'General information on Persia for any future edition, 1895' [‎90v] (171/211)

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general tranquillity which has been
country is open again next spring.
observable during the year will continue when the
[ have &c
(Signed) ’ CHARLES S. HAMPSON.
Inclosure 2 in No. 91.
Vice-Consul Devey to Acting Consul Hampson.
gj^ Van, November 2, 1891.
I HAVE the honour to make some observations upon the political state of the
country during the past few months. It has been again favoured by abundant
harvests, and a certain briskness in commerce, though cholera in Syria in some degree
disturbed calculations for the export of sheep.
In the first place it is satisfactory to record that the pay of the gendarmerie has
been raised (reference to my despatch of the 26th July, 1890, § 5). A private trooper
in this force will in future be able to maintain himself and family in comparative ease
on the sum of 120 piastres per mensem. It is to be hoped that an effort will be made
to insure the regularity of their salaries throughout all the dependencies, as well as in
the chief Government towns.
It would be absurd to pretend that the known Ottoman abuses and improprieties,
deep-rooted and of long standing, are fast melting away all at once; but I believe
myself entitled to form the opinion that there has been a general progress in the various
Departments of the Provincial Government, and further, that there has been distinct
improvement in public order and in justice in the Van and Bitlis \ ilayets during the
last twelve or eighteen months.
With regard to Van, one or two remarks may, if not out of place, be offered as
supporting this conclusion, from personal observation. Rare complaints are heard of
zaptiehs, when collecting village taxes, behaving with impropriety towards those wdth
whom thev have dealings; and in view of the vet backward state of these districts, the
conduct of the force is on the whole highly praiseworthy.
The standard of military discipline has been raised lately. It is said that men of
the garrison here used formerly to commit numerous trifling acts of licence and theft,
which could only be regarded as gross misconduct. I am assured that nothing of the
kind ever takes place now.
The administration of justice is advancing in order and efficiency; more energy
and good-will are displayed in the efforts for prompt seizure and delivery to the Court of
criminals culpable of violence and robbery, and in this, I incline to think, lies the basis
of any real durable amelioration. Other instances might be cited.
Often is it dogmatically laid down that no substantial public order can be
maintained until the Government will hold the Agha or local grandee (whatever he
may be) responsible for the acts of his tribesman, retainer, tenant, or relative or
dependent, as the case happen. No logic could, however, wish to see the innocent
punished for the guilty (even where a strong suspicion or possible proof of connivance
in some degree might be established), only that indirect pressure should be applied,
such as deprivation of any existing privileges or favours, or withholding them where
there might be grounds for expectation of some such advantage—a rank or decoration
or petty office, for example. Recently such action on the part of the civil autho
rities here would have been positively hampered by the activity of their military
colleagues.
It may be that the Central Government, whilst wishing to adopt such a course, is
anxious that there should not be over-zeal on the part of its agents, and is unwilling
to expose itself to total aversion from the Kurds. One or two recent incidents might
perhaps call up this idea: I refer to the restitution of order in Gewar, where the
Acting Kaimakam swept the district of some particularly noxious characters this
summer; he was shortly afterwards removed, but is now holding another difficult post
with the special duty of creating peace and order in Shattakh Caza. Again, in Bitlis
.Vilayet an infantry Colonel was sent to seize secretly a powerful Kurd, Mehmed
Agha, of Shernak, for certain offences, and effected the capture most successfully,
without allowing any collision between his troops and the Agha’s Kurds. But since
this seizure the Colonel has been transferred to a distant regiment on account of a
breach of discipline, I believe. The Vali, Raouf Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. (not necessarily post hoc ergo
propter hoc), has also been since appointed to the Government of Kharput. It