Page 80 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920

70 PE HSIAN GULP ADMINISTRATION REPORT
Last year closed -with the Shaikh’s Deputy acting as Deputy Governor at
Shushtar after the Shaikh had restored' order in that place, at the special and
urgent request of the Persian Government. The executive Khans on reaching
their winter quarters, at Ab-bid, north of Shushtar, informed the Shaikh twj
unless his Deputy were removed from the town immediately ho would bo turned
out by force.
! The situation becoming critical, after reference to His Majesty’s Ministe.
and to the Resident, it was agreed by the Chiefs of both sides that tno points at
issue should be discussed by representatives of both sides in the presence of
British Consular officers for Arabistan and Ahwaz.
The Shaikh, relyingon this meeting, had taken small precautions to protect
himself: the Khans in Tehran also had promised the Legation that no hostile
movement should take place.
The Shaikh then realised too late that the local Executive Khans proposed
to make good the threats which they had made against him and he had but a
few Arabs in Shushtar when, at the end of April, the Bakhtiaris attacked and
took that town.
On seeing the stage which matters had reached the Shaikh collected at
Naseri an army of 6ome ten to fifteen thousand men and proceeded to inarch
on Shushtar. In the meantime the Khans in Tehran promised the Legation
that the town should be evacuated. This, however, was not done till the day
the Shaikh’s forces advanced from Ahwaz whereon the Khans retired to their
own country by double marches.
This evacuation wa3 claimed to be the result of orders which had been issued
from Tehran. This would not, however, appear to be very probable since, while
at Shushtar, the executive Khans were writing letters to the tribes around asking
them to join them in attacking the Shaikh and boasting that they would take
Ahwaz and. even Hchammerah.
The Arab contingent then occupied Shushtar but, ou being informed through
the Minister and His Majesty’s Consul that tbeie would be no further hostile
movement against him, the Chaikh immediately disbanded his forces. At the
request of the Peirian Deputy Governor who had, previous to this, arrived at his
post, a few men were left at his disposal to assist him in keeping order.
An incident, however, occurred which has been the cause of much subse­
quent trouble.
The forces on both sides, Arab or Bakhtiari, are composed of irregular
troops with the smallest amount of discipline: there is, it need hardly be said,
no commissariat department yet men and horses have to be fed. Thus an army
lives on the country through which it passes and is notan unmixed blessing, be it
a friendly or a hostile force. There is no means of preventing looting which
indeed is the sign manual of an army throughout the length and breadth of
Persia.
Some of the Shaikh’s forces in fact, so he maintains, friends of w’hom he
had asked no assistance, looted the Aqili lands beyond Shushtar, the property
of the Bakhtiaris and more especially of the Sardar Muhtashem, the Minister
for War.
This act, which greatly annoyed the Shaikh when he heard of it, has been
made the subject of a large claim for damages by the Bakhtiari, though it
as far as the Shaikh is concerned, an act of gratuitous license by a clan
doubtful loyalty, which had his strongest disapproval.
The 8haikh, though willing to give compensation and to return any Bakh­
tiari property which could be found, rejected the claim of the Bakhtiari to
demand compensation as a right.
In the month of May the Muwaggar-ed-Dowleh, Governor of Bushire,
sent by the Persian Government to enquire into the question. He gave it as n1
opinion that the Shaikh had been entirely in the right; this was not, however*
what he had been sent for and did not advance matters. "While these question*
were under discusaon the matter was considerably complicated by the purchase
by the Bakhtiari of a half share of the country known as the Jarrahi lanpj
This country, which was in the occupation of the Shaikh’s Arab tribes and wbio»