'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎34r] (72/610)

carried without difficulty and little further opposition was encoun
tered ; and Rasht was occupied on 'June 14th. Kuchik Khan
withdrew to Kasnra, whilst Bicherakoif and his volunteers
embarked at Enzali, and Dunsterville arranged transport for a
small force to help our friends in Baku.
But the Jangalis had only been waiting their opportunity ;
on July 20th they made a sudden attack on Rasht, and it
needed several weeks of severe punitive operations before
Kuchik Khan was willing to seek terms. An agreement was
drawn up by which the Jangalis undertook to furnish supplies
to the British troops, not to have armed bands on the Enzall-
Kazvin road, and to send away all enemy officers ; whilst the
British commander agreed not to interfere in Persian affairs
so long as Persia gave no assistance to the enemies of Britain,
nor to interfere in the politics of the Jangalis so long as these
should not forward the interests of the enemies of Great Britain. •
Some days before the agreement was signed, General Dunster-
ville and his expeditionary force had embarked at Enzali, on
August 14th, for Baku.
To round off this description of the position of affairs in state of Persis,
Persia at the time of the fall of the Cabinet of Samsam-us-Sul- July 1918 *
taneh, it may be noted that the main trade routes in the central •
provinces of Isfahan and Yazd were infested by robber bands,
so strong that they defied the Government; that Luristan
and other border provinces were in an unruly state; that tbe
prices of all cotomodities were everywhere abnormally high,
despite the excellent harvest in all parts of the country; and
that the outgoing Cabinet according to Persian custom, had
left the treasury in debt, and the finances of the country in
disorder.'
Also the aspect of foreign affairs had altered. Great Britain
had accepted the military responsibilities in Persia of her former
ally, Russia, in opposing the Turks. The allies had not only
held on the western front in Europe, they were now taking the
offensive. British influence was consequently predominant in
Tehran, and Sir P. Z Cox vas appointed Bri ish Minister with
the object of utilising this favoura le occasion to effect a
rapprochement bet veen the two roun ries.
Vusuq-ud-Dauleh, who had always been pro-ally, readily Cabinet of
accepted office on August 5th, and in ten days’ time formed a Seh^Augurt
Cabinet, of which the more important members were Mushavir- 1918 . improved
ul-Mamklik, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Prince Nusrat-ud- ^£j a ® rs,an
Dauleh (eldest son of Farman Farma), Minister of Justice. In
the end of the year the Cabinet was strengthened by the intro*