File 948/1909 'Persia: Situation in the South; Condition of the Roads. Attack on Mr Bill. Road Guard Scheme.' [‎354v] (713/744)

J8t_
appearance a volume of British
the year 1907-08, a total value
not only to direct depredation
of the exactions
prey every year
think, be empha-
has always been
arising
guards
out
who
I must, in the first place, emphatically endorse the statement made by Mr.
Grahame in the letter above quoted, in relation to the increasing feeling among
British firms that the steps taken with regard to the robbery of British
goods on the Bushire road have ceased to be adequate, and that it has conse-
quently become desirable that His Majesty’s Government should consider what
other steps it might be prepared to take in the interests of British trade in
Persia. In this connection, I have the honour to forward for your information a
copy of my reply to Mr. Grahame and to invite a reference to my despatch
No. 88-M., dated 19th December 1908. It appears to me to be a matter of
urgent importance that His Majesty’s Government should be fully aware that
under present circumstances there appears to be no prospect whatever of any
considerable or permanent improvement in the present conditions of transport
from Bushire to Isfahan and that to all
and British Indian trade which reached in
of £ i ,200,000, will continue to be exposed
but also to increasingly oppressive charges
and misconduct of the headmen and road
more severely on this commerce. A point which might, I
sised with advantage, is that, although no doubt this road
exposed in some degree to these evils, the situation in the past year or two has
changed in a very important particular. Formerly, outbursts of lawlessness upon
this road were the outcome either of local feuds, or of intrigue by some powerful
personages designed to discredit some one or other of the local authorities, and
such outbursts tended^ to subside on the removal of the exciting cause.' The
present state of things is, in my diagnosis at least, widely different; it is simply
due to the fact that the individual nomads, and to a less degree the villagers,
have realised the almost complete incapacity of the Imperial authority to inflict
any punishment whatever for either robberies or illegal exactions ; and it is obvious
enough that this fact renders the solution of the problem far more difficult and
wholly beyond the capacity of any authority which the Persian Government has
it in its power to establish.
In saying this, I have not overlooked the possibility that the success of thft
Constitutional movement may induce some of the nomad chiefs to exert them
selves to maintain order within their sphere; but a genuine amelioration of the
conditions of transport by this means appears to me in the last degree improbable
and in a matter of such vital importance it is imcumbent, I think, upon British
Consular authorities not only to prepare His Majesty’s Government for the
auure of such attempts, but to lay before them concrete proposals for a remedy,
imagine that a few months, now, will be sufficient to demonstrate clearly the
truth of the opinion which Mr. Grahame and I have already expressed, namely
that the employment of some form of special force, organised and paid under
foreign supervision, is absolutely the only alternative to the perpetration and
aggravation of existing disorders.
With this in view, it may perhaps be held that Messrs. Dixon’s suggestion,
in itself impracticable, contains the germ of a more effective system The
annual losses of the Indo-European Telegraph Department by wilful damage to
the line have increased very considerably in the last few years, and this sum
tITo8 n i! ing l a l am '"f-rd.t 0 some Krans 16,000 in Ears alone for the year
1W ,° be P r ?y ided , by the Persian Government. It is probable, therefore,
that the latter would not look with disfavour upon a scheme which, while in no
., .y ,n er erln S w it its sovereign rights, would at the same time relieve it from
this annually increasing expenditure and would also satisfy the clamorous
demands of Persian merchants for the security of their merchandise. Such
men! em n,.?” 8 f h H, be hj 621 * 11 ln a „ tei ) tatl ve manner by the gradual establish-
,, P? °, e lt or ,nar y sta ff °f the Telegraph Department of a force of
vel -armed and well-mounted gholams. Parties of these would be continually
nor 7 en ‘ m tele S ra P h statio " s a "d being provided with
, I , ^L? 1 ! 68 be able to summon reinforcements with the least pos-
sible delay. Their primary object would of course be the protection of the tele-
nf 3nd the l^ mere P^f ei > ce . 'n sufficient force to resist any ordinary party
rnhhl^ R r uld • P ! obab| y bare a very considerable deterrent effect on the
u ey might further be empowered to take charge of caravans in a