Page 238 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

54 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF TIIE PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL
RESIDENCY
of the loot found its way to the house of Azam-ed-Douleh, aiterwards actine
Governor of the town. h
On the evening of the 1st ITis Britannic Majesty’s Consular Surgeon
Captain Crossle, had been informed that there was an idea of taking refuge in
the Consulate : ho had replied that it could not ho permitted and closed the
front gate of the grounds. As, however, the garden has no walls that was not a
great hindrance and the people came pouring in from the boundaries, amongst
them Mullah Agha Mahommnd Mehdi, the leader of the popular party, his
brother, Mullah Agha Mnhmood, and four out of the six elected members of the
assembly, together with the chiefs of all tho various trades. Captain Crossle
very wisely confiscated all their arms, a procedure which I kept up all the time
they were in “bast.” I now received orders that I was not to leavo Kerman-
shah. (It appears that the Russian Minister had given the order that the two
Consuls were lo go to meet Salar-ed-Douleh under some misunderstanding
with the result that His Britannic Majesty’s Minister was semewhat puzzled
by my unauthorised movemonts.) I was further instructed to inform the Gov­
ernor that these people had come to the Consulate against my express wishes,
that they hod no right to appeal to a foreign Consul in this manner, and that
I should he glad if arrangements could he nn.de hv which they would leaTO
peaceably as 1 had no means at my disposal to expel them.
I informed the Governor in the terms of the above orders, which
represented the position which was taken up both at Tehran and at Kerman-
shah throughout the incident. I received messages both from Atabeg and the
Shah saying that it was extraordinary that a British Consul should protect
rioters (for of course the people were made to bear the blame for having been
looted) but I replied in the usual terms, referring them to the Minister in
Tehran.
Throughout the affair Sir Cecil Spring-Rice impressed upon mo the
necessity of showing no partizanship and of avoiding the appearance of taking
sides. I attempted to carry out these orders to the letter but the Persians in
Kermanshbh had a fixed idea that they owed the Constitution to the English,
that the telegram which King Edward VII was supposed to have sent to the
Assembly congratulating them was a genuine message (the Russian Consul was
to a great degree responsible for this idea), and that the English being ruled
by a Constitutional Government would always bo prepared to help the people’s
side ; this idea was supported by the sympathetic tone of the British press and
in consequence all my attempts to show impartiality, while at the same time
refusing to expel the refugees for want of force, merely gained for me with the
aristooratic party the reputation of a deep and cunning diplomatist. The
ignorance of the local people, even country Governors, in such matters is some­
what amazing.
On the morning of the 6th June a letter was placed in my hands by a
messenger of the Salar-ed-Douleh enclosed in which I found two communica­
tions ; the first of these was addressed to. my Mirza and the second I took for
granted was for mo, as the messenger, stated, but I was unable to make out
what it meant. My Mirza had not returned from Harsjn, accordingly I
asked M. Pctroff to come to the Consulate with his Mirza in order to read it
for me. We found after some little, difficulty that the second letter was an
enclosure with the first and was a copy of a letter sent to Mullah Agha
Mahomed Mehdi, before mentioned. The matter appeared too serious for
scruples and we read the letter. It proved to be an inflammatory epistlo
urging Mehdi to raise the religious standard since, so it was stated, wifcliou
force the people could not come by their rights. Salar wrote that every man
who could produce a sword should wield it in the cause of bis faithi and tna
all others should wear the “ Kafn ”• or white sheet of the Jehad and mcitc by
their cries those who were fighting for Islam; he added that if Mcbdi dld
do as he was required ho was worse tlian a Christian, a Jew or nn idol wor ji-
uer The letter to the Mirza simply stated that ho was to inform mo J*1®
the .British Government did nothing by the 22nd of tho month he would oo
mence hostilities, adding .that he had enclosed a copy of his letter to M
a nd asked the Mirza to help the latter.