"تقرير الإدارة عن المقيمية السياسية في الخليج الفارسي للأعوام ١٩١٥-١٩١٩" [و‎‎٥‎٢] (٣٩٦/١١٠)

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FOR THE TEAR 1916. 26
The New Governor-General, Shahzada Nusrat-us-Saltanah, uncle of the
present Shah, a frail youth with pleasant manners, was quite alive to the
necessity of keeping on friendly terms with the British. He was however very
young and without experience, and his chief counsellor, the Ihtisham-ud-Daula,
said to he an ex-Sous Secretaire in the Persian Foreign Office and of obscure
origin, was unfortunately a man to whom no ruse, trickery or method of
plausible intrigue practised in Tehran political circles was likely to be unknown.
General Sykes decided to maintain in fact the paramount authority of the
Sardar JS T us rat, his own nominee. This policy was convenient, but the'resulting
situation could not be expected to be grateful to the Piince and his party who
perfectly appreciated it, and it had, and while it lasts will have, every element
of instability in it. Equilibrium can only be produced from outside by throw
ing part of the weight of British influence into the Sardar Nusrat's scale to
counteract the Prince's advantage of title, royalty and influence in Tehran.
This balancing of interests and forces rrakes a peaceful life impossible, but is
not without advantages as it puts a real power of control in the hands of
the British It cannot, however, endure indefinitely Soon after General
Sykes' departure orders came from the Persian Government directing
that the Sardar Nusrat be removed from office and sent to Tehran, and it
was found that, while the Prince and his party had been assuring 1 General
Sykes of their whole-hearted acceptance of his wishes, they had all the time
been pushing their intrigues in Tehran for the removal of the Sardar Nusrat.
His Majesty's Consul prevented the publication of these orders, and when later
the Prince openly asked for permission to start a campaign against the Sardar,
His Majesty's Consul succeeded in extracting a promise from him to discon
tinue his intrigues and not to recommence them until the dangers produced by
the Russian loss of Hamadan had been weathered and, in any case, not to do so
without consulting His Majesty's Consul. This promise the Prince would
appear to have observed with tolerable, if not complete, faithfulness.
The third official of importance as an official was the Karguzar. With
the manners, appearance and abilities of the Mad Hatter the Kamal-us-Sultan
combined a servility which would make him remarkable even among a people
who are still addicted to the worship of the rising, or risen, sun. He protests
that his only ambition is to meet British v\ ishes, and he seldom ventures on
offering a suggestion until he has assured himself that it will be an acceptable
one. On the other hand, he does not raise difficulties and he does try to carry
out the instructions which he invites. The brains of the establishment are
lodged in his assistant Mirza Habibullah Khan, who in the last 20 years has
frequently acted as Karguzar for long periods. In His Majesty's Consul's
previous experience Habibullah was always friendly to His Majesty's
Consulate. His foible was discreet peculation which was sometimes a source
of inconvenience to himself and the Consulate in commercial work. The work
of tracing and running to earth British stolen property and of investigating
the conduct of persons of Democratic and anti-British proclivities fell chiefly
to the Karguzar aided by the Head of the Police, Sardar Khan, a Kermani and
adherent of the Sardar Kusrat's, and it is partly thanks to their efforts that so
much was accomplished.
On August 12th came the first news of the Russian reverses in the West
of Persia and it served to raise the hopes and stimulate the activities of the
Democrats. General Sykes with his force was halted at Yezd and the question
of its diversion to Ispahan came into debate, and the " Kerman Column " had
not yet arrived at Bandar Abbas. In the meantime large bands of Pars
robbers had become extremely active on the Kerman-Yezd road, and warnings
began to arrive from Sirjan that the "German" prisoners were enjoying an
undue amount of freedom and were undesirably intimate with the people.
Repeated orders to Shahzada Hussain to start them off for Bandar Abbas were
met by excuses of insecurity on the road and insufficient escort. Arrange
ments were made from Kerman to raise the escort to C8 men, funds were
supplied, and orders were sent to start whatever the state of the road, but the
latter were traversed by instructions from Yezd to locate the robbers and start
when the road was clear. Considerable uneasiness was felt in Kerman and
His Majesty's Consul consulted, on 19th August, with Major Farran and the