'Persia. Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office - no 80' [‎27r] (60/164)

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Persia] PERSIA, 1912-1914 47
Great Britain, on the other hand, showed, until
1916, a marked disinclination to take any action in
Southern Persia, especially in the "neutral sphere,"
where the disorder was greatest; and the small bodies
of Indian troops sent to Isfahan (in 1912) and
Shiraz were soon withdrawn. While Russia was con
tinually pressing for an increase of the notorious
" Cossack Brigade," consisting of Persian troops
officered by Russians, and endeavouring to make it the
only military force in Northern Persia, England
favoured the formation of a Treasury gendarmerie,
like that conceived by Mr. Morgan Shuster in 1911,
officered by Swedes. A training school for this force
was established in Shiraz in April 1912, and another
at Teheran two months later. This force, always
cramped by the Russians, and financed (so far as it
was financed at all) by doles from the British Govern
ment, had a somewhat varied career. It had some
successes, but sulfered several severe reverses— e.g., in
August 1912, on the Shiraz-Bushire road, at the hands
of Salaru'd-Dawla and his tribesmen, and in Novem
ber 1913, at Kazarun, when the commanding officer
was killed. At the latter place the reinforcements
which subsequently arrived and recaptured the place
appear to have behaved disgracefully, and indulged in
looting without restraint. The Swedish officers seem
to have done their best, but they lacked tact and exas
perated the people; while their followers revived some
of the most barbarous methods of the old regime, such
as walling-up highway robbers alive in mortar,
methods which had been obsolete in Persia for more
than half a century. In April 1914 Colonel Hjal-
marson left the country, and when the war broke out
most of the regular Swedish officers had left Persia. 1
Those who remained developed strong pro-German or
anti-Russian sentiments, and willingly co-operated
with the German agents who penetrated into Persia.
1 All those who were on the active list were finally recalled by
the Swedish Government in January 1915.