Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎108r] (215/644)

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[11539]
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would help the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. On enquiry it was learnt that the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company now supplied Meshed from Tehran, owing to the
high cost of transport from the south, where prices had been increased by
2 to 4 rials a tin by the closure of the railway. The Minister of Finance’s
demarche was reported to the Foreign Office and Government of India, but no
immediate reply was returned to him.
(e) Brigandage in East Persia.
160. A large number of hold-ups occurred on the roads in East Persia, a
British vice-consul being involved in one. Mr. and Mrs. Hart, with their son and
servants, were shot at near Turbat-i-Haidary while proceeding from Meshed to
Birjand. Mrs. Hart, the driver and another servant were wounded, the two latter
seriously. They were robbed of most of their possessions and maltreated by the
brigands, who held up several lorries at the same time.
161. Mrs. Hart and her son succeeded in reaching Meshed about midnight,
Mr. Hart remaining on the road with the wounded men. In spite of energetic
action by the secretary to the consulate-general, he was unable to procure assist
ance from the General Officer Commanding troops at Meshed for over three hours.
He finally proceeded in his own car with two soldiers to the scene of the hold-up
and brought back Mr. Hart and the wounded men. No further assistance was
rendered by the military. A particularly glaring example of inefficiency and
cowardice was furnished by the gendarmes at a post 16 miles from the hold-up.
These men, though informed the same afternoon of what had occurred, refused to
start in pursuit of the brigands.
162. Regret was expressed verbally to the Legation and also to the Foreign
Office by the Persian Minister in London, but no written expression of regret was
ever received.
163. When the conduct of the military authorities was known, an energetic
protest was addressed to the Persian Government. On the Minister for Foreign
Affairs’ return from East Persia, whither he had gone in connexion with the
Perso-Afghan frontier dispute, he expressed to His Majesty’s Minister personally
the regret of the Persian Government. He stated that everything possible was
being done to capture the brigands and added, spontaneously, that the Persian
Government would compensate Mr. and Mrs. Hart for their losses.
164. Meanwhile, one of the wounded men had died, and it was discovered
that he claimed to be an Indian British subject who had come into Persia without
any papers. His claim was being investigated at the end of the year.
165. His Majesty’s Minister proposed that, in view of the Minister for
Foreign Affairs’ statement that compensation would be paid, the incident should
be considered closed, a view in which the Foreign Office concurred. The Govern
ment of India, however, felt that the incident should not be considered closed until
the question of compensation should have been definitely settled. At the end of
the year His Majesty’s Minister had in his possession a list of the losses sustained
by Mr. and Mrs. Hart, and discussion was proceeding as to whether he should
request compensation for shock and injury to Mrs. Hart and claim the hospital
and burial expenses of the man who had died.
(f) Police Search of Zahedan Vice-Consulate.
166. Early in the year a reply was received from the Minister for Foreign
Affairs to the Legation’s protest referred to in paragraph 299 of the annual
report for 1933. In this, Kazemi merely stated that the building searched “ was
not considered part of the vice-consulate.”
167. The Zahedan vice-consulate occupies a large area and the buildings
are somewhat scattered, but the whole is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and
it seemed impossible that any mistake should have been made. Colonel Daly was,
however, instructed to send a plan of the enceinte, and the Minister for Foreign
Affairs was informed that, while His Majesty’s Minister was prepared to believe
that the local officials had acted under a misapprehension, he could not regard
their statement as sufficient to close the incident.