Coll 30/9 'Persian Gulf: Administration Reports 1926-1938' [‎223r] (450/1028)

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CHAPTER III.
Summary of events and conditions in Ears during the year 1933.
The outstanding feature of the year from the military point of view was
the continuation and ultimate success of the operations directed against Ali
Khan, Soulat-ud-Douleh’s step-brother, who in the latter half of 1932 had taken
up his position in the hills to the south of Firuzabad. In January and Febru
ary these operations were of an inconclusive and casual nature and it was
reported that Ali Khan was receiving support from a certain section of the
Qashqais and from a few Dashtistanis and was being supplied with arms and
ammunition by Arab rebels along the gitlf. There followed a lull in which
the Government forces vacated Firuzabad and fell back on Jahrum. In
April operations were resumed oh a more exterisive scale, some 2,500 troops
under the command of Sartip Ibrahim Khan Zandieh, Officer Commanding
the Fars brigade, advancing from Jahrum on Firuzabad.
Ali Khan countered with his usual guerilla tactics and although reliable
information was difficult to obtain, it was generally believed that unless he
surrendered, which he had no intention of doing, there was little hope of the
compaign being brought to a definite conclusion. In June, however, it became
apparent that the end was in sight. Ali Khan was reported to have suddenly
disappeared from the fighting zone with a handful of followers, the remainder
having surrendered to the government troops. Early in the following month,
suffering no doubt from lack of supporters and shortage of supplies, he accepted
an offer of pardon extended to him by the military commander and was
brought to Shiraz on July 18th and immediately conveyed to Tehran. A
report that he had been pardoned and granted a pension has not since been
substantiated and his ultimate fate must remain a matter for speculation.
His submission has deprived the tribespeople of a leader who was
evidently a first class fighting man and a clever strategist and has no doubt
been a useful contribution to the government policy of breaking up the
tribes into small and well-behaved sections, lacking in leadership and in conse
quence incapable of concerted action.
The triumphal procession of the returning army to Shiraz with an elaborate
display of prisoners and captured ammunition was evidently calculated to act
as a salutary warning to any others who might be foolish enough to contemplate
defying the forces of law and order.
The news of Soulat-ud-Douleh’s death in Tehran in August was, according
to all reports, received with indifference by the Qashqai tribesmen and it seems
probable that since his recall to the capital in April 1931, they had ceased to
regard him ns their leader and were in any case not sorry to be freed from a
suzerainty which must, at times, have proved irksome and even oppressive.
Whether their lot has improved under the rule of a military governor is a
question which is not easily answered.
Of the other tribes—the Khamseh, the Boir Ahmadi and Mamassani,—little
was heard though progress was reported with the government’s efforts to settle
them in the new town of Tul-i-Khosro. The imprisonment of the Qawam-ul-
Mulk in December, beyond giving rise to one or two bazaar rumours, provoked
little comment. The confiscation of his lands in June 1932 undoubtedly threw
many of the Khamseh tribesmen out of work and it is pietty certain that some
of these threw in their lot with the various robber bands which were in evidence
durin<>- the year. Such bands were not, however, predominently tribal but
were composed of men thrown together by necessity and with no other means
of earning a livelihood. They were dispersed one by one and several notorious
leaders, including Sar Mast, a relative of the once formidable Mehdi Suikhi,
were captured.
With the exception of a minor epidemic of “ hold-ups ” in the middle of
the summer when lorries were plundered between Bushire and Shitaz and
Shiraz and Isfahan, there was little interference with traffic on the main roads.
In outlying districts, notably in the neighbourhood of Fasa and Jahrum, various
acts of brigandage were committed and various clashes between the ammeh
and the robbers were reported, but the number of such incidents showed a
marked diminution in the latter half of the year, attributable perhaps to the
submission of Ali Khan and his followers as well as to extensive round-ups ’•
carried out by the military.
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