File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎308v] (264/1080)

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45. Turkestan.—Hecrmting is in progress in all centres from whic&
reports have been received. Boys from. 14 to 18 are being drafted into the
military school at Tashkent and recruits of from ] 8 to 30 enlisted for the
army. The headquarters of the 1st Turkestan Rifle Division were under orders
to move to Askhabad in January but this has since been countermanded from il
Tashkent. It is popularly believed that the Army in Turkestan is to he ^
expanded considerably by the end of March.
46. A report comes from Merv that details «of a mounted unit have
arrived there, the majority of the men being war veterans of the Tsarist army
and clothed in red uniforms. A party of Jews is reported from Askhahad as
having held a meeting there in which the contingency of another war in the
spring was referred to, India being mentioned in connection therewith.
. Ferghana .—Recruiting is in progress and batches of 200 are sent to
Tashkent for training.
48. Since the beginning of January there has been a movement of drafts
eastwards from Kokand, their places being taken by fresh troops from the
west. The Bolsheviks have given out that they have routed the rebels in the
vicinity of Marghilan where Sher Muhammad Kor, Mohkam Eaji, Bash
Pulad, Bahr-ud-din, and Khal Khwaja, are quoted as the principal leaders.
49. It is curious to note that the present Governor of Kokand is a descen
dant of the late Amir cf Ferghana. His name is Khudayarov and he is said
to be a convert to Christianity.
50. A man who has been for many years a resident of Andijan states that
the Bolshevik garrisons of towns in Ferghana never react to rebel raids. These
raids are frequent but the Bolshevik troops do no more than see the raiders
out of the town. This has been mentioned by others and is due in all proba
bility to the universal absence of supplies, both in the country side and at
the base. Moreover, our own experience of the Bolshevik soldier in Turkestan
is that he will never leave his trains. Even if he is forced to go to ground it is
only astride the railway line with his trains waiting somewhere behind him.
The same tendencies, the same conditions, have probably been operating in the
towns on the Central Asian Railway in Ferghana.
51. Orenburg —There is no longer any settled government in Orenburg
the place Laving been given over mostly to famine refugees who have no food
except the woo 1 they powder and mix with dour to make bread These wlm
are physically fit enough go into the fields with a vessel of w ater and dig for
marmots, a species of rodent about the size of a large rat. These they cook
on the spot and so teed themselves and their families.
AFGHANISTAN.
52. Herat. Three Arabs were brought from Kafir Qala by a sepoy Term used in English to refer to an Indian infantryman. Carries some derogatory connotations as sometimes used as a means of othering and emphasising race, colour, origins, or rank. and
were sent by the Naib-ul-Hukumeh to Saiad Ismail Elsenussi.
53. A firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). from Kabul assigns certain areas to be toured by high
olhcials of the State. Herat will be visited by the Wazir Minister. -i-Amnia (Minister
of Road Guards). It was this firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). that gave rise to the belief that Shuja
Daula Khan, Wazir Minister. -i-Amnia, was coming to Herat as Governor.
54. Three Russian couriers left for Kabul via Kandahar on the 15th and
on the same day the escort which had taken the consignment of telegraph
instruments to Kandahar on gun carriages, returned to Herat.
55 The advance party of Muhammad Amin Khan, Governor of Pusht-i-
Kuh . (see paragraph 38 herein; left for that place on the 16th January, being
followed after two days by Muhammad Amin Khan himself.
56. An Indian has arrived from the frontier, but from which is not
known (this is probably the second of the two Mahajarin who passed through
Meshed en route for Kabul a short time ago).
-i B a( p Khan, Afghan Consul designate to Meshed, arrived on
he Hth January. He has brought an escort for the duties of couriers between
Meshed and Herat.