'Administration Reports 1925-1930' [‎18r] (40/418)

23
a. trained British estate agent and agriculturist. The Persian Prime Minister
(now H. I. M. the Shah) to whom Mirza Ibrahim Khan communicated his patrio
tic desire to develop his lands for the general good example of Fars sanctioned
the engagement of experts. His Majesty's Government are endeavouring to
find a suitable person; but it is not easy, and the principle at stake, as Mirza
Ibrahim Khan realises, is considerable, because for the future agricultural deve
lopment of the province much depends on the success or failure of the first
trained European estate agent.
ji September 1925 the United States Financial Advisers notified Mirzf
Ibrahim Khan that the Farman of the extensive properties in Darab, which he
had purchased two years previously through the British Legation,' acting as
executor for the late Prince Muayid-ud-Dauleh, was insufficient title, and called
on him to produce better documents within one month under pain of attachment
of the properties by the State. Though a respite has been obtained for an inde-
iinite period this imbroglio has not yet been adjusted. One effect it had ^as to
accentuate the procrastination of Mirza Ibrahim Khan in paying some nine
thousand Tumans to the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Ltd. in accordance with
an agreement signed in April 1925 between himself, the manager of the company
in South Persia, and the Karguzar of Fars, and ratified subsequently by the
Ministries for Foreign Affairs and Interior in Tehran. This agreement was
by way of compromise of a claim for nearly 20,000 Tumans on account of a rob
bery in 1913 of carpets by Baharlu tribesmen under the jurisdiction of the late
Qawam-ul-Mulk, and the then Minister for Foreign Affairs (Wuthuq-ud-Dauleli)
sanctioned an arrangement by which Qawam-ul-Mulk should pay the compen
sation and receive in return certain lands in Darab in the hands of the Baharki
chiefs. Mirza Ibrahim Khan adopted the attitude that as the United States
advisers were challenging his rights to the other D^rab lands, they should, as
well as the Persian Ministers, endorse the transfer of the lands to him, before
he paid the money to the British company. It necessitated a special visit from
Kerman of the manager of the company and a month's hard work with all autho
rities before the case was finally settled in April 1926. ,
The United States advisers also went so far as to put Under nominal attach
ment the winter residence of Mirza Ibrahim Khan on the ground that before its
sale to Prince Farman Farma (who sold it in 1919 to Mirza Ibrahim Khan
Q a warn) it was mortgaged to the Russian Loan Bank (now Bank-i-Iran) by its
owner. ' ■ ■ ;r ■
The position of Mirza Ibrahim Khan however underwent a noticeable chan^
from the end of November, and left him— at any rate for the present— master of
all his difficulties.
When the nationalist committee at Tabriz launched the movement for the
deposition of the Qajar dynasty, Mirza Ibrahim Khan put himself at the head
or the movement m response from Shiraz and, the deposition effected, worked
to lead to Tehran a group of deputies from Fars to the Constituent Assembly
pledged to nominate Riza Khan Pahlawi as Shah. It was only the third occa
sion on which Mirza Ibrahim Khan had visited Tehran and, difficult though
he is in meeting monetary claims, he seems to have spent lavishly in entertafn-
nient m the capital in honour of the new Shah's accession,Avith the avowed'pur
pose ot attracting attention to Fars and regaining for its representatives the
consideration they had lost during the past decade. As a result he appears to
have won the confidence, and approval of his new sovereign (and consequently
.he deference of the military command in South Persia) and the gratified satis- '
Taction of his fellow Shirazis, particularly the journalists: and his political posi
tion m lars is at present stronger than ever before. He has played his cards
well, and undoubtedly wishes to have a share in improving the condition of his
own province.
Logically however, when the rest of the country is being brought under
; dc direct control of the provincial representatives of the various Ministries in
i ehran (War Interior, Finance Posts, &c.) the replacement of the hereditary
go\ einment of the Khamseh nomads is an unsatisfactory system. Hitherto in
order to keep his influence in the eyes of his fellow-townsmen, and a hold o'ver
tiie a i.lagers of his own distant properties, Mirza Ibrahim Khan Qawam has
manoetiyred to retain these governorships and jurisdiction: but, if he is wise
tVt . ta : lc ® . the initiative in divesting himself of such positions, which run so
' "i y to the current of the policy of centralization.
, /^ il l nteresting feature in the end of 1925 was the attitude of the Soviet Oon-
sm-Ocneral towards Mirza Ibrahim Khan: at times Monsieur Walden (who is