Page 527 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

CHAPTER IV.

ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE KERMAN CONSULATE FOR
THE YEAR 1910.

Mirza Nasarullah Khan, Attach^, remained in charge of the Consulate
until April 15th, 1910, when Lieutenant-
British Consulate. Colonel T. W. Haig took charge by tele­
gram from Tehran from Major C. T. Ducat, who was detained in Bandar
Abbas. Lieutenant-Colonel T. W. Haig, who still holds charge of the Con­
sulate, did not arrive in Kerman from Tehran until May 30th, 1910.
M. Petroff, Acting Russian Consul at Kerman, handed over charge of
the Consulate, on November 7th, 1910, to
Russian Consulate.
Dr. Shiraieff, who still holds charge, and
left for Tehran, on transfer.
Kawam-ul-Mulk, Governor-General of Kerman and Baluchistan, left
Kerman for Bara, on February 20th,
Political Events.
1910. having placed the Deputy Gover­
nor, Nusrat-us-Sultan, in charge of the current duties of his office in Kerrnan.
It was Kawam-ul-Mulks intention either to induce the Khans of Baluchistan
to submit to the Persian Government or to attempt the rcconquest of the pro­
vince, and he interviewed some of the Khans in Bam, but to no purpose. At
length. harassed and disgusted by Nusrat-us-Sultan’s intrigues against him
in Kerman, he abandoned his attempt at restoring order in Baluchistan and
the intention of resuming his duties in Kerman, and withdrew to Sirjan,
telegraphing to Tehran his resignation of his appointment. After some
delav his resignation was accepted and in the middle of June he left Sirjan
for Shiraz, without returning to Kerman.
Sardar-i-Jang, the Bakhtiari Governor of Yezd, was temporarily ap­
pointed Governor of Kerman, as well as Yezd, but he neither visited Kerman
nor interfered, to any appreciable extent, in the administration. The gov­
ernment remained in the hands of Nusrat-us-Sultan with whom the local
heads of departments were nominally associated. The combination, which
took its tone from its leaders, was powerless for good but an effective organ
of obstruction, weak, incompetent, unpopular, and ostentatiously hostile to
both British and Russian interests.
In August the Sardar-i-Zafar. a Bakhtiari Chief, was appointed Gover­
nor-General of Kerman and Baluchistan bat never took up the appointment.
On September 5th, however, his eldest son, Sarim-ul-Mulk, arrived in Kerman
with an assistant, Mudabbir-ud-Dowleh, and a small force of Bakhtiaris,
and the Consuls were officially informed that be was to be regarded as Acting
Governor-General, pending the arrival of his father. Sarira-ul-Mulk, a
young man of 24, apparently regarded the extortion of money from all on
whom he could lay hands, as the whole art of government. He robbed the
people of the province on his way to Kerman, he robbed them during his short
stay, and he robbed them on his way home. It is said that his spoil amounted
to about 80,000 tomans, but this estimate is probably exclusive of clothes,
food, household goods, horses, and mules, taken by him and his men. On
September 17th Nusrat-us-Sultan, the Deputy Governor, alleging that Sarim-
ul-Mulk had threatened him with personal violence in attempting to extort
money from him, took refuge in the British Consulate, a step which, consider-
ingijhu attituc*e which be had consistently adopted towards the Consul
yrould have been most humiliating to a man of finer sensibilities. On Octo^
ber 3rd he left Kerman secretly, by night, for Tehran, vid Meshed, fearing to
travel openly or by the direct route, lest- he should be waylaid by the Bakhti-
ans or by some of the numerous enemies whom he had made during his
administration of affairs. 8