Page 497 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

POLITICAL RESIDENCY FOR 1910. 3

being menaced. The substance of this compact was that the parties joined
hands for (i) the protection of the mother country, (ii) the support ot tne
Constitutional government, (Hi) the maintenance of security on the trade
routes of their respective spheres, (iv) recognition of, and co-operation with,
other notables anxious to preserve the Constitution and independence of
Persia, (v) support by the other two in case the interests of one were menaced,
(vi) whole-hearted support to the Medjliss in the fearless performance of
their duties, including the control of interested politicians. Under the name
of the “ League of the south,” some prominencs has been given to this paper
compact as a somewhat dangerous instrument, but, in the writer’s opinion, it
proved, not without its advantages at the time, as a safety valve and as a
hint to the Sardar-i-Assad to cur)/his ambitions; while, regarded as the
basis of a really defensive alliance, it is not worth the paper on which it was
written; neither of the three parties presumably have the least intention, un-
less their own interests were directly concerned, of interpreting it in any more
formidable manner than by a cash contribution and expression of a pious wish
for his ally’s good luck. So far at any rate the existence of the compact ap­
pears on the whole to have conduced to the general peace.
The imminence of the conclusion of this triple agreement; the attack on
Mr. J. H. Bill on his way home, in the middle of April, between Shiraz and
Ispahan; the acute friction between the Turkish authorities at Basrah and the
Shaikh of Mohammerah, leading up to the bombardment of the Shaikh’s
village of Zain, opposite Mohammerah, were the most lively questions on the
political horizon during the month following the Resident’s return from leave.
They will be alluded to again under the head of the Consulates to which they
primarily concern.
The lamented demise of His Majesty the King, Edward VII, was received
with no less grief and consternation by
Busbire.
the British community in Bushire than it
was by His Majesty’s devoted subjects throughout the world. Respectful ex­
pressions of sympathy were received from local inhabitants and potentates
throughout the sphere of the Residency.
Local conditions in Bushire were very unsatisfactory, but mainly in a
negative way. The Darya Begi has in the last few years made two or three
more or less ignominious exits from the stage of Gulf politics. On the pre­
sent occasion ft- will be remembered that, at The time of Seyyid Murteza’s dis­
turbances, in .April last year, His Excellency, who was then in Tehran in seclu­
sion, was regarded by the Persian Government to be the man most likely to be
able, owing to his long local experience of tbs Gulf, to rescue the Gulf Ports
from the condition of acute unrest to which they had been brought by the ex­
travagances of the so-called Nationalist movement. His Excellency managed
to hold out until the end of the year, but, throughout his present tenure, found
the difficulties of the post of Governor of the Gulf Ports greatly enhanced
under the new regime. Without troops to enable him to enforce his authority
or collect revenue; with an uncontrolled vernacular press in which he oould be
pilloried by any ragamuffin from the bazaar who imagined that he had a
grievance; or misrepresented by any intriguer with an axe to grind; con­
stantly bombarded by ignorant or inquisitorial telegrams from the Ministers
or Medjliss in Tehranhis position is never worth a week’s purchase; and the
only wonder is that individuals continue to be forthcoming who are willing to
accept office under such conditions. The Darva Begi’s official hands \re
possibly no cleaner than the ordinary run of Persians of his class; but from the
point of view of the work of the Residency and British interests in the Gulf
Ports, His Excellency has been by far the most friendly and well disposed
Governor with whom we have been favoured during the last decade or sc^
The beginning of the year found an agitation against the sturdy
Shiraz. Governor-General, the Saham-ud-Dow-
SbP Aflby h'S detrlraCtors t0 djscr^it^im.^make his
possible. After repeated requests for permission to resign, the Governor-
B i