'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎588] (655/714)

.588
PERSIA
Needless to say, this brave forecast was not realised. The Austrian
officers, who do not appear to have been of a high stamp, made
little or no attempt to learn the language, squabbled with each
other and with the Persian Government, and finally, for the most
part, retired in disgust. After their disappearance, a number of
non-commissioned officers of the same nationality were either
engaged or kept on as drill instructors to the Persian infantry and
artillery; and a relic of the Austrian regime still survives in the
person of the Austrian corps, consisting of Persians who were
drilled by the Austrians as officers of regiments belonging to
the so-called Corps d'Armee d'Autriche, which has since been
disbanded and resolved into the territorial elements from which
it sprang. The officers linger on, but no longer receive any
pay.
Simultaneously with the introduction of the Austrian element,
the steadily increasing influence of Russia at Teheran was exempli-
9. Russian hed by the appearance upon the scene of Russian officers.
uniforms, equipment, and drill. Colonel Dumantovitch[
an officer who had served under General Tergukasoff in the early
Turkoman campaigns, with three commissioned and five non-com
missioned officers, was engaged to organise a regiment on the
( ossack model at Teheran. Very effectively did the Russians pro
ceed with their work. One thousand Berdan rifles, costing 3/.
apiece, and some steel cannon for two light field batteries were
presented gratis to the Shah by his very good friend the Emperor
ot Russia; swords were manufactured at Teheran on the Russian
path in at a co!>t of 12^- hrans, or 7s. apiece ; the men were dressed
and accoutred without the smallest deviation from the model of the
West; and the Shah could presently congratulate himself upon a
faithful reproduction of the genuine Caucasian article. At the
piesent moment there are three of these Persian Cossack regiments,
drawing pay for a nominal strength of 600 each—i.e., 1,800 men;
though m reality they consist only of two regiments of 600 each
i.e., 1.200 men, represented, however, as three regiments with
a reduced strength of 400 each. Their full complement of Russian
o iceis, is one colonel, three captains, one lieutenant, and ten
non commihbioned officers ; but when I was in Teheran these had
een ieduced to one colonel, one captain, one lieutenant, and six
non commissioned officers. I shall have something more to say
<i 'out them w hen 1 come to an enumeration of the component