File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎398r] (443/1080)

This is thought to be retaliatory on account of the stoppage of the supplies of
wheat. Yet to judge by the prices quoted by arrivals from Askhabad those
charged for bread show no diminution, and still stand at 1,200 roubles a pound.
The people at Merv have been told that the supplies that have come in from
Persia are for the famine regions and that local requirements must be found
- from local resources. The Turkmen of the Merv oasis have had to endure
another 33 per cent, levy on their flocks and herds. What wonder is it that
they are still longing for a return of the British to their country, or that they
talk in terms of regret of the good times when Nikolai was Tsar?
Conditions are better in the garrison towns of the Bokharan Republic for
Bokharan civil administration appears to set an example to the Bolsheviks.
It is devoting more care to the wants of famine refugees, providing them as
much as possible with clothes and even paying for their funerals. Passing
north into Bolshevik country conditions again become the worst possible until
Andijan is reached where it is related there is little to choose between the des
titution of the indigenous population and that of the famine victims quartered
upon it. There have been no crops in East Ferghana for the last two years
and the garrisons of Andijan, Namenghan, etc., are dependable upon consign
ments of rations from stations further west.
At Samara which is in the famine area and is a sort of clearing station for
the tide of unhappy wretches moving south from Kazan and other areas in the
famine regions of the Volga the state of affairs is particularly acute. One nar
rator stated in all good faith that the dogs and cats and rats had been registered
by the food authorities. The matter of the rodent is hard to accept unless
dwellings are assessed at so many apiece. Houses are being demolished in
this town for the sake of the fuel afforded by their timber. Generally speaking,
the people are in despair and consider the future to be gloomier and more full
of menace than the present.
The question of clothing is becoming as acute as that of food on account
of the approach of winter. Cotton clothing, wadded with cotton wool is issued
to troops, also leather clothing lined with coarse calieo. Clothing of gunny
is still seen among the troops. The footwear of the latter ranges from
Tashkent or Bokharan made boots to country shoes made of plaited rope. Many
are barefooted.
Public feeling .—Of the large number of arrivals from Russia that have
now been interrogated in this office not one has said a word of praise for the
Bolsheviks or their methods, nor expressed the faintest hope for their regenera
tion. Every statement is one of dispraise, every sentiment one of disparage
ment, and that, too, from the very class—in the vast majority of cases—to which
the Bolsheviks think they make their strongest appeal—“ the proletariat of all
countries”. The testimony is the same from Krasnovo Isk to Andijan and
from Kushk to Samara and, that is, that the Bolsheviks, their methods, and their
false ideals are hated and detested by all the peoples that have to endure
them.
Military .—'Although the Bolsheviks are enjoying peace beyond their
frontiers they are occupied within them in quelling the various bands that
infest the roads and make the lives and property of travellers precarious.
Mention has already been made of Khwaja Quli of Merv and the failure of
the several columns sent against him. Of late no account has come in of his
activities but there are plenty of stories of the brigands who carry on their
occupation between the Persian frontier and Kushk and between Kushk and
Charjui. Near Takhta Bazar two bands of Turkmen and Jamshedis have
coalesced and an expedition of 50 men from Takhta Bazar and 150 from
Kushk have been sent to bring them to book. The road from Kushk to Karki
is being patrolled by a small flying column which is in addition to the garrisons
of the posts distributed along that road.
An arrival from Kushk states there is much discontent in the garrison
there, the whole of which would desert if it were able to. Recruiting is not in
progress though some mention has been made of a call for volunteers for the
expected war against Poland. In Merv parades are held but twice a week,
due probably to the weakness and debility of the troops from mal-nutrition.
The Basmach movement appears to be developing, for one arrival tells of a
raid on the village of Panjkand which is as far west as 20 miles east of
Samarkand. The raiders are said to have numbered 500, to have looted the
place, and to have disappeared before the punitive column arrived.