ملف ١١١٠\ ١٩١٦ الجزء ٣ "الحرب الألمانية: بلاد فارس" [و‎‎٦‎٨] (٣٥٤/١٤٠)

between Lingah and the Tangistan coast searched by one of His Majesty’s
ships as it is thought that sooner or later the men will try to get home by
Bushire. So far there is no trace of them.
The question of claiming an indemnity from the Persian Goyernment
presents itself. Mr. Howson, His Majesty’s Vice-Consul at Lingah, has for
the last year also been in charge at Bunder Abbas, and has spent most of his
time at the latter post. During his absence Bahadur Khan Agha Badr was
in charge of the Agency and was so acting at the time of the outrage. Khan
Sahib Agha Ali has also held charge of the Lingah Agency and had been
dragoman at Maskat and Bahrain, but he was not actually in our employ
when he was killed. Agha Ibrahim was clerk of the Lingah Vice-Consulate
and has left his family very badly off.
The Acting Consul at Bushire suggests that £5,000 or Tomans 25,000
should be claimed from the Persian Government for the death of Agha Badr
(on the analogy of Gholam Ali at Shiraz) and £2,000 or Tomans 10,000 for
each of the brothers. £500 and £200, respectively, would be claimed for the
relatives of each of the killed and wounded sepoys. While I concur in the
suggested scale of compensation, as regards the victims who were in the service
of His Majesty’s Government when they met their death I feel very doubt
ful whether we can legitimately make a claim against the Persian Government
on account of Khan Sahib Agha Ali’s family and dependent. Although
there is as yet no proof that the attack in the course of which he lost his life
was the work of enemy agents, Major Trevor thinks that it may fairly be
attributed to them and I myself feel morally certain that this was so. Khan
Sahib Agha Ali then suffered on account of his known connection and
partizanship for us, and it would I think be politic in the circumstances if a
compassionate grant of say £1,000 could be made to his family, which is
left in very straitened circumstances.
I should add that the title of Khan Sahib was conferred on Ali Agha for
good work as Acting Residency Agent at Lingah and dragoman at Maskat
and Bahrain.
I have the honour to he,
with the highest respect,
Sir,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
Charles M. Marling.
The Right Honourable
Sir Edward Grey, Bart, K.G., M.P.,
&c., &c., &c.
Enclosure No, 2,
Telegram, No. BSQ-^-lSlS, dated the 22nd June 1910.
prom— Major A. P. Trevor, C.I.E., Deputy Political Resident in the Persian Gulf
Bushire,
To-^His Britannic Majesty’s Minister, Tehran.
Your despatch to Eoreign Office, No. 64*. Am afraid I did not make it
clear that prior to opening of Vice-Consulate in 1910 Khan Bahadur Agha
Badr and his father before him were what we call Residency Agents at
Lingah for 50 years or so. Post was started before we had Consular functions
here and so was called Residency Agent, but it corresponded to Consular
Agent. Agha Badr remained Residency Agent for the “ Shib Kuh ports ”,
i.e , some ports and islands on coast of Pars between Lingah and Bushire*
There are Hindu and Indian Muhammadan traders at many of these ports and
Indian dhows trade with them, so there are frequent cases to attend to at
one or other of them.
Since establishment of Vice-Consulate whenever Agha Badr had to take
charge of that his second brother Agha Ali used to do the “ Residency Agent ”
work and go to the ports about cases, etc. So I think we could consider him
in our employment at the time of his death.