File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎518v] (684/1080)

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(ii] Food and clothes are scarce. The Bolsheviks bring cloth and shoes for
exchange for wheat and barley. The crops have been very poor. Some drsease
affected the wheat, the ears withering without fructifying.
Ini) After levying a tax of 30 per cent, on flocks of sheep, the Bolsheviks
were not contented. They therefore laid a further imposition of 25 per cent, on
the remainder A narrator was a farmer in a small way and possessed eight sheep.
The Bolsheviks relieved him of two to justify their taxation m kind.
(iv) The fields in the vicinity of this place have not been sown for an autumn
harvest*.
( v ) rpj ie Turkmen are tired of Bolshevik rule and practically all of them wish
to emigrate to Persia.
vi. There is a population of about 1,000 Jamshedis in the neighbourhood of
Qala Kamarov. They have been disarmed by the Bolsheviks, They are not now
allowed to raid Afghan territory 44 and feel the restriction acutely.” Their
leader is Shakarullah Batur. Afghans have recently raided into Kushk terri
tory and carried off flocks. Some fifty families of Jamshedis recently returned
to Afghanistan and members of them act as guides to the raiders.
{vii) Shakarullah Batuc his decided to emigrate to Persia when the heat
becomes less as sheep cannot stand long marches in the present weather. One,
Yunas, a Persian, is arranging this migration.
(viii) Canal water for irrigation has totally failed in this area.
(ix) Afghan and Bolshevik relations are not good. Each raids the other’s
frontier and no one is brought to book.
(x) There was no epidemic in the Kushk area up to the above date.
Charjui. July 5th to 12th.—An agent appointed to watch troop routes to
the Afghan frontier reports : —I reached Charjui on the 5th July. On the 7th
6,000 Red Army troops left Charjui by steamers for Patta Kesar, of whom 2,000
were Muslims and the rest Russians. On the 8th, 2 guns, 4 machine guns, 5
armoured cars, escorted by 200 men of the 2nd Kazan Regiment, left for Karki
by the river bank route.
On the 10th, 3 ships with ammunition and rations, 400 labourers and 150
troops of 1st Turkestan Regiment left for Patta Kesar. The labourers are in
tended for digging.
TCarPi
On the 12th, 300 cavalry of the 4th Samara Regiment left by route march for
There is some discussion among people of an impending war between the
Bolsheviks and Afghans on the one side and England on the other and to this
contingency was ascribed the abovementibned movement of troops.
Public lectures are delivered wherein appeals are made for unity against
England.
A casual who left Charjui on the 6th, made no mention of the above troop
movement nor did he know of the preliminary concentration that must have
taken place. A later arrival has, hovrever, confirmed the movement in essem
tial.
Termez, July 8th. — Food is fairly plentiful in Termez. Provisions from
the rich Bokharan towns of Hissar, Sherabad, Qulab, and Baljuan come to Termez
the surplus being forwarded to Karki and Charjui.
Afghan traders are bartering shoes, raisins, and other things for oil.
Thirty per cent, of the sheep in the surrounding country is being collected,
the surplus being forwarded to Charjui on barges. These arbitrary requisitions
are carried out by the Bolsheviks despite the fact that the Government is now
m the hand of the Yash Bokhari. The result is an impoverishment of the people,
Afghan traders arriving in Termez from Mazar-i-Bharif are reporting that the
Anglo-Afghan treaty has been concluded,