Ext 5001/41 'PERSIA – INTERNAL (Miscellaneous despatches).' [‎9v] (18/248)

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gendarmerie, who acted with the greatest promptness and energy. The local
commandant, a lieutenant, hurriedly collected the men from their scattered posts
and was able to assemble a force of about one and a half companies before the
mutineers put in an appearance. They demanded right of way but were refused.
A battle then ensued in which the gendarmerie, first putting the vehicles out of
action, then fired upon their occupants. Seven of the mutineer officers were killed
and two were wounded and taken prisoner. The vehicles, arms and ammunition
were recovered. The next day three officers and four men were picked up in an
exhausted condition nearby on the road between Gunbad-i-Qabus and Shahrud. ^
Later, six officers from the Tehran garrison, headed by a lieutenant-colonel on the
General Staff, had deserted and effected a junction with the Meshed mutineers
just before the skirmish at Gunbad-i-Qabus. These seven, and six of the Meshed
mutineers, are still at large. Two others from Tehran and Tabriz who deserted
later have also joined them. In Tehran a commission was appointed to examine
the antecedents and contacts of officers of the central garrison. Thirty officers
have been found to have close contacts with the Tudeh party or the Russians and
are to be detained under a clause of the Military Governorship Law until military
governorship comes to an end. Ten, less deeply implicated, have been sent away
to divisions in the south. Further arrests are being made as further details of the
mutiny come to light. The Chief of the General Staff, on the strength of the
information so far extracted from the captured mutineers, is of the opinion that
a plot for a general uprising existed and that the Meshed party acted precipitately,
thus causing the general mutiny to go off at half-cock. Two officers sent by the
General Staff to make a full report on the Gunbad-i-Qabus skirmish and to retrieve
the captured vehicles and arms were sent away by the Russians without being able
to complete their task. A party of 200 gendarmes proceeding by lorry as reinforce
ments for the gendarmerie at Gunbad-i-Qabus were turned back by the Russians
at Firuzkuh. A lorry conveying bombs for the Persian air force detachment at
Meshed was turned back by the Russians at Semnan. Reinforcements for
the Meshed garrison coming from Turbat-i-Sheikh Jam were stopped at the
Russian control post south of Meshed. The fact that the original party of
mutineers was able to leave Meshed at all and pass through the Russian control
post en route, the attitude of the Russian-controlled Tudeh party in Meshed and
elsewhere towards the mutiny and the presence in Bujnurd of the Russian Vice-
Consul at Meshed a few hours prior to the arrival of the mutineers add to the
growing weight of testimony to the effect that the whole affair from beginning
to end—and the end is not yet in sight—had the knowledge and approval of the
Russians. A Bill has been introduced in the Majlis asking for a credit of
35 million rials (about £300,000) to provide certain financial benefits to officers,
such as free quarters, free issue of uniform, yearly increments of pay, children’s
allowance and the formation of a co-operative society. Unless the Bill is passed
and the promises are implemented it would be unsafe to say that the mutiny has
been entirely stamped out.
48. — B. Administration .—No changes in administration have been made
and the work of General Ridley’s American Military Mission is less and less in
evidence. A Bill has been presented to the Majlis for a credit of 165 million rials
for the formation of two additional divisions numbering about 12,000 men in all.
A Bill has also been presented to Parliament for a credit of 3 million dollars for
purchases of military equipment from the United States.
49. — C. Command .—Ibrahim Zand and General Arfa continued to fill the
posts of Minister for War and Chief of the General Staff respectively. Changes
in the commands of the 2nd Tehran Division, 5th Senneh Division and
7th Kerman Division were made.
50. — D. Operations .—The only operations in progress during the past three
months have been those in Kurdistan in the Dizli and Avroman areas. Some
1,500 arms from the settled districts—mostly arms previously issued to friendly
chiefs for road protection duties—have been collected, but as an operation to
disarm the main Kurdish tribes the operations have been unsuccessful as the
Kurds have retreated to inaccessible country on and even across the Perso-Iraqi
border. The approach of winter will compel the Persian forces to withdraw to
their permanent garrisons.
Persian Gendarmerie.
51. Colonel Schwarzkopf continues to work with energy for the improve
ment of the force and seems at last to have realised that the efficient administration
of what Persia has and can afford will bring in better returns than grandiose
schemes for what he thinks Persia should have but which Persia cannot afford.