'File W/4 Hostilities in Persia: Tangistan Blockade; Confiscation of Tea for Tangistan' [‎189r] (473/411)

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GERMANY IN PERSIA.
[B y " E te witnesss. "]
German methods in Parsia have a peculiar
interest since they offer a model, on a small
scale, of her political machinery as a whole.
Nowhere else have the threads of her intri
gues been laid so bare ; nowhere are the '
motives, source, method and effect of her i
propaganda so transparent. The specific is
always more illuminating than the general ;
and to follow the machinations of the Arm of ■
Wenckhaus before the war or the comings
and gaings of the agents Wassmuss and
Neidermayer during the last twelve months
is to read the history of the Government
in the individual. The secret of Germany's
immediate strength is that every Hun unit
fits in with her general scheme, whether
by temperament or training, as ODmpactly as a
cell in a natural organism. >
The quality of tact has been denied the
Hun, but there is no doubt that he is able-;
to practise the arts of conciliation on the 1
lower rungs of the ladder, however truculent o
be may be when hn appear^ on the top. In I
Persia one cannot but admire the adroitness
with which he has combined the contralio-
tory r6les of fugitive and protector. The
persuasive tongue of Wassmuss resounds in
the proclamations of the Khans of Tangistan in
which these unregenerate highwaymen pro
fess themselves shocked at the violation of
Persian neutrality and demand the restitution
of their innocent "guests." The "guests" were
the same Germans and Austrians who had
brought their machine-gun over the Turkish
border, flooded the country with inflimmatory
leaflets, and against the express orders of the
Persian Government, set up their wireless in
stallation at Ispahan. Allied with these cham
pions of Persian neutrality were the Turks, •
who, until the Russians drove them out,
had occupied Kermanshah, over-ran the pro
vince of Azerbaijan, captured Tabriz, and
put the inhabitants of the city to the sword.
The Hun in Persia is champion of Demo
cracy as well as of the integrity of small na
tions. " Germans and Democrats" • has
been a common catchword in the South, and
the Persians linked the words in all innocence,
so that to the ignorant, " Democrat" must
have come to mean " an employer of
assassins who is prepared to pay a high wage."
" Democracy" is a strange standard
for the Hun to fly; but he is
adaptable, and for the moment autocracy
was not in the air. "Islam" is the flag
he is most constantly waving in the eyes
of the credulous. He wears the fez in
Baghdad and the Persian dress in Ispahan,
squats in the Eastern tranner, fasts in Rama-
zan and subscribes to the national faith, Sunoi
or Shiah, according to the country of his
adoption. In a Moslem country, his pro
paganda is frankly anti-Christian; he has
penetrated Iran from end to end accompanied
by a fcroop of Mujahidin who have preached
the holy war from Meshed to Kermanshah
and proclaimed the advent of the '' Army of
Deliverance."
For a long time Ispahan is the centre of
intrigue. On the 4th February, 1915,
Dr. Pugin arrives with a semi royal
escort and hoists the German and
Turkish flags. Before evening the German
flag is torn tcr— shreds, bat it is
seen flying again, in May the wireless is
installed. Protests, Otders, expostulations
pour in from Teheran, but the Governor-
General is dilatory in putting them into
f ^Itioipej^ i ^ H -use of Commons to day
1 0 ■ ^"chamberlain announced that it had
>l'"A U0S '' decide d that Indian Army officer pns.
^oqj, H c after sixt e days' full pay, rccdv,
s^odjQAKj ' of their rank plusha if staff pay attac
saoraaii S • ^ ordinary employment, the total av
f d Ajoiiit about |j Ve .sixths of their full ord
.i^AV ^ll emoluments. Staff officers still on the •
f 3 ™ of the regiment will be treated similarlj
1 H r egimental officers. The decision is r
j X.en^v \* We fr0m the beginning of the
H Fam iiy allotments will be adj
accordingly. No alteration is propo. t
regards officers of B.itish regiments.
sdaOQ 2ujX(
'UOo^CTBjf g •
M 'O f s m
'AV • spjojiaej
'pooAiuaojo
{£ ^U91U1°8^
SUBMARINE WARFARE.
The Norwegian steamer
i he JMorwegmu
^lOQ "V T'been sunk in the North Sea.
27 th J o
Ken tiger r
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0pi>I 'Xouuij-
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THE ROLL OF HONOUR
BRITISH CASUALTIES.
23 rd J i
The following names of British
appear in the latest casualty lists; —
K illed.
Majors.—R S. Mills, Welsh Fusiliers
Phillips, Royal Lancasters ; A. W L. i
exactly fits in with the Hunnish renascence
of the era of assassination.
" A small party of Englishmen," writes
Zugmeyer to a certain Chief, " have como
to D . It will be very easy to crush
them. Proceed at once, kill them and
take possession of all their property, arras
and ammunition, and send me one rifle o f
each kind possessed by them as a specimen."
There is something medieval in this direct
appeal. It is murder become routine,
not'war.
Follow the agent X , a respectable mer
chant who escaped from Basra when our troops
attacked Fao. We find him next at Lingab
where a forged proclamation, purporting to
omefrom an Alim of Kerbela, is read out in a
coffee-shop in the biziar. The call .to the
Jehad was written on the spot after X
had taken refuge in the town. Ho leaves Lingah
secretly for the Bastak district, and it is
from here that the party is traced who make
the murderous attack on the four Europeans
at Kishra creeping up to the tent where
they are sitting and firing on them at
close jange. The Englishmen, employees of
of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, were
able to drive their assailants off. But here
again the motive was murder. There was'
a certain price on an English head.
Germany's propaganda in the East has not
received the attent : on it should. Those who
shrug their shoulder? and hesitate to believe
the iniquities of Louvain or Gerhevilliers
will find here corroborative evidence in
support of the accepted estimate of the mind
of the Hun. The only difference is that the
Persian murders were perpetrated by agents in
cold blood, and had not the same provocation
as excesses committed in the blind rage of war.
The events of Ispahan and Kerman were
repeated at Yezd and Shiraz and over the
greater part of Persia. It is the same story
of bribery and assassination, forged procla
mations, and spurious Jehads. Both the
Christian and Moslem religions have been
used for political ends. Our own Moslem
subjects would have scant respect for Eng
lishmen who proved themselves such easy and
interested converts, and profaned Islam with
the mummeries o^ Wassmuss and Neidermeyer,
appealing to ignorance and fanaticism and stir-
i ,1
I
I I
GERMANY IN PERSIA.
[B y " E ye witnesss. "]
G erman methods in Parsia have a peculiar
interest since they offer a model, on a small
scale, of her political machinery as a whole.
Nowhere else have the threads of her intri
gues been laid so bare ; nowhere are the
motives, source, method and effect of her
propaganda so transparent. The specific is
always more illuminating than the general ;
and to follow the machinations of the firm of -
Wenckhaus before the war or the comings
and goings of the agents Wassmuss and
Neidermayer during the last twelve months
is to read the history of the Government
in the individual. The secret of Germany's
immediate strength is that every Hun unit
fits in with her general scheme, whether
by temperament or training, as compactly as a
cell in a natural organism.
The qualicy of tact has been denied the
Hun, but there is no doubt that he is ablt>
to practise the arts of conciliation on the
lower rungs of the ladder, however truculent
be may be when h3 appear^ on the top. In
Persia one cannot but admire the adroitness
with which he has combined the contraiic-*
tory r6les of fugitive and protector. The
persuasive tongue of "Wassmuss resounds in
the proclamations of the Khans of Tangistan in
which these unregenerate highwaymen pro
fess themselves shocked at the violation of
Persian neutrality and demand the restitution
of their innocent "guests." The "guests" were
the same Germans and Austrians who had
bro'ight their machine-gun over the Turkish
border, flooded the country with infl immatory
leaflets, and against the express orders of the
Persian Government, set up their wireless in
stallation at Ispahan. Allied with these cham
pions of Persian neutrality were the Turks,
who, until the Russians drove them out,
had occupied Kermanehah, over-ran the pro
vince of Azerbaijan, captured Tabriz, and
put the inhabitants of the city to the sword
The Hun in Persia is champion of Damo
cracy as well as of the integrity of small na
tions. " Germans and Democrats" • has
been a common catchword in the South, and
the Persians linked the words in all innocence,
so that to the ignorant, " Democrat" must
have come to mean " an employer of
assassins who is prepared to pay a high wage."
" Democracy" is a strange standard
for the Hun to fly; but he is
adaptableand for the moment autocracy
was not in the air. " Islam " is the flag
he is most cinstantly waving in the eyes
of the credulous. He wears the fez in
Baghdad and the Persian dress in Ispahan,
squats in the Eastern iranner, fasts in Rama-
zan and subscribes to the national faith, Sunoi
or Shiah, according to the country of his
adoption. In a Moslem country, his pro
paganda is frankly anti-Christian ; he has
penetrated Iran from end to end accompanied
by a fcroop of Mujahidin who have preached
the holy war from Meshed to Kermanshah
and proclaimed the advent of the '' Army of
Daliverance/'
For a long time Ispahan is the centre of
intrigue. On the 4th February, 1915,
Dr. Pugin arrives with a semi royal
escort and hoists the German and
Turkish flags. Before evening the German
flag is torn to shreds, bat it is
seen flying again. In May the wireless is
installed. Protests, orders, expostulations
pour in from Teheran, but the Governor-
General iS dilatory in putting them into
effect. And it would be a pity to remove this
toy. For Che voice of the War Lord is
heard daily in Ispahan sneaking with the
elect. He tells of colossal disasters to the
Slav, the destruction of the British Navy, the
failure of the Bank of England, and the
extinction of France.
Farther south Wassmuss has ^ dummy
wireless of his own, and he too confers with
the All Highest in the camp of the simple
Tangistanis, drawing sparks with a magnet
in the night. Mysterious messages come
through. The Protector of Islam has an eye
that sees as far as Providence ; the Khans sib
figuratively on his right hand ; their honoured
names are on his lips ; and the forays of
Shaikh H'isain and Zur Khidhar assume
the proportions o' a crusade.
The comic muse still holds the stage at
Ispahan on the 20th May when large crovds
lock to the cemetry of Takht-i-Rihad to see a
German Zeppelin arrive la^ea with sugar—
symbolic freight—from the North. The towns
people search the sky with strained necks
until dark when they return home disappoin
ted much to the diminution of German pres
tige.
But things are to move mire quickly in the
city, and the tragic muse will take her turn
on the beards. When Seiler comes the tru
culent Pugin is discredited, as not truculent
enough. " What have you done for us 1" he
is asked, "Nothing at all ! " The man stands
a self-confessed weakling, all wo-ds and bluff
when he should be the father of riot and
assassination. Clearly a more resource'ul head,
a livelier propaganda is needed. On the 18th
May, von Kaver, manager of the Russian
Bank, is shot dead as he is driving home from
the Russian Consulate where he has dined.
An Arab in the employ of the German Consul
is called in by the local authorities for examin
ation in connection with the murder, bi^t tho
man is suddenly spirited away by Seiler to
Teheran. Soon afterwards, Mr. Grahame,
the British Consul General, is shot at and
wounded as he is riding through the streets
and his Indian orderly is killed.
In the meanwhile the flag of deliverance
has reached Kerman. The townspeople flock
to meet the Germans, Zugmeyer and Greis-
inger, sacrifice a sheep and a cow in their
honour; and in spite of the Governor-Gene
ral who protests, the German and Turkish
flags are hoisted on a house outside the city.
Later the tireless Zugmeyer incites the people
to crowd into the mosque and declare a
Jehad and kill all the Russians and English.
The British subject FaTukh Shah ia mur
de-ed, and the murderer, as at Ispahan,
takes refuge with the Germans. The
Persians have a conveniently medieval system
of "bast," or inviolxte sanctuary, which
exactly fits in with the Hunnish renascence
of the era of assassination.
" A small party of Englishmen," writes
Zugmeyer to a certain Chief, " have comn
to D——. It will be very easy to crush
them. Proceed at once, kill thom and
take possession of all their property, arms
and ammunition, and send me one rifle o ;
each kind possessed by them as a specimen."
There is something medieval in this direct
appeal. It is murder become routine,
not'war.
Follow the agent X , a respectable mer
chant who escaped from Basra when our troops
attacked Fao. We find him next at Lingah
where a forged proclamation, purporting to
cimefrom an Alim of Kerbela, is read out in a
coffee-shop in the bizvir. Tbe call .to the
Jehad was written on the spot after X
had taken refuge in the town. Ho leaves Lingah
secretly for the Bastak district, and it is
from here that the party is traced who make
the murderous attack on the four Europeans
at Kishm creeping up to the tent where
they are sitting and firing on them at
close range. The Englishmen, employees of
of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, were
able to drive their assailants off. But here
again the motive was murder. There was'
a certain price on an English head.
Germany's propaganda in the East has not
received the attent : on it should. Those who
shrug their shoulders and hesitate to believe
the iniquities of Lou vain or Gerhevilliers
will find hero corroborative evidence in
support of the accepted estimate of the mind
of the Hun. The only difference is that the
Persian murders wore porpetrated by agents in
cold blood, and had not the same provocation
as excesses committed in the blind rage of war.
The events of Ispahan and Kerman were
repeated at Yezd and Shiraz and over the
greater part of Persia. It is the same story
of bribery and assassination, forged procla
mations, and spurious Jehads. Both the
Christian and Moslem religions have been
used for political ends. Our own Moslem
subjects would have scant respect for Eng
lishmen who proved themselves such easy and
interested converts, and profaned Islam with
the mummeries o^ Wassmuss and Neidermeyer,
appealing to ignorance and fanaticism and stir
ring evil passions for selfish ends. The Hun's
hypocr^iy is based on a desperate oppor
tunism his Islamic bubble is nearly burst;
and every month that the war is protracted
Germany's mask is the more transparent. If
she wishes to establish an Empire in Asia she
will b.ve to mend her ways. For the
Govermcent that intrigues with a religion,
cynically playing off sect against sect, will
endure a single generation in the East
It ie the achievement of a handful of
Germans in Persia to have introduced war
brigandage, loot and murder into one of the
few countries in the world which might
have enjoyed peace. Happily they have dis-*
covered that lies and assassinations, though
useful in disturbing the equilibrium of a
neutral country, cannot be made the per
manent basis of authority. With the entry
of General Sykes into Kerman one of the
last centres of propaganda has been swept
clean.
The crisis was passed in November last
year, when the ooup d'etat, by which
Persia was to be dragged into the war, even
as Tuijkey twelve months before, was foiled.
Russia marched her troops from Kasvin to
within a day's march of the capital, bringing
to bear the only argument the hostile
confederates could understand. On the 15th
November the young Shah threw the Germans
overboard and Persia was saved.
Northern and Western Persia were
cleared as the Russians swept south defeat
ing the rebels at Kum (December 15th)
and Hamadan (December 21st^ and driving
the Turks over their own frontier at
Kirmanshab. April saw the beginning of
collapse in the Eastern provinces. The
Governor of Kirman in consequence of cer
tain outrages expelled the Germans from the
town, disarmed the gendarmerie and sent
them under escort to Shiraz. The
Germans and Austrians who were expelled
from Kirman were attacked by a tribal force
at Arzenjan ; captured and dispatched to
Teheran. The Germans suffered defeat about
the same time in another encounter at Sirjan,
when four Austrians and one German were
killed, and 20 Austrians captured. Zugmeyer's
party was attacked by tho Bakhtiaris near
BiftandDr. Bisch was captured, sent to
Bandar Abbas, and is now interned in
India. Next Shiraz was purged. All the
gendarmerie- were put under arrest. The
editors of the inflammatory leaflets the
" Hayat," " Tazianah," and " Intiqam " were
seized. In May Seyyid Isa, the notorious
firebrand of Ram Hormuz surrendered to the
Bakhtiarij, and Mr. Grahame and the British
colony were reinstalled in Ispahan.