File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎376v] (400/1080)

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only hearsay owing to the position of the agent but coupled with other in
formation it merits attention.
A correspondent from Lutfabad writes that the Bolsheviks have laid
a telegraph line from Kaakhka to their frontier post of Khivabad which is
due south of latter station.
Sarakhs.—November 18th to 24th.
The Zorabad incident reported in last week’s summary had not been
settled at the time the succeeding report left Sarakhs.^ The two Bolshevik
officials and Karim Khan Baluch returned to Russian Sarakhs without
arriving at an agreement. 25 Bolshevik, 25 Turkmen, and 25 Baluch
horsemen with one machine gun have been left at Pul-i-Khatun. They are
confronted by 100 of the Governor of Zorabad’s men at Garmab,
There have been other incidents of raiding sheep in this area, the
Russian and Afghan Jamshedis being the parties concerned. Each side is
collecting adherents and the correspondent expects developments.
Russian Sarakhs was closed during the period under report and no one
was allowed in from outside. The explanation is that the Bolsheviks are
nAoving troops towards Ak Robat and Takhta Bazar on account of the above
Jamshedi disturbances.
There was another raid by Baluch horsemen into Persian territory
via Sher Tappe. The Persian Government has taken up the general ques
tion of raiding with the Bolshevik Minister.,
Another chief of the Special Department has been appointed to
Sarakhs. His name is given as Baltashka but^his is possibly a mutilation..
263 TRANS-FRONTIER,
Transcaspia. —Travellers from Baku state that the conditions of unrest
there are due to opposition to the administration and to a desire for complete
autonomy. The Azerbaijan Government has addressed a demand to
Moscow for more wheat, failing a supply of which they will refuse to allow
oil to be removed from the oil-fields. They contend there is an insufficiency
of grain to last through the winter. All wheat arriving from Persia is
sent to Moscow.
There had been a stoppage of steamer service at the port of Krasnovodsk
during the last week of October and first week of November. The cause was
generally ascribed to the Azerbaijan disturbances and the sympathy of the
sailors for the insurgents,
There have been riots in Askhabad in the course of which 7 people
were killed. 4 Russians and 2 Persians were subsequently executed for this
and their bodies exposed for three days.
Lately, a 33 per cent, supply of winter clothes and boots for the troops
has been received from Tashkent.
An arrival in Meshed from Merv states a train of 25 wagons, convey
ing military stores, arrived from Tashkent. Among the latter were 3 large
and 3 field guns, rifles, bombs, and cartridges. Two more guns and 2
armoured cars were added from Merv resources and the whole consignment
despatched to Kushk on the 10th November.
The informant was a stranger and his credibility therefore not estab
lished. Nevertheless, his information viewed in connection with that
afforded from Khakistar (q. v.), with the Russo-Afghan treaty, and with
the report from His Britannic Majesty’s Consul, Sistan, relative to the
demand for 500 camels from Farali for the transport of war stores from
Kushk, makes the assumption plausible that the Bolsheviks are moving
materiel to Kushk.
^ Turkestan. The steamer service to Termez and Petroalexandrovsk is
still restricted to three voyages each way per month. The public is not
allowed to travel by these craft.
The munitions factory An East India Company trading post. at Tashkent is still in operation and it is said
that a former large wool and cotton factory An East India Company trading post. is to be converted into an arsenal-t