Page 355 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

FOR THE YEAR 1015. 3
disturbod condition of Arnbistan, owing to which imports through Moham-
meraJi and Arabistan wcro suspended.
On 5th May, tho Finance Department was separated from the Customs
Department, and Sulaiman Mirza was put in charge of tho Bushirc Finance
Department Agency. ** Moses Khan” (Mr. Katchaturian, an Armenian, em­
ployed for many years as Personal Assistant to the Director of Customs at
Busbirc) succeeded M. Stas as Agent of the Finance Department at Shiraz.
As mentioned in last year’s report (page 9) the Bushire hinterland was
Condition of Eashixo and neighbouring dii- remarkably quiet when the year opened.
tr!°tu _ Very early in the year this began to
change. The German Consulate had begun to intrigue with Rais Ali of
Tangistanand othor Chiefs as far back as September 1914, and soon after the
beginning of the year these intrigues began to bear fruit. In January,
Herr Wassmuss, who had been Acting Consul at Bushire till tho beginning of
July 1914» and who had then gone on leave to Europe, appeared in Shushter
as the head of a Mission to raise Persia and Afghanistan and, if possible, the
Indian Frontier against Great Britain. Herr Wassmuss was accompanied by
Dr. Linders and Mr. Bohnstorff and somo Persians and 3 or -1 seditions
Indians.
Ho at once began to incite the people to jehad and distribute large sums
to influential men and Mullahs with a view to raising them against the British.
In February, it was ascertained that be was going to march through Bam
Hormuz to Borasjun. As he was openly inciting the people to break the
neutrality of Persia and his jehad propaganda, etc., was dangerous, it was
decided to try and induce the friendly Khan of Haiyat Daud, through whose
territory he would be passing, to bring him down to the coast where he could
be arrested. Captain Noel went to Bandar Big, on 3rd March, and Mr. Chick
went a short time later to arrange the matter with Haidar Khan of Haiyat
Daud. The Khan readily agreed to intercept Wassmuss and bring him to
the coast, and Wassmuss and his party were intercepted by the Khan’s brother.
Unfortunately Wassmuss himself gave the Khan’s men the slip during the
night, but Dr. Linders and the caravan were brought to Bandar Rig and much
valuable information obtained.t Large quantities of inflammatory pamphlets
and leaflets in Arabic, Persian,' Hindustani, and various Indian languages were
found in the kit; some of them were incitements to/e/wd and some suggestions
to Indians to rise against the British. Dr. Linders was brought to Bushire in
R. I. M. S. “Nearchus,” on 8th March. Meanwhile, a3 it was certain that Dr.
Listemann, the German Consul at Bushire, was intriguing with the Tangistanis,
it had been decided to arrest and deport him together with the local agent of
Messrs. Wonckhaus who was aiding him. The Consul and Herr Eisenhutt
were accordingly arrested without oreating trouble in the early hours of the
9th March and removed to R. I. M. S. “ Nearchus” which had arrived off
Bushire. The arrangements for tho arrest were made by Captain Neale, First
.Assistant, who was in charge of the Residency at the moment and Captain Oakes,
Commanding the detachment of the 102nd Grenadiers, Indian Army,
stationed at Bushire.
The papers found at the German Consulate conclusively proved that
Dr. Listemann had been intriguing with Rais Ali and other disaffected Khans.
They also proved the existence of a widespread plot, organised by Herr
Kardoff, the German Chargd d’Affaires, for a general attack to be made on
British representatives and communities throughout Persia in the Spring.
Muwaqqar-ud-Dowleh, the Governor of Bushire, was very indignant at the
arrest and deportation of the Germans. Wassmuss and the pro-Germans used
it as an additional lever to work up anti-British feeling among the tribes of the
hinterland. Mirza Muhammad Khan, Ghazanfar-us-Sultaneh, Khan of
Borasjun, whose proclivities were well known and had been frequently in
evidence since 1909, organized a confederacy of Khans, consisting of himself,
Shaikh Husain of Chahkutah, Rias Ali of Dilwar and Zair Khidhar of Ahram,
against the British. These persons began threatening to attack Bushire; they
also started writing insulting lotters. to the Governor and to
tho Acting Consul-General and others, a-practice-which-thoy-kept-up~at~iater-
vala till the- end., nf ypayf