Page 602 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

s ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GULF
The Resident remained in India after the Durbar in connection with
various Gulf questions under consideration by the Government of India, and
did not return to headquarters as Bushire until early in March.
The position of affairs in the Capital
and in the Provinces continued to go
General situation in Persia.
from bad to worse.
A substantial loan was indeed obtained by the Persian Government from
the Imperial Bank of Persia in May, after lengthy negotiations, but the
money soon went, and there has been little left to show for it.
The proceedings of the Treasurer-General, Mr. Shuster, and events
following the return of the ex-Shah and his brother, the Salar-ed-Dowleh,
occupied the attention of the Central Government during the early part of the
year; while later the despatch of large bodies of Russian troops to Tabriz,
Kazvin and Meshed, her subsequent ultimatum to the Persian Government
end our own action in strengthening our Consular Guards at Bushire, Shiraz
and Ispahan, afforded plenty of material for demonstrations against Russia
and newspaper and other forms of agitation against foreigners in general.
Meanwhile the control of the Central Government over the distant Pro­
vinces, had become weaker and weaker, and at the end of the year the posts
of Governor and Governor-General were for the most part unfilled through
Southern and South-Western Persia.
Interest in the affairs of the south was mainly focussed on the situation
at Shiraz, and on the Bushire-Shiraz
Fan and the south.
road. The year began with the appoint­
ment of Nizam-es-Sultaneh as Governor-General, and it was hoped that he
might be able to restore the situation to some extent for the Persian Govern­
ment. _ But such hopes were destined to be disappointed. He started badly by
throwing himself too much into the arms of the Kashgai Ilkbani, Sowlet-ed-
Dowleh, and the violent remedies, including a treacherous murder, upon which
they jointly embarked for the settlement of the Province and the furtherance
of their personal ambitions, proved the undoing of both. By the end of the
.year both had retired from the stage, while their opponent and intended
victim, the Kawam-ul-Mulk, after a narrow escape and six months’ sanctuary
in the British Consulate, found himself, in the absence of a titular incum­
bent, de facto Governor-General of the Province.
The events leading up to these developments are sufficiently dealt with
Increase of British Consular Guards and the in the Bushire and Fars report, but there
attack on Consul Smart. is one pregnant point connected there­
with which may be usefully noted here,
namely, that, whereas the increase of the guards was suggested by FI is Majes­
ty’s Minister in consultation with the Resident, expressly with a view to the
protection of occasional British caravans on the trade routes concerned, after
an authoritative preliminary explanation of our intentions to the headmen
interested, yet when the measure was ultimately ordered to be put into execu­
tion, it was expressly stated that it was undertaken purely for the better
protection of the British Consulates and subjects at the centres named, and
that the troops would not be used for escorting caravans. The stipulated
preliminary communication to the headmen was consequently never made.
In past time the attitude of the inhabitants of Fars and the Gulf Ports
had never been actively unfriendly to Indian troops as such, but unfor­
tunately at the present juncture, several circumstances, or developments, and
a great deal of Mullah and newspaper agitation by papers like the “ Habl-ul-
Matin ” had combined to generate a feeling in Islam of antagonism to
Christendom in general, and in Persia of violent resentment against Russia
for her action in Northern Persia, and in a less degree against us in the south
on account of our apparent concurrence in her doings and the suspicion that
we had sinister designs in regard to the south.
For these reasons, and owing to the unfriendly vapourings of local
Mullahs at the time, it was a little doubtful whether the sauadrons of the
Central India Horse and their horses would be got safely ashore at Bushire
without opposition. Accordingly, considerable precautions wero taken to