Insecurity of the Trade Routes.—There has been no improvement as regards
the security of the trade routes, and if there have been fewer instances of looted
caravans than in former years, it is rather due to the fact that when the roads were
known to be specially unsafe caravans did not traverse them, than to any actual
increased security. The beginning of the year saw Kal Siraj, a former Kalantar of
Finn vJTjj ) engaged in hostilities with the newly appointed Kalantar, and as a
consequence, many disturbances took place in the country to the north of Bunder
Abbas. In April the Lar road was rendered unsafe by reason of the depredations
of Haji Talib Khan, who had previously been expelled from the Deputy Governor­
ship of Lingah. In November serious disturbances occurred in the Tamm ( )
and Forg » 1 districts, occasioned by the rival claims to the Deputy Governor­
ship of the respective nominees of the Shoa-es-Sultaneb and the Kowam-al-Mulk;
heavy fighting took place and many lives were lost, while for some weeks, caravans
were forced to make a long detour in order to avoid the disturbed districts. In
December, the caravan traffic on the Bunder Abbas-Kerman road was suspended
for some weeks, owing to the presence of bands of robbers on the roads;— a Jiraft
Hindu ventured to despatch five donkeys with goods from Bunder Abbas, but they
were looted near Navergu { ) in Fare territory, and although after much pre­
varication, the Fars authorities admitted that the place was within their jurisdiction
satisfaction had not been afforded at the close of the year. Turning to Bunder
Abba> and its immediate vicinity, robberies in the town have been rare, but the
villages in the neighbourhood and to the north-west of the town have suffered
much from the depredations of a certain Mullah Hassim, who is said to enjoy the
protection and support of Haji Ali Kuli Khan, Deputy Governor of Lar. Although
this outlaw has on several occasions ventured to within a few miles of the town, the
local authorities professed themselves as being powerless to effect his capture. In
February much apprehension was caused by the presence at Ziarat ( rl.fi* ), a
village within 30 miles from Bunder Abbas, of a force of some. 75 armed men, who
having descended from the Tang-i-Zagh ( ^ ), demanded satisfaction for the
oppression and extortion to which the tribes had been subjected by Haji Mahomed
Khan, who had lately been removed from the Deputy Governorship of Bunder
Abbas. The force eventually withdrew and was pursued by Mir Ahmed Shah, the
Kala'ntar of Shamil, who, however, on receiving a present of 40 Tomans, obligingly
abandoned the pursuit. When on a visit to Minab in February, His Majesty’s
Consul witnessed the arrival of*a large force of Sarbazes under Yali Khan of Kerman
and Mirza Khan of Rudbar. The ostensible object of the raid was to collect reve­
nue from natives of Rudbar who had settled in the Minab district. The Deputy
Governor of Minab fled to Bunder Abbas and sought telegraphic orders from his
employer, the Moin-uUTuiar, but during his absence, the raiders committed sundry
acts of pillage in the town and then withdrew.
These numerous instances of unrest and disturbances in the district have been
at-801716 m order to show under what difficulties peaceful trades
laboured in transporting their goods during the past year and the really pressing
need which exists for the Persian Government to take some action by which
encumbrances shall cease to exist, but it is feared that in the absenoe of strong
pressure from His Majesty’s Government some years must elapse before the
reman authorities win be in a position to cope with the difficulty.