Notes Prepared for Reference during Curzon’s Tour of the Persian Gulf, and Other Papers on Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎333r] (665/678)

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confidence and good-will of the people owing to his weakness, and the few troops at
present at his disposal would sooner join the rioters than oppose them.
I have, &c.
(Signed) CECIL Gr. WOOD.
P.S.—~So far J beg to inform that we have no acknowledgment of our collective
letter.
C. Gr. W.
Inclosure 5 in Ho. 4.
Consul-General Wood to Sir M. Durand.
Sir, Tabriz, August 19, 1895.
WITH reference to my despatches on the subject of the recent disturbances at
Tabriz, I have the honour to report that a certain amount of uneasiness still prevails in
town owing to the continued bad quality and light weight of the bread, and also to the
sympathetic attitude preserved by the Valiahd towards the late Kaimakam and his
party.
I hear to-day that the Valeil-el-Mulk and the Dabir-es-Sultaneh have been induced
by the Yaliahd to come back from their villages to which they retired after the second
outbreak of popular feeling, and that His Imperial Highness went so far as to express
his regret at the way he had treated them on that occasion.
The Beglar Begy, who had suffered the most, as the Yaliahd is said to have broken
his cane on his back, abandoning his wife and family in Tabriz, has continued his flight,
and is now on his way to Khorassan vifi Askabad, provided with a Russian visa to his
passport, on the 15th instant.
The Yaliahd is said to have taken upon himself the cost of the repairs to the
Kaimakam’s residence. He has induced this personage to return to it, and has already
paid him a formal visit there.
From current report it is said that the Yaliahd has been advised to call to Tabriz a
certain Hadgee Mirza Kiassim, Vehil or Prefect of Dekhargan (neighbouring parts of
Tabriz), and a strong partisan of the Kaimakam faction, and give him the Governor-
Generalship of Tabriz on the excuse that such an appointment, being apparently a
change, would appease the people. These, however, will not be taken in by such a
flimsy proceeding.
The day before yesterday a crowd of women paraded the bazaars asking to be
informed as to what had become of the blood-money which had been promised to the
relatives of the victims of the riots. Their proceedings induced the Yaliahd to order
the payment of 750 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. on that account, but as tw T elve people were killed during the
riots this amount is still some 2,250 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. short.
With regard to the various quantities of grain which I had stated as being stored
and kept back for their own purposes by certain officials of the Yaliahd’s Court, the
accompanying list will show the names of the different detentors and the quantities
currently known to be at present in their possession in town.
In conclusion, I beg to state that I feel convinced that we are not yet at the end of
our troubles, for the people will only be satisfied by the appointment of a perfectly new
man as Governor-General, and the production of a better quality of bread for the
present price. It is fully time that the superior native authorities should awaken to the
responsibilities they are incurring by their procrastination in bringing a remedy to the
woeful state of things in this part of the Empire.
I have, &c.
(Signed) CECIL G. WOOD.
Summary of Inclosure.
Mr. Wood enumerates the principal store-holders in the Yaliahd’s circle, amongst
the clergy class and merchants, and estimates the least quantities they at present possess
in their town stores at 73,700 khalvars.