Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎8r] (15/290)

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The Chairman said that Major Googh, our recent consul at
Shiraz whom he had seen, was in favour of a complete withdrawal,
and had suggested disbanding all the South Persian Rifles except
the best, and handing over the remainder to Farman Farma.
Mr. OUphant said that the Governor-General of Fars had his
headquarters at Shiraz, and this necessitated a consul being there.
The Pushire-Shiraz road had, therefore, this importance; if, as
Mr. Shuck burgh suggested might happen, the road were closed
down, the question arose what would happen to the consul.
General Radcliffe said that the view held by some people that
the work of such a force as the present expedition could be done in
the future by aeroplanes was erroneous. A force of aeroplanes
required a road to bring up machinery, &o., and this limited its
activities.
The Chairman said he was inclined to the policy of the military
authorities and the Government of India, but was reluctant to weaken
the hand of Sir Percy Cox in the present rather delicate situation.
He thought it would be advisable to tell Cox what was in the mind
of the Conference, to put to him the various considerations involved,
and to give him an opportunity of stating his case.
Cox should be told that the Conference contemplated a
progressive withdrawal of the British force in South Persia, to be
completed by as early a date as possible before the summer; and
that, in the view of the Conference, in so far as his position at
Teheran required to be strengthened by the presence of military, it
was by the military on the Ha mad an road rather than by those at
Bushire that this would be done. A withdrawal from Bushire would
not necessarily weaken him at Teheran.
He should be asked what procedure he would propose in respect
of the local Khans, of Soulet, and of Farman Farma; what he
thought of the necessity of a consular guard, and what would be the
position of the Consul at Shiraz; what his views were about the
South Persian Rifles, what suggestions he.had to make about the
British officers with them, and how far, in his opinion, would this
policy facilitate the formation of a Persian army.
His opinion should further be asked as to what would happen
to the telegraphs and trade ; would the road be once more closed, or
would the fact that we had so recently had troops there continue to
have effect?
The Conference decided —
That the Foreign Office should telegraph to Sir Percy Cox in
the above sense.
That the telegram of the Foreign Office be repeated to India.
2. The Committee had before them a telegram from the
Viceroy, Army Department, dated 23rd January, 1919, giving
reasons why the Mirjawa Railway should be completed as far as
Duzdap.
The Chairman said we were faced with the familiar argument
that it would cost less to remove ihe 39 miles of line already laid
than to construct the remaining 11; and, as it seemed to him,
we were committed by the action already taken, of which the
Persian Government, who appeared to be in complete ignorance of
what was passing in that part of Persia, had, strange to say, taken
no notice.