File 3852/1912 Pt 2 'Persia. Conditions in South Persia. German Documents' [‎249v] (130/280)

paid by collecting taxes “eventually with the help of the finan
cial agent". Pravitz thereupon seized 10 ooo Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. which
were deposited with the Belgian customs agent in Abadeh and
which were receipts of taxes out of which the expenses of the
Gendarmerie were to be defrayed according to the British-
Persian agreement. The English Minister was beside himself
with rage at this proceeding, which was quite comprehensibly*
on the part of these officers whose dignity was constantly being
slighted. The deserving commander, a Swedish officer of the
General staff who, two years earlier, was a „smart soldier”
became “a madman with an enfeebled brain". Sir Walter
Townley telegraphs on Februar 13 th , 1915 , to Shiraz and
Bushire:
,,Hjalmarson seems to have lost his head and to be seeking
to wreck his own work whilst doing as much harm generally
as he can. We hope to get rid of him soon, but this must
follow him.
,,He has himself announced that Swedish Government
and Russian Governments, Folke has been allowed to remain
as Officer Commanding so it will be hard for Hjalmarson to
hang on.
“Belgians are naturally up in arms and see a political
It had been for some time the intention of the English
Government to remove General Hjalmarson, as all the other
reorganizers and politicians who had been working for the
best interests of Persia had been removed. The American
“Colonel" Merrill whom we shall get to know still better in
the role of an indefatigable intriguer and talebearer, had
reported confidentially to the British Consul at Shiraz on
February I st : “The quarrel at Kazvine between gendarmes
and Russian troops was over the barracks of the gendarmerie
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