'Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency for the Years 1915-1919' [‎7r] (20/396)

FOR THE YEAR 1915. 3
disturbed condition of Arabistan, owing to which imports through Moham-
merah and Arabistan were suspended.
On 5th May, the Finance Department was separated from the Customs
Department, and Sulaiman Mirza was put in charge of the Bushire Finance
Department Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. . '* Moses Khan " (Mr. Katchaturian, an Armenian, em
ployed for many years as Personal Assistant to the Director of Customs at
Bushire) succeeded M. Stas as Agent of the Finance Department at Shiraz.
As mentioned in last year's report (page 9) the Bushire hinterland was
Condition of Bushire and neighbouring dis- remarkably cjuiet when the year openeJL
tricts. Very early in the year this began to
change. The German Consulate had begun to intrigue with Eais Ali of
Tangistan and other Chiefs as far back as September 1914, and soon after the
beginning of the year these intrigues began to bear fruit. In January,
Herr Wassmuss, who had been Acting Consul at Bushire till the beginning of
July 1914 and who had then gone on leave to Europe, appeared in Shushter
as the head of a Mission to raise Persia and Afghanistan and, if possible, the
Indian Frontier against Great Britain, Herr Wassmuss was accompanied by
Dr. Linders and Mr. Bohnstorff and some Persians and 3 or 4 seditious
Indians.
He at once began to incite the people to jehad and distribute large sums
to influential men and Mullahs with a view to raising them against the British.
In February, it was ascertained that he was going to march through Ram
Hormuz to Borasiun. As he was openly inciting the people to break the
neutrality of Persia and his jehad propaganda, etc., was dangerous, it was
decided to try and induce the friendly Khan of Haiyat Daud, through whose
territory he would be passing, to bring him down to the coast where he could
be arrested. Captain Noel went to Bandar Big, on 3rd March, and Mr. Chick
went a short time later to arrange the matter with Haidar Khan of Haiyat
Daud. The Khan readily agreed to interc€)pt Wassmuss and bring him to
the coast, and Wassmuss and his party were intercepted by the Khan's brother.
Unfortunately Wassmuss himself gave the Khan's men the slip during the
night, but Dr. Linders and the caravan were brought to Bandar Big and much
valuable information obtained. Large quantities of inflammatory pamphlets
and leaflets in Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, and various Indian languages were
found in the kit; some of them were incitements io jehad and some suggestions
to Indians to rise against the British. Dr. Linders was brought to Bushire in
R. I. M. S. "Nearchus," on 8th March. Meanwhile, as it was certain that Dr.
Listemann, the German Consul at Bushire, was intriguing with the Tangistanis,
it had been decided to arrest and deport him together with the local agent of
Messrs. Wonckhaus who was aiding him. The Consul and Herr Eisenhutt
were accordingly arrested without creating trouble in the early hours of the
9th March and removed to B. I. M. S. <e Nearchus" wdiich had arrived off
Bushire. The arrangements for the arrest were made by Captain Neale. First
Assistant, who was in charge of the Besidency at the moment and Captain Oakes,
Commanding the detachment of the 102nd Grenadiers, Indian Army,
stationed at Bushire.
The papers found at the German Consulate conclusively proved that
Dr. Listemann had been intriguing with Bais Ali and other disaffected Khans.
They also proved the existence of a widespread plot, organised by Herr
Kardoff, the German Charge d'Affaires, for a general attack to be^ made on
British representatives and communities throughout Persia in the Spring.
Muwaqqar-ud-Dowleh, the Governor of Bushire, was very indignant at the
arrest and deportation of the Germans. Wassmuss and the pro-Germans used
it as an additional lever to work up anti-British feeling among the tribes of the
hinterland. Mirza Muhammad Khan, Ghazanfar-us-Sultaneh, Khan of
Borasjun, whose proclivities were well known and had been frequently in
evidence since 1909, organized a confederacy of Khans, consisting of himself,
Shaikh Husain of Chahkutah, Bias Ali of Dilwar and Zair Khidhar of Ahram,
against the British. These persons began threatening to attack Bushire; they ; ,
also started writing insulting letters to the Governor and to
the Acting Consul-General and others, a practice which they kept up at inter
vals till the end of year.