File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎354v] (356/1080)

Earlier in the year the same follies were recounted from Tashkent, Charjui,
and Baku. They are probably not the outcome of a State measure but have
been promoted by some “ crank ” enjoying a position of authority*
The bazars now contain no article of Kussian manufacture, unless of
Tsarist time. What manufactured goods there are appear to be American.
The woeful state of Bolshevik currency and exchange is brightly illumi.
nated by the account that comes from Askhabad where shopkeepers are
compelled to suspend business during a portion of the day in order to count up
the face value of the notes accruing from their retail transactions, so unwieldy
has this paper currency become and so depreciated. To such limits has this
depreciation arrived that in Merv the purchaser often pays for commodities
with paper money by weight. The notes are also tied up in bundles of one
million roubles and paid over in that form. The confusion engendered is said
to have kept some shops in Askhabad closed for three days and when re-opened
their proprietors were officially fined 10 , 000,000 roubles each because the
official Communist mind considered a three days’ absence from business was
symptomatic of an inflation of individual wealth which the State must dis
courage.
That an inspired anti-British spirit is abroad still in Soviet dominions is
evident from reports that come in from all directions. A speech was given at
a public meeting in Kaakhka on December 5th in which the speaker dilated
on the presence of British troops “ in the territories of some of our friends,
such as the Turks.” “It is incumbent on the Soviet Government to turn
British forces out of areas so occupied by them. To this end all peoples under
Soviet rule are requested to sacrifice their lives and property for the mainte
nance of the Bed Army. This assistance would be of especial benefit to their
brothers the Turks.”
An appeal fo:.* maintenance of the Bed Army has lately appeared in the
press but the possible objective outlined by the above speaker was not included
in the text.
_ In this connection it may be noted that British aid for the Bussian
famine is never noticed by the Bussian press for it would be against the Soviet
policy to engender any but. hostile and rancourous feelings towards Great
Britain. Tnougli that press is now abstaining as far as is discoverable from
direct propaganda, its reports of anti-British movements abroad are in them
selves a disparagement and its stereotyped head line for these reports. “ Under
the heel of England ” a form of covert anti-British propaganda.
Bokhara.- That all is not going well in the former Khanate was alluded
to in last week s Summary. Later information carries the appreciation of
the situation a little further for the trouble does not seem to be entirely trace
able to Bolshevik policy but also to internal cleavage.
The Boxharan Government is considering the question of dismissal of all
Shiahs from a share in tne administration. This measure, as yet no more than
contemplated, has thrown the Persian and Tatar Shiahs into the arms of the
Bolsheviks. They will make common cause with the latter should, as some
expect, the Bolsheviks take over the country again.
Basmachism would seem to he making headway in the State for one source
of information relates that these irreconcilables hold a strong* position near
Kaishi while according to another they now occupy Sarai Kamar, Baljuan,
Karatappe, Kabodian, and Doshambe. The principal leader in this region is
Mohiudin Maksum who is said to have received a standard from the 0 #-Amir.
Daulatmand is another leader credited with a following of d,000 of his own
“il” but the figure is probably divisible by ten.
A similarly unsettled state of things is reported from Shahr-i-Sabz. A
large gathering of rebels is said to exist in the Tangaram hills which are near
the Termez—Samarkand road and close to Shabr-i-Sabz. Their leader is Abdul
Ghani Takhsa Bai, once a Governor of Yakka Bagh in the time of the Amir.
They occupied Yakka Bagh about the third week of November. Beinforce-
ments were sent by the Bolsheviks to eject them. The result has not transpired.