File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎353r] (353/1080)

SEC RET.
v.
O
No. 51
INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY FOR THE WEEK ENDING DECEMBER 17TH, 1921.
KHORASAN.
273.
Meshed .—The situation in the Proyince and its capital is normal.
The arrival of the new Governor-General and the commencement of the
evacuation to Tehran of the “ Cossack ” force are the principal events
of the week.
Military ,—The following contingent left for Tehran on the 12th
instant:—
Troops .......... 250
Carts with arms and ammunition ...... 84
Camels with ammunition ....... 17
Camels with rifle chests ....... 38
Two hundred and fifty gendarmes of the 10th, Iraq, Regiment from Tehran
are under orders for Astarabad.
Twenty Bakhtiari horsemen under Reza Quli Khan Bakhtiari who
accompanied the incoming Governor-General, have left Meshed on their
return journey.
Captain Ali Reza Khan Sipahbud, an officer of the new defunct
Gendarmerie and a supporter of Major Mahmud Khan Nauzari, has left
Meshed for Tehran.
A recruiting party for enlisting men for the Persian Cossack Division
has been sent to Turshiz.
Desertions continue but the offenders seem invariably to be Barbaris.
It is possible that these men cannot face the prospect of that distant separation
from their tribal homes which a transfer to Tehran or elsewhere would
involve.
There have been one or two more cases of men of the Cossack Division
taking sanctuary in the Shrine to evade military service. Hardship is probably
the chief reason for this shirking.
There has been a re-transference of arms and ammunition from the
former British hutted encampment where the Cossack contingent are lodged
to the Artillery Barracks within the town.
Some rifles and a machine gun, recovered from the Kurds of Quchan,
have arrived in Meshed.
Arms traffic —House searches still result in the discovery of rifles, nine
with ammunition having been found during the week in the house of a
prominent citizen.
Hussein Aqa, Mir Panj, the Commandant of the Cossack contingent,
received a report that some rifles and ammunition ihad been buried by Afghans
outside the city for subsequent despatch to Herat. An informer indicated the
cache and six short English rifles with ammunition were unearthed. The
search party was attacked by Afghans who wrested from it the rifles and
ammunition and made off. They have heen followed but without success.
Bolsheviks —Persian refugee traders from Russia are reported to have
drawn up a protest against Bolshevik propaganda in Meshed. This will be
laid before the Governor-General as soon as a sufficiency of signatures has
been obtained. The memorialists state in this petition that having lost their
all in Russia at the hands of the Bolsheviks they have tried to re-start life in
Meshed. But “ the pest ” has followed them in the form. of an accredited
Bolshevik representative and of Bolshevik propagandists. They urge,
therefore, that they afe in danger again of becoming ruined if Bolshevik views