'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎25r] (54/610)

By the autumn of 1915 the situation was growing intolerable, Critical ritua-
necessitating either drastic action or the withdrawal ol tne nationals and
British and Russian Legations and their Xationals. a^utumn 1915.
In response to the urgent representations of the two Lega-
tions Russian reinforcements at last began to arrive at hnzali, and f0 rcements.
by the end of October 4,500 troops were concentrated at Kazvm.
Their arrival reversed the situation at Tehran, where appre- p r0 -German
hension had been entertained of a coup 1 d’etat and an attach ^odus^of
on the allied Legations, and it was the turn of the pro-Oermans Tehran to Qum,
to contemplate evacuation. They proposed to transfer the seat November 1915.
of Government to Isfahan, the Shah was persuaded to give his
consent and the Cabinet notified provincial Governors of the
impending move. The Gendarmerie began to requisition trans
port on 11 th November and on the 15th, deputies of the Majlis,
the Gendarmerie, Prince Reuss, the Austrian Minister, Turkish
ambassador and all their sympathizers left the city and assembled
at Shah Abdul Azim, 6 miles to the South, to await the arriya!
of the Shah. Meanwhile in an eleventh hour interview with
the Shah when he was on the point of departing, the Russian
and British Ministers had prevailed on him to change his mind
and remain in Tehran, on condition that the Russian troops
should not advance beyond Karaj, on the Kazvin road, 26 miles
from Tehran. The plot was baulked by the secession of the
Shah and of the Cabinet who stayed with him,'but the exodus
of Muhajirin 2 continued on the 16th and 17th from Tehran
to Qum, where a 4C Committee 3 of National Defence was formed.
The Tehran situation was mow under allied control,
danger' to the Legations was at an end and Colonel Edwall,
the Swedish Commander of the Gendarmerie, who had been
most energetic in urging the Shah to go to Isfahan, took bast (Per.) A Persian custom allowing an individual to seek asylum at a designated location.
in the American Legation. The tide of pro-Germanism in the
provinces, however, had not yet turned. The Gendarmerie,
with the approval of their Swedish officers, came out in open
rebellion and seized the telegraph offices at Isfahan, Shiraz,
Sultanabad, Kirmanshah, Ramadan, and Qum. At Ramadan
a detachment of Persian Cossacks had, surrendered to the
1 Since mid-October Tehran had been dominated by the Germans. 200
escaped Austrian prisoners were in bar racks outside, the town, ami were allied
with 600 to 700 Gendarmerie under Colonel Bewail, and some hundreds of
Mujahids. 500 Persian Cossacks and 1,000 police were powerless to resist them
in the prevailing state of popular feeling. The secret arebi - of the, British
Legation were burned for fear they might fall into enemy hands.
- i.e., Muhammadans who migrate from a non-Moslem to a Moslem eonntry.
Prince Ueuss went with ihem, Dot the i orkish Ambassador and - istri
ter returned after a few days from Shah Abdul Azim to Tehran. The former was
kidnapped soon afterwards by the Russians near Karaj,
3 The Majlis broke np and did not re-assemhle, but about s>0 of its members
were at QOm.