'Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency for the Years 1911-1914' [‎70v] (145/488)

2
PEBSIAN GrTTLF ADMINISTRATION REPORT
^ "With the enforced departure of Mr. Sinister from Tehran, the General
scepticism prevailing amongst intelligent Persians of the possibility^
improyeinentin the moral and material condition of the country without
effective foreign intervention, has given place to a settled conviction of the
futility of any efforts made by the Central Government to restore order
Eussian troops have remained in considerable numbers m Northern Persia, and
on our part, it has not yet been found practicable to effect any reduction in the
numbers of British troops employed as Consular guards in the South, tWli
His Majesty's Government are anxious to withdraw them as soon as possible.
No loans were raised by the Persian Government during the year; His
Majesty's Government, however, accorded advances, totalling £50,000 to he
devoted to the administrative necessities of Ears : local authorities all over the
country declared their inability to carry on the administration, or even- collect
revenue without the assistance of large subventions from the Central Govern
ment, whose failure to meet such demands was ^ urged in extenuation of the
general incapacity of local authorities to maintain law and order. The fear is
that the demoralization of the country generally and the decay of the whole
organization of Government have progressed too far to be cured by the most
liberal subventions : and that, failing some unforeseen development, the most
that can be hoped from the grant of financial assistance is that the inevitable
day of reckoning will be postponed for a few years longer, the account becom
ing meanwhile steadily more formidable, and less within the power of the
country to liquidate. Financial assistance, and the measure of control over
local administration involved thereby, once withdrawn, there must always be
the danger that the administration would relapse into chaos, owing to the fact
that tribesmen and peasantry alike are now well armed, and are conscious of
their power, whilst men of sufficient honesty of purpose and capability to take
up the reins when we lay them down, cannot be produced by Persia now, nor
could they be produced in the present generation.
As in the previous year, the position of affairs in Pars generally, and on
shiraz and Fa« tlle BusMre-Ispahaii road,_ loomed large on
the political horizon, and it seems increas
ingly clear that for some time to come the line of action pursued by His
Majesty's Government in regard to the problems presented by the roads of
this province will form the touchstone upon which our subsequent policy in
South Persia will be tested and regulated.
The negatively unsatisfactory state in which things remained during the
Kawam s acting incumbency of the post of Governor-General, gave place, on
the arrival of the Mukhbir-es-Sultaneh, to a brief period of hope that some
permanent improvement might result from his appointment. Such hopes were
not fulfilled : it was anticipated by Mr. Smart, when this nomination was fiis
mooted that he would prove rather too civilised for so turbulent a province as
ars, which only a Governor-General of the old fire eating type could hope o
prmg under control, without ample funds, which the Central Government was
in no position to provide.