Page 454 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

30 PERSIAN GTJXP ADMINISTRATION REPORT.
7,400 tomans was to \>o recovered and that anything paid in excess of this
was to bo refunded. This was in the end of September, and the payments
of the instalments had long before this become irregular and finally failed
after 9,479 tomans had been paid up. His Majesty’s Consul of course kept
tho money safely lodged in the Bank and protested to Tehran. No further
demands for refunds were made, but neither was any more money paid in.
tho end of October, acting on private information, Elis Majesty’s Consul
suggested that the matter might bo settled by indirectly letting Surusliiyan
and Kayanian know that if they paid up the balance due their names would
bo removed from the Black List. He believed that they had suffered consi­
derably from the stoppage of tlicir business and that tlio knowledge that it
required only a wave of tho pen to restore them to the Black List would suffice
to Keep them out of serious mischief. This proposal was cvcntuaUy carried
into effect; payment was completed on 30th November, and the removal of the
namos of the two firms from the Black List was notified in His Majesty’s
Minister's circular telegram of tho 24th December.
This man acted as German Agent in Bam, where ho flew the German
flag over his house and decorated his men
Tho NuBrat-ul-ilulk of Tam.
with German badges. He was responsible
for the ill-treatment of the British and Russian News-writers, and also for the
destruction of part of the Indo-European Telegraph Line. He was ordered by
General Sykes to pay a fine of 10,000 tomans and to he kept in detention in
Kerman until payment was made. He had paid nothing by the time General
Sykes had loft and declared his inability to find the money. Many futile
attempts were mado from various quarters to induce Ilis Majesty's. Consul to
remit or reduce the amount of the fine. Not a penny was paid and the
Nusrat-ul-Mulk continued as a ddtenu in the Karguzari, where he aroused
much alarm and despondency in the breast of the Karguzar by developing
symptoms of a popular but unpleasant disease.
Towards the end of October the Persian Foreign Minister raised questions
as to his guilt. Happily His Majesty's Minister was able to prevent the matter
going further, and an arrangement was arrived at in Kerman by which the
Nusrat-ul-Mulk undertook to make payment in kind of 1,000 kbarwars of
wheat and barley. His Majesty’s Consul accepted this offer and, on 14th
November, notified that he had no objection to his being released. The grain
Is said to have been collected, but it has yet to be taken over and disposed of.
It is hoped that a large sum may be realised by its sale. The chief difficulty
Is to get it up from Bam and put it on the Kerman market, where prices are
high, as transport is very scarce and dear owing to its absorption by the
Telegraph ana South Persia Rifles work on the Bandar Abbas road.
This man played a considerable part in the disturbances in Kerman, and
he and his brothers are intriguers * de
The UoIo-oa-Chardya.
careiire* General Sykes ordered him to
leave the town and reside in Khabis. His treatment would doubtless have
been more severe had not tho Sardar Nusrat spoken on his behalf. The Sardar,
as has been already explained, is inclined to be tender towards local offenders,
as he keeps in view the possibility that some day he may again be at the mercy
of the Kerman populace and he does not want to have too many active enemies.
Piteous complaints of ill-health and wails at the climate came from Khabis
and subsequently from 8irch, to which place, as a concession, the Muin was
allowed to transfer tho 6cene of his exile. At the end of September the
Muin’s relations and Agents succeeded in getting round the Minister of the
Interior in Tehran and Sardar Nusrat was pressed to secure an amnesty for
him, and permission to return to Kerman. In October the Nusrat-ul-Baulab,
son of the Farman Farms, approached the Legation on his behalf. His Majesty’*
Consul was averse to his being permitted to return. Up to this time two of
the principal and most active promoters of the disturbances and of the expul­
sion of the British from Kerman, the ex-Karguzar, Muham-ui-Mulk, and the
ex-Hais-i-Muarif, 8aiyid Mustafa Khan, Lad been allowed by tho Persia®
Government to go about unmolested in Tehran or its neighbourhood. It wa*
now arranged that the former should he imprisoned and the latfcr fined i®
consideration for the release from banishment of the Muin-us-Sharciya.