Page 355 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

CHAPTER IV.
ADMINISTRATION REPORT FOR KERMAN FOR THE NINE
MONTHS ENDING 31ST DECEMBER 1908.

The personnel of the British Consulate remained unchanged during the British
year. Consulate.
M. Adamoff held charge throughout the year of the Russian Consulate. Russian
Consulate.
M. and Mdra. Petrol! did not stay very long in Kerman. It soon
became noticeable that the anticipated pleasure of their company was dis­
appointed. Relations between the AdamolTs and Petroffs became more and
more strained till one day early in May things seemed to reach a crisis and
the Petroffs left at three days notice in anticipation of sanction. M. Petrol!
himself went down to the bazaar and sold off his belongings by auction without
reserve and returned to Tehran.
The town remained in the hands of the Nazim-ut-Tujjar and Haji Local
Ibrahim Naib-farrash until April when the Sardar-i-Motazid arrived. As pol,tlc"’
the Salar-i-Mansur he had been here with the Farman Farma and owns
several carpet factories in the town so that he was well-known and well
informed on local conditions, and it was hoped that he would be a success
as Governor. The hopes however were shortlived. He seemed afraid of
any responsibility and to have only the one idea of keeping himself out of
any fighting that might take place. He would not call back the Adil-es-
Sultaneh into the town nor forbid him to come in. When the Adil-es-Sultaneh
came in to the Bagh-i-Nishat and the Naib’s party threatened to attack him
and his sympathisers the Governor remained absolutely passive and prepared
to watch them fight it out. Things remained in this unsatisfactory and
threatening condition until the Shah’s coup d'etat in June when the Naib
lost his last hold on the town and fled to Mahun where he took “ bast ” in
the shrine.
The popular party in Bam did not collapse so quickly. The Rafat-i-
Nizam who had terrorised Bam and Narmashir much as Haji Naib had done
in Kerman collected a force with which he threatened to relieve the Naib at
Mahun and to march on to Kerman. He moved with unusual celerity for
Persia and it seemed as if the local authorities were going to let him find them
still unprepared but they luckily got a force out to Mahun the evening before
the Bam force arrived and in the morning, when the Rafat-i-Nizam tried to
debouch from the hills, the guns shelled the head of the column and drove
them back. Haji Naib escaped out of Mahun disguised as a woman and
joined the Rafat-i-Nizam with the news that the popular cause was hopeless
in Kerman, and the Bam force retired crestfallen to Narmashir. Meanwhile
the Bami Khans had called out the sarbazes and sowars and the Rafat-i-
Nizam and his men found themselves cut off from Bam. They made a wide
detour and got round to Regan and Fahraj, which belongs to the Rafat, and
entrenched themselves there. Nothing would persuade the Bami Khans to
advance and drive out the Rafat who gradually collected a large number of
Baluchis and might have easily sacked Bam if he had only plucked up heart
to do so. He, however, refused to loose the Baluchis on it and they soon got
tired of doing nothing and returned to their homes. The rest of his following
gradually melted away and the Bami Khans having been superseded by Wali
Khan, who was made governor of Bam with orders to round him up, he fled
to the telegraph office at Dahanah and from thence either into Seistan or
India. Haji Ibrahim, the Naib, took “ bast ” in the shrine near Bam for a
short time and then surrendered to the authorities since when he has languish­
ed in the Bam prison. Thus ended the popular regime in Kerman and Bam
much to the relief of everyone, even the most enthusiastic Constitutionalist
confessing that, as interpreted in Kerman, the Mashrutch was not a success.