'Historical Summary of Events in Territories of the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Arabia affecting the British Position in the Persian Gulf, 1907-1928' [‎13v] (33/188)

2-1
scecmd week of August they had captured Hamadan and were threatening to
cut leliran off from the Caspian. Indeed, Baratoff advised the Russian Minister to
prepare for evacuating the capital and Isfahan.
I he position at Tehran and Isfahan being so critical, Sir P. Sykes w T as instructed
to proceed to Isfahan and support the Russians before continuing his march to
fehiraz. He reached Isfahan on the 11th September. Six weeks later he resumed
his march and entered Shiraz in the middle of November. A check at the end of
JJecember to one of his punitive columns operating from Shiraz led to reinforcements
r n p i' in ^ r00 P s being sent him by the Bunder Abbas road, but the possibility that a
reliet xorce might have to operate from Bushire to extricate him was now before His
Majesty's Government.
• o In lebruar y 1^17 the influence of British successes on the Tigris made itself felt
m 1 ersia, and during that month and the next the Turkish forces retired from Persian
territory. I hey w T ere closely followed by Baratoff, whose troops were a^ain on the
frontier of Mesopotamia by the 31st March.
But at this stage the Russian revolution intervened. At the end of March the
belief was prevalent in Tehran that the new Russian Government would reverse
Tsarist policy in Persia, withdraw the Russian troops and cancel objectionable
agreements. Towards the end of May Baratoff's force retired from the frontier of
Mesopotamia; the Lurks followed them, and His Majesty's Government were com
pelled to reinforce the army on the Tigris from India. The prestige of the Allies in
1 eh ran was diminished, with the result that the Government repudiated the recogni-
^ 10lA E lven ^ ou th Persia Rifles by its predecessors.
The suspension of hostilities between Russia and the Central Powers in
December 1917 was soon followed by the dissolution of the Russian army in the
Caucasus and Persia, including the Russian sector of the cordon on the'Afghan
bolder. Transcaucasia was thrown open to the advance of Turkish and German
troops, and once these had reached the Caspian, Persia, Central Asia, Afghanistan
would be exposed to enemy penetration. The danger was intensified by the presence
of many thousands of Austrian and German prisoners of war at large m Turkestan.
In February^ therefore, British troops took over the sector of the cordon abandoned
by the Russians. And because the necessity for ensuring British access to the
Caspian and control of that sea had become urgent, His Majesty's Government, early
m March 1918, informed the Persian Government of their intention to hold the
road from Mesopotamia to the Caspian by British troops as far as might be found
netessary. But it was July before the road from Hamadan to Enzeli was under
British control.
Meanwhile, the situation in Fars had grown serious, owing largely to the action
of the Persian Minister of the Interior, who incited the tribes to attack the Indian
troops and South Persia Rifles. Sharp fighting near Shiraz between tribesmen and
Indian troops occurred in May and June 1918, strong fanatical feeling against the
British was general throughout the province, grave disaffection appeared in the
South Persm Rifles, and it appeared that soon the Indian troops might be invested
in Shiraz. Preparations were begun, therefore, for sending a relief column from
Bushire.
As a precaution against untoward developments that might perhaps appear
in Persia, and in order to supply the East Persia Cordon, the Government of India,
in the summer of 1916, began extending the railway from Nushki, in Baluchistan,'
towards the Persian frontier at Mirjawa. At the end of August 1918, in view of
the collapse of Russia and the Turco-German threat in the Caspian basin. His
Majesty's Government authorised the continuation of the line into Persian territory
at Duzdap, and the completion of surveys for carrying the line of Neh. a matter of
some 200 miles further, entirely within Persia.
Matters developed rapidly in Transcaucasia after the conclusion of peace
between Russia and the Central Powers by the Treatv of Brest-Litovsk on the
11th March, 1918. The Germans occupied Georgia, the Turks lost no time in
advancing on Baku, and the local Bolshevik-Armenian Government of Baku which
controlled the^ Caspian Fleet—invited British aid at the end of July. A British
force under General Dunsterville reached Baku from Enzeli at the becinnins; of
August, but was compelled to re-embark on the 15th September. The Turks now
occupied the city, though without securing any shipping. But within the next few
weeks they had extended their occupation northward into Daghestan and southward
over Persian Azerbaijan, including the Caspian coastline of that province, and were
taking steps to unite the province with the republic of the same name and form the
whole into a Moslem State dependent on Turkey.