File 5257/1919 'Persia: the Military Commission' [‎41r] (86/534)

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49. Cost. The approximate annual cost of the two corps, calculating expendi
ture m rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. at the current rate of exchange, amounts to :—
c . Krans.
oeistan corps .. .. .. .. .. .. 4,400,000 per annum.
Khorasan corps .. . . .. .. .. 1,300,000
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Gendarmerie.
(vi.) The Regular Gendarmerie.
oO. General .'—The present gendarmerie is a resuscitation of the old Swedish
gendarmerie, which was broken up'during the war by the desertion of considerable
numbers of its officers and men to the Germans and Turks.
The present strength of the gendarmerie is : 3 Swedish officers, 242 Persian
officers, 8,158 Persian ranks and 2,340 horses. The estimates provide, however, for
a force of 11,342 of all ranks and 4,511 horses.
51. Orgamisation. —The gendarmerie is organised into a headquarters at
lehran and a number of regiments and independent battalions. The first regiment
at Pehran has four battalions and is employed in guarding roads. The second
regiment, also at Tehran, has two battalions, three squadrons and an artillery
detacnment, and is kept as a movable column. The third is an independent battalion,
also at Tehran, and does police work in that town. The fourth regiment has three
battalions at Qum Sultanabad and Daulatabad respectively. It has two mountain
guns attached to it, and guards roads and does police work in the towns. The fifth
is an independent battalion at Kazvin guarding roads and doing police work in the
towns. The sixth regiment has two battalions at Ispahan and one at Kashan, and
has four guns attached to it. It guards roads and furnishes a movable column at
Ispahan. The seventh to the eleventh are all independent battalions with head
quarters at Kermanshah, Mazanderan, Meshed, Semnan, and Senneh respectively.
The eleventh battalion is engaged in operations against the Kurds, the others are all
guarding roads or doing police work in the towns. The seventh finds a movable
column at Kermanshah, and the intention is to raise this to a full regiment of three
battalions, of which one is to be stationed at Hamadan.
The battalions are all divided into four companies. Battalions vary from 700
to 300 men. Except in the second regiment, where the mounted men are separately
organised, each company contains a proportion, about one quarter, of mounted men.
The third battalion, doing police duty in Tehran town, has only 50 mounted men.
The guarding of roads is done by a system of dotting posts of four to ten men
over areas allotted to a section or a company. A number of such section areas
constitute a company area. The men are only relieved from such posts at long
intervals.
52. Equipment .-—The armament of the corps is of various patterns. The first
and second regiments and the third independent battalion have British -303 charger
loading rifles. The ninth battalion has British non-charger loading rifles and the
eleventh has a proportion of British '303’s. The remaining units are armed with
rifles of various patterns and calibres, the most homogeneous being the sixth regiment,
which has 700 Turkish mausers. The corps has nine guns and fifteen machine guns,
in both cases of various patterns.
There is no fixed scale of ammunition, but about 50 rounds per rifle are main
tained in unit charge, of which 10 rounds are usually with the gendarme himself..
There is a headquarter reserve of 150,000 rounds in the Baghi Shahi barracks.
There are about 250 rounds per gun for the artillery.
20 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. per head per annum are budgetted for clothing and equipping the
men. This includes boots and belts. The clothing and equipment is made up or
bought regimentally. In the case of units located in places where clothing, &c.,
cannot be bought, the articles are sent from the headquarters of the gendarmerie.
53. Conditions of service. —Kecruitment is usually by voluntary enlistment, but
in order to make up numbers a certain number of “faujes” under the Boniche
system have been allotted to the gendarmerie. The normal engagement is for three
years with permissible re-engagement up to 30 or 35 years of age. There is no system
of pensions or gratuities, either to the men or to their families.
Officers are appointed either (a) from the officers’ school or (5) from the ranks.
The officers’ school at Baghi Shahi is capable of taking forty students; admission is