Page 294 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

10 VRRSJAN gulp administration rkpobt

recruited from the dregs of the Shiraz populace. He desired that Cam •
Lundbcrg of the Swedish Gendarmerie should discipline and perhaps i *!
them on their expedition, but this proposal, though constantly revived by Tp
Excellency, failed to meet with the approval of the Central Authorities, m,
foico met -with scant success, desertions were numerous and the Chiof8 b'?
moderately impressed. In spite of tho considerable expense involved, Ut
Tomans 13,000 were collected out of Tomans 35,000, but of late some only
rcvomle
has been collected by Abdur Rasul, cx-Kalantar of Bushire, who figures prom’
uently in tho report for tbo year 1912. Tho districts have not yet bee "
officially transferred to tho Government of the Gulf Ports. u
Tho leading Bakhtiaii Khans continued to cast covetous eyes on Lirawi
throughout 1914, and their intrigues were
Bakklaxi aggression on Lirawi.
a constant source of alarm to tho Lirawi
Khans, and of trouble to His Majesty's Minister and tho Residency. ju
January, tho Khans of Lirawi petitioned the Central Government to secure
them from aggression by transferring tbo district to the Government of the
Gulf Ports. The Prime Minister in reply gave them assurances and stated
that previous orders for non-interference had been repeated to Sirdar-i-Jan«>
Bakhtiari : but despite the fact that Sir W. Townley telegraphed, in January,
June, September and November 1914, that ho was pressing the Persian Gov­
ernment strongly for the transfer, no result had been obtained by the end of
the year.
In February, the owner of the Fief, Haji Said-us-Sulfcauch, mortgaged the
farm of Lirawi to tbo Bank against an advance of 20,000 tomans (£3,G3G)
repayable by half-yearly instalments of 2,500 tomans. The Khans have since
remitted punctually to tho Bank at Bushiro, instead of to the owner, two
instalments of rent inclusive of the State tax payable to tho Treasury in Tehran
by tho owner of the Fief. But in May, regardless of the revenue having been
paid at Tehran, the Belgian Treasury Agent at Bushire ordered the Khans to
pay revenue to him, and at the same time it appeared that M. Moruard, the
Treasurrr-Goneral, had been secretly arranging with the Bakhtiari Governor
of BebbchaD, Sirdar Muazzim, for the latter to levy the Maliyat from the
district and remit it to Bushire.
In August, it was reported that the Bakhtiari Khans at Tehran were
again pressing the owner to sell Lirawi, and, in September, Sir W. Townley
learnt from. Haji Said-us-Sultaneh that he was being offered increased rent by
the Bakhtiaris : in consequence His Majesty's Minister found it necessary to
warn Amir Mufakham, Bakhtiari, to keep their hands off Lirawi.
The presence of a large force of Gendarmerie on the lower portion of
the Bushire-Shiraz road was much com­
Penlftu Gendarmerie on the lower road.
mented on in last year's report on page
24
Luring the present year, they have not been much in evidence, if
except a trifling but irritating quarrel in the matter of commandeering donkeys
carrying water to the lines of the 102nd Grenadiers, speedily settled to our
satisfaction by a reference to the Officer Commanding the Gendarmerie at
Shiraz
Shiraz has proposed that the Gendarmes should be relieved of the charge
of the lower roaa which should be entrusted to the Khans who receive, as t j
are believed to do at present—when funds permit—subsidies to induce tu
to refrain from the illegal levy of " Rahdari” ,
The proposals had the warm approval of this Residency and was en^r^ag
by Tehran. The main drawback was where funds were to come from, dt n
proposed to pay for the subsidies from the revenues of Lashti and Lasnt _
anaTangistan but, as will be seen from tho article on Lashti and L^1. 0J
the Governor had no sufficient and reliable forco to ensure the collect!
these revenues.
Those of the Gulf Ports (Customs revenues always excepted) leav e no
margin for safeguarding the caravan route.