‘Military report on Persia Volume I 1930’ [‎7v] (19/154)

2
shippers of_ both sexes, wounded. If this feat of arms
was really intended to arouse the fanatical feelings of the
resuS’ln^ p bnng ° n a . conflict which would have
resulted in the Russian occupation of Khurasan, it signally
failed m this object, and the Persians remained stunned
and cowed by the sudden blow. Naturally the deepest
resentment has endured to this day and the misfortunes
ol Russia are popularly attributed to Divine punishment
tor the crime.
The majority of the Russian troops were withdrawn
a er m the year, but the 1 st Semirechia Cossacks w*ere
retained at Meshed, Kuchan, and posts on the Meshed-
Askhabad road, where they were undoubtedly useful
against the brigands, who after several years of internal
security began to infest this highway.
1914—1918.—After the outbreak of the Great War the
Russian force in Khurasan was augmented by the arrival
of the 2 nd Semirechia Cossacks, and later by a detach
ment of militia infantry. A mountain battery and some
regular infantry who were to have joined the Khurasan
force in 1916 were diverted to other theatres of war.
• 5 1 August ms, German intrigues in Persia culminated
m the despatch of the German artillery officer Niedermeyer
with a mixed German and Turkish mission and armed
escort to Afghanistan, with the object of inducing the
Amir to cast m his lot against the Allies. The Cossacks
were successful m capturing much of the transport and
some outlying members of this party near Kain, but the
chief members succeeded in reaching Herat, and subse-
quently _ Kabul, in safety. Early in 1916, in connection
with similar anti-German measures in other parts of
Persia a British General Staff Officer was despatched to
Meshed to co-operate with the Russian force, assist them
with intelligence, act as liaison with British troops to the
south, and check as far as possible the wholesale escape to
Persia of German and Austrian prisoners of war interned in
luikistan. At this period, with the object of confining the
Germans already in Afghanistan to that country, and of
preventing the advent of similar bands, a cordon of Russian
troops had been pushed south to Rum (north of Birjand)
whence a British _ cordon carried on the line southwards to
the Indian frontier. The measures taken were successful
m securing the capture of a number of German and Turkish
agents, and of not a few noted Indian seditionists. Little