Page 449 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

TOR THK TEAR 1916. 25
Tho New Governor-General, Shaluada Nusrat-us-Saltanah, undo of the
resont Shah, a frail youth with pleasant manners, was quite alivo to tho
necessity of keeping on friendly terms with the British. He was however very
cind "without experience, find Ins chief coimsclloi*} the Xhtisbiiin-ud'J^tiulftp
gaitl to ho an ex-Suns Secretaire in the Persian Foreign Office and of obscure
origin, was unfortunately a man to whom no ruse, trickery or method of
plausible intrigue practised in Tehran political circles was likely to bo unknown.
General Sykes decided to maintain in fact the paramount authority of the
Saidar N us rat, his own nominee. Tin's policy was convenient, but the resulting
situation could not be expected to be grateful to the Prince and his party who
perfectly appreciated it, and it had, and while it lasts will have, every element
of instability in it. Equilibrium can only be produced from outside by throw­
ing part of the weight of British influence into the Sardar Nusrat's scale to
counteract the Prince’s advantage of title, royalty and influence in Tehran.
This balancing of interests and forces makes a peaceful life impossible, but is
not without advantages as it puts a real power of control in the hands of
the British It cannot, however, endure indefinitely Soon after General
Sykes* departure orders came from the Persian Government directing
tuat the Sardar Nusrat be removed from office and sent to Tehran, and it
was found that, while the Prince and his party had been assuring General
Sykes of their whole-hearted acceptance of his wishes, they had all the time
been pushing their intrigues in Tehran for the removal of the Sardar Nusrat.
His Majesty’s Consul prevented the publication of these orders, and when later
the Prince openly asked for permission to start a campaign against the Sardar,
His Majesty’s Consul succeeded in extracting a promise from him to discon­
tinue his intrigues and not to recommence them until the dangers produced by
the Russian loss of Hamadan had been weathered and, in any case, not to do so
without consulting His Majesty’s Consul. This promise the Prince would
appear to have observed with tolerable, if not complete, faithfulness.
The third official of importance as an official was the Karguzar. "With
the manners, appearance and abilities of the Had Hatter the Kamal-us-Sultan
combined a servility which would make him remarkable even among a people
who are still addicted to (he worship of ibe rising, or risen, sun. He protests
that his only ambition is to meet British wishes, and he seldom ventures on
offering a suggestion until he has assured himself that it will be an acceptable
one. On the other hand, he does not raise difficulties and he does try to carry
out the instructions which he invites. The brains of the establishment are
lodged in his assistant Mirza Habibullah Khan, who in the last 20 years has
frequently acted as Karguzar for long periods. In His Majesty’s Consul’s
previous experience Habibullah was always friendly to nis Majesty’s
Consulate. His foible w'as discreet peculation which was sometimes a source
of inconvenience to himself and the Consulate in commercial work. The work
of tracing and running to earth British stolen property and of investigating
the conduct of persons of Democratic and anti-British proclivities fell chiefly
to the Karguzar aided by tho Head of the Police, Sardar Khan, a Kermani and
adherent of the Sardar Nusrat's, and it is partly thanks io their efforts that so
much was accomplished.
On August 12th came the first news of the Russian reverses in the West
of Persia and it served to raise the hopes and stimulate the activities of the
Bemoorats.. General Sykes with his force was halted at Yezd and the question
of its diversion to Ispahan came into debate, and the “ Kerman Column ” had
not yet arrived at Bandar Abbas. In the meantime large bands of Para
robbers had become extremely active on the Kerman-Yezd road, and warnings
began to arrive from Sirjan that the “ German *’ prisoners were enjoying an
nndue amount of freedom and were undesirably intimate with the people.
opeated orders to Shahzada Hussain to start them off for Bandar Abbas were
*net by excuses of insecurity on the road and insufficient escort Arrange­
ments were made from Korman to raise the escort to C8 men, funds were
supplied, and orders were sent to start whatever the state of the road, but the
stter were traversed by instructions from Yezd to locate the robbers and start
nen the road was' clear. Considerable uneasiness was felt in Kerman and
18 Majesty's Consul consulted, on 19th August, with Major Parran and the
i