Page 412 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF TI1E PERSIAN GULF
2
Anglo-Persian Oil Company for duty at the scene of their operations, was
appointed to hold charge pending the return of the substantive incumbent.
Under the new arrangements the Dost at Ahwaz now became a* Vice-Con­
sulate in the sphere of the Consul lor Arabistan. The incumbent, however,
retained the local rank of Consul granted him for the purposes of precedence
among foreigners, and, so far as his duties with the Bakhtiaris were con­
cerned, continued to work directly with His Majesty’s Legation, through the
Consulate-General at Bushirc, or Ispahan, according to season, as heretofore.
The dates and details of the changes will be found in the Reports of the
offices concerned.
The reports from Bushire, Shiraz, Lingah and Bandar Abbas consist
almost entirely of narratives of the
Buahiro and Far*.
course of the so-called “Nationalist”
upheaval, which occurred in the Southern provinces in the early part of the
year, the aftermath of which continued to make itself felt almost to the close
thereof. With regard to this particular topic, the reports from the several
centres are so interdependent on one another that it is simpler to treat them
collectively.
At the time the last year’s report was written, March 1909, it was
stated that most of the principal towns in Persia were in the hands of the
Nationalists, and that it seemed probable that the Shah would soon be brought
to his knees, if only for want of funds.
At the commencement of this year, the most prominent actor on the stage
was Seyyid Abdul Husem Lari and the scene was laid in Laristan. The
Kawarai brothers of Shiraz, Salar-i-Sultan (who had succeeded his murdered
father as “Kawara”) and Nasr-ed-Dowleh, his younger brother, had left
Shiraz in November 1903, determined to extinguish the troublesome religious
firebrand above-mentioned, who for a long time past had been neglecting no
opportunity to attack and loot the adherents and the property of the Kawam
family in the Darab and Fasa districts. Action had been however delayed
too long, and the Kawam was unable to move beyond Darab, while Seyyid
Abdul Husein maintained himself successfully in Lar. Ultimately their
dispositions were no more effective than the usual run of Persian wrarlike
operations, and, after spending a good deal of money and time, they returned
to Shiraz, in March, without having effected anything and leaving the dis­
tricts at the mercy of Seyyid Abdul Husein, whose energies had been greatly
stimulated by the failure of the Kawams to tackle him.
Meanwhile, remaining in Lar himself, in case of any advance from the
north on the part of the Kawamis, the Seyyid had, through the instrument­
ality of letters of exhortation and the active assistance of two or three kind­
red spirits, been sedulously disseminating revolutionary propaganda in the
Gulf Ports, and, as a direct result of this, disturbances broke out, first at
Bandar Abbas, on 17th of March, then at Bushire, on the 22nd, and, finally,
at Lingah 3 days later, the Customs and Local Government falling into the
hands of the so-called Nationalist leaders. The situation was indeed res­
cued in a great measure from a state of danger and anarchy by the appoint­
ment and arrival of His Excellency the Darya Begi as Governor of the Gulf
Ports, but it was Dot until the deportation of Seyyid Murteza, the Bushire
leader, in June, and the entry of the Nationalist forces into Tehran in July,
resulting in the abdication of Muhammad Ali Shah and the reinception of
constitutional government, that anything like normal conditions were res­
tored in the ports themselves.
. For the latter part of the year the centre of political interest lay chiefly
m the local politics of Shiraz, which are graphically described by Mr. Bib
«. in his report. The opening of the
had found Shiraz with a hopelessly
incompetent Governor-General in the person of Asaf-ed-Dowleh, who seems
to have been merely a puppet in the hands of the Kashgai Ilkhani, Sowlet-
ed-Dowleh. Asax-ed-Dowleh was, however, dismissed in July; Zil-es-Sultan,
Ala-ed-Dowleh and Ain-cd-Dowleh being severally nominated in turn to
succeed him. None of these choices however proved practicable, and the post