Page 91 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920

TOR THE YEAR 101J. 81

guards the end. of .April it became evident that there was no chance of
Amir Mujahid establishing any sort of control over the Kuhgclu chiefs, and the
lv course left open to the Khans to ensure the safety of the road was to post
Efficient guards on the road itself and the Kuhgclu passes as to render it
•^possible for Kuhgelu raiding parties to cross the Bakhtiari frontier.
heedless to say that such a course, involving as it did considerable expense,
d no favour with the chiefs and no action of any sort was taken to safeguard
foun
traffic
Jn the early part of June, when the Bakhtiari tribesmen had left for the
jdgh country and the Kuhgelu passes were open, the first raiding party reached
pjoroad and carried off a caravan of over 60 mules. Other raiding parties from
the Dushman Ziari, Tebi and Bahmai sections, numbering in all over 1,000
pien, poured into Bakhtiari territory plundering caravans, attacking Bakhtiari
villages and carrying off merchandise stored at the various stages.
Traffic had completely ceased by the end of June.
One of the first acts of Sardar-i-Jang on his arrival in Chighakhor was to
xe-open the road.
For this purpose he despatched 200 guards chosen from the best armed
Bakhtiari tribesmen under a young chief, Bahadur-es-Sultaneh, to picket the
dangerous section of the road from ShalU to Malamir. The guarding of the
section from Malamir to the Arabistan border was entrusted to Khuda
Karim Khan, chief of the Chahar Lang.
On the 18th September the Hkhani announced officially the opening of the
road and traffic was at once resumed and was still in full swing at the close of
the year.
Iu October, Lieutenant Bullock, who was travelling to Ispahan by the
Bakhtiari road, was attacked and robbed between Sarklium and Dopulun by a
hand of about 30 Kuligelu brigands. His Indian orderly was wounded and
died later at Ispahan. The section of the road where this outrage occurred was
considered beyond the rauge of Kuhgelu raiders and the Ilkbani had therefore
not considered it necessary to guard it.
The section of the road was picket ted immediately after the incident and
no further robberies occurred.
The losses of British owned goods on the road through robberies amounted
to £1,130.
The following table shows the goods forwarded over the road and the
number of animals employed during the year under report as compared with the
two preceding years.

Description. 1910. 1911. 1912.

Ahwaz to Ispahan • •( Cwts. 26,397} 12,814 17,239}
Animals. 10,294 5,416 6,500
Cwts. 7,657} 6,580} 12,096
Ispahan to Ahwaz . • •{ Animals. 2,561 2,293 5,110

It should he noted that the above figures refer only to goods forwarded by
Jlessrs. Lynch Brothers. Approximately an equal quantity of goods are
t°nv*arded by other merchants and firms.
The large increase in the Ispahan to Ahwaz transport figures above is
Jaunted for by the fact that Messrs. Lynch Brothers undertook the agenoy of
Societe du xombac during the year under report and handled 6,997 owts.
p tobacco on their account. This agenoy was formerly held bv the Holland-
Grtna Trading Company and the quantity of tobacco forwarded was therefore
°t shown in Messrs. Lynch Brothers* figures for former yean.