File 1110/1916 Pt 2 'Persia: SITUATION Miscellaneous' [‎36v] (77/276)

I®
16
Enclosure No. 1.
m i
Telegram, No. 134, dated the 26th (received 27th) March 1916.
From —Major Heron, Sipi,
To—-His Britannic Majesty's Consul for Sistan and Kain.
Yesterday about 3-30 p.m. one of Dai’s men reported that a party of the
enemy, consisting of 35 men with Jambazy camels, had arrived at the Kunarak
iangi and had caught some of our men and questioned them as to whether
they were British spies. They swore they were not. All but one were released
They kept him as a guide. About 4-30, Bennett moved out with, I think 45.
of his men and 45 levies. The latter formed in flank and rear o-uard. 9 I
accompanied the party. I will not describe operations which were conducted
by Bennett beyond saying that a good many shots were exchanged. One
Jambaz was very slightly grazed on the shoulder by a ricochet, otherwise we
had no casualties. After nightfall we fell back to camp which we reached
9 P M * About half the troops were left in camp as it seemed not unlikelv
that the enemy might have forces coming by other roads and might attack the
camp in our absence. On our return we found another messenger had 'come
and fl °m his report Mirza INur Muhammad and Dai thought it probable that
Aflfn ai \ A ! ghan ar “ s cai yan. Mirza Nur Muhammad said a party of 25
Afghans had passed through about three months ago and had not yet returned,
llns surmise was proved to be correct by another messenger, who came in earlv
this morning and whom the Afghans recognized as having been with AH Shah
Dhan when they were passing through. He further reported that they had
turned back after the troops left, evidently intending to emerge from the^west
end of the Tangi and to proceed eastwards by another route. There are two
main roads they can take, one northwards and eastwards Ma Shushaki and
Nakhila, and one southwards and eastwards between Dar-i-Ban dan anrl TtnA ■
Mahi. They presumably still hare oue of our levies who was on spy duS ani
whom they caught. H.s name is Hasan, son of Glmlam Shah, onerf Jemadar
Idu Khans men. I have no instructions to interfere with Afghan arms
tCaravans, and I strongly doubt the expediency of doing so in present critical
Kindly issue instructions for future guidance.
.i. .•?
Enclosure No. 2.
Telegram, No. 108 X., dated the 27th March 1916.
From—The General Officer Commanding, Sistan, Robat,
To—The Officer Commanding, Nasratabad (copy to Consul, Sistan).
. Officer Commanding, Sipi, wires a party of Afghan gun-runners consist-
mg, of about Jo Jambaz is parrying 650 rifles on riding camels retreated from
near Srpi after being .engaged for some time without apparent loss on ei h«
S,de.^lbey may have gone md Shusbaki and Nakbila with intention o!
passing between Hamun and Bandan or perhans via R„d ; mVi,; . ,
gj?*. *- om ”'»wjr ssrsjwsjt
Enclosure No. 3.
Telegram, dated the 28th March 1916.
From—His Britannic Majesty's Consul for Sistan and Kain,
To Major Heeds, Dehaneh Baghi (copy to General Office! Commanding, Robat).
• * ff fg i’ an . S™-™™ 6 * 5 ““d have always been hostile to us If’they eet
into Afghanistan, they and their arms will almost certainly be used against L
It is also possible that Germans are with caravan in disguise.
I think we should do our best to capture them.