'File No. II/12 Foreign Dept Memoranda of Information re: affairs in Persia and Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf. Jan '09 --' [‎27r] (53/178)

5
would be informed that duties paid by British
merchants to N ationalists would be considered
as fully acquitted, though, on account of the
loan, the proceeds were being claimed by the
British Government.
The Karguzar, on the 23rd March, pressed
His Majesty’s Consul to permit him to
retain half the customs receipts to pay the
Nationalist soldiery. Captain Shakespear
considered that the request should be granted.
There were 1,200 armed men in the town and,
if they were not supplied with food and
water, there was danger of an outbreak; the
Karguzar had agreed to stop the arrival of
more men, and the Nationalists, who had
kept excellent order, were desirous of
maintaining peaceful control. Moreover the
Nationalists could only be restrained from
retaining the whole of the revenue and
abolishing the custom house by occupying
the latter with a force of blue-jackets.
Sir G. Barclay replied that the British claim
to half the customs receipts, and even to all,
might be waived if danger was apprehended,
though the latter course should, if possible,
be avoided.
So far the Nationalists have maintained
order efficiently at Bunder Abbas.
On the 25th March 1909, Major Cox
Situation at jatic. reported that Mir Bakat
had taken over the
Jask customs under instructions from Bunder
Abbas.
Towards the end of the month news was
Situation ai Shiraz and received that the
hamadan. ^ ationalist movement
had spread to Hamadan and Shiraz. In the
latter town on the 24th March it was decided
at a meeting attended by Vizier Begler Begi,
Nasr-ed-Dowleh and other leading persons
that the Constitution should be proclaimed
and a local Assembly inaugurated.
The position of the Nationalists in
Situation iaAaerlaijan. Tabriz at the begin-
mng of Jb ebruary was
reported to be precarious and supplies to be
running short. The royalists appeared to be
confident of its early surrender. On the 11th
February, Mr. Wratislaw reported that the
Kasvin, Maraga and Julfa roads were blocked,
the last by cavalry from Karadagh.
On the 22nd February, an indecisive
engagement took place between the Karflan-
ghis and a strong force of Nationalists at
Alvar, on the Julfa road, 8 miles from
Tabriz.
An expedition which had been sent to
clear the Julfa road and to bring away the
Marend garrison returned to Tabriz on the
23rd February, having failed in its objective.