Page 161 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920

POE THE YEAR 1913. 21
j jt wa9 next proposed that tlio Governor-General's force should receive its.
s°nlS from India His Majesty’s Minister wired to the Foreign Office asking
fhii rifles and 500 rounds per riflo might be supplied by the Government
/India- Some ammunition was left at Shiraz by the Central India Horse at
;h0 Governor-General’® disposal and the 1,000 rifles together with the necessary
^onition to complete the proportion of 500 rounds per rifle reached Bushire
h ip**1-
Seven hundred rifles and 150,000 rounds wore however later diverted to Sistan
for tlie use of the Governor there. The 300 remaining rifles and some of the ammu­
nition were utilised by the forces lent by Shiraz to the Gulf Ports admini-
slration for the control of Dashti and Dashtistan. Colonel Merrill considered
the rifl®3 unsuitable for the force he was proposing to raise and the question of
arming ihe Shiraz forces has not yet been definitely disposed of.
la the middle of February, Shiraz submitted its proposals for the new
force. Dive hundred sowars were to bo maintained and the following measures
were urgent.
(1) Engagement of European officers for the supervision of troops and
military arrangements generally.
(2) Arms and ammunition to be provided for the Govcrnor-Gcnevars new
force.
In the end of February, the Governme it of India put forward the
suggestion that the proposed military force of tbe Governor-General of Fars,
oa the success of which not only the success of the gendarmerie but the peace
and order of the province, collection of revenue and the repayment of the loan
depended, should be placed under British officers, in order to ensure to our
traders safety and increase of trade. His Majesty’s Government, however,
decided against this proposal.
In March, first appears the suggestion that a compromise on the vexed
question of British officers versus Swedes could perhaps be found by employing
Merrill, an American officer. Colonel Hjilmarson objected to Merrill as a
hopeless administrator, quite incapable of keeping accounts. In December
1913, His Majesty’s Minister had to report that the general complaint against
the Swedes was that they could not submit their accounts and that their
methods were extravagant.
In February, Sir Edward Grey solved the controversy by seeing no
objection to the employment of Colonel Merrill, and directed that £30,000
should be earmarked for the general loan for the purposes of Fars administra­
tion.
The first definite request for Merrill's services appears to have been made
ty the Governor -General in the month of Juno, but it was not until Ootober
that it was definitely decided that he was to go to Shiraz at once to organise a
military force for the Governor-General. He was to co-operate closely with the
Swedes and to arrive at a complete understanding with the Governor-General
under whose orders he was directly placed.
Major O* Connor wa3 of the opinion that it was important that before
Merrill left Tehran, a definite understanding should be arrived at between him
aud the’Treasurer-General as to the fixed minimum sum he could be supplied
*ith monthly for the purpose of the organisation of a suitable force. 20—25,000
tomans monthly were in Hia Majesty’s Consul’s opinion requited.
Colonel Merrill was to draw up a budget under the advice of the Finance
^©ent, and the latter should receive instructions to furnish Merrill with the
Pessary funds subject to usual financial control.
. Colonel Merrill must be permitted, Major O’Connor continued, a free
J?ud in reorganising local troop3. The present rabble would have to be
landed and dismissed.
, These were the indispensable preliminaries towards the success of. Merrill’«
^ The formation of the force was thus, at the close of 1913, in its initial
and it is difficult to make any foreoast as to its future, though its
Access will go far to solve a well-nigh impossible problem.