File 3852/1912 Pt 2 'Persia. Conditions in South Persia. German Documents' [‎236v] (104/280)

40
always been aimed at by the Anglo-Russian neighbours. The
relations of the governors of the provinces to the Government
at Teheran became more indefinite. Where funds could not
be brought in at once in the old Oriental way, the governor -
if he did not want to use his own fortune — saw himself degraded
to a dummy, with whom the powerful heads of tribes or such
disturbers of the peace, as Salar-ed Dowleh, who still haunt/ <
Persia, could do as they liked.
The part for instance, played for months by the Governor
General of Kermanshah, Prince Farman Farma, in his dealings
with Salar-ed-Dowleh was absolutely pitiable. There were
no means at his disposal for supporting reliable troops; the
volunteers had long been disarmed by Anglo-Russian orders.
So battles occurred for months between the men collected by
Farman Farma and the followers of Salar-ed-Dowleh which
the English consul describes as follows: “The two armies,
when they came in sight of each other, fired at each other,
then fled incontinently, Mujallal winning, because he looked
round first and discovered that he and the enemy were playing
the same game x ). “ At last Prince Salar-ed-Dowleh who had been
defeated a dozen times and whom the English minister Townley
called a “slippery customer^ Ala-es-Sultaneh “a lunatic 2 ) and
the Russian charge d’affaires an “impossible person” 3 ) was
offered the post of Governor of the Ghilan Province and then
that of Resht upon pressure from St. Petersburg and in spite
of all protests from the Persian Government!
The disturbances provoked by this princely rebel, who
always turned up again, continued well into 1913. He was,
to complete the mockery, supported by the Persian cossacks 4 )
stationed in Astrabad, men of that brigade which Russia
wanted to have augmented in December 1912 to 4300 men 5 )
and for whose slight value Persia had to pay heavily, according