Page 421 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

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POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1909. 11

It was not until January 1909 that ho began to endeavour to subvert
constituted authority in the Gulf Ports themselves by addressing exhorta­
tions to the local Mullahs in Bandar Abbas and Lingah, calling on the people
to combine, drive out the Belgians and seize the Customs for themselves.
Except for the Lari element in the population, no party in Bandar Abbas
favoured any disturbances in the port, hut the fulminations of the Seyyid
calling upon the patriotic to gird up their loins and seize the Customs receipts,
found their echo among the lawless spirits of the hinterland, and a raid on
the port of Bandar Abbas became imminently apprehended. The despatch
of one of His Majesty’s ships to Bandar Abbas delayed matters temporarily
Unfortunately, however, the Governor of the Gulf Ports at the moment was a
negative quantity, the Moazziz-ed-Dowleh, an amiable opium-smoking
Shahscvend nonentity, without any experience of the south or capacity to
cope with the difficult situation which confronted him on his assumption of
the appointment in the preceding October. Like many of his predecessors he
got round the difficulty by placing himself out of practical communication,
proceeding to Charbar and sitting there idle in camp for many weeks in spite
of repeated exhortations to return. He did not in fact get back until the
middle of March when the situation had long since passed out of control.
Matters came to a head at Bandar Abbas, on 17th March, when the
Nationalists seized the Customs and assumed charge of the government of the
place. We were fortunate in having, in the Misbah-i-Diwan, whom they
elected as their Constitutional Governor, a man of some strength of character
who did his utmost to preserve order.
Lingah followed the example of Bandar Abbas as soon as the news of
the assumption of the Customs reached there, and it was realised that Bushire
would no longer hold out.
As regards Bushire, it will be understood that practically the entire
population is engaged in trade with India and Europe. They have, as a
community, no really decided democratic ideas; all they ask for is a reason­
ably just Governor who will maintain order and allow them to follow their
trading avocations in peace. There -is none of that patriotic fervour amongst
them which has evinced itself in Tabriz and elsewhere in the north.
In Bushire the movement was engineered entirely by a Tangistani
Mullah named Seyyid Murteza Ahrami, belonging to the village of Ahram
some 30 miles from Bushire, who had been in Bushire on and off for the pre­
ceding 2 or 3 years. This individual, acting partly under instructions from
Seyyid Abdul Husein of Lar, and partly at the direct bidding of the Ulema
(Shiah High Priests) of Nejef (who realised when it was too late that they
had misplaced their confidence), had an easy task owing to the absence of the
Governor and the fact that the two hundred Ispahani Sarbazes on garrison
duty in Bushire could be depended upon to offer no resistance. He called in
a number of armed peasants from his village of Ahram and elsewhere in the
hinterland and with their assistance assumed control of the post ostensibly
on behalf of the nationalist cause, on 22nd March. The following day hie
seized the Customs House, the Belgian officials withdrawing.
It may be mentioned here that the Customs of the Gulf Ports are pled­
ged to the British Government to the following extent:—
(0 The Customs of the Ports generally, as a security for a loan of
£300,000 made to the Shah several years ago.
(zi) The present Customs receipts at Bushire up to 30,000 tomans
per month are specifically pledged at present to the Imperial
Bank of Persia in payment of interest on advances and over-
drafts taken by the Shah and his Ministers.
The Resident was directed to explain the position to the Nationalist leaders
and to say that, just as the leaders in the north had recognised and continued
to liquidate Russian claims there, so. in the south we expected that the doou-
lar party would respect our claims here.
l
At Bandar Abbas the leaders took a perfectly reasonable attitude in this
regard, but m Bushire, in spite of specific directions received from the High