'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎141v] (287/610)

248
Miscellaneous.
Cost.
Recruiting
laws.
General.
Cost.
42. The system of training may be said to be nil and the
Nizam of no value, except as personal guards to houses. In
some provinces the state of inefficiency is less than in others
depending on the amount of interest taken in the force by the
local governor.
43. The total cost of the provincial Nizam is over 9,000,000
krans per annum.’’ ;,k
NOTE. In 1920 contingents from some districts were specially summoned to
Tehran and Kazvin a quite useless measure as the men were an untrained rabble
and discontented at non-receipt of pay.
72. “ Bonicheh ” law and Law of 23rd Ziqaadeh 1335.
The basis of Military service in Persia is the “ Bonicheh ” law, passed by
Mirza Taqi Khan, Prime Minister to Nasir-ud-Din Shah in 1260 (A. D. 1842).
Under the above law each province and district of Persia was assessed at so
many “ Bonicheh ” and for each “ Bonicheh ” unit the Government were
authorized to demand one soldier. _ „ ,. , .
The provinces are subdivided into districts (Fauj) each of which is supposed
to furnish one regiment. , ... , _
The method of calculating men available, is to carry out a survey of the number
of ploughs required to keep an area under cultivation, and to take one man per
nlou<'h as available for military service. As no re-survey has been made since the
law was passed the laid down quotas per district are not fairly distributed at the
nresent date. The quotas of infantry, cavalry and artillery which can be demanded
under the “ Bonicheh ” law from each province are shown in Appendix 2 of
the review.”
(5) Levy Corps in East Persia.
44. “ There are two of these corps, the Khorasan and the
SIstan Levy Corps. They were raised during the war by the
British Government to assist the regular troops in East Persia
to keep order there and prevent the action of enemy agents
who were trying to create disorder. The present strength of
these corps is as follows :—
British officers
Persian officers
Persian ranks
Horses
Camels
Khorasan
Corps.
Sistan
Corps.
1
i 6
13
12
58
580
1.700
140
700
1
1,050
49. The approximate annual cost of the two corps, calcula
ting expenditure in rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. at the current rate of exchange
amounts to— , .
krans per annum.
SIstan Corps t’300 000
Khorasan Corps 1,300,000
Total
5,700,000
Note —These corps bear no relation to this North-Western area and paras.
65, 444, 7 giving details about them have been omitted as irrelevant to it.