Page 448 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

21 PERSIAN GULP ADMINISTRATION REPORT

concentrated at Bandar Abbas in April and he himself marched with his staff
and tin*. Cavalry and Artillery for Kerman, on the 17th of May. The Infantry
followed some five days later. The march was accomplished without ad von,
turo and General Sykes was received by his old friend, the Sardar INusrat,
and the population with open arms. The official reception concluded with all
duo formalities, work was begun. The main tasks that fell to be undertaken wero
the raising of the South Persia Rifles, then known as the South Porsia Military
Police, and the investigation of the recent conduct of the inhabitants so far as it
had affected British interests or might in the future affect the security of tbo
British and the peace of tbo province.
The onlistmcnt and organisation of the Polico force was at once taken in
hand by Major Parran, Captain Fowlc and Captain Merrill who had been
appointed to Kerman for tbo purpose. British claims were received and were
investigated at the Karguzari in the presence of Captain Thorburn, I.M.S.,
and referred to General Sykes for final orders. In some IG cases sentences of
fine, imprisonment, or expulsion from the town were passed and the majority of
these were carried into effect without difficulty. A few of the more important
cases in which execution was delayed will bo referred to later on. The offences
were either having taken some active part in the disturbances 011 the Democrat
and German side or having illegally acquired the property of British subjects.
General Sykes was further occupied by work entailed by the command of the
Column which it was intended should proceed under his command to
Shiraz with a view to restoring order in that quarter, and to organising a
British police force on the Bushirc-Ispakan road. In this work General Sykes
was assisted by his Staff Officer, Major Fraser Hunter.
When the force arrived at Kerman a number of Austrians, Afghans and
others, members of Seiler’s party, who had been attacked, robbed and in some
eases wounded at- Saadatabad were under the surveillance of the Persian
authorities at Saidabad, the capital of Sirjan. Bruggmann, a Swiss subject
and Agent of the German Persian Carpet Company, who had been an active ally
of the Germans and bad been appointed by them " Vice-Consul ” at Kerman,
was recovering from enteric fever in Kerman. He was arrested and, after an
investigation, General Sykes decided to send him and one or two others who had
also been caught in Kerman(?), to join those in Sirjan, whence the whole party
was to be sent down to Bandar Abbas for deportation to India. Arrangements
were made for an escort to be supplied by the Local Government and a certain
Shahzada Husain of Kerman town, who had a personal following of 20 armed
men, was appointed to take charge of the prisoners and escort and commissioned
to convey them to Bandar Abbas. The force and prisoners were duly assem­
bled under his command, in Saidabad, but their departure was in the first
instance delayed by the fact that some of the wounded prisoners were not yet
in a fit state to travel*
Matters were in this position when Major D. L. R. Lorimer, who bad been
appointed His Majesty’s Consul, and arrived on the 21th July in Kerman, took
over charge of the Consular and Political work from General Sykes. The
column started for Yezd en-route to Shiraz on the 26th, and were followed by
General Sykes on the 28th July. The force reached Yezd safely on 14th
August.
The situation in Kerman was highly favourable to the British. The real
governing power had remained in the hands of the Sardar Kusrat, of whose
loyalty to the British, as long as they are obviously dominant, there can be
question. He had been, ns we have seen above, an object of suspicion to the
Germans and to the late Governor-General, the Sardar Zafar, and of animosity
to thoDemocrats. He had certainly no reason to love the latter, but taking*
long view and contemplating the possibility of being thrown again at some
future time on his own resources, he seems to have shown a very unvindictiv®
spirit and to have counselled a policy of oblivion or of mild moderation in the
case of the more influential of tne local leaders bv whom he might at bo&6
future date bo railed to account. There is no douofc that tho driving energy
had come from the Germans, and the non-Kerman Democrat leaders who
disappeared en masse, some to Shiraz and others to Tehran.

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