Page 155 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920

POH THE YEAR iqu 15
jfor.siour Constant left Bushire for Belgium on the 28th April.
*flie<' Constant ’’outrage at ouce brought forward prominently the danger
to which the foreign community at Busluro
= zxriXtX "CtiJS i
sgi
tiSa5 Busliii e and the dangerous impotence of
the local authorities.*'
foreign Consular representatives (on ouo occasion a meeting of the Consu­
ls body n*as proposed) appealed to Sir Percy Cox, asking what measures could
be taken to promote order and security and thus free the Consuls from their
Jeponsihility vis a vh their respective Governments.
Sir Percy Cox undertook to provide guards for such Foreign residents
^ had not, like the Russian Consul, their own Consular guards, from the
troops then at Push ire and urged on Government the transfer of the headquarters
of the Regiment then serving at Jask, to Bushiro His recommendations were
accepted
After some useful work aeainst the Tangisfania, the strength of the
legimcnt was gTCatly reduced by tho transfer of a wing, under t.e command
of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, to Maskut in ear'yJuly. They were relieved
at tbo end of the year by a wing of the 102nd King Edward’s Own Grena­
diers under Major A. C. Edwards, hut the wing is under strength and baroly
fuffuvcnfc to furnish guards to tho houses of Europeans and protect its own
dep6t at Bushiie.
It will hardly yet have been forgotten that, last year’s Administration
Report for Pars and Bushire gave in
" Eelford rcgrotfable incident,**
some detail an account of the death of
Captain Eckford. His Majesty’s Minister hod expressed tbo opinion that,
as the Persian Government would undoubtedly be unable to capture tho
guilty or bring them, to justice, it was desirable that Government should take
steps to prcpaic an expedition in the spring to restore order and, if necessary,
punish offenders on the Bushirc-Shiraz road.
The Daiya Bcgi left Shiraz on 22nd December of last year to organise,
on behalf of the Governor-General, a small local force of some 600 men with
a view to subsequent, punitive operations. His expedition proved useless and
he relumed to Shiraz on the 28lk January.
Sir E. Grey objected to a punitive expedition in the spring on the score
that it would lead to disappearance of the pretence of Persian independence
and to t!:c partition of Persia, directly due to the action of the British' Govern­
ment.
"We were to renew our efforts to strengthen the Persian administration
and to give support and encouragemeut to the gendarmerie.
A public apology for the outrage either by the Persian Government or the
Governor-General of Fa is was also suggested. If this was not considered
efficient, other measures, more useful and less embarrassing than an expedi­
tion into the interior, were put forward, eg., the consolidation of our interest*
position at the entrance to the Gulf at Henjam or Bandar Abbas.
Landing of troops at Bushire or Kliarag island was also suggested in the
^ent of it' being considered that Bandar Abbas was not sufficiently ucar the
**ne of the outrage.
For various reasons urged by the local officers, any further public apology
*aa r.ot considered advisable; as the outcome of tho Constant murder, the
^quarters of the 2nd Rajputs were transferred to Bushiie from Jnsk chiefly
°a the strength of the weighty grounds that, if we did not move in tho matter
°* the promotion of the general safety of Europeans, some other Power would.
The l*ers;an Government and especially the Bakhtiari element, in tho
rn°nth of March, made much of crushing defeat6 inflicted by the Amir Mujahid
J? the Buwair Abniadi tribes The report of H. M's. Vice-Consul for Ahwa*
■nfra) shows clearly the exact valuo that should be attributed to there din*
^tfous Bakhliari attempts to restore order and punish disturb©.• of tho
Peace,