"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. المجلد IV". [و‎‎١‎١‎٩] (٥٤٠/٢٤٢)

MBMMMiNtffMl
BRITISH TROOPS FOR PERSIA 189
interned and should try and get in touch with Russian Turkes
tan, where the situation was believed to be as follows i A.
British officer (Captain Jarvis) from Meshed was on his way to
Askabad where there were Armenians ; the Turkomans, if
favourably approached, were believed to be friendly ; the
Bolsheviks power was waning ; the Bokharans were anti-
Bolshevik and would combine with any power to get rid of
them ; and some of the 38,000 prisoners of war, controlled bv
the Bolsheviks at Askabad and Tashkend, were armed, but they
were short of food.
This undertaking was to be a separate one from that for
Baku, though eventually troops sent to Baku might have to be
transferred to Krasnovodsk ; and any troops sent to either
place were to be at once replaced in North-West Persia by
troops from Mesopotamia. Though, technically, Krasnovodsk
was in the sphere under India it was to be temporarily under
General Marshall’s control.
On the 4th July General Marshall sent a further reply to the
War office telegram of the 28th June, saying that his Director
of Local Resources was already at Kazvin organising the pur
chase of supplies on a large scale. In the meantime the 39th
Infantry Brigade had been ordered to move into Persia by
battalions as transport became available ; and they would be
followed by a field artillery brigade (less a battery already
en route), an engineer field company and a field ambulance.
These troops would move by night and would have to take
tents, as the maximum day temperature averaged about
116° F. and there were no trees. Part of the transport allotted
for the collection and distribution of the Hilla harvest was
being withdrawn and all available lorries, including those
belonging to the artillery, were being utilised to supply Dunster-
force. General Marshall did not think that any metalling put
on the spongy Persian road would stand lorry traffic in the
winter rain and snow ; at that season he would have to rely on
Ford vans, carts and pack transport with their corresponding
limitations.
The survey of a railway line beyond Khaniqin had been
commenced a month previously ,* but there were considerable
difficulties. Work on the Persian road was well in hand,
though labour was scarce. Telegraphic communication with
General Dunsterville had broken down and his opinion was
still awaited in regard to the War Office instructions under
* The extension of the railway from Table Mountain to Khaniqin was in
progress, but it involved heavy work in the Jabal Hamrin.