Coll 30/9 'Persian Gulf: Administration Reports 1926-1938' [‎387r] (778/1028)

at the American College at Tehran, hastened to join the tribes and won the hearts
of all by his gallantry and daring.
6. The imminence of a Qashqai outbreak caught the Persian Government
officials in Pars unprepared and with divided counsels. The Governor-General,
Prince Akbar Mirza Mas’ud, Sarim-ud-Dauleh, belieVed that the military forces
in the province were insufficient to overawe the tribes, that no fresh forces could
be obtained from Tehran, and that it was therefore imperative to temporise.
He had a conference with Ali Khan, the Qashqai leader, early in May, and
received the tribesmen’s demands, which included the release of the Saulat,
recognition of Saulat or one of his sons as Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. , no disarmament and no
conscription. These were quite unacceptable to the Government, which accepted
Sartip Shahbakhti’s view that the Qashqais must be coerced without accepting
the obvious implication that sufficient force must be provided to coerce them.
The tribes migrating north, reached the immediate vicinity of Shiraz before
anything had been done to appeas,e or oppose them. In the early morning of
June 4th the Qashqais closed the Bushire road and cut the telegraph wires. Two
days later they blocked the road to Isfahan and cut the telegraph lines there
also. Shiraz was isolated.
7. The isolation of Shiraz at last woke up the Central Government to the
realisation that something serious was happening. The Amir Lashkar Habib-
ullah Khan Shaibani was sent down from Tehran to take supreme charge of
affairs in the province, both military and civil. He was met at Pul-i-Khan, 28
miles out of Shiraz, by a large escort and 2 armoured cars, but even so had
difficulty in fighting his way into Shiraz against the opposition of the Qashqais,
who were holding the hills on both sides of the road. He was lucky to receive
fresh reinforcements from Shiraz who opened the road momentarily and brought
him in on the night of June 6th losing over 50 men in the operation. The same
night the Qashqais made a night attack on the aerodrome, which was guarded
by a strong military detachment, and disabled two military aeroplanes. On
June 9th, 10th and 11th there was heavy fighting at Chinar Rahdar, only 4 miles
west of Shiraz, which the Qashqais took only to be driven out again by a counter
attack. The military followed up this success by advancing towards T)eh
Sheikh, but lost so many men that they were glad to retreat to Chinar Rahdar
again. The Amir Lashkar’s first action when this lull in the fight gave^him a
momentary respite w r as to get the Governor-General recalled to Tehran,
together with Sartip Fazlullah Khan Zahidi, the Officer Commanding, Road-
Guards, throughout Persia, and Sartip Muhammad Hussein Mirza, son of the
Harman Farma, thereby reducing from 5 to 3 the number of Generals in Shiraz.
Sarim-ud-Dauleh and the two Generals were accused of wilfully concealing from
the Shah the serious situation in Fars, and of being concerned with Prince
Firuz, the Minister of Finance, in a Qajar plot to overthrow Reza Shah with
the heli) of the tribes. They were also accused of being too friendly with
certain foreign elements, i.e., the British. Sarim-ud-Dauleh had in fact been
very friendly with Mr. Chick, H. M.’s Consul at Shiraz, and had asked his
opinion on the tribal situation ; but the suggestion that he was working with the
British against the Pahlavi regime was of course absurd, as was the suggestion
made in Tehran that the British were supporting the tribes by supplying (or
alowing them to be supplied) with arms and ammunition. The popular rumour
that Mr. Chick, instead of going on leave, had remained in Persia and, dressed
as a dervish, was directing the movements of the tribes, v T as still more, lacking
in verisimilitude ; while the writer’s request that guards should be provided lor
the houses of British residents in exposed situations outside the town was mis
construed as an alarmist attitude designed to inspire lack of confidence in die
Persian Government’s, power to deal with the situation. Out of such scanty
materials a supposed Qajar plot with British support was invented ; and on the
charge of being implicated in it Sarim-ud-Dauleh was placed under open arrest,
Sartip Muhammad Hussein Mirza Firuzi was disgraced, and Sartip Fazlullah
Khan Zahidi was deprived of his rank and employment.
9. Meanwhile, after the Amir Lashkar had fought his way into Shiraz, the
Government troops were left barely holding the crest of the hills just north of
the town. Military and Road-Guard posts on the Isfahan road were left to their
own devices. The Amnieh post at Ab-i-barik near Zarqan was overcome and
disarmed bv the Qashqais. The post of 50 soldiers at Pul-i-Khan, 28 miles out
of Shiraz, was attacked by night, and Malik Mansur Khan with a band of
Darashuris rushed the post, killed the garrison to a man, and damaged the
important bridge so that motor vehicles could not cross it.
LclUFD