"تقارير إدارية ١٩٠٥-١٩١٠" [و‎‎٦‎١] (٦١٦/١٢٦)

admn. rept. of the persian gulp political residency for 1906-1&0?. 11
CHAPTER I.—BUSHIRE AND FARS ADMINISTIiATION REPORT, 1906-
1907.
B ushire.
The administrative year opened auspiciously with the arrival at Bushire of
, His Excellency, Vice-Admiral Sir Edmund
isit of th .6 A mira. Poe, K.C.V.O., Commander-in-Chief of the
East Indies Station, in his Flagship, H. M. S. Hermes. His Excellency's tour was
in every way successful and was marred by no unpleasant incident. At Bushire
visits were exchanged with the Governor (His Excellency the Darya Begi) who
acceded to the Resident's suggestion that he should call officially Upon the Admiral
on the Flagship, instead of at the Residency as heretofore ; and on the Admiral's
return visit treated His Excellency with every distinction and had him escorted back
to the Sabzabad Residency by some 50 Sowars. The Foreign representatives,
apparently pursuing the doctrine which they are always disposed to cultivate, of not
recognising the status of the Government of India in Persia, refused an invitation
from the Resident to an official dinner party to Sir Edmund Poe and Staff, but
met His Excellency at a garden party at the Sabzabad Residency on the following
day, and subsequently the Russian Consul-General, among others of the commit
nity, availed themselves of the Admiral's kind invitation to lunch on the Flagship.
On the conclusion of his visit Sir EdmUnd Poe proceeded to BUssorah in
R. I. M. S. Lawrence, and having met the Flagship again on emerging from the
Shatt-el-Arab visited Koweit and Bahrein accompanied by the Resident. A short
visit was also paid to the Khor Abdullah.
In matters connected with the Customs Administration, under the regime of
Monsieur Heynsseng, the Residency had
Customs. ■ i i . • j . -|
every reason as last year to appreciate the
conciliatory attitude both of the Director and his Assistant, Monsieur Constant, and
there has been an entire absence of friction. Unfortunately Monsieur Heynssens*
somewhat austere methods in dealing with the native element excited the hostility
of the Persian public, and in August a dispute between his staff and some of the local
lightermen having been taken up by certain Mullahs a protracted feud was started
which primarily accounted for the transfer both of the Darya Begi and of Monsieur
Heynssens from Bushire a few months later.
Monsieur Heynssens appears all along to have been possessed by the belief
that His Excellency the Darya Begi was really the deUs ex machina of a plot against
him, but though the Governor could hardly pretend to have any special regard for
the Belgian Administrators since whose arrival his position has been rendered
extremely subservient and undignified, there was little apparent evidence either in
His Excellency's conduct or conversation to lend corroboration to Monsieur Heyns-
sens' suspicions. Relations however gradually became so strained that it was
clearly impossible that Bushire should continue to hold both officials and shortly
afterwards (apparently owing to the representations of Monsieur Naus who had
framed a vehement indictment against the Darya Begi as an arch smuggler) it
transpired that His Excellency was about to be replaced by Haji Saeed-es-
Change of Governors. Sultaneh, lately Chief-of-Police in Tehran.
It was not however until 30th January
that after the interchange of numerous communications with Tehran His
Excellency finally left for the capital.
Calling at the Residency just before his departure he expressed the belief that
the swing of the pendulum would soon bring him back.
His successor, a young man hailing from Northern Persia and possessing no
previous experience of Government or of Persian Gulf conditions and politics,
though friendly in his bearing, gave no promise up to the end of the year of making
a successful Governor.
3147 f. d. c o