'Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency for the Years 1911-1914' [‎141r] (286/488)

TOTL THE YEAR 2913.
15
Monsieur Constant left Bushire for Belgium on the 28th Anril
The" Constant "outrage at once brought forward prominently' the danger
to which the foreign community at Bushire
Transfer of Headq^rtors of fhP 2rd Qneen was exposed bv the nrofoun-l nf
Vic'otias Own Uajput Light lafantry from Jask nT1 n rr >. L * J\ "U- x i f «
to Buahire. anarchy leached in tlie hinterland of
Bushiieand the dangerous impotence of
the local authorities."
Foreign Consular representatives (on one occasion a meeting of the Consu
lar body was proposed) appealed to Sir Percy Cox, asking what measures could
be taken to promote order and security and thus free the Consuls from their
responsibility vis a vis their respective Governments.
Sir Percy Cox undertook to provide guards for such Foreign residents
as had not, like the Russian Consul, their own Consular guards, from the
troops then at L'ushire and urged on Government the transfer of the headquarters
of the Regiment then serving at Jask, to Bushire His recommendations were
accepted
After some useful work against the Tangistanis, the strength of the
regiment was greatly reduced by the transfer of a wing, under t e command
of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, to Maskat inear'yJuly. They were relieved
at the end of the year by a wing of the 102nd King Edward's Own Grena
diers under Major A. C. Edwards, but the wing is under strength and barely
sufficient to furnish guards to tho houses of Europeans and protect its own
depfit at Bushire.
It will hardly yet have been forgotten that last year's Administration
" Eckford regreUable incident." Report for Pars and Bushire gave in
. # some detail an account of the death of
Captain Eckford. His Majesty's Minister had expressed the opinion that,
as the Persian Government would undoubtedly be unable to capture th6
guilty or bring them to justice, it was desirable that Government should take
steps to prepare an expedition in the spring to restore order and, if necessarv,
punish offenders on the Bushire-Shiraz road.
The Dai ya Begi left Shiraz on 22nd December of last year to organise,
on beLall: of the Governor-General, a small local force of some 600 men with
a view to subsequent punitive operations His expedition proved useless and
he returned to Shiraz on the 28th January.
Sir E. Grey objected to a punitive expedition in the spring on the score
that it would lead to disappearance of the pretence of Persian independence
and to tlie partition of Persia, directly due to the action of the British Govern
ment.
We were to renew our efforts to strengthen the Persian adininistratioji
and to give support and encouragement to the gendarmerie.
A public apology for the outrage either by the Persian Government or the
Governor-General of Pais was also suggested If this was not considered
sufficient, other measures, more useful and less embarrassing than an expedi
tion into the interior, were put forward, e g., the consolidation of our interests
and position at the entrance to the Gulf at Hen jam or Bandar Abbas.
Landing of troops at Bushire or Kharag island was also sugges + e r l in the
event of it being considered that Bandar Abbas was not sufficiently mar the
scene of the outrage.
Por various reasons urged by the local officers, any further public apology
was not considered advisable; as the outcome of the Constant murder, the
headquarters of the 2nd Rajputs were transferred to Bushire from Jask chiefly
on the strength of the weighty grounds that, if we did not move in the matter
of the promotion of the general safety of Europeans, some other Power would.
The t'ersian Government and especially the Bakhtiari element, in the
month of March, made much of crushing defeiis inflicted by the Amir Mujahid
on the Buwair Ahmadi tribes. The report of H. M's. Vice-Consul for Ahwaz
{infra) shows clearly the exact value that should be attributed to these dis
astrous Bakhtiari attempts to restoie order and punish disturbe s of tlie
peace.